% PRINCETON, N. J- „JbO .C5 1880 Christlieb, Theodor, 1833- 1889. Shelf., -^^otestant foreign missions n r o c Ä n t c: i" ^ t .t, ?» PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS E\}tix Present State. A UNIVEESAL SUEYEY. / THEODOEE CHEISTLIEB, D.D., Ph.D., PROFESSOR OP THEOLOGY AND UNIVERSITY PREACHER, BONN, PRUSSIA. ^translation from tlje JFourtf) CRcrman lEUitton, DAVID ALLEN REED. ONLY AUTHORIZED AMERICAN EDITION. BOSTON : CONGEEGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY. CONGREGATIONAL HOUSE, BEACON STREET. / Copyright, 1880, By Conokeoationai. Publishino Society. STEREOTYPED BY J. PETERS & SON, 73 KEDKUAl, HT., ISO -TON. PKINCJETC:: HtC.0CT|J8i »ii^TKEOLüClCÄL/ f^^^y. -V j^ AUTHOR'S NOTE. An abstract of the following pages was read tefore the Evangelical Alliance in Basel, on the 5th of Sep- tember, 1879. The whole appeared first in a volume of Reports upon the meetings of the Evangelical Alli- ance in September, 1879, then in the " Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift" (Gütersloh, Bertelsmann), No- vember and December numbers, 1879. Numerous friends of missions in other lands having desired a separate edition, the thii'd re\ised and en- larged German edition was published, and was taken up in a few months. Now this larger fourth edition, with the latest statistics, is issued. The numerous letters sent to me, even from China and Formosa, con- taining hearty thanks for the laborious and careful work, and new information as to the present condition of affaii's, have been used in this edition. An English edition, issued a short time ago (b}' J. Nisbet & Co.), was sold in a few weeks. Also a French edition, a Butch, and an American edition by the Congregational iv author's note. Publishing Societ}' (Boston), are ready for the press. A Swedish edition has been coming out since the middle of January in the numbers of the " Missions- Tidning," Stockholm. A number of royal consistories have recommended the book in the warmest manner to their ministers. Thus the Lord has akeady, in the short time since the little book's appearance, laid a rich blessing upon it. May he continue to use it for the removal of many prejudices and the furtherance of his kingdom ! THE AUTHOB. Bonn, June, 1880. NOTE TO THE AIEEICAN EDITION. Professor Christlieb requested the Congregational Publishing Society to issue a translation of this book made under his own eye, and on which he should receive the usual cop;yTight. His request was acceded to, and public announcement made of the fact. While the book was passing through the press, about three-fourths in type, with additions forwarded by the author to incorporate which there had been a shght delay, a Scotch-English translation of the third edition was put upon the American market, to the prejudice of Profes- sor Christlieb. Few will think it strange that he com- plains of this as an injustice, and fewer still among American Christians will wish he should be deprived of his honestly-earned copyright. This volume contains the most recent statistics, and the amendments and additions of the fourth German edition, which appeared in July. A few of the new paragraphs which overran the foot-notes are printed as V vi NOTE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. Addenda. A full and copious index has been added, indispensable to such a book. We are permitted and authorized to sa}^, that the proof-sheets of this edition have passed under the eye of one of the secretaries of the American Board. CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, Boston, September, 1880. TABLE OF CONTENTS. The Vast Extent and Manifold Nature of Modern Protes- tant Missions. — The Great DiflSculty experienced "by those who would draw up the Statistics or the Theory of Missions. — Divisions of the Subject 1-5 I. PAST AND PRESENT. I. The Outward Extent of Protestant Missions. — A Proof that the Age of Universal Missions has begun. — Retrospect of the Modest Results of Missions in the Eighteenth Century. — Survey of the Rapid Extension of Mission Territory; Present CEcumeni- cal Character and Growing Success of Missions in our Century. — Progress during the last Thirty Years 5-11 H. Growth of the Missionary Spirit at Home. —Disap- pearance of Former Prejudices in England, Scot- land, America, and Germany. — Increase in the Number of Missionary Societies ; their Distribution over the Various Christian Countries ; their Branch Societies in Heathen Lands. — The Present com- pared with the Former Number'of Missionaries and Assistant Laborers. — The Present Total of Protes- tant Heathen Christians, and their 'Distribution over the Principal Missionary Territories. — Growth of some of the Larger Missionary Societies, the Number of their Agents, and their Annual Reve- nue. — Increase in the Total Amount contributed towards Protestant Mission Schools. — Evangelical Mission-Schools 11-19 vil Vlll CONTENTS. PAOB in. Circulation of the Holy Scriptures Eighty Years Ago and Now; New Translations in the Present Centu- ry into at least Two Hundred and Twenty-six Lan- guages. — Diversity of Missionary Labor and its Kesults in Particular Fields during the last Thirty Years. —The growing Moral Influence of the Gos- pel, shown in the Pwcgeneration of Heathen Races. — Proof that the most Degraded Nations can be Christianized 19-24 IV. The Obverse Side of the Picture, in spite of all the Promising Commencements made, more especially among somewhat cultivated Heathen Peoples. — Increasing Difficulties of Missionary Work. — Growth of Islam. — Jealousy of Pwome. — Decrease in the Zeal of the Church at Home. — Deficits be- coming Chronic 24-30 n. THE MISSIONARY AGENCIES OF THE MOTHER CHURCH. — THE CHURCH AT HOME, AND ITS MISSIONARY EFFORTS. I. Divisions of Protestantism an Advantage. — Eng- land stands before all other Lands in Mission- ary Effort. — The National Churches comparatively surpassed by the Free Churches, particularly in Scotland. — The Inward Reason of this. — Mission- ary Activity in the United States. — General Mis- sionary Interest in the Principal Churches there. — Missionary Effort in Holland; the Number of its Missionary Societies, compared with France and Norway 3(> 40 n. Germany and Switzerland. — The Missionary Efforts of tlie German and Norwegian Lutheran Churches, compared with those of tlie Reformed and United Churches. — All the German Societies together do not contribute so much as One of the Three Great English Societies. — The Cause of this. — " A Three- fold Conversion" necessary for a German. — Un- equal Division of Missionary Interest in Germany. — Stubborn Prejudices among the Educated. — In- fluence of the " Liberal " Press, and of the Reformed CONTENTS. IX PAGB Jews. — Cheering Signs of the Growing Recognition of Missionary Work. — A General Survey gives Cause for Shame. — Difference in the Position taken by the Clergy 40-49 CEI. Necessity of promoting an Interest in Missions by the Church, and not by the Societies only. — Is there really a Lack of Money ? . . . . 49-52 £V, Practical Hints : Missionary Interest in the Congre- gation, the University, the Pulpit, and the Bible- Class. — A Greater Concentration of Interest. — ' The Duty of the Richer Congregations and Indi- vidual Rich Members. — Piety alone not sufficient to make a Missionary 52-56 V. The Missionary Societies and their Forms of Activity. — New Societies founded since 18G5. — Internal Organization. — Differences in the training for Mis- sionary Service. — The Superintendence of Mis- sionaries.— The Board of Direction, and the Sala- ries of Missionaries. — Economy practised among the German Societies. —No Lack of Agents, but a Careful Selection Necessary .... 56-62 VI. Missionary Methods. — Conversion of Individuals, and the Christianizing of Whole Countries. — New Proposals of other Methods. —A Return to Apos- tolic Practices not practicable. — Proposal for Im- provement from the Liberal Camp. — New Mis- sionary Plans in the Light of Old Missionary History. — The Imperial Biblical Law for the Preaching of the Cross. — The Need of Capable and Educated Missionaries for the Civilized Nations of Heathendom. — The Necessity for the Latter con- tinuing their Studies 62-72 VII. Why are there neither Medical Missionary Societies nor Medical Missionaries in Germany ? — Origin and Work of the Former in Scotland, England, and America. — Their Growing Importance for Mission- ary Work. — Female Missionary Societies in Eng- land and Scotland for the Education of Heathen Women, and the Berlin Ladies' Association. — The Result: the Present Position of Missionary Socie- ties 72-80 CONTENTS. III. WORK AMONG THE HEATHEN. — ARRANGEMENT OF MATERIALS. PAOl I. Among Uncivilized Peoples. — Beginnings in Aus- tralia. — Present State of English Missions in New Zealand; of the London and Dutch Mission in New Guinea; of the last-named Society in Cele- bes (Minahassa) and Java; of the Khenish Mission in Borneo and Sumatra 80-84 II. Success of Protestant Missions in the South Seas. — Polynesia now almost wholly Christianized. — La- bors of the London Society, Wesleyans, and American Board there. — The Sandwich Islands a Protestant Land. — Missions of the Hawaiian Asso- ciation, and of the London Society in Micronesia. — Harvest Work of Several English Missionary Socie- ties in Melanesia. — Success of the Weslcyans in Fiji. — Christianizing of the Loyalty Islands. — Difficulties on the New Hebrides. — The New Plan adopted by the English Episcopal Mission. — Total Number of those converted 84r-89 m. Protestant Mission Work among the Uncivilized Peo- ples of America. — The Danes and Moravians in Greenland and Labrador. — Wesleyan and Anglican Missions in Canada and the Hudson's Bay Terri- tory. — The Work of the Church Missionary Socie- ty.— Columbia: Metlakahtla a Civilized Christian Town in the Wilderness. — Alaska. — American Missions among the Remnant Indian Tribes of the United States. — A New Turn for the Better.- Progress of Civilization and the Gospel among them. — Evangelization of the Negroes in the United States 8l>-06 rV. The Present State of Protestant Missions in the West Indies and Central America. — The Moravians on the Mosquito Coast. — The Propagation Society in British Guiana. — Growth and Decrease of the Mo- ravian Mission in Surinam; in the Danish and English West Indies. — Training of the Congrega- tions to Self-Support. — The English Missions there. CONTENTS. XI PAoa — Strength of the Wesleyan and Anglican Missions. — Jamaica Substantially a Protestant Country. — English Missions on the Southern Extremity of South America. — Results 96-101 V. State of Missions in Africa. — Pressing forward from Without to the Interior. — Three Protestant Mis- sionary Territories. — West Africa. — Several Small Commencements. — Larger Territories. — English Missions in Sierra Leone. — American Missions in Liberia. — Wesleyan, Basel, and North-German Missions on the Gold and Slave Coasts. — English Missions in Yorubaland, and on the Niger . 101-107 VI. South Africa. — A Finnish Mission in Ovampoland. — A Rhenish Mission in Hereroland, Namaqualand, and Cape Colony. — The Cape the Basis of Mission- ary Operations. — The London Missions among the Bechuanas. — The Berlin, Paris, Hermannsburg, and Swedish Societies, at the Cape, among the Kafirs in Orange State, in Basutoland, the Trans- vaal, Natal, and Zululand. — The Moravians and Wesleyans among the Kafirs, &c. — The Lovedale Institute of the Free Church of Scotland. — The United Presbyterian, American, and Norwegian Missions. — Total Number of Converts . . 107-114 Vn. East and East-Central Africa. — Madagascar the Crown of the London Mission. — Other Missions there. — Mauritius. — English Missions on the Coast of Zanzibar. — Advance to the Interior Lakes of East Africa. — The Scotch on Nyassa; the London Society on Tanganyika; the Church Missionary Society at Victoria Nyanza. — Beginnings ; Abys- sinia 114-121 Vm. Several Results of Experience taken from Labor among Uncivilized Peoples. — The Duty of the Mis- sionary. — Danger of Pride of Education. — Method of Instruction. — Necessity of a Lengthened Course of Instruction previous to Baptism. — Study of the Language, and Literary Labor. — Instruction in Schools, and Employment of Native Talent. — Care to be taken in insisting upon Outward Culture. — Mission Industries. — Christianization not Dena- Xii CONTENTS. FAev tionalization. — Europeanizing a Mistake I — Thor- oughly Capable Meu necessary. — Relief to the Funds at Home by more Attention being paid to the Training-up of Native Congregations to Self- Support, Self-Government, and Self-Extension, 121-136 THE WORK AMONG CIVILIZED PEOPLES. I. Greater Difficulty of Mission-^York. — Protestant Mis- sions in the Lands of Islam. — American Missions in the Turkish Empire. — Legal Ilinderances to full Religiotis Freedom among the Mohammedans. — Evangelization of the Oriental Churches. — Mis- sions of the United Presbyterian Church of Amer- ica in Egypt. — Mission of the American Board in the AVest-Central and East-Turkish Provinces ; Es- tablishment of the Protestant Oriental Church among the Armenians. — Scottish Free Church and American Schools and jNIissions in Syria. — INIission Work of the Church ISIissionary Society in Pales- tine 1-0-145 II. American Missions among the Nestorians. — Com- mencements in Persia, among the Moslems in the Punjaub, and the Afghans. — Translations of the Bi- ble; Circulation of the Arabic Bible. — The Grow- ing Repute of Protestant Christianity. — Moral In- fluence of Protestant Churches. — Importance of Medical Missions in the East. — Hopeful Pros- pects 145-151 III. State of Protestant Missions in India. —Their Present Extent. — Increasing Success ; Its Distribution among the Several Societies. — Sudden Devel- opment of Particular Provinces. — Unexampled Growth within the last Two Years of English and American Missions in Southern India. — Total In- crease 151-153 IV. The Several Lands of India according to their Ad- vanc«anent.— English, American, German, and Scottish Missions in Southern India. — State of Mis- sions in Ceylon. — The American Baptist Missionary- Society, and the Propagation Society, in Burmah CONTENTS. XIU (Karens). — Bengal and the North-West Provinces; the Gossner Mission among the Kohls ; Eng- lish and Norwegio-Danish Santal Missions. — The Church ISIissionary Society in the Punjaub and Sindh, the American Presbyterians, &c. — The West Coast : Scottish Missions in Eajpootaua ; Work in Bombay and the Central Provinces, by English, Scotch, American, and the Basel Mission- ary" Societies 153-166 V. Character of those who are converted as regards Social Position, Religion, Language, and Culture ; Distinction between the Aborigines and the Aryan Hindoos. — Slow Undermining of Hindooism. — The Bond which holds it together. — Caste. — Re- moval of this Social Fetter by Means of Missions and the Introduction of Christian Morality. — Re- cent Opinions, — Success commencing . . 166-173 VI. The Schools of India. — Irreligious Government Schools. — Impossibility of Neutrality. — Want of Religious Decision in the Eyes of the People.— More Christian Elementary Schools, and not Acad- emies.— Necessity for continuing Mission Schools. — Their Great Success, and their Limits . 173-178 VII. More Evangelization. — Zenana-Missions.— Mission- ary Press and Advancing Unbelief. — Mission In- dustries. — Inward Organization of a Community; Necessity of considering National Peculiarities be- fore adopting Denominational Forms. — Growing Moral Influence of Missions.— Decay of Brahmin- ism. — Presentiment of its Fall. — Confession of a Brahmin. — Mission Commencements in Malacca, Siam, and Laos 178-! 89 VIII. Position of Protestant Missions in China. —Their Re- cent Origin.— Rapid Increase of Workers. — Their Unequal Division into English, American, and Ger- man. — Present Results. — Survey of Success hither- to gained in the Various Provinces. — Germans, English, and Americans in Kwang-tung and Fuh- kien. — Presbyterian Missions in Formosa. — Eng- lish and American Missions in the Remaining East- em Provinces.— The Gospel in Peking.— Missionary Xiv CONTENTS. PAOB beginnings in the Interior Provinces and in Man- churia. — Present Freedom to travel in China. — Advance of the Gospel by Means of the China In- land Mission to the West, and of the Irish Pres- t)3'terians to the North. — Greater Respect enter- tained bj' the People for Protestant INIission- aries. — Literary Efforts. — Open-hearted Catho- lif'ity of the Various Protestant Missions. — The Native Chinese Christians. — Difference in the Fields of Labor. — The Last Famine. — Effects of Christian Charity. — The Opium Curse. — Protest of the Evangelical Alliance. — Brighter Prospects, 18D-210 IX. State of Protestant Missions in Japan. — Its Com- mencement by American Missionaries. — Forma- tion of Congregations since 1872. —Missions of the Presbyterian Union, tiie American Board, and the Other English and American Societies. — Present Fruits. — The Land only partially open. — Advan- cing Scepticism. — The Sun rising . . . 210-219 IV. ONE OR TWO HINTS AND WISHES WITH REGARD TO THE DUTIES AND AIMS OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE. I. A "Word for the Friends of Missions at Home. — Well- meant Suggestions, and Dear Experiments of Im- patience. — The Formation of a Missionary Science. — Collection of Materials for a Theory of Missionary Methods. — Necessity for Theological Coudents ex- lending their Views 210-223 II. With regard to the Mutual Relation of the Different Societies. — They should seek to learn more from Each Other. — Examples. — Little Notice taken of the Labors of Other Societies, and of the General Progress of Missions. — The Necessity of extending one's views beyond that of a Particular Church, to the Progress of the Kingdom of God. — Let General Missionary Conferences Ijc continued. — Wishes for Missionary Periodicals and Magazines. — A More Uniform Treatment of Missionary Statistics. — A CONTENTS. XV PAGB Sharper Distinction should be drawn between For- eign Missions, and the Work of Evangelization in Christian Lands, in the Reports of the Methodists and Baptists 222-228 III. Uniformity of Practice in General Questions should be aimed at. — Division of Labor should be made in a Brotherly Spirit. — Many Mistakes made at the Commencement of a Mission ; also with Reference to Fields already occupied. — Denominational Inter- ests should disappear in Presence of the Common Duty. — Recognition of Our Own Powers, and the Limitations of them, in Presence of the National Peculiarities of Heathen Peoples. — Union of All in One Imperial Army. — Quality necessary more than Quantity in the Selection of Missionaries. — In German Missions, Self-support should be more insisted upon. — The Former Means and Duty of a Universal Mission. — A Christianity which over- comes the "World its Own Best Apology. — The Full Harvest approaches 228-238 V. ÄDDBNDA. Medical Missionaries. — "Woman's Boards. — Papuan Missions. — New Guinea. — Samoan Islands. — African Missions. — Interference of Jesuits. — The Berlin Society. — The English Primitive Method- ists. — Madagascar : Quaker Missions. — The Blan- tyre Mission. — American Board's New Missions in Africa. — Syrian Missions. — India : Tinnevelly. — Siam. — China : Fuh-Kien. — Female Mission- aries.— Japan 238-24y PSIITCETOH ^ - THBGLOGIGi PKOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS. THEIE PRESENT STATE. The evangelical foreign missions of this cen- tury, among civilized and uncivilized nations, are not easy of comprehension, either as to the out- ward facts or as to the inward principles by which they are regulated. It is difficult to measure the progress they are making, and the results they are achieving upon the belief and life of the heathen abroad, and by reflex influence upon the Church at home. Scarcely any one man has a clear con- ception of the internal operations of the numerous societies in the Old and New Worlds, in Africa, Australia, and the South Seas. Many know much about this or that field, some are familiar with several fields, but no one comprehends them all : the materials of knowledge are scattered through hundreds of periodicals, and the statistics change with almost every mail. The great general missionary conferences, as that of 1860 in Liverpool, 1878 in Mildmay, 2 PIIOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: London, and those for special, most important missions, — that of Allahabad for India in 1872, of Shanghai for Cliina in 1877, — give ns a glance over the greatest fields of labor, and show what has been accomplished in them. But back of those great fields must naturally be those of lets impor- tance, back of the acliievements of the great socie- ties are the harvests of the many smaller ones ; so that conclusions may be reached in regard to certain special fields, but not of the whole : — not to mention the numerous private missions, con- nected with no society, of whose work one only learns by accident. Still greater to-day are the difficulties of tlie theorist on mission-work than those of the historian or statistician, if he seeks by comparison of the leading principles and methods according to which particular societies are man- aged, to obtain a comprehensive view of all, so that from this comparison of the workings and fruits he may deduce fixed principles, as results of experience, and indices to guide in future work. For here the printed material is almost entirely wanting. Most of the societies restrict them- selves, even up to this time, to oral or written instructions to their missionaries for tlieir special fields of labor. May the reader kindly keep these enormous difficulties in mind, and not ex]>ect in the figures (aside from the official, wliicli I have taken great pains to collect) more than what is approximately THEIR PRESENT STATE. 3 correct and precise ; in the hints upon the present nethods of work, more than outlines, imperfect, incomplete glances into these great burning ques- tions, from on^ who has never worked personally in the foreign mission-field, — who has only, as it were, "in balloon captive," ascended above the heights of church-towers and had a partial look at the world, but who would like now to invite the reader to a journey around the world swifter than upon the wings of a bird. Our theme, Protestant Foreign Missions, Their Present State, includes, (1) the mis- sionary activity at home, the lever and agencies which out of the lap of the mother-Church have set to work the particular societies for the accom- plishment of this giant task ; and (2) the labors of the missionaries abroad, in heathen lands, both in regard to their different branches and methods of work, and their results. I will therefore, in order to present at least an outline of this great work, — after a quick glance at the past and pres- ent of missionary activity, the missionary agencies of the mother-churches, their modes of operation, and powers, seen in their greatest progress, — con- duct the reader out into the heathen world, for a hasty look at the scenes of Protestant mission work, and a review, in large groups, of the results reached here and there, especially at the close, to show from the experience of past labor, certain hints^ and express certain wishes for the task and 4 PKOTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIONS: aim of the future. I hope to serve the great cause by going less into the detail of statistics, and giv- ing more consideration to particular fields, empha- sizing practical, technical points, of whose right management, so far as I can see, a greater develop- ment before others is necessarj^ and about which a general understanding is especially desirable. THEN AND Ng^S'. , . PEIITCE THSOLOGICiLL THEN AND NOW. Our theme invites us to a brief comparison of the past and present. In fact, the present posi- tion of evangelical foreign missions calls us to a thankful and hope-inspiring review. Already the outward extension shows us we are living in a century of missionary work such as no previous age of the Christian Church has witnessed. I. After the evangelization, chiefly of civilized nations around the Mediterranean, by the early Church, the Christianization of the rough and barbarous tribes in Europe through the mission- aries of the middle ages; after the penetration of Christianity into separate colonies and the east- ern Asiatic kingdoms since the sixteenth century, — there breaks upon us, in our days, and grows more and more complete, the age of universal missions. No longer in particular regions, but in all unchristianized parts of the world and among all races of men, — among the highest civilized as well as the most degraded, in colonies and inde- pendent heathen lands, even in the remotest coasts and islands, where hundreds of languages and dialects are spoken, the cross of Christ has been 6 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ]\nSSIONS : raised, and the lands of the Church, once lost and under the bloody tread of Islam, have been energetically called into new life by the light of the gospel. A few mechanical, superficial Dutch missions in Ceylon and the Moluccas ; the missions of private Americans and the Moravians, existing with great difficulty because of the constant confusion of war, among the Indians of North America ; the much- promising, but, under the bad influences of that thoroughly rationalistic age, continually crippled missions, in some small districts of East India, of the Halle-Danish mission; the missionary efforts of the Norwegio-Swedish mission, put forth with spasmodic zeal among the heathen Laps of Scandi- navia ; the flourishing missions of the Wesleyans and Moravians in the West Indies and Surinam ; some faint scattered flames of gospel light in ice- bound Greenland and Labrador, fanned by Norwe- gians, Danes, and especially Moravians ; small and soon-suppressed missionary beginnings of the Mo- ravians in Cape Colony, — these were in the main, notwithstanding many heroic never-to-be-forgotten missionary pioneers, the very humble results of evangelical foreign missions, up to the end of the eighteenth century. And now? At the beginning of this century, the island world of the Pacific was sliut against the gospel ; but England and America have attacked those lands so vigorously in all directions, especially THEIR OUTWARD EXTENSION. 7 through native workers, that whole groups of is^ lands, even the whole Malayan Polynesia, j^ to-day almost entirely Christianized, and in IMelanesia and Micronesia the mission-field is extended every year. The gates of British East India have been thrown open wider and wider during this century ; at first for English, then for all missionaries. This great kingdom, from Cape Comorin to the Punjaub and up to the Himalayas, where the gospel is knocking on the door of Thibet, has been covered with hun- dreds of mission-stations, closer than the mission- net which at the close of the first century sur- rounded the Roman empire ; the largest and some of the smaller islands of the Indian Archipelago, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, and now New Guinea also, are occupied, partly on the coast and partly in the interior. Burmah, and in part Siam, is wide open to the gospel ; and China, the most pow- erful and most populous of heathen lands, forced continually to open her doors wider, has been trav- ersed by individual pioneers of the gospel, to Thibet and Burmah, and half of her provinces occupied from Hong-kong and Canton to Peking; and in Manchuria, if by only a thin chain, yet at many of the principal points stations have been founded, while the population overflowing into Australia and America is being labored with by Protestant missionaries. Japan also, hungry for reform, by granting entrance to the gospel has been quickly occupied by American and English missionary 8 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: societies, and alread}^ after so little laboi', lias scores of evangelical congregations. Indeed, the aboriginal Australians have, in some places, been reached. In the lands of Islam, from the Balkans to Bagdad, from Egypt to Persia, there liave been common, central evangelization stations estab- lished in the chief places, for Christians and Mo- hammedans, by means of theological and Christian medical missions, conducted especially by Ameri- cans. Also in the primitive seat of Christianity, Palestine, from Bethlehem to Tripoli and to the northern boundaries of Lebanon, the land is cov- ered by a net-work of Protestant schools, with here and there an evangelical church. Africa, west, south, and east, has been vigorously attacked ; in the west, from Senegal to Gaboon, yes, lately even to the Congo, by Great Britain, Basel, Bremen, and America, which have stations all along the coast. South Africa at the extremity was evan- gelized by German, Dutch, English, Scotch, French, and Scandinavian societies. Upon both sides, as in the centre, Protestant missions, although at times checked by war, are contin- ually pressing to the north : to the left, beyond the Walfisch Bay ; to the right, into Zululand, up to Dclagoa Bay ; in the centre, to the Bechuana and Basuto lands. In the east, the sun of the gospel, after a long storm, has burst forth over ]\Iadagascar in such brightness thAt it can never again disappear, Along the coasts from Zanzibar THEIR OUTWAED EXTENSION. \) and tlie Nile, even to Abyssinia, out-stations have been established, and such powerful assaults made by the Scotch, English, and recently also by tho American mission and civilization, into the very heart of the dark continent, even to the great cen- tral and east African lakes, that jealousy has goad- ed on Rome to follow. In America, the immense plains of the Hudson's Bay Territory, from Canada over the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, have not only been visited by English Episcopal and Wesleyan missionaries who have had warm con- tests with Roman Catholics, but have been opened far and wide to the gospel through rapidly-grow- ing Indian missions. In the United States, hun- dreds of thousands of freedmen have been gath- ered into evangelical congregations; and, of the remnants of the numerous Indian tribes, some at least have been converted through the work of evangelization by various churches, and have awakened new hope for the future. In Central America and the West Indies, as far as the coun- try is under Protestant home nations, the net of evangelical missions has been thrown from island to island, even to the mainland in Honduras, upon the Mosquito Coast ; and in British and Dutch Guiana it has taken ever firmer hold. Finally, the lands on and before the southern extremity of the continent, the Falkland Islands, Terra del Fuego, and Patagonia, received the first light, through the South American Missionary Society 10 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS . (in London) ; and recently its messengers have pushed into tlie heart of the land, and are rapidly pressing on to the banks of the great Amazon, to the Indians of Brazil. Truly, this hasty glance already shows that Protestant missions extend the world around, and that the efforts of the Christian churches of our age for the evangelization of man- kind are universal. Indeed, if, instead of seventy or eighty years, we look back only twenty or thirty, in respect fco the new territory occupied in Turkey and East India, in China, Japan, and the South Sea, in Africa and America, the field of mission- ary operation has not only doubled but trebled. Also, in our day, new and immense fields have been re-opened in the old provinces. I call your attention simply to the woman's work in India. " If any one had said to me, twenty-five years ago," writes that veteran of Indian missions, Mr. Leupolt, " that not only should we have free access to the natives in their houses, but that zenanas would be opened in cities like Benares, Lucknow, Agra, Delhi, Amritsir, and Lahore, and that European ladies with their native assistants would be admitted to teach the word of God to them : ' I would have replied, ' All things are pos- sible to God; but I do not expect such a glorious event in my day.' But what has God done ? more than we expected and prayed for." ^ In fact, from 1 See Church Mission Intelligencer, April, 1879, p. 197. MISSIONARY SPIRIT AT HOME. 11 Calcutta to Peshawur, and in the south as far as Palamcotta, the messengers of the Indian Female N-ormal School alone, not to mention others, have opened already more than twelve hundred ze- nanas. II. With the infinite extension of the work abroad, there is the strengthening of the machine- ry at home, the growth of the true import of mis- sions, of missionary societies and their spiritual and material agencies. The times are past when, as ninety years ago, the great pioneer of English missions in the East Indies, Dr. Carey, could be silenced in his speech before that stupid confer- ence of pastors at Northampton, while discussing the " church's duty with regard to missions ; " ^ or when the Scotch General Assembly, about eighty years ago, in their first debate on missions, declared a speech of shuilar character to be fanciful and laughable, yea, as even dangerous and revolution- ary, until the aged Dr. John Erskine, rising up, and laying his trembling hand upon the Bible, hurled like a thunder-bolt among the awe-struck assembly the commands and promises with regard to mis- sions, and thus recalled it to a sense of its long- neglected duty ; 2 or when a German professor of theology, in 1798, declared, in regard to the found- 1 Marshman, Life and Times of Carey, I. p. 10 ; Christlieb, Der Missionsberuf des Evangelischen Deutschlands, p. 39, 2 Dr. Wallace at the annual meeting of the London Mission- ary Society : ?ee Chronicles of the London Missionary Society, June, 1875, p 130, sqq. 12 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: lug of a missionary society in East Friesland, that the German culture had not yet reached that remote corner ; ^ or when, as in 1810, those pious students of Andover, Mass., led by Adoniram Jud- son, afterward pioneer missionary to Burmah, were obliged to ask the Association of Congregation- al ists in jNIassachusetts, whether they considered their thoughts on foreign missions " visionary and impracticable," and, if not, whether in carrying out these ideas, they might expect the necessary aid from America.2 Now all Scotland is proud of such missionaries as Dr. Duff; now she has raised a great monument in her capital in honor of her peace-conqueror of Africa, Bible and axe in hand, as a speaking witness to the conviction that true civilization cannot go forward without the mission and the gospel. Now she sends, followed by Eng- land, whole mission-colonies into the heart of Afri- ca, to perpetuate the services of Livingstone. Now it has been proved in England, — a triumph wliich this hero foresaw decades ago, — that the scornful laugh over " Exeter Hall " was as a risus sardon- icus ;^ and the political press of England already very wisely speaks with acknowledgment and es- teem of the achievements of the great missionary 1 Warnock, Die christliche Mission, 1879, p. 18, sqq. 2 Tracy, History of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, p. 20. 8 Livingstone, Missionary Sacrifices : seethe Catholic Presby- terian, January, 1870, p. 32, and Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift (Gütersloh), April, 1870, supplement, p. 25. MISSIONARY SPIRIT AT HOME. 13 societies. Now America, England alone excepted, is before all other lands in interest and willing- ness to sacrifice for the cause of missions, while certain of her great missionary societies can without difficulty draw their full supply of laborers from the theological seminaries. Now there are in all Protestant lands, large and small, missionary socie- ties firmly established in the life of the Church by the aid of countless auxiliary societies ; and what fifty years ago was a very unusual occurrence, viz., annual missionary festivals, has become a much-cherished custom in thousands of cities and villages. Now, here and there, even in German universities, historical lectures on missions are given, and recognized even by liberal professors as setting forth genuine religion, — the present mis- sion-work as " under all circumstances a most important and characteristic feature of Christian- ity," and as proving its just merits.^ But we shall best see the immense progress of missions by the following available figures. At the close of the last century there were really but seven Protestant missionary societies. Of those but three, the Propagation Society (which worked chiefly among the English colonists), the Halle- Danish, and the Moravian, had worked through the greater part of the century ; whilst four, the Bap- tist, London, and Church Missionary societies, and 1 e. g., Von Buss, Christliclie Mission, ihre principielle Be« richtigung unci praktische Durchführung, 1876, i)p. 1-14, 34-128. 14 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ]SnSSIONS : the Dutch Society of Rotterdam, were first estab- lished in the hast decade of the last century. To- day these seven have become seventy in Europe and America alone ; viz., twenty-seven in Great Brit- ain, eighteen in America, nine in Germany (includ- ing Basel and Schleswig-Holstein), nineteen in Holland (exclusive of independent auxiliaries), and in Scandinavia, Denmark, and Finland to- gether, five,^ one in France, and one in Canton de Vaud. To these seventy must be added not only many independent missionary societies in the colonies, such as those in Sierra Leone, in Cape Colony, and Australia, with a number of smaller societies in the East Indies, but also certain self-supporting, newly established native Christian societies, which are sending out missionaries : daughter societies of England and America, like the native mission- ary society in Madagascar, a daughter of the Lon- don society, aided by the Palace congregation ; the Hawaiian Evangelical Society, a daughter of the American Board in Boston ; and lately a grand- daughter of the same, the missionary society in Ponape, in the Carolina Archipelago.^ 1 I include here only two Swedish societies (Fostcrlands Stiftelsen, and the Church Mission, under the Archbishop of Upsala), as the older Swenska mission, Sallskapet, has trans- ferred its missions to the Church INIission, and now only labors among the serai-heathen Laps. 2 For further particulars see the Basier Missions-Magazine, Sept., 1878, p. .'J5;'>, sqq. P'or the latest accounts of the Native Missionary Society of Madagascar, see the Kei)ort of the London Missionary Society, 1879, p. 3G. and Chronicle of do., June, 1880. THEIR GEEAT PROGRESS. 15 At the beginning of our century the whole n am- ber of male missionaries employed by these seven societies was one hundred and seventy. Of these about one hundred belonged to the Moravians. To-day there are in the employ of the seventy societies, about twenty-four hundred ordained Europeans and Americans,^ hundreds of ordained native preachers (in the East Indies alone, over four hundred, and about the same number in the South Seas), over twenty-three thousand native helpers, catechists, evangelists, and teachers, not counting the numerous female assistants, private missionaries, lay helpers, colporteurs of the Bible societies in heathen lands, and the thousands of voluntary unpaid Sunday-school teachers.^ Eighty years ago, if I may venture an estimate, there were scarcely fifty thousand converted hea- then under the care of evangelical missions, not counting the so-called "government Christians " in Ceylon, who so quickly fell back. To-day we may confidently reckon the whole number of native 1 Compare Warneck, as cited above, pp. 20, 26, 31; and the same: Die gegenseitigen Beziehungen zwischen der Modernen Mission und Cultur, Allgemeine Conservative Monatsschrift, June, 1879, f». 439. In the re^iorts of many evangelical societies, those who work as pastors among the colonists and other de- nominations are counted as missionaries; so that in English and American missionary periodicals, the total is often given as from twenty-five to twenty-six hundred. 2 The June Notices of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 1880, p. 132, states the number of its Sundaj^-school teachers and other unpaid agents, as 7,806 (including the stations on the Continent of Europe). 16 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: converts in our evangelical mission stations as at least one million six hundred and fifty thousand And the year 1878 alone shows a growth of more than the total number at the beginning of this century, viz., about sixty thousand souls. If I add to this that of the present total, — there are about tlu"ee hundred and ten thousand in the West Indies and Madagascar, four to five hundred thou- sand in India and Farther India,i forty to fifty thousand in West Africa, one hundred and eighty thousand in South Africa,^ over two hundred and forty thousand in iMadagascar, ninety thousand in the Indian Archipelago, fortj^-five to fifty thou- sand in China, and more than three hundred thou- sand in the South Sea Islands, — we see that a large nmnber of coast-lands and especially islands are Cliristianized, and may be counted as won for the Protestant Church. I do not speak here of the astounding growth of particular societies, some of which in our century have grown to giant trees, whose branches cast a refreshing shade over half the earth. The largest of the old missionary societies, the Moravian, liad, in 1801, in twenty-six stations, one hundred and sixty-one brethren and sisters in its service, and 1 Rev. M. A. Sborriiif^inthcProcpedingsof the General Confer- ence on Foreijt^n Missions: (MiUhuay, London, 187S, p. V20) reckons the total in India, Ceylon, and r.nrmah, as 4(i(),0()ü. 2 According to Rev. J. E. Carlyle, South Africa and its Mis- sion Fields, London, 1879. THEIR GREAT PROGRESS. 17 about twenty thousand native Christians.^ To- day she has three hundred and twenty-seven breth- ren and sisters, ninety-five stations, and seventy- three thousand one hundred and seventy native Christians.^ The English Church Missionary So- ciety, now eighty years old, had in its employ in 1819, twenty-six ordained European missionaries ; in 1839, eighty-six ; in 1859, one hundred and sev- enty-seven ; in 1880, two hundred and eleven ; in 1819, no native preachers ; in 1839, two ; in 1859, forty-five ; and in 1880, two hundred ; two thou- sand seven hundred and forty European and native teachers and evangelists, one hundred and ninety-two stations, and one hundred and thirty- nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-two native Christians. Their annual income after the first twenty ^^ears was over $125,000 ; after forty years, over $337,500 ; after sixty years, over 1610,000; and now it has risen from $937,500 to 81,108,000.3 We find the same progress with the Wesleyans, the London and Propagation Societies, the Ameri- can Board, and in smaller proportion also with the German and remaining societies. I wish to point you also to the following criteria of progress. 1 Reichel, Das Missions-werk der Brüderkirche, Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 457. 2 Missionsblatt der Brüdergemeinde, Juli, 1879; Ueberblick über das Missions-werk, p. 48. 3 Abstract of the Report of the Church Missionary Socicf ■ May, 1880, pp. 21 and 24, and May, 1878, p. 24. 18 PEOTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIONS: Eighty years ago the entire income for evangelical foreign missions was much less than 8250,000 : to- day the annual receipts have advanced from 86,000,000 to 86,250,000 (about five times the amount raised by the Roman Catholic Propa- ganda i), of which England furnislies about 83,500,000, America 81,T50,000, Germany 81,250,- 000, Switzerland from 8500,000 to 8750,000. Eighty years ago the total number of evangeli- cal missionary schools was not over seventy : to- day they number nearly twelve thousand, with more than four hundred thousand scholars,^ among whom there are hundreds of native candidates for the ministry, receiving instruction in the high schools and theological seminaries. In India alone, there are now two thousand five hundred mission-schools ; in Polynesia, the Wesley ans alone have one thou- sand seven hundred and five day-schools,^ with over forty-nine thousand scholars ; in Madagascar, the London Missionary Society has seven hundred and eighty-four day-schools, with forty-foTii- thou- sand seven hundred and ninety -four scholars ; ^ the English Church Missionary Society, in all their stations, one thousand five hundred and four 1 According to the Jahrbüchern zur Verbreitung des Giau- bens, their total income in 1878, from all parts of the Catholio world, was only 81,221,100. 2 Warncck, see above, p. 31; and Mission und Cultur, p. 430. 8 Report of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society, 187^ p. 105. 4 Report of the London Missionary Society, 1870, p. 30. THEIB GEEAT PKOGEESS. 19 schools, with fifty-seven thousand three hundred and eighty ^ scholars. III. At the beginning of our century, there exist- ed only about fifty translations of the Scriptures, distributed in about five million copies. Since 1804, i.e., since the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Bible or principal parts have been translated into at least two hundred and twenty-six languages and dialects ; viz., the whole into fifty-five, the New Testament into eighty-four, particular parts into eighty-seven. And the dis- tribution amounts to about one hundred and forty- eight million copies.^ The most of this work was done by evangelical missionaries, who within about seventy years have reduced to writing sixty or seventy languages which were without a litera- ture. Or if, instead of going back to the be- ginning of this century, we take the last thirty years, what a sudden increase, both of work and results ! The Rhenish mission among the Battas in Sumatra was started in 1861 : to-day it has eleven stations, and about thirty-five hundred baptized converts. The Basel mission on the Gold 1 Abstract of the Report, &c., 1879, above. 2 Reed, The Bible Work of the World, in the Proceedings of the General Conference on Foreign Missions, held in Mildmay Park (October, 1878), London, 1870, pp. 231-234; and the whole list of the new translations of the Bible in our century, pp. 414-428. In the Extract of the Seventy-fifth Annual Report of the British Bible Society, Berlin Branch, 1879, p. 67, it is stated that Bi- bles, or parts of the Bible, in three hundred and eight languages End dialects have been printed and distributed. 20 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: Coast in 1848 had only about forty baptized ne- groes, and three stations: to-day there are four thousand converts, and twenty-four principal sta- tions and outposts. The Gossner mission among the Kohls in India had but four baptized converts in 1850 : to-day there are about thirty thousand baptized Kohls under its care, and about ten thou- sand in that of the Propagation Society. In 1843 all the English and American mission- aries for China assembled at Hong-Kong, which had just been surrendered to England. There were twelve, and the number of Chinese converts upon this island was six. To-day China, at last opened, has two hundred and forty missionaries from Europe and America, ninety principal and over five hundred out-stations (see below) ; and the number of Chinese communicants has increased more than two thousand fold ! ^ The same rapid progress is seen in Southern India, and Burmah, in the South Seas, and among the Christians of Turkey. In 1860 there were scarcely twenty medical missionaries in the evangelical foreign missions : now there are ninety who labor as phy- sicians and evangelists at the same time.^ And the same progress is manifest in the Woman's Mis- sionary Society for the evangelization of the wom- en of India and Turkey. But of more worth than 1 According to Professor Dr. Legge, Mildmay Conference, pp 170, 171. 2 According to Rev. Dr. Lowe, Mildmay Conference, p. 77. POWER OF THE GOSPEL. 21 numerical statistics is the immeasurably deep and wide-spread moral influence of the gospel, as is ex- hibited to-day in the regeneration of whole heathen tribes, yea, in the processes of reform plainly be- gun in the great heathen lands ; reforms of social life, and the old abominations" and immoralities, out of the thousand-years' degradation, into the civilized forms of man's existence, the true bibli- cal idea of man's worth and self-esteem, this first condition of all genuine civilization; obtaining from decade to decade a new idea of marriage, as sacred ; some appreciation of the family, of edu- cation and civil order. We shall hereafter learn more of this. For the present, but one thing further. Until within thirty years, one might express a doubt as to whether the gospel could elevate and heal the most degraded heathen, and prove a sa- vor of life unto life. But to-day the Portuguese can no longer maintain that the Hottentots are a race of apes, incapable of Christianization. You can no longer find written over church-doors in Cape Colony, " Dogs and Hottentots not admitted," as at the time when Dr. Van der Kemp fought there for the rights of the downtrodden natives. To- day no one could be found to agree with the French governor of the island of Bourbon, who called out to the first missionary to Madagascar, "So you will make the Malagasy Christians? Im- possible ! they are mere brutes, and have no more 22 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: sense than irrational cattle;"^ since there are hundreds of evangelical congregations established there, which have now, counting those only of the London Mission, three hundred and eighty-six or- dained native pastors, one hundred and fifty-six native evangelists,' and three thousand four hun- dred and sixty-eight native lay preachers and Bible-readers.2 Twenty years ago Englishmen who had trav- elled around the world insisted to me that the native Australians were absolutely beyond reach of the gospel, and must first be educated up to it in some way, before they could understand its simplest truths.^ To-day this opinion is refuted by the JNloravian missions in Gippsland, which have fine churches, clean houses, and one hundred and twenty-five baptized native Christians.^ Yes, we have to-day, as the last Evangelical Alliance in New York demonstrated, the glorious faith- strengthening joy, of seeing it proved without more missionary statistics that the most degraded lieathen, because they are also men, listen to the gospel, and learn to believe it ; that no race 1 Eppler, Madagascar, 1874, p. 00, compared with p. 85. 2 Report of the London ISIissionary Society (May, 187'J), p, 28. 8 Sec, for further particulars as to the opinion that culture should, in i)rinciple and systematically, precede missions, the pai)er just published by Dr. Warneck, Die gegenseitigen Bezie- hungen zwischen der Modernen Mission und Cultur, 1879, p. 214, tqq. •* Überblick über das Missionswerk der Brüdergomeinde, June, 1879, p. 40, sqq. POWEÜ OF THE GOSPEL. 23 is so spiritually dead that it cannot be quickened into new life by the " glad tidings ; " no language is so barbarous that the Bible cannot be trans- lated into it; no individual heathen so brutish that he cannot become a new creature in Christ Jesus ; and that, therefore, oui' Lord and Master, revealing himself to us as the Way, the Truth, and the Life, in the widest sense, gave no impossible command when, embracing without limit all suf- fering humanity, he said, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." ^ For a long time Protestant Christendom could scarcely believe the possibility of this. To-day thousands of converted cannibals in the South Seas, Esquimaux and Indians in America, Bush- men and Pesherehs of Tierra del Fuego, yea, even Papuans in Australia and New Guinea, stand there as living witnesses to this truth! Truly, in reviewing this field of evangelical missions, which in extent and effects has gained such im- mense proportions, we must, in humble thankful- ness to the Lord of the Church, join to-day that champion of missions in South Germany, Dr. Barth, in saying : — " Where we hardly dared to hope, Now the doors stand open wide: Slow and faint we only grope, Following Thy victorious stride." I Bishop Schweinitz, Missions among the Lowest of the Heathen. See Evangelical Alliance Conference, 1873 (New York), p. G19, sqq. ; Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, March, p. 115. 24 PROTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIONS: IV. But the encouraging picture has its reverse, and forces us, in this comparison of the past and present, as by the consideration of the present and future, to much earnest meditation. It is with foreign missions as with many a Christian labor of lov6 : the work grows, the more earnestly we en- gage in it. We rejoice that on almost every sea- coast and island the dawn is brealdng; yea, on many the sun has risen. We do not consider humble beginnings trifling ; but we must not for- get, that in most of our mission-fields, even among the greatest and relatively best-educated heathen nations, notwithstanding the glorious progress on the whole, nothing more than promising begm- nings have been made, and, by wise observers, nothing more could be expected. What are a little more than one and a half millions of our baptized converts, compared to the thousand mill- ions of heathen and Mohammedans? What our forty-five to fifty thousand evangelized Chinese, against the hundreds of millions of heathen in the Celestial Empire ? Excepting Europe and North America, the great inland provinces of all other parts of the world have scarcely been visited by the messengers of the gospel, far from being occu- pied, much less conquered. Again, in our most flourishing mission-fields, only in part of tlie con- gregations lias the work come to perfection, so that churches support theniselves, and provide education for their children and their ministry, as THE REVERSE OF THIS PICTURE. 25 those in the West Indies, in Sierra Leone, at the Cape, in Madagascar, Southern India, the South Sea Islands, and most of all in the Hawaiian. The education of native Christians as true, positiv^e, independent preachers, has only made a hopeful beginning. There remains still much land to be gained, — yea, an hundred times more than has been already won. Moreover, in many provinces the taijk of missions seems more difficult to-day than e^er. To be sure, beginnings are everywhere difficult, so that more than a beginning is made when it is already there. It is often a foundation laid for incalculable results. Much is indeed gained w^en simply the key to a heathen nation, its langUfcige, is fully in the grasp of the mission- ary. But often the chief obstacles first appear in the further development of the work;^ as, for instance, some missions begun years ago with great promise, now only give the hope of saving a little remnant of the tribes labored with. The sudden and often brutal advance of white settlers, gold-diggers, liquor-merchants, and others, with their demoralizing influences, disturb and scatter the scarcely-gathered little flock, and rouse the feeling of rage against every pale-face, until it becomes an almost unconquerable hate. I need only direct your attention to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Indian provinces of North America. To undermine a giant strong 1 Christlieb, Foreign Missions. 26 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: Iiold of darkness like Hindooism, was and is in itself difficult enough work; but how infinitely more difficult when, as is now the case, educated Hindoos confront the missionaries with quotations from Hegel, Strauss, and Renan ! when, in a hea- then land, besides superstition, we must contend with Christian unbelief; when the heathen youth, eager to learn, as in Japan, are taught by material- istic professors ; when superstition, as is often the case among the youth of India, has added to it- religious indifference and Niliilism ! The bulwark of Islam has not yet been under- mined, much less stormed by a concentrated attack. But how would it be, if, in the throes of the death-struggle already begun, the false prophet with a powerful following should begin again to proselyte ? Look at Central Africa in its whole extent, and the Malays in the Indian Archipelago See where the gospel knocks at the doors of lands which decades ago were open, but which in the interun have been closed by Islam ! And, further, in n^any heathen lands tlie missionaries have often received the impression that they would have had easier entrance if they had come centuries earlier. God's plan by which he brings his kingdom to particular nations does not remove man's responsi- bility on account of negligence. Where, to-day, can Protestant missions make any great ad- vance, without having the Romanists immediately THE Rr.VERSE OF THIS PICTUEE. 27 at their heels? In Madagascar and Central Africa, in the South Seas and British North America, wherever it is possible, they seek to paralyze the progress of the gospel by their influ ence ; yet perhaps the growing opposition of dark- ness is only another proof of the progress of light, — a proof that it finds itself more and more in its power . But what if the darkest spots in the firma- ment of missions are not to be sought in opposition on the mission-fields, but in the condi- tion of the hom3 churches themselves? Where is the deep enthusiasm displayed at the time when most of our missionary societies were founded? as in September, 1795, when venerable gray-headed ministers from the English Church and Dissenters fell weeping into each other's arms, in the chapel of Lady Huntingdon,^ and, clasping hands over all narrow denominational limits, founded the London Missionary Society. Where is that spirit of cheerful sacrifice, when, as at the ordination of the first four Barmen mission- aries in 1829, the contribution-plates were filled, not only with money, but with gold chains, watches, rings, and jewelry of all kinds ? ^ Where \s that spirit to-day? Without, among the hea- 1 See Ostertag, tJbersiclitliclie Geschichte der Protest. Mis- sionen, 1858, p. 44. 2 V. Rohden, Geschichte der rheinischen Miss.-Gesellschaft, Aug. 2, 1871, p. 21. 28 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS. then converts, the fire of new love flames up heip and there, to the same zeal for the cause of Christ ; but where in the home church ? Who does not feel the sting of truth in the complaint lately made ? " The chief danger for missions lies, I see, in this : that missionary enterprise will glide into routine, missionary zeal become so much rhetoric, and participation in missionary work degenerate into a matter of habit, not to say of ecclesiastical business. The chief hinderance among us to ear- nest prosecution of missions lies not in the spiteful attacks of an hostile world : it lies in those circles which appear friendly to missions, but which deny their power." ^ Until recently the interest in missions at home has kept pace with the extension of the work abroad, as is shown from decade to decade by the increase in the receipts of the societies. But for a number of years past, in many large societies, especially in Germany, considerable deficits have 'Decome chronic. Is this only a result of the wide- spread commercial distress, — only temporary ? or shall the contributions for missions lack our support for a long time ? It appears doubtful to many that the present material power of missions can be increased. Already many boards of direct- ors, in spite of the pressing calls for help from ^ Warneck, Die Belcilningdes Missionssinncs in der Ileiraath, 1878, p. 2G, sqq. Compare also Alden (American Board), Shall we have a Missionary Revival ? p. 4. THE BEVEESE OF THIS PICTURE. 29 the heathen world, have placed the questions of retrenchment and even withdrawal among the sub- jects for their discussion. Even in England and America, here and there the necessity of retrench- ment throws its gloomy shade upon their deliber- ations. Will they all soon come into the happy position of the American Board of Boston,^ and be able to deliver their missionaries from the fear of being withdrawn from their hard-won stations ? In this state of affairs, however one may still fos- ter faith-inspiring hopes, to me this much is sure, from this comparison of the past and present, that by no means do all the circumstances show favorably for the present, and that we have so much the more to thank God for, since not through us, but in spite of us, and notwithstanding the luke- warmness and conformity to the world of the present rcice of Christians, his work has made such mighty progress. But we have come to the con- sideration ef the second topic. 1 What the Missionaries think of Relief from RetrenctJuent: MissiDnaiy Herald, July, 1879, p. 244. PKOTESTAJ^T FOEEIGN JNHSSIONS ; II. IVnSSTON AGENCIES OF THE CHURCHES AT HOME. I will confine myself now to some compara- tive considerations, of real practical tendency, only using the endless detail of statistics now and then for illustration. In doing this, I shall first con- sider the source of missionary life at home, the churches and their missionary achievements, then the technical instrumentalities, namely, the mis- sionary societies and their modes of operation. I. In contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, and her missions united closely, and rigorously centralized, there stands before us the Pkot- ESTANT Church, in her missionary activity SEPARATED INTO MANY DIVISIONS. Tliat this is not a hinderance and danger, but an absolute ad- vantage and blessing, is seen nowhere so clearly as in the mission-field itself. "The variety we exhibit in our churches, our societies, our modes of worship," says the excellent Dr. Mullens,^ "is not an evil to be mourned over : it is a positive blessing to our cause." Each of the endless number of fields of labor, with their various needs, requires a special mode of 1 Conference on Foreign Missions, Mildmay, 1878, p. 26. AGENCIES OF THE HOME CHURCHES. 31 operation, yea, form of worship and government (see IV., at the close). For the gradual educa- tion up to the missionary standard of character — strong individuality — the variety of our modes of education are, without doubt, far more useful in the service of our missions, than the Romish method of yoking together all into a compulsory system of blind obedience. However our differ- ences in teaching have their disadvantages for the mission-work, opposed to heathenism, they fall, as a rule, into the background. In a land where the people pray to cows, as Macaulay said on his return from India, the differences which separate Christians from Christians are of small account. On all essential points, our missionaries agree. So that recently Lord Northbrook, the former governor-general of India, publicly expressed his astonishment at the falling-away, in India, of dog- matical differences, and at the oneness of all mis- sionaries and Christians of the various denomina- tions, as to fundamental doctrines.^ And I think the recent general missionary conferences in India and China establish the fact most clearly, that missionary work, more than any thing else, leads to practical union. If now we compare particu- lar churches and lands, in respect to missionary achievements, we see that England on account of 1 At this year's May meeting of the London Baptist Missionary Society: see Evangelical Christendom, June, 1879, p. 175; War- necky Beziehungen zwischen d. mod. Mission und Cultur (see above), p. 446. 52 PKOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: her wealth, her niinierous and great colonies and skill in their practical management, has a missionary duty greater than all other nations ; and in fact she takes the lead. In the principal achievements of the Protestant world in foreign missions, the greater part has fallen on Great Britain, both in regard to contributions (often more than three million five hundred thousand dollars per year), and in the number of stations and workers (about thir- teen hundred ordained European missionaries), while she has far more than half the whole num- ber of baptized converts. If we compare the success of particular churches, in proportion to their size, this fact is immediately apparent, which /as a member of a national Church may speak of: namely, that the great state Churches are far out- done by the smaller independent Churches. Es- pecially is this the case in Scotland. The Scotch Estabikhed Church, although in the number of congregations and ministers ^ by far the largest in Scotland, is greatly surpassed by the two principal independent Churches, the Free Church and the United Presbyterian, both in contributions, num- ber of stations, and the like, although the latter at the same time must meet the wants of their own home churches. The state Church, with half a million communicants, has only raised during the 1 Of the n,000 Scotch ministers, 1,380 belong to the Establislied Church, 1,0(;0 to the Free Church, 500 to the united Presbyterian Church. See the Catholic Presbyterian, August, 1879, p. 148. DIFFERENCES IN CONTRIBUTIONS. 33 past few years about a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars for foreign missions; while the United Presbyterian Church, with one hundred and seventy thousand members, contributed between one hundred and fifty and two hundred thousand dollars. Thus in the state Church, each membei pays about twenty-five cents ; in the United Pres- byterian Church, from one dollar to one dollar and twenty-five cents ; ^ and the average in the Free Church, which is indeed richer, is not much less, being two hundred and twenty-five thousand dol- lars for foreign missions, from two hundred and twenty thousand members, — a disproportion for the state Church, which will be found to increase continually. The English state Church also, al- though the Propagation and Church Missionary So- cieties, the University Mission and other small soci- eties be included, in respect to contributions and workers, furnishes almost one-half of the whole amount for foreign missions from Great Britain ; and, although she is the richest evangelical church in the world, can with difficulty bear compari- son with the missions of the Nonconformists,^ 1 The Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church. April, 1879, pp. 457 and 430; Life and Work, August, 1879, p. 126, sqq.; Warneck, Belebung des Missionssinnes, p. 94, sqq. 2 According to Canon Scott Robertson, the sum raised by the Church of England for missions in 1878 amounts to $2,330,365; by English Nonconformist missionary societies, to $51,621,155; and, by the Scotch and Irish Presbyterian societies, to $695,055. See Missionary Herald, Boston, February, 1879, p. 69. ö4 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: if we throw into the other side of the scale the Weslejan, London, Baptist, English Presbyte- rian, the Primitive Methodist, the United Method- ist Free Church, China Inland, and other smaller societies. Still more striking is the difference, when we compare the little Moravian Church, with its twenty thousand grown members in Europe and America, — although indeed from the begin- ning a missionary church without comparison, and one which alone, of all the Continental churches in Europe, can dispute rank with the United Presby- terian Church of Scotland, — when we compare it and its contribution of one dollar and twelve cen ts per head,i with the great German state Church, in which, here and there (reckoning young and old), oidy one-half to three-quarters of a cent per head is given. Whence this difference ? Ts it not plainly from this : that the free church congrega- tions carry on the work as churches under the immediate control of their Board of Direction, and expect that each member, even the youngest, shall take a personal part in the churches' activity for the Master, while the state and national churches, as churches in their collective capacity, do not take up this work, and at times cannot, but transfer the fulfilment of this duty to particular societies and the special friends of missions ? It is 1 Twenty thousand four hundred and twenty-nine adults in the tliree provinces of tliat church (in Germany-, Enj^land, and A-merica) raised recently the sum of aljout 5^22,500 for missions. DIFFERENCES IN CONTRIBUTIONS. 35 not owing to this alone, but also because the na- tional churches are composed partly of the rich, among whom, with few noble exceptions, warm hearts and open hands are not found for the mis- sion cause ; partly of the poor, and these from their scanty supply of bread can send almost nothing across the sea; partly of the lukewarm, indiffer- ent, and worldly, who (as a state church professor in Edinburgh recently complained) if there were no state church, would belong to no church, because the kingdom of Christ has but little inter- est for them in any case : whilst the free church demands, of each one becoming a member, a deep religious interest in the church and her work. Hence a system of giving for the church and church- work prevails here, and there is a regular con- tribution according to ability (compare especially the Wesleyans), which is an unheard-of thing in the state church. Every church must grow con- tinually, in order truly to exist. But especially so with free churches that do not inherit, from the fathers, millions, a fixed domain, a sure place in the life of the people, but are obliged to gain all this by hard toil : these have a great predisposi- tion for all self-extension and missionary activity. This also explains in a great measure the lively and ^'eneral missionary interest among the evan- gelical denominations of the United States, which long ago learned to stand, walk, and work for themselves, without help from the State. It may 36 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : he due also to other causes, especially to the growth of a spirit of evangelization within Prot- estantism in general. But it is not a matter of mere accident, that great activity in missions first began after all the rights of a state church in New England ceased, and after the stubborn pait of the old rationalism, the Unitarians, had sep- arated from the remaining Congregationalists. Without, separated from the help of the State ; within, purged from the prostrating influences of the old unbelief, — these last could and must per- force bring into action the resources of a powerful development which lay hidden within them. And how great this development has been toward for- eign missions I The missionary societies, with about $1,750,000 income and six hundred ordained missionaries, mostly taken from the universities, is a striking example. In no other land have missions, like all other educational institutions, received such large gifts from private individuals as in America. The average contribution also shows such a general interest in missions as is seen elsewhere only in free churches. Years ago the gray-headed mission-historian. Dr. Anderson of Boston, com- puted that, of all the members of the Congre- gational churches, only one-quarter or one-third gave no contribution to missions.^ This fraction 1 Anderson: Foreign Missions, their Relations and Claitus, third edition, 1870, p. 2G. DIFFERENCES IN CONTRIBUTIONS. 37 may since have been reduced. There was con- tributed last year to foreign missions, by about three hundred and seventy -five thousand members of the Congregational churches,^ five hundred and eleven thousand dollars,^ or one dollar and thirty- seven cents per head ; by about six hundred and eighty-two thousand members of both Presbyte- rian Churches, North and South,^ five hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars, or eighty-seven cents per head.^ The fact that the second largest of all the churches in the United States, the Methodist Episcopal of the North, with about one million seven hundred thousand communicants, or six million nine hundred thousand normal members,^ gives less to foreign missions (1878, two hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars ^), is due to this, 1 See paper read at the Basel Alliance, by Dr. Schaff: Chris- tianity in the United States, pp. 14 and 30, sqq. 2 According to Annual Report for 1879: see Missionary Herald, November, 1879, p. 414 ; the great legacy of Asa Otis, of about $1,000,000 (p. 415) is not included. 3 According to Dr. Schaff (see above), the number of commu- nicants in the Presbyterian Church of the North in 1878 amounted to more than 567,000 ; in that of the South, to above 114,000. 4 The sum raised lor missions in the Presbyterian Church of the North amounted, according to Annual Report of May, 1879, p. 81, to $425,000 ; last year, to $401,000. Cf. also Der christliche Apologete (Cincinnati), July 7, 1879. 6 According to statistics for 1879, 1,709,000 communicants ; for 1878, 1,688,000. See Schaff, pp. 14 and 30. 6 Missionary Herald, Boston, June, 1879, p. 229 ; for foreign missions, $272,114, besides, for missions to the Indians, $13,500 ; besides, for native missions, $221,800: in 1877, altogether $628,- 000. See Annual Report of the Missionary Society of the Method- ist Episcopal Church, 1879, p. 30. 38 PROTESTANT FOREIGN I^OSSIONS : namely, that she is laying particular stress upon the spread of the Church at home, among the negroes in the South and the settlements of the West. The same is true of the Baptist churches, the largest in the land, with two million one hun- dred and two thousand communicants, which, exclusive of their work in Europe, gave last year only $252,677 for foreign missions.^ Of the two thousand nine hundred parishes (four thousand tAVO hundred congregations) of the Protestant Episcopal Church, only eleven hundred and sev- enty contributed last year (total income $139,- 971), which is relatively small, but shows a marked improvement on the past. The same is true of the Lutheran churches, while some of the other smaller bodies, e.g., the five hundred and ten Dutch Reformed churches, are so active in mis- sions, that they are not behind the first-named larger churches, in their zeal. If we consider the missionary work done by the people of the European continent, we must begin with Holland. With fifty missionaries and an annual contribution of about three hundred and twenty thousand florins (in 1877, three hundred and seventeen thousand florins), she stands equal to any Continental country. Whether or no this sum corresponds to the great wealth of the land, and her extraordinary duty in missions, on account 1 Sec Missionary Herald, August, 1879, p. 308; Dor christliche Apologete, July 14, 1879. MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 39 of her large colonies, I leave to tlie kind considera- tion of my esteemed brethren from Holland. We notice especially in this land the number of mis- sionary societies. No Protestant land has so many in proportion. In Holland there are as many soci- eties as in Germany with tenfold greater number of Protestants, — namely, nine, including two aux- iliary societies for the Moravian and the Rheinish missions. On account of these many divisions,^ the strongest societies — the Neederlandsch Zend- eling Genootschap (Rotterdam), the Utrecht sehe Zendingsvereeniging, the Neederlandsch Zend- ingsvereeniging (Rotterdam) — have only sixteen, eleven, and eight missionaries respectively, and the others still fewer. How united France and Nor- way, each with their concentrated missionary activ- ity, appear in contrast ! The one Paris missionary society, with receipts amounting to two hundred and thirty thousand francs, shows a missionary activity equal at least to that of Holland (four 1 According to Dutch statistics (1877) tlie Neederlandscli Zend- eling Genootschap (Rotterdam) had 16 missionaries and an income of 88,000 florins ; the Utrechtsche, 11 missionaries and 72,000 flo- rins; the Neederlandsch Zendingsvereeniging (Rotterdam), eight missionaries and 3,500 florins; Ermelo's Zendinggenootschap, five missionaries and 16,000 florins; Java Comite (Amsterdam), four missionaries and 10,000 florins ; Zendingsvereeniging of the Menno- nites (Amsterdam), three missionaries and 16,000 florins; Needer- landscli Gereformeerde Zendingsvereeniging (Amsterdam), two missionaries and 14,000 florins; Christ. Gereformeerde Kerk, one missionary and 10,000 florins; Zeister Hülfsgesellschaft für Herrnhut, 16,000 florins; Rheinische Hülfsmiss. Gesellsch. (Am- sterdam), 12,000 flonns. 40 PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: to five cents per head of the Protestant popula- tion 1) ; while in Norway, with its much younger missionary society, the general interest is growing towards this point. II. Looking now inland to Germany and Switzer- land, we find that here the churches on the whole are leraarkably behind the humble Dutch in mate- rial successes, not to mention the English and Americans. The German Lutheran Church in the last century (if we mclude the Moravians, who had not really separated in doctrine) surpassed all other evangelical churches in foreign and Jewish missions, and, although not under colonial obliga- tions, was the pioneer of the gospel in the East and West Indies ; but within the last eighty years she has been outstripped in spreading the gospel by her Reformed sisters, and has been roused again to new missionary activity, within the last ten years, by those lands to which once she set the example in mission work, namely, England and Holland. If now from among the German missionary societies we take the strictly Lutheran (the Berlin, South African, Gossner, Leipzig, Ilcrmannsburg, tlie Society of Brethren in Schleswig-Holstein, having as yet no special field of labor), and add to these the five nortliern societies (in Denmark one, in Norway one, two in Sweden, and one in Finland, the Norwegian society being nearly equal in size to tlie other four), with llie mission society 1 Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 302. MISSIONABY SOCIETIES. 41 of the Lutheran Synod of the United States, it is a remarkable fact that to-day there are only eleven Lutheran missionary societies, half of which are very small, and none of which belong to the greatest, having altogether only about two hundred ordained missionaries. Against these there are fifty-five Reformed societies (including the English Episcopal), with two thousand ordained mission^ aries; while four more evangelical societies, — the Moravian (which, on account of her auxiliary societies in Holland, England, and the United States, one may reckon with the United Evangel- ical), the Basier, Barmen, and Bremen, — having three hundred and fifty missionaries, hold the middle ground between the other two; so that to-day all the Lutheran missionary societies of the world together, in n amber of workers (two hun- dred and seven), do not equal the Church Mission- ary Society ; and, in contributions, not the third part (about 1,200,000 Marks to 4,000,000 M. or £190,000). Yes, if we take all the German missionary societies, — Lutheran and Evangelical, — together with the Basier and New Swiss Mission of the Free Church in the Canton cle Vaud, we see that in the number of workers (about five hundred and thirty male missionaries) and whole amouat of con- tribution we do not yet equal any one of the great 1 See statistics, e.g., in the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, November, 1875, p. 511. 42 PROTESTANT FOREIGN JVHSSIONS : English missionary societies, — the Church Mis- sionary Society, the Propagation Society, and the Wesleyan, — for each one of these receives annu- ally from 2,500,000 to 4,000,000 Marks, wliilst our entire revenue for 1876 was but 2,300,000 Marks ; and in 1877, on account of the general distress in business, it fell off 40,000! I refrain from any thing but a passing notice of the causes of the lack of interest by the Lutheran Church in missions. It is doubtless owing partly to her contemplative character ; she considers the- ology and science subjectively, rejoices in the pos- session of "pure doctrine " ^ and the discussion of it, while its practical application in the organiza- tion of independent parishes,^ and the like, she has neglected. I do not forget, in thus preaching from figures, that our land is not so rich as Holland, England, or America. But the words I once heard from a foreigner in regard to the Germans in their ecclesiastical and missionary efforts often return to my mind : " A German always needs a threefold conversion : (1) of tlie heart, like everybody else ; (2) of the head, for liis is particularly /nil of all sorts of doubts ; (3) of the purse ! " Not that we Germans are by nature less liberal than otliers, or our monej^-bags provided witli specially strong strings. Contributions for the relief of any special 1 See AllKfiincino Miss. Zcitsclirift, April, 1870, ji. 55, Kqq. 2 Soe Christ lieb, Missiousbcnil des cvaugclisclicn Dculacb- lands, 187G, p. 55, sqq. MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 43 need are given as freely by us as by any one else ; but, in most of the lands and provinces of the state Church, the members have not been trained to give for purely church purposes: hence the regular collection of money, though in small sums, from those of slender means, which has been sys- tematically carried on elsewhere with such great success, owing to a wide-spread fear of mechanical Christianity and Methodism has unfortunately found little favor among us. The same is true of the salutary self-discipline of the voluntary but regular consecration of a definite per cent, of our incomes at the very time of reception for Christian objects, in which, I have reason to believe, lies technically the secret of the greater liberality in the lands of English-speaking peo- ples.i There is no other Protestant land in which the interest in missions is so unequally divided in districts as in Germany. For the most part, the backward districts (especially in Central Ger- many) are those in which the evil effects of the old rationalism are most sensibly felt. The mis- sionary spirit breaks forth with greater strength in certain out-and-out Lutheran sections, such as Hanover and Schleswig-Holstein ; much weaker in Mecklenburg, East Prussia, and Saxony. Far in advance of all, however, stand the partly mild 1 See Christlieb, Missionsberuf, pp. 78, 79; and Waxneck, Belebung des Missionssinnes, p. 75, sqq. 44 PROTESTANT FOREIGN :^^SSIONS : Lutheran, partly United Evangelical districts, such as Wiirtemberg, Rheinland, Westphalia (especially the Siegen and Ravensburg districts). Hence the following remarkable scale : In Wiirtemberg there is contributed for missions, per head, for the Prot- estant population, five to six cents ; in Rheinland and Westphalia, about four cents; in Bremen, eleven cents ; in Hamburg, Hanover, Oldenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Baden, two cents ; in the six eastern provinces of Prussia, and in Bavaria, one and a quarter cents ; in Mecklenburg and Saxony (kingdom), onl}- about one-half cent. Often the same variation is seen in one and the same prov- ince : in Hanover, for example, in the dukedom Osnabrück, with an annual conti'ibution of twenty- eight thousand dollars, there are two and three- quarters cents per head for the population, whilst in the Guttingen dukedom there is but a third of a cent. In Rheinland, from 1877 to 1878, for the synod of Gladbach, five to six cents ; for Elber- f eld-Barmen, four and a half to five cents ; in Aix-la-Chapelle, only three-quarters to one cent; in Braunfels, oidy one-quarter cent ; and in certain others even less.^ All in all, we receive on an average, from the whole Protestant population of Germany and Switzerland, only from one and three- quarters to two cents per head, and so do not reach 1 See "Warncck, as above, p. 21, sqq. Allgcm. cvaiif;. Luth. Kirchenzeitung, June 13, 1870, p. 544, sqq. ; and the tahles in th© treatise, Die rheinische Mission im Sommer, 1870, p. 14. MISSIONAEY SOCIETIES. 45 the figures of the Lutheran Church in Norway with two to two and a half cents. But where is there a land in which the mission cause has always had to cope with so many ob- stinate prejudices, in openly-expressed opinions, especially of the educated ; with so many calum- niations from the popular press ; with so much ignorance, and therefore light esteem of the influen- tial ? where a Jewish member of the Reichstag, not long ago, in a debate on a treaty with the Samoan Islands, could remark, to the pleasure of that high assembly, " that the memorial of the government treated the subject of missions with humor " ? ^ I have spoken personally with professors of dif- ferent universities, who had heard next to nothing about missions, and who wondered greatly to hear me say that they were to*day growing and had martyrs ! I have heard a learned Catholic profess- or repeat, as an incontestable fact, that old report, happily long ago made mythical, about the fruit- lessness of Protestant missions. Therefore, what may we not expect from ignorant, anti-Christian editors ? The many and great hinderances to the spirit of missionary activity among us have often been exposed,^ during the past few years. I will 1 Allgemeine Missions Zeitsclirift, August, 1879, p. 384. The question is often put, Why has Germany as yet no colonies? One providential reason, doubtless, is this: that in influential cir- cles great prejudices still exist against missions, and that the Germans have so few Christian officials for the administration of colonies. 2 Christlieh, Missionsberuf, p. 54, sqq.; Warneck, "Belebung des Missionssinnes," p. 37, sqq. 46 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: not repeat them here. But I wish to emphasize the shameful fact, that at present the most out- spoken and growing political, liberal press of Ger- many, is under the direct influence of reformed Jews, the bitterest of all the enemies of Christian missions; and I ask, can we expect a fair treat- ment of missions, more respect toward this great factor in the church history of the present, greater recognition of the literary achievements of evan- gelical missions among our learned men, as long as we do not seek to emancipate them from the influences of this Jewish spirit, and have not the courage to enjoin upon our friends and relatives to take only those papers and periodicals which treat our Christian endeavors with respect, or at least with decency? On the other hand, there are many cheering signs of a growing interest in mis- sions among us. The position of the Church towards missions grows more and more favorable. Among the middle classes, for instance, in the country, the missionary cause is becoming increas ingly popular in thousands of places. It can de- pend upon this in the future. The instinct of the Christian people in the country gives a deeper in- signL into spiritual things than the arrogance of learning in the cities. The interest grows espe- cially in the East, while in the West it scarcely holds its own. The Berlin China Missionary So- ciety, which a few years ago was united with that of Barmen, has recently been making cnergctio efforts toward revival. MISSIONAEY SOCIETIES. 47 The notes of praise from certain celebrated in- vestigators, such as Max Müller and indeed Dar- win,^ and also from certain colonial governments, recognizing the services of missionaries, have not sounded in vain. Here and there, large and formerly wholly indifferent political daily papers (e.g., the Cologne and Magdeburg journals) open their columns to the opinions of competent friends of missions. Lectures on the history of missions are being introduced, though with difficulty, here and there in the universities. Above all, the commercial advantages of missions for the extension of trade are recognized, and writers on political economy begin to speak of their world-wide value. ^ It has been calculated, for example, that every missionary in the South Seas creates, on an average, a trade of fifty thousand dollars^ per year. It is therefore ob- vious that the reproach of the unproductive- ness of the money spent on missions is refuted from a purely commercial point of view, by the gains in traffic. Certain districts, where the interest in missions and spiritual things generally had somewhat died out, are stirring themselves to new zeal. In March of this year, at Halle, — the 1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1875, p. 98; 1876, p. 146, sqq., 326, sqq. ; 1877, p. 52, sqq. 2 See Warneck, Die gegenseitigen Beziehungen zwischen der modernen Mission und der Cultur, 1879, p. 42, sqq. 3 According to the Rev. Mr. "SVhitmee, formerly missionary to Samoa. 48 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: original seat of German missionary efforts, — there was a missionary conference of ministers, theologi- cal professors, and laymen, to increase the interest in missions in the province of Saxony ; whilst the synod put into the orders of the day, as one of the subjects for discussion, '' The Duty of the Church with Eegard to Foreign Missions : " examples wor- thy of imitation. And yet a day at the Alliance, where we as rarely elsewhere see eye to eye the position of German Protestantism in missionary matters, re- minded us of much neglect and deeply shamed us. How few professors, even of theology, have the courage to Lear the reproach which is attached to this work, especially high up on the cold heights of science ; and for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ and his holy gospel, to set at defiance, if need be, a whole unbelieving world ! How many carry themselves cold in their hearts towards him, holding him in noticeable light esteem, not con- sidering what an influence this work of vin- dicating our world-conquering faith will have, even upon the management of many of the depart- ments of theology, yea, in part, ah-eady has to- day ! No wonder that a candidate hardly ever comes from the German universities into the service of missions, while America from the first has taken hundreds of her best missionaries from an ^'- alma maters No wonder tliat the small German student missionary societies, kept at a dis» CAIS^DIDATES FOB THE MISSION WORK. 49 fcance, canr-ot stand comparison with the large academical missionary societies in Scotland, in Oxford and Cambridge, and in the United States. And how inactive a large part of our ministers show themselves I Whence the great difference of interest in missions, often in one and the same province ? I answer, chiefly from the difference of the position taken by the clergy in this matter. As they are in deeds of love, so are their congre- gations. If the shepherd himself does not live in the present history of missions, if he robs himself of this great faith-strengthening, spiritual refresh- ment, and upon his lonely watch does not pause and listen to the strokes of the distant hammer in the building-up of God's kingdom ; if he only glances rapidly through the mission reports, to see if he can get material for the missionary meeting, and if these meetings are more a burden to him than a real delight, a matter of the heart, — and the congregation has a fine discernment for this difference, — if he cares simply for the work of home missions, because this finds greater favor with the lukewarm part of the congregation; if he preaches only on missions in Epiphany, without noticing them in his other Sunday sermons, though missionary thoughts run through the whole New Testament; if he expects to maintain the right degree of missionary interest in his congregation by an official report which few read, or by the missionary anniversary which is celebrated now 60 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: and then by the church, — it will become more and more difficult for him to hold the interest gained, not to speak of helping the development to keep pace with the needs of the society to which his congregation belongs. Then circumstances like those of to-day follow: the work extends, the wants and demands of the societies increase, but their receipts barely keep up to the old standard, nay, here and there diminish, and the deficits be- come permanent. Of course, most of the exten- sive development of the missionary spirit depends upon the position taken by the minister himself. He can also make good, many of the opportuni- ties neglected while in the university. But it is not right that the congregations should ex- pect fi'om the missionary societies, the awakening and nourishment of their interest in matters per- taining to the kingdom of God. This is, and will remain substantially, the task of the home church itself and her ministers. We should free the societies from this matter, that they may, so much the more, turn all their tim« and strength to the work among the heathen. To be sure, the state of the case at home, as regards morality, is crying enough : therefore all respect to the home mission, and to all zeal for the fulfilment of her growing task ! But is it not a sign of weakness in the Church, when she studies only her own wants ? ^ Does not the re- 1 See the excellent remarks on this subject, by Dr. Thomson, at the Mildmay Missionary Conference, Proceedings, p. 103. INTEREST IN THE HOME CHURCHES. 51 fusal of all co-operation abroad work back upon the Church, like mildew? Must not the word of life, from its very nature, run and extend itself? You cannot gather the waters in heaps unless you. let them freeze ! The more we spread religion abroad, so much the more have we remaining, and so much the more richly does it flow back. This is equally true of the financial part. No one has yet bled to death in giving to missions. And if any one believes that that instrument, unpleasant to so many, the "missionary-contribution screw," cannot bear one turn more, let me remind him kindly, that in Rhineland, for example, during the carnival, more is spent in a few days for pieces of foolery, than is contributed during the whole year for the cause of missions, Protestant and Catholic ; and that England spends annually over seventy million pounds ^ for intoxicating drinks, and not one million pounds for foreign missions. No : money is not lacking, but understanding and love for this work. If our educated and well- to-do people were all friends of missions, the aid- ing power of the home church would increase ten- fold. Therefore let us go forward courageously with our endeavors to awaken interest at all times among the rich and learned ; to show to students of lang"uages, geographers and historians, that the earth cannot be won scientifically without Chris- 1 According to Dr. Angus (New- York A.lliance, p. 585)/ £75,000,000 annually. 62 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: tiaii missions ; and to make tliem understand that if not actuated by Christian belief, their own scientific interest, their desire after new material for work, should teach them the inestimable worth of missions, and that they should assist in this great work if for no other reason than a simple expression of gratitude.^ Something, at least, may be accomplished here and there in these districts to increase the interest in mission-work ; though not very much, as past experience shows. Therefore, if I were to make practical these remarks on the home Church, I should say : — 1. Missions should be a subject understood by the whole congregation, as it has long been, for example, in the different churches of the United States,^ and in free churches elsewhere. But one must not expect, for instance, that in a large na- tional church all, including mere nominal Chris- 1 Of course, we do not thus wish to " beg for indemnity for missions among men of letters " (see "Warneck, Mission and Culture, p. 11, sqq.). The one aim of missions is and ever will remain the saving of the lost and giving happiness to man, not the promotion of culture as such. But, as the latter is the natural consequence of the former, every friend of culture should like- wise be a friend of missions. 2 " Missions are carried on in America by the churches thera- Belves as a regular church work, instead of being left to volun- tary societies, as in the national churches of Europe. Each I>astor and each congregation is aujiposed to be interested in the spread of the gospel at home and abroad, and to contribute towards it according to their ability." — Db. Scuaff: Cliristianity in the United States, p. 49. INTEREST IN THE HOME CHURCHES. 53 tians, should have a clear understanding and real interest for the cause. These depend upon the personal belief in the world-subduing power of the gospel, upon faith in the promises of the Bible, upon love to the Saviour of sinners, and thankfulness for self-experienced grace. lie who does not stand upon this Christian basis is more an object than a subject of missions. The real self-sacrificing advocate of missions is therefore not our mixed church, ^^ talis qualis^^ worldly- minded as she is, but the " communio sanctorum et vere credentium.'''' Not the world, but the true believers in the Church, must carry on missions ; and whoever will heartily aid and strengthen her work of love must first unite himself to her inner life of faith. If we omit this, we are without the real well-spring, the fundamental condition, of all successful missionary effort. 2. The spirit of missions should be much more widely spread in our universities, especially among the theological students, who in the all-too-short time for study, have great hinderances in this direction. Missions and their present history claim more regard from our theological professors, not only in practical theology, where this usually begins, but also in history and exegesis (e.g., in expounding the Acts, Pastoral Epistles, and Prophets).. 3. Missions should have a larger place in the Sunday sermon and the general religious training, 64 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN IVHSSIONS : in order that tlie idea of missions may become an integral factor in the consciousness of the Chris- tian Church, and not, as is so often the case, simply come to light, almost isolated, at the missionary anniversary. " The preaching of the kingdom," taking that word in the biblical sense, without the modern flavor, "must heighten interest in that kingdom, which should in turn be kept alive and increased by intelligence as to how the kingdom prospers." Where the ministers of the Word recognize this duty, and fulfil it with freshness and vigor, there will not be wanting, in those con- gregations, persons who would put nev/ life into the many crippled auxiliary missionary societies. The rules of the church ought to establish, that, at least once a year, there shall be in every church a mission sermon and collection.^ 4. In certain parts of Germany, a greater con- centration of aid for a special society is desirable. Here and there a society has not come up to a lively missionary activity, because something is done by the churches in many directions, but in no one direction is any thing important accom- plished. Divisions hinder the growth of a deep interest in missions. Large-heartedness is also to be recommended to some, who are much too ex- clusive ; but it is a fact, that the congregations 1 At the first regular General Synod at Berlin (for the old Prussian provinces), a motion referring to this subject was all bul unanimously adopted. October, 187Ü. CIRCULATION OF MISSIONARY LITERATURE. 55 most zealous for home and foreign missions al- ways turn their chief interest toward one special society. 5. Besides the greater circulation of missionary papers (in Germany subscribers are counted by thousands, in America by tens of thousands^), it assists much to the promotion of a missionary spirit when particular congregations, having wealth, take upon them the support of a mission- ary, or of a whole station, which is already here and there the case. A little more voluntary per- sonal effort by believers would make this pos- sible in many places. Let me call your attention to the fact, that many of the United Scotch Pres- byterian Churches, in spite of their relative poverty, have developed such an interest in missions, that for the past fifty years the support of almost all their West-Indian missionaries has been laid upon particular churches ^ and their special funds. Their strong general love for missions depends, without doubt, upon this practice. It is also most praiseworthy when a rich friend of missions bears alone the expense of the education of a mission- ary, as a Hollander did for a Barmen student not long ago. This would soon set aside the deficits and all need of retrenchment in the field, although the societies which are supported by a large num- 1 See McKerrow, History of the Foreign Missions of the Secession and United Presbyterian Church. Edinburgh, 1867, pp. 246, 265, 271, 274, &c. 56 PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: ber of small contributions are npon a firmer foun- dation than those that depend on large bequests of individual wealthy men. 6. Finally, and with this we go to the technical management of the missionary agencies at home, it is high time that certain missionary circles, wliich hold on with great tenacity, should learn the fallacy of the old idea that every pious, really converte .1 young man, no matter how untalented, can be used in the mission-service. This error, against which I recommend as a powerful eye- salve the perusal of Livingstone's " Missionary Sac- irifices," lately published,^ has often proved a mis- fortune and great evil for missions, which demand the very best talent and education the Christian world can give. III. If we turn now from our churches to the missionary societies, we see that the period for founding new societies is not yet past. In Eng- land, in 1865, were added the China Inland mission of Mr. Hudson Taylor, which has already forty- nine male European missionaries ; ^ in 1870 the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions (similar to the St. Chrishona Institute) 1 See Catholic Preshytcrian, No. 1, 1870: Ein Vormächtniss Livingstone's. See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, April, 1879, Beiblatt, p. 20, ff. 2 See China's Millions, August, 1879; added to this twenty females, forty-eight native pastors and evangeliata, thirty-seven teachers, colportors, &c. GENERAL PELN-CIPLES OF WORK:. 57 by Mr. Grattan Guinness, which recently started a Congo mission in West Africa, and other new efforts m missions at Cambridge and Oxford ^ since 1877; in America the heathen missions of the " Evangelical Society ; " in Switzerland the missions of the Free Church of Vaud; in Ger- many the "Brecklumer Missions- Anstalt." Al- though this is in one respect to be rejoiced at, it is most of all desirable that the missionary strength should not be further subdivided, a re- mark especially applicable to the present critical condition of Hanoverian missions. The smaller a society, the more expensive, for the most part, is her work. Why new societies, when the old ones have difficulty in carrying on their work? Not in Christian, but in Christianized heathen lands, new missionary societies should be founded. If we look at the great societies of the Old and New World, we shall see a manifold dif- ference in organization, according to the character of the churches in the various lands. How varied even is the training of the missionaries ! The great American societies — i.e., the American Board, with one hundred and forty-four ordained missionaries ; 2 the Baptist Missionary Union of Boston, with one hundred and fortj^-one mission- aries in Asiatic lands;^ the Presbyterian Mission- 1 See further particulars, Evangelical Missionary Magazine, July, 1878, p. 257, sqq. 2 See Annual Report of 1878, p. 112. « See the Missionary Herald, August, 1879, p. 308. 58 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN IMISSIONS : ary Society of New York, with one hundred and twenty-two ordained missionaries ; ^ the Methodist Episcopal, with one hundred and eighty-four missionaries,^ and others — all draw their mission- aries from the universities, colleges, and theolo- gical seminaries of their respective denominations. And the same with the churches of Scotland. In Germany, on the other hand, we educate them in special seminaries, and must do it, since the uni- versities rarely furnish a man for missions, much less now that the number of theological students barely meets the requirements of the home Church; whilst the Anglican Church, besides those from the seminaries, takes a large number of workers from the universities. This is a characteristic and very perceptible difference. In the free churches, the theological faculties are united. There, believing men work together for the upbuilding of their churches, and not especially for the improvement of different branches of theological learning. There, the students grow up in the universities in the 1 See Annual Report, 1879, p. 83. 2 This includes the missionaries amonj? otli*. denominations in Christian countries (Europe and South America), alto<;ether one hundred and fourteen, but not the forty-two assistants of the missionaries, lcavinj]j eighty missionaries among tlie heathen. (See Missionary Herald, June, ISTD, p. 22!).) The Christliche Apologete, June 2, 187i), gives the number of missionari(!S as two hundred and fifty-six; the Annual Report of the ]\Iissiouary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 187!), p. 198, mentions ninety-five foreign missionaries, lifty-seven assistants, thirty-two missionaries of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society. GENERAL PKINCIPLES OF WORK. 59 spirit and faith of their churches, and so without difficulty give themselves to be employed in the work of their church, even in jmrtibus infidelium. But in Germany? The combination of the facul- ties from men of all kinds of theological tendencies often makes students unfriendly even to God's ser- vice in the home churches. Pulled hither and thither, between the opposing views of his various teachers, the unfortunate student often has trouble enough to retain the simplest rudiments of his belief, and cannot easily force himself up to the inspiration of that faith whicli overcomes the world, or be ready to make every necessary sacrifice to defend it, — this first requisite of the true missionary spirit. The independence of a missionary, the right to do as he sees fit, or his being bound to act only according to given orders, depends largely on whether the management of the society be a pure- ly administrative body, or one which also gives theological instruction. The one who educates the missionary will after- wards arbitrarily desire to keep a strict watch over him. The societies which are the most opposite in this respect are, on the one hand, the American Board and the London Church Missionary Society, with their open-hearted freedom ; and, on the other, the Basel Society, with her precise regulations even to the details of work in every station. With them, self-government — with this, strict centrali- zation. Many of the American missionaries could 60 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: not long endure tlic discipline of our Basel friends, whilst of course some of the Basel missionaries would grow rather wild with the freedom of the Americans. I wish here, however, to warn against one-sided criticisms. National peculiarities and ecclesiasti- cal views and customs are too diverse to lay down any general rules and principles for all. But ex- perience may teach us this much : that where the object is not merely the conversion of individuals, but also the formation of churches and spread of missionary activit}^, too much should not be left to the missionary himself.^ On the other hand, when the home management dictates all, even to the smallest details, this is not only a sign of the incapacity of the workers, but it may easily become a heavy shaxjkle, hindering the work abroad, and proving a burden to the man- agement at home, and therefore in either case a great evil. So, according to the old maxim, " medio tutissi- mus zii.9," most of the societies seek to keep a safe middle course, between irksome laws and too great liberty.^ 1 C/. the strict principles of Dr. Graul, Nachrichten der Os- tind. Missions-Anstalt zu Halle, 18G0, p. 1.^3. 2 It is worthy of notice, tliat some societies place their mis- Bionaries directly and entirely under the supervision of the com- mittee at home (e.g., the Baptist Society of Boston), whilst most of the others appoint the missionaries of one particular district, to exercise an intermediate authority over each missiouary, — a system which has proved to he a very good one. GENEKAL PRINCIPLES OF WORK. 61 If I throw in here a word upon the differences in the running expenses of societies and the sala- ries of missionaries, I can with a good conscience hold up, as an example in point of economy, our own German societies. A comparison of the Basel report for her missions on the Gold Coast in Africa, with that of the Wesleyans, who are her neighbors in the same field, or that of the Barmen and Berlin societies for South Africa, with those of the English societies working there, shows clear- ly that the Gennan societies work more cheaply than either English or American, and with the same sum can support almost twice as many Euro- pean workers, because their pay is scarcely one- half that of the English. Only the Roman-Cath- olic missionaries, who are unmarried, are satisfied with the same scanty support.^ But I wish here to warn you, that one may carry economy too far, to the cost of joy in the work and the health of our missionaries, who already have been obliged in many cases to endure what was almost unendurable.^ We should seek here also, in the circumstances of heathen lands,^ the right medium between too broad liberality and too narrow economy. 1 Monier Williams (Modern India and the Indians, 1879) says of them, " they are content with wonderfully small pay." 2 Cf., e.g., the remarks of Dr. Wangemann at the Mildmay Conference, Proceedings, 1878, p. 50. 3 An absolute equalization of the salaries, as, e.g., introduced by the American Baptist Missionary Union (.^1,000), can only be recommended wh(ire there is complete similarity in all outward circumstances. 62 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: Although our German missions have little that is inviting in the foreign field, this fact is worthy of notice : that the press of young men into our mission-seminaries is always large enough to admit the making of a fine selection. Within the last twenty years (not to speak of earlier times), they have often been obliged, in Eng- land, to complain of the need of workers, whilst Germany could often help out other societies. If they need men for the holy war, we need money to send out men, ready and well equipped. Yet the choice cannot be made with too great care. In a number of missions, the incontestable result of experience — which the present finan- cial troubles place in an especially sharp light — is, that it is better to have few but capable missionaries, than many incapable. The zenana- missions in India confirm this also. IV. I will not here touch on the many old and new ideas concerning different methods of educat- ing our missionaries, which relate to the first prin- ciples of management and their comprehension of the task before them. Among those who are themselves engaged in the work, who know the real condition of affairs in heathen lands, and who do not simply devise new plans and methods in their studies, there is fortunately, upon all essential points both at liome and abroad, an encouraging unity of opinion. I GEKEEAL PEIKCIPLES OF WOKK. 63 may, for example, state the fact that the important question as to whether the object of a mission should be simply the conversion of individuals, or the Christianization of whole nations,^ will be, nay, is already, clearly decided from the practice and experience of almost all the present societies, as well as in the history of missions during the first century. It is not a question here as to this or that, but as to one after the other. According to the apostolic example, the whole spirit and char- acter of a people brought under Christian influ- ence must be cleansed, renewed, and fructified, through the conversion of one individual after another, if the leavening power of the gospel is to permeate public and social life. But for this pro- cess, the only sure and solid basis lies in the for- mation of individual churches of believer's, as centres of new light and life from God, as foun- tain-heads, "well-rooms" (^Be^igeV) of regenerat- ing power for the whole people.^ There is, more- over on the right and left no want of new proposals for the adoption of other methods. For one critic, the present system is not simple, biblical, and apostolic enough : for another it is 1 Cf. Graul, p. 129. 2 Cf. the principles of the Church Missionary Society: A Brief View of the Principles and Proceedings of the Church Missionary Society, 1877, p. 19 : " All its evangelistic efforts are to aim, first, at the conversion of individual souls, and secondly, though con- temporaneously, at the organization of the permanent native Christian Church, self-supporting, self-governing, self-extend- ing." 64 PROTESTANT FOKEIGN ]\nSSIONS : too biblical, too entirely of faith. The former class of objections comes especially from England and America.^ The missionaries, they say, should sup- port themselves, or be supported by the people with whom they labor, like Paul. This is all very beautiful and heroic, where it is practicable ; but he who would make it a general rule must not forget that apostolic missionary methods presup- pose: (1) apostolic men; and (2) apostolic cor- ditions. When a Paul preached in a civilized land in which he was born and of which he was a citizen ; when he preached to people whose lan- guage he by nature understood, whose social con- ditions made it possible for him to support himself by his handiwork in every large city, without consuming too much of his time, — these were other conditions than those of the missionary of to-day. The latter is not an apostle in strength and gifts. He goes to distant nations, be they entirely sav- age or half civilized, to whom, as a foreigner, every thing is closed, language and customs, and to whom therefore for a long time the necessary occupation is lacking, so that, looking for business 1 Thus latelj^ William Taylor (American Methodist preacher in California, then in Bomhay, &c.), in his paper, Pauline Meth- ods of ISIissionary Work, 1870. Cf. Der christliche Apologete, 30th of June and 28th of July, 1879. Cf. also Die apostolische und die moderne Mission, in the Allgemeine Zeitschrift, 1870, p. 97, .s<77. Cy. there also, 1870, p. 382, other extreme views of mis- Bionary enterprise, takcm from the lives of remarkable evangel- ists earning their own livelihood, &c. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF WORK. 65 and food, his care for souls would entirely cease. Certain societies which at first sent out mission- aries according to this principle were obliged, after bitter experiences, taught by the stern reality of facts, to give up their stations entirely, or restrict them to certain places. If we let those of the opposite belief speak, especially in Switzerland and Holland, who, on the basis of modern critical theology, consider our former missionary education and mode of preach- ing, with its old biblical and saving doctrines, as not adequate for winning the educated classes of the heathen world, as for instance the Eastern Asiatic nations ; they wish to make the few learned heathen the subject of missionary labor, and for this purpose found a new missionary society on the basis of free thought,^ whose messengers, clothed in the full armor of the modern many-sided Chris- tian intellectual culture, shall turn immediately to the leading minds of the civilized heathen nations, to the circles of the learned and influen- tial, and thus " from above downwards " gain con- trol of the whole spirit of the nation ; for, " if the head were once won, the body of the nation w^ould submit itself the more quickly to Christian cul- ture." Such suggestions as these awaken some- i Cf. as to what follows Buss, Die christliche Mission ihre principielle Berechtigung und praktische Durchführung, Leyden, 187G; as also the incisive criticism of his paper in the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 371, sqq., 41G, sgg., and the Evang. Miss. Magazin, 1876, p. 258, 555. 66 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: what mixed feelings among the friends of missions. Who does not rejoice that at last the significance, justice, yea, the necessity, of missionary work, is beginning to break its way even into the circles of " liberal " theologians ? Who would close his ears to a criticism so penetrating yet so earnest, so zealous and well-meant, and not willingly submit present systems to a renewed examination ? But it is otherwise when we, as biblical theolo- gians, Christians as well as missionary historians, must consider these propositions, at least for the time when a mission is founded, as wrong in prin- ciple, as promising no real fruit, yea, as wholly impracticable. We will not discuss here the fun- damental difference with regard to our conception of the cardinal points of Christianity. But if these men propose to come to the help of our old faith with a modern science, and, by volatilizing the great facts of redemption, make it able to cope with heathen culture, we hold, without in the least undervaluing an intellectual Christian training for the mission work, that to give up the historical basis of the biblical doctrine of salvation is to diminish and weaken the force of the gospel to produce true moral and spiritual results, and to dry up the inmost spring of its divine, regener- ating power, and that all belief in the omnipotence of education and culture in itself, in respect to the moral reformation of the life of the people, is but the superstition and fundamental error of the CTJLTUEE NOT SUFFICIENT TO MEET NEEDS. 67 present day. That which pleases the spirit of the age will not on that account overcome the world, but only that which heals her deepest wounds by imparting new, not humanly-devised, but God-given, spiritual life and power. But, from the historian's point of view, it is permitted me to ask in regard to these new mis- sion plans, is it not remarkable, that, since the knowledge of the last, most noted and friendly of those various voices (Buss) declaring the un- fruitfulness of our method of missions, the land in India, China, and Japan is being rapidly con- quered ? Fifty to sixty thousand heathen brought under Christian training in India during 1878 alone ought to modify greatly the statement of barren- ness in that field. What if these are for the most part among the lower classes ? Is it not true in all history of old and new missions, that the instinct of the common people in accepting the gospel is far in advance of the self-complacent arrogance of the learned and wise? How many congregations of Christians there were among the common people in Greece, whilst the honorable professors of Athens continued to bring the with- ered leaves of their heathen philosophy and rhetoric to market ! Precisely in this university of anti- quity did heathenism maintain itself longest.^ 1 Cf. Wurin, Die Eintheilung der Religionen in ihrer Bedeu- tung für den Erf olg der Mission : Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 535, sgg. 68 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: Ancl if, notwithstanding the power of the Spirit, it cost centuries of their witnessing to bring over, little by little, large numbers of the learned to the necessity of accepting the new belief, is not the time of labor by our missionaries in Eastern Asia altogether too short to begin talking of their ina- bility to win the educated ? Look at the missionary- attempts of the Jesuits in India, endeavoring to get into the ruling Brahmin caste, in order more quicldy to win the rest of the people ; and what sad compromises with heathenism and accommo- dations to its practices these endeavors had as a result. 1 But have we not the warning example before us in our own church, that recently a mis- sionary sent out by the Unitarians to India, instead of converting the heathen, was himself converted to a heathen sect, — the well-known Brahmo Somaj ? 2 and also that the whole Danish-Halle mis- sion in India in the last half of the previous century was greatly crippled by the esteem of their leaders for purely human learning and enlightenment, to whom the preaching of the great truths of sal- vation seemed worthless ? Whether the Dutch mission, which has gone over into the hands of " modern theologians," will fare much better, may be doubted. 1 Cf. the excellent treatise, Arbeiter in der Tamil-Mission, 'Evanj^el, Miss. Ma^^aziii, 18(JS: January, p. 31, sqq.; February, p. 41), &qq. ; March, p. 97, sqq. 2 Cahvcr Missionsblatt, June, 1879, p. 41. CULTUKB NOT SUFFICIENT TO MEET NEEDS. 69 No ! the method of missions, to which all the future belongs, though it may not advance as rab- idly as our impatience could wish, is too clearly marked out for us in the Bible and established by history. " The poor have the gospel preached to them ; " " not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called;" "we are made the offscouring of all things ; " ''account- ed as sheep for the slaughter : " this is and will remain the rule for preaching the cross, especially at the time of founding a church. The offence of the cross of Christ among Jews and Greeks is the outward mantle of its inner power. Whoever shuns the former will lose the latter. We are not, so to speak, as in a dress-coat, to move about in the higher circles only, but to be " all things to all men ; " to the plain, plain ; to the learned, learned ; so that as far as God gives opportunity we may if possible "save some." This Pauline missionary method must always be our example. The mis- sion reformers should stop talking, go to deeds, and put their plans to the fiery test of practice ! This would be the simplest way to prove the worthlessness of our — or rather their — methods. We believe that every attempt of this kind must soon result in a new confirmation of the essential correctness of the present methods in mission work, which the Lord has recognized by giving rich results ; yea, that the preparation for its exe- cution, the seeking for men and means, will show, 70 PKOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: wliat experience through all ages teaches, that only upon the basis of full faith in the gospel will self-sacrificing love and self-dedication grow, which under God have grown, in a measure, up to the tremendous difficulties of the mission work. I do not say that our former training for mission work cannot be improved in certain respects. The voices increase in the evangelical camp, also, of those who sa}' to us, We need not only more, but especially better-prepared, more finely edu- cated missionaries, particularly for the civilized heathen; men more self-denying, in whose walk Christ preaches more powerfully than with their lips! What earnest appeals in regard to this came from the Mildmay Conference in London last au- tumn ! ^ A Livingstone always demanded more talented missionaries, even for Africa, and asked, opposing the old idea, why the home ministry should be better educated than the missionaries ? whether an army on a peace footing must be more skilful, and better equipped, than in war?^ In fact, we should use only those who will be spiritual leaders, not mediocre men, but the very best ; who are much superior to the home ministry, not only 1 By Dr. Legge, Mr. Turner, and others: c/. Proceedings of the Conference, pp, 178, 259, &c. 2 Livingstone's Missionary Sacrifices: cf. Graul also, in the paper above mentioned, pp. 134-147. " The Church must send her ahlest, most highly educated, and best men to the heathen, for the work in the foreign field is more difficult than at home." CULTUEE NOT SUFFICIENT TO ]VIEET NEEDS. 71 in faith and self-denial, in courage and gentleness, but also in linguistic talents, powers of organiza- tion and of a many-sided practical aptitude. But such men seldom apply, and the societies must be satisfied with a selection from those who offer them- selves. It is on this very account, and because our uni- versities furnish so few men, that the best and most comprehensive training possible in our mis- sion seminaries is indispensable, especially as they at present are far from giving the qualities de- manded. In passing, let me remind the missionaries that they themselves have the duty of their further ed- ucation, particularly in respect to moral and reli- gious self-training. "If," an African missionary once wrote to me, "the minister who does not study, stagnates, much more is this true of the mis- sionary. If he rests satisfied with what he has at- tained, he will, in a land where the tendency of every thing is to drag him downwards, become mentally impoverished, and lose all power of pro- duction." How many must confess with noble Henry Martyn, that he has "devoted too much time to public work, and too little to private com- munion with God ! " 1 1 Sargent's Life of Henry Martyn, 1855. See also the extracts from his diary in Spurgeon's Lectures to my Students; p. 65, 1875: *' The determination with which I went to bed last night, of devot- ing this day to prayer and fasting, I was enabled to put into exe- cution. In my first prayer for deliverance from worldly thoughts, 72 PROTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIONS: If, for example, on Sunday afternoons, often sur- rounded by the wild din of the hardened heathen, the missionaries feel lonely in their huts, and a deep sorrow flows through their souls, oh! that then through prayer and meditation on the Scriptures they would learn to put on more and more the armor of light, and recognize the fact that a man who is himself holy, and constantly becoming more so, can do more good by his example than in any other way ! The Chinese, even to the present day, speak mere of a certain William Burns than of any other man, because he was in his person a living proof of Christianity.^ But I cannot close this review of the agencies of the home churches without asking a very important question. Why have we, in the German missions, no medical missionaries, or medical missionary so- cieties, like those of England and America ? During the last twenty or thirty years, these have proved of inestimable value in aiding the mission work. Through these the confidence of the natives in civilized lands, as in those of Islam, in India, China, Formosa, and Japan, can be more quickly won. As long ago as 1841, there was founded depending on the power and promises of God for fixing my soul wliile I prayed, I was helped to enjoy much abstinence from the world for nearly an hour. . . Afterwards, in jirayer for my own Banctiflcation, my soul breathed freely and ardently after the holiness of God, and this was the best season of the day." I Of. Mildmay Conference on Foreign Mis>slons, 1878, p. 259. MEDICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 73 in Edinburgh a medical missionary society, for the education of physicians who at the same time are believing evangelists ; who serve the poor, in body and soul, at home, in the large cities, and the heathen abroad ; according to the old rule, " preach- ing the gospel, and healing, everywhere " (Luke ix. 6). After their education is completed, some are sent out by the various missionary societies, and some directly by the medical missionary society itself; as, for instance, the missionary physicians employed by the Edinburgh Medi- cal Missionary Society, in Nazareth, Madras, and Japan, in London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birming- ham, Bristol, Manchester, and other cities. The practical Americans, especially, are following the example of Edinburgh. Of the special quarterly periodicals of these societies, I mention particu- larly ''The Quarterly Papers of the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society," and " The Medical Missions at Home and Abroad," of the London Medical Missionary Association. Also there are special prayer-meetings of believing medical men : e.g., the Medical Prayer Union in London estab- lished in 1874, which now numbers two hundred aud twenty doctors and medical students, and meets weekly for prayer and the study of the Bible,^ 1 These notes are taken from the magazine, Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, the quarterly magazine of the Medical Missionary Association (London), 1878, No. 1, p. 2, sqq. ; No. 2, October, 1878, p. 17 sqq. 74 PROTESTANT FOBEIGN MISSIONS : thereby awakening and spreaamg the interest in this mission work. There is already upon the staff of workers for most of the Scotch, English, and American mis- sionary societies, a considerable number of doctors of medicine who are at the same time messengers of the cross, and have as their first aim the evan- gelization of the world. There are now between ninety and one hundred actively employed in the various missions.^ Mission dispensaries and mis- sion hospitals are everywhere becoming more numerous, especially in Asia, throughout Turkey, India, China, Formosa, and Japan, breaking the way to faith in the gospel of Christian love which seeks out and helps the needy. In China alone, there are now sixteen missionary hospitals. Ameri- can professors and doctors of medicine are teaching the native youth. Christian and Mohammedan, the science of medicine in the Christian high schools of Turkey, as at Robert College, Constantinople, and in the Syrian Protestant College at Beyrout, in connection with the American Presbyterian mission ; and now in England they are calling for a female medical mission to meet the crying needs of the Hindoo women, especially in the large 1 Here fourtoen British missionary societies are mentioned, of which all the Scottish (particularly those of the United Preshy- terian) and all the larj^cr English societies emjjloy medical mis- Bionaries. See Mildinay Conference, p. 77, address by the llev. Dr. Lowe on Medical Missions. MEDICAL MISSIONAHY SOCIETIES. 75 cities of India.^ Already there has been estab- lished in India itself, in Ag^ia,^ an educational institute for medical missionaries ; while in other cities, as in Bom^)ay, auxiliary branches of medica* missions suppori their own physicians. But, not- withstanding the great development and apparent importance of this branch of missions, we, upoD the Continent of Europe, have almost nothing of the kind: nay, recently the Barmen Missionary Society was obliged to give up sending a Christian physician to China, from want of funds ! ^ We have, indeed, missionaries who know a little about medicine, and from necessity must ; but where do we find physicians who are at the same time theo- logians, that is, who (although in its inmost nature the gospel has much related to the art of healing) have the material in them for evangelists ? Ah ! here lies the deepest cause of this shameful lukewarmness. Under the present teaching of our medical faculties, no missionary spirit could come to the surface without receiving deadly scorn from all sides. Among professors and students the superstition of the naturalistic theory of the world rules supreme, and for them Christianity 1 Mrs. Weitbreclit, Female Missions in India, and The Women of India, 1879. 2 Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, April, 1879, p. 59; Ihe Agra Medical Missionary Training Institute. 3 Dr. Goeking, who had labored in China in connection with the Missionary Society for China, at Berlin: private subscriptions had to be collectei, in order to send him out again. 76 PBOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: has ceased to hold a position ^' scientifically ten- able." They follow Mr. Darwin in every thing sooner than in his sympathy for missions, for which he recently sent the London South Ameri- can ^Missionary Society a gift of twenty-five dol- lars.^ Their candidates state for theses, as one did recently in Bonn, "Belief in the miraculous an epidemic insanity ! " What hope is there from this quarter ? And yet our German mission forces must soon be strengthened from this side, not only on account of the work among the heathen, but also on account of our missionaries themselves, whose lives may often (humanly speaking) be lengthened thereby .^ If the importance of this were once fully realized, by God's help ways and means would soon be devised for its execution ; and I earnestly beg the friends of missions to con- sider this. And now, m order that the ladies interested in missions may also have something to see in this picture, I would kindly remind you of the great aid which your sisters in England and America have given to the mission work, not simply by handiwork in sewing-circles, as with us, but by founding, long ago, self-supporting mis- sionary societies for educating and sending out women for the mission work. I mention only the Society for Promoting Female Education in the 1 Allgemeine Missions Zeitsclirift, August, 1870. 2 See, e.g., the remarks in The Medical Missions, 1878, p. 27, tqq.t on the death of the Basel missionary, Mr. Weigle, in Indi» 77 East, founded in 1834, with hundreds of girls' jschools in India, China, and Africa, and with their own periodical ; the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society (1852), with thirty Euro- pean missionaries among the zenanas, eighty- eight native female helpers, ninety-four schools. and twelve hundred and thirty-two zenanas «opened to their instruction,^ with an excellent quarterly ("The Indian Female Evangelist"), auxiliary societies throughout England, and an annual income of ninety-two thousand five hun- dred dollars ; the Ladies' Association for the So- cial and Religious Elevation of Syrian Women (1860) ; the Ladies' Society for the Education of Women in India and South Africa, in connection with the missions of the Scottish Free Church; and the Englisli Presbyterian Female Missionary Society for India and China (1879). To these we should add the similar self-supporting and active ladies' missionary societies of America. Omitting the differences of character between Germans and English, we may ask, Could not these societies, in whose service there are, so far as I know, only a couple of German women, and with whom we can place only the " Ladies' Society for the Training of Females in the East" (1842), which has up to the present sent out fourteen female teachers to the East Indian mission,^ and has an orphan school 1 See Annual Report, April, 1879, p. 7. 2 See their monthly magazine, Missionsblatt des Frauen- 78 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: in Secunclra ; the " Berlin Ladies' Society for China," which has established a foundling-house in Hong-Kong ; and the work of education carried on in the different towns of the East by tlie dea* conesses from Kaiserswerth, — miglit not these be assisted, at least more than heretofore, by compe- tent teachers from Germany ? To be sure, there are whole groups of missionary agencies, which have recently come into operation, that greatly supplement those in existence, and which should excite our German missionary socie- ties to similar zeal. The forces drawing upon the great gospel-net become more and more varied. The smallest denominations, as soon as they have a roof upon their home church, start for the great battle-field, because they know that it is in foreign missions that the strength and health of their inner life can best be proven. If a church can do nothing for the conquest of the world in foreign missions, she will soon begin to die at home. If as Max Müller confesses,^ Christianity be a missionary religion, in its very nature, "converting, advancing, aggressive, en- compassing the world," a church which does no mission work shows by this, that it is falling away Vereins für christliche Bildung des weihlichen Gesclihn-hts in Morgenlande, January, 1879, p. 18, sqq. Besides in their school at Secundra, the female teachers are employed hy English, American, and German missionary societies. 1 On Missions : a lecture delivered in Westminster Abbey, 1873. woi^ian's work. 79 from the great idea and task of Christianity, — shows its internal death. But notwithstanding the general activity in this work by large and small churches, the farther the work extends, the greater are the demands for more laborers, ministers, laymen, and physicians, and male and female teachers. Therefore we may say briefly in regard to the present condition of the missionary societies, that on many sides at home there is a growing interest in missions ; on the part of others they are held m light esteem. Doors are wide open in the heathen world ; there is a pressing need to spread farther the word of life ; there are plenty of men ready for the work, but not sufficient means to send out a greater force .^ This is, on the whole, the present condition of our missions, and this will demonstrate itself to us more clearly in the survey to which we now pass. 1 Cf. the reports of the Kheinische Missions Gesellschaft, 1879, No. vi., p. 186. 80 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS III. THE WORK AMONG THE HEATHEN. I SHALL now, without going into details in re- gard to all the mission fields, consider especially those wliich are characteristic of the present condition of the missionary work, and so best facilitate our glance over the whole subject, and lay the basis for a clear judgment in regard to the fitness and worth of existing methods. Since it is our object to secure the leading points of view, rather than entire completeness, the division ac- cording to great groups distributes itself into : — I. Work among non-civilized nations, and, — II. Work among civilized nations. Keeping separate the different quarters of the globe, for the sake of clearness, I shall consider first, missions among the still uncivilized peoples of the south seas, America and Africa, and then those among the civilized races of Asia IMinor, India, China, and Japan, not separating the coun- tries where both classes are side by side. I. AMONG UNCIVILIZED NATIONS. I. In Australia the extremely laborious mission- ary undertakings among the scattered remnants of AJ^IONG UNCIVILIZED NATIONS. 81 the natives — the most debased branches of the hnman race — have only begun to scatter the dark- ness of deiith by the light of the gospel. If the immediate extinction of these tribes has not been prevented by the mission, it has at least been some- what retarded.^ Though small, this mission is the most powerful proof that infidelity triumphed too soon when it asserted that there were tribes so de- praved that the calling voice of the Good Shep- herd could have no effect upon them whatever. The Moravian stations, Ebenezer in the Wim- mera district, and Ramahyuk in Gippsland, with pleasant villages and neat little churches, clean dwellings, and one hundred and twenty-five native Christians, whose arrow-root produce won the prize medal at the Vienna Exposition ; the missions of the Presbyterian Church of South Australia, at Point Macleay (south of Adelaide), with similar results, show what the gospel can do even among the Papuans. Here are also the Anglican edu- cational institutions for native children, and other enterprises which have little by little produced a colonial mission. This fact is also encouraging, that the children of native Christians are healthier and better formed than those of the vagabond heathen. The same is true of New Zealand, espe- cially on the northern part of the island where the 1 Die Überblick über das Missionswerk der Brüdergemeinde, 1879, p. 40, sqq. ; and Grundemann, Orientirende tJbersicht, Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 401, sqq. 82 PROTESTANT FOREIGI^ MISSIONS: work is more extended. Overcome by fierce wars, and yanishing before the pressing advance of white colonists, who now outnumber them ten- fold, the Maoris (of whom there are now only thirty thousand) do not offer as promising a mission field as formerly. The principal work among them is done by the Church Missionary Society ; and the number of native Christians, eleven thousand seven hundred and fifteen (1874, ninety-four hundred and thirty- nine), under sixteen European missionaries, twenty- seven native pastors, and two hundred and twenty native teachers,^ is increasing because the mission- aries are looking more hopefully into the future. The Wesleyan mission, much injured by the war, to which several thousand Maoris belong, and the Propagation Society, work especially among the colonists.2 ^-^j^g remaining station, which was under the North German (Bremen) Missionary Society, has been converted into a parish of a mixed congregation, while the Hermanburg mis- sion, with three stations, still continues. I pass over with a glance the great islands north and north-west of Australia. New Guinea 1 Abstract of the Report of the Church Missionary Society, May, 1870, p. 10, 1880, p. 20. 2 The Annual Report of the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society for 1870, p. 105 (j^iving .^,G15 commnnicants, and more than .'52,000 attendinj; divine service), includes the colonists as •well as the natives, persons of mixed races ; so also the report t** the Propagation Society, p. 73. AMONG TJKCIYILIZED NATIONS. 83 has been attacked in the north-west by Dutch missionaries ; in the south-east, since 1871, by the London Missionary Society, mostly through native evangelists from the neighborhood ; on account of the deeply degraded condition of its inhab- itants, who are yet in their " age of stone," and tlie divisions of its tribes and languages (within a distance of three hundred English miles, on the south coast, there are twenty-five different lan- guages), ^ it is not as yet a field white to the har- vest, but hard, down-trodden earth, fit for plough and seed, upon which, however, already some first fruits-have ripened; Celebes, including the crown of all the Dutch missions, the peninsula Muiahassa, which has become Christian, where over eighty thousand out of about one hundred and fourteen thousand inhabitants have been converted ; (they are divided into a hundred and ninety-nine congre- gations, with a hundred and twenty-five schools ; ^ the mistake of not training them to be self- supporting, now that the attempt is being made, is a cause of many difficulties) ; the various new Netherland missions on Java and the neighbor- ing islands, wdiere the large seminary for evangel- ists at Depok is just completed, — all these show that the Dutch are seeking to make good the long 1 According to Mr. Lawes, Mildmay Conference, 1878, p. 282, and Macfarlane, Lond. Miss. Soc. June, 1880. 2 According to the Dutch Missionary Secretary, Neurdenhurg, at the Mildmay Conference, p. 156, sqq. 84 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: negleot of these missions ; but the large Christian congregations upon Amboyna, Ki, and the Aru Islands and the other converts in Timor and Wet- ter, are still waiting in ,vain for a missionary .^ The Rhenish mission in Southern Borneo, and the English Propagation Society in the North, continue to gain a stronger foothold ; and there is a prosperous Rhenish mission among the Battas of Sumatra, where there are, including Nias and Borneo, four thousand native Christians under twenty-five German missionaries. A strong wall is thus formed against the sudden progress of Islamism, which the Dutch government by the use of the INIalayish language in the courts and by the emplo3^ment of Mohammedan officials, has, without intending it, greatly assisted. II. But a word about the astonishing results of our South Sea missions. The fact that we find people here at all, is the result of missions. They have been the preservation of these peoples, as the investigations of Meinicke, Waitz, Gerland, Ober- länder and Darwin prove, by the suppression of cannibalism, human sacrifices, and infanticide, by the introduction of tlie rights and laws of civiliza- tion, and of less savage methods of warfare, by the elevation of the marriage state, and the like. Even travellers for pleasure, medical mr n seeking to ob- 1 According to tho missionary Dr. Schreiber, Mildmay Con» ference, p. 140. RESULTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 85 tain an insight into nature in its primitive state, in their reports, have been obliged, against their will, to become apologists of missions and of their civil- izing influences.^ Polynesia, inhabited by the brown Malay o-Poly- nesian races, is now almost entirely Christianized. The real missionary work here is carried on al- most exclusively by the London and Wesleyan societies and the American Board. Starting with Tahiti, the London society has so thoroughly evangelized the Society Islands, Australasia, Her- vey, Samoa, Tokelau, and Ellice, that to-day there are only a few heathen left, and those on the last- named group.2 The Wesleyans have flourishing missions on the island of Tonga and some of the neighboring islands (one hundred and twenty-six churches, eight thousand tliree hundred communi- cants, one hundred and twenty-two schools with five thousand scholars, and over seventeen thou- sand attendants on divine worship ^). The Ameri- can Board has turned the Sandwich Islands into an evangelical land, and a few years ago formed the Christians there into the Hawaiian Evangeli- cal Association, committing to it the further prose- cution of the work. But this step was a little too 1 M. Büchner, Reise durch den stillen Ocean, 1878 ; see All- gemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 187, sqq. 2 C/., for this and ^yhat follows, the report of the missionary Mr. Whitmee at the ISIildmay Conference, p. 260, sqq., and the Annual Report of the London Missionary Society, 1879, p. 53, sqq. 3 According to Report for 1878, p. 193. 86 PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN INHSSIOXS : hasty ; for the native preachers are not numerous enough to serve the home churches, and carry on the work in the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Marquesas Islands (where the greater part of the heathen Malayo-Poljaiesian population is at pres- ent), and the American Board intends increasing the number of its missionaries there. In ^Micronesia, upon the Caroline, Marshall, and Gilbert Islands, mentioned above, where the mes- sengers of the Hawaiian Association are actively engaged under the supervision of American mis- sionaries, the need of more workers is from time to time keenly felt, in consequence of which the London Missionary Society, since 1870, has taken some of the islands in this group. Here, also, not only have many barbarous customs been laid aside, but the independence of the native Christians has been aroused to a remarkable degree. The best of the new converts are sent immediately as new seed-corn to the neighboring heathen. ^ In fact, the cause of the extraordinary results obtained in the South Sea missions lies to a great extent in this truly American idea of educating the native Christians to self-support. Finally, in Melanesia with its black, curlj^-head- ed inhabitants, we find the Wesleyan, London, Presbyterian, and English State Church missionary Bocieties in the full work of harvest. Here, from 1 C/., too, All;?emeine evangelische lutherische Kirchen-Zeit»» ung, 1879, supplement i. RESULTS IN THE SOUTH SEAS. 87 Fiji there gleams upon us a bright light from the Wesleyan mission, for which we can only wish there were a larger staff of European missionaries. See what the governor of this now English island, Sir A. Gordon, said, in the annual meeting of May, 1879, in regard to these, so short a time ago, most ßavage cannibals : ^ " Out of a population of about a hundred and twenty thousand, one hundred and two thousand are now regular worshippers in the churches, which number eight hundred, all well built and completed. In every family there is morning and evening worship. Over forty-two thousand children are in attendance in the fifteen hundred and thirty-four Christian day-schools. The heathenism which still exists in the moun- tain districts, surrounded as it is on all sides by a Christian population on the coast, is rapidly dying out." The islands of the Loyalty Group, occupied by the London Missionary Society, are also Chris- tianized, though they are partly Roman Catholic. The missionaries of the Presbyterian Free Church of Scotland, the Canadian, New Zealand, and Aus- tralian Presbyterian churches, have a very diffi- cult field in the New Hebrides,^ where the un- healthiness of the climate, the multitude of lan- guages, the demoralizing influences of godless i See Wesleyan Missionary Notices, June and July, 1879, p. 140, sqq., and Report of 1878, p. 193. 2 See Report of the missionary, Mr. Inglis, at the Mild may Conference, p. 290, sqq. 88 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: merchants, togetlier with the debased condition of the inhabitants, withstand the rapid spread of the gospeL Yet they have three thousand natives under Christian instruction, eight hundred com- municants, and about one hundred native teachers. The English Episcopal Missionary Society is working side by side with these, and also in the Banks, Santa Cruz, and Solomon Islands, where the life of the noble Bishop Patteson was sacri- ficed in 1871. This work is on a different plan from that of all other societies. Native youths are taken from the various islands to the Norfolk Island, where, after being taught for several months each year, they are sent back to their homes to teach the truth they have learned : then, during the most favorable season of the year, their European teachers visit these islands in order to get new scholars.^ Time will tell whether this system can stand the test. To sum up, the whole number of communi- cants in Polynesia is over thirt3^-six thousand ; in Micronesia, about three thousand ; in Melanesia, over thirty thousand : total, sixty-eight thousand ; and the total number of native Christians who belong to the evangelical missions is about three hundred and forty thousand.^ Their great need is more laborers, and especially the training-up of 1 See Mildraay Conference, pp. 273, 294; also W. Baur, J. C. Patteson, 1S77. * Mildmay Conference, p. 2(J8, sqq. THE UNCIVILIZED PEOPLES OF AI^IERICA. öU a band of thoroughly instructed native pastors. For this purpose they must establish an English normal institute for Polynesian students.^ III. The missions among the uncivilized peo- ples of America it is difficult to review briefly. We hurry past the silent, patient work of the Mo- ra^^ians in Greenland and Labrador, which for the most part is no longer missionary, but Chris- tian service of churches here and there seeking to gather the scattered remnants of the heathen Esquimaux tribes into the fold of Christ ; extend- ing their labors of late in Labrador to the heathen in the north, and in the south to the English set- tlers ; ^ we hurry past the Danish mission in Green- land also, which employs in its eight stations from eight to ten Danish missionaries and one na- tive preacher; past the mission of the Canadian Conference of Wesleyan Methodists, of the Propa- gation Society among the colonial population and also among the Indians of Canada ^ and the inhab- itants of Hudson's Bay ; past the important work of the Church Missionar}^ Society in the dioceses of Rupertsland, Saskatchewan, and Red River, where in spite of the strong opposition of the Catholic 1 See the above-mentioned Report of ]Mr. Whitmee, p. 274. 2 Missionsblatt der Brüdergemeinde, July, 1879; General Sur- vey, p. 8, sqq. In Greenland, six stations, with 1,526; in Lab- rador, six stations, with 1,232 converts. 3 Neither society in their annual reports distinctly separates the v\ ork among the white colonists and the Indiana. 90 PROTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIONS: mission, and the desolation of whiskey with which the white merchants deluge the Indians, the num- ber of native Christians is rising rapidly, amount- ing now, in the twenty-four stations of this society, to ten thousand four hundred and seventy-two, with twelve native preachers and twenty-one schools.^ We cast but a glance at Columbia, on the Pacific coast, where, in connection with this society, the schoolmaster William Duncan, a practical missionary genius, like whom we have few nowadays, has converted a band of most de- graded cannibals, and formed out of them in the wilderness, with his Metlakahtla, morally, reli- giously, socially, politically, and commercially, a wonderfully flourishing Christian community, which has astonished the poor, blind heathen far and near, and made them long for the blessings of the gospel. Yea, it has placed before the world a gloiious proof, that by founding Christian colonies missions may become the salvation of Indian tribes which otherwise are rapidly becom- ing extinct. This man, who in barely six months so mastered the language that he could preach his first sermon, which he was obliged to repeat nine times the same evening, because nine different tribes lived in the village, who (a significant fact) would not venture at first to assemble in a general meeting, now stands at the head of a community 1 See abstract of the Report of the Church Missionary So tiety, 1879, p. 20, and Mildmay Conference, p. 287. THE UKCIVILIZED PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 91 of about one thousand persons, which has built the largest church between there and San Fran- cisco, besides a parsonage, schoolhouses, stores, workshops, and the like, and has even founded a daughter-colony of its own.^ The former governor-general of Canada, Lord Dufferin, on his tour of inspection in 1876, could not find words to express his astonishment at what he saw in this place. Isolation from hea- then surroundings and from the influence of wicked Europeans, habits of steady work and honest deal- ing, the establishment of a strict civil discipline and order, with a wise preservation of essential In- dian institutions (such as a council with twelve chiefs), these with the inward transforming power of pure evangelical preaching are the secret of such grand results. The Church Missionary Society can already show, in four stations here, eleven hundred and fifty native Christians. Even Alaska, recently transferred from Russia to America, the most northerly field of Protestant mission work, has lately been occupied by American missionaries.^ There is but little to say in regard to that most painful subject of evangelical missions among the remnants of the Indian tribes in the United i See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1878, p. 197, sqq., and the Report of Admiral Prevost at the Mildmay Conference, p. 280, sqq.; alsv Warneck, Moderne Mission und Cultnr, p. 82. 2 Reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1879, No. vi., p 92 PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: States, whicli now only number from two hun- dred and fifty thousand to two hundred and sixty thousand souls ^ (1876, two hundred and sixty-six thousand not counting Alaska), and among whom tlie Moravians (having three stations, including one in Canada Avith three hundred and nineteen native Christians), the American Board, the Presbyterians North and South, the Baptists North and South, the American Missionary Asso- ciation, and recently the Protestant Episcopal Church, are working side by side with the Roman Catholics. It is well known how unspeakably the Indians have suffered at the hands of the whites, who so often served them with powder and lead instead of the gospel, or hastened them into an early grave by whiskey. Since the peace policy of President Grant gave the Indian Agency into the hands of the Christian denominations, it seems likely that here and there better days will dawn upon them. According to the competent judg- ment of the President of the United States Board 1 Cf. the address of the Hon. F. R. Brunot, at the meeting; of the Alliance, New York ; Proceedings, &c., p. GoO, sqq. The Missionary Herald, March, 1878, p. 73, gives their number as two hundred and seventy-eight thousand. See also Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 11(5, sqq.; Warneck, Moderne Mis- sion und Cultur, i>p. 78-81, and the testimonies there referred to of Waitz, Gerland, and others. The newest calculation is to be found in Christianity in the United States, by Schaff, \\. (Jl. Mr. Brunot, in 1873, estimated the Indians as numbering three hun- dred and fifty thousand; Schaff, in 1879, only a.H two hundred and fifty thousand. THE TmCIVxT.I2^D PEOPLES OF AMERICA. 93 of Indian CommisÄioners, Mr. Brunot, given at the meeting of the Evangelical Alliance at New York, the total number of tribes was about one hundred and thirty, placed on ninety reservations, and speaking fifty different languages. About twenty-seven thousand of these are now full church-members of the various denominations (including Catholics), with one hundred and sev- enteen congregations and two hundred and nine- teen churches; about two hundred thousand are partially or entirely civilized, and only the re- mainder are living wild upon the chase. Twelve thousand two hundred and twenty-two Indian children are receiving instruction in three hun- dred and sixty-six schools (including Catholic). It is therefore too late to ask the question, whether they can be civilized. The Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles, and others (among whom the American Board, the Presbyterian Board, and Southern Baptists work especially), with then- churches, schools, acade- mies, and newspapers, their legislative assemblies and codified laws, yea, even as to their spiritual and moral condition, can bear well the comparison with their white neighbors in Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas, and allow no further cause for doubt that they are capable of civilization. For example, there are more than two thousand Creeks, and more than twenty-five hundred Choctaws and Chickasaws, who are full church-members. The 94 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN ]\nSSIONS : Protestant Episcopal mission among the Dakotas and Sioux, tlie missions of the American Board and the Presbyterian Board among the same, and those of the latter among the Nez Perces,^ the Methodist mission among the Yakamas, are all advancing and establishing the truth of the for- mer experience, which certain colonial goverii- ments seem first to have learned after great mistakes and much unnecessary expense ; viz., that one missionary can take the place of many sOx diers ! If the worJv goes on slowly in many places, let us not forget that it must be very difficult for an Indian to take the gospel from those who haA^e always, from the beginning, been his oppressors and persecutors. The general idea that the In- dians must of necessity die out is refuted by the fact that at least the Christian Indians in many places are increasing in population,^ and that their outward condition is rapidly improving. The gospel preached among them by two hun- dred and twenty-six American missionaries (Catho- lics included) is proving a savor of life unto life ; whilst all usages and requisites of civiliza- tion, without the gospel's morally regenerating power, serve to destro}^ them mere quickly, as they do all uncivilized peoples. 1 See Keport of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- terian Churfh, New York, ISTO, p. 7, nqq. ; lieport of the Ameri- can Board, 1878, p. 99, sqq. ; Schaff, p. (31. 2 See Missionary Herald (Boston), 1878, November, p. 382. THE UNCrVILIZED PEOPLES OF AMEKICA. 95 To-day more than forty-one thousand Indians can read and write, and this number is increased annually by twelve hundred. In 1868 they occu- pied but seven thousand four hundred and sev- enty-six ordinary dwelling-houses r in 1877, twenty- two thousand one hundred and ninety-nine. In 1868 they cultivated only fifty-four thousand two hundred and seven acres of land; in 1877, two hundred and ninety-two thousand five hundred and fifty. In 1868 they harvested four hundred and sixty-seven thousand three hundred and sixty- three bushels of grain ; in 1877, four million six hundred and fifty-six thousand nine hundred and fifty-two bushels ! ^ Their increase in stock was in like proportion. These are not signs of rapid decay. Clearly, turning over the Indian question from conscienceless political agents and freebooters, to the Christian Church, has inaugu- rated a change for the better. For this reason the time has come for the Church to take up this mission work among the Indians, with unprece- dented zeftl, courage, and hope. There are many crying acts of injustice to make good, and the trust in white men which has been lost must be won back. Whether the present number of workers is large enough for this; 1 See the interesting statistics in the Missionary Herald, March, 1878, p. 73 ; and September, 1877, p. 292. The latter (see, too, Warneck, as above mentioned, p. 79) may be somewhat al tered by the later tables of 1878. 96 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS; whether delay may not cause great distress to some of the perishing remnants of tribes; wliether the former policy, namely, of massing the redskins in the Indian Territory and in a few large reserva- tions, was and is possible without violating the rights of individual tribes ; whether the crowding together of heathen disorder is not hurtful to real progress, — these are now questions over which che friends of missions in the United States are earnestly engaged. ^ I pass over the great work of the evangeliza- tion and Christian training of the negroes in the united States, of which, a short time ago, the Jubilee Singers of Fisk University gave a stirring proof to the half of Europe. I only remark, that (jince the war, more than one thousand churches iiave been built for them in the South, and hun- dreds of thousands have joined churches, especially the Methodist and Baptist churches.^ The Amer- ican Missionary Association has erected twenty-six high schools (attended by six thousand pupils) in order to train freedmen for teachers and mission- aries,'^ and already two hundred and nine of theae are at work. IV. The present condition of the mission work 1 See Missionary H(;ral(l, 1878, p. 382. 2 As many as two liundrcd thousand liave joined the Episco- jial Metliodists. See Apolo<;ete, July 14, 1879. 8 According to the Report of Dr. White at the Mildmay Con- ference, p. 54, sqq. The Freedraen's Missionary Aid Society, in London, co-operates with tÄiis association. WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 97 in the West Indies and Central jAmerica can only be touched also in passing. The Mora- vian mission upon the Mosquito Coast, partly among the native Indians, partly among the ne- groes and mulattoes, although always vexed by Jesuitical Nicaragua, Is continually blessed and progressing ; there are now seven stations and 1,105 native Christians.^ The mission of the Prop- agation Society among the Indians on the Esse- quibo and Berbice, in Britisli Guiana, has within the last few years been extending itself so rapidly ,2 that already upwards of three thousand — about half of the Indian population there — have been gathered into Christian churches. The Moravian mission also among the negroes in Surinam (Dutch Guiana), whose largest congregation is in Para- maribo (one hundred years old) with six thousand five hundred and ninety-two souls, is extend- ing its old boundaries, though slowly, south- ward up the stream into the unhealthy Bushland, and as far as the Auka and Saramacca negroes, many of whom, of their own accord, beg for Chris- tian instruction. Then, by force of circumstances, the same society has been laboring among the Chinese and Indian coolies, who have been called to work on the plantations in place of the negroes, 1 Missionsblatt der Brüdergemeinde, July, 1879. Ueberblicke, p. 27. 2 Four hundred and eighty-six baptized in 1877. See Keport for 1878, p. 101. 98 PROTESTANT FOREIGN JVnSSIONS : the latter having been widely scattered since the abolition (1872) of state supervision. Finally, recently it has advanced to the West into the British territory, where in Demerara it has been able to found two new stations ; so that in spite of the considerable loss by the emancipation of the slaves, the total number of Christians under the care of the Moravians, twenty-one thousand (for- merly twenty-four thousand), is not likely to suffer further diminution.^ The Moravian missions also reveal a double aspect in the West Indies, their oldest mission field. In the Danish West Indies (St. Thomas, St. Jan, and St. Croix), the number of their negro Christians has, on account of unfavorable circumstances, some- what diminished ; while in the English West Indies, where they have now at Fairfield, Jamaica, a theo- logical seminary, it has increased. In both to- gether, they have over thirty-six thousand con- verts, who really form Christian congregations, rather than mission stations ; but in the matter of supporting their own ministry, they have as yet given no reliable indications, so that the Mora- vians have just begun to place this great mission district upon a self-supporting basis, in regard to native preachers, teachers, and church expenses. They hope to accomplish this in about ten years. We see the same endeavors put forth in the West 1 Cf. tJberblick of 1879, with tho Annual Reports of 1870, and •qq. WEST INDIES AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 99 Indies b}^ the English missions of the Wesleyan, London, Scotch United Presbyterian societies, the Propagation Society, and certain American so- cieties, which we cannot follow in detail. The greatest nnmber of members among these, and in the Protestant missions generally in the West Indies, belong to the Wesleyans. Their latest re- port from Antigua, St. Vincent, Jamaica, Hon- duras, Bahamas, and the Hayti district, gives the number of members as over forty-one thousand, and those who attend church services, as over one hundred and twenty-six thousand.^ The Guiana district, with four thousand two hundred members and twenty thousand attendants, is not included. Yet the number of members in the Anglican Epis- copal missions in Antigua and Jamaica, white and black together, appears not less than that of the "Wesleyans. The numbers increase continually everywhere. But the social condition of the negroes, often wholly impoverished, leaves much still to be ac- complished. How far this results from the mode of emancipating the slaves, opinions differ.^ Yet 1 Report for 1879, p. 168, sqq. On the other hand, Mildmay Park Conference, p. 36, the number of members is given at seventy-two thousand, probably including Europeans; the same number of Anglican Episcopalians, and fifty-three thousand Baptists. The members of the United Presbyterians amount to 6,691 communicants, according to their missionary record, June, 1879, p. 529. 2 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 55i ; also Bux- ton's Slavery and Freedom in the British West Indies, p. 92; and Underhill at the Mildmay Conference, p. 31, sqg. 100 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: there are already a number of congregations self- supporting, both as regards pastors and church expenses, especially among the Baptists, who only now and then receive a pastor from England. Others are approaching this goal.^ The acade- mies have negroes as well as whites in the high- est classes. The lately disestablished Episcopal Church is also preparing to be self-supporting, and many of the former mission congregations of the Church Missionary Society are now incorporated with the parishes of the Anglican bishop. Jamaica is essentially a Protestant land, strewn with Christian congregations and mission stations; although a greater part of the inhabitants do not yet belong to any church. In all of the British West Indies, with over one million inhabitants, two hundred and forty-eight thousand are regular attendants at the house of God; about eighty- five thousand are communicants in the various mission churches, and seventy-eight thousand six hundred 2 children are being instructed in one thousand one hundred and twenty-three day schools (about fortj'-five thousand of these, in Jamaica). The evangelical missions on the southern ex tiemity of South America, established by the Lon 1 See the Report of the Rev. INIr. Murray, Allgemeine Mia- Bions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. IIG. 2 According to accounts given by Underhill, Mildmay Confer« ence, pp. 35-37. IN AFRICA. 101 don South American Mission Society, no longer teach simply the youths on one of the Falkland Islands : they have now founded stations also in Tierra del Fuego itself, and Patagonia ; have bap- tized some dozens of converted natives, and begun to arouse these most degraded Indians from their stupidity ; ^ indeed, recently they have commenced vrork among the Indians of Brazil, by establishing a station on the Amazon (1874). Summary. — The American mission field among uncivilized peoples appears thus : In the North and South are the Indians; in the centre — the West Indies and Guiana^ are chiefly negroes. Among the former, the results are in certain parts meagre, in other parts, especially at present, there is promise of a rich harvest; in the latter, the results are very remarkable ; ten thousand negroes, in the United States hundreds of thousands, are ministered to by hundreds of colored preachers. V. It is otherwise in the home of the negroes, — Africa. This immense and homogeneous conti- nent, groaning under the curse of the slave-trade, the darkness of superstition, and the bloody sceptre of an iron despotism, already half of it 1 See Missionary News, June, 1871, March, 1877; pp. 27, 39, 89; where the missionary, Mr. Whaits, gives interesting testimonies of some Pesherehs, who confessed tliat now they understood why, long ago, Allen Gardiner and others took so much trouble with them, and how they now regretted their indifference and ingratitude towards those first evangelists, &c. 102 PßOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: under the yoke of Islam ; before whose estuaries long sand-banks stretch beneath the heavy surf-, whose interior is encircled by the broad, rainless belt of Sahara, while the entrances are at all points barred by the deadly fevers of the tropical climate, — this land has as yet been occupied by Protestant missions only upon the coast. But now she begins to surpass all other lands in her forward march out of these thousands of years of darkness. Traversed by heroic missiona- ries and other explorers, her inmost recesses have been unlocked ; and evangelical teachers from the south and east, yea, lately, even from the west, are pressing through these newly opened ways, up to her very heart. Forward to the centre ! has suddenly become the Avatchword with which the friends of missions are to-day calling for ex- traordinary exertions in this held. Already the hope is awakened, that with the latest Scotch- English mission-settlement, on the East-African interior lakes, a new leaf will be turned for the future history of missions and of churches in Africa. The three Protestant mission centres in Africa — a large portion of the west coast, the southern- most -cape, and one or two points in the east, — I will consider together, in order to subjoin a few remarks upon missionary experiences in general, among uncivilized peoples. If we look away from certain small missionary IN AFRICA. 103 beginnings in West Africa, — such as those of the Paris Missionary Society in Senegambia ; of the Wesleyans in Gambia, who now have seven sta- tions with six hundred and forty-five full mem- bers ; ^ those of the mission on the Pongas, sup- ported by the converted negroes from the West Indies, under the supervision of the bishop of Sierra Leone ; those of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, in Old Calabar, which now has five stations, with one hundred and eighty- one communicants ; 2 those of the English Baptists on the Cameroons, who have four stations, with about one hundred and fifty baptized converts ; those of the Corisco and Gaboon missions, former- ly of the American Board, and now of the Ameri- can Presbyterians,^ — there remains between these, as a larger, better occupied, and more fruitful field. Sierra Leone, one of the few districts of Africa where mission work has really taken on the form of parish work, so that the Church Mission- ary Society could take most of the congregations under her care, and place them in parishes under a bishop.^ Sierra Leone itself, the little English 1 Report for 1879, p. 151. 2 Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, June, 1870, p. 527. 3 The American Presbyterians have here about three hundred members, and four hundred and seventy-four scholars in fourstac dons; see Report, 1879, p. 30, sqq. 4 There are now fully three stations, with nine hundred and 5ft3 Christians; see abstract of Report, 1879, p. 4. 104 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: peninsula, is to-day an evangelical land, whose Christian inhabitants for the most part are divided between the missions of the English and Wesleyan Churches, which have here thirty-two cliurches,^ with five thousand six hundred and seventy-five full members, and over sixteen thousand attend- ants on divine worship, and instruct twenty-six hundred children in twenty-two day schools. A considerable number belono^ in addition to the Lady Huntingdon Connection, and the United Methodist Free Church. The Fourah Bay Col- lege also, for training colored preachers, is con- tinually advancing in prosperity. In the Black Republic of Liberia, which was at first hailed with too great hopes, we find various American missionary societies in operation. The jNIethoclist Episcopal Avitli forty -three churches and twenty-two hundred members,^ the Presbyterian,^ and the American Missionary Association, llow far the negroes sent back from America are able to spread Christian civilization, cannot be determined until after a longer trial.^ Upon the Gold Coast and cjlave Coast, the Eng- lish Wesleyan, the Basel, and North German Mis- 1 Report, 1870, p. 151. 2 Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church for 187!), p. 4. « With eij^lit stations and two hundred aiid fifty-four comnux- nicants; see Report of the Board o£ Foreign Missions of tho Presbyterian Church, 117'.>, p. 28, sqq. 4 See Gnindcmann, Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift. 1874, p. IG. IN AFKICA. 105 sionaiy Societies work side by side. The attempts of the Wesleyans to press on to Ashantee seem to have been abandoned after a short time. Upon the Gold Coast, however, the number of their stations (fourteen) and members have grown con- tinually (now six thousand six hundred and thirty, with thirty-seven thousand attendants on public worship). 1 The Basel Society, which last year celebrated the jubilee of its fifty years of hard work on the Gold Coast, has extended its field of labor over the districts of Accra, Adang- me, Akuapem, and Akem, and has recently found- ed the first congregation in Ashantee. In nine principal and thirteen out stations, they have gath- ered four thousand negroes into Christian congre- gations, and one thousand one hundred and thirty scholars^ into forty-one lower and high schools. They have translated the Bible into the Gä and Otshi languages ; introduced various trades ; laid out orderly plantations and pleasant Christian vil- lages, so that in many places the primeval forest, with its poisonous vapors, begins to recede. Much smaller has been the work, but proportionately greater the sacrifices by pestilence and war, of the North German Missionary Society, which has four stations and a few hundred baptized converts on the Slave Coast. 1 The Report of 1878 gives eight stations; that of 1879, fourteen (p. 152); with 87 schools and 2,647 scholars. 2 Evangelischer Heidenhote, August, 1879, p. Gl. 106 PROTESTANT FOllEIGN MISSIONS: Tlie mission in the Yoruba-lands, thougli grow- ing slowly under many changing circumstances (^cf. the missions in Abeokuta), is yet not Tin- important. Here the Church Missionary Society with eleven stations, six thousand one hundred and nine native Christians, and one thousand six hundred and ninety-eight scliolars,^ and the Wesleyan (together with the Yoruba and Popo district, six stations, with one thousand and eighty-two members and three thousand five hun- dred hearers), 2 work side by side again, with the American Baptists of the Church South. Through the former, Protestant missions come in contact here with the bloody Dahomey. It is encouraging, also, that the important mission work in Abeokuta is gradually being taken up again. We have the most interesting spectacle on the Kiger, where only colored pastors and teachers, under the colored Bishop Crowther, in connection with the Church INIissionary Society, are engaged in the work, which within the last few years has been consecrated by martyr-blood.^ These are wonderfully overcoming tlieir first difficulties, and number fifteen hundred Christians, eleven stations* 1 Abstract of tlie Report, 1879, p. 5. 2 Report, 187!», p. 152, 8 See, e.g.. Proceedings of the Churcli Missionary Society, 1877-78, p. :38. 4 <,y. the sudden revulsion of feeling in Bonny after violent l)er8ecutions of the Christians (abstract of the Report, 1879, jv 6« sqq.). Ch. Miss. Intel. March, 1880. SOUTH AFKICA. 107 — a token that Africa must be won chiefly by- Africans. With a might}^ leap over Congo-Livingstone, v^here the Livingstone (Congo) Inland Älission cf the East London Listitute for Home and For- eign Missions has been seeking since February, 1878, to obtain a firm hold, and press from the West into the interior,^ and over the great ceme- tery of the Catholic mission in the Portuguese territory of Angola and Benguela, where (as in the East on the coast of Sofala and Mozambique) ^ no trace of the once flourishing Portuguese mis- sions remains, we reach South Africa. VI. Here upon the coast stretching toward Ovampo-land, we meet in the most northern out- posts of evangelical missions the beginnings of the Finnish Lutheran Missionary Society (among the Ovahereros), which, pressing onward from the Rhenish mission stations, have established four stations since 1870.^ Then follows the Rhenish mission in Hereroland, which, after long storms of war, has suddenly come out into a flourishing condition, and has in thirteen stations twenty-five hundred baptized converts,^ and has given to this 1 It has fourteen missionaries and stations on the lower Congo, May, 1880. 2 Mildmay Conference, p. 48. 3 Lately the Finnish JNIissionary Society has also begun the work of evangelization among the Finns and Laplanders on the Esthland Islands in Gulf of Bothnia. "i Annual Report of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1877-78, p. 19, sqq. 108 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: giaut race of black herdsmen (seven feet tall j the New Testament and Psalms in Otyiherero. Since the Wesleyans have withdrawn, the Rhenish mis- sion has also been laboring alone in the adjoining district of Great-Namaqualand, where (having left the black negroes) we meet the yellow-brown Hot tentots. There are here six stations and thirty- three hundred con verts. ^ On the hard and — through drought, famine, and wandering bands of European miners — much-tried country of Little- Namaqu aland, where some of the stations have been abandoned because of the exodus of the famished inhabitants, both these societies are seeking to gather and save the remnants of this vanishing race. On the other hand, the Rhenish mission in Cape Colony has ten stations, Avith about eight thousand converts, and numerous con- gregations which are now strong enough to be self-supporting.^ We find in the Cape Colony and its neighbors a centre of Protestant missionary activity. In the number of societies and resources, there is no other place in Africa equal to it. The entire colony has become a Protestant land, in which tlie daughter churches of tlie English State and of various Dissenting bodies have so developed that 1 Annual Report of the Rhenish Missionary Society, p. 14, «77., and Gedenkenhuch der rheinischen Missions-Gescllschaft, 187H, p. 108, sqq. 2 Annual Report, 1877-78, p. 7, sqq. SOUTH AFRICA. 109 they are in a measure self-supporting, llie work among the white colonists, the natives, and the mixed population goes on simultaneously. Espe- cially is this true of the Anglican Church, through the extended activity of the Propagation Society, and of the Reformed Dutch (one of the oldest churches in the land, which for a long time did nothing for evangelization), through the " Syno- dale Zendingscommissie in Zuid-Africa." We will not here follow individually the thirteen British and Continental societies at work in this district;^ but only remark briefly the following : some are directing their energies, supported by stations in Cape Colony, specially to the north, in order to press on into the interior of Africa beyond the British borders. This is the case with the London Society, which, as formerly in the Cape, now in British Kafraria, is seeking to make its work self- supporting,^ and uses its chief strength on the Bechuana mission, which, notwithstanding many external disturbances, continually spreads light and blessing particularly from Kuruman outward. The Moffat Institute, built in honor of the founder of this mission (and translator of the Bible), was moved thither in 1876.2 Then comes the Berlin South-African mission, whose work, notwithstanding the society's exceed- ingly reduced means, stretches over all South 1 London Missionary Society, Report for 1879, p. 37. 2 Ibid., p. 39. 110 PROTESTA^^T FOREIGN MISSIONS: Africa, and which now has in its care, in Cape Colony, British Kafraria, in the Orange Free States, in Natal, and especially in the recently annexed Transvaal, under six district superin- tendents, forty-two stations, fifty-three ordained missionaries, several colonists, and about nine thousand baptized native converts.^ Further, tho Paris evangelical mission among the Basutos, which has now risen from the severe injuries suf- fered through the Dutch Boers of the Orange Free States, is rapidly growing, having fifteen missionaries, one hundred and twenty-two native helpers, and a circuit of fourteen principal stations and sixty-eight outposts, with three thousand nine hundred and seventy-four full church-members, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight baptized children, and three thousand one hun- dred and thirty scholars.^ Finally the Hermanns- burg Missionary Society, which has established forty-nine stations among the Bechuanas, within and without the Transvaal, among the Kafirs, in Natal and Zululand, numbering now about five thousand converts. It was injured by the late war, much more than the Berlin mission, which with the burning church question at home makes its condition at present doubly critical. Iler mis- 1 Cf. Dr. Wan^^craann's Survoj' at the IMiklmay Conference, 1878, p. 50. 2 See Appia's Report at the Mildinay Conference, p. 87, and reports of the Rhenish Missionary Society, 1870, p. 184, sqq. SOUTH AFEICA. Ill Bionaries, as those of the Swedish mission, seem for the time to have left Zululancl. The late war has destroyed not fewer than thirteen of thö sta- tions belonging to the Hermannsburg mission.^ Other societies have extended their work from the Cape, mostly toward the east and north-east, in order to evangelize the British and free Kafirs. This is the case with the Moravian Society, which has under its supervision in the west province, in seven principal stations, eight thousand eight hun- dred and eighty-six converts, and in her seven eastern stations two thousand.^ Her mission has also lately pressed with greater force and richer results toward the eastern side of South Africa, into the heathen district. Also the difficult field of the Wesleyan mission, which included the Bechuanas in the Orange States, among both whites and blacks, of the diamond-fields in the Vaal, is continually extending from the Cape to- ward the east into the Kafir district and even into the Natal territory. Its seventeen thousand full church-members in sixty-nine stations ^ are divided 1 See Calw., Missionsblatt, 1879, p. 72. Last year about seven hundred heathens in Africa were baptized in the Hermannsburg mission. 2 Missionsblatt, July, 1879; Survey, p. 47, sqq. Lately the Swedish Church Missionary Society began a mission among the Zulus, which however, owing to the present vincertain condition of the country, could not get beyond a " mere sounding of tlie territory." 3 Cf. the "Wesleyan Report, 1879, p. 133, sqq. : nine stations in the district of the Cape (with 1,502 members), 18 stations in th« 112 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: amonof the white colonists and natives. Whether the hard mission fiehl among the Kafirs will be still harder in the future on account of the war, will only be determined after patient waiting. The ''tribe-system," according to which land in a settlement is not owned b}^ individuals, but is the common possession of the tribe, proves more and more an especial hinderance to social pi og- ress, and a cause of the tenacious continuance of barbarous rites and customs.^ Its discontinuance by government would remove one of the greatest bulwarks of darkness, and prepare the way for the acceptance of the gospel. The promising and flourishing Lovedale Institute (British Kafraria), of the Free Church af Scotland missions among the Hottentots, Kafirs, Fingoes, Bechuanas, Basutos, and Zulus, for the education of ministers and teach- ers, and instruction in various trades, wherein three hundred and ninety-three youth out of all these tribes study side by side with Europeans, where three periodicals are published (one in tlie Kafir language), and sixty of whose students, every Sunday, preach the gospel in the neighboring district of Graharastown (5,51)5 members and 21,000 attendants), 14 stations in the Queenstown district (with 4,288 and 20,000 mem- bers, respectively), 14 in the Bloemfontein district (3,805 and 17,400), and 14 in the Natal district (2,400 and 20,000). 1 See the remarks of Sir Bartle Frere; and the Rev. Mr. Blcn- cowe at the IMildmay Conftsrence, p. 279, sqq. It is worthy of observation that the fidelity of the Christian Kafirs to the Eng- lish colors is repeatedly mentioned in this war: cf. Report of the Propagation Society, 1870, p. 54. EAST AFEICA. 113 villages,^ demonstrates most conclusively how capable all these South-African tribes are of civili- zation and culture. This institute has a daughtei institute in Blythswood, on the other side of the Kei. Nothing would so surely prevent future Kafir wars, as the multiplication of such mission institutes.^ The Scotch Free Church in British Kafraria has in seven principal stations two thou- sand communicants. Of the six stations of the United Presbyterian Church, with nine hundred and forty-one communicants, the war has unfor- tunately swept away five.^ The ten stations of the American Board in Natal and Zululand, with six hundred and twenty-six church-members,* and the Norwegian mission, grow slowly, amid the storms of war. At present, however, all the Nor- wegian missionaries have probably been driven out of Zululand. The total number of converts gained among the South-African barbarous tribes, by evangelical missions, is now thirty-five thou- sand communicants, and about a hundred and eighty thousand nominal Christians.^ i See for further details Dr. Stewart's Address at the Mildmay Conference, p. 68, sqq. Already it has sent forth four ordained Kafir ministers. See G. Smith's Fifty Years of Foreign Mis- sions, 1879, p. 58. Free Ch. Record, 1880, p. 55-64. 2 See Sir Bartle Frere, as above, jj. 76. 3 Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, June, 1879; Mildmay Conference, p. 310. ^ Report of the American Board, 1878, p. 22. 6 According to J. E. Carlyle, South Africa and its Mission Fields (London, 1879), who describes the work of thirteen Prot- estant missionary societies there, and Thornley Smith, Jamea Stevenson, and others; Mildmay Conference, pp. 49, 60. 114 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: VII. At present the long-neglected work in East and East-Central Africa appears to be grow- ing equally rapid in proportion. The crown or the London Society, Madagascar, looms up to our view here, before all others, and may perhaps win for East Africa, in a missionary point of view, a similar position to that of England for the Euro- pean Continent. The well-known unprecedented progress of the work of evangelization among the Hovas since the elevation of Christianity to be the state religion (m 1868, twenty-one thousand Chris- tians; 1869, one hundred and fifty-three thousand; 1870, two hundred and thirty-one thousand con- nected with the London Society) has been obliged to yield within the past few years, as was plainly necessary, to a sifting process, in order to lay the foundations of Christian knowledge deeper in the hearts of the great mass of nominal Christians, and overcome fully old and deep-rooted heathen customs and abominations,^ and especially, by edu- cating native pastors and preachers, to bring the young Protestant state church into a secure con- dition of self-support and constant self-extension. It is therefore not a step backward but forward, that the number of external adherents in connec- tion ^viih the London Society has been reduced 1 Cf the many complaints of backslidings into heathen errors, which could not fail to take place with such rapid progress. See London Report, 1879, p. 25, sqq., with refer(!nce to the revival ol the judgment of Tangena (poisonous draught). IN MADAGASCAR. 115 from two hundred and eighty thousand ^ to about two hundred and thirty-three thousand, while the number of full members, during the same period last year, increased about six thousand, and is now sixty-seven thousand seven hundred and twecty- nine. If we include the fact also, that now three hundred and eighty-six ordained native pastors, one hundred and fifty-six evangelists, and three thousand four hundred and sixty-eight native local preachers, under the care of the London missionaries, are helping gather in the harvest; that, besides several high schools and institutes, forty-four thousand seven hundred and ninety- four children are instructed in seven hundred and eighty-four day schools, of whom more than twen- ty thousand can now read ; ^ that the good influ- ences of the royal proclamation, emancipating the imported negro slaves, with which the emancipa- tion of house-slavery is also connected, shows great social progress, — we have before us a suc- cess consecrated by the blood of many martyrs» and unequalled for extent in the whole history of Protestant missions, great enough to vindicate from all attacks missionary labor, as labor blessed by God ; a success concerning which we can only say, " This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvel- lous in our eyes." 1 Probably, too, there has been some over-estimation in formal Btatistics. 2 London Report, 1879, pp. 28, 30. 116 PROTESTANT FOREIGN JSnSSIONS : It is natural that this great draught of fishes should attract other societies. But that the Propa- gation Society, notwithstanding the general oppo- sition in England, should establish an Anglican bishop in Madagascar (1874), while the Church Missionar}^ Society, in a noble spirit, on account of this action withdrew from tlie field, has touched with pain the friends of missions everywhere out- side of the High Church party, and is a striking instance of an unjust elevation of denominational interests and church forms over the fraternal duty of rejoicing together witliout jealousy, at the pros- perity of other churches. From the essentially Congregational character of the Madagascar Na- tional Church, the establishment of High-Church- ism, diametrically opposed to its ecclesiastical principles and practices, must inevitably work con- fusion and injury. Up to the present time, the re- sults of this High Church mission, and also of the Catholic, are meagre.-^ Tlie Quakers' Missionary Society is also at work in INIadagascar, endeavor- ing especially to bring about the emancipation of slaves; 2 and the Norwegian Lutheran mission, which had in 1874 six principal stations, and now 1 C.J?., in Antananarivo only 150; see Report of the Propaj^a- tion Society, 1S71), p. 48. Carlyl(j(sce above) comi)lains, too, that some luis.sionarics of the Propagation Society in South Africa, in their zeal for their own clinrch, meddle with other successful mi.s.-;ions. 2 See the Report of the Quaker missionary, Mr. Clark, at the Mildinay ('(jiifcrence, p. 2'.'A, sqq. ; and Illustrated Missionary News, February, 1880, p. 15, where the number of Quaker mi» EAST AFKICA. 117 has a thousand baptized converts, and instructs four thousand children in its schools. It had last year twenty thousand attendants on divine wor- ship.^ I only mention in passing the Anglican Church mission, on the island of Mauritius, and the mis- sions in the Seychelle Archipelago on the part of the Propagation and Church Missionary Societies,^ under the supervision of the bishop of that island. On the mainland of East Africa, the coast of Zan- zibar now comes into the foreground, not simply because the little island of the same name has been for a long time the seat of the English Uni- versity mission for Central Africa, but chiefly because the revived East-African mission of the Church Missionary Society has founded here a second Sierra Leone for re-enforcing the efforts of the English in suppressing the slave-trade, name- ly, the flourishing colony of Frere Town at Mom- bas, the influence of which is spreading far and wide.^ Many hundreds of freed slaves are in- structed here, and, strengthened by African Chris- tians from Bombay, are being gathered into con- gregations. This society has here six hundred and eight converts, in two stations (including the sion schools in Madagascar is given as eighty-five, with 2,860 scholars. 1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1878, p. 513. 2 The latter now has 1,055 church-members in Mauritius : lie- port, 1879, p. 48. 3 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society's Report, 1880, p. 6. sqq. Now, 2 stations, 737 converts, 157 scholars. 118 PROTESTANT FOREIGN INHSSIONS : revived Wanika mission). The mission of the United Methodist Free Church is also gaining a strong foothold. The courageous advance of various mission so- cieties to the great East-African central lakes, tlu'ough the ways opened by Livingstone and Stanley, is a remarkable feature in the recent his- tory of missions. Upon the shores of the Lake Nyassa we see the Scotch, especially the Free Scotch Church, missionaries and colonists since 1875, in Livingstonia (which should be trans- planted to another place, on account of the tsetse flies) and Blantyre, founding the most beautiful and enduring monument to that great friend of Africa, — a garden of the Lord, in the midst of the wilderness. The worship of God has been begun, schools are opened, the slave-trade is sup- pressed, the faith of the natives won, and the founding of a church is soon to follow. The first female missionary physician from Scotland is already on her way thitlier.^ Farther toward the north, the expedition of the London Missionary Society reached in 1878 Lake Tanganyika, in Ujiji, in order to establish a colony there ; and Dr. Mul- lens, their untiring secretary, started himself for that place to aid in overcoming the difficulties of beginning the mission, by opening up a new route thither from Zanzibar.^ » Church of Scotland Record, 1879, p. 2G7, aqq. * London Report, 1879, p. 4G, sqq. It is with deep regret that CENTRAL AFRICA. 119 Still farther nortli, the expedition sent out by the Church Missionary Society, in consequence of Stanley's report, from Zanzibar to the great Lake Victoria Nyanza (in 1876), not only established the station Mpwapwa, with two missionaries, on the way, but also settled the chief missionary col- ony, and founded the principal mission-station (1877) on the Nyanza itself, in Rubaga, the capital of King Mtesa of Uganda (who was so desirous of knowledge). The society has now strengthened its missionary forces that were weakened by harsh treatment, sending new men to their aid, partly by way of the Nile and partly from Zanzibar.^ Unfortunately, of late, some French Jesuits (who just arrived) have been trying to throw obstacles in the way of this mission.^ On the other hand, the completed translation of the New Testament into Suaheli, by Bishop Steere in Zanzibar, of which we have recently heard,^ and the fact that Suaheli is understood also among a number of tribes around the great lakes and in Uganda itself, ought to lighten essentially the work of evangeli- zation. So ought the new treaty between Eng- land and Portugal (June, 1879), on the opening we hear that he there has met with his death, — a severe loss for the whole Protestant missions. Two new stations are be^n. 1 See Church Missionary Report, 1878, p. 53, sqq., and Ab- stract, 1879, p. 7, sqq. 2 See Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1879, p. 725, sqq. 3 From a notice in The Christian, 3d July, 1879. 120 PKOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: of the Zambesi for trade and settlement of new colonies. We may hope also that the expedition of the -A^mcrican Board of Boston, sent out to Central Africa, and which is in noble harmony with all co-hvborcrs,i will strengthen and further tlie pioneer work of the English, already begun. The evangelical mission work in Abyssinia among nominal Christians and Jews by certain Chrischona brethren (in the service of the Brit- ish and Foreign Bible Society), and the London Jewish mission, oidy belong in part to the mis- sion work among nncivilized peoples. They have been continued chiefly by means of school work since 1865, especially by the Swedish Fosterland Society, on the Egypto-Abyssinian frontier, and under some heavy losses. Since the destruction of their only Abyssinian station (Hamasen), they are waiting for quieter times, in order to advance again over the frontier, ^ from Massowah and jNIen- za. They have recently nearly accomplished their original aim, of penetrating as far as the Gallas, by sending out some native Christians after hav- ing established a station in Galladand^ (1877). The last rep( rt of the Chrischona brother Mayer shows that their attempts with King Menelek of Shoa have not been fruitless, but that he as a 1 Sir Thomas F. Buxton, at the Miklmay Conference, p. 49, 2 See Allf^cniciiiKi Missions Zeitschrift, ISTl», i>. 18(5. 8 Missioua-Tidning, May, 187Ü ; Calw. Mission.-Maguzin, 1879 p. 70. EESTJLTS OF EXPEEIENCE. 121 Christian has abolished the slave-trade throughout his whole kingdom. ^ The Egyptian work we shall consider under the head of the Lands of Islam. VIII. Let us make a short halt here, in order, out of this almost immeasurably wide extended missionary work among uncivilized peoples^ to notice some of the results of experience, as they present themselves to-day more and more clearly, in the various societies, although the mode of treatment is quite different in separate instances, according to race-peculiarities, religion, natural talents, and social circumstances. The first task of the missionary toward entirely barbarous people is always, little by little, to win their trust. This is no easy work if the nation is wholly barbarous. If the missionary were the first white face ever seen among them, it would be much easier, but that is rarely the case : others have already been there who were not sent by the Lord, but drawn by greed of gain, or desire for adventure, and who too often have basely misused their superiority in external culture and civiliza- tion, to plunder the poor heathen, which leaves them with deep-rooted mistrust, if not hate and thirst for vengeance. How difficult for them to believe that some one has come for their good, and 1 See his letter to the Anti-Slavery Society in London, since published by many newspapers ; see Reichsbote, Aug. 19, 1879. 122 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: not liis own ! Then it is necessary for tlie mis- sionary to make them feel that he has come to give, not to take ; to alleviate their misery, and not to gain profit from their ignorance. For this not simply words, but deeds, are necessary ; not simply periodical external gifts, which only make "rice- Christians," but a life full of love and loving sym- pathy wliich shows itself in Christian mercy and gentleness. Here is an educated, gracious Chris- tian Caucasian, there a boorish, stupid slave of darkness, a heathen of entirely different color and race ; and across this greatest of imaginable chasms, which lies between them, love alone can throw a bridge. '' I have found," says a missionary from New Guinea,^ "that human kindness is a key which unlocks every door, however firmly it may seem to be closed against us. In the early days of a mission like that of New Guinea, very little dependence can be placed on oral teaching. I believe strongly, more strongly now than ever, in the power of a consistent Christian life." On account of such a life upon the shores of that island, the missionaries are now everywhere hailed as friends and messengers of peace. Why do I remmd you of tliis? Because it cannot be too forcibly impressed upon missionaries, that it is precisely with tliose who preach the Word of Life that the living in this Word will least bear separa- 1 The missionary Mr. Lawes ; see Mildmay Conference, p. 283. EESF^rS OF EXPERIENCE. 123 tion from it, if it is to demonstrate itself to others as a living, fruitful principle everywhere. Es- pecially among heathen nations the life is more powerful to draw men to Christ than preaching. Young missionaries in their zeal often run from village to village in order " to bear witness," and then return home with a satisfied feeling that they have accomplished their mission. But active mission work demands much more than that, — constant proofs of heart-love.^ Mr. Livingstone does not say in vain,^ that, if a missionary has to deal with the most barbarous tribes even, polite- ness and good manners are of great value. Pre- cisely his superior culture, this ^' specificum'^ of modern missions, will often be dangerous for the missionary, a temptation to treat the natives too much en bas^ yes, even with haughtiness and rude- ness instead of with that pity which shone in the eye of the Great Shepherd, when, moved with compassion, he saw the people as famishing, scat- tered, shepherdless sheep ; and instead of with that love which alone has the right firmness and deli- cacy wisely to conduct educational training. Here and there missionaries, Germans also in Africa, have failed in this respect. Finally, what shall we say in regard to the English (Wesleyan) missionary in the South Sea, who, whether from 1 The missionary Mr. Hughes, Mildmay Conference, p. 332. 2 Missionary Sacrifices; see the Catholic Presbyterian, Jan- uary, 1879. 124 PKOTESTANT FORI^IGN MISSIONS: necessity, or to make a strong example, in connec- tion with some settlers, revenged in a bloody man- ner the murder of certain native teachers by cannibals on the Duke of York Island ? — an un- heard-of error in a Protestant missionar}^, which was censured altogether too liglit.ly by the expres- sion of regret from the Australian-Wesleyan Con- ference ; against which, because it would easily compromise and render difficult the whole mission work in those quarters, other missionaries were obliged to enter their protest.^ As regards instruction, the method of the Master proves itself, with ever-increasing clear- ness, to be the true one, even among the barbar- ous heathen.2 He propounded no artificial sj^stem, spun out into minute detail : he planted, rather, many fruitful seeds, yet forming a distinct whole, in the hearts of his disciples, out of which, under the quickening influence of the Holy Spirit, the whole tree of apostolic doctrine could afterwards develop itself. In working with those unaccus- 1 The Illustr. As also the mission- ary Mr. Lawes (New Guinea), on the want of success of all mere» ly external means of ciilture: Mildmay Conference, p. 283. CIVILIZING THE HEATHEN CHRISTIANS. 131 ized life. Inward and outward things must gc hand in hand." It follows from this, that every thing introduced by missions, as to industries, must be made serviceable to the chief work, which is spiritual. As beneficial and necessary as the introduction of mechanical trades into mission stations is, it must not complicate too much the leading idea, or bind down the individual char- acter, of the mission. If the special direction of the industrial works is taken by lay preachers, school-teachers, and foremen, the missionary im- pulse, and therewith the healthy progressive devel- opment, will be entirely lost. Closely connected with the introduction of external culture is the duty, even among the most barbarous peoples, of not denationalizing them through Christianization. Otherwise there will be a loss of substance to the nation's power, which cannot again be made good. One must distin- guish between what is useful and is to be cleansed, in the aboriginal character, and what is to be combated ; changing only, as Bishop Patteson en- joins, "that which is incompatible with the sim- plest form of Christian teaching and life." ^ Eng- lish missionaries in India, especially, have failed greatly in this respect. They have entered too little into the character of the Indian mind, in order sufficiently to respect, and allow to remain, that which in its way is justifiable. 1 Baur., J. C. Patteson, p. 189. See also Cbristlieb, Mission»- bernf des evangel. Deutschlands, p. 20, sqq. 132 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ^nSSIONS : Englishmen themselves, like Bishop Patteson, have openly acknowledged this. One should study the peculiarities of the people, and believe that the gospel is competent to strengthen by de- grees even the weak, light, inconstant character of a nation ; to put new power into feeble limbs, new courage into timorous souls. The living water of the Divine Word contains also an admixture of iron ! The Europeanizing of native workers has fre- quently proved the beginning of the denationali- zation of heathen Christians. This not only raises an objection to the mission from an entirely un- necessary source, but places it in a false light before the people. The native Christian should, as far as consistent with his Christian training, remain a full and entire member of his people, even as to his mode of life, for only then can his congregation support him. There have been many mistakes made in this matter. How far it may result from defective qualifications in European missionaries, we leave to the kind consideration of the chairmen of the various societies. It may be added here in passing, that the wide-spread, though wrong and unjustifiable, custom, which native Christians have adopted in India, of wear- ing European clothing when employed as clerks,- secretaries, and the like, in order to obtain liigher wages, demands their attention also ! ^ 1 I have heard this confirmed and complained of by several Indian missionaries. DUTY OF THE NATIVE OHEISTIANS. 133 It needs remarkable men, noted for spiritual enliglitenment, intelligence, and strength of charaC' ter, in order to work successfully among barbarous people. Not a host of mediocre European mission- aries, who burden the work for those better fitted, will conquer a heathen land : the natives them- selves must accomplish the principal work. Hence only those European missionaries should be chosen, whose clearly known aim from the beginning is the winning of capable workers out of the native congregations, in order through them to lead the native churches gradually to complete independ- ence, self-support, self-guidance, self-extension. From every worker in the mission, even to the mechanic, clear insight, self-denial, and humility should be demanded ; that he work to make him- self unnecessary, and seek to see others taking liis place. The old idea that missionaries should be pastors of native congregations has been entirely aban- doned in America,^ and must disappear more and more from among us, both in theory and practice. The industrial workshops should also in time be cut loose from the missions, and carried on by private individual natives. The character of the 1 In a private letter of Dr. A. C. Thompson of the American Board, to myself, he says, " We urge upon all missionaries the importance of bringing forward, as early and as fast as is consist- ent, native preachers and pastors, with a view to have this work of foreigners pass over into a hojne missionary work at the earliest date that it can be safely done." 184 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: whole work must continually make the impression upon the native congregations, that they are not to sit still, but always be pressing onward and ex- tending tlie mission work. It is only in this way that the missionary impulse can be breathed into the congregations, and be retained. These objects, kept clearly and continually in view, would in time bring the necessary relief for the home societies. The support of European missionaries, and their buildings, make up the great expenses of particular stations. If the European character prevails, they build for Euro- peans, on account of health, for instance, more substantially and expensively than for natives, and the whole burden comes upon the home society which supports the European missionary. If, on the other hand, the training of native workers in and with the formation of nucleus congregations be from the beginning the aim of the missionary, then the erecting of buildings, because they will soon be occupied by native workers, will become more the duty of the native members of the mis- sion church themselves.^ This is now the case, to a much greater extent, in English and American missions than in the German. But this principle must be adopted by the latter also. It is wrong, 1 An opinion may he formed of liow different are the require- ments for native and European Christians, by the fact tliat in South Africa a chapel which hol^ sion.-Magazin, 1874, p. 77, sqq. 152 PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS : ber, but still far too small. The ever-increasing harvests of the fruits of the missions of India in the last decade are shown by the following figures. In 1852 there were in British India (including BuriQah and Ceylon) tAventy-two thousand and four hundred communicants, or one hundred and twenty-eight thousand native nominal Christians young and old; 1862, forty-nine thousand six hundred and eighty-one communicants, and two hundred and thirteen thousand one hundred and eighty-two nominal Christians; 1872, seventy-eight thousand four hundred and ninety-four communi- cants, three hundred and eighteen thousand three hundred and sixty-three nominal Christians ; but in 1878 the number of the latter rose to four hun- dred and sixty thousand.^ If we take simply India proper, there appears from 1851-61 an increase in native evangelical Christians of about fifty-three per cent; from 1861-71, an increase of sixty-one per cent (from one hundred and thirty-eight thou- sand seven hundred and thirty-one Christians to two hundred and twenty-four thousand two hun- dred and fifty-eight 2), which will make a much swifter advance in our decade.^ 1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 85 ; Church Mis- sionary Intelligencer, 1878, p. 537 ; and Mildmay Conference, 1878, p. 120, aqq. 2 Cf. Evangel. Mission. -Magazin, 1873, p. 255; Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, 1874, p. 4G, sqq. The d-.fference between the nurahers given above arises from the omission of Further India. 8 It has been calculated that at this rate of progression there GREAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 153 If we examine the different sects as to their share in this increase, we find that the five Luther« an missionary societies which work in India — the Leipzig, the Gossner, the Danish, the Hermanns- burg and the American Lutheran — have advanced together since 1850, from three thousand three hundred and sixteen to about forty-two thousand Christians ; two American and one English Baptist societies together, from thirty thousand to ninety thousand (including Burmah) ; the Basel mission in India, from about one thousand to six thousand eight hundred and five ; ^ the ten Presbyterian mis- sions of Scotland, England, Ireland, and America, from eight hundred to ten thousand ; in a similar manner the two Wesleyan Societies from England and America, which have only worked there a short time : The London Missionary Society, from about twenty thousand to now over forty-eight thousand; the Church Missionary and Propaga- tion Societies together, from sixty-one thousand four hundred and forty-two to over one hundred and sixty-four thousand.'-^ We must add to these some smaller and many private missions, which are especially numerous in India. In certain places the development was particu- larly sudden and unequal ; at first very little, then sliou. 1 be, about the year 1901, upwards of a million, and in the year 2000, about one hundred and thirty-eight millions, of Prot« estaut Christians in India. 1 Heidenbote, August, 1879, p. 59. 2 According to Sherring, Mildmay Conference, p. 121, sqq» 154 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: all at once a great increase of fruit, for nowhere has the development been so spasmodic as in many Indian missions. At Cuddapah, for example (Telngu district), the London and Propagation Societies worked side by side for thirty years, without gaining together more than two hundred converts ; then suddenly there was a revival among the tribes of that region which had broken loose from the system of caste, and now the two hun- dred have become nearly eleven thousand. What a hard field for the Basel missionaries during the last twenty-seven years has South Mahratta been ! so unfruitful that many thought seriously of giv- ing up the district. Now, suddenly after the 3^ears of famine come years of rich harvest, and the number of Christians in the Basel missions has increased over a thousand. How different in the Gossner mission among the Kohls I After five years of waiting the first baptisms were in 1850, then the number increased from year to year; 1860, fourteen hundred Christians ; in 1870, more than twelve thousand ; and to-day in their German and English branches together, there are about forty thousand baptized converts. The increase of new converts during the last two years in a number of societies was greater than ever before heard of in the whole history of Indian missions ; and tliis shows the chief ground for tlie present condition of the work in that land, — the previous terri})le famine in Southern India,^ and the experi- GREAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 155 ence of the powerlessness of their gods to help them in this trouble. The clear proof of the absolute superiority of Christian mercy over heathen selfishness, which hundreds of thousands of heathen had presented daily before their eyes, through the aid of the government, of Christians in England, and of the missionary society ; the marked difference between the heartless heathen priests and the Christian mis- sionaries stinting themselves ; together with the influence of much evangelistic work, which pre- cisely in Southern India was greater toward the heathen than anywhere else on the part of Euro- pean preachers and teachers, — these were the recognized means in God's hands of letting thou- sands upon thousands of heathen know at once^ a little of the divine in Christianity, so that they became anxious for its light and salvation. The Basel mission gathered in a harvest greater than ever before (1877, increase, one thousand and seventy-six ; 1878, seven hundred and sixty-eight 1 According to the Times, there perished in the Presidency of Madras 3,000,000 persons; in Mysore, 1,250,000; in Bombay, 1,000,000. Four million dollars were sent from England to give relief to the sufferers. 2 Heathen have been heard to say, writes a native preacher from Madras, " We can understand Christians giving sympathy and help to their fellow-Christians in time of need, but it is indeed wonderful that they should show such great and noble compassion to the heathen! There must, indeed, be a mighty power in their religion! " Allgemeine evangelische lutherische Kirchen-Zeitung, supplement, 1879. 156 PROTESTANT FOREIGN :^^SSIONS : souls 1). Tlie same for the Leipzig Society (1878, one thousand six hundred and thirty-nine baptized heathen; that is almost twice as many as in 1877), and so with most all the societies working in Southern India. But it is without parallel that the American Baptists baptized in one and a half months (the 16th of June to the 31st of July, 1878) eight thousand six hundred and ninety- one 2 heathen in Nellore ; that in the Tinnevelly districts of the Church Mission Society, in 1878, eleven thousand heathen came to Bishop Sargent and the native pastors for instruction previous to baptism ; ^ and that, in the same districts of the Church Propagation Society, from July, 1877, to the end of June, 1879, twenty-three thousand five hundred and sixty-four persons asked Christian instruction of Bishop Caldwell and his co-laborers ; so that the Anglican Church mission in Tinnevelly and Eamanath (south-east point), in scarcely one and a half years, received an increase of nearly thirty-five thousand souls,* while until that time the increase of the Propagation Society and Church Mission Society in Tinnevelly and Travancore to- gether had only averaged from two to three thou- sand souls per year. Now Christianity has been spread in the Tinnevelly district of the PropagOr 1 See Annual Report, 1878, p. 31 ; Heidenbote, 1879, p. 59. 2 Sherring, ibid., p. 123. 8 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society's Report, 1879, p. 13. * Report of the Propagation Society, 1879, p. 31, sqq. GREAT INCREASE OF CONVERTS. 157 tion Society alone into six hundred and thirty-one villages. This great number is not wholly com posed of real converts, but partly of those who are receiving instruction previous to baptism ; yet they are also not bread-seekers, — " rice - Chris- tians," but the awakened, who, on account of their connection with Christian churches, must still suf- fer many persecutions.^ The movement extends itself (and this shows its depth) not only among the heathen, but also among the native Christians ; many of whom, now filled with a living zeal, devote themselves, unpaid, for the evangelization of those newly awakened.^ If we combine with these results in the South those in the other Indian missions, especiall}' among the Kohls (about three thousand per year), the Santals, the Karens in Burmah, Pegu, &c., the total increase in the Indian missions in 1878 will reach from fifty to sixty thousand souls, whilst in other years it only averaged from six to ten thousand. If we con- sider for a moment the above total of Protestant Christians in India (four to five hundred thou- sand), as to their distribution in particular parts of the country, we shall see extraordinary differ- ences. The great mass is in the South ; Madras Presidency is the first, with two hundred thou- sand Christians. Here the Propagation Society 1 Report of Propagation Society, 1879, p. 32. 2 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society's Report, 1879, p. 13. 158 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: has besides twenty thousand seven hundred and forty-six catechumens, thirty-two thousand three hundred and ninety -eight baptized Christians, and from thirteen to fourteen thousand children under instruction in three hundred day schools, in which forty -eight missionaries, one hundred and ninety- five native catechists, three hundred and ninety- four native teachers and Bible-readers, are at work.^ The Church Missionary Society has seventy-seven thousand six hundred and fifty native Christians (fifteen thousand one hundred and ten communi- cants), six hundred and eighty-six seminaries and schools, with twelve thousand five hundred and twenty-three scholars, in which thirty-two European missionaries, eighty-one native ordained ministers, and one thousand and ninety -six native catechists and teachers labor.^ Nearly half the Madras Christians belong to these two societies. The other half is divided between the London Missionary Society, which has many self-supporting churches in Telugu, Salem, Trav- ancore, and other districts ; the American Board, which has in its Madura mission of thirty-two congregations eight thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven persons in charge ; ^ the American Baptists, with twelve thousand baptized converts in their Nellore mission ; the Leipzig Society, with 1 Propagation Society's Report, 1879, pp. 10, 17. 2 Abstract of the Ch. Miss. Society's Report, 1880, p. 15. 8 Report of the American Board, 1878, p. 72. GEEAT INCEEASE OF CONVEBTS. 159 ten thousand eight hundred and seventy-two Christians in eighteen central stations, and one hundred and five schools with two thousand one hundred and ninety-six scholars ; ^ the Basel So- ciety, with six thousand eight hundred and five members, which, with twenty stations, including the four in South Mahratta belonging to the Presi- dency of Bombay, has here its chief field of labor, sixty-three missionaries, seventy-two native dea- cons, catechists, and evangelists, fifty-five teach- ers, sixty-two high and common schools with two thousand six hundred and fifty-four scholars, of whom nineteen are in the theological seminaries ; ^ the London Wesleyan (Madras and Mysore dis- trict), the Reformed (Dutch) and Methodist-Epis- copal Church of America, the Scotch State and Free Churches, the Danish and Hermannsburg So- cieties, and others. Upon Ceylon, over the greater part of which Buddhism casts its deadly shade, we find Protestant missions slowly rising out of the ruins of the old Dutch mission with its hun- dreds of thousands of "government Christians," who quickly relapsed into Buddhism. To-day the number of native Christians is perhaps more than thirty-two thousand. The deplorable strife be- tween the ritualistic bishops and the Church Mis- sionary Society is only gradually ceasing. Near 1 Allgemeine evangelische lutherische Kirchen-Zeitung, June 13, 1879, p. 554, sqq. 2 See the tables in the Annual Report, 1878, p. 28, sqq. 160 PEOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS : the latter, with their eleven stations, six thousand six hundred and ninety-five native Christians, and ten thousand four hundred and thirteen scholars, we find the Propagation Society with fifteen stations and six to seven thousand church- memhers ; the Wesleyans in the southern district (Singhalese) with forty-eight stations, two thou- sand and twenty -one ; and in the northern dis- trict (Tamul), with twenty-six stations and eight hundred and six full members. Farther, the American Board, with seven stations and eight to nine hundred adult members, seven thousand two hundred and ninety-one scholars ; ^ and the English Baptists, with twenty-four stations, eight hundred to one thousand members, and twenty- four hundred scholars. Next to Southern India the most productive field is Burmah, where the American Baptist mission, partly among the less accessible Buddhist Burmese, partly and particu- larly among their enslaved and more barbarous Karens, carry on one of the most fruitful Protes- iant missions, whose sudden extension is especially due to native agencies and excellent national help. In 1878, at the celebration of the fiftieth year of jubilee of the foundation of this mission, a beautiful hall was dedicated ^ as a memorial of 1 According to the last annual reports of the Propagation Society, Church Missionary Society, Wesleyan Missionary So- ciety, and the Am(;rican Board. 2 Eppler, Die neuere Entwickelung der Karenenmission: All- gemeine Missions Zeitschrift, August, 1878, p. 350. IN TSE VALLEY OF THE GANGES. 161 the society, to the memory of the indefatigable Ko-Tha-Bj'u, who, as the first fi'uit of this mission, entered its service fifty years before. The present condition of the Baptist mission in Burmah in the districts of Rangoon, Maulmain, and Toungoo, shows eighty-three missionaries, one hundred ordained native ministers, three hundred helpers, about two hundred and seventy schools, twelve institutes for higher education, four hundred and forty congregations, of which eighty are ministered to by ordained native preachers, twenty thousand eight hundred and eleven ^ communicants, and about seventy thousand native Christians, one thousand three hundred and nine baptized in 1879. Already these churches bear more than half the expenses of all the churches, schools, and mission stations in this land. The mission of the Propa- gation Society, which seems especially to have gained the attention of the Burmese, has estab- lished many schools on the Irrawadi, and has penetrated up the Rangoon and beyond British districts toward Mandelay into the open coiuitry of Burmah. We find Bengal and the North-west Provinces to be the third and almost equally pro- ductive district, the number of converted natives being now more than sixty thousand. The prin- cipal part of these belong to the Gossner mission 1 According to account of Rev. Dr. Murdoch, Mildmay Con- ference, p. 193, sqq. ; cf., too, Missionary Herald (Boston), May, 1878, p. 169, and Calw. Mission.-Magazin, 1879, p. 43. 162 PROTESTANT FOREIGK MISSIONS: in Chota Nagpore, among tlie aboriginal tribes of Kohls. There are about thirty thousand baptized converts in seven districts, under only thirteen missionaries, six native ministers, fifteen candi- dates, two hundred teachers and catechists (in three stations on the Ganges, with about one thou- sand Christians), and a yearly increase of over two tliousand catechumens ^ (at present three to four thousand) ; added to these is the Anglican mission in connection with the Propagation So- ciety, with about ten thousand Christians. Then follows the much-promising Santal mission, also among the aborigines, established by two (for- merly Gossner) independent missionaries from Nor- way and Denmark (connected in some respects with the Danish mission, Skrefsrud and Borresen), who are now aided by thirty native pastors, and have suddenly increased the number of their con- verts to five or six thousand. Among them are two thousand two hundred and sixty-four commu- nicants (in 1877), thirty congregations with elders, and forty schools ;2 the Church Missionary Soci- ety also working among them with English and native preachers. They complain lately of the progress of a process of Hindooizing, among this people. 1 According to the statistics for 1877-78, there were 24,313 baptized converts, 7,4'J8 communicants, M'ith 2,223 catechumens, and seventy-one schools with 1,395 children. See Plath, The Gossner Mission among the Hindoos and Kohls, 1879, p 285. 2 Das Evangel in Santalistan, Basel, 1878, p. 42, sqq. INDIA. 163 We cannot follow in particular the many other English, Scotch, and American missions which are found onward from Calcutta, where alone eight societies labor, all along the valley of the Ganges, in every important city. The many congregations in Calcutta are small, and grow slowly. Whoever comes from Southern India, or descends from the Kohl mountains into the Ganges plain, will be conscious of the fact that he is in a much harder mission field. Here the old for- tresses of Hindooism and Mohammedanism in Benares, Allahabad, Delhi, &c., still continue to defy the gospel. The Church Missionary Society has the most extensive mission here, namely, thirty-two sta- tions, thirteen thousand two hundred and eighty- three native Christians, forty-one missionaries, and seventeen native pastors ; fourteen thousand one hundred and sixteen scholars in two hundred and sixty-five seminaries and schools, with five hun- dred and fifteen native teachers.^ Then the English Baptist, London, American Presbyterian, and Methodist Episcopal, Propaga- tion, Scotch State and Free Church, Wesleyan and American Baptist Societies, and others. The mis- sion in the Punjab and Sindh is making rapid progress, particularly through the Church Mission- ary Society, which has even built a theological 1 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society's Report, 1880 p.U. 164 PPwOTESTANT FOREIGN ISnSSIONS : seminary in Lahore for converted Hindoos, Sikhs, and Mohammedans, which is doing good work. We have ah-eady noticed that the gospel from here has forced its way over Peshawur to Afghan- istan and Cashmere. This same society has here, in thirteen stations with twenty-three missionaries and seven native preachers, one thousand four hundred and ninety native Cliristians, and fifty-four schools with three thousand four hundred and ninety-two scholars.^ The American Presbyterian (with the centre at Lodiana 2), and the United Presbyterian and Scotch State Church, are also at work in this field. If we look now toward the West Coast, we shall see that the wide tract of Rajpootana is but slightly occupied by Protestant missions. Sepa- rated from all others, the Scotch United Presbyte- rian Church is working here alone, with nine mis- sionaries and four missionary physicians in eight central stations, with two hundred and seventy- three communicants, ninety-four schools, and three thousand four hundred and fiftj^-three scholars.^ The capital, Bombay, and the central 1 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society's Report, p. 12. In 1872-73, there were only 552 baptized converts, and 2,800 scholars, 2 In the Lodiana mission there are thirteen congregations witli 318 communicants; in the Furruckuhad mission, ciglit con- gregations with 318 communicants; and together, upwards of l.oao scliolars in the day schools. Report, 187i), pp. 52-54. 8 :Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church, June. 1871), p. Ö27. INDIA. 165 provinces show that parts are but sparsely occu- pied, and parts are the most unfruitful of all the Indian mission fields. The total number of native Christians here is not over seven thousand ; nine hundred and ninety-nine of these belong to the five stations of the Church Missionary Society, whose missionaries tell us that recently there has been a great demand for the Bible in Bombay.^ The Mahratta mission of the American Board is but little stronger, having gathered in five central stations and many out-stations, 1,127 adult mem- bers in twenty-three congregations, under ten mis- sionaries and seventeen native pastors. They also instruct 827 scholars in 48 schools.^ The four stations of the Propagation Society appear to con- tain not more than six or seven thousand church- members ; ^ the four stations of the Free Church of Scotland, not more than nine hundred, with over twenty-two hundred scholars.^ Others have fewer, — for example, the American Methodist Episcopal Church, four or five hundred. On the other hand, the Basel South Mahratta mission has increased to one thousand and fifty-seven church- members. In the central provinces, the Scotch Free Church has made some small beginnings in Nagpore and among the Ghonds ; likewise the 1 Abstract of the Church Missionary Society's Keport, 1880, p. 14; 19 schools, with 1,012 scholars. 2 Report of the American Board, 1879, p. 41. 3 Report, 1879, p. 17. 4 Report of Foreign Missions, 1877, p. 64, sqq. 166 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: Geiman Evangelical Society of America, and the Swedish Fosterland Institute, which has most re- cently occupied Narsingpore and Sagar with four missionaries,^ and has now two missionaries among the Ghonds also. The only other mission to be noticed here is that of the General Baptists in Orissa (East Coast), with six stations and about one thousand communicants,^ and that of the Mo- ravians in the Western Himalaya (two stations with thirty-four native Christians), the advanced posts of Protestantism to the doors of Tliibet. XI. If we examine the total number of converts, not according to provinces, but according to their castes and degrees of education, we perceive certain very characteristic facts to aid our judgment as to results in India up to the present time. Five- sixths of the converts in all Indian missions be- long to the lower classes of society, of inferior castes and of no caste.^ Converted Brahmins are found everywhere, but their number is still very small. This, therefore, is clear: the black abo- riginal tribes with their pre-Brahminical devil- worship, and the semi-Brahminism of Southern India, this compound of the Brahminic religion witli that of the aboriginals, are much more acces- bible to the gospel than the Brahmins proper in 1 INIissions-Tedniug, May, 1879. 2 On an averaj;e. « Sherring, see above, p. 118. UNDERMINING HINDOOISM. 167 the North. And, what is remarkable, these two most fruitful branches of the great missionary tree are related to each other in their languages. There are jjeople of the Dravidian languages, stretching from Malay, Tamil, Telugu, &c., to Kola and Santal,^ opposed to whom Brahmin Hin- dooism stands with its Aryan languages. From this we perceive, that within this old civilized land the tribes and classes of people which are relative- ly least penetrated by heathen civilization are the most accessible to Christianity; while the real stronghold of the Hindoo religion and culture, the North with its Benares, and the higher, more edu- cated castes and lighter races of India generally, as a strong fortress still defy it, and, though be- sieged, are far from conquered. But the process of undermining is in full prog- ress, which in time must lead to their downfall, though we may not be able as yet to tell when that time will come. The axe of the gospel with a handle out of the tree of Hindooism itself, wielded by native agencies, will bring about this fall, as the thoughtful Hindoos now already perceive and openly confess. "After all, what did the Mo- nammedans do?" said a Hindoo to Mr. Leupolt.^ " They broke down a few bricks from the top of 1 See the map of Indiau languages in Grundemann's Gen- eral Atlas of Missions, Asia, No. VI., and Monier Williams's map of Hindooism, London, 1877. 2 Leupolt, Recollections of an Indian Missionary, in the Clmrch Mission. Intell., 1878-9. 168 PROTESTANT FOREIGN JNHSSIONS : the house : these men (the missionaries) under- mine its foundiition by x^^'^aching and teaching, and, Avhen once a great rain comes, the whole buihling will come down with a crash." The power which holds it together has long ceased to be the religious system itself with its inward wan- derings ; nor yet are the old and new literatures as a K.h, with their many-colored compounds of old pious prayers, fantastical speculations, absurd and often terrible injunctions, composed of pan- theistic, polytheistic, and even theistic elements, the power of heathen faith and thought ; but the caste-system. As a system, Hindooism is becom- ing more and more a relic.^ It loses daily more of its influence over the spirit of the people. Polytheistic superstition is already overcome in the minds of the educated, although it has still many tenacious roots in the minds of the common people. The youth of India are withdrawing con- tinually from its influences. But caste holds the old building fast together: even liberals seldom have courage to break with it. " You know," said an accomplished Hindoo to Mr. Leupolt, "that, properly speaking, we have now no religious be- lief. Any one can believe what he likes, so long as he retains caste." In fact, Hindooism only clings to caste still, because caste in turn supports it. So much the more decisively must this caste be fought ; for, if this be undermined, the whole 1 Cy., too, Jenkins, Mikliuay Conference., p. 105. UNDERMINING HINDOOISM. 169 religious edifice will fall in. That this great social fetter of the Hindoos must be broken off, there is no dispute among the evangelical missionary socie- ties. But whether it is only to be continually restricted by those who are converted, and left to die out through the freeing activity of the evan- gelical spirit, or whether it is to be directly attacked, and a complete separation be demanded from the beginning of every one baptized, is the question. In regard to this, the opinions of some, particu- larly of the Leipzig men, disagree with the ma- jority. Without expecting in the least to solve this intricate and much-discussed question with a few general remarks, I still confess that I must hold the former practice as dangerous, because incompatible with a clear, proper execution of fun- damental Christian ideas. And I have lately been much strengthened in this position by the article of Professor Monier Williams, of Oxford, an unbiased observer, upon " Modern India and the Indians " (1879). He says, " It is difficult for us Europe- ans to understand how the pride of caste, as a divine ordinance, interpenetrates the whole being of a Hindoo. He looks upon his caste as his verita- ble god; and those caste-rules which we believe to be a hinclerance to his adoption of the true reli- gion are to him the very essence of all religion, for they influence his whole life and conduct." One can fully acknowledge certain good services once 170 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: accomplished by the caste laws of India, for exam* pie, protection against complete lawlessness ; but these are far overbalanced, as Professor AVilliams shows, by tlie irreparable harm they bring to the physical, spiritual, and moral condition of the Hindoo people, by making marriage in early youth a religious duty, by the fetter of endogamy (mar- riage only within the caste, yea, within special di- visions), by fencing in the family and home life with a wall of mysteries. Go into the upper classes of the high schools in India, and you will find that half the boys are themselves already fathers ! I ask : Do we not here front the explanation of the effeminacy of so many millions in India ? Will not the children of children remain children throughout their whole life ? and what is the cause of the childish char- acter of the Indian women ? Their awful exclusion through the caste-laws. Nothing can help in this but an entirely new ideal of womanhood, a com- plete renovation of the whole family life, through the emancipation of women from their prison- homes, yea, through a re-organization of the whole social building, from the foundation up.^ There- fore eradicate caste, this taproot of the social evils 1 It is a matter of thankfulness that the question of children's marriages is in India becoming the subject of public controversy. Already a distinguished native Christian lawyer has declared that he will devote Ids life and strength to their abolishment. See Mrs. Weitl;recht, The Women of India, p. 11. May God bless his endeavors I CASTE IVIUST GIVE WAY. 171 of India, and, I must say, the more tliorouglily the better ! Not only in order to clear away the chief hin- derance to the gospel in India, but also on account of the moral well-being of her one hundred and seventy millions of inhabitants, must this be done. A two-thousand-year-old evil will easily sprout up again unless its roots are dug out, to their ex- tremities. Even recently they were seeking to revive caste among the Christians of Krishnagur, until the Church Missionary Society mowed down the springing tare by stringent discipline. That was, without doubt, managed rightly. A mild practice toward caste, wdiich at any time may easily become a source of calamitous strife, — as already under Schwartz,^ and even in more recent times, — may have the effect, as is feared ^ by some, who point to the case of the Romish Church, of increasing the number of Christians for the time' being, but this increase will be followed by the complete stagnation of the inner life of the Church. May all Protestant missions soon agree as one man, to the mode of dealing with caste, and leave even the slightest indulgence in it to the Rom- ish Church ! In order to do this, it seems to us necessary before all else, that, in this eminently 1 The famous German missionary in Tranquebar, 1798. 2 See the valuable article, On Caste and Christian JMissions, Church Missionary Intelligencer, March, 1879, p. 129, sqq 172 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: practical question, one should not take advice from men educated simply in their studies, who judge from afar and from an exclusively historical point of view, but from those who have formed their opinions from personal observation and ex- perience under the conditions of the work as they now exist. Then there will be a better prospect, that in time there will be unity at least in the mode of dealing witli this matter. This great power in the social life of India be- gins to give way already here and there, though slowly. The contact with Christian civilization and morality, "the general extension of even a mere superficial knowledge of Christianity, is," as Sir Bartle Frere says, "the death-knell of caste. Generations may pass before the result is attained, but finally there can be no doubt of it." Already now and then there is a widow who marries again, with the applause of the young Indians. Even the railroad will be a sworn ally in the war against caste. Hindooism cannot accommodate itself to the progress of modern times, and therefore every thing works together for its destruction as a sys- tem. Reformed social ideas and customs make themselves felt involuntarily, wherever Hindoos are opposed to Christian family life ; and caste will aj)pear to them by degrees in its terrible un- natural limits, as anachronism, because felt as a burden it will no longer be observed so closely ; and with broken caste, the priests, in order not to SHOBT-SIGHTEDNESS OF THE STATE. 173 lose all, will do every thing in their power to facilitate restoration. XII. The enlightening influences of the schools, also contribute much to the discrediting of idola- try as well as to the undermining of the caste system ; and, indeed, not only the schools of the missions, but also those of the Indian government.^ We must deplore the fact, however, that all reli- gious instruction, and even the Bible, is by law excluded from the public schools, both lower and higher, but it is unfair to consider them as directly hostile to missions. They work for Christianity at least by uprooting a mass of heathen preju- dices. Yet it is a circumstance to be deplored in the highest degree, that in the government schools here and there, through the influence of rationalistic instructors, a positi\ie anti-Christian spirit appears, and that scepticism towards all positive religion is directly promoted. The belief of students in the absurdities of the Hindoo cos- mogony will be overthrown ; but, because Chris- tianity cannot be put in its place, their scepticism is easily carried over to the Bible also, and they will believe in no record whatever of divine reve- lation. Professor M. Williams is right in saying that 1 Cf. here specially the paper by Dr. Murray Mitchell on The Systems of Education pursued in India, Mildmay Conference, p. 124, 555., and the discussion which followed. 174 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ]\nSSIONS : *' the faculty of faith is wholly destroyed at gov- ernment high schools and colleges.^ Applied to the female population, this system of education without Bible and religion must be especially demoralizing." 2 If I judge rightly, the short-sight- edness of this system of the state which hopes, though in vain, by a certain neutrality in matters of religion to make every thing right in India and England, is continually raising dissatisfaction. For the government in this school policy is in reality not neutral,^ neither against Hindoos nor Chris- tians, but is founding against both a third scepti- cism, which only believes in human knowledge. Therefore it is, as various men acquainted with India have assured me, that this wavering system between religions, be it in the school or elsewhere (as when, for example. Christian governors, in order to show 'their liberality aid^ morally and ^ Ibid., p. 131. 2 Mrs. Weitbrecht, The Women of India, 1878, p. 28. 8 See the Rev. J. Johnston's remarks at the Miklmay Confer- ence, p. 140, sqq. When statesmen repeatedly inquire, "Are we at liberty to take the money of the natives of India to undermine their own religion?" we answer. The people of India are now intrusted to a Christian government which must in every way promote their welfare. If the government have the honest con- viction that this is done in the best and most lasting manner by means of the blessings of the gospel, then it is their duty, how- ever little understood by the present generation with regard \o the future, to grant free access to these blessings, and, though of course without compulsion, to prepare the way for the extinctioQ of the old religions. * The viceroy, Lord Lytton (in the autumn of 1878), presented five hundred rupees to the Golden Temple of the Sikhs, in Urn- INSTEUCTION FOR STATE SCHOOLS. 175 materially heathen religious exercises, &c.), is not considered in the eyes of the heathen as great wisdom on the part of the state, but as simply Weakness of religious character. For the Hindoo respects no one who works against his own reli- gion. And is he so very wrong ? In fact, no policy is far-seeing which lacks character ; and no state cares adequately for the future of a people, which is destitute of the imperial idea, the firm belief in the continuous advance of the kingdom of God, and in the dependence of genuine human pros- perity upon its extension. But finally, and herein opinion is more and more united,^ the present gov- ernment schools no longer truly meet the real needs of India. Why, in proportion, so many higher schools? why expend so much money (five thou- sand to ten thousand dollars) to make a B. A., who is only prepared for an examination, and whose suddenly-acquired, undigested knowledge cannot long be retained, when as many as eighty- eight per cent of the Indian population still have as good as no education whatever ?2 What India ritsur, whicli won him little respect from the heathen. The other day the governor of Bombay, Sir Richard Temple, with his reti- nue, was present at an idolatrous festival, and listened to a pane^ gyric on the elephant-headed goddess Ganpati. (See Bombay Guardian.) 1 Even among governors and inspectors of government schools. (See Friend of India, Jan. 24, 1879, and Church Missionary Intel- ligencer, April, 1879, p. 214, sqq.; Mission.-Magazin, 1874, !>. 22, sqq.) 2 See passage above quoted, pp. 216, 217. 176 PROTESTANT FOREIGN IkHSSIONS : needs is not so much academies, as Christian com- mon schools. In this state of the case, as long as the gov- ernment does not believe it possible to change essentially the present system, nothing at all remains, if I may be allowed an opinion on this intricate question, but to remind the government again and again of its freely given promise in 1854 of liberal support for the mission schools, whose fulfilment many are now at last demand- ing ; ^ and to pray that at the same time, in the choice of teachers for the higher schools they may 'ook more strictly to their Christian convictions, so that the instruction in the sciences may at least have a Christian support ; fiually, also, that they allow religious instruction in the Holy Scriptures to those who desire it ; and, in like manner, that the Biblical instruction in the mission schools may be of some use in the examinations for a degree in the university.^ Therefore it is part of the task of all the missionary societies laboring in India to maintain intact their own lower and higher schools along with the government schools, and to extend them according to their means. As early as 1860, there were almost two thousand of these schools in India, which at the time of the 1 See Miklrnay Conference, p. 135, sqq. 2 Cf. the same demand l)y the director of the Church Mission- ary Society's college in Masulipatam, Kev. M. Sharps, and of the Rev. Mr, Hughes of Peshawur: Mildmay Conference, p. IfiO. MISSION SCHOOLS IN INDIA. 177 Allahabad Conference (1872) were attended by one hundred and twenty-two thousand three hun- dred and seventy-two scholars (among them i wenty-six thousand six hundred and eleven girls), Ji number which since that time may have risen to one hundred and forty or one hundred and forty- Ihree thousand.^ Within a decade over sixteen thousand of those have passed the entrance ex- amination of one of the Indian universities. The Indian government has itself recently recognized ^ what a great gain for the spiritual and moral elevation of all classes of the people results from these mission schools and the mission work gen erally. In Southern India Professor Williams praises particularly the schools of the Free Scotch Church in Madras, those of the Church Mission Society under Bishop Sargent in Tinnevelly, those of the Basel mission and industrial schools in Mangalore, and others.^ In the mean time it appears to us that too much 1 According to Dr. M. Mitchell, Mildmay Conference, p. 132. According to Warneck, Mission und Cultur, p. 109, there were as many as 142,952 in 1872. 2 Cf. in Church Missionary Gleaner, October, 1878, p. 113, a compilation of the testimonies of Lord Lawrence, Sir Bartle Frere, Sir Donald Macleod, Lord Northbrook, and other govern- ment reports, of the good effects of Protestant missions in India. 3 The Indian Female Evangelist, July, 1879, p. 33G. " The great complaint that one hears on all sides, while travelling iu India," says Professor "Williams, " is that we are over-educating. Quality, not quantity, is what is wanted in India." And not in India alone 1 178 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS; is expected of the liome missionary exchequer, when those it supports are employed in purely scientific institutes, so that missionaries have to officiate as professors of philosophy, mathematics, &c. Many English missionary societies have in- stitutes of this kind, — for instance, in Calcutta and Madras, out of which there scarcely ever comes a convert, because Christian instruction must necessarily fall into the background before the mass of secular knowledge. If worldly sci- ences can and ought never to be excluded from the mission schools, yet their prime object should never be the extension of this knowledge, but that of the kingdom of Christ ; not the training for state offices, but for capable church-members, teachers, and ministers. Further the mission in- terest, as such, does not reach. For higher edu- cation in secular sciences, the natives and their government should come to the front. We must not forget that as the old catechetical school in Alexandria became little by little a purely scien- tific institute, it ceased to flourish. XIII. This leads us to a glance at the present practice of the Indian missions in general. The Allahabad Conference recommended rightly, in- stead of simply stationary work, an energetic pros- ecution of circuit preaching. What we remarked above in regard to the mission in Africa applies also to the missions among the civilized nations. PREACHING TOURS IN INDIA. 179 Missionaries need to be evangelists far more than permanent pastors.^ At the same time they should proceed according to this double principle more than has as yet been the case : first, to seek to reach as large a circle as possible ; second, to remain long in particular places, where the people seem susceptible (compare Christ at Sychar, John iv. 43), in order to prepare the way for the establishment of a congregation. As 3^et the village populations continue to be neglected ^ as compared with those of the cities, which are, however, the more difficult fields. On the other hand, physician-missionaries ought not to travel so much, but, for the most part, remain stationary.^ One reason why evangelistic preaching through the villages has fallen off is, without doubt, this : that some of the missionaries in India give themselves too much to school-work, in regard to which they have already with justice complained at Allahabad. The missionary society should continually emphasize this fact also in re- gard to one-sided literary work, that the mission 1 Cf. here the excellent tract of the American Board (Boston), Missionary Tracts, No. 1.: The Theory of Missions to the Hea- then, p. 12, sgg. Cf., too. Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1874, p. 43,s5g. ; 1876, p. 443, s(2?. 2 A respectable Hindoo recently asked this question, "How is i( that you missionaries are trying to work upon the people in txie great towns, while you are leaving to a great extent un- touched, what is the backbone of the population of India, the village communities? " See Mildmay Conference, p. 151, sqq. 3 See the reasons in Medical Missions at Home and Abroad , October, 1878, p. 22; in the first place for China, but also for India. 180 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: instruction and mission presses are always to aid, and only to aid, the preaching, and supplement it.^ The Zenana mission is an essential factor in the work of the conversion of India, Avhich must be much further developed, and that as far as possible in close connection with and kindly feeling toward the work of the missionary society ; as is already the case, for example, with the Church Missionary Society. But in the work among the closely con- fined inmates of the Zenana, among the women in prosperous families of high birth, let not those poor women of the cities and villages be forgotten, especially in those villages where they work in the fields but enjoy greater freedom, and are therefore more accessible.^ In the boarding-schools for girls let not the poor girls of higher castes be accus- tomed to European living, through which, when they return home, or are married to poor men, they will be dissatisfied.^ Among the most crying needs of India, are medical missions for rich and poor women. In cases of sickness they are wholly neglected; hence the enormously high death-rate among women and children. In the centre of populated districts, little by little fem Je medical missions should be established.* 1 Cy., e.g., the principle of the American Board in Boston: Memorial Volume of the First Fifty Years, 18(i;3, p. 240; and Mis- Bioiiary Tracts, No. l."», Outline of Missionary Policy, p. l.'>, sqq. 2 Cf. the account of the Rev. Mr. Paine, of Calcutta: Mildraay Conferen^^e, p. olO, .V77. 8 Mrs. Weitl)recht, Tlu; Women of India, p. 24, sqq. 4 Ibid., p. 2.5, and Mildmay Conference, p. 186. THE MISSION PRESS. 181 The mission press is of greatest importance among a civilized heathen people, and doubly so when their land is being flooded with the scepti- cal literature of the West, on the inflowing tide of education and enlightenment. So is it with India. Already there have been large placards with extracts from Paine's "Age of Reason" post- ed on the walls of Calcutta, and read with eager- ness; and in places where there are high-grade schools, for example in Bombay, for years, as has been remarked, educated natives, in opposing the missionaries, are heard to refer them to Hegel, Strauss, and Renan. Along with the godless life of many Europeans, we meet here especially with many attacks which have been made on Christi- anity, in Christian lands, the reports of which have reached this remote land. From this fact many argue that Christianity is in the death-struggle at home, and therefore it is laughable to wish to im- port it into other countries. Already our mis- sionaries meet opposition missionaries, sent out by the Brahmins to confute them.^ For this purpose, a bad, often vulgar press, scatters its issues far and wide over the land.^ It is self-evident how needful, in this battle, are the opposing influences of a Christian press. There are now, indeed, twenty-five missionary presses at work in India, 1 e.g., the Basel Missionaries. See Heidenbote, November, 1877, p. 82. 2 Paine, as above quoted, p. 14J.. 182 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: from which, for example, from 1862-72, tliree thousand four hundred and ten new Avorks in thirty different languages have gone out, and in the same period one million three hundred and fifteen thousand five hundred and three portions of Scripture ; two million three hundred and seventy-five thousand and forty school-books, and eight million seven hundred and fifty thousand one hundred and twenty-nine tracts and Christian books, have been distributed.^ The Basel mission presses of Mangalore in 1877 printed one hundred and sixty-six thousand and ninety books and tracts, in three of the Indian languages and in English.^ What the Bible and Tract Societies and tJie Christian Vernacular Education Society have accomplished in this direction certainly deserves all praise. Nevertheless, as one well ac- quainted with India assures us, this is very insig- nificant in comparison with the greatness of the task,'^ and with the extent of heathen and infidel literature. And tliis remmder especially is not superfluous, that not only are good linguists ne- cessary, but eminent theologians also, in order to oppose the inflowing tide of unbelief with a thor- ough and enduring Christian apologetical litera- ture. The expulsion of a member of a caste from his 1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 187G, p. 147. 2 The missionary Mr. Schrenk, Mildmay Conference, p. 142. 8 Paine, as above quoted, p. 140. NATIVE CHRISTIANS IN BUSINESS. 183 family at his conversion to Christianity, because his means of living are thereby taken from him, is still the cause of much difßculty to the missions. The lower castes, in which most of the conversions take place, are poor anyway. Here of course mission industry is to be recommended. Only the missionary must take care not to become a pro- fessional almsgiver, and thereby keep the members of the congregation in imbecility. Better no mis- sion industry than " rice-Christians." What a fine moral effect is wrought by Christian manage- ment of business may be seen in an instance of the Church Missionary Society, lately reported to me from Umritsur. A converted man, as a means of earning a livelihood, was assisted to the opening of a shop. He began his business in such a strictly conscientious manner that it is now known throughout the w.^ole city as " the honest shop." Already shops, starting from this one, have been established in other places. These are also pioneers of Christianity, and very important ones; for native CMstians in good secular call- ings are at this time very necessary in the Indian congregations.^ The external well-being of indi- vidual Christian congregations during hard times already here and there excites the attention of their heathen neighbors.^ 1 See Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 2G. 2 Thus in Madura. See Missionary Magazine of Calw., 1879, p. 48. See further particulars regarding the position of missions 184 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ]\riSSIONS : H jw very much the evangelical mission in India has sought for increasing clearness in these and other important questions of the inner organiza- tion of the work, as to national peculiarities, such as the introduction of European clothing and hahits of living, — against which we have already warned, — the education, appointment, and guid- ance of native evangelists, teachers, and preachers, the building-up of congregations, and making native churches independent, the discussions of the Alla- habad Conference, whose earnest attempts to estab- lish general principles in regard to this matter, clearly show. Without doubt we have often been too quick in transferring the forms and rules of the culture and administration of the home churches in their minute details into the Indian congregations, instead of being contented in the beginning with fundamental principles, leaving the particulars to the growing spirit of the con- gregation according to its national peculiarities. Yet a civilized people has of course more claim than a barbarous one, that the missionaries should really put themselves into the customs, views, habits, into the whole spirit and character of the people, according to its historical development, in arranging its church organization ; and, so far as national peculiarities do not oppose the spirit to the outward condition of native Christians, in tlie Transactions of tlic Alhihahad Conference, and the Allgemeine Misaiona Zeitschrift, 187f), p. 15 sqq. AS INDIAN NATIONAL CHUECH. 185 of the gospel, allow as much freedom as possible. The great aim of the organization of a future self- supporting Indian church, which should only take out of the forms of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, and Independent Churches, that which agrees with the Indian spirit, has not from the beginning been kept enough in mind. Hence the manifold discus- sions of the native pastors, — yea, of the educated heathen Christians in general, — against the domi- nating attitude of the missionaries, which has not everywhere been brotherly enough. The recogni- tion of neglect here appears to be gaining ground continually.^ It is high time. For now, with the conversion of the masses, begun in Southern India, the question of founding an Indian evangelical national church will become more and more a burning question. Precisely in India, under Chris- tian European rule, the law stated above must be kept especially clear in mind, — not to denation- alize. But, with all the imperfections and necessity for extension of the system of mission work hereto- fore employed, the results given above, and the success of recent times, show a progress most remarkable. And it must not be forgotten, amidst much that our criticism demands, that 1 Cy. the address of the missionarv Mr. Barton (Church Mis- sionary Society) at the Allahabad Conference ; Allgemeine Mis- sions Zeitschrift, 1876, p. 30, sqq.; Granl, is before quoted, p, 147, sqq., 155. 186 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: the moral influence of Christianity and of Chris- tians in China, and also in India, is almost wholly sustained through the missionaries alone. "But for the English missionaries," says " The Friend of India " (a secular organ), "the natives of India would have a ver}^ poor opinion of Englishmen. The missionar}^ alone, of all Englishmen, is the representative of a disinterested desire to elevate and improve the people." ^ And a Hindoo in very high standing said a short time ago to the wife of a missionary closely related to myself, " You mis- sionaries are the only persons in whom we really have confidence." 2 Hence they are a very im- portant bond between the little-loved English gov- ernment and the Indian people. Since the last famine, and the self-sacrificing activity of many missionaries, this trust has increased. Since then you could hear whole crowds of people shouting, to the vexation of the Brahmins, " Our own peo- ple did nothing for us, and, were it not for the generosity of Christians, more than half of us would have perished. Christians worship the true God, and are in possession of the true religion; 1 See The Christian, April 3, 1879, p. 5. '■^ The same is testified by Prof. Williams. See Indian Fe- male Evanjrelist, July, 1879, p. 3.'}6. Cf., too, the testimony of the well-known Brahmin Keshub Chunder Sen, given recently in a public speech of his in Calcutta, on " Who is Christ?" referring to the debt of gratitude which India owes to the missionaries for their self-devotion. See Indian Christian Herald, 1879, Nos. 7 and 8, and Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 416, sqq. HINDOOISM DYING. 187 whereas our countrymen worship false gods, and observe false religions." ^ In fact, there has been more done in India than the figures in missionary statistics show. Many secret believers avoid making their profession pub- lic,^ and often, upon their death-beds, astonish the missionary by their faith in Christ. Idolatry is continually losing all credit. The process of the complete displacement of Brahminism comes more and more clearly to view, — a spiritual revolution which has not its origin in the mission alone, not in the rationalistic influences of the school and science, in the human spirit of law-giving and government, in the example of Christian house- keeping and its quiet effects, but takes its course irrepressibly through India, and continually per- forates the old stereot3^ped views.^ Even in Be- nares a class of learned men is growing up, who are not willing longer to remain under the yoke of the past, in whose eyes the religion of a many- headed Deity and sculptures, of holy springs and streams, lose all enchantment. And, if the people become better than their gods, their worship of these is at an end. The Hindoos themselves feel and know that 1 London Missionary Society's Report for 1879, p. 15. Accord- ing to this report, the influence of caste has been much shaken by the behavior of the heathen during the famine. 2 The Women of India, p. 20. 3 Cf. the Report of the London Missionary Society, as early as 1871, pp. 49-51. 188 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: the downfall of their faith is inevitable. Hence the growing unrest which is taking hold of the masses.^ Hence the attempts to strengthen the old sinking faith, by the fusion of many religious forms, which always precede the downfall of a particular creed. These are numerous but short- lived. The latest — the Brahmo-Somaj — was still- born, and its dissolution has already begun; but it must in its manner also help prepare the way for Christianity. Its founder, the well-known Ke- shub Chunder Sen, was obliged to acknowledge years ago, that " The spirit of Christianity has always pervaded the whole atmosphere of Indian society ; and we breathe, think, feel, and move in a Christian atmosphere. Native society is being roused, enlightened, and reformed under the influ- ence of Christianity ! " ^ And the same half-hea- then, half-Christian rhetorician recently crowned this his testimony, in a public speech at Calcutta, with the confession, " Our hearts are touched, conquered, overcome, by a Higher Power; and this Power is Christ : Christ, not the British Gov- ernment, rules India ! No one but Christ has de- served the precious diadem of the Indian crown, and he will have it ! " ^ Max Midler had good 1 See the accounts by Rev. Mr. Jenkins, Mildmay Conference, p. 1G7, sqq. 2 Lecture on The Future Church; see, too, the London Mis- sionary Society's Report, 1870, p. 33. 8 See extracts of this remarkable speech in the Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 147. MALACCA, SIAIM, LAOS. 189 reason, therefore, to say to the late Norman McLeod, " From what I know of the Hindoos, they seem to me riper for Christianity than any nation that ever accepted the gospel." ^ XIV. We hasten past the beginnings of mis- sion work on the peninsula of Malacca, where, unfortunately, Islam preceded the gospel ; with its large Chinese population, as long as the Celestial Empire itself was closed, it formed an important outpost for Chinese missions ; operations are car- ried on to-day in the North (Tenasserim) by the American Baptists and Presbyterians, and in the South (Singapore) by the Propagation Society. We also hasten past Siam and Laos, where the American Presbyterians have founded small con- gregations, partly in and around Bangkok, on the coast, and partly already far inland in Chiengmai,^ where, recently, under the caprice of a despotic ruler, the blood of martyrs has freely been shed.^ XY. With China, as is known, we come to the greatest, most populous heathen nation in the world. The number of inhabitants, however, has been largely dnninished during the last twenty- 1 See Evangelical Christendom, Jnne, 187(5, p. 178. 2 See Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- terian Church, 1879, p, 56, sqq. In Siam, altogether, 133 commu- nicants, in Laos thirty-one. 3 See Foreign Missionary (American Presbyterian Church)^ March, 1879; Calw. Mission.-Magazin, 1878, p. 30, sqq. 190 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: five years by rebellions, famine, and plagues ; for merly they counted four hundred millions, whila to-day some travellers think there are really not more than two hundred and forty millions.^ Since the first opium-war, by the peace of Nan- king, 1842, five harbor cities have been open to the gospel and to trade ; and since the second war, by the treaty of Tientsin, 1860, the interior also has been opened to the gospel and to trade ; so that it is but a short time that the Middle King- dom has become the scene of extended evangelical missionary operations. The opening-up of the land by force in the interest of a heartless, much- to-be-deplored commercial policy, which gives to every European the appearance of prosecuting his own selfish ends ; the shortness of the time in which missionary effort has been put forth in the midst of this strange country ; the enormous diffi culties in the land and people, in the language, manners, religion, and politics of China, with her culture and literature petrified by existence for three thousand years, which have conduced in- finitely to the increase of heathen self-conceit, with practical materialism and eudaimonism com- pletely ruling the life of the masses, — all this would fully justify the results of Protestant mis- sions, if they were exceedingly small. 1 According to the Rev. J. H. Taylor, as only 240,000,000: Mildmay Conference, p. 211. In several provinces the presen*- population amounts only to one-fifth of what it used to be. CHINA. 191 But this is not the case. The old missionary societies have comprehended the importance of opening this chief door to the evangelization of the world ; and, while previously they could only come in contact with this great kingdom through a few messengers on the outer points, within the last eighteen jeavs they have increased their working forces more than fourfold, and have drawn many sister societies after them into the field. To-day we find twenty-six missionary societies (including the Bible societies, twenty-nine), with two hun- dred and forty or two hundred and fifty or- dained missionaries and sixty-three female teach- ers, engaged there in the work,^ and the number is increasing continually. Thirteen of these so- cieties, with seventy-eight married and forty-four unmarried missionaries, are from England (the Church Missionary Society with twenty, then the London, Wesleyan, and various Presbyterian so- cieties of Scotland and England, the Propagation Society with only two, but the China Inland mis- sion with forty-nine missionaries and twenty inde- pendent female teachers) ; eleven societies from America, with seventy-seven married missionaries, sixteen unmarried, and forty female teachers. Of these the American Board has seventeen mission- 1 See Records of the General Missionary Conference a1 Shanghai, 1877. Prof. Leggo, Mildmay Conference, p. 171. Christlieb, The Indo-British Opium-Trade and its Effects, 1878, p. 61, sqq. 192 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ÄHSSIONS : aries, three medical missionaries, twenty-five fe- male teachers ; the Presbyterians, twenty-one mis- sionaries, sixteen female teachers, three missionary physicians (two female) ; the Methodist Episcopal, nine missionaries and nine female helpers;^ the Free Baptists, American Missionary Association, Reformed Dutch, American Lutheran, and others; and the Continent of Europe only two societies, with twenty-two married and four unmarried mis- sionaries, — the Basel and Barmen Missionary So- cieties, with the latter of which the Berlin Chi- nese mission was united withhi the past few years. These forces are divided among ninety-one central and five hundred and eleven out-stations. The available fruit of their labor has often, until re- cently, been underrated, by taking the number of communicants as the whole number of those who belonged to the Protestant congregations. But in the autumn of 1878, at the Mildmay Conference, Prof. Dr. Legge, one of the oldest workers in China, and best acquainted with it, and the Rev. Hudson Taylor, the leader of the Chinese Inland mission, who has twice travelled through Cliina, have taught us better. ^ AccorcUng to them, in 1877 there were organized in those stations three hundred and twelve to tlu'be hundred and eighteen 1 See the last Annual Reports of these societies. 2 Mildmay Conference, p. 171, sqq., and the Monthly Maj^a- zine of the China Inland mission, China's Millions. See various numbers of the last two years. CHINA: GEEAT ADVANCES. 193 Protestant Chinese congregations (of wliich eigh- teen are already entirely self-supporting, and two hundred and forty-three partly so), with thirteen thousand one hundred and forty-four (according to a somewhat later computation, thirteen thou- sand five hundred and fifteen) communicants, and about fifty thousand souls, who are connected with the evangelical churches. The former con- tribute 120,000 per year for churches and mis- sions; that is, $1.50 per head. There are already at work among these, seventy-three native ordained pastors and preachers, five hundred and eleven female helpers, seventy-one colporteurs, and ninety Bible-women. These societies and congregations together maintain twenty schools of theology with two hundred and thirty-one students, thirty board- ing-schools for higher education, with six hundred and eleven boys, thirty-eight with seven hundred and seventy-seven girls, one hundred and seventy- seven day schools for boys, with four to five thou- sand;^ eighty-two for girls, one thousand three hundred and seven scholars. There are sixteen mission hospitals and twenty-four mission apothe- cary-shops, under the supervision of the medical missionaries. What an advance since 1843, when the number of converts was six ! I ask, is it just, in face of this 1 Mildmay Conference, p. 171, misprints the number of day schools as 299. .See below the statistics of the schools of the several provinces. 194 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: exactly-computed (since May, 1877), trustworthy result in a work of a few decades, to believe there is no real success in the former methods of mission- work in China? or is Dr. Legge right, when he says, " Already the results up to the present time completely justify our missionary efforts there, and our hopes for increasing success in the future "?^ The Roman Catholic mission had, in 1876, four hundred and four thousand five hundred and thir- ty adherents m China,^ with an annual increase of about two thousand souls.^ But she has worked for this result almost three hundred years. If the Protestant mission, which increased the number of its converts during the last thirty-five years two thousand fold, continues to gain in the same ratio, there will be in China in 1913, twenty- six million communicants and about one hundred million evangelical Christians.* If we consider for a moment, how the small centres of gospel light are divided in this great empire, we shall see them running partly along the east coast from Hongkong and Canton, to the frontiers of Manchuria in the north, partly pene- trating from 3^ear to year more toward the central provinces, while the west provinces are still almost as good as untouched by the gospel. 1 As above quoted, p. 109. 2 According to the Bulletin des Missions Catholiques for 1876, « According to Dr. Legge, as above quoted, p. 174. * Dr. Legge, as above quoted, p. 177. CHINA TEA7ERSED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 196 In the province Kwang-tung, in front of which lies the English island Hongkong, partly upon this and partly upon the mainland, with the capi- tal Canton, we find the German societies : Basel with four central stations, the number of whose church-members has increased more rapidly within the last few years than ever before (now one thou- sand eight hundred and twenty-seven baptized) ; Barmen with five stations (the centre is now Can- ton) and eight to nine hundred Christians (1877, seven hundred and forty) : both having the same experience, that the race of the Hakkas is incom- parably more accessible than that of the Puntis. In addition, there is the foundling-house, Bethesda, of the Berlin Ladies' Society, on Hongkong ; ^ also a number of English (Church Missionary, London, English Presbyterians, Wesleyans) and American (Presbyterian and Baptist) societies. There are here, altogether, about fifty (including Hong- kong, sixty-two) European and American missiona- ries and missionary physicians. Of these Canton, which now has fourteen chapels open almost daily for divine service, has twenty-eight, Swatow nine, &c., with together one hundred and forty-six native helpers, nine central and eighty-two out- stations.2 There are thirty-five organized congre- 1 For further particulars as to the latter, see the quarterly and annual reports of the Berlin Ladies' Association for China. 2 These and the figures of the other provinces are taken from the statements of the Rev. H. Taylor, Mildmay Conference, pp. 247-254. 196 PEOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: gations, with three thousand one hundred and ninety communicants, seventy-seven day schools, in which two thousand one hundred and thirteen scholars are instructed. From here on, farther toward the north and far into the interior, we find only English and American missions. In the Province Fuh-kien, stretching along the coast, we enter the most productive Protestant mission. Here in Amoy, the London and English Presby- terian Societies are working side by side with the American Reformed Dutch ; farther to the north, in Fu-chau, the Church Missionary Society, the Methodist Episcopal, and American Board, alto- gether not more than thirty-eight missionaries, but with three hundred and twenty native helpers, in two central and two hundred and seventy-three out stations. In these there are already one hun- dred and seventy-three organized congregations, with six thousand two hundred and forty-seven communicants, one hundred and forty-nine schools, with two thousand one hundred and thirty-one scholars. Of the twelve larger cities of Fu, ten are occupied, while of the sixty-five Lien or chief towns of the district, the greater part are without any mission whatever. Upon the island of For- mosa, which lies before this coast, twelve years ago the English Presbyterians, recently strength- ened by a number of missionaries from the young Canadian-Presbyterian mission, opened a very flourishing mission, working especially through CHIKA TBAVEESED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 197 mission hospitals. The mission numbers already thirteen congregations for Chinese, and thirteen of the aborigines, with about one thousand bap- tized converts and at least three thousand attend- ants at public worship. The Canadians have been able within the last five years to establish twenty congregations, and are with the English Presby- terians on a strong footing. Together they pub- lish yearly ^ Christian Almanac in Chinese, of which they have distributed twelve thousand copies. The missionaries of Amoy have trans- lated the New Testament into the vernacular of Amoy, and, this language being spoken in For- mosa, this translation will be used there. ^ Next in situation and number of converts comes the province Cheh-kiang, further up the east coast, with Ningpo, where the mission was discontinued for a time on account of the disorders of the rebel- lion. Now this field, as in Fuhkien, is promising. In Ningpo alone, eighteen missionaries are at work, in Hang-chau twelve, &c., in all forty-five missionaries and one hundred and fifty native helpers, divided among eleven central and ninety- four out-stations : fifty-six congregations, with over eighteen hundred communicants, have been organ- ized, and sixtj^-one schools with one thousand and twenty-six scholars. Among the English and 1 Taylor as above quoted, and Der christliche Apologete, May 6, 1871); also, a private letter from Rev. Thomas Barclay, For- mosa, February, 1880. 198 PEOTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIOJS^S : American missionary societies in this smallest Chi" nese province, the London China Inland mission is specially well represented. They have already opened a number of the chief department-towns to missions ; and the American Presbyterians have here seven missionaries, eleven ordained native preachers, seventeen evangelists, thirty-nine native } elpers, fourteen congregations with seven hun- dred and thirty-four communicants and thirty-four chapels ; ^ then come the American Southern Bap- tists and Presbyterians, the English Church Mis- sionary Society, and others. It is especially worthy of note, that out of the numerous vegetarians in this province, many converts have been won by the Presbyterians.^ The province Kiang-su, lying farther to the north, in which Shanghai, Nanking, Su-chau, and Chiu-kiang form the most important mission cen- tres, has been occupied in five central and twenty- eight out-stations, by thirty-seven missionaries and sixty-four native helpers, nineteen organized con- gregations, with seven hundred and eighty com- municants, seventy-four schools, with one thou- sand five hundred and seventy-six scholars, are the first fruits of this work. The field in Shanghai proves much harder than in Cheh-kiang : the other stations are all comparatively young. The prov- 1 Report of tlio Board of Foreign Missions of the rresby- terian Church, 1879, p. (id. 2 Ibid., p. G8. CHINA TRAVERSED IN ALL DIRECTIONS. 199 ince Shan-tung is somewhat less occupied, wherein, with the exception of Che-foo, Tung-chau, and one or two distant places, only thirteen out-stations have been touched ^ by the mission since 1860. Considering the shortness of the time and the small number of workers (twenty-eight missiona- ries and twenty-five native helpers), the progress here is very encouraging. There are to-day four- teen congregations Avith over eight hundred com- municants, and twenty-six schools with five hun- dred and thirty-four scholars. According to the latest report of the American Presbyterians, the people in Shan-tung are " unusually ready to re- ceive the truth." ^ Similar reports come from the London mission and Methodist New Connection.^ As the most northerly of the coast provinces of China proper, comes the important Chi-li province, with Peking and Tientsin. Here there are forty- six missionaries and missionary physicians with fifty-eight native helpers at work, in four central and thirty-six out-stations ; in Peking, twenty- nine ; in Tientsin, nine, &c. The city Kalgan, built immediately upon the great Chinese Wall, forms the basis for the mission work among the 1 According to the statistics of the Shanghai Conference, 1877; others mention thirty-four outlying stations, owing to their in- cluding many outlying stations of Peking, i.e., of the province Chi-li; Taylor, as above quoted, p. 251, note. 2 Report, 1879, p. 63. In 1878, there was an increase of 114 communicants. 3 See Chronicle of the London Missionary Society,March,1879, p. 57, sqq. 200 PKOTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: INIono-olians on the other side of the wall. At present in Peking, the London Missionary Society has the largest Protestant congregation and a mis- sion hospital, the American Board two small con- gregations, a number of schools, and a mission press. Also the Church Missionary Society, the American Protestant Episcopal, the Methodist Episcopal, and the American Presbyterian Church- es are represented by missions in this Chinese capital. This province has altogether twenty- three organized congregations, one thousand two hundred and seventeen communicants, forty-seven schools, and seven hundred and fifty-six scholars. Here, as everywhere in China, the number of scholars, in proportion to that of the schools, is still somewhat less than that of other mission districts, — a proof of the great and continuing influence of lower and higher heathen schools. In the interior provinces of the empire, Hu-peh with Hankau, where the London Missionary So- ciety has a very fruitful field,^ and other cities, have the most agencies: five stations and six out-stations with twenty-one missionaries, thirteen native helpers, seven organized congregations, six hundred and twenty-seven communicants, eleven schools with two hundred and forty-five scholars ; while in the province Gan-hwuy with four mis- gionaries and seventeen helpers, and Kiang-si with eight missionaries and seven or eight helpers, the 1 See Report of the London Missionary Society, 1879, p. 10, sqq. ALL CHINA ACCESSIBLE. 201 work is just begun. Outside of the eigMeen prov- inces of China proper, of which nine are wholly unoccupied, we find north-east of Peking, in a province of jManchuvia, Shing-king, one of the out- posts of evangelical missions, three missionaries of the Irish Presbyterian and of the Scotch United Presbyterian Churches, having two central and six out-stations, with a numbejc of schools and small congregations. Of more importance, however, than statistics on special points, is the fact that since the Che- foo convention of the Chinese magistrates (in consequence of the murder of Margary) the unre- strained right of travelling through the whole empire has been given to all foreigners. On the strength of this, during the past few years China has been traversed in almost all directions by evangelical missionaries, who testify of the great willingness with which the people in the interior receive Christian books and tracts. The mis- sionary, Mr. T. McCarthy (of the China Inland mission) with one of his companions went preach- ing through the whole land (even before the mur- derers of Margary), and came on their way unhin- dered to Burmah.i He says, " The people of the interior are prepared to hear the gospel. The former difficulties are to a great extent removed. During a journey of three thousand miles in 1 See his own stat(^ments at the Mildmay Conference, p. 255, sqq. 202 PROTESTANT FOKEIGN MISSIONS: China, I was not called on once to present my passport, nor had I occasion to appeal to a magis- trate for aid of any kind. Yet in every cit}^ town, and village through which I passed, I was ena- bled to preach the gospel to large numbers of people." ^ What a door is now opened there ! One of the Irish Presbyterian missionaries went a thousand miles through Manchuria, preaching as he went, up to the Russian border, where he came upon the Greek mission, and found in many houses a good, simple catechism of the evangelical doctrines, which the Russian missionaries had written.^ Thus gradu- ally the golden chain of Christian light is united from one end of Asia to the other. XVI. If we cast a glance at the internal condi- tion of the missions, such a discerning man as Dr. Legge assures us that the missions and missionaries of Protestant churches are held in higher esteem by the people and government of China, than the Roman Catholic.^ Not that we wish to diminish in any respect the results of the latter or the sin- cerity of the faith of their adherents, which many have sealed with their blood. But the Protestant missionaries are free from their false policy, much 1 Ibid., p. 256. 2 See the statements of the Rev. Fleming Stevenson, Mild> may Conference, p. 219. 8 Mildmay Conference, p. 175. MISSION PKESS IN CHINA. 203 hatecl by the Chinese rulers, the policy tu which France lends aid, of interference in civil matters and of demanding certain rights over their con- verts ; from their celibacy and confessional, which are regarded with so much mistrust; from their dependence on the Pope, and their no less dis- agreeable practice of the last anointing. So far at least, the prospect of our missionaries for the future is much brighter. In addition to this, there are the literary achievements of the Prot- estant missions in China. First, the translation of the Bible, which since the first work of Morri- son and Milne has little by little been greatly improved, so that now the British Bible Society is distributing an edition, which, for faithfulness in its contents and elegance of style, need not shun comparison with any translation of the Bible whatever ; then, the many Christian books and tracts, explanations of particular parts of the Bible, religious periodicals and those generally educational, from the pens of missionaries, which have found their way from the South to Peking and into the royal palace ; editions of Chinese philosophers, by Protestant missionaries.^ All this in so short a time compares equally well with the scientific achievements of the Koman Catholics. Indeed, the internal progress of missionary meth- ods in China, through literary work of all kinds, ' 1 For further particulars see Evangel. Mission. -Magazin, 1879, p. 158, sqq. 204 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: is to-day very remarkable. An edition of tlie Chi- nese classics, composed of selections, with notes written in a Christian apologetic spirit by Dr. Faber of the Rhenish mission, at the request of the General Missionary Conference in China, must become a powerful, though indirect, means for winning this land of culture to Christianity. But this work requires particularly gifted and capable workers. If anywhere, surely the very best men should be sent to China. The brotherly, large-hearted catholicity of the missionaries belonging to the different Protestant societies must be commended as a very hopeful sign for the future. When, for example, the first Chinese Presbyterian church was dedicated in Peking, all the Protestant missionaries there, Pres- byterians, Episcopalians, Wesleyans, Independ- ents, with their native Christians, came together as with one heart to witness the ceremony. The Presbyterian Missionary Societies here have even combined, and formed a Presbyterian Union, with a common synod. The native Chinese Christians, however weak they may be in many places, according to Mr. Fleming Stevenson, — who returned in 1878 from a journey of inspection around the world, — will already, in part, stand comparison with congrega- tions of old Christian countries. He says,^ '' I have found nowhere in Christian lands men and women 1 Mildmay Conference, pp. 220, 221. THE HARVEST RIPENING IN CHINA. 205 of a higher type than I met with in China, of a finer spiritual experience, of a higher spiritual tone, or of nobler spiritual life." Many bear about on their bodies scars and brand-marks from the tortures they have endured for the sake of the gos- pel.^ " 1'liey could cut off our heads," said some earnest men to Mr. Stevenson, "but they cannot behead Christ." Even in recent times there is manifest in some places the continuance of the old hatred of foreigners. Ever and anon a partial persecution breaks out, as the other day at one of the stations of the Basel mission. It can be easily understood that in a territory of such great magnitude, the different fields must vary in productiveness. In the large seaports, here as elsewhere the word sown finds a hard soil. But it is of great value here, because many coun- try people come and go,^ and carry the good seed away with them. In the interior, as a rule, the masses listen to the gospel with much less prejudice. During the past few years, however, by means of the terrible famine in North-east China (about twelve millions of souls perished^), God has loosened the soil more deeply in many places than ever before, and broken more thoroughly the defiance of the old national 1 Bev. F. T. Turner, Mildmay Conference, p. 258. 2 According to the Rev. F. Stevenson, Mildmay Conference, pp. 217, 218. 8 See Rev. F. Stevenson, Our Mission to the East, 1878, p. 31. 206 PEOTESTAKT FOREIGK IVnSSIOKS : pride. Bands of children, offered for sale at a few dollars per head, exhumed corpses, greedily de- voured, show how suddenly this ancient, proud, civilized people — whose common peasantry can trace back their ancestry farther than our oldest princes and nobility — can sink back again to the lowest depths of degradation, even to cannibalism.^ Then the Christians had — as a short time before in India — an excellent opportunity of showing the superiority of true culture, renewing and ennobling the depths of the heart and mind, over the superfi- cial, outward, rusted, and semi-civilization of China ; the grandeur of Christian love, born of God, and therefore self-forgetting, compared with heathen selfishness, unconcealed by the gloss of outward education. And they did it. Thousands of dollars collected among Christians in Asia, and especially in England, were distributed among the starving, and with such self-sacrifice that five missionaries fell victims to their over-exertions.^ From the glar- ing contrast between this Christian aid thus ren- dered, and the heartless, sometimes thievish, con- 1 See Christlieb, The Indo-British Opium-Trade and its Ef- fect, p. 43, sqq. 2 The Slianghai Courier said, with reference to this, "If we contrast the labors of these men with the selfish life of the great masses of the people, we are constrained to express our highest admiration and gratitude to the former, and be thankful to have such examples given us. These men are the pioneers of civiliza- tion and of Christianity, and have fallen, sword in hand, on the field of battle. And it is encouraging to see that fresh volun- teers at once hasten to fill up the gap." BELIEF OF STARVING IN CHINA 207 duct of the mandarins, the eyes of thousands of Chinese have been opened to see the inward majesty of Christianity ; so that the strangers, whom from youth up they had been taught to despise, suddenly appeared to them as ministers of life. When the starving Chinese asked the Christian Samaritans who journeyed about giving assistance, '^ Whence do you come, and why ? Who sends us this ? We are quite a different people," and received with astonishment the reply, " We come from Christian lands; the Christians wish to help you in your great need: whether you are a different race, or not, we are all the cliildren of the one great Fa- ther," — completely overcome, one would hear them cry out, " This is new : we have never experienced the like of this." i " The distribution of gifts of Christian charity through the missionaries," writes Mr. Forrest, the British consul in Tientsin, " will do actually more to promote the opening-up of China than a dozen wars." In fact, it seems now in some of the north- ern provinces, for example, Shan-tung, that the door has been flung open Avider than ever for the gospel ; hundreds are eager for Christian instruc- tion.2 The moral effect of this deed-sermon of 1 See further particulars in the Annual Report of the London Missionary Society, 1878, p. 57, sqq. : 1879, p. 8, sqq. 2 In the town of Chan-hua (province of Shang-tung) these at present number three to four hundred. See Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, March, 1879, p. 57. According to the periodical, Spirit of Missions, a large and splendid temple of 208 PKOTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS: Christian charity is precisely here the more cheer- ing, because perliaps in no other heathen land has belief in the unselfishness of Christian love — and, indeed, through the fault of Christians — been made so difficult as in tliis land of China groaning under the withering curse of opium. Let us never forget that to all the ordinarily enormous hin- derances of evangelization, there was added here, decades ago, an offence great enough to make the heathen wholly disbelieve in the possibility of good intentions on the part of Christians, — the opium- trade ! an offence which works the physical, moral, and social ruin of China, with a terrible progres- sion ; a traffic forced upon China by a Christian power, only that she may assist in meeting the cost of the administration of India ; a traffic which China hates, and for the discontinuance of which she has often begged, for hundreds of thousands of Chinese, by the curse of the opium-plague, an- nually sink into an early grave. ^ Now at last the Christian conscience of England is raising an ever- increasing and more general protest against this crying injustice.^ How far it will be successful, the gods was, in a district of the North, placed at the disposal of tlio missionaries, as a token of gratitude. They at once turned it into a Cliristian church. For Mr. Forrest's report, see China's Millions, November, 1875), p. 134, sqq. I See Christliel), The Indo-British Opium-Trade and its Ef- fect, pp. 12, .sqq. ; ;>7, .'^qq. ; (>'■>, .sqq. ' At the close of the; addresscss on Missions at Basel, Sept. 5, 187*.), at the Seventh General Conference of the Evangelical Alli- ance, the following resolution, proposed by myself, supported INJURY OF THE OPIUM TRADE. 209 cannot be determined at present, on account of the difficulties in the finances of India. But the prej- dices against all that comes from England and so against English missions, which have been fostered by the opium-trade, are finally beginning to give way, since the aid came from England to the fam- ine-stricken districts. The Chinese Government instruc^ted its ambassador in London to return thanks publicly to those who so philanthropically sent assistance. Thus the Chinese mission in this respect appears increasingly hopeful. " The pre- liminary quarrying of stones," as it was often called, by degrees is transformed into the much' promising work of building. by the Rev. W. Arthur (London) and Herr Th. Necker (Geneva), and signed also by the Secretaries of tlie English Branch of the Evangelical Alliance, was passed unanimously: " That this Con- ference, prompted by the reports laid before it as to the present state of evangelical missions in China and India, expresses its full sympathy with the efforts for the suppression of the opium- traffic which have been made during many years past, and desires to support the protests against this trade which from time to time have been raised by various evangelical and missionary churches, and by many distinguished friends of Christian mis- sions. " The Conference unites with their English brethren in declar- ing this long-established trade to be a crying injustice against China, a cause of offence which deeply injures the honor of the Christian name, both in Christian and heathen countries, and especially an immense obstacle to the spread of Christian mis- sionary work. " The Conference feels constrained to place on record its con- viction that a change in the policy of England as regards this traffic is urgently necessary, and it instructs its President to bring this resolution to the knowledge, of Her Majesty's Secrotary of State for India." 210 PROTESTANT FOREIGN ISHSSIONS : XVII. With a glance at Japan, we close this survey of the peoples and fields of Protestant missionary work. Upon this " Land of the Rising Sun," opened by the commercial treaties of 1854 and 1858 with England and America, the dawn has at length broken. Japan was first entered by Protestant missionaries from America in 1859 and 1860, — an ordained missionary of the Protestant Episcopal Church, three of the Presbyterian Board, and three of the Reformed Church of America. The work began by instruction in the government and private schools, in which, however, it was not granted them at that time to give systematic re- ligious instruction.^ The public preaching of the gospel Avas also not allowed from 1852 to 1872. Only private instruction in the houses was per- mitted. But from the schools the Christian leaven began to work. Then the Scotch and American Bible Societies began to send their agents. Chi- nese Testaments and tracts were soon widely cir- culated. Large chests were often sold in a few diys.^ Soon after, still other American societies, such as the American Board of Boston, in 1869, the Methodist Episcopal, and, most recently, the "Evangehcal Union" (Cleveland, O.), the Scotch and English Missionary Societies, entered this 1 According to tlio Report of the Rev. Dr. Ferris (of the Re- formed Church of America) at the Mildmay Conference, p. 238, sqq. 2 According to Mr. W. Slowan of the National Bible Society of Scotland, Ibid., p. 2G0; Ferri.s, p. 243. IN JAPAN. 211 field. The unprecedented quickness with which Japan adopted Western civilization (agreed to in 1869) prepared the way involuntarily for the spread of the gospel, and made her continually less able to enforce the laws formerly enacted against Christianity. But the baptism of the first converts,^ in 1865, although undisputed, remained for some time the only instance of the kind. It happened during the week of prayer in 1872, that some Japanese students, who had been re- ceiving instruction from the missionaries in pri- vate classes, took part in the English meeting in Yokohama. " After portions of the Acts of the Apostles had been read and explained, they fell on their knees, and were heard to beseech God with tears, that he would pour out his Spirit on Japan, as once he did on the first assembly of apostles. These prayers were characterized by intense earnestness ; captains of men-of-war, Eng- lish and American, who witnessed the scene, re- marked, 'The prayers of the Japanese take the heart out of us.'^ Thus the first Protestant church in Japan was founded. A turning point had been reached." Some who had decided for Christ came forward with the confession of their faith, and in March, 1872, the first Japanese con- gregation of eleven converts was constituted in Yokohama. Within scarcely six years these 1 See Missionary Magazine of Basel, 186G, p. 352. 2 Kev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, p. 243. 212 PBOTESTANT FOREIGN JVHSSIONS : eleven increased to twelve hundred communicants, with thirty to forty congregations. Of these the Presbyterian Church of America has six stations ; these are under eight missionaries, who, in 1878, reported two hundred and twenty new members received, making in all six hundred and thirty-two full members.^ How much quicker the results here than m China ! The missionaries of the Reformed and Presby- terian Churches of America, and the United Pres- byterians of Scotland, organized their congrega- tions into a Presbyterian Union, with a com- mon General Synod, which at the close of the year 1879 already included twenty congregations, with eleven hundred adult members. Already there are in the service of the Union five or six Japanese pastors, under the supervision of the missionaries, while the joint theological seminary has twenty-six students.^ This is now the largest and strongest Protestant church in Japan ; and it is spreading, especially in the capital, Yedo (or now Tokio), and in Yokohama, and already con- templates extending the work to Corea. Of the remaining Protestants in Japan, the greater part are connected with the American Board in and around Osaka (south-west from Yedo), Kioto (where there is a seminary under 1 Sec Anuual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Cliurch, 1879, p. 71. 2 Rev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, pp. 243-244. IN JAPAN. 213 the direction of the missionaries), Kobe, and Okayama. In four principal and fourteen out- stations have been organized sixteen churches, twelve of them self-supporting, with five hundred communicants. Twelve missionaries, three phy- sicians, thirty female missionaries, eight native pastors, eighteen evangelists, fourteen teachers, and seven Bible-women are at work. The latter not only work in the schools, but also take part in the work of evangelization, with remarkable suc- cess. To this is due the fact, so entirely unusual in a young mission, that there is already a com- paratively large number of native women in full church-membership. Delegates from this society (in January, 1878) formed a native missionary society, for the promotion of the work of evangeli- zation.i The rest of the Protestant Christians are di- vided between the missionaries of the Protestant- Episcopal and Methodist-Episcopal Churches (the latter with seven stations : Yokohama, Tokio, Na- gasaki, Hakodate, &c., eight missionaries, forty native helpers, and about four hundred mem- bers 2) ; the Baptist churches of America ; also the Propagation (four missionaries) and Church Mis- sionary Societies ; the last-named having five sta- tions (especially Nagasaki, their oldest station, 1 See Annual Report of the American Board, 1878, pp. 85-92. 2 According to Annual Report of the Methodist-Episcopal Church, January, 1880, p. 161, there were 114 full members and X73 prohationers, 346 scholaxs, 773 Sunday-school scholars. 214 PROTESTANT FOEEIGN MISSIONS : then Tokio, Osaka, &c.), eight missionaries, and one hundred and ninety-seven native Christians, and nine schools.^ The English Baptist Missionary Society is also about to begin a mission in Japan. There are now connected with all these missions at least thirty Christian schools for boys and girls, with a thousand scholars. Almost every mission has also an institute for the higher education of girls, and these institutions are very popular. The Gospels have been translated into Japanese, and already distributed by tens of thousands ; and the transla- tion of the whole New Testament is now com- pleted. Missionaries from almost all the societies are on the committee for translating the Bible, and work together. ^ A Christian weekly news- paper is published by the American Board, and circulated throughout all parts of the kingdom. Since 1878 the number of ordained Protestant missionaries, sent out by the American and British Societies, has increased from ten to sixty- six ; 3 of unmarried female teachers to over forty. The number of organized Protestant churches is 1 Abstract of the Report, 1880, p. 19. 2 The Rev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, p. 244; Church Missionary Intelligencer, May, 1880, p. 286. In May, 1878, a general missionary conference took place in Tokio, chiefly with ft view to introduce a uniform translation of the Bible. 8 Inclusive of the missionaries' wives, the medical missiona«- ries, and the independent female teachers, the total number of American and European workers is already over a hundred and Bixty. See Missionary Herald, November, 1879, p. 441. DOWNFALL OF THE OLD KELIGION. 215 sixty-four, of which twelve are wholly and twenty- six partly self-supporting, with a total of two thousand five hundred and sixty-one adult com- municants and about seven thousand Christians. These are everywhere being trained to self-support and personal activity. About twelve ordained na • tive preachers and a hundred and fifty catechists and other native helpers are at work in thirty-five chief and sixty-five out-stations. There are three theological seminaries wherein already a hundred and seventy-three young men are being trained for the ministry .1 All this, be it remembered, has taken place in a land, the government of which, in the seventeenth century, after the expulsion of the Portuguese and the massacre of the native (Catholic) converts, prohibited all Christians, under pain of death, from entering the kingdom, and in an open proclamation declared that even if the king of Portugal, " or the God of the Chris- tians himself, should transgress this law, he would pay the penalty with his head." Now ruined Buddhist temples furnish the materials for the erection of Christian churches.^ Christianity has 1 According to the statistics of the General Missionary Con- ference in Tokio, in 1878. See Church Missionary Intelligencer, January, 1879, p. 58; Allgemeine Missions Zeitschrift, 1879, p. 236. Rev. Dr. Ferris, Mildmay Conference, p. 243, estimated the aggregate number of Japanese Protestant Christians, in 1878, at about five thousand. The rapid increase of church-members is proved by the following figures: In 1872, 20; 1875, 538; 1876, 1,004. 2 Der christliche Apologete, May 5, 1879; Der christliche Bot- schafter, Oct. 1/^, 1879. 216 PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS: pressed even into the State prisons, and is being considered more and more a means of reforma- tion.i But the land is still far from being everywhere opened. Missionaries and foreigners generally are confined, for places of residence, to the few towns menti^nöd in the treaties. In order to settle in other places, a special permission — which is often granted — must be obtained. The old laws against Christianity have not yet been rescinded, and the distrust of strangers is clearly manifest among the ruling classes.2 The Buddhist clergy, provoked by the missionary zeal of the young Christian congregations, are about to send missionaries to Europe and America for the spread of Buddhism, as a counter attack,^ for which some of our modern philosophers are preparing the way to the best of their ability. A Russo-Greek mission also is advancing farther and farther in the North, and already has three thousand converts. But espe- cially among the educated classes here, as in India, it is the scepticism, imported by irreligious Ameri- can and European teachers into the state schools and universities of Japan, which already rules with its baneful influences, and is everywhere ^ Annual Report of American Board, 1.S78, p. 87; Evangelistio Missionary Maj;azine, September, 187!», p. .'588, aqq. 2 Annual Report ol Board of Foreign Missions of the Presby- terian Cliurcli, 1879, p. 72, .sY/7. 8 Cf. Allgemeine evangelische lutherische Kirchen-Zeitunft April 11, 1871), p. 35