llST 
 
 ssionar^ Information 
 
 LILLY RYDER GRACEY 
 
-jjptf* 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 Purchased by the Hammill Missionary Fund. 
 
GIST 
 
 HAND-BOOK OF MISSIONARY 
 INFORMATION 
 
 Pre-eminently for use in Young 
 Women's Circles 
 
 COMPILED AND EDITED BY 
 
 LIIvLY RYDEr'gRACEY 
 
 CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS 
 NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON 
 
Copyright 
 BY CRANSTON & CURTS, 
 
 1893. 
 
CONTKNTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 Missions, 5 
 
 Women and Missions, 11 
 
 Mission Fields: 
 
 China, 15 
 
 India, 32 
 
 Africa, 48 
 
 South America, 63 
 
 Mexico, 76 
 
 Turkey, 89 
 
 Syria, 98 
 
 Persia, 108 
 
 Burmah, 117 
 
 Siam and Laos, 128 
 
 Korea, 138 
 
 Japan, 149 
 
 The Island World, 158 
 
 North American Indians, 169 
 
 Gifts: 181 
 
 Jim and the Missionary Meeting, 188 
 
 The Giving Alphabet, 193 
 
 Conclusion, 199 
 
 3 
 
GIST 
 
 MISSIONS. 
 
 The spirit of Missions is the spirit of our Mas- 
 ter — the very genius of true religion. 
 
 — Dr. Livingstone. 
 & .;• & 
 
 If the missionaries sent out by every Protestant 
 society be distributed among the 1,000,000,000 of 
 the pagan world, there is but one missionary to each 
 200,000. 
 
 In the United States there is a gospel minister 
 to every 800 people. But two cents of every dollar 
 contributed for benevolence go abroad, and only two 
 and one-half per cent of the ministers. 
 
 The total number of Christian workers of all 
 kinds in the United States — embracing ordained 
 ministers, lay preachers, women workers, and Sun- 
 day-school officers and teachers — is 1,218,025; or 
 >ne Christian worker to each forty-eight persons. 
 The total number of all authorized workers in the 
 foreign field, whether foreign or native, is 37,704; 
 >r one worker to each 31,322 persons. 
 
 5 
 
6 Missions. 
 
 We have one Protestant Christian to each five 
 persons; in the foreign field there is one Protestant 
 Christian to each 1,566 persons. 
 
 & ••• «■ 
 
 "It is clear," says the London Times, "that 
 Missions to foreign lands are at once the most 
 beneficent and the most disinterested institutions 
 known among men." "Blot out the missionary 
 idea," says another exchange, "and you lose the 
 key of the Bible. Destroy all other proofs of its 
 Divine authorship, save the effect of the gospel on 
 the degraded African, South Sea Islander, or the 
 Fuegian, and you will need no more convincing 
 argument. We want to read the Scriptures to-day 
 with the addition of the Acts of the Apostles down 
 in Africa, and over in India and China, in Japan, 
 in Korea, and Upper Greenland. " 
 
 "I was thinking the other day," writes a mission- 
 ary, "whether I could find out one single force, act- 
 ing for the benefit of the human race, that did not 
 come from the Cross — that had not its origin from 
 the Cross. I can not find one. Who discovered 
 the interior world of Africa, and set in motion the 
 intellect of that people? Who solved the problem 
 of preaching liberty to the women of India? Who 
 first brought into modern geography the hidden 
 land and rivers of China, and opened for the en- 
 richment of commerce the greatest empire of the 
 East? Who first dared the cannibal regions, and 
 
Missions. < 
 
 converted men whose appetite was for blood? Mis- 
 sionaries." 
 
 We may challenge the history of the world to 
 produce instances of heroism more exalted or more 
 heart-stirring than in many cases of the pioneer mis- 
 sionaries to foreign and savage lands. 
 
 Every one knows that Missions have made 
 trade possible and safe with many people otherwise 
 inaccessible; that, directly or indirectly, they benefit 
 the world in many ways. Commerce, science, and 
 earthly governments have acknowledged their obli- 
 gations to the missionary, and secular testimony is 
 seen in the aid given to various branches of knowl- 
 edge. "Missionary journals are at the bottom of a 
 large part of that multifarious knowledge," says an 
 authority, "which permits the present age to call 
 itself the age of intelligence." 
 
 On the ground of statistical data, it has been 
 calculated that the traffic originated by means ot 
 mission-work repays tenfold the capital expended. 
 Take as an illustration: Among the Kurumans, in 
 Africa, where scarcely a pocket-handkerchief or a 
 string of beads was bought before mission-work be- 
 gan, English goods are now sold every year to the 
 value of half a million dollars. 
 
 To the transforming power of Christianity there 
 is not a race but what pays its tribute. Out of the 
 cannibals of the Pacific, the Eskimos of the frozen 
 
8 Missions. 
 
 zone, the Indians of the American prairies, the Ne- 
 groes and Hottentots of Africa, the Papuans of 
 Australia and New Guinea, the savages of Pata- 
 gonia and Terra del Fuego, it can summon a crowd 
 of witnesses to testify of its power to awaken and 
 develop the man where little more than the brute 
 had for ages manifested itself. "I myself have 
 seen, in different parts of the world," says an En- 
 glish traveler, " something of this transforming 
 power of Christianity. I have watched it in Eu- 
 rope; I have seen it at the Cape of Good Hope; I 
 have seen it in Tasmania; I have seen what Chris- 
 tianity had done in the lovely island of New Zea- 
 laud; I have seen those whose fathers and grand- 
 fathers were savage idolaters and ferocious cannibals; 
 I have seen them worshiping the one true God as 
 devout and humble Christians, — and where homes 
 have been prisons, or have been sunk to a level with 
 pens of beasts, I have seen them transformed into 
 Christian homes." 
 
 At the beginning of our century, the Bible could 
 be studied by only one-fifth of the earth's popula- 
 tion, and now it is translated into languages that 
 make it accessible to nine-tenths of the world. Said 
 the late Lord Cairns: "We are approaching the 
 end of the nineteenth century, and I am bound to 
 say that, great as has been our progress in arts, in 
 science, in manufacture, in the diffusion of knowl- 
 edge and of intercourse during this century, the 
 progress of Missions and of missionary enterprise 
 
Missions. 9 
 
 has not been less. The nineteenth century has been 
 emphatically a missionary one." 
 
 The kingdoms of the world are becoming the 
 kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. "On the 
 island of St. Helena," says Dr. Gracey, "as I was 
 walking up the street one day, I saw three women 
 sitting under an umbrella by a fruit-stand. As I 
 passed them I heard them chanting the doxology of 
 the English Church, 'Glory be to the Father, and 
 to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in 
 the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with, 
 out end. Amen.' It seemed strange to hear that, 
 seventeen hundred miles out from any continent; 
 but the day is coming when, not only from the 
 islands of the sea, but everywhere that man's foot 
 has trodden, shall burst forth that glad note of 
 praise, ' Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and 
 to the Holy Ghost !'" 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 Question. How many people in the world are 
 nominally Protestant Christians? 
 Answer. About 135,000,000. 
 Q. How many of these are in the United States? 
 A. Nearly 11,000,000. 
 
 Q. How many in the world are Mohammedans? 
 A. About 170,000,000. 
 Q. How many are idol-worshipers? 
 A. About 875,000,000. 
 
10 Missions. 
 
 Q. How many either know nothing of Christ, 
 or are opposed to him? 
 
 A. About 1,020,000,000, being three-fourths of 
 the population of the earth. 
 
 Q. How much money is raised annually in all 
 Protestant Christendom for foreign missionary work? 
 
 A. About $10,000,000. 
 
 Q. How soon could the world be evangelized? 
 
 A. Dr. Pierson is authority for saying that "if 
 each Protestant Church member would take thirty- 
 three human souls as his share, and undertake to 
 reach one new soul every day during the average 
 life-time of a generation, the whole world would be 
 evangelized within that time." 
 
 "A poor Negro slave from Africa had such 
 compassion for the heathen, such a desire that He 
 who died for the nations might reign over them, 
 that in his mind the duty, the privilege, the bless- 
 edness of bearing to them the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ took precedence of everything else. Some 
 one, knowing the old man's love for the heathen, 
 asked him how he came to pray for all the world, 
 and he replied : ' De Lord Jesus Christ put it in 
 my heart. Nobody tell me to pray for all de world. 
 De Savior put it in my heart. He came no die for 
 one, but for de whole world; and me raus' pray for de 
 world.'" 
 
WOMEN AND MISSIONS, 
 
 Estimating the heathen population at 850,000,- 
 000, at least 425,000,000 are women and girls. We 
 14,000,000 Christian women ought to carry the gos- 
 pel to 425,000,000 heathen women. 
 
 The severe restrietions of the seraglio, the harem, 
 and the zenana forbid a man to approach Eastern 
 wives and mothers, even in the capacity of a physi- 
 cian; and there are perhaps four hundred million 
 women who, if reached at all, must be reached by 
 Christian women. 
 
 There are said to be 300,000,000 Buddhist 
 women, with no hope of immortality unless in some 
 future transmigration they may be born again as 
 men ; there are 80,000,000 women who are con- 
 fined in Moslem harems, — millions and millions of 
 women depending for the gospel upon the Protestant 
 missions of the world ! 
 
 & .;. «, 
 
 The power behind the veil is a mighty one. 
 "No race," says Dr. Post, "has ever risen above 
 the condition of its women ; nor can it ever do so 
 in the history of the world. The boy is father of 
 the man, but the woman is the mother of the boy; 
 
 U 
 
12 Women and Missions. 
 
 and she determines the whole social slate of the 
 generations that are to follow." 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury said: "The character 
 of the women of a country is of greater importance 
 to that country's nobility than the character of the 
 men. Direct all the pow T er you have to touch the 
 hearts of the women ; and if you can get women to 
 take the lead, you will find conversions in all Ori- 
 ental countries." 
 
 In a company of cultured ladies and gentlemen, 
 the question was recently asked: "What event of 
 this century is most important and far-reaching in 
 its power for good to the human race?" 
 
 Answers followed in quick succession: "Discov- 
 eries in medical science;" "New interest in soci- 
 ology;" "Explorations in Africa;" "The application 
 of electricity to the service of man." When there 
 w 7 as a pause, a lady said: "The higher education of 
 woman, and her service in giving the gospel to the 
 secluded women of the world ; in a word, the or- 
 ganization of Woman's Boards of Missions." The 
 company was at first startled by the audacity of the 
 thought; but a clear understanding of the field, of 
 the nature and scope of the work of women as an 
 evangelizing force, easily vindicated her position. 
 
 And the reflex good to us is fascinating. "If 
 nothing else had resulted from woman's work in mis- 
 sions," Dr. Ellin wood says, " its educational influence 
 
Women and Missions. 13 
 
 in families, the better impulses with which it has 
 enriched and ennobled womankind, the wide-spread 
 altruistic spirit which now shows itself in Zenana 
 Bands, Christian Endeavor Societies, or among the 
 Daughters of the King, would repay a hundred-fold 
 all that has been expended." 
 
 The late president of Wellesley College, Mrs. 
 Alice Freeman Palmer, said, at a young ladies' mis- 
 sionary meeting: "I am so sorry for girls and 
 women who have no great, absorbing interest out- 
 side of themselves. In studying faces at any social 
 gathering, one can hardly fail to be impressed with 
 the different expression upon the countenance of 
 those who are accustomed to assemble purely for 
 pleasure, and those whose lives are dominated by 
 any noble purpose. Girls naturally desire to be 
 beautiful ; but if the beauty is to be lasting — if at 
 forty and sixty they wish to have that certain some- 
 thing in their personal presence which makes many 
 women of that age so attractive — they must live 
 outside of themselves. Self-culture, sought for its 
 own sake, will never make a girl winsome. Her 
 graces, her accomplishments, her talents of every 
 sort, must subserve some higher good to be really 
 valuable possessions. This is why an interest in 
 foreign missions has such an ennobling effect upon 
 a young person's character. It carries thought and 
 affection to the farthest limit. Therefore, girls, with 
 
14 Women and Missions. 
 
 all your getting, get an enthusiasm for this branch 
 of Christian work." 
 
 The great uprising of young men and women is 
 unprecedented in human history. Bishop Thoburn 
 writes: "The world is open to Christian woman as 
 it never has been before. She can go almost every- 
 where, and she can engage in almost every kind of 
 work. She is needed everywhere. She must write; 
 for a literature must be created for the women of 
 the East. She must teach ; for the convert must 
 be trained, and the heathen won. She must evan- 
 gelize ; for her feet alone can carry the good tidings 
 of peace to her sisters in their seclusion." Dr. Smith 
 writes: "Our colleges and higher seminaries for 
 men and women, our theological schools, are multi- 
 plying year by year, and are filled to overflowing 
 with the choicest youth the sun ever shone upon. 
 By the thousands they leave these schools every 
 year to enter the paths of duty and services which 
 God appoints. Never did such opportunities greet 
 the educated and foremost youth of the world. A 
 grand service on a wide arena, reaching on to 
 vaster and more remote results, to-day awaits our 
 noble youth in Turkey and India, in the mightiest 
 empires of the Orient, in the vast continent of 
 Africa.* 
 
Mission Fields. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 Win China to Christ, and the most powerful 
 stronghold of Satan upon earth will have fallen. 
 Win China to Christ, and the prophetic voices heard 
 in the sublime vision on Patmos may be quoted, in 
 ringing tones of triumph, as fulfilled: "The king- 
 doms of the world have become the kingdoms of 
 our Lord and of his Christ." —Mr. Wong. 
 
 China is a continent in itself. The great bars 
 are gone, and China is open; not the rim of China, 
 but China. China is sure to be one of the domi- 
 nant world-powers in the future. In working for 
 China, we are working for all nations and for coming 
 ages. — Chauncey Goodrich. 
 
 •» ••• * 
 
 In his exile at St. Helena, Napoleon passed his 
 time in watching with keen interest the current of 
 affairs throughout the world, and one of his telling 
 observations was: "When China is moved, it will 
 change the face of the globe." 
 
 15 
 
16 Mission Fields. 
 
 In almost any aspect, China presents the greatest 
 of all mission fields. With the single exception of 
 Africa, it is the greatest in area, being one-third 
 larger than all Europe — larger than the United 
 States and half a dozen Great Britains combined. 
 It is the greatest of all mission fields, and its popu- 
 lation numbers 400,000,000. It is greatest in the 
 history and character of its people. The history of 
 China runs back uninterruptedly over the rise and 
 fall of all the great nations of earth — of Home, 
 Greece, Assyria, Israel, Egypt. She was a great 
 nation, -with settled government and laws, before 
 Abraham went out from Ur of the Chaldees. Her 
 empire was nearly two thousand years old when 
 Isaiah penned his prophecy of her future conversion 
 to God; and her people were prosperous a thou- 
 sand years before Komulus dreamed of building 
 Rome. 
 
 " We boast of 60,000,000 of people," says Bishop 
 Warren; "what then must we think of the 400,- 
 000,000 population of China — one-third of the hu- 
 man race? The country had its singers long before 
 David, and thirteen centuries before blind old 
 Homer sang. Its history extends over four thou- 
 sand years; nevertheless the country was but in the 
 dawn of civilization. The Chinese are a nation of 
 poets and rhetoricians. They are comparatively a 
 chaste people, and love their children. They are 
 generous, and contribute much for religious pur- 
 poses. Why, then, do they need Christianity? 
 
China. 17 
 
 Because every man in China has at least three 
 
 religions, and each two. of these is worse than the 
 
 other." 
 
 ♦1- + -K- 
 
 Look for a moment at the map of China proper. 
 It is divided into eighteen provinces. Six of these 
 that border on the sea, and one inland province — 
 Hupeh — have been longer and better evangelized 
 than the remaining eleven. A very large majority, 
 there fore, both of existing missionaries and converts, 
 are to be found in these seven provinces. "But 
 passing from these," says Miss Guinness, "glance 
 at the following facts respecting eleven provinces 
 and their surpassing need : At a low estimate there 
 must be considerably over one hundred and fifty 
 millions of souls in the vast cities, busy market- 
 towns, and thickly scattered villages of this region. 
 To get some slight idea of how unreached these 
 millions are, think for the present of cities only — 
 the important walled cities, the governing cities of 
 each province — where the cultured and ruling classes 
 reside. I give them according to the latest statis- 
 tics. The province of Kansuh has 77 such cities; 
 72 are without any missionary. Shen-si, possessing 
 88 such cities, has 86 without a missionary. Shan-si, 
 having 119 of these cities, has 92 without a missionary. 
 Ho-nan has 105 such cities, and not one of them 
 has a missionary. Gan-huei has 58 such cities, and 
 50 are still without a missionary. Kiang-si has 74 
 such cities, and 63 are yet without a missionary. 
 2 
 
18 Mission Fields. 
 
 The vast province of Szecheran, out of 140 such 
 cities, still shows 130 without a missionary. Far-ofl 
 Yunan, having 89 such cities, has 85 without a 
 missionary. Kiver-Chan has 56 such cities, and 54 
 are utterly unreached by the true light. Finally, 
 the provinces of Hunan and Kwaug-si, with 176 
 such cities, have as yet no missionary within their 
 borders. Nine hundred and thirteen walled cities 
 in these 11 provinces alone, to say nothing of all 
 the other large towns and countless villages they 
 represent — what a sphere! — 913 cities without a 
 single missionary! There is no time to lose, be- 
 cause souls are passing out into the darkness con- 
 tinually — men and women for whom Christ died, 
 and who have never heard his name. Fourteen 
 hundred every hour, one million every month, they 
 die in China, without God. Think over it! weep 
 over it! pray over it!" 
 
 "We, in America, are mora than 60,000,000, 
 with an evangelical church for every six hundred 
 people in the land. In China not one in four hun- 
 dred ever heard the name of Christ, or as yet had 
 the opportunity of hearing that name. The rate 
 given is one worker to every 818,000 souls. Con- 
 sider the one province of Chili," says the Missionary 
 Herald, "which has nearly the same area as the 
 State of Florida, but with a population equal to 
 that of all the Slates east of the Mississippi, with 
 
China. 19 
 
 the exception of New York, Ohio, and Illinois. 
 The weak Protestant missionary force who are in- 
 trusted with its evangelization numbers barely forty, 
 or one missionary to every 675,000 souls! While 
 this appeal is crossing the ocean to you, one and a 
 quarter millions more of China's population will 
 have sunk into Christless graves; and for each min- 
 ute you delay heeding her needs, twenty-four im- 
 mortal souls, for whom Christ shed his blood, are 
 passing beyond your power to give them aid. The 
 cry for help comes from the false creeds and no 
 creeds of all classes alike. It is the inarticulate 
 wail of infants coming to an untimely end because 
 perhaps deformed, or because they are of the female 
 sex. It is the sobbing of women, who, suffering as 
 a slave or beast, know not the meaning of woman- 
 hood. It is the plea of loveless marriage and cruel 
 concubinage. It is the cry of a nation's outcast 
 poor, lame, halt, and blind. It is the unspoken and 
 undefined longing of myriads of souls, who are feel- 
 ing after a higher Being, and striving toward him 
 along the road of pilgrimage, idolatry, and asceti- 
 cism, that they may escape hell. Out of Asia's 
 night comes this cry for the true Light of Asia; and 
 that cry is echoed back from the Judean hills, where 
 long ago a crucified and ascending Savior, not only 
 as his final act stretched out his hands in blessing 
 on the earth, but who also blessed the nation with 
 a great command and promise: 'Go ye, therefore, 
 and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them 
 
20 Mission Fields. 
 
 in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
 the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all 
 things whatsoever I commanded you; and lo! I am 
 with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'" 
 
 •» ••• * 
 
 About twelve thousand Chinese women, it is 
 said, pass away each day, having never heard the 
 gospel — without hope, without God. 
 
 & ••• & 
 
 We are apt to suppose that the murder of in- 
 fant girls in China must now be a thing of the 
 past — shamed away by missions and Western civil- 
 ization. Unhappily this is not the case. It is af- 
 firmed by those who have been long in China that 
 at least 200,000 babies are brutally killed, in vari- 
 ous ways, every year in that empire to get them 
 out of the way. In every large city in China there 
 are asylums for the care of orphans, supported and 
 conducted by foreigners, which save yearly from 
 slaughter tens of thousands of female infants. 
 
 — Messenger. 
 & ••• «• 
 
 The moral degradation and spiritual darkness of 
 the women in their heathen homes can not be de- 
 scribed. Their social and physical condition is also 
 distressing, especially in those large districts of the 
 empire which have suffered much from rebellion, 
 famines, and destructive floods. Dr. Duuthwaite 
 
China. 21 
 
 says: "Men can not reach the women; women must 
 do that. I can not speak much about them; but 
 let me give you one instance that will show you 
 how much they need the elevating influence of the 
 gospel. A woman, who afterwards became a Chris- 
 tian, told my wife that she had herself, with her 
 own hand, destroyed seven female children. " "No 
 class of people," says another missionary, " ever 
 needed the comfort of the gospel more than Chinese 
 women, — ground down by hardships and poverty, 
 their homes bare and cheerless, their lives barren 
 and hopeless, their thoughts and affections warped 
 and misdirected." In China, as in all Oriental 
 countries, the idea that woman exists only for the 
 convenience of man, and scarcely shares the same 
 nature, is thoroughly fixed in the national mind. 
 In strict harmony with this historical truth, the 
 present religious systems of Asia all give women 
 an important but debasing position both in "their 
 doctrines and their sacred observances. 
 
 A girl, therefore, from her birth, experiences the 
 sinister influence of these prevailing ideas, and is 
 consequently tormented by a sense of the horror of 
 inferiority and comparative worthlessness, and prays 
 most earnestly that in the next stage of existence 
 she may be a man. When girls are permitted to 
 live, it is customary for the father almost entirely to 
 ignore them. A father will spare no pains to in- 
 sure the happiness of a son, but custom prevents 
 his ever showing a daughter any of those attentions 
 
22 Mission Fields. 
 
 so dear to the heart of a child. In the maritime 
 provinces infanticide is practiced to a fearful ex- 
 tent among all classes Heathen fathers and 
 mothers love their children ; but the necessities of 
 the situation, and the corresponding influences of. 
 heathenism, seem so to change and deform their 
 moral nature that the systematic commission of the 
 crime becomes possible. Almost the only reason 
 assigned by the Chinese for destroying their infant 
 daughters is, the expense and trouble of raising such 
 useless beings. 
 
 When a Chinese girl escapes the perils sur- 
 rounding her at birth, she is taught, as soon as her 
 age permits, to weave, spin, sew, to cook, and care 
 for the younger children. After a few years she 
 must be trained for a field-hand or a boat-woman. 
 Her lot henceforth is a hard one. She must dig in 
 the soil, tug at the oar, or stagger along under 
 burdens out of all proportion to her strength. 
 
 If the daughter of a man of wealth, she must 
 be trained for a lady. Although she is to be a 
 prisoner for life, she must be a well- trained and 
 well-dressed prisoner. Destined to a life of idleness, 
 or at the best, frivolous occupations, she must be 
 taught to bear the curse in strict accordance with 
 time-honored customs. The hideous wrong of sell- 
 ing young girls to the highest matrimonial bidder, 
 and the sanctioned tyranny wielded over the Chinese 
 wife by parents-in-law and others, have greatly de- 
 graded the Oriental woman. 
 
China. 23 
 
 Speaking of foot-binding, a missionary says she 
 has often been asked whether the custom of foot- 
 binding was not dispensed with in China. Some 
 people seem to think that because Christianity has 
 made some small headway there, the practice has 
 been given up. It is not so. The only women who 
 are exempt from it are the Hakka women, and the 
 women of the imperial palace who belong to the 
 dynasty which at present rules over the country. 
 All the rest of the women go upon crippled feet. 
 One little child, who belonged to a very good fam- 
 ily, was obliged, by being betrothed into another 
 rich family, to have her feet bound exceedingly 
 small. The mother was a heathen, the father a 
 Christian. The mother sent for a woman who was very 
 skillful in the matter, and the feet of the poor child 
 were bound with a long linen bandage— bound so 
 tightly and in such a way that the bones of the feet 
 were broken. The poor little child was in an agony 
 of pain, and besought her mother to be released; 
 but her mother only scolded her. To her father 
 the child said: "I am suffering so much; do take 
 me up in your arms!" The father took the little 
 one up, and she then asked him to pray to Jesus 
 that she might go to the ladies' school, where the 
 children's feet were unbound. The father did pray 
 to Jesus to soothe the agony of his little child; and 
 he tenderly walked up and down the room with her 
 in his arms. Presently he felt the child's head fall 
 heavily on his shoulder; and when he looked at the 
 
24 Mission Fields. 
 
 little face he saw that the eyes were closed, and that 
 the Lord Jesus had taken the little spirit to be with 
 hiin. This is only one case of many. Many chil- 
 dren suffer death from this cruel practice. 
 
 A Chinese woman was dying, and a missionary 
 tried to reveal a Savior to her fading vision. "But 
 not for me," she moaned; "no one would care so 
 much for us." Again and again the assurance of 
 salvation was repeated, and at last she grasped the 
 wondrous truth that the Lord Jesus died for her; 
 and then, with one supreme effort, she exclaimed : 
 " Why doesn't some one tell the women of my prov- 
 ince?" and she was gone. "Ah, no wonder," says 
 the missionary; "the remembrance of millions of 
 down-trodden women rested like a burden upon her 
 newly awakened soul! Shall we feel it less who 
 have known so long the sweetness of God's grace? 
 Absorbed by the pleasures of life, and even by the 
 duties that lie near at hand, we are apt to forget 
 the mute appeal of the heathen world." 
 
 There are 29,000,000 idolaters in North China, 
 with one missionary to every million. China annu- 
 ally gives a sum equal to $300,000,000 for idolatry, 
 while the whole world of Protestant Christianity 
 gives $12,000,000 a year to extend Christ's kingdom. 
 
China. 25 
 
 The Mission Field says: "Twenty thousand 
 dollars are spent, in a certain month of the year, 
 on one temple alone in the Canton province. The 
 people burn up and waste on puerile absurdities 
 enough money to build twenty universities, with an 
 endowment of $10,000,000 each; and to erect one 
 hundred thousand chapels, with a seating capacity 
 of one hundred millions. Such is the problem that 
 has to be solved in China." 
 
 •9* ••• -te 
 
 During the past thirty-three years the number 
 of Christians has increased eighty-fold; and last 
 year Chinese Christians were reported to have given 
 $44,000 for the spread of the gospel in their own 
 land; and, encouragingly speaking of the women, 
 one says: "But the dawn is reaching them in their 
 homes — the idol, the amulet, and the written charm 
 are fading in their power; and the all-protecting 
 wing of Him who has made of one blood all nations 
 that dwell upon the face of the earth is gradually 
 extending its benign shadow over the dreary, bur- 
 dened daughters of the broad East." 
 
 People do not appreciate what staunch Chris- 
 tians the majority of converts from heathenism make. 
 Scores in China have been persecuted, exiled, cru- 
 elly beaten, and partially starved. "I have seen 
 men," says Mr. Taylor, of China, "who have lost 
 
26 Mission Fields. 
 
 their literary degree; men who have been beaten 
 openly by the mandarins, and put to shame for 
 Christ's sake; men who have lost their property." 
 Another man who had abandoned his idols had to 
 endure great hardships. His relatives beat him un- 
 mercifully; they threatened to take from him his 
 house and laud, and they said: "If you do not 
 give up this Jesus we will kill you." Said he: 
 "You can take my house, you can take my land, 
 you can take my life, if you will; but I will never 
 give up Christ! I will never give up Christ!" 
 
 ♦1- ••• «- 
 
 The following true story is an illustration of the 
 lives of many women in China, and is taken from 
 "Pagoda Shadows." The heroine, as we may justly 
 call her, says: "I was boru at Koi Tan, a village 
 in Po Leng. My father was a storekeeper, and I 
 was the youngest of seven children. When seven 
 years old I was betrothed, for two pounds, to a man 
 at Nam Leng, a village two miles from my home. 
 I had never seen the man, nor any of his family. 
 I took nothing from home with me but the tunic 
 and trousers I wore. My mother and go-between 
 led me to his house, and left me there. I jumped 
 up and down, and screamed to go back with my 
 mother. My husband's mother told me not to cry, 
 for my home was to be with her henceforth, and 
 my husband's grandmother carried me on her back 
 to please and quiet me; but I kept crying, more or 
 
China. 27 
 
 less, for years. Indeed, I never really stopped cry- 
 ing until I had children of my own. In the family 
 there were my husband's grandmother, grandfather, 
 father, mother, uncles, aunts, five brothers, and four 
 sisters-in-law. I was told which man was to be my 
 husband; and, though he was handsome, I immedi- 
 ately disliked him, because he seemed so old to me, 
 being nine years older than I. I did not see my 
 own mother again for three years, for she was afraid 
 [ would cry and be discontented if I saw her. 
 During the day I spooled the yarn which the older 
 ones wove into cloth. At this I worked from day- 
 light till dark, only stopping to eat. I had plenty 
 to eat, and was whipped only when I nodded over 
 my spools. Once a year one of my brothers came 
 to see if I was well. He staid but a few minutes 
 when he came, because it might make me home- 
 sick if he talked much with me. When I was 
 eleven years old I went to my father's house and 
 staid four months, and did the same each year there- 
 after until I was married. All this time I never 
 spoke to my betrothed husband, and he only spoke 
 to me to tell me something. At fourteen, when his 
 mother told me to do so, I became his wife. When 
 my husband wanted me to do anything, he said, 
 1 Here, you !' and of course I knew he meant me. 
 When I was sixteen I had a little girl, and then 
 another, and another. The third I strangled when 
 it was born; for I was frightened, and knew I 
 should be hated for having so many girls. My hus- 
 
28 Mission Fields. 
 
 band was a good-natured man, and he was not very 
 hard toward me. In all the forty years I lived with 
 him, he beat me only four or five times. There are 
 not ten men in a thousand in China who do not 
 beat their wives at all. When I was fifty-four my 
 husband died, and I spent a great deal of time wor- 
 shiping; but I got sick, and had no strength. My 
 nephew, who had heard of the true doctrine, used 
 to come to see me, and tell me that there was only 
 one God, and he was everywhere. Little by little 
 I believed what he said. As soon as I believed, I 
 destroyed the censers we used in worshiping false 
 gods. My sons saw me taking them out of the 
 house, and asked me if I was not afraid to do it; 
 but I told them that what I had myself set up I could 
 myself take down, and they said no more. Then I 
 prayed that I might have strength given me to go 
 and be baptized; and when the next communion 
 season came, I told my nephew I was going with 
 him to Swatow. At that time he was the only 
 Christian in Po Leng; and his mother and wife 
 beat him for worshiping God, and their neighbors 
 applauded them. He said I was too weak, and 
 must not think of going to Swatow; but I got off 
 my bed, and I w 7 alked very slowly the whole forty 
 miles; and when I got here, the people said a dead 
 woman had come. Since then I have been in all 
 the Po Leng villages, speaking the gospel; and can 
 walk fifteen or twenty miles a day." 
 
China. 29 
 
 A beautiful story is told of a child in an or- 
 phanage somewhere. They were having supper in 
 the dining-hall ; and the teacher gave thanks in the 
 ordinary way, before the children began their meals, 
 saying: "Come, Lord Jesus, and be our Guest to- 
 night, and bless the mercies which tJTou hast pro- 
 vided." One little boy looked up, and said: 
 "Teacher, you always ask the Lord Jesus to come, 
 but he never comes. Will he ever come?" "0 
 yes; if you will only hold on in faith, he will be 
 sure to come!" "Very well," said the little boy, 
 " I will set a chair for him beside me here, to be 
 ready when he comes." And so the meal pro- 
 ceeded. By and by there came a rap at the door, 
 and there was ushered in a poor, half-frozen ap- 
 prentice. He was taken to the fire, and his hands 
 wanned. Then he was asked to partake of the 
 meal ; and where should he go but to the chair 
 which the little boy had provided? And, as he sat 
 down there, the little boy looked up, with a light in 
 his eye, and said: "Teacher, I see it now! The 
 Lord Jesus was not able to come himself, and he 
 sent this poor man in his place. Is n't that it?" 
 
 Ay, that is just it! The Lord Jesus isn't able, 
 according to his plan3 for this world, to come per- 
 sonally yet among us, but he has sent these Chinese 
 and heathen to make appeal in his behalf to us; 
 and who among us will set a chair for him? 
 
30 Mission Fields. 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. How far back does Chinese history 
 extend ? 
 
 Answer. It extends to 2,500 years B. C. 
 
 Q. When did the Chinese begin to write books? 
 
 A. Probably before they first moved to China 
 from the region south of the Caspian Sea. 
 
 Q. What are two of their largest literary works? 
 
 A. A dictionary, in 5,020 volumes; and the en- 
 cyclopedia, in 22,937 volumes. 
 
 Q. What religions have the Chinese? 
 
 A. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. 
 
 Q. What is the real and one universal religion 
 of China? 
 
 A. Ancestral worship. At the ceremonies ob- 
 served in this worship, candles and sticks of incense 
 are lighted, and cooked rice, meat, and vegetables 
 are placed on tables before the ancestral tablets. 
 
 Q. What does the Bible say about future life? 
 
 A. There shall be no night there; and they 
 need no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the 
 Lord giveth them light; and they shall reign for- 
 ever and ever. They shall hunger no more, neither 
 thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, 
 nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst 
 of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
 unto living fountains of water; and God shall wipe 
 away all tears from their eyes. 
 
China. 81 
 
 Q. Describe the religions. 
 
 A. It is difficult to describe the belief and prac- 
 tices of heathen people. But there are two things 
 connected with the Chinese religion which make it 
 to differ from that of most other pagan nations. 
 The Chinese do not offer human sacrifices, nor make 
 vice a part of their religion. In the State religion, 
 the emperor is the worshiper. He confesses, once a 
 year, his sins and the sins of his 400,000,000 people. 
 In the worship of Confucius, all the officers, scholars, 
 and school-boys have a part. There are 1,560 tem- 
 ples dedicated to this sage, and 2,700 pieces of silk, 
 and 62,000 pigs, rabbits, sheep, and deer, besides 
 fruits and vegetables, are sacrificed annually upon 
 their altars. The people generally, and especially 
 the women, bow in fear to the many Taoist and 
 Buddhist gods. But everybody, from the emperor 
 on his throne to the poorest coolie in the empire, 
 shares in the precious "ancestral worship;" and the 
 most serious charge that can be made against a 
 Chinaman is to say that he has given it up. 
 
 Q. What institutions are found in China that 
 are exceptional in heathen lands? 
 
 A. Benevolent institutions; as, asylums for old 
 men; orphan asylums; asylums for foundlings, 
 where cast-off girl-babies are cared for, and finally 
 sold to the poor for wives. There are also asylums 
 for animals, where they are supposed to rise in the 
 scale of beings, so as probably to be men in the 
 next birth. 
 
32 Mission Fields. 
 
 Q. Give some account of progress made. 
 
 A. Fifty years ago it was a capital offense for a, 
 Chinese to be a Christian ; now the gospel can be 
 preached with more liberty than in many parts of 
 Europe. Twenty -five years ago there were not, 
 perhaps, more than 100 missionaries iu China, from 
 all societies in Europe and America, all told; and 
 not more than 3,000 converts. During that period 
 they have increased more than twelve times; and 
 there are now nearly 1,400 missionaries, and over 
 100,000 Christians — men and women who have 
 abandoned idolatry, and serve Christ, and him 
 only. 
 
 INDIA. 
 
 India has thousands of towns and cities, with a 
 population ranging from 5,000 upward, that have 
 never had a single missionary. 
 
 Only one Protestant missionary is found to every 
 250,000 of the population. Of the entire popula- 
 tion — allowing a generation to pass away every third 
 of a century — twenty thousand die each day, over 
 eight hundred each hour, fifteen every minute, one 
 every four seconds, of the year. These, for whom 
 Christ died, are born, live, and die, without hope 
 in hiin. 
 
India. S3 
 
 In Medical Missionary Record, Miss Wilder writes: 
 "With our present staff of missionaries, we have 
 only one worker to every 135,000 of the popula- 
 tion. In Kolhapur State alone there are 1,097 vil- 
 lages, many of which have a population of several 
 thousand. Preaching thrice daily in three different 
 villages, it would take a missionary a whole year to 
 proclaim the gospel to the village population of that 
 single State, to say nothing of the thousands of vil- 
 lages within the bounds of the field. Rutuagiri 
 contains a population of at least one million, all 
 without a single missionary. Apportion one to every 
 50,000, and the field would require twenty mission- 
 aries. In adjoining States we have over 2,500,000 
 people, humanly speaking, dependent upon three 
 missionary families for the ' bread of life.' Within 
 the limits of our field there are five large towns, 
 varying in population from 8,000 to 24,000 each, 
 and unoccupied by any missionary. One hundred 
 and fifty souls are passing into eternity from this 
 field every twenty-four hours — dying without Christ. 
 Even if we may lawfully say that there are 500,000 
 native Christians in India to-day, we have to re- 
 member that these are but a five-hundredth part of 
 the 250,000,000 people." 
 
 •»••• -te 
 
 In India only one man in 42 and one woman in 
 858 can read or write. Only about sixteen per 
 cent of the boys and one per cent of the girls, of 
 school-age, are in school. —Gospel in all Lands. 
 3 
 
34 Mission Fields. 
 
 The Government has prohibited infanticide, yet 
 there is a regular system secretly maintained, for the 
 purpose of concealing it, which so far baffles detec- 
 tion, that there is scarcely a village whose shrine is 
 not desecrated by this form of murder. The author 
 of "Women of the Orient" says: "As the result 
 of careful inquiry, while in India, I am certain 
 that, at the very lowest estimate admissible, fully 
 one-third of the girls born among the natives of that 
 country are still secretly murdered." 
 
 ■3* -r •* 
 
 India has an area as large as that of the*United 
 States east of the Rocky Mountains. It is calcu- 
 lated that its population is about one-fifth of the 
 whole human race. The country contains more peo- 
 ple than all Africa and South America combined; 
 more than all Europe, excluding Russia; nearly ten 
 times the population of England. 
 
 India boasts of a literature that dates back a 
 thousand years before the revival of letters in mod- 
 ern Europe; of sacred books and epic song of an 
 antiquity not surpassed by the Pentateuch or the 
 Book of Job. The results of its religious and edu- 
 cational systems are seen in the ignorance, poverty, 
 and wretchedness of the mass of the people. If 
 there are a few men in the country whose wealth 
 vies with that of the Vanderbilts and Rothschilds, 
 it has 40,000,000 so poor as to lie down hungry at 
 night on the bare ground. The enterprise of the 
 
India. 35 
 
 country has been so stifled that the average income 
 per individual is less than that of any other civilized 
 race. Such is the heathenism in one of the richest 
 countries of the world. 
 
 Out of the whole population, which is put at 
 250,000,000 in round numbers, not more than five 
 or six per cent can read or write. There the over- 
 whelming mass of the population are still steeped 
 in ignorance, and are living as their forefathers did. 
 
 The city of Calcutta has a student population of 
 15,000, and its college men are peers of their Amer- 
 ican brethren. From this cultivated class you can 
 descend until you find whole villages where no per- 
 son can read a word of any language. 
 
 The inhabitants are, without a doubt, the most 
 religious people on the earth. From the highest to 
 the lowest, all are worshipers. The mosques and 
 temples are as numerous in proportion as churches 
 are in Christian countries. Everything, even the 
 most minute act in the lives of Hindus, is con- 
 nected with their religion. Their simplicity and 
 earnestness in their religious rites, and their devo- 
 tion to their false gods, are a constant reproach to 
 infidelity, and the indifference of people who profess 
 to believe in and worship the only true God. 
 
 The people are sunken in idolatry. The country 
 has 50,000,000 Mohammedans, and many of the 
 gross vices of native society owe their strength to 
 the social usages of this part of the population. 
 
36 Mission Fields. 
 
 The "Orient and Its People" gives some of the 
 customs prevalent in India to-day, and says: 
 
 "The first act of Hindus, on awaking in the 
 morning, is to pray; and another of the earliest 
 duties of the day is to cleanse the teeth, which they 
 do with a twig broken from a tree on their way to 
 the well. Their religious books contain special in- 
 structions as to the kind of twig to be used, its 
 length, and the manner of using it. The more rigid 
 and scrupulous Brahmins never eat without bathing, 
 and all good Hindus bathe at least once a day. 
 The morning routine of purification, sacrifice, and 
 eating being complete, they set forth on the day's 
 business, ready to lie and cheat as the needs of their 
 purses may dictate. 
 
 "When Hindus of wealth make calls, they take 
 with them as many servants as their means will 
 allow. As they approach the house, one of the 
 servants runs on in advance, and informs a servant 
 of the house that his master is coming. The head- 
 servant of the establishment goes into his master's 
 presence, and informs him; then returns, and says: 
 "The door is open; the master says, 4 Salaam!'" — 
 that is, "Peace!" It is a mark of great impolite- 
 ness for a visitor to leave before the host signifies 
 that the call is long enough. 
 
 "The methods of working and living seem most 
 wrong-handed and unnatural. Tailors hold their 
 work with their toes; cooks sit on the floor, hold a 
 butcher-knife erect in their toes, and, grasping the 
 
India. 37 
 
 piece of meat with both hands, cut off a beef- 
 steak or a mutton-chop. Shoes are never worn in 
 the house, and seldom in dry weather; on a long 
 journey they are carried under the arm. Children 
 are never praised, lest some bad spirit should desire 
 their destruction. Helpless baby-girls are often 
 ruthlessly murdered; while it would be considered a 
 crime to shoot a monkey or kill a cow. 
 
 " Lying is no reproach to a man, only a matter of 
 business; perjury and bribery a matter of course. 
 Deaths and funerals are the occasion of some pecul- 
 iar customs. The Hindu's ambition is to die by the 
 river Ganges ; and such a history as it has could be 
 revealed by no other stream in the wide world. 
 Running a course of 1,500 miles, it receives at 
 every point the most devout adoration. The touch 
 of its waters—the sight of them— is supposed to take 
 away all sin. When a man's life is despaired of, he 
 is carried on his light bamboo bedstead to the 
 Ganges or the nearest sacred river. When the 
 river is reached, the bedstead is placed so that the 
 feet of the sick person are in the water. When 
 the poor fellow is nearly gone, the holy water is 
 poured down his throat. After death, the body is 
 anointed ; and oil and pitch are poured on a pile of 
 wood, and the body burned on it. The next best 
 thing to dying in the Gauges is to die with a living 
 cow's tail in the hand." 
 
38 Mission Fields. 
 
 Said a converted zenana woman to a missionary: 
 "I can not believe Christians in America really 
 know the position of women in India. Do they 
 know that more than two-thirds of Hindu devotees 
 to our sacred shrines are women ; and that but for 
 our ignorant, superstitious faith in our heathen gods 
 and goddesses, these places of pilgrimage would, 
 many of them, be left desolate? Do Christians in 
 America really know that we are treated as chattels, 
 and not as human beings; caged in our houses; 
 destined to drag out a weary, aimless life, and die a 
 dreary, sunless death? O, can Christians in Amer- 
 ica know all this, and not help us?" 
 
 There are 120,000,000 of women in India; and 
 it is apparent, says one, that the foundations of 
 heathenism are planted in the zenanas, for fully 
 one-third of that number are shut in behind their 
 walls. If we set ourselves to fathom this zenana 
 life, what is it? Try seriously to contemplate our- 
 selves within the doomed circle. All day long, and 
 every day, for years in and years out, in one room ; 
 four bare walls, and nothing more to look at but a 
 square patch of sky occasionally. What should we 
 think about? 
 
 Twenty-one million one hundred and sixty-three 
 thousand nine hundred and fifty-two women in the 
 Northwest provinces alone are in absolute illiteracy ; 
 in all India there are 111,000,000 of women who 
 can neither read nor write. Let no one think that 
 there is a lack of latent mental force among them; 
 
India. 39 
 
 for it is granted that their intellectual activity is 
 very keen, and that it seems to last longer in life 
 than that of men. In a few cases, -when permitted, 
 women have shown great accomplishments and strong 
 talents for business. 
 
 The rigors of seclusion fall heaviest upon the 
 women of high-caste families. The middle-class are 
 accorded more liberty, and are allowed on the streets 
 closely veiled. The women of the laboring classes 
 perform outdoor work; but never converse with 
 men, not even their own relations, in public. Not- 
 withstanding all the gloom of their surroundings, 
 some rays of joy gladden the Hindu wife's heart, 
 and all her love goes out to her husband and her chil- 
 dren. Much might truthfully be said in praise of 
 the chastity and beauty of the Hindu women. 
 1 'Even if of the common class, she usually has the 
 step and carriage of a princess," says Dr. Hough- 
 ton, "and, especially if she be young and vigorous, 
 is a beautiful sight to look upon as she comes walk- 
 ing down the street, perhaps with a water-jar or a 
 basket balanced skillfully upon her head. The 
 women of the higher caste are often very beautiful ; 
 and if to her gentle manners, elegantly formed 
 feet and hands, low, sweet voice, were added sym- 
 metrical mental and moral culture, the Hindu woman 
 would have no equal." 
 
 "When in the presence of her husband, the 
 woman must keep her eyes upon her master, and be 
 ready to receive his commands. A woman has no 
 
40 Mission Fields. 
 
 other god than her husband. Though he be aged, 
 infirm, a drunkard, or debauchee, she must still re- 
 gard him as her god. If he laughs, she must also 
 laugh; if he weeps, she must weep; if he sings, she 
 must be in ecstasy; she must never eat till he is 
 satisfied. If he abstains from food, she must fast; 
 and she must abstain from whatever food he dis- 
 likes." Under such bondage, is it any wonder that 
 there are millions of women to whom the words 
 "love" and "home" have no meaning? In health, 
 their condition is pitiable; dying, they know noth- 
 ing of a bright beyond. "That idea," says Dr. 
 Valentine, "of the future, in which the highest 
 Christian truth has been wedded to poetry of ex- 
 quisite sweetness — 
 
 1 There 's nae sorrow there, Jean ; 
 There 's neither cauM nor care, Jean ; 
 The day 's aye fair, Jean, 
 In the land o' the leal' — 
 
 has never been sung by any sad heart in India." 
 
 With entreaties, said a young Hindu wife to a 
 missionary returning to her native land: " You will 
 come back to us, M'em Sahib? Say you will come 
 back! O, promise me!" Very earnestly this en- 
 treaty fell from her lips, and the pleading look in 
 her dark eyes and her caressing gestures gave touch- 
 ing power to the soft Urdu words. "But why, 
 M'em Sahib, why are you not certain to come back? 
 And why do not many ladies come from America to 
 teach us? Are not all American people Christians? 
 
India. 41 
 
 Are they Dot all rich? Why do not many of them 
 come?" "Alas, poor Radi! How could I explain 
 to her," says the missionary, " that, of the millions 
 of American people, comparatively few were Chris- 
 tian except in name; and that even among those 
 who do own Christ as their Lord, not one in a hun- 
 dred thinks of carrying out his last command?" 
 "Promise me one thing, M'em Sahib," said Radi; 
 "tell every woman that you see to send out hun- 
 dreds of ladies to tell about the Lord Jesus to our 
 people. How can we ever know about him unless 
 you teach us?" "It was the simple echo of Paul's 
 great question floating down the ages, unanswered 
 still : ' How shall they believe in Him of whom they 
 have not heard?'" 
 
 * ••• * 
 
 "Widows are the greatest sufferers of India," 
 says Ramabai, "and their treatment surpasses de- 
 scription." How many are there? Over 21,000,- 
 000 — more than the entire female- population of 
 the United States above three years of age. Of 
 these, 78,000 are under nine years of age; 207,000 
 are under fourteen ; and 382,000 are under nine- 
 teen. Practically, every Hindu girl of good caste 
 is either a wife or a widow before she reaches the 
 age of fourteen. In hundreds of thousands of cases 
 the child has never known what it is to be a wife. 
 It is essential for the honor of the family that it 
 should contain no unmarried daughters of mature 
 years. When, therefore, a female infant is born, 
 
42 Mission Fields. 
 
 the first idea in her father's mind is how to find a 
 husband for her. She is betrothed in infancy, and 
 if the man dies before they are married, she is even 
 then regarded as his widow. At his funeral she is 
 dragged along, wild with grief, aghast at the indig- 
 nities heaped upon her, her eyes full of bitter tears, 
 afraid to utter a sound, lest she should receive a 
 more neartless treatment. Soon after the party 
 reaches the river — near which the cremation takes 
 place — the widow is pushed into the water, and 
 there she has to remain in her wet clothes until the 
 dead body has been burned to ashes. The custom 
 is rigidly observed in all seasons and in all circum- 
 stances. It matters not whether she is scorched by 
 the burning rays of the midday sun of Indian sum- 
 mer, or chilled by piercing winds blowing from the 
 Himalayas in winter, the widow must be dragged 
 with the funeral party in that manner. After- 
 wards she is deprived of comforts, and treated with 
 contempt and cruelty. Despised, reproached, living 
 apart from the family, denied all festivities, she finds 
 naught left to her but tears, prayers, sacrifices, fast- 
 ings, and servitude to her husband's family. At 
 whatever age she is left a widow, though she may 
 be a prattling infant, the rules and restrictions are 
 none the less severe. She must be content with 
 only a very scanty meal once a day, and frequently 
 abstain from all food and drink. If a widow be 
 the mother of sons, her lot is a little better. Oc- 
 casionally she receives a little more humane treat- 
 
India. 43 
 
 ment if she lives with her own parents; but if she 
 has to pass her life under the roof of her father-in- 
 law, she then knows no comfort. She is the slave, 
 and knows no alternative, unless she rushes into a 
 life of shame, or ends her miseries by suicide. 
 
 In some cases, among the poorer classes, it is not 
 necessary that the girl should become a wife in our 
 sense of the word. It suffices that she should be 
 given in marriage, and go through the ceremony; 
 and to that end there is the revolting practice of 
 aged Brahmins going about the country, and marry- 
 ing, for a pecuniary consideration, female infants, 
 whom, in some cases, they never see again. Gray- 
 haired men, half-blind and decrepit, will go the 
 round of their beat each spring, and go through the 
 ceremony of marriage with such infants as are of- 
 fered, pocketing their fees, and perhaps never return 
 to the child's house. So long as he lives she can 
 marry no other man, and when he dies she becomes 
 his widow for life. 
 
 There are hundreds of thousands of these sad 
 beings who have acquiesced in their cruel lot. They 
 accept, with a pathetic faith and resignation, the 
 priestly explanation which is given to them. They 
 penitently believe that they are expiating sins com- 
 mitted in a past life, and they humbly trust that 
 their purifying sorrows here will win a reward in the 
 life to come. Only the Hindu widows know their 
 own suffering; it is impossible for another mortal to 
 realize or reveal them. 
 
44 Mission Fields. 
 
 The empire of India is the standing miracle of 
 modern history. The great results of missionary 
 effort there for the last fifteen years, and especially 
 for the last ten years, no statistics can measure. 
 The history of the work in its zenanas is the most 
 wonderful, interesting, and touching chapter in the 
 annals of modern missions. Christianity has abol- 
 ished some cruelties, it has stamped out the murder- 
 ous work of the dacoits, and it has given a marvel- 
 ous uplift to the oppressed women and the toiling, 
 half-starved millions of the poorer classes. 
 
 The people have learned something of Chris- 
 tianity through various channels, so that non-Chris- 
 tian communities, recognizing its excellence and 
 power as compared with other religious systems 
 about them, are pervaded with the conviction that 
 Christianity is destined to become the religion of 
 India. There are nearly one hundred colleges and 
 three universities that are educating a thousand 
 students, and 75,000 educational institutions besides 
 that are contributing their force to the intellectual 
 activity of the age. The country has a number of 
 daily and weekly newspapers in English, and nearly 
 one thousand papers in the vernaculars. The Gov- 
 ernment has constructed railways, so that the re- 
 motest part of the empire is speedily reached. 
 
 Of spiritual progress, such reports as these are 
 coming over to us: One denomination reports over 
 1,500 converts for the year, in places lying not re- 
 mote from each other. Of work among women, in 
 
India. 45 
 
 one district alone, it reports that there are more 
 than three hundred intelligent native Christian 
 women, five hundred Christian girls in high-grade 
 schools, and nine hundred in schools of all grades. 
 In various stations there are altogether more than 
 ten thousand women who are receiving instruction. 
 Another denomination sends word that, within 
 six months, sixty thousand people have turned from 
 idols in Tinnevelly and the Telugu country. In 
 connection w 7 ith this latter fact it is interesting to 
 recall to mind the origin of the Telugu Mission, 
 which is one of the most successful in the world. 
 Its beginning can be traced to the act of a young 
 Sunday-school teacher, a poor seamstress, who one 
 day gave a rough street-boy a shilling to go to Sun- 
 day-school. The boy — Amos Sutton — was con- 
 verted, became a missionary to India, and was the 
 means of leading the Baptists of America to begin 
 the Telugu Mission. 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What is the area of India? 
 
 Answer. One million four hundred and twenty- 
 five thousand seven hundred and twenty-three square 
 miles. 
 
 Q. What are the five principal mountain ranges? 
 
 A. The Himalayas, along the northern border, 
 29,000 feet at the highest point; the Sulaiman 
 
46 Mission Fields. 
 
 Mountains, between Hindustan and Afghanistan, on 
 the northwest; the Vindhyas, extending east and 
 west, between Hindustan and the Deccan ; and the 
 Eastern and Western Ghauts, running north and 
 south, on each side of the Deccan. 
 
 Q. What are the principal rivers? 
 
 A. The Indus, 1,800 miles long, and the Brahma- 
 putra about the same length ; the Ganges, 1,500 
 miles long, and five or six smaller streams. 
 
 Q. What are the principal occupations of the 
 people ? 
 
 A. More than two-thirds follow agriculture; all 
 the useful arts and trades are carried on with rude 
 appliances and little ingenuity. The introduction 
 of English manufactures has nearly destroyed the 
 production of fine textile and metallic work, for 
 which India was once famous. Priests, beggars, 
 and jugglers are numerous. Nearly all occupations 
 are regulated among the Brahmins by caste. 
 
 Q. What religions prevail? 
 
 A, The aborigines practice a modified form of a 
 primitive devil-worship; about 187,000,000 are Hin- 
 dus; nearly 3,500,000 are Buddhists; 50,000,000 
 are Mohammedans; about 100,000 Parsees are Zoro- 
 astrians; there are also Jews, Sikhs, and Jains, and 
 some other smaller sects; 1,862,634 are Christians — 
 of whom over 600,000 are natives, and 600,000 are 
 Protestant Christians. 
 
 Q. How many gods have the Hindus? 
 
 A. Three hundred and thirty millions. 
 
India. 47 
 
 Q. What is the style of the houses? 
 
 A. The typical Hindu family house is built in 
 the form of a quadrangle, with an open court-yard 
 in the center. The men have their apartments and 
 the women theirs. In the court is often some tree. 
 Such a tree by its surroundings is shielded from the 
 fury of the dust-storms, and is carefully watered and 
 cherished by the inhabitants of the house. When 
 the natives read in the Psalms, "I am like a green 
 olive-tree in the house of God," they well under- 
 stand how secure in God's favor is that man ; they 
 know how beloved he is of God. 
 
 Q. Do any of the habits of the people illustrate 
 customs spoken of in the Bible? 
 
 A. In the lives of the people are seen many il- 
 lustrations of the customs alluded to in the Bible. 
 No illustration could more forcibly impress the 
 mind of a Hindu that the destruction of Jerusalem 
 was to be sudden and terrible than the prophecy: 
 ''Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one 
 shall be taken, and the other left." The flour is 
 ground daily by the women of the family. The 
 women rise early in the morning to grind during 
 the cool of the day, as it is hard, heavy work. If 
 there is but one woman in the family, she must 
 grind the flour; if there are two women, they sit 
 down on either side of the mill-stones, each turning 
 the handle with the right hand, and each putting 
 in the wheat with the left hand. Were they sud- 
 denly alarmed, their chances of escape would be 
 
48 Mission Fields. 
 
 equal; but Christ prophesied that, in the day of 
 terror, one should be taken and the other left. 
 
 Every evening, as the poor women go to the 
 wells to draw water, one is reminded of Abraham's 
 servant, who, with his camels, rested by the well, 
 so that at evening time, when the women came out 
 to draw water, he might see the maids, and choose a 
 wife for his master's son. 
 
 The command, "Loose thy shoe from off thy 
 foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
 ground," is followed every day by the Mohammed- 
 ans. A devout Mohammedan, wherever he is or 
 whatever his business, at the setting of the sun 
 takes off his turban, or cotton shawl, and spreads it 
 on the ground. That spot has become holy ground. 
 He takes off his shoes, washes his feet; then, step- 
 ping on the consecrated place, and, bowing to the 
 West towards Mecca, prays. 
 
 AFRICA. 
 
 The United States include a population of 60,- 
 000,000 souls; Africa has more than three to every 
 one of these. One man out of every seven on the 
 globe dwells in Africa. 
 
 Into the heart of the Dark Continent plunged 
 Henry M. Stanley. When he came out, it was to 
 
Africa. 4VJ 
 
 declare the fact that 40,000,000 of people were to 
 confront the Christian Church. —Dr. Ashmore. 
 
 There are 192,000,000 people living on the 
 Dark Continent, of whom it is said that only 2,000,- 
 000 have ever heard the gospel. 
 
 South of the great African Sahara there is a 
 stretch of 4,000 miles without a single missionary 
 amongst the multitudes of people to be found in the 
 villages and great cities. 
 
 ■» ••• -k« 
 
 Think of the 90,000,000 in the Soudan region 
 without a single evangelical witness, and the 40,- 
 000,000 in the Central African lake districts sitting 
 in heathen darkness! —Dr. Pierson. 
 
 When Stanley made his memorable journey of 
 999 days across the continent of Africa, in the 
 course of 7,000 miles he never saw the face of a 
 Christian, nor of a man who had had an opportunity 
 to become one. 
 
 -a- ••• # 
 
 What Columbus and Vespucius did for Amer- 
 ica in the sixteenth century, Livingstone and Stanley 
 have done for Africa in the nineteenth. A new 
 4 
 
50 Mission Fields. 
 
 world is opened to us, with an area equal to North 
 America and Europe combined. And this world 
 has, for eighteen hundred years, been allowed to sit 
 in darkness and the shadow of death! Think of 
 200,000,000 of human beings, even now compact 
 together, and never having heard of the love of 
 God! Has not Africa, at this time, the strongest 
 possible claim upon the energies of the Christian 
 Church? • — Mes. Guinness. 
 
 The first convert in the Upper Congo Valley- 
 was baptized recently, and the valley contains 30, _ 
 000,000 people. All things being considered, the 
 6ongo Valley is said to afford the grandest oppor- 
 tunity for fresh missionary enterprise which the 
 world has to offer to-day. 
 
 •* + *& 
 
 As AN illustration of the vastness of Africa, it 
 is stated: "Connecticut has 4,700 square miles, 
 Dakota and Japan are each forty-seven times larger, 
 India is ten times larger than Japan, China is nearly 
 three times larger than India, and yet out of Africa 
 you might construct China and two Indias. In 
 Northern Africa, Morocco is equal to five times the 
 size of England, while Algeria is three times its size. 
 Tripoli is a province several times as large as Eng- 
 land. The number of missionaries in North Africa 
 is few compared to its vast extent and population. 
 
Africa. 51 
 
 Little groups of workers are to be found, two or 
 three hundred miles apart, in a line from east to 
 west, from Tunis to Tangier ; but farther south 
 there are none for from 1,200 to 2,000 miles. In 
 between these groups are large stretches of country, 
 with millions of souls, who have never yet heard the 
 gospel. Tripoli is at present without a witness for 
 Christ, to tell its 1,200,000 souls of his atonement. 
 In Tunis, among 2,000,000 Moslems, there are but 
 half a dozen missionaries. In Algeria the popula- 
 tion is increasing at the rate of nearly 100,000 a 
 year, and is now nearly 4,000,000. About 3,300,- 
 000 of these are Mohammedans, among whom are 
 laboring but twoscore missionaries. Morocco is the 
 most populous country in North Africa, and is esti- 
 mated to contain from six to eight millions of peo- 
 ple, among whom less than twenty missionaries are 
 working. The Sahara has a population of probably 
 2,000,000 or 3,000,000, and no missionaries are 
 among the Sahariens at present. 
 
 "In Algeria alone, if missionaries were planted 
 ten miles apart, 1,500 would be needed; and this 
 wf>uld give each a parish of 100 square miles, with 
 a population of over 2,000 people. It will be seen 
 that fifty missionaries for the whole of North Africa 
 is entirely insufficient, both for area and population. 
 Again, out of these 16,000,000 Moslems, probably 
 about 33 per 1,000 die every year, or 528,000 souls 
 annually — 10,000 every week. . . . With all 
 our facilities at home, to how many different per- 
 
52 Mission Fields. 
 
 sods does an ordinary minister preach in the course 
 of a year? Suppose his congregation to number 
 about 500 persons. He gets the same persons Sun- 
 day after Sunday, and in the year possibly does not 
 reach more than 2,500 souls. Suppose each of the 
 fifty missionaries to reach 5,000 Mohammedans, they 
 would still only reach 250,000, or one out of sixty- 
 four of the population. Count them, as they hurry 
 past — sixty-three who have not heard, and one 
 who has!" 
 
 ■» ••• *• 
 
 The extreme northern part of Africa was, in 
 ancient times, the seat of civilization and great po- 
 litical power; but the most of it has relapsed into a 
 state of semi-civilization. 
 
 The extreme southern portion possesses a good 
 state of civilization, because the great majority ot 
 the people are colonists from Great Britain or 
 Europe. 
 
 The central portion, stretching across the conti- 
 nent, with the exception of small portions of the 
 coast territory, is peopled chiefly by heathen, many 
 of whom are very superstitious and degraded. 
 
 In the center, on both sides of the Congo River, 
 stretching from the Atlantic Ocean nearly to the 
 Indian Ocean, is the Congo Free State. 
 
 The population of the entire continent is esti- 
 mated at 200,000,000. The Arabs predominate in 
 the north, the Negroes in the center, and the Hot- 
 
Africa. 53 
 
 tentots in South Central Africa. The religion of 
 the majority of the natives in North Africa, and in 
 the central part to a great extent, is Mohammedan- 
 ism. The lowest form of religion, called Fetichism, 
 is believed in and practiced by the people of South 
 Central Africa. Polygamy is allowed both by Mo- 
 hammedans and pagans, and is generally practiced 
 by all the native tribes of Africa; and the wives are 
 generally the principal means of support for men 
 and children. 
 
 Everywhere and always, heathenism means for 
 women degradation and humiliation, although it 
 takes different forms in India, China, Turkey, and 
 Africa. "Her lot in Africa," says « ' Woman's Work 
 for Woman," "is perhaps not so hard as in some 
 other lands. The struggle for the necessities of life 
 is less sharp, and pangs of hunger are less often 
 felt, than in parts of Asia. She is not confined like 
 a prisoner for life in a zenana or harem, but has 
 the fullest liberty to go and come ; and does come 
 to hear the gospel as freely as the men. But in 
 other respects her lot is a hard one, and ought to 
 appeal powerfully to the sympathies of sisters in 
 Christian lands. Take a very common sight in 
 Africa: On a forest path you meet a family return- 
 ing home from the plantation ; in advance stalks 
 the man, a stalwart fellow, carrying a gun; next 
 come the women, panting and staggering under the 
 
54 Mission Fields. 
 
 loads they carry, looking like pack-mules rather than 
 women. You say to the man : ' Why do you make 
 your wives carry such heavy loads?' In surprise, 
 he answers: 'Why, they are my women!' 'I know 
 they are,' you reply; 'but why don't you carry the 
 baskets?' 'Me? I'm a man!' It is the work of the 
 women to carry the loads. 
 
 "And so women are the burden-bearers, and 
 they age rapidly under it. As a rule, youth is past 
 at twenty-five ; and at thirty or forty a woman looks 
 sixty or seventy." 
 
 AVhen the missionary steamer was to be placed 
 on Lake Nyassa, the leader of the expedition ap- 
 plied to the chief of the tribe for reliable help to 
 carry the craft around the cataract. The chief re- 
 sponded by sending eight hundred women — a com- 
 pliment at least to the trustworthiness of the sex, if 
 nothing more. Some of them came fifty miles, 
 bringing their provisions with them. These women 
 were intrusted with the whole, when, if a single 
 portion of the steamer had been lost, the whole scheme 
 would have failed. They carried it in two hundred 
 and fifty loads, in five days, and under a tropical 
 sun, seventy-five miles, to an elevation of eighteen 
 hundred feet, and not a nail or screw was lost. 
 They received for their wages six yards of calico, 
 and as a gift were given one extra yard. 
 
 "Every now and then," says a missionary, "one 
 comes unexpectedly on some of the horrid customs 
 of heathenism. A short time ago a woman died, 
 
Africa. 55 
 
 leaving a baby a week or two old. The poor little 
 tiling was put to the dead mother's breast, and then 
 buried alive with her. This is a Sechuana custom, 
 practiced to this day." Of the custom of making 
 human sacrifices, Bishop Crowther told what he had 
 seen of them. "We walked," he said, "to visit 
 two mausoleums — the first being in honor of a rich 
 man, and the other of a rich woman. A horrible 
 sight met our view. There in the house lay the 
 skeleton of a woman. The body was in a sitting 
 posture. It was a depressing sight. The gloomy 
 and damp surroundings, the stillness around, and 
 the sad object before us, directed our minds to the 
 prayer, ' Lord, have respect to thy covenant, for the 
 dark places of the earth are full of the habitations 
 of cruelty.' This woman was a human sacrifice, of- 
 fered to the dead rich woman." 
 
 Another glimpse of heathenism he gives in the 
 proceedings of a burial: "When the grave was dug, 
 two female slaves were taken, whose limbs were 
 smashed with clubs. Being unable to stir, they 
 were let down into the grave, yet alive, on a mat, 
 on which the corpse of the mistress was laid, and 
 screened from sight for a time. Two other female 
 slaves were laid hold on, and dressed up with 
 clothes and coral beads. They were paraded about 
 the town, to show the public the servants of the 
 rich dead mistress, whom they would attend in the 
 world of spirits. This was done for two days, when 
 the unfortunate victims were taken to the edge of 
 
56 Mission Fields. 
 
 the grave, and their limbs were smashed with clubs, 
 and their bodies laid on the corpse of the mistress, 
 and covered up with earth while yet alive." Can 
 there be any doubt of the urgent need of sending 
 Christian teachers among this poor people? 
 
 Of other inhuman customs and atrocities per- 
 petrated, a secular paper states that where prisons 
 exist, they are horrible, and the way the prisoners 
 are manacled and chained together with rough iron 
 collars is dreadful. The " bastinado" and flogging 
 are common punishments. Even women are sub- 
 jected to it, the law providing that when a female 
 is to be bastinadoed, she must be seated in a basket, 
 with only her feet exposed; the punishment in- 
 flicted must be of a light character; but the pashas 
 pay little attention to the law, and women are some- 
 times thrown down on their faces, and mercilessly 
 flogged. Theft is punished in a barbarous manner, 
 the right hand being chopped off, and the mutilated 
 limb dipped in pitch or tar to cauterize it and stop 
 bleeding. 
 
 & ••• -te 
 
 Slavery is as rampant as ever, and broods like 
 a curse over the continent. "I am not alone," 
 writes one, "in thinking that in this wretched traffic 
 in human life there are horrors sufficient to cause 
 the most devout to question the existence of mercy. 
 It seems cruel that men should be begotten and 
 should live with hearts as cold as winter's icy wind, 
 
Africa. 57 
 
 and just as pitiless ; and whose malignant oppression 
 shows, in the saddest form, the dismal truth of 
 'man's inhumanity to man.' Hard it would be to 
 show the slave that his life was anything beyond 
 that of a beast." 
 
 A strong young man brings forty yards of calico; 
 a young, unmarried girl, fifty-six yards of calico; 
 a young mother, thirty-six yards of calico; an 
 elderly man or woman, four yards of calico; a tooth- 
 less old man, two yards. 
 
 It is no uncommon thing to see dense throngs of 
 unhappy wretches, chained together, with open and 
 undressed wounds on their shoulders, stand waiting 
 to be sold ; while here, there, and everywhere, keen- 
 eyed Arabs jostle each other in their eager bargain- 
 making. Now and again an overdriven prize sinks 
 where he or she stands, and expires through weak- 
 ness or fever incurred during the long and fearful 
 marches across deserts and swamps; while at fre- 
 quent intervals a sob or wail can be heard, coming 
 straight from the heart of some one whose powers 
 of endurance have given away. 
 
 To prevent escape, the strongest and most vigor- 
 ous men have their hands tied, and sometimes their 
 feet in such fashion that walking becomes a torture 
 to them ; and on their necks are placed yokes which 
 attach several of them together. In this way they 
 are made to walk all day, bearing heavy loads, and 
 at night-fall a few handfuls of raw rice are thrown 
 to them. A few days of their hardships begin to 
 
58 Mission Fiei/ds. 
 
 tell even on the strongest. The weakest soon suc- 
 cumb, and the weakest are naturally among the 
 women. But terror sometimes nerves even a weak 
 frame to almost superhuman efforts; and the Arab 
 slave-driver adopts a summary method of striking 
 terror into the hearts of the laggards. The conduct- 
 ors, armed with a wooden bar, approach those who 
 appear to be most exhausted, and deal them a ter- 
 rible blow on the nape of the neck. The unfortu- 
 nate victims utter a cry, and fall to the ground in 
 the convulsions of death. The terrified troop imme- 
 diately resumes its march. 
 
 "The women? I can hardly trust myself to 
 think or speak of them," says Mr. Stevenson, in his 
 last essay on "The Arab in Central Africa." "They 
 were fastened to chains, or thick bark of ropes; 
 very many, in addition to their heavy weight of 
 grain or ivory, carried little babies, dear to their 
 hearts as a white woman's to hers. The double bur- 
 den was almost too much; and still they struggled 
 wearily on, knowing too well that when they showed 
 signs of fatigue, not the slaver's ivory, but the living 
 child, would be torn from them, and thrown aside 
 to die. One poor old woman I could not help no- 
 ticing. She was carrying a. big boy, who should 
 have been walking; but whose thin, weak legs had 
 evidently given way. She was tottering already; 
 it was the supreme effort of a mother's love, and all 
 in vain; for the child, easily recognizable, was 
 brought into camp, a couple of hours later, by a 
 
Africa. 59 
 
 hunter, who had found him on the path. We had 
 him cared for; but his poor mother never knew. 
 Already death had been freeing the captives. We 
 could not help shuddering as, in the darkness, we 
 heard the howl of hyenas along the track, and real- 
 ized only too fully the reason why." 
 
 "I was often permitted to see human harvests 
 of slaves," says Mr. Stanley, "and such slaves as 
 they were! They were females and young children. 
 Every second, during which I regarded them, the 
 clink of fetters and chains struck upon my ears. My 
 eyes caught sight of that continual -lifting of the 
 hand to ease the neck in the collar, or as it displayed 
 a manacle exposed through a muscle being irritated 
 by the weight or want of fitness. My nerves were 
 offended with the rancid effluvium of the unwashed 
 herds within that human kennel, and I was annoyed 
 by the vitiated atmosphere." 
 
 •» ••• -I* 
 
 To-day there are thirty-four missionary societies 
 at work in Africa. Of David Livingstone and his 
 labors, Mr. Stanley eloquently says: "In 1871 I 
 went to him as prejudiced as the biggest atheist. I 
 was there, away from a worldly world. I saw this 
 solitary old man there, and asked myself, Why on 
 earth does he stop here? For months after we met, 
 I found myself listening to him, and wondering at 
 the old man carrying out all that was said in the 
 Bible. Little by little his sympathy for others be- 
 
60 Mission Fields. 
 
 came contagious; mine was aroused. Seeing his 
 piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his earnestness, and 
 how quietly he went about his business, I was con- 
 verted by him, although he had not tried to do it." 
 
 "Many times in traveling/' writes a missionary, 
 "I have heard, in the evening, hymns rising up 
 from the mountain-side, beautifully sung; and I 
 have ridden over to hear whence they came, and 
 have come to a kraal, and there were the people 
 sitting together, not knowing that any white man 
 was near, and I have found them earnestly praying 
 and singing. An African Christian woman said to 
 me, one time: 'The Jesus, of whom you speak, is 
 no stranger to me, although I have never heard his 
 name before. He is so like the Friend I have long 
 felt I needed.'" 
 
 Passing through the country, and stopping at a 
 mission-school, a traveler says he was struck with 
 the holy, happy influence of the place. It was 
 touching in the extreme, he says, to hear the chil- 
 dren, one after another, plead with God that they 
 might have the talent of language given to them, so 
 that they might erelong be able to tell the natives 
 of Jesus and his love. 
 
 In one of the missionary settlements in South 
 Africa the converts are accustomed to seek retire- 
 ment and opportunity for prayer in a thick clump 
 of bushes. It has become a common practice among 
 them, when either of their number does anything 
 inconsistent with his profession, to say: "O, he has 
 
Africa. 61 
 
 not been to the bush!" It is readily seen that just 
 in proportion as the path from the hut to the bush 
 is well trodden, so great is the power over the weak- 
 nesses of human nature. 
 
 Africa's night draws to a close, but the mists are 
 still low ; yet here and there do we discern the rays 
 of the coming morn. 
 
 "At all hours of the day," writes a missionary, 
 "you may hear Baralong men and women singing 
 the songs of Zion. Women and children, as they 
 bring water from the Molopo, sing the hymn, 
 'Shall we gather at the river V and men, journey- 
 ing about the country in their bullock-wagons, may 
 be heard singing, ' 0, think of the home over there !' 
 Surely, 
 
 1 Out of the shadows of night, 
 The world breaks out into light; 
 It is daybreak everywhere.' " 
 
 •a- ••• 4* 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What are we told in the tenth chapter 
 of Genesis? 
 
 Answer. That Africa fell to the share of Ham 
 and his sons. 
 
 Q. Where are Africans mentioned in the Bible? 
 
 A. The man whom Philip met and baptized was 
 a man of Ethiopia. In the Psalms, David says: 
 "Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands unto God." 
 
62 Mission Fields. 
 
 Speaking of our Lord's toilsome walk to Golgotha, 
 Matthew says: "As they came out, they found a 
 man of Cyrene, Simon by name ; him they com- 
 pelled to bear his cross." Cyrene was at that time 
 an important place in Northern Africa. Simon was 
 probably either a Greek and a Jewish proselyte, or 
 the son of Jewish parents and born in Cyrene. 
 The Apollos mentioned in the Acts was said to be 
 "a Jew from Alexandria," in Egypt; while Egypt 
 recalls a host of incidents, and the story of Joseph 
 and of the cruel bondage of the Israelites. 
 
 Q. Why is it so difficult to explore this 
 country? 
 
 A. The chief difficulties arise from its deadly 
 climate and its savage inhabitants. 
 
 Q. What more can be told of this country? 
 
 A. It is two and a half times greater than North 
 and South America combined, and its gold and 
 silver mines are exhaustless. 
 
 Q. Is Africa a beautiful land? 
 
 A. Its immense trees are clad in emerald green 
 the entire year; there are beautiful flowers, majestic 
 rivers and lakes. 
 
 Q. What religion has spread over part of the 
 northern and eastern coast of Africa? 
 
 A. Mohammedanism. 
 
 Q. What are the mass of the people? 
 
 A, Debased heathens, believing that all sickness, 
 accidents, or death are caused by witches, who are 
 human beings inhabited by an evil spirit. 
 
South America. 63 
 
 Q. What do the huts of the natives look like? 
 
 A. Hay-stacks, covered with grass, with a hole 
 in one side large enough to crawl in on hands and 
 knees. 
 
 Q. What has been done for the improvement of 
 the African? 
 
 A. The Bible has been translated into many of 
 their languages; about two thousand missionaries 
 are at work among them ; and in noting the facil- 
 ities now afforded to commerce and mission- work, it 
 should never be forgotten that Protestant mission- 
 aries gave to both the first impulse. 
 
 SOUTH AMERICA. 
 
 There are vast spaces in Africa without a single 
 Christian missionary. So there are in South and 
 Central America. — D* Pierson. 
 
 "Into the heart of Africa, throughout the Chi- 
 nese Empire, over the sacred hills of Syria, across 
 the plains of Persia, and among the millions of 
 India, send the gospel; but do not forget the neigh- 
 boring South American lands. A Christian litera- 
 ture must be given to these people; Christian 
 preachers and teachers must be provided." 
 
64 Mission Fields. 
 
 There are no people in the world more entirely 
 neglected and unknown than the Indians of South 
 America. To every one who has a heart to labor 
 and a will to choose, South America says to-day: 
 ''Study my needs, my future, and then weigh my 
 call; my destiny rests on your shoulder." 
 
 3* + & 
 
 The West Coast of South America has 12,000,- 
 000 of people whose religion is a degraded form of 
 Romanism. 
 
 •3* ••• «• 
 
 Throughout all the valley of the Amazon, 
 which extends in length 3,300 miles, there is not to 
 be found an evangelical missionary ; aud it is stated 
 that the gospel has never been preached in all that 
 territory. There are 12,000,000 of souls in Brazil 
 who are almost without any true knowledge of the 
 gospel, and on its plains there are a million of 
 wild Indians ignored as yet by the Christian world. 
 
 •a- ••• & 
 
 The Republic of Venezuela has a population of 
 2,121,988. There is no Protestant mission-work, 
 yet the Government tolerates freedom in worship. 
 
 The Paraguayans are an interesting but neg- 
 lected people, said to number over 300,000, and are 
 virtually without any religion. 
 
South America. 65 
 
 The natives of South America are much similar 
 to each other in appearance, except in the extreme 
 south. They are fond of liberty and independence; 
 slavery has never been brooked by them as by the 
 Africans. Polygamy is common in most of the 
 tribes, and it is very customary for a man to bring 
 up a young girl from childhood to be one of his 
 wives in due course. The first wife by no means 
 approves of this " too much marrying," and not in- 
 frequently rebels and wins the day against any rival 
 being introduced into the family lodge. Wild 
 dances of all sorts are very popular ; while at great 
 merry-makings and feasts, wrestling and trials of 
 strength are popular amusements of the younger 
 men. 
 
 One writer says: "The Guianaian Indian is 
 hospitable according to his means ; every visitor gets 
 the best he has in his house. In his turn, he is 
 fond of paying visits; indeed, a full fourth of the 
 year is occupied by going about, so that, in course 
 of time, he gets well acquainted with the country. 
 Time to him is nothing. When he goes off on a 
 journey, and requires to be at home on a certain 
 date, he will leave a kind of calendar with his 
 friend, consisting of a knotted string, each knot 
 representing a day. A knot is untied on the morn- 
 ing of each day he is absent, and, if he is well, he 
 will arrive on the day the last knot is untied. 
 Theft is unusual among them, though each tribe 
 accuses the other of being addicted to pilfering." 
 5 
 
66 Mission Fields. 
 
 Of the Patagonians, the same writer say?'. " Their 
 faces are ordinarily bright and good-humored, though 
 in the presence of strangers they assume a sober and 
 even a sullen demeanor. Paint is worn on the face 
 and on the body as a protection against the effects 
 of the wind and sun, and on high occasions the men 
 adorn themselves with white paint." 
 
 There is a large class of so-called "tame Indi- 
 ans," whose condition is wretched almost beyond 
 description. The condition of the wild Indian is 
 simply that of a wild animal — naked, and unspeak- 
 ably filthy. The frontiersman shoots him without 
 compunction; and the work of the Government is a 
 farce, so far as any serious attempt to evangelize the 
 Indians is concerned. 
 
 The Chilano is the Yankee of South America — 
 the most ingenious and thrifty of the Spanish- 
 American race; quick to perceive, but cold-blooded 
 and cruel. 
 
 The women do the street cleaning, occupy the 
 markets, keep fruit-stands, and are employed as 
 street-car conductors; for it must be borne in mind 
 that Chilians take the front rank in intelligence and 
 enterprise of any of the South American races; and 
 Chili may justly be ranked with other civilized na- 
 tions, her upper social and intellectual life being 
 largely patterned after French ideas. Nevertheless, 
 her people are given to deception, and some do pur- 
 loin. It is the common rule to put away from the 
 parlor pretty little ornaments, lest they disappear. 
 
South America. 67 
 
 Yet not all the people are untruthful, nor do all 
 steal; but public sentimeut is exceedingly loose on 
 some things. The Protestant idea of Sabbath-keep- 
 ing is almost wholly unknown as a theory, and al- 
 most universally disregarded as a rule of life. The 
 Chilians need the gospel; they need Christian edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Brazil is one of the largest empires in the world. 
 Its natural resources are equal to those of the United 
 States, and its physical condition such as to offer 
 great inducements to the crowded and distressed 
 millions of Europe. Numerous rivers and lofty 
 mountains make it a beautiful land; but the cus- 
 toms and the manners of the people, their super- 
 stitions, morals, and religion, make the country any- 
 thing but a safe and restful habitation for mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
 In portions of the country the aboriginal In- 
 dians have, to a large extent, become amalgamated 
 with the settled population; but in the vast interior 
 they remain to a great extent in a savage condi- 
 tion. It is estimated that there are still a million 
 of Indians in Brazil. It is a mere estimate. We 
 have no means of ascertaining the exact truth. 
 Indeed, a vast part of the territory has never been 
 explored. Only recently, German explorers, going 
 up a confluent of the Amazon River — the Xingu — 
 found tribes of Indians of which there had never 
 been notice even; not nomadic, but agricultural in 
 their habits. It has been said that the Indians of 
 
68 Mission Fiexds. 
 
 Brazil are inferior in some respects to those of North 
 America; yet they have the same qualities phys- 
 ically. They show the same strong sense, the keen 
 perception of truth and justice, which has been re- 
 vealed frequently in the "poor Indian" of our own 
 country. The eastern provinces of Brazil are dif- 
 ferent; primary education is gratuitous, and is com- 
 pulsory in some. Their customs are peculiar. It is 
 not thought the proper thing for the women to eat 
 with the men. Women never appear outside their 
 houses without a male escort or slave. Domestic 
 animals have perfect freedom of the house; and 
 dogs, pigs, and cows even, are a common sight upon 
 entering a house. 
 
 * .;. & 
 
 The wife of Professor Agassiz wrote of Brazilian 
 women: "Among my own sex I have never seen 
 such sad, sad lives — lives deprived of healthy, in- 
 vigorating happiness; intolerably monotonous, inac- 
 tive, stagnant." A Brazilian woman contributed to 
 a Brooklyn magazine the following very readable 
 article on the characteristics of her country-women. 
 She says: "Consanguineous marriages in Brazil are 
 the rule, and not the exception. There are very 
 many, not only of the first cousins, but also of 
 double first cousins. It seems ludicrous to the 
 stranger to hear a man and his wife address each 
 other as cousin, as they generally do when such was 
 their relationship. One reason for such marriages 
 
South America. 69 
 
 is, that young people have little chance for becom- 
 ing acquainted excepting with relations. A young 
 man never visits a family he is not related to unless 
 to make a brief ceremonious call — perhaps when 
 about to leave town, or for some other like pur- 
 pose — unless it is clearly understood that he comes 
 with matrimonial intentions, when he always asks, 
 not for the girl, but for her parents and guardians, 
 who take her into the reception-room with them, 
 all remaining until the visit is concluded. Kelatives 
 often meet under less restricted circumstances, until 
 they, as a matter of course, 'fall in love.' Still, 
 occasionally, flirtations are inaugurated by the gen- 
 tleman frequently passing the house of some girl 
 between whom and himself there springs up a sort 
 of understanding, when she will make it a point to 
 be at a window or in the garden the hour he is in 
 the habit of passing; and finally he will ask her 
 hand of her guardians, and, if the match be ap- 
 proved, they will become engaged without perhaps 
 ever having exchanged a word, uuless at some party 
 where they chanced to meet he may have asked her 
 for a dance or two, or on some other like occasion 
 they may have exchanged the barest civilities. But 
 whether the betrothed couple are cousins or not, 
 they are never allowed to sit in a room by them- 
 selves, much less to take a walk unaccompanied, 
 until they are married, which generally follows a 
 short engagement — long ones not being in favor. 
 A. girl is never permitted to go out, not even to 
 
70 Mission Fields. 
 
 Church, unless chaperoned by one of the family, or 
 some other lady, generally of mature age. Nothing 
 could be more colorless than the life of a young 
 Brazilian woman ; she has no taste whatever for 
 reading — her education is of the most meager de- 
 scription, it not being considered worth while to 
 educate girls. The necessity of educating boys is 
 understood by parents, and those who are able, do 
 so; but a girl — what need has she for an education? 
 They are even ignorant of some of the most impor- 
 tant historical facts relating to their own land, and 
 of the thousand-and-one other topics that the women 
 of America and other countries are generally con- 
 versant with. They embroider, crochet, and study 
 music; but usually lack the patience and applica- 
 tion necessary to excel in the latter. If they want 
 a drink of water, or their shoes changed, they call 
 a slave to do it. Many can sew and do their own 
 dress-making, being very convenient with the needle, 
 their natural antipathy to work being overcome by 
 their love of dress. Their conversation is utterly 
 frivolous; they talk very loud and in the most ani- 
 mated manner, gesticulating and beating the air 
 with their hands and arms, all talking at once. 
 
 "If the Brazilian girl does not marry at the age 
 when she ought to be playing with her dolls, she 
 frequently continues to play with her dolls until she 
 does marry. The writer remembers seeing a young 
 woman, apparently about eighteen years of age, in 
 a street-car in the city of Bahia, with a doll in her 
 
South Amkrica. 71 
 
 lap, which she cared for and handled the same as a 
 little girl would do; and it is no unusual thing for 
 youug married women to own and play with these 
 and similar fixtures of the nursery. 
 
 "Books are scarce and expensive, leading one 
 to infer there is but little literature in the language. 
 What books there are, are mainly religious, and 
 filled with accounts of miracles, both of olden and 
 recent times. In the large cities women go to 
 parties and entertainments; but those living in the 
 country rarely go out, and when they do, it is an 
 event to be prepared for and talked of for weeks in 
 advance. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at 
 that Brazilian women, with so little to do, should 
 be proud of the sound of their own voices and of 
 gossip. It is not uncommon to hear a Brazilian 
 woman talking so loudly to herself as to lead one 
 passing her room to suppose that she was entertain- 
 ing a company of friends in conversation. The 
 most prolific subject is their religion ; and nearly 
 all holidays have some connection with the Church. 
 The women usually do evince a deep interest in 
 all religious matters, and these ofttimes form an en- 
 tire conversation for hours at a time. 
 
 "It must not be inferred that all the women of 
 Brazil are possessed of the dispositions and habits 
 above described. There are a few thoughtful 
 women, mostly self-educated, who have yearnings 
 for a life less intolerably dull and narrow — women 
 who, in spite of all difficulties, study and read, and 
 
72 Mission Fields. 
 
 despise the aimless, dreary, cramped existence that 
 they are condemned to, and which suffices for so 
 many others." 
 
 Another writer fittingly says: "In the name of 
 the Brazilian people that need so much help, in the 
 names of the souls that will perish unless we carry 
 them the light, in the name of our solemn duty to 
 them, in the name of our blessed Savior who bought 
 them and us with his most precious blood, let every 
 Christian in the United States of North America do 
 all he can for the United States of Brazil!" 
 
 ■a ••• -K* 
 
 "Tell me," said a young Spaniard at Buenos 
 Ayres, "are there no Christians in North America?" 
 "Yes," answered the missionary, "hundreds of 
 thousands." " Then," with a most sad face, he con- 
 tinued, "why do not they come out here? Do you 
 know that Buenos Ayres is so ready for the gospel 
 that you have only to announce a meeting, and the 
 people crowd in until there is not room to stand?" 
 
 The people of Terra del Fuego are thus de- 
 scribed by an English missionary: "They are no- 
 madic in their habits, moving about from place to 
 place in their bark canoes, in the center of which a 
 fire is always burning. Each canoe contains a fam- 
 ily ; the wife rowing, while the husband is on watch 
 with his javelin. On landing, the woman has, first 
 
South America. 73 
 
 of all, to carry her husband ashore, he holding the 
 fire carefully above the water. When everything 
 is ashore, the woman at once begins the erection of 
 their primitive hut. The men are rarely able to 
 swim; but the women are, as a rule, expert swim- 
 mers, and this, together with their constant work at 
 rowing, gives them extraordinary muscular power. 
 
 Polygamy is practiced to the extent of each man 
 usually having two wives — an older and a younger 
 one. Without writing of any kind, they yet pre- 
 serve many rules and customs, more or less tradi- 
 tional, and mainly relating to the chase. They are 
 good-natured and helpful, but tenacious in the de- 
 fense of their rights. They delight in long stories 
 and conversations, and in these a good part of their 
 time is spent. Of all religious ideas and duties, 
 they have a vague idea of the spirits of the departed 
 wandering about in the world, and as greatly to be 
 feared. Everything about the Fuegian is disgust- 
 ing, and almost brute-like. The spectator turns 
 away from him in the belief that surely no man, 
 created in the image of his Maker, has reached the 
 lowest type, or brute ascending to the highest stage. 
 He moves about in a crouching, stooping posture; 
 his person is covered with the filth of generations, 
 and his long, mane-like locks are repulsive. Though 
 living in a country where sleet, snow, and rain are 
 almost every-day occurrences, the male Fuegian 
 wears no clothing, except a small piece of seal-skin 
 thrown over his shoulder, and removed now and 
 
74 Mission Fields. 
 
 then so as to shelter his person in the direction 
 whence the blast may be blowing. The women 
 have quite as little clothing. The skins of this race 
 seem to be insensible to cold, and though they seem 
 to strangers to be always shivering, yet this must 
 have become a second nature with them; for they 
 may be seen moving about from place to place, or 
 sitting in their canoes, with the whirling snow beat- 
 ing against their nude persons, seemingly without 
 caring. 
 
 Among the most interesting missionary records 
 is the account of Captain Allen Gardner's labors, 
 who gave his life to South America. His story is 
 simple. He was an officer of the English navy, 
 who lost early his young and accomplished wife. 
 He then consecrated himself to missionary services. 
 He spent time and much out of his private re- 
 sources in visiting various parts of the world. To 
 be a pioneer missionary to the most abandoned 
 heathen was his aim in life. He especially set his 
 heart on South America. He did not live, suffer, 
 nor die in vain. In Terra del Fnego his special ef- 
 forts were made, and as a result there is now a 
 Christian Church, a district with schools, an orphan- 
 age, Bible and mothers' meetings. 
 
 The great naturalist Darwin said that the first 
 time he visited Terra del Fuego the people were the 
 most degraded he had ever seen — they were worse 
 
South America. 
 
 75 
 
 than brutes. He visited the island again before his 
 death, after mission-work had been carried on there 
 for years, and he wrote: "The success of the Terra 
 del Fd _ -ion is most wonderful, and charms 
 
 me, as I always prophesied utter failure." A mis- 
 sionary went to the bedside of an injured Fuegian. 
 "What is the matter?" he asked; and the man 
 replied: "Sick— eye; man throw snowball hard, 
 hit me." Directly he added: "Me walk straight 
 home — say nothing ; no hit man back." 
 
 "There are times of depression," says the relator 
 of this story, " when the thought of the ignorance 
 of this people is borne upon the mind heavily; but 
 then again come blessed flashes of light like this in- 
 cident, slight as it seems, which gives me strength to 
 go forward with renewed courage." 
 
 -a- -f ¥f 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. Who are the natives of South America? 
 mer. Indians, many of whom are in a half- 
 civilized state. Three-tenths of the population of 
 South America are put down as pure white, and 
 one-tenth Negro ; others are mixed-blood. 
 
 Q. How many languages are spoken among the 
 
 Indians? 
 
 A. Over four hundred; as many as among all 
 the seven or eight hundred millions of the Old- 
 World inhabitants. 
 
76 Mission Fields. 
 
 Q. Who were the first European settlers? 
 
 A. The Portuguese. 
 
 Q What European nations have founded settle- 
 ments in South America? 
 
 A. The Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Dutch, 
 and British. 
 
 Q. Are Protestant missions permitted? 
 
 A. They are permitted in all the republics, but 
 with restrictions in some, and in all are much op- 
 posed by Romish priests. 
 
 Q. What was the first Protestant work in South 
 America? 
 
 A. The first Protestant Church was formed 1>\ 
 a colony of French Huguenots on an island near 
 Rio Janeiro, in 1554, and survived until 1567, 
 when it was dispersed by the inhabitants. To-da} 
 over half a dozen different missionary societies art 
 working in various portions of the continent. 
 
 Q. What is the proportion of Protestant mission 
 aries to population ? 
 
 A. It is said that there is one Protestant mis- 
 sionary to 600,000 persons in South America. 
 
 MEXICO. 
 
 There are at least 8,000,000 people in the 
 United States of Mexico who have never seen a 
 copy of the Holy Scriptures. In that population 
 of 11,000,000, there are just about 400 Protestant 
 
Mexico. 77 
 
 workers. What parishes! Every worker caring for 
 some 28,000 souls! We can not afford to have a 
 Christless and Churchless neighbor. Let us visit 
 her, and carry with us Christ. 
 
 — Gospel in All Lands. 
 
 •3* ^. .fc. 
 
 Mexico is as much a field for Protestant mis- 
 sions as China or Africa. — Lr. Piebsoh. 
 
 •a •?• «■ 
 
 It is absolutely heart-rending to think of a na- 
 tion of people right by our door, in as fair a prov- 
 ince, in some parts of it, for climate, for soil, and 
 for wealth of resources in all manner of production, 
 as the sun shines on in all his course, living and 
 dying in this deplorable state for hundreds and 
 possibly thousands of years — generation following 
 generation, and century following century — and the 
 same pall of worse than death still hanging over them. 
 
 Has their redemption dawned at last? We 
 would fain hope so. Surely there is enough humanity 
 in man, not to mention Christian sympathy, now 
 that the door is open, to send healing influences of 
 Christianizing and civilizing agencies into this Dead 
 Sea of semi-heathen misery. But it is said Mexico 
 is a Christian land ; and how can this wretched- 
 ness be explained? Has Christianity done nothing 
 for this people? We have to answer: Yes, Mexico 
 is a so-called Christian nation. She calls herself 
 
78 Mission Fields. 
 
 "a most Christian nation." It is not the want of 
 Christianity, but the kind of Christianity it has, 
 that is its bane. A type of Christianity must be 
 given to it that will purge those golden mountains 
 and wealth-bearing plains, and give it a different 
 kind of homes and peoples; that will transform 
 thoBe sad and wretched hordes into men and women, 
 and make their hearts and homes bloom with the 
 hopes and loves and refinements such as grow on 
 the stem of the Christianity of Christ. 
 
 — Bishop Foster. 
 
 •» ••• 4* 
 
 The country of Mexico is, from every point of 
 view, one of the fairest and most interesting in the 
 world. Lay it on our Republic, and it would cover 
 one-third of our territory. 
 
 The towns and hamlets look very much as they 
 have looked for the past three hundred years— bits 
 of old Spain dropped into the New World soil amid 
 the moldering ruins of its ancient civilization. Its 
 population is said to number 11,000,000, and it is 
 generally agreed that about one-third of the whole 
 number are pure Indians, the descendants of the 
 proprietors of the soil at the time of its conquest by 
 the Spaniards; a people yet living in a great de- 
 gree by themselves, though mingling in the streets 
 of the cities with the other races, and speaking 
 about one hundred and twenty different languages 
 or dialects. 
 
Mexico. 79 
 
 They are blow workers, but faithful and perse- 
 vering; they often live to be a hundred years old, 
 and the women are especially long-lived. Nearly one- 
 half of the white population are of mixed blood. 
 The Mestizos, whose maternal ancestors were Indi- 
 ans, and their fathers of Caucasian blood, constitute 
 the dominant race of Mexico. 
 
 These people are industrious, easily managed, 
 and contented. Poverty does not imply extreme 
 suffering from either cold or starvation, because of 
 the mildness and productions of the country. When 
 their simple wants are satisfied, money with them 
 has but little value, and quickly finds its way into the 
 pockets of priests or lottery-sellers. Lottery-offices 
 are everywhere. 
 
 Many of the hospitals and other charitable insti- 
 tutions are sustained by this sort of gambling. The 
 religion of the people seems to have been absorbed 
 by their vices, or their vices by their religion — 
 either way — for even the lotteries and gambling- 
 dens sail under the name and patronage of the 
 saints. 
 
 The moral condition of the people is extremely 
 low. Perhaps half of the population living to- 
 gether as man and wife are not married. The ex- 
 orbitant marriage-fees of the Church have had much 
 to do with this. 
 
 Ignorance is rife. It is still said to be true that 
 six-sevenths of the people can neither read or write. 
 
 Lacking a river system and having few harbors, 
 
80 Mission Fields. 
 
 Mexican commerce naturally floats to our ports. 
 Awaking to the superiority of our civilization, Mex- 
 ican society begins to court closer fellowship with 
 our institutions. Whether avarice and ambition 
 shall conquer Mexico in the interests of trade and 
 traffic, or the spirit of the gospel shall impel la- 
 borers to till those fields for Christ, is the issue of 
 
 the hour. 
 
 •» ••• * 
 
 While habits and customs which are wrought 
 into the very life of the people are fast giving way 
 before American ideas, yet there are immense dis- 
 tricts where foreign wares and ways are unknown. 
 Husbandry is still carried on as it was when Joseph 
 was Pharaoh's overseer in Egypt. 
 
 Men and women both share in the burdens of 
 caring for the family; a woman may work in the 
 fields, but the heaviest part of outdoor labor comes 
 on the man. Those who are too poor to own one 
 of their little ponies, will all day carry on their 
 own backs a load of from seventy-five to a hundred 
 pounds. They take short steps, aud go on their 
 long journeys, up aud down hill, at a jog-trot, re- 
 turning satisfied if they have earned a dollar or two 
 at most. 
 
 For love of wife and children, Mexicans of every 
 class are unexcelled anywhere. If a man is at work 
 on a new road, thither he transports his w r ife and 
 babies. He has a shelter for them somewhere 
 among the cactus or palms, or he burrows in a hill- 
 
Mexico. 81 
 
 side, or has a little thatch amid the brush. Here 
 the little brown children roll in the sun with the 
 pigs, which have accompanied the family on their 
 migration. The pony, if they have one, is tethered 
 close by ; and the inevitable donkey goes hobbling 
 about, as long-suffering as the Indian, and with some- 
 thing like his history. 
 
 The ordinary homes of the common people are 
 built of adobe or logs, and branches of trees. A 
 heap of stones in the corner serves for a fire-place 
 on the earthen floor. 
 
 Large, costly, and often elegant stone edifices, 
 public and private, are not wanting in the principal 
 towns and cities. 
 
 Servants are cheap and plenty, and you are 
 pretty sure to have several descendants of the Aztec 
 kings about the house if you hire one; for it is 
 the rule that the whole family go with the father or 
 mother when they go out to service. The cook 
 brings her husband and her children, and they are 
 fed from your table and sleep under your roof. 
 The husband may be a shoemaker or a hackman, 
 but he lives where his wife works. There are usually 
 rooms enough in the house for them all, and the 
 only food they want is plenty of beans and what is 
 
 left from one's table. 
 
 ■» ••• -14- 
 
 A Mexican girl is born and grows up amidst 
 quarrels, laziness, and blows. While but a baby 
 herself she becomes a nurse for the next comer, and 
 6 
 
82 Mission Fields. 
 
 often she may be seen in the street staggering under 
 the weight of an infant almost as large as herself. 
 What does she wear? Rags. The skirt, once put 
 on, stays on till it drops off; she lives in it — she 
 sleeps in it. Her head and shoulders are covered 
 with the national reboza. "Where is she educated? 
 In the streets — growing very wise in this world's 
 craftiness. So the years go on, and at the age of 
 perhaps fourteen she marries a boy of sixteen. Is 
 her condition bettered? By no means. From this 
 time she is probably the bread-winner of the house- 
 hold, receiving as her only reward blows and curses. 
 Children are born to her, to be reared as was she 
 herself; and while she is comparatively young in 
 years she is an old woman. But has religion no 
 comfort for her? The priest gives comfort only to 
 those w T ho give money, and her pennies are few. 
 She goes regularly to the church ; but can Latin 
 prayers soothe her troubled heart? Sickness enters 
 her door; will the priest come, and, with kindly 
 words and deeds, strengthen and help ? If she pays 
 well he will come, mutter a few meaningless prayers, 
 sprinkle the sick with holy water, aud go. At last 
 she lays down her burden ; her body, without funeral 
 rite, is hurried to the grave, perhaps on the shoulders 
 of men; her soul — where is it? 
 
 Do you think this is overdrawn? The picture 
 scarcely gives you an idea of the miserable, aimless, 
 godless lives of the women of Mexico among the 
 lowest class. Naturally as you ascend you find the 
 
Mexico. 83 
 
 temporal wants better supplied, and consequently 
 less and less bodily suffering. 
 
 Of courtship, among the better class, a corre- 
 spondent writes: "The beginning of it consists in a 
 young man passing up and down the street where 
 the object of his admiration resides, between the 
 hours of five and eight o'clock every afternoon, with 
 his eyes fixed on the balcony, where the young 
 woman is standing if she wishes to encourage him. 
 Then he goes to the same church and the same mass 
 as she does, and looks at her all the time she is pray- 
 ing, and he ought to do the same. He walks after her 
 in the street when she goes out shopping accompanied 
 by some elderly lady ; in fact, he follows her every- 
 where, without ever speaking to her unless he hap- 
 pens to dance with her in a ball-room. If he 
 receives a great amount of encouragement, then he 
 passes up and down the street where she lives, not 
 only in the afternoon, but at other hours of the 
 day. He will make signs to her; and when he can 
 not express all he wants to say by signs, then he 
 writes notes to her, and, when it is dark, throws 
 them upon the balcony, tied to a small bouquet. 
 Before visiting the house, some person of influence 
 proposes the young man to the father as fiance for 
 the young lady; and if he is accepted, then he is 
 allowed to visit, and only sees his intended wife in 
 the presence of the entire family until their mar- 
 riage." 
 
 A recent visitor to Mexico was struck by the 
 
84 Mission Fields. 
 
 sad expression on the faces of the Mexican women ; 
 there seemed to be no joy or mirthful nesa in their 
 lives. They are plodding and industrious; they 
 weave, with their old Aztec loom?, just such cloth 
 as their ancestors gave to Cortez by the bale. "As 
 woman is naturally more religious than man," says 
 an author, "when she kneels at the shrine, and 
 yields obedience to a false religion, her servitude is 
 more abject, her condition more deplorable. Woman 
 in Mexico, as in all Catholic countries, is a pitiable 
 slave. From childhood she is taught to yield her 
 self implicitly, body and soul, to the will of the 
 priest. In the confessional she must tell every- 
 thing. There are no family secrets, no conjugal 
 confidences, but must be poured into the ear of the 
 father confessor. The priest, knowing all family 
 affairs — its incomings and outgoings, even to the 
 minute, every-day occurrences — has it wholly in 
 his power, and this power is used for the basest 
 
 purposes." 
 
 •» ••• & 
 
 "When once converted to Christianity the women 
 become ardent, loving followers of the blessed Jesus. 
 One missionary tells us of women he has known 
 who have worked in the sun all day, and traveled 
 miles at night, carrying their children in their arms, 
 to attend a prayer-meeting, and walking back in 
 time to begin work at five o'clock the next morn- 
 ing. Another tells us of an old woman, who never 
 saw the Bible until she was seventy years old, and 
 
Mp:xico. 85 
 
 who, at a special Conference meeting recently, 
 walked five miles to attend the service and give her 
 testimony, though then over eighty years old. 
 
 •» ••• ■«• 
 
 With all that makes Mexico one of the most 
 fruitful of mission-fields, it has been called, with 
 truth, one of the most difficult and dangerous. 
 Scarcely one of the Protestant Churches but has 
 had its martyrs, and sometimes many of them. 
 One missionary writes: "More than once I have 
 looked out on a sea of maddened creatures, ready 
 to tear me limb from limb, almost succeeding in 
 forcing an entrance into the house, but held back 
 by the unseen Hand." 
 
 Never in any nation has human sacrifice been 
 carried to so frightful an extent as it was among 
 this people. Human sacrifices, and the sacrificial 
 eating of human flesh, formerly prevailed to a mon- 
 strous and cruel degree. 
 
 11 Mexico, Past and Present," from which we 
 have made copious extracts, says: "There are sad 
 memories haunting almost every corner of Mexico. 
 In the square in which stands the Convent of San 
 Domingo were the Inquisition buildings, under the 
 care of Dominican friars ; these buildings are 
 now occupied by the Methodist Mission. One of 
 the gilded rooms, of which they took possession, had 
 in its walls a door which had been plastered up. 
 This was knocked open, and a room was found in 
 
86 Mission Fields. 
 
 which were many human skeletons. The hapless 
 victims had evidently been let down through a well- 
 like opening overhead, and left alone to die, the 
 living among the dead. From the court-yard of 
 this terrible prison, thirteen cart-loads of human 
 bones were taken before it could be made suitable 
 for the purposes of the mission." 
 
 But all classes of people in Mexico are being 
 aroused a little. Those who used to beg or starve, 
 because they had nothing else to do, can now earn 
 an honest living with pickax and spade along rail- 
 road routes. In the educational institutions several 
 thousand students are now pursuing their studies. 
 Besides these are asylums for the blind, the deaf and 
 dumb, and some other charities. 
 
 It is not yet a hundred years since the streets of 
 the City of Mexico were lighted at night, and 
 scarcely twenty-five since a moonlight walk was 
 safe for either ladies or gentlemen. They are now 
 as orderly as those of any city in America. The 
 policemen stand with lanterns, about a hundred 
 yards apart, all over the city. 
 
 "I wish you could be in our church some Sun- 
 day night," says a Mexican missionary. ''You 
 would see over five hundred Mexicans, many so poor 
 that they can get only one miserable meal per day; 
 many sitting there, trying to stretch a ragged old 
 blouse or shirt so as to make it conceal their bare 
 backs and shoulders ; many taking turns — when they 
 have not clothes — the mother wearing the only de- 
 
Mexico. 87 
 
 cent dress to one service, the daughter to the next. 
 Five hundred Mexicans, four-fifths of them with no 
 better clothing than a single, thin, muslin suit, when 
 it is so cold that we Americans are cold with all our 
 thick clothing and our overcoats on! All this to 
 hear the gospel!" 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. To what race do the people of Mexico 
 belong? 
 
 Answer. There are about 6,000,000 native Indi- 
 ans; 3,000,000 mixed Indian and white; 1,500,000 
 Mexican-born Spaniards; 150,000 pure white, of 
 whom 50,000 are natives of Spain; 10,000 Ne- 
 groes; 45,000 mixed Negro and Indian; and 50,000 
 mixed Negro and white. 
 
 Q. What is the present Government? 
 
 A. A federal republic of twenty-seven States, 
 one Territory— Lower California — and the federal 
 district of the City of Mexico and vicinity. The 
 structure and administration of the Government are 
 modeled after that of the United States. 
 
 Q. What is the state of education? 
 
 A. Until 1857 there was none worth the name. 
 Since that time more than 5,000 public schools have 
 been established and maintained by the State, in- 
 cluding universities and technical schools. 
 
88 Mission Fields. 
 
 Q. What is the religion ? 
 
 A. The majority of the people are Roman Cath- 
 olics, and are ignorant and superstitious. It is 
 estimated that still from one-third to oue-half of 
 the real estate is owned by priests. The Church 
 collects from the people throughout the Republic 
 $20,000,000 a year, and she has left the people poor, 
 ignorant, superstitious, and immoral. 
 
 Q. What of some remnants of public buildings 
 and instruments of torture in preservation in the 
 museums ? 
 
 A. In the National Museum may be seen the 
 sacrificial stone of the Aztecs, all begrimed with 
 stains, just as when thrown dow T n by the Spaniards, 
 still stained with the life-blood of their countrymen. 
 There is the terrible stone yoke, that used to hold 
 fast the victim while the heart was torn from the 
 quivering body; and also the obsidian knives, with 
 which the priests, with solemn pomp, made the in- 
 cision between the ribs of the doomed victim. 
 
 Q. Who was the pioneer lady missionary from 
 America? 
 
 A. Miss Rankin, who fearlessly, quietly, and 
 zealously worked for years on the Mexican border; 
 many times she was persecuted, and the history of 
 her mission labors reads like a romance. Thousands 
 of Bibles w r ere carried into the country through 
 her influence; among the first was one which she 
 baked into a loaf of bread, and sent to Mata- 
 moras. 
 
Turkey. 89 
 
 Q. What can be said of the silver-mines of 
 Mexico ? 
 
 A. Doubtless Mexico has produced one-half the 
 existing stock of silver in the world. There are 
 mines which yield $13,000,000 annually, aud no 
 silver-mines have ever been known to give out. The 
 mines which the Aztecs worked before Cortez came 
 are profitable yet. 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 Osman Bey said: "During my stay in America 
 I was often overwhelmed with questions about the 
 Orient and Turkish life in general. The intensity 
 of the American desire for information about our 
 'Land of the Crescent' was most flattering." 
 
 The two great divisions of Turkey are : Turkey 
 in Europe, with a population, including Bulgaria 
 and East Roumelia, of over seven millions; and 
 Turkey in Asia, with a population of sixteen 
 millions. 
 
 Except in the poorest parts of the Koordish 
 Mountains and in some northern portions, the peo- 
 ple of Turkey live in comparative comfort. To be 
 sure, what is ample for them seems to the foreigner 
 a very meager supply ; but it is still true, as a rule, 
 that they are in comfort so far as the supply of 
 
90 Mission Fields. 
 
 bodily needs is concerned. Their food is simple, 
 but wholesome. Their homes are rough, and furni- 
 ture scanty. It is when sickness and old age bring 
 weakness and distress that discomforts principally 
 appear. 
 
 In manners they are sedate and dignified; and 
 their leading traits of character are pride, indolence, 
 and self-indulgence, coupled with the redeeming 
 virtues of hospitality to strangers, and strong do- 
 mestic affection. 
 
 The custom of the country allows boys and girls 
 to play together until about eight years old, and 
 after that the girl wears a veil whenever she goes 
 visiting or shopping, and lives in the harem with 
 the women ; the boy, from being altogether among 
 women up to this time, must henceforth be the 
 companion of men only, and probably does not 
 speak to a woman till he is married to some un- 
 known girl, bought or chosen for him by his 
 parents. 
 
 In a missionary point of view, Turkey is the key 
 of Asia. Nowhere has the providential guidance of 
 the missionary work been more remarkable. The 
 Divine hand has alike prepared the minds of the 
 Armenian people in Turkey for Christian influences, 
 directed attention thither, blessed the missionaries 
 with wisdom, interposed continually for the protec- 
 tion of their work, and led them forward to a suc- 
 cess already so broad and deep as to be silently 
 molding the destinies of the empire. 
 
Turkey. 91 
 
 In "People of Turkey," the author says: "I 
 have often been asked what a Turkish lady does all 
 day long. Does she sleep, or eat sugar-plums, and is 
 she kept under lock and key by a Bluebeard of a 
 husband, who allows her only the liberty of waiting 
 on him? A Turkish lady is certainly shut up in a 
 harem, and there can be no doubt that she is at 
 liberty to indulge in the above-mentioned luxuries 
 should she feel so disposed ; she has possibly at 
 times to submit to being locked up, but the key is 
 applied to the outer gates, and is left in the keeping 
 of the friendly attendant. In her home she is per- 
 fect mistress of her time and of her property, which 
 she can dispose of as she thinks proper. Should 
 she have cause of complaint against any one, she is 
 allowed to be very open spoken, holds her ground, 
 and fights her own battles with astonishing coolness 
 and decision. 
 
 Turkish ladies appreciate to the full, as much as 
 their husbands, the virtues of the indispensable cup 
 of coffee and cigarette ; this is their first item in the 
 day's program. The hanoums may next take a bath ; 
 the young ladies wash at the ablest hours; the slaves, 
 when they can find time. The hanoum will then at- 
 tend to her husband's wants, bring him his pipe and 
 coffee, his slippers and pelisse. While smoking, he 
 will sit on the sofa, whilst his wife occupies a lower 
 position near him, and the slaves roll up the bed- 
 ding from the floor. If the gentleman be a govern- 
 ment functionary the official bag will be brought in, 
 
92 Mission Fields. 
 
 and he will look over his documents, examining 
 some, affixing his seal to others, saying a few words 
 in the intervals to his wife, who always addresses 
 him in a ceremonious manner, with great deference 
 and respect. The children will then trot in to be 
 caressed, and ask for money with which to buy 
 sweets and cakes. The custom of giving pence to 
 children daily is so prevalent that it is practiced 
 even by the poor. 
 
 The children, after an irregular breakfast, are 
 sent to school, or allowed to roam about the house. 
 
 The Mohammedan woman, no less than her father 
 or husband, is in duty bound to pray seven times a 
 day; and in the women's apartments there is every 
 convenience for frequent ablutions required by their 
 religion. The women, in general, are too indolent 
 to undergo much exertion; they embroider a little, 
 or else toy with the guitar. 
 
 The women of Armenia display the same disre- 
 gard to neatness as Turkish women, without possess- 
 ing their redeeming point of cleanliness. Of the 
 life in the harem we get an intimation from Miss 
 West's "Komance of Missions," in which she says: 
 "The inmates of some of the Turkish harems in 
 the palaces, who, between the bars of their gilded 
 cages, catch glimpses of the gay life of the outside 
 world, pine for the freedom, if not the culture and 
 honor, enjoyed by their sister-women of Christian 
 lands. And who can describe the wretchedness and 
 wrong, the untold degradation aud corruptions, hid- 
 
Turkey. 93 
 
 den in the harems of Turkey? Denied all intel- 
 lectual culture, all improving intercourse with the 
 outer world; shut in completely to themselves, the 
 prey of jealousy, envy, and every evil passion; cru- 
 elly crushed in all her higher instincts and intui- 
 tions, — what wonder that the Moslem mother mourns 
 when a daughter is born to her, as she traces its 
 future in the light of her own past and present 
 ignominy! For these ire the inevitable evils of a 
 system so inwrought in the very warps of Moslem 
 social life." 
 
 Concerning the women, an extract from the 
 Turkish penal code reads: "In all cases of invol- 
 untary, accidental killing, the price of blood, for a 
 man, is about $1,500; half that for accidentally 
 killing a woman; and for slaves, according to their 
 value, about one-fifth or one-sixth of the penalty for 
 a woman. 
 
 "If two persons are together guilty, the two 
 shall receive each the full penalty; but if they be 
 husband and wife, the wife alone shall be punished." 
 
 •» ••• -te 
 
 "The darkest hour in Turkish missions," says 
 Dr. Pierson, "was reached in 1851, when a sultan 
 issued a decree that all missionaries were to leave 
 the land, and missions were to close. Dr. H., one 
 of the American missionaries who tried in vain to 
 get the decree revoked, called on Dr. B., and told 
 him the sad news. But the Doctor, calmly rocking 
 
94 Mission Fields. 
 
 himself in his chair, remarked, 'The Sultan of the 
 universe can reverse it;' and down they went before 
 God. All night they prayed. The next morning the 
 sultan died! His successor never mentioned the de- 
 cree, and the missionaries are still carrying on their 
 good work ; and Turkey now is planted with 
 churches from the Golden Horn to the Tigris and 
 the Euphrates, and the Cross is beginning to outshine 
 the Crescent." 
 
 In his fascinating book, ''Among the Turks," 
 Dr. Cyrus Hamlin says: "You can anywhere con- 
 verse with Mohammedans on religious subjects with 
 a freedom impossible thirty years ago. I once over- 
 heard, in a steamer on the Bosphorus, some Turks 
 discussing this point; and, to my amazement, they 
 attributed the change to the influence of American 
 missions, wholly unaware that an American was sit- 
 ting behind them. By their books, schools, news- 
 papers, translations of the Scriptures into all lan- 
 guages, missions have had their influence — a very 
 wide and extended one — outside of their direct 
 labors." 
 
 As an illustration of missionary results, we read: 
 "At Harput, on the Euphrates, one little mission 
 Church, in less than twelve years, and at a cost 
 not exceeding the expense of one modern church 
 edifice, has multiplied itself into fourteen mission 
 Churches." 
 
 In a recent incident that comes from Turkey, 
 the fellowship of Christians with each other and 
 
Turkey. 95 
 
 with Christ is touchingly illustrated: Rev. Mr. 
 Boolgoorjoo, of Marash, writes of a village, some 
 seventeen miles from that city, which he visited on 
 a recent Sunday, where the people are all poor; 
 their main occupation being the bringing of guano 
 to the city. One day they go to the mountain and 
 bring back a donkey-load to the village, and on the 
 next day they go to the city and sell the load for 
 from ten to fifteen cents, thus earning this small 
 sum for two days' work for man and beast. To 
 these poor people Mr. Boolgoorjoo preached a ser- 
 mon from 1 John i, 3: "That ye also may have 
 fellowship with us," etc. The duty of so acting 
 that they might have fellowship with the millions in 
 China and India and Africa was dwelt upon, and 
 these poor people responded cheerfully. One gave 
 two cents, another, five cents; another, two quarts 
 of beans; another, a donkey-load of wood; and so 
 the sum of one dollar was raised, and the pastor 
 sends it to be expended as an expression of their 
 fellowship for the needy ones in Africa. Hardly 
 one of these people had a whole suit of clothes; and 
 the pastor says that they were so poorly clad that it 
 would not be suitable for any of them to attend 
 Church iu any place in America. 
 
96 Mission Fields. 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What places in Turkey were noted in 
 apostolic times? 
 
 Answer. Philippi ; the seven cities — Ephesus 
 Smyrna, Pergamos, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Sardis, 
 and Thyatira — " where the seven Churches of Asia" 
 were; Tarsus, and Antioch. 
 
 Q. What eminent early Christians lived and 
 wrought there? 
 
 A. Paul, Timothy, John, Polycarp, and many of 
 the early fathers of post-apostolic days. 
 
 Q. What kind of people are found in Turkey 
 now? 
 
 A. About two-thirds of them are Turks, a few 
 Jews, Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, and individuals 
 from almost every known country. 
 
 Q. What is the government of Turkey? 
 
 A. A religious despotism, based on the precepts 
 of the Koran. 
 
 Q. What other religions are professed? 
 
 A. Those of the Greek, Armenian, and Nesto- 
 rian Churches, and still others. There are three 
 million Armenians in Turkey. They are active and 
 enterprising. They are the bankers and merchants 
 of the country. The Greeks are the remnant of the 
 old Byzantine Empire, of which Constantinople was 
 the capital. 
 
 Q. What kinds of missionary schools are there? 
 
Turkey. 97 
 
 A. Common schools, boarding-schools, colleges, 
 and theological seminaries. 
 
 Q. What has been done for woman in Turkey? 
 
 A. Wherever the gospel has gone she has been 
 trained to respect herself. She has been taught to 
 read and to teach. As she rises, all classes of so- 
 ciety will rise with her. "Turkish women, as yet, 
 have scarcely been touched by the gospel," says one. 
 
 Q. What can be said of one very remarkable 
 Turkish woman? 
 
 A. A very extraordinary woman was living, a 
 short time ago, at Constantinople — Kara Fatma, 
 the Eastern Joan of Arc — who was known as "the 
 Maid of Kurdestan." At one time she commanded 
 the brave but savage Bashi-Bazouks; and, at the 
 beginning of the Crimean War, she offered her 
 services to the French general, Yusif, who, however, 
 refused to see her. She then went back to Asia, 
 where she fought perpetually in the small tribal 
 wars. She was tall and dark, and, when sev- 
 enty years of age, she still fought whenever she 
 could find an opportunity. Her costume resembled, 
 as closely as possible, that of a Turkish captain. 
 Her breast was covered with military medals, and 
 her insignia embroidered on her coat. The sultan, 
 from whom she received a large pension, granted 
 her private audiences, and made no secret of his 
 opinion that he considered her the best officer in 
 the Turkish army. — Englishman. 
 
 Q. What glowing tribute does the author of 
 7 
 
98 Mission Fields. 
 
 "The People of Turkey" pay to missionary work 
 amongst the Turks? 
 
 A. "A wish for instruction is everywhere shown, 
 and it has received a strong and most salutary im- 
 pulse from the numerous American missionaries now 
 established throughout Armenia. The untiring ef- 
 forts of these praiseworthy and accomplished workers 
 in the cause of civilization and humanity are bearing 
 fruit. They are working wonders among the unculti- 
 vated inhabitants of this hitherto unhappy country, 
 where mission-schools, founded in all directions, are 
 doing the double service of instructing the people by 
 their enlightened moral and religious teaching, and 
 o(' stimulating among the wealthy a desire to do for 
 themselves — by the establishment of Armenian 
 schools — what American philanthropy has so nobly 
 begun to do for them." 
 
 SYRIA. 
 
 "Syria has figured prominently in history, both 
 profane and sacred. Through it lies the great high- 
 way between Asia and Africa, which has been so 
 often thronged by caravans of trade, so often trod- 
 den by hosts of war. Here was unrolled the an- 
 cient Revelation of the true God. Patriarchs wan- 
 dered here. Prophet and apostle lived and labored 
 here. Highest of all, here occurred the life, the 
 
Syria. 99 
 
 toils, the sorrow, the death, the rising again, of our 
 Lord. It was here that Bar na has and Saul were 
 sent forth as the first missionaries to the Gentile 
 world. Of what other land is the evangelization so 
 imperative, so interesting?" 
 
 <; Of the morals of the Syrians, the less said the 
 better. The Druses, though courteous, are cruel, 
 fanatical, and, to strangers, deceitful. The Nusai- 
 reeyehs are blood-thirsty. Polygamy is common. 
 Divorce occurs at the will of the man. The Bed- 
 ouins, though hospitable and often magnanimous, 
 are fierce, revengeful, and depraved. The non- 
 Mussulmans are idolatrous and debased. In general, 
 the population is ignorant and corrupt; and, as in 
 all Mohammedan countries, woman is held in low 
 esteem." 
 
 Syrians are polite in the extreme; delight in 
 neighborly chat; have joyous feast-days; and live a 
 happy, rather indolent, life. They are very fond of 
 music. Shepherd-boys still picturesquely play the 
 simple reed as they wander with their flock. Among 
 the middle and upper classes there are many home 
 comforts. The reverence of son for father, and 
 many Syrian characteristics, are admirable. Syria 
 is a land of homes, and in this center lie the hopes 
 lor the country. 
 
 •a ••• k 
 
 "How few of the hundreds of thousands of 
 women in Syria know how to read! How few are 
 the schools ever established there for teaching 
 
100 Mission Fields. 
 
 women ! Any one who denies the degradation and 
 ignorance of Syrian women would deny the exist- 
 ence of the noonday sun." 
 
 ■a ••• •[«• 
 
 Calls for more schools come from every part of 
 Syria; and the demand for trained workers from 
 Palestine, Northern Syria, and the Egyptian mis- 
 sionaries is far larger every year than can be 
 supplied. 
 
 A Mt. Lebanon proverb reads: "The threshold 
 weeps forty days when a girl is born." 
 
 Layyah Barakat, a Syrian woman, says: "The 
 only difference between the American and Syrian 
 woman is, that one has lived under the shadows of 
 the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the other under 
 the Mohammedan Koran. I have been in Egypt 
 and in Syria, in France and England, and nowhere 
 have I seen women so happy, so blest, as in your 
 own beautiful America." 
 
 The mass of the Moslem men are bitterly op- 
 posed to the instruction of women; and, further- 
 more, we read, in "The Women of the Arabs:" 
 "When a man does decide to have his wife taught 
 to read, the usual plan is to hire a blind sheikh, 
 who knows the Koran by heart. He sits at one 
 side of the room, aud she at th* other, some elderly 
 woman being present also. The mass of the Mo- 
 
Syria. 101 
 
 hammedans are nervously afraid of intrusting the 
 knowledge of reading and writing to their wives 
 and daughters, lest they abuse it by writing clan- 
 destine letters." From Dr. Jessup we learn that 
 the poetesses of the Arabs are numerous, and some 
 of them hold a high rank in cases where education 
 has been extended them. 
 
 No Mohammedan ever walks with his wife in 
 the street; and in Moslem cities very few, if any, of 
 the men of other sects are willing to be seen in 
 public in company with a woman. The women are 
 closely veiled ; and if a man and his wife have oc- 
 casion to go anywhere together, he walks in ad- 
 vance, and she walks a long distance behind him. 
 The scourging and beating of wives is one of the 
 worst features of Moslem domestic life. It is a 
 practice which has the sanction of the Koran, and 
 will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islam, 
 as a system and a faith, prevails in the world. 
 Happily for the poor women, the husbands do not 
 generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in 
 case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest 
 the excruciating screams of the suffering should 
 reach the ears of her relatives and bring the hus- 
 band into disgrace. But where there is no fear of 
 discovery, blows and kicks are applied in the most 
 merciless and barbarous manner. Women are killed 
 in this way, and no outsider knows the cause. In 
 most parts of Syria to-day the murder of women 
 and girls is au act so insignificant as hardly to de- 
 
102 Mission Fields. 
 
 serve notice. Mt. Lebanon and vicinity constitute 
 an exception perhaps; but woman's right to life is 
 one of those rights which have not yet been fully 
 guaranteed. 
 
 "In the reformation of a nation, then, the first 
 step in the ladder is the education of the women 
 from their childhood; and those who neglect the 
 women and girls, and expect the elevation of a 
 people by the mere training of men and boys, are 
 like one walking with one foot on the earth and the 
 other in the clouds. They build a wall, and woman 
 tears down a castle. They elevate boys one degree, 
 and women depress them many degrees." 
 
 4* ••• fe 
 
 The Christian Alliance has the following on 
 Syrian customs, as illustrating Bible truths: "Let 
 me tell you a little of the life of an Oriental girl," 
 says the writer, "and to give you a picture of her 
 as she enters into the marriage relation. A girl in 
 an Oriental family of high rank must be a bride at 
 the age of nine, ten, or twelve years. A girl who 
 lives to be fifteen years old without being married 
 is an old maid. When she is married she becomes 
 the slave of her mother-in-law. A young man in 
 that country can not marry until he is able to earn 
 a bride. If he belongs to the lower class he can 
 buy a good one for seven or eight dollars. If he 
 is in the higher class he may have to pay five, six, 
 or seven thousand dollars for her. He never goes 
 
Syria. 103 
 
 to court her himself, but when he is ready to buy 
 a wife he employs a friend to go and look up one 
 for him. This friend will send a female relative to 
 the home of a young woman of whom he has been 
 told, and there will be a great hand-shaking. A 
 cup of coffee is always brought to the visitor, but she 
 refuses to take it; she is not ready. When a visitor 
 stays too long, it is customary to bring her a sec- 
 ond cup of coffee, to let her know the time has 
 come for her to depart. So they bring her a sec- 
 ond cup, but she will not take it; her mission is not 
 yet performed. Finally, she tells them they have a 
 daughter whom she would like to see. They go for 
 her; but she is hidden away in her room, and has 
 to be called several times before she will answer. 
 When she finally is coaxed out, she immediately 
 hands the visitor another cup of coffee, as a signal 
 that she had better go; but the visitor gets hold of 
 her, lifts her veil, and examines her carefully. If 
 she is pleased, she goes back and praises her to the 
 groom, who will sit for hours and listen to the de- 
 scription. Then he gets an influential friend to 
 bargain for her with her father. If he does not pay 
 this friend sufficiently, he will advise the father not 
 to consent to the arrangement, that this man will 
 treat her badly and beat her. If, however, the ar- 
 rangement is satisfactory, the father will say, 'My 
 daughter is a slave to your friend ;' she is no longer 
 the property of her father. In preparing for the 
 wedding, the father is expected to spend a great deal 
 
104 Mission Fields. 
 
 of money on her jewels; and when the marriage-day 
 comes, her dress is heavy with gold and jewels, and 
 she is fairly loaded down with them. But she has 
 never seen her groom. She has been told wonder- 
 ful things about him, yet she has never seen him. 
 As the time arrives, the friends of the groom form 
 a procession, and, with their lamps filled with olive- 
 oil, go out with him and parade the streets. Only 
 those of their own rank are invited. At last the 
 bride comes, and her maids are singing joyfully, and 
 all the people in the street can see her. Then they 
 go into the house, and the marriage ceremony is 
 performed; but she has never yet seen him. After 
 the ceremony is over, he lifts her veil, and she be- 
 holds him for the first time in all his glory." 
 
 •» ••• &> 
 
 In spite of great difficulties, however, Syria has 
 for seventy years been the scene of most faithful 
 missionary effort. If there were times of quiet, 
 there were also times of persecution. More than 
 once has the land seen massacres, and the mission 
 has produced more than a few martyrs. In all 
 Syria, with Palestine, some thirty societies are en- 
 gaged, doing preaching, teaching, and hospital- 
 work. 
 
 Beirut is to-day a Christian city. Stately 
 churches; hospitals; a female seminary; a college, 
 whose graduates are scattered over Syria, Egypt, 
 and wherever the Arab roams; a theological sem- 
 
Syria. 105 
 
 inary; a common-school system; and steam printing- 
 presses, — all tell of its prosperity. 
 
 Jerusalem has its streets lighted, and clocks are 
 seen on its public buildings, and sanitary science is 
 being respected. 
 
 Bethlehem has paved streets, and over all the 
 land the light begins to shine. "The King cometh ; 
 and a voice is heard again, as of old, Prepare ye the 
 way of the Lord." 
 
 ■» ••• -IR- 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What people inhabit Syria? 
 
 Answer. The people are Arabs in race and lan- 
 guage. 
 
 Q. Who are the Bedouins? 
 
 A. The Bedouins live in the desert. They 
 have fine horses and camels, live in tents, and are 
 nomads, roving from place to place. 
 
 Q. What is the religion of the people? 
 
 A. The people are divided into Mohammedans, 
 Druses, and the nominal Christian sects; the latter 
 are the remnants of the early Oriental Churches, 
 now known as Maronite, Greek, and Greek Cath- 
 olic. The Druses have a weird, mystical religion, 
 of which little is known. The Bedouin Arabs are 
 Moslems, but may be said to have no religion. 
 
 Q. What is the language of Syria? 
 
 A. Arabic, the language of the Koran — the re- 
 
106 Mission Fields. 
 
 ligious book of the Mohammedans — and familiar in 
 that way to 185,000,000 of the huraau race. It is 
 spoken by 60,000,000 of people. 
 
 Q. What is the condition of the women? 
 
 A. Among the Mohammedans they are degraded 
 and ignorant; abused by their fathers, husbands, 
 and sons; made to labor in the fields like animals; 
 and treated as slaves. They are thought to have 
 no minds, and to be incapable of learning. Great 
 sorrow is manifested when a daughter is born, and 
 a man never counts his daughters when speaking of 
 his children. 
 
 Q. What obstacles had to be overcome in the 
 first effort to educate the girls? 
 
 A. It was almost impossible to induce parents to 
 allow their daughters to be educated. 
 
 Q. What has been gained in this respect? 
 
 A. Wonderful progress has been made in the 
 last thirty years. A large number of girls have 
 been educated in mission-schools who are now heads 
 of* Christian families, and there are 7,000 girls in 
 evangelical schools in Syria and Palestine. 
 
 Q. What is the dress of the women? 
 
 A. They wear wide trousers, with a loose, long 
 garment over them. The hair is generally worn in 
 many long braids, hanging down the back, with a 
 cap on the head. In the cities they never go out 
 without wrapping themselves from head to foot in 
 a huge white sheet, and veiling their faces closely. 
 In the villages they wear long white veils, which 
 
Syria. 107 
 
 they draw across their faces, leaving one eye ex- 
 pose. I. 
 
 Q. How are the houses built? 
 
 A. The houses are all built of stone. In the 
 cities the universal style of architecture is a central 
 court, wiili rooms around it. The houses in the 
 mountain villages generally consist of but one room, 
 with a mud-floor, no windows, and a small door. 
 The roofs are flat, and are used for spreading fruit 
 and wheat to dry, and the family often sleep there 
 during the hot season. The Mohammedans pray on 
 their house-tops. 
 
 Q. How are the houses furnished? 
 
 A. The houses have mats and rugs on the floor; 
 along the walls are low divans and cushioned backs. 
 They have no chairs, or tables, except a small one 
 at which they eat. Their beds are spread on the 
 fl'ior at night, and during the day are rolled up and 
 put away in ch>sets. 
 
 Q. How do the funeral customs differ from 
 our-? 
 
 A. As soon as death comes, the air is filled with 
 the noise of wailing and shrieking by women — often 
 hired for the purpose — and the funeral takes place 
 almost immediately. The Mohammedans use a bier 
 which is carried on the shoulders of men, and each 
 one in the procession is desirous of bearing it for a 
 short distance. The Mohammedans do not use cof- 
 fins, as their dead are buried in a sitting posture 
 
 Q. What are some Bible customs still in vogue? 
 
108 Mission Fields. 
 
 A. The placing of the blind and crippled by the 
 wayside to beg; praying on the house-tops; the sal- 
 utations; and the customs in buying and selling, 
 in building, traveling, in agriculture, in dress, and 
 food. 
 
 Q. How many children are there in all the Prot- 
 estant schools in Syria and Palestine? 
 
 A. Over 15,000. —Anna H. Jessup. 
 
 PERSIA. 
 
 Persia constitutes one of the most interesting 
 mission-fields in the world. That which gives to the 
 Nestorians, in particular, a peculiar iuterest is the 
 missionary character which they have once borne, 
 and which it is to be hoped they will bear again. 
 Persia is ruined by despotism, misrule, and cruel 
 feudal oppression. No lover of humanity can re- 
 gard such a land but with feelings of profound pity. 
 "We long for the day," says a missionary, "when 
 civilization will build highways and railways by 
 which charity, at least, can be conveyed to the fam- 
 ishing. A proper system of roads, and one or two 
 railroads, in Persia would make famines impossible. 
 The country has natural resources which only need 
 developing, to make her, as in ancient times, a great 
 nation." 
 
Persia. 109 
 
 From Karachi to Bagdad ; among the populous 
 cities and villages of the Persian Gulf, of the Tigris 
 and Euphrates; throughout Arabia, throughout 
 South and Southwest Persia, — not a missionary ! 
 From Bagdad to Teheran — almost the most populous 
 district of Persia — not a missionary! The great 
 oasis of Feraghan, at a height of 7,000 feet, with 
 680 villages, craving medical advice, never visited — 
 scarcely mapped! Then Julfa and Hamadan, with 
 their few workers, almost powerless to itinerate, 
 represent the work of the Church for the remainder 
 of Persia! Two million nomads that have never 
 been touched 1 — Medical Missions. 
 
 "When I think of all I have seen and heard in 
 Persia, I sometimes think I have almost seen into 
 hell." — Mes. Rhea. 
 
 •» -r * 
 
 Persia, the land of Cyrus, and of the great em- 
 pires of the Euphrates,* the land in which Daniel 
 prayed and prophesied, — with a written history 
 dating from 1900 B. C, though now much reduced 
 in size, is yet twice as large as the German Empire, 
 having 450,000 square miles. The author of "Per- 
 sia; Eastern Mission," says: "All the people feel 
 the result of the defects of their civilization and 
 habits of life. All the people, without exception of 
 race or religion, are extremely poor, save a few men 
 
110 Mission Fields. 
 
 who have inherited titles or been especially favored 
 by the Government. These men of wealth do not 
 usually reside in the districts in which their estates 
 lie, but resort to the capital and the large cities. 
 The people live in villages, composed of hovels con- 
 structed of sun-dried bricks or of mud The dress 
 and appearance of the inhabitants of these villages 
 are in keeping with the aspect of the hovels in 
 which they live. The garments of the women are 
 tattered and dirty. The apparel of the men is not 
 much better. It could not be expected that such a 
 people would be examples of cleanliness. In this 
 particular they may compare well with the poor of 
 other countries; but no European or North Amer- 
 ican country presents such a continuous, unmitigated 
 pest of vermin as belongs to all places, persons, and 
 things in Persia. The peasants and masses of the 
 people are covered with vermin. The beggar and 
 tramp may lie down to-night on the earth and floor 
 in the room where, to-morrow night, the prime 
 minister or the shah may have to spread his carpet. 
 Places of public resort are free to all. In the 
 mosques the people sit upon the floor. The public 
 baths are underground dens, reeking with filth." 
 
 The Persians are more liberal than other Mo- 
 hammedan nations; and it is almost an unheard-of 
 thing for an Arab or a Turk to discuss his religion 
 with a Christian, but the Persian enjoys it. 
 
Persia. Ill 
 
 "Or tlie long chain of Moslem lands from the 
 Pillars of Hercules to India and China, the two 
 links that are weakest," says Dr. Shedd, "are 
 Egypt and Persia. If strong Christian influence 
 prevail in either of these, the chain is broken. 
 The hope in the case of Persia is growing brighter; 
 there are more signs of progress in opening the 
 country to commerce and to Christian influence than 
 in centuries before." The ruling shah feels the 
 touch of modern ideas, and, through a ministry on 
 the European model, has introduced banks, gas, tele- 
 graphs, and street-railway. There has never been 
 any objection to Bible teachings in the country, and 
 those in authority desire to grant religious tolera- 
 tion. The mission-schools are permeating the country 
 with their uplifting influences, and the Churches 
 are developing men and women of most Christ-like 
 character. Many of the converted natives show an 
 admirable spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity. 
 There are native members of Churches, many of 
 whom get but three dollars wages a month, and 
 who cheerfully give a tenth of that sum to their 
 Churches. Speaking of a woman converted to 
 Christianity, and of the spotless life she afterwards 
 led, a missionary says: "She was the best theologian 
 among the Nestorians; and often have I said that 
 if I wanted to write a good sermon, I would like to 
 sit down first and talk with her, and then be sure 
 she was praying for me." 
 
112 Mission Fields. 
 
 The women of Persia ! We imagine them queenly 
 beings — dark-haired, dark-eyed houris — capable of 
 the fondest and most passionate attachments, and 
 faithful until death. We think of them in palatial 
 harems, reclining on silken cushions, sipping their 
 nectar drinks, singing the loves of nightingale and 
 rose to the gentle tones of the soft guitar, which 
 vibrates to the skillful touch of the snowy fingers, 
 flashing with costly gems! Such is the Persia of 
 romance, and so often pictured to us in song and 
 story. 
 
 But alas ! alas ! the woof and web of the weav- 
 ing is all fancy, and we find in the real Persia of 
 to-day nothing desirable, nothing romantic, nothing 
 attractive, except as the love of Christ draws us to 
 the neediest, the vilest, the lowest, and the most repul- 
 sive of our fellow-creatures. If you could look 
 upon the women of Persia, that look would suffice, 
 and I should not need to add another word in their 
 behalf. Your hearts would melt in pity, your 
 prayers ascend to God, and your hands reach out to 
 help them. 
 
 Let us look more closely at the women of Persia. 
 They come into the world unwelcome. No father 
 or mother rejoices at the birth of a female child ; 
 but, on the contrary, sorrow is openly expressed, 
 and the friends come to condole with them. But 
 when a boy is born the father gives presents, and 
 the friends come to offer congratulations, and " bless 
 the foot of the lad;" a feast ensues, and happiness 
 
Persia. 113 
 
 prevails. It is told far and near, as the best ot 
 news, that a son is born to such a house. Wheu 
 the people wish to say the kindest and most polite 
 tilings possible, it is always in one form — "The 
 Lord give thee a son!" Even the beggars in the 
 streets return their blessing for a crust or a cent. 
 
 A parent in counting his children, even when 
 you ask their number, mentions only the boys, the 
 girls being unworthy of note. The little girl, if 
 she is able to survive the hardships of a neglected 
 and unloved infancy — which often crush out the 
 tender life — grows up neglected and unloved still. 
 As soon as she can work and bear burdens, the 
 heaviest are laid on her young shoulders, and fast- 
 ened there by cruel blows. She learns to share 
 with her mother in menial toil, and soon sinks down 
 naturally and uncomplainingly to her level with the 
 donkeys. 
 
 Donkeys are universal beasts of burden, and 
 women are classed with them. Sometimes a woman 
 and a donkey are harnessed together in the same 
 plow; and even if this is not done, exactly the same 
 kinds of burdens are put on both. 
 
 I have seen the Koordish women often carrying, 
 up and down the mountain, great loads of hay and 
 fuel, many times larger than themselves; so large 
 indeed, and so covering them up, that at a little 
 distance they look like trees walking. Perhaps a 
 heavy load was on their backs and a baby in their 
 arms, and at their sides their lords would walk or 
 8 
 
114 Mission Fields. 
 
 ride, unable to support more than their own dignity. 
 Every Persian woman expects to be her husband's 
 slave, and to be tyrannized over by him without 
 restraint. She obeys him to the last degree of ser- 
 vility; waits while he eats; veils herself closely and 
 oppressively from the time of her marriage; and, 
 lest she should speak above a whisper, bandages her 
 mouth up tight. Mohammedanism, the religion of 
 Persia, sanctions polygamy. Its victims endure lives 
 embittered and degraded by its influence, or die of 
 broken hearts, and make no sign. Thus treated 
 and degraded, it seems as if there were no oppor- 
 tunity left for woman in Persia to do aught but to 
 sink to the level of the beast. Almost every word 
 that has been touchingly said of the women in 
 India can be truthfully said of the women of Per- 
 sia, and no one can reach the women but women. 
 
 — Mrs. Rhea. 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What interesting historical association 
 has Persia? 
 
 Answer. History and science combine with the 
 testimony of Scripture to point out this region a«= 
 the cradle of our race. Persia is notably a Bible 
 land. To it belonged Cyrus the Great; Darius, his 
 son; Xerxes — the Ahasuerus of Ezra; Artaxerxes; 
 Esther; Mordecai; and the "wise men," who were 
 
Persia. 115 
 
 the first of the Gentile world to greet and worship 
 the Messiah. When Assyria had led the Jews cap- 
 tive to Babylon, it was Persia which humbled the 
 power, and restored Judah to her native land. 
 
 Q. What is the population? 
 
 A. The census is not accurate, but late estimates 
 [rive the population at 8,000,000. Of this number, 
 23,000 are Nestorians; 19,000 Jews; 43,000 Ar- 
 menians; 675,000 Koords and Sikhs. The remain- 
 der of the population comprises Arabs, Turks, Pai- 
 sees, and Persians. 
 
 Q. Describe the Persian houses. 
 
 A. The houses of the poor people contain one 
 long room, with a door in one end, no window, and 
 a conical opening in the roof for the smoke to es- 
 cape and the light to enter. The roofs are flat, and 
 in summer time the people sleep upon them. Some 
 houses have an upper room built on the roof, which 
 is reached by a ladder on the outside. The rich 
 live in well-built two-story houses. One and a half- 
 miilion of the population live in tents during the 
 summer. The Persians use no furniture; they eat, 
 sit, and sleep on the floors, which are made of 
 hard, smooth earth, covered with matting and 
 carpet. 
 
 Q. Describe the Persian men. 
 
 A. They are fond of dress and show; very po- 
 lite, hospitable, and obliging. They are kind to 
 their children ; respectful to their parents, particu- 
 larly the father, in whose presence they rarely sit. 
 
1 16 Mission Fields. 
 
 Respect is paid to the aged, and the support of the 
 parents is never looked on as a burden. But as a 
 race they are very untruthful and procrastinating. 
 
 Q. Is poly^nmy common? 
 
 A. Not among the poorer classes, but it is gen- 
 eral with the rich. Divorces are frequent, and easily 
 obtained by all Mohammedans. 
 
 Q. Tell something about education in Persia. 
 
 A. Every city or town has its school for boys, 
 held in the mosques, and taught by the Mullahs. 
 The children study aloud, and can be heard a half 
 a block away. They are all taught to read in Per- 
 sian and Arabic; some of them learn to write, and 
 learn the use of figures. 
 
 Q. Have the Persians any literature? 
 
 A. There are few books of any kind. The an- 
 cient poetry is the principal literature, and the 
 quoting of poetry is universal, being frequently in- 
 troduced into conversation. 
 
 Q. Are the women educated? 
 
 A. There are no schools for girls, but the daugh- 
 ters of the rich are sometimes taught to read and 
 write and to recite poetry. 
 
 Q. What is the form of government? 
 
 A. The shah of Persia is regarded as the vice- 
 gerent of Mohammed, and as such demands implicit 
 obedience. 
 
 Q. Who are the Koords? 
 
 A. They are the mountain tribes of Koordistan, 
 and are a wild, lawless people, much given to rob- 
 
BURMAH. 117 
 
 bery, and making raids on the other tribes or vil- 
 lages of the plain.' Over 1,000,000 of the Koorda 
 nre subjects of the sultan of Turkey, and about 
 750,000 are under Persian rule. 
 
 Q. Who are the Nestorians? 
 
 A. The Nestorians derive their name from Nes- 
 torius, patriarch of Constantinople, who lived about 
 A. D. 428. The Nestorians of the present day are 
 settled on Turkish soil — mainly in Koordistan — and 
 on Persian soil in the fertile plain to the west of 
 Lake Oroomeeyah. 
 
 Q. Who are the Armenians? 
 
 A. They are a Christian sect, and are found in 
 ancient Armenia, with Tabriz as their center. They 
 adhere to the seven sacraments of the Romi.-h 
 Church, perform baptism by immersion, and believe 
 in the mediation of saints and the worship of images. 
 
 Woman's Forkign Missionary Society, Presby- 
 terian Church. 
 
 BURMAH. 
 
 Burmaii is about equal in area to New England, 
 the Middle States, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois com- 
 bined. Its population is about 10,000,000. There 
 are said to be forty-two different races, and between 
 the three principal nationalities — the Burmans, 
 Shans, and Karens — marked differences exist. The 
 Burmans are intelligent, haughty, and indolent. 
 
118 Mission Fields. 
 
 The Shaus are equally intelligent, less proud, more 
 diligent and active. Both tribes are Buddhists. 
 The Karens are by far the most docile and lovable. 
 They have been crushed by oppressive Burman rule, 
 and there is an element of sadness in their disposi- 
 tion. They worship spirits, and seem more suscep- 
 tible to the gospel. The people of Burmah are a 
 hardy race, and -are capable of greater things as a 
 whole than the people of India. Education to 
 some extent is common, as most of the men can 
 read and write. They have acquired some of the 
 arts of civilization, which they practice in rather a 
 crude manner. The people are courteous, and 
 rather prepossessing in appearance. They are con- 
 tented with little, and much more inclined to sport 
 and idleness than to labor. They can not be called 
 an industrious people. The resources of the country 
 are being rapidly developed. Merchandise is now 
 packed on mules, and carried for a distance of a 
 thousand miles; but greater railway facilities are 
 projected, and, when done, Burmah will rise higher 
 in commercial importance. 
 
 Writing of the Karens, and of the treatment 
 they receive from the Burmaus, Mrs. Armstrong 
 says: "Their crops and cattle were stolen, and they 
 were caught and sold as slaves, so that they lived 
 in constant terror. They bid themselves in the jun- 
 gles and the mountain-sides, concealing the paths to 
 their bamboo houses, and constantly moving from 
 one place to another to avoid detection. Their re- 
 
BURMAH. 119 
 
 ligion was peculiar to themselves. They lived hon- 
 est, truthful lives, were hospitable in their way, and 
 had no idols. They made offerings to propitiate 
 evil spirits, whom they feared. They had no books; 
 but they had carefully preserved legends, which 
 were carefully handed down from father to son. 
 Their traditions told that once they had God's Book; 
 but they were disobedient, and their younger brother 
 carried it away. Some day their white brother 
 would come across the sea in a ship, and bring back 
 the Book which told of the Great Father and the 
 life to come. They must watch for its coming. No 
 wonder such a people should receive the gospel 
 when it came. No people have ever been discovered 
 who were so prepared for it, and whose very preju- 
 dices were on its side. When missionaries came 
 among them, their old men said, 'This is what our 
 fathers told us of!' Their simple faith took Christ 
 at his word. They did not question, but believed." 
 
 SocrAL life in Burmah is freer, happier, and 
 more comfortable than in many parts of Asia. 
 Young people marry earlier than in America; and 
 are not fettered for life by marriages made by their 
 parents in their childhood, as in some countries. 
 
 The appearance of Burman houses evinces the 
 indolent and aimless life of their occupants. Often 
 built of bamboo and thatch — which a few days' 
 labor may cut in the neighboring jungle — without a 
 
120 Mission Fields. 
 
 single nail or screw, and without the expenditure of 
 money, it suffices lor their comfort. Three rooms 
 constitute the house, which is built upon posts, and 
 underneath are kept any animals the family may have. 
 
 Children go without clothing until about eight 
 years old. Babies learn to smoke and chew the 
 betel-nut, and other herbs, before they are two 
 years old. 
 
 As a people the Burmans are very musical, and 
 music enters largely into all matters of social im- 
 portance ; and the love of it finds expression in 
 the manufacture and employment of a variety of in- 
 struments. 
 
 They have no Sabbath; but every eighth day 
 from the new moon is a worship-day, and special 
 offerings are carried to the pagodas. The social ele- 
 ment enters largely into the religious observances. 
 At their holy festival they make costly offerings to 
 the priests and idols, the men decorating the idol- 
 houses with images, and the women giving robes to 
 the priests. They give always of their best to 
 their gods. 
 
 Children, even, are trained to give to the idols 
 some of their pretty things that they would much 
 rather keep for themselves. Oriental children, as 
 well as their seniors, are carefully taught in the 
 great lesson of giving, and they practice it always 
 and everywhere — to their gods, their friends, the 
 priests, the poor, and the stranger. Hospitality to 
 strangers is the cardinal virtue of the East; and al- 
 
BURMAH. 121 
 
 most any Oriental, rich or poor, would rather starve 
 himself than suffer his guest to want. 
 
 While the Buddhist priests claim to be learned, 
 
 .hey are shamefully ignorant. They pose as the ed- 
 ucators of the people; but really keep them in ig- 
 norance, and teach men to abhor work and contract 
 habits of indolence. 
 
 The expense in the matter of beautifying their 
 temples is never considered with the Buddhists. 
 The description of one of many we give: "The 
 vane is about three by one and a half feet broad, 
 and thickly crusted with precious stones and fans of 
 red Burmese gold. One ruby alone is worth $3,000, 
 and there are several hundred rubies on it. On the 
 tips of the iron rod on which works the vane is a 
 richly carved and perforated gold ornament. It is 
 a foot in height, tipped by an enormous diamond, 
 encircled by many smaller ones. All over this ex- 
 quisite object are similar clumps of diamonds, no 
 other stones being used for that part." 
 
 In Burmah, women occupy a more independent 
 position than is usual in heathen lands. They man- 
 age their household, go about freely, and even en- 
 gage in trade and accumulate property. It is not 
 considered necessary that women should know any- 
 thing hut their housework, so they are not given the 
 education that men are; yet they are said to be 
 about as intelligent as the men. 
 
122 Mission Fields. 
 
 Among young girls, the boring of the ears Tor 
 ear-rings is quite an important ceremony. A sooth- 
 sayer fixes upon a fortunate day, and at the ap- 
 pointed time a feast is prepared. The profession!! i 
 ear-borer is promptly on hand, with his gold and 
 silver needles; and amid the shrieks of the young 
 lady victims and the shouting of the older women, 
 who hold them down, the holes are made, and pieces 
 of string are inserted. This is but the first stage of 
 the process. Day by day the piece of string is 
 pulled, and drawn backward and forward, until the 
 sides are healed; and then the process of widening 
 the hole is commenced. This is done by means of 
 plugs. Then the na-doung are inserted, which are 
 tubes or cylinders of colored glass, or precious stones 
 and metal. A Burmese girl is not considered mar- 
 riageable until her ears are bored. 
 
 When a young man wishes a girl for his wife, 
 he goes to her house, and makes known his wishes 
 to her parents. If he is accepted, the girl is called, 
 and makes an examination of the youth's back, to 
 see if he has been tattooed according to custom. If 
 not, she will not marry him. 
 
 If they marry, the marriage- feast lasts three 
 days; after which the newly married pair remain 
 with the bride's parents a few days, while the people 
 of the village are building a house for the young 
 couple. As soon as this is done, they get a rice-pot, 
 and set up for themselves. 
 
 In the worship of her religion, woman in Bur- 
 
BURMAH. 123 
 
 niah, as elsewhere, is most zealous. Old women 
 may be seen tottering up to the pagodas, and, un- 
 rolling old, soiled handkerchiefs, depositing upon the 
 id<ls a precious stone or some gold, perhaps the sav- 
 ings of years. 
 
 A fond mother will fasten her babe upon her 
 back, and toil on foot over mountains and valleys, 
 fording streams, pillowed by night on the ground 
 and canopied by the sky, in the hope that sometime 
 during his life her child may make the requisite 
 number of pilgrimages to the pagoda, and that this 
 may be counted as one of them; though she fail, 
 she trusts that he may attain the desired haven. If 
 she herself has led a meritorious life, she may hope 
 to exist as a man in the other world. 
 
 The entire history of mission-work in Burmah 
 constitutes one of the most thrilling romances of 
 modern times. 
 
 Men who were once ignorant and debased sav- 
 ages have been transformed into earnest, God-fearing 
 husbands and fathers, whose brave, active lives of 
 self-sacrifice are constantly bringing in harvests of 
 souls. Their wives are leading sweet, Christian 
 lives, and their daughters are being educated in al' 
 that develops and crowns a true womanhood. About 
 thirty years ago, at Mandalay, when King Theebaw 
 was inaugurated, seven hundred people were mas- 
 sacred to celebrate the event. Recently, a Baptist 
 
124 Mission Fields. 
 
 church was dedicated in the same city, and $4,000 
 of the church-debt was paid for by Burmese 
 converts. 
 
 One-third of the Karens are now said to be 
 Christians. They tithe the produce of their land 
 for the support of their pastors, and also send mis- 
 sionaries to Siain. A marked characteristic of their 
 piety is their enthusiasm in foreign mission-work. 
 They have their foreign missionary society, and send 
 out their young men north and east to distant 
 countries, supporting them there, and re-enforcing 
 them as the need arises. These have established 
 Churches among those tribes, and have done a grand 
 evangelistic work, independent of other missionaries, 
 in the face of persecution aud long separation from 
 homes, and from privileges of Christian intercourse 
 with those they love. "When I was in charge of 
 a mission station," says a missionary, "an old Karen 
 pastor came oue day with a large contribution for 
 the foreign missionary work. I said to him: 'How 
 can your people give so much? I know they are 
 very poor, the overflow of the river has swept away 
 your crops, your cattle are dying of disease — it is 
 the famine time with you !' ' O,' he replied, with 
 such a contented smile, 'it only means rice without 
 curry !' They could live on rice and salt, but they 
 would not live without giving the Bread of Life to 
 their brethren." 
 
 One evangelist alone, near Rangoon, supported 
 at a cost of only sixty dollars a year, has scores of 
 
BURMAH. 125 
 
 converts yearly. Some one asks if that is not a 
 paying investment? 
 
 Among the first converts was a man who helped 
 to translate the Bible into the Karen tongue, and 
 for fifteen years guided the missionaries through the 
 jungles, and then himself began to preach and to 
 plant new Churches. In one year he had formed 
 nine, with over 700 converts; in less than three 
 years the nine had grown to thirty, with 2,000 con- 
 verts. He did his work without salary, and when 
 offered positions with large compensations he at 
 once declined. This one man, whom no bait of 
 money or position or personal ease could win to 
 leave his holy and unselfish work, is an unanswerable 
 proof that a higher power than man works in 
 Christianity. 
 
 Christianity continues to spread, and the Chris- 
 tian communities are distinctly more industrious and 
 better educated than other Bnrman villages around 
 them. The Government Report says: "The Karen 
 race and the British Government owe a great debt 
 to the American missionaries, who have wrought 
 this change in Burmah." 
 
 ■» ••• «• 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What can be told of the inhabitants of 
 Burmah? 
 
 Ansiver. It is thought that there is no country 
 
126 Mission Fields. 
 
 in the world whose people are more varied in race, 
 language, and customs than Burraah. 
 
 Q. How long has Buddhism prevailed in 
 Burmah? 
 
 A. For more than five centuries before Christ. 
 
 Q. What are some of the changes made since 
 Christianity was introduced? 
 
 A. Besides Churches, excellent schools and col- 
 leges, for both boys and girls, have been established. 
 The exports of the country yield millions of dollars 
 more; and the country now imports annually about 
 $35,000,000 worth of various goods, which are said 
 to consist largely of luxuries, rather than neces- 
 sities. 
 
 Q. What is said in "Miracles of Missions" about 
 Burmah? 
 
 A. Burmah has not only taken her stand among 
 the givers, but a few years ago ranked third in the 
 list of donors to the Baptist Missionary Union — only 
 Massachusetts and New York outranking her! 
 Fifty years ago in idolatry, now an evangelizing 
 power! Their liberality puts to shame the so-called 
 benevolence of our Christians at home. 
 
 Q. What was one of many cruel experiences 
 that came to Dr. Judson, the first missionary to 
 Burmah? 
 
 A. He was cast into prison, and part of the 
 time was during the hottest season of the year. He 
 was shut up, with some hundred Burmese robbers, 
 in a cell that had no window, and they were so 
 
BURMAH. 127 
 
 jammed together that he could not find room to 
 stretch himself. It was a rare luxury when he ob- 
 tained the reversion of a lion's cage, after the poor 
 animal had been starved to death. The head-jailer, 
 himself a branded murderer, was an incarnation of 
 cruelty. After a time, Mrs. Judson contrived, 
 partly by presents and partly by appeals, to have 
 the rigor of his bondage somewhat relaxed; and 
 she kept up secret communications with him by 
 writing on flat cakes, which were concealed in bowls 
 of rice, and by stuffing scraps of paper into the 
 mouth of an old coffee-pot. Mrs. Judson had man- 
 aged to secrete the manuscript of his translations of 
 the Bible in the earth beneath the mission-house; 
 but the rainy season came on, and they were likely 
 to be ruined with the dampness. In his dungeon 
 he was anxious about them, and he arranged with 
 her to sew them up in a pillow, so mean in its ap- 
 pearance, and so comfortless withal, that the covet- 
 ousness of even a Burman jailer should not be 
 excited by it. When he was sent to another prison- 
 house, at Oung-pen-la, which he reached with bleeding 
 feet, the ruffian jailers seized for themselves the mat 
 which covered the precious pillow, and threw the 
 apparently useless article away. Moung Ing found 
 the relic, and carried it to the mission-house, and 
 so Burmah afterwards obtained the Bible In her 
 native tonirue. 
 
1^8 Mission Fields. 
 
 SIAM AND LAOS. 
 
 In Siara, with its ten million inhabitants, there 
 are only about a score of missionaries working 
 among the native Siamese and Laos people, every 
 minister -having an average parish of a million 
 souls. There are cities with a population of two 
 hundred thousand which have not even a Bible- 
 reader or native teacher. 
 
 No mission-field stands in greater need of 
 workers than Siam. Life in that laud is not an 
 exile, nor a dreary, lonely burying of one's self 
 away from the rest of the world. In all the wide 
 kingdom of Siam, with her open ports, her doors 
 ajar — inviting missionary effort from all Christian 
 lands — and her ten millions of Buddhist heathen, 
 there is but a handful of workers who can teach and 
 preach in the native tongue. Think of it! And 
 America is full of Christian men and women who 
 profess to have given themselves to God, and to 
 have consecrated all they have to his service ! 
 
 — M. L. Cort. 
 
 Old women in Siam, whose religion has done 
 nothing for their welfare in this life, and which 
 promises absolutely nothing for them as women in 
 
Siam and Laos. 129 
 
 the future, are still the most zealous adherents of 
 Buddhism in the land. If the women of Siam 
 would to-day cease to believe in and practice Bud- 
 dhism, it would soon drop from its already tottering 
 throne, and woman could at once assume and main- 
 tain a higher and nobler position. 
 
 Siam is as large as New England and all the Mid- 
 dle States; it is larger than Japan; and its popula- 
 tion equals that of Persia or Burmah, Sweden or 
 Belgium. In area it is four times as large as the 
 State of New York. Few lands are more open to 
 the gospel. Her millions are all accessible to the 
 Christian missionary, whose right to travel and 
 build school-houses and churches anywhere is not 
 disputed. 
 
 As a people the Siamese are pleasant, good-na- 
 tured, hospitable, kind to their children, but indo- 
 lent to the utmost degree, and deceitful. Their 
 greatest vices are lying, gambling, immorality, and 
 intemperance. Some of the young men and women 
 are quite handsome, and the little children beautiful 
 in features as a rule. The Siamese and their near 
 kinsmen, the Laos, make up three-fourths of the 
 whole population; the other fourth is composed of 
 Chinese and other nationalities. The Chinese, in 
 many cases, marry Siamese women, and the children 
 of such unions make one of the most promising ele- 
 ments in the population, combining the superior 
 9 
 
130 Mission Fields. 
 
 energy of the Chinese with the vivacity and quick- 
 ness of the Siamese. 
 
 The prevailing religion and the education of a 
 country usually stand side by side, and aid each 
 other. Their united influence is sometimes to spread 
 sunshine and prosperity over the land, and some- 
 times to fasten the chains of superstition and blight 
 the moral feelings of the entire nation. Siam is no 
 exception to the general rule. For centuries the 
 Buddhist temples have been the only temples of 
 learning, and the country abounds in priests. It 
 would seem as if Siam ought to be a highly edu- 
 cated country, when these mendicant teachers form 
 one-thirtieth part of the entire population, and 
 when the custom of the country is such that parents 
 usually require their sons to spend all the years of 
 boyhood and youth under the care of these teachers 
 
 in the temples. 
 
 * ••• K 
 
 In their social customs the Siamese present sev- 
 eral points of interest to the student of mission?. 
 The rich Siamese have many of the comforts and 
 luxuries of life. They have numerous slaves and 
 attendants. But polygamy fills the houses with im- 
 morality, bitter jealousies, and strife, and thus there 
 are no homes. 
 
 The nobles have erected many handsome houses, 
 which are planned by European architects, and 
 some are furnished with English, French, and Chi- 
 nese furniture. 
 
Siam and Laos. 131 
 
 The middle class dwell in houses built of wood, 
 usually unpainted teak, and roofed with earthen 
 tiles. They are small, and in them the people hud- 
 dle together, from the parents to the children of the 
 third and fourth generation. They have very little 
 furniture. On visiting them first you might think 
 they had just moved in, and that the furniture 
 would come along presently; but if you called ten 
 years later you would find it had not yet arrived. 
 The lower class live in huts, made of bamboo and 
 thatched with leaves. Nearly all dwellings are 
 built on posts or pillars, which elevate them a few 
 feet from the ground; and are reached by ladders, 
 which at night are often drawn up to prevent dogs 
 or thieves from coming in the house. 
 
 All ordinary houses must have three rooms; in- 
 deed, so important is this considered to the comfort 
 of the family that the suitor must often promise to 
 provide three rooms, ere the parents will let him 
 claim his bride. 
 
 There is the common bedroom; an outer room, 
 where they sit during the day and receive their 
 visitors; and the kitchen. Thus it will be seen 
 that house-life among the Siamese is very simple and 
 primitive. 
 
 As for wearing apparel, they scarcely have on 
 any; and, as a nation, do not know what shame is. 
 As the climate is mild and pleasant, and the ma- 
 jority of the people poor and careless, their usual 
 dress consists of a waist-cloth. When foreigners 
 
132 Mission Fields. 
 
 first arrive they are shocked almost beyond endur- 
 ance at the nudity of the people. 
 
 They are great bathers, and several times daily 
 they may be seen splashing in the rivers or canals. 
 There is no privacy — eyes are everywhere; and 
 they think no more of bathing themselves and their 
 children in the open street than of buying a bunch 
 of lettuce from the market-woman. 
 
 The parents have a great love for their children ; 
 but the latter are allowed to do just as they please 
 until the parents become angry, and then are pun- 
 ished. The hand of a little one is sometimes bent 
 back until the child writhes in agony. Reverence 
 for parents and for the aged and for those in au- 
 thority is most universally taught over the kingdom. 
 
 — Siam and Laos: 
 Presbyterian Board of Publication. 
 
 •*!• -r -te 
 
 Women in Siam enjoy greater liberty than in 
 almost any other Oriental laud. You meet them 
 everywhere; and, in the bazaars and markets, nearly 
 all the buying and selling is done by them. As 
 servants and slaves they are seen performing all 
 sorts of labor in the open streets, for they are deemed 
 inferior to men. While there have always been 
 schools for boys, there have been no native schools 
 for girls. The daughters are not supposed to need 
 any education, and are trained from childhood to 
 help their mothers with all kinds of work. Thus it 
 
Si am and Laos. 133 
 
 comes to pass that the girls grow to be the "hewers 
 of wood and drawers of water." If you ask a 
 woman how she makes her living, she usually has 
 some answer ready ; you very seldom find one who 
 has nothing to do. But if you ask a man the same 
 question, he will often look at you in blank amaze- 
 ment; tell you he lives with his father or mother 
 or wife; and then try to recall the last time he did 
 auy thing, and give that as his work. 
 
 Although the Siamese do not kill their daugh- 
 ters, still the sons are a privileged class. The mere 
 fact of being a boy is a peculiar mark of merit. 
 The country girls have a particularly hard life. 
 While their brothers or husbands may be idling in 
 the temples, or off gambling or sleeping, they are 
 plowing and planting in the fields. 
 
 A fondness for jewelry seems to be a passion 
 with the young girls, and they will deny themselves 
 needed food and clothes to buy a gold ring or chain 
 for their dusky bodies. Many a girl refuses to wear 
 a jacket because it would cover up her chains, 
 which are worn as a hunter carries his game-bag — 
 over one shoulder and under the arm. All the 
 people are fond of jewelry, which many times is the 
 only adornment that the body can boast. 
 
 Many Siamese men have several wives at a time, 
 but they do not marry all in the same way. They 
 pay a sum of money for each ; but often all cere- 
 mony is laid aside after the first marriage, save pay- 
 iuo- the money. They build a little house for each. 
 
134 Mission Fields. 
 
 or assign her a small suite of rooms in the mansion, 
 if men of wealth and position. Polygamy is not as 
 common among the lower classes, because of inability 
 to support more than one wife at a time; but a wife 
 can be put away or left at will. 
 
 Motherhood is considered honorable, and infant- 
 icide is rare. 
 
 Many old women are reduced to abject slavery, 
 and they have to serve their masters to the utmost 
 of their strength by working in the field or going 
 out to beg. 
 
 Notwithstanding her degradation and the scorn 
 she has to bear, the woman exerts a mighty influ- 
 ence. It is true that "woman keeps the idol on 
 its pedestal," and it is the mother who trains her 
 children to idolatry. Therefore the real conversion 
 of one heathen woman, says one, "will do more to- 
 wards the advancement of Christianity than that of 
 ten men;" and yet it is more difficult to win the 
 women to accept the truth than the men, not be- 
 cause they are less religious, but more so, and are 
 more wedded to Buddhism. 
 
 — M. L. Cort, Siam and Laos. 
 
 The extent of territory covered by the Laos 
 provinces is supposed to be one-half as great as 
 Siam, and the population as dense. If so, it is a 
 country almost as large as Italy, and containing 
 from four to five millions of people. It is an in- 
 
Si AM AND IyAOS. 135 
 
 land country, and only reached from the south by 
 small boats or elephants. Although hound in a 
 common interest to Siam, they have a certain inde- 
 pendence of each other even yet. 
 
 The Laosians are a kind, affectionate people, 
 caring much for their family life, and morally su- 
 perior to the races around them. They are a finer, 
 hardier-looking race than the average Siamese, and 
 possess many qualities of attractiveness,' yet have 
 some semi-barbarous customs. They are Buddhists 
 and devil- worshipers, and are full of superstitious 
 fears. They believe that nearly all illness is pro- 
 duced by witchery, and their treatment of the sup- 
 posed witches is most cruel and inhuman. They 
 banish them from their families, from their towns, 
 and burn down their houses, and hundreds yearly 
 are banished in that manner; or, many times, their 
 bodies are tortured to a sickening extent. ''We 
 have attempted to aid individual victims," says one 
 missionary, "by making our premises places of 
 refuge, and enablL.g those who had been driven 
 from home to find work and protection ; but we are 
 helpless before this wide-spread and degrading pros- 
 titution of the human intellect." 
 
 When a person dies, a precious stone or coin is 
 sometimes placed in the mouth of the corpse to pay 
 the spirit fine into the next world. 
 
 Life in Laos is exceedingly monotonous. There 
 are no fine houses or palaces for the most part, and 
 princes and peasants build much on the same plan. 
 
136 Mission Fields. 
 
 The women do much of the hard work in the field, 
 as well as in the household. Rich and poor women 
 alike spend much time in making garments for the 
 priests. Many are skilled in embroidery. The dress 
 of the Laosian women is very unlike that of the 
 Siamese; it is more complete and modest. Unmar- 
 ried women wear a flower in the hair, and the ask- 
 ing for this flower by a young man is equivalent to 
 offering his heart and hand. 
 
 The habits of social and domestic life present 
 some striking contrasts to those of most heathen 
 natives. Women are kindly treated, and the baby 
 daughter is cared for as tenderly as the little son ; 
 child-marriage is unknown, and old age is respected. 
 Marriage »is not as much a matter of trade as it 
 usually is among heathen people. 
 
 The great need of Laos is a better outlet for 
 trade. At present those little kingdoms are prac- 
 tically shut in from the outside nations. Missionaries 
 laboring there are more isolated from the rest of the 
 world than at most stations. 
 
 * -f ft 
 
 j RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What is the government of Siarn? 
 Answer. It is an absolute monarchy. 
 Q. What is the religion? 
 
 A. Buddhism. One-third of the population of 
 the whole earth are Buddhists. Buddhism teaches 
 
Si am and Laos. 137 
 
 that the world and all things in it came into being 
 without a creator; that the soul at death passes 
 into the body of some human being, or some ani- 
 mal; that it may be thus born thousands of times; 
 that the thing most to be desired is, to make so 
 much merit that the soul will at last go where 
 Buddha has himself gone, into "Nepon," which is 
 a kind of eternal sleep or annihilation. 
 
 Q. Are there many idols in the country? 
 
 A. The land is full of them. They are every- 
 where — in the homes, in the temples, on the hill- 
 tops, and in the caves. 
 
 Q. Do the Siamese practice polygamy? 
 
 A. Among the higher classes polygamy is uni- 
 versal. The late king had 120 wives. 
 
 Q. What of some of the characteristics of the 
 Laos? 
 
 A. They resemble very much the Siamese in 
 customs and religion, but are more industrious and 
 less deceitful. 
 
 Q. What are some of the changes in Siam? 
 
 A. "We can not tell when Siam's rivers first 
 ran to the sea, nor for how many centuries the 
 stream of humanity, which had its rise in the North, 
 has been flowing through the kingdom ; but we do 
 know that only a few years ago was the gospel in- 
 troduced, and a little stream of the gospel floods, 
 which are yet destined to cover the whole earth, 
 began to trickle into the hearts and lives of these 
 poor benighted ones, bringing light and refreshment 
 
138 Mission Fields. 
 
 with every drop of its life-giving waters. Not one- 
 half century ago, Siam was sealed against the en- 
 trance of all foreigners; but now, next to Japan, 
 she is perhaps the foremost heathen nation in the 
 march towards Western civilization. To-day she is 
 in treaty relation with all Christian countries; and 
 the present king has been classed among the most 
 humane and liberal of heathen monarchs, dojng 
 much for the improvement of his country. Large 
 mercantile transactions mark the period of progress; 
 telegraph and postal systems are in full operation; 
 and all the change in the country is said to have 
 been effected by the influence of Protestant mission- 
 aries, who have established schools for girls and 
 boys, introduced the printing-press, and have trans- 
 lated the Bible and other books into the native 
 language. Some of the material results brought 
 about by their work is shown in the item that, in 
 one year, $16,000 worth of hats and caps were im- 
 ported into the city of Bangkok alone, for the 
 king's courtiers." —Mrs. S. R. House. 
 
 KOREA. 
 
 There are 358 cities in Korea, of from 10,000 
 to 350,000 inhabitants, only two of which — Seoul 
 and Fusan — are said to be occupied by Protestani 
 missions. 
 
Korea. 139 
 
 For Korea's 12,000,000 people the total supply 
 of missionaries, of all denominations, ordained and 
 unordained, men and women, is thirty-two workers, 
 or one missionary to 375, C00 people. 
 
 Korea in size is equal to Virginia and North 
 Carolina. "It is altogether a strange country, this 
 Hermit Kingdom," says an English writer. "The 
 pale, monotonous colors affected by the common 
 people in their dress, the noiseless way in which 
 they move about, the total lack of wheeled vehicles, 
 the absence of street-cries, or, indeed, of shouting 
 of any sort, have a most weird effect; and, as one 
 passes through the white clad, silent multitude, one 
 almost finds himself wondering whether it is all real, 
 and whether one has not been suddenly transported 
 into dream-land." 
 
 The Koreans are more allied to the Chinese than 
 to the Japanese; yet in language, politics, and so- 
 cial customs, they are different from both. They 
 are less conservative than the Chinese, and not so 
 progressive as the Japanese. They are generous 
 and hospitable. As a race they are strong and vig- 
 orous, with natural talent and wit. Their educa- 
 tional and commercial methods are very primitive. 
 They attach themselves with almost child-like confi- 
 dence to strangers and foreigners, when once they 
 begin to trust them. 
 
 Like the Chinese, the people worship their aq» 
 
140 Mission Fields. 
 
 cestors; but there seems to be no one distinct re* 
 ligion. 
 
 The country is pagau — pagan in its life, its re- 
 ligion, its morals. One says: "Heathenism in India 
 is vile; in China, defiant; in Japan, desperate; in 
 Korea, indifferent; in Africa, triumphant. No bet- 
 ter term can be used to describe Korea than 'indif- 
 ferent.' While fervor and zeal may be found in the 
 monasteries, the great mass of the people seem skep- 
 tical and indifferent." 
 
 The educated classes are Confucianists; the com- 
 mon people are nominally Buddhists. Hence it 
 follows that, not being bound down by a long 
 slavery to any religion, they are more open to the 
 gospel than other Eastern people. None among 
 the races of the Asiatic continent, it is maintained, 
 cau more easily be rendered accessible to a true and 
 sincere religious feeling than the Korean. 
 
 * ••• -I* 
 
 Korea gave religion, letters, and art to Japan; 
 and in one of their invasions into Korea, the Jap- 
 anese carried away many of the best workmen — 
 artists, designers, scholars, teachers, astronomers, and 
 priests. Now Korea seems poor and uncivilized 
 compared with Japan. The two nationalities differ 
 so much from each other as to have hardly a single 
 feature in common, though at the nearest point they 
 are only forty miles apart. In manners the Ko- 
 reans are rude among themselves and rude to for- 
 
Korea. 141 
 
 eigners. They are indolent and dirty, and they 
 will not work if they can help it. A lack of neat- 
 ness and cleanliness is manifest about everything. 
 
 Sleeping apartments are used for every purpose. 
 The bed is on the hard floor, and the head rests on 
 blocks of wood. The principal food, as in other 
 Oriental countries, is rice; mustard and pepper are 
 used in abundauce; and some one has said: "What 
 a Korean lacks in rice or fish, he makes up in cay- 
 enne-pepper." Among gentlemen of high rank it 
 is the custom when one visits another to take with 
 him, not only presents, but all the food he will re- 
 quire, and food for the family he visits. 
 
 The lumber merchants of this little kingdom sell 
 an interesting red-and-black wood, a kind of oak, 
 that will remain under water a hundred years with- 
 out decaying. 
 
 The Korean language has many proverbs and 
 pithy sayings in it that surprise and entertain one: 
 Beacousfield's "Critics are men who have failed in 
 literature and art," has this Korean echo, "Good 
 critic, bad worker." "I am I, another is another," 
 is a formula of selfishness, and Korean for Ego el 
 non ego — "I and not I." 
 
 * ••• * 
 
 A correspondent writes thus of Korean women : 
 "All their life is lived in the few rooms assigned 
 them; cooking, sleeping, washing their clothes, with 
 not the slightest bit of mental culture, make up 
 
1-42 Mission Fields. 
 
 thou daily routine. There is little beauty among 
 tlieni ; their faces are pallid, and sadness and weari- 
 ness mark their countenances. The apartments 
 among the higher classes resemble, in most respects, 
 the zenanas of India. A Korean woman is an in- 
 strument of pleasure or of labor, but never man's 
 companion or equal. The women below the middle 
 class work very hard. Farm labor is done chiefly 
 by them. Women are not allowed upon the street 
 until after sunset. At about nine in the summer, 
 or half-past eight in the winter, the bell is tolled, 
 and no man must be seen abroad. Then women 
 walk out to take the air. They are sometimes seen 
 in the day-time walking in the streets, but covered 
 all over with a long cloak, with a hood closely 
 drawn over the head and face, so that their features 
 are hidden from the gaze of men; but only elderly 
 women are allowed this freedom. The very poor 
 women, old or young, can go with their faces un- 
 covered. Younger women, except of the very poor- 
 est, are scarcely ever seen in public. In the streets 
 a man will step aside to let a woman pass him, and 
 hold a fan before his face lest he should catch a 
 glimpse of her. Dr. Allen said he was called one 
 day to see the king's mother, who was ill; but he 
 only saw about one square inch of the old lady. 
 She was screened by curtains, and her hand was 
 completely bandaged except the place where he was 
 to feel her pulse." 
 
 Infanticide is forbidden by law, and scarcely 
 
Korea. 143 
 
 ever practiced. In "Korea, the Hermit Nation," 
 we read: "In the higher classes of society etiquette 
 demands that the children of the two sexes be sep- 
 arated after the age of eight or ten years. After 
 that time the boys dwell entirely in the men's apart- 
 ments, to study, and even to eat and drink. The 
 girls remain secluded in the women's quarters. 
 These customs, continued from childhood to old age, 
 result in destroying the family life. In the higher 
 classes, when a young woman has arrived at mar- 
 riageable age, none of her relatives, except those 
 nearest of kin, are allowed to see or speak to her. 
 After marriage, women are inaccessible. They are 
 nearly always confined to their apartments, nor can 
 they even look out into the streets without permis- 
 sion of their lords. So strict is this rule that fathers 
 have, on occasion, killed their daughters, husbands 
 their wives, and wives have committed suicide when 
 strangers have touched them even with their fingers. 
 The common romances or novels of the country ex- 
 patiate on the merits of many a Korean Lucretia. 
 
 " Marriage is a thing with the arrangements for 
 which a woman has little or nothing to do. The 
 father of the young man communicates with the 
 father of the girl whom he wishes his son to marry. 
 This is often done without consulting the tastes or 
 character of either. On the wedding-day the young 
 bride must preserve absolute silence. Though over- 
 whelmed wiih questions ami compliments, silence is 
 her duty. She must sit mute and impassive as a 
 
144 Mission Fields. 
 
 statue. If she utters a word or makes a gestme 
 she is the cause of gossip iu her husband's house. 
 The female servants place themselves in a peeping 
 position, to listen or look through the windows, and 
 are sure to publish what they see. 
 
 "It is not deemed proper for widows to remarry. 
 In the higher classes a widow is expected to weep 
 for her deceased husband, and to wear mourning 
 all her life. But second marriages among the lowly 
 are quite frequent. The men must have their food 
 prepared for them, and women can not and do not 
 willingly die of famine when a husband offers 
 himself." 
 
 Though counting for nothing in society, and 
 nearly so in their families, yet the women are sur- 
 rounded by a certain sort of respect; and, habitu- 
 ated from infancy to their yoke, most women submit 
 to their lot with exemplary resignation. 
 
 A little almond-eyed Chinese boy stood swing- 
 ing the silken cradle of a beautiful baby. As it 
 swung to and fro, so did the long queue of Ah 
 Fung. But there was no music in his heart by 
 which to time the steady and monotonous swinging. 
 It was a sad little face that looked wistfully ahead; 
 and the child's thoughts were far away in Ningpo 
 with his father, from whom he had been cruelly 
 stolen and sold as a slave. Homesick tears were in 
 his eyes, and his wide, loose jacket-sleeve was now 
 
Korea. 145 
 
 a ml then drawn across his wet. che^k ; far boy-nature 
 
 is the same there as here. 
 
 "What is the matter with you, Ah Fung? 
 Don't you see my beautiful baby? I was unhappy, 
 too; but now" — and the sweet young mother, into 
 whose face a new light had lately shone and ban- 
 ished the deep-seated unhappiness and discontent, 
 bent over and caressed her treasure. 
 
 She was the unloved wife of a rich officer, and 
 from the time her husband had presented Ah Fung 
 to her, she had made a pet and companion of him. 
 On account of her own loneliness, they had become 
 sympathizing friends. 
 
 Ah Fung dried his tears, and looked seriously at 
 the baby and mother. 
 
 "Shall I tell you about my Jesus?" he asked. 
 
 "O no, Ah Fung! Tell Ah Fung mamma 
 does not need Jesus now — she has her baby," cooed 
 the poor mother. "He shall tell her about his 
 Jesus by and by. By and by, Ah Fung, by and 
 by," she said. 
 
 But by and by the delicate blossom began to 
 fade and droop. Paler and thinner the little face 
 became, till by and by the mother, in the extremity 
 of her grief, saw the only thing she had to love 
 pass into the dark, mysterious eternity. 
 
 Ah Fung was the child of a converted Chinese. 
 
 His father had come over to Seoul, Korea, to trade, 
 
 and brought the little boy with him; but in a crowd 
 
 the child was separated from him, stolen, and sold. 
 
 10 
 
146 Mission Fields. 
 
 He was old enough to commit his way to the Lord, 
 and know that it was all right somehow. 
 
 And now he saw, as Naaman's little maid did, that 
 he had come there for a purpose ; and he forgot his 
 own great grief in his desire to minister true com- 
 fort to the mother. 
 
 He was awed and silenced by her sorrow; but 
 one day she remembered how often he had. tried to 
 tell her of "Jesus and his love." 
 
 "Ah Fung," she said, "tell me about your 
 Jesus." 
 
 And Ah Fung, with the true tact of a child, 
 began where he knew it would mean the most to 
 her, and told her of Jesus' love to children, and 
 the beautiful home where he took them to keep 
 and make happy till the parents should come. 
 
 Day after day he talked about it till the mother's 
 yearning heart made her lips frame the question: 
 
 "Did He love my baby? Are you sure she is 
 with him?" 
 
 "I am sure he did love her and that she is with 
 him," replied Ah Fung. "Our missionary said he 
 has many, many little children there, and he makes 
 them very happy. He will give her back to you if 
 you go there." 
 
 "But where is it? How can I get there?" ea- 
 gerly asked the tearful mother." 
 
 "I do n't quite know," said Ah Fung; "but if 
 we love him and trust it to him, he will take us 
 somehow. He said so. Won't you let Jesus be 
 
Korea. 147 
 
 your Savior, too?" asked Ah Fung. "And then 
 we '11 both go there, and he will give our darling 
 back to us." 
 
 "A little child shall lead them." Ah Fung's 
 preaching was not in vain. This mother was the 
 first convert to Christianity in Korea, which was so 
 long shut up to foreign nations. It is now open to 
 the preaching of the gospel. 
 
 Many efforts have been made to carry the truth 
 into Korea; but Ah Fung, the little captive, has 
 the honor of having sowed the first fruit-bearing 
 seed. — Word, Work, and World. 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What is Korea often called? 
 
 Amwer. The " Hermit Kingdom," because it was 
 so long shut away from other nations. It was un- 
 known even by name in Europe until the sixteenth 
 century. There are records of its history extending 
 back for four thousand years, but its more reliable 
 history commences about A. D. 200. 
 
 Q. What is its size? 
 
 A. It has an estimated area of 82,000 square 
 miles. 
 
 Q. To whom has Korea been partially subject? 
 
 A. To China, for over 1,800 years. 
 
 Q. What is its government? 
 
 A. An absolute monarchy. 
 
148 Mission Fields. 
 
 Q. What is the language of the people? 
 
 A. It is intermediate between Mougolo-Tartar 
 and Japanese; but the Chinese system of writing is 
 used. The Koreans have possessed the art of print- 
 ing since the eighth century. 
 
 Q. In what kind of houses do they live? 
 
 A. They are small ; generally built of stones and 
 mud; but one story high, with a garret over it 
 where they lay up their provisions. 
 
 Q. How do the people dress? 
 
 A. The ordinary dress is white, and that of the 
 officials blue. The women also wear blue garments, 
 and have a green border to the cloak, which is worn 
 over the head, and with which they conceal their 
 faces from the gaze of the foreigners. The mourn- 
 ing color is yellow. 
 
 Q. What is said of their appearance? 
 
 A. They are tall. In complexion they are lighter 
 than the Japanese; some are even ruddy, and have 
 clear skins. 
 
 Q. What is the character of the people? 
 
 A. They are very superstitious. They believe 
 the air is filled with malignant spirits, who must be 
 propitiated by prayer, gifts, or penance. 
 
 Q. What five things are taught the children? 
 
 A. To obey their lather, respect their elder 
 brothers, be loyal to the king, respectful to the wife, 
 and true to their friends. 
 
 Q. How long since Korea was open to Christian 
 nations? 
 
Japan. 149 
 
 A. As late as 1882 mission-work was prohibited. 
 To-day Korea presents a striking illustration of the 
 irresistible advance of the kingdom of Christ, and 
 presents another miracle in modern missions. The 
 king is liberal in his views, and seeks the true in- 
 terests of his country. He favors education, and is 
 willing to let missionaries teach girls; and is en- 
 thusiastic over medical missionaries and their skill — 
 a Christian medical lady now being physician to 
 the queen. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 Japan has a population of about 40,000,000 
 people. About 40,000 of that number are Prot- 
 estant Christians; or, one Christian to every thou- 
 sand inhabitants. 
 
 * ••• ¥? 
 
 Japan has some 263,207 temples for the worship 
 of false gods, and 70,755 priests. For every two 
 Christians there are five Buddhist temples, not to 
 mention Shinto temples. There are 10,000 more 
 head-priests of Buddhism than Protestant Chris- 
 tians; and for every single Christian, of every de- 
 nomination, at least two Buddhist priests. Japan 
 is not yet a Christian country; and there is room 
 and need for hundreds, if not thousands, of mis- 
 sionaries. 
 
150 Mission Fields. 
 
 After the muddy rivers, dreary flats, and brown 
 hills of China; after the desolate shores of Korea, 
 with their unlovely and unwashed people, — Japan 
 is a dream of Paradise, beautiful from the first 
 green island off the coast to the less picturesque 
 hill-top. The houses seem toys, their inhabitants 
 dolls, whose manner of life is clean, pretty, and 
 artistic. One recognizes the Japanese as the flower 
 of the Orient — most polite, refined, light-hearted, 
 friendly, and attractive. This is what we read in 
 " Jinriksha Days in Japan," by Miss Bacon. 
 
 The Japanese have a written history which 
 stretches in uninterrupted tale over 2,550 years; 
 and their first ruler, of the still reigning family, was 
 contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar. In this un- 
 broken dynasty, seven of its one hundred and twenty- 
 three sovereigns have been women. 
 
 Forty and more millions of people, in less than 
 thirty years, have, in this empire, undergone the 
 greatest possible revolution in matters of govern- 
 ment, commerce, education, and social and religious 
 systems. 
 
 Japan, from a state of absolute exclusiveness for 
 ages, has come to be the most progressive of Eastern 
 nations. Christianity has exerted the most powerful 
 influence in bringing about this change, and the 
 Japan of old is not the Japan of to-day. The em- 
 pire is growing commercially, intellectually, and 
 spiritually; recent statistics show surprising results. 
 Now, every morning, the streets of the cities and 
 
Japan. 151 
 
 villages are alive with boys and girl?, clattering 
 along with their books to the kindergarten, primary, 
 grammar, high, or normal school. Every rank in 
 life, every grade in learning, may find its proper 
 place in the new school-systems. 
 
 The reports of the progress of Christianity that 
 have been given are not overstated. One noticeable 
 feature is, tbat its converts are numerous among the 
 young people, and comparatively rare among the 
 older people. This is accounted for by the fact that 
 the old religions have taken deep root in the minds 
 of the older people. 
 
 The type of Christianity now growing up is in- 
 tensely missionary. During the past year native 
 converts, with average wages of twenty-five cents 
 a day, gave $27,000 for mission-work. The prom- 
 ise for the future is full of cheer; and yet this does 
 not mean that Japan is Christianized, nor does it 
 mean that she does not still need missionaries; for 
 Japan never needed the presence and guidance of 
 the Christian missionary more than now. 
 
 Everywhere in Japan, youth is delightful. 
 The country is a realm of babies, and young mothers 
 who delight in the romping games of their children. 
 The homes are attractive, and always clean; in the 
 poorest house, one can sit down with the same care- 
 lesa pleasure as in the finest. The cleanliness of the 
 Japanese is one of his most commendable qualities. 
 
152 Mission Fields. 
 
 It is apparent in liis body, in his house, in his work* 
 shop, and no less in the great carefulness and exem- 
 plary exactness with which he looks after his fields. 
 They are great bathers. Among the lowest classes 
 the sexes bathe together, but with a modesty and 
 propriety that are inconceivable to a foreigner until 
 he has witnessed it. While in the bath they are 
 absorbed in their work, and, though chatting and 
 laughing, seem utterly unmindful of each other. 
 The sexes, except among the lower classes, do not 
 intermingle in a friendly way as we do; and to a 
 Japanese, Professor Morse says, "the sight of our 
 dazzling ball-rooms, with girls in decollete dresses, 
 clasped in the arms of their partners and whirling 
 at the sound of exciting music, must seem the wild- 
 est debauch imaginable." 
 
 The Japanese are a people of muscle and of 
 great physical endurance. The diet of the working 
 classes is entirely of vegetables and fish, and the 
 amount of manual labor they perform is prodigious. 
 Although there is poverty, there are few beggars; 
 for both strong and weak find some occupation. 
 The blind men of the country follow the profes- 
 sion of massage, and become adepts in giving the 
 treatment. 
 
 Infanticide, and other cruel practices peculiar 
 to Eastern countries, are unknown. Aged parents 
 are never a burden, but are treated with greatest 
 love and tenderness; and if times are hard, and 
 food and other comforts are scarce, the children 
 
Japan. 
 
 153 
 
 deprive themselves and their children to give to 
 their old fathers and mothers. Old age is a time of 
 peace and happiness for both men and women. 
 
 •» ••• •«• 
 
 No one who has seen or known anything of 
 Japanese women can deny that they are essentially 
 womanly. Sir Edwin Arnold, in speaking of them, 
 said that, taken altogether, they seemed so amaz- 
 ingly superior to their men-folk as almost to belong 
 morally and socially to a higher race. Gentle and 
 courteous, sympathetic and womanly, one can not 
 fail to love them. They leave the effect on a trav- 
 eler's mind, says one, that Japan is a fairy-land of 
 grown-up children ; and it is only when one becomes 
 well acquainted with the customs of the people that 
 one realizes that those bright little creatures, more 
 like humming-birds or butterflies than human beings, 
 have to bear any of the trials and abuses that are 
 the common lot of all mankind. To the casual 
 observer they are the happiest and gayest-hearted 
 people in the world, who, though charmingly gentle 
 and naturally well-bred, give one the impression 
 that they are almost incapable of the power of 
 thinking or have character enough for self-control. 
 They are taught self-control from the very first. 
 The duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls 
 of the family from the tenderest years; it is their 
 great moral lesson. The little girl must sink her- 
 self entirely; must give up always to others; must 
 
154 Mission Fields. 
 
 never show emotion?, except such as will be pleas* 
 iug to others, — this is the secret of true politeness, 
 and must be mastered, if the woman wishes to be 
 well thought of and to lead a happy life. The effect 
 of this teaching is seen in the attractive but dignified 
 manners of the Japanese women. 
 
 We quote further from "Japanese Girls and 
 Women," in which the author says: "As she passes 
 from babyhood to girlhood, and from girlhood to 
 womanhood, the Japanese woman is the object of 
 much love and care. She is taught the manage- 
 ment of a house; and is given instruction in books, 
 which is coming to be regarded more and more a 
 necessity for the women as well as the men." 
 
 Under this discipline she is, at eighteen, a pure, 
 sweet, amiable girl, who has reached the marriage- 
 able age. Usually she is allowed her own choice in 
 regard to whether she will or will not marry a cer- 
 tain man; but she is expected to marry some one, 
 and not to take too much time in making up her 
 mind. If she positively dislikes the man who is 
 submitted to her for inspection, she is seldom forced 
 to marry him ; but no more cordial feeling than 
 simple toleration is expected of her before marriage. 
 The quiet, undemonstrative love on the part of hus- 
 band and wife, though very different from the rav- 
 ings of a lover in the nineteenth-century novel, is 
 perhaps truer to life. 
 
 The idea of a wife's duty to her husband in- 
 cludes no thought of companionship on terms of 
 
Japan. 155 
 
 equality. She rarely appears with him in public; 
 and in all things the husband goes first, the wife 
 second. If the husband drops his fan or his hand- 
 kerchief, the wife picks it up for hira. 
 
 Unlike other Asiatic women, she goes without 
 restraint alone through the streets, and is not barred 
 out from intercourse with the world. 
 
 Journeying through rural Japan, one is im- 
 pressed by the important part played by women in 
 the various bread-winning industries. They enter 
 bravely into al! the work of the men ; and the peas- 
 ant and his wife work side by side in the field, eat 
 together, and whichever happens to be the stronger 
 in character, governs the house without regard to sex. 
 
 One can not speak of the conditions of women 
 in any country without mentioning the children, 
 and the most characteristically Japanese of all Jap- 
 anese sights are the little children. Babies are 
 carried about tied to the mother's back, or to that 
 of their small sisters. They sleep with their heads 
 rolling helplessly round, or watch all that goes on 
 with their black beads of eyes, and seldom cry. As 
 soon as she can walk, the Japanese girl has her doll 
 tied on her back, until she learns to carry it steadily 
 and carefully. After that, the baby brother or sister 
 succeeds the doll; and flocks of these comical little 
 people, with lesser people on their backs, wander 
 late at night in the streets with their parents, and 
 their funny, double sets of eyes shine in every 
 audience. 
 
156 Mission Fields. 
 
 The patience of the mother is remarkable. She 
 seems to govern her children entirely by gentle ad- 
 monition; and the severest chiding that is given 
 them is in a pleasant voice, and accompanied by a 
 smiling face. Nothing, in all one's study of Jap- 
 anese life, seems more beautiful and admirable than 
 the influence of the mother over her children — an 
 influence that is gentle and all-pervading, bringing 
 out all that is sweetest in the feminine character. 
 The higher part of her nature, however, is little 
 developed. No great religious truths have lifted 
 her soul above the world into a higher and holier 
 atmosphere. 
 
 •» ••• IR- 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. How large is Japan? 
 
 Answer. The land area of the numerous islands 
 which comprise the empire is very nearly 150,000 
 square miles. 
 
 Q. What are the religions? 
 
 A. The two great religious are Shintoism and 
 Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced from Korea. 
 Japan is a country of wayside shrines, images, and 
 temples without number. Some of the great tem- 
 ples in Kioto are capable of holding 5,000 persons, 
 and some contain as many as 3,000 life-sized gilt 
 images of saints and gods. 
 
 Q. What reforms have been carried out by the 
 mikado? 
 
Japan. 157 
 
 A. Encouragement of the press, there being 
 hundreds of periodicals — political, literary, and sci- 
 entific — dailies, weeklies, and monthlies; establish- 
 ment of a national post; reform of marriage laws; 
 adoption of railways, telegraphs, light-houses, steam- 
 ships, arsenals, and dock-yards; a civil service of 
 foreign employees; and the legal observance of the 
 Christian Sabbath. 
 
 Q. Do art and science flourish? 
 
 A. In science, the Japanese have cultivated 
 medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. In chem- 
 istry and botany they have considerable knowledge. 
 In the art of design they show great taste. All the 
 people are fond of reading, and circulating libraries 
 are carried on men's backs from house to house. 
 Their dram is are largely founded on national his- 
 tory and tradition. They ;tre fond of the theater; 
 the actors are regarded as a very low class. 
 
 Q. How far is Japan from China? 
 
 A. Four hundred and twenty miles. 
 
 Q. How far from California? 
 
 A. Five thousand miles. 
 
 Q. How has the door of Japan been so widely 
 opened to Christian influence? 
 
 A. Because of the eagerness of the people to 
 adopt foreign customs. 
 
 Q. What is the sacred mountain of the empire? 
 
 A. Fusiyama; and every year hundreds of pil- 
 grims travel, sometimes hundreds of miles or more, 
 to pay homage to the mountain god. 
 
158 Mission Fields. 
 
 THE ISLAND WORLD. 
 
 There are said to be only three Jfrotestant 
 churches on the island of Cuba, and the population 
 is estimated at nearly 2,000,000. 
 
 •a- ••■ -K- 
 
 There are about 2,000,000 people in Madagas- 
 car who are Christians, or nominally so; but there 
 are also 3,000,000 living in darkness and cruelty, 
 having no conception of a god beyond a fetich. 
 
 Not only Java, but the whole of Dutch India — 
 including Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes — has 
 a strong claim, not only on Europe, but on Chris- 
 tian America, for the gospel. Twenty-seven mill- 
 ions of people, and only sixty-nine Christian mis- 
 sionaries to tell them of the Way and the Truth 
 and the Life! 
 
 -» ••• tt 
 
 Upon the Hawaiian Islands, among the foreign- 
 ers, are found 12,000 Portuguese, 13,600 Japanese, 
 and 20,000 Chinese. Though Christianized them- 
 selves, the Hawaiians find a large amount of mis- 
 sionary work to do among these different peoples. 
 
The Island World. 159 
 
 In Ceylon the Protestant Christians of all Beets 
 
 are together estimated at about 35,000, out of a 
 population considerably in excess of 2,760,000. In 
 a district about the size of Wales there are 180,000 
 Singhalese, besides many Tamils; and in this dis- 
 trict there are about a dozen schools, and these are 
 for boys only, there not being even one for girls in 
 that district. 
 
 A missionary from Ceylon told, a short time 
 since, of a dying Singhalese woman. He had bap- 
 tized her as a recent convert from Buddhism, along 
 with his own daughter, only twelve months or so 
 before. Her last words were: "How beautiful 
 God is!" Charles Kingsley's daughter heard her 
 father use these very words during one of the last 
 nights of his life. We see how there was that in 
 God which delighted and astonished the highly cul- 
 tured, gifted Englishman, and his simple, unlettered 
 Singhalese sister. God's goodness and character 
 satisfy all alike. 
 
 ■» ••• K 
 
 The earth's islands have never been numbered, 
 nor has any accurate census of the inhabitants ever 
 been taken ; but they doubtless hold from thirty to 
 forty millions. The islands of the Pacific have 
 stood for the lowest type of barbarism and shocking 
 savagery, for the unspeakable horrors of cannibal- 
 ism and endless war. Fiji, New Zealand, New 
 Hebrides, and Raratonga have long been names 
 
160 Mission Fields. 
 
 with which to conjure up scenes most loathsome. 
 Infanticide and cannibalism flourished in even darker 
 forms than in other savage lands. Two-thirds of 
 all the infants were killed at birth, and every vil- 
 lage had an executioner appointed to carry out this 
 deed of blood. Dead bodies were handed over to 
 young children to hack and hew. No marvel if we 
 read that sick and aged parents were put out of 
 the way by the clubs of their owu offspring. The 
 sick were buried alive; widows were deliberately 
 strangled on the death of any great man ; living 
 victims were buried beside every post of a chief's 
 new house, and had to stand clasping it while the 
 earth was gradually heaped over their heads; and 
 canoes were launched by making rollers of living 
 human bodies. Human language has no terms to 
 express the former debasement of that people. 
 
 The Gospel in all Lands gives the following ac- 
 count of the state of the inhabitants of the islands 
 of Melanesia and Polynesia, who are yet unreached : 
 "Crimes of all degrees and of every kind are of 
 constant occurrence. Treachery and inhumanity 
 are among the traits of character. Theft is not at 
 all disreputable, and parents will teach their chil- 
 dren to steal. Cruelty and bloodshed excite no 
 more horror than events of the most common occur- 
 rence. There are few places where the female sex 
 are more degraded." 
 
 "If we did not beat our women," said the men 
 of some islands, "they would never work — they 
 
The Island World. 161 
 
 would not four and obey us; but when we have beaten 
 and killed and feasted on two or three, the rest are 
 all very quiet and good for a long time." 
 
 Amongst the heathen in the New Hebrides, 
 woman is the downtrodden slave of man. She is 
 kept working hard, and bears all the heavier bur- 
 dens; while her husband walks by her side, with 
 musket, club, or spear, ready to strike her if she 
 does anything to offend him. 
 
 I knew of one chief, says a missionary, who had 
 many wives, who were always jealous of each other 
 and violently quarreling amongst themselves. When 
 he was off at war, along with his men, the favorite 
 wife — a tall and powerful woman — armed herself 
 with an ax, and murdered all the others. On his 
 return he made peace with her, and, either in terror 
 or for other motives, promised to forego all attempts 
 at revenge. One has to live amongst the Papuans, 
 or the Malays, in order to understand how much 
 woman is indebted to Christ. 
 
 Fourteen islands in the New Hebrides group are 
 still without missionaries. " One of the finest sights 
 that I have ever seen, I saw recently at Tongoa," 
 writes Mr. Annaud; adding, "On a grassy hillside 
 were assembled fully six hundred natives, nearly all 
 clothed gayly, and joining most heartily in singing 
 sacred songs and reverently bowing their heads in 
 prayer. Fifteen years ago I happened to be one of 
 three missionaries who were on Tongoa, seeking to 
 open that island for teachers or a missionary. On 
 11 
 
162 Mission Fields. 
 
 the Sabbath we spoke briefly to the people on that 
 same hillside; but what a different congregation! 
 Then we addressed a company of naked, painted 
 cannibals, that were almost constantly at war, kill- 
 ing and devouring one another. Now, what a 
 changed scene! Up in the western parts of the 
 islands we missionaries are still laboring, amidst the 
 gloom of heathen barbarism. In Malekula, Malo, 
 and Santo we are still unable to point to our con- 
 verts; yet the attendance at our Sabbath service is 
 fairly good. So the truth must eventually make its 
 way through the thick darkness that surrounds and 
 fills their souls." 
 
 Australia, nearly as large as the United States, 
 has a population of about 2,250,000, one-half of 
 whom are Christians. Tasmania is a beautiful 
 country, but has a dreadful people. England makes 
 use of it as a penal colony, and missionary work is 
 largely among these convicts and their children. 
 
 The results of mission-work in the island world 
 have never been surpassed anywhere. The Ha- 
 waiian Islands, everywhere recognized now as a 
 Christian nation, seventy years ago were sunk to 
 almost as low a pitch of degradation as the Fiji 
 Islands. Their Churches are nearly self-sustaining 
 
The Island World. 163 
 
 now, and are engaged in sending missionaries from 
 their own numbers to other islands. 
 
 The Society Islands tell the same tale. The 
 Samoan Islands repeat the history and renew the 
 wonder. Some 34,000 cannibals have professed 
 Christianity. Two hundred native pastors minister 
 to Churches whose members are noted for liberal 
 giving. In the Sandwich Islands there are places 
 of almost holy associations. The missionary Coan 
 baptized, in one day, 1,705 converts; and others 
 have had similar encouragements. In New Zealand 
 missionaries toiled eleven years for their first con- 
 vert, but soon after could tell of an entire nation 
 being converted; and now we read that ninety-five 
 per cent of the whole population of New Zealand 
 professes religion. About 1,000 islands, embraced 
 in the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Ladrone 
 groups, constitute Micronesia; and when the first 
 missionary went to the Carolines, forty years ago, 
 there was not a book in that island-world. The people 
 who read and are members of Churches can now be 
 numbered by hundreds. 
 
 What dismal tragedy was enacted for a genera- 
 tion in Madagascar, after thousands had chosen the 
 Way of Life! To-day, Madagascar shines in the 
 Light, revealing the power and reality of the Chris- 
 tian transformation. 
 
 Think of 70,000 Fiji3 converted, and having a 
 thousand churches on their islands! In " At Home 
 in Fiji," Miss Cummings says: " You may now pass 
 
164 Mission Fields. 
 
 from isle to isle, certain everywhere to find the same 
 cordial reception by kindly men and women. Every 
 village on the eighty inhabited isles has built for 
 itself a church and a good house for its native 
 minister." 
 
 Can you realize that there are 900 Wesleyan 
 churches in Fiji, at every one of which the frequent 
 services are crowded by devout congregations, and 
 that schools flourish? 
 
 On the New Hebrides groups more than 12,000 
 of the natives have professed conversion, and by 
 their godly lives and their self-sacrificing gifts have 
 showed themselves to be true disciples of the 
 Master. 
 
 Writing of the death of his first Aniwan con- 
 vert, Mr. Paton says: "My heart felt like to break 
 over him. There we stood, the white missionaries 
 of the Cross from far distant lands, mingling our 
 tears with Christian natives of Aneityum, and let- 
 ting them fall over one who, only a few years be- 
 fore, was a blood-stained cannibal, and whom now 
 we mourned as a brother, a saint, an apostle, 
 amongst his people. Ye ask an explanation? The 
 Christ entered into his heart, and Namakei became 
 a new creature. 'Behold, I make all things new!'" 
 
 -» ••• * 
 
 An affecting story is told of a beggar of the 
 South Sea Islands, known as Buteve. There are 
 stone seats occasionally along the roads which are 
 
Thk Island Wokld. 165 
 
 formed by two smooth stones, one of which serves 
 as a seat and the other as a support for the back ; 
 and here, in the cool of the day, would be found 
 certain persons ready to chat with any passer-by. 
 The missionary's attention was arrested by seeing a 
 person get off one of these seats, and walk upon 
 iiis knees into the center of the "parent path," 
 shouting: "Welcome, servant of God, who brought 
 light into this dark island! To you we are indebted 
 for the Word of Heaven." The missionary asked 
 the cripple what he knew about heaven, and found 
 his answers to be exceedingly intelligent about Jesus 
 Christ and his atonement, the future life, and the 
 approach of the soul to God in prayer. "Buteve, 
 where did you obtain all this knowledge? I do not 
 remember ever to have seen you at the settlements 
 where I have spoken," said the missionary; "and, 
 besides this, your hands and feet are eaten off by 
 disease, and you have to walk upon your knees." 
 Buteve answered: "As the people return from the 
 service, I sit by the wayside, and beg from them, as 
 they pass by, a bit of the Word. One gives me one 
 piece, and another another, and I gather them to- 
 gether in my heart; and thinking over what I thus 
 obtain, and praying to God to make me know, I 
 -et to understand." This poor cripple, who had 
 never been in a place of worship himself, had thus 
 picked up the crumbs which fell from the Lord's 
 table, and eagerly devoured them. 
 
166 Mission Fields. 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What is a necessary feature of missi n- 
 ary work in the island-world? 
 
 Answer. The use of missionary-ships. 
 
 Q. Are there many of them ? 
 
 A. Quite a fleet. They make yearly trips among 
 the islands — taking supplies and carrying mission- 
 aries from island to island — and carry native workers 
 to new fields. 
 
 Q. How do the results of missionary work com- 
 pare with those elsewhere? 
 
 A. They are greater for the same labor bestowed ; 
 for the reason that the people are more susceptible 
 to the truth, not having been chained down by false 
 creeds. 
 
 Q. What is the best missionary intelligence to 
 stir enthusiasm? 
 
 A. The story of a true missionary's life and 
 labors among the heathen. Such a story is to be 
 found in the life of John Paton, missionary to the 
 New Hebrides. Livingstone's self-denial for the 
 African made England think of Africa. The story 
 of Tanna and Aniwa would never have thrilled all 
 Christendom, had not Paton first lived it, and then 
 told it in his simple narrative. No field ever pro- 
 duced more martyrs to missions than the pioneer 
 work among the islands of the seas, and in "Mod- 
 ern Heroes of the Mission Fields" we may read of 
 
The Island World. 167 
 
 several. Rev. John Williams, when he first went 
 to Kara tonga, found the people all heathen, and 
 when he left them they were all professed Chris- 
 tians. A dark and bloody idolatry, with all its hor- 
 rid rites, gave way to the triumphs of the gospel, 
 and island after island successively embraced Chris- 
 tianity, until not one group or island of importance 
 could be found within two thousand miles of Tahiti, 
 in any direction, to which he had not carried the 
 gospel. This hero was run into the sea, clubbed, 
 and his life ended by a flight of arrows from some 
 savages. The Bishop of Ripon laid down the story 
 of Williams's missionary career, exclaiming: "I 
 have now been reading the twenty-ninth chapter of 
 the Acts of the Apostles I" 
 
 To the missionary John Hunt belongs the honor 
 of giving the New Testament to Fiji in its native 
 tongue. He made known everywhere the story of 
 peace, traveling eleven hundred miles in a single 
 twelve-month, organizing schools, and training 
 promising converts — of whom he had hundreds — as 
 native teachers. This man of strong character and 
 fearless will, when asked in England to go as a 
 missionary to the Fijians, was startled by the ques- 
 tion, and begged time to consider it. He burst into 
 the room of a fellow-student at college, and in quick, 
 excited tones told him of the unexpected proposal. 
 His friend, thinking only of the hardships and 
 perils, began to sympathize with him. But he had 
 not read the secret of Hunt'ri deep emotion. "O, 
 
168 Mission Fields. 
 
 that's Dot it!" exclaimed the impassioned youth. 
 "I'll tell you what it is: that poor girl in Lincoln- 
 shire will never go with me to Fiji — her mother will 
 never consent to it." The truth was, that that 
 strong, noble heart of his had been linked in love, 
 for the last six years, with the heart of a beautiful 
 girl; and he, whom neither cannibalism nor pagan- 
 ism could affright, felt dismayed at the possibility 
 of being parted from her forever. He sat down 
 instantly and wrote to her. His heart was dis- 
 tressed, and he moved in and out amongst his fellow- 
 students with an anxious air. But as quickly as 
 posts could travel, came back the reply of that 
 noble girl; and Hunt burst once more into his 
 friend's chamber, and, with beaming face aud cheery 
 voice, exclaimed: "It's all right! She'll go with 
 me anywhere !" 
 
 Bishop Patteson, of Melanesia, met death by the 
 hand of a native traitor. His body — there it lay ; 
 and his face wore its own sweet smile of love. 
 There were five wounds — no more; and the frond 
 of a cocoanut-palm was fastened on the lifeless 
 breast. It was all unconsciously that his murderers 
 had adopted for him the emblem of Christian vic- 
 tory. "To have known such a man," writes Max 
 Muller, "is one of life's greatest blessings. In his 
 life of purity, unselfishness, devotion to man, and 
 faith in a higher world, those who have eyes to 
 see may read the best, the most real 'Imitatio 
 Christi."' 
 
North American Indians. 169 
 
 NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 
 
 "While we send our missionaries to Africa, 
 Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, let us not forget 
 the poor heathen Indian of our own land." 
 
 "I knew that my people were perishing," said 
 an American Indian chief, who had walked three 
 hundred and fifty miles to find a missionary. "I 
 never looked in the face of my child that my heart 
 was not sick. My fathers told me there was a Great 
 Spirit; and I have often gone to the woods and 
 tried to ask him for help, and I only get the sound 
 of my own voice. You do not know what I mean ; 
 for you never stood in the dark, and reached out 
 your hand, and took hold of nothing." 
 
 & V & 
 
 The total Indian population of the United States 
 is 247,761. The number of Indian Church mem- 
 bers in the United States is 28,663. There are 
 only 81 missionaries to 184,000 Indians. Sixty- 
 eight tribes have neither church nor missionary. 
 Seventeen thousand Navajos are yet untouched by 
 Christians. Five thousand Apaches, in Arizona, 
 are absolutely destitute of all Christian influence. 
 There are seventeen thousand in Wyoming Territory 
 still heathen. 
 
170 Mission Fields. 
 
 The 250,000 Indians of the United States are 
 divided into a hundred different tribes, having as 
 many languages, and settled on seventy or eighty 
 reservations. The most prominent nations — the 
 Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Semi- 
 noles — number about 70,000, and are known as 
 " the civilized tribes," they having made great ad- 
 vances in civilization during the seventy years of 
 mission-work among them. They wear ordinary 
 dress, live in houses, and are engaged in farming 
 and stock-raising; and support schools of their own. 
 Perhaps from one-fifth to one-half of the whole 
 number of Indians in the United States may be 
 called civilized. 
 
 *} f £. 
 
 Bishop Whipple related, at the American Mis- 
 sionary Association, the following narrative: "I can 
 tell you the story of Indian missions by relating one 
 incident. Some years ago Bishop Charles Hervey 
 went with me to the Indian country. We had de- 
 lightful services. After the holy communion we 
 were sitting on the green sward near a house. The 
 head chief said : ' Your friend came across the great 
 water; does he know the Indian's history?' I sai<:!, 
 'No.' He said: 'I will tell him. Before the white 
 man came, the forests and prairies were full of 
 game; the rivers and lakes were full of fish; the 
 wild-rice was Manitou's gift to the red man. Would 
 you like to see one of these Indians?' There stepped 
 
North American Indians. 171 
 
 out on the porch an Indian man and woman, dressed 
 in furs, ornamented with porcupine-quills. 'There,' 
 said the chief, 'my people were like those before 
 the white man came. Shall I tell you what the 
 white man did for us? He came and told us we 
 had no fire-horses, no fire-canoes. He said that 
 if we would sell him our land he would make 
 us like white men. Shall I tell you what he did? 
 No, you had better see it? The door opened, and 
 out stepped a poor, degraded-looking Indian — his 
 face besmeared with mud, his blanket in rags, no 
 leggings, and by his side a poor, wretched-looking 
 woman, in a torn calico dress. The chief raised his 
 head, and said: 'Manido, Manido, is this an In- 
 dian?' The man bowed his head. 'How came 
 this?' The Indian held up a black bottle, and said: 
 'This is the white man's gift.' Some of us bowed 
 our heads in shame. Said the chief: 'If this were 
 all, I would not have told you. Long years ago, a 
 pale-faced man came to our country. He spoke 
 kindly, and seemed to want to help us; but our 
 hearts were hard. We hated the white man, and 
 would not listen. Every summer, when the sun was 
 so high, he came. We ill ways looked to see his tall 
 form coming through the forest. One year I said 
 to my fellows: "What does this man come for? He 
 does not trade with us; he never asks anything of 
 us. Perhaps the Great Spirit sent him." We 
 stopped to listen. Some of us have that story in 
 our hearts. Shall I tell you what il has done for 
 
172 Mission Fields. 
 
 us?' The door opened, and out stepped a young 
 man — a clergyman — in a black frock coat, and by 
 his side a woman neatly dressed in a black alpaca 
 dress. Said the chief: 'There is only one religion 
 in the world which can lift a man out of the mire 
 and tell him to call God Father, and that is the re- 
 ligion of Jesus Christ. '" — Spikit of Missions. 
 
 Far-off Alaska, with a territory one-sixth as 
 large as the United States, stretches out her hands 
 to us for help. Her daughters — despised by their 
 fathers, sold by their mothers, ill-treated by their 
 husbands, cast out in their maidenhood, living lives 
 of toil, untaught and uncared-for, crushed by a 
 cruel heathenism, with no hope for this world and 
 no hope for the world to come — have nowhere else 
 to turn for sympathy and help than to their Chris- 
 tian sisters. "I would give the whole world," cried 
 an Alaskan woman — hiding her face in her blanket — 
 when she heard of heaven, "if I could only have 
 such a hope on my dying bed." Unwelcomed at 
 her birth; unclean and uncared-for during the first 
 year of her life; rolled up in a padding of grass 
 and skin, and exposed to the inclemency of the 
 weather, — the little Alaskan girl has a hard strug- 
 gle for life. Female infanticide is prevalent. If 
 the parents think the children are too numerous, 
 the mother murders her babe, or else steals away 
 into the woods at dusk, and leaves it there to the 
 
North American Indians. 173 
 
 mercy of wild animals. It is cruel treatment; but 
 it is more kiud than permitting the child to live 
 and be despised and brutalized, and to lead a life of 
 degradation and misery, such as her mother lives. 
 "Slavery, vice, misery, abuse, and often violent 
 death and horrible denial of burial — these are an 
 Alaskan woman's portion," says Mrs. Julia McNair 
 Wright, in her book "Among the Alaskans." "She 
 expects nothing else; hope is dead. For her child 
 there is nothing better." 
 
 The wife, persevering and industrious, goes fish- 
 ing and to the hunt with her husband, not as his 
 companion, but as the drudge. For the man there 
 is a bright hereafter, but the woman has no hope. 
 The heart sickens at the tortures of the women who 
 are accused of being witches. 
 
 In erecting their houses, the four corner-posts 
 are planted on the bodies of four women, slaugh- 
 tered for that purpose. Dr. Sheldon Jackson says: 
 "If the houses had a voice, to rehearse the scenes 
 that had passed before them, the whole world would 
 stand aghast and be horrified at the cruelties which 
 it was possible for human nature to gloat over. 
 When those great corner-posts were placed into po- 
 sition, a slave was murdered and placed under each. 
 When the houses were completed and occupied, 
 scores of slaves were butchered, to show the power 
 and wealth of the master, whose slaves were so 
 plentiful that he could afford to kill some and still 
 have plenty left. Founded and dedicated w r ith 
 
174 Mission Fields. 
 
 human sacrifices, who can conceive of the aggregate 
 of human woe and suffering in those habitations of 
 cruelty, year after year, at their wild drunken 
 orgies, their cauuibal feasts, their torture of witches, 
 their fiendish carousals around the burning dead, 
 the long despairing wails of lost souls as they pass 
 out into eternal darkness !" 
 
 Sfr ••• * 
 
 The hardships of the women among the Cree 
 Indians in British America are not much less than 
 those of their Alaskan sisters. A missionary says: 
 "When I have visited the wild men, I have seen 
 the proud hunter come stalking into the camp, and, 
 in imperative tones, shout out to his poor wife, ' Gc 
 back on my tracks in the woods, and bring in the 
 deer I have shot; and hurry, for I want my food!' 
 Seizing a long carrying-strap, she rapidly glides 
 away on the trail made by her husband's snow-shoes, 
 perhaps for three miles. Fastening one end of the 
 strap to the haunches of the deer and the other 
 around her neck, she succeeds in getting the animal, 
 which may weigh from a hundred to two hundred 
 pounds, upon her back. Panting with fatigue, she 
 comes in with her heavy burden. The poor woman, 
 although almost exhausted, quickly seizes the scalp- 
 ing-knife, and deftly skins the animal, and fills a 
 pot with the savory venison. While the men are 
 rapidly devouring their meal, the poor woman has 
 
North American Indians. 175 
 
 her first moments of rest; but gets nothing to eat 
 until the men have finished their meal." 
 
 When the poor women get old and feeble, very 
 sad and deplorable is their condition. When aged 
 and weak, they are shamefully neglected, and often 
 put out of existence! 
 
 In delightful contrast to these sad sights among 
 the degraded savages are the kindly ways and 
 happy homes of the converted Indians, where woman 
 occupies her true position, and is well and lovingly 
 treated. 
 
 •» ••• ft 
 
 In his book, "By Canoe and Dog Train," Rev. 
 E. R. Young is a most fascinating narrator of his 
 missionary life among the Cree and Salteaux In- 
 dians. "At times," he says, "we were surprised 
 by seeing companies of pagan Indians stalk into the 
 church during the services, not always acting in a 
 way becoming to the house or day. I was very 
 much astonished, one day, by the entrance of an 
 old Indian, called Tapastonum, who, rattling his or- 
 naments and crying 'Ho! ho!' came into the church 
 in a sort of trot, and gravely kissed several of the 
 men and women. As my Christian Indians seemed 
 to stand the interruption, I felt that I could. Soon 
 he sat down, at the invitation of Big Tom, and 
 listened to me. He was grotesquely dressed, and 
 had a good-sized looking-glass hanging on his breast, 
 kept in its place by a string hung around bis neck. 
 
176 Mission Fields. 
 
 To aid himself in listening, he lit his big pipe, and 
 smoked through the rest of the service. When I 
 spoke to the people afterwards about the conduct 
 of this man — so opposite to their quiet, respectful 
 demeanor in the house of God — their expressive, 
 charitable answer was: 'Such were we once, as igno- 
 rant as Tapastonum is now. Let us have patience 
 with him, and perhaps he, too, will soon decide to 
 give his heart to God. Let him come; he will get 
 quiet when he gets the light." 
 
 •» .j. «. 
 
 Mr. Young tells of heroic hearts among the 
 converted men and women of the Cree Indians. 
 At one time, on account of pestilence, many isolated 
 missionaries and traders, and other whites who had 
 gone into remoter parts, were suffering dire priva- 
 tions. Ringing his church-bell, and assembling his 
 people, Mr. Young said to them: "I know your 
 race on this continent has not always been fairly 
 treated; but never mind that. Here is the oppor- 
 tunity for you to do a glorious act, and to show 
 that you can make sacrifices and run risks when 
 duty calls." After further hearing the sad circum- 
 stances, the Indians agreed to go; and three days 
 after, twenty boats, well loaded with supplies, each 
 manned by eight men, started. They were gone 
 ten weeks, and very long seemed the summer. All 
 returned well but the leader, Samuel Papanekis, 
 and on him the strain was too great. 
 
North American Indians. 177 
 
 Pathetically, Mr. Young recounts a visit made 
 the next winter to this man's widow, to whom he 
 said: "Nancy, you seem to be very poor; you don't 
 seem to have anything to make you happy and 
 comfortable." "Very quickly came a response," 
 Mr. Young says, "and it was in a very much more 
 cheery strain than my words had been: 'I have not 
 much ; but I am not unhappy, Missionary.' She 
 had no venison, no flour, no tea; I asked if she 
 had potatoes. When this last question of mine was 
 uttered, the poor woman looked up at me, and this 
 was her answer: 'I have no potatoes; for don't 
 you remember, at the time of potato-planting, Sam- 
 uel took charge of the brigade that went up with 
 provisions to save the poor white people?' With 
 my heart full, I said: 'What, then, have you, poor 
 woman?' She replied: 'A couple of fish-nets.?' 
 1 And what do you do when it is too stormy to visit 
 the nets?' 'We go without.' To hide my emotion 
 and keep back the tears, I hurried out of the house 
 to get her some supplies. I had gone but a few 
 steps when the word ' Ayumeaookemon' (Praying- 
 master), arrested my hurrying steps. It was Nancy, 
 who had read her missionary's heart, and said : 
 1 Missionary, I do not want you to feel so badly for 
 me. It is true I am very poor; it is true, since 
 Samuel died, we have often been hungry, and have 
 often suffered from the bitter cold, — but, Missionary, 
 you have heard me say that as Samuel gave his 
 heart to God, so have I given God my heart; and 
 12 
 
178 Mission Fields. 
 
 he who comforted Samuel and helped him, so that 
 he died so happily, is my Savior ; and where Samuel 
 has gone, by and by I am going too; and that 
 thought makes me happy all day long.'" 
 
 •» ••• -K* 
 
 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
 
 Question. What is the total Indian population of 
 British America and the United States? 
 
 Answer. In British America there are 100,000 
 Indians; and about 280,000 in the United States, 
 including Alaska. 
 
 Q. What is their religion? 
 
 A. They are believers in some kind of a Great 
 Spirit, and in an inferior evil being who is hostile 
 to man. They believe in a future life; in the trans- 
 migration of souls; and also in demons, magic, and 
 witchcraft. 
 
 Q. What one good trait seems universal among 
 them ? 
 
 A. They are liberal, giving many times to those 
 who are poorer than themselves, until it seems as 
 though they had about reached the same level. 
 
 Q. What does one writer say of the poetic ele- 
 ment, which has preserved an interest in the Indian 
 among lettered peoples? 
 
 A. "There is no other uncultured race which 
 could have furnished the basal structure of so beau- 
 tiful a poem as ' Hiawatha.' " 
 
North American Indians. 179 
 
 Q. How have the Indians been treated by white 
 people? 
 
 A. They have been robbed of their lands, and 
 pushed gradually from the Atlantic Coast almost to 
 the Pacific; they have been cheated, massacred, left 
 to die of starvation, and have been the victims of 
 dishonest and cruel traders and agents who were set 
 over them, until they have come almost to consider 
 the white people their enemies. 
 
 Q. What does Bishop Hare say of Christianity 
 among the Sioux Indians? 
 
 A. "There are over nine Sioux Indians noblv 
 working in the sacred ministry. They have about 
 forty Sioux Indians as their helpers. There are 
 forty branches of women's auxiliary soeieties among 
 the Sioux Indian women. There are seventeen 
 hundred Sioux Indian communicants. Sioux In- 
 dians are contributing nearly $3, COO annually for 
 religious purposes! But what impression have these 
 cheering facts made upon the public mind as com- 
 pared with the wild antics of the heathen Sioux In- 
 dians, which excited the attention of the country, and 
 daily occupied column after column of the news- 
 papers for weeks?" 
 
 Q. What is the hope for the continued improve- 
 ment of the Indian? 
 
 A. The Christian Churches are the hope of the 
 "red" raca The marked improvement and wonder- 
 ful progress of the Christian Indians over the others 
 are something very marvelous. 
 
180 Mission Fields. 
 
 Q. Can the Indians yet do without our aid? 
 
 A. By no means. Besides the 100,000 who 
 may be called civilized, there are 98,000 that are 
 wild, only coming to the Government agent for ra- 
 tions and blankets; and about 14,000 more are 
 called roamers or vagrants, as they have no settled 
 home. There are 40,000 wild Indiau children in 
 our country, of whom but ^2,000 are gathered in 
 the Government and mission schools; leaving 28,- 
 000 children to whom no school opens its doors, and 
 to whom no missionary goes. 
 
GIFTS 
 
 The Protestant Churches in the United States 
 spend annually for home work, $80,000,000; for 
 foreign work, $4,000,000— one-twentieth. While 
 the need is from 300 to 680 times greater in the for- 
 eign field, twenty times as much is spent in the 
 home field. 
 
 •* ••• # 
 
 The sum of $80,000,000 is expended for the 
 evangelization of 60,000,000 people— $1.33 each; 
 $4,000,000 is expended for the evangelization of 
 1,181,000,000 people— one-third of a cent each. 
 
 & .;. #, 
 
 Nine-tenths of the contributions to foreign 
 missions are given by one-tenth of the Church mem- 
 bership, while only one-half of the membership give 
 anything. The average amount of each member is 
 fifty cents per annum — only the seventh part of a 
 cent a day for the conversion of a thousand mill- 
 ions of heathen. An average of five cents a week 
 from every member of the Protestant Churches of 
 the United States would bring into the treasury, 
 ;luring a single year, $16,500,000. Ninety-eight 
 
 181 
 
182 Gifts. 
 
 per cent of the Church's contributions for religious 
 purposes is spent at home, while only two per cent 
 is sent to the foreign mission-field. 
 
 ■» ••• «« 
 
 A recent sermon of Canon Farrar applies to 
 America as well as to Eugland. "What shall I 
 say of the rich?" he asks. "I say there are scores 
 of men in London who could save our hospitals 
 aud Christian enterprises from anxiety almost with- 
 out feeling it. Look at the recent art sales! Ten 
 thousand dollars for one dessert-service; $6,000 for 
 two flower-pots; $15,000 for a chimney ornament; 
 $50,000 for two vases; $1,500 for a single dress; 
 $5,000 for flowers for a ball! If there be such a 
 Pactolus of wealth for these things, can there be by 
 comparison only a drop or two to heal the bodies 
 and ameliorate the souls of men?" Fifteen million 
 dollars' worth of cut diamonds per annum are re- 
 quired by the United States. One who is face to 
 face with heathenism, and often passes through vil- 
 lages of from 100 to 500 inhabitants, where a little 
 prayer-house, although much needed, can not be 
 built for want of only $10 or $15, must feel deeply 
 the needless expenditures in Christian countries. 
 
 Dion Bouctcault said: "More than $200,- 
 000,000 are paid every year by the American peo- 
 ple for their theatrical entertainments." All the 
 
Gifts. 183 
 
 Churches in the world are spending less money for 
 foreign missions annually than the theaters of the 
 single city of New York receive every year from 
 their patrons. 
 
 ■» ••• * 
 
 Mrs. Joseph Cook has said: "A true zeal for 
 missions will lead any one to do something, or do 
 without something, for Jesus' sake. It seems to me 
 that the only money worthy to be given to missions 
 is that which has been sacredly laid aside for that 
 purpose, and laid aside at some cost." 
 
 SUCH GIFTS AND GIVERS AS GOD LOVES. 
 
 In the beautiful island of Ceylon, many years 
 ago, the native Christians, who had long worshiped 
 in bungalows and old Butch chapels, decided that 
 they must have a church built for themselves. En- 
 thusiastic givers were each eager to forward the 
 new enterprise. lint to the amazement of all, 
 Maria Peabody— a lone orphan girl, who had been 
 a beneficiary in the girls' school at Oodooville— 
 came forward, and offered to give the land upon 
 which to build, which was the best site in her native 
 village. 
 
 Not only was it all she owned in this world, but 
 far more — it was her marriage portion; and in 
 making this gift, in the eyes of every native, she 
 renounced all hopes of being married. As this al- 
 
184 Gifts. 
 
 ternative in the East was regarded as an awful step, 
 many thought her beside herself, and tried to dis- 
 suade her from such an act of renunciation. " No," 
 said Maria, "I have given it to Jesus; and as he 
 has accepted it, you must." And so to-day the first 
 Christian church in Ceylon stands upon land given 
 by a poor orphan girl. 
 
 The deed was noised abroad, and came to the 
 knowledge of a young theological student, who was 
 also a beneficiary of the mission, and it touched his 
 heart. Neither could he rest until he had sought 
 and won the rare and noble maiden who was willing 
 to give up so much in her Master's cause. 
 
 Some one in the United States had been for 
 years contributing twenty dollars annually for the 
 support of this young Hindu girl, but the donor 
 was unknown. The Rev. Dr. Poor, a missionary in 
 Ceylon, visiting America abeut that time, longed to 
 ascertain who was the faithful sower, and report the 
 wonderful harvest. 
 
 Finding himself in Hanover, New Hampshire, 
 preaching to the students of Dartmouth College, he 
 happened in conversation to hear some one speak of 
 Mrs. Peabody, and repeated: "Peabody! What 
 Peabody?" "Mrs. Maria Peabody, who resides 
 here, the widow of a former professor," was the 
 answer. "O, I must see her before I leave!" said 
 the earnest man, about to continue his journey. 
 
 The first words after an introduction, at In r 
 house, were: "I have come to bring you a glad 
 
Gifts. . 185 
 
 report; for I can not but think that it is to you 
 we, in Ceylon, owe the opportunity of educating 
 one who lias proved as lovely and consistent a 
 native convert as we have ever had. She is ex- 
 ceptionally interesting, devotedly pious, and bears 
 your name." 
 
 "Alas!" said the lady, "although the girl bears 
 my name, I wish I could claim the honor of edu- 
 cating her; it belongs not to me, but to Louisa Os- 
 borne, my poor colored cook. Some years ago, in 
 Salem, Massachusetts, she came to me, after an 
 evening meeting, saying: 'I have just heard that if 
 anybody would give twenty dollars a year they 
 could support and educate a child in Ceylon, and I 
 have decided to do it. They say that along with 
 the money I can send a name, and I have come, 
 Mistress, to ask you if you would object to my send- 
 ing yours?' At that time," continued the lady, "a 
 servant's wages ranged from a dollar to a dollar and 
 a half a week, yet my cook had for a long time 
 been contributing half a dollar each month at the 
 monthly concert for foreign missions. There were 
 those who expostulated with her for giving away so 
 much, for one in her circumstances, as a time might 
 come when she could not earn. ' I have thought it 
 all over,' she would reply, 'and concluded I would 
 rather give what I can while I am earning; and 
 then if I lose my health and can not work, 
 why there is the poor-house, and I can go there. 
 You see, they have no poor-house in heathen 
 
186 Gifts. 
 
 lands, for it is only Christians who care for the 
 poor.'" 
 
 In telling this story, Dr. Poor used to pause 
 here, and exclaim: "To the poor-house! Do you 
 believe God would ever let that good woman die in 
 the poor-house? Never! We shall see." 
 
 The missionary learned that the last known of 
 Louisa Osborne was, that she was residing in Lowell, 
 Mas'sachu setts. In due time his duties called him 
 to that city. At the close of an evening service, 
 before a crowded house, he related among mission- 
 ary incidents, as a crowning triumph, the story of 
 Louisa Osborne and Maria Peabody. The disinter- 
 ested devotion, self-sacrifice, and implicit faith and 
 zeal of the Christian giver in favored America has 
 been developed, matured, and well-nigh eclipsed by 
 her faithful protegee in far-off, benighted India. His 
 heart glowing with zeal, and deeply stirred by the 
 fresh retrospect of the triumphs of the gospel over 
 heathenism, he exclaimed: "If there is any one 
 present who knows anything of that good woman, 
 Louisa Osborne, and will lead me to her, I will be 
 greatly obliged." The benediction pronounced and 
 the crowd dispersing, Dr. Poor passed down one of 
 the aisles, chatting with the pastor, when he espied 
 a quiet little figure apparently waiting for him. 
 Could it be? Yes, it was a colored woman, and it 
 must be Louisa Osborne. With quickened steps he 
 reached her, exclaiming, in tones of suppressed emo- 
 tion: "I believe that this is my sister in Christ, 
 
Gifts. 187 
 
 Louisa Osborne?" "That is my name," was the 
 calm reply. "Well, God bless you, Louisa! You 
 have heard my report, aud know all ; but before we 
 part, probably never to meet again in this world, I 
 want you to answer me one question. What made 
 yuu do it?" With downcast eyes, and in a low and 
 trembling voice, she replied: " Well, I do not know, 
 but I guess it was my Lord Jesus!" 
 
 They parted, only to meet in the streets of the 
 New Jerusalem. 
 
 The humble handmaiden of the Lord labored 
 meekly on awhile, and is end i eg her failing day?, 
 not in a poor-house, verily, but, through the efforts 
 of those who knew her best, in a pleasant, comfort- 
 able old ladies' home. " Him that honoreth me, I 
 will honor." —Intelligencer. 
 
 The teacher of an African school, wanting her 
 girls to learn to give, paid them for any work they 
 would do for her, so that each one might have some- 
 thing of her own to give towards any little benevo- 
 lence. Among the pupils was a new scholar. 
 "Such a wild and ignorant little heathen," she says, 
 "that I did not try to explain to her what the other 
 girls were doing. The day came for the gifts to be 
 handed in. Each girl brought her piece of money, 
 and laid it down. I thought all the offerings were 
 given; but there stood the new scholar, hugging 
 tightly in her anus a pitcher — the only thing that 
 
188 Gifts. 
 
 she had in the world. She went to the table, put 
 it among the other gifts, kissed it, and turned away. 
 That story reminds me of another, about One who 
 watched and still watches people casting gifts into 
 liis treasury; and I wondered if he might not say 
 of the little African, too, 'She hath cast in more 
 than they ahY" 
 
 •5* •»• ft 
 
 JIM AND THE MISSIONARY MEETING. 
 
 The sun had already set when Harrow, the cow- 
 boy, rode into the main street of the little village 
 of Blue Stem, tied his pony to the windmill der- 
 rick at the town-pump, and hurried over to the 
 store, just opposite, to buy some bacon and other 
 articles of food, such as the rough life of the cow- 
 boys demanded. He was cook for the gang; and 
 after spending some time in laying in as much as 
 he thought he could get trusted for, he walked slowly 
 out of the store, and turned up the street in the 
 direction opposite to that taken an hour or more 
 before by his fellows in work and revelry. 
 
 Jim did not want the compauy of the other 
 herders to-night. The pain in his head, and his 
 disgust as he thought of the last night's carousal — 
 which had ended with a demand from the saloon- 
 keeper for money due him as he thrust Jim into the 
 street — did not bring any wish for the fellowship 
 which would probably repeat his experience for 
 
Gifts. 189 
 
 him. He was sober now, and he wanted to keep 
 sober, for a time at least. He strolled heavily and 
 moodily along some distance over the dilapidated 
 board-walks, thinking about his debts — when his 
 aching head would let him think at all — and trying 
 to study out some plan for relief, when the thought 
 came to him to run off a few of the cattle to a dis- 
 tant point, sell them, and then, when questioned by 
 the owner, swear they had died of black-leg. This 
 was risky, but he had seen it done once or twice 
 successfully. Just then he stepped down suddenly 
 from the sidewalk, and nearly pitched over on his 
 face; and was thereby reminded that the sidewalk 
 had ended, that his head was still aching, and that 
 the burden of his debt was not yet lifted. 
 
 "I mought have known, by the sidewalk stop- 
 ping, there was a church here," said Jim to himself, 
 as his eyes fell upon a plain white building, that 
 stood in the middle of an unfenced lot, before which 
 he was standing. "She's lighted for business, too. 
 An' now they are at it," as the strains of a hymn 
 came through the open door. "I 'most b'lieve I'll 
 go in. I'd rather be in there, if 'tis church, than 
 with the boys, getting drunk and playing the fool 
 again." 
 
 Jim did not know that the Broad Valley Asso- 
 ciation of Central Nebraska was in session at the 
 Blue Stem Church, and that the good people of 
 Blue Stem and the surrounding country had been 
 gathering there three times a day for the past three 
 
190 Gifts. 
 
 days. If he had known this fact, bold as he was, 
 he might have been a little shy about entering such 
 a condensed moral atmosphere alone. At this time, 
 however, the church was a haven in which none 
 other of his kind was liable to anchor. He walked 
 up the steps, stood by the door until his eyes caught 
 sight of a vacant seat near him, and then shuffled 
 in as quickly as possible, and sat down. The only 
 other occupant of the pew — a little girl — eyed him 
 and his pistols a minute or two, and then moved a 
 little further along toward the other end of the 
 seat. 
 
 After the singing was over, the chairman gave 
 out as a topic for discussion, "The Pew as Seeu 
 from the Pulpit," adding that "after the leader had 
 finished, all would be invited to take part." 
 
 Jim thought he could tell them a thing or two 
 about how the pulpit looked from the pew, the Sun- 
 day morning he shot his pistol through the church- 
 door at Slippery Hollow; but he simply drew up his 
 feet, stretched his legs out upon the seat, and prepared 
 for a good comfortable time of it. "I'm corraled now, 
 an' I may as well take it easy," he thought. The speaker 
 began with a few crisp sentences, and then launched 
 into his subject, striking right and left at the sleepy 
 heads, the noisy inquisitive ones, and the loungers, 
 with such raciness that Jim was soon sitting bolt 
 upright, and listening with all his might. "The 
 boss preacher, and no mistake," was his mental 
 comment; and, when the little man sat down, he 
 
Gifts. 191 
 
 could not refrain from giving, by way of approval, 
 several vigorous thumps upon the floor with his 
 heels, much to the consternation of a few in the 
 audience who knew him. 
 
 A little further discussion of the subject followed, 
 aud then it was given out that the remainder of the 
 evening would be given up to the "Women's Mis- 
 sionary Society." A band of little girls, under the 
 direction of a lady seated at the organ, filed upon 
 the stage. Each represented a flower, and spoke a 
 piece; then all distributed through the audience the 
 flowers which they carried. The very smallest of 
 them all gave one to Jim. This was a feature of 
 Church entirely new to him, and something seemed 
 to smite him as he took the flowers in his great 
 clumsy fingers. Nobody here owed him any favors, 
 and why should he be noticed as others were? His 
 very roughness appeared to him, and made him 
 sensitive; and what to another would have been an 
 insignificant happening, touched him where he 
 thought there was no feeling. 
 
 While he was thinking soberly of this incident, 
 a lady stood up to read — au earnestdooking, clear- 
 voiced woman it was — who began: "How much 
 ow T est thou unto my Lord?" The room was very 
 quiet as she read ; for it seemed as if some one were 
 being arraigned, so direct and personal was the 
 question. She asked in her pleasant way again : 
 "How much owest thou unto my Lord? Have you 
 never thought of it — the debt to my Lord, your 
 
192 Gifts. 
 
 Lord, the Lord who bought us? Have you paid 
 this debt of gratitude ?" 
 
 Nothing was said about making money, no men- 
 tion of what are usually called debts; but "how 
 much do you owe for the things which money can 
 not buy — the life you enjoy, the loving kindness 
 and tender mercies with which you are crowned? 
 Have you given but the cup of cold water in His 
 name when you had the chance?" A little more, 
 and she finished; but the effect of the few simple 
 words was felt; and when the speaker sat dowu, 
 one after another arose to speak. Each owed more 
 than he could pay, and each felt his poverty. 
 
 The same impulse which made them humble 
 was lifting them upon a higher plane and into a 
 purer atmosphere. It was hardly a surprise to them 
 when the cowboy rose from his seat, and took ad- 
 vantage of their invitation to speak ; for who could 
 have been there and not felt the striving of the 
 Holy One? They turned to look at him as he 
 began. 
 
 " I 'm not straight like the rest of ye. I have n't 
 been as white as I had orter been. I 'm a cowboy. 
 I 've this to say, though : I want to pay my debts. 
 The lady has told me o' One I did n't know about; 
 and Jim Harrow 's not the boy to sit still when he 's 
 in debt." 
 
 The meeting was soon over. They tried to get 
 at him, and talk with him; but the cowboy was 
 goue. The message had reached him, and was in- 
 
Gifts. 193 
 
 terpreted. It was not for them, at that time, to 
 hear the answer; but out upon the prairie, with 
 none but his pony and his God, the cowboy knelt, 
 for the first time in his life, and uttered his broken 
 petition : 
 
 "0 Lord, I'm owin' many, but I've gone ag'in' 
 ye worst of all. I 've nothin' to pay ye with, but 
 I've come to ye. She said ye was merciful. Amen." 
 
 As the wind whispered to the grassy wilderness, 
 so the "still, small voice" breathed upon the soul of 
 the cowboy, and there was peace. The problem of 
 debt and credit was settled. —The Observes. 
 
 THE GIVING ALPHABET. 
 
 All things come of thee, and of thine own have 
 we given thee. (1 Chron. xxiv, 14.) 
 
 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that 
 there may be meat in mine house, and prove me 
 now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not 
 open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out 
 a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
 receive it (Mai. iii, 10.) 
 
 Charge them that are rich in this world . . . 
 that they do good, that they be rich in good works, 
 ready to distribute, willing to communicate. (1 Tim. 
 vi, 17, 18.) 
 
 Do good unto all men, especially unto them who 
 are. of the household of faith. (Gal. vi, 10). 
 13 
 
194 Gifts. 
 
 Every man according as he purposeth in his 
 heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of neces- 
 sity. (2 Cor. ix, 7.) 
 
 Freely ye have received, freely give. (Matt. 
 x,8.) 
 
 God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. ix, 7.) 
 
 Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with 
 the first fruits of thine increase. (Pro v. iii, 9.) 
 
 If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
 according to that a man hath, and not according to 
 that he hath not. (2 Cor. viii, 12.) 
 
 Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to re- 
 ceive. (Acts xx, 35.) 
 
 Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man 
 doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether 
 he be bond or free. (Eph. vi, 8.) 
 
 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
 where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
 thieves break through and steal; but lay up for 
 yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth 
 nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
 break through nor steal. (Matt, vi, 19, 20.) 
 
 My little children, let us not love in word, neither 
 in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 
 iii, 18.) 
 
 Now concerning the collection for the saints . . . 
 upon the first day of the week let every one of you 
 lay by in store as God hath prospered him. (1 Cor. 
 xvi, 1, 2.) 
 
Gifts. 195 
 
 Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely 
 give the tenth to thee. (Gen. xxviii, 22.) 
 
 Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a 
 treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no 
 thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (Luke 
 xii, 33.) 
 
 Quench not the Spirit. (1 Thess. v, 19.) 
 
 Render unto God the things that are God's. 
 (Matt, xxii, 21.) 
 
 See that ye abound in this grace also. (2 Cor. 
 viii, 2.) 
 
 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith 
 the Lord of hosts. (Haggai ii, 8.) 
 
 Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall 
 be much required. (Luke xii, 48.) 
 
 Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God. (Psa. 
 lxxvi, 11.) 
 
 Whoso hnth this world's goods, and seeth his 
 brother have uoed, and shutteth up his bowels of 
 compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God 
 in him? (1 John iii, 17.) 
 
 'Xcept your righteousness shall exceed the right- 
 eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no 
 case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 
 v, 20.) 
 
 Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 (2 Cor. viii, 9.) 
 
 Zion that briugest good tidings. (Isa. xl, 9.) 
 
196 Gifts. 
 
 BIBLE RULES FOR GIVING. 
 
 Question. What did the Lord Jesus say about 
 giving? 
 
 Answer. It is more blessed to give than to re- 
 ceive. (Acts xx, 35.) 
 
 Q. What kind of a giver does God love? 
 
 A. God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. ix, 7.) 
 
 Q. How have we received, and how should we 
 give? 
 
 A. Freely ye have received, freely give. (Matt, 
 x, 8.) 
 
 Q. How much should we give? 
 
 A. Thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God ac- 
 cording as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. 
 (Deut. xvi, 10.) 
 
 Q. What is the least that we should give? 
 
 A. Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely 
 give the tenth unto thee. (Gen. xxv, 22.) 
 
 Q. How are our gifts accepted? 
 
 A. If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
 according to that a man hath, and not according to 
 that he hath not. (2 Cor. viii, 12.) 
 
 Q. How should we honor the Lord? 
 
 A. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and 
 with the first fruits of thine increase. (Prov. 
 iii,9.) 
 
 Q. What promise does God make to such? 
 
 A. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and 
 
Gifts. 197 
 
 thy presses shall burst out with new wine. (Prov. 
 iii, 10.) 
 
 Q. What is said of him that pities the poor? 
 A. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto 
 the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay 
 • him again. (Prov. xix, 17.) 
 Q. How shall we give? 
 
 A. Every man according as he purposeth in his 
 heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of neces- 
 sity; for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 
 ix, 7.) 
 
 Q. From whom does God accept offerings? 
 A. Of every man that giveth it willingly, 
 with his heart, ye shall take my offering. (Ex. 
 xxv, 2.) 
 
 Q. What promise is given to those who consider 
 the poor? 
 
 A. Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the 
 Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 
 xli, 1.) 
 
 Q. What measure shall be given to those who 
 give liberally? 
 
 A. Give, and it shall be given unto you ; good 
 measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and 
 running over, shall men give into your bosom. For 
 with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall 
 be measured to you again. (Luke vi, 38.) 
 
 Q. What command does God give about the 
 poor ? 
 
 A. Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy 
 
198 Gifts. 
 
 brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. 
 (Deut. xv, 11.) 
 
 Q. What about the first fruits? 
 
 A. The first of the first fruits of thy land thou 
 shalt bring iuto the house of the Lord thy God. 
 (Ex. xxiii, 19.) —Mrs. W. E. Knox. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 Eloquently Dr. Judson Smith writes in the Ms- 
 sionary Herald: "From Africa's teeming tribes, 
 from India's perishing multitudes, from China's 
 mighty millions, from Japan's throbbing life, from 
 every soul among the thousand millions that know 
 not God, the cry of despair — its inarticulate cry for 
 help — goes up. This weary world, in all its conti- 
 nents, with all its nations, wants to know more of 
 Christ's message, and of that love which stoops from 
 heaven to cleanse sin and chase away sorrow. China 
 has no sorrow that his message can not cure; Iudia 
 has no problem it can not solve; Japan, no question 
 it can not answer; Africa, no darkness it can not 
 dispel. The cry of the pagan world for help has 
 resounded in every generation since history began. 
 It ascends — a pleading, pathetic cry — resistless in its 
 very helplessness. No Christian heart can refuse to 
 hear it; and no Christian heart can hear it and re- 
 frain from prayer and pity. If we love Him, we 
 shall go in person, or by our gifts, to every land 
 and city and home whither his feet are moving, 
 with him to plead and pray and win to life." 
 
 "On the Ganges one night," said a missionary, 
 "I saw a Hindu pushing a number of little bam- 
 
 199 
 
200 Conclusion. 
 
 boo boats out on the water, each with a little light 
 in it, and I asked him what they were for. ' O,' 
 he replied, 'they are each for a relative who has 
 died, that he may have some light in that dark 
 world he has gone to. This one is my light. We 
 have all got to go, and so we push these lights out 
 on the river that we may have a little light 
 beyond.'" 
 
 God has given each of us a little light, and he 
 means that we shall put it out, in our little earthen 
 vessels, all over the sea of life, to show others the 
 path that leads to him. 
 
 A touching story comes from Madagascar. 
 The people of a place named Tankay, who had 
 never received instruction in Christian things, but 
 had simply heard the word " praying," and knew 
 that people who did that met together, agreed 
 among themselves to meet in one place. No one 
 of their number was able to read or tell anything 
 about the gospel. They had bought a New Testa- 
 ment in Imerina; but that lay unopened, since no 
 one could read it. On Sunday they met in one 
 house, and placed the Testament in their midst. 
 No one could read, no one could sing or pray ; and 
 so they sat for a time in silence. When all were 
 assembled, one of the chief men stood up, and 
 asked: "Have all come from the north?" "Ay," 
 answered they all. "Have all come from the 
 
Conclusion. 201 
 
 south?" "Ay." And so on from the east and 
 the west. "Then let us break up, for we have all 
 done our duty," said the chief; "but be sure and 
 come early next Sunday." 
 
 It has passed into a saying in Madagascar — to 
 describe assemblies in which there is no teacher, but 
 where the people meet for religious service like the 
 worship of the Tankay people — "Let us go home, 
 for we have all done our duty." These men, grop- 
 ing so pitifully in the dark, may have done their 
 duty. AVhat of ours to them ? 
 
 "Missionary," said a savage, stalwart-looking 
 Indian, "gray hairs here, and grandchildren in the 
 wigwam, tell me that I am getting to be an old 
 man ; and yet I never before heard such things as 
 you have told us to-day. I am so glad I did not 
 die before I heard this wonderful story. Yet I am 
 getting old. Gray hairs here, and grandchildren 
 yonder, tell the story. Stay as long as you can, 
 Missionary; tell us much of these things; and when 
 you have to go away, come back soon; for I have 
 grandchildren, and I have gray hairs, and may not 
 live many winters more." 
 
 He turned as though he would go back to his 
 place, and sit down; but he only went a step or two 
 ere he turned round, and faced me, and said: 
 
 "Missionary, may I say more?" 
 
 "Talk on," I said; "I am here now to listen." 
 
202 Conclusion. 
 
 "You said, just now, 'Notawenan'" ("Our 
 
 Father"). 
 
 "Yes," I said, "I did say, 'Our Father.'" 
 
 "That is very new and sweet to us," he said. 
 "We never thought of the Great Spirit as Father. 
 We heard him in the thunder, and saw him in the 
 lightning and tempest and blizzard, and we were 
 afraid. So, when you tell us of the Great Spirit as 
 Father — that is very beautiful to us." 
 
 Hesitating a moment, he stood there, a wild, 
 picturesque Indian; yet my heart had strangely 
 gone out in loving interest and sympathy to him. 
 Lifting up his eyes to mine again, he said: 
 
 "May I say more?" 
 
 "Yes," I answered; "say on." 
 
 "You say, ' iYo-tawenan' (" Our Father"). He 
 is your Father?" 
 
 "Yes, he is my Father." 
 
 Then he said, while his eyes and voice yearned 
 for the answer : 
 
 "Does it mean he is my Father — poor Indian's 
 Father?" 
 
 "Yes, O yes!" I exclaimed; "he is your 
 Father, too." 
 
 "Your Father — Missionary's Father — and In- 
 dian's Father, too?" he repeated. 
 
 "Yes, that is true," I answered. 
 
 "Then we are brothers?" he almost shouted out. 
 
 "Yes, we are brothers," I replied. 
 
 The excitement in the audience had become 
 
Conclusion. 203 
 
 something wonderful. When our conversation with 
 the old man had reached this point, and in such an 
 unexpected and yet dramatic manner had so clearly 
 brought out, not only the Fatherhood of God, but 
 the oneness of the human family, the people could 
 hardly restrain their expressions of delight. 
 
 The old man, however, had not yet finished ; 
 and so, quietly restraining the most demonstrative 
 ones, he again turned to me, and said: 
 
 "May I say more?" 
 
 "Yes, say on ; say all that is in your heart." 
 
 Never can I forget his last question. It is the 
 question that millions of weary, longing souls, dis- 
 satisfied with their false religions, are asking: 
 
 "Missionary, I do not want to be rude, but why 
 has my white brother been so long time in coming 
 with that Great Book and its wonderful story?" 
 
 — Egektoh R. Young. 
 
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