{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_27452/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_27452","id":"gutenberg_27452","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27452","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Travel Writing","East Asia -- Description and travel","Missions"],"text":"E-text prepared by a Project Gutenberg volunteer from digital\nmaterial generously made available by Internet Archive\n(http://www.archive.org/index.php)\n\n\nNote: Images of the original pages are available through\n Internet Archive. See\n http://www.archive.org/details/MN41413ucmf_5\n\n\n\n\n\nA TOUR OF THE MISSIONS\n\nObservations and Conclusions\n\nby\n\nAUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG, D.D., LL.D., Litt.D.\n\nPresident Emeritus of the Rochester Theological Seminary\n\nAuthor of \"Systematic Theology,\" \"Philosophy and Religion,\" \"Christ\nin Creation,\" \"Miscellanies,\" \"Chapel-Talks,\" \"Lectures on the\nBooks of the New Testament,\" \"The Great Poets and Their\nTheology,\" \"American Poets and Their Theology\"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPhiladelphia\nThe Griffith and Rowland Press\nBoston Chicago St. Louis New York\nLos Angeles Toronto Winnipeg\nMCMXVIII\n\nCopyright, 1918, by\nGuy C. Lamson, Secretary\nPublished March, 1918\n\n\n\n\nA PERSONAL FOREWORD\n\n\nThe forty years of my presidency and teaching in the Rochester\nTheological Seminary have been rewarded by the knowledge that more than\na hundred of my pupils have become missionaries in heathen lands. For\nmany years these former students have been urging me to visit them.\nUntil recently seminary sessions and literary work have prevented\nacceptance of their invitations. When I laid down my official duties,\ntwo alternatives presented themselves: I could sit down and read through\nthe new Encyclop\u00e6dia Britannica, or I could go round the world. A friend\nsuggested that I might combine these schemes. The publishers provide a\nfelt-lined trunk to hold the encyclop\u00e6dia: I could read it, and\ncircumnavigate the globe at the same time. This proposition, however,\nhad an air of cumbrousness. I concluded to take my wife as my\nencyclop\u00e6dia instead of the books, and this seemed the more rational\nsince she had, seven or eight years before, made the same tour of the\nmissions which I had in mind. To her therefore a large part of the\ninformation in the following pages is due, for in all my journey she was\nmy guide, philosopher, and friend.\n\nOur tour would not have covered so much ground nor have been so crowded\nwith incidents of interest, if it had not been for the foresight and\nassistance of the Reverend Louis Agassiz Gould. He was a student in our\nseminary forty years ago, and after his graduation he became a\nmissionary to China. Though his work abroad lasted only a decade, his\ninterest in missions has never ceased, and he is an authority with\nregard to their history and their methods. I was fortunate in securing\nhim as my courier, secretary, and typewriter, and his companionship\nenlivened our table intercourse and our social life. But he was bound\nthat we should see all that there was to be seen. Without my knowledge\nhe wrote ahead to all the missions which we were to visit, and the\nresult was almost as if a delegation with brass band met us at every\nstation. We were sight-seeing all day, and traveling in sleeping-cars\nall night. Though I had notified the public that I could preach no more\nsermons and make no more addresses, I was summoned before nearly every\nchurch, school, and college that we visited, and fifty or sixty\nextemporized talks were extorted from me, most of them interpreted to\nthe audience by a pastor or teacher. My letters to home friends were\noften written on the platforms of railway stations while we were waiting\nfor our trains, and after six months of these exhausting labors I still\nsurvived.\n\nThese preliminary remarks are intended to prepare the reader for a final\nstatement, namely, that the papers which follow were written with no\nthought of publication. They were simply a record of travel, set down\neach week, for the information of relatives and friends. I have been\nurged to give them a wider circulation by putting them into print. In\ndoing this I have added some reflections which, for substance, were also\nwritten at intervals on my journey, and these, with sundry emendations\nand omissions, I have called my \"Conclusions.\" I submit both\n\"Observations\" and \"Conclusions\" to the judgment of my readers, in hope\nthat my \"Tour of the Missions\" may lead other and more competent\nobservers to appreciate the wonderful attractions and the immeasurable\nneeds of Oriental lands.\n\nI cannot close this personal foreword without expressing to my former\nstudents and the many friends who so hospitably entertained us on our\njourney, my undying sense of their great kindness, and my hope that\nbetween the lines of my descriptions of what I saw they will discover my\nearnest desire to serve the cause of Christ and his truth, even though\nmy impressions may at times result from my own short-sightedness and\nignorance. Only what I have can I give.\n\nAugustus H. Strong.\n\nRochester, August 3, 1917.\n\n\n\n\n CONTENTS\n\n\n I. A WEEK IN JAPAN 1-11\n\n An ocean truly pacific brings us to a rainy Japan 3\n\n The novel and the picturesque mingle in our first\n views of Yokohama 3\n\n Visit to the palace of a Japanese millionaire 4\n\n A museum of Japanese art and a unique entertainment 4\n\n Our host, an orthodox Shinto and Buddhist 5\n\n Conference of missionaries and their native helpers 5\n\n The pastor of the Tokyo church invites us to\n his home 5\n\n Reception at the Women's College of Japan, and an\n address there 5\n\n A distinguished company of educators at dinner 6\n\n We give a dinner to Rochester men and their wives 7\n\n A good specimen of missionary hilarity and\n fellowship 7\n\n The temple of Kamakura and its great bronze Buddha 7\n\n The temple of Hachiman, the god of war 8\n\n Supplemented by the temple of Kwannon, the\n goddess of mercy 8\n\n Japan enriched by manufacture of munitions 8\n\n A native Christian church and pastor at Kanagawa 9\n\n Immorality, the curse of Japan, shows its need of\n Christianity 10\n\n Wonders of its Inland Sea, and great gifts of its\n people 10\n\n\n II. A WEEK-END IN CHINA 13-22\n\n Hongkong, wonderful for situation and for trade 15\n\n Swatow, and our arrival there 15\n\n Chinese customs, and English collection of them 16\n\n The mission compound of Swatow, one of our noblest 16\n\n Dr. William Ashmore, and his organizing work 17\n\n William Ashmore, his son, and his Bible translations 17\n\n A great Sunday service in a native New Testament\n church 18\n\n The far-reaching influence of this mission, manned\n by many Rochester graduates 18\n\n Our expedition to Chao-yang, to see the heart of\n China 18\n\n Triumphal entry into that city of three hundred\n thousand inhabitants 19\n\n Impressed by the vastness of its heathen population 20\n\n Mr. Groesbeck, the only minister to its needs 21\n\n An address to the students of his school 21\n\n A great procession conducts us to our steamer at\n Swatow 21\n\n Shall we be saved if we do not give the gospel to\n the heathen? 22\n\n\n III. MANILA, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG 23-32\n\n A Yellow Sea, and white garments 25\n\n American enterprise has transformed Manila 25\n\n Filipinos not yet ready for complete\n self-government 26\n\n Visit to Admiral Dewey's landing-place, and also to\n Fort McKinley 26\n\n The interdenominational theological seminary and\n its influence 26\n\n Printed and spoken English is superseding native\n dialects 27\n\n Singapore, one of the world's greatest ports\n of entry 27\n\n British propose to hold it, in spite of native\n unrest 27\n\n Heterogeneous population makes English the only\n language for its schools 28\n\n Germans stir up a conspiracy, but it is nipped in\n the bud 28\n\n British steamer to Penang, an old but safe method\n of conveyance 28\n\n Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Malay Confederated\n States 29\n\n Penang furnishes us with a great Chinese funeral 29\n\n Its immense preparation and cost show worship of\n ancestors 29\n\n Mourners in white, with bands of hired wailers 31\n\n Glorification of man, but no confession of sin or\n recognition of Christ 32\n\n\n IV. THREE WEEKS IN BURMA 33-46\n\n Burma, the land of pagodas 35\n\n The Shwe Dagon of Rangoon is the greatest of\n these 35\n\n Its immense extent and splendor 35\n\n The religion of Burma is Buddhism, a religion of\n \"merit,\" so called 36\n\n Pagoda-building in Burma, coeval with\n cathedral-building in Europe 36\n\n The desolation in which many pagodas stand shows\n God's judgment on Buddhism 36\n\n Burma is consecrated by the work of Adoniram\n Judson, and his sufferings 37\n\n Our visit to Aungbinle, and prayer on the site of\n Judson's prison 37\n\n Met and entertained by missionaries, our former\n pupils 37\n\n Fruitful Burma and its Buddhism attracts\n famine-stricken India with its Hinduism 38\n\n Baptist missions in Burma antedate and excel both\n Romanist and Anglican 40\n\n Far outstripping these in the number and influence\n of converts 40\n\n The work of our collegiate and other schools is\n most encouraging 41\n\n The Baptist College at Rangoon and the theological\n seminaries at Insein 42\n\n The lieutenant governor invites us to meet Lord\n Chelmsford, viceroy of India, at afternoon-tea 44\n\n A royal reception, with great conglomerate of races 44\n\n A demonstration of loyalty to the British Crown 45\n\n The dinner of our Rochester men at the house of\n Rev. Mr. Singiser, including representatives of\n the Mission Press and the Baptist College 45\n\n Our final reception at Dr. D. W. A. Smith's, on\n Mrs. Smith's birthday 46\n\n\n V. MANDALAY AND GAUHATI 47-56\n\n Mandalay, in Burma, the type of Buddhism; Gauhati,\n in Assam, the type of Hinduism 49\n\n Visits to Maulmain and Bassein, in Burma, preceded\n both these 49\n\n King Thebaw's palace, at Mandalay, a fortress built\n wholly of wood 50\n\n The Hill of Mandalay and its pagoda, four pagodas\n in one 50\n\n We ascend eight hundred steps by taking extemporized\n sedan-chairs 51\n\n Four successive platforms and four images of Buddha 51\n\n Waxwork figures at the top depict the vanity of life 52\n\n The Kuthodaw in the plain below seen from this\n height 52\n\n Four hundred and fifty pagodas in one, each with\n its Buddha and his law engraved on stone 52\n\n The descent from Mandalay Hill more hazardous\n than the ascent 53\n\n Buddhism compared with the religion of Christ 53\n\n Gauhati, the capital of Assam, has also its temple\n on a hill 54\n\n This temple illustrates Hinduism as Mandalay\n illustrates Buddhism 54\n\n Its immoral cult claims to have an immoral origin\n in the wife of the god Siva 54\n\n Its priestesses a source of corruption to the\n British college and the whole country 55\n\n Vain attempts to interpret Hindu myth and worship\n symbolically 55\n\n The need of Christian teaching as to sin and\n atonement 56\n\n\n VI. CALCUTTA, DARJEELING, AND BENARES 57-64\n\n Calcutta, the largest city of India, so named from\n Kali, goddess-wife of Siva, the Destroyer 59\n\n The temple of Kali, its priestesses and its worship,\n an infamous illustration of Hinduism 59\n\n The temple of the Jains represents Hinduism somewhat\n reformed 60\n\n The real glory of Calcutta is its relation to\n modern missions 60\n\n The work of William Carey, and his college and\n tomb at Serampore 60\n\n Our ride northward to Darjeeling, and our view of\n the Himalayas 61\n\n A temple of Tibetan Buddhists on our mount of\n observation 61\n\n Benares, the Mecca and Jerusalem of the Hindus 62\n\n A hotbed of superstition and devotion 62\n\n Its Golden Temple, its bathing ghats and burning\n ghats on the sacred Ganges 62\n\n Our voyage of inspection in the early morning 63\n\n Thousands bathing and drinking in the same muddy\n stream 63\n\n Smallpox and plague in western lands traced back\n to this putrid river 64\n\n Some of the temples have toppled over, being built\n on sand instead of rock 64\n\n\n VII. LUCKNOW, AGRA, AND DELHI 65-76\n\n On Mohammedan ground, and the scene of the\n great mutiny 67\n\n Elements of truth in the Moslem faith make missions\n more difficult 67\n\n The defense of Lucknow, one of, the most heroic\n and thrilling in history 67\n\n The only flag in the British Empire that never\n comes down at night 68\n\n English missions and education are guaranties of\n permanent British rule in India 69\n\n The Isabella Thoburn College, under Methodist\n control 69\n\n We see the \"mango trick\" under favorable\n circumstances 70\n\n Agra, and the Taj Mahal, a wonder of the world,\n seen both at sunrise and at sunset 70\n\n The Pearl Mosque and the Jasmine Tower, surrounded\n and protected by the Fort 71\n\n A flowering out of art, like that of\n cathedral-building in England 72\n\n Moslem architects \"designed like Titans, and\n finished like jewelers\" 72\n\n Delhi, the capital of India before the reign\n of Akbar 72\n\n The British respect ancient tradition by\n transferring their central government from\n Calcutta to Delhi 73\n\n The progress of India under British rule in the\n last fifty years 73\n\n Indian unrest due in part to English mistakes in\n educational policy 74\n\n The Friday prayer service in the great mosque of\n Delhi 75\n\n\n VIII. JAIPUR, MT. ABU, AND AHMEDABAD 77-87\n\n The native states of India distinguished from the\n presidencies and the provinces 79\n\n Their self-government a reward of loyalty in the\n mutiny 79\n\n The rajas influenced by Western thought 79\n\n Jaipur, the capital of a native state, called \"The\n Pink City\" 80\n\n \"A rose-red city, half as old as Time\" 81\n\n The maharaja's town-palace and astronomical\n observatory 81\n\n A visit to Amber, the original metropolis, and his\n summer residence 81\n\n An elephant ride up the hill while hanging over the\n precipice 82\n\n The road to Mt. Abu, a wonderful piece of\n engineering 84\n\n We reach Dilwarra, the greatest temple of the Jains 84\n\n Their reformed Buddhism recognizes Buddha as\n only one of many incarnations 85\n\n The temple is almost a miracle of art, and\n illustrates the genius of the East 85\n\n Ahmedabad, a uniquely prosperous manufacturing\n and commercial city 86\n\n Factories needed by India more than farms 86\n\n Missions need employment for converts, to save\n them from famine 86\n\n\n IX. BOMBAY, KEDGAON, AND MADRAS 89-99\n\n Bombay, second in population in the Indian Empire 91\n\n Hindus outnumber Moslems and Parsees 91\n\n The Caves of Elephanta, excavated in honor of\n Siva, god of reproduction as well as of\n destruction 91\n\n His temple a cathedral, hewn inside of a mountain 92\n\n The lingam, or phallus, gigantic, carved out of\n stone, in the innermost shrine 93\n\n Its worship a deification of man's baser instincts 93\n\n The Towers of Silence represent Parseeism 93\n\n The dead are exposed in them to be devoured by\n vultures 93\n\n Construction of the towers and details of\n the process 93\n\n Compared with Christian burial in hope of\n resurrection 94\n\n Kedgaon, a happy contrast and relief 94\n\n The center of the work of Pundita Ramabai 94\n\n The story of her life a romantic and thrilling one 94\n\n The pitiable condition of child-widows in India\n touches her heart 95\n\n In time of famine she furnishes a refuge for two\n thousand four hundred of them 95\n\n The wonders of her plant, in schools, hospital,\n printing office, factory, and farm 96\n\n A great scholar of the Brahman caste, she is\n recognized as the most influential woman in India 96\n\n Madras, the third largest Indian city, gives us our\n first tropical heat 97\n\n A center of mission work for the Telugus and their\n tribal conversion 97\n\n New Year's Day reception at Lord Pentland's, the\n governor of the Madras Presidency 98\n\n Followed by a reception from the Rochester men,\n my former pupils 99\n\n\n X. THE TELUGU MISSION 101-113\n\n Madras, next to Calcutta and Bombay in thrift and\n importance 103\n\n Baptists have done most for the Telugus, as\n Congregationalists most for the Tamils 103\n\n Statistics of our mission are most encouraging 103\n\n Self-government, self-support, self-propagation,\n require time 104\n\n Conference at the house of Doctor Ferguson brings\n together men from four separate fields 104\n\n The theological seminary at Ramapatnam, in charge\n of Doctor Heinrichs 105\n\n Our reception by teachers and students, and value\n of their work 105\n\n Ongole and the work of Doctor Baker, the successor\n of Doctor Clough 107\n\n Laying the corner-stone of gateway to the new\n hospital 107\n\n Country tour into the heart of Telugu-land, and\n open-air preaching to the natives 107\n\n Vellumpilly, where 2,222 were baptized, and Sunset\n Hill, where Doctor Jewett prayed 109\n\n Kavali, and the work of Mr. Bawden for a hereditary\n criminal class 110\n\n Industrial education side by side with moral and\n religious 110\n\n Nellore, our first permanent station in South India 111\n\n Its high school, under Rev. L. C. Smith; its\n hospital, and its nurses' training-school 112\n\n Mr. Rutherford, successor to Dr. David Downie,\n and Mr. Smith--all of them Rochester men 112\n\n\n XI. THE DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES 115-124\n\n The Dravidians are the aborigines of India 117\n\n The Aryan conquerors appropriated their gods, and\n Siva married Kali 117\n\n Massiveness and vastness characterize their\n temples, but also Oriental imagination and\n invention 118\n\n The temple at Tanjore, with its court eight hundred\n by four hundred feet 118\n\n Its multitude of chapels, each with its image in\n stone of the lingam, or phallus 119\n\n Its central image of a bull, the favorite animal of\n Siva 119\n\n Its tower, or gopura, is the grandest in India 119\n\n Its sculptures of gods and goddesses wonderfully\n realistic 119\n\n Its appurtenances tawdry, childish, and immoral 120\n\n Yet Tanjore was the home, and is the tomb, of\n Schwartz, the first English missionary to India 120\n\n The raja's library of Oriental manuscripts 121\n\n Madura, the center of Dravidian worship, one\n hundred miles farther south 121\n\n Temple built about two great shrines for the god\n Siva and his wife Minakshi 121\n\n Five great pyramidal towers and a court eight\n hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirty feet 121\n\n The \"Golden Lily Tank,\" and \"The Hall of a\n Thousand Pillars\" 122\n\n Dark alcoves and a festival night, the acme of\n Hindu religion 122\n\n The palace of Tirumala and his Teppa Kulam tank,\n one thousand feet on each side 123\n\n The noblest sight of Madura is its American\n Congregational Mission 123\n\n Under Dr. J. X. Miller, its schools and seminaries\n are revolutionizing southern India 124\n\n\n XII. TWO WEEKS IN CEYLON 125-135\n\n Ceylon not a part of India, but a Crown Colony of\n Britain 127\n\n Colombo, a European city, and English the best\n means of communication 127\n\n Buddhism, crowded out of India, made its way\n southward 127\n\n A sacred tooth of Buddha is preserved at Kandy 127\n\n Wesleyan Methodist College and English Baptist\n College at Colombo 128\n\n The Ananda College, a theosophical institution,\n unfavorable to Christianity 128\n\n A refuge in Nurwara Eliya, six thousand two hundred\n feet above the sea 129\n\n Switzerland without its ruggedness, and terraces of\n tea-plants lining the approaches thither 129\n\n Forests of rubber make a sea of verdure 130\n\n The Missionary Rest-house at Kandy 131\n\n The famous Buddhist temple, and its evening worship 131\n\n Its library the only sign of intelligence 131\n\n Church of the English Baptists welcomes us 132\n\n The botanical gardens, wonderful for their variety\n of products 132\n\n Anurajahpura and its ruined pagoda, a solid conical\n mass of brick 133\n\n One thousand six hundred pillars of stone, the\n foundations of an ancient monastery 133\n\n Cremation of a Buddhist priest, and our reception\n by the high priest of the remaining temple 134\n\n\n XIII. JAVA AND BUDDHISM 137-146\n\n Java, the jewel of the Dutch Crown, has\n thirty-five millions of people 139\n\n The \"culture system\" makes it immensely productive 139\n\n Mistakes of Holland in matters of government and\n education 140\n\n A back-bone of volcanic mountains furnishes\n unsurpassed railway views 140\n\n Endless fields of rice and sugar-cane on hillside\n and plain 141\n\n A passionate people reveal themselves in their\n music, their shadow-dances, their use of the\n Malay dagger 141\n\n The new policy of the Dutch government shown in\n the botanical gardens 142\n\n More scientific and practical than those of Ceylon,\n they minister to all the world 142\n\n Doctor Lovink, Dutch minister of agriculture,\n conducts us 143\n\n The temple of Boro Budor, restored after ruin, the\n greatest wonder of Java 143\n\n Five times as great as any English cathedral 143\n\n Sculptures in alto-relievo that would stretch three\n miles 144\n\n A picture-gallery of the life of Buddha 144\n\n Buddhism has no personal or living God, and no\n atonement for sin 145\n\n Boro Budor, slowly disintegrating, has no power to\n combat either Mohammedanism or Christianity 145\n\n\n XIV. THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA 147-161\n\n This essay, a summary of the book of Professor\n Andrews, formerly of Delhi, now associated with\n Sir Rabindranath Tagore 149\n\n But with additions and conclusions of my own 149\n\n The Renaissance in Europe needed a Reformation\n to supplement it, and a similar renaissance in\n India requires a similar reformation 150\n\n History of religious systems in India begins with\n the Rig-Veda, and is followed by the Upanishads 152\n\n Hindu incarnations are not permanent, and the\n Trimurti is not the Christian Trinity 153\n\n The Krishna of the Puranas is a model of the\n worst forms of vice 154\n\n Deification of God's works fixes the distinctions of\n caste, and the degradation of woman 154\n\n Christianity is needed to unite the Hindu and the\n Moslem 155\n\n Signs of an approaching reformation in the weakening\n of class barriers and the spiritual interpretation\n of the old religions 156\n\n The Brahmo-Somaj and the Arya-Samaj aim to\n bring Hinduism back to the standards of the\n Vedas 158\n\n The Aligarh Movement among the Mohammedans,\n and the Aligarh College in Delhi 158\n\n Swami Vivekananda, and his denial that men are\n sinners 159\n\n The Theosophical Society and Mrs. Besant, a\n hindrance to missions 160\n\n Justice Renade, in his social reform movement, sees\n in Christianity the one faith which can unite all\n races and all religions in India 160\n\n In Christ alone India's renaissance can become a\n complete reformation 161\n\n\n XV. MISSIONS AND SCRIPTURE 163-178\n\n Some critics deny Jesus' authorship of the \"Great\n Commission\" 165\n\n We must examine \"the historical method,\" so called 165\n\n As often employed, it is inductive but not deductive,\n horizontal but not vertical 166\n\n Deduction from God's existence normally insures\n acceptance of Christ 168\n\n Deduction from Christ's existence normally insures\n acceptance of Scripture 169\n\n Scripture is the voice and revelation of the eternal\n Christ 169\n\n The exclusively inductive process is not truly\n historical 170\n\n Both Paul and Peter gained their theology by\n deduction 171\n\n Since experience of sin and of Christ is knowledge,\n it is material for science 173\n\n The eternal Christ guarantees to us the _unity_ of\n Scripture 174\n\n Also the _sufficiency_ of Scripture 175\n\n Also the _authority_ of Scripture 176\n\n The \"historical method,\" as ordinarily employed,\n proceeds and ends without Christ 177\n\n It therefore treats Scripture as a man-made book,\n and denies its unity, sufficiency, and authority 177\n\n It sees in the Bible not an organism, pulsating with\n divine life, but only a congeries of earth-born\n fragments 177\n\n\n XVI. SCRIPTURE AND MISSIONS 179-198\n\n The \"historical method\" finds in Psalm 110 only\n human authorship 181\n\n And contradicts Christ himself by denying the\n reference in the psalm to him 182\n\n A document can have more than one author, shown\n in art as well as literature 183\n\n Predictions of Christ in the Old Testament\n convinced unbelieving Jews 184\n\n The \"historical method\" finds no prediction of\n Christ in Isaiah, and so contradicts John 184\n\n Effect of this method upon the interpretation\n of the New Testament 185\n\n It gives us no assurance of Christ's deity, and\n ignores Old Testament proofs that he is Prophet,\n Priest, and King 185\n\n Value of the \"historical method\" when not exclusively\n inductive 186\n\n Effect of this method, as often employed, upon\n systematic theology 187\n\n If Scripture has no unity, no systematic theology\n is possible 187\n\n Unitarian acknowledgment that its schools have no\n theology at all 189\n\n Effect of this method upon our theological\n seminaries to send out disseminators of doubts 189\n\n Effect of this method upon the churches of our\n denomination to destroy all reason for their\n existence 191\n\n Effect of this method upon missions to supersede\n evangelism by education and to lose all dynamic\n both abroad and at home 193\n\n This method was \"made in Germany,\" and must be\n opposed as we oppose arbitrary force in government 195\n\n The remedy is a spiritual coming of Christ in the\n hearts of his people 197\n\n\n XVII. THE THEOLOGY OF MISSIONS 199-212\n\n Is man's religious nature only a capacity for\n religion? 201\n\n The will is never passive, the candle is always\n burning 201\n\n Moslem and Hindu alike show both good and bad\n elements in their worship 201\n\n Here and there are seekers after God, and such are\n saved through Christ, though they have not yet\n heard his name 202\n\n First chapter of Romans gives us the best philosophy\n of heathenism 203\n\n Heathenism, the result of an abnormal and downward\n evolution 204\n\n The eternal Christ conducts an evolution of the\n wheat, side by side with Satan's evolution of the\n tares 204\n\n All the good in heathen systems is the work of\n Christ, and we may utilize their grains of truth 205\n\n Illustrated in Hindu incarnations and Moslem faith\n in God's unity and personality 205\n\n Christ alone is our Peace, and he alone can unite\n the warring elements of humanity 206\n\n A moral as well as a doctrinal theology is needed in\n heathendom 208\n\n But external reforms without regeneration can\n never bring in the kingdom of God 209\n\n The history of missions proves that heart must\n precede intellect, motive must accompany example 210\n\n The love of Christ who died for us is the only\n constraining power 210\n\n Only his deity and atonement furnish the dynamic\n of missions 211\n\n\n XVIII. MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES 213-223\n\n Missionary work results in a healthy growth of\n the worker 215\n\n The successful missionary must be an all-round man 215\n\n He secures a training beyond that of any university\n course 216\n\n That training is spiritual as well as intellectual 216\n\n It tends to make him doctrinally sound as to\n Christ's deity and atonement 217\n\n Or convinces him that he has no proper place on a\n mission field 218\n\n A valuable lesson for our societies and churches at\n home 218\n\n New Testament polity, as well as doctrine, is tested\n by missions 219\n\n Our mission churches are becoming models of\n self-support, self-government, and\n self-propagation 219\n\n The physical environment of the missionary needs\n to be cared for 219\n\n The large house, many servants, and an automobile,\n are great and almost necessary helps 220\n\n All these can be obtained cheaply, and should be\n provided 220\n\n Other denominations furnish better equipment than\n ours 220\n\n Yet the days of missionary hardship are well-nigh\n past 221\n\n Missionary trials are mainly social and spiritual;\n and there are enough of these 221\n\n But faithful work, in spite of hope deferred, will\n be rewarded at last 222\n\n\n\n\nI\n\nA WEEK IN JAPAN\n\n\nThe Pacific Ocean was very kind to us, for it answered to its name, and\nwas pacific beyond all our expectations. Sixteen days of smooth seas and\nlovely weather brought us by way of Honolulu to Yokohama. Only the last\nday of our voyage was dark and rainy. But though the rain continued\nafter our landing, Japan was picturesque. On four out of our six days we\ndrove about, shut up in water-tight buggies called \"rickshaws.\" They\nwere like one-hoss-shays, through whose front windows of isinglass we\nlooked out upon the bare legs of our engineer and conductor, who took\nthe place of the horse for twenty-five cents an hour.\n\nThere were other sights on these rainy days--endless processions of\nslipshod men on wooden clogs, clattering their way through the narrow\nstreets, while they protected themselves from the watery downpour by\nflat oil-paper umbrellas; other strong-limbed men acting as wheel-horses\nto draw or push incredible weights of lumber; and saving themselves from\nthe wet by bushy coats of straw that made them look like porcupines;\nwomen, little and big, carrying babies on their backs, occasionally a\ngirl, aged anywhere from four to eight, loaded with a baby aged two;\nshops, shops, shops, one-storied, artistic, fantastic, with signs on\nwhich Ah Sing and Ah Tong have mingled Chinese characters and English,\nand which inform you that the proprietors can furnish you with the\n_sake_ of Japan or the gasoline of the Standard Oil Company; these\nthings convince you that you are in the midst of a crowded population\nstruggling for subsistence and ready to work, a population of\ninexhaustible vitality and enterprise.\n\nOur first rainy day was distinguished by a visit to the palatial mansion\nof a Japanese millionaire. Mr. Asano, the President of the Steamship\nCompany that brought us thither, had invited the whole lot of\nfirst-class passengers to afternoon tea at his house in Tokyo. That\nhouse is a veritable museum of Japanese art. It reminded us of the\ncollections of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. There was a great retinue of\nservants, and we were escorted upon arrival to one of the topmost rooms,\nwhere we were served with tea and presented with symbolic cakes by a\ndozen gorgeously bedecked young girls, who proved to be the children and\ngrandchildren of our host. This, however, was only a preparatory\nwelcome, for it was followed by the real reception in a great\naudience-room below, where Mr. and Mrs. Asano, together with their\neldest son and daughter, gave us cordial greetings. A couple of hundred\nof our fellow passengers were gathered there and were partaking of light\nrefreshments, with claret, tea, and mineral waters, while an expert\nJapanese juggler amused them with his feats of sleight of hand. The\ntapestries and paintings of this house were exquisite products of taste\nand skill, and the total effect was that of great wealth accompanied by\ntrue love for the beautiful. But it was the mansion of an orthodox\nShinto and Buddhist, for in every large room there was an alcove with\nthe sitting figure of a bronze Buddha.\n\nA more distinctly Christian entertainment for that same rainy day was\nour reception by the Conference of Baptist missionaries and workers at\nthe new Tabernacle in Tokyo. They had been called to meet Doctor\nFranklin and Doctor Anderson, who had been sent by our Foreign\nMissionary Society to consult with them as to our educational policy in\nJapan. We reached the Conference on its last day of meeting, and we had\na most valued opportunity of observing its method of procedure. Half of\nthose present were Japanese workers who did not understand English, and\nit was a new experience to address them when every word had to be\ninterpreted. The social intercourse that followed was delightful, for it\nenabled us to greet our former pupils in considerable numbers. We then\ntook lunch at the house of Doctor Axling, the pastor of the Tokyo\nchurch, while Doctor Tenny is President of the Theological Seminary. The\nlittle Japanese missionary home, with its tiny secluded garden, its\npaper partitions, and its mingled reminders of an American household,\nwere things long to be remembered. Not less to be noted was the\ngratitude for our visit which was shown by our hosts. We had regarded\nourselves as the persons honored and entertained. We learned that\nmissionaries in a heathen land wonderfully appreciate the sight and the\ncompanionship of friends from their distant home.\n\nEven more unexpected was our reception at the Women's College of Japan.\nSince I had been more than thirty years a trustee of Vassar College,\nand for some years chairman of its board of trustees, Mrs. Strong and I\nwere the guests of honor, and I was the first speaker called upon.\nBefore me were five hundred young women in more somber dress than\nprevails at Vassar. All rose to welcome me at the beginning of my\naddress, and all rose again to thank me at its conclusion. Most of these\nstudents understood only Japanese and needed an interpreter. Doctor\nZumoto, the accomplished editor of the Japanese \"Herald of Asia,\"\ntranslated my address into his own language after I had finished, having\ntaken notes while I spoke. Until the very end I had the impression that\nthis was a Christian college, and I innocently made the Lord Jesus the\ncenter and substance of my remarks, declaring that the renaissance of\nlearning in Japan needed to be supplemented by a reformation of\nreligion. Only when the evening was over did I learn that the\ninstitution was not only undenominational, but also non-religious,\nhaving Buddhist as well as Christian professors. Doctors Anderson and\nFranklin were also guests, and when they followed me, they made the same\nmistake and made Christian addresses. But the Japanese management is\nvery polite and very liberal, and even in the dinner that followed our\n_faux pas_ did not provoke a word of criticism. The guests at that\ndinner served by the students were from the most prominent educational\ninstitutions of Japan. We highly appreciated the honor done us, and did\nnot regret that in our ignorance of the situation we had given to that\ndistinguished audience the true gospel of Christ.\n\nAnother dinner of a very different sort was that which we ourselves gave\nat the Grand Hotel of Yokohama to the Rochester men. To my surprise\ntwenty-four persons sat down, but this number included at least ten of\nthe wives. Chiba and Axling, Tenny and Topping, the Fishers, father and\nson, Clement, Brown, Benninghoff, Takagaki, Kawaguchi, all except the\nlast with their wives, made up the list. I was proud of them, for they\nare leaders of thought and of education in Japan. Only Doctor Bearing's\nabsence on furlough in America, a furlough ended only by his lamented\ndeath, prevented us from inviting him, though he was not a Rochester\nman. Reminiscences of seminary life were both pathetic and amusing at\nthat dinner. One thing impressed itself upon my mind and memory: Our\nmissionaries have not lost their sense of humor. Under all their burdens\nof anxiety and responsibility they have retained their sanity, their\nhopefulness, and their good fellowship. The hilarity of our gathering\nwas the bubbling over of cheerful dispositions, and the safety-valve\ngave evidence that there were large reserves of steam. Missionaries are\nnot a solemn set. They are only a good set of human beings made in the\ndivine image, for is it not written that even \"He that sitteth in the\nheavens shall laugh\"?\n\nThe next day was the brightest of the bright. We took advantage of it to\nvisit the great temple of Kamakura, and to inspect the greatest artistic\nmonument of Japan, the bronze image of Buddha. It is a sitting statue,\nwith folded hands and eyes closed, as if absorbed in mystic\ncontemplation of his own excellence as a manifestation of deity, and\ncareless of the sorrows and sins of the world. The great bronze image\nis fifty feet high, but it is hollow. We entered it, climbed up by\nladders to its shoulders, and looked out of windows in its back. Its\nhollowness seemed symbolic, for it has only the outward semblance of\ndivinity and is deaf to all human entreaties. On that same day we\nvisited the temple of Hachiman, the god of war, most spacious and\nimpressive in its park-like surroundings of ancient trees and noble\ngateways, but fearful in its accompanying images of revenge and\nslaughter. Humanity needs compassion in the Godhead. The Japanese have\nfelt this, and they have invented a goddess of mercy, Kwannon by name.\nHer shrine is the richest in Japan. It constitutes one of the greatest\nattractions of the capital. Millions visit it every year, and the\nofferings of its worshipers support a whole colony of Buddhist priests.\nThe avenue leading to the temple is lined with shops where mementoes of\nthe goddess may be purchased, as in Ephesus of old silver shrines might\nbe bought in honor of the great goddess Diana. It is the old story of\nbuyers and sellers in the Jewish temple. It was most pathetic to see a\nwell-dressed and handsome woman bend herself almost double before the\nimage, clap her hands to call the attention of the goddess, and then\nfold them in prayer, possibly for the child that had hitherto been\ndenied her. It is well understood in this temple that, until the clink\nof coin is heard in the collection-box, it is vain to suppose that even\nthe goddess of mercy will listen to a prayer.\n\nThe god of war reigns in Japan, rather than the goddess of mercy. War is\nmore profitable. The sale of munitions to the Russian Government is\nenriching Japan, as our sales to the Allies are enriching us. The love\nof gain is an obstacle to the success of the gospel, here as well as in\nAmerica. Nothing but a mighty influence of the Holy Spirit can convince\nJapan of sin, and bring her to the feet of Christ. The work of our\nmissionaries, however, is permeating all the strata of society. Western\nscience and Western literature are so bound up with Christianity that\nJapan cannot easily accept them without also accepting Christ.\n\nWe wished to see mission work in a country field, and we begged Mrs.\nFisher to go with us to Kanagawa, a suburb of Yokohama, where an\neducated milkman is pastor, and where the Mary Colby School of Christian\ngirls attends the worship of his church. The reverence and sincerity of\nthe service impressed us. The warmth and abandon of the singing put to\nshame our Western quartet choirs. Here is a pastor who prefers to\nsupplement his meager salary by selling milk on week-days, rather than\ngive up the satisfaction of seeing his church entirely self-supporting.\nIt seemed to me the model of a good ministry, and the prophecy of a\nmultitude of New Testament churches in Japan, manned and financed and\ngoverned by the Japanese themselves. So long as we of the West furnish\nboth the preachers and their salaries, the Japanese will not learn to\ndepend upon their own administration or their own giving, and we will\nnot have churches organized on correct principles and so rooted in the\nsoil that they can stand the shocks of time and endlessly propagate the\ngospel. May \"the little one\" in Kanagawa \"become a thousand\"!\n\nJapan is a country where \"every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.\"\nImmorality is its curse. There is little drunkenness indeed, and\ngambling is strictly prohibited. But the relations of the sexes are\nalmost wholly unregulated. Patriotism and filial devotion take\nexaggerated forms, and girls can lead a life of shame in order to\nprovide means for the education of their brothers. General Nogi and his\nwife can commit suicide when his sons are killed in battle, and the\nwhole country can regard it as so noble a deed that the general's desire\nto extinguish his family name is not permitted to prevent the adoption\nof it by another. The Japanese are a nation of wonderful natural gifts.\nHonor, enterprise, submission, accessibility to new ideas, powers of\nimitation and invention, make them the leaders of the Orient. Steamships\nof twenty-two thousand tons, and equal to any Atlantic Cunarders, yet\nbuilt in their own dockyards by shipwrights who twenty years ago knew\nnothing of their trade, are a proof of extraordinary plasticity and\nability. Civilization and Christianity may find new expression, if the\nJapanese are subdued by the Cross of Christ.\n\nMy interest in missions has been doubled since I came in contact with\nthe practical work of our missionaries. We have able and devoted\nrepresentatives on this foreign field, and I believe that God will make\nthem mighty to dethrone Buddhism, and to crown Christ Lord of all. Yes,\n\"every prospect pleases.\" When I sailed through the Inland Sea of Japan,\ntwo hundred and forty miles long, studded with hundreds of islands small\nand great, islands often surmounted with glistening white temples or\nfortifications, I thought our Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, and\neven the Isles of the Greek \u00c6gean, were not to be mentioned in\ncomparison. The landlocked harbor of Nagasaki, with its encircling\nhills, is finer than our Golden Gate of the Pacific. Fuji-yama,\nsnow-capped and symmetrical, seen against the crimson sunset sky, is\nmore beautiful even than Mount Ranier when seen from Tacoma, or Vesuvius\nwhen seen from Naples. Japan is a land for poetry and song, a land to\nawaken the loftiest patriotism, a land to inspire and lead the world.\nProvided, ah yes! provided, it can be converted to Christ, and made his\nservant. The Japanese is a natural orator; he has organizing ability of\nthe highest order; he is accessible, yet independent. Now is the time to\nmake him a preacher of the gospel to all the East. China and India have\nalready felt the influence of his military and political progress. Let\nus, by pouring in the light of Christianity, make him also their leader\nin true religion!\n\n\n\n\nII\n\nA WEEK-END IN CHINA\n\n\nHongkong is a city wonderful for situation and for trade. It has a\nlandlocked harbor encircled by precipitous hills and large enough to\nfloat the navies of the world. It is the second largest port on earth\nfor exports and imports, over six hundred million dollars' worth in a\nyear. It is a meeting-place of the East and the West, a fortress of\nBritain in China, a conglomeration of people, a center of influence for\nJapan and for India, an object-lesson in sanitation, education, and\nmunicipal government. The dominating religion is that of the Church of\nEngland, and the Hongkong University, though endowed in part by wealthy\nChinese, follows English models and has a staff of English professors.\n\nI mention Hongkong only to make more clear my description of Swatow, its\nnorthern neighbor. The situation of Swatow is very like that of\nHongkong. A noble harbor encircled by steep hills, it is one of the\nchief ports between Hongkong and Shanghai, and only a single night's\nsteamer-ride from Hongkong. Its attraction to us lay in the fact that it\nis more Chinese than Hongkong, a principal seat of Presbyterian and\nBaptist missions, and not so dominated as is Hongkong by the Church of\nEngland. As Hongkong is an island, so our Baptist Mission Compound is on\nan island, separated from the city of Swatow by the bay on which\nhundreds of sampans and fishing-boats with lateen sails are always\nriding, and at whose wharves many a great steamship is loading or\nunloading freight. When our vessel arrived, we were quickly surrounded\nby a multitude of smaller craft, manned by clamorous tradesmen selling\nwares or seeking employment. The commissioner of British customs, who\nwas our fellow passenger, most courteously invited us to share his\nmotor-launch, and when we had landed on the other side of the bay he\nsent us up the hill to the mission compound in two of his sedan-chairs,\neach one borne by two stout men in picturesque uniform: and wearing the\ninsignia of the customs office.\n\nA word about the English customs may be interesting. To satisfy English\ncreditors, and later, to pay interest on indemnities for the Boxer\nuprising, China mortgaged the larger part of her duties on foreign\nimports. Sir Robert Hart was appointed Inspector General, to superintend\nthis collection of duties. He introduced system and honesty, where\nbefore there had been only disorder and peculation. From twenty to\nthirty million dollars are in this way collected every year. Swatow is\nthe third port in the amount thus obtained, itself furnishing two to\nthree millions of the aggregate result. But this putting her collection\nof customs into the hands of foreigners, though it has taught China her\nown wastefulness and the superiority of Western finance, is a burden so\nhumiliating that it cannot always continue. When China fully awakes, she\nwill realize her strength and will reclaim what her weakness ceded to\nGreat Britain.\n\nOur mission compound is one of the noblest in the East. It is due to\nthe foresight and executive ability of Dr. William Ashmore, Senior. He\nbegan his missionary work in Bangkok, Siam, but was transferred by our\nMissionary Union to Swatow, with the view of opening China to our\nmissionary efforts. He had Irish blood in his veins. He was witty and\neloquent, fervid and passionate. But he was also a man of grit, and a\nhero of the faith. He wanted a quiet base of supplies from which he\ncould send out expeditions into the heart of China. He had no means of\nany account. But he saw the possibilities in these steep and barren\nhillsides opposite Swatow, and for six hundred dollars he bought a tract\nwhich he gradually turned into a garden, with twenty mission buildings\nand residences so thrust into the rocks and so overhanging one another,\nthat the whole plant seems a miracle of engineering. Like a fortress, it\ncommands the city of Swatow across the bay, very much as Governor's\nIsland commands New York. From its church and its schools have gone out\na score of evangelists and native pastors, to turn Swatow and the whole\ncountry within a radius of a hundred miles into a present seed-plot and\na future garden of the Lord.\n\nWilliam Ashmore, Senior, died seven years ago. But he left a son of the\nsame name, who is a Chinese scholar of wide reputation, a sound\ntheologian, and a leader greatly beloved. He has nearly completed a\ntranslation of the Bible into the colloquial Chinese--a felt need of\nmany years. At his house, so wedged into the rocky hillside that a\ntyphoon might seem equal to washing it down into the bay, we were most\nhospitably entertained. Here we spent a memorable Sabbath Day. At the\nchurch service, at least five hundred church-members and pupils of the\nvarious schools were gathered, and I addressed them on \"Faith, as Both\na Giving and a Taking\"--a giving of one's self, and a taking of Christ\nto be ours. Doctor Ashmore interpreted my talk to the audience,\nsentence by sentence. The whole service was to me an inspiring\nillustration of New Testament order and simplicity, for my address and\nthe sermon of Doctor Ashmore which followed had been preceded by free\nparticipation of members of the church, in which one happy father arose\nto give thanks for the birth of a girl-baby, after five sons had been\ngiven him--a great change from the time when new-born girls were\ndespised and often thrown out into the street. This reverent\ncongregation, worshiping God in freedom and sincerity, seemed the\nprophecy of a redeemed China. This congeries of schools, from\nkindergarten to theological seminary, with Ashmore, Capen, Page, and\nWaters for instructors, and Groesbeck, Speicher, Lewis, Foster, and\nothers for evangelists, has already permeated a whole province with\nChristian teaching. It needs an institutional plant in the city, where\nit already has a noble location, and it also needs a motor-launch to\ncarry its students to the field across the bay, where they can find\nopportunity to win the multitude to Christ.\n\nEven Swatow is partly Anglicized. We wished to see old China, heathen\nChina, and Brother Groesbeck gave us the opportunity. Only twenty miles\nfrom Swatow lies the city of Chao-yang, where this pioneer missionary\nhas for eighteen years been stationed. Chao-yang is a larger city than\nSwatow; the Chinese count it as containing a population of three hundred\nthousand. It is the converging point of all the trade that reaches\nSwatow from a hundred miles to the south and the west. Yet all this\ntrade is conducted through a narrow canal, so congested with boats that\nthere are innumerable delays. Even when the boats reach the waters of\nthe bay, the remaining channel is shallow for lack of dredging, and\nlaunch-progress is very slow. We had ocular proof of this latter evil;\nbut we at last reached the dock.\n\nThen came a reception entirely new to our experience, and one which we\ncan never forget. Eighty young men from the mission school met us, all\nin white uniforms with sashes of blue. We passed through their lines,\nforty boys on each side baring their heads as we passed. Then a\nprocession was formed. A brass band, with bugles and resounding drums,\nled the way. The student escort followed. After the long rows of boys\ncame an honor-squad of Chinese soldiers, shouldering their guns and\nbearing the Chinese and the American flags. This portion of the escort\nhad been furnished by the Chinese governor, who in this way certainly\nshowed his friendly regard for the American mission. We concluded the\nprocession, sitting in our sedan-chairs, each of our party of four borne\nupon the shoulders of four men. The band struck up, a great explosion of\nfirecrackers ensued, and we began our journey of a mile and a half to\nthe gates of the city, and then two miles and a half farther through its\ncrowded streets, until we reached the mission buildings and the\nresidence of Mr. and Mrs. Groesbeck on the other side of the town. The\nChinese are great on ceremonial, and all this reception had been\narranged by the students themselves, in honor of Mr. Groesbeck's teacher\nand his teacher's wife. Needless to say that I was astounded at such a\nreception, for Augustus C\u00e6sar never made an imperial entry in Rome more\nthrilling than the triumphal entry which Augustus Strong made that day\ninto the great city of Chao-yang.\n\nMr. Groesbeck said that no public notice had been given of our coming.\nYet the whole population of three hundred thousand seemed to have come\nout to meet us. Imagine a street two and a half miles long, but only ten\nto fifteen feet wide, thronged with water-carriers and beasts of burden\ncompelled to give way to our great procession! Every nook and corner of\nthe way, the fronts of the one-storied shops and the entrances to the\ncross-streets, were all a perfect sea of faces--rows of children little\nand big overtopped by rows of half-naked men, with scores of women\npeering wistfully from windows in the rear--faces by thousands and tens\nof thousands, till it seemed as if the whole population of the planet\nhad emptied itself into Chao-yang. I looked upon hundreds of splendid\nforms of men, naked above the waist, and carrying heads worthy of notice\nfrom any sculptor, none of them hateful, all of them impressed and\nwondering, and they seemed to me the embodiment of China crying out for\nGod. When we were only half-way through the city, the endless masses of\nhumanity had so impressed me that I could not restrain the tears. The\nsight was simply overwhelming. And all this the parish of one man! It\nis to save this great city, now almost wholly given to idolatry, that\nMr. Groesbeck asks for money to build in its very center an\nassembly-room and an institutional church, and that Doctor Lesher asks\nfor a hospital building to facilitate his medical work.\n\nI made an address to those eighty boys that evening, as they stood at\nattention before me. Half of them were still heathen, but their fathers\nhad sent them to this Christian school, believing that they needed a\nbetter religion than that of Confucius or of Buddha. I urged them to\nbecome soldiers of Christ, and to follow him as their Commander. I did\nnot conceal from them the fact that such following might involve\nopposition and earthly loss. But I promised them that, if they suffered\nwith Christ, they would also reign with him.\n\nWe returned from Chao-yang very sober and thoughtful, for our visit had\nbeen a revelation of appalling needs. Swatow seemed a paradise after\nsuch a visit. The smiling faces of so many Christians, and the signs of\na truly Christian civilization, inspired me with new hope for the\nfuture. But our time had come for leaving China, at least temporarily,\nand India was at once to be visited. Our departure from Swatow was\nalmost as spectacular as our entry into Chao-yang. There was no military\nguard, and there were no firecrackers, but there was a fine brass band\nof academy boys, to lead our procession of sedan-chairs, as we passed\nthrough the long lines of scholars who had gathered with their teachers\nto bid us farewell. The schools were all represented. First came the\nlittle kindergartners, then pupils of the grammar school, the girls'\nschool, the women's school, the Bible-women's training-school, the boys'\nacademy, and finally, the theological seminary. They numbered more than\nthree hundred in all. Some of the teachers accompanied us to the\nsteamer. We parted from them with regret, but we were thankful that they\ncould remain to prepare the way for a new religion, education, and\ncivilization in China.\n\nMy week-end in China leaves me with a new sense of the vastness of the\nheathen world, and of its absolute dependence upon Christ, as its only\npossible Saviour. The question whether the heathen will ever be saved if\nwe do not give them the gospel, is not so serious a one for us as the\nother question whether we ourselves will ever be saved if we do not give\nthem the gospel.\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\nMANILA, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG\n\n\nEach of these cities might seem to be the New Jerusalem, if you were to\nsee only its European part and the dress of its inhabitants. Their\nEuropean residents are all arrayed in white. Not all of them are saints,\nhowever. The white is purely external and compulsory. Heat is a great\nleveler, and we are nearing the equator. When we approached Manila we\nwere in the tail of a typhoon, but the danger was past. Indeed, since we\nleft San Francisco, we have encountered no storm, have had only smooth\nseas, and have witnessed continually what \u00c6schylus called \"the\ninnumerable laughter of the ocean waves.\"\n\nIt was pleasant to perceive that American enterprise and administration\nhave transformed Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, from a\nmedieval into a modern city. Its newly constructed streets and\npavements, water-works and drainage, electricity and the trolley, have\nturned this old and dilapidated Spanish town into a place of order and\nbeauty. Its parks and gardens, its municipal buildings and hospitals,\nare an object-lesson to all beholders. The walls of the fort still\nremain, but the moat has been filled up. The Roman Catholic Cathedral\nshows the large designs of a former priesthood to capture the people by\narchitecture and ceremonial. But Protestant churches, missions, and\nschools, are coming to have the first place in popular esteem. The\nformer palace of the Spanish governor is now the meeting-place of the\ndemocratic legislature, and the Jones Bill, recently passed by our\nCongress, but now locally known as \"the Bill Jones,\" has given hopes of\na complete and speedy Filipino independence.\n\nOur observation of the place, and our intercourse with residents of\nManila, lead us to doubt the wisdom of our immediate relinquishment of\nauthority over these islands. Eager as are the Filipino leaders for\nself-government, they have not yet learned the art of self-restraint.\nThe recent trouble in the great hospital illustrates this. Its American\nsuperintendent has resigned his office, for the reason that his Filipino\nstaff and subordinates conspired to make discipline and sanitary\nregulations impossible. They desired to manage the institution\nthemselves, when they were incompetent to enforce cleanliness and order.\nWhat happens in hospital work happens also in all branches of civil\nadministration. It will take a whole generation to raise up officials\nwho can be trusted to do their work for the public good, rather than to\nprovide comfortable and remunerative positions for themselves.\n\nWe visited the spot, five miles away, where our American troops, under\nAdmiral Dewey, landed to besiege the town. We motored to Fort McKinley\nalso, where our soldiers still command the situation. But our main\ninterest was in the mission schools and in the interdenominational\ntheological seminary. In these educational institutions all the\ninstruction is in the English language. They are Americanizing as well\nas evangelizing the population. The establishment of universal and\ncompulsory school attendance will in a few years turn a Spanish-speaking\ninto an English-speaking people, and will unify the education and the\ncivilization of the islands. Nothing indeed is more remarkable in the\nOrient than the gradual superseding of the native dialects by the\nprinted and spoken English. In the great country of India, it is to be\nremembered, English is the required language in school and court, as\nwell as in every government office. Even the Romanizing of written\nChinese and Japanese will make vastly easier the political unity and the\nreligious evangelization of China and Japan.\n\nWhen we reached Singapore, we found ourselves in one of the world's\ngreatest ports of entry. It is also one of the keys to the Orient, as\nSir Thomas Raffles perceived more than a century ago. Its splendid\ngovernment buildings and its strong fortifications show that the British\npropose to hold it to the end. The recent incipient revolt, which was\nfortunately nipped in the bud when it seemed to the conspirators on the\nverge of success, and which was punished by the summary execution of\nthirty or forty rebels without the news of it getting into the papers,\nshowed that Germany had much to hope for and Britain much to fear from\nthe unrest of these heterogeneous populations. I had a vivid reminder of\nall this at the Methodist Episcopal Mission, where I found over sixteen\nhundred scholars in attendance, and where I addressed five hundred of\nthem at their morning prayers. One of the chief difficulties of\nChristian work in Singapore is the aggregation and mixture of races.\nSeven different nationalities are represented in the schools. The\nTamil, the Malay, and the Chinese are the most numerous, and of these\nthe Chinese take the lead. Fifty thousand Chinese immigrants enter the\nport of Singapore every year, mainly because there is employment for\nthem in the rubber plantations of the Straits Settlements. The\ncongestion of population in China drives them southward to Singapore,\nand from Singapore they swarm northward to Burma, southward to Java, and\nwestward to India.\n\nThis mixing up of the many different nationalities makes it impossible\nfor the missions in Singapore to teach their pupils in any other\nlanguage than the English. This requisition of English seems to some of\nthe people a slur upon their own tongue, and a sign of British\nascendency. They are jealous of the English, even while they perceive\ntheir own dependence upon them. Only British justice and watchfulness\ncan keep in check the disposition to revolt on the part of some classes\nwith which the government has to deal, especially when these classes are\nstirred up by German spies and German money. Thus far all seditious\nattempts have been put down, and the traveler learns to bless the wisdom\nof British administration, and to rest secure and confident under the\nfolds of the Union Jack.\n\nWe left Singapore for Penang with some regret, for the reason that large\nsteamers must be exchanged for small steamers. The one we took was\nexceedingly good and modern. Another on which we embarked somewhat later\nseemed to have come down from the days of Noah and the ark. But British\nsteamers, however old and small, are clean and safe. You \"get there\"\nall the same. On our way to Rangoon our first stop was at Port\nSwetterham, from which we motored twenty-seven miles to Kuala Lumpur,\nthe capital of the Federated Malay States--federated under the British\nCrown. Here is a city of Malays and Chinese, with British government\nbuildings, Mohammedan mosques, Buddhist temples, an English cathedral,\nand a Methodist church. Our road thither led us through seemingly\nendless forests of rubber trees and of coconut palms. The profusion of\ntropical vegetation was both novel and impressive. These Federated Malay\nStates furnish the world with more than half its supply of rubber, and\nmany English and American investors are growing rich from the soaring of\nprices induced by the war.\n\nPenang, however, furnished us with our greatest sensation. It was a\nChinese funeral. In this city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, a\nmillionaire Chinese banker had died. He was a Buddhist as well as a\nConfucianist, but also a loyal and patriotic supporter of charitable\ninstitutions, and of the British rule. He had given to the British\ngovernment a number of aeroplanes to facilitate its military operations,\nand a large sum of money for its war-loan. When he died, the customary\nworship of ancestors, which is a part of Chinese religion, as well as\ngratitude for his past gifts, prompted his family to plan a sumptuous\nfuneral. It is said to have cost them thirty thousand dollars. We\narrived in Penang just in time to see the show. All the way from\nSingapore, indeed, we were accompanied on our steamer by a fine brass\nband, which was only one of three brass bands hired to furnish music\nfor the funeral service.\n\nMy powers of description fail, when I attempt to tell the wonders of a\nfuneral procession fully a half mile long. It was headed by a symbolic\nfloat of waxwork figures, in which a colossal horse, prancing on its\nhind legs, seemed just about to soar into the air. The horse was held in\nby four angelic forms following and holding in their hands scepters of\nroyalty. This apparition reminded me of the horses and chariot in which\nElijah ascended to heaven, and it seemed to indicate that the deceased\nhad departed with all the honors heaven and earth could bestow. A band\nof music accompanying the float, and playing solemn but not mournful\nstrains, gave color to this interpretation. A retinue of sedan-chairs,\ndecorated with all the colors of the rainbow, came next in order. These\nsedan-chairs were empty of occupants, and contained long strips of red\npaper on which were written the names and merits of the millionaire's\nancestors, to be read by Buddhist priests at the grave. The chairs were\neach the gift of some relative or friend of the departed. They\nsymbolized the welcome given him by those who had gone before him to the\nbetter land. A second band of music was followed by a body-guard of\nBritish soldiers in khaki, deputed by the British governor to show his\nestimate of the character and loyalty of the deceased.\n\nThen came the hearse, if hearse it could be called. It was really an\nenormous catafalque, decorated with gold tinsel and costly embroideries.\nPeacocks and birds of paradise were depicted on its silken hangings. A\ndozen men, in elaborate robes of blue, carried this gaudy structure upon\ntheir shoulders, while other gorgeously attired attendants bore great\nribbon-banners of satin, say twenty feet long by four feet wide and of\nthe most brilliant colors, inscribed with Chinese characters and making\nknown the virtues of the departed. But the most curious part of the\nprocession, was yet to come. Preceded by the third band of music were\nthe offerings of food and drinks which were to furnish sustenance to the\nspirit in the world into which he had now entered. There were six\nroasted sucking-pigs, laid in order, on portable tables, with baskets of\nrice, oranges, bananas, all kinds of fruit and confectionery, and cups\nof tea and wines. These were carried to the cemetery, to be presented to\nthe departed spirit at the grave, then jealously guarded for an\ninterval, finally in part given to the officiating priests, and in part\nconsumed at a feast held by the surviving members of the family. The\ncostlier the offerings, the better would the feast be enjoyed. There was\nno lack of priests in this ceremonial. They were young and clean-shaven,\nand looked as if they had enlisted for this very service. I thought I\ncould discern a sly twinkle in their eyes, as they inspected the\npreparations for the feast, before the march began.\n\nThe mourners must not be forgotten. Among the Chinese, white, and not\nblack, is the appointed sign of mourning. The four wives of the deceased\nand the members of his family were accordingly dressed in the coarsest\nof white sackcloth, with ashes sprinkled over their faces, and they\nwalked behind the hearse, howling. It was a piteous spectacle, reminding\none of the professional and hired wailers in Palestine, where \"the\nmourners go about the streets,\" uttering dismal lamentations which can\nbe bought for money. Far be it from me to suggest that such was the\nlamentation which we heard that day, for there is reason to believe that\nin this case the deceased was respected and beloved.\n\nThis ceremonial had required long and elaborate preparation. The death\nindeed occurred last July; the body had been embalmed; it had lain in\nstate and open to public inspection for four whole months; the funeral\ndid not take place until November. A vast amount of detail had been\nattended to and provided for. Great packages of silken umbrellas had\nbeen stored to shield the heads of guests and servants. All the bearers\nof sedan-chairs, scores in number, were clad in silken uniforms; there\nwere banners, and inscriptions, and lanterns, galore. Everything was\ndone to impress the Chinese multitude with the greatness of the\noccasion. But it was all a glorification of man and of his virtues.\nThere was no confession of sin, nor assurance of pardon; no\nproclamation of a divine Redeemer; no promise of life and immortality\nin Christ. Heathen religions are man's vain effort to win heaven by\nmerits of one's own. Only Christianity is God's revelation of salvation\n\"without money and without price,\" through the sacrifice and death of\nhis only Son. This is the gospel which Confucianist and Buddhist, Hindu\nand Mohammedan, need to-day, and which, thank God, our missionaries are\ngiving them.\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\nTHREE WEEKS IN BURMA\n\n\nBurma is the land of pagodas. These places of worship are the most\nstriking feature of every landscape. Their bell-shaped domes,\nstartlingly white, or so covered with gold-leaf as to shine resplendent\nin the sunlight, crown many a hilltop and constitute the chief beauty of\nthe towns. The pagodas are usually solid structures of brick, with\nfacings of plaster, and they are buildings at which, rather than in\nwhich, worship is offered. There are exceptions, however. The more\nancient of these edifices, like the Ananda at Pagan, have inner chambers\nenshrining gigantic statues of Buddha, with corridors around the\nchambers, quite comparable to the aisles of English or French\ncathedrals. But the greatest of all the Burmese pagodas, the Shwe Dagon\nof Rangoon, is a solid mass of brick, with no interior cell, yet\nenormous in size, erected on a broad platform one hundred and sixty-six\nfeet from the ground, towering to an additional height of two hundred\nand seventy feet, and crowned with a jewelled \"umbrella\" at the total\nelevation of four hundred and thirty-six feet above the teeming streets\nof the city below. The main platform from which the pagoda proper rises\nis an immense court nine hundred feet long by six hundred and\neighty-five feet wide, and crowded with minor pagodas and shrines. This\ngreat esplanade is approached from the four points of the compass by\nlong covered arcades, lined with shops in which offerings of every\ndescription can be bought. On the marble floor of the main court and\nbefore the minor shrines these offerings are presented by scores of\nworshipers prostrating themselves before statues of Buddha of every\nsize. And yet the great conical or bell-shaped dome of the pagoda is\nits chief attraction, for this is covered with gold-leaf from its base\nto its summit, and its shining splendor salutes the traveler from miles\nand miles away.\n\nThe religion of Burma is Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion of \"merit,\" so\ncalled, and the surest way to acquire \"merit\" is by building a pagoda.\nRepairing an old pagoda will not answer the purpose; hence many an old\npagoda goes to ruin, side by side with a new one coated with whitewash\nor gold-leaf. Curiously enough, the epoch of pagoda-building was almost\ncoincident with that of cathedral-building in England and France, that\nis, from A. D. 1000 to 1200. When one sees at Pagan an area along the\nIrrawaddy River eight miles long and only two miles wide, with nearly\nfive thousand pagodas, multitudes of them small and in ruins, but many\nstill standing great and splendid in their proportions, it seems\nimpossible to doubt that a certain genuine religious impulse, however\nblind and mistaken, led to their erection. There they stand, mere relics\nof a magnificent past, but now erect in the midst of desolation, with\nonly scattered huts about them, where once there must have been a dense\npopulation, rich and lordly. The fate of these towering monuments of\nidolatry and superstition, now for the most part given over to the moles\nand the bats, shows what God can do for pagodas, and encourages us to\nbelieve that missionary effort will be mighty through God to the pulling\ndown of similar more modern strongholds, together with all the high\nthings that exalt themselves above the knowledge of his truth.\n\nThis leads me to speak of the great missionary work that is now\nhoneycombing and undermining the foundations of heathenism in this\npagoda-land. We came to Burma to see what God has wrought. The labors\nand sufferings of Adoniram Judson appealed to us even in our\nchildhood. We wished to see how the mustard-seed which Judson sowed in\nfaith has grown up to bear fruit. So we went to Aungbinle, where for\ntwenty long months Judson was imprisoned and tortured. There we seemed\nto hear God's word to Moses: \"Take off thy shoes from off thy feet,\nfor the place where thou standest is holy ground.\" We were reminded\nalso of the burning bush, which was ever burning but not consumed.\nGreat forward movements in history are born in suffering. Through\ndeath to life, and the cross before the crown--that was the way of\nChrist, and it will be the way of his followers. We gathered, a small\ngroup of missionaries and visitors, in the little chapel that has been\nbuilt upon the site of that old prison, and we prayed, with a lot of\ndusky villagers and children before us, that God would yet more\ngloriously prosper the work of missions.\n\nWe had every advantage in our investigations in Burma. Thirteen of my\nformer pupils are now missionaries in that land. For many years they\nhave been inviting me to visit them. Nine missionaries met us at the\ndock, as we landed from Singapore and Penang. They have made our visit\ndelightful by their affectionate and boundless hospitality. Morning,\nnoon, and night have been full of sightseeing, of visiting mission\nchurches and schools, of \"chotas,\" or little breakfasts, of \"tiffins\" or\nsubstantial lunches, or afternoon-teas and dinners at the close of the\nday. The social and kindly spirit of it all has turned what otherwise\nwould have been wearisome into a succession of pleasant experiences. But\nthere has been work, and there has been hard thinking also. Making three\naddresses a day, longer or shorter, for three weeks in succession, is no\nsinecure. I am sometimes called an \"octogeranium,\" but I have not been\npermitted to waste my sweetness on the desert air. It is a wonder to me\nthat I have survived so much stress and rushing, but I am compelled to\nsay that good appetite and good sleep have made me feel in better health\nand spirits than for many months before.\n\nWhat I have seen has gladdened my eyes and warmed my heart. Closer\ncontact with mission work and mission workers has broadened my ideas,\ngiven me more sympathy, more zeal, and more hope. The vastness of these\nheathen populations, their appalling needs, together with their infinite\npossibilities, have dawned upon me as never before. Burma has sixty\nmillions of people. It is a most fruitful land, never visited by the\nfamines which ravage India proper, the land west of the Bay of Bengal.\nIt enshrines a religion which, with all its ignorance and superstition,\nis more free from gross immorality than that which prevails on the other\nside of the bay. Its people are the most heterogeneous of any upon\nearth. Though the proud Burman native is still the dominant power, he\nhas now to compete with the rising intelligence of the Karens, the\nsturdiness of the Chinese, and the subtlety of the Hindus. These last\ntwo peoples have in late years in large numbers migrated hither.\nMohammedan mosques are rising side by side with the older Buddhist\npagodas. The Parsees are numerous and influential, and theosophists\nare not rare. Rangoon is probably the capital city of Buddhism, for\nhere at any rate is its most splendid temple. And Rangoon is a sort of\nmelting-pot of all races. Burmans and Chinese are intermarrying, and\nare producing a most vigorous offspring. Sikhs and Malays, by their\npeculiar dress, make picturesque the streets. I know of no greater\nmixture of races, unless it is in the city of New York, where we have\nmore Jews than there are in Jerusalem, and more Italians than there\nare in Rome. Here in Rangoon, however, all these peoples preserve\ntheir distinctive characteristics of dress and language, so that\nracial differences are more apparent.\n\nThe Roman Catholics and the representatives of the Church of England\nhave made great efforts to capture Burma. They have established noble\nplants in the way of church edifices, hospitals, and schools. The\nleper asylum of the Romanists is an impressive and worthy provision\nfor the housing and treatment of hundreds thus afflicted. The\ncathedral and school of the Anglican Church show a most praiseworthy\nestimate of the needs of this great province of the British Empire,\nand breakfasting with Bishop Fyffe, the metropolitan of Rangoon, gave\nus a pleasing impression of his kindly Christian spirit. The\nMethodist Episcopal Church has also its representative here, and all\nof these evangelizing agencies are supplemented by the work of the\nY. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., and the Salvation Army. Yet it is not\ntoo much to say that the Baptists have first place in Burma, both in\nchurch-membership and in education. We were the first Christian\ndenomination upon the ground; we have leavened the country with our\ninfluence; our Mission Press has furnished the Bible in several\ndifferent languages to the people of Burma; our schools are the most\nadvanced in grade and the most numerously attended; our churches are\nmost nearly self-governing and self-supporting. We have great reason\nto thank God and take courage.\n\nAll this is the growth of a single century. It was in the year 1813 that\nthe Judsons arrived in Burma, and it was six years after that the first\nBurman convert was baptized. In 1828 the first Karen convert followed\nChrist. These two were the first-fruits from the two leading races of\nBurma. Since their baptism there has sprung up a flourishing Christian\ncommunity which embraces representatives both of the indigenous races of\nBurma and of the immigrant peoples from India proper, from China, and\nfrom other lands. The Baptist churches in Burma to-day, as their\nofficial representatives inform us, enroll members gathered from\neighteen different nationalities, besides members of the Anglo-Indian or\nEurasian type. \"The entire Christian community in Burma, according to\nthe Government Census of 1911, numbers 210,081; of which number, 122,265\nare Baptists, while 60,088 are Roman Catholics, 20,784 are Anglicans,\n1,675 are Methodists, and the remainder are distributed among smaller\nsects. That one Protestant convert of 1819 has become an army of one\nhundred and fifty thousand.\"\n\nWe must add to this numerical statement the facts that a corps of\nChristian leaders has been trained and put into service; that native\nChristians have found their way into influential positions as\nmagistrates, township officers, teachers of schools, inspectors of\npolice, and clerks in all departments of the government. Christian men\nare prominent in business and professional circles, as traders,\ncontractors, brokers, physicians, lawyers; and the Christian character\nis everywhere recognized and honored. A church, to a large degree\nself-propagating, has been planted in Burma. A complete system of\nmissionary education has been organized. Modern philanthropic work for\nthe relief and prevention of physical ills has been transplanted to\nBurma. The Sunday School, the Christian Endeavor Society, the temperance\nmovement, are common methods of Karen and of Burmese church activity. An\nextensive Christian literature has been provided, in addition to the\nprinting of the Bible in all the main languages of the country. In fact,\na Home Mission Society, for the evangelization of the natives in the\nremoter sections of the country, is in active operation. When we\nremember that all this is the product of a hundred years, in a land\nwhere only a little while ago Christianity was a persecuted religion, we\npraise God for the result.\n\nI must mention two features of my visit which claim special attention. I\nrefer to the work of the collegiate and other schools, and to the\nhospitality of non-Christian gentlemen. We have inaugurated in Burma a\ngraded system of education, under government inspection, and leading to\nfull university training. Nothing in my travels interested me more than\nto see hundreds of boys and girls of Burmese and Karen families, in\nwhich girls have hitherto been unable to read or write, singing\nChristian hymns from books with the music and words before them. The\ngreat need of France, as the Emperor Napoleon once said, was good\nmothers. It is equally true of Burma, and little children carry back\ninto idolatrous homes their love for Christ, and their juvenile protest\nagainst heathenism. I addressed several audiences of a thousand each,\nwhere the full half were girls and women, no longer secluded and\nignorant, but prepared to assume responsibility as the mothers and\ntrainers of a new race of Burmans. In these schools, exclusive of the\nseminaries and Bible schools, there are enrolled more than 30,000\npupils, who pay annual tuition fees of more than $80,000. The Morton\nLane School at Maulmain, the Eurasian School at the same place, the\nKemendine School in Rangoon, the Girls' School at Mandalay, have each of\nthem about three hundred scholars, and they are sending out influences\nwhich will in a few years revolutionize the civilization and the\nreligion of Burma. Other schools of not so high a grade are doing\nequally faithful work. Our Baptist College at Rangoon is caring for the\nhigher grades of education, and is preparing hundreds of young men for\nteaching and for government service. It was inspiring to address a\nthousand of its scholars, under the direction of Principal David\nGilmore, D. D., formerly of Rochester. The endowment of such an\ninstitution in this heathen land would be an achievement worthy of some\nChristian millionaire in America. And the same thing may be said for our\nBurman Theological Seminary at Insein under Dr. John McGuire, and our\nKaren Theological Seminary under Dr. W. F. Thomas.\n\nThat walls of partition are breaking down under the influence of\nChristianity, was made plain to us by invitations to take breakfast with\na noted Parsee barrister, and to take afternoon-tea with a wealthy\nMohammedan gentleman, both of them citizens of Rangoon. The courtesy and\nintelligence of these hosts of ours will always be a delightful memory,\nwhile their novel and beautiful homes revealed to us what art and nature\ncan do when united in other than Christian surroundings. Our Parsee\nbarrister had obtained his education largely in England, and the\nMohammedan gentleman had enjoyed intercourse with the best of our\nAmerican missionaries. The Moslem friend still maintained a sort of\nseclusion for his wife, and only the ladies of our party visited her in\nher private apartments. But when we rose to depart, he surprised us all\nby asking that we offer prayer, and he endorsed the prayer that was\noffered by uttering a hearty \"Amen.\" As we stood ready to go, it was\neasy to pray for a blessing upon the house and the family which we were\nleaving behind us. Respect for Christianity, and a conviction that\nChristian education is the great need of the future, are already\npermeating the higher classes of Burman society.\n\nThe climax of our stay in Burma was reached when Lord Chelmsford, the\nviceroy of India, visited Rangoon, and the lieutenant governor invited\nus to an afternoon-tea in his honor. The pandal, or reception pavilion,\nerected at the dock where the viceroy landed and where he was received\nwith a salute of thirty-one guns, had been filled that morning by the\n\u00e9lite of Burman society, fifteen hundred in number, and the address of\nwelcome had drawn from the viceroy a fitting response. All Rangoon was a\nwonder of decoration. Arches with Saracenic domes built by the Moslems,\npagodalike structures built by the Buddhists, Parsee towers, and Hindu\ntemples, appeared at many street-crossings, and one long avenue was\nlined on either side with elevated rows of benches upon which were\nseated thousands of children from the schools. The viceroy passed in\ntriumphal procession between files of soldiery, with cavalry for a\nbody-guard and a dense mass of humanity thronging the sidewalks, looking\non and cheering. At night, the streets and public buildings were\nbrilliantly illuminated, and the great pagodas glittered like gems from\ntop to bottom, encircled with rings of electric lights.\n\nWe reached the Government House, the scene of the afternoon lawn-tea,\nthrough clouds of dust raised by four lines of vehicles that struggled\nfor precedence. At last we emerged in the grounds before the stately\nedifice where the lieutenant governor resides, and we were presented to\nLord and Lady Chelmsford. The viceroy and his wife were simple and\ngracious in manner, and they made us feel that we were conferring as\nwell as receiving honor. A group of forty dancing-girls, in antique\nBurmese costumes, were giving a performance on one part of the emerald\nlawn, while on another white-robed servants were setting before the\nguests all manner of refreshments. So, amid music and feasting, the\nday ended. With the oncoming darkness the viceroy and his lady retired\nto their apartments in the great government residence, and at the same\ntime the whole company joined in singing \"God Save the King!\" It was a\nstriking close to our experiences in Burma, for fully half of the\nguests that day were Hindus and Mohammedans, each one of them arrayed\nin gorgeous garments and decorated with jewels. It left in our minds\nthe fixed impression that the hold of Great Britain upon Burma and\nindeed upon all India is largely due to the Christian character of\nBritish rule, and that missionary work of evangelization and of\neducation is to be given large credit for India's present universal\nloyalty to the British Crown.\n\nThis chapter would not be complete without special mention of the dinner\nof our Rochester men. We number thirteen of them in Burma, and they fill\nvery important places in the work of missions. Two are graduates of our\nuniversity, but not of our seminary--Mr. F. D. Phinney, the\nsuperintendent of our Mission Press, and Dr. David Gilmore, the acting\nprincipal of our Baptist College. With the wives who graced the company,\nseventeen persons sat down at table. Singiser presided; McGuire gave us\nwelcome; Dudley, Cochrane, Rogers, Hattersley, Crawford, added spice to\nthe occasion. The rewards of a teacher sometimes come late, but they are\nvery sure. When I saw that gathering of missionary workers, and\nremembered Geis, Cope, and Streeter, who were prevented from coming, I\nfelt that my labor had not been in vain in the Lord, since Burma is\nbeing transformed by Rochester.\n\nAnd I shall never forget a final reception given us at an afternoon-tea\nby Dr. D. W. A. Smith, the president emeritus of the Karen Theological\nSeminary at Insein, and by his estimable wife, to whom I had had the\nprivilege of presenting a memorial album, on behalf of all the\nteachers and missionaries, on the occasion of her seventy-sixth\nbirthday. Doctor Smith and Mrs. Smith are honored and beloved by all\nwho know them. Like myself, he has served the cause of theological\neducation for forty years, and has now retired for partial rest. I am\nglad that my name can be in any way connected with his, for I am sure\nthat his works will follow him.\n\n\n\n\nV\n\nMANDALAY AND GAUHATI\n\n\nThese two places are types of two different religions, the Buddhist and\nthe Hindu. Mandalay in Burma is the representative of Buddhism; Gauhati\nin Assam illustrates Hinduism. The hill of Mandalay is crowned by a\npagoda so unique and splendid that it draws pilgrims from every part of\nBurma; the hill at Gauhati is similarly attractive in Assam. I have\nthought that a description of the two, and of the worship at each of\nthem, might serve to fix in memory the differences between these leading\nreligions of the British Empire in India.\n\nMandalay was the terminus of our third excursion into the more remote\nparts of Burma. From Rangoon as a center of operations, we went first to\nBassein, where our Burman and our Karen schools for boys and girls are\nbeautifully located. Bassein is one hundred and ninety-two miles west of\nRangoon. Maulmain, our second object of interest and visitation, is one\nhundred and seventy-one miles distant from Rangoon on the south and\neast. Here our great missionary, Adoniram Judson, began his work, and\nhere are two of our chief schools for girls.\n\nMandalay is farther removed from Rangoon than are either Bassein or\nMaulmain. It lies three hundred and eighty-six miles to the north. It\nwas a former capital of Burma. It contains the palace of King Thebaw,\nthe foundations of which are reputed to have been laid upon human\nsacrifices, and from which the king was driven after a long and fierce\nBritish assault. Ancient tradition decreed that only sacred edifices\nshould be built of brick. Thebaw's palace is therefore of wood, though\nit is gorgeous with carving and gilt. Surrounded by a wide and deep\nmoat, there is a walled enclosure of more than a mile square, whose\ngateways are picturesque in the extreme, and which to all but modern\ncannon would be an impregnable fortress.\n\nBut it is the Hill of Mandalay that most excites the traveler's wonder\nand admiration. Upon its summit, commanding a far-reaching view of the\nwinding river and of endless paddy-fields, with mountains in the\ndistance, stands a pagoda which is in many respects more remarkable than\nthe great Shwe Dagon pagoda at Rangoon. This one at Mandalay might\nindeed be called four separate pagodas, on successive heights, and\nconnected with one another by a straight stairway in part hewn out of\nthe solid rock and in part built of masonry. The stairway consists of\neight hundred and twenty-two steps, in four different series, each\nseries leading to a broad open platform on which rises a separate temple\nwith a colossal image of Buddha in its center.\n\nFrom below, this long stairway, with its railing of brick or concrete\nand its quartet of gilded pagodas shining in the sun, is a picturesque\nand unique object. The crowning pagoda seems almost impossible of\naccess. It is set upon such a height, however, for the purpose of making\nthe ascent to the altar difficult, and so of adding to the \"merit\" of\nits worshipers. The stairway, even when cut in the rock, has often\nforty or fifty steps so narrow, that the ascent from platform to\nplatform is actually precipitous. The entire series of steps, from the\nbottom of the hill to the top, is roofed over with sheets of\ncorrugated iron, until the whole looks like a covered way to the\nclouds. Going up seemed an exciting adventure. My physician had\nforbidden my climbing, and my wife declared that she could not attempt\nthe walk. The problem became serious.\n\nThe difficulty was removed by bringing from the missionary's house two\nsolid teak-wood armchairs, to serve us after the sedan fashion. Long\npoles of bamboo were lashed underneath them, and, after we had seated\nourselves, eight men, four for each chair, lifted these poles, with\ntheir superimposed American pilgrims, upon their shoulders. Then began a\ntriumphal march, which at every step of the ascent threatened to become\na funeral march. The bearers all had bare feet, feet twice as long as\nthe steps were broad, so that they practically went upward on their\ntoes. A single misstep would have caused disaster--nothing less than an\navalanche of coolies, chairs, and pilgrims. But my secretary guarded me,\nthe missionary guarded my wife, and we went up in safety.\n\nGoing upward some two hundred steps, we rested upon a platform with a\npagoda which enshrined the statue of a Buddha perhaps twenty feet in\nheight and covered with gold-leaf from top to toe. Any worshiper can\nprove his faith by clapping a bit of gold-leaf upon the statue. The\nresult is that the hands and feet of Buddha are thick with encrusted\ngold. He holds out his hands in seeming invitation. Two hundred feet\nmore brought us to a second platform and a second pagoda in which Buddha\nalso appears; but now he is in the attitude of teaching. Still another\nascent, and we come to a pagoda in which Buddha stands, a towering form\nfifty feet in height, with his finger extended in expectation toward the\nplain. And a final ascent brings us to a colossal Buddha, now reclining,\nas if his work were done and he were entering upon the bliss of Nirvana.\nAt this last stage there is also a series of waxwork figures which\nsymbolize the vanity of life and of human desire. Four forms represent,\nfirst, the babe at its mother's breast; secondly, the youth full of\nvigor; then the older man haggard with care; and finally, the corpse,\nupon whose vitals the birds of the air are preying.\n\nFrom the summit of this Mandalay Hill, another pagoda, almost as famous,\nis to be seen. I mean the Kuthodaw, in the plain below. This is four\nhundred and fifty pagodas in one, all but one of them little edifices,\neach with a small sitting statue of Buddha within it. An even more\nremarkable thing is that each of these diminutive pagodas has also\nwithin it a portion of the Buddhist scriptures, engraved upon a solid\nblock of stone, and all of these together make up the Tripitaka, upon\nwhich the Buddhist pins his faith. In the center of the grand enclosure\nstands a beautiful white pagoda, with wreaths of gold about its graceful\nspire. The long rows of little temples, with their attempt to preserve\nthe holy book in an enduring form, are a monument to the faith of King\nThebaw's uncle who planned it. Few people, however, read the writing\nupon the stones. For any practical result it is necessary to have the\nlaw of the Lord written upon the tables of the heart.\n\nThe descent from Mandalay Hill was even more hazardous than the ascent,\nfor we were in continual danger of slipping from our chairs and knocking\nover the bearers. We were profoundly grateful when we reached the level\nground again and found that we had survived. Our experiences with\nBuddhism were instructive. The saffron robes of the omnipresent priests\nand monks undoubtedly cover much laziness and much willingness to depend\nfor a living upon others. But every Burman boy expects to spend some\ntime, though it may be only a week or a month, in a monastery. There he\nusually learns to read, though his main work is that of memorizing\ncertain portions of the Buddhist scriptures. So far as I have been able\nto learn, there are no positive immoralities connected with Buddhistic\nworship. The example of Buddha has in it some worthy elements, such as\nthe renunciation of earthly and sensual ambitions. But Buddhism, for all\nthat, is a pessimistic religion. It denies to man the existence of a\nsoul, and it gives him no hope for anything but practical extinction.\nBuddha no longer lives to help his worshipers. In the struggle with sin,\nthere is no atonement for the transgressions of the past, and no\nprospect of perfection in the future. Hence the preaching of Christ,\ncrucified for our sins and ever present with his people, is to the\nBuddhist a revelation so novel and so entrancing, that it captivates and\ntransforms him. Christianity humbles pride, but it saves the soul. It\nshows the impossibility of obtaining salvation by merit of our own, and\nour absolute dependence upon the grace of God. Christianity awakens\ngratitude, and leads to unselfish devotion. It turns a Saul into a Paul,\nand makes him a missionary and a hero.\n\nGauhati is the present capital of Assam, as Mandalay was once the\ncapital of Burma. Like Burma, Assam is overrun by Hindus, who seek\nemployment in the tea-plantations and in every other species of labor.\nThese Hindus have brought their religion with them, and in Assam the\nanimistic religions of the natives very commonly give way to the more\npoetic and philosophic faith of the Hindus. In Gauhati the Hindus have\nestablished a temple which attracts thousands of pilgrim worshipers from\nall parts of Assam and indeed of India, as the pagoda of Mandalay\nattracts pilgrims from all parts of Burma. The Gauhati temple, like that\nat Mandalay, is set upon a beautiful hill not far from the town,\napproached only by a long and stony climb, though with many a rest-house\non the way. This temple and its worship so illustrate Hinduism, that a\nslight account of its origin and beliefs seems to be necessary.\n\nThe god Siva had a goddess for a wife. Displeased with her\nunfaithfulness, he seized her, and with her as his captive he flew\nthrough the air, and as he flew, he cut her in pieces. The middle\nportion of her body fell to the earth on this hill, and consecrated\nforever this spot near Gauhati. In the temple and grove of this hill the\ngoddess is worshiped by such rites as will please one of low and\nlicentious tastes. In fact, the rites of this temple are said to be the\nmost obscene of any in the British possessions. There are reputed to be\na thousand \"virgins,\" who subsist in and upon the temple. The extent to\nwhich they are virgins may be judged by the number of fatherless\nchildren clinging to their robes or carried about. These \"virgins,\" as\nis well known, are \"married to the god of the temple\"--which may mean\nmarried either to the priests of the temple, or to the worshipers of the\ntemple. I asked a missionary whether these \"virgins,\" after their term\nof service, could contract an ordinary marriage. I was answered that the\ngirls were \"married to the temple for life.\" One of these unfortunate\nwomen led by the hand a beautiful little daughter. On being asked who\nthe father was, the mother replied: \"How should I know? I am a\ntemple-woman.\" So the gratification of illicit passion becomes a\nreligious act. The residents of Gauhati are free to visit the temple,\nand so, alas! are the eight hundred students of the English college only\ntwo miles away. Who can measure the corrupting influence of this temple\nupon the lives of the people over a wide area in Assam?\n\nA student of the college, who was also a priest of the temple, met one\nof our party on his visit. This student-priest was a young man of more\nthan ordinary intelligence. He endeavored to palliate the evil of the\ntemple-worship, and to clothe its acts with spiritual significance. He\npointed to the spot where goats and buffaloes were offered in sacrifice,\nand he claimed that this offering was made in expiation of sin. Such an\nexplanation of Hindu sacrifices is altogether futile. The sense of guilt\nis so dull in Hinduism, that sin is little more than external and\nphysical impurity, and may be simply failure to conform to a prescribed\nact of ceremonial worship. The true meaning of sacrifice for sin has, in\nIndia, been derived solely from Christian preaching. This particular\nstudent had many an opportunity to hear such preaching, and the\nknowledge of atonement which he tried to mix with his Hindu theology was\nprobably gained from missionary sources. It was an illustration of the\nincidental and indirect ways in which Christian missions are permeating\nthese Oriental lands, and are forcing these old religions to adopt some\nof the fundamental ideas of Christianity. These ideas are misunderstood\nand misstated, so that they become in large part forms of error. But\nnotwithstanding, they may pave the way for a fuller knowledge of the\ntruth, and for the entrance of Christ into the heart and into the life.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\nCALCUTTA, DARJEELING, AND BENARES\n\n\nCalcutta is the largest city of India. It numbers more than a million\ninhabitants, of whom 600,000 are Hindus, 300,000 are Mohammedans, and\nless than 100,000 are Christians. The name of the city is derived from\nKali, the goddess-wife of Siva, the Destroyer; and her temple is one of\nthe most filthy and disgusting in all India. In this temple I saw one of\nits many priestesses cutting into bits the flesh and entrails of a goat,\nwhich had been offered in sacrifice, in order that the poorest worshiper\nmight have for his farthing something bloody to present at the altar. It\nwas the altar of a fierce, cruel, and lustful goddess, whose black and\nugly image could be dimly seen within the shrine. A stalwart priest\nfollowed me with hand outstretched for a contribution. It was a novel\nsensation to hear him utter, in excellent English and with seeming\nreverence, the words, \"the great goddess Kali,\" as if no one could doubt\nher power. It reminded me of \"the great goddess Diana,\" whom all Asia\nand the whole world once worshiped, but whose temple is now an\nindistinguishable heap of ruins. The worship of a goddess so vengeful\nand sensual as Kali throughout India, a worship both of lust and of\nfear, shows how ineradicable is the religious instinct, but how\nperverted it may become when existing apart from divine revelation.\n\nThere is another temple in Calcutta of a somewhat better sort. I refer\nto the temple of the Jains, that mongrel sect which is partly a\nreformed Hinduism, and partly a worship of Buddha. Its temple is a\nmodel of cleanliness and of Oriental art. Its decoration consists\nlargely of inlaid glass of all the colors of the rainbow. Walls,\nceilings, and columns are fairly ablaze with tinted arabesques that\nreflect every ray of the sun. Fountains and lawns and statues mingle\ntheir attractions. The effect is one of splendor and beauty. Jainism\nis conservative Hinduism, recurring to the ancestral worship of the\nVedas, exaggerating its doctrine of the sanctity of animal life,\nrepudiating its later licentious developments, and taking in Buddha,\nnot as the supreme and sole teacher of religion, but as only one of\nits great saints and heroes.\n\nThe real glory of Calcutta is its relation to modern missions. Here is\nthe chapel in which William Carey preached, and in which Adoniram Judson\nwas baptized. Its spacious construction evinces the faith and hope of\nits founders. But it is in Serampore, which, though fourteen miles away,\nis almost a suburb of Calcutta, that Carey's work was done. How\nwonderful that work was! \"A consecrated cobbler,\" he mastered the\nlanguages of the Orient, and gave the Bible to India in several of its\ntongues. He received from the British Government large compensation for\nhis services as interpreter and translator, but he gave back all the\nmoney he received, in order to support schools and missions. The noble\ncollege at Serampore, with its hundreds of students, is his best\nmemorial. His tomb in the cemetery witnesses to his humility of spirit.\nIt stands at one corner of a triangle, with the tombs of Marshman and of\nWard at the two remaining corners, but the only inscription he permitted\nto be engraved upon it is the two lines of the hymn,\n\n A wretched, lost, and helpless worm,\n On thy kind arms I fall.\n\nSo he left his testimony to the need, and the power, of Him who will\nultimately demolish Hindu temples and enthrone Christ in India.\n\nFrom Calcutta we traveled about three hundred and seventy miles\nnorthward to Darjeeling. We wished to see the Himalayas. A most tortuous\nnarrow-gage railway lifted us gradually to a height of seven thousand\nfeet. And there we had the unusual privilege of seeing the sunrise\ntipping with rosy light the snowy peak of Kinchinjinga, twenty-eight\nthousand feet high and forty-six miles away. Mt. Everest, a hundred\nmiles distant, is twenty-nine thousand feet high, but from Darjeeling is\ninvisible. Kinchinjinga is nearly twice as high as Mont Blanc, and its\nglittering mass is a spectacle never to be forgotten. Curiously enough,\nupon the summit of Observatory Hill, from which we gained our view,\nthe immigrant Tibetans had erected their shrine, and long, inscribed\npaper and muslin streamers, enclosing a large quadrangle, gave to the\nwinds their prayers. No idol was to be seen. The worship seems to be\nfar more spiritual than that of the Hindus. Nature seems to have\ntaught that secluded race of Tibetans a more primitive religion than\nmodern Hinduism. It is a religion mixed with Buddhism, but preserving\nthe earlier view of a divinity in natural objects, which Hinduism has\nalmost wholly outgrown.\n\nOur next point of investigation was Benares, \"the holy city,\" the Mecca\nand Jerusalem of the Hindus. It is a hotbed of heathen enthusiasm and of\nblinded devotion. The sacred river Ganges flows by, with tier upon tier\nof temples rising from its steep banks--such a congestion of religious\nedifices that one might almost doubt whether they had left room for any\nbut priests to live. Every day, hundreds of pilgrims troop through its\nstreets and throng these temples, presenting their flowers and their\nofferings, making their sacrifices, and listening submissively to the\ninstructions and threatenings of the priests. Every temple has its\nsacred animals, to be sacrificed or worshiped. The \"Golden Temple,\"\nso-named, is covered with gold-leaf from its spire to its base. The\nnoisy crowd in its corridors, the noisome odors of its sanctuaries,\nthe adjurations of its priests and their evident aim to turn religion\ninto financial gain, disgust the Christian traveler, while they show\nhim how deeply rooted in the human heart is this towering system of\nidolatry and superstition.\n\nBut only the water-view of Benares presents Hinduism in its most\ncharacteristic aspect. It is the sacred river that makes sacred the\ntown. This river is regarded as itself divine, for it had its source in\nthe mouth of Brahma. Hence it is endowed with life-giving and purifying\npowers. It is bordered for a full mile by a grand succession of palaces\nand temples, of bathing ghats and of burning ghats. Here the Hindu,\noften after long pilgrimage, washes away his defilement and prepares\nhimself to die. When death actually comes, his relatives wash his body\nin the holy stream. But the bathing ghat only makes ready for the\nburning ghat. These burning ghats are castle-like edifices, from which\nthe smoke of burning flesh ascends continually. Cremation, with the\nHindu, takes the place of burial. The ashes are collected and are\npreserved in a tomb. To die in Benares, and to have a temple for a tomb,\nis the surest passport to happiness in a future state, since the\ntransmigration of souls into higher or lower forms is an essential\ndoctrine of modern Hinduism.\n\nA wealthy resident of Benares courteously offered us the use of his\nobservation-boat to view the scene upon the river in the early morning.\nThis river-craft was a double-decker, propelled by oars from the lower\ndeck. From the upper platform, one could overlook the ceremonial\nwashings of hundreds of pilgrims. Stalwart men plunged themselves three\ntimes into the stream, looked toward the sun, joined their hands, spoke\na prayer, rinsed their sacred cord, cleansed their raiment, and then,\nreclad, went to the priest on his platform, to be smeared with ashes on\nthe forehead and marked with a little colored dot, as a certificate that\nthey had correctly performed their vow. Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, had\neach his worshipers and his priests, to give the appropriate mark. The\n\"holy man\" was there, either upon his bed of spikes or in an attitude\nwhich suggested torture, and ready to receive the homage, and the money\nas well, of his benighted admirers. Mothers were present, immersing not\nonly themselves but also their children. All the bathers must drink of\nthe muddy and fetid water, for purification internal is as needful as\npurification external. And so, hundreds of worshipers every day, and on\nspecial feast-days thousands, drink this water of the \"sacred Ganges,\"\nfoul with the stains of disease and reeking with the sweat of the dead.\nIt is no wonder that the burning ghats have no lack of business, and no\nwonder that medical experts have traced epidemics of cholera, smallpox,\nand plague, in Western lands, to this city of Benares, where \"Satan's\nseat is.\" The throne of the great adversary, however, seems to be built\non very insufficient foundations, for not a few of the temples which\nline the steep banks of the river have toppled over, or have sunk into\nthe yielding sand. Their massive fragments, at the base of long\nstairways of stone, show how hideous is the ruin of any system of\nreligion which is not founded upon Christ, the Rock.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\nLUCKNOW, AGRA, AND DELHI\n\n\nAt last we are on Mohammedan ground--at least on ground where\nMohammedanism has a powerful, and perhaps a controlling, influence. This\nnorthwest part of India was the scene of Moslem conquest in the ninth\ncentury. Mohammedans have always proudly contemned idolatry, and they\nhave often been iconoclasts, as many headless Hindu images can witness.\nNorthwest India saw the rise and the strength of the great mutiny of\nhalf a century ago, but it was Moslem rajas and faithful Moslem troops\nwho helped to put it down.\n\nMohammedan faith in the unity and personality of God might at first\nsight seem to render its adherents more accessible than are Hindus to\nthe gospel of Christ. As a matter of fact, however, the very elements of\ntruth in their belief make them too often stout opponents of\nChristianity. They are religious bigots, as the Hindus are not. The\nHindu has a pantheon to which he can, with some show of consistency,\ninvite Christ. The Mohammedan declares that there is but one God, and\nthat Mohammed is his prophet. So he denies Christ's claim to be either\nGod or Saviour.\n\nLucknow was deeply interesting, for here was exhibited one of the most\nheroic and thrilling defenses ever made in history. More than two\nhundred women and children spent three months of agony in the cellars\nof the British residency, while husbands and fathers and friends, to the\nnumber of seventeen hundred, were exposed to the besieging force and the\nmurderous fire of fifty thousand mutineers. The headquarters of the\ndefenders were riddled with shot and shell, and the residency is now a\nruin. But only one shot penetrated the retreat of the women and children\nbelow, and of these only one woman lost her life. Crowded together in\nthe heat of the summer, tormented by flies, half famished for lack of\nfood, these brave women held out themselves and encouraged the\nprotecting garrison, though of the seventeen hundred men only seven\nhundred at the end of the siege remained alive. Sir Henry Lawrence died\nof a cannon-shot, exhorting his soldiers to the last man to die, rather\nthan to surrender. We were glad to pay reverence to his bravery, by a\nvisit to his tomb. Although he died, the flag of England flew over the\nfortress, in spite of innumerable efforts of the enemy to bring it down.\nAnd to-day, in memory of that fact, it is the only flag in the British\nEmpire that is not lowered at sunset. The joy of the defenders and of\nthose whom they defended may be imagined, when General Havelock appeared\nin their relief, and the great mutiny was suppressed. That victory\nsettled the prestige of the English in India. All classes now recognize\nthe military strength as well as the judicial fairness of British rule.\nWithout it, India would be a country of warring races, for Mohammedan\nand Hindu even to-day live in slumbering jealousy of each other.\n\nThis latent hostility, I am happy to say, shows some signs of wearing\naway. The desire for more of home-rule is bringing these two great races\ntogether in conventions, with a view to the discovery of some method of\ncooperation between them. Parliamentary government in China and Japan\nhas had its effect in India, and Britain will soon be compelled to admit\nher Indian populations to a larger share in municipal and provincial\nadministration. But democracy can be successful, only when conflicting\nclasses find some basis for harmony. English missionary and educational\ninstitutions are doing much to reconcile Hindus and Mohammedans to one\nanother, and this may prepare the way, not simply for free government,\nbut also for the acceptance by both parties of a religion in which all\ntheir elements of truth are included, while their perversions of truth\nare sloughed off.\n\nBy English educational and missionary institutions I mean much more than\nChurch of England schools and colleges. In Lucknow we visited the\nIsabella Thoburn College, under American Methodist control, and were\ngreatly impressed by its noble equipment in the way of buildings and\nteachers. Both boys and girls have here the opportunity of securing an\neducation as high in grade as the sophomore years of our American\ncolleges, and of preparing themselves for the advanced work of a great\nIndian university. All this is under Christian influences, and has its\nfruit in many a conversion to Christ. Martini\u00e8re College is also nobly\nequipped and endowed, but it is solely for English boys, who are\ngenerally the sons of British officials in India. I cannot speak too\nhighly of these means of education now furnished by all our great\ndenominations, in all the cities of India. I could only wish that our\nBaptist people at home might see how far Christians of other names have\noften surpassed them in their gifts and preparations for the future of a\ncountry whose population is three times as large as our own.\n\nAt Lucknow we had the rare opportunity of seeing \"the mango trick\"\nperformed by an expert juggler. He first showed us a jar, filled with\ninnocent sand, so dry that it fell easily through his fingers as he\nlifted a handful. Then he presented a dry mango seed, which he planted\nin the sand and watered. The jar was placed on the stone pavement of the\nhotel, not ten feet away from our eyes. He covered the jar with a little\ntent not two feet in diameter. After a few passes of the hand, the tent\nwas lifted. The seed had already sprouted, and had become a twig with\nleaves. Covering the plant once more, he called our attention to a\ncobra-charmer, who played harmlessly with a hooded and venomous snake.\nAt last he threw the tent wholly aside, and there stood a fully\ndeveloped little mango tree, perhaps two feet high. It seemed impossible\nthat the folds of the tent, which had been shaken out at the beginning,\ncould possibly have held it. The juggler's method was simplicity itself.\nIf I had not previously seen in America a necromancer cut his wife's\nhead off, and then put it on again so slick that she seemed to have\nreceived no injury, I might have begun to believe that this Indian\njuggler had supernatural powers.\n\nTo Lucknow succeeded Agra. The great wonder and prize of Agra is, of\ncourse, the Taj Mahal. So we made our way to it before sunrise, and saw\nits exquisite columns and its white minarets in the rosy light of the\nearliest morning; then again, as the sun was setting, we saw its last\nrays fall upon the snow-white dome. As one looks upon the Taj from the\nnoble gateway through which one enters the enclosing park, he sees also\nits reflection in the long lines of water that lie between, and it seems\na miracle of beauty. But when you reach the edifice itself, and perceive\nthat its simplicity is combined with lavish richness of decoration,\nmarble and precious stones being so woven together that they form one\ngorgeous and splendid whole, you can only admire the affection that\nplanned this memorial to a beloved wife, and the art which has succeeded\nin constructing an edifice which, after six centuries, is still\nrecognized as a wonder of the world. Yet the Moslem emperor who built it\nwas deposed by his son, and then imprisoned not far away, the chief\nsolace and recreation granted him being this, that from his prison-roof\nhe could look out upon the Taj Mahal.\n\nThe Pearl Mosque and the Jasmine Tower, the Courts of Public and of\nPrivate Audience, in the palace which the Moslem emperor once occupied,\nare monuments of architecture so remarkable and so beautiful, that no\ndescription of mine can fairly represent the impression which they made\nupon me. They are surrounded and protected by the Fort, an enclosure\nhalf a mile square, whose massive wall is itself a wonder. In the days\nwhen these structures were built, labor was cheap, for the monarch had\nonly to impress and to feed his laborers. But artistic genius is always\nrare. The Mohammedan conquest and sovereignty of the past produced and\nencouraged a flowering out of art, comparable to that of the days of\ncathedral-building in England, and of the time of Pericles when\nsculpture and architecture so flourished in Greece. In all the world\nthere is nothing more elaborate or beautiful than the perforated marble\nof these Oriental screens, and the intricate carving of these Oriental\npillars. The Alhambra in Spain has its superiors in India, both for\nsplendor of color and for beauty of pattern. The arabesques of these\nOriental mosques exhibit powers of invention of the highest order. It\nhas been well said that their architects \"designed like Titans, and\nfinished like jewelers.\" Both the throne of the Mogul Emperor Akbar and\nhis tomb in Agra are proofs that even the grain of truth in\nMohammedanism can awaken intelligence and enthusiasm in those who\nreceive it, and that, in the conflict with idol systems, it has power to\nconquer the world.\n\nAn account of our visit to Delhi may well complete my summary of\nMohammedan influences in India. Delhi was the capital of India long\nbefore Akbar reigned and the lofty tower of the Kutab Minar was built.\nBut Hindu influence has combined with Mohammedan in leading the British\nto restore Delhi to its former position as the center of governmental\nauthority. Tradition has handed down a prediction that making Delhi its\ncapital marked the end of each power that asserted itself. Hence there\nhave been many Delhis, as there have been many ancient Romes, and this\npresent Delhi must be succeeded by a new Delhi which British authority\nand resources will build. The new Delhi will be the ninth, as the\npresent Delhi is the eighth, of the long series. Ruins of the earlier\nDelhis are about it on every side. Now, at last, a great tract of land\nhas been appropriated for the new seat of government which will rise\nfrom the dust. Temporary buildings have been erected. The permanent ones\nwill soon follow. We may be sure that they will be splendid and suited\nto modern tastes, while they still preserve the characteristic features\nof Indian architecture.\n\nBy making this new Delhi the British capital of India, it is sought to\nimpress the Oriental mind with Britain's claims to be supreme, while at\nthe same time the old traditional prediction is evaded. Let us hope that\nthe device will accomplish its purpose. The prosperity of India is bound\nup with the recognition by all races and parties of England's right to\nrule. I would not justify all the steps by which Britain has gained her\npower, nor would I ignore certain defects of her later administration.\nBut there is no question as to the general justice of British rule, nor\nas to the fact that, without it, India's warring races and religions\nwould now be the ruin of all peace and progress. When we remember that\nin this land of former famines the population has increased since 1858\nby one hundred millions; that forty-six thousand miles of canals have\nbeen dug for irrigation, and more than twenty-two million acres have\nthereby been reclaimed; that trade has increased in the last\nhalf-century from three hundred millions to fourteen hundred millions;\nthat the value of land is now larger by fifteen hundred millions than\nit was fifty years ago; that there are now thirty-two thousand miles\nof railway in operation and seventy-six thousand miles of telegraph;\nthat the Indian Post Office now handles nine hundred millions of\nletters, newspapers, and other matter every year; we may well doubt\nwhether any conquest of history has brought about so great or so\nbeneficent results as have followed what we must regard as England's\ncommercial absorption of India.\n\nThere are doubtless seditious and anarchistic elements in the Indian\npopulations which need to be kept under and subdued. Let us remember\nthat only one-tenth part of the men, and only one-hundredth part of the\nwomen, know how to read. There is a vast proletarian mass, ignorant and\ninflammable, ready to follow leaders of better education, but less\nprinciple, than themselves. This mass the British Government has failed\nto educate, so that, while ninety per cent of the people in Japan can\nread, in India only one-tenth as many can read. One of the greatest\nmistakes of English administration has been its beginning of education\nat the top, instead of at the bottom. It has established universities,\nbut not elementary schools. The excuse, of course, has been, that\ndifferences of caste and of religion have made it impossible to put\nHindu children and Mohammedan children, Brahman children and Sudra\nchildren, together, in the same schools. And yet, in the universities,\npupils of all these various classes sit side by side, and some plan, it\nwould seem, might have been devised to apply the same rule, so as to\nsecure universal and compulsory elementary education. The higher\neducation, taken alone, has its dangers; it is sought only by people of\nmeans and intelligence; many seek it from no love of learning, but only\nin order to prepare themselves for government offices. But there are not\nenough offices to go round. The disappointed men will not work with\ntheir hands; they find their avocation in the plotting of sedition. It\nis the high-caste educated Brahmans who have edited the malcontent\nperiodicals, and have organized the revolutionary conspiracies, which\nhave of late bred so much trouble for the government in India. I rejoice\ntherefore in the rise of factories, and in the new emphasis that is\nbeing laid on industrial education. These will do much to develop the\nresources of India. But what is most needed is the spirit of peace and\njustice; this is furnished by the gospel of Christ. I therefore believe\nthat the gospel is the only real guaranty to India of its political as\nwell as its religious welfare.\n\nThe Friday prayer-service in the great mosque of Delhi was a striking\nspectacle. The open court in front of the mosque is four hundred and\nfifty feet square, surrounded by a cloister, and paved with granite\ninlaid with marble. Three or four thousand worshipers, in parallel rows,\nstretched from side to side of the great enclosure. At the summons of\nthe mollah, or officiating priest, all these worshipers, in perfect\nunison, prostrated themselves with folded hands, and repeated in a loud\nvoice, \"God is great.\" Each devotee had previously purified himself, by\ncleansing his mouth and hands and feet in the open tank in the center of\nthe great esplanade. Inasmuch as the Delhi mosque is the largest and\nmost splendid east of Cairo, the entire spectacle was most impressive.\n\nIf Turkey had not joined a Christian power by her alliance with Germany,\nMohammedans throughout the world might have taken Germany's side against\nthe Allies, and might have threatened the peace of India. That danger is\nnow providentially averted. The Moslem rulers have held fast to their\nallegiance to the British Crown. This city of Delhi, with the schools of\nthe Methodists, the Anglicans, and the English Baptists, is permeated\nwith religious influences that attract its native populations, and these\ninfluences are continually lessening the prospect of any future\nrebellion such as the mutiny of fifty years ago.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\nJAIPUR, MT. ABU, AND AHMEDABAD\n\n\nIndia, as is well known, is a part of the British Empire, and is under\nthe sway of the British Government. Yet, for administrative purposes, it\nis divided into presidencies, provinces, and native states. The\npresidencies and provinces are wholly administered by British officials.\nThe native states are administered by rajas and other Indian rulers,\nwith the presence in each capital of a resident officer who represents\nthe British Government and who is accessible for consultation in case of\nnecessity. The relations between the rajas and the residents are\nfriendly, and only the gravest matters are referred to the\nrepresentative of the Crown. All other affairs are cared for by the\nnative ruler, who is attended by a distinguished suite and who maintains\nquite a royal court. This species of self-government is the reward,\ngranted by the British Government after the mutiny of 1857, to the\nrulers of the native states, who remained faithful to British interests\nand assisted in the suppression of the great rebellion. The government\nof these native rulers is in general worthy of praise. Many of them are\nprogressive men; they have traveled abroad; they have been affected by\nWestern thought; they have introduced modern reforms and systems of\neducation, to the great benefit of their subjects. In this present hour\nof crisis, the majority of them have been loyal to the British\nGovernment, and have contributed men and means for the cause of the\nAllies. It was interesting in our journey across India to traverse\nseveral of these native states; and it was difficult to observe any\ndifference between these sections and the portions of the empire\nofficered solely by the British. We saw no British soldiers, but only\nnative troops. There was less of English language and custom prevalent.\nThe Hindu, Mohammedan, and Jain seemed to have things very much to\nthemselves. They, after all, are the real India, the hereditary India,\nwhile at the same time they are feeling the influence of modern railways\nand modern commerce.\n\nJaipur, which is the capital of a native state, was especially\ninteresting. It has been called \"The Pink City,\" either because the\nmaharaja owns all the property on the business streets and himself sees\nthat every building is painted of a pink color, or because he compels\nevery private owner to conform to his fixed rules of construction and\ndecoration. At any rate, the wide streets of Jaipur are laid out like\nthose of the homeland, and are lined with pink structures of only one\ntype of architecture and only one type of ornamentation. Even Paris can\npresent no better illustration of the value of supervision in building.\nThere are no sky-scrapers. There are long rows of shops and residences,\nwith arcades in front of them, and with many variations in plan and\ndecoration, while at the same time one tone of pink, together with the\nsky-line and the arcade-line is preserved without important change; the\nOriental type of building is preserved; and there is a uniform style of\narchitecture from one end of the street to the other. No city in the\nworld so well illustrates Mrs. Humphrey Ward's quotation of the poet's\nwords,\n\n A rose-red city, half as old as Time.\n\nIt is not the city of Jaipur, however, which merits our chief attention,\nthough the maharaja's town-palace and his quaint astronomical\nobservatory are both of them deeply interesting. This observatory has no\ntower and no telescope. It shows what can be done by sun-dials and\nstructures almost level with the ground to mark the movements of the\nheavenly bodies, and thus demonstrates that primitive stargazers might\neven thus early acquire a very considerable knowledge of astronomy. The\nscientific and literary tastes of this Oriental monarch are also\nindicated by a noble public library of his own foundation, which\ncontains a priceless collection of books and manuscripts in all the\nlanguages of the East.\n\nBut it is Amber that constitutes the chief attraction of a visit to\nJaipur. Amber is the original metropolis and the ancient seat of\ngovernment, five miles distant from the present Jaipur, and even now the\nsummer residence of the maharaja, though the old city which once lay\naround the rocky fortress has become a waste of ruin. The palace at\nAmber is situated on a hilltop several hundred feet above the level of\nthe plain, and commanding magnificent views of the surrounding\ncountry. Next to the sight of river or sea from a mountain summit, the\nview of broad and level plains stretching far away is most beautiful,\nand such a view the Indian ruler secured when he built his summer\nresidence upon this eminence.\n\nWe came expecting to find India hot, but we have found the northern part\nof India very cool. So it was reviving and refreshing to take the drive\nfrom Jaipur to Amber in an automobile, over a noble roadway with\nslightly ascending grade and skirting an originally splendid palace,\nonce in the center of an island, but now in the bed of a dried-up lake.\nWhen we left the motor-car at the final lofty hill, the deserted city of\nAmber towered above us. How should we reach that threatening height?\nThree gorgeously caparisoned elephants solicited our patronage for the\nascent. But before making that ascent, there was another ascent to make.\nWe had to ascend the elephants. Ladders were brought to our assistance,\nand up the ladders we climbed to the howdah, or square seat on the top\nof the bulky beasts. Each elephant had to carry two passengers. I, on\none side of the animal that bore me, had my weight balanced by that of\nmy courier, who rode on the other side. Each of us was compelled to let\nhis legs dangle over the edge of the howdah. All went well until the\nelephant came to the narrow part of the road. There he evinced a vicious\npropensity to plant his feet close to the edge of the precipice. There\nwas indeed a railing beneath me, but, clinging as I was somewhat\nconvulsively to my slippery seat, the railing was invisible. So I seemed\nto myself at times to be hanging over the abyss. If I slipped from my\nseat, I might fall four hundred feet. It was not a pleasing situation.\nBut the elephant knew his business. He trod the path in perfect\nconfidence. And so, in royal state, though in mind tremendously afloat,\nwe made the long and steep climb, until we reached the palace of the\nking. The maharaja, however, was not at home that day to receive us. He\nis a Hindu devotee, and at the time of our visit he was making a\npilgrimage to Benares, the sacred city. The first thing we saw, when we\nentered the court of his excellency, was the spot where every morning a\nbullock or a goat is sacrificed as an offering to his heathen god.\n\nStill, \"every prospect pleases.\" The views of mountain and plain from\nthis elevation among the hills are so beautiful that one can only admire\nthe taste of the prince who made this his chosen dwelling-place. And the\npalace itself is a fascinating study in art and architecture. Long\ncorridors are turned into cloisters arched and shaded from the sun.\nTanks of water, with fountains playing in the center, provide refreshing\nbaths. Halls of public and of private audience are gorgeous with crimson\nand gold. Temples for worship are added, both for daily devotion and for\ngreat state occasions. In short, here are all the appurtenances of an\nOriental court, combined with private luxury and seclusion. While the\nmultitudes must toil and suffer in the plains below, the maharaja may\nrest and enjoy himself in his hilltop palace. I would not, however,\nimply that this particular monarch is not in many respects a\nlarge-minded and liberal man. The many evidences of his taste and public\nspirit in Jaipur rectify any wrong impressions one might gain from a\nvisit to Amber.\n\nThe next day we reached a station called Abu Road, four hundred miles\nto the south of Delhi, and about half-way to Bombay. True to its name,\nAbu Road furnished us the road to Abu Mountain. Again we proceeded by\nmotor-car, that great annihilator of distance in a foreign land. This\nroad, in its gradual ascent, is a noble piece of engineering. It is\nexceedingly tortuous, for it follows the contour of the mountain in\nmarvelously skilful curves. All the way for two hours, and covering an\nascent of four thousand five hundred feet, there are enchanting views.\nTropical birds and trees were on every hand, together with cactus of\nmany varieties; green and red parrots screamed through the air; peacocks\nspread themselves in the sun; and monkeys scampered across our path.\n\nOne of the spurs of Mt. Abu is called Dilwarra. It is the seat of the\nchief temple in India of the Jains, that Hindu sect which claims to have\npreserved the ancient religion of the Vedas, and to have kept it true to\nthe ancestral faith. As I have before remarked, the Jains aim to escape\nthe possible miseries of transmigration, and to attain the bliss of\nNirvana, even in the present life. Jainism, like every other heathen\nsystem, is an effort to earn salvation by labors and sacrifices of\none's own. Its works of righteousness, however, are often uncalled-for\nexaggerations of natural virtues, such as counting sacred all forms of\nanimal and vegetable life. The most devoted of the sect wear a cloth\nover their mouths, lest they should destroy an insect by swallowing\nit. To found hospitals for the care of parrots and monkeys is one of\nthe most approved works of merit. So also it is a work of merit to\nbuild a temple or to endow it. Jain temples are full of images, and\nthe chief object of worship is honored by their multiplication. Buddha\nis recognized as one of the divine incarnations, and in some sense\nBuddha is worshiped. But it must be remembered that even in Jainism\nBuddha is only a memory. He has entered into Nirvana, and has passed\nout of conscious existence. Now that he has attained that state of\npassivity, he has no eye to pity and no arm to save. And yet in this\nJain temple images of Buddha are worshiped, and these images are\nnumbered by the hundreds.\n\nAll this aberration from the truth does not prevent the temple from\nbeing almost a miracle of art. There is a scrupulous cleanliness about\nit which differences it from other heathen temples, like that of Kali.\nIn the Jain temples there are no animal sacrifices, for all animal\nlife is sacred. But there are little houses for feeding the birds;\nlarger houses for feeding the beasts; and tombs for departed saints\nand teachers. And let it be specially borne in mind that in all the\nworld there are no more splendid examples of arches, domes, and\nshrines, decorated with elaborate and intricate carvings, than are\nfound here in Dilwarra. Its arabesques of perforated white marble an\ninch and a half thick are like lace-work in their delicacy and beauty.\nInvention could go no farther in devising an infinite variety of\ngeometric traceries. We in the West have much to learn from the\nartistic genius and labor of the East.\n\nAnother day's ride, or rather, another night's ride, brought us to a\ncity of a very different sort from Jaipur, and to a very different\nenvironment from that of Mt. Abu. It brought us to the busy metropolis\nof Ahmedabad. Here is also a city in a state under a native ruler, but a\ncity so prosperous that native rule is seen to be by no means slovenly\nor indolent. On the way from the station I counted eighteen lofty\nchimneys belonging to manufacturing establishments. There are eighty\nfactories in this busy center, chiefly connected with the cotton\nindustry. In this industrial expansion is revealed the solution of many\nof India's financial problems. The population is now too exclusively\nemployed in agriculture, and its manufactured articles are imported. But\nthe rains are so uncertain that the farmer's subsistence is precarious,\nand famines claim thousands of victims. Hence, next to Christianity,\nIndia needs industrial development. This has been the view of recent\nBritish governors. Better methods of irrigation and of cultivation have\nbeen supplemented by the introduction of new instruments of manufacture.\nBoth English and American machines now do much of the work that was\nformerly done by hand, and in the cities there is growing up a new\nmanufacturing population.\n\nIndustrial missions are a great blessing to India, and our religious\ndenominations have shown their practical sense by entering upon this\nsort of work. When a native becomes a convert to Christianity, he is\noften thrown out of caste by his family, and out of labor by his\nemployers. He must support himself; he must find something to do. But he\nis friendless and helpless, unless he can find friendship and help in\nthe mission where he has been converted. It is necessary to secure\nemployment for him, if he is not to become an encumbrance to the\nmission and to himself. Hence I welcome all gifts for industrial\nmissions that will teach men new methods of obtaining a livelihood.\nIndia, as I have said, has a vast agricultural population, now scantily\nsubsisting and subject to occasional famines. Multitudes who are now\nidle might be usefully employed. The change now going on in our Southern\nStates might well go on in Southern India, and I welcome the sight of\nthe factory chimneys of Ahmedabad.\n\nAhmedabad is not yet converted to Christianity. It is a celebrated\nstronghold of Jainism, and here is another most splendid temple. It\nwas instructive to see the little houses on poles for the care of\nbirds, and for the feeding of lazy monkeys, while the poor and sick of\nhuman kind in the neighborhood begged in vain for help. The Jain\ntemples are noted in all India for their beauty. Carving and gilding\ncan go no farther than they have gone in the decoration of this shrine\nin Ahmedabad. But the troop of monkeys that came to us in the park to\nbe fed, seemed to us quite as sensitive to human needs as were the\nholy men who sat about that temple of the Jains, for these latter\ndevotees use God's gifts not rationally, but for inferior ends, and\nespecially for their own interest and comfort. Ahmedabad is an\nexample, not of the worst, but still of a misplaced, religious zeal\nthat has lost its bearings because it has lost its God.\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\nBOMBAY, KEDGAON, AND MADRAS\n\n\nBombay is a great city, the second, in population, of the British Empire\nin India. While Calcutta has over a million people, Bombay comes only a\nfew short of that number. Its commerce is immense; its public buildings\nare fashioned after European models; its streets are broad and finely\npaved; there is every evidence of wealth and cultivation. But Hindus\ngreatly outnumber Mohammedans; Parsees are strong; Christians are\nactive, but still comparatively few. In thought and customs, Bombay is\nstill essentially Oriental, while yet profoundly influenced by modern\nnewspapers and modern inventions. It was a memorable change for us\ntravelers to emerge from its Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and then to find\nourselves, first in its Caves of Elephanta, and secondly, in its\nTowers of Silence.\n\nA word of explanation is necessary for each of these notable objects of\ninterest. Elephanta is a little island eight miles from Bombay, and so\nnamed because of its general resemblance in shape to an elephant.\nElephanta Island forms a beautiful object as seen from the deck of the\nlittle steamer that serves for a ferry, and the views from the summit of\nElephanta Hill, over the Bombay Bay, with the gleaming towers of the\ngreen city in the distance, are very charming. The island is a great\nresort, however, not so much for the views therefrom, as because it is\nthe seat of a rock-hewn temple excavated centuries ago in honor of Siva,\nthe Hindu god, whose province it is to destroy. Brahma is the Creator;\nVishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer. Siva was the god of\nreproduction, however, as well as the god who destroys, and his worship\nhas been often connected with obscene and lascivious rites.\n\nThe approach to Siva's temple is through a lovely garden, in which are\nmany splendid specimens of tropical vegetation. At last there appears to\nthe visitor, in the side of the precipitous hill, a massive portico,\nwith four immense pillars, all hewn out of the solid rock. Then come\nlong rows of similar columns leading darkly like a cathedral nave into\nthe stony hill, and terminating at the altar, above which towers the\nstatue of Siva, colossal in size, with Parvati, his goddess wife, by his\nside, and all the emblems of his authority, as scepter and sword, around\nhim. The statue seems to express the joy of sovereignty, and, though\nsomewhat mutilated, it is noticeably free from the immoral suggestions\nwhich have been intimated in many descriptions of it. Entrance to the\nstatue is flanked by great guardian statues, and the whole chancel, so\nto speak, is enclosed by a broad and lofty corridor, in the manner of\ncathedral architecture. From this corridor on either side, many nooks in\nthe rock have been excavated, like chantry chapels, each with its\nseparate statue at least twenty feet in height. The whole Hindu\npantheon, seems to be represented by carved figures, but all cluster\nabout the god Siva. The really characteristic and indispensable feature\nof these caves is, however, still to be mentioned. It is the image of\nthe lingam, or phallus, gigantic in size, and carven out of solid stone,\nin the innermost shrine, where it is the object of hysterical or lustful\nworship. Every year, on an appointed feast-day, three or four thousand\npeople throng to this shrine, some to pray for offspring, others to seek\nlicense for illicit pleasure. Elephanta has become in this way the\nsymbol and propagator of a debasing superstition. Such worship is only a\ndeification of the lower instincts of human nature.\n\nReturning to Bombay, it was natural to think of the Towers of Silence,\nfor these too are located on a lovely eminence, called the Malabar Hill,\nand overlooking the city and the bay. These towers are enclosures in\nwhich the Parsees, a most intelligent, wealthy, and influential sect,\ndispose of the bodies of their dead, by laying the forms in the open air\nwhere they can be devoured by vultures. The towers themselves are at\nleast half a dozen in number, and they vary in size. But the style of\ntheir construction is uniform. Inside of a lofty circular wall are\nconcentric beds of stone, each with its groove in which a corpse can be\nlaid. There are three concentric circles, the outermost for men, the\nnext inner for women, the innermost for children. The structure has no\nroof, but is open to the air. Great flocks of vultures perch upon the\ntop of the outermost enclosing wall, waiting in silence and expectation\nfor the time when they can descend upon their prey. Only a half-hour\nelapses after a body is laid on its stony bed, before these ravenous\nbirds have torn every morsel of flesh from its bones. The skeleton is\nthen left to disintegrate by the action of the elements, until the rains\nwash the remaining dust into a great pit at the center of the circles,\nfrom which receptacle the refuse is conducted away by drains during the\nrainy season, to mingle with the surrounding earth.\n\nThis is the Parsees' \"ashes to ashes, dust to dust.\" They glory in this\nmethod of disposing of their dead, and they think it far more natural\nand impressive than the common Hindu method of cremation. We must grant\nthat all methods of disposing of the dead are painful. But faith in a\nresurrection of the body is surely most in consonance with our\ntime-honored custom of laying our dead away in their kindred earth,\n\"until the day dawns, and the shadows flee away.\"\n\nFrom Bombay to the town of Kedgaon may seem to some a descent from great\nto small. Not so; it is rather an ascent from the false to the true,\nfrom the impure to the pure, from the illusory to the real. For Kedgaon\nis the home, and center of the work, of Pundita Ramabai, perhaps the\nmost learned, and certainly the most influential Christian woman in\nIndia. The very name pundita is given only to those of high intellectual\nattainments. A Hindu of the highest, that is the Brahman, caste, she was\nmany years ago converted to Christianity, and she has devoted all her\npowers to the education and uplifting of her countrywomen. Her father\nwas a great Sanskrit scholar. He was one of the first in India to\ndetermine that his daughter should be a learned woman. Accordingly she\nwas thoroughly instructed. She knew by heart the sacred scriptures of\nher people long before she became a Christian. She could repeat from\nmemory an amount of them equal to that of our whole English Bible. It is\nespecially the improvement of the condition of women, and particularly\nof child-widows, to which she has devoted her attention. The condition\nof the child-widow in India is most pitiable. She is held responsible\nfor the death of her husband, no matter how young she may be. She is\nsubjected to indignities. Her hair is entirely shaven from her head. Her\njewels are taken from her. Her bright clothing is taken away, and she is\nclad in the coarsest garments. She becomes the slave of the family;\nvirtually an outcast; frequently a prostitute. She can never remarry, no\nmatter how young she may be at the beginning of her widowhood.\n\nIt was to ameliorate this condition of affairs that Pundita Ramabai set\nherself many years ago. She gathered child-widows under her protection,\nsurrounded them with Christian influences, and gave them a Christian\neducation. A time of famine threw upon her care in one year twenty-four\nhundred girls, who depended upon her alone for food to keep them from\nstarving. That time of great distress is now past, but when we remember\nthat in India there are estimated to be as many as two millions of\nchild-widows, it will be clear that the need of a refuge for such is\nstill immensely great. Girls of the highest caste are in the greatest\nneed, for among the lower classes the reproach of child-widowhood is not\nso strongly felt. It was the sorrows of girls belonging to her own\nBrahman caste, married perhaps at the age of eight or ten to husbands\nfive times their own age, and then made practically outcasts by those\nhusbands' death, that most touched the heart of Ramabai. It is wonderful\nwhat she has already accomplished. We found on her extensive premises a\ngreat assembly-room which has sheltered at one time twenty-six hundred\nauditors; schools of every grade for Hindu girls, including a school for\nthe blind; a large and commodious hospital; a printing office with\npresses capable of turning out a high order of typography; an asylum for\nlepers; a rescue-home for unfortunate girls; normal classes for teachers\nand for nurses; training in sewing, embroidery, and weaving; and many\nanother sort of Christian service, including the work of the factory and\nthe farm. Every species of cooking on the premises, and all the care of\nthe rooms and houses, is done by the girls themselves, so that all of\nthem are taught how to support themselves when they leave the\ninstitution. Three hours a day for industrial work, and three hours a\nday for schooling, is the uniform rule. One can imagine the far-reaching\ninfluence of this institution, if he remembers that out of the\ntwenty-four hundred scholars who were received and taught in that\ndreadful time of famine, more than fifteen hundred were child-widows and\nmany of them of the highest caste.\n\nRamabai is a great scholar. She has translated and printed the whole New\nTestament, in the colloquial Mahrati dialect, for the benefit of the\npoor women in her district. She is now engaged upon the Psalms and the\nbook of Genesis, with the hope of finishing the whole Old Testament.\nNumberless tracts of her composition have gone out into all parts of\nIndia. Her graduates become not only teachers, but also evangelists. No\none can measure the extent of her present influence, as showing what a\nnative woman in India can do, in the way of breaking down caste,\noverthrowing pernicious customs, and demonstrating to a benighted\nheathen world the superior claims of Christian truth. We left Ramabai,\ninvoking a blessing upon her head and upon Manorama, her daughter, who\nbids fair to prove her worthy successor. Ramabai, by her intellectual\ngifts, her executive ability, and above all by her Christian devotion,\ndeserves honor from all lovers of Christ and his gospel.\n\nAs we neared Madras, the third largest city of India, the heat began to\noppress us. Up to this time India had been unexpectedly and refreshingly\ncool, at night even cold. But now it was unpleasantly warm. The heat\nreminded us of the conundrum: \"Why is India, although so hot, the\ncoldest country on the globe?\" Answer: \"Because the hottest thing in it\nis chilly\" (\"chili\" is the peppery sauce which the natives mix with\nother spices to form \"curry\"). We have learned to like curry. I cannot\nunderstand it; but if seems as if the hottest countries needed the\nhottest kinds of food. At any rate we had a warm welcome in Madras,\nthirteen degrees in latitude above the equator. We were fortunate in\nreaching this fine city during the session of all our Baptist\nmissionaries in the South India, or Telugu, field--that field which a\nfew years ago witnessed the baptism of 2,222 converts in one day. It\nwas a remarkable illustration of the family and tribal spirit in\nIndia. We Baptists believe in individual conversions, and we seek\nevidence, in every case, of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. But the\ncoherence of the family and the village is so strong in a heathen\ncommunity, that the lot of the individual Christian is often\nexceedingly hard. Occasionally there is apostasy. The resistance of an\nimportant man to the gospel makes the persistence of his dependents in\nthe gospel-way almost impossible.\n\nIn some quarters, however, whole families and whole clans have been\nblessedly converted, and idolatry has been completely eradicated. In\nother cases where mass movements have taken place, certain\nmissionaries have found it physically impossible to sift out each\ndoubtful individual, and for safety have demanded that the whole\nfamily or clan or village shall give up idolatry before any single\nindividual convert has been received for church-membership. To combine\nstrict faith and practice, according to the New Testament standard,\nwith a proper respect for local customs and traditions, demands great\nwisdom in our missionaries, and makes their conferences very practical\nand very necessary. Certain it is that in our Baptist missions abroad\ngreater care is exercised in receiving members than that to which we\nare accustomed in the homeland. The missionary cannot afford to have\nfalse disciples in the flock, if he knows it, for \"one sinner\ndestroyeth much good.\"\n\nNew Year's Day at Madras was full of interest. Lady Pentland, wife of\nthe governor of the Madras Presidency, invited us to a New Year's\ngarden-party. An open-air gathering of any sort on the first day of\nJanuary would have been a novelty to us, but this one found the\natmosphere so balmy and the vegetation so green, that such a party was\na positive delight. The avenues of approach to the governor's residence\nwere lined with the body-guard of his excellency, stationed in twos\nalong the way, and clad in scarlet The reception took place under a\nwide-spreading tree, on a spacious lawn. There were as many as a\nthousand guests. It was a gay and beautiful scene. Hindu and Moslem,\nParsee and Christian, all met together. It was an exhibition of loyalty\nto the British Crown, as well as a proof that just government may yet\nweld all India's classes and castes together. Lord Pentland spoke to us\nmost pleasantly of certain members of his family whom we had met in\nAmerica, and Lady Pentland showed herself to be a charming hostess.\n\nBut a reception still more charming to us was the reception which the\nRochester men gave us that same New Year's night, at the bungalow of\nDoctor Ferguson, close to the Day Memorial Chapel, where the sessions of\nthe conference were held. At least ten of our graduates sat down to\nsupper, together with their wives. Subsequently, from adjoining rooms,\nother members of the conference came in to the New Year's reception,\nwhich is an annual affair. The United States consul dropped in, with a\nfew other guests, until the total number could not have been far from\neighty. It was like a family gathering. When I remembered that the\nTelugu Mission was once called \"The Lone-Star Mission,\" and was in\ndanger of being given up, and when I noted that it now numbers one\nhundred and sixty-eight churches and a church-membership of more than\nseventy thousand, I could but say, \"What hath God wrought!\"\n\n\n\n\nX\n\nTHE TELUGU MISSION\n\n\nMadras is the greatest city of South India, and ranks next to Calcutta\nand Bombay in thrift and importance. Tamil and Telugu are the two\nlanguages of the extensive Madras Presidency, the former prevailing most\nto the south, the latter to the north. They are cognate tongues, and\nboth are derived from the Sanskrit. Our American Congregationalists have\ndone most for the Tamils; we Baptists have done most for the Telugus.\nThe Telugus number twenty-six millions. Though Madras is near their\nsouthern border, it is the best starting-point for our description.\n\nNext to our mission in Burma, the Telugu mission has been most blessed\nby God. The famine of 1876 was followed by a wonderful revival, in\nwhich a nation seemed to be born in a day. The people accepted Christ\nby the thousands, and twenty-two hundred were at one time baptized.\nEvangelization has been followed by education. While our organized\nTelugu churches number 168, and our church-members 70,000, we have 819\nschools of all grades, and 28,781 pupils under instruction. The needs\nof the body have been cared for, as well as the needs of the soul, for\nthere are fourteen hospitals and dispensaries, ministering to 8,067\npatients.\n\nIn such a mass movement as that among the Telugus, it was inevitable\nthat the organization of the converts into distinct, self-governing,\nself-supporting, and self-propagating churches should be a gradual\nprocess and should require time. The poverty of the people was an\nobstacle to self-support. But Christian teaching has made them models of\nliberality, and it was touching to see the church-members come forward\nat the close of the Sunday morning service with their thank-offerings.\nIn fact, these Telugu churches, in the support of their native ministry,\nare in large measure independent of foreign financial aid. It is certain\nthat, so long as religion is an exotic, its existence will be\nprecarious. The plant in the pot needs, for permanence, to become a tree\nrooted in the soil. Self-government is as necessary as self-support, and\nself-propagation is equally important, if the Christianity of the native\nis ever to become indigenous. These aims have been dominant in recent\nyears, and we have been permitted to witness scenes which demonstrate\nthe power of God to make multitudes of people, of the lowest class,\nintelligent, liberal, and aggressive Christians.\n\nI must take four separate stations as illustrations of my thesis.\nFortunately, all of these stations are now under the administration of\nRochester men, whom I am proud to recognize as my former pupils. But\nbefore I proceed to describe our experiences with them, I must to some\nextent repeat what I have said in my last letter about Madras and the\nconference there at the house of Doctor Ferguson. Because Madras is the\ngreatest city of South India, it is the natural source of supplies and\nthe easiest place of gathering for our Telugu missionaries, even though\nmost of them live and work much farther to the north. The principle of\nhome rule requires such gathering, and the missionary at Madras, without\nseeking it, naturally becomes a sort of secretary and treasurer and\nentertainer of the whole body of Telugu workers. No one could be\nbetter adapted to this position of responsibility than is Doctor\nFerguson. His abounding hospitality and his command of the whole\nsituation make him sought as a counselor and as a leader. As the older\nmen, like Clough and Downie, pass away, Doctor Ferguson, by common\nconsent, forges to the front. The present prosperity and harmony of\nthe Telugu mission are largely due to his unassuming and welcome\ninfluence. He too is a man whose scholarship and character reflect\nhonor upon the Rochester Theological Seminary, where he sat under my\ninstruction twenty-two years ago.\n\nComing now to our stations north of Madras, I begin with the Theological\nSeminary at Ramapatnam, in charge of the Rev. Dr. Jacob Heinrichs. Its\nstudents met us at the entrance of the mission compound, and we passed\nunder an arch over which were inscribed the words, \"Welcome to Dr. and\nMrs. Strong.\" We had garlands of flowers thrown about our necks, and we\nwere sprinkled with eau de Cologne. In the large assembly-room of the\nseminary, we listened to addresses in excellent English from pupils of\nthe higher grades, and we made responses in the same language, which\nwere interpreted to the scholars of the lower classes by the pastor of\nthe village church. A beautiful casket of carved ivory and pearl was\npresented to us, containing engrossed copies of the addresses delivered\nby the students. There was singing of hymns, both in English and in\nTelugu, by choir and congregation. The beauty of it all was its\nspontaneity and naturalness, for the pupils themselves had planned and\nexecuted the whole program.\n\nInstruction in this seminary is largely biblical. Preachers are prepared\nfor their work by being grounded in the life of Christ and the life of\nPaul. The text-books have been written by Doctor Heinrichs himself, and\nthey are so well adapted to their purpose that they have been\nextensively used by seminaries of other denominations than the Baptist.\nA native Christian literature has been created for the Telugus,\nbeginning with the Bible, but now embracing church history, theology,\nethics, and something of modern science. It must not be thought that\nthe teaching is exclusively religious. Our seminary, and all our\nschools of lower grade, are affiliated with the government system of\neducation, and in all their lower grades are subject to government\ninspection. So far as they conform to government standards of\nthoroughness, they receive government grants of financial aid. British\nIndia is impartial--aid is also given to Hindu and to Mohammedan\nschools. But Christian schools can well stand competition with these\nother systems, for the methods of our Christian schools are more\nmodern and more rational. We left Ramapatnam, convinced that India is\nreceiving from the work of Doctor Heinrichs an inestimable blessing.\nThrough a long series of years he has been training preachers and\nteachers for this whole Telugu land, and much fruit is appearing in a\nnew type of New Testament pastors and evangelists.\n\nOngole, one hundred and eighty-one miles north of Madras, was the scene\nof the great revival. Here too we were received most royally. A crowd of\nchurch-members waited for us at the railway station and flocked round\nour carriage as we passed to the mission compound. On the way, a company\nof Telugu athletes entertained us at intervals by their feats of ground\nand lofty tumbling. It was their native way of welcoming distinguished\nguests. Dr. James M. Baker has ably succeeded Dr. J. E. Clough in the\nwork of administering and organizing this important field. The Ongole\nchurch of twelve thousand members, with its connected schools, is enough\nto tax the resources of the ablest man. The new Clough Memorial Hospital\nhad its beginning while we were in Ongole, in the laying of the\ncorner-stone of a gateway in honor of Dr. S. F. Smith, who wrote, \"Shine\non, Lone Star,\" as well as \"My Country, 'Tis of Thee.\" Mrs. Strong, with\na silver trowel, made its foundation sure, while the English deputy\ncollector for the district represented the government, and I had the\nprivilege of making an address to a great mixed audience of Hindus and\nMohammedans as well as Christians.\n\nOur most thrilling experience in connection with Ongole I am yet to\nrelate. We wished to see the heart of India, as we had seen the heart of\nChina and the heart of Burma. We could do this only by taking part in\none of Doctor Baker's country tours. Every year he takes advantage of\nthe favorable weather centering about mid-winter, to spend two solid\nmonths in visiting the villages which throng these fertile plains. With\ntent and equipment for cooking, he penetrates these swarming heathen\ncommunities and carries to them the gospel of Christ. It was over some\nfearful roads that our two-pony, two-seated buggy enabled us to\naccompany him. Government roads are one thing; native roads are quite\nanother. Sudden descents to fordable streams and sudden ascents to the\nopposite banks are succeeded by long stretches of passage through\ncultivated fields, where there appears no sign of road at all. At last\nwe reached the village of Naletur. Under the shadow of a great tree we\nfound at least a thousand people assembled, sitting on the ground\nbordered by a broad fringe of men and women standing on the outside, and\nsupplemented by a score of half-naked Zaccheus-like hearers perched in\nthe branches of the trees. Mrs. Baker, awaiting the coming of her\nhusband and his guests, had been holding this motley audience for two\nhours with selections from the gramophone, with illustrated Scripture\nlessons and pictures from the Life of Christ, and by calling on her\n\"band\" for \"music\" with a big drum, castanets, cymbals, and various\nother instruments of Indian manipulation. Salvation Army methods have\ngreat influence over a childlike people, and Mrs. Baker would make, in\ncase of necessity, a first-class Salvation Army lassie. In fact, no act\nof missionary humility has struck our eyes as more pathetic and true,\nthan that of Mrs. Baker, beating a big drum to the time of native music,\nin order to hold an audience for the hearing of the gospel. The\namphitheater of dusky faces, massed together and intently listening,\nwith Christians on one side and heathen on the other, seemed like a\nreproduction of the days \"when Jesus was here among men,\" and a\nprophecy of the great final Day when our Lord, the Judge, will separate\nthe sheep from the goats.\n\nThat evening we left the grove and entered the village with fife and\ndrum, attracting auditors, and held a torchlight meeting in the\nmarket-place. There was preaching, and the chanting, in rhythm but not\nrhyme, of a versified story of the life of Christ. The missionaries\nmake much of this sort of Telugu singing. There was the same crowd of\nauditors that had met us in the afternoon, but now the intermittent\nlight of the torches made the scene seem to be flashing rays of\nconviction into many a troubled breast, and I wished that some great\npainter could immortalize the picture upon canvas, for no one can\nunderstand missions to the heathen without picturing to himself such\npreaching.\n\nThe next morning, on our way back to Ongole, we visited the famous spot\non the river bank at Vellumpilly where, in 1878, 2,222 believers were\nbaptized. On Sunday we attended a service of the mission church, where a\nnative pastor officiated and at least fifteen hundred persons in\naddition to the missionaries were present, though several hundreds of\nscholars were absent on account of the holiday vacation. And finally, at\nthe sunset hour on that memorable Sabbath Day, we ascended\nPrayer-meeting Hill, where Doctor Jewett, Mrs. Jewett, and two others\nmet on New Year's Day fifty years ago, looked out over the great\nsurrounding plain, and prayed the Lord to give them the Telugus, as John\nKnox of old prayed, \"Give me Scotland, or I die!\" In both cases prayer\nwas answered, and we hope the more recent prayers offered on that\nhistoric spot in January, 1917, will also be answered. The Telugus are\ngradually being won, and we ourselves were witnesses to that fact when,\nat the village of Naletur, we beheld the baptism of eleven new converts,\nnine stalwart young men and two married women.\n\nKavali is next to be mentioned. Here is a work for the gradual\nreformation of criminals and the industrial regeneration of India. In\nthis land of poverty and famine, our converts, when turned out of house\nand home, need new means of earning a livelihood. There is in India a\nhereditary criminal class which, like the thugs of a former generation,\nmake it a sort of religion to prey upon their fellow countrymen. The\nBritish Government has been almost powerless either to subdue or to\nreform such offenders. Something more than mere justice is required in\ntheir treatment. The Government is recognizing the value of Christian\neducation and supervision, and has recently put large tracts of\nterritory into the hands of the Salvation Army, the Methodists, and the\nBaptists, with a view to combining compulsory work and paternal\ninfluence in the reform of the criminal classes. The Rev. Samuel D.\nBawden, at Kavali, has charge of over eight hundred such people, and is\nteaching them agriculture and all manner of trades. Mr. Bawden is one of\nthe graduates of our theological seminary. He was for several years\nchaplain of our House of Refuge at Rochester. Physically and mentally he\nis a remarkable man, an athlete and almost a giant, a man of science and\na man of faith. It needs all these gifts to dominate and lead toward\nChrist eight hundred born thieves. I know of no more self-sacrificing\nand Christlike work than that which brother Bawden is doing.\n\nThe success of it proves its value. There are no prison walls, though\nleaving the community is followed by pursuit and recommittal. There are\nno punishments except deprivation of food-wages. Each member of the\ncommunity is paid in food, and in proportion to the extent of his labor.\nIf he will not work, neither can he eat. Opportunities for education are\ngiven to all. There is even a church, made up of converted convicts. The\nfaithful among these Erukalas, as they are called, are made monitors and\nhelpers to their weaker fellows. Squads are sent out from five to twenty\nmiles, to build and repair the roads, with only an unarmed comrade for\noverseer. Nothing is given but education and Christian influence.\nEverything for the physical man is earned. In this way hundreds of\nreformed criminals learn to gain their own living and to lead an honest\nlife. It was pathetic to receive the welcome of these humble men, and to\nsee their reverence and affection for their \"big father,\" Mr. Bawden. We\nheard them greet him as \"our savior.\" To show their respect for Mr.\nBawden's former theological instructor, these poor men subscribed of\ntheir scanty means and hired a large gasoline street lamp to illuminate\nthe evening service.\n\nI have reserved to the last my account of our visit to Nellore. Nellore\nis last, but not least, for this was our first permanent mission station\nin South India. Work was indeed begun at Vizagapatam in 1836, but in\n1837 it was moved to Madras, and in 1840 to Nellore, Madras being\nreopened in 1878. Nellore is one hundred and seven miles north of\nMadras, on the main line of railway, and sixteen miles from the\nseacoast. In the Nellore field we have six churches, and a total of\nnine hundred and twenty-six members. It is our Baptist schools that\nmost attract our attention. The Coles-Ackerman High School, in charge\nof the Rev. L. C. Smith, has more than eight hundred pupils, and is a\ngreat credit to our denomination. Bible classes and special preaching\nservices for students are conducted with enthusiasm by our young\nmissionaries, Smith and Manley, and they bring good results. There are\nalso in Nellore a high school for girls, a hospital for women, and a\nnurses' training-school, all under the direction of our Woman's\nSociety. In these schools, Miss Tencate and Miss Carman are\nrepresentatives of Rochester.\n\nThe general work of the mission is presided over by the Rev. Charles\nRutherford, one of my former pupils and graduates. Mr. Rutherford is the\nyoung and able successor of Dr. David Downie, a much older Rochester\nman, and one of the pioneers and leaders of the Telugu Mission. He\ngraduated from Rochester in 1872, the year in which I began my work as\npresident of the seminary. I cannot easily express my gratification at\nfinding him in South India to welcome me, and to accompany me during a\nlarge part of my stay on this field. Few men have so noble a record.\nThough he retired from active service ten years ago, and is now devoting\nhimself to writing the history of the mission, he is still vigorous in\nmind and heart, and to meet him is to come in contact with \"an\nincarnation\"--an incarnation of the missionary spirit. He has seen \"the\nlittle one\" become not only \"a thousand,\" but well nigh a hundred\nthousand. His faith is great, that this whole Telugu Land will bow to\nChrist's scepter. Long may he live, to bless India and the world!\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\nTHE DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES\n\n\nThe Dravidians are supposed by most ethnologists to have been the\naborigines of India. When they were subdued by the Aryans from the\nnorth, they were crowded southward and were compelled to serve their\nconquerors. This subjugation was the origin of caste; the weaker became\nhewers of wood and drawers of water for the stronger. The Brahman would\nhave no social intercourse with the Sudra, and thought even his touch a\nprofanation. For the Brahman represented Brahma, was in fact Brahma\nincarnate, while the Sudra was a manifestation of deity in inferior\nclay. Yet the Brahman needed the Sudra, and had to propitiate him in\norder to use him. So the Aryan absorbed into his own system some of the\nDravidian gods, and usually did so by marrying to Dravidian female\ndivinities male deities of his own. Siva, the Aryan god, for example,\ntook for his wife the Dravidian goddess Kali. In many ways like this,\nthe Aryan and the Dravidian united to form the Hindu. The Hindu religion\nis a composite--a corruption of the nature-worship of the earlier Vedas\nby its union with the more cruel and debasing features of the Dravidian\nidolatry. The renowned temples of Southern India best represent this\nmongrel form of Hinduism, and show Hinduism in its most corrupt\ndevelopment under Dravidian influences.\n\nThe massiveness and vastness of these temples demonstrate the power of\nthe religious instinct in man, even when that instinct is most\nperverted. With all their grossness and crudity, these shrines reveal a\nwealth of imagination and an artistic inventiveness, which furnish\nobject-lessons to the most cultivated Occidental mind. We wonder what\nthe East could really have accomplished, if its native gifts had been\nunder the control of Christian truth. Unfortunately, those gifts were\ncommonly under the control of the baser instincts. Paul's philosophy of\nheathenism is far more correct than that of many a modern writer on\ncomparative religion. Only an ancestral sin can explain man's universal\nignorance and depravity. Because he would not retain God in his\nknowledge, he was given up to the dominion of vile affections, to show\nhim his need of a divine redemption.\n\nTanjore and Madura are the seats of the Dravidian temples which we\nvisited. Tanjore is two hundred miles south of Madras, and fifty miles\nfrom the Bay of Bengal. It is in the Presidency of Madras, but European\ninfluences have not greatly changed its prevailingly native aspect. The\nhalf-naked coolies, and the children clothed only in sunshine, show how\ninveterate are custom and poverty. The great Tanjore temple is the\ncenter of worship for a hundred miles round. It is built on a stupendous\nscale. It consists of a series of courts, in the midst of which are two\ntremendous towers or gopuras, as the technical term should be. Its\nprincipal tower, is pyramidal in form, is two hundred feet in height, is\ncovered with row after row of colossal carvings of gods and goddesses,\nand is surmounted by an immense dome-shaped and gilded top of solid\nstone, said to have been brought to its place upon an inclined plane\nfrom the quarry four miles away. The gateway leading to the temple is\nitself an enormous structure. It opens upon a court eight hundred feet\nlong by four hundred feet wide, the walls of which enclose an endless\nsuccession of little chapels, each one of which has at its back a rude\npicture of some incarnation of Vishnu or Krishna, and in front of each\npicture there stands erect an image in stone of the lingam or phallus.\n\nA great platform, in the center of the court, houses, beneath a gorgeous\ncanopy, an immense black granite image of a bull, the favorite animal of\nSiva, carved out of a single block sixteen feet long and twelve feet\nhigh, and kept perpetually shining by anointings of holy oil. The\nimagination of the worshiper is thus excited by successive statues and\npictures, until at last he reaches the tremendous pyramidal tower, or\ngopura, which portrays and symbolizes the power of the heathen god to\ndestroy and to recreate. That massive tower, superimposed above the idol\nand forming its magnificent abiding-place, has no superior in all India\nfor grandeur. Mr. Fergusson, the distinguished writer on architecture,\ncalls it the most beautiful and effective of all the towers found in\nDravidian temples. The sculptures in the long and dimly lighted\ncorridors at the base of the temple, and in the first tiers of the\ntower, are wonderfully realistic representations of a sensual and\nferocious deity. But, as you stand in the court, and look up the sides\nof the tower to the gilded pinnacle on its dome, you discover that all\nthe upper rows of gods and demons are of stucco. Money evidently gave\nout, as the structure rose, and plaster took the place of stone.\n\nThe appurtenances of the temple are tawdry and childish. Huge cars, in\nwhich images of the gods are carried about at times of festival, stand\nin the courtyard. Each car has its bejeweled beast for the god or\ngoddess to ride--a wooden elephant, a wooden bull, a wooden rat--each\nwith trappings of many-colored glass, to imitate rubies and diamonds,\nand each with its escort of dusky priests, not forgetting to follow the\nforeign visitor and hold out their hands for alms. Yet in these\ncorridors there were prostrated many absorbed and eager worshipers,\nseeking protection or aid from a deity more demonlike than divine. One's\nheart grew sick as he realized that, still in these latter days,\n\n The heathen in his blindness\n Bows down to wood and stone,\n\nand worships in a temple which exhibits in its halls a hundred immense\nimages of the male organ of generation.\n\nIt was a relief to be conducted by a clergyman of the Anglican faith to\nthe church where lie buried the remains of Schwartz, the first English\nmissionary to India. It must have required great gifts of mind and heart\nand will to brave Hindu opposition, to win the affection and support of\na raja, and to lay the foundations of a Christian community in this\nheathen land. Schwartz was a Prussian by birth, though he went out as a\nmissionary of a Danish society. He gave his life and his fortune to the\ncause of missions, and the English work in Tanjore is even now largely\nsupported by the endowments which he left behind him when he died. Our\ngood friend Doctor Blake, the English clergyman, took us to the palace\nof the princess of Tanjore, also to the raja's library of Oriental\nmanuscripts within the palace--a priceless collection of eighteen\nthousand Sanskrit manuscripts, of which eight thousand are written on\npalm-leaves. This library is unique in all India; and it shows that a\nraja in Tanjore, in his love for literature, could equal the raja of\nJaipur, in his love for astronomy. The desire for learning was a passion\nthat survived the fall, an evidence of the presence in humanity of the\npreincarnate Christ, \"the Light that lighteth every man.\"\n\nMadura is a hundred miles farther south than Tanjore. It is really the\ncenter of Dravidian worship. While some features of the Tanjore temple\nare more beautiful, the temple at Madura is more vast. Five great\npyramidal towers, four of them on the points of the compass, meet the\neye as one looks upon the temple from a distance. The temple is built\nabout two great shrines or cells, one for the god Siva and the other for\nhis goddess wife Minakshi, each cell surmounted by a noble dome of\nplated gold. On the four sides of the temple are stone porches, arcades,\nand pillared halls of great variety, filled with elaborate and grotesque\ncarvings and sculptures. The extent of the structure may be judged from\nthe simple statement that the outer walls, twenty-five feet high,\nsurround a space eight hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirty\nfeet, and are surmounted by four lofty gate-pyramids, each of them ten\nstories in height. The portico roof of Minakshi's Hall is supported upon\nsix rows of carved pillars, each made from a single stone. There is an\nextensive \"Golden Lily Tank,\" bordered by a granite corridor hung with\ncages of parrots, and the putrid waters of the tank furnish purification\npreparatory to worship at Minakshi's shrine. The very porch or entrance\npavilion of this shrine is called \"The Hall of a Thousand Pillars,\"\nthough the actual number is nine hundred and eighty-five. Here and there\namong the pillars are seated learned men or pundits, who place offerings\nof flowers and perfumed water before their sacred books and chant the\nmeaning of Sanskrit scriptures to groups of devout listeners.\n\nThe great temple, with its dimly lighted corridors, is open to the\npublic day and night, and there is special illumination by hundreds of\nlittle lamps in an arch at the entrance when night comes on. Long\navenues are filled with buyers and sellers of wares, and the rent of\ntheir stalls furnishes a large revenue for the support of the many\npriests. A big elephant and a baby elephant, each with the mark of the\ngod upon its forehead, are paraded up and down, and are taught to pick\nup with their trunks the coins thrown down by visitors. Innumerable dark\nalcoves invite the crowd to rest, and many a sleeping form is seen at\nthe foot of the altars. Imagine a festival night with these dimly\nlighted courts crowded with worshipers, the fierce and lustful images,\nthe glorification of the lingam, the secret places of assignation! And\nthis is the acme of Hindu religion!\n\nThere are better things than this to be seen in Madura. The palace of\nTirumala, a raja of the seventh century, is a magnificent specimen of\nMoorish architecture with unexpected Gothic tendencies. Its entrance\nhall, one hundred and thirty-five feet long, half as wide, and seventy\nfeet high, has a lofty roof supported by heavy stone pillars with\npointed arches of Saracenic type. It shows that the Moslem, in the\nlong ago, had at least a temporary hold upon South India. This palace,\nwhich has the structural character of a Gothic building, has now been\npartially restored and taken for the law-courts of the British\nGovernment.\n\nThe same Tirumala who built the palace, built the Teppa Kulam, an\nartificial reservoir outside the town, about one thousand feet on a\nside, very symmetrical and the largest of its kind in South India. The\nwhole \"tank\" is surrounded with granite walls and parapets, and next the\nwater there is a granite walk five feet wide running round the whole\nstructure. Flights of steps lead down to the water, at intervals. In the\ncenter of this small lake is an island, also walled around with granite\nslabs, and on it there are five towers, a large one in the center and\none at each of the four corners. The whole effect is very graceful and\nit makes a sight long to be remembered, when the \"feast of lights\" takes\nplace and the island and the parapets and the granite curbings are\nilluminated with hundreds of little oil-lamps. Not far away from the\n\"tank\" is a famous banyan-tree which covers with its shade an area sixty\nyards in diameter, has a main stem seventy feet in circumference, and\nhas besides two hundred branches that have struck root.\n\nBut the noblest sight of Madura is its American Congregational Mission.\nBeginning in 1836, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign\nMissions planned and founded their most wise and successful foreign\nmissions. They have aimed to do one thing well: to make the Madura\nstation not only complete but well supported, to embrace in it all\nstages of education and all sorts of evangelization; and to reduce the\nwhole work to a unified system. And the result has been the raising up\nof a large native ministry, churches with twenty-two thousand members,\nschools of every grade from the kindergarten to the college and the\ntheological seminary. We were most hospitably entertained by the\nprincipal of the college, Dr. J. X. Miller, and the other missionaries;\nand we met and addressed both the native church at their Sunday service,\nthe faculty and students of the seminary, and the annual conference of\nCongregational missionaries. The Madura Mission is a light shining in a\ndark place, the darkest place indeed in India. But it is a light that\ncannot be hid. Like our missions to the Burmans and the Telugus, it is\nshowing the power of the gospel to \"cast down imaginations and every\nhigh thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God,\" and to\nmake a spiritual desert \"bud and blossom as the rose.\"\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\nTWO WEEKS IN CEYLON\n\n\nCeylon is not a part of India. It is a Crown Colony of Great Britain,\nand is administered directly from London, while India has more of\nindependence and self-government. The relation of Ceylon to Britain is\nsomewhat like that of the Philippine Islands to the United States, while\nthe relation of Britain to India resembles that of the United States\nGovernment to our several territories. Ceylon, however, is very\nproductive and prosperous. Surrounded by the sea, it is free from Indian\ndroughts and famines. Its people are stalwart and loyal. The English\nlanguage is fast becoming the easiest method of communication between\nCingalese and Tamils, Hindus and Malays. Colombo is really a European\ncity, as large as Rochester, with noble public buildings and lovely\nparks. Our Galle Face Hotel, on the very edge of the sea, with a great\nstretch of green lawn in front of it, is one of the finest hotels in the\nEast, and our week of rest here was delightful.\n\nBuddhism has been one of the great missionary religions of the world. It\nwas a reform of Hinduism. But the Hindus, with their caste system, would\nhave none of it and drove it out. The Buddhist triumphs were in Burma,\nTibet, China, Japan, at the north; in Ceylon and Java, at the south.\nHere in Ceylon is preserved a sacred tooth of Buddha; and one of his\nbones, recently discovered in northern India, is to be brought next week\nwith great pomp and ceremony to the temple in Kandy, which already ranks\nin sacredness next to the great Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon. A temple\nin Java is founded upon a single hair of Buddha's head. All this\nsuperstition and imposture dates back to a couple of centuries before\nChrist, and there is great reason to believe that the Roman Catholic\nworship of relics is only an appropriation of this form of heathenism.\n\nChristian schools and churches are doing much to undermine Buddhism in\nCeylon. Colombo is especially fortunate in possessing a noble college of\nthe Wesleyan Methodists and a strong institution of all grades with\neight hundred students. The English Baptists also have a very creditable\nmission work under the charge of Messrs. Ewing and Charter; while Mr.\nWoods is the able pastor of an English-speaking Baptist church. The\nstudents of these various schools usually adopt the English dress. The\nbarefooted pupils first put on shoes, then the coat, finally the\ntrousers. In the end you can hardly distinguish them from Europeans.\nThese changes are more rapid in Colombo than in Madras. Indeed, British\nrule is fast transforming what was first a Portuguese, and then a Dutch,\nsettlement into a city where English is universally known and spoken.\n\nIt was gratifying to find that the Government College, where the English\nlanguage alone is used, is opened every day with the reading of\nScripture and with prayer. But it was unpleasing to learn that, side by\nside with these Christian influences, the Ananda College, a\ntheosophical institution, allied to Mrs. Besant of Madras, was exerting\nan influence unfavorable to Christianity, not only by setting Buddha\nside by side with Christ, but by urging the claim of Buddha to be the\nsupreme ethical teacher of the world.\n\nBefore I tell you of our visit to Buddhist temples, I must speak of the\nrefuge from them which we found at Nurwara Eliya, sixty-two hundred feet\nabove the sea. Colombo is only six degrees north of the equator. Here in\nJanuary the sun casts hardly any shadow at noon, and the middle of the\nday is hot. Later in the year the heat is intense, day and night. So\nBritish officials combine with the rich of every tongue, and even with\nthe missionaries, to make their summer quarters high up among the hills.\nWe were transported thither on a narrow-gage railway, cut into the sides\nof precipices, running through tunnels, and so tortuous as to form a\nhundred horseshoe loops. The road seemed almost a miracle of\nengineering. But the views were beautiful beyond description. It was\nSwitzerland without its ruggedness. It was Italy on the southern side of\nthe Alps, as \"Philip van Artevelde\" best describes it:\n\n Sublime, but neither bleak nor bare\n Nor misty, are the mountains there;\n Softly sublime, profusely fair;\n Up to their summits clothed in green,\n And fruitful as the vales between,\n They lightly rise\n And scale the skies,\n And groves and gardens still abound,\n For where no shoot\n Can else take root,\n The peaks are shelved and terraced round.\n\nI am inclined to think that, of all the beautiful railway rides I have\never taken, this was the finest. From the rice-fields of the plains we\npassed upward through endless tea-plantations, where every inch of soil\nwas preserved and utilized by the construction of artificial terraces.\nIn the midst of these plantations, rubber trees were set at intervals.\nThere were many instances when we looked down from our airy perch, on\nthe edge of a precipice, at least a thousand feet, and saw ourselves\non the side of a veritable amphitheater of mountains towering a\nthousand feet above us and covered with rows of tea-plants from the\nbottom to the top. This amphitheater was often two miles across, every\nfoot of the ground minutely cultivated and a perfect sea of verdure.\nBut, as we went up, the palm gave place to the pine; cold succeeded to\nheat; and to be at all comfortable at our hotel we were obliged to\norder fire in our rooms.\n\nBeautiful for situation as was Nurwara Eliya, we were glad, on account\nof the January cold, to leave it. And we went to Kandy. I wonder whether\nour word \"candy\" is derived from that sweet place. I agree with some\ncelebrated author, whose name I forget, in saying that \"Kandy is the\nloveliest city in the loveliest island in the world.\" Of late years\nKandy has become the resort of tourists, though the present war has\ngreatly diminished their number. A hotel that was accustomed to\nentertain fifty guests now has only half a dozen. But the beauty of the\nplace abides. An artificial lake, with an island of green in its center\nand winding among a forest of stately palms, is surrounded by a circlet\nof hills. On the summit of one of these hills is the Missionary\nRest-house, founded and endowed by a wealthy Christian woman for the\nrelief of pilgrims, as was the House Beautiful of Bunyan's story. There\nwe were invited to afternoon-tea, and as I looked upon the fairylike\nlandscape I almost thought the Garden of Eden had come again.\n\nBut I could not long be deceived, for at the very foot of this hill was\nthe most famous Buddhist temple of Ceylon. If this is Paradise, it is\nParadise Lost. Here Buddha's tooth is worshiped, and here a newly\ndiscovered bone of his body is to add sanctity to the temple. We\nattended the evening worship, which consisted of a torchlight\nprocession of priests, with beating of tom-toms and frenzied dancing\nof musicians, which would have done credit to the savagery of the Fiji\nIslands. The temple here has no lofty pagoda. It shows what the\noriginal pagoda really was, for this temple has a number of\nbell-shaped structures resting on the ground. Next, historically, came\nthe elevation of the bell upon a stone platform; and, finally, the\nlifting of it into the air, resplendent with gilding. Kandy\nillustrates the humble beginnings of Buddhistic worship, but with\nlater accessories begotten by irrational devotion.\n\nI should mention, however, the only sign of intelligence which I found\nin this Buddhist temple. It was the library of Pali manuscripts\ncontaining the sacred books and stories of Buddha's life and doctrine.\nMany of these manuscripts were written on palm-leaves and were wrapped\nin silken coverings. Some had been presented by Siamese and by Burmese\nkings. Some were ancient. I saw no priest who could read them, and I\nfancy that the sacred books are really studied only by pundits, whose\nvocation is that of teaching, and whose personal beliefs may be very\ndifferent from those of orthodox Buddhism. It was pleasant to find, not\nfar from the Temple of the Tooth, a little church of the English\nBaptists, which sends out light into all the surrounding darkness. Its\npastor is a native Christian, who preaches every Sunday morning in\nCingalese and every Sunday evening in English, while his week-days are\ndevoted to the work of conducting an English boys' school.\n\nKandy is celebrated also for its botanical gardens. Only those of Java\ncompare with them in completeness. The long avenues of palms of\ndifferent varieties--palmyra, talipot, sago, royal, sealing-wax--and the\nspecimens of bamboo, India rubber, and rain-tree, are unique and\nwonderful. The rain-tree is so called because the vast spread of its\nbranches and the density of its foliage collect the dew to such an\nextent as actually to water the ground upon which it drops. Think of\nviewing in one morning of two hours' length, a score of trees we had\nhitherto known only in the tales of the tropics: the traveler's tree\nwith its fernlike leaves, the cannon-ball tree, the deadly upas, the\nnourishing breadfruit, the clove, the cinnamon, the mace or nutmeg, the\nvanilla, the guava, the cork, the almond, the mulberry, the mango, the\nsandalwood! There were great screw-pines, lignum-vitae, mahogany,\nmimosa, magnolia trees; and the tree-fern, the giant creeper, the\npanama-hat plant, the Peruvian cactus, the papyrus, the pineapple, and a\ngreat collection of orchids. Only the sunshine and the moisture of\nCeylon could produce such a result. A tree cared for from its first\nsprouting, and favored by the elements, becomes a wonder of the world.\nIt shows what man may become under the tutelage of God.\n\nAnurajahpura was our last place to visit. Far to the north of Colombo,\nit is the most important extant specimen of the ruined cities of Ceylon.\nBefore the time of Christ it was the seat of a kingdom that embraced the\nwhole island. Buddhism, after a life-and-death struggle, captured it and\nerected in it structures for worship, which for grandeur and beauty\nrivaled those of Burma. Two pagodas, or dagobas, of solid brick, each of\nthem more than two hundred feet high, tower up before one as he enters\nthe town. These structures are covered with verdure, for grasses and\nshrubs have eaten their way into the mortar on the sides, until the\ndagobas resemble conical natural hills. It is said that the brick of a\nsingle one would suffice to build a wall eight feet high and a foot\nthick from Edinburgh to London. One of them is being restored, and fifty\nmen are at work upon it, tearing away the vegetation and building anew\nthe outside covering of brick. The dagoba itself is not a temple, for it\nis solid and has no chamber within; but at its base is a structure,\ninfinitesimal in size as compared with the one that towers above it, and\nin this structure there is a reclining statue of Buddha seventy feet\nlong. Buddha must have been a giant, for his footprints are four feet\nlong, and his tooth is as large as the tooth of an alligator, and\nsurprisingly like one.\n\nThe grounds in the neighborhood of these towering dagobas are strewn\nwith ruins. Sixteen hundred pillars of stone, seven feet high, remain\nto show the vast foundations of an ancient Buddhist monastery. There is\nalso a temple excavated in the solid rock of the hillside, and adorned\nwith curious carvings of elephants. We made the acquaintance of its high\npriest under very peculiar circumstances. We met him at a funeral. It\nwas the cremation of one of his priests. On the outskirts of the village\na great crowd surrounded a burning pyre. Two or three cords of rough\nwood had been piled up, with the body of the priest in its center and\nthe bier on which the body had been brought laid upon its top. The fire\nwas blazing upward, and a deafening beating of tom-toms gave sacredness\nto the obsequies. The awe-stricken followers of Buddha stood at a little\ndistance around, while the flames grew fierce, and the sickening odor of\nburning flesh entered their nostrils. It was no wonder that they were\nwilling to follow the high priest, when he came to salute me as a\nminister of religion from the other side of the world. He was\neighty-eight years of age. Clothed in his saffron robe and holding with\ntrembling hands his rod of office, he seemed the decaying specimen of a\nmoribund religion. He presented me with an umbrella of yellow silk. It\nhad an ivory handle with the carving of a lotus bud on its end. I could\nnot let him make such a present without some reward, and he seemed\ngrateful for the few rupees which my interpreter wrapped up in his\nhandkerchief. He lifted up his fan and fanned me, as we parted, while he\nuttered some words of blessing. I could hardly doubt his good will, or\nfail to hope that some gleams of heavenly light had come to him from\nChrist, the Light of the world. But Anurajahpura was, like Pagan in\nBurma, the type of a vanishing religion, and its high priest was, like\nthe Jewish high priest of old, the type of a priesthood sure to pass\naway, since Christ, the true High Priest, has come.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\nJAVA AND BUDDHISM\n\n\nWe have crossed the equator, and the Southern Cross, invisible to\nnorthern eyes, seems still to beckon us onward. But we have reached the\nmost distant point of our journey, and henceforth we shall be homeward\nbound, taking China and Japan as we go. Java is not so hot as we\nexpected. An island like Cuba, six hundred miles long and only two\nhundred broad, has sea-breezes enough to keep it tolerably cool. Rain\nfalls almost every day, with an average of twelve feet in a year. As the\nmoisture is excessive, all sorts of vegetation are luxuriant. Java is a\ngem of the ocean, and an emerald gem at that. Life here is as easy as\nanywhere on earth, and there is a swarming population. While Ceylon,\nsimilar in area, has only five millions of inhabitants, Java has\nthirty-five millions.\n\nJava is the jewel of the Dutch Crown, one of the most fertile and\nproductive islands of the world. Coffee and tea, rice and sugar, salt\nand spice, tobacco and corn, coal and oil, coconut and rubber, are\nexported in an aggregate of two hundred millions of our dollars every\nyear, while the aggregate of imports is little more than a hundred and\ntwenty millions. The Dutch have taken a colony whose deficits once\nfrightened the English into abandoning it, and by the famous \"culture\nsystem\" of letting out the land upon wise conditions as to the kind and\nquantity of production, have turned the whole island into a veritable\ngarden, and a principal source of revenue for Holland. The Dutch indeed\nhave drawn from Java much more than they have given. The Roman Empire\nshould have taught them that incorporation of a colony, and privilege\ngranted to it, were the only security for permanent possession. Until\nten years ago, however, the Dutch policy was one of repression rather\nthan one of development. While Britain has tried by her schools and\nhospitals to Anglicize India, Holland, for many years, tried to keep the\nJavanese apart and in subjection, discouraging their study of the Dutch\nlanguage and giving them also no share in the government. This policy\nhas at last been seen to be suicidal; Chinese immigration has added an\nelement of vigor, industry, and discontent; the modern movement in India\nand in Japan has provoked new aspirations here; even the Malay has\nbecome aware that he has rights. Dutch schools have at last begun to\neducate the people; the more progressive among the students are also\nlearning English; and Java now bids fair to press forward to occupy a\nposition in the van of national and democratic progress.\n\nI am deeply impressed with the density and vastness of this population.\nOnly Belgium surpasses Java in the number of inhabitants to the square\nmile. We have taken a ride by rail for four hundred miles through the\ncenter of the island. We have passed volcanoes actually smoking; for a\nlong range of mountains, rising sometimes to a height of twelve thousand\nfeet, constitutes the back-bone of Java. There are sublime and\nbeautiful landscapes all along the way, sublime because of their\noccasionally rocky grandeur, and beautiful because of the minute\ncultivation that adorns both hillside and plain. The endless\nrice-fields, and the fields of sugar-cane that stretch for miles like a\nbillowy sea, make a railway journey by day a constant source of delight.\nYou ride in a perennial garden, and it is perfectly natural that the\nbird of paradise should have its habitat here. Like Ceylon, Java is sure\nto be the resort of innumerable tourists, for here are wonders beyond\nany to be found in localities more commonly visited.\n\nAnd yet it is the people that interest one even more than the land they\nlive in. We turned aside at different points, from the stations of the\nrailways, and got glimpses of the Javanese in their country homes. I am\nbound to say that these homes were often primitive in the extreme, mere\nshacks or huts of bamboo and thatch, often without windows and with only\na door in front and a door behind, sometimes standing in a pool of\nshallow water or lifted on stilts to escape the rain. But everybody\nseemed to be at work, except on market-days, when the whole population\nof a district gathered in a country fair. The throng and press of these\ntrading-days, the strife and din, the variety of wares, and the\nsharpness of competition, were something new to us and long to be\nremembered. The amusements of the Javanese, their music, their\nshadow-dances, all show a vigor and passion, which explain their\noccasional use of the \"kriss\" or Malay dagger, and the difficulty of\nsubduing and civilizing so ardent and imaginative a people. But they are\na people _sui generis_, and sure, when roused and educated, to take\ntheir part on the modern stage.\n\nI have intimated that the Dutch Government has seen its past mistakes,\nand has entered upon a new and more generous policy. Nothing could\ndemonstrate this better than the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg. These\nare unique in the world, the most complete and the most practical. The\ngardens at Kandy in Ceylon are more artistically arranged and are more\nbeautiful to the ordinary visitor. But these in Java are more scientific\nand more helpful to the general development of the country. They include\nthe chemical investigation of agricultural products, as well as the\ntesting of their nutritive value and their tensile strength. Rubber\nplanters are shown proper methods of culture, and also improved methods\nof preparing the product for market. Seventy different varieties of rice\nhave been discovered and classified; and the tillers of the soil have\nbeen shown how they can greatly increase the yield of their acreage. All\nthe great botanical collections of the world communicate their novelties\nand discoveries to the Java gardens. Here at Buitenzorg there is a\nschool of forestry and another of veterinary science, each of these with\npractical demonstrations. Trees and plants in the gardens are grouped in\nscientific classes, the palms by themselves, the pines by themselves.\nHere the _Victoria regia_, the royal pond-lily, flourishes in its proper\nhabitat. The avenues of kanari trees, with their lofty overarching\nvaulting, are grander than any nave of French cathedral. It will be seen\nat once that the Botanical and Experimental Gardens of Java are of\nimmense service to agriculture and to science throughout the world. We\nhad the great privilege of being personally conducted through them by\nDr. K. J. Lovink, Director of the Dutch Department of Agriculture,\nIndustry, and Commerce.\n\nI wish I could say as much for the religious prospects of Java as I can\nsay for its economical and political prospects. There is even greater\nneed of change in this regard, for the island has been a very stronghold\nof Buddhism, as it is now of Mohammedanism. When driven out from India,\nthe Buddhist missionaries came to Java and here found a welcome.\nJavanese kings erected temples so enormous and so rich in sculpture\nthat, defaced and decayed as they now are, they have no superiors on\nearth. It was, indeed, the fame of Boro Budor, that most attracted us\nto Java, and we made a journey of thirteen hours to inspect this\nrenowned ruin.\n\nImagine a structure upon an eminence from which it is visible for miles,\nyet walled in on one side by a lofty range of mountains, and on the\nother side commanding a magnificent view of cultivated plains. Imagine a\ntemple of brick, like the great pyramid of Egypt, more than five hundred\nfeet square, with five broad terraces, the uppermost of which encloses\nan immense sitting statue of Buddha. The topmost crown of this solid\nstructure rises more than two hundred feet above the ground.\n\nThe wonder of Boro Budor is, however, not the vastness of the structure,\ncontaining though it does an amount of material five times as great as\nthat of any English cathedral, so much as it is the enormous amount of\nartistic work that has been expended upon it. Each of these five\nterraces has sculptured upon its side walls some representation in\nbas-relief of the legendary incidents of Buddha's existence, not only in\nthe present state, but in his previous states of being. You walk, as it\nwere, through a picture-gallery of the life of Buddha. The bas-reliefs\nare wrought out with such delicacy as to suggest the influence of Greek\nart upon the multitude of artists who toiled for years to produce them.\nThe effect, at least, is Grecian; and the number of the plaques is so\ngreat that, if they were placed in a continuous row, the line would be\nthree miles long.\n\nBesides these sculptures, the terrace-walls are interrupted at regular\nintervals by four hundred and thirty-six niches or alcove-chapels, each\nwith its image of Buddha facing the outside world, so that the visitor\napproaching the temple cannot fail to see one hundred and nine Buddhas,\nor one-fourth of the total number, looking down upon him. Above these\nalcove-chapels there are seventy-two small latticed domes, or dagobas,\neach with its statue of Buddha imprisoned within, as if he were\npreparing himself, by seclusion and meditation, for the final state in\nwhich the great chamber which crowns the structure represents him, I\nmean the state of passivity and bliss, which has escaped the evils of\ntransmigration and has attained to absorption of personal existence of\nthe impersonal world-force which the Hindu called Brahma.\n\nIt is difficult to express the emotions which are roused by such an\nexhibition of man's religious instinct, enlightened simply by God's\nrevelation of himself in the natural world and in the nature of man.\nHere is a seeking, but not a finding, a groping in the dark, with only\nthe faint rays of conscience to show man the way. Yet he who is the\nLight of the World was lighting every man, before his advent in the\nflesh, and even Buddha was a reformer and an advance upon the Brahmanism\nof his time. He preached the doctrine of unselfish devotion, but he\nturned it into error by ignoring man's duty to himself. He made\nextinction of desire, rather than purification of desire, to be the way\nto happiness. How different this from that thirst after God, even the\nliving God, which animated the Psalmist, or that hungering and thirsting\nafter righteousness which Christ says shall be filled! Buddha found in\nself, rather than in God, the power to overcome evil. Buddhism has no\npersonal God to whom appeal may be made for strength, and Buddha himself\nhas no power to answer prayer, since he long ago passed into a realm of\ninactivity which is practically indistinguishable from non-existence.\nThere is no atonement for past sin nor escape from its consequences, but\nby the giving up of being. Buddhism is a pessimistic and joyless\nreligion. Hence it suffers deterioration in competition with the more\nactive systems. Close by Boro Budor, where Buddhism reached its\nculmination, are the temples of Mendoet and Brambanam, which show a\nreversion in the popular mind to Hindu Brahmanism. And when the Moslem\ncame, with his doctrine of a personal and living God, Buddhism had no\nforce to combat it. Boro Budor, once the center of worship for a mighty\nkingdom, now stands alone and desolate in a great wilderness, without\npriest or worshiper. Djokjokarta, the next city in size to Batavia, is\nto-day more Mohammedan than Buddhist. Christian schools and missions are\ndoing much to turn this moral wilderness into beauty. To convert Java to\nChristianity will add to Christ's subjects the very Queen of the East.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\nTHE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA\n\n\nA recent book by Prof. C. F. Andrews, formerly of the Cambridge\nBrotherhood in Delhi, has arrested my attention, as the best extant\nsynopsis of the religious history and prospects of that great country.\nIt is entitled \"The Renaissance in India.\" It has not yet been\nreprinted in America, and can be obtained only in the British Isles. I\nhave thought it worth while to make it known among us by writing a\nreview, and the following paper might perhaps serve such a purpose.\nBut, in the writing, so many thoughts and illustrations of my own have\nsuggested themselves, that I cannot credit Professor Andrews with the\nresult, except in part, and I submit my work as my own almost as much\nas it is his.\n\nLet me first, however, do Professor Andrews the justice of explaining\nthat the Cambridge Brotherhood is a semimonastic fraternity of the\nChurch of England, which aims to convert India to Christianity by\nindoctrinating its higher classes. All its members are bachelors, and\ntheir pure life as well as their learning and liberality are attractive\nto educated heathen seekers after God. Our author is himself a devout\nbeliever in a preexistent Christ, and he recognizes some rays of\nChrist's light in Buddha and in Confucius. This faith has led him to\nsever his connection with the Cambridge Brotherhood of late, and to\nconnect himself with the school of Rabindranath Tagore, whom the\nBritish Government has recently knighted for his poetical gifts and for\nhis political loyalty. Members of the Brotherhood have thought this\nleaving of their body a mistake of judgment, and too great a concession\nto a rival religion, while they still admire the self-devotion which\nleads their former brother to carry his advocacy of Christianity into\nwhat he regards as the most promising school of Hinduism. With this\nexplanation I proceed to the treatment of my subject.\n\n * * * * *\n\nIn the fifteenth century the European world was intellectually born\nagain. The barbarian Goths and Vandals had put an end to the Roman\nEmpire, and learning had taken refuge in the monasteries. Even that\nlearning had become ecclesiastical. Precious manuscripts of the Greek\nclassics had their original writing wiped off to make room for monkish\nhomilies. The people were in ignorance and were ruled by the priests.\nBut the Crusades had brought about a new intercourse between the West\nand the East. The fall of Constantinople sent Greek books and Greek\nscholars to Venice and to Rome. Greek art inspired Michelangelo and\nRaphael. A great wave of enthusiasm for the new learning swept over\nEurope. The printing-press multiplied copies of the old literature\nand put them in the hands of the poor. It was the precursor of a new\ncivilization, and because it was a new birth of thought, we call\nit the Renaissance.\n\nThe Renaissance, however, needed another factor to complement it. Not\nmerely intellect was sleeping, but also man's moral nature. Conscience\nand will required new stimulus. Religious reformation was necessary as\nmuch as intellectual revival. Greek books brought with them the vice, as\nwell as the art, of the East. Renaissance without Reformation produced\nthe Borgias and their unspeakable wickedness. Erasmus without Luther\nwould never have saved Europe from ruin. It was the new view of Christ\nthat showed men their sins, brought repentance and hope, purified\nliterature, gave power to social truth, and united with the new learning\nto make possible our modern civilization. It was a triumph of\nChristianity over the powers of darkness, for Christianity involves both\nRenaissance and Reformation.\n\nA similar intellectual change has been coming over the Eastern world,\nand has been awakening the slumbering nations. Who would have foretold a\nhalf-century ago that Turkey and Persia, Japan and China, would now have\nconstitutional governments and legislative assemblies? The world has\nmoved very fast during the past decade. Modern inventions have given new\nwings to thought, the nations have been coming to self-consciousness,\nfreedom is in the air, even war is teaching the absurdity of committing\nthe destiny of a whole people to the arbitrary rule of any single\nmonarch. The success of Japan in her struggle with Russia aroused the\nwhole East. China has awaked from the sleep of ages. And India is the\nscene of unrest, and will not be satisfied until her vast populations\nare given a larger share in her government.\n\nIndia has witnessed the beginnings of her renaissance. The universities\nwhich her rulers have established have diffused the new learning. But\nthey have also raised up a host of educated men, some of whom can find\nno employment except in sedition. False philosophies, imported from the\nWest, have made these same men agnostic, and have disposed them to put\nevolution in place of God. Old religions have lost even their little\npower to control the moral life, and a vague desire for independence of\nall restraint has led to revolutionary and even anarchistic plots. We\nhave some of the same dangers in our Southern States. The negro is in\nmany cases receiving a higher education than he can utilize, and is\nbecoming a possible leader of revolt, while there is a vast inflammable\nmultitude of uneducated negroes whom he can incite to violence and\ndisorder. As with us, Christianity is needed side by side with\neducation, so in India to-day, intellectual renaissance needs to be\nsupplemented by religious reformation.\n\nA glance at the history of India's religious systems will help our\nunderstanding of the problem. The earliest record is that of the\nRig-Veda. It is a recognition of the powers of nature, and an exaltation\nof them to divine honor and worship. The apostle Paul gives us the\nfurther explanation that this deification of God's works was the result\nof a previous unwillingness to retain the personal God in their\nknowledge. To worship God's manifestations is to lose the sense of his\nunity and his moral governance. Men preferred the sun in the heavens to\nthe Sun of Righteousness. They lost sight of the true God in self-chosen\nadmiration of his works. \"While the Semitic mind gravitated toward the\nethical and the personal, the Aryan gravitated toward the philosophic\nand the impersonal.\"\n\nThe Upanishads are the second series of Hindu scriptures. These\npractically identify the human soul, as well as all natural objects,\nwith the supreme God. The self is only a manifestation of Brahma. The\ntrend is toward absolute pantheism. The individual is lost in the whole,\nand the realization of this is salvation. But humanity cannot be content\nwithout the semblance of personality in God, and since everything has\nbecome divine, it was easy to regard not only natural powers, but also\npersonal beings as gods. Polytheism was the result. Vishnu and Siva,\ngods of reproductive and destructive powers, came to be worshiped.\nIncarnation and transmigration followed. The incarnation was not the\nincarnation of the supreme Brahma, but of one of the subordinate\ndeities, Vishnu, and even this incarnation was but a temporary\nassumption of human form--a vanishing manifestation, to be put off again\nlike a worn-out garment when the real god returned to his heaven. The\nHindu Trimurti was never the Christian Trinity; for Christ is not only\nthe supreme God manifest in the flesh, but also the eternal Revealer of\nGod, who takes our humanity to be a part of himself forever, the\npartaker of his inmost being and the sharer of his throne.\n\nWhile we credit Hinduism with the idea of incarnation, we regard it as\nonly showing this to be a necessity of human thought, and as far from\nsatisfying man's longings for union with God. Gautama Buddha,\npassionless and lost in the contemplation of his own excellence, is not\nthe Christian Redeemer, who daily bears our burdens and takes upon\nhimself, in order that he may take away, the sin of the world. And what\nshall we say of the other deities of the Hindu pantheon, but that they\nare personifications of every human caprice and vice. The Krishna of the\nPuranas has infected all India with his licentiousness, and has given\nsanction to the worst forms of lust.\n\nThe growth of caste was another result of the loss of a personal and\nmoral God and the deification of his works. Since all things came to be\nregarded as manifestations of deity, the order of society and its\ndistinctions became fixed. The origin of caste is to be found in the\nsuperiority of the Aryan conqueror to the Dravidian aborigines. The\npeople of light complexion looked down on the dark-skinned race, and\ndrove them to the wall. Intermarriage between the two classes of the\npopulation became abhorrent to the ruling class, and all manner of\nrestrictions were put upon their intercourse, till even the shadow of\nthe outcaste falling upon the Brahman brought contamination. Let us not\nblame the Aryan too hastily, for in South Africa and in our own Southern\nStates we see the same denial that God has made of one blood all the\nraces of men, and the same exclusion of the darker race from all\nprivileges of human brotherhood. Slave-owners were shocked when Abraham\nLincoln lifted his hat to salute a negro, and Southern men protested\nwhen President Roosevelt entertained Booker Washington at his table.\nChristian proclamation of human brotherhood constitutes one of the chief\nobstacles to the success of the gospel in India.\n\nThe low place of woman and her lack of education is another obstacle\nwhich must be removed if India is to profit by the renaissance of\nlearning. This undervaluing of the physically weak is itself a fruit of\nman's apostasy from God. And as Brahmanism set its stamp of approval\nupon distinctions of caste and fixed them for centuries, so it was with\nwoman's position and influence. She was condemned to inferiority. She\nbecame a mere instrument of man's pleasure, or a mere drudge in his\nhousehold. She never sat with him at his meals, but ate what was left\nafter he had been served; she never walked by his side, but always\nfollowed behind, when she was not shut up in the zenana at home. One of\nthe best signs of a new civilization in India is the growing conviction\namong the higher classes that woman must be educated, if her children\nare to emerge from their superstitions and become of use in the modern\nworld. The suttee has been abolished by law, but child-widowhood yet\nremains to curse the lives of millions. There is no better proof that\nChristianity is permeating society with its influence than is found in\nthe increasing number of girls who are seeking education in our mission\nschools and colleges. Pundita Ramabai has become a glory to her own\ncountrymen, as much as has Rabindranath Tagore by his utterance, \"The\nregeneration of the Indian people to my mind, directly and perhaps\nsolely, depends upon the removal of this condition of caste.\" We may add\nthat the dominion of caste and the degradation of woman will come to an\nend together, and nothing but Christianity will abolish them.\n\nThe renaissance of learning is not enough. A new spirit of love is\nneeded to solve the problems of India. For there is no country of the\nworld where racial antagonisms are so felt. Entirely apart from the\ndistinctions of caste, which are racial in their origin, there is the\ndistinction of Hindu from Mohammedan, which has its origin in religion.\nRemember that, of India's population, sixty-five millions are Moslems,\nwhile one hundred and eighty millions are Hindus. The Hindu men of caste\ncannot help paying some respect to the Mohammedans, for they are\ncompelled to acknowledge their financial and executive power, just as\nthey acknowledge, without admiring, the power of their British rulers.\nThey cannot treat Moslems as outcastes, but they will not associate\nwith them; and they cherish a settled antipathy to them. All this the\nMohammedans heartily reciprocate. English policy has in times past\ncultivated this mutual dislike, lest union between the two religious\nsects should lead to the formation of a party too strong for British\nrule to keep in subjection. One religion has been used to defeat the\ninfluence of the other. Of late years only has it been true that both\nhave been forced to recognize the impartial justice of British rule;\nand this recognition has been gained by the gradual admission of able\nmen from both parties to many important judicial and administrative\npositions in the Indian government. But the antagonism of religions\nstill remains, and it constitutes a most serious bar in the way of a\nunited India.\n\n * * * * *\n\nThere are signs of an approaching reformation in India which will\nsupplement its intellectual renaissance. Just as the growing power of\nChristianity in the second and third centuries of our era was shown by\nthe competition of new and imitative religions like that of Mithra, and\nby spasmodic attempts on the part of the old heathenism to interpret\nits mythology symbolically and to reform its moral practice; just as the\ngrowing power of the gospel in the fifteenth century led the Roman\nChurch to slough off some of its abuses and to tolerate among its\nadherents reformers before the Reformation; so in India the new learning\nfrom the West and the missionary proclamation of the gospel have brought\nabout a state of religious unrest which could only be allayed by efforts\non the part of Hindus and Moslems alike to interpret their faiths more\nrationally and to prove that these faiths were equal if not superior to\nChristianity itself. The Brahmo-Somaj, which Ram Mohun Roy founded at\nthe end of the eighteenth century, largely as a result of his horror at\nthe murder of his sister by suttee, has led to the abolition of that\ncruelty. Ram Mohun Roy sought to purge Hinduism of its corruptions by\nappealing to its earlier and purer scriptures. He was the first to\nestablish a vernacular press in India, and, with Alexander Duff, the\nfirst English schools. Though he did not formally profess Christianity,\nhe studied our Christian Scriptures, acknowledged their value and\ninfluence, and published a book entitled \"The Precepts of Jesus.\"\n\nAnother Hindu who exerted great influence during the half-century just\npassed was Keshub Chunder Sen. He passionately adored Christ as his true\nMaster. Yet he was practically Unitarian, and his later years belied the\npromise of his brilliant beginnings. Though a member of the\nBrahmo-Somaj, he split the body in two by his violation of its\nprohibition of child-marriage, and wasted his strength in attempts to\ncombine Western rationalism with the ecstatic fervors of the East. As\nthe result, the Brahmo-Somaj has declined, until in numbers and\ninfluence it has now hardly more than five thousand adherents in all\nIndia. Mozumdar was one of its representatives who sought to give\nOriental interpretation of Jesus, but one without ethical or saving\npower. The Arya-Samaj is a more consistent effort to reform Hindu\nreligion by bringing it back to the purer standards of the Vedas. Swami\nDayanand was the founder of the society. He was led to renounce idolatry\nby seeing a mouse eat food offered to an idol and run without hindrance\nover the idol's robes and hands. Of all the reforming bodies, the\nArya-Samaj most retains the confidence of the masses in the north of\nIndia. But its tenets are not acceptable to the educated classes of the\nsouth, and it needs a further infusion of both science and religion.\n\nThus far we have treated only of Hindu progress. A word must be said of\nprogress among the Moslem population of India. Here the Aligarh Movement\ndemands attention. Sir Seyd Ahmad Khan was its leader. He was of noble\nfamily, entered the English service, and took part with the British in\ncrushing the mutiny of 1857. When the Mohammedan population afterward\nfell under suspicion, he gathered round him a company of liberal young\nmen and sought by educational means to bridge the gulf between Moslem\nand English. He claimed that British rule in India represented Christian\ncivilization, and that this is no enemy to Islam, but only its\ncomplement and helper. He saw that only religion could heal the breach\nand rescue Islam from decline. He founded the Aligarh College in Delhi,\nand devoted himself to the cultivation of friendliness, not only\nbetween Moslem and English, but also between Moslem and Hindu. This\ncollege is one of the strongest educational forces in North India.\n\nReturning to Hindu progress, we mark the work of such men as the Swami\nVivekananda. It will be remembered that he represented India at our\nChicago Parliament of Religions, where Joseph Cook challenged the\npriests of the Orient to answer Lady Macbeth's question, \"Who shall\ncleanse this red right hand?\" Vivekananda sought to blend Christian\nphilanthropy with the Vedantic philosophy. Identity with the Supreme is\nto be attained, not only by passive contemplation, but also by active\nunselfish service. But this truth was mixed with strange interpretations\nof Scripture. Jesus' declaration, \"I and my Father are one,\" was made to\nmean, \"Every man and woman is God.\" And Vivekananda was quite willing\nhimself to be worshiped. His fundamental error, indeed, was his lack of\nthe sense of sin. He said to his audience in Chicago: \"The Hindus refuse\nto call you sinners. Ye divinities on earth, sinners? It is a sin to\ncall a man so. It is a standing libel on human nature.\" Yet, in spite of\nthis deification of self and of all humanity, he did much to inspire\npity for the poor, to awaken India to self-consciousness, and to give\nhope of national unity.\n\nWe must not ignore the work of The Theosophical Society, though it has\nmade a name for itself more in Europe and America than in India. While\nit has done something to encourage education and to teach modern\nscience, it has used the knowledge thus given as an instrument in\ndefending superstition. The immoralities of Krishna are discussed and\npalliated in Mrs. Besant's Magazine for the instruction of young\nstudents. Charms, incantations, astrology, idolatry, caste, are all\nwoven into the system, for the sake of propitiating the Indian mind, so\nthat its influence is hostile to Christianity and to missions. Idols are\nto be worshiped because they are \"centers of magnetism.\" In England Mrs.\nBesant predicts a second advent of Christ. But in India this becomes a\nnew avatar of Krishna. In spite of her stout denunciation of\nchild-marriages and her inculcation of modern science, her propaganda\nhas not been so much a reform of Indian religion, as it has been a\nhindrance to reform. Hindu devotees indeed have eulogized her for what\nthey call her successful opposition to the proselyting efforts of\nChristian missionaries.\n\nAnd yet, even the Theosophical Society, with all its absurdities of\nlevitation and the astral body, has been compelled to bear some witness\nto Jesus Christ. He is \"the light that lighteth every man,\" and he has\ngiven even to this system some elements of truth. We do not hesitate to\nrecognize the truth that Buddha and Confucius, taught, and to regard it\nas a ray of Christ's light shed forth before the rising of the sun. And\nit is our privilege to conclude our list of Hindu reformers with the\nname of Justice Renade, who recognized in Christ the source of all\nformer revelations of God.\n\nJustice Renade, in his social reform movement of the last fifty years,\nhas carried the spirit of philanthropy into practice, more fully than\ndid Vivekananda or Mrs. Besant, and without any of their fantastic\nself-exaltation. Renade recognized the elements of truth in both the\nHindu and Moslem systems, and he saw in Christianity the influence\ndestined to unite them. He would not throw away the old, but he would\nutilize it while he added the new. And with this acknowledgment that \"he\nwho is not against us is on our side,\" we may well close our sketch of\nreformers before the reformation. We sum up the lessons of history when\nwe recognize in Hinduism the two great ideas of divine immanence and\nincarnation, in Mohammedanism the two equally essential truths of divine\ntranscendence and personality. And we see the absolute dependence of\nIndia upon Christianity for its true Reformation. India needs the\nmissionary more than she needs the schoolmaster. Let us pray that she\nmay have a religious revival that shall turn the intellectual awakening\ninto moral channels. That religious revival will furnish a center of\nunity in Christ, the one and only Revealer of God; not in a Hindu\nphilosophy, nor in a Moslem Koran, but in a living Person, present with\nall his people, the soul of their soul and the life, and imparting to\nthem his own Spirit of love and brotherhood. In Christ alone can India's\nrenaissance become a complete reformation.\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\nMISSIONS AND SCRIPTURE\n\n\nThe world of scholars has recently been startled by the pretended\ndiscovery that the \"Great Commission,\" \"Go ye therefore, and make\ndisciples of all the nations,\" is not an utterance of Jesus himself, but\nonly one attributed to him by some enthusiastic follower of his in a\nlater time. This pretended discovery is on a par with the earlier one\nthat there never was such a person as Jesus at all, but that his\npersonality is simply a myth that gradually grew up in the minds of some\nJewish fanatics who sought a fulfilment of Messianic prophecy. We might\ntreat these perverse and subversive conclusions as only curious\ninstances of a wrong method of criticism. But they filter down from the\nscholars to the masses of Christian believers and weaken their faith. It\nbecomes a duty to deal with the method which leads to such results, and\nthreatens to destroy all our missionary zeal. Hence I proceed to test\nthe value of the method itself, even though it is commonly called \"the\nhistorical method\" by those who adopt it. If we can bear a somewhat\nroundabout way of treating the subject, we shall gain a new and valuable\nlight upon our missionary theory and practice.\n\nTo prevent misunderstanding, however, I must premise that it is the\nhistorical method as frequently employed, and not the historical method\nas it ought to be, to which I offer my objections. My criticism is\ndirected against the historical method, only when it assumes to be the\nexclusive means of attaining truth, follows the methods of physical\nscience, and ignores the far more important material for religious use\nwhich is furnished by intuition and revelation. The phrase \"historical\nmethod\" has come to imply much that does not properly belong to it. I\ncriticize only its frequent exclusiveness and exaggeration. And I do\nthis, as I think, in the interest of true science.\n\nThere are two methods of reasoning possible, in this case or in any\nother case, and there are only two--I mean the deductive, and the\ninductive. I make no mention of argument from analogy, for that proceeds\nupon a deductive basis, presuming that there is a designed order in the\nworld which makes analogy possible. The deductive method argues from the\nuniversal to the particular, from the higher to the lower, from God to\nman. The inductive method, on the other hand, argues from the particular\nto the universal, from the lower to the higher, from man to God. Both of\nthese methods are correct when each is taken in connection with the\nother. Much depends, however, upon the question which is taken first.\nShall we begin with the particular, leaving out for the time all thought\nof the universal? There is danger that induction will come to be\nregarded as itself sufficient to lead us into the truth. This is a\nserious error, for correct induction presupposes deduction, and\ntherefore deduction should be the guiding principle and safeguard of\ninduction. If this is forgotten, induction may go fearfully astray.\n\nTo make my meaning still more plain, let me say that in our\ninvestigations we need a comprehensive method, a method that will look\nat facts from more than one point of view. A truly historical method\nwill look at facts from above, as well as from each side, and so the\ndeductive process may be popularly described as vertical. The historical\nmethod falsely so called errs in confining its view to what can be seen\nimmediately around it, and so its process is exclusively horizontal.\nDeduction begins vertically, and makes that which comes from above to be\nits guide and standard in all inductive work. Induction begins\nhorizontally, and tends to become self-sufficient, until all light from\nabove seems untrustworthy and useless. For example, take the study of\nnature. If one begins, inductively and horizontally, with mere physical\nand material order, instead of beginning, deductively and vertically,\nwith man's higher powers of conscience and will, he will end by finding\nonly impersonal force in the universe, and by practically deifying it,\nas the Hindus deified Brahma. Begin rightly, and, with due care in the\napplication of the deductive principle, he will come to right\nconclusions. There are certain truths which cannot be reached by\ninduction. They are known by intuition, long before induction begins.\nThe most fundamental of these truths is the truth of God's existence. A\nPower above us, which has moral perfection, and which claims our\nobedience, is revealed to every man by conscience. Begin with this\nknowledge, and to the obedient spirit the physical world seems ablaze\nwith evidences of wisdom and love; the regularities of nature are\nrecognized as God's methods of ordinary operation; evolution is only\nhis usual plan of growth and progress; in other words, God's\ntranscendence is manifest as well as his immanence, his personality as\nwell as his revelation in the forces of the universe.\n\nMan is a theist, before he becomes a Christian. Theism is a universal\nintuition, ready to assert itself in practice wherever it is not\nprevented by an evil will from its normal manifestation. But, because\nman is in an abnormal condition, this normal action of his powers can be\nrestored only by the Holy Spirit. \"When he is come,\" says our Lord, \"he\nwill convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me,\" and \"of\nrighteousness, because I go unto the Father.\" Only when the prodigal\nrepented, did he \"come to himself,\" and begin to act normally. Under the\ninfluence of the Spirit, God's holiness reveals to man his sin, and\nGod's love leads him to the feet of Jesus. This is the first step in\nChristian experience. To put my doctrine unmistakably and in a nutshell,\ndeduction from the existence of God normally precedes and insures the\nacceptance of Christ. The sinner comes to have personal knowledge of One\nwho has atoned, and therefore can forgive. But to him who has accepted\nChrist, his Lord is more than a historical Redeemer, he is a present\nSaviour from both the penalty and the power of sin. Without this\npersonal knowledge of Christ, we might think of him as only one of many\nhuman examples or teachers, like Confucius or Buddha. Now, he is nothing\nless than God manifest in the flesh, omnipresent, omniscient,\nomnipotent, whom having seen we have seen the Father.\n\nBut there is a second step in Christian experience, which I wish also to\ndescribe in a nutshell and to define as unmistakably as I described and\ndefined the first. I claim that deduction from the existence of Christ\nnormally precedes and insures the acceptance of Scripture. Our Lord\nhimself has said, \"My sheep hear my voice.\" The Christian recognizes in\nScripture the voice of Christ. No change in his experience is more\nmarked and wonderful than the change in his estimate of the Bible. A\nlittle time ago, Scripture was commonplace and unmeaning. Now it speaks\nto him with a living voice such words of instruction and comfort, of\nwarning and promise, that his soul is filled alternately with sorrow and\nwith joy. He wonders that he never saw these things before. He perceives\nfor the first time that he has been in an abnormal condition of mind,\nand that condition has been due to his own perversity of will. But now\nthe prodigal has \"come to himself.\" Only the Holy Spirit could have made\npossible this new and normal exercise of his powers. The change is not\nin the Scripture, it is in himself. He has come in contact with a word\nof God that \"liveth and abideth.\" He sees in it the divine workmanship.\nHe can no longer regard Scripture as merely the work of man; it is also\nthe work of the same Spirit who has transformed him, namely, the eternal\nChrist. Christ is the author and inspirer of Scripture, even though\nimperfect human agents have been employed to communicate his revelation.\nIn spite of the rudeness and diversity of the instruments, there\nbreathes through them all a certain divine melody and harmony. While the\ninductive and horizontal method would give us only finite and earthly\ntruth, the deductive and vertical can give us truth that is infinite and\neternal. The indispensable condition of success in the interpretation of\nScripture is therefore a hearty belief that the Bible is Christ's\nrevelation of God, and not merely a series of gropings after truth on\nthe part of men. Deduction will give us truth from above, whereas\ninduction will give us only scattered facts on the horizontal plane.\n\nI am convinced that the so-called \"historical method\" of Scripture\ninterpretation, as it is usually employed, fails to secure correct\nresults, because it proceeds wholly by induction, leaving out of its\naccount the knowledge of Christ which comes to the Christian in his\npersonal experience. I do not regard such a \"historical method\" as\nreally historical; I deny that it discovers the original meaning of the\ndocuments; I claim that, when made the sole avenue of approach to truth,\nit leads to false views of doctrine. It assumes at the outset that what\nrules in the realm of physics rules also in the moral and religious\nrealm. But the Christian has learned that Christ is the supreme source\nof truth. By a process of either conscious or unconscious deduction he\nrecognizes in Scripture the utterance of Christ. He must begin his\ninvestigations with one of two assumptions: Is the Bible only man's\nword? or, Is it also Christ's word? Is it a mere product of human\nintelligence? or, Is it also the product of a divine intelligence, who\nindeed uses human and imperfect means of communication, but who\nnevertheless at sundry times and in divers manners has brought to the\nworld the knowledge of salvation?\n\nI claim that we should begin by assuming that the Bible is a revelation\nof Christ. This assertion is justified, as I have already intimated, by\nour Christian experience. That experience has given us a knowledge of\nthe heart, more valuable in religious things than any mere knowledge of\nthe intellect. Doctor Tholuck, in an address to his students at his\nfiftieth anniversary, said that God's greatest gift to him had been the\nknowledge of sin. Without that conviction of sin which the Spirit of\nChrist can work in the human heart, there can be no proper understanding\nof Scripture, for Scripture is a revelation to sinners. The opening of\nthe heart to receive Christ, and the new sense of his pardoning grace\nand power, give to the converted man the key to the interpretation of\nScripture, for \"the mystery of the gospel,\" the central secret of\nChristianity, is \"Christ in you, the hope of glory.\" He whom the Holy\nSpirit has first led to the knowledge of sin, and has then led to the\nacceptance of Christ, is prepared to enter into the meaning of\nScripture, and no other man can understand it.\n\nThis was the way in which Paul came to understand Scripture. It was not\nby criticism of the documents, but by receiving Christ, that \"the light\nof the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ\"\nentered into his soul. He knew himself to be the chief of sinners. He\nknew Christ as his manifested God and Saviour. He applied to Christ all\nthat the Old Testament had revealed with regard to the dealings of God\nwith his chosen people. The light that shone upon him on the way to\nDamascus was the Shekinah that led Israel in the pillar of cloud by day\nand of fire by night, that dwelt over the mercy-seat in the tabernacle\nand in the temple, and that thundered and lightened from Sinai in the\ngiving of the Law. \"The Rock that followed them\" in the wilderness, and\ngave water to the thirsty, \"that Rock was Christ.\" And so Paul came to\nknow Jesus Christ as preexistent and omnipresent, as Redeemer of the\nwhole world, Gentile as well as Jew; and Christ's Cross became the\nembodiment and symbol of God's amazing sorrow for human sin, and of his\nsacrifice for its cure. All Paul's later conclusions were developments\nand expressions of his initial knowledge of Christ. It was a deductive\nand not an inductive process, by which he arrived at his theology.\n\nLest any Christian should say that the deductive method is impracticable\nto him, for the reason that he has had no such revelation of Christ to\nstart from as that which was given to Paul, Scripture reports to us the\nvery different experience of another apostle. I refer to Peter. Peter\nshows us how, by this same deductive method, an experience which at its\nbeginning is very small, may in the end become very great. Peter goes to\nthe banks of Jordan, a sinner, seeking pardon for his sin. John the\nBaptist points him to Jesus, \"Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away\nthe sin of the world.\" Peter knows nothing of Jesus' deity, nor of his\natonement. But, by an instinct which is the best of logic, he is drawn\nto Jesus, as the one who can satisfy his needs. He becomes a Christian,\nthat is, a follower of Jesus. His experience is a sort of caterpillar;\nit can creep, but it cannot soar. Yet all the elements of growth are in\nit. Peter begins to analyze it. What right has he to surrender himself,\nbody and soul, to a man like himself? The answer is: Jesus is more than\nman. At C\u00e6sarea Philippi, Peter cries, \"Thou art the Christ, the son of\nthe living God.\" On the day of Pentecost, he preaches Christ as the\nSaviour exalted to God's right hand. And finally, in his Epistles, he\ndeclares the preexistence of Christ, and the fact of Christ's utterances\nthrough the prophets as far back in time as the days of Noah. If our\nhigher critics only adopted Peter's method, analyzed their own\nexperience, following on to know their Lord and meantime willing to do\nhis will, they too, like Peter, in spite of small beginnings, would\nlearn of Jesus' doctrine, would emerge from the caterpillar state, would\nbe soaring instead of creeping, and would end by gladly confessing that\nhe who met them on the way in their first experience was none other than\nthe omnipresent Christ, whom Paul describes as God manifest in the\nflesh, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. They\nwould also learn, with Peter, that Scripture is the work and word of the\npreexistent Christ.\n\nBecause this experience of sin and of Christ is knowledge, it is\nmaterial for science, for science is only unified knowledge. I do not\ndeny that it is knowledge peculiar to the Christian. The princes of\nphysics and literature and government have not known it. It is not the\nwisdom of this world, but it is better, even the very wisdom of God. I\nglory in Christian theology, as the science that will last, when all\nsystems of merely physical science have passed away. For the man who has\nbeen saved by Christ has knowledge of him who is Creator, Upholder, and\nLife of all. I do not hesitate to say that the only safe interpreter of\nphysical nature is the true Christian, for it is Christ \"in whom all\nthings consist.\" The true Christian is the only safe interpreter of\nhistory, for it is Christ who \"upholds all things by the word of his\npower.\" And so, the true Christian is the only safe interpreter of\nScripture, for it is Christ whose Spirit in the prophets \"testified\nbeforehand of his sufferings, and of the glories that should follow\nthem.\" In him who is the Lord of all \"are all the treasures of wisdom\nand knowledge hidden.\" Only when one is joined to Christ, can he\nunderstand the evolutionary process through which Christ has led the\nhuman race, or understand the Bible which constitutes the historical\nrecord of that process. With the Psalmist we may say, \"In thy light\nshall we see light.\"\n\nAs Christ is the central object of knowledge in Christian experience, it\nfollows that Christians recognize him as the primary author of\nScripture. They find him speaking to them in the Bible, as in no other\nbook. It becomes to them the word of God, given by divine inspiration,\nand able to make them wise unto salvation. From the deity and supremacy\nof Christ they proceed to faith in the unity, the sufficiency, and the\nauthority of Scripture, and this determines their method of\ninvestigation. From the person of Christ to the word of Christ is a\nprocess often unconscious, but one better than any process of formal\nlogic. Knowing their divine Saviour, they know the divinity of his word.\nHis presence in human history and in the hearts of the righteous has\ngiven _unity_ to his continuous revelation. The Scripture \"cannot be\nbroken,\" or interpreted as a promiscuous congeries of separate bits; for\na divine intelligence and life throb through the whole collection. Like\nrailway coupons, its texts are \"not good if detached.\" We must interpret\neach text by its context, each part by the whole, the preparation of\nsalvation by the fulfilment, and all the diverse contents by him who\nweaves all together, even Christ, the end of the law, to whom all the\npreliminaries point. This method gives room for the most thorough\ninvestigation of the times and ways of revelation, for recognizing the\nimperfection of beginnings and the variety of the product. The Bible is\na gradually accumulated literature, Hebraic in form, but universal in\nspirit. The preexistent Christ has made all this literature one, by the\ninfluence in the sacred writers of his omnipresent Spirit. If the\n\"historical method\" would begin with this postulate of a unifying\nChrist, its method would be more safe and its results more sure.\n\nFaith in an eternal and omnipresent Christ guarantees also the\n_sufficiency_ of Scripture. Here, however, there is an obvious\nlimitation. Scripture is not sufficient for all the kinds and purposes\nof human science. It will not tell us the configuration of the hinder\nside of the moon, nor reveal the future uses of electricity. It is not\nwith such things that Scripture deals. But in religious matters, such as\nour relation to God and salvation, it is sufficient as a rule of faith\nand practice. We may find in it all needful models and helps in the\ndivine life, as well as all needful directions about the way to begin\nit. The church of Christ has always found in the Bible a safe guide for\nher polity and conduct, and civil government has prospered when the\nprinciples of Scripture were followed by the powers that ruled the\nState. Because the Christian believes the Bible to be the product of men\ninspired by Christ, he can send it out by the million copies as equal to\nthe moral and spiritual needs of the world.\n\nAnd because Christ is, through his imperfect agents, the real author of\nScripture, we believe in its absolute _authority_. When rightly\ninterpreted, however. It will never do to treat poetry as if it were\nprose, or drama as if it were history, or allegory as if it were fact.\nChrist can use, and he has used, all the common methods of literary\ncomposition, and he expects us to use common sense in dealing with them.\nBut out of the whole can be evolved a consistent doctrine and an\nauthoritative law. The one and only way of salvation is plainly that of\nfaith in God's provision of pardon and life in Christ. In spite of many\ndivergences, the great body of Christians throughout the ages have\nagreed in their recognition of the personality and the deity of the\nFather, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; of the incarnation and the\natonement of Christ; of his resurrection and his lordship; of his\nomnipresence with his people even to the end of the world. They have\nexpressed this agreement in the Apostles' Creed and in the hymnology of\nthe church. But the great body of instructed Christians also believe in\nChrist as the Revealer of God in nature and in history; as \"the Light\nthat lighteth every man\" in conscience and tradition; and as the\nrighteous Judge who accepts in every nation those who fear God and work\nrighteousness, casting themselves as sinners upon the divine mercy even\nthough they do not yet know that this divine mercy is only another name\nfor Christ. The Bible, as a whole and when rightly interpreted, is\nabsolute authority, because it is the word of Christ; and Christ holds\neach of us, as individuals, to the duty and the privilege of\ninterpreting the Bible for himself.\n\nIt seems to me plain that this method of interpreting Scripture in the\nlight of the Christian's experience of Christ, is not \"the historical\nmethod,\" as it is usually employed. This latter method seems to ignore\nthe relation of Scripture to Christ, and to proceed in its\ninvestigations as if there were no preexistent Christ to furnish its\nprinciple. It insists upon treating Scripture as it would treat any\nunreligious or heathen literature, and with no relation to its divine\nauthorship. It sees in Scripture only a promiscuous collection of\ndisjointed documents, with no living tie to bind them together, and no\nsignificance beyond that of the time in which they were written. It\nwould treat the Bible as a man-made book, or rather, as a man-made\nseries of books, regardless of the fact that the plural \"biblia,\" which\nonce represented the thought of the church, has, under the influence of\nthe divine Spirit, become \"biblion\" or Bible, a singular, and a proof\nthat Christian consciousness has not been satisfied with rationalistic\nexplanations, but has followed its natural impulses by attributing unity\nto the word of Christ its Saviour. The separate \"words\" have been felt\nto constitute the one \"word of God,\" an organic whole, which fitly\nrepresents the eternal \"Word,\" of whom it is the voice and expression.\nScripture is not a congeries of earth-born fragments, but an organism,\npulsating with divine life. The \"historical method\" of which I speak can\nnever find that life, because it works only on the physical and\nhorizontal plane, ignoring the light which comes deductively from above,\nand also the darkening and blinding influences which often operate\nunconsciously from below.\n\n\n\n\nXVI\n\nSCRIPTURE AND MISSIONS\n\n\nThe \"historical method\" of Scripture interpretation, as it is often\nemployed, ends without Christ, because it begins without him. One of its\nfundamental principles is that each passage of Scripture is to be\ninterpreted solely in the light of the knowledge and intent of the\nperson who wrote it. The One Hundred and Tenth Psalm, for example, can\nhave no reference to Christ, because the writer knew no other than the\nJewish king whose accession and whose power he anticipates. The Psalm\nreads, \"Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I\nmake thine enemies thy footstool.\" The so-called historical critics\nwould make any interpretation of this passage as a designed prophecy of\nChrist to be an unwarranted accommodation of it to a meaning which it\ndid not originally bear, and the conclusion is that we are wrong in\nciting these words as an Old Testament assertion of Christ's deity. But,\nunfortunately for this method of interpretation, we have, in the Gospels\nof Matthew and of Mark, our Lord's own reference of this passage, not\nsimply to some Jewish ruler of olden time, but to the coming Messiah,\nand since he was himself the Messiah, he refers it by implication to\nhimself. He does not deny, but rather grants, a primary reference of the\npsalm to a son of David, for David was a king, and his son would be a\nking. But he also sees in the psalm a prophecy that this son of David\nwould be a king whom David would call Lord. His searching examination\npropounds to the unbelieving Jews the question, \"What think ye of the\nChrist? whose son is he?\" And they say, \"The Son of David.\" He answers\nthem by asking, \"How then doth David, in the Spirit, call him Lord?\" In\nother words, inspiration declares Messiah to be a King of kings, and a\nLord of lords. Since the whole discussion is one with regard to the\nnature and claims of the Messiah, and since the Messiah is not a mere\nman like David, but is seated on the throne with Jehovah and is David's\nLord, Christ's answer is an assertion of his own deity. His answer\nantedates, even if it did not suggest, Paul's later description of\nChrist, as \"declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the\nSpirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.\" But the higher\ncritics differ in opinion from the Lord Jesus. They extricate themselves\nfrom their difficulty by suggesting that Jesus, like other men, was\nsubject to the errors of his time. And so, not only Christ's knowledge\nof Scripture and his authority as its interpreter are denied, but also\nhis knowledge of his own nature and place in the universe. If his\nknowledge of things so essential be denied, what trust can we place in\nany other of his utterances? To those who reason in this way, Christ\ncannot possibly be divine--he is only a fallible man, self-deceived, and\nso, deceiving others. The fault of the critics lies in their\npresupposition. They have begun wrongly, by leaving out the primary fact\nin the subject they investigate, namely, that the preincarnate Christ\nwas the author and inspirer of the Scripture which he afterward\ninterpreted. He used human agents, with their natural language and\nsurroundings, as his instruments, but he could, on the way to Emmaus,\n\"beginning from Moses and all the prophets,\" interpret to those humble\nbelievers \"in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.\"\nScripture can have, and it does have, two authors, man and God, the\nwriter and Christ; and to ignore Christ in the evolution of the Bible is\nto miss its chief meaning, to teach falsehood instead of truth, and,\nconsciously or unconsciously, to deny Christ's deity.\n\nCannot a document have more than one author? What are the facts in other\nrealms of art? In painting, did not Landseer get Millais to paint the\nhuman figure into the picture of his dogs? In literature, is there any\nmore acknowledged fact than that Erckmann-Chatrian's battle-stories were\nthe work of two writers, and not of one? The work of a single author may\nhave two separate meanings, for Dante declares that his Divine Comedy\nhas one meaning that is personal, and another meaning that is universal.\nOur extreme critics are as poor students of literature as they are of\nlife. Their narrowness of interpretation is due to a narrowness of\nexperience. If they knew Christ better, they would find in the\nTwenty-third Psalm alone enough proof to upset their theory. \"The Lord\nis my shepherd, I shall not want,\" is an utterance inexplicable by\nmerely human authorship. To suppose that even a king of Israel who had\nbeen a shepherd-boy could have written this psalm without divine\ninspiration, in a day when all lands but little Palestine were wrapt in\na pall of heathen darkness, is to suppose that religion can exist and\nflourish without a God.\n\n\"The testimony of Jesus,\" says the book of Revelation, \"is the spirit of\nprophecy.\" It was the recognition of constant references to Christ in\nthe Old Testament, that enabled the apostles to convince and convert the\nunbelieving Jews. The absence of this recognition is the secret of all\nthe minimizing of Christ's attributes which is so rife in our day. Do\nmen believe in Christ's deity who ignore his promise to be with them to\nthe end of the world, and who refuse to address him in prayer? Could one\nof these modern interpreters have taken the place of Philip, when he met\nthe Ethiopian eunuch? That dignitary had been reading the prophecy of\nIsaiah, \"He was led as a lamb to the slaughter.\" \"Of whom speaketh the\nprophet this? of himself, or of some other?\" \"And Philip opened his\nmouth, and preached unto him _Jesus._\" Our modern critics call this an\nunwarranted interpretation, because Isaiah had no knowledge of Christ.\nAnd yet, John tells us that \"Isaiah saw his glory, and spake of him.\"\nThe critics contradict John again, when they say that we must put no\nmeaning into Isaiah's words but that of his own time. His great prophecy\nof a suffering Messiah, they say, had reference only to Jehoiachin, the\ncaptive king of Judah, or to the whole Jewish nation as the afflicted\npeople of God. Philip and the critics are evidently at variance. If we\naccept their method, we shall lose all reference in the Old Testament to\nthe atonement of Christ, and all proof that the sacrifice on Calvary was\nthat of \"the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.\"\nReverse the process, and we can still say,\n\n The Holy, meek, unspotted Lamb,\n Who from the Father's bosom came\n For me and for my sins to atone,\n Him for my Lord and God I own.\n\nIt is needless to multiply instances of this failure to interpret the\nOld Testament aright. Let me call attention to the effect of this method\nupon the interpretation of the New Testament, for the authority of the\nNew Testament is also undermined. The system of typical interpretation,\nwhich sees in Christ the reality prefigured in Old Testament shadows, is\ndiscredited as unscientific. The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is thrown\nout, as a poetical clothing of \"the man of Nazareth\" with the fading\nglories of an outworn worship. The idea that the high priest of old who\nentered the Holy of Holies once a year not without blood, and the whole\nJewish system of which this formed the central feature, were a divinely\nordered prefiguration of Christ's atoning sacrifice for the sins of\nmen--this idea is called a mere human addition to historical truth.\nChrist is no longer our great High Priest. His priesthood is mere\nmetaphor, without divine warrant or authority. He is not our Prophet,\nnor our King, for his prophecies are not fulfilled, and his kingdom is\nonly that of a moral teacher and example. And all this, in spite of the\nfact that the Epistle to the Hebrews bears upon its front the\ndeclaration that \"God, who in past times spoke to the fathers through\nthe prophets, has in these last days spoken through his Son,\" whom this\nsame Epistle then proceeds to describe as the effulgence of God's glory\nand the very image of his substance, the Creator, Upholder, and\nRedeemer of the world, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.\n\nI do not undervalue the historical method, when it is kept free from\nthis agnostic presupposition that only man is the author of Scripture.\nThis method has given us some information as to the authorship of the\nsacred books, and it has in some degree helped in their interpretation.\nI am free to acknowledge my own obligation to it. I grant the composite\ndocumentary view of the Pentateuch and of its age-long days of creation,\nwhile I still hold to its substantially Mosaic authorship. I say this,\nhowever, with deference, for a university president of note, when asked\nabout the stories of Cain and Abel, replied that no such persons in all\nprobability ever lived, but that the account was still valuable, since\nit taught the great moral lesson that it is highly improper for a man to\nmurder his brother! I grant that there may be more than one Isaiah,\nwhile yet I see in the later Isaiah a continuance of the divine\nrevelation given through the earlier. Any honest Christian, I would say,\nhas the right to interpret Jonah and Daniel as allegories, rather than\nas histories. I can look upon the book of Job as a drama, while I still\nassert that Job was a historical character. I can see in the Song of\nSolomon the celebration of a pure human love, while at the same time I\nclaim that the Song had divinely injected into it the meaning that union\nwith Christ is the goal and climax of all human passion. In short, I\ntake the historical method as my servant and not my master; as partially\nbut not wholly revealing the truth; as showing me, not how man made the\nScripture for himself, but how God made the Scripture through the\nimperfect agency of man. So I find _unity_ in the Scriptures, because\nthey are the work of the omnipresent and omniscient Christ: I find\n_sufficiency_ in the Scriptures, because they satisfy every religious\nneed of the individual and of the church; I find _authority_ in the\nScriptures, because, though coming through man, they are, when taken\ntogether and rightly interpreted, the veritable word of God. I denounce\nthe historical method, only when it claims to be the solely valid method\nof reaching truth, and so, leaves out the primary agency and determining\ninfluence of Christ.\n\nWhat sort of systematic theology is left us, when the perverted\nhistorical method is made the only clue to the labyrinth of Scripture?\nThere is but one answer: No such thing as systematic theology is\npossible. Science is knowledge, and to have a system you must have\nunified knowledge. The historical method so called can see no unity in\nScripture, because it does not carry with it the primary knowledge of\nChrist. It simply applies in its investigations the principles of\nphysical science. Physical science begins with the outward and visible,\nnot with the inward and spiritual, with matter and not with mind.\nLaplace swept the heavens with his telescope, but he said that he\nnowhere found a God. He might just as well have swept his kitchen with a\nbroom, and then complained that he could not find God there. God is not\nstars, nor dust. God is spirit, and he is not to be apprehended by the\nsenses. Laplace should have taken man's conscience and will for his\nstarting-point. And just as physical science can find no God in the\nuniverse by the use of the forceps and the microscope, so this\nhistorical method can find no Christ in the Scriptures, because it looks\nthere for only human agency. The result is that it finds only a\ncollection of seemingly contradictory fragments, with no divine Spirit\nto harmonize them and bind them together. Its method is purely\ninductive, whereas its induction should always be guided by a knowledge\nof Christ, gained before investigation begins, and furnishing the basis\nfor a deductive process as well. Differentiation and not harmonization\nis its rule, and this makes its criticism destructive rather than\nconstructive. Many a passage is set aside, because it will not fit in\nwith a skeptical interpretation. Christ's own words with regard to his\nbeing \"a ransom for many,\" and with regard to his having \"all power\ncommitted to him in heaven and in earth,\" are held to be later words\nattributed to him by his followers. The whole New Testament story comes\nto be regarded as a mythical growth, like that which gradually placed\nhaloes about the heads of the apostles. The Gospel of John is not\naccepted as historical, but is said to be a work of the second century.\nJesus, it is said, never himself claimed to be the Messiah, since it is\nonly John who reports his saying to the woman of Samaria, \"I that speak\nunto thee am he.\" Paul is set aside, as being the author of a rabbinical\ntheology which has no claim upon us; and that, in spite of Christ's own\ndeclaration that there were many things which he could not teach while\nhe was here in the flesh, but which he would teach, by his Spirit, after\nhis resurrection, and ascension.\n\nProf. Kirsopp Lake, in a recent address before the Harvard Divinity\nSchool, deprecated the use of the term \"theology.\" \"Theology,\" he said,\n\"presupposes divine revelation, which we do not accept.\" He proposed the\nterm \"philosophy,\" as expressive of the aim of the Unitarian school.\nThis is honest and plain. What shall we say of those who speak of the\n\"new emphasis\" needed in modern theology, when they really mean that the\npreaching of the old doctrines of sin and salvation must give place to\n\"another gospel\" of cooperative Christian work? From their neglect to\nput any further emphasis upon \"the faith once for all delivered to the\nsaints,\" we can only infer that, for their structure of doctrine, no\nother foundation than philosophy is needed, and that they, like the\nUnitarians, no longer accept the fact of a divine revelation. \"Other\nfoundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus\nChrist,\" and to lay greater emphasis upon the fruits of Christianity\nthan upon its roots, is to insult Christ, and ultimately to make\nChristianity itself only one of many earth-born religions, powerless\nlike them either to save the individual soul or to redeem society.\nProfessor Lake is quite right: If there is no divine revelation, there\ncan be, not only no systematic theology, but no theology at all.\n\nWhat is the effect of this method upon our theological seminaries? It is\nto deprive the gospel message of all definiteness, and to make\nprofessors and students disseminators of doubts. Many a professor has\nfound teaching preferable to preaching, because he lacked the initial\nChristian experience which gives to preaching its certainty and power.\nHe chooses the line of least resistance, and becomes in the theological\nseminary a blind leader of the blind. Having no system of truth to\nteach, he becomes a mere lecturer on the history of doctrine. Having no\nkey in Christ to the unity of Scripture, he becomes a critic of what he\nis pleased to call its fragments, that is, the dissector of a cadaver.\nAsk him if he believes in the preexistence, deity, virgin birth,\nmiracles, atoning death, physical resurrection, omnipresence, and\nomnipotence of Christ, and he denies your right to require of him any\nstatement of his own beliefs. He does not conceive it to be his duty to\nfurnish his students with any fixed conclusions as to doctrine but only\nto aid them in coming to conclusions for themselves. The apostle Paul\nwas not so reticent. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, but\nrather gloried in it. He even pronounced his anathema upon any who\ntaught other doctrine. It is no wonder that our modern critics cry,\n\"Back to Christ,\" for this means, \"Away from Paul.\" The result of such\nteaching in our seminaries is that the student, unless he has had a\nPauline experience before he came, has all his early conceptions of\nScripture and of Christian doctrine weakened, has no longer any positive\nmessage to deliver, loses the ardor of his love for Christ, and at his\ngraduation leaves the seminary, not to become preacher or pastor as he\nhad once hoped, but to sow his doubts broadcast, as teacher in some\ncollege, as editor of some religious journal, as secretary of some Young\nMen's Christian Association, or as agent of some mutual life insurance\ncompany. This method of interpretation switches off upon some side-track\nof social service many a young man who otherwise would be a heroic\npreacher of the everlasting gospel. The theological seminaries of\nalmost all our denominations are becoming so infected with this\ngrievous error, that they are not so much organs of Christ, as they are\norgans of Antichrist. This accounts for the rise, all over the land, of\nBible schools, to take the place of the seminaries. The evil is coming\nin like a flood, and the Spirit of the Lord will surely raise up a\nstandard against it. But oh the pity! that money given by godly men to\nprovide preachers of the gospel should be devoted to undermining the\nChristian cause!\n\nWhat is the effect of this method of interpretation upon the churches of\nour denomination? It is to cut the tap-root of their strength, and to\nimperil their very existence. Baptist churches are founded upon\nScripture. Their doctrine of regenerate church-membership, and of church\nordinances as belonging only to believers, presupposes an authoritative\nrule of faith and practice in the New Testament. In controversy with\nother denominations we have always appealed \"to the law and to the\ntestimony,\" and we have declared that, if other faiths \"speak not\naccording to this word, surely there is no morning for them.\" We have\nheld that the authority of Scripture is not an arbitrary authority, but\nthat the ordinances have so much of meaning that to change their form is\nto destroy them altogether. We stand for immersion as the only real\nbaptism, not because much water is better than little water, but because\nbaptism is the symbol of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and\nthe symbol also of our spiritual death, burial, and resurrection with\nhim. When we are \"buried with him in baptism,\" we show forth his death,\njust as we show forth his death in the Lord's Supper. To change the form\nof the Lord's Supper so as to leave out all reference to the breaking of\nChrist's body and the shedding of his blood, would be to break down one\ngreat visible monument and testimony to Christ's atoning death, and to\ndestroy the Lord's Supper itself. And to change the form of baptism so\nas to leave out its symbolism of Christ's death, burial, and\nresurrection, is to break down another great visible monument and\ntestimony to Christ's essential work, and to destroy the ordinance of\nbaptism. Only the surrender of belief in the authority of Scripture, and\na consequent ignoring of the meaning of baptism can explain the proposal\nto give us our requisition of immersion. The weakness of our\ndenomination in such cities as New York results from the acceptance of\nthe method of Scripture interpretation which I have been criticizing. We\nare losing our faith in the Bible, and our determination to stand for\nits teachings. We are introducing into our ministry men who either never\nknew the Lord, or who have lost their faith in him and their love for\nhim. The unbelief in our seminary teaching is like a blinding mist which\nis slowly settling down upon our churches, and is gradually abolishing,\nnot only all definite views of Christian doctrine, but also all\nconviction of duty to \"contend earnestly for the faith\" of our fathers.\nSo we are giving up our polity, to please and to join other\ndenominations. If this were only a lapse in denominationalism, we might\ncall it a mere change in our ways of expressing faith. But it is a far\nmore radical evil. It is apostasy from Christ and revolt against his\ngovernment. It is refusal to rally to Christ's colors in the great\nconflict with error and sin. We are ceasing to be evangelistic as well\nas evangelical, and if this downward progress continues, we shall in due\ntime cease to exist. This is the fate of Unitarianism to-day. We\nBaptists must reform, or die.\n\nWhat is the effect of this method of interpretation upon missions? I\nhave just come from an extensive tour in mission fields. I have visited\nmissionaries of several denominations. I have found those missions most\nsuccessful which have held to the old gospel and to the polity of the\nNew Testament. But I have found a growing tendency to depend upon\neducation, rather than upon evangelism. What would Peter have said on\nthe day of Pentecost, if you had advised him not to incur the wrath of\nthe Jews by his preaching, but to establish schools, and to trust to the\ngradual enlightenment of the Jewish nation by means of literature? He\nmight have replied that our Lord made it his first duty to \"make\ndisciples,\" and only afterwards to \"teach them to observe all things\nwhich he had commanded.\" Christian schools and Christian teaching are\nnecessary in their place, but they are second, not first. Our lack at\nhome of the right interpretation of Scripture, and our fading knowledge\nin experience of the presence and power of Christ, have gone from us\nround the world. Some boards are sending out as missionaries young men\nwho lack definite views of doctrine. These young men, having nothing\npositive to preach, choose rather to teach in the English language, in\nschools where English is spoken, rather than preach in the native\nlanguage which requires a lifetime of study. When they teach, they\ncannot help revealing their mental poverty, and disturbing the simple\nfaith of their pupils. Having no certainty themselves, they can inspire\nno certainty in others, for \"if the trumpet gives no certain sound, who\nwill arm himself for the battle?\" These unprepared and inefficient\nteachers may become themselves converted through their very sense of\nweakness in presence of the towering systems of idolatry and\nsuperstition around them. But if they are not so converted, they will\nhandicap the mission and paralyze its influence. Some of our best\nmissionaries have said to me, \"The Lord deliver us from such helpers!\"\nNo man has a right to go, and no board has a right to send, as a\nmissionary, one who has not had such a personal experience of Christ as\nwill enable him to stand against this unscientific and unchristian\nmethod of Scripture interpretation.\n\nThis so-called \"historical method\" has effects on the missionary cause\nat home, as well as in the lands far away. \"How shall they preach,\nexcept they be sent?\" The sending of missionaries is dependent upon the\nzeal and liberality of the churches in our land. But how can one who is\nnot sure that Jesus ever uttered the words of the Great Commission urge\nthe churches to fulfil that command of Christ? How can one who has never\nfelt his own need of an atonement adjure his brethren, by Christ's death\nfor their sins, not to let the heathen perish? How can one who has had\nno experience of Christ as a present and divine Saviour, have power to\nstand against the rationalism and apathy of the church? This method of\nScripture interpretation makes evangelism an enterprise of fanatics not\nsufficiently educated to know that Buddha and Confucius were teachers of\ntruth long before the time of Christ. Can we more surely dry up the\nsources of missionary contributions, than by yielding to the pernicious\ninfluence of this way of treating Scripture? We have gone far already in\nthe wrong direction. Our churches are honeycombed with doubt and with\nindifference. The preaching of the old gospel of sin and salvation seems\nalmost a thing of the past. People have itching ears that will not\nendure sound doctrine. The dynamic of missions is love for Christ, who\ndied to save us from the guilt and power of sin. Modern criticism has\nto a large extent nullified this dynamic, and if the authority of\nScripture is yet further weakened, we may look for complete collapse in\nour supplies both of men and of money. In fact, the faith and the gifts\nof many converts from among the heathen already so far exceed the\naverage faith and gifts of our churches at home, that the time may come\nwhen Burma and the Congo may have to send missionaries to us, as we are\nnow sending missionaries to the land where the seven churches of Asia\nonce flourished.\n\nWhence has come this so-called \"historical method\" of interpreting\nScripture? I answer: It was \"made in Germany.\" German scholarship for a\ncentury past has been working almost exclusively on the horizontal\nplane, and has been ignoring the light that comes from above. The\ntheology of Great Britain and of America has been profoundly affected by\nthe application of its evolutionary and skeptical principles. In Germany\nitself the honesty of every Scripture writer has been questioned, and\nevery sacred document has been torn into bits. When the all-pervading\npresence and influence of Christ in the Bible is lost sight of, and its\nseparate fragments are examined to discover their meaning, there is no\nguide but the theory of evolution; and evolution, instead of being the\nordinary method of a personal God, is itself personified and made the\nonly power in the universe. The regularities of nature, it is thought,\nleave no room for miracle. There is no divine Will that can work down\nupon nature in unique acts, such as incarnation and resurrection. A\npantheistic Force is the only ruler, and whatever is, is right. Goethe\nled the way in this pagan philosophy, and German universities have been\nfull of it ever since. It is painful to see how German theologians and\nministers have been won over to the ethics of brute force and the\npractical, deification of mere might in human affairs. The New Testament\nhas been interpreted as justifying implicit obedience to \"the powers\nthat be,\" even when they turn the Kaiser into a military despot and his\npeople into unresisting and deluded slaves. An exaggerated nationalism\nhas taken the place of human solidarity, and a selfish domination of the\nworld has become the goal of national ambition. All the atrocities of\nthis war might have been spared us, if the nations of which Germany is\nthe most conspicuous offender had derived their ethics and their\npractice from the divine love which rules above, rather than from the\nseeming necessity of competing with the nations around them. A new\ninterpretation of Scripture is needed to set the world right. But as\nGermany will never be convinced that the worship of Force is vain,\nuntil she sees herself plunged in defeat and ruin, so the advocates of\nthis so-called historical method will never make deduction a primary\npart of their procedure, and will never take the eternal Christ as their\nkey to Scripture interpretation, until Christ himself shall by a second\nspiritual advent enter into their hearts and dissipate their doubts, as\nhe did when he showed himself to Paul on the way to Damascus.\n\nI have tried to point out the inherent error of the method to which I\nhave been objecting, and to show its ill effects upon systematic\ntheology, upon our theological seminaries, upon our Baptist churches,\nand upon our missionary work abroad and at home. I have intimated that\nthe influence of this perverse treatment of Holy Writ may be seen even\nin the present internecine conflict in which the professedly Christian\nnations are engaged. I shall very naturally be asked what remedy I\npropose for so deep-seated and widespread an evil. I can only answer\nthat I see no permanent cure but the second coming of Christ. But do not\nmisunderstand me. I am no premillennarian of the ordinary sort. Indeed,\nI am as much a post-millennialist, as I am a premillennialist. I believe\nthat both interpretations of prophecy have their rights, and, believing\nalso as I do that Scripture is a unity and that its seeming\ncontradictions can be harmonized, I hold that Christ's spiritual coming\nprecedes the millennium, but that his visible and literal coming follows\nthe millennium. I therefore look for such a spiritual coming into the\nhearts of his people, as shall renew their faith, fulfil their joy, and\nanswer to the prediction of \"the rapture of the saints.\" In other\nwords, I look for a mighty revival of religion, which will set the\nchurches on their old foundation, and endow them with power to subdue\nthe world. This war seems to me God's second great demonstration of\nman's inability to save himself, and his need of divine power to save\nhim. As the ancient world and its history were God's demonstration of\nhuman sin, and of man's need of Christ's first advent, so this war is\nGod's proof that science and philosophy, literature and commerce, are\nnot sufficient for man's needs, and that Christ must again come, if our\nmodern world is ever to be saved. \"In the fulness of time\" Christ's\nfirst advent occurred. \"In the fulness of time\" Christ's second advent\nwill occur. But not until humanity, weary of its load, cries out for its\nredemption. \"How long, O Lord, how long?\" \"It is not for us to know the\ntimes which the Father has set within his own authority.\" But it is ours\nto believe in Christ's promise, and to pray for its speedy fulfilment.\nAnd so, I beg you to join with me in the one prayer with which our book\nof Scripture closes, namely, \"Lord Jesus, come quickly!\"\n\n\n\n\nXVII\n\nTHE THEOLOGY OF MISSIONS\n\n\n\"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord.\" Yes, a candle, but a\ncandle not yet lighted, a candle which will never be light nor give\nlight, till it is touched by a divine flame. So said Doctor Parkhurst.\nWas his interpretation of Scripture correct? He drew from the proverb\nthe conclusion that man has a religious nature, not in the sense that\nhe is actually religious, but only in the sense that he has a capacity\nfor religion. Doctor Parkhurst would say that man is actually religious\nonly when he knows the true God and worships him in spirit and in\ntruth. To that God he is by nature and by sinful habit blind. He can be\nlight and give light, only after God has enlightened him by special\nrevelation. His nature is a candle unlighted, until God touches it with\nhis divine flame.\n\nWhat is the truth in this matter? The months I have spent in these\nheathen lands have made deep impression upon me, and the problem of\nheathenism has loomed up before me as never before. When one sees\nthousands prostrating themselves in a Mohammedan mosque and chanting in\nunison their ascription of greatness to God, or when one sees a Hindu\ndevotee so absorbed in his prayer to a senseless idol that he is\nunconscious of the kicks and shouts of the passers-by, one comes to\nrealize that man must have a god. The religious instinct is a part of\nhis nature. It is more than a mere capacity for religion. It is active\nas well as passive. In some sort the candle is already burning. It burns\nat certain times and places with a fierce and demonic glow. When I saw\nin Calcutta, so recently the capital of India, a priestess of the temple\nof Kali, cutting into bits the flesh and entrails of sheep in order that\nthe poorest worshiper might have for his farthing some bloody fragment\nto offer at the shrine of that hideous and lustful and cruel goddess, I\nfelt sure that, though the candle is burning, it is not always because\nit has been touched by a divine flame. There are other powers than God's\nat work in this universe. Doctor Parkhurst's explanation of the\nScripture text is not sufficient. He acknowledges only a part of the\ntruth. The candle is giving already a dim and lurid light. Man is\nblindly worshiping, groping in the dark, bowing to imaginary deities,\nthe products of his own imagination, the work of his own hands.\n\nWe must go even farther than this, and concede that here and there among\nthese crowds of worshipers there may be one who is a sincere seeker\nafter God and, according to the light that he has, is trying honestly to\nserve him. I do not mean a selfish service of ignorant and earthly\npassion, but a service prompted by some elementary knowledge of the true\nGod, gained by contemplation of his works in nature or from the needs of\nhis own soul revealed in conscience. Surely there was truth and\nsincerity in the worship of Socrates, of Epictetus, of Marcus Aurelius.\nThe patriarchs had knowledge of God and walked with God, long before\nChrist came. And Scripture itself declares that in every nation he that\nfears God and works righteousness is accepted by him. David Brainerd\nfound among the American Indians a man who for years had separated\nhimself from the wickedness of his people, and had devoted himself to\ndoing them good. Now and then our missionaries find a heathen whose\nstrivings after God have been prompted by a sense of sin, and whose\nworship must have been accepted by the God of love. Though there is\n\"none other name given among men whereby we may be saved,\" we cannot\ndoubt that every man who feels himself to be a sinner, and casts himself\nupon God's mercy for salvation, does really though unconsciously cast\nhimself upon Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the\nworld, and so joins himself to Christ by the teaching and power of\nChrist's Spirit, as to be saved in some measure from the dominion of sin\nhere and from the penalty of sin hereafter.\n\nI am a believer in the unity, the sufficiency, and the authority of\nScripture--in its unity, when the parts are put together in their\nhistorical connections and with the key to their meaning furnished us in\nChrist; in its sufficiency, as a rule of religious faith and practice;\nand in its authority, when rightly interpreted with the aid of the Holy\nSpirit. So I am prepared to find in the first chapter of Paul's Epistle\nto the Romans the true philosophy of heathenism, and the reconciliation\nof the otherwise seemingly conflicting utterances of Scripture with\nregard to the religious nature of man. I learn that God made man\nupright, and endowed him with at least a childlike knowledge of himself.\nBut early humanity sought out many inventions, did not wish to retain\nGod in its knowledge, and substituted for the true God creatures of its\nown imagination. In other words, the scriptural explanation of\nheathenism is found in an original ancestral sin, in which the human\nrace departed from the true God and gave itself up to the worship,\nfirst, of impersonal nature-powers, and then, of the polytheistic\npersonifications of these powers which naturally followed.\n\nModern heathenism is the result of an abnormal and downward evolution.\nMany students of comparative religion have forgotten that evolution is\noftener to lower forms than to higher. Many a species in the history of\nlife has first become degenerate, and then has become extinct. The\nshores of time are strewn with wrecks, and one of these wrecks is human\nnature. Paul gives us only the logical and moral interpretation of a\nbiological fact, when he declares that in consequence of man's departure\nfrom God, God gave man over to the dominion of his own passions, in\norder that the shame and guilt of his vile affections might awaken his\nconscience and lead him to cry for mercy and redemption. Modern\nheathenism, still surviving in this age of enlightenment, shows how sin\ncan blind the intellect and harden the heart. When men worship demons of\ncruelty and lust instead of God, they reveal the depravity as well as\nthe ignorance of human nature in its downward evolution. The candle has\nbeen lighted indeed, but it has been touched with the flames of hell.\n\nWhen God made man in his own image, it was only wheat that he sowed in\nhis field. The evil decision of man has furnished the tares, and their\nhistory has been a history of downward evolution. But side by side with\nthis downward evolution there has been an upward evolution of divine\ngrace. The tares have been suffered to grow, but only that there might\nbe demonstrated the power of the wheat to root them out. And from the\nvery beginning Christ has been the author and principle of the true\nevolution. He who created the race has been its Preserver, Instructor,\nand Saviour. Humanity, in its warring and its lust, would long since\nhave become extinct, if it had not been for the presence in it of a\ndivine Life and Light. That life and light were the life and light of\nthe preincarnate Christ. He is \"the light that lighteth every man,\" and\n\"his life was the light of men.\" Jonathan Edwards did not go too far,\nwhen he recognized in all natural beauty and goodness the work of\nChrist. The sunset clouds were painted by the hand of Christ, and it is\nhe whose glory is celebrated by the cannonading of the autumn storm over\nthe grave of summer. All the light of conscience is his light; all the\nprogress of science is his revelation. It was he who led the children of\nIsrael by a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, and who\nthundered and lightened from Sinai at the giving of the Law. \"The Rock\nthat followed\" the chosen people through the wilderness and gave them\ndrink \"was Christ.\" Every reform within the bounds of heathenism has\nbeen due to him. Confucius and Buddha, so far as they uttered truth,\nwere his messengers. He has never left humanity without a witness to the\npower and goodness of God. While men have been seeking an unknown God,\nhe has been that very God whom they were seeking, and it is he who has\nincited them to feel after him and find him. His light has shined in\nthe darkness, and the darkness has comprehended it not, though in him we\nlive and move and have our being.\n\nSo there is evolution of good, side by side with the evolution of evil.\nWe may recognize truth in heathen systems, while we deplore their\nerrors, for Christ himself is the Truth. It is the single grain of truth\nin these systems that has given them all their power. They never could\nhave maintained their hold upon the world, if they had not appealed to\nsome good instincts of the human heart. A coin made wholly of lead will\nnever pass for a dollar. It must have a little washing of silver to give\nit any sort of currency. But it is a counterfeit, for all its silver\nwashing. So these heathen systems have their grain of truth, but they\nare false and soul-destroying all the same. Let us recognize candidly\nthe grains of truth which they contain, for these are witnesses to the\nindwelling Christ who has not left humanity wholly to itself. And let us\nmake these grains of truth our gateways of access to the heathen heart,\nwhile we show the heathen the larger and fuller truth as it is in Jesus.\n\nChrist alone can solve the problems of the world and reconcile the\nwarring elements of humanity. He is our peace, who hath made Jew and\nGentile one, having broken down the middle wall of partition, and having\nmade of the twain one new man, reconciling both to God through the blood\nof his Cross. He can make all sects, all parties, all castes, all\nnations one; because in him are all the elements of truth which each\npossesses, without any mixture of their errors. In him there will be no\nlonger barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, male nor female, for he will\nbind all together by virtue of their union with himself. The Hindu, for\nexample, has the truth of God's immanence, but he turns it into\nfalsehood by denying the correlative and equally important truth of\nGod's transcendence, making God to be a mere nature-force without\npersonality, while Scripture recognizes in God both immanence and\ntranscendence, sees God in all things and through all things, yet above\nall things. The Hindu has also the truth of God's incarnation, but he\nturns it into error, by denying the permanence of that incarnation, the\ndivine incarnation in Krishna or Buddha being only a temporary\nassumption of humanity which he leaves behind him when he reascends to\nhis heaven, while Christ takes our human nature into perpetual union\nwith himself and makes it sit down with him upon his throne. The Moslem,\non the other hand, believes in God's unity and transcendence, but denies\nhis immanence. His God is far away, not only physically but also\nmorally, for he is without justice or love. The Moslem holds stoutly to\nthe truth of God's personality; but he denies the manifestation of that\npersonality in Christ, and also Christ's personal presence with all\nbelievers. Only Christ can break down the middle wall of partition\nbetween Hindu and Moslem, for he alone has the all-inclusive truth that\nwill unite them both. And so of all divisions of caste, of color, of\nparty, of denomination, and of nationality, for he alone is the Way, the\nTruth, and the Life, supremely and absolutely fitted to be the Bringer\nof Peace to the world.\n\nThere is yet another reason why Christ alone can save. Let us remember\nalways that error is the result of sin, and that before the power of sin\ncan be broken, the penalty of sin must be removed. In the heart of man\nis an inextinguishable sense of guilt, and an equally inextinguishable\nthirst for reparation. It is the forebodings of conscience that make\ndeath terrible. Blind the eyes and harden the heart, if you will. The\naccusations of conscience will be like writings in invisible ink, that\ncome out clear and threatening in times of introspection and of sober\njudgment. As Shakespeare says,\n\n Their great guilt\n Like poison given to work a great time after,\n Now 'gins to bite the spirits.\n\nThe greatest chasm is between their souls and God, and they must have\npeace with God, before they can have peace with men. Christ is our\npeace, therefore, first of all, because he makes atonement for our sins,\npays our debts to justice, and sets our conscience free from guilt.\nChrist is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world,\nmaking peace by the blood of his Cross. Having made our peace with God,\nhe makes peace in our warring powers of conscience and will, and then\nbrings about peace in our relations with others. As he made man at the\nfirst of one blood, so he will at last bring all the nations back into\none brotherhood of holiness and love.\n\nThere is a moral theology, as well as a doctrinal theology. The moral\nfollows the doctrinal, and shows in practice that the doctrine is truth\nand not error. Paul includes this moral teaching in his Epistle to the\nRomans. At the beginning of his twelfth chapter he passes from his\ndiscussion of justification by faith to speak of the proper effects of\nfaith in the Christian life: \"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the\nmercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice.\" Then\ncomes the noblest summary of duty to be found in all literature. All\nmanner of social service is enjoined, while the presupposition of that\nservice is ever held to be the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf and the\nregenerating grace of God in the Christian heart. How much the heathen\nworld needs this part of the gospel, only some knowledge of the shameful\nvices of the Orient can reveal to us. The first chapter of that same\nEpistle is a correct picture of the heathen world of to-day. A pure\nlife, which is also a life lived for others, is something which\nsurpasses the power of Confucius or Buddha to produce or to maintain.\nSuch lives in the churches of mission lands are the weightiest arguments\nfor Christianity. But conversion to Christ goes, in its influence,\nfarther than the individual. It has a far-reaching social influence. It\nlifts up the whole family, the whole class, the whole caste, making its\nmembers intelligent, efficient, trustworthy, as many British officials\nin India gladly bear witness. Christianity seems likely to give the\nSudras precedence of the Brahmans in civil and political affairs, so\nthat in one case at least the meek shall inherit the earth.\n\nThe kingdom of God, however, can never win its triumphs solely by\nexternal reforms. In order to obtain the fruits of education, morality,\nand self-government, you must first have Christian faith rooted in the\nsoil. Applications of Christianity are necessary, and they are to be\nearnestly sought, but it will be vain to seek them, if we have no\nChristianity to apply. The tendency in our missions to put the main\nstress upon physical and social agencies, to the detriment of simple\ngospel preaching, is sure to be disappointing in its results. It is like\ntrying to light a coal-fire by putting your kindlings on top. It is like\nbeginning at the roof, and building down to the foundation; or like\nfirst purifying the stream, and afterwards the fountain. Society is made\nup of individuals, and regeneration of the individual must precede all\nsocial renovation. The old gospel, with regard to sin and salvation, is\nthe only gospel that will save the heathen world; and the living,\npersonal Christ, with his atoning blood and his renewing Spirit, is the\nonly power that can bring about permanent reformation of social evils\nand the establishment of the kingdom of God in the individual, in the\nnation, and in the world.\n\nThat this is the true theology of missions, the history of missions is\nthe best of all proofs. We need not only to touch the intellect, but\nalso to touch the heart. We need to furnish a motive that will win to\naction the sluggish and selfish devotees of systems century-old that\nhave enslaved them. One message, and one only, has accomplished this\nresult, and that is the message of the Cross. Not the presentation of\nGod's greatness and power, but the story of the personal Jesus and his\ngiving up of his life for sinners, has moved men to give themselves to\nhim. The love of Christ has called forth answering love. Greenlanders\nand Bushmen, Tibetans and Telugus, Australians and Chinese, have gone\nto their deaths for Christ, simply because they had learned that\nChrist died for them. Of this sort have been the first-fruits of all\nour missions. Christ crucified has been the power of God unto\nsalvation. When he who was rich became poor that we might become rich,\nhe instituted not only an example, but a motive, sufficient to subdue\nmen's hearts and to conquer the world. \"To win for the Lamb that was\nslain the reward of his sufferings\" has turned illiterate men in\nIndia into indomitable propagandists of Christianity; but it has also\nmade missionaries in Oxford and Edinburgh, in Leicester and\nAndover--missionaries like Reginald Heber and John G. Paton, like\nWilliam Carey and Adoniram Judson. The \"offense of the Cross\" is\ngreat, but the power of the Cross is greater still, and the theology\nof missions must never permit mere philosophy, or education, or\nphysical betterment, or social service, to take the place of Christ\ncrucified in its preaching.\n\nI grieve over the minimizing of Christ's nature and claims that is\ncurrent in our day, because I believe that it cuts the sinew of our\nChristian faith and destroys the chief dynamic in our missions. I\ndeplore the denial of our Lord's deity and atonement, the refusal to\naddress him in prayer, the ignoring of his promise to be with his people\neven to the end of the world. To meet our needs in the conflict with\ntowering systems of idolatry and superstition, we need a supernatural\nChrist; not simply the man of Nazareth, but the Lord of glory; not the\nChrist of the Synoptics alone, but also the Christ of John's Gospel; not\na merely human example and leader, but one who \"was declared to be the\nSon of God with power by the resurrection from the dead\"; not simply\nJesus according to the flesh, but \"the Word who was with God and who was\nGod\" in eternity past; not simply God manifest in human life nineteen\ncenturies ago, but the God who is \"the same yesterday, and to-day, and\nforever\"; not simply the humbled, but also the glorified Saviour, who\nsits now upon the throne of the universe, all power in heaven and earth\nbeing given into his hand. When we believe in an ascended Lord at God's\nright hand, the God of Creation, of Providence, and of Redemption, we\nhave a faith that can conquer the world. Without such a faith in the\nomnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent Christ, we are weak as water in\nthe conflict with heathenism. We may set up Christ on a pedestal, in a\npantheon like that of Mrs. Besant, with a statue of Krishna by his side,\nand the Hindu will laugh at the claims of the gospel. Only faith in\nChrist as very God can meet the demands of the hour. \"The spirit of man\nis the candle of the Lord.\" In every age Christ has lit that candle, so\nthat it has given some light. But all who have come before him,\npretending to be the Light of the world, have been thieves and robbers,\nstealing from Christ his glory and from man his blessing. Christ alone\ncan so enlighten us that we can be light and can give light. Let us\narise and shine, because our Light has come, and the glory of the Lord\nhas arisen upon us!\n\n\n\n\nXVIII\n\nMISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES\n\n\nNo result of my travel has been more valuable to me than the new\nimpression I have received of the effect of missions upon missionaries.\nI came abroad with a lingering idea of my youth that missionaries were a\nclass by themselves, a solemn set, destitute of humor, and so absorbed\nin their work as to be narrow-minded. On the contrary, I have found them\njoyful and even hilarious, broad in their views and sympathies, lovers\nof the good in literature and art. The mental and spiritual growth of\nstudents who left me years ago for a foreign field has greatly surprised\nme. Then they were boys; now they are men. The demands of the missionary\nwork have drawn out their latent powers; they have found their new\nenvironment immensely stimulating; contact with new lands and people has\nwidened their outlook; they have become thinkers and leaders of men.\n\nIt takes an all-round man to be a good missionary. The learning of a\nforeign language in which one has to construct his own grammar and\nlexicon requires persistent effort of the most disciplined mind. The\nmissionary is often called upon to build his own house or church. He\nmust be both architect and supervisor, for his masons know no English,\nand are bent on slighting their work. He has servants who steal and\ncoolies who lie. He establishes, manages, and governs a native school,\nand generally has to evolve his own pedagogy. He comes into relation\nwith English officials, American consuls, and native functionaries, and\nis obliged to know something of social customs. In fine, he is a jack of\nall trades, besides being a preacher of the gospel who must adapt his\nmessage to the understanding of the illiterate multitude and of the\ncultivated man of caste as well.\n\nAll this gives the missionary a training beyond that of any university\ncourse. Herbert Spencer asserted that a nation makes progress in\ncivilization in proportion to the variety of its environment. The\nprinciple applies also to the development of the individual. Our\nmissionaries thought perhaps that they were leaving culture behind them,\nwhen they left America for barbarous lands. But losing their lives for\nChrist's sake they found to be mental gain. Even on the Congo our men\nhave learned more, and have developed stronger characters, than would\nhave been possible if they had accepted ordinary pastorates at home. And\nthey have not lost, but have won, that fine flavor of sanity and\njudgment, which belongs to men who have had large experience of life.\n\nSo far, I have referred only to the intellectual side of one's\neducation. The spiritual equipment is even more important. In heathendom\none comes in contact with towering systems of idolatry and superstition,\nvenerable with age and rooted deeply in the nature and habit of the\npeople. The Christian teacher realizes that, in his conflict with these\nsystems, he is powerless, unless backed by Omnipotence. He is thrown\nupon the divine resources, and learns, perhaps for the first time,\nthat, while apart from Christ he can do nothing, with Christ he can do\nall things. A new experience of the presence and power of the Saviour\ncomes to him. The struggle that at first taxed all his energy is at last\na glad walk over the course in the strength of Christ. Anxiety and fear\nhave taught him lessons which he could not otherwise have learned. He\nhas become a hopeful and joyful Christian.\n\nAll this tends to render the missionary doctrinally sound.\nEvangelization makes men evangelical. When you tell the gospel to a\nheathen sinner, you must put it in the simplest terms, or he will fail\nto understand it. Your effort to reach his mind and heart clarifies your\nown. To one condemned and lost, no mere human example in Jesus will\nsuffice; you need an atoning Saviour. To one struggling with demonic\npowers and helpless in their grasp, no mere man of Nazareth, no Jesus,\naccording to the flesh, will answer; you need the Lord of Glory, who was\ndeclared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the\ndead. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit who regenerates, sanctifies,\ncomforts, and saves, becomes an indispensable element in preaching, and\nso becomes ingrained into the preacher's confession of faith. A personal\nand present Christ, Immanuel, God with us, is the source of the\nmissionary's power; he has practical proof that the Holy Spirit is\nChrist in spiritual form, with his people alway, even to the end of the\nworld. The reality of God in Christ, manifest in nature, ruling the\nworld in providence, preparing the nations for judgment, sure to bring\nthe world to his feet, becomes an article of the missionary's faith, and\na constant subject of his teaching. The minimizing of Christ's nature\nand claims has no proper place on missionary ground. The missionary\nindeed is exerting an influence on the faith of the homeland equal to\nthat which he exerts upon the heathen abroad.\n\nIt is indeed true that here and there a man who has come out as a\nmissionary has been attracted and perverted by the very systems he\nproposed to subdue, and has turned out a teacher of Buddhism instead of\nChristianity. But such men had never the root of the matter in them, had\nnever felt the galling yoke of sin, had never known the joy of Christ's\nsalvation. They had gotten their preparation for evangelistic work from\nAmerican teachers of comparative religion, who put Buddha on the same\nplane with Christ. The result has only shown the impotence of a man-made\ngospel to combat heathenism, or even to save the souls of those who\npreach that sort of gospel. In a sense precisely opposite to that of the\napostle Paul, they have come to be opposers of the faith they once\nproposed to advocate, and destroyers instead of builders of Christian\ncivilization. All this is a lesson to our missionary societies and\nchurches at home. The colleges and seminaries which permit indefinite\nand unevangelical doctrine to be taught, and which retain those who\nteach it upon the ground that liberality in theology is a duty, merit\nthe censure of God and man; for the school or the church that ceases to\nbe evangelical will soon cease to be evangelistic, and when it ceases to\nbe evangelistic it will soon cease to exist. In this way missions are\nthe testing-places of Christian doctrine.\n\nIn a similar way New Testament polity is showing its power in our\nforeign work. At home we are getting to be lax in our reception of\nmembers, and are taking in numbers of persons without proper evidence of\ntheir conversion. Baptist churches which used to examine carefully their\ncandidates for admission now receive them without public and oral\nconfession of their faith. Yet these new members may vote, and may\ndetermine the attitude of the church in important exigencies. All this\nis avoided in our mission churches. They perceive the necessity of\nkeeping out the unfit, as clearly as that of admitting the fit. They do\nnot add to their membership by infant baptism, and they make sure that\nno pecuniary considerations influence professing converts. Our Baptist\nmission churches are fast becoming models of self-supporting,\nself-governing, and self-propagating bodies. Missionaries find that\ntheir only safety lies in hewing close to the line of New Testament\nrequirement. Their success in building up Baptist churches in Burma and\namong the Telugus, keeps our missionaries faithful to the New Testament\nmodel of church polity. They have the joy of seeing churches organized\non scriptural principles, and shedding their light upon the regions of\ndarkness around them.\n\nI wish to say something also about the physical environment of our\nmissionaries and its influence upon them. I remember that half a century\nago I called upon Doctor Thompson of Beirut, the veteran missionary of\nthe American Board in Syria. I would not have been surprised if I had\nfound him living in a hut, for my ideas of missionary hardship were\nvery crude. But I was surprised to find him living in a great stone\nmansion, with twice as many servants as we ordinarily have at home. It\nhas taken me some time to learn that in a hot country a cool and\nspacious house is a primary necessity of life, if the missionary expects\nto endure a climate where the thermometer at times goes up beyond a\nhundred degrees and stays there. And ordinary comfort cannot be obtained\nwithout servants to do your cooking and running. The large house can be\nbuilt for half the cost of such a structure at home, and the servants\ncan be obtained for only a few cents a day for each one. Remember that\nin many cases the missionary has not only to be his own physician and\nsurgeon, but also the physician and surgeon of others; that his house is\noften a hospital as well as a gathering-place of inquirers. Remember,\ntoo, that the missionary's wife has not only to perform the household\nduties of a wife at home, but in addition has probably to be the\nsupervisor of a girls' school and the only school-teacher and\nmusic-teacher that her children will know until they are old enough to\ngo to the homeland. Remember these considerations, and you will see that\na decent home is essential to a missionary's success in a heathen land.\nOur missionary work, like our diplomatic service, has been too long\ndiscredited by our insufficient care for our representatives abroad.\n\nOur friends of other denominations are greatly ahead of us in this\nmatter of provision for their missionaries. Not only are the bungalows\nbuilt for their residences better than ours, but their plants of church\nand school buildings show a larger outlook for the future than ours\nshow. The English Baptists, the Congregationalists, the Methodists, the\nChurch of England, yes, even the Theosophists and Buddhists, furnish\nobject-lessons to us in this regard. And yet, such has been the\ninventiveness and large-mindedness of our missionaries themselves, that\nin all the great centers of our work, they are housed better than the\naverage pastors of our churches at home. I wish we could double their\nstrength by the establishment of summer rest-houses in the hills, and by\npresenting every one of them with a motor-car. But even now, the days of\nextreme hardship are past, and no man of ordinary vigor need fear coming\nto the foreign field on account of its physical discomforts.\n\nWhen our Lord sent out his first missionaries, he sent them two by two.\nThe real trial of the missionary is more mental than physical. He\ngreatly needs companionship. Silence in the midst of the beating of\nheathen tom-toms becomes enervating and appalling; it may make a man\ninsane. We are learning the value of team-work in missions. What one man\nalone could never accomplish, he can do with the help of others. The\nAmerican Board in its mission at Madura, India, has acted upon this\nprinciple, and the result is seen in an aggregate of twenty-two thousand\nchurch-members. Our own most successful work has been among the Burmans\nand Karens, where we have seventy thousand members, and among the\nTelugus, where we have as many more. In these fields there are enough\nworkers to constitute a homogeneous society, with frequent conferences\nto help the discouraged and to stimulate the weak. Let us be generous\nin providing additional helpers and furloughs to men so far removed from\nour Christian civilization.\n\nBut let no one go to the foreign field expecting to get all his strength\nfrom his brethren. Missionary work is no sinecure. It requires not only\na sound body and a sound mind, with a cheerful and hopeful temperament,\nbut also a willingness to endure hardship for Jesus' sake, and, if need\nbe, with him alone for helper. There are more alleviations of missionary\nconditions than were known in its early days, but they still require\nself-sacrifice. Separation from home and friends, and, for the pioneer,\ndays of unspeakable loneliness, are the missionary's portion. The\nnecessity of sending children to America, so that they may escape\ndisease and immorality among the heathen, is an agony which only the\naffectionate parent can know. Opportunities for usefulness which cannot\nbe seized, because of lack of reenforcement from the homeland, involve a\n\"hope deferred that maketh the heart sick.\"\n\nWhen Paul went to Athens he probably hoped to win the philosophers to\nChrist's standard. But the Stoics and Epicureans scoffed at him. He had\nto content himself with the multitude of commoner converts at Corinth.\nIt was doubtless God's sovereignty that determined the result, but God's\nsovereignty is also wisdom. It took Paul a long time to learn that God\nbuilds his fires from the bottom, and ordinarily kindles the small\nsticks first. \"Not many wise, not many noble hath God chosen,\" but the\nweak things first, \"that no flesh may glory in his presence.\" Here is\none of the trials of missionary life, and one of the tests of\nmissionary faith. Can the missionary welcome the conversion of a\nmultitude of low-class people, like the Madigas, when their acceptance\nbecomes to the proud Brahman an evidence of the ignoble character of\nChristianity? Yes, he can, if he has faith in God. He can wait on God,\nand wait for results.\n\n He builded better than he knew,\n The conscious stone to beauty grew.\n\nThe great Sudra class, a class higher than the Madigas, under the\ninfluence of Christianity, is becoming more intelligent and more\ninfluential than the Brahman, and is gradually taking from him his\nsocial prestige and his political power. Many missionaries are expecting\na great turning unto the Lord from among the Sudras. Meantime there is a\npromise \"to him that overcometh.\" \"If we suffer with him, we shall also\nreign with him.\" \"Our light affliction, which is but for a moment,\nworketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.\" And\n\n When we reach the shore at last.\n Who shall count the billows past?\n\n\n\n\n * * * * *\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\n\nInconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (sightseeing,\nsight-seeing)\n\nPg. 39, unusual word \"subtilty\". Presumed to be \"subtlety\". (and the\nsubtlety of the Hindus)\n\nPg. 177, triple quote mark after \"biblia,\" changed to double quote\nmark. (the plural \"biblia,\")\n\nIn the original text, every chapter had a title page (containing\nchapter number and heading) with a blank page on the reverse. The page\nwith the main text then followed with a repeated chapter heading at\nthe top. Occasionally, there was also a blank page before the title\npage. For tidiness, the title page of each chapter has been\ntranscribed but the repeated chapter headings have been removed.","title":"A Tour of the Missions: Observations and Conclusions","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":52459}