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A TOUR OF THE MISSIONS

Observations and Conclusions

by

AUGUSTUS HOPKINS STRONG, D. D. , LL. D. , Litt. D. 

President Emeritus of the Rochester Theological Seminary

Author of "Systematic Theology, " "Philosophy and Religion, " "Christin Creation, " "Miscellanies, " "Chapel-Talks, " "Lectures on theBooks of the New Testament, " "The Great Poets and TheirTheology, " "American Poets and Their Theology"

PhiladelphiaThe Griffith and Rowland PressBoston Chicago St. Louis New YorkLos Angeles Toronto WinnipegMCMXVIII

Copyright, 1918, byGuy C. Lamson, SecretaryPublished March, 1918

A PERSONAL FOREWORD

The forty years of my presidency and teaching in the RochesterTheological Seminary have been rewarded by the knowledge that more thana hundred of my pupils have become missionaries in heathen lands. Formany years these former students have been urging me to visit them. Until recently seminary sessions and literary work have preventedacceptance of their invitations. When I laid down my official duties, two alternatives presented themselves: I could sit down and read throughthe new Encyclopćdia Britannica, or I could go round the world. A friendsuggested that I might combine these schemes. The publishers provide afelt-lined trunk to hold the encyclopćdia: I could read it, andcircumnavigate the globe at the same time. This proposition, however, had an air of cumbrousness. I concluded to take my wife as myencyclopćdia instead of the books, and this seemed the more rationalsince she had, seven or eight years before, made the same tour of themissions which I had in mind. To her therefore a large part of theinformation in the following pages is due, for in all my journey she wasmy guide, philosopher, and friend. 

Our tour would not have covered so much ground nor have been so crowdedwith incidents of interest, if it had not been for the foresight andassistance of the Reverend Louis Agassiz Gould. He was a student in ourseminary forty years ago, and after his graduation he became amissionary to China. Though his work abroad lasted only a decade, hisinterest in missions has never ceased, and he is an authority withregard to their history and their methods. I was fortunate in securinghim as my courier, secretary, and typewriter, and his companionshipenlivened our table intercourse and our social life. But he was boundthat we should see all that there was to be seen. Without my knowledgehe wrote ahead to all the missions which we were to visit, and theresult was almost as if a delegation with brass band met us at everystation. We were sight-seeing all day, and traveling in sleeping-carsall night. Though I had notified the public that I could preach no moresermons and make no more addresses, I was summoned before nearly everychurch, school, and college that we visited, and fifty or sixtyextemporized talks were extorted from me, most of them interpreted tothe audience by a pastor or teacher. My letters to home friends wereoften written on the platforms of railway stations while we were waitingfor our trains, and after six months of these exhausting labors I stillsurvived. 

These preliminary remarks are intended to prepare the reader for a finalstatement, namely, that the papers which follow were written with nothought of publication. They were simply a record of travel, set downeach week, for the information of relatives and friends. I have beenurged to give them a wider circulation by putting them into print. Indoing this I have added some reflections which, for substance, were alsowritten at intervals on my journey, and these, with sundry emendationsand omissions, I have called my "Conclusions. " I submit both"Observations" and "Conclusions" to the judgment of my readers, in hopethat my "Tour of the Missions" may lead other and more competentobservers to appreciate the wonderful attractions and the immeasurableneeds of Oriental lands. 

I cannot close this personal foreword without expressing to my formerstudents and the many friends who so hospitably entertained us on ourjourney, my undying sense of their great kindness, and my hope thatbetween the lines of my descriptions of what I saw they will discover myearnest desire to serve the cause of Christ and his truth, even thoughmy impressions may at times result from my own short-sightedness andignorance. Only what I have can I give. 

Augustus H. Strong. 

Rochester, August 3, 1917. 

 CONTENTS

 I. A WEEK IN JAPAN 1-11

 An ocean truly pacific brings us to a rainy Japan 3

 The novel and the picturesque mingle in our first views of Yokohama 3

 Visit to the palace of a Japanese millionaire 4

 A museum of Japanese art and a unique entertainment 4

 Our host, an orthodox Shinto and Buddhist 5

 Conference of missionaries and their native helpers 5

 The pastor of the Tokyo church invites us to his home 5

 Reception at the Women's College of Japan, and an address there 5

 A distinguished company of educators at dinner 6

 We give a dinner to Rochester men and their wives 7

 A good specimen of missionary hilarity and fellowship 7

 The temple of Kamakura and its great bronze Buddha 7

 The temple of Hachiman, the god of war 8

 Supplemented by the temple of Kwannon, the goddess of mercy 8

 Japan enriched by manufacture of munitions 8

 A native Christian church and pastor at Kanagawa 9

 Immorality, the curse of Japan, shows its need of Christianity 10

 Wonders of its Inland Sea, and great gifts of its people 10

 II. A WEEK-END IN CHINA 13-22

 Hongkong, wonderful for situation and for trade 15

 Swatow, and our arrival there 15

 Chinese customs, and English collection of them 16

 The mission compound of Swatow, one of our noblest 16

 Dr. William Ashmore, and his organizing work 17

 William Ashmore, his son, and his Bible translations 17

 A great Sunday service in a native New Testament church 18

 The far-reaching influence of this mission, manned by many Rochester graduates 18

 Our expedition to Chao-yang, to see the heart of China 18

 Triumphal entry into that city of three hundred thousand inhabitants 19

 Impressed by the vastness of its heathen population 20

 Mr. Groesbeck, the only minister to its needs 21

 An address to the students of his school 21

 A great procession conducts us to our steamer at Swatow 21

 Shall we be saved if we do not give the gospel to the heathen? 22

 III. MANILA, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG 23-32

 A Yellow Sea, and white garments 25

 American enterprise has transformed Manila 25

 Filipinos not yet ready for complete self-government 26

 Visit to Admiral Dewey's landing-place, and also to Fort McKinley 26

 The interdenominational theological seminary and its influence 26

 Printed and spoken English is superseding native dialects 27

 Singapore, one of the world's greatest ports of entry 27

 British propose to hold it, in spite of native unrest 27

 Heterogeneous population makes English the only language for its schools 28

 Germans stir up a conspiracy, but it is nipped in the bud 28

 British steamer to Penang, an old but safe method of conveyance 28

 Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Malay Confederated States 29

 Penang furnishes us with a great Chinese funeral 29

 Its immense preparation and cost show worship of ancestors 29

 Mourners in white, with bands of hired wailers 31

 Glorification of man, but no confession of sin or recognition of Christ 32

 IV. THREE WEEKS IN BURMA 33-46

 Burma, the land of pagodas 35

 The Shwe Dagon of Rangoon is the greatest of these 35

 Its immense extent and splendor 35

 The religion of Burma is Buddhism, a religion of "merit, " so called 36

 Pagoda-building in Burma, coeval with cathedral-building in Europe 36

 The desolation in which many pagodas stand shows God's judgment on Buddhism 36

 Burma is consecrated by the work of Adoniram Judson, and his sufferings 37

 Our visit to Aungbinle, and prayer on the site of Judson's prison 37

 Met and entertained by missionaries, our former pupils 37

 Fruitful Burma and its Buddhism attracts famine-stricken India with its Hinduism 38

 Baptist missions in Burma antedate and excel both Romanist and Anglican 40

 Far outstripping these in the number and influence of converts 40

 The work of our collegiate and other schools is most encouraging 41

 The Baptist College at Rangoon and the theological seminaries at Insein 42

 The lieutenant governor invites us to meet Lord Chelmsford, viceroy of India, at afternoon-tea 44

 A royal reception, with great conglomerate of races 44

 A demonstration of loyalty to the British Crown 45

 The dinner of our Rochester men at the house of Rev. Mr. Singiser, including representatives of the Mission Press and the Baptist College 45

 Our final reception at Dr. D. W. A. Smith's, on Mrs. Smith's birthday 46

 V. MANDALAY AND GAUHATI 47-56

 Mandalay, in Burma, the type of Buddhism; Gauhati, in Assam, the type of Hinduism 49

 Visits to Maulmain and Bassein, in Burma, preceded both these 49

 King Thebaw's palace, at Mandalay, a fortress built wholly of wood 50

 The Hill of Mandalay and its pagoda, four pagodas in one 50

 We ascend eight hundred steps by taking extemporized sedan-chairs 51

 Four successive platforms and four images of Buddha 51

 Waxwork figures at the top depict the vanity of life 52

 The Kuthodaw in the plain below seen from this height 52

 Four hundred and fifty pagodas in one, each with its Buddha and his law engraved on stone 52

 The descent from Mandalay Hill more hazardous than the ascent 53

 Buddhism compared with the religion of Christ 53

 Gauhati, the capital of Assam, has also its temple on a hill 54

 This temple illustrates Hinduism as Mandalay illustrates Buddhism 54

 Its immoral cult claims to have an immoral origin in the wife of the god Siva 54

 Its priestesses a source of corruption to the British college and the whole country 55

 Vain attempts to interpret Hindu myth and worship symbolically 55

 The need of Christian teaching as to sin and atonement 56

 VI. CALCUTTA, DARJEELING, AND BENARES 57-64

 Calcutta, the largest city of India, so named from Kali, goddess-wife of Siva, the Destroyer 59

 The temple of Kali, its priestesses and its worship, an infamous illustration of Hinduism 59

 The temple of the Jains represents Hinduism somewhat reformed 60

 The real glory of Calcutta is its relation to modern missions 60

 The work of William Carey, and his college and tomb at Serampore 60

 Our ride northward to Darjeeling, and our view of the Himalayas 61

 A temple of Tibetan Buddhists on our mount of observation 61

 Benares, the Mecca and Jerusalem of the Hindus 62

 A hotbed of superstition and devotion 62

 Its Golden Temple, its bathing ghats and burning ghats on the sacred Ganges 62

 Our voyage of inspection in the early morning 63

 Thousands bathing and drinking in the same muddy stream 63

 Smallpox and plague in western lands traced back to this putrid river 64

 Some of the temples have toppled over, being built on sand instead of rock 64

 VII. LUCKNOW, AGRA, AND DELHI 65-76

 On Mohammedan ground, and the scene of the great mutiny 67

 Elements of truth in the Moslem faith make missions more difficult 67

 The defense of Lucknow, one of, the most heroic and thrilling in history 67

 The only flag in the British Empire that never comes down at night 68

 English missions and education are guaranties of permanent British rule in India 69

 The Isabella Thoburn College, under Methodist control 69

 We see the "mango trick" under favorable circumstances 70

 Agra, and the Taj Mahal, a wonder of the world, seen both at sunrise and at sunset 70

 The Pearl Mosque and the Jasmine Tower, surrounded and protected by the Fort 71

 A flowering out of art, like that of cathedral-building in England 72

 Moslem architects "designed like Titans, and finished like jewelers" 72

 Delhi, the capital of India before the reign of Akbar 72

 The British respect ancient tradition by transferring their central government from Calcutta to Delhi 73

 The progress of India under British rule in the last fifty years 73

 Indian unrest due in part to English mistakes in educational policy 74

 The Friday prayer service in the great mosque of Delhi 75

 VIII. JAIPUR, MT. ABU, AND AHMEDABAD 77-87

 The native states of India distinguished from the presidencies and the provinces 79

 Their self-government a reward of loyalty in the mutiny 79

 The rajas influenced by Western thought 79

 Jaipur, the capital of a native state, called "The Pink City" 80

 "A rose-red city, half as old as Time" 81

 The maharaja's town-palace and astronomical observatory 81

 A visit to Amber, the original metropolis, and his summer residence 81

 An elephant ride up the hill while hanging over the precipice 82

 The road to Mt. Abu, a wonderful piece of engineering 84

 We reach Dilwarra, the greatest temple of the Jains 84

 Their reformed Buddhism recognizes Buddha as only one of many incarnations 85

 The temple is almost a miracle of art, and illustrates the genius of the East 85

 Ahmedabad, a uniquely prosperous manufacturing and commercial city 86

 Factories needed by India more than farms 86

 Missions need employment for converts, to save them from famine 86

 IX. BOMBAY, KEDGAON, AND MADRAS 89-99

 Bombay, second in population in the Indian Empire 91

 Hindus outnumber Moslems and Parsees 91

 The Caves of Elephanta, excavated in honor of Siva, god of reproduction as well as of destruction 91

 His temple a cathedral, hewn inside of a mountain 92

 The lingam, or phallus, gigantic, carved out of stone, in the innermost shrine 93

 Its worship a deification of man's baser instincts 93

 The Towers of Silence represent Parseeism 93

 The dead are exposed in them to be devoured by vultures 93

 Construction of the towers and details of the process 93

 Compared with Christian burial in hope of resurrection 94

 Kedgaon, a happy contrast and relief 94

 The center of the work of Pundita Ramabai 94

 The story of her life a romantic and thrilling one 94

 The pitiable condition of child-widows in India touches her heart 95

 In time of famine she furnishes a refuge for two thousand four hundred of them 95

 The wonders of her plant, in schools, hospital, printing office, factory, and farm 96

 A great scholar of the Brahman caste, she is recognized as the most influential woman in India 96

 Madras, the third largest Indian city, gives us our first tropical heat 97

 A center of mission work for the Telugus and their tribal conversion 97

 New Year's Day reception at Lord Pentland's, the governor of the Madras Presidency 98

 Followed by a reception from the Rochester men, my former pupils 99

 X. THE TELUGU MISSION 101-113

 Madras, next to Calcutta and Bombay in thrift and importance 103

 Baptists have done most for the Telugus, as Congregationalists most for the Tamils 103

 Statistics of our mission are most encouraging 103

 Self-government, self-support, self-propagation, require time 104

 Conference at the house of Doctor Ferguson brings together men from four separate fields 104

 The theological seminary at Ramapatnam, in charge of Doctor Heinrichs 105

 Our reception by teachers and students, and value of their work 105

 Ongole and the work of Doctor Baker, the successor of Doctor Clough 107

 Laying the corner-stone of gateway to the new hospital 107

 Country tour into the heart of Telugu-land, and open-air preaching to the natives 107

 Vellumpilly, where 2, 222 were baptized, and Sunset Hill, where Doctor Jewett prayed 109

 Kavali, and the work of Mr. Bawden for a hereditary criminal class 110

 Industrial education side by side with moral and religious 110

 Nellore, our first permanent station in South India 111

 Its high school, under Rev. L. C. Smith; its hospital, and its nurses' training-school 112

 Mr. Rutherford, successor to Dr. David Downie, and Mr. Smith--all of them Rochester men 112

 XI. THE DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES 115-124

 The Dravidians are the aborigines of India 117

 The Aryan conquerors appropriated their gods, and Siva married Kali 117

 Massiveness and vastness characterize their temples, but also Oriental imagination and invention 118

 The temple at Tanjore, with its court eight hundred by four hundred feet 118

 Its multitude of chapels, each with its image in stone of the lingam, or phallus 119

 Its central image of a bull, the favorite animal of Siva 119

 Its tower, or gopura, is the grandest in India 119

 Its sculptures of gods and goddesses wonderfully realistic 119

 Its appurtenances tawdry, childish, and immoral 120

 Yet Tanjore was the home, and is the tomb, of Schwartz, the first English missionary to India 120

 The raja's library of Oriental manuscripts 121

 Madura, the center of Dravidian worship, one hundred miles farther south 121

 Temple built about two great shrines for the god Siva and his wife Minakshi 121

 Five great pyramidal towers and a court eight hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirty feet 121

 The "Golden Lily Tank, " and "The Hall of a Thousand Pillars" 122

 Dark alcoves and a festival night, the acme of Hindu religion 122

 The palace of Tirumala and his Teppa Kulam tank, one thousand feet on each side 123

 The noblest sight of Madura is its American Congregational Mission 123

 Under Dr. J. X. Miller, its schools and seminaries are revolutionizing southern India 124

 XII. TWO WEEKS IN CEYLON 125-135

 Ceylon not a part of India, but a Crown Colony of Britain 127

 Colombo, a European city, and English the best means of communication 127

 Buddhism, crowded out of India, made its way southward 127

 A sacred tooth of Buddha is preserved at Kandy 127

 Wesleyan Methodist College and English Baptist College at Colombo 128

 The Ananda College, a theosophical institution, unfavorable to Christianity 128

 A refuge in Nurwara Eliya, six thousand two hundred feet above the sea 129

 Switzerland without its ruggedness, and terraces of tea-plants lining the approaches thither 129

 Forests of rubber make a sea of verdure 130

 The Missionary Rest-house at Kandy 131

 The famous Buddhist temple, and its evening worship 131

 Its library the only sign of intelligence 131

 Church of the English Baptists welcomes us 132

 The botanical gardens, wonderful for their variety of products 132

 Anurajahpura and its ruined pagoda, a solid conical mass of brick 133

 One thousand six hundred pillars of stone, the foundations of an ancient monastery 133

 Cremation of a Buddhist priest, and our reception by the high priest of the remaining temple 134

 XIII. JAVA AND BUDDHISM 137-146

 Java, the jewel of the Dutch Crown, has thirty-five millions of people 139

 The "culture system" makes it immensely productive 139

 Mistakes of Holland in matters of government and education 140

 A back-bone of volcanic mountains furnishes unsurpassed railway views 140

 Endless fields of rice and sugar-cane on hillside and plain 141

 A passionate people reveal themselves in their music, their shadow-dances, their use of the Malay dagger 141

 The new policy of the Dutch government shown in the botanical gardens 142

 More scientific and practical than those of Ceylon, they minister to all the world 142

 Doctor Lovink, Dutch minister of agriculture, conducts us 143

 The temple of Boro Budor, restored after ruin, the greatest wonder of Java 143

 Five times as great as any English cathedral 143

 Sculptures in alto-relievo that would stretch three miles 144

 A picture-gallery of the life of Buddha 144

 Buddhism has no personal or living God, and no atonement for sin 145

 Boro Budor, slowly disintegrating, has no power to combat either Mohammedanism or Christianity 145

 XIV. THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA 147-161

 This essay, a summary of the book of Professor Andrews, formerly of Delhi, now associated with Sir Rabindranath Tagore 149

 But with additions and conclusions of my own 149

 The Renaissance in Europe needed a Reformation to supplement it, and a similar renaissance in India requires a similar reformation 150

 History of religious systems in India begins with the Rig-Veda, and is followed by the Upanishads 152

 Hindu incarnations are not permanent, and the Trimurti is not the Christian Trinity 153

 The Krishna of the Puranas is a model of the worst forms of vice 154

 Deification of God's works fixes the distinctions of caste, and the degradation of woman 154

 Christianity is needed to unite the Hindu and the Moslem 155

 Signs of an approaching reformation in the weakening of class barriers and the spiritual interpretation of the old religions 156

 The Brahmo-Somaj and the Arya-Samaj aim to bring Hinduism back to the standards of the Vedas 158

 The Aligarh Movement among the Mohammedans, and the Aligarh College in Delhi 158

 Swami Vivekananda, and his denial that men are sinners 159

 The Theosophical Society and Mrs. Besant, a hindrance to missions 160

 Justice Renade, in his social reform movement, sees in Christianity the one faith which can unite all races and all religions in India 160

 In Christ alone India's renaissance can become a complete reformation 161

 XV. MISSIONS AND SCRIPTURE 163-178

 Some critics deny Jesus' authorship of the "Great Commission" 165

 We must examine "the historical method, " so called 165

 As often employed, it is inductive but not deductive, horizontal but not vertical 166

 Deduction from God's existence normally insures acceptance of Christ 168

 Deduction from Christ's existence normally insures acceptance of Scripture 169

 Scripture is the voice and revelation of the eternal Christ 169

 The exclusively inductive process is not truly historical 170

 Both Paul and Peter gained their theology by deduction 171

 Since experience of sin and of Christ is knowledge, it is material for science 173

 The eternal Christ guarantees to us the _unity_ of Scripture 174

 Also the _sufficiency_ of Scripture 175

 Also the _authority_ of Scripture 176

 The "historical method, " as ordinarily employed, proceeds and ends without Christ 177

 It therefore treats Scripture as a man-made book, and denies its unity, sufficiency, and authority 177

 It sees in the Bible not an organism, pulsating with divine life, but only a congeries of earth-born fragments 177

 XVI. SCRIPTURE AND MISSIONS 179-198

 The "historical method" finds in Psalm 110 only human authorship 181

 And contradicts Christ himself by denying the reference in the psalm to him 182

 A document can have more than one author, shown in art as well as literature 183

 Predictions of Christ in the Old Testament convinced unbelieving Jews 184

 The "historical method" finds no prediction of Christ in Isaiah, and so contradicts John 184

 Effect of this method upon the interpretation of the New Testament 185

 It gives us no assurance of Christ's deity, and ignores Old Testament proofs that he is Prophet, Priest, and King 185

 Value of the "historical method" when not exclusively inductive 186

 Effect of this method, as often employed, upon systematic theology 187

 If Scripture has no unity, no systematic theology is possible 187

 Unitarian acknowledgment that its schools have no theology at all 189

 Effect of this method upon our theological seminaries to send out disseminators of doubts 189

 Effect of this method upon the churches of our denomination to destroy all reason for their existence 191

 Effect of this method upon missions to supersede evangelism by education and to lose all dynamic both abroad and at home 193

 This method was "made in Germany, " and must be opposed as we oppose arbitrary force in government 195

 The remedy is a spiritual coming of Christ in the hearts of his people 197

 XVII. THE THEOLOGY OF MISSIONS 199-212

 Is man's religious nature only a capacity for religion? 201

 The will is never passive, the candle is always burning 201

 Moslem and Hindu alike show both good and bad elements in their worship 201

 Here and there are seekers after God, and such are saved through Christ, though they have not yet heard his name 202

 First chapter of Romans gives us the best philosophy of heathenism 203

 Heathenism, the result of an abnormal and downward evolution 204

 The eternal Christ conducts an evolution of the wheat, side by side with Satan's evolution of the tares 204

 All the good in heathen systems is the work of Christ, and we may utilize their grains of truth 205

 Illustrated in Hindu incarnations and Moslem faith in God's unity and personality 205

 Christ alone is our Peace, and he alone can unite the warring elements of humanity 206

 A moral as well as a doctrinal theology is needed in heathendom 208

 But external reforms without regeneration can never bring in the kingdom of God 209

 The history of missions proves that heart must precede intellect, motive must accompany example 210

 The love of Christ who died for us is the only constraining power 210

 Only his deity and atonement furnish the dynamic of missions 211

 XVIII. MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES 213-223

 Missionary work results in a healthy growth of the worker 215

 The successful missionary must be an all-round man 215

 He secures a training beyond that of any university course 216

 That training is spiritual as well as intellectual 216

 It tends to make him doctrinally sound as to Christ's deity and atonement 217

 Or convinces him that he has no proper place on a mission field 218

 A valuable lesson for our societies and churches at home 218

 New Testament polity, as well as doctrine, is tested by missions 219

 Our mission churches are becoming models of self-support, self-government, and self-propagation 219

 The physical environment of the missionary needs to be cared for 219

 The large house, many servants, and an automobile, are great and almost necessary helps 220

 All these can be obtained cheaply, and should be provided 220

 Other denominations furnish better equipment than ours 220

 Yet the days of missionary hardship are well-nigh past 221

 Missionary trials are mainly social and spiritual; and there are enough of these 221

 But faithful work, in spite of hope deferred, will be rewarded at last 222

I

A WEEK IN JAPAN

The Pacific Ocean was very kind to us, for it answered to its name, andwas pacific beyond all our expectations. Sixteen days of smooth seas andlovely weather brought us by way of Honolulu to Yokohama. Only the lastday of our voyage was dark and rainy. But though the rain continuedafter our landing, Japan was picturesque. On four out of our six days wedrove about, shut up in water-tight buggies called "rickshaws. " Theywere like one-hoss-shays, through whose front windows of isinglass welooked out upon the bare legs of our engineer and conductor, who tookthe place of the horse for twenty-five cents an hour. 

There were other sights on these rainy days--endless processions ofslipshod men on wooden clogs, clattering their way through the narrowstreets, while they protected themselves from the watery downpour byflat oil-paper umbrellas; other strong-limbed men acting as wheel-horsesto draw or push incredible weights of lumber; and saving themselves fromthe wet by bushy coats of straw that made them look like porcupines;women, little and big, carrying babies on their backs, occasionally agirl, aged anywhere from four to eight, loaded with a baby aged two;shops, shops, shops, one-storied, artistic, fantastic, with signs onwhich Ah Sing and Ah Tong have mingled Chinese characters and English, and which inform you that the proprietors can furnish you with the_sake_ of Japan or the gasoline of the Standard Oil Company; thesethings convince you that you are in the midst of a crowded populationstruggling for subsistence and ready to work, a population ofinexhaustible vitality and enterprise. 

Our first rainy day was distinguished by a visit to the palatial mansionof a Japanese millionaire. Mr. Asano, the President of the SteamshipCompany that brought us thither, had invited the whole lot offirst-class passengers to afternoon tea at his house in Tokyo. Thathouse is a veritable museum of Japanese art. It reminded us of thecollections of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan. There was a great retinue ofservants, and we were escorted upon arrival to one of the topmost rooms, where we were served with tea and presented with symbolic cakes by adozen gorgeously bedecked young girls, who proved to be the children andgrandchildren of our host. This, however, was only a preparatorywelcome, for it was followed by the real reception in a greataudience-room below, where Mr. And Mrs. Asano, together with theireldest son and daughter, gave us cordial greetings. A couple of hundredof our fellow passengers were gathered there and were partaking of lightrefreshments, with claret, tea, and mineral waters, while an expertJapanese juggler amused them with his feats of sleight of hand. Thetapestries and paintings of this house were exquisite products of tasteand skill, and the total effect was that of great wealth accompanied bytrue love for the beautiful. But it was the mansion of an orthodoxShinto and Buddhist, for in every large room there was an alcove withthe sitting figure of a bronze Buddha. 

A more distinctly Christian entertainment for that same rainy day wasour reception by the Conference of Baptist missionaries and workers atthe new Tabernacle in Tokyo. They had been called to meet DoctorFranklin and Doctor Anderson, who had been sent by our ForeignMissionary Society to consult with them as to our educational policy inJapan. We reached the Conference on its last day of meeting, and we hada most valued opportunity of observing its method of procedure. Half ofthose present were Japanese workers who did not understand English, andit was a new experience to address them when every word had to beinterpreted. The social intercourse that followed was delightful, for itenabled us to greet our former pupils in considerable numbers. We thentook lunch at the house of Doctor Axling, the pastor of the Tokyochurch, while Doctor Tenny is President of the Theological Seminary. Thelittle Japanese missionary home, with its tiny secluded garden, itspaper partitions, and its mingled reminders of an American household, were things long to be remembered. Not less to be noted was thegratitude for our visit which was shown by our hosts. We had regardedourselves as the persons honored and entertained. We learned thatmissionaries in a heathen land wonderfully appreciate the sight and thecompanionship of friends from their distant home. 

Even more unexpected was our reception at the Women's College of Japan. Since I had been more than thirty years a trustee of Vassar College, and for some years chairman of its board of trustees, Mrs. Strong and Iwere the guests of honor, and I was the first speaker called upon. Before me were five hundred young women in more somber dress thanprevails at Vassar. All rose to welcome me at the beginning of myaddress, and all rose again to thank me at its conclusion. Most of thesestudents understood only Japanese and needed an interpreter. DoctorZumoto, the accomplished editor of the Japanese "Herald of Asia, "translated my address into his own language after I had finished, havingtaken notes while I spoke. Until the very end I had the impression thatthis was a Christian college, and I innocently made the Lord Jesus thecenter and substance of my remarks, declaring that the renaissance oflearning in Japan needed to be supplemented by a reformation ofreligion. Only when the evening was over did I learn that theinstitution was not only undenominational, but also non-religious, having Buddhist as well as Christian professors. Doctors Anderson andFranklin were also guests, and when they followed me, they made the samemistake and made Christian addresses. But the Japanese management isvery polite and very liberal, and even in the dinner that followed our_faux pas_ did not provoke a word of criticism. The guests at thatdinner served by the students were from the most prominent educationalinstitutions of Japan. We highly appreciated the honor done us, and didnot regret that in our ignorance of the situation we had given to thatdistinguished audience the true gospel of Christ. 

Another dinner of a very different sort was that which we ourselves gaveat the Grand Hotel of Yokohama to the Rochester men. To my surprisetwenty-four persons sat down, but this number included at least ten ofthe wives. Chiba and Axling, Tenny and Topping, the Fishers, father andson, Clement, Brown, Benninghoff, Takagaki, Kawaguchi, all except thelast with their wives, made up the list. I was proud of them, for theyare leaders of thought and of education in Japan. Only Doctor Bearing'sabsence on furlough in America, a furlough ended only by his lamenteddeath, prevented us from inviting him, though he was not a Rochesterman. Reminiscences of seminary life were both pathetic and amusing atthat dinner. One thing impressed itself upon my mind and memory: Ourmissionaries have not lost their sense of humor. Under all their burdensof anxiety and responsibility they have retained their sanity, theirhopefulness, and their good fellowship. The hilarity of our gatheringwas the bubbling over of cheerful dispositions, and the safety-valvegave evidence that there were large reserves of steam. Missionaries arenot a solemn set. They are only a good set of human beings made in thedivine image, for is it not written that even "He that sitteth in theheavens shall laugh"?

The next day was the brightest of the bright. We took advantage of it tovisit the great temple of Kamakura, and to inspect the greatest artisticmonument of Japan, the bronze image of Buddha. It is a sitting statue, with folded hands and eyes closed, as if absorbed in mysticcontemplation of his own excellence as a manifestation of deity, andcareless of the sorrows and sins of the world. The great bronze imageis fifty feet high, but it is hollow. We entered it, climbed up byladders to its shoulders, and looked out of windows in its back. Itshollowness seemed symbolic, for it has only the outward semblance ofdivinity and is deaf to all human entreaties. On that same day wevisited the temple of Hachiman, the god of war, most spacious andimpressive in its park-like surroundings of ancient trees and noblegateways, but fearful in its accompanying images of revenge andslaughter. Humanity needs compassion in the Godhead. The Japanese havefelt this, and they have invented a goddess of mercy, Kwannon by name. Her shrine is the richest in Japan. It constitutes one of the greatestattractions of the capital. Millions visit it every year, and theofferings of its worshipers support a whole colony of Buddhist priests. The avenue leading to the temple is lined with shops where mementoes ofthe goddess may be purchased, as in Ephesus of old silver shrines mightbe bought in honor of the great goddess Diana. It is the old story ofbuyers and sellers in the Jewish temple. It was most pathetic to see awell-dressed and handsome woman bend herself almost double before theimage, clap her hands to call the attention of the goddess, and thenfold them in prayer, possibly for the child that had hitherto beendenied her. It is well understood in this temple that, until the clinkof coin is heard in the collection-box, it is vain to suppose that eventhe goddess of mercy will listen to a prayer. 

The god of war reigns in Japan, rather than the goddess of mercy. War ismore profitable. The sale of munitions to the Russian Government isenriching Japan, as our sales to the Allies are enriching us. The loveof gain is an obstacle to the success of the gospel, here as well as inAmerica. Nothing but a mighty influence of the Holy Spirit can convinceJapan of sin, and bring her to the feet of Christ. The work of ourmissionaries, however, is permeating all the strata of society. Westernscience and Western literature are so bound up with Christianity thatJapan cannot easily accept them without also accepting Christ. 

We wished to see mission work in a country field, and we begged Mrs. Fisher to go with us to Kanagawa, a suburb of Yokohama, where aneducated milkman is pastor, and where the Mary Colby School of Christiangirls attends the worship of his church. The reverence and sincerity ofthe service impressed us. The warmth and abandon of the singing put toshame our Western quartet choirs. Here is a pastor who prefers tosupplement his meager salary by selling milk on week-days, rather thangive up the satisfaction of seeing his church entirely self-supporting. It seemed to me the model of a good ministry, and the prophecy of amultitude of New Testament churches in Japan, manned and financed andgoverned by the Japanese themselves. So long as we of the West furnishboth the preachers and their salaries, the Japanese will not learn todepend upon their own administration or their own giving, and we willnot have churches organized on correct principles and so rooted in thesoil that they can stand the shocks of time and endlessly propagate thegospel. May "the little one" in Kanagawa "become a thousand"!

Japan is a country where "every prospect pleases, and only man is vile. "Immorality is its curse. There is little drunkenness indeed, andgambling is strictly prohibited. But the relations of the sexes arealmost wholly unregulated. Patriotism and filial devotion takeexaggerated forms, and girls can lead a life of shame in order toprovide means for the education of their brothers. General Nogi and hiswife can commit suicide when his sons are killed in battle, and thewhole country can regard it as so noble a deed that the general's desireto extinguish his family name is not permitted to prevent the adoptionof it by another. The Japanese are a nation of wonderful natural gifts. Honor, enterprise, submission, accessibility to new ideas, powers ofimitation and invention, make them the leaders of the Orient. Steamshipsof twenty-two thousand tons, and equal to any Atlantic Cunarders, yetbuilt in their own dockyards by shipwrights who twenty years ago knewnothing of their trade, are a proof of extraordinary plasticity andability. Civilization and Christianity may find new expression, if theJapanese are subdued by the Cross of Christ. 

My interest in missions has been doubled since I came in contact withthe practical work of our missionaries. We have able and devotedrepresentatives on this foreign field, and I believe that God will makethem mighty to dethrone Buddhism, and to crown Christ Lord of all. Yes, "every prospect pleases. " When I sailed through the Inland Sea of Japan, two hundred and forty miles long, studded with hundreds of islands smalland great, islands often surmounted with glistening white temples orfortifications, I thought our Thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, andeven the Isles of the Greek Ćgean, were not to be mentioned incomparison. The landlocked harbor of Nagasaki, with its encirclinghills, is finer than our Golden Gate of the Pacific. Fuji-yama, snow-capped and symmetrical, seen against the crimson sunset sky, ismore beautiful even than Mount Ranier when seen from Tacoma, or Vesuviuswhen seen from Naples. Japan is a land for poetry and song, a land toawaken the loftiest patriotism, a land to inspire and lead the world. Provided, ah yes! provided, it can be converted to Christ, and made hisservant. The Japanese is a natural orator; he has organizing ability ofthe highest order; he is accessible, yet independent. Now is the time tomake him a preacher of the gospel to all the East. China and India havealready felt the influence of his military and political progress. Letus, by pouring in the light of Christianity, make him also their leaderin true religion!

II

A WEEK-END IN CHINA

Hongkong is a city wonderful for situation and for trade. It has alandlocked harbor encircled by precipitous hills and large enough tofloat the navies of the world. It is the second largest port on earthfor exports and imports, over six hundred million dollars' worth in ayear. It is a meeting-place of the East and the West, a fortress ofBritain in China, a conglomeration of people, a center of influence forJapan and for India, an object-lesson in sanitation, education, andmunicipal government. The dominating religion is that of the Church ofEngland, and the Hongkong University, though endowed in part by wealthyChinese, follows English models and has a staff of English professors. 

I mention Hongkong only to make more clear my description of Swatow, itsnorthern neighbor. The situation of Swatow is very like that ofHongkong. A noble harbor encircled by steep hills, it is one of thechief ports between Hongkong and Shanghai, and only a single night'ssteamer-ride from Hongkong. Its attraction to us lay in the fact that itis more Chinese than Hongkong, a principal seat of Presbyterian andBaptist missions, and not so dominated as is Hongkong by the Church ofEngland. As Hongkong is an island, so our Baptist Mission Compound is onan island, separated from the city of Swatow by the bay on whichhundreds of sampans and fishing-boats with lateen sails are alwaysriding, and at whose wharves many a great steamship is loading orunloading freight. When our vessel arrived, we were quickly surroundedby a multitude of smaller craft, manned by clamorous tradesmen sellingwares or seeking employment. The commissioner of British customs, whowas our fellow passenger, most courteously invited us to share hismotor-launch, and when we had landed on the other side of the bay hesent us up the hill to the mission compound in two of his sedan-chairs, each one borne by two stout men in picturesque uniform: and wearing theinsignia of the customs office. 

A word about the English customs may be interesting. To satisfy Englishcreditors, and later, to pay interest on indemnities for the Boxeruprising, China mortgaged the larger part of her duties on foreignimports. Sir Robert Hart was appointed Inspector General, to superintendthis collection of duties. He introduced system and honesty, wherebefore there had been only disorder and peculation. From twenty tothirty million dollars are in this way collected every year. Swatow isthe third port in the amount thus obtained, itself furnishing two tothree millions of the aggregate result. But this putting her collectionof customs into the hands of foreigners, though it has taught China herown wastefulness and the superiority of Western finance, is a burden sohumiliating that it cannot always continue. When China fully awakes, shewill realize her strength and will reclaim what her weakness ceded toGreat Britain. 

Our mission compound is one of the noblest in the East. It is due tothe foresight and executive ability of Dr. William Ashmore, Senior. Hebegan his missionary work in Bangkok, Siam, but was transferred by ourMissionary Union to Swatow, with the view of opening China to ourmissionary efforts. He had Irish blood in his veins. He was witty andeloquent, fervid and passionate. But he was also a man of grit, and ahero of the faith. He wanted a quiet base of supplies from which hecould send out expeditions into the heart of China. He had no means ofany account. But he saw the possibilities in these steep and barrenhillsides opposite Swatow, and for six hundred dollars he bought a tractwhich he gradually turned into a garden, with twenty mission buildingsand residences so thrust into the rocks and so overhanging one another, that the whole plant seems a miracle of engineering. Like a fortress, itcommands the city of Swatow across the bay, very much as Governor'sIsland commands New York. From its church and its schools have gone outa score of evangelists and native pastors, to turn Swatow and the wholecountry within a radius of a hundred miles into a present seed-plot anda future garden of the Lord. 

William Ashmore, Senior, died seven years ago. But he left a son of thesame name, who is a Chinese scholar of wide reputation, a soundtheologian, and a leader greatly beloved. He has nearly completed atranslation of the Bible into the colloquial Chinese--a felt need ofmany years. At his house, so wedged into the rocky hillside that atyphoon might seem equal to washing it down into the bay, we were mosthospitably entertained. Here we spent a memorable Sabbath Day. At thechurch service, at least five hundred church-members and pupils of thevarious schools were gathered, and I addressed them on "Faith, as Botha Giving and a Taking"--a giving of one's self, and a taking of Christto be ours. Doctor Ashmore interpreted my talk to the audience, sentence by sentence. The whole service was to me an inspiringillustration of New Testament order and simplicity, for my address andthe sermon of Doctor Ashmore which followed had been preceded by freeparticipation of members of the church, in which one happy father aroseto give thanks for the birth of a girl-baby, after five sons had beengiven him--a great change from the time when new-born girls weredespised and often thrown out into the street. This reverentcongregation, worshiping God in freedom and sincerity, seemed theprophecy of a redeemed China. This congeries of schools, fromkindergarten to theological seminary, with Ashmore, Capen, Page, andWaters for instructors, and Groesbeck, Speicher, Lewis, Foster, andothers for evangelists, has already permeated a whole province withChristian teaching. It needs an institutional plant in the city, whereit already has a noble location, and it also needs a motor-launch tocarry its students to the field across the bay, where they can findopportunity to win the multitude to Christ. 

Even Swatow is partly Anglicized. We wished to see old China, heathenChina, and Brother Groesbeck gave us the opportunity. Only twenty milesfrom Swatow lies the city of Chao-yang, where this pioneer missionaryhas for eighteen years been stationed. Chao-yang is a larger city thanSwatow; the Chinese count it as containing a population of three hundredthousand. It is the converging point of all the trade that reachesSwatow from a hundred miles to the south and the west. Yet all thistrade is conducted through a narrow canal, so congested with boats thatthere are innumerable delays. Even when the boats reach the waters ofthe bay, the remaining channel is shallow for lack of dredging, andlaunch-progress is very slow. We had ocular proof of this latter evil;but we at last reached the dock. 

Then came a reception entirely new to our experience, and one which wecan never forget. Eighty young men from the mission school met us, allin white uniforms with sashes of blue. We passed through their lines, forty boys on each side baring their heads as we passed. Then aprocession was formed. A brass band, with bugles and resounding drums, led the way. The student escort followed. After the long rows of boyscame an honor-squad of Chinese soldiers, shouldering their guns andbearing the Chinese and the American flags. This portion of the escorthad been furnished by the Chinese governor, who in this way certainlyshowed his friendly regard for the American mission. We concluded theprocession, sitting in our sedan-chairs, each of our party of four borneupon the shoulders of four men. The band struck up, a great explosion offirecrackers ensued, and we began our journey of a mile and a half tothe gates of the city, and then two miles and a half farther through itscrowded streets, until we reached the mission buildings and theresidence of Mr. And Mrs. Groesbeck on the other side of the town. TheChinese are great on ceremonial, and all this reception had beenarranged by the students themselves, in honor of Mr. Groesbeck's teacherand his teacher's wife. Needless to say that I was astounded at such areception, for Augustus Cćsar never made an imperial entry in Rome morethrilling than the triumphal entry which Augustus Strong made that dayinto the great city of Chao-yang. 

Mr. Groesbeck said that no public notice had been given of our coming. Yet the whole population of three hundred thousand seemed to have comeout to meet us. Imagine a street two and a half miles long, but only tento fifteen feet wide, thronged with water-carriers and beasts of burdencompelled to give way to our great procession! Every nook and corner ofthe way, the fronts of the one-storied shops and the entrances to thecross-streets, were all a perfect sea of faces--rows of children littleand big overtopped by rows of half-naked men, with scores of womenpeering wistfully from windows in the rear--faces by thousands and tensof thousands, till it seemed as if the whole population of the planethad emptied itself into Chao-yang. I looked upon hundreds of splendidforms of men, naked above the waist, and carrying heads worthy of noticefrom any sculptor, none of them hateful, all of them impressed andwondering, and they seemed to me the embodiment of China crying out forGod. When we were only half-way through the city, the endless masses ofhumanity had so impressed me that I could not restrain the tears. Thesight was simply overwhelming. And all this the parish of one man! Itis to save this great city, now almost wholly given to idolatry, thatMr. Groesbeck asks for money to build in its very center anassembly-room and an institutional church, and that Doctor Lesher asksfor a hospital building to facilitate his medical work. 

I made an address to those eighty boys that evening, as they stood atattention before me. Half of them were still heathen, but their fathershad sent them to this Christian school, believing that they needed abetter religion than that of Confucius or of Buddha. I urged them tobecome soldiers of Christ, and to follow him as their Commander. I didnot conceal from them the fact that such following might involveopposition and earthly loss. But I promised them that, if they sufferedwith Christ, they would also reign with him. 

We returned from Chao-yang very sober and thoughtful, for our visit hadbeen a revelation of appalling needs. Swatow seemed a paradise aftersuch a visit. The smiling faces of so many Christians, and the signs ofa truly Christian civilization, inspired me with new hope for thefuture. But our time had come for leaving China, at least temporarily, and India was at once to be visited. Our departure from Swatow wasalmost as spectacular as our entry into Chao-yang. There was no militaryguard, and there were no firecrackers, but there was a fine brass bandof academy boys, to lead our procession of sedan-chairs, as we passedthrough the long lines of scholars who had gathered with their teachersto bid us farewell. The schools were all represented. First came thelittle kindergartners, then pupils of the grammar school, the girls'school, the women's school, the Bible-women's training-school, the boys'academy, and finally, the theological seminary. They numbered more thanthree hundred in all. Some of the teachers accompanied us to thesteamer. We parted from them with regret, but we were thankful that theycould remain to prepare the way for a new religion, education, andcivilization in China. 

My week-end in China leaves me with a new sense of the vastness of theheathen world, and of its absolute dependence upon Christ, as its onlypossible Saviour. The question whether the heathen will ever be saved ifwe do not give them the gospel, is not so serious a one for us as theother question whether we ourselves will ever be saved if we do not givethem the gospel. 

III

MANILA, SINGAPORE, AND PENANG

Each of these cities might seem to be the New Jerusalem, if you were tosee only its European part and the dress of its inhabitants. TheirEuropean residents are all arrayed in white. Not all of them are saints, however. The white is purely external and compulsory. Heat is a greatleveler, and we are nearing the equator. When we approached Manila wewere in the tail of a typhoon, but the danger was past. Indeed, since weleft San Francisco, we have encountered no storm, have had only smoothseas, and have witnessed continually what Ćschylus called "theinnumerable laughter of the ocean waves. "

It was pleasant to perceive that American enterprise and administrationhave transformed Manila, the capital of the Philippine Islands, from amedieval into a modern city. Its newly constructed streets andpavements, water-works and drainage, electricity and the trolley, haveturned this old and dilapidated Spanish town into a place of order andbeauty. Its parks and gardens, its municipal buildings and hospitals, are an object-lesson to all beholders. The walls of the fort stillremain, but the moat has been filled up. The Roman Catholic Cathedralshows the large designs of a former priesthood to capture the people byarchitecture and ceremonial. But Protestant churches, missions, andschools, are coming to have the first place in popular esteem. Theformer palace of the Spanish governor is now the meeting-place of thedemocratic legislature, and the Jones Bill, recently passed by ourCongress, but now locally known as "the Bill Jones, " has given hopes ofa complete and speedy Filipino independence. 

Our observation of the place, and our intercourse with residents ofManila, lead us to doubt the wisdom of our immediate relinquishment ofauthority over these islands. Eager as are the Filipino leaders forself-government, they have not yet learned the art of self-restraint. The recent trouble in the great hospital illustrates this. Its Americansuperintendent has resigned his office, for the reason that his Filipinostaff and subordinates conspired to make discipline and sanitaryregulations impossible. They desired to manage the institutionthemselves, when they were incompetent to enforce cleanliness and order. What happens in hospital work happens also in all branches of civiladministration. It will take a whole generation to raise up officialswho can be trusted to do their work for the public good, rather than toprovide comfortable and remunerative positions for themselves. 

We visited the spot, five miles away, where our American troops, underAdmiral Dewey, landed to besiege the town. We motored to Fort McKinleyalso, where our soldiers still command the situation. But our maininterest was in the mission schools and in the interdenominationaltheological seminary. In these educational institutions all theinstruction is in the English language. They are Americanizing as wellas evangelizing the population. The establishment of universal andcompulsory school attendance will in a few years turn a Spanish-speakinginto an English-speaking people, and will unify the education and thecivilization of the islands. Nothing indeed is more remarkable in theOrient than the gradual superseding of the native dialects by theprinted and spoken English. In the great country of India, it is to beremembered, English is the required language in school and court, aswell as in every government office. Even the Romanizing of writtenChinese and Japanese will make vastly easier the political unity and thereligious evangelization of China and Japan. 

When we reached Singapore, we found ourselves in one of the world'sgreatest ports of entry. It is also one of the keys to the Orient, asSir Thomas Raffles perceived more than a century ago. Its splendidgovernment buildings and its strong fortifications show that the Britishpropose to hold it to the end. The recent incipient revolt, which wasfortunately nipped in the bud when it seemed to the conspirators on theverge of success, and which was punished by the summary execution ofthirty or forty rebels without the news of it getting into the papers, showed that Germany had much to hope for and Britain much to fear fromthe unrest of these heterogeneous populations. I had a vivid reminder ofall this at the Methodist Episcopal Mission, where I found over sixteenhundred scholars in attendance, and where I addressed five hundred ofthem at their morning prayers. One of the chief difficulties ofChristian work in Singapore is the aggregation and mixture of races. Seven different nationalities are represented in the schools. TheTamil, the Malay, and the Chinese are the most numerous, and of thesethe Chinese take the lead. Fifty thousand Chinese immigrants enter theport of Singapore every year, mainly because there is employment forthem in the rubber plantations of the Straits Settlements. Thecongestion of population in China drives them southward to Singapore, and from Singapore they swarm northward to Burma, southward to Java, andwestward to India. 

This mixing up of the many different nationalities makes it impossiblefor the missions in Singapore to teach their pupils in any otherlanguage than the English. This requisition of English seems to some ofthe people a slur upon their own tongue, and a sign of Britishascendency. They are jealous of the English, even while they perceivetheir own dependence upon them. Only British justice and watchfulnesscan keep in check the disposition to revolt on the part of some classeswith which the government has to deal, especially when these classes arestirred up by German spies and German money. Thus far all seditiousattempts have been put down, and the traveler learns to bless the wisdomof British administration, and to rest secure and confident under thefolds of the Union Jack. 

We left Singapore for Penang with some regret, for the reason that largesteamers must be exchanged for small steamers. The one we took wasexceedingly good and modern. Another on which we embarked somewhat laterseemed to have come down from the days of Noah and the ark. But Britishsteamers, however old and small, are clean and safe. You "get there"all the same. On our way to Rangoon our first stop was at PortSwetterham, from which we motored twenty-seven miles to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Federated Malay States--federated under the BritishCrown. Here is a city of Malays and Chinese, with British governmentbuildings, Mohammedan mosques, Buddhist temples, an English cathedral, and a Methodist church. Our road thither led us through seeminglyendless forests of rubber trees and of coconut palms. The profusion oftropical vegetation was both novel and impressive. These Federated MalayStates furnish the world with more than half its supply of rubber, andmany English and American investors are growing rich from the soaring ofprices induced by the war. 

Penang, however, furnished us with our greatest sensation. It was aChinese funeral. In this city of two hundred thousand inhabitants, amillionaire Chinese banker had died. He was a Buddhist as well as aConfucianist, but also a loyal and patriotic supporter of charitableinstitutions, and of the British rule. He had given to the Britishgovernment a number of aeroplanes to facilitate its military operations, and a large sum of money for its war-loan. When he died, the customaryworship of ancestors, which is a part of Chinese religion, as well asgratitude for his past gifts, prompted his family to plan a sumptuousfuneral. It is said to have cost them thirty thousand dollars. Wearrived in Penang just in time to see the show. All the way fromSingapore, indeed, we were accompanied on our steamer by a fine brassband, which was only one of three brass bands hired to furnish musicfor the funeral service. 

My powers of description fail, when I attempt to tell the wonders of afuneral procession fully a half mile long. It was headed by a symbolicfloat of waxwork figures, in which a colossal horse, prancing on itshind legs, seemed just about to soar into the air. The horse was held inby four angelic forms following and holding in their hands scepters ofroyalty. This apparition reminded me of the horses and chariot in whichElijah ascended to heaven, and it seemed to indicate that the deceasedhad departed with all the honors heaven and earth could bestow. A bandof music accompanying the float, and playing solemn but not mournfulstrains, gave color to this interpretation. A retinue of sedan-chairs, decorated with all the colors of the rainbow, came next in order. Thesesedan-chairs were empty of occupants, and contained long strips of redpaper on which were written the names and merits of the millionaire'sancestors, to be read by Buddhist priests at the grave. The chairs wereeach the gift of some relative or friend of the departed. Theysymbolized the welcome given him by those who had gone before him to thebetter land. A second band of music was followed by a body-guard ofBritish soldiers in khaki, deputed by the British governor to show hisestimate of the character and loyalty of the deceased. 

Then came the hearse, if hearse it could be called. It was really anenormous catafalque, decorated with gold tinsel and costly embroideries. Peacocks and birds of paradise were depicted on its silken hangings. Adozen men, in elaborate robes of blue, carried this gaudy structure upontheir shoulders, while other gorgeously attired attendants bore greatribbon-banners of satin, say twenty feet long by four feet wide and ofthe most brilliant colors, inscribed with Chinese characters and makingknown the virtues of the departed. But the most curious part of theprocession, was yet to come. Preceded by the third band of music werethe offerings of food and drinks which were to furnish sustenance to thespirit in the world into which he had now entered. There were sixroasted sucking-pigs, laid in order, on portable tables, with baskets ofrice, oranges, bananas, all kinds of fruit and confectionery, and cupsof tea and wines. These were carried to the cemetery, to be presented tothe departed spirit at the grave, then jealously guarded for aninterval, finally in part given to the officiating priests, and in partconsumed at a feast held by the surviving members of the family. Thecostlier the offerings, the better would the feast be enjoyed. There wasno lack of priests in this ceremonial. They were young and clean-shaven, and looked as if they had enlisted for this very service. I thought Icould discern a sly twinkle in their eyes, as they inspected thepreparations for the feast, before the march began. 

The mourners must not be forgotten. Among the Chinese, white, and notblack, is the appointed sign of mourning. The four wives of the deceasedand the members of his family were accordingly dressed in the coarsestof white sackcloth, with ashes sprinkled over their faces, and theywalked behind the hearse, howling. It was a piteous spectacle, remindingone of the professional and hired wailers in Palestine, where "themourners go about the streets, " uttering dismal lamentations which canbe bought for money. Far be it from me to suggest that such was thelamentation which we heard that day, for there is reason to believe thatin this case the deceased was respected and beloved. 

This ceremonial had required long and elaborate preparation. The deathindeed occurred last July; the body had been embalmed; it had lain instate and open to public inspection for four whole months; the funeraldid not take place until November. A vast amount of detail had beenattended to and provided for. Great packages of silken umbrellas hadbeen stored to shield the heads of guests and servants. All the bearersof sedan-chairs, scores in number, were clad in silken uniforms; therewere banners, and inscriptions, and lanterns, galore. Everything wasdone to impress the Chinese multitude with the greatness of theoccasion. But it was all a glorification of man and of his virtues. There was no confession of sin, nor assurance of pardon; noproclamation of a divine Redeemer; no promise of life and immortalityin Christ. Heathen religions are man's vain effort to win heaven bymerits of one's own. Only Christianity is God's revelation of salvation"without money and without price, " through the sacrifice and death ofhis only Son. This is the gospel which Confucianist and Buddhist, Hinduand Mohammedan, need to-day, and which, thank God, our missionaries aregiving them. 

IV

THREE WEEKS IN BURMA

Burma is the land of pagodas. These places of worship are the moststriking feature of every landscape. Their bell-shaped domes, startlingly white, or so covered with gold-leaf as to shine resplendentin the sunlight, crown many a hilltop and constitute the chief beauty ofthe towns. The pagodas are usually solid structures of brick, withfacings of plaster, and they are buildings at which, rather than inwhich, worship is offered. There are exceptions, however. The moreancient of these edifices, like the Ananda at Pagan, have inner chambersenshrining gigantic statues of Buddha, with corridors around thechambers, quite comparable to the aisles of English or Frenchcathedrals. But the greatest of all the Burmese pagodas, the Shwe Dagonof Rangoon, is a solid mass of brick, with no interior cell, yetenormous in size, erected on a broad platform one hundred and sixty-sixfeet from the ground, towering to an additional height of two hundredand seventy feet, and crowned with a jewelled "umbrella" at the totalelevation of four hundred and thirty-six feet above the teeming streetsof the city below. The main platform from which the pagoda proper risesis an immense court nine hundred feet long by six hundred andeighty-five feet wide, and crowded with minor pagodas and shrines. Thisgreat esplanade is approached from the four points of the compass bylong covered arcades, lined with shops in which offerings of everydescription can be bought. On the marble floor of the main court andbefore the minor shrines these offerings are presented by scores ofworshipers prostrating themselves before statues of Buddha of everysize. And yet the great conical or bell-shaped dome of the pagoda isits chief attraction, for this is covered with gold-leaf from its baseto its summit, and its shining splendor salutes the traveler from milesand miles away. 

The religion of Burma is Buddhism. Buddhism is a religion of "merit, " socalled, and the surest way to acquire "merit" is by building a pagoda. Repairing an old pagoda will not answer the purpose; hence many an oldpagoda goes to ruin, side by side with a new one coated with whitewashor gold-leaf. Curiously enough, the epoch of pagoda-building was almostcoincident with that of cathedral-building in England and France, thatis, from A. D. 1000 to 1200. When one sees at Pagan an area along theIrrawaddy River eight miles long and only two miles wide, with nearlyfive thousand pagodas, multitudes of them small and in ruins, but manystill standing great and splendid in their proportions, it seemsimpossible to doubt that a certain genuine religious impulse, howeverblind and mistaken, led to their erection. There they stand, mere relicsof a magnificent past, but now erect in the midst of desolation, withonly scattered huts about them, where once there must have been a densepopulation, rich and lordly. The fate of these towering monuments ofidolatry and superstition, now for the most part given over to the molesand the bats, shows what God can do for pagodas, and encourages us tobelieve that missionary effort will be mighty through God to the pullingdown of similar more modern strongholds, together with all the highthings that exalt themselves above the knowledge of his truth. 

This leads me to speak of the great missionary work that is nowhoneycombing and undermining the foundations of heathenism in thispagoda-land. We came to Burma to see what God has wrought. The laborsand sufferings of Adoniram Judson appealed to us even in ourchildhood. We wished to see how the mustard-seed which Judson sowed infaith has grown up to bear fruit. So we went to Aungbinle, where fortwenty long months Judson was imprisoned and tortured. There we seemedto hear God's word to Moses: "Take off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. " We were remindedalso of the burning bush, which was ever burning but not consumed. Great forward movements in history are born in suffering. Throughdeath to life, and the cross before the crown--that was the way ofChrist, and it will be the way of his followers. We gathered, a smallgroup of missionaries and visitors, in the little chapel that has beenbuilt upon the site of that old prison, and we prayed, with a lot ofdusky villagers and children before us, that God would yet moregloriously prosper the work of missions. 

We had every advantage in our investigations in Burma. Thirteen of myformer pupils are now missionaries in that land. For many years theyhave been inviting me to visit them. Nine missionaries met us at thedock, as we landed from Singapore and Penang. They have made our visitdelightful by their affectionate and boundless hospitality. Morning, noon, and night have been full of sightseeing, of visiting missionchurches and schools, of "chotas, " or little breakfasts, of "tiffins" orsubstantial lunches, or afternoon-teas and dinners at the close of theday. The social and kindly spirit of it all has turned what otherwisewould have been wearisome into a succession of pleasant experiences. Butthere has been work, and there has been hard thinking also. Making threeaddresses a day, longer or shorter, for three weeks in succession, is nosinecure. I am sometimes called an "octogeranium, " but I have not beenpermitted to waste my sweetness on the desert air. It is a wonder to methat I have survived so much stress and rushing, but I am compelled tosay that good appetite and good sleep have made me feel in better healthand spirits than for many months before. 

What I have seen has gladdened my eyes and warmed my heart. Closercontact with mission work and mission workers has broadened my ideas, given me more sympathy, more zeal, and more hope. The vastness of theseheathen populations, their appalling needs, together with their infinitepossibilities, have dawned upon me as never before. Burma has sixtymillions of people. It is a most fruitful land, never visited by thefamines which ravage India proper, the land west of the Bay of Bengal. It enshrines a religion which, with all its ignorance and superstition, is more free from gross immorality than that which prevails on the otherside of the bay. Its people are the most heterogeneous of any uponearth. Though the proud Burman native is still the dominant power, hehas now to compete with the rising intelligence of the Karens, thesturdiness of the Chinese, and the subtlety of the Hindus. These lasttwo peoples have in late years in large numbers migrated hither. Mohammedan mosques are rising side by side with the older Buddhistpagodas. The Parsees are numerous and influential, and theosophistsare not rare. Rangoon is probably the capital city of Buddhism, forhere at any rate is its most splendid temple. And Rangoon is a sort ofmelting-pot of all races. Burmans and Chinese are intermarrying, andare producing a most vigorous offspring. Sikhs and Malays, by theirpeculiar dress, make picturesque the streets. I know of no greatermixture of races, unless it is in the city of New York, where we havemore Jews than there are in Jerusalem, and more Italians than thereare in Rome. Here in Rangoon, however, all these peoples preservetheir distinctive characteristics of dress and language, so thatracial differences are more apparent. 

The Roman Catholics and the representatives of the Church of Englandhave made great efforts to capture Burma. They have established nobleplants in the way of church edifices, hospitals, and schools. Theleper asylum of the Romanists is an impressive and worthy provisionfor the housing and treatment of hundreds thus afflicted. Thecathedral and school of the Anglican Church show a most praiseworthyestimate of the needs of this great province of the British Empire, and breakfasting with Bishop Fyffe, the metropolitan of Rangoon, gaveus a pleasing impression of his kindly Christian spirit. TheMethodist Episcopal Church has also its representative here, and allof these evangelizing agencies are supplemented by the work of theY. M. C. A. , the Y. W. C. A. , and the Salvation Army. Yet it is nottoo much to say that the Baptists have first place in Burma, both inchurch-membership and in education. We were the first Christiandenomination upon the ground; we have leavened the country with ourinfluence; our Mission Press has furnished the Bible in severaldifferent languages to the people of Burma; our schools are the mostadvanced in grade and the most numerously attended; our churches aremost nearly self-governing and self-supporting. We have great reasonto thank God and take courage. 

All this is the growth of a single century. It was in the year 1813 thatthe Judsons arrived in Burma, and it was six years after that the firstBurman convert was baptized. In 1828 the first Karen convert followedChrist. These two were the first-fruits from the two leading races ofBurma. Since their baptism there has sprung up a flourishing Christiancommunity which embraces representatives both of the indigenous races ofBurma and of the immigrant peoples from India proper, from China, andfrom other lands. The Baptist churches in Burma to-day, as theirofficial representatives inform us, enroll members gathered fromeighteen different nationalities, besides members of the Anglo-Indian orEurasian type. "The entire Christian community in Burma, according tothe Government Census of 1911, numbers 210, 081; of which number, 122, 265are Baptists, while 60, 088 are Roman Catholics, 20, 784 are Anglicans, 1, 675 are Methodists, and the remainder are distributed among smallersects. That one Protestant convert of 1819 has become an army of onehundred and fifty thousand. "

We must add to this numerical statement the facts that a corps ofChristian leaders has been trained and put into service; that nativeChristians have found their way into influential positions asmagistrates, township officers, teachers of schools, inspectors ofpolice, and clerks in all departments of the government. Christian menare prominent in business and professional circles, as traders, contractors, brokers, physicians, lawyers; and the Christian characteris everywhere recognized and honored. A church, to a large degreeself-propagating, has been planted in Burma. A complete system ofmissionary education has been organized. Modern philanthropic work forthe relief and prevention of physical ills has been transplanted toBurma. The Sunday School, the Christian Endeavor Society, the temperancemovement, are common methods of Karen and of Burmese church activity. Anextensive Christian literature has been provided, in addition to theprinting of the Bible in all the main languages of the country. In fact, a Home Mission Society, for the evangelization of the natives in theremoter sections of the country, is in active operation. When weremember that all this is the product of a hundred years, in a landwhere only a little while ago Christianity was a persecuted religion, wepraise God for the result. 

I must mention two features of my visit which claim special attention. Irefer to the work of the collegiate and other schools, and to thehospitality of non-Christian gentlemen. We have inaugurated in Burma agraded system of education, under government inspection, and leading tofull university training. Nothing in my travels interested me more thanto see hundreds of boys and girls of Burmese and Karen families, inwhich girls have hitherto been unable to read or write, singingChristian hymns from books with the music and words before them. Thegreat need of France, as the Emperor Napoleon once said, was goodmothers. It is equally true of Burma, and little children carry backinto idolatrous homes their love for Christ, and their juvenile protestagainst heathenism. I addressed several audiences of a thousand each, where the full half were girls and women, no longer secluded andignorant, but prepared to assume responsibility as the mothers andtrainers of a new race of Burmans. In these schools, exclusive of theseminaries and Bible schools, there are enrolled more than 30, 000pupils, who pay annual tuition fees of more than $80, 000. The MortonLane School at Maulmain, the Eurasian School at the same place, theKemendine School in Rangoon, the Girls' School at Mandalay, have each ofthem about three hundred scholars, and they are sending out influenceswhich will in a few years revolutionize the civilization and thereligion of Burma. Other schools of not so high a grade are doingequally faithful work. Our Baptist College at Rangoon is caring for thehigher grades of education, and is preparing hundreds of young men forteaching and for government service. It was inspiring to address athousand of its scholars, under the direction of Principal DavidGilmore, D. D. , formerly of Rochester. The endowment of such aninstitution in this heathen land would be an achievement worthy of someChristian millionaire in America. And the same thing may be said for ourBurman Theological Seminary at Insein under Dr. John McGuire, and ourKaren Theological Seminary under Dr. W. F. Thomas. 

That walls of partition are breaking down under the influence ofChristianity, was made plain to us by invitations to take breakfast witha noted Parsee barrister, and to take afternoon-tea with a wealthyMohammedan gentleman, both of them citizens of Rangoon. The courtesy andintelligence of these hosts of ours will always be a delightful memory, while their novel and beautiful homes revealed to us what art and naturecan do when united in other than Christian surroundings. Our Parseebarrister had obtained his education largely in England, and theMohammedan gentleman had enjoyed intercourse with the best of ourAmerican missionaries. The Moslem friend still maintained a sort ofseclusion for his wife, and only the ladies of our party visited her inher private apartments. But when we rose to depart, he surprised us allby asking that we offer prayer, and he endorsed the prayer that wasoffered by uttering a hearty "Amen. " As we stood ready to go, it waseasy to pray for a blessing upon the house and the family which we wereleaving behind us. Respect for Christianity, and a conviction thatChristian education is the great need of the future, are alreadypermeating the higher classes of Burman society. 

The climax of our stay in Burma was reached when Lord Chelmsford, theviceroy of India, visited Rangoon, and the lieutenant governor invitedus to an afternoon-tea in his honor. The pandal, or reception pavilion, erected at the dock where the viceroy landed and where he was receivedwith a salute of thirty-one guns, had been filled that morning by theélite of Burman society, fifteen hundred in number, and the address ofwelcome had drawn from the viceroy a fitting response. All Rangoon was awonder of decoration. Arches with Saracenic domes built by the Moslems, pagodalike structures built by the Buddhists, Parsee towers, and Hindutemples, appeared at many street-crossings, and one long avenue waslined on either side with elevated rows of benches upon which wereseated thousands of children from the schools. The viceroy passed intriumphal procession between files of soldiery, with cavalry for abody-guard and a dense mass of humanity thronging the sidewalks, lookingon and cheering. At night, the streets and public buildings werebrilliantly illuminated, and the great pagodas glittered like gems fromtop to bottom, encircled with rings of electric lights. 

We reached the Government House, the scene of the afternoon lawn-tea, through clouds of dust raised by four lines of vehicles that struggledfor precedence. At last we emerged in the grounds before the statelyedifice where the lieutenant governor resides, and we were presented toLord and Lady Chelmsford. The viceroy and his wife were simple andgracious in manner, and they made us feel that we were conferring aswell as receiving honor. A group of forty dancing-girls, in antiqueBurmese costumes, were giving a performance on one part of the emeraldlawn, while on another white-robed servants were setting before theguests all manner of refreshments. So, amid music and feasting, theday ended. With the oncoming darkness the viceroy and his lady retiredto their apartments in the great government residence, and at the sametime the whole company joined in singing "God Save the King!" It was astriking close to our experiences in Burma, for fully half of theguests that day were Hindus and Mohammedans, each one of them arrayedin gorgeous garments and decorated with jewels. It left in our mindsthe fixed impression that the hold of Great Britain upon Burma andindeed upon all India is largely due to the Christian character ofBritish rule, and that missionary work of evangelization and ofeducation is to be given large credit for India's present universalloyalty to the British Crown. 

This chapter would not be complete without special mention of the dinnerof our Rochester men. We number thirteen of them in Burma, and they fillvery important places in the work of missions. Two are graduates of ouruniversity, but not of our seminary--Mr. F. D. Phinney, thesuperintendent of our Mission Press, and Dr. David Gilmore, the actingprincipal of our Baptist College. With the wives who graced the company, seventeen persons sat down at table. Singiser presided; McGuire gave uswelcome; Dudley, Cochrane, Rogers, Hattersley, Crawford, added spice tothe occasion. The rewards of a teacher sometimes come late, but they arevery sure. When I saw that gathering of missionary workers, andremembered Geis, Cope, and Streeter, who were prevented from coming, Ifelt that my labor had not been in vain in the Lord, since Burma isbeing transformed by Rochester. 

And I shall never forget a final reception given us at an afternoon-teaby Dr. D. W. A. Smith, the president emeritus of the Karen TheologicalSeminary at Insein, and by his estimable wife, to whom I had had theprivilege of presenting a memorial album, on behalf of all theteachers and missionaries, on the occasion of her seventy-sixthbirthday. Doctor Smith and Mrs. Smith are honored and beloved by allwho know them. Like myself, he has served the cause of theologicaleducation for forty years, and has now retired for partial rest. I amglad that my name can be in any way connected with his, for I am surethat his works will follow him. 

V

MANDALAY AND GAUHATI

These two places are types of two different religions, the Buddhist andthe Hindu. Mandalay in Burma is the representative of Buddhism; Gauhatiin Assam illustrates Hinduism. The hill of Mandalay is crowned by apagoda so unique and splendid that it draws pilgrims from every part ofBurma; the hill at Gauhati is similarly attractive in Assam. I havethought that a description of the two, and of the worship at each ofthem, might serve to fix in memory the differences between these leadingreligions of the British Empire in India. 

Mandalay was the terminus of our third excursion into the more remoteparts of Burma. From Rangoon as a center of operations, we went first toBassein, where our Burman and our Karen schools for boys and girls arebeautifully located. Bassein is one hundred and ninety-two miles west ofRangoon. Maulmain, our second object of interest and visitation, is onehundred and seventy-one miles distant from Rangoon on the south andeast. Here our great missionary, Adoniram Judson, began his work, andhere are two of our chief schools for girls. 

Mandalay is farther removed from Rangoon than are either Bassein orMaulmain. It lies three hundred and eighty-six miles to the north. Itwas a former capital of Burma. It contains the palace of King Thebaw, the foundations of which are reputed to have been laid upon humansacrifices, and from which the king was driven after a long and fierceBritish assault. Ancient tradition decreed that only sacred edificesshould be built of brick. Thebaw's palace is therefore of wood, thoughit is gorgeous with carving and gilt. Surrounded by a wide and deepmoat, there is a walled enclosure of more than a mile square, whosegateways are picturesque in the extreme, and which to all but moderncannon would be an impregnable fortress. 

But it is the Hill of Mandalay that most excites the traveler's wonderand admiration. Upon its summit, commanding a far-reaching view of thewinding river and of endless paddy-fields, with mountains in thedistance, stands a pagoda which is in many respects more remarkable thanthe great Shwe Dagon pagoda at Rangoon. This one at Mandalay mightindeed be called four separate pagodas, on successive heights, andconnected with one another by a straight stairway in part hewn out ofthe solid rock and in part built of masonry. The stairway consists ofeight hundred and twenty-two steps, in four different series, eachseries leading to a broad open platform on which rises a separate templewith a colossal image of Buddha in its center. 

From below, this long stairway, with its railing of brick or concreteand its quartet of gilded pagodas shining in the sun, is a picturesqueand unique object. The crowning pagoda seems almost impossible ofaccess. It is set upon such a height, however, for the purpose of makingthe ascent to the altar difficult, and so of adding to the "merit" ofits worshipers. The stairway, even when cut in the rock, has oftenforty or fifty steps so narrow, that the ascent from platform toplatform is actually precipitous. The entire series of steps, from thebottom of the hill to the top, is roofed over with sheets ofcorrugated iron, until the whole looks like a covered way to theclouds. Going up seemed an exciting adventure. My physician hadforbidden my climbing, and my wife declared that she could not attemptthe walk. The problem became serious. 

The difficulty was removed by bringing from the missionary's house twosolid teak-wood armchairs, to serve us after the sedan fashion. Longpoles of bamboo were lashed underneath them, and, after we had seatedourselves, eight men, four for each chair, lifted these poles, withtheir superimposed American pilgrims, upon their shoulders. Then began atriumphal march, which at every step of the ascent threatened to becomea funeral march. The bearers all had bare feet, feet twice as long asthe steps were broad, so that they practically went upward on theirtoes. A single misstep would have caused disaster--nothing less than anavalanche of coolies, chairs, and pilgrims. But my secretary guarded me, the missionary guarded my wife, and we went up in safety. 

Going upward some two hundred steps, we rested upon a platform with apagoda which enshrined the statue of a Buddha perhaps twenty feet inheight and covered with gold-leaf from top to toe. Any worshiper canprove his faith by clapping a bit of gold-leaf upon the statue. Theresult is that the hands and feet of Buddha are thick with encrustedgold. He holds out his hands in seeming invitation. Two hundred feetmore brought us to a second platform and a second pagoda in which Buddhaalso appears; but now he is in the attitude of teaching. Still anotherascent, and we come to a pagoda in which Buddha stands, a towering formfifty feet in height, with his finger extended in expectation toward theplain. And a final ascent brings us to a colossal Buddha, now reclining, as if his work were done and he were entering upon the bliss of Nirvana. At this last stage there is also a series of waxwork figures whichsymbolize the vanity of life and of human desire. Four forms represent, first, the babe at its mother's breast; secondly, the youth full ofvigor; then the older man haggard with care; and finally, the corpse, upon whose vitals the birds of the air are preying. 

From the summit of this Mandalay Hill, another pagoda, almost as famous, is to be seen. I mean the Kuthodaw, in the plain below. This is fourhundred and fifty pagodas in one, all but one of them little edifices, each with a small sitting statue of Buddha within it. An even moreremarkable thing is that each of these diminutive pagodas has alsowithin it a portion of the Buddhist scriptures, engraved upon a solidblock of stone, and all of these together make up the Tripitaka, uponwhich the Buddhist pins his faith. In the center of the grand enclosurestands a beautiful white pagoda, with wreaths of gold about its gracefulspire. The long rows of little temples, with their attempt to preservethe holy book in an enduring form, are a monument to the faith of KingThebaw's uncle who planned it. Few people, however, read the writingupon the stones. For any practical result it is necessary to have thelaw of the Lord written upon the tables of the heart. 

The descent from Mandalay Hill was even more hazardous than the ascent, for we were in continual danger of slipping from our chairs and knockingover the bearers. We were profoundly grateful when we reached the levelground again and found that we had survived. Our experiences withBuddhism were instructive. The saffron robes of the omnipresent priestsand monks undoubtedly cover much laziness and much willingness to dependfor a living upon others. But every Burman boy expects to spend sometime, though it may be only a week or a month, in a monastery. There heusually learns to read, though his main work is that of memorizingcertain portions of the Buddhist scriptures. So far as I have been ableto learn, there are no positive immoralities connected with Buddhisticworship. The example of Buddha has in it some worthy elements, such asthe renunciation of earthly and sensual ambitions. But Buddhism, for allthat, is a pessimistic religion. It denies to man the existence of asoul, and it gives him no hope for anything but practical extinction. Buddha no longer lives to help his worshipers. In the struggle with sin, there is no atonement for the transgressions of the past, and noprospect of perfection in the future. Hence the preaching of Christ, crucified for our sins and ever present with his people, is to theBuddhist a revelation so novel and so entrancing, that it captivates andtransforms him. Christianity humbles pride, but it saves the soul. Itshows the impossibility of obtaining salvation by merit of our own, andour absolute dependence upon the grace of God. Christianity awakensgratitude, and leads to unselfish devotion. It turns a Saul into a Paul, and makes him a missionary and a hero. 

Gauhati is the present capital of Assam, as Mandalay was once thecapital of Burma. Like Burma, Assam is overrun by Hindus, who seekemployment in the tea-plantations and in every other species of labor. These Hindus have brought their religion with them, and in Assam theanimistic religions of the natives very commonly give way to the morepoetic and philosophic faith of the Hindus. In Gauhati the Hindus haveestablished a temple which attracts thousands of pilgrim worshipers fromall parts of Assam and indeed of India, as the pagoda of Mandalayattracts pilgrims from all parts of Burma. The Gauhati temple, like thatat Mandalay, is set upon a beautiful hill not far from the town, approached only by a long and stony climb, though with many a rest-houseon the way. This temple and its worship so illustrate Hinduism, that aslight account of its origin and beliefs seems to be necessary. 

The god Siva had a goddess for a wife. Displeased with herunfaithfulness, he seized her, and with her as his captive he flewthrough the air, and as he flew, he cut her in pieces. The middleportion of her body fell to the earth on this hill, and consecratedforever this spot near Gauhati. In the temple and grove of this hill thegoddess is worshiped by such rites as will please one of low andlicentious tastes. In fact, the rites of this temple are said to be themost obscene of any in the British possessions. There are reputed to bea thousand "virgins, " who subsist in and upon the temple. The extent towhich they are virgins may be judged by the number of fatherlesschildren clinging to their robes or carried about. These "virgins, " asis well known, are "married to the god of the temple"--which may meanmarried either to the priests of the temple, or to the worshipers of thetemple. I asked a missionary whether these "virgins, " after their termof service, could contract an ordinary marriage. I was answered that thegirls were "married to the temple for life. " One of these unfortunatewomen led by the hand a beautiful little daughter. On being asked whothe father was, the mother replied: "How should I know? I am atemple-woman. " So the gratification of illicit passion becomes areligious act. The residents of Gauhati are free to visit the temple, and so, alas! are the eight hundred students of the English college onlytwo miles away. Who can measure the corrupting influence of this templeupon the lives of the people over a wide area in Assam?

A student of the college, who was also a priest of the temple, met oneof our party on his visit. This student-priest was a young man of morethan ordinary intelligence. He endeavored to palliate the evil of thetemple-worship, and to clothe its acts with spiritual significance. Hepointed to the spot where goats and buffaloes were offered in sacrifice, and he claimed that this offering was made in expiation of sin. Such anexplanation of Hindu sacrifices is altogether futile. The sense of guiltis so dull in Hinduism, that sin is little more than external andphysical impurity, and may be simply failure to conform to a prescribedact of ceremonial worship. The true meaning of sacrifice for sin has, inIndia, been derived solely from Christian preaching. This particularstudent had many an opportunity to hear such preaching, and theknowledge of atonement which he tried to mix with his Hindu theology wasprobably gained from missionary sources. It was an illustration of theincidental and indirect ways in which Christian missions are permeatingthese Oriental lands, and are forcing these old religions to adopt someof the fundamental ideas of Christianity. These ideas are misunderstoodand misstated, so that they become in large part forms of error. Butnotwithstanding, they may pave the way for a fuller knowledge of thetruth, and for the entrance of Christ into the heart and into the life. 

VI

CALCUTTA, DARJEELING, AND BENARES

Calcutta is the largest city of India. It numbers more than a millioninhabitants, of whom 600, 000 are Hindus, 300, 000 are Mohammedans, andless than 100, 000 are Christians. The name of the city is derived fromKali, the goddess-wife of Siva, the Destroyer; and her temple is one ofthe most filthy and disgusting in all India. In this temple I saw one ofits many priestesses cutting into bits the flesh and entrails of a goat, which had been offered in sacrifice, in order that the poorest worshipermight have for his farthing something bloody to present at the altar. Itwas the altar of a fierce, cruel, and lustful goddess, whose black andugly image could be dimly seen within the shrine. A stalwart priestfollowed me with hand outstretched for a contribution. It was a novelsensation to hear him utter, in excellent English and with seemingreverence, the words, "the great goddess Kali, " as if no one could doubther power. It reminded me of "the great goddess Diana, " whom all Asiaand the whole world once worshiped, but whose temple is now anindistinguishable heap of ruins. The worship of a goddess so vengefuland sensual as Kali throughout India, a worship both of lust and offear, shows how ineradicable is the religious instinct, but howperverted it may become when existing apart from divine revelation. 

There is another temple in Calcutta of a somewhat better sort. I referto the temple of the Jains, that mongrel sect which is partly areformed Hinduism, and partly a worship of Buddha. Its temple is amodel of cleanliness and of Oriental art. Its decoration consistslargely of inlaid glass of all the colors of the rainbow. Walls, ceilings, and columns are fairly ablaze with tinted arabesques thatreflect every ray of the sun. Fountains and lawns and statues mingletheir attractions. The effect is one of splendor and beauty. Jainismis conservative Hinduism, recurring to the ancestral worship of theVedas, exaggerating its doctrine of the sanctity of animal life, repudiating its later licentious developments, and taking in Buddha, not as the supreme and sole teacher of religion, but as only one ofits great saints and heroes. 

The real glory of Calcutta is its relation to modern missions. Here isthe chapel in which William Carey preached, and in which Adoniram Judsonwas baptized. Its spacious construction evinces the faith and hope ofits founders. But it is in Serampore, which, though fourteen miles away, is almost a suburb of Calcutta, that Carey's work was done. Howwonderful that work was! "A consecrated cobbler, " he mastered thelanguages of the Orient, and gave the Bible to India in several of itstongues. He received from the British Government large compensation forhis services as interpreter and translator, but he gave back all themoney he received, in order to support schools and missions. The noblecollege at Serampore, with its hundreds of students, is his bestmemorial. His tomb in the cemetery witnesses to his humility of spirit. It stands at one corner of a triangle, with the tombs of Marshman and ofWard at the two remaining corners, but the only inscription he permittedto be engraved upon it is the two lines of the hymn, A wretched, lost, and helpless worm, On thy kind arms I fall. 

So he left his testimony to the need, and the power, of Him who willultimately demolish Hindu temples and enthrone Christ in India. 

From Calcutta we traveled about three hundred and seventy milesnorthward to Darjeeling. We wished to see the Himalayas. A most tortuousnarrow-gage railway lifted us gradually to a height of seven thousandfeet. And there we had the unusual privilege of seeing the sunrisetipping with rosy light the snowy peak of Kinchinjinga, twenty-eightthousand feet high and forty-six miles away. Mt. Everest, a hundredmiles distant, is twenty-nine thousand feet high, but from Darjeeling isinvisible. Kinchinjinga is nearly twice as high as Mont Blanc, and itsglittering mass is a spectacle never to be forgotten. Curiously enough, upon the summit of Observatory Hill, from which we gained our view, the immigrant Tibetans had erected their shrine, and long, inscribedpaper and muslin streamers, enclosing a large quadrangle, gave to thewinds their prayers. No idol was to be seen. The worship seems to befar more spiritual than that of the Hindus. Nature seems to havetaught that secluded race of Tibetans a more primitive religion thanmodern Hinduism. It is a religion mixed with Buddhism, but preservingthe earlier view of a divinity in natural objects, which Hinduism hasalmost wholly outgrown. 

Our next point of investigation was Benares, "the holy city, " the Meccaand Jerusalem of the Hindus. It is a hotbed of heathen enthusiasm and ofblinded devotion. The sacred river Ganges flows by, with tier upon tierof temples rising from its steep banks--such a congestion of religiousedifices that one might almost doubt whether they had left room for anybut priests to live. Every day, hundreds of pilgrims troop through itsstreets and throng these temples, presenting their flowers and theirofferings, making their sacrifices, and listening submissively to theinstructions and threatenings of the priests. Every temple has itssacred animals, to be sacrificed or worshiped. The "Golden Temple, "so-named, is covered with gold-leaf from its spire to its base. Thenoisy crowd in its corridors, the noisome odors of its sanctuaries, the adjurations of its priests and their evident aim to turn religioninto financial gain, disgust the Christian traveler, while they showhim how deeply rooted in the human heart is this towering system ofidolatry and superstition. 

But only the water-view of Benares presents Hinduism in its mostcharacteristic aspect. It is the sacred river that makes sacred thetown. This river is regarded as itself divine, for it had its source inthe mouth of Brahma. Hence it is endowed with life-giving and purifyingpowers. It is bordered for a full mile by a grand succession of palacesand temples, of bathing ghats and of burning ghats. Here the Hindu, often after long pilgrimage, washes away his defilement and prepareshimself to die. When death actually comes, his relatives wash his bodyin the holy stream. But the bathing ghat only makes ready for theburning ghat. These burning ghats are castle-like edifices, from whichthe smoke of burning flesh ascends continually. Cremation, with theHindu, takes the place of burial. The ashes are collected and arepreserved in a tomb. To die in Benares, and to have a temple for a tomb, is the surest passport to happiness in a future state, since thetransmigration of souls into higher or lower forms is an essentialdoctrine of modern Hinduism. 

A wealthy resident of Benares courteously offered us the use of hisobservation-boat to view the scene upon the river in the early morning. This river-craft was a double-decker, propelled by oars from the lowerdeck. From the upper platform, one could overlook the ceremonialwashings of hundreds of pilgrims. Stalwart men plunged themselves threetimes into the stream, looked toward the sun, joined their hands, spokea prayer, rinsed their sacred cord, cleansed their raiment, and then, reclad, went to the priest on his platform, to be smeared with ashes onthe forehead and marked with a little colored dot, as a certificate thatthey had correctly performed their vow. Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva, hadeach his worshipers and his priests, to give the appropriate mark. The"holy man" was there, either upon his bed of spikes or in an attitudewhich suggested torture, and ready to receive the homage, and the moneyas well, of his benighted admirers. Mothers were present, immersing notonly themselves but also their children. All the bathers must drink ofthe muddy and fetid water, for purification internal is as needful aspurification external. And so, hundreds of worshipers every day, and onspecial feast-days thousands, drink this water of the "sacred Ganges, "foul with the stains of disease and reeking with the sweat of the dead. It is no wonder that the burning ghats have no lack of business, and nowonder that medical experts have traced epidemics of cholera, smallpox, and plague, in Western lands, to this city of Benares, where "Satan'sseat is. " The throne of the great adversary, however, seems to be builton very insufficient foundations, for not a few of the temples whichline the steep banks of the river have toppled over, or have sunk intothe yielding sand. Their massive fragments, at the base of longstairways of stone, show how hideous is the ruin of any system ofreligion which is not founded upon Christ, the Rock. 

VII

LUCKNOW, AGRA, AND DELHI

At last we are on Mohammedan ground--at least on ground whereMohammedanism has a powerful, and perhaps a controlling, influence. Thisnorthwest part of India was the scene of Moslem conquest in the ninthcentury. Mohammedans have always proudly contemned idolatry, and theyhave often been iconoclasts, as many headless Hindu images can witness. Northwest India saw the rise and the strength of the great mutiny ofhalf a century ago, but it was Moslem rajas and faithful Moslem troopswho helped to put it down. 

Mohammedan faith in the unity and personality of God might at firstsight seem to render its adherents more accessible than are Hindus tothe gospel of Christ. As a matter of fact, however, the very elements oftruth in their belief make them too often stout opponents ofChristianity. They are religious bigots, as the Hindus are not. TheHindu has a pantheon to which he can, with some show of consistency, invite Christ. The Mohammedan declares that there is but one God, andthat Mohammed is his prophet. So he denies Christ's claim to be eitherGod or Saviour. 

Lucknow was deeply interesting, for here was exhibited one of the mostheroic and thrilling defenses ever made in history. More than twohundred women and children spent three months of agony in the cellarsof the British residency, while husbands and fathers and friends, to thenumber of seventeen hundred, were exposed to the besieging force and themurderous fire of fifty thousand mutineers. The headquarters of thedefenders were riddled with shot and shell, and the residency is now aruin. But only one shot penetrated the retreat of the women and childrenbelow, and of these only one woman lost her life. Crowded together inthe heat of the summer, tormented by flies, half famished for lack offood, these brave women held out themselves and encouraged theprotecting garrison, though of the seventeen hundred men only sevenhundred at the end of the siege remained alive. Sir Henry Lawrence diedof a cannon-shot, exhorting his soldiers to the last man to die, ratherthan to surrender. We were glad to pay reverence to his bravery, by avisit to his tomb. Although he died, the flag of England flew over thefortress, in spite of innumerable efforts of the enemy to bring it down. And to-day, in memory of that fact, it is the only flag in the BritishEmpire that is not lowered at sunset. The joy of the defenders and ofthose whom they defended may be imagined, when General Havelock appearedin their relief, and the great mutiny was suppressed. That victorysettled the prestige of the English in India. All classes now recognizethe military strength as well as the judicial fairness of British rule. Without it, India would be a country of warring races, for Mohammedanand Hindu even to-day live in slumbering jealousy of each other. 

This latent hostility, I am happy to say, shows some signs of wearingaway. The desire for more of home-rule is bringing these two great racestogether in conventions, with a view to the discovery of some method ofcooperation between them. Parliamentary government in China and Japanhas had its effect in India, and Britain will soon be compelled to admither Indian populations to a larger share in municipal and provincialadministration. But democracy can be successful, only when conflictingclasses find some basis for harmony. English missionary and educationalinstitutions are doing much to reconcile Hindus and Mohammedans to oneanother, and this may prepare the way, not simply for free government, but also for the acceptance by both parties of a religion in which alltheir elements of truth are included, while their perversions of truthare sloughed off. 

By English educational and missionary institutions I mean much more thanChurch of England schools and colleges. In Lucknow we visited theIsabella Thoburn College, under American Methodist control, and weregreatly impressed by its noble equipment in the way of buildings andteachers. Both boys and girls have here the opportunity of securing aneducation as high in grade as the sophomore years of our Americancolleges, and of preparing themselves for the advanced work of a greatIndian university. All this is under Christian influences, and has itsfruit in many a conversion to Christ. Martiničre College is also noblyequipped and endowed, but it is solely for English boys, who aregenerally the sons of British officials in India. I cannot speak toohighly of these means of education now furnished by all our greatdenominations, in all the cities of India. I could only wish that ourBaptist people at home might see how far Christians of other names haveoften surpassed them in their gifts and preparations for the future of acountry whose population is three times as large as our own. 

At Lucknow we had the rare opportunity of seeing "the mango trick"performed by an expert juggler. He first showed us a jar, filled withinnocent sand, so dry that it fell easily through his fingers as helifted a handful. Then he presented a dry mango seed, which he plantedin the sand and watered. The jar was placed on the stone pavement of thehotel, not ten feet away from our eyes. He covered the jar with a littletent not two feet in diameter. After a few passes of the hand, the tentwas lifted. The seed had already sprouted, and had become a twig withleaves. Covering the plant once more, he called our attention to acobra-charmer, who played harmlessly with a hooded and venomous snake. At last he threw the tent wholly aside, and there stood a fullydeveloped little mango tree, perhaps two feet high. It seemed impossiblethat the folds of the tent, which had been shaken out at the beginning, could possibly have held it. The juggler's method was simplicity itself. If I had not previously seen in America a necromancer cut his wife'shead off, and then put it on again so slick that she seemed to havereceived no injury, I might have begun to believe that this Indianjuggler had supernatural powers. 

To Lucknow succeeded Agra. The great wonder and prize of Agra is, ofcourse, the Taj Mahal. So we made our way to it before sunrise, and sawits exquisite columns and its white minarets in the rosy light of theearliest morning; then again, as the sun was setting, we saw its lastrays fall upon the snow-white dome. As one looks upon the Taj from thenoble gateway through which one enters the enclosing park, he sees alsoits reflection in the long lines of water that lie between, and it seemsa miracle of beauty. But when you reach the edifice itself, and perceivethat its simplicity is combined with lavish richness of decoration, marble and precious stones being so woven together that they form onegorgeous and splendid whole, you can only admire the affection thatplanned this memorial to a beloved wife, and the art which has succeededin constructing an edifice which, after six centuries, is stillrecognized as a wonder of the world. Yet the Moslem emperor who built itwas deposed by his son, and then imprisoned not far away, the chiefsolace and recreation granted him being this, that from his prison-roofhe could look out upon the Taj Mahal. 

The Pearl Mosque and the Jasmine Tower, the Courts of Public and ofPrivate Audience, in the palace which the Moslem emperor once occupied, are monuments of architecture so remarkable and so beautiful, that nodescription of mine can fairly represent the impression which they madeupon me. They are surrounded and protected by the Fort, an enclosurehalf a mile square, whose massive wall is itself a wonder. In the dayswhen these structures were built, labor was cheap, for the monarch hadonly to impress and to feed his laborers. But artistic genius is alwaysrare. The Mohammedan conquest and sovereignty of the past produced andencouraged a flowering out of art, comparable to that of the days ofcathedral-building in England, and of the time of Pericles whensculpture and architecture so flourished in Greece. In all the worldthere is nothing more elaborate or beautiful than the perforated marbleof these Oriental screens, and the intricate carving of these Orientalpillars. The Alhambra in Spain has its superiors in India, both forsplendor of color and for beauty of pattern. The arabesques of theseOriental mosques exhibit powers of invention of the highest order. Ithas been well said that their architects "designed like Titans, andfinished like jewelers. " Both the throne of the Mogul Emperor Akbar andhis tomb in Agra are proofs that even the grain of truth inMohammedanism can awaken intelligence and enthusiasm in those whoreceive it, and that, in the conflict with idol systems, it has power toconquer the world. 

An account of our visit to Delhi may well complete my summary ofMohammedan influences in India. Delhi was the capital of India longbefore Akbar reigned and the lofty tower of the Kutab Minar was built. But Hindu influence has combined with Mohammedan in leading the Britishto restore Delhi to its former position as the center of governmentalauthority. Tradition has handed down a prediction that making Delhi itscapital marked the end of each power that asserted itself. Hence therehave been many Delhis, as there have been many ancient Romes, and thispresent Delhi must be succeeded by a new Delhi which British authorityand resources will build. The new Delhi will be the ninth, as thepresent Delhi is the eighth, of the long series. Ruins of the earlierDelhis are about it on every side. Now, at last, a great tract of landhas been appropriated for the new seat of government which will risefrom the dust. Temporary buildings have been erected. The permanent oneswill soon follow. We may be sure that they will be splendid and suitedto modern tastes, while they still preserve the characteristic featuresof Indian architecture. 

By making this new Delhi the British capital of India, it is sought toimpress the Oriental mind with Britain's claims to be supreme, while atthe same time the old traditional prediction is evaded. Let us hope thatthe device will accomplish its purpose. The prosperity of India is boundup with the recognition by all races and parties of England's right torule. I would not justify all the steps by which Britain has gained herpower, nor would I ignore certain defects of her later administration. But there is no question as to the general justice of British rule, noras to the fact that, without it, India's warring races and religionswould now be the ruin of all peace and progress. When we remember thatin this land of former famines the population has increased since 1858by one hundred millions; that forty-six thousand miles of canals havebeen dug for irrigation, and more than twenty-two million acres havethereby been reclaimed; that trade has increased in the lasthalf-century from three hundred millions to fourteen hundred millions;that the value of land is now larger by fifteen hundred millions thanit was fifty years ago; that there are now thirty-two thousand milesof railway in operation and seventy-six thousand miles of telegraph;that the Indian Post Office now handles nine hundred millions ofletters, newspapers, and other matter every year; we may well doubtwhether any conquest of history has brought about so great or sobeneficent results as have followed what we must regard as England'scommercial absorption of India. 

There are doubtless seditious and anarchistic elements in the Indianpopulations which need to be kept under and subdued. Let us rememberthat only one-tenth part of the men, and only one-hundredth part of thewomen, know how to read. There is a vast proletarian mass, ignorant andinflammable, ready to follow leaders of better education, but lessprinciple, than themselves. This mass the British Government has failedto educate, so that, while ninety per cent of the people in Japan canread, in India only one-tenth as many can read. One of the greatestmistakes of English administration has been its beginning of educationat the top, instead of at the bottom. It has established universities, but not elementary schools. The excuse, of course, has been, thatdifferences of caste and of religion have made it impossible to putHindu children and Mohammedan children, Brahman children and Sudrachildren, together, in the same schools. And yet, in the universities, pupils of all these various classes sit side by side, and some plan, itwould seem, might have been devised to apply the same rule, so as tosecure universal and compulsory elementary education. The highereducation, taken alone, has its dangers; it is sought only by people ofmeans and intelligence; many seek it from no love of learning, but onlyin order to prepare themselves for government offices. But there are notenough offices to go round. The disappointed men will not work withtheir hands; they find their avocation in the plotting of sedition. Itis the high-caste educated Brahmans who have edited the malcontentperiodicals, and have organized the revolutionary conspiracies, whichhave of late bred so much trouble for the government in India. I rejoicetherefore in the rise of factories, and in the new emphasis that isbeing laid on industrial education. These will do much to develop theresources of India. But what is most needed is the spirit of peace andjustice; this is furnished by the gospel of Christ. I therefore believethat the gospel is the only real guaranty to India of its political aswell as its religious welfare. 

The Friday prayer-service in the great mosque of Delhi was a strikingspectacle. The open court in front of the mosque is four hundred andfifty feet square, surrounded by a cloister, and paved with graniteinlaid with marble. Three or four thousand worshipers, in parallel rows, stretched from side to side of the great enclosure. At the summons ofthe mollah, or officiating priest, all these worshipers, in perfectunison, prostrated themselves with folded hands, and repeated in a loudvoice, "God is great. " Each devotee had previously purified himself, bycleansing his mouth and hands and feet in the open tank in the center ofthe great esplanade. Inasmuch as the Delhi mosque is the largest andmost splendid east of Cairo, the entire spectacle was most impressive. 

If Turkey had not joined a Christian power by her alliance with Germany, Mohammedans throughout the world might have taken Germany's side againstthe Allies, and might have threatened the peace of India. That danger isnow providentially averted. The Moslem rulers have held fast to theirallegiance to the British Crown. This city of Delhi, with the schools ofthe Methodists, the Anglicans, and the English Baptists, is permeatedwith religious influences that attract its native populations, and theseinfluences are continually lessening the prospect of any futurerebellion such as the mutiny of fifty years ago. 

VIII

JAIPUR, MT. ABU, AND AHMEDABAD

India, as is well known, is a part of the British Empire, and is underthe sway of the British Government. Yet, for administrative purposes, itis divided into presidencies, provinces, and native states. Thepresidencies and provinces are wholly administered by British officials. The native states are administered by rajas and other Indian rulers, with the presence in each capital of a resident officer who representsthe British Government and who is accessible for consultation in case ofnecessity. The relations between the rajas and the residents arefriendly, and only the gravest matters are referred to therepresentative of the Crown. All other affairs are cared for by thenative ruler, who is attended by a distinguished suite and who maintainsquite a royal court. This species of self-government is the reward, granted by the British Government after the mutiny of 1857, to therulers of the native states, who remained faithful to British interestsand assisted in the suppression of the great rebellion. The governmentof these native rulers is in general worthy of praise. Many of them areprogressive men; they have traveled abroad; they have been affected byWestern thought; they have introduced modern reforms and systems ofeducation, to the great benefit of their subjects. In this present hourof crisis, the majority of them have been loyal to the BritishGovernment, and have contributed men and means for the cause of theAllies. It was interesting in our journey across India to traverseseveral of these native states; and it was difficult to observe anydifference between these sections and the portions of the empireofficered solely by the British. We saw no British soldiers, but onlynative troops. There was less of English language and custom prevalent. The Hindu, Mohammedan, and Jain seemed to have things very much tothemselves. They, after all, are the real India, the hereditary India, while at the same time they are feeling the influence of modern railwaysand modern commerce. 

Jaipur, which is the capital of a native state, was especiallyinteresting. It has been called "The Pink City, " either because themaharaja owns all the property on the business streets and himself seesthat every building is painted of a pink color, or because he compelsevery private owner to conform to his fixed rules of construction anddecoration. At any rate, the wide streets of Jaipur are laid out likethose of the homeland, and are lined with pink structures of only onetype of architecture and only one type of ornamentation. Even Paris canpresent no better illustration of the value of supervision in building. There are no sky-scrapers. There are long rows of shops and residences, with arcades in front of them, and with many variations in plan anddecoration, while at the same time one tone of pink, together with thesky-line and the arcade-line is preserved without important change; theOriental type of building is preserved; and there is a uniform style ofarchitecture from one end of the street to the other. No city in theworld so well illustrates Mrs. Humphrey Ward's quotation of the poet'swords, A rose-red city, half as old as Time. 

It is not the city of Jaipur, however, which merits our chief attention, though the maharaja's town-palace and his quaint astronomicalobservatory are both of them deeply interesting. This observatory has notower and no telescope. It shows what can be done by sun-dials andstructures almost level with the ground to mark the movements of theheavenly bodies, and thus demonstrates that primitive stargazers mighteven thus early acquire a very considerable knowledge of astronomy. Thescientific and literary tastes of this Oriental monarch are alsoindicated by a noble public library of his own foundation, whichcontains a priceless collection of books and manuscripts in all thelanguages of the East. 

But it is Amber that constitutes the chief attraction of a visit toJaipur. Amber is the original metropolis and the ancient seat ofgovernment, five miles distant from the present Jaipur, and even now thesummer residence of the maharaja, though the old city which once layaround the rocky fortress has become a waste of ruin. The palace atAmber is situated on a hilltop several hundred feet above the level ofthe plain, and commanding magnificent views of the surroundingcountry. Next to the sight of river or sea from a mountain summit, theview of broad and level plains stretching far away is most beautiful, and such a view the Indian ruler secured when he built his summerresidence upon this eminence. 

We came expecting to find India hot, but we have found the northern partof India very cool. So it was reviving and refreshing to take the drivefrom Jaipur to Amber in an automobile, over a noble roadway withslightly ascending grade and skirting an originally splendid palace, once in the center of an island, but now in the bed of a dried-up lake. When we left the motor-car at the final lofty hill, the deserted city ofAmber towered above us. How should we reach that threatening height?Three gorgeously caparisoned elephants solicited our patronage for theascent. But before making that ascent, there was another ascent to make. We had to ascend the elephants. Ladders were brought to our assistance, and up the ladders we climbed to the howdah, or square seat on the topof the bulky beasts. Each elephant had to carry two passengers. I, onone side of the animal that bore me, had my weight balanced by that ofmy courier, who rode on the other side. Each of us was compelled to lethis legs dangle over the edge of the howdah. All went well until theelephant came to the narrow part of the road. There he evinced a viciouspropensity to plant his feet close to the edge of the precipice. Therewas indeed a railing beneath me, but, clinging as I was somewhatconvulsively to my slippery seat, the railing was invisible. So I seemedto myself at times to be hanging over the abyss. If I slipped from myseat, I might fall four hundred feet. It was not a pleasing situation. But the elephant knew his business. He trod the path in perfectconfidence. And so, in royal state, though in mind tremendously afloat, we made the long and steep climb, until we reached the palace of theking. The maharaja, however, was not at home that day to receive us. Heis a Hindu devotee, and at the time of our visit he was making apilgrimage to Benares, the sacred city. The first thing we saw, when weentered the court of his excellency, was the spot where every morning abullock or a goat is sacrificed as an offering to his heathen god. 

Still, "every prospect pleases. " The views of mountain and plain fromthis elevation among the hills are so beautiful that one can only admirethe taste of the prince who made this his chosen dwelling-place. And thepalace itself is a fascinating study in art and architecture. Longcorridors are turned into cloisters arched and shaded from the sun. Tanks of water, with fountains playing in the center, provide refreshingbaths. Halls of public and of private audience are gorgeous with crimsonand gold. Temples for worship are added, both for daily devotion and forgreat state occasions. In short, here are all the appurtenances of anOriental court, combined with private luxury and seclusion. While themultitudes must toil and suffer in the plains below, the maharaja mayrest and enjoy himself in his hilltop palace. I would not, however, imply that this particular monarch is not in many respects alarge-minded and liberal man. The many evidences of his taste and publicspirit in Jaipur rectify any wrong impressions one might gain from avisit to Amber. 

The next day we reached a station called Abu Road, four hundred milesto the south of Delhi, and about half-way to Bombay. True to its name, Abu Road furnished us the road to Abu Mountain. Again we proceeded bymotor-car, that great annihilator of distance in a foreign land. Thisroad, in its gradual ascent, is a noble piece of engineering. It isexceedingly tortuous, for it follows the contour of the mountain inmarvelously skilful curves. All the way for two hours, and covering anascent of four thousand five hundred feet, there are enchanting views. Tropical birds and trees were on every hand, together with cactus ofmany varieties; green and red parrots screamed through the air; peacocksspread themselves in the sun; and monkeys scampered across our path. 

One of the spurs of Mt. Abu is called Dilwarra. It is the seat of thechief temple in India of the Jains, that Hindu sect which claims to havepreserved the ancient religion of the Vedas, and to have kept it true tothe ancestral faith. As I have before remarked, the Jains aim to escapethe possible miseries of transmigration, and to attain the bliss ofNirvana, even in the present life. Jainism, like every other heathensystem, is an effort to earn salvation by labors and sacrifices ofone's own. Its works of righteousness, however, are often uncalled-forexaggerations of natural virtues, such as counting sacred all forms ofanimal and vegetable life. The most devoted of the sect wear a clothover their mouths, lest they should destroy an insect by swallowingit. To found hospitals for the care of parrots and monkeys is one ofthe most approved works of merit. So also it is a work of merit tobuild a temple or to endow it. Jain temples are full of images, andthe chief object of worship is honored by their multiplication. Buddhais recognized as one of the divine incarnations, and in some senseBuddha is worshiped. But it must be remembered that even in JainismBuddha is only a memory. He has entered into Nirvana, and has passedout of conscious existence. Now that he has attained that state ofpassivity, he has no eye to pity and no arm to save. And yet in thisJain temple images of Buddha are worshiped, and these images arenumbered by the hundreds. 

All this aberration from the truth does not prevent the temple frombeing almost a miracle of art. There is a scrupulous cleanliness aboutit which differences it from other heathen temples, like that of Kali. In the Jain temples there are no animal sacrifices, for all animallife is sacred. But there are little houses for feeding the birds;larger houses for feeding the beasts; and tombs for departed saintsand teachers. And let it be specially borne in mind that in all theworld there are no more splendid examples of arches, domes, andshrines, decorated with elaborate and intricate carvings, than arefound here in Dilwarra. Its arabesques of perforated white marble aninch and a half thick are like lace-work in their delicacy and beauty. Invention could go no farther in devising an infinite variety ofgeometric traceries. We in the West have much to learn from theartistic genius and labor of the East. 

Another day's ride, or rather, another night's ride, brought us to acity of a very different sort from Jaipur, and to a very differentenvironment from that of Mt. Abu. It brought us to the busy metropolisof Ahmedabad. Here is also a city in a state under a native ruler, but acity so prosperous that native rule is seen to be by no means slovenlyor indolent. On the way from the station I counted eighteen loftychimneys belonging to manufacturing establishments. There are eightyfactories in this busy center, chiefly connected with the cottonindustry. In this industrial expansion is revealed the solution of manyof India's financial problems. The population is now too exclusivelyemployed in agriculture, and its manufactured articles are imported. Butthe rains are so uncertain that the farmer's subsistence is precarious, and famines claim thousands of victims. Hence, next to Christianity, India needs industrial development. This has been the view of recentBritish governors. Better methods of irrigation and of cultivation havebeen supplemented by the introduction of new instruments of manufacture. Both English and American machines now do much of the work that wasformerly done by hand, and in the cities there is growing up a newmanufacturing population. 

Industrial missions are a great blessing to India, and our religiousdenominations have shown their practical sense by entering upon thissort of work. When a native becomes a convert to Christianity, he isoften thrown out of caste by his family, and out of labor by hisemployers. He must support himself; he must find something to do. But heis friendless and helpless, unless he can find friendship and help inthe mission where he has been converted. It is necessary to secureemployment for him, if he is not to become an encumbrance to themission and to himself. Hence I welcome all gifts for industrialmissions that will teach men new methods of obtaining a livelihood. India, as I have said, has a vast agricultural population, now scantilysubsisting and subject to occasional famines. Multitudes who are nowidle might be usefully employed. The change now going on in our SouthernStates might well go on in Southern India, and I welcome the sight ofthe factory chimneys of Ahmedabad. 

Ahmedabad is not yet converted to Christianity. It is a celebratedstronghold of Jainism, and here is another most splendid temple. Itwas instructive to see the little houses on poles for the care ofbirds, and for the feeding of lazy monkeys, while the poor and sick ofhuman kind in the neighborhood begged in vain for help. The Jaintemples are noted in all India for their beauty. Carving and gildingcan go no farther than they have gone in the decoration of this shrinein Ahmedabad. But the troop of monkeys that came to us in the park tobe fed, seemed to us quite as sensitive to human needs as were theholy men who sat about that temple of the Jains, for these latterdevotees use God's gifts not rationally, but for inferior ends, andespecially for their own interest and comfort. Ahmedabad is anexample, not of the worst, but still of a misplaced, religious zealthat has lost its bearings because it has lost its God. 

IX

BOMBAY, KEDGAON, AND MADRAS

Bombay is a great city, the second, in population, of the British Empirein India. While Calcutta has over a million people, Bombay comes only afew short of that number. Its commerce is immense; its public buildingsare fashioned after European models; its streets are broad and finelypaved; there is every evidence of wealth and cultivation. But Hindusgreatly outnumber Mohammedans; Parsees are strong; Christians areactive, but still comparatively few. In thought and customs, Bombay isstill essentially Oriental, while yet profoundly influenced by modernnewspapers and modern inventions. It was a memorable change for ustravelers to emerge from its Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, and then to findourselves, first in its Caves of Elephanta, and secondly, in itsTowers of Silence. 

A word of explanation is necessary for each of these notable objects ofinterest. Elephanta is a little island eight miles from Bombay, and sonamed because of its general resemblance in shape to an elephant. Elephanta Island forms a beautiful object as seen from the deck of thelittle steamer that serves for a ferry, and the views from the summit ofElephanta Hill, over the Bombay Bay, with the gleaming towers of thegreen city in the distance, are very charming. The island is a greatresort, however, not so much for the views therefrom, as because it isthe seat of a rock-hewn temple excavated centuries ago in honor of Siva, the Hindu god, whose province it is to destroy. Brahma is the Creator;Vishnu, the Preserver; and Siva, the Destroyer. Siva was the god ofreproduction, however, as well as the god who destroys, and his worshiphas been often connected with obscene and lascivious rites. 

The approach to Siva's temple is through a lovely garden, in which aremany splendid specimens of tropical vegetation. At last there appears tothe visitor, in the side of the precipitous hill, a massive portico, with four immense pillars, all hewn out of the solid rock. Then comelong rows of similar columns leading darkly like a cathedral nave intothe stony hill, and terminating at the altar, above which towers thestatue of Siva, colossal in size, with Parvati, his goddess wife, by hisside, and all the emblems of his authority, as scepter and sword, aroundhim. The statue seems to express the joy of sovereignty, and, thoughsomewhat mutilated, it is noticeably free from the immoral suggestionswhich have been intimated in many descriptions of it. Entrance to thestatue is flanked by great guardian statues, and the whole chancel, soto speak, is enclosed by a broad and lofty corridor, in the manner ofcathedral architecture. From this corridor on either side, many nooks inthe rock have been excavated, like chantry chapels, each with itsseparate statue at least twenty feet in height. The whole Hindupantheon, seems to be represented by carved figures, but all clusterabout the god Siva. The really characteristic and indispensable featureof these caves is, however, still to be mentioned. It is the image ofthe lingam, or phallus, gigantic in size, and carven out of solid stone, in the innermost shrine, where it is the object of hysterical or lustfulworship. Every year, on an appointed feast-day, three or four thousandpeople throng to this shrine, some to pray for offspring, others to seeklicense for illicit pleasure. Elephanta has become in this way thesymbol and propagator of a debasing superstition. Such worship is only adeification of the lower instincts of human nature. 

Returning to Bombay, it was natural to think of the Towers of Silence, for these too are located on a lovely eminence, called the Malabar Hill, and overlooking the city and the bay. These towers are enclosures inwhich the Parsees, a most intelligent, wealthy, and influential sect, dispose of the bodies of their dead, by laying the forms in the open airwhere they can be devoured by vultures. The towers themselves are atleast half a dozen in number, and they vary in size. But the style oftheir construction is uniform. Inside of a lofty circular wall areconcentric beds of stone, each with its groove in which a corpse can belaid. There are three concentric circles, the outermost for men, thenext inner for women, the innermost for children. The structure has noroof, but is open to the air. Great flocks of vultures perch upon thetop of the outermost enclosing wall, waiting in silence and expectationfor the time when they can descend upon their prey. Only a half-hourelapses after a body is laid on its stony bed, before these ravenousbirds have torn every morsel of flesh from its bones. The skeleton isthen left to disintegrate by the action of the elements, until the rainswash the remaining dust into a great pit at the center of the circles, from which receptacle the refuse is conducted away by drains during therainy season, to mingle with the surrounding earth. 

This is the Parsees' "ashes to ashes, dust to dust. " They glory in thismethod of disposing of their dead, and they think it far more naturaland impressive than the common Hindu method of cremation. We must grantthat all methods of disposing of the dead are painful. But faith in aresurrection of the body is surely most in consonance with ourtime-honored custom of laying our dead away in their kindred earth, "until the day dawns, and the shadows flee away. "

From Bombay to the town of Kedgaon may seem to some a descent from greatto small. Not so; it is rather an ascent from the false to the true, from the impure to the pure, from the illusory to the real. For Kedgaonis the home, and center of the work, of Pundita Ramabai, perhaps themost learned, and certainly the most influential Christian woman inIndia. The very name pundita is given only to those of high intellectualattainments. A Hindu of the highest, that is the Brahman, caste, she wasmany years ago converted to Christianity, and she has devoted all herpowers to the education and uplifting of her countrywomen. Her fatherwas a great Sanskrit scholar. He was one of the first in India todetermine that his daughter should be a learned woman. Accordingly shewas thoroughly instructed. She knew by heart the sacred scriptures ofher people long before she became a Christian. She could repeat frommemory an amount of them equal to that of our whole English Bible. It isespecially the improvement of the condition of women, and particularlyof child-widows, to which she has devoted her attention. The conditionof the child-widow in India is most pitiable. She is held responsiblefor the death of her husband, no matter how young she may be. She issubjected to indignities. Her hair is entirely shaven from her head. Herjewels are taken from her. Her bright clothing is taken away, and she isclad in the coarsest garments. She becomes the slave of the family;virtually an outcast; frequently a prostitute. She can never remarry, nomatter how young she may be at the beginning of her widowhood. 

It was to ameliorate this condition of affairs that Pundita Ramabai setherself many years ago. She gathered child-widows under her protection, surrounded them with Christian influences, and gave them a Christianeducation. A time of famine threw upon her care in one year twenty-fourhundred girls, who depended upon her alone for food to keep them fromstarving. That time of great distress is now past, but when we rememberthat in India there are estimated to be as many as two millions ofchild-widows, it will be clear that the need of a refuge for such isstill immensely great. Girls of the highest caste are in the greatestneed, for among the lower classes the reproach of child-widowhood is notso strongly felt. It was the sorrows of girls belonging to her ownBrahman caste, married perhaps at the age of eight or ten to husbandsfive times their own age, and then made practically outcasts by thosehusbands' death, that most touched the heart of Ramabai. It is wonderfulwhat she has already accomplished. We found on her extensive premises agreat assembly-room which has sheltered at one time twenty-six hundredauditors; schools of every grade for Hindu girls, including a school forthe blind; a large and commodious hospital; a printing office withpresses capable of turning out a high order of typography; an asylum forlepers; a rescue-home for unfortunate girls; normal classes for teachersand for nurses; training in sewing, embroidery, and weaving; and manyanother sort of Christian service, including the work of the factory andthe farm. Every species of cooking on the premises, and all the care ofthe rooms and houses, is done by the girls themselves, so that all ofthem are taught how to support themselves when they leave theinstitution. Three hours a day for industrial work, and three hours aday for schooling, is the uniform rule. One can imagine the far-reachinginfluence of this institution, if he remembers that out of thetwenty-four hundred scholars who were received and taught in thatdreadful time of famine, more than fifteen hundred were child-widows andmany of them of the highest caste. 

Ramabai is a great scholar. She has translated and printed the whole NewTestament, in the colloquial Mahrati dialect, for the benefit of thepoor women in her district. She is now engaged upon the Psalms and thebook of Genesis, with the hope of finishing the whole Old Testament. Numberless tracts of her composition have gone out into all parts ofIndia. Her graduates become not only teachers, but also evangelists. Noone can measure the extent of her present influence, as showing what anative woman in India can do, in the way of breaking down caste, overthrowing pernicious customs, and demonstrating to a benightedheathen world the superior claims of Christian truth. We left Ramabai, invoking a blessing upon her head and upon Manorama, her daughter, whobids fair to prove her worthy successor. Ramabai, by her intellectualgifts, her executive ability, and above all by her Christian devotion, deserves honor from all lovers of Christ and his gospel. 

As we neared Madras, the third largest city of India, the heat began tooppress us. Up to this time India had been unexpectedly and refreshinglycool, at night even cold. But now it was unpleasantly warm. The heatreminded us of the conundrum: "Why is India, although so hot, thecoldest country on the globe?" Answer: "Because the hottest thing in itis chilly" ("chili" is the peppery sauce which the natives mix withother spices to form "curry"). We have learned to like curry. I cannotunderstand it; but if seems as if the hottest countries needed thehottest kinds of food. At any rate we had a warm welcome in Madras, thirteen degrees in latitude above the equator. We were fortunate inreaching this fine city during the session of all our Baptistmissionaries in the South India, or Telugu, field--that field which afew years ago witnessed the baptism of 2, 222 converts in one day. Itwas a remarkable illustration of the family and tribal spirit inIndia. We Baptists believe in individual conversions, and we seekevidence, in every case, of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. But thecoherence of the family and the village is so strong in a heathencommunity, that the lot of the individual Christian is oftenexceedingly hard. Occasionally there is apostasy. The resistance of animportant man to the gospel makes the persistence of his dependents inthe gospel-way almost impossible. 

In some quarters, however, whole families and whole clans have beenblessedly converted, and idolatry has been completely eradicated. Inother cases where mass movements have taken place, certainmissionaries have found it physically impossible to sift out eachdoubtful individual, and for safety have demanded that the wholefamily or clan or village shall give up idolatry before any singleindividual convert has been received for church-membership. To combinestrict faith and practice, according to the New Testament standard, with a proper respect for local customs and traditions, demands greatwisdom in our missionaries, and makes their conferences very practicaland very necessary. Certain it is that in our Baptist missions abroadgreater care is exercised in receiving members than that to which weare accustomed in the homeland. The missionary cannot afford to havefalse disciples in the flock, if he knows it, for "one sinnerdestroyeth much good. "

New Year's Day at Madras was full of interest. Lady Pentland, wife ofthe governor of the Madras Presidency, invited us to a New Year'sgarden-party. An open-air gathering of any sort on the first day ofJanuary would have been a novelty to us, but this one found theatmosphere so balmy and the vegetation so green, that such a party wasa positive delight. The avenues of approach to the governor's residencewere lined with the body-guard of his excellency, stationed in twosalong the way, and clad in scarlet The reception took place under awide-spreading tree, on a spacious lawn. There were as many as athousand guests. It was a gay and beautiful scene. Hindu and Moslem, Parsee and Christian, all met together. It was an exhibition of loyaltyto the British Crown, as well as a proof that just government may yetweld all India's classes and castes together. Lord Pentland spoke to usmost pleasantly of certain members of his family whom we had met inAmerica, and Lady Pentland showed herself to be a charming hostess. 

But a reception still more charming to us was the reception which theRochester men gave us that same New Year's night, at the bungalow ofDoctor Ferguson, close to the Day Memorial Chapel, where the sessions ofthe conference were held. At least ten of our graduates sat down tosupper, together with their wives. Subsequently, from adjoining rooms, other members of the conference came in to the New Year's reception, which is an annual affair. The United States consul dropped in, with afew other guests, until the total number could not have been far fromeighty. It was like a family gathering. When I remembered that theTelugu Mission was once called "The Lone-Star Mission, " and was indanger of being given up, and when I noted that it now numbers onehundred and sixty-eight churches and a church-membership of more thanseventy thousand, I could but say, "What hath God wrought!"

X

THE TELUGU MISSION

Madras is the greatest city of South India, and ranks next to Calcuttaand Bombay in thrift and importance. Tamil and Telugu are the twolanguages of the extensive Madras Presidency, the former prevailing mostto the south, the latter to the north. They are cognate tongues, andboth are derived from the Sanskrit. Our American Congregationalists havedone most for the Tamils; we Baptists have done most for the Telugus. The Telugus number twenty-six millions. Though Madras is near theirsouthern border, it is the best starting-point for our description. 

Next to our mission in Burma, the Telugu mission has been most blessedby God. The famine of 1876 was followed by a wonderful revival, inwhich a nation seemed to be born in a day. The people accepted Christby the thousands, and twenty-two hundred were at one time baptized. Evangelization has been followed by education. While our organizedTelugu churches number 168, and our church-members 70, 000, we have 819schools of all grades, and 28, 781 pupils under instruction. The needsof the body have been cared for, as well as the needs of the soul, forthere are fourteen hospitals and dispensaries, ministering to 8, 067patients. 

In such a mass movement as that among the Telugus, it was inevitablethat the organization of the converts into distinct, self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating churches should be a gradualprocess and should require time. The poverty of the people was anobstacle to self-support. But Christian teaching has made them models ofliberality, and it was touching to see the church-members come forwardat the close of the Sunday morning service with their thank-offerings. In fact, these Telugu churches, in the support of their native ministry, are in large measure independent of foreign financial aid. It is certainthat, so long as religion is an exotic, its existence will beprecarious. The plant in the pot needs, for permanence, to become a treerooted in the soil. Self-government is as necessary as self-support, andself-propagation is equally important, if the Christianity of the nativeis ever to become indigenous. These aims have been dominant in recentyears, and we have been permitted to witness scenes which demonstratethe power of God to make multitudes of people, of the lowest class, intelligent, liberal, and aggressive Christians. 

I must take four separate stations as illustrations of my thesis. Fortunately, all of these stations are now under the administration ofRochester men, whom I am proud to recognize as my former pupils. Butbefore I proceed to describe our experiences with them, I must to someextent repeat what I have said in my last letter about Madras and theconference there at the house of Doctor Ferguson. Because Madras is thegreatest city of South India, it is the natural source of supplies andthe easiest place of gathering for our Telugu missionaries, even thoughmost of them live and work much farther to the north. The principle ofhome rule requires such gathering, and the missionary at Madras, withoutseeking it, naturally becomes a sort of secretary and treasurer andentertainer of the whole body of Telugu workers. No one could bebetter adapted to this position of responsibility than is DoctorFerguson. His abounding hospitality and his command of the wholesituation make him sought as a counselor and as a leader. As the oldermen, like Clough and Downie, pass away, Doctor Ferguson, by commonconsent, forges to the front. The present prosperity and harmony ofthe Telugu mission are largely due to his unassuming and welcomeinfluence. He too is a man whose scholarship and character reflecthonor upon the Rochester Theological Seminary, where he sat under myinstruction twenty-two years ago. 

Coming now to our stations north of Madras, I begin with the TheologicalSeminary at Ramapatnam, in charge of the Rev. Dr. Jacob Heinrichs. Itsstudents met us at the entrance of the mission compound, and we passedunder an arch over which were inscribed the words, "Welcome to Dr. AndMrs. Strong. " We had garlands of flowers thrown about our necks, and wewere sprinkled with eau de Cologne. In the large assembly-room of theseminary, we listened to addresses in excellent English from pupils ofthe higher grades, and we made responses in the same language, whichwere interpreted to the scholars of the lower classes by the pastor ofthe village church. A beautiful casket of carved ivory and pearl waspresented to us, containing engrossed copies of the addresses deliveredby the students. There was singing of hymns, both in English and inTelugu, by choir and congregation. The beauty of it all was itsspontaneity and naturalness, for the pupils themselves had planned andexecuted the whole program. 

Instruction in this seminary is largely biblical. Preachers are preparedfor their work by being grounded in the life of Christ and the life ofPaul. The text-books have been written by Doctor Heinrichs himself, andthey are so well adapted to their purpose that they have beenextensively used by seminaries of other denominations than the Baptist. A native Christian literature has been created for the Telugus, beginning with the Bible, but now embracing church history, theology, ethics, and something of modern science. It must not be thought thatthe teaching is exclusively religious. Our seminary, and all ourschools of lower grade, are affiliated with the government system ofeducation, and in all their lower grades are subject to governmentinspection. So far as they conform to government standards ofthoroughness, they receive government grants of financial aid. BritishIndia is impartial--aid is also given to Hindu and to Mohammedanschools. But Christian schools can well stand competition with theseother systems, for the methods of our Christian schools are moremodern and more rational. We left Ramapatnam, convinced that India isreceiving from the work of Doctor Heinrichs an inestimable blessing. Through a long series of years he has been training preachers andteachers for this whole Telugu land, and much fruit is appearing in anew type of New Testament pastors and evangelists. 

Ongole, one hundred and eighty-one miles north of Madras, was the sceneof the great revival. Here too we were received most royally. A crowd ofchurch-members waited for us at the railway station and flocked roundour carriage as we passed to the mission compound. On the way, a companyof Telugu athletes entertained us at intervals by their feats of groundand lofty tumbling. It was their native way of welcoming distinguishedguests. Dr. James M. Baker has ably succeeded Dr. J. E. Clough in thework of administering and organizing this important field. The Ongolechurch of twelve thousand members, with its connected schools, is enoughto tax the resources of the ablest man. The new Clough Memorial Hospitalhad its beginning while we were in Ongole, in the laying of thecorner-stone of a gateway in honor of Dr. S. F. Smith, who wrote, "Shineon, Lone Star, " as well as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee. " Mrs. Strong, witha silver trowel, made its foundation sure, while the English deputycollector for the district represented the government, and I had theprivilege of making an address to a great mixed audience of Hindus andMohammedans as well as Christians. 

Our most thrilling experience in connection with Ongole I am yet torelate. We wished to see the heart of India, as we had seen the heart ofChina and the heart of Burma. We could do this only by taking part inone of Doctor Baker's country tours. Every year he takes advantage ofthe favorable weather centering about mid-winter, to spend two solidmonths in visiting the villages which throng these fertile plains. Withtent and equipment for cooking, he penetrates these swarming heathencommunities and carries to them the gospel of Christ. It was over somefearful roads that our two-pony, two-seated buggy enabled us toaccompany him. Government roads are one thing; native roads are quiteanother. Sudden descents to fordable streams and sudden ascents to theopposite banks are succeeded by long stretches of passage throughcultivated fields, where there appears no sign of road at all. At lastwe reached the village of Naletur. Under the shadow of a great tree wefound at least a thousand people assembled, sitting on the groundbordered by a broad fringe of men and women standing on the outside, andsupplemented by a score of half-naked Zaccheus-like hearers perched inthe branches of the trees. Mrs. Baker, awaiting the coming of herhusband and his guests, had been holding this motley audience for twohours with selections from the gramophone, with illustrated Scripturelessons and pictures from the Life of Christ, and by calling on her"band" for "music" with a big drum, castanets, cymbals, and variousother instruments of Indian manipulation. Salvation Army methods havegreat influence over a childlike people, and Mrs. Baker would make, incase of necessity, a first-class Salvation Army lassie. In fact, no actof missionary humility has struck our eyes as more pathetic and true, than that of Mrs. Baker, beating a big drum to the time of native music, in order to hold an audience for the hearing of the gospel. Theamphitheater of dusky faces, massed together and intently listening, with Christians on one side and heathen on the other, seemed like areproduction of the days "when Jesus was here among men, " and aprophecy of the great final Day when our Lord, the Judge, will separatethe sheep from the goats. 

That evening we left the grove and entered the village with fife anddrum, attracting auditors, and held a torchlight meeting in themarket-place. There was preaching, and the chanting, in rhythm but notrhyme, of a versified story of the life of Christ. The missionariesmake much of this sort of Telugu singing. There was the same crowd ofauditors that had met us in the afternoon, but now the intermittentlight of the torches made the scene seem to be flashing rays ofconviction into many a troubled breast, and I wished that some greatpainter could immortalize the picture upon canvas, for no one canunderstand missions to the heathen without picturing to himself suchpreaching. 

The next morning, on our way back to Ongole, we visited the famous spoton the river bank at Vellumpilly where, in 1878, 2, 222 believers werebaptized. On Sunday we attended a service of the mission church, where anative pastor officiated and at least fifteen hundred persons inaddition to the missionaries were present, though several hundreds ofscholars were absent on account of the holiday vacation. And finally, atthe sunset hour on that memorable Sabbath Day, we ascendedPrayer-meeting Hill, where Doctor Jewett, Mrs. Jewett, and two othersmet on New Year's Day fifty years ago, looked out over the greatsurrounding plain, and prayed the Lord to give them the Telugus, as JohnKnox of old prayed, "Give me Scotland, or I die!" In both cases prayerwas answered, and we hope the more recent prayers offered on thathistoric spot in January, 1917, will also be answered. The Telugus aregradually being won, and we ourselves were witnesses to that fact when, at the village of Naletur, we beheld the baptism of eleven new converts, nine stalwart young men and two married women. 

Kavali is next to be mentioned. Here is a work for the gradualreformation of criminals and the industrial regeneration of India. Inthis land of poverty and famine, our converts, when turned out of houseand home, need new means of earning a livelihood. There is in India ahereditary criminal class which, like the thugs of a former generation, make it a sort of religion to prey upon their fellow countrymen. TheBritish Government has been almost powerless either to subdue or toreform such offenders. Something more than mere justice is required intheir treatment. The Government is recognizing the value of Christianeducation and supervision, and has recently put large tracts ofterritory into the hands of the Salvation Army, the Methodists, and theBaptists, with a view to combining compulsory work and paternalinfluence in the reform of the criminal classes. The Rev. Samuel D. Bawden, at Kavali, has charge of over eight hundred such people, and isteaching them agriculture and all manner of trades. Mr. Bawden is one ofthe graduates of our theological seminary. He was for several yearschaplain of our House of Refuge at Rochester. Physically and mentally heis a remarkable man, an athlete and almost a giant, a man of science anda man of faith. It needs all these gifts to dominate and lead towardChrist eight hundred born thieves. I know of no more self-sacrificingand Christlike work than that which brother Bawden is doing. 

The success of it proves its value. There are no prison walls, thoughleaving the community is followed by pursuit and recommittal. There areno punishments except deprivation of food-wages. Each member of thecommunity is paid in food, and in proportion to the extent of his labor. If he will not work, neither can he eat. Opportunities for education aregiven to all. There is even a church, made up of converted convicts. Thefaithful among these Erukalas, as they are called, are made monitors andhelpers to their weaker fellows. Squads are sent out from five to twentymiles, to build and repair the roads, with only an unarmed comrade foroverseer. Nothing is given but education and Christian influence. Everything for the physical man is earned. In this way hundreds ofreformed criminals learn to gain their own living and to lead an honestlife. It was pathetic to receive the welcome of these humble men, and tosee their reverence and affection for their "big father, " Mr. Bawden. Weheard them greet him as "our savior. " To show their respect for Mr. Bawden's former theological instructor, these poor men subscribed oftheir scanty means and hired a large gasoline street lamp to illuminatethe evening service. 

I have reserved to the last my account of our visit to Nellore. Nelloreis last, but not least, for this was our first permanent mission stationin South India. Work was indeed begun at Vizagapatam in 1836, but in1837 it was moved to Madras, and in 1840 to Nellore, Madras beingreopened in 1878. Nellore is one hundred and seven miles north ofMadras, on the main line of railway, and sixteen miles from theseacoast. In the Nellore field we have six churches, and a total ofnine hundred and twenty-six members. It is our Baptist schools thatmost attract our attention. The Coles-Ackerman High School, in chargeof the Rev. L. C. Smith, has more than eight hundred pupils, and is agreat credit to our denomination. Bible classes and special preachingservices for students are conducted with enthusiasm by our youngmissionaries, Smith and Manley, and they bring good results. There arealso in Nellore a high school for girls, a hospital for women, and anurses' training-school, all under the direction of our Woman'sSociety. In these schools, Miss Tencate and Miss Carman arerepresentatives of Rochester. 

The general work of the mission is presided over by the Rev. CharlesRutherford, one of my former pupils and graduates. Mr. Rutherford is theyoung and able successor of Dr. David Downie, a much older Rochesterman, and one of the pioneers and leaders of the Telugu Mission. Hegraduated from Rochester in 1872, the year in which I began my work aspresident of the seminary. I cannot easily express my gratification atfinding him in South India to welcome me, and to accompany me during alarge part of my stay on this field. Few men have so noble a record. Though he retired from active service ten years ago, and is now devotinghimself to writing the history of the mission, he is still vigorous inmind and heart, and to meet him is to come in contact with "anincarnation"--an incarnation of the missionary spirit. He has seen "thelittle one" become not only "a thousand, " but well nigh a hundredthousand. His faith is great, that this whole Telugu Land will bow toChrist's scepter. Long may he live, to bless India and the world!

XI

THE DRAVIDIAN TEMPLES

The Dravidians are supposed by most ethnologists to have been theaborigines of India. When they were subdued by the Aryans from thenorth, they were crowded southward and were compelled to serve theirconquerors. This subjugation was the origin of caste; the weaker becamehewers of wood and drawers of water for the stronger. The Brahman wouldhave no social intercourse with the Sudra, and thought even his touch aprofanation. For the Brahman represented Brahma, was in fact Brahmaincarnate, while the Sudra was a manifestation of deity in inferiorclay. Yet the Brahman needed the Sudra, and had to propitiate him inorder to use him. So the Aryan absorbed into his own system some of theDravidian gods, and usually did so by marrying to Dravidian femaledivinities male deities of his own. Siva, the Aryan god, for example, took for his wife the Dravidian goddess Kali. In many ways like this, the Aryan and the Dravidian united to form the Hindu. The Hindu religionis a composite--a corruption of the nature-worship of the earlier Vedasby its union with the more cruel and debasing features of the Dravidianidolatry. The renowned temples of Southern India best represent thismongrel form of Hinduism, and show Hinduism in its most corruptdevelopment under Dravidian influences. 

The massiveness and vastness of these temples demonstrate the power ofthe religious instinct in man, even when that instinct is mostperverted. With all their grossness and crudity, these shrines reveal awealth of imagination and an artistic inventiveness, which furnishobject-lessons to the most cultivated Occidental mind. We wonder whatthe East could really have accomplished, if its native gifts had beenunder the control of Christian truth. Unfortunately, those gifts werecommonly under the control of the baser instincts. Paul's philosophy ofheathenism is far more correct than that of many a modern writer oncomparative religion. Only an ancestral sin can explain man's universalignorance and depravity. Because he would not retain God in hisknowledge, he was given up to the dominion of vile affections, to showhim his need of a divine redemption. 

Tanjore and Madura are the seats of the Dravidian temples which wevisited. Tanjore is two hundred miles south of Madras, and fifty milesfrom the Bay of Bengal. It is in the Presidency of Madras, but Europeaninfluences have not greatly changed its prevailingly native aspect. Thehalf-naked coolies, and the children clothed only in sunshine, show howinveterate are custom and poverty. The great Tanjore temple is thecenter of worship for a hundred miles round. It is built on a stupendousscale. It consists of a series of courts, in the midst of which are twotremendous towers or gopuras, as the technical term should be. Itsprincipal tower, is pyramidal in form, is two hundred feet in height, iscovered with row after row of colossal carvings of gods and goddesses, and is surmounted by an immense dome-shaped and gilded top of solidstone, said to have been brought to its place upon an inclined planefrom the quarry four miles away. The gateway leading to the temple isitself an enormous structure. It opens upon a court eight hundred feetlong by four hundred feet wide, the walls of which enclose an endlesssuccession of little chapels, each one of which has at its back a rudepicture of some incarnation of Vishnu or Krishna, and in front of eachpicture there stands erect an image in stone of the lingam or phallus. 

A great platform, in the center of the court, houses, beneath a gorgeouscanopy, an immense black granite image of a bull, the favorite animal ofSiva, carved out of a single block sixteen feet long and twelve feethigh, and kept perpetually shining by anointings of holy oil. Theimagination of the worshiper is thus excited by successive statues andpictures, until at last he reaches the tremendous pyramidal tower, orgopura, which portrays and symbolizes the power of the heathen god todestroy and to recreate. That massive tower, superimposed above the idoland forming its magnificent abiding-place, has no superior in all Indiafor grandeur. Mr. Fergusson, the distinguished writer on architecture, calls it the most beautiful and effective of all the towers found inDravidian temples. The sculptures in the long and dimly lightedcorridors at the base of the temple, and in the first tiers of thetower, are wonderfully realistic representations of a sensual andferocious deity. But, as you stand in the court, and look up the sidesof the tower to the gilded pinnacle on its dome, you discover that allthe upper rows of gods and demons are of stucco. Money evidently gaveout, as the structure rose, and plaster took the place of stone. 

The appurtenances of the temple are tawdry and childish. Huge cars, inwhich images of the gods are carried about at times of festival, standin the courtyard. Each car has its bejeweled beast for the god orgoddess to ride--a wooden elephant, a wooden bull, a wooden rat--eachwith trappings of many-colored glass, to imitate rubies and diamonds, and each with its escort of dusky priests, not forgetting to follow theforeign visitor and hold out their hands for alms. Yet in thesecorridors there were prostrated many absorbed and eager worshipers, seeking protection or aid from a deity more demonlike than divine. One'sheart grew sick as he realized that, still in these latter days, The heathen in his blindness Bows down to wood and stone, and worships in a temple which exhibits in its halls a hundred immenseimages of the male organ of generation. 

It was a relief to be conducted by a clergyman of the Anglican faith tothe church where lie buried the remains of Schwartz, the first Englishmissionary to India. It must have required great gifts of mind and heartand will to brave Hindu opposition, to win the affection and support ofa raja, and to lay the foundations of a Christian community in thisheathen land. Schwartz was a Prussian by birth, though he went out as amissionary of a Danish society. He gave his life and his fortune to thecause of missions, and the English work in Tanjore is even now largelysupported by the endowments which he left behind him when he died. Ourgood friend Doctor Blake, the English clergyman, took us to the palaceof the princess of Tanjore, also to the raja's library of Orientalmanuscripts within the palace--a priceless collection of eighteenthousand Sanskrit manuscripts, of which eight thousand are written onpalm-leaves. This library is unique in all India; and it shows that araja in Tanjore, in his love for literature, could equal the raja ofJaipur, in his love for astronomy. The desire for learning was a passionthat survived the fall, an evidence of the presence in humanity of thepreincarnate Christ, "the Light that lighteth every man. "

Madura is a hundred miles farther south than Tanjore. It is really thecenter of Dravidian worship. While some features of the Tanjore templeare more beautiful, the temple at Madura is more vast. Five greatpyramidal towers, four of them on the points of the compass, meet theeye as one looks upon the temple from a distance. The temple is builtabout two great shrines or cells, one for the god Siva and the other forhis goddess wife Minakshi, each cell surmounted by a noble dome ofplated gold. On the four sides of the temple are stone porches, arcades, and pillared halls of great variety, filled with elaborate and grotesquecarvings and sculptures. The extent of the structure may be judged fromthe simple statement that the outer walls, twenty-five feet high, surround a space eight hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirtyfeet, and are surmounted by four lofty gate-pyramids, each of them tenstories in height. The portico roof of Minakshi's Hall is supported uponsix rows of carved pillars, each made from a single stone. There is anextensive "Golden Lily Tank, " bordered by a granite corridor hung withcages of parrots, and the putrid waters of the tank furnish purificationpreparatory to worship at Minakshi's shrine. The very porch or entrancepavilion of this shrine is called "The Hall of a Thousand Pillars, "though the actual number is nine hundred and eighty-five. Here and thereamong the pillars are seated learned men or pundits, who place offeringsof flowers and perfumed water before their sacred books and chant themeaning of Sanskrit scriptures to groups of devout listeners. 

The great temple, with its dimly lighted corridors, is open to thepublic day and night, and there is special illumination by hundreds oflittle lamps in an arch at the entrance when night comes on. Longavenues are filled with buyers and sellers of wares, and the rent oftheir stalls furnishes a large revenue for the support of the manypriests. A big elephant and a baby elephant, each with the mark of thegod upon its forehead, are paraded up and down, and are taught to pickup with their trunks the coins thrown down by visitors. Innumerable darkalcoves invite the crowd to rest, and many a sleeping form is seen atthe foot of the altars. Imagine a festival night with these dimlylighted courts crowded with worshipers, the fierce and lustful images, the glorification of the lingam, the secret places of assignation! Andthis is the acme of Hindu religion!

There are better things than this to be seen in Madura. The palace ofTirumala, a raja of the seventh century, is a magnificent specimen ofMoorish architecture with unexpected Gothic tendencies. Its entrancehall, one hundred and thirty-five feet long, half as wide, and seventyfeet high, has a lofty roof supported by heavy stone pillars withpointed arches of Saracenic type. It shows that the Moslem, in thelong ago, had at least a temporary hold upon South India. This palace, which has the structural character of a Gothic building, has now beenpartially restored and taken for the law-courts of the BritishGovernment. 

The same Tirumala who built the palace, built the Teppa Kulam, anartificial reservoir outside the town, about one thousand feet on aside, very symmetrical and the largest of its kind in South India. Thewhole "tank" is surrounded with granite walls and parapets, and next thewater there is a granite walk five feet wide running round the wholestructure. Flights of steps lead down to the water, at intervals. In thecenter of this small lake is an island, also walled around with graniteslabs, and on it there are five towers, a large one in the center andone at each of the four corners. The whole effect is very graceful andit makes a sight long to be remembered, when the "feast of lights" takesplace and the island and the parapets and the granite curbings areilluminated with hundreds of little oil-lamps. Not far away from the"tank" is a famous banyan-tree which covers with its shade an area sixtyyards in diameter, has a main stem seventy feet in circumference, andhas besides two hundred branches that have struck root. 

But the noblest sight of Madura is its American Congregational Mission. Beginning in 1836, the American Board of Commissioners for ForeignMissions planned and founded their most wise and successful foreignmissions. They have aimed to do one thing well: to make the Madurastation not only complete but well supported, to embrace in it allstages of education and all sorts of evangelization; and to reduce thewhole work to a unified system. And the result has been the raising upof a large native ministry, churches with twenty-two thousand members, schools of every grade from the kindergarten to the college and thetheological seminary. We were most hospitably entertained by theprincipal of the college, Dr. J. X. Miller, and the other missionaries;and we met and addressed both the native church at their Sunday service, the faculty and students of the seminary, and the annual conference ofCongregational missionaries. The Madura Mission is a light shining in adark place, the darkest place indeed in India. But it is a light thatcannot be hid. Like our missions to the Burmans and the Telugus, it isshowing the power of the gospel to "cast down imaginations and everyhigh thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, " and tomake a spiritual desert "bud and blossom as the rose. "

XII

TWO WEEKS IN CEYLON

Ceylon is not a part of India. It is a Crown Colony of Great Britain, and is administered directly from London, while India has more ofindependence and self-government. The relation of Ceylon to Britain issomewhat like that of the Philippine Islands to the United States, whilethe relation of Britain to India resembles that of the United StatesGovernment to our several territories. Ceylon, however, is veryproductive and prosperous. Surrounded by the sea, it is free from Indiandroughts and famines. Its people are stalwart and loyal. The Englishlanguage is fast becoming the easiest method of communication betweenCingalese and Tamils, Hindus and Malays. Colombo is really a Europeancity, as large as Rochester, with noble public buildings and lovelyparks. Our Galle Face Hotel, on the very edge of the sea, with a greatstretch of green lawn in front of it, is one of the finest hotels in theEast, and our week of rest here was delightful. 

Buddhism has been one of the great missionary religions of the world. Itwas a reform of Hinduism. But the Hindus, with their caste system, wouldhave none of it and drove it out. The Buddhist triumphs were in Burma, Tibet, China, Japan, at the north; in Ceylon and Java, at the south. Here in Ceylon is preserved a sacred tooth of Buddha; and one of hisbones, recently discovered in northern India, is to be brought next weekwith great pomp and ceremony to the temple in Kandy, which already ranksin sacredness next to the great Shwe Dagon pagoda in Rangoon. A templein Java is founded upon a single hair of Buddha's head. All thissuperstition and imposture dates back to a couple of centuries beforeChrist, and there is great reason to believe that the Roman Catholicworship of relics is only an appropriation of this form of heathenism. 

Christian schools and churches are doing much to undermine Buddhism inCeylon. Colombo is especially fortunate in possessing a noble college ofthe Wesleyan Methodists and a strong institution of all grades witheight hundred students. The English Baptists also have a very creditablemission work under the charge of Messrs. Ewing and Charter; while Mr. Woods is the able pastor of an English-speaking Baptist church. Thestudents of these various schools usually adopt the English dress. Thebarefooted pupils first put on shoes, then the coat, finally thetrousers. In the end you can hardly distinguish them from Europeans. These changes are more rapid in Colombo than in Madras. Indeed, Britishrule is fast transforming what was first a Portuguese, and then a Dutch, settlement into a city where English is universally known and spoken. 

It was gratifying to find that the Government College, where the Englishlanguage alone is used, is opened every day with the reading ofScripture and with prayer. But it was unpleasing to learn that, side byside with these Christian influences, the Ananda College, atheosophical institution, allied to Mrs. Besant of Madras, was exertingan influence unfavorable to Christianity, not only by setting Buddhaside by side with Christ, but by urging the claim of Buddha to be thesupreme ethical teacher of the world. 

Before I tell you of our visit to Buddhist temples, I must speak of therefuge from them which we found at Nurwara Eliya, sixty-two hundred feetabove the sea. Colombo is only six degrees north of the equator. Here inJanuary the sun casts hardly any shadow at noon, and the middle of theday is hot. Later in the year the heat is intense, day and night. SoBritish officials combine with the rich of every tongue, and even withthe missionaries, to make their summer quarters high up among the hills. We were transported thither on a narrow-gage railway, cut into the sidesof precipices, running through tunnels, and so tortuous as to form ahundred horseshoe loops. The road seemed almost a miracle ofengineering. But the views were beautiful beyond description. It wasSwitzerland without its ruggedness. It was Italy on the southern side ofthe Alps, as "Philip van Artevelde" best describes it:

 Sublime, but neither bleak nor bare Nor misty, are the mountains there; Softly sublime, profusely fair; Up to their summits clothed in green, And fruitful as the vales between, They lightly rise And scale the skies, And groves and gardens still abound, For where no shoot Can else take root, The peaks are shelved and terraced round. 

I am inclined to think that, of all the beautiful railway rides I haveever taken, this was the finest. From the rice-fields of the plains wepassed upward through endless tea-plantations, where every inch of soilwas preserved and utilized by the construction of artificial terraces. In the midst of these plantations, rubber trees were set at intervals. There were many instances when we looked down from our airy perch, onthe edge of a precipice, at least a thousand feet, and saw ourselveson the side of a veritable amphitheater of mountains towering athousand feet above us and covered with rows of tea-plants from thebottom to the top. This amphitheater was often two miles across, everyfoot of the ground minutely cultivated and a perfect sea of verdure. But, as we went up, the palm gave place to the pine; cold succeeded toheat; and to be at all comfortable at our hotel we were obliged toorder fire in our rooms. 

Beautiful for situation as was Nurwara Eliya, we were glad, on accountof the January cold, to leave it. And we went to Kandy. I wonder whetherour word "candy" is derived from that sweet place. I agree with somecelebrated author, whose name I forget, in saying that "Kandy is theloveliest city in the loveliest island in the world. " Of late yearsKandy has become the resort of tourists, though the present war hasgreatly diminished their number. A hotel that was accustomed toentertain fifty guests now has only half a dozen. But the beauty of theplace abides. An artificial lake, with an island of green in its centerand winding among a forest of stately palms, is surrounded by a circletof hills. On the summit of one of these hills is the MissionaryRest-house, founded and endowed by a wealthy Christian woman for therelief of pilgrims, as was the House Beautiful of Bunyan's story. Therewe were invited to afternoon-tea, and as I looked upon the fairylikelandscape I almost thought the Garden of Eden had come again. 

But I could not long be deceived, for at the very foot of this hill wasthe most famous Buddhist temple of Ceylon. If this is Paradise, it isParadise Lost. Here Buddha's tooth is worshiped, and here a newlydiscovered bone of his body is to add sanctity to the temple. Weattended the evening worship, which consisted of a torchlightprocession of priests, with beating of tom-toms and frenzied dancingof musicians, which would have done credit to the savagery of the FijiIslands. The temple here has no lofty pagoda. It shows what theoriginal pagoda really was, for this temple has a number ofbell-shaped structures resting on the ground. Next, historically, camethe elevation of the bell upon a stone platform; and, finally, thelifting of it into the air, resplendent with gilding. Kandyillustrates the humble beginnings of Buddhistic worship, but withlater accessories begotten by irrational devotion. 

I should mention, however, the only sign of intelligence which I foundin this Buddhist temple. It was the library of Pali manuscriptscontaining the sacred books and stories of Buddha's life and doctrine. Many of these manuscripts were written on palm-leaves and were wrappedin silken coverings. Some had been presented by Siamese and by Burmesekings. Some were ancient. I saw no priest who could read them, and Ifancy that the sacred books are really studied only by pundits, whosevocation is that of teaching, and whose personal beliefs may be verydifferent from those of orthodox Buddhism. It was pleasant to find, notfar from the Temple of the Tooth, a little church of the EnglishBaptists, which sends out light into all the surrounding darkness. Itspastor is a native Christian, who preaches every Sunday morning inCingalese and every Sunday evening in English, while his week-days aredevoted to the work of conducting an English boys' school. 

Kandy is celebrated also for its botanical gardens. Only those of Javacompare with them in completeness. The long avenues of palms ofdifferent varieties--palmyra, talipot, sago, royal, sealing-wax--and thespecimens of bamboo, India rubber, and rain-tree, are unique andwonderful. The rain-tree is so called because the vast spread of itsbranches and the density of its foliage collect the dew to such anextent as actually to water the ground upon which it drops. Think ofviewing in one morning of two hours' length, a score of trees we hadhitherto known only in the tales of the tropics: the traveler's treewith its fernlike leaves, the cannon-ball tree, the deadly upas, thenourishing breadfruit, the clove, the cinnamon, the mace or nutmeg, thevanilla, the guava, the cork, the almond, the mulberry, the mango, thesandalwood! There were great screw-pines, lignum-vitae, mahogany, mimosa, magnolia trees; and the tree-fern, the giant creeper, thepanama-hat plant, the Peruvian cactus, the papyrus, the pineapple, and agreat collection of orchids. Only the sunshine and the moisture ofCeylon could produce such a result. A tree cared for from its firstsprouting, and favored by the elements, becomes a wonder of the world. It shows what man may become under the tutelage of God. 

Anurajahpura was our last place to visit. Far to the north of Colombo, it is the most important extant specimen of the ruined cities of Ceylon. Before the time of Christ it was the seat of a kingdom that embraced thewhole island. Buddhism, after a life-and-death struggle, captured it anderected in it structures for worship, which for grandeur and beautyrivaled those of Burma. Two pagodas, or dagobas, of solid brick, each ofthem more than two hundred feet high, tower up before one as he entersthe town. These structures are covered with verdure, for grasses andshrubs have eaten their way into the mortar on the sides, until thedagobas resemble conical natural hills. It is said that the brick of asingle one would suffice to build a wall eight feet high and a footthick from Edinburgh to London. One of them is being restored, and fiftymen are at work upon it, tearing away the vegetation and building anewthe outside covering of brick. The dagoba itself is not a temple, for itis solid and has no chamber within; but at its base is a structure, infinitesimal in size as compared with the one that towers above it, andin this structure there is a reclining statue of Buddha seventy feetlong. Buddha must have been a giant, for his footprints are four feetlong, and his tooth is as large as the tooth of an alligator, andsurprisingly like one. 

The grounds in the neighborhood of these towering dagobas are strewnwith ruins. Sixteen hundred pillars of stone, seven feet high, remainto show the vast foundations of an ancient Buddhist monastery. There isalso a temple excavated in the solid rock of the hillside, and adornedwith curious carvings of elephants. We made the acquaintance of its highpriest under very peculiar circumstances. We met him at a funeral. Itwas the cremation of one of his priests. On the outskirts of the villagea great crowd surrounded a burning pyre. Two or three cords of roughwood had been piled up, with the body of the priest in its center andthe bier on which the body had been brought laid upon its top. The firewas blazing upward, and a deafening beating of tom-toms gave sacrednessto the obsequies. The awe-stricken followers of Buddha stood at a littledistance around, while the flames grew fierce, and the sickening odor ofburning flesh entered their nostrils. It was no wonder that they werewilling to follow the high priest, when he came to salute me as aminister of religion from the other side of the world. He waseighty-eight years of age. Clothed in his saffron robe and holding withtrembling hands his rod of office, he seemed the decaying specimen of amoribund religion. He presented me with an umbrella of yellow silk. Ithad an ivory handle with the carving of a lotus bud on its end. I couldnot let him make such a present without some reward, and he seemedgrateful for the few rupees which my interpreter wrapped up in hishandkerchief. He lifted up his fan and fanned me, as we parted, while heuttered some words of blessing. I could hardly doubt his good will, orfail to hope that some gleams of heavenly light had come to him fromChrist, the Light of the world. But Anurajahpura was, like Pagan inBurma, the type of a vanishing religion, and its high priest was, likethe Jewish high priest of old, the type of a priesthood sure to passaway, since Christ, the true High Priest, has come. 

XIII

JAVA AND BUDDHISM

We have crossed the equator, and the Southern Cross, invisible tonorthern eyes, seems still to beckon us onward. But we have reached themost distant point of our journey, and henceforth we shall be homewardbound, taking China and Japan as we go. Java is not so hot as weexpected. An island like Cuba, six hundred miles long and only twohundred broad, has sea-breezes enough to keep it tolerably cool. Rainfalls almost every day, with an average of twelve feet in a year. As themoisture is excessive, all sorts of vegetation are luxuriant. Java is agem of the ocean, and an emerald gem at that. Life here is as easy asanywhere on earth, and there is a swarming population. While Ceylon, similar in area, has only five millions of inhabitants, Java hasthirty-five millions. 

Java is the jewel of the Dutch Crown, one of the most fertile andproductive islands of the world. Coffee and tea, rice and sugar, saltand spice, tobacco and corn, coal and oil, coconut and rubber, areexported in an aggregate of two hundred millions of our dollars everyyear, while the aggregate of imports is little more than a hundred andtwenty millions. The Dutch have taken a colony whose deficits oncefrightened the English into abandoning it, and by the famous "culturesystem" of letting out the land upon wise conditions as to the kind andquantity of production, have turned the whole island into a veritablegarden, and a principal source of revenue for Holland. The Dutch indeedhave drawn from Java much more than they have given. The Roman Empireshould have taught them that incorporation of a colony, and privilegegranted to it, were the only security for permanent possession. Untilten years ago, however, the Dutch policy was one of repression ratherthan one of development. While Britain has tried by her schools andhospitals to Anglicize India, Holland, for many years, tried to keep theJavanese apart and in subjection, discouraging their study of the Dutchlanguage and giving them also no share in the government. This policyhas at last been seen to be suicidal; Chinese immigration has added anelement of vigor, industry, and discontent; the modern movement in Indiaand in Japan has provoked new aspirations here; even the Malay hasbecome aware that he has rights. Dutch schools have at last begun toeducate the people; the more progressive among the students are alsolearning English; and Java now bids fair to press forward to occupy aposition in the van of national and democratic progress. 

I am deeply impressed with the density and vastness of this population. Only Belgium surpasses Java in the number of inhabitants to the squaremile. We have taken a ride by rail for four hundred miles through thecenter of the island. We have passed volcanoes actually smoking; for along range of mountains, rising sometimes to a height of twelve thousandfeet, constitutes the back-bone of Java. There are sublime andbeautiful landscapes all along the way, sublime because of theiroccasionally rocky grandeur, and beautiful because of the minutecultivation that adorns both hillside and plain. The endlessrice-fields, and the fields of sugar-cane that stretch for miles like abillowy sea, make a railway journey by day a constant source of delight. You ride in a perennial garden, and it is perfectly natural that thebird of paradise should have its habitat here. Like Ceylon, Java is sureto be the resort of innumerable tourists, for here are wonders beyondany to be found in localities more commonly visited. 

And yet it is the people that interest one even more than the land theylive in. We turned aside at different points, from the stations of therailways, and got glimpses of the Javanese in their country homes. I ambound to say that these homes were often primitive in the extreme, mereshacks or huts of bamboo and thatch, often without windows and with onlya door in front and a door behind, sometimes standing in a pool ofshallow water or lifted on stilts to escape the rain. But everybodyseemed to be at work, except on market-days, when the whole populationof a district gathered in a country fair. The throng and press of thesetrading-days, the strife and din, the variety of wares, and thesharpness of competition, were something new to us and long to beremembered. The amusements of the Javanese, their music, theirshadow-dances, all show a vigor and passion, which explain theiroccasional use of the "kriss" or Malay dagger, and the difficulty ofsubduing and civilizing so ardent and imaginative a people. But they area people _sui generis_, and sure, when roused and educated, to taketheir part on the modern stage. 

I have intimated that the Dutch Government has seen its past mistakes, and has entered upon a new and more generous policy. Nothing coulddemonstrate this better than the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg. Theseare unique in the world, the most complete and the most practical. Thegardens at Kandy in Ceylon are more artistically arranged and are morebeautiful to the ordinary visitor. But these in Java are more scientificand more helpful to the general development of the country. They includethe chemical investigation of agricultural products, as well as thetesting of their nutritive value and their tensile strength. Rubberplanters are shown proper methods of culture, and also improved methodsof preparing the product for market. Seventy different varieties of ricehave been discovered and classified; and the tillers of the soil havebeen shown how they can greatly increase the yield of their acreage. Allthe great botanical collections of the world communicate their noveltiesand discoveries to the Java gardens. Here at Buitenzorg there is aschool of forestry and another of veterinary science, each of these withpractical demonstrations. Trees and plants in the gardens are grouped inscientific classes, the palms by themselves, the pines by themselves. Here the _Victoria regia_, the royal pond-lily, flourishes in its properhabitat. The avenues of kanari trees, with their lofty overarchingvaulting, are grander than any nave of French cathedral. It will be seenat once that the Botanical and Experimental Gardens of Java are ofimmense service to agriculture and to science throughout the world. Wehad the great privilege of being personally conducted through them byDr. K. J. Lovink, Director of the Dutch Department of Agriculture, Industry, and Commerce. 

I wish I could say as much for the religious prospects of Java as I cansay for its economical and political prospects. There is even greaterneed of change in this regard, for the island has been a very strongholdof Buddhism, as it is now of Mohammedanism. When driven out from India, the Buddhist missionaries came to Java and here found a welcome. Javanese kings erected temples so enormous and so rich in sculpturethat, defaced and decayed as they now are, they have no superiors onearth. It was, indeed, the fame of Boro Budor, that most attracted usto Java, and we made a journey of thirteen hours to inspect thisrenowned ruin. 

Imagine a structure upon an eminence from which it is visible for miles, yet walled in on one side by a lofty range of mountains, and on theother side commanding a magnificent view of cultivated plains. Imagine atemple of brick, like the great pyramid of Egypt, more than five hundredfeet square, with five broad terraces, the uppermost of which enclosesan immense sitting statue of Buddha. The topmost crown of this solidstructure rises more than two hundred feet above the ground. 

The wonder of Boro Budor is, however, not the vastness of the structure, containing though it does an amount of material five times as great asthat of any English cathedral, so much as it is the enormous amount ofartistic work that has been expended upon it. Each of these fiveterraces has sculptured upon its side walls some representation inbas-relief of the legendary incidents of Buddha's existence, not only inthe present state, but in his previous states of being. You walk, as itwere, through a picture-gallery of the life of Buddha. The bas-reliefsare wrought out with such delicacy as to suggest the influence of Greekart upon the multitude of artists who toiled for years to produce them. The effect, at least, is Grecian; and the number of the plaques is sogreat that, if they were placed in a continuous row, the line would bethree miles long. 

Besides these sculptures, the terrace-walls are interrupted at regularintervals by four hundred and thirty-six niches or alcove-chapels, eachwith its image of Buddha facing the outside world, so that the visitorapproaching the temple cannot fail to see one hundred and nine Buddhas, or one-fourth of the total number, looking down upon him. Above thesealcove-chapels there are seventy-two small latticed domes, or dagobas, each with its statue of Buddha imprisoned within, as if he werepreparing himself, by seclusion and meditation, for the final state inwhich the great chamber which crowns the structure represents him, Imean the state of passivity and bliss, which has escaped the evils oftransmigration and has attained to absorption of personal existence ofthe impersonal world-force which the Hindu called Brahma. 

It is difficult to express the emotions which are roused by such anexhibition of man's religious instinct, enlightened simply by God'srevelation of himself in the natural world and in the nature of man. Here is a seeking, but not a finding, a groping in the dark, with onlythe faint rays of conscience to show man the way. Yet he who is theLight of the World was lighting every man, before his advent in theflesh, and even Buddha was a reformer and an advance upon the Brahmanismof his time. He preached the doctrine of unselfish devotion, but heturned it into error by ignoring man's duty to himself. He madeextinction of desire, rather than purification of desire, to be the wayto happiness. How different this from that thirst after God, even theliving God, which animated the Psalmist, or that hungering and thirstingafter righteousness which Christ says shall be filled! Buddha found inself, rather than in God, the power to overcome evil. Buddhism has nopersonal God to whom appeal may be made for strength, and Buddha himselfhas no power to answer prayer, since he long ago passed into a realm ofinactivity which is practically indistinguishable from non-existence. There is no atonement for past sin nor escape from its consequences, butby the giving up of being. Buddhism is a pessimistic and joylessreligion. Hence it suffers deterioration in competition with the moreactive systems. Close by Boro Budor, where Buddhism reached itsculmination, are the temples of Mendoet and Brambanam, which show areversion in the popular mind to Hindu Brahmanism. And when the Moslemcame, with his doctrine of a personal and living God, Buddhism had noforce to combat it. Boro Budor, once the center of worship for a mightykingdom, now stands alone and desolate in a great wilderness, withoutpriest or worshiper. Djokjokarta, the next city in size to Batavia, isto-day more Mohammedan than Buddhist. Christian schools and missions aredoing much to turn this moral wilderness into beauty. To convert Java toChristianity will add to Christ's subjects the very Queen of the East. 

XIV

THE RENAISSANCE IN INDIA

A recent book by Prof. C. F. Andrews, formerly of the CambridgeBrotherhood in Delhi, has arrested my attention, as the best extantsynopsis of the religious history and prospects of that great country. It is entitled "The Renaissance in India. " It has not yet beenreprinted in America, and can be obtained only in the British Isles. Ihave thought it worth while to make it known among us by writing areview, and the following paper might perhaps serve such a purpose. But, in the writing, so many thoughts and illustrations of my own havesuggested themselves, that I cannot credit Professor Andrews with theresult, except in part, and I submit my work as my own almost as muchas it is his. 

Let me first, however, do Professor Andrews the justice of explainingthat the Cambridge Brotherhood is a semimonastic fraternity of theChurch of England, which aims to convert India to Christianity byindoctrinating its higher classes. All its members are bachelors, andtheir pure life as well as their learning and liberality are attractiveto educated heathen seekers after God. Our author is himself a devoutbeliever in a preexistent Christ, and he recognizes some rays ofChrist's light in Buddha and in Confucius. This faith has led him tosever his connection with the Cambridge Brotherhood of late, and toconnect himself with the school of Rabindranath Tagore, whom theBritish Government has recently knighted for his poetical gifts and forhis political loyalty. Members of the Brotherhood have thought thisleaving of their body a mistake of judgment, and too great a concessionto a rival religion, while they still admire the self-devotion whichleads their former brother to carry his advocacy of Christianity intowhat he regards as the most promising school of Hinduism. With thisexplanation I proceed to the treatment of my subject. 

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In the fifteenth century the European world was intellectually bornagain. The barbarian Goths and Vandals had put an end to the RomanEmpire, and learning had taken refuge in the monasteries. Even thatlearning had become ecclesiastical. Precious manuscripts of the Greekclassics had their original writing wiped off to make room for monkishhomilies. The people were in ignorance and were ruled by the priests. But the Crusades had brought about a new intercourse between the Westand the East. The fall of Constantinople sent Greek books and Greekscholars to Venice and to Rome. Greek art inspired Michelangelo andRaphael. A great wave of enthusiasm for the new learning swept overEurope. The printing-press multiplied copies of the old literatureand put them in the hands of the poor. It was the precursor of a newcivilization, and because it was a new birth of thought, we callit the Renaissance. 

The Renaissance, however, needed another factor to complement it. Notmerely intellect was sleeping, but also man's moral nature. Conscienceand will required new stimulus. Religious reformation was necessary asmuch as intellectual revival. Greek books brought with them the vice, aswell as the art, of the East. Renaissance without Reformation producedthe Borgias and their unspeakable wickedness. Erasmus without Lutherwould never have saved Europe from ruin. It was the new view of Christthat showed men their sins, brought repentance and hope, purifiedliterature, gave power to social truth, and united with the new learningto make possible our modern civilization. It was a triumph ofChristianity over the powers of darkness, for Christianity involves bothRenaissance and Reformation. 

A similar intellectual change has been coming over the Eastern world, and has been awakening the slumbering nations. Who would have foretold ahalf-century ago that Turkey and Persia, Japan and China, would now haveconstitutional governments and legislative assemblies? The world hasmoved very fast during the past decade. Modern inventions have given newwings to thought, the nations have been coming to self-consciousness, freedom is in the air, even war is teaching the absurdity of committingthe destiny of a whole people to the arbitrary rule of any singlemonarch. The success of Japan in her struggle with Russia aroused thewhole East. China has awaked from the sleep of ages. And India is thescene of unrest, and will not be satisfied until her vast populationsare given a larger share in her government. 

India has witnessed the beginnings of her renaissance. The universitieswhich her rulers have established have diffused the new learning. Butthey have also raised up a host of educated men, some of whom can findno employment except in sedition. False philosophies, imported from theWest, have made these same men agnostic, and have disposed them to putevolution in place of God. Old religions have lost even their littlepower to control the moral life, and a vague desire for independence ofall restraint has led to revolutionary and even anarchistic plots. Wehave some of the same dangers in our Southern States. The negro is inmany cases receiving a higher education than he can utilize, and isbecoming a possible leader of revolt, while there is a vast inflammablemultitude of uneducated negroes whom he can incite to violence anddisorder. As with us, Christianity is needed side by side witheducation, so in India to-day, intellectual renaissance needs to besupplemented by religious reformation. 

A glance at the history of India's religious systems will help ourunderstanding of the problem. The earliest record is that of theRig-Veda. It is a recognition of the powers of nature, and an exaltationof them to divine honor and worship. The apostle Paul gives us thefurther explanation that this deification of God's works was the resultof a previous unwillingness to retain the personal God in theirknowledge. To worship God's manifestations is to lose the sense of hisunity and his moral governance. Men preferred the sun in the heavens tothe Sun of Righteousness. They lost sight of the true God in self-chosenadmiration of his works. "While the Semitic mind gravitated toward theethical and the personal, the Aryan gravitated toward the philosophicand the impersonal. "

The Upanishads are the second series of Hindu scriptures. Thesepractically identify the human soul, as well as all natural objects, with the supreme God. The self is only a manifestation of Brahma. Thetrend is toward absolute pantheism. The individual is lost in the whole, and the realization of this is salvation. But humanity cannot be contentwithout the semblance of personality in God, and since everything hasbecome divine, it was easy to regard not only natural powers, but alsopersonal beings as gods. Polytheism was the result. Vishnu and Siva, gods of reproductive and destructive powers, came to be worshiped. Incarnation and transmigration followed. The incarnation was not theincarnation of the supreme Brahma, but of one of the subordinatedeities, Vishnu, and even this incarnation was but a temporaryassumption of human form--a vanishing manifestation, to be put off againlike a worn-out garment when the real god returned to his heaven. TheHindu Trimurti was never the Christian Trinity; for Christ is not onlythe supreme God manifest in the flesh, but also the eternal Revealer ofGod, who takes our humanity to be a part of himself forever, thepartaker of his inmost being and the sharer of his throne. 

While we credit Hinduism with the idea of incarnation, we regard it asonly showing this to be a necessity of human thought, and as far fromsatisfying man's longings for union with God. Gautama Buddha, passionless and lost in the contemplation of his own excellence, is notthe Christian Redeemer, who daily bears our burdens and takes uponhimself, in order that he may take away, the sin of the world. And whatshall we say of the other deities of the Hindu pantheon, but that theyare personifications of every human caprice and vice. The Krishna of thePuranas has infected all India with his licentiousness, and has givensanction to the worst forms of lust. 

The growth of caste was another result of the loss of a personal andmoral God and the deification of his works. Since all things came to beregarded as manifestations of deity, the order of society and itsdistinctions became fixed. The origin of caste is to be found in thesuperiority of the Aryan conqueror to the Dravidian aborigines. Thepeople of light complexion looked down on the dark-skinned race, anddrove them to the wall. Intermarriage between the two classes of thepopulation became abhorrent to the ruling class, and all manner ofrestrictions were put upon their intercourse, till even the shadow ofthe outcaste falling upon the Brahman brought contamination. Let us notblame the Aryan too hastily, for in South Africa and in our own SouthernStates we see the same denial that God has made of one blood all theraces of men, and the same exclusion of the darker race from allprivileges of human brotherhood. Slave-owners were shocked when AbrahamLincoln lifted his hat to salute a negro, and Southern men protestedwhen President Roosevelt entertained Booker Washington at his table. Christian proclamation of human brotherhood constitutes one of the chiefobstacles to the success of the gospel in India. 

The low place of woman and her lack of education is another obstaclewhich must be removed if India is to profit by the renaissance oflearning. This undervaluing of the physically weak is itself a fruit ofman's apostasy from God. And as Brahmanism set its stamp of approvalupon distinctions of caste and fixed them for centuries, so it was withwoman's position and influence. She was condemned to inferiority. Shebecame a mere instrument of man's pleasure, or a mere drudge in hishousehold. She never sat with him at his meals, but ate what was leftafter he had been served; she never walked by his side, but alwaysfollowed behind, when she was not shut up in the zenana at home. One ofthe best signs of a new civilization in India is the growing convictionamong the higher classes that woman must be educated, if her childrenare to emerge from their superstitions and become of use in the modernworld. The suttee has been abolished by law, but child-widowhood yetremains to curse the lives of millions. There is no better proof thatChristianity is permeating society with its influence than is found inthe increasing number of girls who are seeking education in our missionschools and colleges. Pundita Ramabai has become a glory to her owncountrymen, as much as has Rabindranath Tagore by his utterance, "Theregeneration of the Indian people to my mind, directly and perhapssolely, depends upon the removal of this condition of caste. " We may addthat the dominion of caste and the degradation of woman will come to anend together, and nothing but Christianity will abolish them. 

The renaissance of learning is not enough. A new spirit of love isneeded to solve the problems of India. For there is no country of theworld where racial antagonisms are so felt. Entirely apart from thedistinctions of caste, which are racial in their origin, there is thedistinction of Hindu from Mohammedan, which has its origin in religion. Remember that, of India's population, sixty-five millions are Moslems, while one hundred and eighty millions are Hindus. The Hindu men of castecannot help paying some respect to the Mohammedans, for they arecompelled to acknowledge their financial and executive power, just asthey acknowledge, without admiring, the power of their British rulers. They cannot treat Moslems as outcastes, but they will not associatewith them; and they cherish a settled antipathy to them. All this theMohammedans heartily reciprocate. English policy has in times pastcultivated this mutual dislike, lest union between the two religioussects should lead to the formation of a party too strong for Britishrule to keep in subjection. One religion has been used to defeat theinfluence of the other. Of late years only has it been true that bothhave been forced to recognize the impartial justice of British rule;and this recognition has been gained by the gradual admission of ablemen from both parties to many important judicial and administrativepositions in the Indian government. But the antagonism of religionsstill remains, and it constitutes a most serious bar in the way of aunited India. 

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There are signs of an approaching reformation in India which willsupplement its intellectual renaissance. Just as the growing power ofChristianity in the second and third centuries of our era was shown bythe competition of new and imitative religions like that of Mithra, andby spasmodic attempts on the part of the old heathenism to interpretits mythology symbolically and to reform its moral practice; just as thegrowing power of the gospel in the fifteenth century led the RomanChurch to slough off some of its abuses and to tolerate among itsadherents reformers before the Reformation; so in India the new learningfrom the West and the missionary proclamation of the gospel have broughtabout a state of religious unrest which could only be allayed by effortson the part of Hindus and Moslems alike to interpret their faiths morerationally and to prove that these faiths were equal if not superior toChristianity itself. The Brahmo-Somaj, which Ram Mohun Roy founded atthe end of the eighteenth century, largely as a result of his horror atthe murder of his sister by suttee, has led to the abolition of thatcruelty. Ram Mohun Roy sought to purge Hinduism of its corruptions byappealing to its earlier and purer scriptures. He was the first toestablish a vernacular press in India, and, with Alexander Duff, thefirst English schools. Though he did not formally profess Christianity, he studied our Christian Scriptures, acknowledged their value andinfluence, and published a book entitled "The Precepts of Jesus. "

Another Hindu who exerted great influence during the half-century justpassed was Keshub Chunder Sen. He passionately adored Christ as his trueMaster. Yet he was practically Unitarian, and his later years belied thepromise of his brilliant beginnings. Though a member of theBrahmo-Somaj, he split the body in two by his violation of itsprohibition of child-marriage, and wasted his strength in attempts tocombine Western rationalism with the ecstatic fervors of the East. Asthe result, the Brahmo-Somaj has declined, until in numbers andinfluence it has now hardly more than five thousand adherents in allIndia. Mozumdar was one of its representatives who sought to giveOriental interpretation of Jesus, but one without ethical or savingpower. The Arya-Samaj is a more consistent effort to reform Hindureligion by bringing it back to the purer standards of the Vedas. SwamiDayanand was the founder of the society. He was led to renounce idolatryby seeing a mouse eat food offered to an idol and run without hindranceover the idol's robes and hands. Of all the reforming bodies, theArya-Samaj most retains the confidence of the masses in the north ofIndia. But its tenets are not acceptable to the educated classes of thesouth, and it needs a further infusion of both science and religion. 

Thus far we have treated only of Hindu progress. A word must be said ofprogress among the Moslem population of India. Here the Aligarh Movementdemands attention. Sir Seyd Ahmad Khan was its leader. He was of noblefamily, entered the English service, and took part with the British incrushing the mutiny of 1857. When the Mohammedan population afterwardfell under suspicion, he gathered round him a company of liberal youngmen and sought by educational means to bridge the gulf between Moslemand English. He claimed that British rule in India represented Christiancivilization, and that this is no enemy to Islam, but only itscomplement and helper. He saw that only religion could heal the breachand rescue Islam from decline. He founded the Aligarh College in Delhi, and devoted himself to the cultivation of friendliness, not onlybetween Moslem and English, but also between Moslem and Hindu. Thiscollege is one of the strongest educational forces in North India. 

Returning to Hindu progress, we mark the work of such men as the SwamiVivekananda. It will be remembered that he represented India at ourChicago Parliament of Religions, where Joseph Cook challenged thepriests of the Orient to answer Lady Macbeth's question, "Who shallcleanse this red right hand?" Vivekananda sought to blend Christianphilanthropy with the Vedantic philosophy. Identity with the Supreme isto be attained, not only by passive contemplation, but also by activeunselfish service. But this truth was mixed with strange interpretationsof Scripture. Jesus' declaration, "I and my Father are one, " was made tomean, "Every man and woman is God. " And Vivekananda was quite willinghimself to be worshiped. His fundamental error, indeed, was his lack ofthe sense of sin. He said to his audience in Chicago: "The Hindus refuseto call you sinners. Ye divinities on earth, sinners? It is a sin tocall a man so. It is a standing libel on human nature. " Yet, in spite ofthis deification of self and of all humanity, he did much to inspirepity for the poor, to awaken India to self-consciousness, and to givehope of national unity. 

We must not ignore the work of The Theosophical Society, though it hasmade a name for itself more in Europe and America than in India. Whileit has done something to encourage education and to teach modernscience, it has used the knowledge thus given as an instrument indefending superstition. The immoralities of Krishna are discussed andpalliated in Mrs. Besant's Magazine for the instruction of youngstudents. Charms, incantations, astrology, idolatry, caste, are allwoven into the system, for the sake of propitiating the Indian mind, sothat its influence is hostile to Christianity and to missions. Idols areto be worshiped because they are "centers of magnetism. " In England Mrs. Besant predicts a second advent of Christ. But in India this becomes anew avatar of Krishna. In spite of her stout denunciation ofchild-marriages and her inculcation of modern science, her propagandahas not been so much a reform of Indian religion, as it has been ahindrance to reform. Hindu devotees indeed have eulogized her for whatthey call her successful opposition to the proselyting efforts ofChristian missionaries. 

And yet, even the Theosophical Society, with all its absurdities oflevitation and the astral body, has been compelled to bear some witnessto Jesus Christ. He is "the light that lighteth every man, " and he hasgiven even to this system some elements of truth. We do not hesitate torecognize the truth that Buddha and Confucius, taught, and to regard itas a ray of Christ's light shed forth before the rising of the sun. Andit is our privilege to conclude our list of Hindu reformers with thename of Justice Renade, who recognized in Christ the source of allformer revelations of God. 

Justice Renade, in his social reform movement of the last fifty years, has carried the spirit of philanthropy into practice, more fully thandid Vivekananda or Mrs. Besant, and without any of their fantasticself-exaltation. Renade recognized the elements of truth in both theHindu and Moslem systems, and he saw in Christianity the influencedestined to unite them. He would not throw away the old, but he wouldutilize it while he added the new. And with this acknowledgment that "hewho is not against us is on our side, " we may well close our sketch ofreformers before the reformation. We sum up the lessons of history whenwe recognize in Hinduism the two great ideas of divine immanence andincarnation, in Mohammedanism the two equally essential truths of divinetranscendence and personality. And we see the absolute dependence ofIndia upon Christianity for its true Reformation. India needs themissionary more than she needs the schoolmaster. Let us pray that shemay have a religious revival that shall turn the intellectual awakeninginto moral channels. That religious revival will furnish a center ofunity in Christ, the one and only Revealer of God; not in a Hinduphilosophy, nor in a Moslem Koran, but in a living Person, present withall his people, the soul of their soul and the life, and imparting tothem his own Spirit of love and brotherhood. In Christ alone can India'srenaissance become a complete reformation. 

XV

MISSIONS AND SCRIPTURE

The world of scholars has recently been startled by the pretendeddiscovery that the "Great Commission, " "Go ye therefore, and makedisciples of all the nations, " is not an utterance of Jesus himself, butonly one attributed to him by some enthusiastic follower of his in alater time. This pretended discovery is on a par with the earlier onethat there never was such a person as Jesus at all, but that hispersonality is simply a myth that gradually grew up in the minds of someJewish fanatics who sought a fulfilment of Messianic prophecy. We mighttreat these perverse and subversive conclusions as only curiousinstances of a wrong method of criticism. But they filter down from thescholars to the masses of Christian believers and weaken their faith. Itbecomes a duty to deal with the method which leads to such results, andthreatens to destroy all our missionary zeal. Hence I proceed to testthe value of the method itself, even though it is commonly called "thehistorical method" by those who adopt it. If we can bear a somewhatroundabout way of treating the subject, we shall gain a new and valuablelight upon our missionary theory and practice. 

To prevent misunderstanding, however, I must premise that it is thehistorical method as frequently employed, and not the historical methodas it ought to be, to which I offer my objections. My criticism isdirected against the historical method, only when it assumes to be theexclusive means of attaining truth, follows the methods of physicalscience, and ignores the far more important material for religious usewhich is furnished by intuition and revelation. The phrase "historicalmethod" has come to imply much that does not properly belong to it. Icriticize only its frequent exclusiveness and exaggeration. And I dothis, as I think, in the interest of true science. 

There are two methods of reasoning possible, in this case or in anyother case, and there are only two--I mean the deductive, and theinductive. I make no mention of argument from analogy, for that proceedsupon a deductive basis, presuming that there is a designed order in theworld which makes analogy possible. The deductive method argues from theuniversal to the particular, from the higher to the lower, from God toman. The inductive method, on the other hand, argues from the particularto the universal, from the lower to the higher, from man to God. Both ofthese methods are correct when each is taken in connection with theother. Much depends, however, upon the question which is taken first. Shall we begin with the particular, leaving out for the time all thoughtof the universal? There is danger that induction will come to beregarded as itself sufficient to lead us into the truth. This is aserious error, for correct induction presupposes deduction, andtherefore deduction should be the guiding principle and safeguard ofinduction. If this is forgotten, induction may go fearfully astray. 

To make my meaning still more plain, let me say that in ourinvestigations we need a comprehensive method, a method that will lookat facts from more than one point of view. A truly historical methodwill look at facts from above, as well as from each side, and so thedeductive process may be popularly described as vertical. The historicalmethod falsely so called errs in confining its view to what can be seenimmediately around it, and so its process is exclusively horizontal. Deduction begins vertically, and makes that which comes from above to beits guide and standard in all inductive work. Induction beginshorizontally, and tends to become self-sufficient, until all light fromabove seems untrustworthy and useless. For example, take the study ofnature. If one begins, inductively and horizontally, with mere physicaland material order, instead of beginning, deductively and vertically, with man's higher powers of conscience and will, he will end by findingonly impersonal force in the universe, and by practically deifying it, as the Hindus deified Brahma. Begin rightly, and, with due care in theapplication of the deductive principle, he will come to rightconclusions. There are certain truths which cannot be reached byinduction. They are known by intuition, long before induction begins. The most fundamental of these truths is the truth of God's existence. APower above us, which has moral perfection, and which claims ourobedience, is revealed to every man by conscience. Begin with thisknowledge, and to the obedient spirit the physical world seems ablazewith evidences of wisdom and love; the regularities of nature arerecognized as God's methods of ordinary operation; evolution is onlyhis usual plan of growth and progress; in other words, God'stranscendence is manifest as well as his immanence, his personality aswell as his revelation in the forces of the universe. 

Man is a theist, before he becomes a Christian. Theism is a universalintuition, ready to assert itself in practice wherever it is notprevented by an evil will from its normal manifestation. But, becauseman is in an abnormal condition, this normal action of his powers can berestored only by the Holy Spirit. "When he is come, " says our Lord, "hewill convince the world of sin, because they believe not on me, " and "ofrighteousness, because I go unto the Father. " Only when the prodigalrepented, did he "come to himself, " and begin to act normally. Under theinfluence of the Spirit, God's holiness reveals to man his sin, andGod's love leads him to the feet of Jesus. This is the first step inChristian experience. To put my doctrine unmistakably and in a nutshell, deduction from the existence of God normally precedes and insures theacceptance of Christ. The sinner comes to have personal knowledge of Onewho has atoned, and therefore can forgive. But to him who has acceptedChrist, his Lord is more than a historical Redeemer, he is a presentSaviour from both the penalty and the power of sin. Without thispersonal knowledge of Christ, we might think of him as only one of manyhuman examples or teachers, like Confucius or Buddha. Now, he is nothingless than God manifest in the flesh, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, whom having seen we have seen the Father. 

But there is a second step in Christian experience, which I wish also todescribe in a nutshell and to define as unmistakably as I described anddefined the first. I claim that deduction from the existence of Christnormally precedes and insures the acceptance of Scripture. Our Lordhimself has said, "My sheep hear my voice. " The Christian recognizes inScripture the voice of Christ. No change in his experience is moremarked and wonderful than the change in his estimate of the Bible. Alittle time ago, Scripture was commonplace and unmeaning. Now it speaksto him with a living voice such words of instruction and comfort, ofwarning and promise, that his soul is filled alternately with sorrow andwith joy. He wonders that he never saw these things before. He perceivesfor the first time that he has been in an abnormal condition of mind, and that condition has been due to his own perversity of will. But nowthe prodigal has "come to himself. " Only the Holy Spirit could have madepossible this new and normal exercise of his powers. The change is notin the Scripture, it is in himself. He has come in contact with a wordof God that "liveth and abideth. " He sees in it the divine workmanship. He can no longer regard Scripture as merely the work of man; it is alsothe work of the same Spirit who has transformed him, namely, the eternalChrist. Christ is the author and inspirer of Scripture, even thoughimperfect human agents have been employed to communicate his revelation. In spite of the rudeness and diversity of the instruments, therebreathes through them all a certain divine melody and harmony. While theinductive and horizontal method would give us only finite and earthlytruth, the deductive and vertical can give us truth that is infinite andeternal. The indispensable condition of success in the interpretation ofScripture is therefore a hearty belief that the Bible is Christ'srevelation of God, and not merely a series of gropings after truth onthe part of men. Deduction will give us truth from above, whereasinduction will give us only scattered facts on the horizontal plane. 

I am convinced that the so-called "historical method" of Scriptureinterpretation, as it is usually employed, fails to secure correctresults, because it proceeds wholly by induction, leaving out of itsaccount the knowledge of Christ which comes to the Christian in hispersonal experience. I do not regard such a "historical method" asreally historical; I deny that it discovers the original meaning of thedocuments; I claim that, when made the sole avenue of approach to truth, it leads to false views of doctrine. It assumes at the outset that whatrules in the realm of physics rules also in the moral and religiousrealm. But the Christian has learned that Christ is the supreme sourceof truth. By a process of either conscious or unconscious deduction herecognizes in Scripture the utterance of Christ. He must begin hisinvestigations with one of two assumptions: Is the Bible only man'sword? or, Is it also Christ's word? Is it a mere product of humanintelligence? or, Is it also the product of a divine intelligence, whoindeed uses human and imperfect means of communication, but whonevertheless at sundry times and in divers manners has brought to theworld the knowledge of salvation?

I claim that we should begin by assuming that the Bible is a revelationof Christ. This assertion is justified, as I have already intimated, byour Christian experience. That experience has given us a knowledge ofthe heart, more valuable in religious things than any mere knowledge ofthe intellect. Doctor Tholuck, in an address to his students at hisfiftieth anniversary, said that God's greatest gift to him had been theknowledge of sin. Without that conviction of sin which the Spirit ofChrist can work in the human heart, there can be no proper understandingof Scripture, for Scripture is a revelation to sinners. The opening ofthe heart to receive Christ, and the new sense of his pardoning graceand power, give to the converted man the key to the interpretation ofScripture, for "the mystery of the gospel, " the central secret ofChristianity, is "Christ in you, the hope of glory. " He whom the HolySpirit has first led to the knowledge of sin, and has then led to theacceptance of Christ, is prepared to enter into the meaning ofScripture, and no other man can understand it. 

This was the way in which Paul came to understand Scripture. It was notby criticism of the documents, but by receiving Christ, that "the lightof the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ"entered into his soul. He knew himself to be the chief of sinners. Heknew Christ as his manifested God and Saviour. He applied to Christ allthat the Old Testament had revealed with regard to the dealings of Godwith his chosen people. The light that shone upon him on the way toDamascus was the Shekinah that led Israel in the pillar of cloud by dayand of fire by night, that dwelt over the mercy-seat in the tabernacleand in the temple, and that thundered and lightened from Sinai in thegiving of the Law. "The Rock that followed them" in the wilderness, andgave water to the thirsty, "that Rock was Christ. " And so Paul came toknow Jesus Christ as preexistent and omnipresent, as Redeemer of thewhole world, Gentile as well as Jew; and Christ's Cross became theembodiment and symbol of God's amazing sorrow for human sin, and of hissacrifice for its cure. All Paul's later conclusions were developmentsand expressions of his initial knowledge of Christ. It was a deductiveand not an inductive process, by which he arrived at his theology. 

Lest any Christian should say that the deductive method is impracticableto him, for the reason that he has had no such revelation of Christ tostart from as that which was given to Paul, Scripture reports to us thevery different experience of another apostle. I refer to Peter. Petershows us how, by this same deductive method, an experience which at itsbeginning is very small, may in the end become very great. Peter goes tothe banks of Jordan, a sinner, seeking pardon for his sin. John theBaptist points him to Jesus, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh awaythe sin of the world. " Peter knows nothing of Jesus' deity, nor of hisatonement. But, by an instinct which is the best of logic, he is drawnto Jesus, as the one who can satisfy his needs. He becomes a Christian, that is, a follower of Jesus. His experience is a sort of caterpillar;it can creep, but it cannot soar. Yet all the elements of growth are init. Peter begins to analyze it. What right has he to surrender himself, body and soul, to a man like himself? The answer is: Jesus is more thanman. At Cćsarea Philippi, Peter cries, "Thou art the Christ, the son ofthe living God. " On the day of Pentecost, he preaches Christ as theSaviour exalted to God's right hand. And finally, in his Epistles, hedeclares the preexistence of Christ, and the fact of Christ's utterancesthrough the prophets as far back in time as the days of Noah. If ourhigher critics only adopted Peter's method, analyzed their ownexperience, following on to know their Lord and meantime willing to dohis will, they too, like Peter, in spite of small beginnings, wouldlearn of Jesus' doctrine, would emerge from the caterpillar state, wouldbe soaring instead of creeping, and would end by gladly confessing thathe who met them on the way in their first experience was none other thanthe omnipresent Christ, whom Paul describes as God manifest in theflesh, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Theywould also learn, with Peter, that Scripture is the work and word of thepreexistent Christ. 

Because this experience of sin and of Christ is knowledge, it ismaterial for science, for science is only unified knowledge. I do notdeny that it is knowledge peculiar to the Christian. The princes ofphysics and literature and government have not known it. It is not thewisdom of this world, but it is better, even the very wisdom of God. Iglory in Christian theology, as the science that will last, when allsystems of merely physical science have passed away. For the man who hasbeen saved by Christ has knowledge of him who is Creator, Upholder, andLife of all. I do not hesitate to say that the only safe interpreter ofphysical nature is the true Christian, for it is Christ "in whom allthings consist. " The true Christian is the only safe interpreter ofhistory, for it is Christ who "upholds all things by the word of hispower. " And so, the true Christian is the only safe interpreter ofScripture, for it is Christ whose Spirit in the prophets "testifiedbeforehand of his sufferings, and of the glories that should followthem. " In him who is the Lord of all "are all the treasures of wisdomand knowledge hidden. " Only when one is joined to Christ, can heunderstand the evolutionary process through which Christ has led thehuman race, or understand the Bible which constitutes the historicalrecord of that process. With the Psalmist we may say, "In thy lightshall we see light. "

As Christ is the central object of knowledge in Christian experience, itfollows that Christians recognize him as the primary author ofScripture. They find him speaking to them in the Bible, as in no otherbook. It becomes to them the word of God, given by divine inspiration, and able to make them wise unto salvation. From the deity and supremacyof Christ they proceed to faith in the unity, the sufficiency, and theauthority of Scripture, and this determines their method ofinvestigation. From the person of Christ to the word of Christ is aprocess often unconscious, but one better than any process of formallogic. Knowing their divine Saviour, they know the divinity of his word. His presence in human history and in the hearts of the righteous hasgiven _unity_ to his continuous revelation. The Scripture "cannot bebroken, " or interpreted as a promiscuous congeries of separate bits; fora divine intelligence and life throb through the whole collection. Likerailway coupons, its texts are "not good if detached. " We must interpreteach text by its context, each part by the whole, the preparation ofsalvation by the fulfilment, and all the diverse contents by him whoweaves all together, even Christ, the end of the law, to whom all thepreliminaries point. This method gives room for the most thoroughinvestigation of the times and ways of revelation, for recognizing theimperfection of beginnings and the variety of the product. The Bible isa gradually accumulated literature, Hebraic in form, but universal inspirit. The preexistent Christ has made all this literature one, by theinfluence in the sacred writers of his omnipresent Spirit. If the"historical method" would begin with this postulate of a unifyingChrist, its method would be more safe and its results more sure. 

Faith in an eternal and omnipresent Christ guarantees also the_sufficiency_ of Scripture. Here, however, there is an obviouslimitation. Scripture is not sufficient for all the kinds and purposesof human science. It will not tell us the configuration of the hinderside of the moon, nor reveal the future uses of electricity. It is notwith such things that Scripture deals. But in religious matters, such asour relation to God and salvation, it is sufficient as a rule of faithand practice. We may find in it all needful models and helps in thedivine life, as well as all needful directions about the way to beginit. The church of Christ has always found in the Bible a safe guide forher polity and conduct, and civil government has prospered when theprinciples of Scripture were followed by the powers that ruled theState. Because the Christian believes the Bible to be the product of meninspired by Christ, he can send it out by the million copies as equal tothe moral and spiritual needs of the world. 

And because Christ is, through his imperfect agents, the real author ofScripture, we believe in its absolute _authority_. When rightlyinterpreted, however. It will never do to treat poetry as if it wereprose, or drama as if it were history, or allegory as if it were fact. Christ can use, and he has used, all the common methods of literarycomposition, and he expects us to use common sense in dealing with them. But out of the whole can be evolved a consistent doctrine and anauthoritative law. The one and only way of salvation is plainly that offaith in God's provision of pardon and life in Christ. In spite of manydivergences, the great body of Christians throughout the ages haveagreed in their recognition of the personality and the deity of theFather, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; of the incarnation and theatonement of Christ; of his resurrection and his lordship; of hisomnipresence with his people even to the end of the world. They haveexpressed this agreement in the Apostles' Creed and in the hymnology ofthe church. But the great body of instructed Christians also believe inChrist as the Revealer of God in nature and in history; as "the Lightthat lighteth every man" in conscience and tradition; and as therighteous Judge who accepts in every nation those who fear God and workrighteousness, casting themselves as sinners upon the divine mercy eventhough they do not yet know that this divine mercy is only another namefor Christ. The Bible, as a whole and when rightly interpreted, isabsolute authority, because it is the word of Christ; and Christ holdseach of us, as individuals, to the duty and the privilege ofinterpreting the Bible for himself. 

It seems to me plain that this method of interpreting Scripture in thelight of the Christian's experience of Christ, is not "the historicalmethod, " as it is usually employed. This latter method seems to ignorethe relation of Scripture to Christ, and to proceed in itsinvestigations as if there were no preexistent Christ to furnish itsprinciple. It insists upon treating Scripture as it would treat anyunreligious or heathen literature, and with no relation to its divineauthorship. It sees in Scripture only a promiscuous collection ofdisjointed documents, with no living tie to bind them together, and nosignificance beyond that of the time in which they were written. Itwould treat the Bible as a man-made book, or rather, as a man-madeseries of books, regardless of the fact that the plural "biblia, " whichonce represented the thought of the church, has, under the influence ofthe divine Spirit, become "biblion" or Bible, a singular, and a proofthat Christian consciousness has not been satisfied with rationalisticexplanations, but has followed its natural impulses by attributing unityto the word of Christ its Saviour. The separate "words" have been feltto constitute the one "word of God, " an organic whole, which fitlyrepresents the eternal "Word, " of whom it is the voice and expression. Scripture is not a congeries of earth-born fragments, but an organism, pulsating with divine life. The "historical method" of which I speak cannever find that life, because it works only on the physical andhorizontal plane, ignoring the light which comes deductively from above, and also the darkening and blinding influences which often operateunconsciously from below. 

XVI

SCRIPTURE AND MISSIONS

The "historical method" of Scripture interpretation, as it is oftenemployed, ends without Christ, because it begins without him. One of itsfundamental principles is that each passage of Scripture is to beinterpreted solely in the light of the knowledge and intent of theperson who wrote it. The One Hundred and Tenth Psalm, for example, canhave no reference to Christ, because the writer knew no other than theJewish king whose accession and whose power he anticipates. The Psalmreads, "Jehovah said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until Imake thine enemies thy footstool. " The so-called historical criticswould make any interpretation of this passage as a designed prophecy ofChrist to be an unwarranted accommodation of it to a meaning which itdid not originally bear, and the conclusion is that we are wrong inciting these words as an Old Testament assertion of Christ's deity. But, unfortunately for this method of interpretation, we have, in the Gospelsof Matthew and of Mark, our Lord's own reference of this passage, notsimply to some Jewish ruler of olden time, but to the coming Messiah, and since he was himself the Messiah, he refers it by implication tohimself. He does not deny, but rather grants, a primary reference of thepsalm to a son of David, for David was a king, and his son would be aking. But he also sees in the psalm a prophecy that this son of Davidwould be a king whom David would call Lord. His searching examinationpropounds to the unbelieving Jews the question, "What think ye of theChrist? whose son is he?" And they say, "The Son of David. " He answersthem by asking, "How then doth David, in the Spirit, call him Lord?" Inother words, inspiration declares Messiah to be a King of kings, and aLord of lords. Since the whole discussion is one with regard to thenature and claims of the Messiah, and since the Messiah is not a mereman like David, but is seated on the throne with Jehovah and is David'sLord, Christ's answer is an assertion of his own deity. His answerantedates, even if it did not suggest, Paul's later description ofChrist, as "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to theSpirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead. " But the highercritics differ in opinion from the Lord Jesus. They extricate themselvesfrom their difficulty by suggesting that Jesus, like other men, wassubject to the errors of his time. And so, not only Christ's knowledgeof Scripture and his authority as its interpreter are denied, but alsohis knowledge of his own nature and place in the universe. If hisknowledge of things so essential be denied, what trust can we place inany other of his utterances? To those who reason in this way, Christcannot possibly be divine--he is only a fallible man, self-deceived, andso, deceiving others. The fault of the critics lies in theirpresupposition. They have begun wrongly, by leaving out the primary factin the subject they investigate, namely, that the preincarnate Christwas the author and inspirer of the Scripture which he afterwardinterpreted. He used human agents, with their natural language andsurroundings, as his instruments, but he could, on the way to Emmaus, "beginning from Moses and all the prophets, " interpret to those humblebelievers "in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. "Scripture can have, and it does have, two authors, man and God, thewriter and Christ; and to ignore Christ in the evolution of the Bible isto miss its chief meaning, to teach falsehood instead of truth, and, consciously or unconsciously, to deny Christ's deity. 

Cannot a document have more than one author? What are the facts in otherrealms of art? In painting, did not Landseer get Millais to paint thehuman figure into the picture of his dogs? In literature, is there anymore acknowledged fact than that Erckmann-Chatrian's battle-stories werethe work of two writers, and not of one? The work of a single author mayhave two separate meanings, for Dante declares that his Divine Comedyhas one meaning that is personal, and another meaning that is universal. Our extreme critics are as poor students of literature as they are oflife. Their narrowness of interpretation is due to a narrowness ofexperience. If they knew Christ better, they would find in theTwenty-third Psalm alone enough proof to upset their theory. "The Lordis my shepherd, I shall not want, " is an utterance inexplicable bymerely human authorship. To suppose that even a king of Israel who hadbeen a shepherd-boy could have written this psalm without divineinspiration, in a day when all lands but little Palestine were wrapt ina pall of heathen darkness, is to suppose that religion can exist andflourish without a God. 

"The testimony of Jesus, " says the book of Revelation, "is the spirit ofprophecy. " It was the recognition of constant references to Christ inthe Old Testament, that enabled the apostles to convince and convert theunbelieving Jews. The absence of this recognition is the secret of allthe minimizing of Christ's attributes which is so rife in our day. Domen believe in Christ's deity who ignore his promise to be with them tothe end of the world, and who refuse to address him in prayer? Could oneof these modern interpreters have taken the place of Philip, when he metthe Ethiopian eunuch? That dignitary had been reading the prophecy ofIsaiah, "He was led as a lamb to the slaughter. " "Of whom speaketh theprophet this? of himself, or of some other?" "And Philip opened hismouth, and preached unto him _Jesus. _" Our modern critics call this anunwarranted interpretation, because Isaiah had no knowledge of Christ. And yet, John tells us that "Isaiah saw his glory, and spake of him. "The critics contradict John again, when they say that we must put nomeaning into Isaiah's words but that of his own time. His great prophecyof a suffering Messiah, they say, had reference only to Jehoiachin, thecaptive king of Judah, or to the whole Jewish nation as the afflictedpeople of God. Philip and the critics are evidently at variance. If weaccept their method, we shall lose all reference in the Old Testament tothe atonement of Christ, and all proof that the sacrifice on Calvary wasthat of "the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. "Reverse the process, and we can still say, The Holy, meek, unspotted Lamb, Who from the Father's bosom came For me and for my sins to atone, Him for my Lord and God I own. 

It is needless to multiply instances of this failure to interpret theOld Testament aright. Let me call attention to the effect of this methodupon the interpretation of the New Testament, for the authority of theNew Testament is also undermined. The system of typical interpretation, which sees in Christ the reality prefigured in Old Testament shadows, isdiscredited as unscientific. The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is thrownout, as a poetical clothing of "the man of Nazareth" with the fadingglories of an outworn worship. The idea that the high priest of old whoentered the Holy of Holies once a year not without blood, and the wholeJewish system of which this formed the central feature, were a divinelyordered prefiguration of Christ's atoning sacrifice for the sins ofmen--this idea is called a mere human addition to historical truth. Christ is no longer our great High Priest. His priesthood is meremetaphor, without divine warrant or authority. He is not our Prophet, nor our King, for his prophecies are not fulfilled, and his kingdom isonly that of a moral teacher and example. And all this, in spite of thefact that the Epistle to the Hebrews bears upon its front thedeclaration that "God, who in past times spoke to the fathers throughthe prophets, has in these last days spoken through his Son, " whom thissame Epistle then proceeds to describe as the effulgence of God's gloryand the very image of his substance, the Creator, Upholder, andRedeemer of the world, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 

I do not undervalue the historical method, when it is kept free fromthis agnostic presupposition that only man is the author of Scripture. This method has given us some information as to the authorship of thesacred books, and it has in some degree helped in their interpretation. I am free to acknowledge my own obligation to it. I grant the compositedocumentary view of the Pentateuch and of its age-long days of creation, while I still hold to its substantially Mosaic authorship. I say this, however, with deference, for a university president of note, when askedabout the stories of Cain and Abel, replied that no such persons in allprobability ever lived, but that the account was still valuable, sinceit taught the great moral lesson that it is highly improper for a man tomurder his brother! I grant that there may be more than one Isaiah, while yet I see in the later Isaiah a continuance of the divinerevelation given through the earlier. Any honest Christian, I would say, has the right to interpret Jonah and Daniel as allegories, rather thanas histories. I can look upon the book of Job as a drama, while I stillassert that Job was a historical character. I can see in the Song ofSolomon the celebration of a pure human love, while at the same time Iclaim that the Song had divinely injected into it the meaning that unionwith Christ is the goal and climax of all human passion. In short, Itake the historical method as my servant and not my master; as partiallybut not wholly revealing the truth; as showing me, not how man made theScripture for himself, but how God made the Scripture through theimperfect agency of man. So I find _unity_ in the Scriptures, becausethey are the work of the omnipresent and omniscient Christ: I find_sufficiency_ in the Scriptures, because they satisfy every religiousneed of the individual and of the church; I find _authority_ in theScriptures, because, though coming through man, they are, when takentogether and rightly interpreted, the veritable word of God. I denouncethe historical method, only when it claims to be the solely valid methodof reaching truth, and so, leaves out the primary agency and determininginfluence of Christ. 

What sort of systematic theology is left us, when the pervertedhistorical method is made the only clue to the labyrinth of Scripture?There is but one answer: No such thing as systematic theology ispossible. Science is knowledge, and to have a system you must haveunified knowledge. The historical method so called can see no unity inScripture, because it does not carry with it the primary knowledge ofChrist. It simply applies in its investigations the principles ofphysical science. Physical science begins with the outward and visible, not with the inward and spiritual, with matter and not with mind. Laplace swept the heavens with his telescope, but he said that henowhere found a God. He might just as well have swept his kitchen with abroom, and then complained that he could not find God there. God is notstars, nor dust. God is spirit, and he is not to be apprehended by thesenses. Laplace should have taken man's conscience and will for hisstarting-point. And just as physical science can find no God in theuniverse by the use of the forceps and the microscope, so thishistorical method can find no Christ in the Scriptures, because it looksthere for only human agency. The result is that it finds only acollection of seemingly contradictory fragments, with no divine Spiritto harmonize them and bind them together. Its method is purelyinductive, whereas its induction should always be guided by a knowledgeof Christ, gained before investigation begins, and furnishing the basisfor a deductive process as well. Differentiation and not harmonizationis its rule, and this makes its criticism destructive rather thanconstructive. Many a passage is set aside, because it will not fit inwith a skeptical interpretation. Christ's own words with regard to hisbeing "a ransom for many, " and with regard to his having "all powercommitted to him in heaven and in earth, " are held to be later wordsattributed to him by his followers. The whole New Testament story comesto be regarded as a mythical growth, like that which gradually placedhaloes about the heads of the apostles. The Gospel of John is notaccepted as historical, but is said to be a work of the second century. Jesus, it is said, never himself claimed to be the Messiah, since it isonly John who reports his saying to the woman of Samaria, "I that speakunto thee am he. " Paul is set aside, as being the author of a rabbinicaltheology which has no claim upon us; and that, in spite of Christ's owndeclaration that there were many things which he could not teach whilehe was here in the flesh, but which he would teach, by his Spirit, afterhis resurrection, and ascension. 

Prof. Kirsopp Lake, in a recent address before the Harvard DivinitySchool, deprecated the use of the term "theology. " "Theology, " he said, "presupposes divine revelation, which we do not accept. " He proposed theterm "philosophy, " as expressive of the aim of the Unitarian school. This is honest and plain. What shall we say of those who speak of the"new emphasis" needed in modern theology, when they really mean that thepreaching of the old doctrines of sin and salvation must give place to"another gospel" of cooperative Christian work? From their neglect toput any further emphasis upon "the faith once for all delivered to thesaints, " we can only infer that, for their structure of doctrine, noother foundation than philosophy is needed, and that they, like theUnitarians, no longer accept the fact of a divine revelation. "Otherfoundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is JesusChrist, " and to lay greater emphasis upon the fruits of Christianitythan upon its roots, is to insult Christ, and ultimately to makeChristianity itself only one of many earth-born religions, powerlesslike them either to save the individual soul or to redeem society. Professor Lake is quite right: If there is no divine revelation, therecan be, not only no systematic theology, but no theology at all. 

What is the effect of this method upon our theological seminaries? It isto deprive the gospel message of all definiteness, and to makeprofessors and students disseminators of doubts. Many a professor hasfound teaching preferable to preaching, because he lacked the initialChristian experience which gives to preaching its certainty and power. He chooses the line of least resistance, and becomes in the theologicalseminary a blind leader of the blind. Having no system of truth toteach, he becomes a mere lecturer on the history of doctrine. Having nokey in Christ to the unity of Scripture, he becomes a critic of what heis pleased to call its fragments, that is, the dissector of a cadaver. Ask him if he believes in the preexistence, deity, virgin birth, miracles, atoning death, physical resurrection, omnipresence, andomnipotence of Christ, and he denies your right to require of him anystatement of his own beliefs. He does not conceive it to be his duty tofurnish his students with any fixed conclusions as to doctrine but onlyto aid them in coming to conclusions for themselves. The apostle Paulwas not so reticent. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, butrather gloried in it. He even pronounced his anathema upon any whotaught other doctrine. It is no wonder that our modern critics cry, "Back to Christ, " for this means, "Away from Paul. " The result of suchteaching in our seminaries is that the student, unless he has had aPauline experience before he came, has all his early conceptions ofScripture and of Christian doctrine weakened, has no longer any positivemessage to deliver, loses the ardor of his love for Christ, and at hisgraduation leaves the seminary, not to become preacher or pastor as hehad once hoped, but to sow his doubts broadcast, as teacher in somecollege, as editor of some religious journal, as secretary of some YoungMen's Christian Association, or as agent of some mutual life insurancecompany. This method of interpretation switches off upon some side-trackof social service many a young man who otherwise would be a heroicpreacher of the everlasting gospel. The theological seminaries ofalmost all our denominations are becoming so infected with thisgrievous error, that they are not so much organs of Christ, as they areorgans of Antichrist. This accounts for the rise, all over the land, ofBible schools, to take the place of the seminaries. The evil is comingin like a flood, and the Spirit of the Lord will surely raise up astandard against it. But oh the pity! that money given by godly men toprovide preachers of the gospel should be devoted to undermining theChristian cause!

What is the effect of this method of interpretation upon the churches ofour denomination? It is to cut the tap-root of their strength, and toimperil their very existence. Baptist churches are founded uponScripture. Their doctrine of regenerate church-membership, and of churchordinances as belonging only to believers, presupposes an authoritativerule of faith and practice in the New Testament. In controversy withother denominations we have always appealed "to the law and to thetestimony, " and we have declared that, if other faiths "speak notaccording to this word, surely there is no morning for them. " We haveheld that the authority of Scripture is not an arbitrary authority, butthat the ordinances have so much of meaning that to change their form isto destroy them altogether. We stand for immersion as the only realbaptism, not because much water is better than little water, but becausebaptism is the symbol of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, andthe symbol also of our spiritual death, burial, and resurrection withhim. When we are "buried with him in baptism, " we show forth his death, just as we show forth his death in the Lord's Supper. To change the formof the Lord's Supper so as to leave out all reference to the breaking ofChrist's body and the shedding of his blood, would be to break down onegreat visible monument and testimony to Christ's atoning death, and todestroy the Lord's Supper itself. And to change the form of baptism soas to leave out its symbolism of Christ's death, burial, andresurrection, is to break down another great visible monument andtestimony to Christ's essential work, and to destroy the ordinance ofbaptism. Only the surrender of belief in the authority of Scripture, anda consequent ignoring of the meaning of baptism can explain the proposalto give us our requisition of immersion. The weakness of ourdenomination in such cities as New York results from the acceptance ofthe method of Scripture interpretation which I have been criticizing. Weare losing our faith in the Bible, and our determination to stand forits teachings. We are introducing into our ministry men who either neverknew the Lord, or who have lost their faith in him and their love forhim. The unbelief in our seminary teaching is like a blinding mist whichis slowly settling down upon our churches, and is gradually abolishing, not only all definite views of Christian doctrine, but also allconviction of duty to "contend earnestly for the faith" of our fathers. So we are giving up our polity, to please and to join otherdenominations. If this were only a lapse in denominationalism, we mightcall it a mere change in our ways of expressing faith. But it is a farmore radical evil. It is apostasy from Christ and revolt against hisgovernment. It is refusal to rally to Christ's colors in the greatconflict with error and sin. We are ceasing to be evangelistic as wellas evangelical, and if this downward progress continues, we shall in duetime cease to exist. This is the fate of Unitarianism to-day. WeBaptists must reform, or die. 

What is the effect of this method of interpretation upon missions? Ihave just come from an extensive tour in mission fields. I have visitedmissionaries of several denominations. I have found those missions mostsuccessful which have held to the old gospel and to the polity of theNew Testament. But I have found a growing tendency to depend uponeducation, rather than upon evangelism. What would Peter have said onthe day of Pentecost, if you had advised him not to incur the wrath ofthe Jews by his preaching, but to establish schools, and to trust to thegradual enlightenment of the Jewish nation by means of literature? Hemight have replied that our Lord made it his first duty to "makedisciples, " and only afterwards to "teach them to observe all thingswhich he had commanded. " Christian schools and Christian teaching arenecessary in their place, but they are second, not first. Our lack athome of the right interpretation of Scripture, and our fading knowledgein experience of the presence and power of Christ, have gone from usround the world. Some boards are sending out as missionaries young menwho lack definite views of doctrine. These young men, having nothingpositive to preach, choose rather to teach in the English language, inschools where English is spoken, rather than preach in the nativelanguage which requires a lifetime of study. When they teach, theycannot help revealing their mental poverty, and disturbing the simplefaith of their pupils. Having no certainty themselves, they can inspireno certainty in others, for "if the trumpet gives no certain sound, whowill arm himself for the battle?" These unprepared and inefficientteachers may become themselves converted through their very sense ofweakness in presence of the towering systems of idolatry andsuperstition around them. But if they are not so converted, they willhandicap the mission and paralyze its influence. Some of our bestmissionaries have said to me, "The Lord deliver us from such helpers!"No man has a right to go, and no board has a right to send, as amissionary, one who has not had such a personal experience of Christ aswill enable him to stand against this unscientific and unchristianmethod of Scripture interpretation. 

This so-called "historical method" has effects on the missionary causeat home, as well as in the lands far away. "How shall they preach, except they be sent?" The sending of missionaries is dependent upon thezeal and liberality of the churches in our land. But how can one who isnot sure that Jesus ever uttered the words of the Great Commission urgethe churches to fulfil that command of Christ? How can one who has neverfelt his own need of an atonement adjure his brethren, by Christ's deathfor their sins, not to let the heathen perish? How can one who has hadno experience of Christ as a present and divine Saviour, have power tostand against the rationalism and apathy of the church? This method ofScripture interpretation makes evangelism an enterprise of fanatics notsufficiently educated to know that Buddha and Confucius were teachers oftruth long before the time of Christ. Can we more surely dry up thesources of missionary contributions, than by yielding to the perniciousinfluence of this way of treating Scripture? We have gone far already inthe wrong direction. Our churches are honeycombed with doubt and withindifference. The preaching of the old gospel of sin and salvation seemsalmost a thing of the past. People have itching ears that will notendure sound doctrine. The dynamic of missions is love for Christ, whodied to save us from the guilt and power of sin. Modern criticism hasto a large extent nullified this dynamic, and if the authority ofScripture is yet further weakened, we may look for complete collapse inour supplies both of men and of money. In fact, the faith and the giftsof many converts from among the heathen already so far exceed theaverage faith and gifts of our churches at home, that the time may comewhen Burma and the Congo may have to send missionaries to us, as we arenow sending missionaries to the land where the seven churches of Asiaonce flourished. 

Whence has come this so-called "historical method" of interpretingScripture? I answer: It was "made in Germany. " German scholarship for acentury past has been working almost exclusively on the horizontalplane, and has been ignoring the light that comes from above. Thetheology of Great Britain and of America has been profoundly affected bythe application of its evolutionary and skeptical principles. In Germanyitself the honesty of every Scripture writer has been questioned, andevery sacred document has been torn into bits. When the all-pervadingpresence and influence of Christ in the Bible is lost sight of, and itsseparate fragments are examined to discover their meaning, there is noguide but the theory of evolution; and evolution, instead of being theordinary method of a personal God, is itself personified and made theonly power in the universe. The regularities of nature, it is thought, leave no room for miracle. There is no divine Will that can work downupon nature in unique acts, such as incarnation and resurrection. Apantheistic Force is the only ruler, and whatever is, is right. Goetheled the way in this pagan philosophy, and German universities have beenfull of it ever since. It is painful to see how German theologians andministers have been won over to the ethics of brute force and thepractical, deification of mere might in human affairs. The New Testamenthas been interpreted as justifying implicit obedience to "the powersthat be, " even when they turn the Kaiser into a military despot and hispeople into unresisting and deluded slaves. An exaggerated nationalismhas taken the place of human solidarity, and a selfish domination of theworld has become the goal of national ambition. All the atrocities ofthis war might have been spared us, if the nations of which Germany isthe most conspicuous offender had derived their ethics and theirpractice from the divine love which rules above, rather than from theseeming necessity of competing with the nations around them. A newinterpretation of Scripture is needed to set the world right. But asGermany will never be convinced that the worship of Force is vain, until she sees herself plunged in defeat and ruin, so the advocates ofthis so-called historical method will never make deduction a primarypart of their procedure, and will never take the eternal Christ as theirkey to Scripture interpretation, until Christ himself shall by a secondspiritual advent enter into their hearts and dissipate their doubts, ashe did when he showed himself to Paul on the way to Damascus. 

I have tried to point out the inherent error of the method to which Ihave been objecting, and to show its ill effects upon systematictheology, upon our theological seminaries, upon our Baptist churches, and upon our missionary work abroad and at home. I have intimated thatthe influence of this perverse treatment of Holy Writ may be seen evenin the present internecine conflict in which the professedly Christiannations are engaged. I shall very naturally be asked what remedy Ipropose for so deep-seated and widespread an evil. I can only answerthat I see no permanent cure but the second coming of Christ. But do notmisunderstand me. I am no premillennarian of the ordinary sort. Indeed, I am as much a post-millennialist, as I am a premillennialist. I believethat both interpretations of prophecy have their rights, and, believingalso as I do that Scripture is a unity and that its seemingcontradictions can be harmonized, I hold that Christ's spiritual comingprecedes the millennium, but that his visible and literal coming followsthe millennium. I therefore look for such a spiritual coming into thehearts of his people, as shall renew their faith, fulfil their joy, andanswer to the prediction of "the rapture of the saints. " In otherwords, I look for a mighty revival of religion, which will set thechurches on their old foundation, and endow them with power to subduethe world. This war seems to me God's second great demonstration ofman's inability to save himself, and his need of divine power to savehim. As the ancient world and its history were God's demonstration ofhuman sin, and of man's need of Christ's first advent, so this war isGod's proof that science and philosophy, literature and commerce, arenot sufficient for man's needs, and that Christ must again come, if ourmodern world is ever to be saved. "In the fulness of time" Christ'sfirst advent occurred. "In the fulness of time" Christ's second adventwill occur. But not until humanity, weary of its load, cries out for itsredemption. "How long, O Lord, how long?" "It is not for us to know thetimes which the Father has set within his own authority. " But it is oursto believe in Christ's promise, and to pray for its speedy fulfilment. And so, I beg you to join with me in the one prayer with which our bookof Scripture closes, namely, "Lord Jesus, come quickly!"

XVII

THE THEOLOGY OF MISSIONS

"The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord. " Yes, a candle, but acandle not yet lighted, a candle which will never be light nor givelight, till it is touched by a divine flame. So said Doctor Parkhurst. Was his interpretation of Scripture correct? He drew from the proverbthe conclusion that man has a religious nature, not in the sense thathe is actually religious, but only in the sense that he has a capacityfor religion. Doctor Parkhurst would say that man is actually religiousonly when he knows the true God and worships him in spirit and intruth. To that God he is by nature and by sinful habit blind. He can belight and give light, only after God has enlightened him by specialrevelation. His nature is a candle unlighted, until God touches it withhis divine flame. 

What is the truth in this matter? The months I have spent in theseheathen lands have made deep impression upon me, and the problem ofheathenism has loomed up before me as never before. When one seesthousands prostrating themselves in a Mohammedan mosque and chanting inunison their ascription of greatness to God, or when one sees a Hindudevotee so absorbed in his prayer to a senseless idol that he isunconscious of the kicks and shouts of the passers-by, one comes torealize that man must have a god. The religious instinct is a part ofhis nature. It is more than a mere capacity for religion. It is activeas well as passive. In some sort the candle is already burning. It burnsat certain times and places with a fierce and demonic glow. When I sawin Calcutta, so recently the capital of India, a priestess of the templeof Kali, cutting into bits the flesh and entrails of sheep in order thatthe poorest worshiper might have for his farthing some bloody fragmentto offer at the shrine of that hideous and lustful and cruel goddess, Ifelt sure that, though the candle is burning, it is not always becauseit has been touched by a divine flame. There are other powers than God'sat work in this universe. Doctor Parkhurst's explanation of theScripture text is not sufficient. He acknowledges only a part of thetruth. The candle is giving already a dim and lurid light. Man isblindly worshiping, groping in the dark, bowing to imaginary deities, the products of his own imagination, the work of his own hands. 

We must go even farther than this, and concede that here and there amongthese crowds of worshipers there may be one who is a sincere seekerafter God and, according to the light that he has, is trying honestly toserve him. I do not mean a selfish service of ignorant and earthlypassion, but a service prompted by some elementary knowledge of the trueGod, gained by contemplation of his works in nature or from the needs ofhis own soul revealed in conscience. Surely there was truth andsincerity in the worship of Socrates, of Epictetus, of Marcus Aurelius. The patriarchs had knowledge of God and walked with God, long beforeChrist came. And Scripture itself declares that in every nation he thatfears God and works righteousness is accepted by him. David Brainerdfound among the American Indians a man who for years had separatedhimself from the wickedness of his people, and had devoted himself todoing them good. Now and then our missionaries find a heathen whosestrivings after God have been prompted by a sense of sin, and whoseworship must have been accepted by the God of love. Though there is"none other name given among men whereby we may be saved, " we cannotdoubt that every man who feels himself to be a sinner, and casts himselfupon God's mercy for salvation, does really though unconsciously casthimself upon Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of theworld, and so joins himself to Christ by the teaching and power ofChrist's Spirit, as to be saved in some measure from the dominion of sinhere and from the penalty of sin hereafter. 

I am a believer in the unity, the sufficiency, and the authority ofScripture--in its unity, when the parts are put together in theirhistorical connections and with the key to their meaning furnished us inChrist; in its sufficiency, as a rule of religious faith and practice;and in its authority, when rightly interpreted with the aid of the HolySpirit. So I am prepared to find in the first chapter of Paul's Epistleto the Romans the true philosophy of heathenism, and the reconciliationof the otherwise seemingly conflicting utterances of Scripture withregard to the religious nature of man. I learn that God made manupright, and endowed him with at least a childlike knowledge of himself. But early humanity sought out many inventions, did not wish to retainGod in its knowledge, and substituted for the true God creatures of itsown imagination. In other words, the scriptural explanation ofheathenism is found in an original ancestral sin, in which the humanrace departed from the true God and gave itself up to the worship, first, of impersonal nature-powers, and then, of the polytheisticpersonifications of these powers which naturally followed. 

Modern heathenism is the result of an abnormal and downward evolution. Many students of comparative religion have forgotten that evolution isoftener to lower forms than to higher. Many a species in the history oflife has first become degenerate, and then has become extinct. Theshores of time are strewn with wrecks, and one of these wrecks is humannature. Paul gives us only the logical and moral interpretation of abiological fact, when he declares that in consequence of man's departurefrom God, God gave man over to the dominion of his own passions, inorder that the shame and guilt of his vile affections might awaken hisconscience and lead him to cry for mercy and redemption. Modernheathenism, still surviving in this age of enlightenment, shows how sincan blind the intellect and harden the heart. When men worship demons ofcruelty and lust instead of God, they reveal the depravity as well asthe ignorance of human nature in its downward evolution. The candle hasbeen lighted indeed, but it has been touched with the flames of hell. 

When God made man in his own image, it was only wheat that he sowed inhis field. The evil decision of man has furnished the tares, and theirhistory has been a history of downward evolution. But side by side withthis downward evolution there has been an upward evolution of divinegrace. The tares have been suffered to grow, but only that there mightbe demonstrated the power of the wheat to root them out. And from thevery beginning Christ has been the author and principle of the trueevolution. He who created the race has been its Preserver, Instructor, and Saviour. Humanity, in its warring and its lust, would long sincehave become extinct, if it had not been for the presence in it of adivine Life and Light. That life and light were the life and light ofthe preincarnate Christ. He is "the light that lighteth every man, " and"his life was the light of men. " Jonathan Edwards did not go too far, when he recognized in all natural beauty and goodness the work ofChrist. The sunset clouds were painted by the hand of Christ, and it ishe whose glory is celebrated by the cannonading of the autumn storm overthe grave of summer. All the light of conscience is his light; all theprogress of science is his revelation. It was he who led the children ofIsrael by a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, and whothundered and lightened from Sinai at the giving of the Law. "The Rockthat followed" the chosen people through the wilderness and gave themdrink "was Christ. " Every reform within the bounds of heathenism hasbeen due to him. Confucius and Buddha, so far as they uttered truth, were his messengers. He has never left humanity without a witness to thepower and goodness of God. While men have been seeking an unknown God, he has been that very God whom they were seeking, and it is he who hasincited them to feel after him and find him. His light has shined inthe darkness, and the darkness has comprehended it not, though in him welive and move and have our being. 

So there is evolution of good, side by side with the evolution of evil. We may recognize truth in heathen systems, while we deplore theirerrors, for Christ himself is the Truth. It is the single grain of truthin these systems that has given them all their power. They never couldhave maintained their hold upon the world, if they had not appealed tosome good instincts of the human heart. A coin made wholly of lead willnever pass for a dollar. It must have a little washing of silver to giveit any sort of currency. But it is a counterfeit, for all its silverwashing. So these heathen systems have their grain of truth, but theyare false and soul-destroying all the same. Let us recognize candidlythe grains of truth which they contain, for these are witnesses to theindwelling Christ who has not left humanity wholly to itself. And let usmake these grains of truth our gateways of access to the heathen heart, while we show the heathen the larger and fuller truth as it is in Jesus. 

Christ alone can solve the problems of the world and reconcile thewarring elements of humanity. He is our peace, who hath made Jew andGentile one, having broken down the middle wall of partition, and havingmade of the twain one new man, reconciling both to God through the bloodof his Cross. He can make all sects, all parties, all castes, allnations one; because in him are all the elements of truth which eachpossesses, without any mixture of their errors. In him there will be nolonger barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, male nor female, for he willbind all together by virtue of their union with himself. The Hindu, forexample, has the truth of God's immanence, but he turns it intofalsehood by denying the correlative and equally important truth ofGod's transcendence, making God to be a mere nature-force withoutpersonality, while Scripture recognizes in God both immanence andtranscendence, sees God in all things and through all things, yet aboveall things. The Hindu has also the truth of God's incarnation, but heturns it into error, by denying the permanence of that incarnation, thedivine incarnation in Krishna or Buddha being only a temporaryassumption of humanity which he leaves behind him when he reascends tohis heaven, while Christ takes our human nature into perpetual unionwith himself and makes it sit down with him upon his throne. The Moslem, on the other hand, believes in God's unity and transcendence, but denieshis immanence. His God is far away, not only physically but alsomorally, for he is without justice or love. The Moslem holds stoutly tothe truth of God's personality; but he denies the manifestation of thatpersonality in Christ, and also Christ's personal presence with allbelievers. Only Christ can break down the middle wall of partitionbetween Hindu and Moslem, for he alone has the all-inclusive truth thatwill unite them both. And so of all divisions of caste, of color, ofparty, of denomination, and of nationality, for he alone is the Way, theTruth, and the Life, supremely and absolutely fitted to be the Bringerof Peace to the world. 

There is yet another reason why Christ alone can save. Let us rememberalways that error is the result of sin, and that before the power of sincan be broken, the penalty of sin must be removed. In the heart of manis an inextinguishable sense of guilt, and an equally inextinguishablethirst for reparation. It is the forebodings of conscience that makedeath terrible. Blind the eyes and harden the heart, if you will. Theaccusations of conscience will be like writings in invisible ink, thatcome out clear and threatening in times of introspection and of soberjudgment. As Shakespeare says, Their great guilt Like poison given to work a great time after, Now 'gins to bite the spirits. 

The greatest chasm is between their souls and God, and they must havepeace with God, before they can have peace with men. Christ is ourpeace, therefore, first of all, because he makes atonement for our sins, pays our debts to justice, and sets our conscience free from guilt. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole world, making peace by the blood of his Cross. Having made our peace with God, he makes peace in our warring powers of conscience and will, and thenbrings about peace in our relations with others. As he made man at thefirst of one blood, so he will at last bring all the nations back intoone brotherhood of holiness and love. 

There is a moral theology, as well as a doctrinal theology. The moralfollows the doctrinal, and shows in practice that the doctrine is truthand not error. Paul includes this moral teaching in his Epistle to theRomans. At the beginning of his twelfth chapter he passes from hisdiscussion of justification by faith to speak of the proper effects offaith in the Christian life: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by themercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice. " Thencomes the noblest summary of duty to be found in all literature. Allmanner of social service is enjoined, while the presupposition of thatservice is ever held to be the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf and theregenerating grace of God in the Christian heart. How much the heathenworld needs this part of the gospel, only some knowledge of the shamefulvices of the Orient can reveal to us. The first chapter of that sameEpistle is a correct picture of the heathen world of to-day. A purelife, which is also a life lived for others, is something whichsurpasses the power of Confucius or Buddha to produce or to maintain. Such lives in the churches of mission lands are the weightiest argumentsfor Christianity. But conversion to Christ goes, in its influence, farther than the individual. It has a far-reaching social influence. Itlifts up the whole family, the whole class, the whole caste, making itsmembers intelligent, efficient, trustworthy, as many British officialsin India gladly bear witness. Christianity seems likely to give theSudras precedence of the Brahmans in civil and political affairs, sothat in one case at least the meek shall inherit the earth. 

The kingdom of God, however, can never win its triumphs solely byexternal reforms. In order to obtain the fruits of education, morality, and self-government, you must first have Christian faith rooted in thesoil. Applications of Christianity are necessary, and they are to beearnestly sought, but it will be vain to seek them, if we have noChristianity to apply. The tendency in our missions to put the mainstress upon physical and social agencies, to the detriment of simplegospel preaching, is sure to be disappointing in its results. It is liketrying to light a coal-fire by putting your kindlings on top. It is likebeginning at the roof, and building down to the foundation; or likefirst purifying the stream, and afterwards the fountain. Society is madeup of individuals, and regeneration of the individual must precede allsocial renovation. The old gospel, with regard to sin and salvation, isthe only gospel that will save the heathen world; and the living, personal Christ, with his atoning blood and his renewing Spirit, is theonly power that can bring about permanent reformation of social evilsand the establishment of the kingdom of God in the individual, in thenation, and in the world. 

That this is the true theology of missions, the history of missions isthe best of all proofs. We need not only to touch the intellect, butalso to touch the heart. We need to furnish a motive that will win toaction the sluggish and selfish devotees of systems century-old thathave enslaved them. One message, and one only, has accomplished thisresult, and that is the message of the Cross. Not the presentation ofGod's greatness and power, but the story of the personal Jesus and hisgiving up of his life for sinners, has moved men to give themselves tohim. The love of Christ has called forth answering love. Greenlandersand Bushmen, Tibetans and Telugus, Australians and Chinese, have goneto their deaths for Christ, simply because they had learned thatChrist died for them. Of this sort have been the first-fruits of allour missions. Christ crucified has been the power of God untosalvation. When he who was rich became poor that we might become rich, he instituted not only an example, but a motive, sufficient to subduemen's hearts and to conquer the world. "To win for the Lamb that wasslain the reward of his sufferings" has turned illiterate men inIndia into indomitable propagandists of Christianity; but it has alsomade missionaries in Oxford and Edinburgh, in Leicester andAndover--missionaries like Reginald Heber and John G. Paton, likeWilliam Carey and Adoniram Judson. The "offense of the Cross" isgreat, but the power of the Cross is greater still, and the theologyof missions must never permit mere philosophy, or education, orphysical betterment, or social service, to take the place of Christcrucified in its preaching. 

I grieve over the minimizing of Christ's nature and claims that iscurrent in our day, because I believe that it cuts the sinew of ourChristian faith and destroys the chief dynamic in our missions. Ideplore the denial of our Lord's deity and atonement, the refusal toaddress him in prayer, the ignoring of his promise to be with his peopleeven to the end of the world. To meet our needs in the conflict withtowering systems of idolatry and superstition, we need a supernaturalChrist; not simply the man of Nazareth, but the Lord of glory; not theChrist of the Synoptics alone, but also the Christ of John's Gospel; nota merely human example and leader, but one who "was declared to be theSon of God with power by the resurrection from the dead"; not simplyJesus according to the flesh, but "the Word who was with God and who wasGod" in eternity past; not simply God manifest in human life nineteencenturies ago, but the God who is "the same yesterday, and to-day, andforever"; not simply the humbled, but also the glorified Saviour, whosits now upon the throne of the universe, all power in heaven and earthbeing given into his hand. When we believe in an ascended Lord at God'sright hand, the God of Creation, of Providence, and of Redemption, wehave a faith that can conquer the world. Without such a faith in theomnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent Christ, we are weak as water inthe conflict with heathenism. We may set up Christ on a pedestal, in apantheon like that of Mrs. Besant, with a statue of Krishna by his side, and the Hindu will laugh at the claims of the gospel. Only faith inChrist as very God can meet the demands of the hour. "The spirit of manis the candle of the Lord. " In every age Christ has lit that candle, sothat it has given some light. But all who have come before him, pretending to be the Light of the world, have been thieves and robbers, stealing from Christ his glory and from man his blessing. Christ alonecan so enlighten us that we can be light and can give light. Let usarise and shine, because our Light has come, and the glory of the Lordhas arisen upon us!

XVIII

MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES

No result of my travel has been more valuable to me than the newimpression I have received of the effect of missions upon missionaries. I came abroad with a lingering idea of my youth that missionaries were aclass by themselves, a solemn set, destitute of humor, and so absorbedin their work as to be narrow-minded. On the contrary, I have found themjoyful and even hilarious, broad in their views and sympathies, loversof the good in literature and art. The mental and spiritual growth ofstudents who left me years ago for a foreign field has greatly surprisedme. Then they were boys; now they are men. The demands of the missionarywork have drawn out their latent powers; they have found their newenvironment immensely stimulating; contact with new lands and people haswidened their outlook; they have become thinkers and leaders of men. 

It takes an all-round man to be a good missionary. The learning of aforeign language in which one has to construct his own grammar andlexicon requires persistent effort of the most disciplined mind. Themissionary is often called upon to build his own house or church. Hemust be both architect and supervisor, for his masons know no English, and are bent on slighting their work. He has servants who steal andcoolies who lie. He establishes, manages, and governs a native school, and generally has to evolve his own pedagogy. He comes into relationwith English officials, American consuls, and native functionaries, andis obliged to know something of social customs. In fine, he is a jack ofall trades, besides being a preacher of the gospel who must adapt hismessage to the understanding of the illiterate multitude and of thecultivated man of caste as well. 

All this gives the missionary a training beyond that of any universitycourse. Herbert Spencer asserted that a nation makes progress incivilization in proportion to the variety of its environment. Theprinciple applies also to the development of the individual. Ourmissionaries thought perhaps that they were leaving culture behind them, when they left America for barbarous lands. But losing their lives forChrist's sake they found to be mental gain. Even on the Congo our menhave learned more, and have developed stronger characters, than wouldhave been possible if they had accepted ordinary pastorates at home. Andthey have not lost, but have won, that fine flavor of sanity andjudgment, which belongs to men who have had large experience of life. 

So far, I have referred only to the intellectual side of one'seducation. The spiritual equipment is even more important. In heathendomone comes in contact with towering systems of idolatry and superstition, venerable with age and rooted deeply in the nature and habit of thepeople. The Christian teacher realizes that, in his conflict with thesesystems, he is powerless, unless backed by Omnipotence. He is thrownupon the divine resources, and learns, perhaps for the first time, that, while apart from Christ he can do nothing, with Christ he can doall things. A new experience of the presence and power of the Saviourcomes to him. The struggle that at first taxed all his energy is at lasta glad walk over the course in the strength of Christ. Anxiety and fearhave taught him lessons which he could not otherwise have learned. Hehas become a hopeful and joyful Christian. 

All this tends to render the missionary doctrinally sound. Evangelization makes men evangelical. When you tell the gospel to aheathen sinner, you must put it in the simplest terms, or he will failto understand it. Your effort to reach his mind and heart clarifies yourown. To one condemned and lost, no mere human example in Jesus willsuffice; you need an atoning Saviour. To one struggling with demonicpowers and helpless in their grasp, no mere man of Nazareth, no Jesus, according to the flesh, will answer; you need the Lord of Glory, who wasdeclared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from thedead. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit who regenerates, sanctifies, comforts, and saves, becomes an indispensable element in preaching, andso becomes ingrained into the preacher's confession of faith. A personaland present Christ, Immanuel, God with us, is the source of themissionary's power; he has practical proof that the Holy Spirit isChrist in spiritual form, with his people alway, even to the end of theworld. The reality of God in Christ, manifest in nature, ruling theworld in providence, preparing the nations for judgment, sure to bringthe world to his feet, becomes an article of the missionary's faith, anda constant subject of his teaching. The minimizing of Christ's natureand claims has no proper place on missionary ground. The missionaryindeed is exerting an influence on the faith of the homeland equal tothat which he exerts upon the heathen abroad. 

It is indeed true that here and there a man who has come out as amissionary has been attracted and perverted by the very systems heproposed to subdue, and has turned out a teacher of Buddhism instead ofChristianity. But such men had never the root of the matter in them, hadnever felt the galling yoke of sin, had never known the joy of Christ'ssalvation. They had gotten their preparation for evangelistic work fromAmerican teachers of comparative religion, who put Buddha on the sameplane with Christ. The result has only shown the impotence of a man-madegospel to combat heathenism, or even to save the souls of those whopreach that sort of gospel. In a sense precisely opposite to that of theapostle Paul, they have come to be opposers of the faith they onceproposed to advocate, and destroyers instead of builders of Christiancivilization. All this is a lesson to our missionary societies andchurches at home. The colleges and seminaries which permit indefiniteand unevangelical doctrine to be taught, and which retain those whoteach it upon the ground that liberality in theology is a duty, meritthe censure of God and man; for the school or the church that ceases tobe evangelical will soon cease to be evangelistic, and when it ceases tobe evangelistic it will soon cease to exist. In this way missions arethe testing-places of Christian doctrine. 

In a similar way New Testament polity is showing its power in ourforeign work. At home we are getting to be lax in our reception ofmembers, and are taking in numbers of persons without proper evidence oftheir conversion. Baptist churches which used to examine carefully theircandidates for admission now receive them without public and oralconfession of their faith. Yet these new members may vote, and maydetermine the attitude of the church in important exigencies. All thisis avoided in our mission churches. They perceive the necessity ofkeeping out the unfit, as clearly as that of admitting the fit. They donot add to their membership by infant baptism, and they make sure thatno pecuniary considerations influence professing converts. Our Baptistmission churches are fast becoming models of self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating bodies. Missionaries find thattheir only safety lies in hewing close to the line of New Testamentrequirement. Their success in building up Baptist churches in Burma andamong the Telugus, keeps our missionaries faithful to the New Testamentmodel of church polity. They have the joy of seeing churches organizedon scriptural principles, and shedding their light upon the regions ofdarkness around them. 

I wish to say something also about the physical environment of ourmissionaries and its influence upon them. I remember that half a centuryago I called upon Doctor Thompson of Beirut, the veteran missionary ofthe American Board in Syria. I would not have been surprised if I hadfound him living in a hut, for my ideas of missionary hardship werevery crude. But I was surprised to find him living in a great stonemansion, with twice as many servants as we ordinarily have at home. Ithas taken me some time to learn that in a hot country a cool andspacious house is a primary necessity of life, if the missionary expectsto endure a climate where the thermometer at times goes up beyond ahundred degrees and stays there. And ordinary comfort cannot be obtainedwithout servants to do your cooking and running. The large house can bebuilt for half the cost of such a structure at home, and the servantscan be obtained for only a few cents a day for each one. Remember thatin many cases the missionary has not only to be his own physician andsurgeon, but also the physician and surgeon of others; that his house isoften a hospital as well as a gathering-place of inquirers. Remember, too, that the missionary's wife has not only to perform the householdduties of a wife at home, but in addition has probably to be thesupervisor of a girls' school and the only school-teacher andmusic-teacher that her children will know until they are old enough togo to the homeland. Remember these considerations, and you will see thata decent home is essential to a missionary's success in a heathen land. Our missionary work, like our diplomatic service, has been too longdiscredited by our insufficient care for our representatives abroad. 

Our friends of other denominations are greatly ahead of us in thismatter of provision for their missionaries. Not only are the bungalowsbuilt for their residences better than ours, but their plants of churchand school buildings show a larger outlook for the future than oursshow. The English Baptists, the Congregationalists, the Methodists, theChurch of England, yes, even the Theosophists and Buddhists, furnishobject-lessons to us in this regard. And yet, such has been theinventiveness and large-mindedness of our missionaries themselves, thatin all the great centers of our work, they are housed better than theaverage pastors of our churches at home. I wish we could double theirstrength by the establishment of summer rest-houses in the hills, and bypresenting every one of them with a motor-car. But even now, the days ofextreme hardship are past, and no man of ordinary vigor need fear comingto the foreign field on account of its physical discomforts. 

When our Lord sent out his first missionaries, he sent them two by two. The real trial of the missionary is more mental than physical. Hegreatly needs companionship. Silence in the midst of the beating ofheathen tom-toms becomes enervating and appalling; it may make a maninsane. We are learning the value of team-work in missions. What one manalone could never accomplish, he can do with the help of others. TheAmerican Board in its mission at Madura, India, has acted upon thisprinciple, and the result is seen in an aggregate of twenty-two thousandchurch-members. Our own most successful work has been among the Burmansand Karens, where we have seventy thousand members, and among theTelugus, where we have as many more. In these fields there are enoughworkers to constitute a homogeneous society, with frequent conferencesto help the discouraged and to stimulate the weak. Let us be generousin providing additional helpers and furloughs to men so far removed fromour Christian civilization. 

But let no one go to the foreign field expecting to get all his strengthfrom his brethren. Missionary work is no sinecure. It requires not onlya sound body and a sound mind, with a cheerful and hopeful temperament, but also a willingness to endure hardship for Jesus' sake, and, if needbe, with him alone for helper. There are more alleviations of missionaryconditions than were known in its early days, but they still requireself-sacrifice. Separation from home and friends, and, for the pioneer, days of unspeakable loneliness, are the missionary's portion. Thenecessity of sending children to America, so that they may escapedisease and immorality among the heathen, is an agony which only theaffectionate parent can know. Opportunities for usefulness which cannotbe seized, because of lack of reenforcement from the homeland, involve a"hope deferred that maketh the heart sick. "

When Paul went to Athens he probably hoped to win the philosophers toChrist's standard. But the Stoics and Epicureans scoffed at him. He hadto content himself with the multitude of commoner converts at Corinth. It was doubtless God's sovereignty that determined the result, but God'ssovereignty is also wisdom. It took Paul a long time to learn that Godbuilds his fires from the bottom, and ordinarily kindles the smallsticks first. "Not many wise, not many noble hath God chosen, " but theweak things first, "that no flesh may glory in his presence. " Here isone of the trials of missionary life, and one of the tests ofmissionary faith. Can the missionary welcome the conversion of amultitude of low-class people, like the Madigas, when their acceptancebecomes to the proud Brahman an evidence of the ignoble character ofChristianity? Yes, he can, if he has faith in God. He can wait on God, and wait for results. 

 He builded better than he knew, The conscious stone to beauty grew. 

The great Sudra class, a class higher than the Madigas, under theinfluence of Christianity, is becoming more intelligent and moreinfluential than the Brahman, and is gradually taking from him hissocial prestige and his political power. Many missionaries are expectinga great turning unto the Lord from among the Sudras. Meantime there is apromise "to him that overcometh. " "If we suffer with him, we shall alsoreign with him. " "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. " And

 When we reach the shore at last. Who shall count the billows past?

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Transcriber's Notes:

Inconsistencies in the hyphenation of words preserved. (sightseeing, sight-seeing)

Pg. 39, unusual word "subtilty". Presumed to be "subtlety". (and thesubtlety of the Hindus)

Pg. 177, triple quote mark after "biblia, " changed to double quotemark. (the plural "biblia, ")

In the original text, every chapter had a title page (containingchapter number and heading) with a blank page on the reverse. The pagewith the main text then followed with a repeated chapter heading atthe top. Occasionally, there was also a blank page before the titlepage. For tidiness, the title page of each chapter has beentranscribed but the repeated chapter headings have been removed.