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SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE I The lecture is a study of the social influence and humanitarian scope of missions, with a view to emphasizing their power as a sociological factor in the non-Christian world. The evangelistic results have always been prominent, and need no accentuation ; but in order to a fully rounded survey of the potentialities of missions as a factor in social regeneration, we must measure their possibilities as a reconstructive force. The subject is introduced with some preliminary remarks bearing upon the following points : (1) The social influence of missions affects the ethical and humane rather than the economic status of society. (2) The testimony of history to the social power of Christianity has always been emphasized in apologetic literature. (3) The fact that this deeper and broader view of the indirect results of missions has been very imperfectly recognized. (4) The special timeliness of this theme in the present horoscope of missions. The relations of Christian missions to sociology are discussed, and an important place claimed for them as a factor in social progress. The sociological power of the religious environment is insisted upon, and the broader view of sociology as a philosophy and an art, as well as an exact science, is advocated. Sociology is a study of the history and laws of social groupings, but it includes also philosophic ideals and a practical ministry to the higher welfare of society. It is constructive and utilitarian in its larger scope and wider influence. Like theology, medicine, law, and political economy, it cannot be restricted in its applied aspects to a scholastic discipline. The question whether universal evolution in its rigid and exclusive sense is the only postulate of a true sociological system is considered, and a place is claimed for the supernatural as an essential factor of the divine training and government of the race. The function of Christian missions as a power divinely ordered and introduced into the history of belated civilizations with a distinct purpose of giving impulse and direction to social changes is discussed in several of its aspects. The contention that Christianity is a religious and ethical environment which is conducive to the development of the highest type of moral character is supported and emphasized. The dignity of the evangelistic aspects of missions is maintained as in no way affected by this larger view of mission possibilities. Some arguments are advanced in support of this optimistic outlook, based upon analogy, history, and the prophetic import of Scripture. LECTURE I
THE SOCIOLOGICAL SCOPE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS
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"Roman belief in right and law had ended in scepticism, whether there was such a thing as goodness and virtue; Roman public spirit had given place, under the disheartening impression of continual mistakes and disappointments, to a selfish indifference to public scandals and public mischiefs. The great principles of human action were hopelessly confused; enthusiasm for them was dead. . . . But over this dreary waste of helplessness and despondency, over these mud-banks and shallows, the tide was coming in and mounting. Slowly, variably, in imperceptible pulsations or in strange, wild rushes, the great wave was flowing. There had come into the world an enthusiasm, popular, widespread, serious, of a new kind; not for conquest or knowledge or riches, but for real, solid goodness. . . . "This second springtide of the world, this fresh start of mankind in the career of their eventful destiny, was the beginning of many things; but what I observe on now is that it was the beginning of new chances, new impulses, and new guarantees for civilized life, in the truest and worthiest sense of the words. It was this by bringing society a morality which was serious and powerful, and a morality which would wear and last—one which could stand the shocks of human passion, the desolating spectacle of successful wickedness, the insidious waste of unconscious degeneracy—one which could go back to its sacred springs, and repair its fire and its strength. Such a morality, as Roman greatness was passing away, took possession of the ground. Its beginnings were scarcely felt, scarcely known of, in the vast movement of affairs in the greatest of empires. By and by its presence, strangely austere, strangely gentle, strangely tender, strangely inflexible, began to be noticed; but its work was long only a work of indirect preparation. Those whom it charmed, those whom it opposed, those whom it tamed, knew not what was being done for the generations which were to follow them. They knew not, while they heard of the household of God and the universal brotherhood of man, that the most ancient and most familiar institution of their society, one without which they could not conceive its going on—slavery—was receiving the fatal wound of which, though late, too late, it was at last to die. They knew not, when they were touched by the new teaching about forgiveness and mercy, that a new value was being insensibly set on human life, new care and sympathy planted in society for human suffering, a new horror awakened at human bloodshed. They knew not, while they looked on men dying, not for glory or even country, but for convictions and an invisible truth, that a, new idea was springing up of the sacredness of conscience, a new reverence beginning for veracity and faithfulness. They knew not that a new measure was being established of the comparative value of riches and all earthly things. . . . They knew not of the great foundations laid for public duty and public spirit. . . . They little thought of what was in store for civil and secular society, as they beheld a number of humble men, many of them foreigners, plying their novel trade of preachers and missionaries. . . . Slowly, obscurely, imperfectly, most imperfectly, these seeds of blessing for society began to ripen, to take shape, to gain power. The time was still dark and wintry and tempestuous, and the night was long in going. It is hard even now to discern there the promise of what our eyes have seen. I suppose it was impossible then." DEAN CHURCH.
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LECTURE I
THE SOCIOLOGICAL SCOPE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS Missions a social as well as religious ministry.
CHRISTIAN missions, according to every fair and proper criterion, have long since fully vindicated their claim to be ranked as a religious force in the world. Are they also a humanizing ministry? They touch and transform individual lives. Do they also reach and influence society as a whole? They are the makers of new men with purified and ennobled characters, and they give birth to new ecclesiastical institutions. Do they also implant a new spirit and give a better tone to society, resulting in changed conditions, higher ideals of life, and remedial measures which are indicative of a new era in non-Christian nations? We know that they teach a new religion of the heart. Do they also advocate and seek to establish a more refined moral code for the domestic, social, commercial, philanthropic, and even national life of mankind? It has been the custom hitherto, on the part of many devout minds, to regard missions as exclusively a religious crusade, with a strictly evangelistic aim; but observant students of the Christian progress of the world are persuaded that they discover a larger scope and a more comprehensive meaning in this great epochal movement, which has developed to such magnificent proportions in our present century. The evangelistic aim is still first, as it ever will be, and unimpeachable in its import and dignity; but a new significance has been given to missions as a factor in the social regeneration of the world. They begin to appear in the somewhat unexpected rôle of a sociological force, with a beneficent trend in the direction of elevating human society, modifying traditional evils, and introducing reformatory ideals.
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It cannot be said that this is indeed a new conception of their import when we consider the historic relation of Christianity to human progress ; yet it comes to many of us with a certain freshness, simply because its identification with the scope and purpose of modern missions has been allowed to lapse to an unwarrantable extent. Scoial results a later and more indirect product than the spiritual.It is natural that this aspect should appear later, and progress more slowly than evangelism. It is not in reality the first and inspiring purpose of missions which have been instituted primarily in obedience to the commands to "go ... teach all nations," and "go ... preach the gospel to every creature." Social results are rather of a secondary and indirect character, and are conditioned upon a measure of success in the transformation of individual lives, and their visible organization in institutions representative of Christian principles. Such results are not apt to appear so conspicuously and promptly that they take precedence of the more spiritual fruits of mission effort. They follow in the train of Christian missions, and come to the front with more difficulty and with a less pronounced manifestation than attends individual conversion. The lifting up of Christian standards and the gentle coercion of Christian ideals in the face of the reigning spirit and traditional customs of ancient society must at first necessarily elicit prompt obstructionism and arouse some resentment. If Christian teachings are to be applied to the reconstruction of society in non-Christian lands, they must contend with the mighty forces of heredity, physical, intellectual, and moral. They must rudely disturb the hitherto undisputed supremacy of the individual, domestic, social, and national environment. They must cross the path of many prevailing customs, and even, in some cases, of religious conviction and practice. They must bid defiance, in many instances, to public sentiment, and condemn lapsed standards and evil customs which pass unchallenged because of their familiar and commonplace character. They must enter into conflict with undisciplined natures, given over to darling sins, demoralized by evil habits, defective in will power, and blighted by ignorance. The social conflicts of Christian missions must therefore be fought at an enormous disadvantage against overwhelming odds, while their victories in this sphere must come gradually and with little visible éclat. There are some features of this sociological scope of missions which demand at the outset a word of comment. It should be noted, in the first place, that missions as a social force in the non-Christian world deal with the ethical and humane aspects of society, and with primitive rather
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Their sphere ethical and humane rather than economic.than with modern economic problems. They come in contact with what may be called, judged by the standards of modern civilization, initial phases of social development, and deal at once with fundamental questions of social morality. They bring the first principles of Christianity, in its application to the associate life of man, to bear at points where moral principle is at stake. They impinge upon social customs where they are in conflict with the ethical standards of God's Word. They seek to introduce new ideas where the old are incompatible with Christ's teaching. Their sphere of activity is in that fundamental realm of morals where at vital points civilization is differentiated from barbarism, where the simplest principles of right and wrong become the bases either of a just and orderly social system, or its opposite. Some of the present problems which are to the front in Christendom are hardly recognized in the environment of heathenism. The economic questions, so perplexing and so threatening in our own social system, arising out of the relation of capital to labor, the mutual obligations of employer and employed, the unequal distribution of wealth, the relation of the classes to the masses, and of the Church to society as a whole, have hardly appeared as yet in the non-Christian world, at least in those aspects of them with which we are familiar. The remarkable industrial and economic development of such a country as Japan indicates, however, that they may come to the front much sooner than we anticipate. The socialistic, communistic, and anarchical movements also, which have become so prominent within the bounds of modern civilization, have not become identified to any extent with the social experience of mission lands. A still further emphasis may be given to the ethical character of the social changes which missions are accomplishing by noting that it is not their function to impose Western civilization in its material, secular, external, and what might be called its æsthetic aspects upon Eastern communities, but rather to infuse the universal spirit and tone of Christian principles into existing social arrangements with the least possible disturbance to established institutions and customs. If these are an offense to Christian morals, and are at variance with the spirit of the Christian religion, then the social influence of missions is bound to make itself felt in a somewhat aggressive, or at least deprecating, attitude. Great tact and wisdom, large charity, much patience and good sense are necessary, however, to avoid carrying the social mandates of Christianity too far. Its influence should never be invoked in a way to denationalize native races and interfere unnecessarily with
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social environment, where in its spirit and practice the traditional code does not conflict with Christian teachings. Customs which are of acknowledged value and propriety in the West may not be desirable in the more primitive East, and so the standards which prevail within the precincts of Western society may prove not only unnecessary, but, in some cases, burdensome and ridiculous in the simpler life of undeveloped races. The social influence of missions confirmed by history.In the second place, it should be noted that this view of missions is historic. It dates back to the experience of the early centuries. The testimony of history sustains and enforces it. Christianity has always had a social mission of the highest import.1 Its effect upon the society of the Roman Empire was one of the turning-points in the progress of the race. The whole outcome of Christian missions in the past is the Occidental Christendom of the present, and we have the best of reasons to believe that the outcome of Christian missions in the present will be the larger, even the world-wide, Christendom of the future. In the last analysis, the Christianizing of modern life may be traced to the missionary efforts of past centuries.2 Civilization is a relative term, and may vary in its significance at different stages of history. There was a civilization in the heathen world when Christianity was founded, but it was heathen civilization. The missions of apostolic and post-apostolic times put the spirit of Christianity into the old Grecian, Roman, and Oriental civilizations, and grafted moral forces into the political, commercial, intellectual, æsthetic, and social life of the westward-moving empires.3 The result is what we call Christian civilization. In its controlling spirit, its moral standards, and its ultimate ideals, it is the product of Christian teaching applied to the social life of man.4 It is distinguished from non-Christian civilization not simply 1 Storrs, " The Divine Origin of Christianity Indicated by its Historical Effects,"
Lecture V. 2 Dean Church, " The Gifts of Civilization," pp. 155-249. 3 Ibid., pp. 129-151. 4 "Yet the Church has a side turned toward all these other matters, especially
to all efforts for the social good and bettering of mankind, and cannot but interest herself in these efforts, and lend what aid to them she can. She has her protest to utter against social injustice and immorality; her witness to bear to the principles of conduct which ought to guide individuals and nations in the various departments
of their existence; her help to bring to the solution of the questions which spring up in connection with capital and labor, rich and poor, rulers and subjects; her influence to throw into the scale on behalf of 'whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report' (Phil. iv. 8). A wholesome tone in literature, a Christian spirit in art and science, a healthy temper in amusements, wise and beneficent legislation on Christian principles in the councils of the nation, the spirit of long-suffering, peace, forbearance, and generosity brought into the relations of men with one another in society, Christian ideals in the relations of nations to one another, self-sacrificing labors for the amelioration and elevation of the condition of the masses of the people—these are matters in which the Church can never but be interested. Else she foregoes her calling, and may speedily expect to be removed out of her place."—Orr, " The Christian View of God and the World," p. 410.
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by its material features, but by its moral and spiritual tone. It is not railroads in distinction from Roman highways, or mails at the rate of fifty miles an hour instead of human messengers, or telegrams in place of signals, or the printed page rather than the written manuscript, or Gatling guns in lieu of battering-rams, which differentiate the new civilization from the old; it is rather the spirit which dominates the age, the tone which pervades life, the moral quality of aspirations, the ultimate tendencies of social transformations, and the spiritual ideals of progress and reform, which give the Christian character to civilization. If this is true, the social influence of Christianity is of the highest import and value in the realization of these ideals. The objection may occur to some minds that Christianity, in view of its internal divisions and antagonisms, is credited with a more direct and influential efficiency than it deserves, in assigning to it so prominent a part in the creation of modern Christendom. This objection, however, loses its force when we consider that the divisions of the Christian Church have arisen in the domain of doctrine rather than of practical Christianity. The evangelical churches especially have always been in sufficient agreement in matters of practice and duty to present a substantially solid front in the presence of adverse social tendencies. There has been little dispute among them about the Ten Commandments, little diversity of opinion about the common moralities of life and the essential principles of every-day Christian living. There have been no noticeable schisms in evangelical circles with reference to the ideas of brotherhood, marriage, the common rights of humanity, the ethics of the Gospel, the elements of Christian character, or the obligations of philanthropy. There has been little real divergence of conviction or of practice in the realm of practical righteousness. Christianity, then, has accomplished its social mission with singleness of aim, and has impressed its ethical principles with substantial unity of purpose upon all the Christian centuries. The third point to be noted is that the function of Christian missions
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The larger significance of missions.in the social progress of the world has far more scope and significance than we have been accustomed to associate with it. As there is invariably a background of divine environment to truth which is far more extensive than the immediate foreground upon which we are permitted to look, so there is sure to be an expansiveness of scope and a largeness of purpose in God's providential plans, of which we have little consciousness in our present apprehension of them. We see, for instance, that foreground of revealed truth which comes within our intellectual vision; but the mind fails to measure the immensity of the background, as it stretches away in dim perspective into the mysterious eternity of divine thought. So we see the leading and nearer outlines of the providential workings of God; but the full scope and significance of the divine purpose is too large for us to grasp except dimly and partially. Even a mighty exercise of faith in the power of the Almighty and the grandeur of His purposes can give us but a very imperfect conception of what the reality will be. The ideals which lie hidden in God's thoughts are to be revealed to us only as the reward of long endeavor, and the fruition of heroic service. The divine environment of social evolution.It is also worthy of note in this connection that the social evolution, over which Providence presides, and in which Christian missions have a decisive part to play, is a broad and varied stream of influence. It is true that the most important, infact the fundamental, working factor in it all is the living Gospel planted in the individual heart.1 This is the supreme moral force which is brought to bear in social progress; but it is fair to say that religion is not the only instrumentality which God uses for the advancement of society. There are agencies, more or less secular in their character, which are subsidized by Providence in coöperation with religion, and which produce a rounded development in the direction of higher things. God, who presides over all evolution, 1 " For as Christians we hold, and all experience goes to confirm our conviction, that we are not set on earth to contemplate passively an evolution wrought out about us and in us, but to be soldiers on a battle-field, charged to prepare and hasten the coming of the Lord. Further knowledge of the conditions by which our action is limited does not lessen the claims of duty, but tends to guide us to more fruitful endeavors. A vivid perception of a purpose surely fulfilled according to our observation does not deprive us of childly trust in Him who works before our eyes. The observed facts of evolution do not dispense with the thought of God. Nay, rather, they postulate His action—to speak in the language of men—as the simplest hypothesis to explain, or, more truly, to describe intelligibly, the progress which they represent."—Bishop Westcott, " The Incarnation and Common Life," p. 46.
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has not despised natural agencies, but uses them continually in their proper place as instruments, while at the same time He has brought to bear upon humanity forces which are above nature, and which in the end have dominated and guided the whole process, and will continue so to do. The reconstructive function of Christianity in mission fields.This is true of sociology, even though it is viewed so narrowly as to limit its range to the domain of the physical sciences, and is regarded as concerned with the growth of society simply from the viewpoint of naturalism. God has never left even nature to superintend itself, however we may be constrained by appearances to think so. If we include, however, the psychological, ethical, and religious forces, which have had such an influential mission in social development, we find all the more reason to predicate a divine guidance and direction to the agencies that have moulded the progress of mankind.1 In fact, these moral and religious influences touching the higher life of man have proved the determining factors in designating the goal of improvement, and guiding man toward it, while at the same time God has utilized a large and varied volume of natural forces as chosen instrumentalities in consummating His purpose. He has thus, in our day, subsidized the whole realm of modern civilization to coöperate with the higher spiritual agencies of missions as secondary instrumentalities for the accomplishment of His larger plans. The facilities of education, literature, medical science, diplomacy, colonization, commerce, modern inventions, and even the dread realities of war, are all made subservient in the providence of God to the advancement of His kingdom.2 Let us, then, seek to grasp this larger sociological scope, this 1 " The kingdom is not something which humanity produces by its own efforts, but something which comes to it from above. It is the entrance into humanity of a new life from heaven. In its origin, its powers, its blessings, its aims, its end, it is supernatural and heavenly. Hence it is the kingdom of heaven, and two stadia are distinguished in its existence—an earthly and an eternal; the latter being the aspect that chiefly prevails in the epistles."—Orr, " The Christian View of God and the World," p. 405. 2 " Christ, accordingly, gives us many indications of His true view of the relation of His kingdom to society. The world is His Father's, and human paternity is but a lower reflection of the divine Fatherhood. Marriage is a divine institution, to be jealously guarded, and Christ consecrated it by His special presence and blessing. The State also is a divine ordinance, and tribute is due to its authorities. The principles He lays down in regard to the use and perils of wealth, love to our neighbor in his helplessness and misery, the care of the poor, the infinite value of the soul, etc., introduce new ideals, and involve principles fitted to transform the whole social system. His miracles of healing show His care for the body. With this correspond His injunctions to His disciples. He does not pray that they may be taken out of the world, but only that they may be kept from its evil. They are rather to live in the world, showing by their good works that they are the sons of their Father in heaven, are to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Out of this life in the world will spring a new type of marriage relation, of family life, of relation between masters and servants, of social existence generally. It cannot be otherwise, if Christ's kingdom is to be the leaven He says it shall be. The apostles, in their views on all these subjects, are in entire accord with Christ." —Ibid., p. 408.
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broadly reconstructive function of Christian missions, and recognize in this great task which has been assigned to the Christian Church a sacred and high call of service in the interest of social renovation as well as individual redemption.1 This inquiry pertinent at the present stage of mission progress.A fourth remark is in place as to the timeliness of this theme in the present horoscope of missions. A striking characteristic of our age is the existence of an almost universal effort to readjust Christianity to social life. A widespread feeling prevails that Christianity is not quite in its proper attitude to society; nor does it occupy its legitimate sphere of influence in the realm of every-day human life. Even among professing Christians its sway is too feeble and inoperative as a rule and guide of life, while in the sphere of public morals, social obligation, civil responsibility, commercial dealings, and all the delicate and burning questions of modern life, it is often strangely in the background. The situation produces unrest and confusion of mind on the part of many. It gives occasion for intemperate condemnation of Christianity on the one hand, and for the advocacy of foolish and drastic remedies of the doctrinaire order on the other hand. It sorely tries the spirits of sincere Christians of the loyal and conservative type, and gives an undesirable stimulus to the too inventive imaginations of radicals of the inflammable and infallible species. It is not only a time of testing and thoughtful scrutiny of the formula of truth, but of the practical adaptation of truth and its responsible adjustment to the problems and mysteries of our modern life. It is, moreover, a time of searching inquiry into the adequacy of Christianity as a remedy for the ills and disappointments of social progress.2 Men are asking, as never before, 1 "The Christian view affirms that the historical aim of Christ's work was the founding of a kingdom of God on earth, which includes not only the spiritual salvation of individuals, but a new order of society, the result of the action of the spiritual forces set in motion through Christ."—Ibid., p. 39. 2 "And what is the remedy for this reproach, but to show that Christianity is a power also for temporal and social salvation, a leaven which is to permeate the whole lump of humanity? It is on this side that a great and fruitful field opens itself up for Christian effort in the present day, on this side that Christianity finds itself in touch with some of the most characteristic movements of the time. The ideals of the day are preëminently social; the key-word of positivism is 'altruism'—the organization of humanity for social efforts ; the call is to a 'service of humanity'; the air is full of ideas, schemes, Utopias, theories of social reform; and we, who believe that Christianity is the motive power which alone can effectually attain what these systems of men are striving after, are surely bound to put our faith to the proof, and show to men that in deed and in truth, and not in word only, the kingdom of God has come nigh to them. We know something of what Christianity did in the Roman Empire as a power of social purification and reform; of what it did in the middle ages in the Christianizing and disciplining of barbarous nations; of the power it has been in modern times as the inspiration of the great moral and philanthropic movements of the century; and this power of Christianity is likely to be yet greater in the future than in the past. There is yet vast work to be accomplished ere the kingdom of God is fully come."—Ibid., p. 378.
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for clearer evidence of its power to lead the world into ways of righteousness and paths of peace. There is a wistful yearning on the part of some, an impatient scorn on the part of others, as to the real character of its results in the history of the world after all these centuries. Nothing, then, could be more pertinent than an inquiry as to the outcome of Christian missions in the natural, and as yet untouched, environments of heathen society. What is its record in the world's open, away from the vantage-ground of Christendom, and separated from the éclat of its social prestige? Have missions and sociology any common ground?The question might be interposed just here whether we have not taken too much for granted in the preceding statements. Are we justified in thus associating Christian missions and sociology ? If we should approach the subject from the standpoint of sociology as a science, would we find that this association is sanctioned by the scientific spirit or justified by historic facts? Has sociology anything in common with Christian missions? This is a fair question, and deserves a candid and careful answer. We feel bound to advance the claim that Christian missions have already produced social results which are manifest, and that society in the non-Christian world at the present time is conscious of a new and powerful factor which is working positive and revolutionary changes in the direction of a higher civilization.1 1 " In the history of this country there is nothing more clearly seen than the distributive force of Christian missions in their uplifting and sanctifying power. The Gospel found the people enslaved. Like the proverbial stone which, when thrown into the water, makes concentric circles on the surface, so the Gospel has created and developed everything that is healthy and hopeful in the life of the people. Slavery has disappeared before the teaching of Gospel truth, but no small disturbance was made before the victory was won. In a small country we can more easily estimate the results of social movements, and trace them to their source; and with regard to this island I have no hesitation in declaring that the influences which nourish society come from church and school, and they are slowly, silently, and irresistibly at work."—Rev. George McNeill (U. P. C. S.), Mount Olivet, Jamaica. " It is in a measure difficult to trace every advance in civilization to its real cause, and likewise to trace every advance in moral enlightenment to what we believe to be its true origin. So in Japan it is almost impossible to show that every step upward is directly the outcome of mission work, although in some form or other mission work, operating either through the agencies of missionaries upon the field, or through the agencies of Christian literature, or a literature imbued with Christian teaching which has found its way to Japan, has, I believe, been the real medium through which the wonderful force has acted which has upturned the deep-rooted customs of ages, and worked over the soil until it has become capable of producing the marvelous growth of the last thirty or thirty-five years."—.W. N. Whitney, M.D., United States Legation, Japan. "I believe in the Gospel, heart and soul, as the only remedy for the ills of humanity. Nothing else gets to the root of things. All that differentiates the Madagascar of the present day from that of half a century ago—I might say from the native dwelling to the queen's palace—is, either directly or indirectly, mostly directly, due to the work of Christian missionaries and Christian missionary artisans."— Rev. R. Baron (L. M. S.), Antananarivo, Madagascar.
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While this may be conceded, it may yet be asked whether this fact comes within the scope of sociology as a science, since it clearly predicates a moral and religious agency which approaches non-Christian society from without, and works by means of spiritual forces with a predominantly religious aim. The true scope and aim of sociology.Sociology is still searching for its final definitions, and feeling after its own distinctive province and scope; but enough has been settled in regard to its place in the classification of modern learning to indicate that it is, in a broad sense, the science of human society. Perhaps a more adequate designation would be the science of the origin, growth, and welfare of the collective life of mankind. It proposes a scientific search for the genesis of associate life; it seeks to elaborate the laws and processes of its growth; it aims at a classification of its elementary constituents and its active forces; it would know the secrets of the normal development of society, and the remedies for its abnormal phases. Its great and ultimate aim is the scientific development and conservation of human society, and the successful ministry to its defects and miseries. In this sense, it is not simply descriptive, resulting in a mere historic chart of social development, or in simply " an interpretation of human society in terms of natural causation," as Herbert Spencer would teach us; it is dynamic as well, taking cognizance of the psychological forces which, in connection especially with the voluntary endowment of man, have entered so vigorously into the evolutionary progress of human society. Its function, viewed in this
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aspect of it, may be designated as the practical building up of society, not simply its rescue from its calamities and miseries, although this is an important department. It proposes a scientific study of the normal, wholesome activities of society in all their manifold forms and tendencies, with a view to discovering the dominating forces which control the collective life of man, and the laws of its progress and healthful development.1 As there is a large part of social experience which is, unhappily, of an abnormal character, revealing itself in the dependent, defective, and delinquent classes, sociology must include these phases of society, and, under the familiar formula of "Charities and Correction," elaborate remedial measures to meet their requirements.2 The sociological power of the religions environment.As man has not merely a physical or animal, but also a psychic endowment peculiar to himself, as he is gifted with moral faculties and spiritual life capable of responding to religious motives, we must include religious forces among the working factors of sociology. In fact, the spiritual or religious environment of man is perhaps as aggressive and controlling in its power, where it has any vital connection with the character, as any other influence which moves his inner life. Mr. Benjamin Kidd is correct in his contention that the religious forces of history, emphasizing as he does those distinctively Christian, are necessary factors in a full and rounded social evolution.3 Neither cosmic forces nor psychological activities can show results which, in their vigor and effectiveness, can be compared with those produced by the influence of religion in shaping the higher life of society. By society we mean a mass of individuals standing in certain complex relations to one another, and moving on towards a more developed organization in domestic, civil, economic, and ethical aspects. Its practical outcome is the coöperative or associate life of man, inspired by a spirit of mutual consideration and helpfulness—this social instinct being constitutional in man, the result of natural tendency rather than the mandate of necessity or the product of environment. Society cannot be called an organism in the biological or physiological sense of the word, but only in the larger spiritual suggestiveness of the term, implying in- 1 Rev. C. D. Hartranft, D.D., President of Hartford School of Sociology. 2 Henderson, "An Introduction to the Study of the Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes" (see preface). Cf. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, September, 1894, p. 120. 3 "Social Evolution," pp. 123-126.
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terdependence and interaction, based, not upon physical structure, but upon higher relationships of a psychic or volitional character. Christianity the true social touchstone.These religious forces have affected society in all lands and in all ages of the world, not always to the advantage of humanity, but in some cases to its decided injury and retrogression; but nevertheless they have worked almost universally and incessantly. The saving feature in this aspect of social development is that there has always been a divinely given religious cult in the world which has possessed the unmistakable credentials of God, and has represented His wisdom and His will among men. The Christian system we believe to be the outcome of the progressive revelation of divine teaching and guidance. This is the religion in which Christendom confides, and to which it owes its moral character and its social advancement, and this is also the religion which Christian missions are carrying to the ends of the earth, and seeking to introduce into the personal and social life of all humanity. To be sure, Christianity makes problems which have never before emerged in non-Christian society. It unmasks social evils, challenges many accepted customs, brands habitual wrongs, and calls to the bar traditional abuses, all of which have dominated society for ages. It is not sociology, which is practically unknown in mission lands, but Christianity which indicates these defects and questions their right to be. But problems must exist before there can be any serious attempt at their solution, and Christianity at the same time that it indicates them points to that solution. It is the delineator and guide of true progress. It is the index-finger which in all human history has pointed the way towards a happier and more perfect social order.1 It teaches with emphasis and moral power that fundamental condition of all social welfare, the voluntary subordination of the interests of the individual to the good of the whole. It is just this that makes religion a vital element in sociology, and a true and rounded sociology an important aspect of religion. Sociology not merely an academic discipline.It may perhaps be objected that strict science cannot include this religious and altruistic scope of sociology, since science draws the line at positive and knowable data. It has to do with facts and phenomena which can be discovered and observed. Sociology has therefore in this delimitation of its scope been lifted out of the realm of exact science and expanded into an ideal of practical achievement. It has become an art, and has therefore lost its proper scientific status. 1 Bascom, " Social Theory," pp. 505-526.
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If this is technically true, does it follow that the result is so demoralizing to the standing and dignity of sociology that it cannot be accepted? Is it not possible to regard sociology as more than an exact science, with its phenomena, its forces, and its laws? May it not be counted also a philosophy, with its theoretical principles and ideals? Nay; can it not assume also the aspect and scope of a practical art, with its established rules, its executive methods, and its tangible products? If it aims at the production of a coherent system of scientific knowledge concerning social phenomena, and the exposition of the principles which exercise a determining influence in social progress, must it be bound hand and foot just here and be ruled out of the sphere of service and ministry which opens in the realm of application ? Sociology, wrapped in the garments of a fundamental science, sitting in quiet dignity within the closed doors of the university class-room, may be an attractive academic conception; but it assumes this exclusive position only at the sacrifice of precious opportunities of usefulness, and the neglect of a high call of responsibility and service.1 Like many of the noblest sciences of our day, it involves interests so vital to human welfare that it cannot possibly be confined within the narrow lines of an academic discipline. We should have learned, from the change which in the course of a single generation has come over the spirit of political economy, that the secret of life and power in every science which finds its sphere in the realm of human development and welfare is not scientific exclusiveness nor philosophical precision, but moral tendency and practical utility. The old political economy was a creed; the new political economy is a life. The environment of the old was an aggregation of maxims in the realm of theoretical science; the new is a programme of practical living in the arena of actual contact—man with man. Let us not fall into the mistake of relegating our sociology to the interior of a scholastic classroom. It will be sure to break away from such restrictions, and in the interest not only of its practical usefulness, but of its true scientific scope as well, to assert and establish its identification with the larger and nobler life and the higher moral welfare of society. It is so compre- 1 Among the demands of our age to which a fully rounded system of sociology should respond may be noted the following: a demand " for the construction on the basis of scientific observation of social ideals to which the nature of men and society may be gradually readjusted," and "for the utilization of knowledge about society, i.e., the practical application of social forces in such a way as to give development at least a tendency towards an ideal." See an article on "The Province of Sociology," by George E. Vincent, in The American Journal of Sociology, January, 1896, p. 485.
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hensive in its range, so inclusive in its purpose, so practical in its results, that it is truly a science of human progress, with its philosophic ideals and its practical aspirations.1 It would be a lamentable mistake to banish from sociology the motive power of an " ought" or deprive it of the inspiration of an ideal. In what sense may the expression "Christian sociology" be properly used?There has been much discussion as to whether the expression "Christian sociology" is proper. The answer we would give is that, while a true system of sociology includes religion as one of its factors, it is not for this reason by any means sociology clear that the word " Christian" is necessary or even desirable as a general description of the science. If, however, those fundamental ethical principles of sociology which are derived from the Bible and based upon the teachings of Christ should be differentiated from other didactic aspects of the science, then the word " Christian" may be in place as a designation of that phase of sociological instruction which is drawn from and based directly upon the Christian Scriptures. To the more strictly scientific realm of sociological research it has no application whatever, but as a convenient combination to indicate the social cult which Christianity especially implies and enforces it is useful and proper.2 That the Christian religion 1 "If sociology is to stand and hold the place claimed for it, it must be constructive and address itself to the work of applying social principles to concrete social problems. If sociology is a real, coherent science, then we may expect from it large results of great practical moment. That it has not become a science clearly defined, and in its purpose accepted by all scholars and those seeking better social conditions, is in part owing to its unwillingness to avow any constructive aim. The sciences dealing with man in society can no longer remain indifferent or hostile to moral laws which underlie all social progress. There is more to be done than to gather statistical data and investigate phenomena apart from moral forces. The work of sociology only begins with the observation of existing phenomena. We hold that it must give society a knowledge of how to create phenomena that shall be just, how to apply principles that will lead to right social motives and visions. . . . "We believe that sociology should study the whole field of societary phenomena, investigating uniformities and details in order to develop right principles of living, right views of social relations. What is asked of sociology is a true science of human society. It is not enough to learn how the social phenomena we have about us came to be developed; we want, besides this, a firm grasp on the laws, and the causes producing them, and then a knowledge of how so to modify and control them that an improved society will result. Sociology must become a philosophy of society, explaining what is, and also revealing what ought to be."—Social Economist, December, 1895, pp. 362, 363. 2 "This desired definition is to be found in the use of the word 'Christian' as parallel with such adjectives as Hegelian, Aristotelian, Baconian. Just as the philosophies bearing these names are respectively the gifts of Hegel and Aristotle and Bacon, so Christian sociology should mean the sociology of Christ; that is, the social philosophy and teachings of Christ. In this restricted sense the term is both legitimate and capable of an at least tentatively scientific content. "It may be objected that no such philosophy and teachings exist—that Jesus was a teacher of religion and morals, and that beyond the realm of these subjects. His words are as few as those concerning biology or historical criticism. Such a view, however, is not easily tenable. While it is evident that Jesus has given us no system of social teachings, He certainly was no more a systematic theologian than He was a sociologist. And, a priori, it would be a singular phenomenon if Christian teaching and life, which has everywhere effected the most remarkable social changes, should itself be possessed of no sociological content. It is not altogether a reply to say that good men must necessarily produce social improvements. Good Brahmans in India have not greatly elevated women, and good Greeks in Athens supported slavery. Advance in civilization has not been accomplished by simply producing individuals of high religious and moral character. Since the days when the law went forth forbidding the branding of criminals, Christian impulses have been quite as much social as individual. The yeast of the kingdom has been quite as much political as personal. Is it altogether impossible that He whose teachings have upturned empires and founded new civilizations should have been altogether unsuspicious of the social and political forces that lay within His words ?" —Professor Shailer Mathews in article on "Christian Sociology," The American Journal of Sociology, July, 1895, p. 70. Cf. also article on "Christian Sociology," by James A. Quarles, D.D., The Presbyterian Quarterly, January, 1896, and article on " What is Sociology? " by Z. Swift Holbrook, The Bibliotheca Sacra, July, 1895.
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involves moral forces which touch society to the quick and stir it to its depths with masterly impact and energy cannot be denied. These mighty incentives must be reckoned with in any satisfactory interpretation of social progress and in any true system of sociology, and it does not seem an impossible thing to do this by some easy device of terminology which would clearly indicate the various scientific, philosophical, and practical aspects which a complete sociological system must include. While we cannot but admit the incongruity of the word "Christian" in connection with methods of research and historical study, yet, as descriptive of the spirit of the philosophical ideal and of the aim which, under the guidance of Christianity, controls the practical application, we must recognize a Christian in distinction from a purely scientific or non-biblical sociology.1 1 "Christianity is found in the very warp and woof of human social life. Its institutions are part of the material of human society. Christianity is a tremendous social force, and its sacred books are a mine of rich sociological material, which has been hardly opened by the sociologist as it should be. These resources are therefore indispensable to the sociologist. They are so great and important that he may well treat them under the appropriately scientific title of 'Christian Sociology.'"— S. W. Dike, L.L.D., The Homiletic Review, August, 1895, pp. 176, 177.
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Christian sociology distinquished from Christian socialism.We are considering, let it be remembered, sociology and not socialism, which are two distinct ideas. Socialism is an untried ideal, and, at present, a very unsettled theory of social reconstruction: sociology is a careful collation and study of data with a view to the elaboration of the scientific basis of a constructive, well-balanced, and healthful development. The expression "Christian socialism" leads us into another and different field of thought, which it is not in place here to discuss. It may be remarked, however, that the relation of the Church to social reform as advocated by Christian socialism is not to be identified with sociology. The expression at least raises the question whether it is wise for Christianity to identify itself with a theory which may or may not be workable under the auspices of the Christian religion. Sociology in its constructive aspects predominantly ethical.Sociology, then, is a scientific effort to understand society, the laws of its growth, the philosophy of its progress, the true secret of its healthy advance, and the effective remedy for its defects. In its constructive aspects it is in a vital sense a science of morals. The deepest and noblest forces which characterize it are ethical. It has been described as " ethics applied to the economic situation."1 This is not denying that there are also physical, psychological, and economic forces at work too, but it is simply asserting that the most effective and only permanently hopeful forces which work towards the ideal goal have their springs in the moral and religious environment of man. A wise and useful sociology can never be content with simply a knowledge and classification of phenomena. Sciences with a direct bearing upon human welfare usually have what may be designated as primary and ultimate aims. The primary aim is to determine and systematize phenomena and principles. The ultimate aim is practical, involving the use and application of the knowledge so obtained. We see this illustrated in theology, medicine, law, and political economy. It holds true also in sociology, its primary aim being to study social phenomena, to examine and classify them, and ascertain the laws which may be deduced therefrom, and its ultimate aim being to apply this knowledge to 1 Professor Peabody, in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, September, 1894, p. 117. "History is sociological evolution. I should say that ethics, looked at not from an historical and descriptive standpoint, but from that of improvement, is identical with sociology. It is sociology working towards the goal of human betterment."— Professor J. R. Commons, ibid., p. 116.
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the nourishment and healthy growth of normal society and the remedial treatment of abnormal humanity. In this applied aspect it is broadly humanitarian. Its ultimate aim is therefore constructive. It is capable of scientific treatment, and at the same time yields itself to philosophical elaboration and to practical application. It becomes not simply a science, but a benign philosophy and a practical art for guiding and helping humanity in its struggles and triumphs.1 Sociology an inclusive and comprehensive science.Sociology is a word which has come to stay; it is a science with a great future. Other sciences in a certain sense contribute to its greatness and its usefulness.2 It is indebted to history, ethnology, anthropology, law, politics, economics, ethics, and kindred sciences for important data upon which it can base its generalizations, and it aims to make all knowledge subservient to its higher and grander purpose of guiding humanity towards its social goal. It is both a supplement and a complement to all the social sciences.3 It can draw much of its inspiration from Christianity, and in its moral principles it can have no safer and wiser guide. Its purest impulses and its most effective service will be based upon the golden rule and prompted by the golden example of Christ.4 Through the sacred urgency and the su- 1 On the importance of sociology in the educational curriculum, consult " Sociology in Institutions of Learning," being a report of the seventh section of the International Congress of Charities, Correction, and Philanthropy, Chicago, June, 1893, edited by Amos G. Warner, Ph.D., Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1894. 2 "Sociology is an advanced study, the last and latest in the entire curriculum. It should, perhaps, be mainly postgraduate. It involves high powers of generalization, and, what is more, it absolutely requires a broad basis of induction. It is largely a philosophy, and in these days philosophy no longer rests on assumptions, but on facts. To understand the laws of society the mind must be in possession of a large body of knowledge. This knowledge should not be picked up here and there at random, but should be instilled in a methodical way. It should be fed to the mind with an intelligent purpose in view, and that purpose should be the preparation of the mind for ultimately entering the last and most difficult as well as most important field of human thought, that of sociology. Therefore history, political economy, and the other generic branches should first be prosecuted as constituting the necessary preparation for the study of the higher ordinal principles. . . . "We see, then, the high place which sociology, properly defined, should hold among the sciences, and how clear and incisive are the boundaries which mark it off from all other branches of learning. It is the cap-sheaf and crown of any true system of classification of the sciences, and it is also the last and highest landing on the great staircase of education."—Lester F. Ward, "The Place of Sociology among the Sciences," in The American Journal of Sociology, July, 1895, pp. 25, 27. 3 Professor R. T. Ely, "Outline of Economics," p. 82. 4 Cf. Professor Shailer Mathews on Christ's teachings concerning society, in article on "Christian Sociology," in The American Journal of Sociology, November, 1895, PP. 359-380.
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preme motives of religion it will accomplish its most benign triumphs. It presents a noble opportunity for the Church to inculcate its religious teachings and impress its practical morality upon the social sciences of our age,1 which, if we read aright the signs of the times, will ultimately supplant to a considerable extent the physical sciences in that position of preëminence which they have held, and take possession of the field as perhaps the most distinctive intellectual and moral characteristic of the coming century. Even though we accept the noble contention which Professor Drummond, if he did not originate, has at least illumined by his powerful advocacy, namely, that nature herself supplies an altruistic discipline and imparts a humanizing and uplifting culture, yet sociology as it is presented in " The Ascent of Man," if we rightly interpret his meaning, is to be counted the child of naturalism. As there expounded it is difficult to recognize in that system of nature culture, so elaborately idealized, any satisfactory and legitimate relation between sociology and those supernatural agencies and forces which represent God's spiritual activity in the sphere of social evolution, and man's response to the culture power of religion. This judgment should, however, be expressed with diffidence, as the issue of a subsequent volume dealing with man in the era of his historic race development might have shown clearly the place of Christianity in Professor Drummond's scheme of sociology. From the standpoint of Christian faith, utilitarianism, the struggle for existence, the stress of competition, and all the selfish energies which contend in the social arena, are but one aspect—not by any means the most decisive and vitalizing—of the problem of human progress. Moral influences, ethical aspirations, conscientious ideals, the sense of justice, the instincts of brotherhood, the standards of righteousness, the sweet and noble lessons of love and sacrifice as they have always been taught in the divine religion, and the high and authoritative call of service to God and man are also factors of commanding and essential importance in the movement of humanity towards the higher levels of a purified and redeemed society.2 1 Cf. article by Professor Arthur S. Hoyt on "Sociology in Theological Training," The Homiletic Review, November, 1895, p. 459. 2 "Man finds himself part of a social system in which regard for the good of all is the guiding principle that brings order out of confusion. The history of social evolution shows that, in proportion as man gains faith in this principle, and applies it intelligently to wider groups of society and to each and all of the relations of social organization, in that proportion has he advanced in happiness and dignity. "We also find that a very large share of this advancement has been due to Christianity. Though other systems of teaching have dimly apprehended the ideal, they have none of them been able to inspire men with new motives that are able to hold the brutal tendencies of the race strongly in check. In populous regions there seems to have been a slow biological evolution through which altruistic instincts have gained increasing force; but no power outside of Christianity seems able to take man as he is, in any and every land, and set him on a new course. The cause of this wonderful power in Christianity seems to lie in its ability to assure men of the fatherhood of God as well as of the brotherhood of man. Indeed, judging from my own experience and from what I have observed in China and Japan, it seems as if a strong hold on the latter idea, such as will awaken the enthusiasm of humanity, is attained only by those who are filled with the former idea. . . . "This kingdom of God is a kingdom of love, which He assures us is to spread its influence into all lands ;' for the meek shall inherit the earth.' Not only has Christ become a leading factor in the evolution of society, but, in the survival of the meek and the righteous, He has opened to us the philosophy of this higher evolution, and the truth of the philosophy is sustained by the gradual fulfillment of the predictions based on the philosophy."—Rev. John T. Gulick, Ph.D., on " Christianity and the Evolution of Rational Life," The Bibliotheca Sacra, January, 1896, pp. 70, 72.
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Is universal evolution the only postulate of a true sociological system?There seems to be no valid reason apart from the scientific consciousness of our age—so abnormally reluctant to allow any place or scope to the supernatural—to doubt the intervention at times of an original cause in the supposed unbroken continuity of secondary evolutionary processes. As a postulate of philosophy it may be conceded that given an omniscient and omnipotent Creator and a possible exercise of creative power sufficiently inclusive and comprehensive in its scope, evolution as a universal potentiality and an all-inclusive method is conceivable. This is not saying, however, that it is inherently necessary or that it is proven. The very existence of a primal, original cause makes these points open questions. If evolution is conceived to be a pervasive law of nature and life, the marvelous fascination and grandeur of the conception tend to captivate the imagination and take possession of the scientific mind. The temptation to make it a universal law is all-powerful. Every phenomenon of nature, life, intelligence, religion, and destiny must yield to its sway and be interpreted in terms of evolution. This is just the point of issue between the thoroughgoing evolutionist with a naturalistic bias, whose surrender to the intellectual dominion of the idea is apparently complete, and the believer in the supernatural as a factor in history, and especially as a determining agency in the spiritual, intellectual, and social development of man. The first point at issue is, Shall any line be drawn to the universal extension of the law of evolution? If a possible limitation is conceded, a further question arises as to where the lines of limitation must be
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drawn. The burning issue here concerns the origin of man and his religious environment. Is man, body and soul, the product of evolution, and if so, are his religious environment and the whole intellectual, moral, and social outcome of his history all reducible without limitation to the terms of evolution in harmony with processes of natural law? Has God wrought invariably by this method, or, to put it more baldly, has He left nature to work out its own destiny through endless ages of incalculable variation, differentiation, selection, adjustment, survival, development, and progress towards a more complex and perfect existence? Here in simple terminology is the great problem of our age— in fact, of all ages. It may be said in this connection that it is manifestly impossible to make the scientific consciousness of this or any age the final test of truth. If we turn, then, to the evidence available we find a formidable, yet at certain points wholly inconclusive, body of proof for evolution as a universal postulate. Over against this, however, we have to consider the existence of God, His power of intervention, His freedom, the exigencies of His moral government, the introduction of His own spiritual likeness into the system of nature, the establishment of moral responsibility in connection with personality, the gift of immortality, the institution of ethical standards and a test of obedience, the entrance of sin into the experience of man, and the provision of a vast and marvelous remedial system based upon the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the mediatorial offices of Christ, accompanied by a revelation of His will and the active and mystical ministry of the Holy Spirit as a power transcending nature and giving new life and inspiration to man in his struggle for moral achievement and victory. Is all this to be explained in terms of evolution, even though its scope may justly be regarded as immense? When we consider all that is implied of divine agency and environment in human history, are we not touched with the supreme majesty of the supernatural, not in the narrow sense of the miraculous, but in its larger significance as a transcendent conception which cannot be set aside without doing violence to the plain teaching of revelation, infinitely lowering the status of human life and deeply obscuring its destiny? Then there is the hard fact of a race degeneracy which makes it, according to the testimony of experience, not only improbable but impossible, from a moral point of view, that spiritual goodness should be evolved from sin, or truth from error, or renewal from decay. It becomes, therefore, a natural and consistent necessity that God should come to the help of man in the gift of a true, helpful, guiding, regenerating religion, which gives him a new start and provides him
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with the spiritual resources he needs. At three points evolution falters: it fails to account for the existence of life, for the spiritual nature of man as in God's likeness and endowed with an immortal and responsible personality, and, once more, for man's religious environment as embodied in the Christian system. The bearing of the latter point upon social evolution is important. If a supernatural religion has been given, then social evolution has been so far modified and directed. Christianity is an added factor and has its part to play.1 If, therefore, man fails to adjust himself to his spiritual or supernatural environment, social progress lacks its noblest, we might say its essential, factor. It maintains itself on the plane of nature, in an atmosphere of physical or psychic development only, without the higher and more inspiring consciousness of that incarnate personality which is central in Christianity. Christian missions then become a guiding and determining force in the social progress of the world in proportion to their extension and success. Christian missions necessarily a militant social force.This discussion of the scope of sociology has brought us again to the question whether Christian missions should be considered a sociological agency. We reply without hesitation that, Christianity being sociological in its Scope, Christian missions must be so considered, for their one purpose is to propagate Christianity and bring it into touch with the individual heart and with the associate life of man.2 It seems impossible to deny to missions a social scope of immense significance. They deal with the individual, and through him reach society. If they change the religious convictions and the moral character of the man, they put him at once into a new attitude towards the domestic, civil, economic, and ethical aspects of society. If they put the individual right with God they will necessarily transform his attitude towards man into harmony with Christian teaching. They introduce also new institutions into the social life of mankind,—not simply new ecclesiastical organizations, but new educational and philanthropic movements,—and they also plant the germs of new political and industrial ideals, and open a new realm of intellectual and religious thought, which is focused in a wonderful way upon a new conception of liberty and a purer and nobler social life. 1 Cf. article by F. F. Ellinwood, D.D., in The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, April, 1896, pp. 204-206. 2 Cf. " Sociological Christianity a Necessity," The Methodist Review, May, 1891, pp. 449-456.
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Christian missions, moreover, enter an environment where Christianity is bound to overturn and overturn, in the interests of morality, justice, and a larger and freer life to man. It brings "not peace, but a sword." It faces some of the primitive problems of society, and plunges at once into the thick of that tangled mass of traditional ideas and prevailing customs which are characteristic of ancient social systems. As an illustration, consider the attitude of Christian missions towards woman and her condition in the non-Christian world. They have a work to do also in behalf of children, and in the sphere of charities and correction, of industrial education, of medical and philanthropic efforts. In fact, almost every aspect of the ministry of Christianity to dependent, defective, and delinquent social conditions with which we are familiar is or will be open to Christian effort in foreign lands. The Christian missionary is face to face with a colossal criminology, a vast, unregulated, and pitiless penology. He deals with the raw material of all social sciences, with political economy in its savage and crude stage, with social institutions in barbarous confusion or reduced to a rude and primitive order. His life is in the midst of a society which is a perfect web of problems. He is a workman amidst social deterioration and sometimes amidst national decay. Then again it must be borne in mind that the religion he teaches stands for some of the most important sociological ideals—brotherhood, freedom, individual rights, justice, honor, integrity, and Christian ethics. If an ideal may be defined as an inspired and militant idea, then the Christian missionary is the knight errant of social chivalry, with a mission to fight moral evil and strive for the establishment of a nobler, purer, and happier social order wherever God's providence leads him. He is a messenger and a prophet of that kingdom which is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. He works against enormous odds to introduce the Gospel as a factor in the transformation and elevation of human society, and to rescue it from the downward trend. He works in the first instance directly with the individual soul, seeking its spiritual enlightenment and renewal, but in so doing he teaches also lessons in the art of living, and quickens aspirations and implants tendencies which ultimately accomplish a large and beneficent work in the general betterment of society. This is a range of service too broad and complex for foreign missionaries themselves to compass, but they will, so to speak, "set the pace," and give an impetus to the aspirations of native society, which, under the culture of Christianity, will make the coming century an era of immense and benign social progress. Christian missions represent, therefore, what may be designated in
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A majestic power of social transformation inherent in Christ's teachings.unscientific language as accelerated social evolution, or evolution under the pressure of an urgent force which has been introduced by a process of involution. They grapple at close quarters with social conditions which may be regarded in the light of moral standards as in a measure chaotic, "without form, and void." They have to contend alone at first, and perhaps for several generations, with primitive social conditions, the confused result of the age-long struggles of humanity. The spirit of order and moral regeneration has never brooded over that vast social abysm. It has never touched with its reconstructive power the elements heaped together in such strange confusion. Christian missions enter this socially disorganized environment with its varying aspects of degeneracy, ranging from the higher civilization of the Orient to the savagery of barbarous races, and in most cases without the aid of any legal enactments engage in a moral struggle with those old traditions and immemorial customs which have long had their sway as the regnant forces of society. They deal with a religious consciousness almost painfully immature in spiritual things, so that the splendid task of a matured Christian experience as represented in missions is to take by the hand this childhood of the heart and mind, and, by the aid of the rich and effective resources of our modern environment, put it to school—lead it by the shortest path into the largeness of vision and the ripeness of culture which have come to us all too slowly and painfully. What we have sown in tears let them reap in joy. In many foreign fields missions must face conditions which are so complex, so subtle, so elaborately intertwined with the structure of society, so solidified by age, and so impregnably buttressed by the public sentiment of the people, that all attempts at change or modification seem hopeless, and yet slowly and surely the change comes. It comes through the secret and majestic power of moral guidance and social transformation which seems to inhere in that Gospel which Christian missions teach. In this aspect of their work, however high may be the estimate put upon evangelism, they deserve appreciation also as a social ministry, and should have the support and sympathy of every lover of humanity.1 1 "We cannot doubt that God is calling us in this age, through the characteristic teachings of science and of history, to seek a new social application of the Gospel. We cannot doubt, therefore, that it is through our obedience to the call that we shall realize its divine power. The proof of Christianity which is prepared by God, as I believe, for our times, is a Christian society filled with one spirit in two forms— righteousness and love."—Bishop Westcott, "The Incarnation and Common Life," p. 237.
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They are worthy of the notice and the admiration of every student of social science, and should receive the credit which is their due in recognition of their pioneer work in the direction of world-wide social reconstruction. They represent the advance-guard of sociology in its march into the realms of partially civilized or wholly barbarous society. They are partly based upon and largely inspired by the well-founded conviction that the noblest possible synthesis of social phenomena is that in which Christian ideals exercise a guiding and determining influence. In fact, it is the lesson of history that no high ethical product is possible unless Christianity has a controlling power in moulding society. According to the most scientific conception of sociology, Christ is a great sociological leader in human history. He founded a cultural association which has had a mighty influence upon the inner experience and ethical development of society in almost every aspect of its multiform structure and life. The "consciousness of kind" which Professor Giddings emphasizes as the psychological basis of social groupings, and to which he gives such prominence as the controlling influence in social development, is especially prominent in religious life, and is simply the spiritual secret of Christianity as a unifying and sympathetic force in history. Christians are united to Christ by a living, spiritual tie, personal in its character and quickening in its impulses, and are united to one another by the bond of brotherhood and a common faith. The "consciousness of kind" is based upon spiritual likeness and community of life, and this gives to Christianity, as representative of Christ, its power in the social development of mankind. The quality, spirit, power, and inspiration of this consciousness are what give to Christianity a supreme place in moulding social progress. If this kind of consciousness, as well as the consciousness of this kind, could become more potent in the world, there would be a brighter social outlook for the race. It is worthy of note that sociologists of eminence, including such specialists as Professors Giddings, Small, Ely, Patten, Bascom, Henderson, Mathews, Lindsay, and Mackenzie place an appreciative estimate from the scientific standpoint upon missionary effort.1 Whatever may 1 Giddings, "The Principles of Sociology," p. 360; Small and Vincent, "An Introduction to the Study of Society," pp. 363, 364; Ely, cf. "Social Aspects of Christianity," and his introductory note to Fremantle's "The World as the Subject of Redemption"; Bascom, "Sociology," pp. 249, 263, and "Social Theory," pp. 520-526; Henderson, "Rise of the German Inner Mission," The American Journal of Sociology, March, 1896, p. 592; Mathews, "Christian Sociology," ibid., November, 1895, p. 379; Lindsay, cf. Annals of the American Academy, March, 1896, p. 202; Mackenzie, "An Introduction to Social Philosophy," p. 327. Prof. S. N. Patter, writes, "I regard the missionary movement as one of the greatest forces in modern civilization."
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be the special theory of the genesis and growth of society which they hold, yet the missionary idea, as representing the most ardent and persistent effort for the establishment of high ethical standards and the planting of the best cultural agencies among people of retarded or arrested development, commands their respect and approval. The larger vision of God's purpose in missions.The fact that devout men have gone to the mission fields with the single aim of saving individual souls and securing to them a portion in the spiritual benefits of Christianity does not at all indicate that this is all there is to missions. The aim was Christ-like, and was a sign of sublime faith and true heroism, and yet it may not fully represent the length and breadth of God's purpose. God often uses men of one special aim, with a somewhat contracted although vivid and intense conception of their mission, to accomplish through them a work of larger and grander scope than they realize. His intentions are not limited by man's comprehension of them. Many of the most magnificent movements of history have been a surprise to those who have, unwittingly perhaps, contributed by their labors and leadership to bring them about. Duty often means much more than we think it does. God frequently honors a faithful and obedient servant by accomplishing through him more than he expects. In obedience to divine direction, he sows the seed without knowing what the fullness and glory of the harvest will be. In fact, "the work of the Christian reformer," as has been well said, "is that of the sower, and not that of the conqueror." What a chapter of hope, what a vista of beneficent results, open up in the work of missions when we regard it as a chosen instrumentality for the accomplishment of the larger plans of God for human society! The trite sneer at missions, unfortunately so common even among professing Christians, is a miserable anachronism in our age. It is the acme of religious provincialism; it is simply the old Phariseeism in a modern garb. The sublimity and comprehensiveness of their task.Christian missions, as we shall see more fully later, have evidently entered upon a crusade not alone for the spiritual redemption of individual souls, but also with a larger purpose to redeem the life that now is, so that the social desert of the non-Christian world shall some day bloom and blossom as the rose under the ministry and culture of Christianity. They are of necessity charged with this sublime task. The religion of Jesus Christ can never enter non-Christian society and be content to leave things as they are. The life that now is in lands as yet but partially touched by Christianity has in it depths of misery and sorrow, heights of cruel, audacious wrong, lengths of far-
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reaching and crushing iniquity, and breadths of vast social evil, which Christendom, with all its perplexing problems, happily does not reveal. Christianity can never affiliate with these existing evils, nor can it condone them. It must work steadily and inexorably to supplant and abolish them. It must deal patiently with all phases of social defect. It must work with the power of sympathy and by the living energy of its principles to reform these great and brooding wrongs that oppress and dominate heathen society.1 The evangelical spirit and aim of missions must not be supplanted by the sociological method.We would not be understood for a moment, in giving prominence to the sociological scope of missions, to be casting the slightest discredit upon, or even detracting in any sense from, the honor and heavenly sacredness of the evangelical by the sociological purpose. Individual regeneration, instruction, guidance, and salvation are indeed the first and most indispensable purpose of the Christian missionary evangel. It would be, moreover, a lamentable and fatal mistake to substitute any 1 "With every year of missionary experience the conviction has grown that the Gospel of Christ is a Gospel for all life—here not less than hereafter—and for all departments of life, and that for missionary workers to make it relate solely to salvation after death is a mistake, and to a great extent a defeat of its own ends; that godliness, in its ever-to-be-sought perfection, disallows crudities, unloveliness, barbarities, and cruelties in conditions and customs of every-day life and relationship; that the Gospel of Christ aims quite as much at removing these as it points to the 'golden streets' and 'mansions' made ready; that the reformation of earthly life is indeed the preparation for the heavenly citizenship, and should be not the selfish saving of individual souls alive, but a work as broad and inclusive as is the Love that 'so loved the world'; so that no physical, social, governmental, or intellectual obstacle to man's truest and highest development is too secular for the spirit of Christ and His Gospel to strike at through its missionaries. "It seems to me that the somewhat tardy progress of missions in the past has been largely due to a hyperspirituality—a separation of the soul from its God-given earthly conditions; a snatching of the brand, not a putting out of the fires for the benefit of brands at large; a jealous care for the individual, not supplemented by an equal care for society of which he is a member, rather a hopeless condemnation and fleeing as from the doomed Sodom. "I believe that the spirit that is working in the churches at home towards a more practical and thoroughgoing Christianity is also beginning to work in our hearts here in foreign lands, and we are waking up to feel that both the individual and society are equal objects of Christ's saving power—the one not more than the other, nor without the other. When this spirit fully possesses the Church both at home and abroad, then we shall see the coming of the kingdom of God with no faltering footsteps. I believe that there is something in even the most darkened and degraded people that protests against fleeing Lot-like from Sodom, but responds whole-souledly to the hope of the redemption of society from the bottom up."—Dr. Grace N. Kimball (A. B. C. F. M.), Van, Turkey.
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other aim or adopt any other method than that of personal instruction and appeal. The individual conscience is the only practical basis for conscious responsibility. We would not be understood as asserting the necessity or even propriety of any exclusively sociological programme for missions. The way to reach society is through the individual. The individual soul is in the first instance the receptacle of the leaven of Christianity; from thence it leavens all the lump. The spiritual regeneration of the individual involves a further and larger influence upon the collective life. Just as the social misery and degradation of our great communities within the bounds of civilization are simply the cumulative result of individual delinquency and demoralization, so the saving of society is to be secured only through the uplifting of individual character, which in its total accretion issues in the redemption of society as a whole.1 As Christianity advances from heart to heart in this and other lands, it advances from home to home, and involves almost unconsciously a large and generous new environment of influences which works for the reformation and gradual discrediting of the old stolid wrongs of society. It works in foreign communities a slow, almost unrecognized, yet steadily aggressive change in public opinion. It awakens new and militant questions about stagnant evils. It disturbs and proceeds to sift and disintegrate objectionable customs. It stimulates moral aspirations and quickens a wistful longing for a higher and better state of society. Christianity has been building better than it knew in establishing its missions in the heart of these ancient social systems. The sociological awakening in Christendom is not more impressive than the hitherto almost unnoticed achievements of missions abroad in the same general direction, in securing the enfranchisement of human rights, the introduction of new social ideals, and the overthrow of traditional evils. The question may still suggest itself to some minds, whether this view of the sociological significance of Christian missions is justified 1 "We may talk as we please about the welfare of the social aggregate or of society as being the proper object and test of all human endeavor; but the welfare of a society is nothing except as it exists in the conscious experiences of the separate men and women who compose it. A society can have no happiness which is not the happiness of its separate members any more than an edition of 'Hamlet' can have any dramatic qualities which do not exist between the covers of each separate copy. In this respect social science presents an absolute contrast to physical. The physical unit is of interest to us only for the sake of the aggregate. The social aggregate is of interest to us only for the sake of the unit."—W. H. Mallock, "Physics and Sociology," The Contemporary Review, December, 1895, p. 890.
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The social outcome of missions a natural and unconscious revelation of their power.by facts. Can it be vindicated? Is there sufficient evidence to sanction this immense enlargement of the import of the enterprise? In answering this question we should consider carefully just what is meant by this larger scope of mission service. It must not be regarded as in any sense a criticism or reversal of accepted views of the scope and purpose of missions. It is rather an effort to group under some expressive formula those indirect and outlying results of Christian effort in foreign lands in its influence upon society. It points simply to the irresistible trend of Christian teaching, as it instinctively and necessarily disturbs and uproots the deep-seated evils that have been so long the unchallenged environment of the social status. Just as the living seed develops according to the law of its individual growth, and finds its consummation in a single matured plant after its kind, ready for the harvest, and thus discharges its essential and primary function as a seed, so the spiritual seed produces its legitimate result in a ripened individual character. But while the natural seed has ripened, and presents the harvest grain as its climax, yet in so doing it has, as it were, unconsciously produced other results, which, although they may be regarded as secondary and indirect, nevertheless challenge our admiration and fasten our attention. The matured flower, for example, colors the landscape, adds a fragrance to the air, and is full of a ministry of beauty. Vegetation which has attained its growth gives also a varied aspect to nature, or produces the useful forests. The waving grain of harvest becomes food for the world, and furnishes the seed of another sowing. These natural and inevitable results of the ripening of single seeds cannot be ranked as the essential and primary functions of individual growth, but they are none the less valuable, and in some cases they are of transcendent importance. They are worthy of grateful recognition, and should be ranked high upon the roll of beneficent ulterior purposes of the Creator of life, and in harmony with the larger design of His providence. In this same sense the ripening of individual Christianity produces a subtle change in the spirit and tone of social life, a sweet fragrance of sympathy, a robust growth of principle, a waving harvest of beneficent reforms which, although not the first-fruits of the growth of Christianity in the individual soul, may yet be regarded as the secondary results of Christian effort, representing what we have called the larger scope of Christian missions. This extended scope of missions reveals itself at first as an almost unconscious product of Christian effort; it comes more as a surprise than as a result definitely planned for; but as time goes on the new-
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Missions stand for social evolution with Christianity introduced as a factor.born spirit of social reform will become more and more in evidence as a growing force, an aggressive temper, a recognized obligation, and will seek to express itself in changed public opinion and in organized effort, with the definite purpose of securing permanent transforming results in the interests of a nobler and more beneficent social order. All this will concern more immediately native society under the culture and stimulus of Christian teachers. It is there that the change in public opinion is needed. A native Christianized society, with its new environment, extending its influence as a silent leavening force far beyond its own limits, will become a centre of unrest, and a theatre of militant aspiration in the direction of higher and truer living. That unconscious influence of Christianity working up from beneath through the encrusted layers of indifference and stolidity, through the overlying strata of solidified customs and dominant traditions, develops into a conscious purpose and an aspiring ardor. It is the story of social evolution with Christianity introduced as a factor; it is the adjustment of society to its higher spiritual and supernatural environment. Unrest awakens into activity; force develops into energy; new ideas produce new plans; Christian influence by a process of spiritual development reaches the stage of Christian effort. The present variety and breadth in missino methods desirable.It is this capacity for expansion, this power of renewal inherent in Christianity, which gives it its larger scope, and which calls for the range and variety of method which at present characterize the conduct of Christian missions. There is a primary and vital call for the method of evangelism. It reaches the heart, transforms the life, and lays the foundations of character. There is need also for Christian education. It enlightens, broadens, and quickens the mind, lifts it into a new and stimulating atmosphere, and gives a basis of intelligence moulded and directed by Christian principle. There is a demand also for the department of literary production. The awakened mind requires wholesome guidance, especially in the realm of religious thought and moral instruction. An educated mind must be led into all truth, and fortified against the multiform assaults of error if it is to have a permanent basis, of loyalty which will fit it for trusted leadership. There is urgent need also for the efforts of medical ministry under Christian auspices. It reaches the human heart when it is especially susceptible to the touch of kindness and the presence of sympathy; it gives an intelligible reason for recognition, fellowship, and steadfast adherence on the part of the native, and goes far to break down the barriers of
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prejudice. There is a call also, especially in the more barbarous and socially disorganized races, for the method of industrial training combined with Christian instruction. It sobers, quiets, and subdues rude and undisciplined natures. It opens to them a new world of happy occupation. It transforms them from irresponsible savages, full of the spirit of lawlessness, into peaceful wage-earners, contributing to the welfare and comfort of society. No one can contemplate these various beneficent channels of missionary activity without recognizing their inherent tendency to produce social results of the highest value. Missionaries should therefore in the main hold to the old lines of direct missionary work here indicated. The social changes will come eventually as the necessary sequence of the enlarged vision, the educated susceptibilities, the quickened moral perceptions, the finer sense of justice, the keener humanitarian instincts, the sweeter power of sympathy, the transformed habits, the elevated tastes, the larger aspirations, and the social projects of native Christian communities. The variety of method now known in Christian missions—always, let it be understood, under the dominant control of a Christian purpose—is therefore both justified and sanctioned as leading on with steady and ever cumulative power into organized Christian institutions and in the direction of a more beneficent social order. Some a priori arguments in support of this optimistic view.Having defined our meaning in the larger scope of missions, we may return to our question and ask, Are we right in this optimistic view of the subject? Are we justified in advancing it? Can it be demonstrated? We hope that the answer to these inquiries will appear fully in subsequent lectures. It is, after all, largely a question of fact. At the present stage of our discussion, and in anticipation of the argument of facts, something at least can be said in the line of theoretical justification of the position we have taken. There are arguments of an a priori nature, and others based upon history and analogy and legitimate deduction, which may help to prepare our minds to give a welcome credence to any confirmation which may come from the subsequent presentation of actual results. We purpose to present some preliminary considerations which will awaken a natural expectation of social benefits in connection with Christian missions, and shall hope later on in the course to confirm these anticipations by an array of facts which will carry thorough conviction to our minds. We may note at the outset that there is at least a striking suggestiveness in the fact of the terrible and undeniable solidarity of the race in its universal fall, involving not only each individual, but society in its
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The argument from solidarity.collective aspects. There is a sweep and power in the social collapse which has come upon all ages and has affected all strata of society, which suggest a strong probability that the remedial rescue and uplift will reach society as a whole. This may seem a long way off, but it is manifestly an ideal towards which the divine plans are steadily working. The Scriptural delineations of the Church and its social life are typical of what the life of the whole world would be were Christianity to reign in human society. If the moral defection and disintegration of society is so complete, if that awful contagion of custom, temper, and opinion which gives such a colossal and persistent solidarity to heathen social life is so pervasive, have we not reason to anticipate that the ideal reconstruction and reconstitution of a redeemed race will bring us results correspondingly comprehensive and effective? The argument from analogy based upon expansive power of material forces.May we not also derive another hopeful suggestion from the fact that great material forces which reveal their giant energies in nature. work with a manifold and expansive power, producing results along various lines of sequences? The sum of these ramifying and permeating influences reveals a largeness of scope which, reasoning from analogy, it would be natural to expect in corresponding spiritual forces at work in the realm of their special activity. Electricity may act to produce a variety of results. The sum of its power is manifold. It may purify and illumine. It may destroy and paralyze. It may give motive power and show itself to be a fountain of marvelous energy. It does not move along one single straight line of sequences. Its hidden energy may be applied in different directions for the accomplishment of widely divergent ends. The same may be said of the principle of life, from which springs growth, beauty, health, strength, and all the higher experiences of consciousness. The power of gravitation may hold the planets, and at the same time make steady the earth's surface and give fixedness to all things thereon. Other illustrations of the manifold and far-reaching influence of great forces in other realms might be mentioned, but those we have stated are sufficient to awaken the inquiry whether this characteristic would not hold true in the spiritual realm, and also whether it is likely that such a magnificent force as Christianity would be confined in its influence to one straight line of sequences. Is it not rather a foregone conclusion, based upon probable analogy, that Christianity is beyond them all in the sweep of its influence and the manifold scope of its activity? It is a savor of life
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unto life, and also a savor of death unto death. It introduces the mysterious and indestructible energy of spiritual life into the soul's development. It touches heart and mind and will. It evolves character. It introduces new relationships and new obligations. It establishes new institutions and new ideals. It stirs new aspirations and presents a new goal of destiny. Its presence produces far-reaching and manifold results, which ramify through all social life and touch literally every phase of human existence. Another argument from anaology based upon the larger scope of moral evil.There is still another suggestive lesson based upon analogy. Can there be any doubt of the larger scope of the forces of moral evil? How penetrating, how omnipresent, how universal is their mysterious sway! If evil is thus gifted with the capacity of overlapping itself and spreading its malign power through every channel of human influence, are we not justified in at least hoping and expecting that the same capacity of expansion and the same breadth of grasp shall characterize the great remedial force which God has planted in human life and experience? Is there any question, moreover, as to the larger scope of the dominant religions of the world other than Christianity? Is not the Oriental world a visible, tangible evidence that non-Christian religions have the power to impress themselves mightily upon social life, to mould its institutions after their own ideals, to cast their shadows far and wide over the fairest regions of the earth, to shape the social destiny and determine the economic and ethical environment of hundreds of millions of our fellow-men? If, then, the expansive influence of human religions is so powerful to penetrate and control the social evolution of the lands where they prevail, can we doubt that Christian forces are endowed with the same capacity? Is it not a foregone conclusion that Christian missions will in time reverse the social tendencies of lands in which they are planted and bring in a new and nobler era? What the divine legislation of the Old Testament suggestions.We have also a lesson from religious history, the suggestiveness of which is at once vivid and pointed. The divine legislation of the Old Testament was strikingly sociological in its spirit. No one can read the Mosaic code, given with a distinctively theocratic sanction, without recognizing that many of its provisions and requirements were directed to the welfare and control of society as such. These were addressed to Israel as a chosen nation, but they reveal the divine thought concerning social obligations, and the divine ideal with regard to social relationships. Individual rights were protected, but at the
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same time the common welfare was carefully considered and planned for. There was a studied defense of the rights of the poor, the enfeebled, and the oppressed. Social wrongs were to be punished, and the welfare of society was to be diligently studied and conserved.1 If we find such a measure of attention to the interests of associate life in this early and incomplete stage of revelation, is it not a necessary inference that the spirit of the New Testament dispensation is upon even a higher plane of consideration for the welfare of a society which is expected to be permeated by Christian principle? 2 The argument from historic achievement.The same lesson of the large and penetrating scope of Christianity is enforced also by the history of what it has actually accomplished in the world just in this line of all-pervasive control. The national and social life of Christendom, whatever blemishes and sorrowful defects we may find in it, is a standing evidence of the elevating power of Christian principles, and there is no mightier protest against the vices and wrongs of society in Christendom than is made by Christianity itself. There is no more vigorous warfare against iniquity and evil than that instituted and pushed under Christian auspices. Whatever of relief and purification is to be found in Christendom is due directly or indirectly to the influence of Christianity. The altruistic scope of benevolent and philanthropic endeavor is due, at least in its systematic and sustained form, to the inspiration of biblical teachings and the power of Christ's spirit. Then, in the wider realm of history, how many salutary reforms can be traced to a Christian origin! The remedial social legislation of Christendom, the overthrow of the feudal system, the revolt against slavery, the mitigation of the sufferings of war, the extension of the privileges of education, the thousand agencies of rescue, relief, and amelioration of misery and suffering, are all traceable in large measure to the power of Christian principle.3 All 1 Fairbairn, "Religion in History and Modern Life," pp. 127-130. 2 "The theocracy which God commanded Moses to set up embraced everything that a nation needs; therefore all departments of government. The prophets spoke of Messiah's kingdom as still greater, embracing the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of the nations. Our Lord's first sermon in Nazareth confirmed that opinion, as it spoke of political and social reforms for the benefit of the poor and oppressed. Christ's kingdom was not to be of this world, full of armed men to compel submission to unjust laws. The sum of the prophets' teaching indicates a kingdom without sin, without poverty, without oppression, without ignorance, and a righteous one full of joy! Jesus Christ said He came to set up that kingdom. He promised a hundredfold in this life, and in the world to come eternal life."—The Rev. Timothy Richard (E. B. M.), Shanghai. 3 Adams, "Civilization During the Middle Ages," pp. 50-64. Cf. Storrs, "The Divine Origin of Christianity Indicated by its Historical Effects," Lectures V.-IX.
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the brighter aspects of Christendom to-day are but a demonstration of the larger scope of Christianity. Now what has been done, albeit as yet very imperfectly, in Christendom, can and will be done through the power of Christianity if once planted and thoroughly established in non-Christian lands.1 It impinges inevitably at so many points upon social life and experience, its commands are so far-reaching and so varied in their application, that if properly obeyed a general and transforming influence is assured. How much the Bible speaks of the heart and the body, of husbands and wives, of parents and children, of rulers and subjects, of manhood and womanhood, of the sick, the sorrowing, the poor, the distressed, the afflicted, and the wronged! How it challenges motives and searches the secret springs of action! How it adjusts various relationships, and calls for justice, truth, sincerity, honesty, fidelity, gentleness, patience, sympathy, and love in a thousand varied relationships and emergencies of life! The religion of the Bible is intended to face actual conditions in the world. It is realistic, uncompromising, indefatigable. It works with untiring persistency towards the attainment of its ideals, and it never will rest until man, both individually and socially, is redeemed. World-wide social redemption the culminating thought of the New Testament.It is instructive to note that the spiritual purport of the Old Testament was gradually revealed, and but dimly apprehended by Israel. The Messianic significance of prophecy and symbol grew clearer and clearer as the fulfillment drew near; yet those for whose instruction these revelations were given grasped them but feebly, with a faint recognition of their import, and a faltering faith in their reality. The Messiah at length appeared, and the old dispensation culminated in the Incarnation and the atoning work of Christ. So also the revelation of the all-inclusive scope of redemption was gradually imparted, and not until Christ Himself had come was it announced in such explicit and emphatic terms that all doubt should have been forever impossible. The Jewish Church could not grasp the conception of a universal extension of Gospel privileges. The Church of the Apostolic era was inspired with the grandeur of this conception, but it seemed subsequently to fade largely from the consciousness of believers, and to have been revived in the era of modern missions. The Church as yet realizes only imperfectly the significance of the missionary aims of
1 Cf. "Christian Missions in Asia," by the Rev. Timothy Richard, The Baptist Missionary Review (Madras), March, 1895, pp. 81-93.
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Christianity, and still more imperfectly does it grasp the larger, fuller scope of mission effort as a world-wide plan of social redemption. This stupendous conception of the religious and social regeneration of the world is, in fact, the Messianic promise of the New Testament. It bears substantially the same relation to the New Testament era that the Messianic idea did to the Old Testament dispensation. It looks forward to a Christian fullness of time, when the great, crowning thought of God in the New Testament shall be revealed. The culminating word of the Old Testament was "Messiah." The culminating word of the New Testament is "Redemption." The one was preparatory; the other is its complement, and expressive of its ultimate purpose. As the first was the gradual gift of centuries of divine revelation, so the latter will no doubt be unfolded in the gradual fulfillment of God's advancing plans. The coming of the Messiah was the fruition and bloom of Old Testament promise. A world-wide redemption, or social reconstruction in harmony with Christian ideals, will be the fruition and bloom of New Testament hope. The "missionary spirit," as it is familiarly, and possibly somewhat tritely called, is in reality a majestic sentiment. It is a living, working faith in prophecy. It is an earnest, practical recognition of the reality of God's promises. It is not only enthusiasm for humanity; it is enthusiasm for God. It is, in the experience of the believing Christian, the counterpart of inspired prophecy. It is the response of the heart to the divine meaning of history, the higher destiny of humanity, and the power of the Almighty to vindicate His sovereignty amidst the clouds and darkness of these troubled centuries. It is perhaps the highest tribute which the human heart can pay to Christ as the Master of history and the Ruler of human destiny. It is the logical and full complement of the Incarnation, Sacrifice, and Resurrection of our Lord. A risen Saviour implies a redeemed world; a reigning Lord is the surety of the universal triumph of His kingdom.1 The unfolding of the divine purpose has often revealed a breadth of meaning and a largeness of scope that have been a surprise even to the most alert student of providence. God's plans may seem at first to be running in narrow channels, but as time passes they expand, until at 1 "If, therefore, Christianity be a religion coming from God and designed for the world, it must have for its final magnificent function to benefit peoples as well as persons; not merely to sequester from barbarous wastes occasional gardens, bright in bloom and delightful in fragrance, but to refashion continents; not merely to instruct and purify households, but to make the entire race, in the end, a household of God." —Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D.
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The expansion of the kingdom of the crowning promise of Scripture.last they widen like the sea. It was so in the case of the Incarnation and the Atonement, and it will be so in the case of the universal proclamation of the Gospel and the world-wide extension of redemption. In the light of religious history it is perhaps hardly to be expected that the faith of the Church should grasp at once the scope and significance of missions. The salvation of some individual souls among all peoples of the earth is recognized as the clear teaching of Scripture, and there is a general faith that some will be saved out of all nations; but that the Gospel is to triumph, that the kingdom of God is to advance, and all nations are to be included, is a conception which, it is to be feared, is sadly unreal to the average consciousness of the Church. Christianity is still playing the rôle of John the Baptist crying in the wilderness, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Christendom, like Israel of old, is even yet living in an atmosphere of spiritual unreality. The historic significance of the kingdom is still too dimly discerned.
Mission service is the secret of inspiration and power to the Church.Nothing is more true, however, than that the devotion and loyalty of the Church to her missionary calling is the secret of her success, the divinely appointed method of her advance both at home and abroad. In this she will find her joy, her inspiration, her endowment of power, her meed of honor, her irresistible claim to the world's reverence, and her final, unanswerable apologetic. It is in fact her raison d'être, her highest and divinely emphasized mission in human history. Devotion to this sublime calling will be her password to an unchallenged place among the most influential forces which sway and mould the progress of the race. Nothing would so fully "vindicate the claim of Christianity to stimulate, to inspire, to lead the world's progress." The reflex influence of this service would fan the graces of the Christian life and make the Church aflame with thoughts and deeds which were Spirit-born and God-given!1 If the Church could do its work under the stimulus of a faith-quickened vision of a triumphant Gospel and a redeemed humanity, it would feel the pulses of a new life, and cheerfully give itself to sacrifice and toil, which God would quickly and grandly reward. How different is the reality! The great thoughts of Christ are still misinterpreted and limited by the narrow conceptions which many of us entertain of their significance. World patriotism is still a dim spiritual ideal which we contemplate
1 Cf. article by Miss Jane Addams on "The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements," in "Philanthropy and Social Progress" (New York, Crowell & Co., 1893).
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with patronizing incredulity. Love of humanity is still cut up into sections and fragments, and has only a partial hold upon our hearts. Service of the race is still regarded as coextensive with service of some contiguous portion of the human family. The one blood, of which God made all men before they were separated by national distinctions, seems to have lost its power to pulsate through our veins, yet the permanent life of mankind flows in that blood. It is humanity which remains while nations rise and fall. He who works for the human race under the stimulus of a generous and sympathetic insight into the splendid ideals of Christ, labors for results which are permanent, beneficent, and divine.
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LITERATURE AND AUTHORITIES FOR LECTURE I The literature bearing upon Lecture I. is so extensive that no attempt is made to give more than a partial list. What is presented will be classified as follows: SOCIOLOGY. In this connection only bibliographies will be indicated, where full lists may be found. II. CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION. Books referring more or less directly to Christianity in its relations to the moral and social progress of mankind as a civilizing force in history. III. MISSIONS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. Books containing data bearing upon the influence of Christian missions as a factor in the social elevation of the human race. N. Y.=NewYork. P.= Philadelphia. C.=Chicago. L.=London. n. d.=no date. B.= Boston. E.= Edinburgh. I. BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF SOCIOLOGY The Reader's Guide in Economic, Social, and Political Science. Edited by R. R. BOWKER and GEORGE ILES. L. and N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1891. Socialism and Social Reform. By Professor R. T. ELY. With "Bibliographical Appendix," N. Y. and B., T.Y. Crowell & Co., 1894. Bibliographia Sociologica. (An extensive bibliography of French, German, and English literature, especially full in its references to current periodicals.) By H. LA FONTAINE and P. OTLET. Published in successive issues in Brussels, Belgium. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, P. and The American Journal of Sociology, C. (In both will be found full bibliographies and indices of current periodical literature.) Handbook of Sociological Information for New York. (Contains a useful bibliography of sociology.) By W. H. TOLMAN and W. I. HULL. N. Y., City Vigilance League, 105 East Twenty-second Street, 1894. Practical Christian Sociology. (Contains a reading course in practical Christian sociology, and also an index of biblical references of a sociological character.) By Rev. WILBUR F. CRAFTS. N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1895. Books for Beginners in the Study of Christian Sociology and Social Economics. (A little pamphlet prepared by Professor GRAHAM TAYLOR.) Address Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, 175 Wabash Avenue, Chicago. An Introduction to the Study of the Dependent, Defective, and Delinquent Classes. (Contains many bibliographical references of value.) By Professor C. R. HENDERSON. B., D. C. Heath & Co., 1893. American Charities: A Study in Philanthropy and Economics. (Contains a bibliographical index.) By AMOS G. WARNER. N. Y. and B., T.Y. Crowell & Co., 1894. The Principles of Sociology. (Contains a bibliography.) By Professor FRANKLIN H. GIDDINGS. N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1896.
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Introduction to Sociology. (Contains a select bibliography.) By Professor ARTHUR FAIRBANKS. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896. The Principles of Sociology, vol. iii. (Contains an extensive list of "Titles of Works Referred to," many of them pertaining to the section on "Ecclesiastical Institutions.") By HERBERT SPENCER. N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1897. Literature of Theology. (Contains bibliographical sections on missions and sociology.) By JOHN FLETCHER HURST. N. Y., Eaton & Mains, 1896. Theological Propadeutic, (Contains a bibliography of missionary literature, and also a selected list for a ministerial library, with section on sociology, compiled by Rev. Samuel Macauley Jackson.) By Professor PHILIP SCHAFF. Second edition. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. Encyclopedia of Social Reforms. (Contains bibliographical references to social sciences.) In press. N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1897. II. CHRISTIANITY AND CIVILIZATION ADAMS, GEORGE BURTON, Civilization During the Middle Ages. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. ALDEN, HENRY MILLS, God in His World: An Interpretation.. N. Y., Harper & Bros., 1880. AUBREY, W. H. S., The Rise and Growth of the English Nation: with Special Reference to Epochs and Crises. 3 vols. L., Elliot Stock; N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1896. BARNES, Rev. ALBERT, Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity in the Nineteenth Century, (Ely Lectures.) N. Y., Harper & Bros.1868. BARRY, Rev. ALFRED, The Ecclesiastical Expansion of England in the Growth of the Anglican Communion. (Hul-sean Lectures for 1894-95.) L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895. BASCOM, Professor JOHN, Social Theory : A Grouping of Social Facts and Principles. N. Y. and B., T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1895. BASCOM, Professor JOHN, Evolution and Religion; or, Faith as a Part of a Complete Cosmic System. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. BLACKMAR, Professor FRANK W., The Story of Human Progress: A Brief History of Civilization. Published by the author. Agents, Ketcheson & Reeves, Leavenworth, Kan., 1896. BLAIKIE, Professor W. G., The Adaptation of Bible Religion to the Needs and Nature of Man. (Present-Day Tracts.) L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., n. d. BLAIKIE, Professor W. G., The Family: Its Scriptural Ideal and its Modern Assailants. (Present-Day Tracts.) L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., n. d. BRACE, CHARLES LORING, Gesta Christi; or, A History of Humane Progress Under Christianity. N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1893. BRADFORD, Rev. AMORY H., Heredity and Christian Problems. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895. BROWN, J., The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and their Puritan Successors. New edition. L., Religious Tract Society, 1897. BRUCE, W. S., The Ethics of the Old Testament. E., T. & T. Clark, 1895. BRYCE, JAMES, The Holy Roman Empire. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1889. BUNSEN, C. C. J., Christianity and Mankind. 7 vols. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1854. BUNSEN, C. C. J., God in History; or, The Progress of Man's Faith in the Moral Order of the World. 3 vols. L., Longmans, Green & Co.1868-70; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1870. BYINGTON, Rev. EZRA HOYT, The Puritan in England and New England. B., Roberts Bros., 1896. CAIRNS, Rev. Principal, The Success of Christianity and Modern Explanations of It. (Present-Day Tracts.) L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., n. d. CAIRNS, Rev. Principal, Is the Evolution of Christianity from Mere Natural Sources Credible? (Present-Day Tracts.) L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co.n. d. CALDECOTT, ALFRED, English Colonisation and Empire. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1891. CAMPBELL, DOUGLAS, The Puritan in Holland, England, and America. N. Y., Harper & Bros., 1892.
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CARPENTER, Bishop W. BOYD, The Permanent Elements of Religion. L. and N. V., Macmillan & Co., 1889. CARR, Rev. ARTHUR, The Church and the Roman Empire. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1887. CHASTEL, STEPHEN, The Charity of the Primitive Churches. (Translated by G. A. Matile.) P., J. B. Lippincott, 1857. CHEETHAM, S., A History of the Christian Church During the First Six Centuries. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1894. Christianity Practically Applied. (The Discussions of the International Christian Conference held in Chicago, October 8-14, 1893, in connection with the World's Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition, and under the auspices and direction of the Evangelical Alliance for the United States.) 2 vols. : The General Conference; The Section Conferences. N. Y., The Baker & Taylor Co., 1894. Christus Imperator. Edited by Dean STUBBS. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1894. CHURCH, Dean, The Gifts of Civilization, and Other Sermons and Lectures. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co.. 1892. CHURCH, Dean, Occasional Papers. 2 vols. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1897. CHURCH, Dean, The Beginning of the Middle Ages. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1897. COWAN, Rev. HENRY, The Scottish Church in Christendom. Being the Baird Lecture for 1895. L., A. & C. Black, 1897. COYLE, Rev. JOHN PATTERSON, The Spirit in Literature and Life. B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1896. CRAWFORD, Rev. JOHN HOWARD, CRAWFORD, Rev. JOHN HOWARD. E., T. & T. Clark, 1895. CREIGHTON, Bishop, Persecution and Tolerance. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. CROSLEIGH, Rev. C., Christianity Judged by its Fruits. L., S. P. C. K. ; N. Y., E. & J. B Young & Co., n. d. DAVIES, Rev. G. S., St. Paul in Greece. (In series of The Heathen World and St. Paul.) L., S. P. C. K. ; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co.n. d. DODS, Rev. MARCUS, Erasmus, and Other Essays. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1892. DOHERTY, Rev. ROBERT REMINGTON, Torch-Bearers of Christendom: the Light They Shed and the Shadows They Cast. N. Y., Eaton & Mains, 1896. DORCHESTER, Rev. DANIEL, The Problem of Religious Progress. Revised edition. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1894. DORCHESTER, Rev. DANIEL, Christianity Vindicated by its Enemies. N. Y., Eaton & Mains, 1896. DRUMMOND, Principal JAMES, Via, Veritas, Vita : Lectures on Christianity in its Most Simple and Intelligible Form. L. and E., Williams & Nor-gate, 1894. EATON, A. W., The Heart of the Creeds: Historical Religion in the Light of Modern Thought. N. Y., Thomas Whittaker, 1897. EMERTON, EPHRAIM, An Introduction to the Study of the Middle Ages. B., Ginn & Co., 1895. FABER, Rev. ERNST, Civilization a Fruit of Christianity. Shanghai, Presbyterian Mission Press, n. d. FAIRBAIRN, Principal A. M., Religion in History and in Modern Life. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1894. FAIRBAIRN, Principal A. M., The City of God: A Series of Discussions in Religion. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1894. FARRAR, Dean, The Witness of History to Christ. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1870. FARRAR, Dean, The Early Days of Christianity. L., Cassell & Co; N. Y., E. P. Dutton & Co., 1882. FISHER, Professor G. P., The Beginnings of Christianity. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1877. FISHER, Professor G. P., The Christian Religion. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1884. FISHER, Professor G. P., Brief History of the Nations and Their Progress in Civilization. N. Y., American Book Co., 1896. FORD, Rev. DAVID B., New England's Struggles for Religious Liberty. P., American Baptist Publication Society, 1896. FREMANTLE, Rev. W. H., The World as a Subject of Redemption. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. GIRDLESTONE, Rev. CHARLES, Christendom : Sketched from History in the Light of Holy Scripture. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1870. GLADDEN, Rev. WASHINGTON, The Church and the Kingdom. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894. GORE, Rev. CHARLES, The Mission of the Church. L., John Murray, 1892. GRAU, Rev. R. F., The Goal of the Human Race, L., Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1892.
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GREGG, Rev. DAVID, The Makers of the American Republic. N. Y., E. B. Treat, 1896. GREGORY, Rev. J., Puritanism in the Old World and in the New. L., James Clarke & Co., 1895; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1896. GUIZOT, F., The History of Civilization from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution, 4 vols. (Translated by William Hazlitt.) N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1894. HARDY, E. G., Christianity and the Roman Government. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1894. HARNACK, Professor ADOLPH, Christianity and History. (Translated by Thomas Bailey Saunders.) L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. HARRIS, Rev. SAMUEL, a lecture on The Christian Doctrine of Human Progress Contrasted with the Naturalistic in Christianity and Scepticism. (Boston Lectures, 1870.) B., Congregational Publishing Society1870. HARRIS, Rev. SAMUEL, The Self-Revelation, of God. E., T. & T. Clark; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1887. HARRIS, Rev. SAMUEL SMITH, The Relation of Christianity to Civil Society. N. Y., Thomas Whittaker, 1883. HEBBERD, S. S., The Secret of Christianity. B. and N. Y., Lee & Shepard, 1874. HENSLOW, Rev. GEORGE, Christ No Product of Evolution. L., G. Stoneman, 1896. HILL, DAVID J., The Social Influence of Christianity. B., Silver, Burdett & Co., 1894. HILLIS, Rev. NEWELL DWIGHT, A Man's Value to Society. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1896. HOLLAND, Rev. HENRY SCOTT, God's City and the Coming of the Kingdom. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1894. HUNTINGTON, Bishop, The Fitness of Christianity to Man. N. Y., Thomas Whittaker, 1878. HUNTINGTON, Bishop, Human Society : its Providential Structure, Relations, and Offices. N. Y., Thomas Whittaker, 1891. HYDE, Rev. WILLIAM DEWITT, Outlines of Social Theology. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895. IVERACH, Rev. JAMES, Christianity and Evolution, N. Y., Thomas Whittaker, 1894. JEVONS, F. B., An Introduction to the History of Religion. L., Methuen & Co.; N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. KAUFMAN, Rev. M., Egoism, Altruism, and Christian Eudaimonism. (Present-Day Tracts.) L., Religious Tract Society N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., n. d. KENNEDY, C. M., The Influence of Christianity upon International Law. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1856. KIDD, BENJAMIN, Social Evolution. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1894. KIDD, Rev. JAMES, Morality and Religion. E., T. & T. Clark, 1895. KURTZ, J. H., Church History. 3 vols. L., Hodder & Stoughton; N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls, 1890. LAURENT, F., Études sur l' Histoire de l' Humanité. Second edition revised. 18 vols. Brussels, 1861-70. LEAVITT, Rev. JOHN MCDOWELL, The Christian Democracy. N. Y., Eaton & Mains, 1897. LECKY, W. E. H., The History of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne. 2 vols. L., Longmans, Green & Co.; N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1877. Lent in London (A). (A course of sermons on social subjects.) L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. LINDSAY, JAMES, Recent Advances in Theistic Philosophy of Religion. E. and L., William Blackwood & Sons, 1897. Lombard Street in Lent. (A course of sermons on social subjects.) L., Elliot Stock, 1894. LORIMER, Rev. GEORGE C., The Argument for Christianity. P., American Baptist Publication Society, 1894. MACKENZIE, Prof. W. DOUGLAS, Christianity and the Progress of Man. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1897. MACKINNON, W. A., History of Civilization. 2 vols. L., Longmans, Green & Co., 1846. MACKINTOSH, JOHN, The History of Civilization in Scotland. 4 vols. New edition. L., A. Gardner, 1896. McLANE, Rev. WILLIAM W., Evolution in Religion. B. and C., Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, 1892. M'COMBIE, WILLIAM, Modern Civilization in Relation to Christianity. Aberdeen, King, 1863. MARTENSEN, H., Christian Ethics. 3 vols. (Special volume on Social Ethics.) E., T. & T. Clark, 1889.
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MATHESON, Rev. GEORGE, Landmarks of New Testament Morality. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1889.
MATHESON, Rev. GEORGE, Growth of the Spirit of Christianity from the First Century to the Dawn of the Lutheran Era. 2 vols. E., T. & T. Clark, 1877.
MATHEWS, Professor SHAILER, The Social Teachings of Jesus: An Essay in Christian Sociology. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1897.
MAURICE, Rev. F. D., Social Morality. L., Macmillan & Co., 1886.
MARIVALE, Dean, St. Paul at Rome. (In series of The Heathen World and St. Paul.) L., S. P. C. K.; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co., n. d. MERIVALE, Dean, The Conversion of the Roman Empire. L., Longmans, Green & Co.; N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1865.
MERIVALE, Dean, The Conversion of the Northern Nations. L., Longmans, Green & Co.; N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1865.
MERIVALE, Dean (Editor), The Conversion of the West. 5 vols. L., S. P. C. K.1878; N. Y., James Pott & Co., 1879.
MERRILL, JOHN ERNEST, Ideals and Institutions: their Parallel Development. Hartford, Conn., Hartford Seminary Press, 1894.
MILMAN, Rev. HENRY H., The History of Christianity from the Birth of Christ to the Abolition of Paganism in the Roman Empire. 3 vols. L., John Murray, 1864; N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1881.
MILMAN, Rev. HENRY H., History of Latin Christianity ; Including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas V. 6 vols. L., John Murray, 1855; N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1881.
MORRIS, Rev. E. D., Ecclesiology: A Treatise on the Church and Kingdom of God on Earth: The Christian Doctrine in Outline. N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1885.
NASH, H. S., Genesis of the Social Conscience: The Relation between the Establishment of Christianity in Europe and the Social Question. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1897.
ORR, Rev. JAMES, The Christian View of God and the World as Centring in the Incarnation. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1893.
PATON, J. B., The Inner Mission. L., William Isbister, 1888.
PHELPS, Rev. AUSTIN, My Note-Book : Fragmentary Studies in Theology and Subjects Adjacent Thereto. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1891.
PLUMPTRE, Professor E. H., St. Paul in Asia Minor and at the Syrian Antioch. (In series of The Heathen World and St. Paul.) L., S. P. C. K. ; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co., n.d. PLUMPTRE, Professor E. H., Christ and Christendom. L., Strahan & Co., 1867.
PRESSENSÉ, Rev. E. DE, The Early Years of Christianity, (Translated by Annie Harwood.) 4 vols. N. Y., Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1873-78.
PRESSENSÉ, Rev. E. DE, The Religions before Christ: Being an Introduction to the History of the First Three Centuries of the Church. (Translated by L. Corkran.) E., T. & T. Clark, 1862.
PRESSENSÉ, Rev. E. DE, The Ancient World and Christianity. (Translated by Annie H. Holmden.) N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1888.
PURVES, Professor GEORGE T., The Church as a Factor in Civilization. (Pamphlet printed at the Princeton Press.) Princeton, N. J., 1896.
RAGHAVAIYANGAR, S. SRINIVASA (Inspector-General of Registration, Madras.) Memorandum on the Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years of British Administration. Madras, printed by the Superintendent Government Press, 1893.
RAMSAY, Professor W. M., The Church in the Roman Empire before A. D. 170. Third edition, revised. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1893.
READ, Rev. HOLLIS, The Hand of God in History. Hartford, Conn., Robins & Co., 1860.
ROBINSON, Rev. E. G., Christian Evidences. B., Silver, Burdett & Co., 1895.
SAMUELSON, JAMES (Editor). The Civilization of Our Day. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1896.
SATTHIANADHAN, Professor S., History of Education in the Madras Presidency. Madras, Srinivasa, Varadachari & Co., 1894.
SCHAFF, Professor PHILIP, History of the Christian Church. 6 vols. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892; E., T. & T. Clark, 1893.
SCHMIDT, Professor C., The Social Results of Early Christianity, Second edition. L., William Isbister, 1889.
SEELEY, Professor J. R., The Expansion of England. L., Macmillan & Co., 1885.
SHAIRP, Professor J. C., Culture and Religion in Some of their Relations. B., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1880.
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SLATER, Rev. W. F., The Faith and Life of the Early Church : An Introduction to Church History. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1892.
SLATER, Rev. T. E., The Influence of the Christian Religion in History. (Present-Day Tracts.) L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., n. d. Social England: A History of Social Life in England. By various writers. Edited by H. D. TRAILL. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897.
STEAD, F. HERBERT, The kingdom of God. (In series of Bible Class Primers.) E., T. & T. Clark; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894.
STORRS, Rev. R. S., The Divine Origin of Christianity Indicated by its Historical Effects. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1884.
STORRS, Rev. R. S., The Puritan Spirit. B. and C., Congregational Sunday. school and Publishing Society, 1890.
STORRS, Rev. R. S., Bernard of Clair-vaux, the Times, the Man, and his Work : An Historical Study in Eight Lectures. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892.
STUCKENBERG, Rev. J. H. W., The Age and the Church. Hartford, Conn., The Student Publishing Co., 1893.
TENNEY, E. P., The Triumphs of the Cross. B., Balch Brothers, 1895.
THATCHER, OLIVER J., A Short History of Mediaval Europe. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897.
THOMPSON, Rev. ROBERT ELLIS, Divine Order of Human Society. P., John D. Wattles, 1891.
TOZER, Rev. HENRY FANSHAWE, The Church and the Eastern Empire. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1888.
TRENCH, Archbishop R. C., Lectures on Mediaval Church History. L., Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1879.
TUCKER, Rev. H. W., The English Church in Other Lands. L., Longmans, Green & Co.; N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co.1886.
TYLER, Professor JOHN M., The Whence and the Whither of Man. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896.
UHLHORN, GERHARD, The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. (Edited and translated by Egbert C. Smyth and C. J. H. Ropes.) Revised edition. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894.
UHLHORN, GERHARD, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church. (Translated from the German.) N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883.
WACE, HENRY, Christianity and Morality; or, The Correspondence of the Gospel with the Moral Nature of Man. L., William Pickering, 1876.
WARREN, Rev. HENRY WHITE, The Bible in the World's Education. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1894.
WASHBURN, Rev. E. A., The Social Law of God. N. Y., Thomas Whit-taker, 1881.
WATSON, JOHN, Christianity and Idealism. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1897.
WEEDEN, W. B., Economic and Social History of New England. 2 vols. B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1890.
WEIR, Rev. SAMUEL, Christianity as a Factor in Civilization an Evidence of its Supernatural Origin, N. Y., Hunt & Eaton. 1893.
WEISS, A.M., Apologie du Christianisme au point de vue des maurs et de la civilisation. III. Humanité et Human-isme. (Translated from the German.) Paris, Delhomme et Briguet, 1896.
WESTCOTT, Bishop, The Incarnation and Common Life. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1893.
WESTCOTT, Bishop, Social Aspects of Christianity. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1888.
WHITE, Rev. JAMES, The Eighteen Christian Centuries. (Withacopious index.) N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1860.
WILLIAMS, Bishop, The World's Witness to Jesus Christ: The Power of Christianity in Developing Modern Civilization. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1882.
WIRGMAN, A. THEODORE, The History of the English Church and People in South Africa. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895.
YOUNG, JOHN, The Christ of History. N. Y., Robert Carter & Bros., 1872.
The following articles in current periodicals, on the influence of Christian teaching upon social progress, will be found useful. Christ in History By Principal A. M. FAIRBAIRN. The Biblical World, C., December, 1895.
The Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting of the Christian Social Union, Cambridge,England,1894. By Bishop WESTCOTT. The Economic Review, L., April, 1895.
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Sociological Christianity a Necessity. The Methodist Review, N. Y.May, 1891.
Christianity and Modem Civilization. By D. S. GREGORY, D.D.The Homiletic Review, N. Y., March, 1887.
The Triumph of Christianity. By the Rev. JOHN HENRY BARROWS D.D.The Homiletic Review, N. Y., April and May, 1896.
The Bible at Home and Abroad. The Quarterly Review, L., April, 1895.
The Progress and Prospects of Church Missions. The Quarterly Review, L., January, 1894.
The Social Ethics of Jesus. By Professor JOHN S. SEWALL, D.D.Bibliotheca Sacra, Oberlin, Ohio, April, 1895.
Christian Sociology. By Professor SHAILER MATHEWS. The American Journal of Sociology, C., vols. i. and ii., concluding with November, 1896. Cf. especially July, 1895, and September, 1896. (Since published in a volume under the title, The Social Teachings of Jesus.) No National Stability without Morality. By President CHARLES W. SUPER, LL.D.Bibliotheca Sacra, Oberlin, Ohio, April, 1897, p. 293. The Service of the Old Testament in the Education of the Race. By Professor GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D.Christian Literature, N. Y.August and September, 1896.
How were the Christians of Various Conflicting Nationalities Welded Together into One Fellowship in Apostolic Times? By the Rev. K. S. MACDONALD, D.D.The Indian Evangelical Review, Calcutta July, 1887, p. 5.
Dogmatic Theology and Civilization, By the Rev. WILLIAM ALEXANDER, D.D.The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, P., January, 1897.
Apostolic and Modern Missions. By Professor CHALMERS MARTIN. The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, P., January and April, 1897.
Political Science and Christian Missions By Professor HENRY WOODWARD HULBERT. The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, P., April, 1894.
Is Christianity Fitted to Become the World-Religion? By the Rev. JOHN HENRY BARROWS, D.D.The American Journal of Theology, C., April, 1897, pp. 404-423.
III. MISSIONS AND SOCIAL PROGRESS (The following list has been selected with special reference to the presentation of the social rather than the evangelistic results of missions.) ADAMS, D. C. O., The Saints and Missionaries of the Anglo-Saxon Era. First series. L., Mowbray & Co., 1897.
ADAMS, Rev. JAMES EDWARD, The Missionary Pastor. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1895.
Are Foreign Missions Doing any Good?L., Elliot Stock, 1894.
BAILEY, WELLESLEY C., A Glimpse at the Indian Mission Field and Leper Asylums, L., John F. Shaw & Co., 1890.
BAILEY, WELLESLEY C., The Lepers of Our Indian Empire. L., John F. Shaw & Co., 1891.
BANKS, MARTHA BURR, Heroes of the South Seas. N. Y., American Tract Society, 1896.
BARCLAY, Rev. P., A Survey of Foreign Missions. E. and L., William Black-wood & Sons, 1897.
BARRY, Rev. ALFRED, England's Mission to India. L., S. P. C. K.; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1895.
BEHRENDS, Rev. A. J. F., The World for Christ. N. Y., Eaton & Mains, 1896.
BLAIKIE, Professor WILLIAM GARDEN, The Personal Life of David Livingstone. L., John Murray, 1882; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co. BLISS, Rev. EDWIN MUNSELL, A Concise History of Missions. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1897.
BLISS, Rev. EDWIN MUNSELL (Editor), The Encyclopedia of Missions. N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1891.
Bombay : Report of Decennial Conference, 1892-93, 2 vols. Bombay, Education Society's Steam Press, Byculla, 1893.
CALVERT, Rev. JAMES, and WILLIAMS Rev. THOMAS, Fiji and the Fijians. 2 vols. L., Hodder & Stoughton; N. Y., G. Routledge & Sons, 1870.
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CARNEGIE, Rev. DAVID, Among the Matabele. L., Religious Tract Society, 1894.
CASALIS, EUGENE, My Life in Basuto Land. (Translated from the French by J. Brierly.) 1889.
CHALMERS, Rev. JAMES, Pioneer Life and Work in New Guinea1877-94. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co. 1896; Pioneering in New Guinea. L., Religious Tract Society, 1887.
CHARLES, Mrs. RUNDLE, Early Christian Missions of Ireland, Scotland, and England. L., S. P. C. K., 1893.
CHARLES, Mrs. RUNDLE, Ecce Homo, Ecce Rex : Pages from the Story of the Moral Conquests of Christianity. L., S. P. C. K.; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1895.
China Mission Hand-Book. Shanghai, American Mission Press, 1896.
CHRISTIE, DUGALD, Ten Years in Manchuria : A Story of Medical Mission Work in Moukden. E., The Religious Tract & Book Society, 1893.
CLARK, Rev. ROBERT, The Punjab and Sindh Missions of the Church Missionary Society. Second edition. L., Seeley, Jackson & Halliday, 1885.
COUSINS, Rev. GEORGE, The Story of the South Seas. L., John Snow & Co., 1894.
CUST, ROBERT NEEDHAM, Notes on Missionary Subjects. L., Elliot Stock, 1889.
CUST, ROBERT NEEDHAM, Africa Rediviva; or, The Occupation of Africa by Christian Missionaries of Europe and North America. L., Elliot Stock, 1891.
CUST, ROBERT NEEDHAM, The Gospel Message; or, Essays, Addresses, Suggestions, and Warnings on the Different Aspects of Christian Missions to Non-Christian Races and Peoples. L., Luzac & Co., 1896.
DAVIS, Rev. J. D., Joseph Hardy Neesima. N. Y. & C. Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894.
DAWSON, Rev. E. C., James Hannington, First Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa. L., Seeley & Co.; N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1887.
ELLIS, Rev. JAMES J., John Williams, the Martyr Missionary of Polynesia. L., S. W. Partridge & Co., 1889; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1890.
FARRAR, Canon F. W., Saintly Workers, L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1891.
FOSTER, Rev. ARNOLD, Christian Progress in China. L., Religious Tract Society, 1889.
GEEKIE, A. C., Christian Missions. L., James Nisbet & Co., 1871.
GILL, Rev. WILLIAM WYATT, From Darkness to Light in Polynesia. L., Religious Tract Society, 1894.
GORDON, Rev. M. L., An American Missionary in Japan, B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1892.
HAMLIN, Rev. CYRUS, My Life and Times. B. and C., Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, 1893.
HARRIS, Rev. JOHN, The Great Commission; or, The Christian Church Constituted and Charged to Convey the Gospel to the World. Dayton, Ohio, United Brethren Publishing House, 1893.
HEPBURN, Rev. J. D., Twenty Years in Khamd's Country. Second edition. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1895.
HODDER, E., Conquests of the Cross. 3 vols. L., Cassell & Co., 1893.
HORNE, Rev. C. SILVESTER, The Story of the L. M. S. 1795-1895. L., John Snow & Co., 1894.
India, History of Christianity in. Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1895.
Indian Religious Reform, Papers on. Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1894.
Indian Social Reform, Papers on. Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1893.
JOHNSTON, Rev. JAMES, Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1892.
JOSA, Rev. F. P. L., The Apostle of the Indians of Guiana : A Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Rev. W. H. Brett, B.D., for Forty Years a Missionary in British Guiana. L., Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1887.
JUDSON, Rev. EDWARD, Adoniram Judson: His Life and Labours. L., Hodder & Stoughton; N. Y,, A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1883.
KERB, Dr. J. G., Medical Missions. P., Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sunday-school Work, 1895.
KING, JOSEPH, Ten Decades: The Australian Centenary Story of the L. M. S.L., John Snow & Co., 1895.
LAURIE, Rev. THOMAS, The Ely Volume; or, The Contributions of Our Foreign Missions to Science and Human Well-Being. Second edition, revised. B., A. B. C. F. M., Congregational House, 1885.
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LAWRENCE, Rev. EDWARD A., Modern Missions in the East: Their Methods, Successes, and Limitations, N. Y., Harper & Brothers, 1895.
LEAVENS, Rev. PHILO F., The Planting of the Kingdom. N. Y., A. DF. Randolph & Co., 1890.
LIGGINS, Rev. JOHN, The Great Value and Success of Foreign Missions. N. Y., The Baker & Taylor Co., 1888.
LIGHTFOOT, Bishop, Historical Essays. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895.
LOWE, Rev. JOHN, Primer of Medical Missions. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., n. d. LOWE, Rev. JOHN, Medical Missions; Their Place and Power. Second edition. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1887.
MCFARLANE, Rev. S., Among the Cannibals of New Guinea. L., John Snow & Co., 1888.
MACKAV, A. M., Alexander M. Mackay, Pioneer Missionary of the Chiirch Missionary Society to Uganda, L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1889.
MACLEAR, Rev. G. F., Apostles of Medieval Europe. L., Macmillan & Co., 1869. (A reprint of selected chapters from this book has been published under the title of Missions and Apostles of Medieval Europe, for use of the Student Volunteer Movement. N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1897.)
MACLEAR, Rev. G. F., A History of Christian Missions during the Middle Ages. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1863.
MARCH, Rev. DANIEL, Morning Light in Many Lands, B. and C., Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, 1891.
MARSHMAN, J. C., The Story of Carey, Marshman, and Ward. 2 vols. L., Longmans, Green & Co., 1859.
MASON, Canon A. J., The Mission of St. Augustine to England. Cambridge, University Press, 1897.
MICHELSEN, Rev. OSCAR, Cannibals Won for Christ. L., Morgan & Scott, 1893.
MILUM, Rev. JOHN, Thomas Birch Freeman, Missionary Pioneer to Ashanti, Dahomey, and Egba. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revel! Co., n. d. Missions at Home and Abroad. (Papers and addresses presented at the World's Congress of Missions, October 2-4, 1893, compiled by Rev. E. M. WHERRY.) N. Y., American Tract Society, 1895.
MÜLLER, Professor F. MAX, On Missions. (A lecture delivered in Westminster Abbey, on December 3, 1873.) N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1874.
MURDOCH, JOHN, Indian Missionary Manual. L., James Nisbet & Co., 1895.
NIXON, OLIVER W., How Marcus Whitman Sailed Oregon. C., Star Publishing Co., 1895.
NOEL, Hon. RODEN, Livingstone in Africa. L., Ward & Downey, 1895.
PAGE, JESSEAmong the Maoris; or, Daybreak in New Zealand. L., S. W. Partridge & Co.; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894.
PAGE, JESSE, Samuel Crowther, the Slave Boy who Became Bishop of the Niger. L., S. W. Partridge & Co., 1888; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1892.
PAGE, JESSE, Amid Greenland Snows; or, The Early History of Arctic Missions. L.,.S. W. Partridge & Co.; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1893.
PATON, Rev. JOHN G., Autobiography of. L., Hodder & Stoughton; N. Y., Robert Carter & Bros., 1889; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1892.
PETTEE, Rev. JAMES H., Mr. Ishii and His Orphanage. Okayama, Japan, Asylum Press, 1894.
PETTEE, Rev. JAMES H., A Chapter of Mission History in Modern Japan. (Compiled by Mr. Pettee.) Okayama, Japan, 1895.
PIERCE, Rev. WILLIAM, The Dominion of Christ. L., H. R. Allenson, 1895.
PIERSON, Rev. ARTHUR T., The New Acts of the Apostles. N. Y., The Baker & Taylor Co., 1894.
PRIME, Rev. E. D. G., Forty Years in the Turkish Empire; or, Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell, D.D.N. Y., Robert Carter, 1875.
RICHARD, Rev. TIMOTHY, Historical Evidences of Christianity, (Written for China.) Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1892.
ROBSON, WILLIAM, James Chalmers, Missionary and Explorer, L., S. W. Partridge & Co., 1887.
ROGERS, Rev. J. GUINNESS, Christ for the World. L., Congregational Union of England and Wales, 1894.
SATTHIANADHAN, Professor S., Sketches of Indian Christians. L. and Madras, The Christian Literature Society for India, 1896.
SEELYE, Rev. JULIUS H., Christian Missions. N. Y., Dodd, Mead & Co., 1875.
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Shanghai: Records of the Missionary Conference Held in 1877. Shanghai, Presbyterian Mission Press, 1878.
Shanghai: Records of the Missionary Conference Held in 1890. Shanghai, American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1890.
SMITH, Rev. THOMAS, Medieval Missions. E., T. & T. Clark, 1880.
SMITH, ANDREW, Short Papers, Chiefly on South African Subjects. Lovedale, South Africa; E., Andrew Elliot, 1893.
SMITH, GEORGE, The Conversion of India from Pantanus to the Present Time—A.D. 193-1893. N.Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894.
SMITH, GEORGE, Fifty Years of Foreign Missions; or, The Foreign Missions of the Free Church of Scotland, in Their Year of Jubilee, 1879-80. Fourteenth edition. E., John Maclaren & Son; L., J. Nisbet & Co., 1880.
SMITH, GEORGE, Short History of Christian Missions. Third edition. E., T. & T. Clark, 1890.
SMITH, GEORGE, The Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D., L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1881.
SMITH, GEORGE, The Life of William Carey, D.D., Shoemaker and Missionary. L., John Murray, 1888.
SMITH, GEORGE, Henry Martyn, Saint and Scholar. L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1892.
SMITH, Mrs. JOHN JAMES, William Knibb, Missionary in Jamaica. L., Alexander & Shepheard, 1896.
SPOTTISWOODE, GEORGE A. (Editor), The Official Report of the Missionary Conference of the Anglican Communion 1894. L., S. P. C. K., 1894.
STEVENSON, Rev. WILLIAM FLEMING, The Dawn of the Modern Mission. E., Macniven & Wallace; N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1888.
STEWART, Rev. JAMES, Lovedale, South Africa. E., Andrew Elliot, 1894.
STORROW, Rev. EDWARD, Protestant Missions in Pagan Lands. L., John Snow & Co., 1888.
STRONG, Rev. JOSIAH, The New Era; or, The Coming Kingdom. N. Y., The Baker & Taylor Co., 1893.
Student Missionary Enterprise (The). A verbatim report of the general meetings and section conferences of the Second International Convention of the Student Volunteer Movement, Detroit, 1894. 80 Institute Place, Chicago. THOBURN, Bishop, The Christltss Nations. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1895.
THOMPSON, Rev. AUGUSTUS C., Protestant Missions: Their Rise and Early Progress. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894.
THOMPSON, Rev. AUGUSTUS C., Moravian Missions. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890.
THOMSON, W. BURNS, Reminiscences of Medical Missionary Work. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1895.
UNDERBILL, EDWARD BEAN, The Principles and Methods of Missionary Labour. L., Alexander & Shepheard, 1896.
WALROND, T. F., Christian Missions before the Reformation. L., S. P. C. K., 1873.
WALZ, L., Die Äussere Mission. Darmstadt, I. Waitz, 1896.
WARNECK, Dr. GUSTAV, Outline of the History of Protestant Missions. (Translated from the German by Rev. Thomas Smith.) E., R. W. Hunter, 1882.
WARNECK, Dr. GUSTAV, Modern Missions and Culture. New edition. (Translated from the German by Rev. Thomas Smith.) E., R. W. Hunter, 1882.
WARNECK, Dr. GUSTAV, Evangelische Missionslehre: Ein Missionstheoretischer Versuch. Gotha, Fr. Andr. Perthes, 1892.
WARREN, WILLIAM, These for Those: Our Indebtedness to Foreign Missions. Portland, Me., Hoyt, Fogg & Breed, 1870.
WELLCOME, HENRY S., The Story of Metlakahtla. L. and N. Y. Saxon, 1887.
WILLIAMS, Rev. JOHN, Missionary Enterprise in the South Sea Islands. L., John Snow & Co., 1865.
WILLIAMS, Rev. THOMAS and CALVERT, Rev. JAMES, Fiji and the Fijians, 2 vols. L., Hodder & Stoughton; N. Y., George Routledge & Sons, 1870.
WISHARD, LUTHER D., A New Programme of Missions. N. Y, and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1895.
YONGE, CHARLOTTE M., Life of John Coleridge Patteson, Missionary Bishop of the Melanesian Islands. 2 vols. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1878.
YOUNG, ROBERT, The Success of Christian Missions. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1890.
SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE II The extent of this lecture renders any attempt to summarize it impracticable, but the following syllabus indicates the order in which the social evils of the non-Christian world have been treated. I.—THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP. (Evils affecting primarily the individual, and secondarily society through the individual.) (l) Intemperance; (2) The Opium Habit; (3) The Gambling Habit; (4) Immoral Vices; (5) Self-torture; (6) Suicide ; (7) Idleness and Improvidence; (8) Excessive Pride and Self-exaltation; (9) Moral Delinquencies. II.—THE FAMILY GROUP. (Evils affecting primarily the family, and secondarily society through the family.) (1) The Degradation of Woman; (2) Polygamy and Concubinage; (3) Adultery and Divorce; (4) Child Marriage and Widowhood; (5) Defective Family Training; (6) Infanticide. III.—THE TRIBAL GROUP. (Evils which pertain to intertribal relationships, and find their origin in the cruel passions of savage life.) (i) The Traffic in Human Flesh; (2) Slavery; (3) Cannibalism; (4) Human Sacrifices; (5) Cruel Ordeals; (6) Cruel Punishments and Torture; (7) Brutality in War; (8) Blood Feuds;
(9) Lawlessness. IV.—THE SOCIAL GROUP. (Evils which are incidental to the social relationships of uncivilized communities, and are due to lack of intelligence or the force of depraved habit.) (1) Ignorance; (2) Quackery; (3) Witchcraft; (4) Neglect of the Poor and Sick; (5) Uncivilized and Cruel Customs; (6) Insanitary Conditions; (7) Lack of Public Spirit; (8) Mutual Suspicion; (9) Poverty; (10) The Tyranny of Custom; (11) Caste. V.—THE NATIONAL GROUP. (Evils which afflict society through the misuse of the governing power.) (1) Civil Tyranny; (2) Oppressive Taxation; (3) The Subversion of Legal Rights; (4) Corruption and Bribery; (5) Massacre and Pillage. VI.—THE COMMERCIAL GROUP. (Evils incidental to low commercial standards or defective industrial methods.) (1) Lack of Business Confidence; (2) Commercial Deceit and Fraud; (3) Financial Irregularities; (4) Primitive Industrial Appliances. VII.—THE RELIGIOUS GROUP. (Evils which deprive society of the moral benefits of a pure religious faith and practice.) (1) Degrading Conceptions of the Nature and Requirements of Religion; (2) Idolatry; (3) Superstition; (4) Religious Tyranny and Persecution; (5) Scandalous Lives of Religious Leaders. LECTURE II
THE SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD
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"In estimating the adaptations of Christianity to be a world-wide faith in the ages to come, one fact should have decisive weight—that it is the only system of faith of which the world has made trial which combines dogmatic religious beliefs with corresponding principles of morality. It builds ethics on religion. The ancient religions, excepting that of the Hebrews, which was Christianity in embryo, had no systems of ethics. They did not profess to have any. Ante-Christian ethics, so far as they existed outside of Hebrew literature, were independent of religion. Neither had any radical relation to the other. A Greek or Roman devotee might be guilty of all the crimes and vices known to the criminal code of ancient jurisprudence, and it made no difference to his character as a religionist. He might be the most execrable of mankind in the courts of law, yet he could cross the street into a temple of religion and there be a saint. In the temple of Bacchus or of Venus his very vices were virtues. The identity of morals and religion is a Christian discovery." AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D., LL.D. "Undoubtedly Indian literature contains a large amount of moral teaching, some of which is of a very high order; but it is a remarkable circumstance, and one which European Christians find it difficult to believe or even to comprehend, that this moral teaching is totally unconnected with religious worship. . . . Morality is supposed to consist merely in the discharge of the duties of our caste and station towards our fellow-men. . . . Religion, on the other hand, is supposed to rise far above such petty considerations as the social duties, and to consist solely in the worship of the gods by means of the appointed praises, prayers, and observances, in the hope of obtaining thereby union with the Supreme Spirit and final emancipation. The duties of life are never inculcated in any Hindu temple. The discharge of those duties is never represented as enjoined by the gods, nor are any prayers ever offered in any temple for help to enable the worshippers to discharge those duties aright. It would be hard indeed even to conceive the possibility of prayers for purity ever being offered in a Hindu temple to a divinity surrounded by a bevy of dancing-girls. . . . There is no such teaching of morality as this by any Brahman or priest in any temple in all India. Hence we often see religion going in one direction and morality in another. We meet with a moral Hindu who has broken altogether away from religion, and, what is still more common, yet still more extraordinary, we meet with a devout Hindu who lives a flagrantly immoral life. In the latter case no person sees any inconsistency between the immorality and the devout-ness. Christianity, on the other hand, unites morality to religion by an indissoluble bond. It teaches that the right discharge of our duties to our fellowmen is an essential portion of the duty we owe to God, and that the very purpose for which Christ came into the world was ' that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.'" BISHOP CALDWELL, D.D., LL.D.
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LECTURE II
THE SOCIAL EVILS OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD THE subject before us in this lecture is so vast and complicated that one may well approach it with diffidence and even with dismay. Its range is so immense, and its details involve such a mass of facts, that first-hand treatment of the theme is entirely beyond the grasp of even the most learned student or the most observant traveller. We might well shrink from the responsibility involved were it not for the abundant testimony at our command in current literature, and especially as the result of an extensive private correspondence entered upon with the special purpose of securing reliable data from those whose observation and personal experience qualify them to speak with authority. The proper spirit of such an inquiry.It is a theme which should be approached with all humility and sobriety, and treated not with a view to impressionism or with any attempt to exploit the evils of non-Christian society. The aim should be rather to present a faithful and at the same time unflinching portraiture of the true state of human society in the less favored nations of the earth. We shall not aim at a highly wrought picture, but rather at a judicial presentation. Whatever of realism may characterize it will be fully justified by the facts of the case, and to those who can read between the lines there will be no difficulty in tracing the presence of a darker coloring and a more ghastly background to the picture than the proprieties of the printed page will allow. One thing we shall seek especially to guard against, and that is any attempt either
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to magnify the evils of the non-Christian world or to minimize those of Christendom. Our object will not be to make out a case by special pleading, or even to institute a comparison, but rather to unfold realities. Excellencies not to be ignored or minimized.Our purpose requires that we note what is objectionable and discreditable ; yet, on the other hand, we wish neither to hide nor ignore the existence of many virtues, both individual and social, which lend a peculiar interest and charm to the personal and national character of Eastern peoples, especially the more advanced among them. There is much that is beautiful and dignified in their social life. The great nations of the Orient, when once thoroughly purified and possessed by the spiritual culture of Christianity, will be as refined, as gracious, as gentle, as noble, and as true as any other people which the world contains. They have inherited and preserved, in many instances with singular fidelity, the best products and many of the most commendable customs of the ancient civilizations, and to refuse to recognize this would indicate a complacency on our part, at once invidious, ungenerous, and unjustifiable. The Chinese, for example, could teach a considerable portion of the Occidental world profitable lessons in filial piety, respect for law, reverence for superiors, economy, industry, patience, perseverance, contentment, cheerfulness, kindliness, politeness, skill in the use of opportunities, and energy in the conquering of an adverse environment. The merchants of China, in contradistinction to the officials and small traders, are held in high esteem as men of probity and business honor. The capabilities of the Chinese people, under favorable auspices, will surely secure to them an unexpectedly high and honorable place in the world's future. There is a staying power in their natural qualities and a possibility of development under helpful conditions which deserve more recognition than the world seems ready at present to accord. With proper discrimination as to specifications, and some necessary modification and readjustment of the precise emphasis of the characterization, similar statements might be made concerning the Japanese, Hindus, and other Asiatic peoples. We must bear in mind also that these nations have been obliged to struggle with crushing disabilities, and are weighted with ponderous burdens, which have handicapped them for ages in the race of progress. Considerations such as these, and others which will occur to the student, but to which we have not time here to refer, will suggest that a spirit of charitable and calm discrimination should mark the treatment of the theme of our present lecture.
It is not to be denied, moreover, that some of the gravest counts in
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The existence of serious evils in Christendom not to be denied.the indictment would hold against society, considered in its totality, in more civilized lands, even those most fully under the influence of Christianity. In fact, a catalogue of social evils pertaining to Occidental nations might be made, which would prove a formidable rival to its less civilized contemporary, although in many vital respects it would be different.1 If we consider the immense advantages of the environment of Christendom, it becomes a pertinent and searching question whether Occidental races under similar historic conditions, without the inspiration of Christian ideals, would have done better than their less fortunate brethren. It must be acknowledged also that there is an opportunity for a sombre and dismal retort on the part of the less civilized races, based upon the treatment they have experienced at the hands of professedly Christian nations, or upon the personal dealings and conduct of the unworthy representatives of Christendom with whom they have come in contact.2 There is little comfort to the sufferers in the statement that the truer Christian sentiment and the higher moral standards of Christendom condemn and repudiate these evils as abhorrent and disgraceful; yet that this is the truth is a fact which has in it a deep consolatory significance to a believer in the religion of Christ, and gives an added impulse to the missionary enterprise as a debt of Christianity to offset treatment on the part of so-called Christian nations which was far from commendable.
Christian civilization must be tested by it's active antagonism to moral evils.There is little that gives reason for any tone of exultation in the consideration of this whole matter, yet there is one test in which Christian civilization can serenely rest. The ground not of boasting, but of hopefulness and gratitude in Christendom, is that the forces of resistance to evil are alert and vigorous. The standards of life and conduct are permanently elevated. The demands of public opinion are enforced by regnant principles. The prevailing temper and tone
1 The iniquities of Christendom are not to be disguised or palliated. The forces of evil seem to cooperate with the passions and weaknesses of humanity to produce a record of wrong-doing which is both humbling and appalling. The shadow seems to rest most darkly where the signs of material civilization are most imposing (cf. Wilberforce, "The Trinity of Evil"). The story of the half-breeds, in all their variety, scattered through both continents, from the wilds of Canada to Patagonia, involving as it does such flagrant iniquity, is a most discreditable reminder of the failure of civilization to wholly restrain barbaric instinct and license. Cf. Adam, "The Canadian Northwest: Its History and its Troubles," p. 227; The Andover Review, July, 1889, pp. 15-36, article on "The Half-Breed Indians of North America." 2 Warneck, "Modern Missions and Culture," pp. 239-306.
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of society are in harmony with essential Christian ethics. The moral forces which represent law and order, peace and sobriety, justice and brotherhood, truth and honor, are in the ascendant, and working steadily towards a beneficent goal. The leaven of Christianity has permeated society, and is quickening it with a steadily expanding energy, and holds the balance of power in directing the educational machinery of civilization. In the non-Christian world almost the reverse is true. There is a totally different tone and temper in the public conscience. The trend is under the influence of other masters. The social status is marked by spiritual demoralization and ethical decadence. There is poverty of blood and paralysis of moral muscle. The heathen world now, as of old, is moribund. It is destitute in itself of recuperating power. It lacks the one vital force which can alone guarantee the moral hopefulness of social evolution. The Incarnation of the Son of God, and the practical stimulus of contact with that sublime fact and its spiritual corollaries, constitute the true secret of progress in the realm of higher social transformation. The subject now in hand hardly admits of analysis; yet we have thought it best to make an attempt to present the facts in orderly sequence, with a crude and confessedly artificial nexus. The effort must be regarded as simply tentative, and with a view to our present convenience. We have, therefore, divided the social evils to be noted into groups, with somewhat random specifications under each group. I.—THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP (Evils affecting primarily the individual, and secondarily society through the individual) 1. INTEMPERANCE.—A survey of the present state of the world Intemperance in many nations--a comparative survey.with special reference to the drink habit reveals the lamentable fact that it prevails more or less in almost all sections of the earth. A still further scrutiny exhibits the startling truth that regions where it has been least known are the very places where the emissaries of Satan, drawing their supplies from within the precincts of Christendom, are most eager to thrust this vile and demoralizing traffic. There are large sections of the world, including vast populations, where only the milder and less dangerous forms of semi-intoxicants were in common use until the cruel greed of those human harpies, the traders in intoxicants, introduced the foreign forms of stronger alcoholic poisons. We must ac-
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knowledge that the drink habit seems to be one of the deplorable phenomena of civilization, and that a comparative survey of the use of intoxicants reveals the fact that in no countries is it so prevalent as in those of the European and the North and South American Continents.1 If we turn our attention to the broader outlook of the world, we find that wherever European civilization has established itself or has a controlling influence, just there this scourge of intemperance, like a malign contagion, has appeared and is spreading, and that, although native races usually have intoxicants of their own manufacture, yet the evil effects have everywhere been immensely increased by the introduction of foreign alcoholic drinks. Turning our attention now exclusively to foreign mission fields, and including among them the countries where Roman Catholicism prevails, while exact comparative statistics are not to be found, yet the burden of evidence seems to indicate that none surpasses the South American Continent, Central America, and Mexico in the excessive use of intoxicants.2 Next perhaps would come India and Burma, where the British Government holds a gruesome monopoly of both the drink and opium traffics, and derives a revenue from both by auction sale of licenses and custom tax, which seems to blind its eyes to the moral evils of the sys- 1 Official statistics with reference to the United States indicate that, in spite of all efforts at temperance reform, the consumption of intoxicants, including malt liquors, from 1875 to 1892, rose from eight to seventeen gallons per head. (See "Temperance in all Nations," vol. i., p. 446.) It had, therefore, more than doubled in that period. In Great Britain the status is even more appalling. The estimate of The London Standard is that "2,500,000 go beyond the border line of sobriety every week in Great Britain." The estimate of "England's Glory and England's Shame" is 2,280,000. Upon the testimony of Sir Archibald Alison, when Sheriff of Glasgow, 30,000 went to bed intoxicated in that city every Saturday night. In London the number is placed at 70,000. According to the estimate of Dr. Norman Kerr, 150 die every day in Great Britain from the effects of strong drink, making a total of nearly 55,000 every year. By other careful statisticians the estimate is increased to 60,000. Similar statistics might be given for other European countries, notably Russia, Belgium, and Germany. All figures fail to represent the awful results of lunacy, disease, misery, and crime which accompany this loathsome revel in drink. Cf. Lecky, "Democracy and Liberty," vol. ii., pp. 135-168, for a comprehensive sketch of the progress of temperance legislation and reform. Cf. also "Temperance in all Nations," vol. i. 2 Cf. Reports of American Consuls upon various countries, published in "Temperance in all Nations," Report of the World's Temperance Congress held at Chicago, June, 1893. The consensus of testimony from resident missionaries in Mexico, Central and South America points to intemperance as a fearful and abounding social curse.
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tem, and to sear the official conscience as to any sense of responsibility for the rapid and fearful increase of the drinking habit. Next to India we must place some sections of Africa, where the same dismal story of foreign liquor introduction must be told. The West Coast, and to a less extent the East Coast, of the Continent are flooded with the white man's "fire-water." Millions of gallons enter every year, and the demoralizing custom of paying the wages of natives in liquor is becoming alarmingly prevalent.1 If we follow up the direct avenues of the Congo from the West Coast, and the inland waterways and caravan routes of the East Coast, we will find that the traffic is penetrating the recesses of the Continent.2 Commissioner Johnston estimates that at least thirty per cent, of those who die in Central Africa are the victims of alcohol.3 Pathetic instances of protest and appeal from native chiefs and even native communities are reported, which reveal the instinctive recogni- 1 The Niger Coast Protectorate, according to consular reports presented to Parliament in August, 1895, shows an increase in two years of 225 per cent, in import duties on spirituous liquors. The quantity received into the country during the year ending July, 1892, was 1,350,751 gallons; March, 1893, 1,371,517; March, 1894, 2,609,158. Holland, Germany, and Britain are the largest importers. (See consular reports quoted in The Missionary Record, Edinburgh, October, 1895.) In Lagos upon market-days the products of the country are bartered for foreign goods, and, according to the testimony of a resident English missionary, "nineteen shillings out of every twenty are exchanged for gin and rum" (Work and Workers, October, 1895, p. 414). In 1893 nearly 1,700,000 gallons of spirits entered Lagos. A powerful editorial on "Spirits in Africa" in The Times, London, March 4, 1895, called forth a confirmatory letter from Bishop Tugwell of Western Equatorial Africa, referring to the extent of the evil, which was published in The Times, August 17, 1895 (republished in Liberia, Bulletin No. 7, November, 1895). Cf. statement of Sir George Goldie, Governor of Royal Niger Company, reported in The Sentinel, June, 1895, p. 80. Cf. also The Mail (reprint of The Times), August 23, 1895, speech of Sir Charles Dilke on the African Liquor Traffic, and Ibid., August 28, 1895, p. 6, and August 30, 1895, p. I. See furthermore The Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1895, pp. 914, 915. The liquor traffic on the Gold Coast is stated by Sir Charles Dilke to have amounted to 9,000,000 gallons in the last twelve years. The condition in the Congo State and other European protectorates on the West Coast is substantially the same. For a statement of the situation in South and East Africa and in India up to 1884, consult Gustafson, "The Foundation of Death," pp. 351-356. For an elaborate and comprehensive survey of the status of the drink habit and the progress of the cause of temperance throughout the world, consult "Temperance in all Nations," Report of the World's Temperance Congress held at Chicago, June, 1893 (New York, The National Temperance Society and Publication House, No. 58 Reade Street). 2 Baptist Missionary Magazine, September, 1892, p. 392; Report of Baptist Missionary Union, 1894, p. 351; The Missionary Herald, June, 1893, p. 238; Regions Beyond, April, 1893, p. 221. 3 Central Africa, December, 1894, p. 182.
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tion on their part of the dangers of the habit,1 In Madagascar the native Government has taken strenuous action to prevent the extension of the trade in intoxicants, and has succeeded in greatly checking the advances of the evil, but how it will be now that French influence has obtained control is a matter of doubt. In Japan, Korea, and China, while intemperance is a social curse,—increasingly so in Japan,—yet it seems to be restrained to an extent which makes it far less of a national evil and a social danger than in the lands which we have passed in review. Of the Ainu of Northern Japan it is said, however, that they are "a nation of drunkards," and in the larger cities of Japan there is an increasing tendency to intoxication. In Korea also there are ominous signs of danger. In China, while drinking is sadly prevalent in the large cities, yet the nation as a whole sets an example of sobriety. The country is not as yet afflicted to any extent with the public saloon, and drinking is restricted to the home or to festive gatherings, and cannot be considered as by any means so demoralizing as the opium habit. Its extension is at present confined almost exclusively to the foreign ports.2 In Mohammedan lands the use of intoxicants is greatly on the increase. In the Turkish Empire, in Persia, and in North Africa, Mohammedans as well as the nominal Christian population seem to be yielding to the besetting temptation. The Koran, to be sure, prohibits wine, but the Moslem conscience by a species of exegetical legerdemain has interpreted the injunction as having no application to the concoctions of the modern still. In the Pacific Islands we have, with only one or two remarkable exceptions, the universal story of the introduction of foreign liquors and the prompt surrender of the native to the resistless enticement. The result of our survey is that intemperance, largely through foreign 1 Bishop Tugwell recently presented to the "United Committee on the Native Races and the Liquor Traffic "three remarkable documents bearing the names of over twelve thousand inhabitants of his diocese on the West Coast, for the most part natives, Christian, Mohammedan, and heathen. The documents were in support of the following resolution, passed at meetings held in August and September, 1895, in Abeokuta and Lagos: "That this meeting, recognizing that the traffic in spirits—i.e., gin, rum, and other poisonous liquor—introduced into Western Equatorial Africa, as elsewhere in Africa, is working immense harm physically, morally, and spiritually amongst every section of its communities, and further recognizing that the time has come when a decisive blow should be dealt against the traffic, pledges itself to support every effort that may be made in Africa or Europe to suppress it." 2 "Intemperance is pronounced a vice by Chinese public opinion. Habitual drunkards are few, and the habit has not the hold it has in Western lands, owing, possibly, to the weak wine and the favorite habit of tea-drinking. In the ports, where foreigners introduce and use strong drink, the habits of the people are undergoing change, and intemperance is increasing."—Rev. Joseph S.Adams (A. B. M. U.), Hankow, Province of Hupeh, China.
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introduction, is rapidly on the increase throughout the earth, and that Christianity owes it to herself and to the honor of Christendom to support and encourage every effort of missions and every agency of reform for saving the world from its ravages. 2. THE OPIUM HABIT.—The area of the prevalence of the opium habit may The extent of the opium traffic.be said to be limited to the eastern half of the continent of Asia, including the islands to the southeast of China, the Empire of Japan being a notable exception. The storm-centre of the vice is China, and here again we meet with the same amazing phenomenon of a civilized nation seriously compromised by complicity in the extension of a demoralizing traffic. The part which the British Government has taken in the introduction of opium into China is an indelible chapter in the history of the nineteenth century, and the persistent encouragement to its production in India up to the present time, and the advantage which is taken of its exportation to China by the British Government to swell the Indian revenue, is an aspect of English foreign policy which is exciting intense indignation and loathing on the part of rapidly increasing multitudes of the British public. While the habit has been known in the East for centuries to a very limited extent, yet its modern development and the fearful ravages of its excessive use may be said to be coincident with its production in India under the British rule and its recent cultivation in China as a native product, under the stimulus of the demand which has arisen within a half-century.1 The present production in India in round numbers is 54,700 1 Maughan, "Our Opium Trade in India and China" (London, Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, Finsbury House, Blomfield Street). "Under the auspices and fostering care of the East India Company the trade grew year by year so as to reach in 1800 as much as 4570 chests, and in 1854 not less than 78,354 chests, each chest containing 133 1/8 pounds avoirdupois. The average import of foreign opium into China for the past ten years (1880-90) is 72,012 chests. The Persian and Turkish trade in opium is comparatively insignificant, the average being only 4159 chests. Thus the average import from India alone is 67,418 chests. But this is not all. Prior to the introduction of the drug by foreigners it was not used by the Chinese as an article of luxury. They were not ignorant of its existence and medicinal properties, but there is not a particle of evidence to show that it was smoked or abused in any other way in those days. Now, however, the native growth exceeds the foreign at least six times. Whilst the demand for opium hardly existed in China one hundred and fifty years ago, the Chinese at present consume every year enough to fill from 400,000 to 500,000 chests."—Griffith John, D.D. (L. M. S.), Hankow, China.
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cwts. annually, and of this amount the annual exportation, almost exclusively to China, reaches 49,512 cwts., or 90.5 per cent.1 The revenue of the British Government in India from opium has decreased of late.2 Ten years ago it was fully twice what it is to-day. Its victims in China, however, are constantly increasing in number, and are estimated at present to be over 20,000,000, and by some as high as 40,000,000,3 while the expense to China is about £25,000,000 annually.4 The real points at issue in the conflict are the extent of the evil resulting from the use of opium, and the responsibility of the British Government in the matter. The British administration in India, for reasons of expediency and revenue, is inclined to defend itself by minimizing both these considerations. It is on the defensive, and contends vigorously and recklessly that the evils are insignificant, and therefore, as a matter of course, that no responsibility exists. On the other hand, a large and influential section of the British people contend with irrepressible earnestness and increasing vehemence that the opium traffic as conducted by the British Government in India is a national scandal and an indefensible crime, involving responsibility on the part of Great Britain, and discrediting to a painful degree the fair honor of a Christian nation. The Government has been hitherto unimpressible, and has maintained in general a policy of immobility or pleaded the non possumus argument. The agitation has been regarded in official circles with incredulous unconcern, and, while some measure of formal deference has been shown, the practical outcome has been of trifling value. Recent developments, however, indicate a marked advance along the lines of an effective and victorious crusade. 1 "Report of Royal Commission," vol. ii., p. 345. 2 The Budget estimate of gross revenue from opium for 1894-95 was, in tens of rupees, Rx 6,393,600, equal to 63,936,000 rupees ("Statesman's Year-Book," 1895, p. 130); and from this must be subtracted 22,553,000 rupees on the score of expenditure leaving a net revenue for that year of 41,383,000 rupees. To this must be added the net revenue from excise (sale of licenses, etc.), which for the average of five years, ending 1894, was 9,851,290, making the total approximate income of the Government from opium, in 1894-95, 51,234,290 rupees. The value of the rupee for that year was officially estimated at Is. 2d., so that if reduced to sterling currency the income is equivalent to £2,988,673. If we estimate the pound sterling at $5, this will give us $14,943,365, or in round numbers $15,000,000, as the present total annual revenue of the Indian Government from opium. Cf. The Friend of China, August, 1894, p. 6, and Wilson's "Minute of Dissent," Supplement to The Friend of China, May, 1895, p. 40. 3 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 335. 4 "Report of Shanghai Conference," 1890, p. 337.
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The subject has been before Parliament at various times, and in 1891 a resolution was passed which declared that the methods of the British The Royal Commission on Opium and its report.Government in connection with the opium revenue were "morally indefensible." On September 2, 1893, a Royal Commission was appointed by Par-
liament to investigate the question of opium in India, the report of which was presented early in 1895. It should be noted that the Commission did not undertake to investigate the question of its exportation to China and the results of its use there, but confined its attention to opium as used in India. This restriction limits greatly the usefulness of such an investigation, and gives a misleading impression to its conclusions. The report of this Commission is altogether in the interests of the present status, but its report is one thing and the mass of evidence which it has collected is quite a different matter. A member of the Commission, Mr. H. J. Wilson, presented a Minority Report dissenting from the judgment of the majority. Such searching analyses of the evidence as are presented in his "Minute of Dissent," and also in a published "Review of the Evidence" by Mr. Joshua Rowntree, reveal a mine of information on the subject of opium which can be worked to the manifest advantage of the anti-opium cause. The Royal Commission will not by any means have things its own way. Its voluminous documents, filling several large Government Blue Books, its accessory literature, in the shape of petitions, memorials, public addresses, and press discussions, and the awakening of general interest in the question will all serve to mark an era in the history of the campaign against opium, from which a large volume of new and striking data will emerge, and from which the agitation will derive new impulse and vigor and reap a decided advantage. The war is by no means on the wane. The recent action of the British Government in British restrictions in Burmarestricting the opium traffic in Burma may be regarded as a victory on the part of the opponents of the opium policy, although the reasons assigned by the British Government for that action revealed a studied indifference to the agitation, and in fact credited Buddhism with the moral influence against opium; yet the fact that the action was taken is highly significant, and stands with all the force of a moral paradox as a self-inflicted indictment of the Government policy for India and China. No one can read the official notification which announces that "the use of opium is condemned by the Buddhist religion, and the Government, believing the condemnation to be right, intends that the use of opium by persons of the Burmese race shall forever cease," without finding
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himself face to face with the puzzling enigma of how the condemnation is right when pronounced by Buddhism, and of indifferent value when pronounced by Christianity. He will find it difficult also to restrain a lively and irrepressible inquiry as to why, if the Government, "believing the condemnation to be right," feels under obligation to prohibit forever the Burmese race from using it, it should not also carry out the same prohibition in the case of the Indian races, and, so far as its participation is concerned, in the case of the Chinese race. The truth seems to be that the report of the recent Royal Commission was rendered in the interest of financial and political expediency rather than with any profound consideration of the moral responsibility involved. The area of the opium habit, and the evils of its use.As to the real extent of the evil, geographically, physically, morally, and socially, the evidence seems conclusive to one who receives it in an unprejudiced spirit and studies its significance. A geographical survey of the area of the opium habit presents at the outset the striking fact that Japan is free. The wisdom of her statesmen has guaranteed her by treaty against the introduction of the drug, while the laws against its manufacture and use are of exemplary severity and are strictly enforced. It had been carried into Korea by the Chinese, and was rapidly gaining headway, but there is reason to hope that if Japanese influence and supervision rather than Russian are to prevail in Korea, the evil will be checked. Throughout the length and breadth of China, even in her far western provinces of Shensi, Szechuan, and Yunnan, it prevails to an extent which may be regarded as a frightful and demoralizing social evil. The testimony as to its prevalence in Yunnan and the remoter provinces reports as high as eighty per cent. of the men and fifty per cent. of the women addicted to the pernicious habit.1 In Formosa opium and whiskey have been counted as two of the main evils to be contended with. The recent prohibition of the opium trade by the Japanese has, however, given the hope of a change for the better. In the Eastern Archipelago there is the same story of its desolating effects. In Siam and Laos it ranks as a baneful custom. In the Straits Settlements it has securely established itself. In Burma it was rapidly doing its deadly work until the revolt of the Burmese effected a remarkable change of policy on the part of the British Government. In India, owing to the Government custom of licensing for a consideration its use, and practically facilitating its consumption, it is an evil which is growing with alarming rapidity. Testimonies from 1 China's Millions, December, 1894, p. 168.
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all parts of India leave no doubt upon this point. Opium dens are becoming a feature of dissipation in the cities of India, and are not unknown even in the larger villages. The Island of Ceylon is plentifully supplied with them, especially its principal city of Colombo. One of the most distressing aspects of its use in India is the habit of giving it to children, even during infancy, to stupefy them into quietness. Its effect upon their physical and mental constitution induces a state of paralysis and collapse which frequently results in lifelong injury.1 In Persia the drug is both cultivated and used in considerable quantities. In Teheran, Meshed, and other cities opium dens are to be found.2 Beyond the boundaries mentioned, while there is a scattering and dangerous tendency to the prevalence of the vice, yet we cannot regard it as in the same sense a dominant social evil, as it certainly must be considered within the above-indicated geographical limits. As to its physical and moral effects a large volume might be written.3 We cannot enter into the subject at any length, and yet it should not be dismissed without at least a decisive verdict. To a candid student of the testimony of those whose assertions can be relied upon and who speak from personal observation, there can be but one conclusion, and that is that it is one of the most threatening and militant evils of China, and, indeed, of all sections of the earth where it is gaining headway.4 1 Friend of China, December, 1894, p. 111; The Missionary Herald, August, 1894, p. 324. 2 "The opium poppy is grown in many parts of Persia. The surplus opium is exported to China, India, and England. The commercial value of the opium exported from Persia per annum probably approaches $2,500,000. The quantity of opium consumed in Persia is comparatively large, and is no doubt on the increase. I think it is a low estimate to say that one third of the adult population, including both sexes, use it immoderately, and a very large proportion of the remainder use it to some extent. During a recent visit to the city of Meshed I went into two opium dens, and the people I found were the vilest of the vile. More recently, one night, I visited twelve of these dens in the city of Teheran. I found therein in all about one hundred and fifty people. I do not suppose that it is known how many of these public opium dens there are in Teheran, but I should not be surprised if there are one hundred of them, besides the ordinary tea-houses where the brittle opium is smoked, and private houses where a few friends meet regularly to indulge. Probably a million and a quarter of people in Persia are addicted to the opium habit. They consume at least 3,881,410 pounds in a year, which at present prices is worth $9,125,274."—Rev. Lewis F. Esselstyn (P. B. F. M. N.), Teheran, Persia. 3 Dudgeon, "The Evils of the Use of Opium." Cf. also "Report of Shanghai Conference," 1890, pp. 314-354. 4 For a recent sketch of the present status of the anti-opium movement see Missionary Review of the World, April, 1896, p. 265.
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3. THE GAMBLING HABIT.—Although gambling is to be found in Japan, and apparently in some places to excess, despite a laudable The prevalence of gambling in China and throughout the world.effort on the part of the Government to suppress it, yet the contrast with China in this particular is greatly to the credit of the Japanese. In Korea the passion is widespread, and is apparently unrestrained. China, however, seems to lead the van of the gambling fraternity throughout the world. The indulgence of the Chinese is immemorial and inveterate; in fact, it is justly regarded as the most prominent vice in China, its only rival being the opium habit.1 To be sure, it is forbidden by the Government, but the prohibition seems to be a dead letter, either through bribery or through the utter inefficiency of the authorities, and it can hardly be said that there is the slightest official restraint upon the universal passion, which seems to hold sway among all classes, from the mandarins and literati down to the homeless and poverty-stricken beggars, who are often in their way the most hopeless slaves to the habit. In Siam the vice seems to carry the nation by storm, but vigorous attempts at suppression have been made by the authorities, and it is now forbidden, except on holidays, when it is allowed unchecked. It cannot be said, however, that the efforts of the Government are ingenuous, as it draws a large revenue from this source by licensing lotteries and gambling-houses. These licenses are farmed out to the highest bidder, and give him a monopoly, with the power of prosecuting all competitors. It is next to impossible for a government to suppress a vice with one hand and encourage it for its own private gains with the other. We are not surprised to read, therefore, that "gambling houses and their natural concomitants and next-door neighbors, the pawnshops, are numerous in Bangkok," and that "this deadly national trade can but increase so long as a native government prefers to use it as a source of profit rather than to check it as a national curse."2 In Burma it is "the bane of the country," and in India, although checked by the British Government, it is still a social vice of large magnitude. It is a special feature of some religious festivals, when the British policy of non-interference in matters of religion leads the Government to allow it, on the ground that it is a concomitant of a religious celebration. In Persia and the Turkish Empire it is apparently increasingly prevalent. It hovers around the coast-line of Africa, 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p, 825; Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 82, 383. 2 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," p. 421.
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including Madagascar, but is little known in the interior. The whole Continent of South America seems to be under the demoralization of this social curse. In Central America and Mexico it is found to excess in all its forms, and often under official patronage. The South American Government lotteries are sources of vast revenues, portions of which are applied to the support of philanthropic institutions, and the remainder is appropriated by the State. Prizes as high as six hundred thousand dollars are given, and some as high as a million are already in contemplation.1 4. IMMORAL VICES.—The immemorial story of human frailty and lust, with their cruel adjuncts of brutality and crime and the wretched aftermath of shame and misery, is still in our day the most indelible moral taint of society which the world's history presents. There is no temptation more universal and more formidable than the solicitations of immorality. It is a theme which leads us by a short cut into the depths of human depravity, and we soon find that there are sins which cannot be named and revolting aspects of vice which can only be referred to with cautious reserve. It is in this connection that Christian morality wages its most stubborn conflicts and vindicates most engagingly its saintly beauty and its heavenly charm. It is the same old story in all ages, and the state of the world to-day, except as Christian purity has hallowed the relation of the sexes, is as abominable and nameless as ever. Immorality in Japan, Korea, and China.The old Roman status in its essential abandon is faithfully reproduced in the licensed and wholly undisguised Yoshiwara of Tokyo, which is quite as much a matter-of-fact feature of the city, in spite of its horrid commerce in girls, as its hotels and temples. The same plan of government provision for "regulated" vice prevails in all Japanese cities, and seems to be regarded with quite as much complacency as the public parks and the innocent-looking tea-houses.2 The inmates are virtually the galley-slaves of lust, having often been sold by fathers or brothers to the cruel servitude; yet, strange to say, they do not necessarily lose social caste, so that the transfer to the relation of legal marriage with the assumption of an honorable position in the home is entirely free from the shock which such an incident would 1 The Gospel in all Lands, July, 1894, p. 313. 2 Norman, "The Real Japan," p. 269. Cf. also "How the Social Evil is Regulated in Japan," a pamphlet printed in Tokyo for private circulation only.
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involve in Western or even in other Eastern lands. A Japanese may find there either a wife or a concubine, as he prefers, with hardly more comment upon the act in the one case than in the other. The fact that this is only rarely done may be conceded, but the possibility of its being accomplished with the easy and complacent assent of social sentiment is a significant sign of the lax views that prevail. Many Mikados, even in recent times, have been born of concubines.1 It is true that Japanese law prohibits bigamy, and that marital fidelity is exacted so far as the conduct of the wife is concerned, but there is no such demand upon the husband, and still less upon men who are not married.2 A dual code is as clearly recognized as the distinction of sex itself. The man is under no bonds which society or even his own wife can insist upon. He is free to legally register concubines as inmates of his home, and his indulgence, however open, meets no challenge or rebuke, not even from Japanese law, which does not recognize this kind of infidelity as even a partial plea for divorce.3 A candid survey of the social history of Japan would indicate immorality as her national vice. Relics of phallic worship are still to be found,4 and its spirit as well as its openly displayed symbols form even yet a feature of festival or holiday hilarity in certain sections of Japan. Hardly an expression of profanity is in use, but obscene references are common. Indecent pictures are tolerated with strange indifference in some sections in the interior of the country, even in public places where they catch the gaze of multitudes. Art and literature are made the medium of gross suggestiveness, and in too many cases are defiled with shameless indelicacy. Some strange and startling unconventionalities in connection with bathing customs and scantiness of attire seem to characterize the every-day life of the people. We should not, however, judge too hastily and severely customs like these as necessarily an indication of special moral depravity, since so much depends upon the spirit of the participants and the atmosphere of local sentiment. It cannot be disguised, however, that the "social evil" and all its concomitants are the open shame of Japan more than of any other people outside the license of tropical barbarism. An extract from Neesima's diary in 1864 gives an insight into the shocking condition of the coast cities and towns.5 There has been no change for the better, except as Christian effort has succeeded in grap 1 Chamberlain, "Things Japanese," p. 292. 2 Ibid., p. 285. 3 Griffis, "The Religions of Japan," pp. 124, 149, 320. 4 Edmund Buckley, "Phallicism in Japan" (Chicago, The University Press). 5 Davis, "Life of Neesima," p. 22.
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pling with the evil. "The finest houses in Japan belong to the woman in scarlet. . . . The licensed government brothel, covering acres of land, is the most beautiful part of the capital. Oriental splendor—a myth in the streets—becomes reality when the portals of the Yoshiwara are crossed."1 In Korea a severe code of reserve surrounds woman; yet concubinage, amounting, in fact, to practical polygamy, is legal and common, while harlotry flaunts itself with exceptional boldness.2 Vices of the deepest dye, "suggestive of the society of Gomorrah," are known to be practised even in the highest social circles.3 Dancing-girls of immoral character are employed and paid by the Government, and are subject to the call of the magistrate at any time. In China female chastity is severely guarded, and there is no licensed immorality; yet a state of things which is frankly acknowledged in Japan is simply an open secret among the Chinese.4 Society regards it with a sly frown, the Government prohibits and professes to discipline it; yet vice festers in every city of China and presents some shamefully loathsome aspects. The traffic in young girls, especially those who may be afflicted with blindness, is the usual method of supplying brothels with their inmates. The infamous trade of the "pocket-mother" and her colonies of native slave-girls, and its relation to the opium habit in the Straits Settlements and China, have been recently brought vividly to the attention of the British public by Mrs. Andrew and Dr. Kate Bushnell.5 In the every-day conversation of the Chinese, especially of the poorer classes, expressions so exceptionally vile that they cannot be hinted at are only too well known. "An English oath is a winged bullet; Chinese abuse is a ball of filth," says the author of "Chinese Characteristics." The notorious books and placards of Hunan are an indication of the interior furnishing of the Chinese imagination. In Siam adultery is lightly condemned, and unclean vices are practised. In Tibet the moral status is low. Marriage is often a convenient fiction, and may be adjusted as a temporary bargain wherever a man may happen to be. Not only is polygamy common, but polyandry is recognized and practised among the peasantry.6 1 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," seventh edition, pp. 362, 368. 2 Griffis, "Corea," p. 251; Gilmore, "Korea," p. 109. 3 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," p. 352. 4 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 179; Douglas, "Society in China,"
p. 205.
5 Cf. The Christian (London), March 28, 1895, article entitled "Social Morals in the Orient." 6 Marston, "The Great Closed Land," pp. 47, 49.
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India occupies an unenviable prominence as a land where immoral tendencies have flourished and brought forth their fruit with tropical luxuriance. The moral condition of India.There is a panoramic variety in the phases of its social vice, the ill-concealed obscenity of much of its sacred literature, and the immoral aspects of some of its religious rites and festivals. The social demoralization which attends vice is revealed there to an unusual extent—the tell-tale stringency in the seclusion of woman, child marriage, low views of woman's place and function in society, a contemptuous estimate of her character and capacity, tainted, family life, unseemly marriage customs, obscenity in talk and song prostitution, concubinage, lax views of adultery, and the contamination of so-called religious rites and services with uncleanness. The spirit of that now happily obscure phase of nature-worship which is known as phallicism is distinctly traceable in India.1 Its symbols and signs are still visible at many of the shrines of Hinduism. Its grosser and more intolerable features have been permitted to lapse in recent times, but that unhallowed association of fancied religious fervor with lustful abandon is still hardly masked in some of the religious festivals and customs of Hindu society. It could hardly be otherwise when even the sacred literature is not free from gross impurity, and many of the gods worshipped are examples in vice ;2 when continence is not inculcated; when widows, often young and helpless, are condemned by necessity either to a life of social misery or shame; when the zenana system involves the frequent separation of husbands and wives, the former compelled to be absent, and the latter hidden in unnatural seclusion ;3 and when social customs and even religious observances encourage and minister to lewd license.4 The nautch dancing, so common, gives to immoral women social éclat, which is too often stimulated and enhanced by European patronage;5 harlotry is notoriously common in the towns and cities, although village life is comparatively free from it, and village women are as a class morally well behaved.6 Hindu temples are in many instances disgraced by indecent symbols and sculptures; while the old Greek custom of having female attendants attached to
1 Sir Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," Index, sub Linga and Yoni. 2 J. Murray Mitchell, "The Hindu Religion," pp. 32, 33. 3 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 412, 413. 4 "Purity Reform in India," pp. 16, 25-28, Papers on Indian Social Reform, Madras, 1892. 5 Ibid., p. 16. 6 Wilkins, p. 412.
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the temples is a well-known fact in many of the Hindu shrines of India. These dancing-girls call themselves deva-dasi ("slaves of the gods"), and in the sense of being at the service of every comer, of whatever caste, are also the slaves of men.1 Young girls are frequently dedicated in infancy to some popular Hindu god, and the simple meaning of this is that they are devoted to a life of shame—branded and married to the god, to be forever known as consecrated to depravity in the name of religion.2 In fact, immorality is more distinctively a feature of Hinduism than morality. It is not to be supposed that Indian society without exception is wholly given over to this state of things. There are multitudes of worthy natives who regard these features of Hinduism with contempt and loathing, but they are exceptions, and they have broken with Hinduism, or at least with its moral laxity. English army life in India, and to a deplorable extent the habits of foreign residents, present a sadly compromising feature of social vice. The repeal of the Contagious Disease Act, although a moral victory, has been too inoperative to remedy entirely official complicity in the supervision and regulation of vice, as the evidence before the Committee recently appointed by the Indian Government on this subject clearly shows.3 This fact was brought to light chiefly by the testimony of Mrs. Elizabeth W. Andrew and Dr. Kate Bushnell, two American ladies connected with the W. C. T. U., who in the service of the cause of purity in India gave themselves to the heroic investigation of the true status of this question. The English Government is not unmindful, however, of its moral responsibility and its evident duty to deal vigorously with this burning subject of immorality in India. Penal codes and official regulations seem to open the way for the suppression or restriction of many forms of vice, but the evil is so gigantic that it can elude and defy the law, while in deference to the fanatical religious temper of India a significant exception has been made by the Government. In the clause of the penal code against obscenity in literature and art is the following caveat: "This Section does not extend to any representation sculptured, engraved, painted, or otherwise represented on or in any temple, or on any car used for the conveyance of idols, or kept or used for any religious purpose." The various governments of India, British and native, united in expressing their judgment, with reference to the above exception, that "native public opinion is not yet sufficiently advanced to 1 "Purity Reform in India," p. 26, Papers on Indian Social Reform, Madras, 1892. 2 Ibid., pp. 27, 28. 3 "Report of Committee to Inquire into Prostitution in India," London, 1893.
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permit the destruction of such indecencies." The result of this policy of non-interference on the part of the authorities with the religious customs of the people is that, however much of a saturnalia their festivals and celebrations may become, they are free from legal restraint if their indecencies are becomingly pious and their wickedness is under the shelter of religion. The British Government has already accomplished a beneficent rôle of reform in several respects where the interests of humanity required it, and the time will come—Christianity indeed is hastening it—when the unclean scandals of Hinduism must go also, and the various unsavory abominations of temple, festival, and pilgrimage will be consigned to oblivion. The status in Mohammedan lands, and in South America, Africa, and the Pacific Islands.The Mohammedan lands of Afghanistan, Arabia, Persia, Turkey, and Northern Africa are not above other sections of Asia characterized by exceptional immorality among the sexes. Prostitution is not carried on as a profession, except in the larger cities, where it is as well known as elsewhere ; but easy divorce and lax arrangements as to marriage relations open the way for a whited-sepulchre species of promiscuity gratifying to the pious Moslem, since it is sanctioned by his religion and counted as socially respectable. As is usually the case, however, where the relation of the sexes is severely guarded by artificial restrictions in a low moral environment, the prevalence of unnatural vices shows that the stream of lust if barred in one direction makes for itself a channel in another. There are aspects of vice in Mohammedan lands, and indeed throughout the Eastern world, which can only be referred to in veiled phrases as veritable mysteries of iniquity. The South American Continent is, with Central America, Mexico, and the West Indies, notorious for profligacy. The tone of society is dissolute. The influence and example of the Romish clergy are in favor of laxity. Society both high and low is exceptionally unchaste and vitiated by an atmosphere of suspicion, distrust, and prurient sensitiveness. Respectable parents guard their daughters with the utmost watchfulness until married, while their sons, with few exceptions, give way to vicious indulgence. The masses concern themselves little with legal restraints or formalities.1 If we turn now to the barbarous and savage races of the African Continent and the Pacific Islands, we find a state of morals which is truly ap- 1 Statistics of illegitimacy in these countries are startling in their significance. In Central America they range from fifty to seventy per cent. In Jamaica they have been reduced within sixty or seventy years from one hundred to sixty per cent. "The forty-per-cent. rate of legitimate births is clearly the result of mission work." The ratio in the South American States is also high. Infants can be easily disposed of by placing them in the turn-cylinders provided at the convents.
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palling in its bestiality.1 The morally gruesome details are too repulsive to admit of an attempt even to summarize them, and we must forbear. 5. SELF-TORTURE.—This is usually practised under the stimulus of religious fanaticism either to secure merit or reverence or to quiet superstitious fears. It is especially common in India on the part of the devotees who court veneration on account of supposed sanctity. As the torture is self-inflicted, at first thought one is inclined to denounce its folly and withhold sympathy for the sufferer; but when we reflect that it is often endured with a sincere, although mistaken, zeal as a religious act, one is rather inclined to pity the victim of such a delusion. The system of ascetic legalism which encourages such selfinflicted pain is largely responsible for the folly of its victims, and the spirit of the Gospel only will banish the haunting consciousness of condemnation which drives men to such cruel expedients to secure the favor of God. Self-torture in India, China, and Mohammedan lands.There is a ghastly variety in the methods of self-torture practised in India. Some of them, such as hook-swinging, have been abolished by the British Government as offenses against society. In several of the native states, however, it is still in vogue, and recent reports in many directions seem to indicate defiant attempts to revive the barbarous spectacle even in British India. Devotees and fakirs are accustomed to give themselves up to torture by fire, or by reclining for a long period upon beds of spikes or sharp stones. Others will refuse to give themselves rest, or abstain altogether from sleep, or hold some limb in a painful position until it becomes shrivelled and rigid. Others will allow themselves to be fed on any kind of revolting or improper food, having made a vow to reject nothing which is offered them to eat. The tests to which they are put are often horrible in the extreme. If they should refuse what is offered them they would thereby forfeit their sanctity and the veneration of their credulous admirers. A common practice is to pierce the body with large needles. Frequently iron skewers are thrust through the cheeks and tongue, which are thereby 1 Macdonald, "Religion and Myth," pp. 201-203; Slowan, "The Story of Our Kaffrarian Mission," p. 24.
2 The Missionary Herald, January, 1893, p. 16; July, 1893, p. 292; October, 1893, p. 38.
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caused to swell to frightful proportions. The flesh is cut with knives or pierced with wire.1 Men are sometimes buried to the neck, or are hung by the heels to a tree. The worship of some of the cruel Hindu divinities, especially the goddess Kali, is frequently attended with shocking exhibitions, which must involve intense suffering to the participants.2 In China a prominent motive to self-mutilation is devotion to sick parents. Dutiful sons and daughters will cut off pieces of their own flesh, of which soup is made and given to a sick or infirm parent.3 Other species of voluntary suffering, not always, however, from religious or filial motives, but with a view to gain, are walking with the feet or back bare in severe wintry weather, or appearing upon public occasions with iron chains around the body and heavy wooden collars around the neck, or swinging weighty censers fastened to the flesh by brass hooks,4 or causing self-deformity or loathsome ulcers upon the person with a view to excite sympathy and secure gain. In Mohammedan lands religious celebrations are frequently attended with these fanatical crúelties. Devotees will pierce and mutilate themselves, and in some instances prostrate themselves upon the ground to be trampled upon by horses with riders seated on their backs. Hinduism and Mohammedanism seem to present almost the only exhibition of this delusion, although Romanism has encouraged in the shape of ascetic penances much grievous bodily suffering, while among the pagan Indians of British Columbia acts of extreme self-cruelty are known to be practised. 6. SUICIDE.—There is nothing distinctive in the act of self-destruction in
Self-destruction prevalent in many lands.non-Christian lands except its prevalence, or the fact that it results from some pessimistic influence of the environment. It is more common in China than in any other nation of the earth,5 and is resorted to for reasons peculiar to Chinese modes of thought. Its frequency results, no doubt, from the frivolous estimate placed upon human life, and the strange notion that personal grievances may be avenged 1 Bishop Thoburn, "India and Malaysia," pp. 125—130. 2 "Popular Hinduism," p. 50, Papers on Indian Religious Reform, Madras, 1894. 3 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 183; Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 178. 4 Du Bose, "The Dragon Image and Demon," p. 265. 5 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 434.
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in this way and that more injury may be done to the living than to the victim himself.1 There is a singular theory in Chinese official circles that self-destruction on the part of a ruler in times of public danger is a matter of high merit. "The perfect man," according to Confucius, "is one who in the view of danger is prepared to give up his life."2 The act is sometimes resorted to by military leaders in time of defeat, either for the above reason, from a sense of shame, or to escape punishment at the hands of the Government. The causes which lead to it in most cases are trivial, such as a shortage in accounts, a family quarrel, jealousy, or marital infelicity arising from the practice of polygamy. Even children of tender years resort to it when disciplined by teachers or parents.3 It is especially prevalent among women, on account of domestic unhappiness or from the desire to punish an incorrigible husband. It is considered an act of merit for a widow to follow her husband to the grave.4 Dread of the matrimonial alliance sometimes leads to self-destruction by young girls. The wives of native converts to Christianity have been known to adopt this vigorous method of protest to their husbands' change of faith. The doctrine of transmigration no doubt renders suicide easier, since the victim expects to continue his existence in a state possibly better than the one he now occupies.5 The most popular methods of accomplishing the act are by opium, by drowning, or by eating matches, as none of these instrumentalities mutilates the person, which passes intact into another life, the popular opinion being that any mutilation of the body in death must be continued in the existence beyond. The use of opium has had a tendency greatly to facilitate and multiply suicides.6 The Chinese New Year is a favorite time for accomplishing the act. A missionary physician reports having been called to ten cases in a single month, and to nearly as many in the month following.7 In Japan suicide has occupied a position of historic honor which has characterized it nowhere else in the world. It has been even canonized 1 Du Bose, "The Dragon Image and Demon," p. 453 ; Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," p. 278. 2 Moule, "New China and Old," p. 50. 3 The Mission Field, London, March, 1894, p. 89; The Messenger, Shanghai, May, 1895, p. 74. 4 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 434; Medhurst, " The Foreigner in Far Cathay," p. 105. 5 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 435. 6 The Missionary Herald, Boston, February, 1895, p. 57. 7 The Missionary Record, March, 1895, p. 88.
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and admired as an object of heroism and a sign of distinction.1 Japanese history and fiction mention with pride the various heroes and heroines, sometimes by the thousands, who have distinguished themselves by committing hara-kiri, the theory of which is that it is an exhibition of supreme loyalty to conviction, of patriotic sacrifice in the interests of family pride, or for the honor of one's country.2 The vanquished samurai in the old feudal days preferred death at his own hand to falling into the power of his conqueror.3 Later the practice came to be regarded as a privileged way of dying in the execution of a judicial sentence rather than having the punishment inflicted by other hands. The modus operandi of hara-kiri4 or rather seppuku, as it is called in more classical dialect, was that the victim himself with his own hand plunged a dirk into the abdomen until death ensued. An improvement has been introduced in modern times by enlisting the services of a friend upon the occasion, who is expected, as soon as the dirk has been used by the victim, to complete the act by immediately beheading the would-be suicide.5 This formal and privileged method of suicide is not, however, common in Japan at present, although, as a great favor, capital sentences may be executed in this manner. Other methods, however, are in vogue, such as poisoning or hanging.6 The act is more common on the part of women than of men, and that for trivial causes. The favorite method is by drowning.8 The number of suicides officially reported in 1891 was 7479, and in 1892 it was 7240. In India in a majority of instances suicide is the result of unhappy marriages or as a release from domestic cruelty. According to the statement of a native journal, suicide is common among married women, amounting to eighty-one per cent, of the total.8 A native Brahman, writing on the present social condition of the Hindus, states that in connection with domestic trouble "suicides are not uncommon." Deserted wives are apt to seek their own destruction. In the East Indies, and still more so in New Guinea, "suicide is very common, on account of the notoriety it confers."9 In Africa, although not as frequent as might be expected, it is often resorted to. 1 Griffis, "The Religions of Japan," p. 112. 2 Hearn, "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan," vol. ii., p. 390. 3 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 221. 4 Literally, "belly-cutting." 5 Chamberlain, "Things Japanese," p. 200; Mitford, "Tales of Old Japan," Appendix A. 6 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 473. 7 Mrs. Bishop, "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," vol. i., p. 188. 8 India's Women, June, 1895, p. 245. 9 Chalmers, "Work and Adventure in New Guinea," p. 330.
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7. IDLENESS AND IMPROVIDENCE. — Idle and shiftless habits in the
The evils of sloth and improvidence.
individual rob society of the personal increment of labor and thrift which he might contribute, and make him rather a burden to others as well as a hindrance to progress. A diligent and thrifty spirit, on the other hand, is a positive factor in social prosperity. Idleness results not alone from indolence, but among African savages it is the fruit of pride. Labor is a disgrace in the estimation of millions of lusty barbarians, whose ideal of dignity is luxurious laziness. The heavier as well as the lighter toils of life are left for the women to assume, who are in most African communities doomed to drudgery and severe servitude.1 The result is an undisciplined, flabby, and shiftless character, living in such careless, happy-go-lucky ways that the native African as a rule is socially a worthless drone, except when it suits his barbarous fancy to play the equally objectionable rôle of a professional warrior and plunderer. The Mashonas are said to be "born tired," so incorrigible is their aversion to work. On the West Coast labor is regarded with both contempt and dread. In the Pacific Islands the same spirit of sloth prevails among the primitive races. "The conduct of the men of Aniwa is to stand by or sit and look on while their women do the work," was the unctuous reply of a group of New Hebrides worthies to the appeal of Dr. Paton that they should engage in some useful occupation. Among the Negro and Indian races of the world, wherever the blight of barbarism prevails, industrious habits are practically unknown. Life is given over to shiftlessness and vice, while the storehouses stand empty and the fields lie barren and neglected. Idleness in the more advanced nations, such as China, Korea, and India, is productive of a vast system of vagrancy, and is responsible for much pitiable poverty. There are Beggars' Guilds in most of the large cities of China, so organized that what amounts to a regular tax of blackmail is exacted from society. If the expected contribution is not forthcoming, it is enforced by formidable raids or persecuting appeals, which are generally effective.2 Korea is "full of Micawbers." They play the rôle of parasites, blackmailers, and uninvited guests, forming themselves into a sort of syndicate of social harpies, from whose impertinence and tyranny the government is often called upon to protect the well-to-do classes.3 Official plunderers, however, are just as bad in their way, 1 Rowley, "Twenty Years in Central Africa," p. 169; Central Africa, April, 1894, p. 61. 2 Talmage, "Forty Years in South China," p. 85. 3 Griffis, "Corea," p. 289; The Gospel in all Lands, September, 1894, p. 411.
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and are responsible for much of the improvidence of the people, as their rapacity makes prosperity and providence almost impossible, since any effort at accumulation only tempts the officials to prey upon those who have the good fortune to lay up anything in store.1 In India the evils of mendicancy prevail. The poverty is extreme, and with it there is much improvidence and recklessness as to debt. Costly and exacting social customs are responsible for the impoverishment of many families, especially the expenses connected with marriages and burials. The economic problems of India are truly formidable. Debt, thriftlessness, and the prevalent poverty make the social condition of the people pitiable, and any hopeful reform or economic expedients which would help India to wiser methods of living would be an unspeakable benefit. In the countries of South America there is a blight of indolence and thriftlessness which sadly depresses social prosperity. An infusion of energy, foresight, and industrial aspirations would be of the highest economic value to all South American peoples. The idler and the drone are there, as elsewhere, an injury and a bane to society. 8. EXCESSIVE PRIDE AND SELF-EXALTATION.—Inordinate selfesteem in the individual affects society when it becomes a barrier to Pride and vanity are barriers to progress.the entrance of new and progressive ideas from without. Vanity, conceit, and self-worship may so prejudice the mind that it becomes blind to better things, and shuts itself up in its own provincial ignorance, refusing all help and inspiration from other sources. Progress becomes impossible. Rigid conservatism hardens into stupid contentment with things as they are. Conceit and self-complacency bar the path of improvement. The modern world is viewed with contempt, and all outside the little environment of primitive life which surrounds the victim of his own foolish pride is viewed with suspicion and disdain. This pitiable exaltation of ignorance may be intellectual and spiritual, shutting out the light of truth, or it may be social and material, rejecting the facilities and discoveries of the modern world. In either case it is an incalculable injury to society. It retards and arrests social development, and postpones indefinitely the entrance of nobler and larger life. Every Asiatic nation suffers more or less from this consciousness of its own superiority, although the energy and push of modern enterprise 1 The Missionary, October, 1894, p. 411.
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and the growing influence of missionary education are rapidly breaking down prejudice and letting in the light of wiser methods and larger knowledge. Of all Asiatic nations the Chinese are conspicuous for stolid conservatism and inflated pride. They belong to the "Middle Kingdom," and the outside world of barbarism lies around them as the centre.1 Everything outside of China is inferior, and all foreigners or foreign ideas are looked upon with contempt and hatred. One of the chief functions of the Chinese is to humiliate the rest of the world and teach it useful lessons of its own insignificance.2 In Japan this trait reveals itself rather in national vanity and intellectual conceit. There is some excuse, however, for Japan's self-consciousness. She is in marked and favorable contrast with China in her readiness to recognize the progress of more enlightened nations and avail herself of every benefit which the genius of the Occident has provided. Her great danger is that intellectual pride and moral hauteur will deprive her fair land of the uplifting influences of Christian enlightenment. Much, however, will be said elsewhere to encourage the hope that the Japanese will resist this tendency to intellectual arrogance, and welcome the nobler teachings of Christianity. Korea has shut herself up in the seclusion of ignorance for centuries, and only recently, through the force of circumstances, has the spell of her isolation been broken. Her upper classes and literati are steeped in pride, while the lower classes are still blinded with prejudice. In Siam the spirit of Oriental self-complacency greatly retards the development of the nation, although the influence of an enlightened and liberal king is doing much to encourage larger aspirations among his people. India is the camping-ground of Brahmanic pride, the very acme of supercilious conceit, and presents also notable illustrations of that absurd self-exaltation of the so-called devotees and holy men of Hinduism. The whole tendency of Hinduism is to stimulate self-esteem, while caste is a bulwark of pride in its most sublime proportions. The subtle speculations of Hindu religious thought have given a fascination to philosophical themes, and have developed intellectual conceit to an extraordinary degree. The Hindu religionist is pride incarnate, while the shadow of a Brahman is a natural phenomenon more impressive than a sunrise. The Mohammedan is a noted rival of the Hindu in religious and intellectual pride. No more striking exhibition of the paralyzing effect of the haughty spirit of Islam can be found than the social and 1 Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 33. 2 Coltman, "The Chinese: Medical, Political, and Social," p. 81.
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intellectual condition of the lands dominated by the Moslem. The Turkish Empire, Persia, the North African countries, and Arabia are samples of lands where pride rules with blighting sway. The African, as a rule, may be said to be vain and conceited in proportion to the density of his ignorance. If we take the Matabele as a sample, we can hardly find his equal for overweening pride and self-importance.1 The result has been manifest in thirty years of stagnation even under the influence of faithful missionary effort.2 The conquest of the nation by British arms, when permanently accomplished, will be a blessing, and no doubt beat down those hitherto impenetrable barriers which pride has erected. The pitiable condition of the proud savages of the earth is owing in some measure to their intense satisfaction with their own fancied superiority, and is a telling lesson of the social perils of pride. A religion which would teach to these nations the true exaltation of humility—its beauty, its nobility, and its gentle charm—would be a helpful blessing to the soul itself and to all its social environment. 9. MORAL DELINQUENCIES.—A terrible and pitiable count must be made under
The beginning effects of untruthfulness and dishonoesty. this head against the entire non-Christian world. The very foundations of social integrity and prosperity are shaken by such vices as untruthfulness and dishonesty. Truthfulness is a prime essential to mutual confidence, and honesty is a fundamental condition of just and fair intercourse. Where society is permeated with a spirit of deceit and knavery, where a lie is a commonplace and cheating is resorted to without compunction, all moral health and stability seem to have been destroyed. A lie will be met by a lie. Deceit will overreach deceit. Cheating will be matched by cheating; and all the arts of dishonesty will be excelled by some fresh ingenuity in fraud. As the status of non-Christian nations in respect to these moral qualities is studied, one is tempted to say, not in haste, but with calm deliberation, "All men are liars." That there are individual exceptions is happily true, but as a rule the world of heathenism lieth in the wickedness of deceit and dishonesty. Little can be said of any one nation in favorable contrast with others. Each in turn seems to pose as an expert in the guilty arts of deception. Among the Japanese lying is a sadly common fault of daily life. 1 Carnegie "Among the Matabele," pp. 18, 68. 2 The Chronicle, December, 1893, p. 307.
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This is acknowledged by themselves, and such is the testimony of those who know the country well.1 To their credit, however, it may be said that their patriotism and exceptional loyalty to public responsibilities save them to a notable extent from the official dishonesty and corruption which characterize the Chinese. China is preëminently "an empire of make-believe." Amid highsounding pretensions" a universal dishonesty of mind poisons the sap of the nation and produces all the cancers and evils which have made China a byword for deceit and corruption."2 True honor and uprightness seem to be lightly esteemed by all classes of society.3 The Rev. Arthur Smith, in "Chinese Characteristics," has an entire chapter on "The Absence of Sincerity." The testimony of Dr. S. Wells Williams, in summing up his estimate of the Chinese character, includes "the universal practice of lying and dishonest dealings."4 The Chinese seem to share with the Persians the melancholy distinction of being" a nation of liars." A flagrant exhibition of the Chinese capacity for misrepresentation has recently attracted the attention of the world in the anti-foreign publications which are so full of monstrous falsehoods. A Chinaman will steal almost as easily as he will lie, and will cheat with a facility and deftness which make him proverbial for "ways that are dark and tricks that are vain." In Siam, Burma, and Assam the rule of untruthfulness still holds. A fresh illustration of the ready application of the inveterate habit was discovered by Dr. McKean of Laos, who has recently introduced vaccination among the people. As soon as its beneficial effects were manifest, unprincipled charlatans were going about the country vaccinating the people with some worthless compound of their own, boldly asserting that they had obtained vaccine virus from the foreigner in Chieng Mai.5 Dr. Marston at Ambala has detected the same exhibition 1 "'Can you tell me in a sentence what the characteristics of the Japanese are ?' asked a puzzled visitor of one of the foreign instructors in government employ. The reply is said to have been, 'It don't need a sentence; two words"' are sufficient. They are conceit and deceit. 'They are the greatest liars on the face of the earth,' wrote Mr. Harris, whose diary Dr. Griffis has just published,"—Japan Evangelist, April, 1896, p. 215. These statements may be too severe and sweeping, but it seems fairly clear that untruthfulness and dishonesty are very prevalent in trade and in ordinary intercourse. If a lie is politic and convenient not many will respect truth for its own sake. Yet the sense of honor and the instinct of fidelity to trust are keen and are redeeming traits in the Japanese character. 2 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 84. 3 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 97. 4 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 836. 5 The Church at Home and Abroad, May, 1894, p. 392.
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of unscrupulous dishonesty in sly medicine-selling behind her back.1 The Assamese have hardly a proper word in their language to indicate honesty. "Trade does not go on without falsehood," is a proverb among them.2 India is a realm where untruthfulness, dishonesty, and perjury are all characteristic of the people. We mean characteristic in the sense that they are notoriously common.3 Advancing through Central Asia, Tibet and the lands that lie in our pathway towards Persia present the same monotonous traits of unscrupulousness in word and dealing, while in Persia "every one walks warily and suspiciously through a maze of fraud and falsehood."4 According to the testimony of a Persian nobleman in conversation with Mrs. Bishop, "Lying is rotting this country. Persians tell lies before they can speak." The land is said to be "a hotbed of lies and intrigue. Nothing can be done without stratagem. The thing that strikes them about an Englishman is that he does not lie."5 To be called a liar in Persia is considered a very mild insult.6 Curzon, in his book on Persia, remarks, "I am convinced that the true son of Iran would sooner lie than tell the truth, and that he feels twinges of desperate remorse when upon occasions he has thoughtlessly strayed into veracity." The Turkish Empire is full of dissimulation. The arts of lying are not by any means monopolized by the Moslem population, but the subject Christian races, incited by fear in the presence of their unscrupulous rulers, have long practised in self-defense habits of falsehood and deceit, for which they are still noted. The whole routine of life is fairly riddled with a running fire of deception and dishonest dealing. Poor Africa may be said to be a continent of lies and a paradise of thievery. The native savage is trained in the arts of plunder, and lives by crafty wiles. Here, above all places on the face of the earth, a lie seems to be loved for its own sake, and a man must be taken for a thief and a rogue until he is proved to be the contrary.7 The barbarous races of the Pacific Islands present no exception to this sombre catalogue of nations who love a lie. Thievery and cheating 1 Woman's Work for Woman, November, 1894, p. 301. 2 The Baptist Missionary Review, Madras, India, April, 1895, p. 128. 3 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 399-403. 4 Bishop, "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. ii., p. 174. 5 Regions Beyond, May, 1894, p. 191. 6 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1894, p. 242. 7 Ingham, "Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years," p. 293; Johnston, "Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent," p. 138; Carnegie, "Among the Matabele," p. 68.
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seem to be habitual and universal characteristics of these poor people, who have known no higher standards of morality than those suggested by the master passions of covetousness and lust.1 Substantially the same story applies to the West Indies; and even South America and Mexico, where nominal Christianity has been in evidence for centuries, are lands where lying and dishonesty are grievously to the front.2 II.—THE FAMILY GROUP (Evils affecting primarily the family, and secondarily society through the family) The historic result of heathenism is a demoralized family life. In no particular does the inexorableness of the evolutionary process, apart from The status and function of the family in ancient classical civilizations.the culture of Christianity, appear more clearly than in the steady and invariable trend of pagan society towards the disruption and practical destruction of the ideal family relation.3 The status of marriage and of domestic life in ancient Grecian and Roman civilization was marked by a dreary degradation of the marital relation to a political institution whose highest function was the service of the State in producing citizens,4 and in which all sacredness and refinement seemed to have been sunk in communal laxity. Marriage was considered as a species of political incubator, and woman was simply a necessary tool, to be used indiscriminately in case the highest interests of the State required it. It was Plato's suggestion that in the perfect republic the warriors should have the women in common. The aim of marriage was purely civil, and was looked upon in the light of a duty to the State.5 The natural result was a degraded womanhood and an easy descent into a state of indifference as to all legal forms and restrictions. Ancient heathen civilization was committed by the force of tradition and custom to the degradation of woman. It offered no goal of social dignity, no inspiration of hope; it gave no promise of grateful recognition and sacred security. Woman was made to feel 1 Paton, "Autobiography," Part I., p. 160; Cousins, "The Story of the South Seas," p. 19. 2 The Gospel in all Lands, March, 1895, p. 99; The South American Missionary Magazine, February, 1895, p. 38. 3 Inge, "Society in Rome under the Caesars," p. 61. 4 Ibid., p. 61; Schmidt, "The Social Results of Early Christianity," pp. 26-38. 5 Ibid., p. 30.
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that she was a mere convenience, and was allowed to have no real basis of self-respect. Her existence was, as a rule, passed in practical slavery, and her outlook was one of hopeless inanity. This situation, as was to be expected, developed those peculiar vices and weaknesses which, with some notable exceptions, have marked her character in non-Christian society for ages. On the other hand, Christianity from the first has recognized her equality of soul, her personal rights, her moral and intellectual capabilities, and has given her a sacred place of honor in the home. The Christian ideal of the family has been substituted for the communal function of a propagator of the State on the one hand, and a victim of lust on the other. The secret springs of the social degradation of woman in ancient heathenism are pride and selfishness on the part of her immemorial masters. Pride kept her in subjection, relegated her to a political nursery, and treated her with disdain and contumely. Selfishness refused her considerate and kindly treatment, denied her privileged companionship, and made her the sport of sensual desires.1 One does not have to look long at the social status of woman today in non-Christian lands to discover how largely that same pride and Little improvement in the heathen civilizations of to-day.selfishness take the old causal relation to her present degradation. Even the sorry dignity accorded her as the servant of the State has for the most part disappeared, and she has become rather a useful instrument in maintaining the male line of descent for the satisfaction of her master. Almost without exception, in the heathen civilizations of the present day she is regarded with severe suspicion, scant respect, and cool superciliousness. Her marital rights are scouted, while as a rule her marital duties are jealously exacted. The conception of an elevated, honored, and sacred womanhood may be said to be sadly uncommon in the traditions and customs of purely heathen civilization. Whatever of dignity and consideration she has received in the modern transformations of non-Christian society has been the result, more or less direct, of the modifying influence of Christian teaching. The group of social evils which centres about the family presents several salient aspects which call for specific notice. Among these we note: I. THE DEGRADATION OF WOMAN.—One of the most conspicuous and unmistakable insignia of false religious systems is their treatment of woman. They seem to be both bewildered and undone by her very 1 Ibid., pp. 42-44.
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existence. The sentiments they promulgate concerning her and the treatment they accord her stamp them with defects and blunders The status of woman outside Christendom.differentiating them at once and forever from the high ideal of Christianity. Ethnic religions and barbarous civilizations have united their forces in the consignment of womankind to a state of degradation—a fact which rises up in judgment against these erroneous systems in all ages of history, and in no period more pronouncedly than in our present century. She is still regarded, as of old, in a non-Christian environment as a scandal and a slave, a drudge and a disgrace, a temptation and a terror, a blemish and a burden—at once the touchstone and stumbling-block of human systems, the sign and shame of the non-Christian world. The status of woman outside of Christendom may be indicated by the estimate put upon her, by the opportunity given her, by the function assigned her, by the privilege accorded her, and by the service expected of her. The estimate, as a rule, is low, rarely rising above a physical or sensuous plane; the opportunity afforded her is meagre, in fact, often prohibitory; the function assigned her is that of reproduction and the gratification of man's baser passions ; the privilege extended to her is rarely other than to be suspected, distrusted, guarded with jealous seclusion, sometimes bought and sold as a chattel, married at the will of fathers or brothers, or possibly consigned to some worse fate, beaten if necessary, and kept in due subjection by tokens and signs of inferiority; the service expected of her is for the most part the menial drudgery and the hard toil of life. This indictment is too general to pass unchallenged in specific cases, and it will not, of course, hold in every particular in all countries alike; but as an average, all-around statement it is not beyond what the facts will justify, and can be supported by abundant and indubitable evidence. It will be sufficient for our present purpose if we can gather into clusters or groups the facts which indicate the social condition of woman, collecting them, as it were, around some characteristic feature of her status. Take, for instance, The signs and tokens of her inferiority.the various signs and tokens of inferiority which are imposed upon her. These seem to form a motley group by themselves, clustering together in grim picturesqueness as a grotesque medley of grimaces and scowls, of haughty airs and self-complacent attitudes, of boorish vulgarities and malicious insults. The common bond of affinity running through them all is well symbolized by that significant confession of a bland Hindu, that there was at least
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one doctrine upon which all Hindu sects were agreed: "We all believe in the sanctity of the cow and in the depravity of woman." The Japanese contribution to the picture has less of grossness and more of natural refinement in it than that of any other Eastern nation. Japanese women are gentler and more attractive than those of the ruder lands of the East, and although the estimate in which they are held is one of pronounced inferiority, yet the signs and tokens of it are not so offensive as elsewhere. The usual exacting manifestations of subjection to the husband are less conspicuous; neither are they insisted upon with such ruthless inconsiderateness as in China, India, and throughout Mohammedan lands. The power of a father, natural and right within proper limitations, is, however, often grievously misused in committing a daughter to a life of disrepute. Among the peasantry drudgery is shared by husbands, fathers, and brothers. In fact, there is probably no nation outside of Christendom, with possibly the exception of Burma, where woman's lot is so free from the signs of inferiority as in Japan.1 The Chinese contingent in the scene is largely in evidence. The tokens of disdain are not wanting, in China. Woman is "moulded out of faults." Even the Chinese hieroglyphic for woman, if doubled, signifies "to wrangle"; if trebled it means "intrigue"; a compound of the symbols for "women" and "together" yields a composite sign which signifies "to suspect, dislike, or loathe."2 No husband would willingly appear in public with his wife. If he is obliged to escort her, she must walk well in front as a sign of her inferior position. If by chance he refers to her, he is apt to designate her as his "dull thorn," or some equally derogatory expression.3 Little or no mourning follows her death. Her marriage is at the will, and in accordance with the choice, of parents, who usually commit the matter to professional matchmakers, an untrustworthy and unscrupulous class, who generally drive their own bargains with a view to their own sordid advantage.4 The bride rarely sees her husband before marriage, and does not even eat with him afterwards. The Chinese idea of wifely demeanor is that of abject dependence and subdued inanity. She is by no means to be known outside of her own house, and even in it she must disappear altogether if any chance male visitor should come.5 She is considered 1 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 554. 2 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 185; Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 246. 3 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 212. Ibid., p. 193. Ibid., p. 211.
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a burden by her parents,1 and must be their servant until married, which amounts simply to an entrance into another state of servitude to her parents-in-law, often a cruel and exacting bondage from which relief is sometimes sought in suicide;2 and even in this there is no escape from the lifelong lot of service, since she is thought to become in the next life the servant of her husband, to whom, according to the Chinese code, she belongs both for time and eternity.3 The husband's power over her, like that of the father in Japan, is almost limitless.4 What has been said of the condition of women in China is applicable, with hardly any variation, to her lot in Korea.5 It is a relief, however, to note that in both countries the every-day, commonplace life of the laboring classes is largely free from this whole round of finical and farcical exactions. India makes a conspicuous contribution of signs and tokens of inferiority in her estimate of woman. She is there counted little more than a "necessary machine for producing children."6 Her degradation, if indeed she is allowed to live, begins at her birth, which is a time of condolence rather than of rejoicing, and when she is received rather as a nuisance and a burden.7 She is forbidden access to the sacred books of the Hindu religion.8 While still young the only ceremonial acts of worship and sacrifice allowed her are with a view to securing a husband,9 and after her marriage all right of approach to the gods in her own name and on her own behalf is denied her. Even her worship must be entirely in the name of her husband.10 After her marriage she is bound forever in life and in death by indissoluble bonds to her husband, according to the plain precepts of Manu,11 although the British law now grants the liberty of remarriage to a widow. She must revere her husband as a god, and bear meekly his infidelity without the slightest claim to divorce.12 She must never go out of the house without the consent of her husband. If he goes upon a journey, according to the teaching of the Shastras, his wife shall not "divert herself by play, nor see any public show, nor laugh, nor dress herself in jewels and fine clothes, nor 1 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 72. 2 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 201; Douglas, "Society in China," p. 214. 3 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 486. 4 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 31. 5 Griffis, "Corea," pp. 245, 252. 6 Sir Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," p. 387. 7 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 337. 8 Ibid., p. 328. 9 Ibid., p. 340. 10 Ibid., p. 328. 11 Ibid., p, 328. 12 Ibid., p. 327.
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see dancing, nor hear music, nor sit at the window, nor ride out, nor behold anything choice and rare, but shall fasten well the house door and remain private."1 And, finally, she must be reborn into the world as a man before she can hope for any favored lot in the life beyond.2 In Mohammedan India, and all through the belt of Islamic lands to the northwest corner of Africa, substantially the same spirit of punctilious disdain of womankind prevails. The code of the harem is virtually one, and it is the same with the doctrine of the zenana. In savage Africa and among the barbarous nations of Polynesia the signs and tokens of woman's inferiority become more painful and brutal. She is bought and sold like a chattel, and for a consideration so insignificant that we can hardly rank her as superior to the domestic animals. "Five large blue glass beads will buy a woman" in some sections of Africa, but it takes "ten to buy a cow." Even stranger stories than this are reported of daughters sold and wives purchased among the interior tribes. She often eats with the dogs,3 and she may be thankful if when her husband dies she is not tossed with his dead body into the same grave. Many a burly savage thinks it unmanly to treat her with kindness and consideration. She is reckoned of little account to heart or home. Inferiority sinks almost into worthlessness in the estimation of masculine barbarians. Notice again the various deprivations Her deprivations and restrictions.and restrictions, many of them cruel and humiliating, which are inflicted upon her. She is deprived of knowledge and all opportunity for intellectual culture. She must not be taught to read.4 The more profound her ignorance, the more safely is she preserved from the perils of wisdom. According to the latest census report in India, an average of only six women in a thousand know how to read, and only one out of every hundred between the ages of five and fifteen enjoys any educational advantage. The total of absolutely illiterate women in the country amounts, in round numbers, to 128,000,000.5 This same terrible standard of ignorance is maintained, with some modifications, throughout the entire non-Christian world. The delights and benefits of knowledge, except where Christian influences have been introduced, are ruthlessly denied her as both unnecessary and dangerous. 1 Ibid., p. 333. 2 Ibid., p. 328. 3 Free Church of Scotland Monthly., March, 1893, p. 65. 4 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 486. 5 The Missions of the World, October, 1894, p. 328.
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In the same spirit she is deprived of her legitimate liberty. She is imprisoned in the zenanas of North India, shut up in the harems of Mohammedans, confined to the inner seclusion of her Chinese home, and among the higher classes of Korea her isolation is perhaps more prison-like and terrible than elsewhere.1 In China if she ventures out of her house she must be carefully hidden in the sedan-chair, or if she should appear upon the streets unguarded she must expect to be jeered and berated, even if she is not insulted.2 Pleasant exceptions to these severe restrictions may be noted in Japan, Siam, and Burma, where women (except in the case of royalty) enjoy a freedom unusual in Eastern lands. In Southern India the zenanas of the Punjab are not known, and much more personal freedom is allowed. It is gratifying to note also that among the peasantry and the working classes, living for the most part in villages, these artificial restrictions are almost altogether discarded. A severe code of obligation is almost universally maintained with reference to woman's duty in case of her husband's death. She is almost altogether deprived of the pleasure of mutual affection as a preliminary basis of marriage, since, according to the immemorial standards of the East, it is regarded as both immoral and indecorous.3 If even her betrothed should die before marriage she is expected in China to refrain from all further alliance,4 and in case of the death of her husband the truly honorable thing for her to do is either to commit suicide or remain forever a widow out of respect to his memory,5 although in China and Korea the singular concession is made that she may become a concubine and yet escape those depths of disgrace into which she would fall by becoming a legitimate wife.6 In Southern China this duty of suicide has been performed in the presence of an applauding crowd, with spectacular ceremonies.7 If the unfortunate widow should shrink from the ordeal, it sometimes happens that the surviving friends of her husband will force her to the performance of the rash act.8 In Korea substantially the same inexorable etiquette prevails,9 although in India the abominations of sati10 have now been legally prohibited. 1 Griffis, " Cores,"p. 245. 2 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 487. 3 Ibid., p. 488. 4 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 793. 5 Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 191-216. 6 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 488; Griffis, "Corea," pp. 254, 255. 7 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 217. 8 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 489. 9 Griffis, "Corea," p. 255. 10 Often written "suttee," but more correctly as above.
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If, however, her husband lives, she must be prepared to welcome other women to share her conjugal rights, as he may desire; not, to be sure, as legitimate wives, but as concubines. The same rule prevails in this respect in China, Korea, and Japan,1 while in India and throughout the Mohammedan world there may be several legal wives. In Africa the universal rule is as many wives as a man can purchase, and the more he possesses the greater his social dignity. The position of a concubine is often one of bitter bondage not only to the husband, but also to the first or legal wife.2 If the hour of divorce comes, as it often does at the whim of the husband, nothing is easier than the destruction of all her legal rights by a cruel and arbitrary decree. There is one universal rule in this matter throughout the non-Christian world. It is as quickly and irreversibly done in Japan as elsewhere.3 A single passionate declaration will accomplish it in Korea, in China, in India, in every harem of Islam, and wherever an African savage chooses to speak the word. The power of life and death seems to be almost universally in the hands of the husband, unless the authority of some civilized government can call him to account. "Either to be killed or to be married is the universal female fate" in China.4 In Japan, even a father must be obeyed to the extent of self-immolation, if required.5 In times of dire distress and famine, alike in China and in Africa, wives and daughters may be sold without restraint in the open market.6 In such strange ways as these is woman robbed of her birthright and deprived of her heritage. Her indignities and burdens.There is still a final group of indignities and burdens, both physical and moral, which pertain to woman's lot in her non-Christian environment. The mere list of physical injuries inflicted upon her is painful. In almost all Eastern lands she is beaten without legal restraint and maltreated sometimes with brutal cruelty. She is often neglected when sick, as in many an Indian zenana. She is married everywhere at a tender age,—in India as early as seven years, —and the marriage is often consummated at eleven or twelve.7 There 1 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 28; Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," P- 556. 2 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 202. 3 Bacon, "Japanese Girls and Women," p. 76. 4 4 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 25. 5 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 555. 6 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 212; Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 204; The Church Missionary Intelligencer, May, 1895, p. 378. 7 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 345.
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seems to be no law in Mohammedan lands restricting the wishes of her rulers in this respect. Among the Kabyles she is often a married child at seven or eight. 1 Nor is there any constraint of custom as to the age of the bridegroom, who may be far advanced in years and yet married to a child.2 Amid the dismal barbarism of Chinese Turkestan even young children are sometimes drugged and forcibly married.3 In one of the islands of the New Hebrides a woman's marriage is attended by the painful ordeal of having her "two upper front teeth knocked out by the medicine-man, aided by half a dozen old women, who hold the girl's arms and legs while the cruel operation is being performed."4 Among the African tribes she is always liable to the charge of witchcraft, exposing her to torture or death, as among the Matabele and the Bule and the tribes of the East Equatorial region. In Uganda a wife was recently killed upon the supposition that she made her husband sick.5 On some of the South Pacific Islands, as in Aneityum and Efate, she is liable to be buried alive in the same grave with her husband or sacrificed in his honor by methods of extraordinary cruelty.6 Among all savage and ignorant races she is likely to be the victim of brutal quackery and barbarous surgical torture in her times of peril and distress. When widowhood becomes her lot she is everywhere the victim of suspicion and often of cruel neglect.7 Not infrequently her unprotected condition exposes her to violence. In China even the bright days of her childhood are shadowed by the lingering torture of bound, or rather crushed, feet, in accordance with that abominable custom. If afterwards in maturer life she is obliged to work, the burdens of her toil are immensely enhanced by the physical disability of her maimed person.8 The rough-and-tumble toil of life in mountain and field and garden seems to be her lot everywhere in heathen lands. Her daily lesson is drudgery, and throughout the East and in Africa every form of hard work is her appointed lot. She is "a hewer of wood and a carrier of water." In the fields and vineyards and olive orchards, on the tea plantations and at the wine-presses, carrying heavy loads upon her back and heavy jars upon her head, sometimes yoked to plows, usually walking while men ride, frequently with her babe strapped on her back— 1 Work and Workers, May, 1895, p. 201. 2 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 346. 3 Lansdell, "Chinese Central Asia," vol. i., p. 409. 4 The Independent, February 15, 1894, p. 16. 5 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, May, 1895, p. 378. 6 The Missionary, January, 1895, p. 36. 7 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 204. 8 Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," pp. 49, 50.
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she goes through the weary round of her daily task. The filthy and loathsome service of fertilizing the soil and of preparing the fuel, made from offal, is always her menial task.1 The situation is well illustrated by the story of a native African who ordered his wife to carry him on her shoulders over a deep and perilous ford of a river. She obeyed his command successfully. The husband, on being remonstrated with by a white man, asked in astonishment, "Then whose wife should carry me over if my own does not?"2 Thus, while it is true that there are many industries in which women can and do happily engage, yet their lot, as a rule, is to be the slave and drudge of men who spend their time in idleness or sport, with no effort to lighten the burdens of life falling so heavily upon the women.3 Her indignities and burdens are not, however, physical alone. There are outrages upon her virtue inflicted by lust and greed. The Laws of Manu give the old Indian estimate of woman.4 She is regarded with intense distrust and counted as simply a malevolent snare to men. If a widow she is ever the victim of malicious gossip. "Scandals cluster around a widow's door," is a Chinese proverb.5 "No daughter's virtue can be praised until she is dead," is an Indian proverb.6 "She is married to the gods" in India, which means that she is married to no one, although the slave of all. She is set apart and trained for the indecencies of the nautch while still a child.7 If there is any difficulty attending her marriage, so inexorable is the law that no one must remain unmarried that she is given perhaps as the fortieth or fiftieth wife to some old man among the Brahmans whose special business it is to marry girls for a consideration, so that if they fail to find a husband in any other way this resource is still open.8 Then, again, according to the savage etiquette of African hospitality, they must serve as occasion may demand in the capacity of temporary wives to guests. As might be expected, the natural result of woman's environment and experience where Christianity is unknown is seen in her dwarfed intellectual capacity and her moral and physical degradation. Her service to society has in it necessarily little that is helpful or elevating. 1 Houghton, "Women of the Orient," p. 305. 2 Johnston, "Reality Versus Romance in South Cemral Africa," p. 65. 3 Cousins, "The Story of the South Seas," p. 143. 4 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 326-336. 5 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 245. 6 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 334. 7 "The Women of India," p. 78, Papers on Indian Social Reform, Madras, 1892. 8 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 347.
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Among savage races even the instincts of her humanity seem to have given place to a grovelling and loathsome animalism. In the higher The result upon her personal character.walks of heathenism she seems doomed to live in an atmosphere of suspicion, ignorance, and superstition. The Hindu zenana and the Moslem harem are, as a rule, the haunts of frivolous inanity, fleshly vulgarity, and intriguing jealousy. She knows little of the true ideal of home, and appreciates but feebly the dignity and responsibility of motherhood. False conceptions of duty, virtue, and responsibility govern her life; society is thus robbed of the helpful influence, the brightness, the fragrance, and the charm of her pure companionship, and the world is enfeebled, darkened, and saddened by its absence. Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in one of his stories of Indian life, gives the following trenchant verdict as to the real secret of India's degradation. He says by the mouth of one of his characters: "What's the matter with this country is not in the least political, but an all-round entanglement of physical, social, and moral evils and corruptions, all, more or less, due to the unnatural treatment of women. You can't gather figs from thistles, and so long as the system of infant marriage, the prohibition of the remarriage of widows, the lifelong imprisonment of wives in a worse than penal confinement, and the withholding from them of any kind of education or treatment as rational beings continues, the country cannot advance a step. Half of it is morally dead, and worse than dead, and that is just the half from which we have a right to look for the best impulses. It is right here where the trouble is, and not in any political considerations whatsoever. The foundations of their life are rotten—utterly rotten—and beastly rotten. The men talk of their rights and privileges. I have seen the women that bear these very men, and again—may God forgive the men!" It has been said, and no doubt truthfully, that, Some modifications of the dark picture which are to the credit of Eastern womanhood.in spite of all her disabilities, there is much of happiness as well as of dignity and influence in woman's lot in Eastern lands. This is certainly the case in Japan, where there are many bright modifications of the dark picture which has been presented, and where woman is naturally winsome and gentle, and, according to the standards of her country, refined and modest, with a degree of neatness, diligence, devotion, self-sacrifice, and affectionate concern for those she loves which places her on perhaps the highest plane of womanly excellence outside of the home life of Christendom. We must bear in mind in this connection that there is no zenana system in Japan, and very little physical ill-
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treatment of women. They are looked upon rather as babies and toys. The moral dignity of the Christian code of marriage.It is not unusual also in China, as well as in Japan, in Korea, and even in India, for women to win their way in some instances to a position of dignity, influence, and power, which secures the respect and admiration of all; yet these cases are confessedly exceptional, and they are especially creditable and honorable to woman herself in that she rises above her limitations and discouragements, and exhibits such characteristic cheerfulness, contentment, and patient docility in such untoward surroundings. The credit of this is due to her, and not to her environments, and shows her to be a tactful and resourceful conqueror of circumstances. Mere happiness, moreover, is not a sign that all is well. Slaves may be happy in their slavery, the ignorant may be contented in their degradation, the oppressed may have such a hopeless and narrow view of life that they make the best of their condition, and move blindly and carelessly on in the path of destiny; but this does not make their degradation the less real; it only reveals the capacity of endurance, of cheerful submission, and patient contentment, which abides in humanity. 2. POLYGAMY AND CONCUBINAGE.—Incidental mention has already been made of these subjects, but they can hardly be passed over without some more explicit and detailed reference to the facts concerning them. The unique teachings of Christianity concerning marriage form one of the most unmistakable evidences of the hallowed origin of the Christian code. It is in conflict with the immemorial customs of human history, stamping with instant and uncompromising disapproval the ordinary ways of men as revealed in the conventional non-Christian attitude of society through all time. The wisdom of Christ seems to have led Him to depart from His usual custom, and to legislate in detail as to the invariable Christian rule of morality in the case of marriage.1 He realized that in this matter not only principle but precept must be explicit and final if the world was to be guided aright. The necessity for definite directions on the part of the Founder of Christianity becomes all the more manifest when we note the devices that have been popular both in ancient and modern society, except where the divine code has ruled, to give a large scope to sensual instincts, while at the same time avoiding the recognized scandal of 1 Brace, "Gesta Christi," p. 30.
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universal lewdness. The different forms of marriage recognized by Roman law, especially that of usus, gave wide vent to laxity, while even to these was added, in the Augustan age, the omnium gatherum of concubinage.1 In the non-Christian world of to-day polygamy and concubinage, in connection with easy divorce, are still the recognized expedients for giving an official sanction to the wanton range of passion without the sacrifice of social caste. The convenient fiction of legality and the powerful password of custom lift the disgrace and save the pride of the Eastern world. In the East, as in the West, there is a ready condemnation and denunciation, in theory at least, if not always in practice, of the vice of prostitution. Nowhere will we find it more vigorously and scornfully berated than among Moslems, Hindus, and other Eastern nationalities. A Moslem will defend his piety and moral standing as passionately as lie guards the honor of his hidden retinue of the harem, and will repudiate with indignation any hint of irregularity or license in his habits of life. He insists, of course, that he is not holden to Christian standards and cannot be judged by them, his own moral code being the only one that he acknowledges. Thus we will find that the entire non-Christian world is prepared to defend stoutly the traditional moral environment of marriage, including polygamy, concubinage, and divorce at will, as wisely and happily ordered so as to combine a maximum of privilege with a minimum of scandal. This elastic legalization of compromising relations gives, in the eyes of the Oriental, a sufficient respectability to what would otherwise be pronounced illicit and scandalous. Strictly speaking, therefore, Licensed polygamy a characteristic of ethnic systems.according to the recognized social code, there is no polygamy in Japan, Korea, or China, and comparatively little even in India. The rule is that there is only one Bona fide wife of the first rank, and she rides but once in her lifetime in the bridal chair.2 To be sure, there are secondary wives and concubines, but this does not interfere with the monogamous supremacy and dignity of the first or chief wife, to whom the others often bear the relation of servants and underlings. In the imperial palaces, however, there are ranks upon ranks,3 and among the mandarins and the more wealthy classes of Japan, Korea, and China there is an indulgence in this domestic luxury proportionate to position and ability. While this is all true, it must be said, however, that, except among the higher 1 Schmidt, "The Social Results of Early Christianity," p. 42. 2 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 289. 3 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 15.
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classes in these countries, the polygamous household is the exception. The middle and lower classes, presumably rather under the stress of circumstances, usually observe the rule of monogamy.1 In Siam and Laos, also, polygamy is confined to a few,2 while in Burma it prevails to a very moderate extent. In India the rule among the Hindus in all ordinary castes is one wife, with the usual margin for concubines.3 In case, however, the first wife after seven years fails to bear a son, another wife is sure to be taken. There is one conspicuous exception to this general observation of monogamy, and this is among the Kulin Brahmans, whose bewildering code of polygamy without bounds or restraints is too complicated to deal with here.4 These much-married Brahmans, now found mostly in Bengal, seem to be able in view of their caste distinction to sell themselves as husbands to innumerable wives, whose friends will gladly pay a good round sum for the privilege of having daughters married in such an exalted connection. In India, as elsewhere, rajahs and princes are, as usual, unrestrained polygamists, while the lower classes are, as a rule, monogamists. The singular custom of polyandry is rarely met with. It exists, however, among the peasantry of Tibet, among some of the Nilgiri Hill tribes of South India, and somewhat also in Ceylon. The well-known rule of the Koran limits the Mohammedan to four legitimate wives at any one time, with a large license as to concubines and slaves. The facility of divorce, however, is always a ready expedient to make a convenient vacancy, so that the limit need not be exceeded, and the letter of the law observed.5 The Turkish harem and the Persian andarun are one and the same, and exhibit substantially the same phases of life.6 In Persia, moreover, an audaciously flagrant device of a temporary marriage seems to be in use to give a fictitious standing to a laxity wholly vicious and deplorable. This so-called marriage may be for a day or for years.7 At certain seasons of the year, when cultivators of the soil require special help, in accordance with this custom they adopt the expedient of marrying with a temporary contract as many women as they require. In the spring of the year the rice-planters of Ghilan and Mazanderan will thus secure a full con- 1 Holcombe, "The Real Chinaman," p. 77; Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 28. 2 The Missionary Review of the World, January, 1895, p. 9. 3 Thoburn, "India and Malaysia," p. 368. 4 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 179-190. 5 Thoburn, "India and Malaysia," p. 368. 6 Bishop, "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. ii., p. 109. 7 Benjamin, "Persia and the Persians," pp. 451-453.
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tingent of cultivators of their fields, and when the autumn harvesting is over, by a process of wholesale divorce the contract conies to an end. 1 The savage races brush aside all these fine distinctions of moral finesse so popular among the more advanced Orientals, and recognize no legal limitations whatever to their polygamous practices. Wives are a badge of social distinction, and give a princely éclat to the household. Throughout the whole African Continent and in the island homes of paganism the highest ambition, next to distinction in war, seems to be unlimited ownership of wives. 2 3. ADULTERY AND DIVORCE.—According to the social and legal standards of non-Christian lands, using the term in its strict technical sense, there is less adultery than one would expect. So far as the wife is concerned, she is guarded with extraordinary care, and her punishment in case of a lapse is severe and merciless. In theory it is usually death either by strangling or lapidation, but this extreme penalty is in most cases allowed to lapse in practice. So far as the man is concerned, the liberty which he claims to take to himself under legal forms secondary wives and concubines, and the right which he exercises of swift and informal divorce, put adultery in its technical sense outside the usual range of his indulgence. He finds such large license within the limits of custom and safety that an adulterous connection is not sought for, nor is it, as a rule, very practicable. Judged, however, by Christian standards, half the flimsy marital relations of the Asiatic and African nations are adulterous. Arbitrary power of divorce a conceded right in heathen systems.Divorce is everywhere easily accomplished with little formality and upon the most trivial pretexts. Almost the only restraint is the fear of scandal or of personally offending the relatives of the wife. It is practically at the will of the husband. It is his prerogative, not the wife's. It is hardly possible, nor is it usually conceded even in theory in non-Christian law, that a woman can either divorce or secure a divorce from her husband, although a separation by mutual consent can be everywhere resorted to without fear of legal consequences. A power so arbitrary and despotic on the part of the husband is, as might 1 Browne, "A Year among the Persians," p. 462; "Report of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, U. S. A., 1895," p. 166. 2 Rowley, "Twenty Years in Central Africa," p. 125; Tyler, "Forty Years among the Zulus," p. 117; Johnston, "Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent," p. 168; Ingham, "Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years," p. 316.
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be expected, a facile expedient for wrecking the marriage relation. It is the ready instrument of wanton desire, and at the same time introduces heartless uncertainty and gross injustice into the lot of woman. She is the passive victim, and has no redress for the wrong done her. In China the husband's power of divorce seems to be unlimited so far as his secondary wives are concerned. In the case of the first or chief wife, however, he must run the gantlet of possible complications arising from opposition on the part of her family friends. 1 Still further embarrassments arise in case the wife's parents have died since her marriage, or if she has served the husband's parents until their death, or if her husband has grown rich since her marriage. Theoretically the husband is free to divorce for any one of the "seven justifying causes," namely, "barrenness, lewdness, jealousy, talkativeness, thievery, disobedience to her husband's parents, and loathsome disease." 2 This would seem to open the door to the unrestricted exercise of the right. In reality, however, public opinion and the power of precedent and custom exert considerable influence in restraining intemperate impulses on the part of the husband. In Japan the list of justifying causes is substantially identical with those mentioned above, and the husband is practically under some constraint for the same reasons that hold in China, especially the possibility of offending the wife's family in case she is from the higher ranks of society. 3 Among the lower classes of Japan, however, there is much less restraint, and divorce is frequently resorted to. In the five years from 1885 to 1889, inclusive, there was a total of 1,579,648 marriages in the Empire of Japan, and a total of 559,032 divorces—or an average of 111,806 divorces annually, or one divorce to a fraction (2.88) less than every three marriages. In 1891 the marriages were 325,651, and the divorces 112,411, substantially the same proportion. Comparing these statistics with those of France for the same years, we find that from 1885 to 1889, inclusive, there were 29,148 divorces, or an average of 5829 annually, while the proportion of divorces to marriages was, in 1885,14 for 1000, which had increased, however, so that it amounted to 24 for 1000 in 1891. In the United States there were slightly over 40,000 divorces granted in 1894. Recent legislation in Japan has modified somewhat the legal features of divorce, so that at the present moment the whole subject is under the cognizance of law in a 1 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 131. 2 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 32. 3 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," p. 557.
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way which was unknown a few years ago. It has become possible now for a wife to legally sue for a divorce.1 The immemorial rule, however, has been that a wife must give her husband full liberty to do as he will and should not even be jealous if he sought other society.2 In India divorce does not seem to be prevalent, except among Moslems.3 The Islamic code of divorce gives more license than is usual among Oriental nations. It is almost literally without restraint, except that the husband is required to pay the divorced wife's dowry.4 The absolute secrecy which enshrouds the Mohammedan harem covers many dark and cruel wrongs. According to Moslem tradition and custom, the Mohammedan husband can exercise absolute and irresponsible power within the precincts of his harem. Even the police are prohibited from entering on any pretext whatever. He can cast out his wife simply by the use of a familiar spoken formula, brief and peremptory, and she has no redress. In Turkey divorce is often resorted to among Moslems, and, except that certain legal formalities are required among the upper classes, it is a commonplace of domestic life. No disgrace attends it, nor is it any barrier to subsequent alliances. Even girls not yet twenty years of age may have been divorced and remarried a dozen times. This is virtually prostitution under guise of domestic relations, and the final lot of the victim is sooner or later to become a social outcast. In India an important aspect of this whole question is the proper regulation, by legal enactments, of the undoubted right of divorce where Christian converts are unjustly bound by non-Christian alliances. According to Mohammedan law in India, conversion to Christianity on the part of either husband or wife dissolves the marriage tie, and the party remaining a Moslem is free to contract another alliance. Legislation is needed which will secure to native Christian converts under these circumstances a legal divorce which will free them from bondage. In the case also of child marriage, which is regarded by present British law as binding, although it may have been contracted in infancy and remains still unconsummated, legislative reform is needed which will allow it to be regarded in the light simply of betrothal.5 1 Cf. "Civil Code of Japan: Book on the Law of the Person," paragraph 87, p. 31 (English translation). 2 Mrs. Bishop, "Unbeaten Tracks in Japan," vol. i., p. 333. 3 Thoburn, "India and Malaysia," p. 368. 4 Indian Evangelical Review, July, 1895, p. 119. 5 "Report of the Bombay Conference, 1892," vol. i., pp. 56-95.
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4. CHILD MARRIAGE AND WIDOWHOOD.—Child marriage is in defiance of a law of nature at once beneficent and supreme. Its evils The evils of child marriage.are multiform and deplorable. It is physically injurious, morally deleterious, mentally weakening, destructive of family dignity, productive of enfeebled offspring, increases the probability of early widowhood, provokes the curse of poverty, and tends to rapid over-population.1 The testimony of native Indians of education and independent judgment (especially medical men) is clear and emphatic as to its sad and dangerous tendencies.2 The population of India to-day is largely the children of children, and, as marriage is contracted with little or no regard to the ability of the husband to support a family, this is one secret of the terrible and grinding poverty of the country. National vigor in many sections of the great peninsula has suffered a notable decline, owing to the constant stream of infant life born of immaturity, and called to struggle with insanitary conditions and blighting disease. Child marriage in its worst forms seems to be associated with the higher castes, among whom also the restrictions of intermarriage with other castes are inexorable, and involve a narrowing of the marriage relation within a too limited circle. The custom of infant marriage is not equally prevalent throughout India, and facts which may be true of one section of the country may not apply to others; yet the practice is sufficiently prevalent to make it a gigantic evil of Indian society and characteristic of the country. The census of 1891 reports 17,928,640 girls in India between the ages of five and nine. Of this number 2,201,404 were already married and 64,040 were widows. The report further shows that there were 12,168,592 girls between the ages of ten and fourteen, and of this number 6,016,759 were married and 174,532 were widows. In the province of Mysore the number of girls married under nine years of age in the year 1881 was 12,000, while in 1891 it was 18,000, showing an increase of 50 per cent In 1891 out of 971,500 married women 11,157 had been married at or before the age of four years, and 180,997 between the ages of five and nine, showing that one out of every five of the wives was married under the age of nine. There were in the province at that time 23,000 child widows below the age of fourteen. The total of married children in all India under five years of age is as follows: boys, 103,000; girls, 258,000. The total of widowed children under five years of age is, boys, 7000, and girls, 14,000. 1 "The Women of India," pp. 60-64. 2 "Sanitary Reform in India," p. 29.
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The average age of marriage for girls among the Brahmans is between six and seven. Some are married before seven years of age. Nearly all are married before ten. Even babes are often married as soon as they are born.1 Twelve seems to be the limit of age beyond which it is a disgrace for the girl not to be married and a sin for the father not to have found her a husband.2 The discussions of the Indian sacred books as to the marriageable age of girls are not fit for quotation. They are part of the prurient vulgarity of Hinduism in its treatment of woman. The reasons usually assigned for infant marriage are that it is essential to the peace of a man's soul after death that he should have children who can duly perform his funeral rites, and that early marriages increase the probability of offspring, and on this account are to be commended.3 It is also argued that the custom tends to morality, and that it is justified in India for physical reasons. The arguments that early marriages are required in the interests of morality and are justified by the early development of Indian girls are not sustained by facts. On the contrary, the custom is a dangerous stimulus to immorality, and quickens to an unnatural precocity the relation of the sexes. It is, moreover, denied by competent authority that climatic conditions in India are to the extent claimed responsible for early maturity. The pernicious customs of the country as regards marriage have unbalanced nature and prematurely forced the physical and mental growth of Indian children of both sexes.4 Further restrictive legislation concerning infant marriage greatly needed.The physical sufferings induced by early marriage form a shocking indictment against a cruel custom.5 In a recent memorial, signed by fifty-five lady doctors, petitioning the Indian Government on the subject of child marriage, and forwarded by Mrs. Dr. Mansell of Lucknow to the Governor-General, a strong appeal based upon medical experience was presented, urging that fourteen years be the minimum age for the consummation of marriage. The appeal is sustained by most pitiful facts, drawn from medical experience, as to the physical cruelties attending the prevalent custom of infant marriage. According to what is known as the "Native Marriage Act" of 1872, forced marriages are prohibited under the age of eighteen for men and 1 "The Women of India," p. 56. 2 Ibid., p. 57. 3 Sir Monier-Williams, " Brahmanism and Hinduism," p. 387. 4 "The Women of India," p. 59. 5 Ibid., p. 61.
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fourteen for women, while the written consent of parents or guardians is required when either party is under twenty-one. This at first sight seems to be valuable legislation, but, as the law remains a dead letter unless its protection is sought, it practically has little effect as a remedy for existing evils, since neither parents nor children appear inclined, except very rarely, to avail themselves of its provisions. According to the penal code of India, the minimum age for the consummation of marriage, so far as Hindus are concerned, was until quite recently ten years. It has now been raised to twelve by an act which became law on March 19, 1891. The significance of this is that it is regarded as a crime to consummate the marriage earlier than twelve years of age, but, owing to the supreme difficulty of prosecution and the many embarrassments attending it, the infraction of the law is rarely brought to book, and in the great majority of instances it is practically inoperative. As the limitation of ten years was often disregarded, so in all likelihood that of twelve years will be observed even to a less extent.1 The Parsees have secured for themselves by special legislation in their interest the age of fourteen, as also have the Brahmos (members of reform societies, like the Brahmo-Somaj and others) at their own request.2 The Kulin Brahmans,3 however, seem to break all rules with their barbarous customs. It is not unusual for individual members of this marrying syndicate to have from fifty to seventy-five girl wives scattered about the country, so that when the much-married husband dies it brings the social miseries and sorrows of widowhood upon a large circle of helpless victims.4 There is at the present time much agitation for new Indian legislation 1 Sir Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," p. 387; "The Women of India,"p. 68. 2 "The Women of India," p. 67. 3 Ibid., p. 81. 4 Rev. Robert P. Wilder, of Kolhapur, India, has forwarded the following extract from a speech of Babu Dinanath Gangoli, delivered at the Sixth Social Conference, Allahabad, 1892: "It has been advanced in certain quarters that Kulinism is almost extinct, and that it is useless to take any trouble about it. Gentlemen, in my early days it was my belief that the practice would not last a decade more, but three decades have passed away and it is still prevalent. Some time ago I myself did not think much about Kulinism, considering that it had lost a good deal of its force; but three years ago, coming to know of the case of a Kulin who had left upwards of one hundred widows at his death, I was led to make inquiries about polygamous marriages among Kulins." After acknowledging his indebtedness to the editor of the Sanjwani, through whose good offices the investigation was made, the result of the inquiry is stated as follows; "Information was collected from 426 villages, showing 618 bigamists and 520 polygamists. Of the polygamists 180 have each 3 wives
98 have each 4 wives
54 have each 5 wives
35 have each 6 wives
26 have each 7 wives
20 have each 8 wives
10 have each 9 wives
19 have each 10 wives
9 have each 11 wives
12 have each 12 wives
5 have each 13 wives
11 have each 14 wives
4 have each 15 wives
6 have each 16 wives
2 have each 17 wives
1 has 19 wives
3 have each 20 wives
1 has 23 wives
4 have each 25 wives
1 has 26 wives
1 has 27 wives
1 has 28 wives
1 has 29 wives
4 have each 30 wives
2 have each 32 wives
1 has 34 wives
1 has 35 wives
1 has 36 wives
1 has 50 wives
1 has 52 wives
1 has 67 wives
1 has 107 wives
The mover of the last resolution informed you of his having heard of a Kulin being the husband of 107 wives; and the list I have placed before you shows that such a Kulin is really in existence. "Among the bigamists and polygamists the following deserve special notice: a boy of twelve years has two wives; a boy of fifteen years has four wives; three boys of fifteen years have two wives each; one boy of sixteen years has three wives ; one boy of sixteen years has seven wives; two young men twenty years old have eight wives each; one young man of twenty-two has seventeen wives; one of thirty-two has twenty wives, and one of thirty-seven has thirty-five wives. Educated young men and men of position also figure in this list."
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upon this burning subject.1 Another point upon which reform legislation is needed is to secure the non-recognition on the part of British law of the binding validity of infant marriage, so customary in India. It should be regarded in the light of a betrothal until bona fide marriage relations are established.2 We have referred as yet only to India, but the custom of early marriages is known also in Korea, China, Chinese Turkestan, Persia, Turkey, along the northern coast of Africa, and largely throughout the Continent, and it produces everywhere the same evil results. The present status of Indian legislation concerning the remarriage of widows.Child widowhood is a natural result of child marriage, and the evil is greatly enhanced by the uncompromising prohibition of remarriage in India. This singular prohibition is one of the fruits of the traditional subjection of woman. According to the social and religious standards of India, she is regarded as still bound to do reverence even to a dead husband, and his dominion is considered as lasting during her life, even though he has ceased to live. This idea of enslavement 1 "The Women of India," p. 66. 2 "Report of the Bombay Conference, 1892," vol. i., pp. 80-83.
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was carried to such an extreme that the widow was until recently bound to self-destruction at the death of her husband, in order that she might continue to be his wife and engage in his service in the life beyond. The prohibition of remarriage was lifted by what is known in British Indian legislation as the "Widow Marriage Act," passed by Lord Canning in 1856. The force of this act is simply that it removes the legal obstacles to remarriage on the part of the widow, if it is desired, but at the same time it requires her, in case of remarriage, to forfeit all property which she has inherited from her husband. This law has been modified by a special enactment in the case of native Christians and the theistic reformed sects of India, but it is still in force so far as the entire Hindu population is concerned. It is in reality, however, a dead letter, as the Hindus regard it with abhorrence, and have not mitigated in the least their strenuous opposition to the remarriage of a widow. Thirty years after its enactment only about sixty remarriages are reported in all India.1 It was a generation or more in advance of native opinion, which, however, at the present time is beginning to agitate for larger liberty in this matter. The law, being simply permissive in its character, legalizes without urging or facilitating the act of remarriage. It remains for native public opinion to relax its tyrannical stringency and yield itself to the urgent call for a more enlightened liberty. As the case stands now, the loss of property on the part of the widow is not the only penalty attending her remarriage; both she and her husband are ruled out of caste, and must suffer social ostracism in its most intense and virulent form. The sorrows of Indian widowhood.The condition of the Hindu widow is, almost without exception, a lamentable one. It has been fully described in books referring to the social and religious state of India.2 The chief features which make her fate a hard one, especially if she is widowed in childhood, are that she is immediately obliged to shave her head, is deprived forcibly of her jewels and ordinary clothing, and made to wear for the rest of her life a distinctive garb, which is a badge of humiliation. She is allowed to eat only once in the twenty-four hours, and every two weeks is required to observe a strict fast, omitting even the one meal. It has been decreed, however, by the highest religious court of Hinduism that if, acting on medical advice, the widow on these fast-days should drink a little water the offense should be condoned.3 Her person is forever 1 "The Women of India," p. 127. 2 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 364-375; "The Women of India," pp. 117-122. 3 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 364.
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held in contempt, and even her touch may be considered pollution. Her widowhood is regarded as an affliction brought upon her in punishment for heinous sin in a previous state of existence. If it come upon her in childhood she must grow to years of maturity with the painful consciousness of her isolation and unhappy ostracism shadowing the early years of her life. She is forever an object of suspicion, and is looked upon as capable of all evil. She is the victim of special temptations, and is often driven to a life of shame through sheer self-loathing and despair. It should not be understood that all widows are invariably treated with the same degree of severity and contempt throughout India. The treatment shown them varies in different castes, and even in different families. It may, of course, be mitigated by the personal kindness and consideration of their immediate circle, and it may be, on the other hand, intensified by fanaticism. In the Punjab, and especially in Bengal, the worst features of the widow's sad lot are prevalent. In other parts of India she may be treated with far less personal contumely, but the main features of isolation, suspicion, distinctive dress, cruel restrictions, and prohibition of remarriage prevail everywhere. According to the census of 1881, there were in India at that time 20,938,626 widows. The census of 1891 reports 22,657,429, but as this report was given with reference only to 262,300,000 out of a total population of 287,223,431, if the same proportion holds, the total number in all India would not be less than 25,000,000. Nearly every fifth woman in India is a widow. This large percentage may be traced directly to the custom of early marriages and the stringent prohibition of remarriage.1 The same shadow rests upon the widow in China and Korea, although the exactions of custom are by no means so inexorable as in India. If, however, she should remarry she loses her social position and is regarded as guilty of an unnatural and immodest act. In connection with the subject of widowhood and its enforced hardships, mention may be made of the now happily extinct custom of sati, 1 "The distribution according to age of the total 22,657,429 widows is as follows: From 0 to 4 years of age 13,878 From 5 to 9 years of age 64,040 From 10 to 14 years of age 174,532 From 15 to 34 years of age 4,160,548 From 35 to 49 years of age 6,996,592 From 50 and over 11,224,933 Age not returned 22,906 "Four hundred and eighty out of 10,000 males are widowed, against 1760 out of every 10,000 females. "For 8 widows in Europe, per population, there are 18 in India."—Indians Women, January, 1895, p. 42.
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or widow-burning. The usual form of the word in English is "suttee," but it is more correctly written sati, from a root The abolition of satisignifying "good" or "pure," the significance of the word being that self-destruction on the part of the widow is a preëminently virtuous act. The horrible custom was unknown among the early Aryans, nor is it inculcated in the Vedas. It is supposed that the Hindus adopted it from the Scythian tribes, who were accustomed to immolate "concubine and horse and slave on the tomb of the dead lord." Possibly the custom may have commended itself to the Hindus as one eminently fitting and in harmony with their ideas of what is becoming in a widow. At all events, it became prevalent to a fearful extent, and the relatives of the unhappy widow may have been all the more eager to insist upon it so that they might obtain her inheritance and be altogether relieved of the burden of supporting her. She was assured that untold happiness would follow this supreme sacrifice, and even those who aided in the act of burning would obtain for themselves extravagant merit. In numberless instances the unhappy victim, would shrink from her terrible fate, and would be forced to it in a way which made it a most abominable species of murder.1 In the year 1817 it was found that, on an average, two widows were burned alive in Bengal every day. In some cases death was by burial while alive instead of by burning. This most awful crime was abolished by the British Government in 1829 by the decisive action of Lord William Bentinck. The Hindus objected most vigorously to the regulation placing the practice of sati among the crimes punishable by law. They presented memorials to the Government, in which they justified the act of immolation as a sacred duty and exalted privilege, and claimed that the action of the authorities was an unwarranted interference with the religious customs of India. The appeal was transmitted to the Privy Council in England, but Lord Bentinck's action in the matter was sustained. The prohibition applied only to British territory, but the Government has also used its best influence in restricting the custom in Native States, and at the present time, although rare instances are still reported, it has been practically suppressed everywhere. The agitation for its abolition was begun under missionary auspices by Dr. Carey in 1801. 5. DEFECTIVE FAMILY TRAINING.—The delicate and responsible offices of parental training, although everywhere in the non-Christian 1 "The Women of India," p. 122.
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world more or less under the guiding instincts of natural feeling, are yet, through ignorance, passion, and thoughtlessness, sadly ineffective as a helpful discipline to the young. Family training can rise no higher in its temper and wisdom than the family character. Its aspirations may be the best, and its aims the highest that can be expected under the circumstances, yet they are not likely to transcend the family environment, except as Christian teachings give an uplifting impulse to parental desires. The sketch of Japanese child The training of children in Japan and China.life given by Miss Bacon, in her chapter on childhood in "Japanese Girls and Women," is a pleasing picture, and, owing to the kindness with which children are treated, Japan has been called a "paradise of babies." So far as gentleness and natural affection are concerned, the elements of happy family life seem to be present in Japan. The danger is rather in the lack of a wise self-restraint on the part of parents, modifying the tendency to an undue laxity which in the end may work injury. The absence of a high moral purpose and a deep sense of parental responsibility can hardly be atoned for by mere fondness. Later on in the life of a Japanese child comes the shadow of parental absolutism, which in many instances is guilty of inflicting grave wrongs upon confiding and obedient children, especially the daughters. In China there is a somewhat severe and elaborate ethical code of training which, if put into practice with wisdom and kindliness, is by no means void of good results. Its influence, however, is largely neutralized by the force of example and the power of the imitative instinct in the young. The "Nu Erh Ching; or, Classic for Girls" has been translated into English by Professor Headland, of Peking,1 and is full of sage advice and excellent counsel. Moral maxims and conventional politeness, however, may be insisted upon with much carefulness; yet if a child's mind" is filled with ill-natured gossip, low jests, filthy sayings, and a thousand slavish superstitions" the result is sure to be disastrous. Even though the letter of the discipline may be free from serious defect, yet the fact that it is ignored in thousands of families, and in its place is substituted the foolish and idolizing weakness of fond parents, interspersed with bursts of furious brutality, quite transforms the ideal Chinese home into a school of selfishness, conceit, and disobedience.2 The ordinary training of Chinese children is characterized by grave moral lapses, and sometimes by shocking cruelty. Punishment 1 The Chinese Recorder, December, 1895, p. 554. 2 Williams, "A New Thing," p. 27.
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is frequently brutal and even criminal.1 Parental care is in many cases neglected. In fact, the children are sometimes cast off and turned loose in the world under heartless conditions which insure either death, slavery, or shame.2 Child slavery is one of the reproaches of Chinese society.3 In India and Burma, and, in fact, throughout all Asiatic countries, the utter neglect of family training, seems to be the feature most to be noted In India and Africa.in this connection. The children, except those of the higher classes, are left to their own devices to grow up under the influence of their tainted environment. Where the climate will allow they are unclothed, until natural modesty ceases to exist, and are usually unwashed, unkempt, and covered with filth, flies, and vermin. In India "there exists a superstition according to which it is unlucky to wash children until they reach a certain age."4 The "joint family system," as known in India, is a dangerous one to family peace, and attended with practical disadvantages which are objectionable from many points of view. Its effect upon children is to concentrate the power of evil example and bring them into contact with every aspect of domestic infelicity.5 A sad aspect of the matter is the prurient precocity of children, who begin their vile language with their infant prattle and grow old in pollution while yet young in years.6 The average Indian mother 1 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 213; Turner, "Kwang Tung," p. 154; "Child Life in China," The Sunday-School Times, April 6, 1895. 2 Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," pp. 309-311; Turner, "Kwang Tung," P- 154. 3 Woman's Work in the Far East, May, 1896, pp. 15-18; Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 404; Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 347-349. 4 Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," p. 580. 5 "The redeeming virtues of the family system have been supplanted by vices of abnormal degree and magnitude. Where sincere sympathy was, stolid indifference now exists. Jealousy and hatred have usurped the place of harmony. Discordancy rides triumphant. Deceit and spoliation have seized those who were heretofore the trustees of our honor and property. A sense of distrust has seized each member against every member. Family feuds, litigation, and waste of resources are now every-day occurrences. So that the Hindu family has changed from a convenient social unit into an incoherent and cumbrous mass. Say what our countrymen may, our domestic relations are undergoing a revolution appalling to contemplate. It is not confined to this or that sect, this caste or that caste, but [pertains] to almost every household, Brahman or Sudra. It is only families still in their archaic state which form the exception. In them the patriarch's rule is still dominant."—Mullick, "Essays on the Hindu Family in Bengal," quoted in "The Women of India," p. 86. 6 "Even under the most favorable conditions of Indian life, how full of misery is the child's life! The obscene speech of Indian homes is one of its darkest features. It is indeed a βíθoς in this connexion to speak of the misery of the uncleanliness of Indian children. Yet how can it be but inevitable when 'Indian mothers trust largely to superstitious ceremonies to keep their children well, while they neglect sanitary arrangements ' ? Worse than all is the woe of Indian childhood which befalls the opening mind when, led by their mothers to the Indian temple, their eyes are met with sights, their ears assailed by songs, of such loathsome import that innocency may not sustain the strain, and the child mind perishes in that awful hour." —"Missions or Science, the Maker of India's Homes?" The Church Missionary Intelligencer, November, 1893, p. 807.
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seems to be all unconscious of the fact that she has anything to do in forming the character of her children.1 In Mohammedan lands the same physical and moral neglect prevails, and the young grow up under the unwholesome culture of surrounding influences. Parental petting alternates with parental passion in the daily treatment of children. In Africa family life is not very far above the plane of mere animalism, modified, of course, by human instincts ; yet there is really no family training. Children run wild and grow up with untamed and grossly tainted natures.2 The mission school is the best gift of heaven to African children, and under its auspices the long, slow process of making over those wild natures has commenced. A word should be said in this connection concerning the abuse of parental authority in Eastern lands—not a new or strange thing in heathenism, as we may read in classical history.3 In China it is answerable for much brutality and for the sale of children into slavery, while in Japan it often seals the doom of a daughter to a life of misery.4 In all the realms of savagery it suggests a dread possibility in the case of millions of little ones who may at any time become the victims of a sudden whim or a loathsome purpose on the part of those who are the irresponsible masters of young lives. 6. INFANTICIDE.—That the exposure of children in such a way as to insure their destruction was common in classical heathenism is too well known to require more than a passing notice.5 It is perhaps a less 1 Thoburn, "India and Malaysia," p. 365. 2 "Infants and children are usually grievously mismanaged, and the mortality among them is enormous."—Rev. G. M. Lawson (U. M. C. A.), Zanzibar. 3 Storrs, "The Divine Origin of Christianity," pp. 138-140; Ingram, "History of Slavery," pp. 16, 28. 4 The Japan Evangelist, February, 1896, p. 135. 5 Brace, "Gesta Christi," pp. 72-83; Storrs, "The Divine Origin of Christianity," pp. 138-141.
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familiar fact that this inhuman crime prevailed among the pagan barbarians of Central and Northern Europe as late as the thirteenth century.1 The heathenism of to-day, even in the centres of its most advanced civilization, is still red-handed with the traces of infanticide. Japan is in Child murder not uncommon in China.
pleasing and humane contrast with her more barbarous neighbors, the Chinese, as regards this dark and cruel crime. That the custom, although often practised in secret, prevails in China cannot be doubted. The united testimony of those who have had ample opportunities to know the facts presents a body of evidence which is irresistibly strong, although the custom is confined almost exclusively to the destruction of girls, unless in case of deformed or weakly infants. It is more prevalent in Central and Southern China, and is comparatively rare in the north. It is said that poverty and the desire to be free from the burden of caring for girls are the chief causes of its prevalence.2 The spirit which seems to reign in the hearts of Chinese mothers is illustrated by a conversation which Miss Fielde reports in "A Corner of Cathay" (p. 72). A pagan Chinese woman, discoursing upon the subject of daughters, remarked, "A daughter is a troublesome and expensive thing anyway. Not only has she to be fed, but there is all the trouble of binding her feet, and of getting her betrothed, and of making up her wedding garments; and even after she is married off she must have presents made to her when she has children. Really, it is no wonder that so many baby girls are slain at their birth!" While the difficulty of obtaining accurate data is recognized by all, and also the fact that statements which apply to certain sections of the vast empire are not representative of the true status in other parts, yet the prevalence of infanticide to a frightful extent is beyond question.3 The author of "Things Chinese" (p. 233) estimates on the basis of special inquiries that in the province of Fuhkien "an average of forty per cent. of the girls were thus murdered." Rev. C. Hartwell, in a paper read at the Shanghai Conference of 1877 ("Report,"p. 387), estimates that at Foochow" from thirty to seventy per cent, of the female infants have been destroyed." If the act of destruction is not actually committed, another 1 Lawrence, "Modern Missions in the East," p. 15. 2 Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 351-356; Williams, "The Middle Kingdom, "vol. ii., pp. 239-243. 3 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 289-291; Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 179; Fielde, "Pagoda Shadows," chap. iii.; Moule, "New China and Old,"p. 179.
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method of accomplishing the result is to leave the infant in some exposed place, where it is either destroyed by animals or starved. It may be cast into the living tomb of a baby tower, or placed in a basket or shelter provided for the purpose, from whence some one may take it to sell into slavery or to adopt if so disposed. In the latter case the motive may be evil and the infant' future may be one of hopeless shame. Dr. W. A. P. Martin, a lifelong resident of China, writes in The Chinese Recorder, October, 1894, as follows: "Of the prevalence of infanticide in China there is unhappily no room for doubt. The question is set at rest by the testimony of the people themselves. Among their moral tracts dissuading from vice and crime a conspicuous place is filled by a class called 'Dissuasives from Drowning Daughters.' Official proclamations may often be seen posted on gates and walls forbidding the practice. "Other veteran missionaries, as Dr. Talmage, of Amoy, have reported the results of careful inquiry and observation to the same effect.1 Dr. Abeel, whose diary is quoted in the "Life of Talmage" (p. 69), and whose observation dates back about fifty years from the present time, gave it as his verdict, after repeated investigation in the vicinity of Amoy, that "the number destroyed varies exceedingly in different places, the extremes extending from seventy and eighty per cent, to ten per cent., and the average proportion destroyed in all these places amounting to nearly four tenths, or exactly thirty-nine per cent. In seventeen of these forty towns and villages [visited] my informants declare that one half or more are deprived of existence at birth." "When I reached here thirty-two years ago," writes Rev. J. Macgowan (L. M. S.), of Amoy, China, "there was a pond in the centre of the town known as the 'Babies' Pond.' This was the place where little ones were thrown by their mothers. There were always several bodies of infants floating on its green, slimy waters, and the passers-by looked on without any surprise." The influence of Christianity in Amoy has banished this scene. "As the Church grew," he writes, "the truth spread, and street preachers pointed to this pond as an evidence of the heartlessness of idolatry that tolerated such wickedness, and the people became ashamed. Foundling Institutions were established, which are carried on to-day and which now have fully two thousand children in connection with them. To-day thousands of women are alive who, but for Christianity, would have been put to death. The pond has long ago dried up."2 While, of course, no statement can be made which is other 1 Fagg, "Forty Years in South China: Life of John Van Nest Talmage, D.D.," pp. 66-70; Graves, "Forty Years in China," p. 89. 2 "Infanticide is practised in Cheh-kiang Province. One of our native Christians confessed to me that before she became a Christian she had five daughters, and had drowned them all, simply because she could not afford to bring them up. Our churches are practically anti-infanticide societies."—S. P. Barchet, M.D. (A. B. M. U.), Kinhwa, China. "Infanticide is practised extensively in some parts of China, but is not so common in North China. Here it is chiefly confined to the very poor, to sickly children and illegitimate children. But there is no sentiment against it as wrong. There is no hope of preventing it, except by the higher moral tone Christianity imparts."— Mrs. C. W. Mateer (P. B. F. M. N.), Tungchow, China.
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than an estimate, yet it seems beyond question that tens of thousands (we have seen it named as high as two hundred thousand) of infant girls are annually sacrificed in China. The custom is practised also in Formosa, as Dr. MacKay reports in "From Far Formosa" (p. 298). The testimony concerning the prevalence of infanticide in India before the advent of British rule is hardly less abundant than in China. It may Infanticide among the Hindus.be drawn largely from Indian sources. In a volume on "Medical Jurisprudence," quoted by Wilkins, it is stated that "the murder of female children, whether by the direct employment of homicidal means or by the more inhuman and not less certain measures of exposure to privation and neglect, has for ages been the chief and most characteristic crime of six sevenths of the inhabitants of British India."1 Syed A. M. Shah states, in an article on "Hindu Women in India," that, "among Rajputs, if the child were a girl the poor little creature used often to be killed by her cruel parents, who looked upon her birth as a direct curse from heaven." 2 In a lecture on "Kathiawar," delivered by Mr. M. A. Turkhud before the National Indian Association, the lecturer, in speaking of the Jadejas, remarked: "This tribe is noted for the practice of female infanticide. Whenever a child was born, if it was a girl it was immediately killed. How the practice originated is not exactly known, but it was probably due to the ambition among Rajputs to marry their daughters into families higher than their own, and this always involved a ruinous expenditure in dowries. This practice was not confined to the Jadejas alone, but it prevailed among the Sumras and Jethavas also. "The lecturer quoted, also, a paragraph from the writings of Colonel Watson upon the same theme. Referring to the method employed in the execution of the crime, the words reported are as follows: "It is not necessary to describe the mode of killing the unfortunate children. There were several methods. It is not difficult to kill a new-born child, 'What labor is there in 1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 431. 2 The Indian Magazine and Review, April, 1894, p. 212.
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crushing a flower ?' said a Jadeja chief, on being asked what means were employed. The crime was formerly so universal that directly a female child was born it was killed by the women of the house, unless the father had given express orders beforehand that it should be reared, and such an order was rarely given. The father never saw the infant himself; he always pretended to be unconscious of the whole affair, and if any one ventured to ask him . . . the answer was, 'Nothing.' The event was always passed over in silence, and even when a girl's life was spared there was no rejoicing."1 When Kathiawar came under British rule, the Jains, whose chief religious tenet is total abstinence from taking all animal life, expressly stipulated that no cattle should be killed for the use of English troops ; yet this was in face of the fact that female infanticide had been practised for ages without the slightest protest. The sacrifice of children in the payment of vows to Indian deities has been "known for untold generations," and not until British legislation had largely abolished the custom were there any signs of its cessation. The question as to the extent of infanticide in India at the present time is more difficult to determine, as under the ban of British law it is Has it been entirely checked in India?carried on more secretly. In fifteen years, however, there have been officially reported twelve thousand five hundred and forty-two cases, and this number represents only a small proportion of the total. The Indian Social Reformer for August 3, 1895, contains the following statement: "Infanticide seems to be largely on the increase in the Madras Presidency. Hardly a week passes without our reading in the papers of painful instances in which new-born babies are either killed or deserted. The 'Sasilekha' rightly attributes this sad state of affairs to the peculiarly rigid and stupid marriage customs of the country, and exhorts all true patriots to do what they can to modify these customs." In a recent issue of The Bombay Gazette is the statement that "female infanticide continues prevalent in Northern India, and the subject comes under review by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab in a resolution on the Sanitary Commissioner's report. 'The unenviable notoriety enjoyed by the districts of Jullundur, Amritsar, and Ludhiana,' he remarks, 'by reason of their abnormally high death-rates of female infants, is again brought to notice.'" A chapter on infanticide in "Women of the Orient" gives some significant statements from official sources with reference to the state of affairs in India in 1870, and the author comes to this conclusion: "As the result of careful inquiry while in India, I am morally certain that, 1 The Indian Magazine and Review, April, 1896, p. 171.
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at the very lowest estimate admissible, fully one third of the girls born among the natives of that country are still secretly murdered."1 The British Government has waged strenuous warfare against infanticide in India, but, owing to the extreme difficulty of discovery and the impossibility of fixing the guilt, it has not been as successful in the matter of infant murder as in the case of other inhuman practices. The crime has been prohibited by British law since 1802, and this prescriptive legislation has gradually been extended to all parts of India, and more recently it has been enacted that in all proclaimed villages the proportion of girls born should bear a certain ratio to the boys, as it has been clearly indicated by experience that the normal proportion is about equal. A strict surveillance by the proper officials throughout Northern and Western India has secured at the present time a ratio of four girls to six boys, which is a decided improvement upon the past. The secrecy of the zenana renders it almost impossible to prove a case of infanticide, and, even though the act of murder should not be violently committed, the object can be attained with almost equal certainty by neglect. In the last census the relative number of girls to one hundred boys shows a marked improvement over past records. The average for all India is 92 girls to every 100 boys. The lowest recorded ratio is 69 78/100in Quetta, British Baluchistan, and the next is 83 17/100 in Sindh, while in Rajputana, once so noted for the prevalence of infanticide, it has risen to 87 48/100. It is worthy of note that in Upper Burma, where woman occupies a position of exceptional honor, the recorded ratio is 102 79/100 girls to every 100 boys. It is to be hoped that with the progress of Christianity and the abolition of the absurd extravagances of narriage the natural heart of India will revolt from the heinousness of this crime, and infanticide will disappear forever. In the Pacific Islands infanticide has prevailed to a frightful extent under circumstances of exceptional heartlessness and cruelty. "The early missionaries have testified that not less than two thirds of the children were put to death. Especially were female children killed. 'Why should the girl live?' they [the natives] would say. 'She cannot poise the spear, she cannot wield the club.' A mother would often strangle her own child, with one hand holding the nostrils and the other holding the mouth, and then herself dig the grave and bury the child."2 The above statement was made concerning the Fiji Islands, but it is substantially true with reference to almost the entire island world.3 1 Houghton, " Women of the Orient," p. 71. 2 Alexander, "The Islands of the Pacific," p. 394. 3 Michelsen, "Cannibals Won for Christ," pp. 133, 154; Gill, "Life in the Southern Isles," p. 213; Alexander, "The Islands of the Pacific," pp. 28, 77, 159, 268, 413.
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The Samoan Group seems to have presented a remarkable exception to other sections of Polynesia, as infanticide is said never to have prevailed there.1 As we enter the "habitations of cruelty" in the Dark Continent, the crime of infanticide is found in ghastly proportions. Among certain savage The doom of twins in Africa.races the advent of twins seems to excite every instinct of fear and brutality. In an address at a Ladies' Meeting of the Church Missionary Society, Mrs. Hill, the wife of the lamented Bishop Hill, of Western Equatorial Africa, made the following statement:" The birth of twins is considered a great curse, and the woman that has twins is disgraced for life afterwards, and she is compelled to throw the twins into the wood, where they are left to die. In a town five miles distant from where we were there are five hundred infants annually sacrificed in these two ways: they are murdered by hundreds, and left to die in the way which I have stated."2 Dr. Laws (U. P. C. S.), in writing from Old Calabar, a neighboring mission to Bishop Hill's, says, "It is almost impossible for any one at home to imagine the horror with which the birth of twins is regarded by the natives, and especially by the native women." In the same connection he refers to the "destruction of twins" as one of the great obstacles to the progress of Christianity in Old Calabar, inasmuch as the missionaries insist upon an entire change of custom as essential to the profession of Christianity.3 The missionary literature of other societies at work in Africa, especially that of the Universities' Mission and the London Missionary Society, yields similar statements with reference to "the fearful amount of child murder" prevailing in Africa. In some instances the heinous guilt of the little victim is declared to be that it" cut its upper teeth first." In other instances, strange to say, its fatal offense is reported as "cutting a lower tooth before the upper ones." In both cases the father was the executioner, fearing death himself if the infant lived. If a child should cut a tooth before birth its doom is sealed, according to what is known as the custom of the "vigego." 4 1 "Infanticide, wholly unknown in Samoa, prevailed throughout the Tokelau and Ellice groups." —Rev. J. K. Newell (L. M. S.), Malua Institution, Samoa. 2 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, June, 1893, p. 437. Cf. also Faulkner, "Joseph Sidney Hill," p. 144. 3 The Missionary Record, December, 1893, p. 354. 4 Central Africa, January, 1894, p. 8; Ibid., May, 1895, p. 68; The Missionary Record, January, 1893, p. 23.
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That infanticide Infanticide not common among the Mohammedans.has been only too well known among the Indians of North and South America is the testimony of those who are familiar with their history. To the credit of the Mohammedans it may be said that, except in the case of illegitimate children, infanticide is not now practised, being prohibited in the Koran.1 III.-THE TRIBAL GROUP (Evils which pertain to intertribal relationships and find their origin in the cruel passions of savage life) Turning now from the consideration of those evils which may be differentiated as individual or domestic in their origin and character, we come to a group whose genesis is tribal, pertaining rather to life in the larger relationships of clan, tribe, or race. As will be noted, this is a classification which is far from precise or exclusive, yet it is perhaps as definite as we can hope to attain. I. THE TRAFFIC IN HUMAN FLESH.—The slave-traffic The historical genesis of the slave trade.and its twin evil, slavery, have shadowed human history from the earliest times. Barbarous pride, inhuman greed, and the fortunes of war among savage races have proved a sufficient stimulus to this cruel wrong. A compact survey of the status of slavery in Greece and Rome, and of the enormous extent of the slave-traffic in those great empires, will be found in the excellent little volume of Dr. Ingram,2 who gives also, in chapter vi., a brief history of the rise of the African slave-trade in the 1 Cf. Sale's Preliminary Discourse, in Wherry's "Commentary on the Quran," sec. v., pp. 202-204. The custom of burying alive female infants as soon as they were born was a common one among the Arabs in the time of Mohammed. The prohibition of the Koran is explicit: "Kill not your children, for fear of being brought to want; we will provide for them and for you; verily, the killing them is a great sin." "Surat al Bani Israil" ("The Children of Israel"), entitled also "The Night Journey," verse 33. Cf. also "Surat al Anam" ("Cattle"), verses 137, 151; "Surat al Nahl" ("The Bee"), verses 60, 61; and "Surat al Takwir" ("The Folding Up"), verse 8. Dr. Wherry calls attention to the fact that the motive for the act among the Arabs was the same which influences the Hindus. "Commentary," vol. i., p. 203. 2 Ingram, "A History of Slavery and Serfdom," chaps, ii., iii. Cf. Storrs, "The Divine Origin of Christianity," pp. 155-157, 479-482.
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latter half of the fifteenth century, when the Portuguese, under Prince Henry the Navigator, made their first venture in "black men and gold dust." The awful scourge of colonial slavery and its monstrous crime of slave hunting and transportation followed with an amazingly rapid development.1 Its history, covering a period of over two hundred and fifty years, presents perhaps the most colossal wrong that man has ever inflicted upon man, unless we except the age-long records of war. Commerce in slaves was common in Russia until, in the reign of Alexander II., it came to an end with the abolition of serfdom in 1861. By this memorable act of emancipation, in which were included the serfs of the State, of the imperial appanages, and of the individual proprietors as well, over forty million bondmen were set free. Mohammedanism has been throughout its history responsible for the slave-hunt and the slave-market as necessary accompaniments to the slavery it recognizes and sanctions.2 The African slave-trade in modern times has been maintained to a large extent for the supply of Moslem markets in Arabia, Persia, Turkey, Egypt, Tripoli, and Morocco. The main avenues of the modern slave-traffic in Africa.Livingstone was the instrument used by Providence to awaken civilized nations to the enormity of this great evil and its awful cruelties. He pronounced it, in words which have lived and burned in the conscience of Christendom, to be "the open sore of the world." Since the abolition of the external traffic on the West Coast, which drained the deep recesses of the Continent for the supply of the colonial markets,3 there still lingers an internal trade among the native tribes of West Africa. The main avenues of the traffic, however, have branched out in three directions from East Central Africa and the Soudan as centres, and along these dreary paths the tramp of the 1 Ingram, pp. 140-153. 2 Ibid., p. 222. 3 "Immediately after the discovery of the New World, the demand for labour in its mines and plantations, of which the Western nations of Europe were rapidly taking possession, gave an immense stimulus to the traffic in slaves from Africa. This traffic was at first promoted most actively by the Spaniards, but in 1562 Sir John Hawkins engaged English ships in it, and thereafter it became a recognized department of English commerce. At least four companies were formed in succession, each of which possessed under Royal charter the sole right to traffic with Africa, but they were unable to exclude other traders, and none survived for any length of time. The Revolution of 1688 threw the trade open, and from this time it flourished. In the year 1771 no fewer than 192 ships sailed from England for Africa (107 of these from Liverpool), with provision for the transport of 47,146 slaves. The entries show that from 1700 to 1786 the number of slaves imported into Jamaica alone was 610,000, or an average of 7000 a year."—George Robson, D.D., "The Story of Our Jamaica Mission," p. 12.
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ghastly caravans may still be heard. One of these finds its outlet from the Western Soudan in a northerly direction through the burning regions of the Sahara to the Mohammedan States of North Africa, especially Tripoli and Morocco. Another is eastward to the coast, whence the slaves are conveyed to the markets in Arabia, Persia, and Turkey in the north, and, until recently, to Madagascar in the south. The third route is by the Nile Valley, through which a large traffic was formerly carried on, but which in late years has been so carefully guarded that it is not available except in instances where secrecy or cunning can succeed in eluding detection.1 According to a careful estimate, based upon the personal investigations of such explorers as Livingstone, Gordon, Cameron, Lavigerie, and others, the annual sacrifice of lives in Africa by the slave-trade, as conducted a generation ago, was not less than five hundred thousand. If we add to this the victims transported into slavery and those exiled from their burning villages and their ruined homes, we may regard the total number of those who were at that time victims to the slave-trader's violence as not less than two millions annually.2 Much has been done within a quarter of a century to mitigate these horrors and lessen their volume, but that the slave-trade still exists to an extent hardly realized by Christendom is a fact which cannot be doubted. It is to a lamentable extent a feature of internal commerce between the African tribes themselves, and all the efforts to seal its outlets along the extensive unguarded coast-line of East Africa have been as yet only partially successful. In the Congo Free State The slave-markets of the West Coast and its Hinterland.energetic attempts have been made, with considerable success, to break up the Arab strongholds of the traffic in the northeasterly regions of the State. The action of the Brussels Conference of 1889-90, which had for one of its objects the suppression of the slavetrade, has given a stimulus among all civilized nations to aggressive and benevolent efforts for its repression. It is in harmony with the agreement entered upon at that Conference that the 1"There can be little doubt that in course of time slavery in Egypt will entirely disappear, provided continual vigilance be exercised over buyers as well as over dealers. Notwithstanding what has been done to check the trade, it is certain that advantage is at once taken of the least relaxation in the measures heretofore adopted to prevent the introduction and the sale of slaves in Egypt, to smuggle in slaves from Tripoli or Bengazi, and dispose of them generally in out-of-the-way places where detection is difficult."—Report of Lord Cromer on Slavery in Egypt (vide Blue Book, Egypt, No. I, 1894), quoted in The Anti-Slavery Reporter, March-April, 1894, p. 96. 2 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, July, 1894, p. 208.
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recent campaign upon the northern and eastern borders of the Congo State was conducted. Germany, England, and France have responded to the sentiment embodied in the Brussels Act, and have throttled the giant evil here and there throughout their vast possessions and spheres of influence in Africa; yet the testimony of travellers who have penetrated the interior, of missionaries in various parts of the Continent, and especially the recent report of Mr. Donald Mackenzie, who in 1895 visited the East Coast of Africa from Suakin to Zanzibar as a special Commissioner of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, leave no room for doubt that the slave-trade is still a grim reality in Africa. Such is also the testimony of Mr. Heli Chatelain, who has resided for many years in West Africa, and who has been instrumental in organizing the "Philafrican Liberators' League" in the United States, for the purpose of establishing colonies in Africa, according to the suggestion of the Brussels Act, for the protection and industrial training of liberated slaves.1 Slave-markets for intertribal trade are scattered along the West Coast.2 In Yorubaland young children are driven like sheep to be sold in the shambles.3 In a recent volume on Hausaland, by Charles H. Robinson, M.A., startling statements are made concerning the extent and cruelty of the slave-traffic in the Hausa States and throughout the Western Soudan. His description of the slave-market at Kano, of the slave-raiding throughout that section of Africa, and of the singular custom of using slaves as currency, indicates that this region, although nominally under English supervision, through the Royal Niger Company, is cursed by the most abandoned and heartless species of slave-raiding and slave-trading. In the market at Kano there is an average of about five hundred human beings daily on sale. It appears, in fact, that about every important town in the Hausa States possesses a slave-market. The tribute paid by the smaller States to the larger 1 Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, No. I, 1896, p. 70; "Africa and the American Negro" (Addresses at Atlanta Congress on Africa), pp. 103-112. 2 The Missionary Record, January, 1895, p. 13. 3 "As the day cooled again we passed through the lonely though well-cultivated farms of Shobakia, Egbade, and Olipin. In the midst of them we saw a sight of saddening interest. It was a company of about thirty small children, ranging from seven to twelve years, who were being driven like a drove of sheep to Abeokuta. They came from the interior, and the next day would be sold in the market at Abeokuta. The sight was sad, but it is all too common. The reason that children and not men and women are more numerously for sale is that now men and women soon run away, while children can be retained for at least a few years." —Rev. Bryan Roe, in Work and Workers in the Mission Field, January, 1896, p. 14.
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consists usually of slaves. The Sultan of Sokoto receives a small army of them every year as his annual tribute. Mr. Robinson declares that "one out of every three hundred persons now living in the world is a Hausa-speaking slave," and justifies the statement upon the basis of a Hausa-speaking population of fifteen millions, or one per cent, of the world's inhabitants. As he regards it as beyond question that at least one third of these are in a state of slavery, this would result in one Hausa-speaking slave to every three hundred of the world's population.1 In "Fire and Sword in the Sudan," by Slatin Pasha, translated by Major Wingate, is another harrowing account of slavery and the slave-trade in the Soudan, chiefly in the eastern section. His descriptions of the desert slave-routes, and how women and girls are treated, present records of cruelty which are almost too appalling to quote.2 The existence of slave-markets in Morocco, supplied by transportation across the Sahara from the Western Soudan and the regions of the Upper Niger, is confirmed by abundant testimony.3 Mr. Henry 1 Robinson, "Hausaland," quoted in The Anti-Slavery Reporter, January-February, 1896, pp. 62, 63. [A decree issued March 6, 1897, by Sir George Goldie, abolishes slavery in all the territories of the Royal Niger Company after June 19th.] 2 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, January-February, 1896, pp. 55-57. 3 In a communication on this subject, a member of the North Africa Mission says: "Few people know the true state of affairs in Morocco; only those who live in daily touch with the common life of the people really get to understand the pernicious and soul-destroying system of human flesh-traffic, as carried on in most of the public markets of the interior. Having resided and travelled extensively in Morocco for some seven years, I feel constrained to bear witness against the whole gang of Arab slave-raiders and buyers of poor little innocent boys and girls. "When I first settled in Morocco I met those who denied the existence of slave-markets, but since that time I have seen children, some of whom were of tender years, as well as very pretty young women, openly sold in the City of Morocco, and in the towns along the Atlantic seaboard. It is also of very frequent occurrence to see slaves sold in Fez, the capital of Northern Morocco. "The first slave-girls that I actually saw being sold were of various ages. They had just arrived from the Soudan, a distance by camel, perhaps, of forty days' journey. Two swarthy-looking men were in charge of them. The timid little creatures, mute as touching Arabic, for they had not yet learned to speak in that tongue, were pushed out by their captors from a horribly dark and noisome dungeon into which they had been thrust the night before. Then, separately, or two by two, they were paraded up and down before the public gaze, being stopped now and again by some one of the spectators and examined exactly as the horse-dealer would examine the points of a horse before buying the animal at any of our public horse-marts in England. The sight was sickening. Some of the girls were terrified, others were silent and sad. Every movement was watched by the captives, anxious to know their present fate. My own face flushed with anger as I stood helplessly by and saw those sweet, dark-skinned, woolly-headed Soudanese sold into slavery. "Our hearts have ached as we have heard from time to time from the lips of slaves of the indescribable horrors of the journey across desert plains, cramped with pain, parched with thirst, and suffocated in panniers, their food a handful of maize. Again, we have sickened at the sight of murdered corpses, left by the wayside to the vulture and the burning rays of the African sun, and we have prayed, perhaps as never before, to the God of justice to stop these cruel practices."— The Anti-Slavery Reporter, December, 1895, pp. 267-268.
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ney assures us that he himself visited slave-markets in Morocco City and Fez, in I894.1 Substantially the The traffic in Morocco and North Africa.same information is given by correspondents who accompanied the Embassy of Marshal Martinez Campos to the Court of Morocco, who report the sale of slaves within view of the Imperial Palace, and by Luis Morote in a communication to the Spanish Anti-Slavery Society, describing the slave-markets in Morocco City, after a visit to Morocco in the winter of 1893-94.2 Mr. Morote speaks of the horrors of the slave-raids and the long caravan journeys across the trackless desert from Timbuctoo or the far Soudan. A correspondent of The New York Tribune, in a letter from Mogador, quoted in Illustrated Africa, November, 1895, p. II, declares that the trade has never been so thriving and prosperous as it is at present. There is also a restricted traffic through the ports of Tripoli, although carried on under the cover of various disguises, since by treaty with England the slave-trade in that province is illegal.3 In Egypt the trade is happily under strict espionage, and at Cairo a home for freed women slaves has been established, where in 1895 seventy-one were received; but of these only three were found to have been imported recently from outside, and the remainder were domestic slaves who had been set free.4 The English Government has established stations in the Nile Valley for watching the traffic, and along the Red Sea coast north of Suakin a camel corps is constantly patrolling to detect any signs either of export or import. Unfortunately, south of Suakin the Red Sea coast is practically unguarded, and the slaver still finds in that section an outlet for his chattel. The Red Sea coast from Suakin southward to the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb, and the entire coast-line around Cape Guardafui to Zanzibar, 1 Ibid., May-June, 1894, p. 181; January-May, 1895, p. 63. 2 Ibid., July-August, 1894, p. 207. Cf. also Bonsai, "Morocco as It Is," pp. 328-334. 3 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, January-February, 1894, p. 9; January-May, 1895, p. 10. 4 Letter of Lord Cromer, quoted in The Anti-Slavery Reporter, March-April, 1896, p. 118.
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have hardly any effective restraint put upon the traffic. The report of Mr. Donald Mackenzie, already referred to as special Commissioner A recent report of the slave-traffic on the East Coast.of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, gives an elaborate account of his visit of investigation, in 1895, along the coast and to the opposite shores of Arabia. The evidence that he presents of a considerable traffic is convincing. The main recruiting-ground is Danakli and Aussa, and from the ports of Massowah, Mader, Eid, Margebelah, and Roheitah the slaves are shipped across to the Fursan Islands, which are a hotbed of slavery, and to Hodeidah and other ports. In some instances they are transported around to the eastern coast of Arabia. His report is strange reading for the nineteenth century, and gives some revolting details of cruelty and suffering.1 The report of Mr. Mackenzie concerning the slave-traffic in Zanzibar and Pemba brings a still more unwelcome surprise. The Sultanate of Zanzibar has been a protectorate of Great Britain since 1890, and according to treaties made in 1873, confirmed by a decree of the Sultan, August 12, 1890, the slave-trade is under prohibition with severe penalties. According to evidence gathered by Mr. Mackenzie during his visit in the spring of 1895, these restrictions are practically a dead letter. Out of a total population of 400,000, about 266,000 are slaves, and to maintain this status of slavery an importation from the mainland of at least 6000 annually is required, representing a yearly sacrifice of not less than 24,000 lives. He estimates further that some 11,000 are annually shipped either from the mainland or from the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba to the Arabian coast, representing a further slaughter of 40,000 lives, since every slave who leaves the coast is roughly calculated as standing for four others who have been slain in the process of his capture and transportation to the coast. Upon the basis of these facts most urgent appeals are made for the total abolition by the British Government of the status of slavery in Zanzibar. The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society is in communication with the Government on the subject. Bishop Tucker of Uganda has also written, emphasizing the imperative demand for some Government action which will forever abolish the present scandal.2 Mr. Mackenzie also passes 1 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, December, 1895, pp. 212-220. 2 "May I be allowed to express the anxiety of many out here with respect to any possible postponement of the abolition of slavery within the limits of the Zanzibar protectorates? Very clever schemes have been sketched for the gradual abolition of the hateful 'institution.' So clever, indeed, and plausible are these schemes that I am somewhat fearful lest principle should be drowned in the sea of plausibility. Stress is laid upon the expense that would be incurred in compensating the slave owners were immediate abolition proclaimed. Are we, may I ask, to weigh expense against principle? To my dull comprehension the question seems to be simply one of right or wrong. If it be wrong, then no question of £30,000 a year should be allowed for a moment to interfere with the doing of the right. Our fathers, thank God, had sufficient moral courage to insist on the abolition of slavery in the West Indies, even at the cost of millions, and England at that time in point of prosperity was immensely poorer than the England of to-day. Has England degenerated? I cannot and will not believe it." — Bishop Tucker, in a letter to The London Times, quoted in Report of the Church Missionary Society for 1896, p. 63.
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severe strictures upon the system of securing porters for trips into the interior. He regards them as in reality slaves, who are owned by masters in Zanzibar, and who hand over to their owners one half of their earnings. The mortality among these caravans of porters he estimates as high as thirty per cent., and his account of the system indicates that it should be under more effective regulations.1 A confirmation of Mr. Mackenzie's statements about exportation to Arabia is found in an extract from a letter of the Rev. P. J. Zwemer, of the Arabian Mission, dated Muscat, October 9, 1895. He says: "A large number of Negroes are still imported sub rosa from Africa. Although slave-importation as a trade is no longer carried on, yet the method of supplying the Arab with free Negro labor is very simple. Africa is the source of supply, and transportation is easily effected under the tricolor (French), which defies British inspection." Mr. Mackenzie also visited the German territory in East Africa south of Zanzibar, and reports the existence of an enormous slave-traffic from the interior of the Continent into German East Africa, but almost an entire prohibition of any export through the ports. His account of cruelties to the natives under German rule is hardly credible, yet it is fully confirmed by Miss Balfour in her recent book, "Twelve Hundred Miles in a Waggon," in an account of her visit to Dar-es-Salaam.2 1 Report of lecture by Mr. Donald Mackenzie in The Anti-Slavery Reporter, December, 1895, p. 226. In his report to the Society he sums up his conclusions as follows : "In looking at the whole question calmly, I am convinced that the legal status of slavery should be abolished at the earliest possible moment. I did think that compensation might form part of the scheme, but when we consider that all treaties and decrees have been thrown aside as waste paper, and that slavery has been going on for upwards of twenty years in violation of solemn engagements entered into with this country, I think that the question of compensation should be dismissed; in fact, I very much doubt if any slaves imported prior to 1873 are in existence. But any measure which the Government may propose for the abolition of slavery in Zan zibar and Pemba will share the same fate as former treaties and decrees, unless the carrying out of such measure is intrusted to a special staff of English officers appointed for the purpose." 2 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, December, 1895, pp. 220, 257.
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In the regions around Lake Nyassa, now a British protectorate, vigorous measures have been taken by Commissioner H. H. Johnston to Vigourous restrictions in the Nyassaland Protectorate.stamp out the slave-traffic. Military operations upon a considerable scale have been conducted, and several prominent leaders among the Arab slave-traders have been slain and their business broken up. A chain of forts has been established in the Nyassaland Protectorate under the administration of this energetic representative of the British Government, which guard the old slave-routes so effectively that the whole traffic may be said to be under surveillance and control within the limits of the protectorate.1 The Commissioner reports (Africa, No. 4, 1896, p. 25): "I have the pleasure now to inform your Lordship that, as far as I am aware, there does not exist a single independent avowedly slave-trading chief within the British Central Africa Protectorate." He also writes in a recent letter: "We have had splendid news from Lake Nyassa lately. I do not think now there is a recalcitrant slave-trading chief left unconquered. With the fall of Tambala the last slave-trading Yao chief in the protectorate has gone." 2 Interesting tidings from this section of Africa have come through the reports of Mr. E. J. Glave, who was sent out by the Century Company to obtain information on the slave-trade for publication in The Century Magazine. Mr. Glave entered Africa at the Zambesi, and journeyed to Lake Nyassa, and from thence in a northwesterly direction until he descended the Congo and reached Matadi. While waiting there for the homeward-bound steamer, he was stricken with fever and died.3 A series of illustrated articles made up of extracts from his journal are to be found in The Century Magazine, commencing with August, 1896, in which graphic pictures are given of the struggle with the exporting slave-trade in the Nyassa Protectorate. He speaks incidentally of Livingstone and his wife as the pioneers of civilization in those regions. In Central Africa for October, 1895, is printed an extract from one of his letters, describing his journey from Lake Nyassa to Lake Bangweolo, in which he speaks of the earnest request of natives whom he met, that white men might come to their country and protect them against the slave-raiders, " who are playing terrible havoc all over the land." He reports seeing "the ruins of dozens of villages which have been destroyed by these raiders, and the occupants carried into slavery." 1 "Correspondence Respecting Operations against Slave-Traders in British Central Africa" (Parliamentary documents, Africa, Nos. 2 and 4, 1896). 2 The Church of Scotland Mission Record, June, 1896, p. 198. 3 The Century Magazine, October, 1895.
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In the Island of Madagascar a decree of the Queen, in 1877, freed the African slaves in her dominion, and forbade their import or export; The status in Madagascar.yet domestic native slaves and serfs exist in abundance, and, according to a special correspondent of The London Times, writing under date of April II, 1895, slave-raids are still carried on in the interior of the island, and in another communication an account is given of the slave-market in the capital.1 The Ibara tribesmen and the Sakalava are represented as inveterate slave-dealers. The Hovas themselves stand in terror of these cruel forest tribes.2 The status, however, has been happily changed from what it was at the beginning of the present century, when Madagascar was an original source of supply for the slave-trade, and from three to four thousand Malagasy were, according to reliable data, exported annually to America or the West Indies. In 1817 this slave-trade was abolished by treaty between England and Madagascar.3 Our survey of the African Continent reveals encouraging progress in comparison with the state of things a generation ago, but it is plain that there is still much to be done before the barbarities of the slave-trade will cease. Were it not for the restraining influence of European governments, albeit as yet too imperfectly exercised, we should still have this cursed business in full blast. With the entrance of European control, the establishment of commerce, the opening of roads, and especially of railways, and the more vigorous intervention of the authorities, we may hope that the traffic in slaves will gradually disappear. In the Pacific Islands the kidnapping of natives for purposes of the The Kanaka traffic in the Pacific Islands.slave-trade has been known even under European traders, and Pacific Islanders have been transported to South America. Even as late as 1890, " the ship 'Alma' took four hundred natives of Micronesia to Guatemala, and two years afterwards only one hundred and eighty of them were living, the rest having died of fevers contracted in the malarious swamps of the plantations. In 1892 the brig 'Tahiti' took three hundred natives from the Gilbert Islands to labor on plantations in Central America, and was capsized near the coast of Mexico. Not one of its living freight was ever heard of." Even steamers have been 1 "Slavery [domestic] still exists, and, to the disgrace of the Malagasy, slaves are still bought and sold in the weekly market."—Rev. R. Baron (L. M. S.), Antananarivo. [The French Government happily abolished it September 29, 1896.] 2 The Indian Evangelical Review, October, 1895, p. 175. 3 Horne, "The Story of the London Missionary Society," p. 172.
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employed in the same service. These unfortunate islanders on arrival in Guatemala are put to work upon the plantations under conditions which virtually amount to slavery.1 Rev. John G. Paton, of the New Hebrides Mission, has investigated the Kanaka labor-traffic, which he pronounces a species of colonial slavery. He has estimated that seventy thousand Pacific Islanders have been taken from their homes by slave-hunters.2 It was in revenge for the crime of kidnapping by traders that Bishop Patteson was slain upon one of the islands of the Santa Cruz group in September, 1871. An account of the Queensland Kanaka traffic and its horrors is given by the Rev. Oscar Michelsen.3 The trade in coolies from China and India, and to a very limited extent from Japan, for the South American and West Indian plantations has The coolie-trade in China and India.been in some respects not far removed from a veritable slave-traffic. The slave-trade as it is known in Africa does not exist in China, but the coolie-traffic gained a bad prominence before it was brought within restrictions.4 The Japanese Government, to its honor, fought it fiercely and successfully.5 The coolie-traffic from India for the West Indian plantations has been, and is still, open to the same strictures. The position of the so-called coolie emigrant when he reaches his destination is little better than a slave. As late as 1893 there were one Dutch and seven English agencies engaged in the transportation of coolies. They are usually transported in sailing vessels, of which seventeen cleared from Calcutta alone in 1893, as well as three steamships. The exportation from Calcutta amounted to 10,674, making an average of 533 per vessel. "Recently about four hundred of these 'voluntary' emigrants begged the people of Calcutta to be liber- 1 Alexander, "The Islands of the Pacific," p. 37. 2 Ibid., p. 40; John G. Paton, "Autobiography," part i., p. 213. 3 Michelsen, "Cannibals Won for Christ," chap. xxi. 4 "Slavery and the slave-trade do not exist in China in the shape associated with our ideas of them. The coolie-traffic between the Southern Provinces and Peru, which caused so much feeling a few years back, approached them most nearly. That, however, was not an indigenous evil, and it has, I think, been since strictly regulated, if not largely stopped. The domestic slavery of the country is mostly confined to the use of purchased female children as servants, who often become concubines in the families of their masters, or are again sold for this purpose. The most abominable form of this curse is the purchase of women and girls for transport to distant cities for immoral uses. In the frequently recurring times of famine there are always wretches who succeed in obtaining many victims from the region affected." —Rev. Jonathan Lees (L. M. S.), Tientsin, North China. Cf. Graves, "Forty Years in China," pp. 149, 150. 5 Griffis, "The Mikado's Empire," pp. 566-568.
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ated as they had been made to leave their homes and relations by force. They attacked their escort, and about thirty escaped. The rest, however, were driven down to the landing by the police as if they were sheep." 1 In India there is no slave-trade so called, but children are often sold, especially in times of famine, and there is also a secret trade in female slaves in certain districts of the country. "Malwa has long been noted for its traffic in females." Many of the Rajput chiefs have their retinue of slaves. At the time of the distressing famine in Rajputana, in 1868-70, "children were sold by their parents for sums varying from one to five rupees." These incidents are happily rare, however, in India at the present day, and the watchfulness of the Government is most effective. In Persia there is slavery to a considerable extent, the ranks being recruited from the African coast, by way of the Persian Gulf or across Arabia overland.2 The atrocious cruelties of the African slave-trade have been vividly described by Livingstone, Stanley, Baker, Cameron, and others, and there is no need of dwelling upon the subject here.3 "Fire and Sword in the Sudan," by Slatin Pasha, previously referred to, contains recent information. 2. SLAVERY.—Slavery is linked with the slave-trade, both as cause and effect. The passing of slavery in Christendom. It is one of the ancient sorrows of the world, but we cannot deal with its history here.4 It is pleasant to observe that there are some sections of the Oriental in world where it has never existed. This is notably the case among the Japanese.f There are other regions where happily it has been abolished. With the singular exception of the Sultanate of Zanzibar, this has been true of the British Em- 1 Correspondence of Die Kölnische Zeitung, Cologne, quoted in The Literary Digest, September 8, 1894. 2 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, March-April, 1896, p. 72. 3 Blaikie, "The Personal Life of David Livingstone," pp. 390-434; Stanley, "Slavery and the Slave-Trade in Africa"; Johnston, "Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent," pp. 253-259. 4 Cf. Ingram, "History of Slavery and Serfdom"; Brace, "Gesta Christi," chaps, v., vi., xxi., xxviii.; Schmidt, "The Social Results of Early Christianity," pp. 75-100. 5 "I am not able to learn that slavery proper ever existed in Japan at any time in her history. The social condition of a class may at one time have been as bad as slavery or worse, but it could not be called slavery."—Rev. David S. Spencer (M. E. M. S.), Nagoya, Japan.
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pire since 1833, including its West Indian colonies and British Guiana. In 1848 France declared that no more slaves should be admitted into French territory. Serfdom in Russia ceased with the decree of Alexander II., in 1861, and the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln, in 1863, restored to freedom 6,000,000 bondmen in the United States. In 1889 slavery was abolished in Brazil, as it had been in most of the South American republics at the time of their establishment. It is now the universal policy of civilized nations to prohibit the status of slavery. Its continuance in many sections of the non-Christian world.It is an evil which still exists, however, in vast sections of the non-Christian world. It may be said to be universal in Africa, except where European influence has been exerted in prohibition.1 It is characteristic of all Mohammedan society, and is found in Madagascar, where fully one third of the population is in bondage. In China, Korea, Siam, Assam, in some of the Native States of India, in Afghanistan, and in Central America it is also to be found. It is hardly necessary to refer at any length to the fact of its prevalence in Africa, as every explorer, traveller, and missionary bears witness to the evil; nor does the fact that it is a feature of the social and religious system of Islam need to be dwelt upon. In Madagascar, although slavery is rather of a domestic and patriarchal kind, with less severity than usual in the treatment of slaves, yet its evils are by no means light. The slave-market is a familiar sight, and the separation of families is of common occurrence.2 As France has now assumed colonial supervision of Madagascar, the question of the application to the island of the laws of France pertaining to the abolition of slavery has engaged the attention of the French Government. M. Lebon, the French Minister for the Colonies, has declared that the law of abolition is now applicable to Madagascar, but he remarks further that "the Government reserved to itself the right of promulgating this law at the time when it deemed fitting, in order that the situation might not be complicated by a too hurried application of its provisions." The law went into effect September 29, 1896. 1 Liberia, Bulletin No. 8, pp. 14-23. 2 "Slavery is still a great evil in Madagascar. It is true that the condition of many of the slaves is not hard, the slavery being akin to that of the old patriarchal times; but still the fact remains that slaves can be bought and sold, and that husband and wife and parents and children can be separated. The conditions under which a slave can redeem himself or herself are often very hard, and at death the property of a slave can be, and often is, claimed by the master or mistress."—Rev. J. Pearse (L. M. S.), Fianarantsoa, Tamatave, Madagascar. Cf. Cousins, "The Madagascar of To-day," p. 59; The Missionary Review of the World, June, 1895, p. 433.
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In China domestic slavery, mostly of females, exists extensively throughout the empire. The girls are usually purchased from their parents Domestic slavery in China, Korea, Siam, and Assam.while still young, and the trade is especially active in times of famine drought, or pestilence, or merely as an expedient in poverty. There is much that is shocking and suggestive of grinding drudgery, attended often by ill-treatment, which comes to light now and then concerning the domestic features of Chinese slavery.1 A darker aspect of it is that servitude is often another name for immorality. In Korea, although the abolition of slavery has been declared by edict, the institution still exists, and the law is practically inoperative, but it is almost altogether confined to the nobles and to the wealthier families of the land.2 In Siam the Government is virtually in place of master over its subjects, and in its demands for service pays little deference to personal rights. In addition, a species of slavery for debt prevails extensively, which is also true in the Laos country.3 In Assam the same custom of selling children to pay debts, or in some cases as offerings to the demons, is a pitiable incident in many a family history. If some child of the family is stricken with disease, the superstitious parents, while dreading and bemoaning the supposed necessity, will sell their children one after another in the hope of providing an appeasing sacrifice for the demon and securing the release and recovery of the sick member of the family. Children thus sold are rarely redeemed, and what is practically a state of slavery is thereby created.4 1 Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 346-350; Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 51. 2 "Slavery and Feudalism in Korea," The Korean Repository, October, 1895; Griffis, "Corea," p. 238. 3 "All, except the Chinese residents, are slaves of the general Government, and hence at the call of the Government master, whose whims usually demand more than is strictly lawful. Besides this, fully half of the population are debt slaves of the other half. These are sold into slavery, a child by a parent, a wife by her husband, or it may be a voluntary sale."—Dr. James B. Thompson (P. B. F. M. N.), Petchaburee, Siam. "Slavery is another evil of our land. Very often a man becomes financially embarrassed. He will borrow money where he can, and will often give himself and family as security Usually he gives one of his children 'to sit on the interest,' as our people express it. They never hesitate to put their children out in this way. When such debts are not paid by a certain time the entire family is often taken as slaves."—Rev. D. G. Collins (P. B. F. M. N.), Chieng Mai, Laos. 4 "Masters do not sell their slaves by auction, although they exchange or transfer them to others under certain conditions. But people sell themselves and their children in order to get money to pay their debts or to sacrifice to the demons. It is a kind of pawning themselves and their children until they find money, which they hardly ever do, to buy themselves or their children back. I have seen whole families becoming, to all practical purposes, childless in this way."—Rev. Robert Evans (W. C. M. M. S.), Mawphlang, Shillong, Assam.
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In India, although the status of slavery is not recognized by the British Government, and the institution as such is prohibited, yet in the Servitude for debt in the Native States of India. The status in Afghanistan.Native States, and to some extent in British territory, is found a system of labor slavery which is substantially the same as the bondage for debt above referred to.1 It is one of the advantages of British rule that the days of the old slave-kings have forever passed. The attachment of serfs to the soil, which amounted to slavery a century ago, has been gradually mitigated and banished by British law.2 Until 1843, however, the hereditary slaves in Madras were sold with the land.3 In Afghanistan the Amir has come into notoriety of late upon charges of being a kidnapper and slave-raider among neighboring independent tribes, especially the Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush. In fact, the extinction of the latter people seems to be well under way. That slavery exists in Afghanistan is evident. A recent volume by John Alfred Gray, M. B., late Surgeon to the Amir, entitled "At the Court of the Amir," gives undoubted testimony upon this point. He reports that "the slaves of Kabul are those who have been kidnapped from Kafiristan, and who are prisoners of war taken when some tribe breaks out in rebellion against the Amir."4 Other quotations fully confirming the status of slavery might be given. Slavery for debt exists in some sec- 1 "Legally there is no slavery. Virtually all the lower castes or outcastes are the slaves of the upper castes, who gain power by lending them money, and in time rob them of all their possessions, and compel all, men, women, and children, to work for them. They are often very cruel to them, and persecute them in case they try to benefit themselves by becoming Christians."—Dr. John Scudder (Ref. C. A.), Vellore, India. "There is a system of labor slavery. A poor man is in debt to a rich man and works for him. Unfortunately, as I have found in hundreds of cases, the debt never seems to decrease. When the poor fellow tries to escape his master, that master threatens him with a civil suit, and the old order goes on. If he cannot work he binds out his son to the rich man, and the same process continues. It is not slavery in the buying and selling of the man, but it is so in the absolute control of his service at the wish of the master, and supported by the civil law, though unwittingly, as far as Government goes. There are many thousands in such labor slavery among the people I know."—Rev. L. L. Uhl, Ph.D. (Luth. G. S.), Guntur, India. 2 Hunter, "The Indian Empire," p. 84. 3 Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years of British Administration," p. 143, and Appendices, pp. Iviii., Ixviii. 4 The Anti-Slavery Reporter, January-February, 1896, pp. 15-34; The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, January, 1896, pp. 153-159.
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tions of Central America. The Rev. E. M. Haymaker (P. B. F. M. N.), of Guatemala City, writes: "Virtual slavery exists in some parts of the republic. The law compels a laborer to stay and work with his employer till his debt is discharged. The employer, however, has the means at hand by which he can, through an ever-increasing debt, keep the laborer in his power forever, the debt descending from father to son. He can abuse and beat the laborer as he pleases, for a mere 'Indian' would have no hope whatever before the judge against so powerful an opponent." The existence of slavery in the Sultanate of Zanzibar, an English protectorate since 1890, is an anomaly which is exciting vigorous The question of slavery in Zanzibar.discussion in anti-slavery circles in England, and the British Government has been repeatedly memorialized to abolish finally the status of slavery in Zanzibar and Pemba. The recent death of the Sultan and the attempt at revolution will perhaps facilitate this step on the part of the Government. The importation of slaves has been forbidden by treaty since 1872, and by a decree of the British Government all children born within the bounds of the sultanate after December, 1889, are free, so that the only really lawful slaves in the protectorate at the present time are the survivors of those imported before June, 1873, or their children born before 1890. The drift of events, however, has been to maintain slavery at about its usual standard, since a secret importation, of an average of 6000 slaves annually, has been going on in defiance of the treaty. The number actually in bondage in Zanzibar and Pemba is variously estimated from 140,000 by government officials, to 266,000 by Mr. Donald Mackenzie, the recent special Commissioner of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society to investigate slavery and the slave-trade on the East Coast of Africa. The effort to secure from the Government the total abolition of the recognized status of slavery in Zanzibar is timely, since the existence of slavery is an overwhelming temptation to the slave-trade, and adds immensely to the difficulties of preventing it. In a communication, before referred to, published in The Times (London), June 23, 1896, Bishop Tucker of East Africa urges most earnestly the immediate abolition of the status of slavery in the protectorate. His letter was accompanied by a memorial, which was forwarded to the Consul-General at Zanzibar by English missionaries of East Africa, praying that the action suggested might be speedily taken by Her Majesty's Government. Of the characteristic evils of slavery little need be said. They are 1 [Slavery in Zanzibar was abolished April 6, 1897.]
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too manifest to require discussion. Its cruel wounds, wherever it exists, are as fresh to-day as in the past, and its gross scandals are as pronounced now as at any former period. That Christian missions have had an honorable record in mitigating the miseries of slavery and dealing sturdy blows at the abominable traffic in slaves is a fact to which we shall give attention in another connection. 3. CANNIBALISM.—Cannibalism is one of the most fiendish and loathsome aspects of social barbarism. It is a fearful incentive to the crime of murder, and a stimulus to every bloodthirsty passion in the human breast. Strange to say, at a recent meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Ipswich, it found a mild apologist in Mr. H. A. Thrum, who deprecated its classification among vices, and would regard it rather as "a habit"! Its story for ages has been written in blood amid brutal scenes and inhuman orgies. Its prevalence has probably been far more extensive than the civilized world has realized. It is one of those hidden mysteries of iniquity which even heathenism instinctively conceals. Although much has come to light concerning it, its dark secrets will ever remain as part of the unwritten history of pure savagery. Is cannibalism still prevalent among savage races?The testimony as to its existence in the past among degraded races is abundant and cumulative, and need not be reviewed at any length here. Our interest in the subject centres rather in the question of its existence at the present time Are we to regard it as a relic of the past, or must we consider it as still characteristic of the savage life of the world to-day? A tendency to minimize its practice and make light of its existence has been manifest in some quarters, but the evidence that it is still practised in our day in many of the haunts of savagery is sufficient to justify its place in the list of the regnant evils of pagan society. Among the aborigines of Australia, especially the Papuans of Queensland, cannibal feasts are a common occurrence, as Lumholtz declares.1 The Maoris of New Zealand were detestable cannibals until the British Government took control of the islands, and the saving touch of Christianity transformed the whole social economy of a wildly savage race.2 In New Guinea, the Rev. James Chalmers has 1 Lumholtz, "Among Cannibals," p. 101; The Missionary Review, July, 1896, p. 492. 2 Tucker, "The English Church in Other Lands," pp. 84-95; Page, "Among the Maoris," p. 149.
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discovered abundant evidence of cannibal practice of the most filthy and barbarous description.1 He reports that it is the custom among the natives, when a man is shot down, for all to rush upon him for the purpose of biting his nose clean off and swallowing it, as the one who succeeds in accomplishing this feat "is looked upon as greater than the person who shot him." It is only a few years ago that the unfortunate ship "St. Paul," with three hundred and sixty Chinese passengers, fell into the hands of the natives. "They cooped up the victims like animals marked for slaughter, and clubbed and cooked so many every day till only four were left." 2 In the New Hebrides cannibal feasts are still of frequent occurrence, although upon several of the islands Christian missionary work has banished these scenes of cruelty. Among the "head-hunters" of Formosa a certain fastidiousness seems to control their cannibal instincts, as they usually select such delicacies as the brain and heart for their feasts.3 In many of the Pacific Islands the reign of cannibalism has been long and terrible, especially in the Fiji, Hervey, Society, and Marquesas groups.4 Among the Fijis in the early days of missionary labors scenes were witnessed which were "too horrible to be described, too full of fiendish cruelty to be imagined." The people were represented as "going beyond the ordinary limits of rapine and bloodshed, and violating the elementary instincts of mankind." While the aspect of many of these islands has been greatly changed by missionary effort and by the controlling power of civilized governments, yet there are dark corners where the old customs still linger, and from which the inhumanities of cannibalism have not wholly disappeared. In Fiji, however, cannibalism is now wholly extinct, and Christianity has fairly illumined the dismal darkness of former years. Cannibal ferocity still untamed in Africa.The African Continent has been and is still the scene of innumerable cannibal atrocities. The northern and southern sections are, however, comparatively free, as there is nothing to report north of the Soudan or south of the Congo State, although, according to Dr. Liengme, of the Romande Mission in Southeast Africa, Gasaland, in Portuguese territory, south of the Zambesi, is not free from the charge of cannibalism. We quote his words as recorded in the Bulletin Missionaire.5 The testimony of the Rev. Josiah Tyler, for many years 1 Chalmers, "Pioneering in New Guinea," pp. 59, 61, 62. 2 The Missionary Record, August, 1895, p. 230. 3 MacKay, "From Far Formosa," pp. 274, 276. 4 Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i, pp. 297-299. 5 "Lately ten thousand men and between two and three thousand women and children in strange costumes went through the royal dance in the king's presence. Nothing could be more savage. Alas! human sacrifices were not lacking. It is the custom on the last day for a young boy and girl to be killed. At night near sunset a young 'beef' is brought by the people of the king's household into a tightly closed kraal. An eager fight is begun between them and the animal, which they must, without any weapon, simply by their strength of arm, harass, throw down, disembowel, and kill, pushing it with savage cries. When they have despatched the animal, they bring, wrapped in reeds, the bodies of the two children who have been sacrificed. The flesh of the victims is mingled with that of the animal. Then all the young boys are seized and brought, willingly or by force, into the kraal. Some of them escape, unwilling to eat human flesh; others eagerly accept the invitation." —Quoted in The Missionary Herald, October, 1894, p. 431.
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a missionary in Zululand, is to the effect that no Zulu-speaking people are addicted to cannibalism, with the single exception of some tribes living on the shores of Lake Tanganyika and Lake Nyassa.1 In the central belt of the Continent, however, from the East Coast to the West, especially up and down the many tributaries of the Congo, cannibalism is still practised with every possible accompaniment of atrocious cruelty. In a paper descriptive of three years of travel in the extreme easterly regions of the Congo State, read before the Royal Geographical Society in London, on March it, 1895, by Captain S. L. Hinde, of the Belgian service, startling details are given illustrative of the ferocious spirit and horrible customs of some of the Congo tribes living between the Lualaba and Lomami rivers. In his descriptions of N'Gandu (Gandu), a fortified town on the bank of the Lomami River, he speaks of four gates to the city, the approach to which is in each case a pavement of human skulls. He counted more than two thousand skulls in the pavement of one gate alone. The stakes forming the entrenchment around the town were crowned with skulls. These skulls were largely relics of cannibal practices. He speaks of a slave-raider who had gathered together about ten thousand cannibal brigands. He recounts, among incidental illustrations of native barbarity, the death of a chief a short time previous to his visit, into whose grave one hundred men were thrown, having previously been killed. Upon these the chief's body was laid, and over it were thrown one hundred live women and the grave closed upon them. Over this mausoleum a magnificent house was built. Other details, referring more especially to cannibalism, are given.2 A French explorer named 1 Illustrated Africa, October, 1895, p. 6. 2 "Throughout this whole region of the Batetelas no gray-headed people are seen, nor any that are lame or blind. At the first sign of approaching old age the parents are eaten by their children."—Report of Captain Hinde, Geographical Journal, May, 1895.
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De Poumayrac, who ascended the Mobangi, a tributary of the Congo, in 1892, was attacked by members of a cannibal tribe and murdered with many of his party. The occasion was celebrated by a cannibal feast. The Ngombes, who occupy a long strip of land between the Lopori and Congo rivers, are all fierce cannibals, and are the terror of neighboring tribes. Mr. Vincent presents the same testimony in his chapter on the Congo Free State.1 Similar statements have been made concerning the Babus, Bangelas, Balubas, and Malelas, all tribes of the Congo. Mr. Dorsey Mohun, a United States commercial agent and an associate of Captain Hinde in his travels in Eastern Congo, who has resided two years in the Congo Free State, reports it as his judgment that there are not less than twenty million cannibals at the present time in that State. He speaks of surprising a village one day in the midst of a cannibal feast, and of witnessing the funeral of a great chief and the burial alive of fourteen persons in the grave with his dead body. The whole West Coast north of the equator, as far as the Upper Niger, if we penetrate the Continent but a short distance from the sea, The West Coast still notorious for cannibal atrocities.seems to be alive with cannibals. In November, 1895, Miss Kingsley, the niece of the late Charles Kingsley, returned to England from a visit to the West Coast in the vicinity of the Gaboon River. She explored the Ogowe for a distance of two hundred and six miles, and during her journey through the country of the Fang tribe encountered cannibalism in the shape of a determined purpose to kill and eat some of her attendants, who were members of a hostile tribe. The Fangs are one of the few tribes in Africa who eat their own. dead. She reports that she found no burial-places, but in most of the native mud huts pieces of human bodies were being kept just as civilized people keep eatables in their larders.2 Similar statements as to the cannibal habits of the Fangs are made by the Rev. W. S. Bannerman, of the Gaboon Mission of the American Presbyterians. A missionary explorer, the Rev. F. Autenrieth, of the Basel Mission, has recently made an extensive journey back of the German colony of Cameroons, into the interior range of the great Cameroons Mountains, and penetrated into regions where no white man had previously been. He reports that the country he explored is inhabited by cannibals, and that he himself, without his knowledge at the time, was condemned to be killed and eaten, but fortunately escaped the fate assigned him.3 Proceeding still farther north to 1 Vincent, "Actual Africa," p. 411. 2 The Missionary Record, January, 1896, p. 21. 3 Account in The Mail (London Times), May 8, 1896.
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the delta of the Niger and the immense region which forms its Hinterland, we find abundant evidence in the reports of Government officials, recent explorers, and resident missionaries to confirm the statement that the reign of cannibalism is almost undisturbed, except in regions under the immediate control of European administration. A report of Sir Claude Macdonald, in 1893, upon the state of affairs in the Oil Rivers Protectorate, speaks of cannibals who inhabit the banks of the Cross River. The report of Sir John Kirk on the recent disturbances at Brass, in the Niger Coast Protectorate, speaks of the murder of prisoners by the natives, and the cannibalism of the people. Their excuse for such conduct was that it was their custom under such circumstances to kill and eat their captives.1 The writings of the late Bishop Crowther contain statements to the same effect. He says: "Cannibalism prevails to a very great extent among the tribes from the delta to the regions of the Lower Niger, for instance, as among the people of Okrika, by whom one hundred and fifty prisoners taken from the opposite shore were divided among the chiefs to be killed and eaten. With the exception of eleven which fell to the lot of the church-goer chiefs, who took care of their share and spared them, the one hundred and thirty-nine remaining prisoners, which were divided among the heathen chiefs and people, were killed and eaten." A letter from the Rev. E. Deas, of the United Presbyterian Mission to Old Calabar, recounting the state of things in that region, refers to the existence of cannibal markets where slaves are sold for food. He himself had quite recently saved two sick women from being eaten by their fellow-creatures.2The Katholische Missionen of Freiburg, in a recent account of a journey made in 1895 by Father Bubendorf, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, from Onitsha (on the Niger) to a neighboring district, reports his statement that he was a horrified eye-witness of the slaughter of a group of unfortunate captives before a king's dwelling. He writes: "Every moment men, women, and even children, passed me, one with a human leg on his shoulder, others carrying the lungs or the heart of an unfortunate Kroo boy in their hands. Several times I was offered my choice of these morsels dripping with gore." 3 Several communications in the English papers in the summer of 1895 reported the atrocities committed by an African band in the region of Sierra Leone, known as the "Human Leopards." Several of them 1 Report in The Mail (London Times), March 16, 1896. Cf. The Church Missionary Intelligencer, July, 1895, p. 528. 2 Quoted in Missions of the World, July, 1894, p. 232. 3 Quoted in Illustrated Africa, November, 1895, p. 3.
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have been captured and executed. They were accustomed to clothe themselves in leopard skins, attack their victim from behind, and stab him with a three-pronged dagger. The result was a cannibal feast. A correspondent of The Saturday Review, referring to the recent trial of members of this band, calls attention to the difference in method of cannibalism on the West Coast from that which prevails on the East Coast. In West Africa the custom is to have the barbaric feast follow immediately the slaughter of the victims. On the East Coast an element of domestic economy seems to pervade cannibal customs, since the flesh of the old, the infirm, and the useless is dried and preserved, with a sort of sacramental reverence, in the family larder. It is offered to guests as a special compliment, to refuse which would be a deadly insult, while its acceptance secures friendship. The correspondent remarks: "Many of our travellers in East Africa have eaten thus sacra-mentally of the ancestors of some dark-skinned potentate." He refers to the cannibalism of the West Coast, however, as the refinement of gluttony, based upon a hideously genuine appetite for fresh human flesh. "Young boys are bought from the dark interior, kept in pens, fattened upon bananas, and finally killed and baked." 1 A singular confirmation of these statements concerning cannibalism on the West Coast comes from another part of the earth, where some Voudoux worship in West Indies a relic of West Coast cannibalism.of the West Coast superstitions have been trans-planted in connection with the slave-trade. In Hayti the so-called vaudoux worship is still found among the secret practices of the Negroes. It is marked by the adoration of the serpent, and attended with the sacrifice of children and feasting upon their flesh. An abominable trade in human flesh for cannibal feasts, and cannibalism as a revolting luxury among natives, are still dark features of inland life upon the island.2 Froude remarks in this connection: "Behind the immorality, behind the religiosity, there lies active and alive the horrible revival of West African superstition: the serpent worship, the child sacrifice, and the cannibalism."3 4. HUMAN SACRIFICES.—The grim tyranny of superstition has exacted the sacrifice of human life among many savage races. Different motives have inspired the crime, and it has been justified by its 1 The Saturday Review (London), September 14, 1895. 2 St. John, "Hayti; or, The Black Republic," pp. 187, 242. 3 Froude, "The English in the West Indies," chap. xx.
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perpetrators either as a tribute to the dignity and station of some person of distinction who has died, or as a necessary propitiation offered The prevelance of human sacrifices in the non-Christian world.to some object of worship, under the inspiration of fear, or with a desire to placate. It is also frequently resorted to as a supposed means of securing successful harvests, or victories in warfare, or hoped-for success in connection with any new undertaking.1 It is often considered an essential part of the observance of festival occasions, or an indispensable feature of the ceremonial etiquette of savagery. The ghastly realism of the scene appeals in a vivid way to the native imagination. In many sections of the earth the practice has been greatly checked within a century.2 "Previous to the year 1837," writes the Rev. T. E. Slater (L. M. S.), "about one hundred and fifty human sacrifices were annually offered in Gumsur," a city situated in East Central India. The Rev. James M. Macphail (F. C. S.) writes that "human sacrifice existed among the Santals until quite recently," There are many localities in India where the traditions of human sacrifices, in some instances as a daily event, still linger, especially among the Rajputs, the Khonds, and in the Northern Punjab.3 In many of 1 "There are two kinds of human sacrifices: first, the immolation of slaves at the funeral of their masters, to accompany the departed spirits into the unseen world and attend them there as they do here; second, the sacrifices to some fetich. Such human sacrifices are made either to avert some apprehended evil or calamity, or to insure some public benefit. The Ondos, for example, attribute the power of fructifying the soil to a fetich represented by a brazen figure, and they offer a man annually to secure (as they believe) an abundant harvest. It is on this principle that the Yorubans, in times of war, offer human sacrifices to the god of war, represented by an iron figure, to insure victory over their enemies."—The Rt. Rev. Charles Phillips, D.D. (C. M. S.), Lagos, West Africa. Cf. Macdonald, "Religion and Myth," pp. 39, 51; Arnot, "Garenganze," pp. 240, 255 ; "Africa and the American Negro," p. 34. 2 "When a Chinese army first marches against an enemy it is customary to offer a human victim, usually a criminal, to the spirit of the banner. In 1854, when a rebel stronghold was taken by Sengkolinsin, a Mongol prince, the prisoners were offered in sacrifice to the manes of his fallen soldiers, their hearts being eaten by the victors to increase their courage. The horrid orgy is minutely described by a native historian without any note of reprobation. "Human blood is held to be the best cement for the foundations of high structures. There are numerous bridges whose stability is said to have been thus secured; and so obstinate is the old superstition that, when an English cathedral was erected in Shanghai, it was rumored among the natives that twenty children had been buried under its walls. Anciently it was customary every year to sacrifice a beautiful maiden to the god of the Yellow River."—Martin, "A Cycle of Cathay," p. 121. 3 "In olden times they [the Khonds] worshipped their deities with cruel rites, and offered children in sacrifice to them. The discovery of this practice led to the Gumsur war, which lasted nearly eight years, so stubborn was the resistance of the people. English rule has put down this horrid rite. More than two thousand victims were rescued from sacrifice, and handed over to the care of Indian missionaries. But the people are still enchained by the old superstition. One evening last year, during a drought, Mr. Wilkinson was preaching in the village of Raipoli, and the head man came to ask if he would intercede for them with the Government, and obtain permission for them to offer a living child in sacrifice as their fathers did, to take away disease from their homes and bring rain upon their fields. Mr. Wilkinson told them of Christ, the one sacrifice for all men and all time, but they said this was hard to understand. Their fathers sacrificed every year and in every valley."—The Illustrated Missionary News, May, 1893, p. 72.
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the Indian temples the very odor of human sacrifice seems to be still present. The whole subject has been carefully investigated by Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, a distinguished modern scholar of India, who published the result of his researches in The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. In reply to the contention that human sacrifices are not authorized in the Vedas, but were introduced in later times, Dr. Mitra remarks: "As a Hindu writing on the actions of my forefathers —remote as they are—it would have been a source of great satisfaction to me if I could adopt this conclusion as true, but I regret that I cannot do so consistently with my allegiance to the cause of history." He brings forward abundant evidence from Indian sources to show that "for a long time the rite was common all over Hindustan, and persons are not wanting who suspect that there are still nooks and corners in India where human victims are occasionally slaughtered for the gratification of the Devi." 1 In a learned article on "The Brahmanas of the Vedas," by K. S. Macdonald, D.D., published in The Indian Evangelical Review, the references to human sacrifices in the Vedas are given in exhaustive detail. In the case of one hundred and seventy-nine different gods the particular kind of human being who should be sacrificed is named in each instance.2 In Assam not long since children were offered as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. Among the Shans a belief in the efficacy of human sacrifice to procure a good harvest still exists. It is supposed by them that certain nats (spirits) are appeased only by human sacrifice. "The guardian spirit of one of the Salween ferries claims a victim every year, preferably a Chinaman. The nat saves trouble by capsizing a boat and securing his victim. The ferry is then safe for the rest of the year."3 Mr. J. George Scott, in an article on "The Wild Wa: A Head-Hunting Race," 1 Cf. "Swami Vivekananda on Hinduism : An Examination of his Address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions," pp. 58, 59. 2 The Indian Evangelical Review, July, 1895, pp. 102-105. 3 The Indian Magazine and Review, March, 1896, p. 153.
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Presents many illustrations of the abominable atrocities long prevalent among the tribes in the border-lands between the Shan tribes and Yunnan.1 Among some of the The evidence of its existence in Australiasia and the South Seas.aborigines of Australia the custom is said still to prevail that, in the case of the death of any member of a given tribe his fellow-tribesmen are thereby placed under obligations to kill some one else in the next tribe, to equalize matters.2 Among the Dyaks of Borneo and the mountain tribes of Formosa human sacrifices have been common, and are even at the present time resorted to in connection with public events, such as the proclamation of war. In the history of the Pacific Islands there are many traces of the bloody rites of human sacrifices. They were known among the Maoris, and in the New Hebrides, and almost universally throughout Polynesia. In the early chronicles of South Sea missions are repeated references to the custom.3 Worship was frequently attended with the sacrifice of life. It is recorded of King Pomare of the Society Islands that "during his reign of thirty years he had sacrificed two thousand human victims as offerings to his idols." 4 Upon almost every public occasion a human sacrifice was required. If war was to be declared or some chief died or was threatened with serious illness; if some public building was to be dedicated or even a new house built for a chief; if a new idol was to be set up or a new canoe launched, the blood of some human victim, or in some instances of many such, must be offered in honor of the occasion. The horrible reputation of the inhabitants of the Fiji Islands for every species of brutality and cruelty makes it easy to believe that their record for human sacrifices is one of exceptional atrocity.5 Among the aborigines of the West Indies and the pagan Indians of Guiana6 there is clear evidence of this odious crime. And even at the present time, according to the statement of Dr. Sheldon Jackson, the people of Alaska, during an epidemic of the grippe, "felt that a more malignant spirit than common had got hold of them, and they must needs make greater sacrifices; so men, women, and 1 The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, January, 1896, pp. 138-152. 2 The Bishop of Perth, in The Mission Field (S. P. G.), June, 1896, p. 208. 3 Cousins, "The Story of the South Seas," p. 20. Cf. "Journal of John Hunt, Missionary to Fiji," published in successive numbers of Work and Workers, 1896, and Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i., pp. 447-449. 4 Alexander, "The Islands of the Pacific," p. 87. 5 Ibid., p. 397. Cf. Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i., p. 297. 6 "The Apostle of the Indians of Guiana: A Memoir of W. H. Brett, B.D.," by the Rev. F. P. L. Josa, pp. 35-37.
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children were caught by the medicine-men and sacrificed—buried alive to appease the spirit of the grippe."1 The darkest record of all, however, is reserved for Africa, where rivers of blood have been poured out in human sacrifice. The almost The horrors of human sacrifice in Africa.universal practice in connection with the death of African chieftains is a bloody holocaust at the burial. Cameron, in an account of his journey across the Continent in 1874, speaks of "the atrocious sanguinary rites which attend the death of African despots." The resting-place of a chieftain's body is often a bed of living women, and his grave deeply saturated with the blood of victims slain in his honor. Ashanti, Dahomey, and the whole Niger delta with its tributaries have witnessed many a scene of sacrificial horror. The reports of English correspondents who accompanied the recent Ashanti expedition of the British Government, speak of hideous masses of bones and skulls of the victims of human sacrifice. An editorial in the London Times, November 13, 1895, referring to the fact that the ruler of Ashanti had expressly agreed by treaty to renounce human sacrifices and slave-raids, states that "it is notorious that these savage processes still continue." In a chapter on the "City of Blood," in the life of Thomas Birch Freeman, an account is given, based upon the testimony of missionaries who were present at the time, of the funeral ceremonies attending the death of a king, at which forty victims were immolated within two days, and the streets strewn with headless bodies.2 The ground around fetich trees was wet with the blood of victims, while from their branches were suspended portions of human bodies. In the early history of the United Presbyterian Mission in Old Calabar are accounts of the same shocking scenes. On the death of Eyamba, a native king, a massacre of his wives and slaves, and even of many other women, took place; of his hundred wives, thirty were slaughtered.3 Even late reports from these dark regions bear the same story of unabated bloodshed. The Ijebus have recently sacrificed two hundred and fifty victims to their gods, in order to prevent the white man from taking their country.4 The king of Eboe, at his death in 1893, was accompanied by forty sacrificial victims.5 The late Rev. J. Vernall wrote 1 The Gospel in all Lands, July, 1894, p. 296. 2 Milum, "Thomas Birch Freeman, Missionary Pioneer to Ashanti, Dahomey, and Egba," p. 62. Cf. Work and Workers in the Mission Field, January, 1896, p. 17; February, 1896, p. 8ij and April, 1896, p. 158. 3 Dickie, "Story of the Mission in Old Calabar," p. 29. 4 Church Missionary Intelligencer, February, 1893, p. 120. 5 Medical Missionarv Record, February, 1894, p. 40.
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from the Yoruba Mission to the Church Missionary Society that human sacrifices were offered in honor of the dead body of the head chief, Sasere, in 1893.1 The late Bishop Crowther, a native African in connection with the Church Missionary Society, often testified to the existence of these cruel practices in the valley of the Niger. The Congo contributes its full quota of gruesome evidence. United States Commercial Agent Dorsey Mohun, in his recent Report to Congress, states that he was an eye-witness to the tragic death of fourteen persons who were buried alive in honor of a great chief who had died.2 Dr. W. H. Leslie, a missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, located upon the Congo, states that a native chief presented himself for professional treatment whose hand was so shockingly diseased that at first he thought it would have to be amputated, but by powerful remedies he succeeded in saving all but a small portion of it. The chief remarked to the doctor that "thirty of his subjects had been put to death at different times because he thought they were eating it."3 "At Lukenga's royal city," writes Dr. Snyder, of the Southern Presbyterian Church Mission on the Congo," there is being enacted a horrible tragedy. The brother of the king is lying dead wrapped in cloth, under a shed, and, what is more, he has lain there for two months. And why? Because they have not caught and killed enough people to satisfy the demands of their diabolical superstition. They have killed one hundred, and are now trying to catch one hundred more."4 In Uganda, according to the statement of Mr. Ashe, King Mtesa confessed that "before the coming of white men to his country he had practised the horrid rites of the kiwendo, when thousands of victims were ruthlessly slaughtered in the performance of the sanguinary rites of Uganda. It was said that when Mtesa rebuilt his father Suna's tomb, the throats of two thousand unhappy human victims were cut at the dead king's grave."5 In Abyssinia, according to Macdonald, "human sacrifices to their divinities are common among the people of Senjero."6 In Southern Africa the Kaffirs (those tribes south of the Zambesi) and the Zulus, even in recent times, have been guilty of the same unspeakable atrocities, as Dr. Tyler and Dr. Emil Holub testify.7 1 "Report of the Church Missionary Society," 1893-94, p. 26. 2 Quoted in Illustrated Africa, February, 1895, p. 2. 3 The Baptist Missionary Magazine, May, 1894, p. 147. 4 The Missionary, November, 1894, p. 485. Cf. Regions Beyond, May, 1895, p. 220. 5 Ashe, "Chronicles of Uganda," p. 63. 6 Macdonald, "Religion and Myth," p. 39. 7 Illustrated Africa, December, 1895, p. 7; March, 1896, p. 4; and The African News, September, 1893, p. 28.
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The world's barbarism is by no means ended. In some of its fairest regions the passions of demons seem to rage in the human breast. 5. CRUEL ORDEALS. —In most instances the ordeals
Trial by ordeal--its serverity and curelty.which involve physical torment or exposure to death are resorted to with a view of testing and so discovering the innocence or guilt of some suspected person. These ghastly trials have been widely known in the world in various forms. The ordeal has been sometimes by fire or, again, by water or by the use of poisons or through personal encounter. Torture has also been employed to ascertain if the consciousness of guilt will bear the test. The peculiar horror which attaches to this custom is the probability in numberless instances of putting an absolutely innocent person to death, and in any case, of subjecting the victim to excruciating torture.1 Among the Ainu of Northern Japan various barbarous expedients have prevailed to secure confession where a crime was suspected. One was the hot-water ordeal, which was practised in two ways. According to one method, the victim was placed in an immense caldron of cold water, under which a blazing fire was kindled, and was kept there until the suffering was so intense that a confession was extorted. This severe test, however, was not common unless the evidence of guilt was strong. Still another method was compelling the accused person to thrust an arm into a pan of boiling water. If the test was refused it was regarded as indicative of guilt; or if accepted and the result was a severe scalding, this also was supposed to be evidence against the accused person. Only in case the flesh was uninjured was the innocence fully demonstrated. Other expedients were by grasping hot iron, or a hot stone held in the palm of the hand. Still another, which was especially a favorite in the case of testing the guilt or innocence of women, was to make them smoke an unusual quantity of tobacco and then drink the ashes of the weed. If made ill they were guilty; if not, their innocence was established. A more innocent trial was effected by causing a person to drink a cup of water and then throw the empty cup behind him over his head. If the cup fell the right way upward innocence was demonstrated ; if otherwise, guilt was regarded as manifest. Another singular trial consisted of seating the person before a 1 In the semi-pagan "trial by ordeal" among our Saxon forefathers this was actually the case when compurgators did not appear to vouch for the innocence of the accused.
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large tub of water with his mouth placed to it in such a way that he must drink continuously until it was all gone. This process perhaps does not seem very terrifying, but in reality it involved intense pain. If the water was all drank the person was innocent, but if he gave up the attempt it was an indication of guilt. The stake ordeal, hanging by the hair, and beating were also resorted to.1 In China confession is often extorted by processes of ingenious and frightful torture. The diabolical versatility of the Chinese in this respect is notorious.2 In India festivals are sometimes the scenes of ordeals by passing through fire to exhibit fortitude and devotion in evidence of the religious Ordeals in India, Siam, and Madagascar.sincerity of devotees. Among some of the native tribes, as, for example, the Mairs and Kois, it was customary to challenge one accused to prove his innocence by thrusting his hand into boiling oil or by grasping red-hot shot. In case any one among the Kois died a natural death it was considered to be the result of the machinations of some enemy, and when the most likely person was settled upon, the corpse of the deceased was brought into his presence, and he was called upon to demonstrate his innocence by undergoing the ordeal of thrusting his hand into boiling oil or water.3 In Siam and neighboring countries the trial by ordeal has long been known. The tests were similar to those already mentioned, though several of them were of exceptional cruelty. The interest in the subject at present is happily only historical, as the tests are not now practised.4 In Madagascar the ordeal by poison, or the use of tangéena, was formerly shamefully frequent. One out of every ten of the people, it has been computed, has been subjected to it, and half of the victims have died. According to the Rev. W. Ellis, "three thousand people perished every year a sacrifice to this superstition, for the belief, of course, was that while innocent people survived the ordeal, it invariably proved fatal to the guilty." 5 Africa has the melancholy distinction of continuing these practices, although in sections of the Continent under the control of European 1 Batchelor, "The Ainu of Japan," pp. 135-138. 2 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," chap, xv., on "Chinese Horrors." 3 " Pictorial Tour Round India," p. 47. Cf. "The History of Christianity in India," p. 87. 4 "Trial by Ordeal in Siam," by Captain G. E. Gerini, The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, April and July, 1895. 5 Home, "The Story of the London Missionary Society," p. 175. Cf. Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i., p. 467.
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administration such cases are now usually the subject of judicial investigation.1 In former times in Old Calabar Their prevalance in Africa.the death of a chief was supposed to be because he was bewitched by some one. The suspected persons would be at one subject to the ordeal of drinking the powdered esere-bean, on the supposition that if guilty they would retain it and die; if innocent, they would be relieved of it and survive. The result was usually the death of the victims.2 Other grim variations in different sections of the Continent are mwavè-drinking in Nyassaland, reported as late as 1893, by Livingstonia missionaries of the Free Church of Scotland and mentioned also in a private letter from Dr. Laws, dated May 3, 1895,3 and the test of thrusting the hand into boiling water. In the latter case if the skin comes off the guilt is demonstrated, and the victim is then cut to pieces and burned. These superstitious customs have become to such an extent a part of the social code of savagery that nothing short of legal restriction backed by force can uproot them, except the enlightened teachings of Christianity.4 In the islands of the Pacific these strange and fiery ordeals 1 The Missionary Record, December, 1893, p. 354. 2 Dickie, "The Story of the Mission in Old Calabar," p. 44. 3 "The final arbiter of veracity was the ordeal by boiling water, in some cases, but most commonly by the mwavè poison (the bark of the Erythrophlceum Guineense). In one tribe several hundreds of persons have been compelled to take this poison at one time, and from such a wholesale administration from thirty to forty deaths have been known to take place. Following the use of the mwavè came quarrels over property, because if the victim died, his wife, or wives, and children became the slaves of the accuser, and his property also passed to him. On the other hand, if the accused vomited and recovered he could claim reparation from his accuser. The power to put these sequelae of the ordeal into effect depended very much on the influence and fighting power of the relatives, and of course bloodshed often was the result. You can also readily imagine what an instrument of oppression the ordeal could be made by a chief or powerful neighbor who had a grudge against any one, or wished to get possession of his goods."—Rev. Robert Laws, M.D., D.D. (F. C. S.), Kondowi, Livingstonia, British Central Africa. Cf. Free Church of Scotland Monthly, September, 1893, p, 202; The African News, January, 1894, p. 12. 4 "Witchcraft and poison-drinking are a recognized part of the social fabric of the Central African tribes. The main part of their legal customs is founded on these two things, and a natural consequence is the degradation of the administration of justice into a matter of chance, or the decision of the witch doctor and the strength of the poison he mixes. It is obvious that Christianity can make no truce with this sort of thing, and is in duty bound not merely to refuse to recognize it, but to do everything in its power to stop it, and to teach the natives by precept and example the Christian law of justice."—Rev. J. S. Wimbush (U. M. C, A.), Likoma, Nyassaland. British. Central Africa.
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have always been prevalent, but great changes have taken place in native customs on many of the islands since the entrance of Christian missions.1 6. CRUEL PUNISHMENTS AND TORTURE.—The just and proper method of inflicting punishment upon the guilty is a subject of great sociological interest, and has engaged the earnest thought and taxed the practical wisdom of distinguished modern reformers. Notable changes have been introduced in present-day penology, and it is one of the humane triumphs of Christian civilization that the old barbarities in the treatment of criminals have almost wholly disappeared within the bounds of Christendom. A succinct sketch of the cruel aspects of early judicial procedure, and of the processes of intimidation and torture which were not unknown even in the most cultured nations of the world until within a recent period, is given by Dr. Frederick Howard Wines in his interesting volume on the punishment of criminals.2 One is impressed, in reading that harrowing record, with the immense progress which is manifest in the humane transformations which distinguish the present system from the old. He is also, alas! reminded that there has been little improvement among the uncivilized peoples of the earth in respect to these penal cruelties, since the same horrid methods of inflicting punishment and torturing criminals are still practised in many barbarous communities. A punishment may be pronounced cruel when it is unjustly severe, or inflicts excessive suffering, or is administered with barbarous torture, without legal sanction or restraint, as the whim or passion of the one in authority may dictate. That all this is true of much of the punishment which is practised in the non-Christian world is a fact beyond question. Methods of punishment in Western Asia.To begin with Western Asia, it is a notorious fact that Turkey— the land which is even now the scene of such unparalleled atrocities— is full of dismal cruelties to those who fall under the ban of the law. This state of things pertains in a measure to all prisoners, but chiefly to non-Moslems who, perhaps most unjustly, fall under penal condemnation. Turkish prisons are horrible beyond description, and the treatment of prisoners is most inhuman. Shocking torture is not unfrequently inflicted to extract information or to serve some secret 1 Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i., pp. 292, 451. Cf. article by Andrew Lang in The Contemporary Review, August, 1896. 2 Wines, "Punishment and Reformation," chaps, iv., v.
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purpose of the authorities. The accounts of the recent massacres in Armenia, which have been spread before the world by reliable correspondents and by official reports, reveal what Turks and Kurds are capable of in the line of diabolical cruelty.1 An incident reported by Mr. Donald Mackenzie, special Commissioner of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which fell under his own observation at Hodeidah, illustrates the awful possibilities of cruelty in a land of irresponsible power like Arabia.2 In Persia methods of punishment involving excruciating torture are resorted to, as illustrated articles in The New York Tribune of May 10, 1896, and The Graphic (London) of August 15, 1896, recount in detail. The latter article, reproduced in The New York Tribune of August 30th, gives an account by an eye-witness who succeeded in obtaining a photograph of the scene, describing the burial alive of five prisoners in a preparation of plaster of Paris, so placed as to enclose the body up to the chin—a method of execution which is attended with intense suffering, as the plaster soon swells, hardens, and stops the circulation. In this instance the victims were selected from the prisoners in the jail at Shiraz, and were put to death not because of their personal guilt, but as an example to strike terror into the hearts of the population and put a stop to pillage and robbery in the province, the actual perpetrators of which the authorities were not able to secure. The bastinado, and mutilation of the person, with other ingenious devices for inflicting suffering, are characteristic features of penal administration throughout Persia.3 It is reported of the late Shah that his method of punishing some obstinate subjects of his realm who tampered with the telegraph-wires when they were first introduced into Persia, was 1 Consult Blue Book of the British Government, Turkey, No. 3, 1896, on the
condition of the Asiatic provinces of Turkey previous to the massacres; and Bliss, "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities," on the massacres themselves. 2 "While at Hodeidah I saw a most revolting sight: just outside the principal
gate of the town, in a Mohammedan burial-place, I found a poor old man chained, perfectly naked, exposed to the burning sun by day and dew by night, with no shed or covering of any kind; the poor fellow was quite insane. I found, from inquiries, that this wretched man had been chained at this place for seventeen years; that he
had been a powerful sheikh, but a more powerful one had ruined him and chained him in the burial-ground near the highroad for caravans, and opposite his rival's house, so that every one could see the latter's power in the country. The inhuman wretch who did this farms the Customs of Hodeidah from the Turkish Government.
I asked our Vice-Consul how it was that such a disgraceful thing was permitted; he replied that he had made representations to his chief at Jeddah, but could not obtain any satisfactory answer."—The Anti-Slavery Reporter, December, 1895, pp. 217, 218. 3 Wilson, "Persian Life and Customs," pp. 116, 119, 184, 185.
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to bury the offenders alive, one at the base of each telegraph-pole, as a hint that he would allow no trifling with his administration and no opposition to his will.1 In Central Asia the prisons are described as inexpressibly foul, and imprisonment is apt to be attended with dismal tortures.2 In Afghanistan there are characteristic cruelties of penal discipline, to which reference has been made by a recent correspondent of the London Times.3 In India the police administration has always been characterized by cruelties which even British administration has not been able wholly to stamp out. In a report of the commissioners for the investigation of alleged cases of torture in the Madras Presidency in 1855, the subject is dealt with in considerable detail, and aggravated instances of cruelty on the part of the police are brought to light.4 The punishment even of school-children used to be a species of torture.5 Many of the penalties recommended in the Code of Manu are abominable in character, especially those connected with violations of the proprieties of caste. Under British administration a changed state of things exists, although the shooting of sepoys bound at the cannon's mouth by British soldiers at the time of the mutiny was surely a strange lesson for a Christian government to give to the people of India. The subject of punishments in China leads us into a veritable Chamber of Horrors, to which Mr. Norman, in his "Peoples and Politics of the The Chinese Chamber of Horrors.Far East," has devoted an entire chapter, which, with its illustrations, presents a vivid picture of these frightful scenes (chap. xv.). In the Chinese Empire these things are not done in a corner, but are a recognized feature of judicial procedure. The ingenuity and variety of Chinese tortures have been fully described by standard writers upon the social customs of that strange empire.6 The infliction of torture is not confined to the prisoner who is on trial, but the unfortunate witnesses are also likely to receive the unwelcome attentions of the inquisitors. There is nothing that the Chinese dread more than the law itself and its administrators. Even a charge of wrong-doing, however unsubstantiated, is usually a signal for a series 1 The Outlook, May 9, 1896. 2. Lansdell, "Chinese Central Asia," vol. i., pp. 55-57, 352; vol. ii., p. 198. 3. Consult The Mail (London Times), January 22, 1896. 4. Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years," Appendices, p. Ixxii. 5. Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 435, 436. 6. Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 71-78. Cf. Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., pp. 507-515; Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 472.
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of painful ordeals.1 The abominable extremities of the Chinese system do not stop with actual guilt, but the relatives of one who is under suspicion, especially if his crime is proved, are often regarded as equally amenable to the law.2 Chinese executions are usually by beheading in public, the execution ground being open to all. The stroke of an executioner's sword is a comparatively merciful proceeding; the prisoner may be thankful if he escapes the process of lingchi, which is being cut to pieces while still alive. The prisons of China are described as "loathsome, horrible dungeons, the scenes of cruelty and barbarism too fearful for description."3 In his chapter on "The Absence of Sympathy," Rev. Arthur Smith refers to the "deliberate routine cruelty with which all Chinese prisoners are treated who cannot pay for their 1 "Cruelty in various forms is shamefully tolerated. For example, their legal punishments include breaking the ankles with mallets, death by starvation, the condemned being exposed for days in a wooden cage, and that in an extremely painful position, and death by slicing the body of the criminal with a sword, but delaying the fatal thrust. Their prisons are frightful dens. So, generally, indulgence in ungoverned rage leads to all manner of cruel acts, from the sickening beating of a fallen animal to the choking almost to death of an offending child."--Rev. W. P. Chalfant (P. B. F. M. N.), Ichowfu, Shantung, China. "The Chinese are a cruel people. Their punishments are very cruel. Men are imprisoned, beaten, and tortured for slight offenses or on mere suspicion, and often before any hearing of their cases. Thousands die in China every year from torture, beatings, exposure in filthy prisons with insufficient food and clothes—'done to death,' accidentally or purposely. Undoubtedly a good percentage of these are innocent of the crimes laid to their charge. Beheading is the mildest form of capital punishment. Flaying alive and cutting in pieces are legal punishments for great crimes."—Mrs. C. W. Mateer (P. B. F. M. N.), Tungchow, China. 2 "It is painful to watch the course of the law in China. Its rigor frequently defeats its being carried out, and the guilty parties too often escape because the innocent will have to suffer with them. It is supposed that China desires to take her place beside the civilized nations of the world, but, alas! her methods of executing the law in the treatment of criminals keep her among the barbarous people of the earth, a place, by the way, that she richly deserves until ready to mend her ways. How often do we hear of the provincial judge returning criminals to the magistrate for reëxamination because the criminal could not endure his brutal treatment, and had confessed to anything to stop the excruciating torture--that gentle, persuasive way of making a man kneel on chains until he can endure the agony no longer, and faints, only to be brought to by a lighted taper stuck up his nose--crushing life out and burning it in! This is civilization with a vengeance, and yet we hear it boasted that China is civilized, has a literature dating away back to the hoary past, etc. China must revise her practices, for other nations have long since stamped such as barbarous, and given them up. Again, the truth is no better arrived at, but rather thwarted, by the barbarity shown." --Edgar Woods, M.D. (P. B. F. M. S.), Tsing-kiang-pu, China, The Missionary, July, 1896, p. 303. 3 Holcombe, "The Real Chinaman," p. 205.
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exemption."1 In the Island of Formosa substantially the same system has prevailed.2 In Korea "the vocabulary of torture is sufficiently copious to stamp Chō-sen as still a semi-civilized nation." The inventory of its implements as found in a court of justice or prison is ghastly in its suggestiveness.3 Public executions have always been conducted in brutal fashion, and are often attended with excruciating tortures of the prisoners.4 According to the old law of the realm, every member of a man's family was equally implicated in his offense. We read of the use of the rack even at the present time.5 Before we leave the Continent of Asia it should be noted that the Japanese, in comparison with all other Asiatic nations, stand in a favorable light so far as the general charge of cruelty is concerned. If we turn to the Continent of Africa we enter the shadows of pure savagery, and a record of barbarities meets us which is appalling to The cruelties of punishment in Africa.contemplate. The simple infliction of a death-penalty becomes a comparatively merciful punishment. It is well if an unfortunate prisoner escapes a fate which is full of lingering agony and painful mutilation. In the "Life of Livingstone" instances are given of the severing of members of a living prisoner for even trifling offenses. The use of the knife upon the living victim was often a barbarous preliminary to his final execution. Capital punishment was resorted to as a penalty for insignificant offenses. Even speaking unadvisedly was a crime for which the lips were roughly sand-papered in a way to produce a painful excoriation. The sufferings of the poor slaves throughout Africa make one of the most horrible chapters in human history. Of the Awemba it is reported that they have a "kind of feudal system and discipline which is very strict, the slightest disobedience being punished with loss of fingers or hands, eyes put out, ears and nose cut off. Often through mere caprice these dreadful sufferings are inflicted, while occasionally the chief kills a number of his people simply to let them know he is chief and to keep them in constant fear of him."6 The cruelties of Lobengula have filled a large place in recent South African history. Severing the nose and the ears of a victim seemed to be commonplace incidents in his administration. Among the Zulus, as the banana was 1 "Chinese Characteristics," p. 214. 2 MacKay, "From Far Formosa," pp. 107, 276. 3 Griffis, "Corea," p. 234. 4 Savage-Landor, "Corea," pp. 248-254. Cf. Norman, "Peoples and Politics
of the Far East," p. 348.
5 The Korean Repository, January, 1896, p. 34. 6 The Free Church of Scotland Monthly, August, 1895, p. 183.
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set apart for royal use, if it was eaten by an ordinary person the death-penalty was promptly inflicted, and the same punishment was administered for theft. Thieves had their throats cut or their eyes extracted or their hands and feet cut off. In the capital of Ashanti the mere will of the king inflicted death for the least transgression of the most whimsical laws.1 Before the English missionaries entered Uganda, in the days of King Mtesa, executions took place by the hundreds by any method which seemed to suit the fancy of the king. Among the barbarous West Coast tribes the punishment of wives by their husbands is often cruelly painful. Among the Pondos there is a punishment which one can hardly read of without shuddering. The victim is bound or stretched upon an ant-hill from which thousands of virulent ants emerge and proceed to devour him, penetrating nostrils, eyes, ears, and mouth.2 But we must end this dismal recital. Enough has been said to show that a reign of cruelty still lingers in the earth, and that there is a pressing call for some transforming lessons from the Gospel of divine mercy. 7. BRUTALITY IN WAR.—The awful realities of war are in many instances attended by unspeakable cruelties and wild outbursts of brutal passions. Civilization has, however, so far asserted itself as to insist upon every possible expedient for alleviating the miseries of the wounded and restraining the brutalities incident to the conflict. The code governing the conduct of war is now recognized among all civilized nations, and its humane provisions are of great value in mitigating the horrors of the field, diminishing suffering, securing a proper respect for prisoners and a sufficient recognition of their necessities. With all that has been done, however, to lessen its brutalities, war, even in modern times and among civilized nations, is often attended with experiences which are appalling to the imagination. Even contemporary warfare is not always free from the charge of unnecessary barbarity; and when we consider the facilities for maiming the person and destroying life which are now in use, the question arises whether war under modern conditions has, after all, to any great extent lost its ancient terrors.3 The recent Oriental war between Japan and China, while it revealed, 1. Work and Workers in the Mission Field, January, 1896, p. 18. 2. Ibid., September, 1894, p. 368. 3 Cf. a graphic article by Mr. H. W. Wilson, on "The Human Animal in, Battle," in The Fortnightly Review, August, 1896. See also the article "Blood-thirst," in the London Spectator, September 19, 1896.
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no doubt, a strenuous and to a marked degree successful effort on the part of the Japanese to banish the old traditional savagery of the The barbarities of Oriental warfare.Orient, was yet not without its dismal scenes of brutality on the part of both combatants. With the Japanese such scenes as were enacted at Port Arthur were, however, exceptional, and no doubt were stimulated by awful provocation. The improvement in present Japanese methods over those which prevailed even a generation or so ago reveals a remarkable readiness to adopt the modern code of warfare. An incident from the letter of a resident missionary will sufficiently illustrate this statement.1 The Chinese, on the other hand, exhibited all the old ferocity of their race. Not only were Japanese prisoners and wounded combatants who fell into their hands made the victims of savage torture and mutilation, but even their own wounded were neglected with shocking inhumanity. The spirit of Chinese warfare was represented by the remark of a high official to some Red Cross agents when he said, "We have no use for wounded soldiers."2 Statements still further illustrating the cold-blooded horrors 1 " Some years ago, in the course of an itinerating tour in company with a native
evangelist, I had occasion to pass through a district where some of the battles at the time of the Restoration were fought. My companion was one of the old-time military class, an intelligent, educated man, who, when he became a Christian, made thorough work of it and gave himself wholly to Christ. In the war of the Restoration he had been a petty officer on the side of the emperor. As we proceeded on our tour, we halted at an inn one day at noon in the immediate neighborhood of one of the old battle-fields, and, as we ate our noon meal, my companion told me about the battle that had taken place there, and in which he had himself participated. He said: 'Our side won the battle, and after it was over, as we held the field, we proceeded to show our hatred of the enemy by despatching the wounded and mutilating the bodies of the dead. We took out their entrails and decorated the trees with them; their spleens we roasted and ate.' I was shocked at the barbarity of such conduct, and amazed that my companion, now such an earnest Christian, should have had a part in anything so inhuman. But he assured me that it was nothing uncommon, that such things were done on both sides, and little or nothing thought of them. This is what Japanese soldiers did to enemies who were their own countrymen, only a little more than a quarter of a century ago. What a contrast as compared with the treatment accorded to Chinese prisoners in the present war!"—Rev. Thomas T. Alexander (P. B. F. M. N.), Tokyo, Japan. 2 "It has always been the custom for troops on the march to plunder their own
people, and when prisoners were taken to torture them. At the taking of Port Arthur the Japanese were angered to find their countrymen had been tortured, mutilated, burned alive, etc., and in consequence they gave no quarter. China will learn much from this war, and humanity to captives ought to be one of the lessons. 'We have no use for wounded soldiers,' was the answer of Sheng Tao-tai, Li Hung Chang's nephew and lieutenant, when a party of Red Cross missionaries requested of him permission to go to the front to care for the wounded Chinese soldiers."—Rev. Joseph S. Adams (A. B. M. U.), Hankow, Hupeh, China. "When Japanese prisoners fell into the hands of the Chinese, they cut off the heads and gouged out the eyes, and left the mutilated corpses lying in the road," —Rev. Isaac T, Headland (M. E. M. S.), Peking, China.
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of Chinese warfare are given by Mr. Henry Norman in his " Peoples and Politics of the Far East." He remarks: "It must never be forgotten that acts of appalling and almost incredible barbarity are the common accompaniment of all Chinese warfare. If it were not that the details are indescribable, I could give a blood-curdling list of horrors that have been described to me " (p. 86). In the same volume a correspondent of The Times is quoted as follows: " The Chinese take no prisoners. From dead, wounded, and vanquished alike they shear off the heads, mutilate them in various ways, and string them together by a rope passed through the mouth and gullet. The Japanese troops have seen these ghastly remnants of their comrades. A barrelful of them was found after the fight at Ping-Yang, and among the horrible trophies was the head of a young officer who had fallen wounded in a fort evacuated by General Oshima's men." Throughout Central Asia, Persia, and Turkey we find a state of things which is in horrible rivalry with the worst that China can reveal. The The annals of cruelty not yet closed.most atrocious chapter of modern history is the recent story of Kurdish and Turkish brutality in Asia Minor. It cannot be called warfare; it is rather the brutal spirit of fiends gratifying a diabolical passion for bloodshed and cruelty.1 The past history of India, extending down even to the advent of British rule, is full of shocking incidents. The barbarities of the great Afghan invasions "form one of the most appalling tales of bloodshed and wanton cruelty ever inflicted on the human race." Among the Rajputs it was a custom when victory seemed assured to their enemies to slaughter all their women rather than permit them to fall into the hands of the enemy. In the siege of Chittoor by the Mohammedans it is recorded that Padmani, the beautiful wife of the Rana, and all the women, to the number of many thousands, were entombed in immense caves, the mouths of which were closed, and all were destroyed by fires which were kindled within. The supremacy of British rule has now brought India under the code of modern warfare, and although the tragedy of the sepoy rebellion is still fresh in the memory, and there is no guarantee beyond the authority of British control that the old savagery will not reappear, yet the present 1 Cf. Wilson, Persian Life and Customs," p. 121.
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outlook is that the brutalities formerly so prevalent have vanished, never to return. In the northern States of Africa, especially in Morocco, the most sanguinary customs are characteristic of Mohammedan warfare. An Sanguinary customs in African warfare.incident recently reported in the London papers gives an insight into the ghastly realities of war in that section. A telegram announced the arrival, at Fez of a large consignment of salted heads that were being transported from Morocco as trophies of a recent victory. It is even considered a merciful proceeding by the fierce soldiery of Morocco to bury their wounded comrades before life is extinct, so that the enemy may have no opportunity of mutilating their bodies.1 In the recent Italian campaign with Abyssinia the hands and feet of the wounded were cut off by the enemy on the field of battle, and they were left to the mercy of the vultures.2 In the interior of the Continent and along the West Coast there is nothing more terrible than the scenes of harrowing atrocity which have been and are still incidental to barbarous strife.3 As we move southward there is nothing to relieve the dark shadows of brutal warfare. It is a carnival of cruelty and beastly savagery. The last journal of Livingstone contains an account of a massacre so terrible in its atrocity that it seems to have made an overwhelming impression upon his mind.4 The well-known reputation of the Matabele warrior has been often referred to.5 In the recent French war in Madagascar even a civilized nation seems to have been deeply compromised by the adoption of barbarous methods of warfare. The 1 Regions Beyond, November, 1894, p. 369. 2 The Literary Digest, May 30, 1896. 3 Arnot, " Garenganze," pp. 77, 78, 92; The Missionary Record, October, 1893, p. 286. 4 Blaikie, " Life of David Livingstone," pp. 427, 428. 5 " In war the Matabele were very cruel. They surrounded the towns against which they were fighting, in the early morning, set fire to the huts, and slaughtered indiscriminately, sparing only the boys and girls who could be used as slaves. Sometimes they made prisoners, and some of these were put to death with great cruelty, dried grass being wrapped round them and set on fire. In one instance at least they caught a lot of women, made them carry the spoil to the border of the country, and then in cold blood murdered them all. Children are snatched out of their mothers' arms and impaled on the assegai, sometimes caught by the heels and their heads smashed on the rocks. Others have been tied to poles and roasted to death. I have not seen these things done, but have been told of them by Matabele themselves."— Rev. Charles D. Helm (L. M. S.), Hope Fountain, Matabeleland, Africa. Cf. Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," pp. 183, 184; Hepburn, " Twenty Years in Khama's Country," p. 248.
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alliance of the bloodthirsty Sakalava with the French resulted in indiscriminate massacres of women and children who fell into their hands. In one case, writes the correspondent of the London Times, " there can be no doubt that the Sakalava, who are well armed, murdered four hundred women and children." The savage races of the Pacific are not a whit less cruel than their fellow-barbarians of the Dark Continent. In New Guinea, the New Hebrides, and throughout the island realms of the South Seas, the ferocity of savage warfare has been illustrated for unknown generations. Happily, the encroachments of civilization, the spiritual victories of missions, and the extension of foreign authority over so many island groups of Oceania are influences which have greatly restrained the barbarities that have prevailed in the past. 8. BLOOD FEUDS.—War is not confined to nations and tribes alone, but sometimes occurs between clans, communities, villages, families, and even individuals, who engage in a kind of mimic warfare under the name of blood feuds. These have frequently resulted in serious and desperate conflicts prolonged for generations and involving intense bitterness of feeling, with vindictive reprisals and cruel atrocities. The causes of strife may differ; in some instances it may spring from religious hatred, in others it may result from trespass and violence, and at times it is the outcome of family intrigue, jealousy, and enmity. The Continent of Africa is all astir with these virulent feuds; tribes, communities, and families are in numberless instances pitted against The prevalance and bitterness of blood feuds throughout the African Continent.one another in irreconcilable strife. Now it is a feud between neighboring villages, which 'means indiscriminate war to the knife between entire communities; now it is a quarrel over boundary lines, or a raid for plunder or retaliation for trespass and murder, or the avenging of some insult which cannot be passed unnoticed. A constant state of anarchy and bloody hostility is thus kept up among neighboring clans and communities. "When the Word of God came among us," said a Kaffir chief in 1836, "we were like the wild beasts; we knew nothing—nothing but war and bloodshed. Every one was against his neighbor, every man tried to destroy his brother."1 Dr. Moffat has given vivid descriptions of the desperate character of the tribal feuds which he found prevailing in South Africa. Lust, revenge, and rapine were continually on the war-path. Throughout the length and breadth 1 Slowan, " The Story of Our Kaffrarian Mission," p. 109.
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of Zambesia raids and counter-raids, attended with savage barbarities, always have been, and, where opportunity offers, are still, the constant occupation of hostile tribes.1 The popular theory of punishment or revenge in Africa is not to seek out the guilty and inflict upon them the penalty; it is to strike an indiscriminate blow at the entire community or tribe to whom the offender belongs. Vengeance is sweet to the native African, and under some circumstances it becomes, according to his social code, an imperative duty.2 Sectional feuds in Turkey, Persia, and India.In Turkey and Persia, where national and religious distinctions honeycomb society, there is hardly a village which is not ready for sectional strife upon the slightest provocation. The horrors in Armenia show the fearful excesses to which religious and political hostility, when once aroused, will lead. The Kurd, who is facile princeps in his fiendishness, not only delights in barbarities upon Christians, but is often at war with his own people in local feuds.3 1 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," p. 183. Cf. Johnston, "Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent," p. 138. 2 "Love, forgiveness—these are things which the Pahouins cannot understand, nay, which even scandalize them," writes M. Allegret, from his station at Talagouga, in the French Congo. "They cannot understand renouncing a vengeance, and when a hostile village kills one of their people, it is not the death of their relation or their friend which they feel the most, but the insult which they have received. The father of one of our pupils came one day to ask that he might have his boy back for a time, for, said he, 'I am growing old, and before I die I should like to tell him all about our quarrels, that he may know who they are who owe us corpses.' To forgive a relation some little things, that may be allowed, but, to forgive an enemy, what madness!"—Quoted from the Journal des Missions Évangéliques, in The Missionary Record, October, 1895, p. 294. "From time immemorial the Gallas have been warriors, ready to use their spears on slight provocation, and delighting in the intertribal warfare which so many of the African race regard as a pastime. War has been constantly denounced by the missionaries,—its sin as well as its folly indicated,—and twice within the past two years I have been able to dissuade the warriors from retaliatory expeditions against the Somalis."—Rev. R. M. Ormerod (U. M. F. M. S.), Golbanti, Tana River, East Africa. 3 "As to blood feuds, our mountain field is full of them. It is safe to say that
no man of distinction can travel freely through the different mountain provinces, and until vengeance is taken any man, of whatever social standing, may be involved. This is one of the great hindrances to our school work. It is at times extremely difficult, and always difficult to some degree, for the boys and girls to pass through these provinces on their way to us."—Miss Anna Melton (P. B. F. M. N.), Mosul, Turkey. "Blood feuds between Kurdish tribes and neighborhoods are common."—George C, Raynolds, M.D. (A. B. C. F. M.), Van, Turkey.
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In India there is perpetual hostility between Hindus and Moslems, resulting in feuds which are handed down with religious fidelity from generation to generation, and are always ready to break out into bloody violence if some trifling cause awakens the spirit of strife. Among the wild tribes of the mountains trial by combat is a favorite method of settling disputes, while their blood feuds are transmitted as a sacred inheritance from father to son. The unforgiving character of the Hindus makes them cling tenaciously to the hope of revenge, and wait patiently and long for their opportunity.1 In Assam murder is regarded as a social accomplishment. "No young Naga," remarks The Indian Witness, "is considered a man unless his hands have been imbrued in the blood of his fellow-man, whether in war or in cold blood makes no difference." In Burma the war of clans and even smaller communities has been common.2 China is a network of clans Village feuds in China.ready to engage in hostile strife upon the slightest provocation. Massacre and bloodshed are the usual result of these conflicts. Village feuds are common among the Chinese. If they do not result in actual bloodshed they are sure to develop a system of petty trespass and the destruction of the property, especially the crops, of the village. In Formosa fierce and sanguinary warfare, lasting sometimes for half a century, has attended these feuds among savage tribes.3 The practice of head-hunting may be traced back to these village and tribal wars.4 The Chinese in Formosa are especially the objects of hatred, and the head of a Chinaman is a trophy highly prized. "No savage is esteemed," says Dr. Williams, "who 1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 410. 2 "Cut up into tribes and clans, they were always at war with one another; that
is, tribe with tribe," clan with clan, and often village with village. Their quarrels almost always took the form of feuds, blood feuds, and in their wars the women and children suffered terribly. The object of these feuds was to seize as much property and as many captives as possible. These captives were held for ransom, and were
cared for only to save their lives for that purpose. I never saw in these warriors any impulse of pity or compassion, though there were doubtless cases. The greed for gain seemed to hide all else."—Rev. Alonzo Bunker, D.D. (A. B. M. U.), Toungoo, Burma. 3 MacKay, "From Far Formosa," p. 222. 4 "The bringing back of the head was regarded as satisfactory evidence, a kind of medical certificate that the sentence of the tribe had been carried out. When hostilities became fixed and certain tribes or races were regarded as unforgivable enemies, a premium was put upon their heads, and the brave who showed most skill was counted worthy of greatest honor and made head man of his village or chief of his tribe."—Ibid., p. 268.
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has not beheaded a Chinaman, while the greater the number of heads brought home from a fray the higher the position of a brave in the community."1 The traditions of Japan are full of reports of conflicts between the old feudal lords and their retainers, but in the present new era of advancing civilization and national reconstruction these petty strifes have almost entirely disappeared. A characteristic sight in Korea, usually in connection with the advent of the new year, is a promiscuous battle with clubs and stones between neighboring villages. It is often in sport, but in many instances it becomes a veritable mimic war.2 In New Guinea and throughout Oceania Intertribal feuds in the Pacific Islands.turmoil and strife are commonplace features of savage life. "Blood for blood is a sacred law almost of nature wherever Christianity has not prevailed." Trespass or violence on the part of any member of a tribe is regarded as fastening the guilt upon the entire tribe, and thus indiscriminate bloodshed follows. The sounds of savage warfare have echoed among the islands of the Pacific for unknown generations, and where the happier arts of peace now prevail they are almost entirely the result of Christian missionary teaching and influence.3 If we penetrate in almost any direction into the comparatively unknown and inaccessible recesses of heathenism we will find the same shocking story of blood feuds and perpetual outbursts of sanguinary hostility. An officer of a prominent trading company who has lived long among the Eskimos has given it as his opinion that "he did not think there was a single 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 138. 2 Gilmore, "Korea from its Capital," pp. 173, 176. Cf. Savage-Landor, "Corea," p. 268, and The Missionary, May, 1895, p. 200. 3 "The natives of the New Hebrides, especially those in the same island, in
heathen days had feuds, which multiplied as the earlier inhabitants increased, and were passed down from one generation to another. These feuds tended to separate the natives still further, and indeed formed by far the most powerful factor in breaking them up into so many tribes; for since Christianity has driven out heathenism, the mountain barriers and the different languages have not prevented the tribes from communicating with each other. So great was the influence exerted by the feuds and wars among the natives in separating tribe from tribe that frequently, especially in Tanna, they could not, without danger to life, walk beyond a few miles from their own homes. Revenge was carried from generation to generation. Every injury, supposed or real, was avenged. Reviling was followed by reviling, blow by blow, theft avenged by theft. The injured wife revenged the act of an unfaithful husband by herself being unfaithful to him. Life taken away was only repaid by taking away another life, if not that of the murderer, at any rate that of one of his tribe."—Rev. William Gunn, M.D. (F. C. S.), Futuna, New Hebrides.
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Eskimo frequenting that post, and who had attained thirty years of age, who had not murdered a human being."1 The reign of the Prince of Peace is sadly needed among the warring factions of heathen society. 9. LAWLESSNESS. —One of the noblest missions of civilization is the establishment and enforcement of just and effective laws restraining and punishing crimes against both the person of the individual and the good order of society. The spirit of lawlessness has brought sorrow and unrest to humanity during all its history, and were it not for the majestic sway of law and its efficient administration there would be no guarantee of security and order even in civilized communities. The study of criminology within the bounds of civilization has been made a specialty by expert students (e.g., Wines, Henderson, Lombroso, and MacDonald), who have published the results of their investigations in instructive volumes. In the wide realms of barbarism crimes of every kind afflict society. The criminal is comparatively unrestrained by law, and pursues his wild career with little fear of justice. There are primitive and rude methods of punishment in vogue everywhere, and even in the less civilized states of the world the administration of justice would be prompt and effective were the practice equal to the theory. The possibility and, in many instances, the probability that justice will miscarry, combined with the allurements of lawlessness to untamed natures, give a fatal stimulus to criminal instincts and make the non-Christian world to a deplorable extent a prey to lawless violence. There are many sections both of Asia and Africa
The quieting power of civilized rule in Asia and Africa.that have been in the past noted for disorder and misrule which are to-day under the control of civilized governments, and are immensely benefited by their vigorous police administration. India is a prominent example. Crime and violence were rampant all through the vast peninsula before the advent of British rule. The native rulers themselves were arch-criminals, and society groaned under the miseries of rapine and vicious depravity.2 The terrible exploits of thugs, dacoits, and the robber castes, numbering over a hundred, make a vivid chapter in Indian lawlessness, which, thanks to the British Government, is now largely a thing of the past. What has been said of India is true of various portions of Burma, the Straits Settlements, Australasia wherever foreign rule pre- 1 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1893, p. 261. 2 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 419-436. Cf. "Is India Becoming Poorer
or Richer?" in Papers on Indian Social Reform, pp. 9-12.
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vails, and of many islands of the Pacific, together with extensive sections of Africa which have come under European supervision. It is impossible, of course, for a foreign power to restrain altogether the forces of disorder, and it need not surprise us to hear that under British as well as other European administrations the outlaws are not all cowed or old habits of crime entirely eradicated. In the Straits Settlements and in some districts of Burma there is unusual difficulty in breaking up the haunts of outlaws and destroying their power to do evil. To vast sections of the Asiatic and African world, however, it is an immense boon to have the judicial and police administration in the hands of foreign authorities. If we turn now to the purely native governments of
Lawlessness under native rule.Asia and Africa, we find that the criminal classes are allowed, to prey upon society to a frightful extent. The Empire of Japan, under its new régime, may be regarded as a notable exception, owing to the fact that the Japanese have a genius for government which is not found elsewhere in the Oriental world. They have adopted the criminal code of the most advanced nations, and are proceeding to enforce it with surprising impartiality, fidelity, and efficiency. It is to be hoped that the Island of Formosa, hitherto so noted for its piracy and brigandage, with all the atrocious deeds of its "Black Flags," or head-hunters, will be brought, at the hands of the Japanese authorities, under effective discipline. This task, apparently, is taxing severely the self-restraint of the Japanese officials. It is not easy for an Oriental government to break at once with traditional methods of administration, especially if there should be a supposed necessity for reviving them. In China, in spite of its fierce and relentless system of dealing with criminals, we find many secret organizations for the fomenting of disorder and the prosecution of lawless raids. A turbulent and reckless element is ever ready for mob violence and brigandage. Clans of banditti are the terror of many sections of the empire.1 Especially in times of disturbance is human life unsafe, and summary execution is often the result of mere suspicion.2 Chinese pirates have always had a notorious reputation, and even the regular soldiers of the Government are often little better than freebooters.3 The foreign residents of China have had dire experiences of the treachery and cruelty of lawless mobs, attended in some instances by fatal results. There is hardly a province 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., pp. 486, 487. 2. Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," pp. 211, 212. 3.Graves, "Forty Years in China," p. 114.
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in the country which is free from desperate perils at the hands of lawless marauders. The recent outrages upon missionaries in Western China and the deplorable tragedy at Kucheng, not to speak of other experiences of lesser moment, are still fresh in our memories. In Manchuria the state of things is hardly less serious. Bands of vagabonds link themselves together in a brotherhood of vice and engage in systematic blackmail of well-to-do citizens, playing the part of burdensome parasites, from whom it is impossible to obtain deliverance.1 The highways are beset with robber bands who attack travellers in such force that resistance is hopeless. In Korea the turbulent Tonghaks have recently been in open rebellion. It is a question, however, whether the Government, by its oppression and tyrannical abuse of power, has not justified resistance on the part of its subjects. Disorder and robbery are, however, all too prevalent in every section of Korea, and it is to be hoped that whatever change of government may occur, will be in the interests of better discipline throughout the kingdom. In Upper Burma, Assam, and Central Asia lawless deeds are of frequent occurrence. The Afghans are for the most part untamable outlaws.2 In Assam deeds of blood are committed without compunction. In Burma ferocious dacoity, for purposes of plunder and extortion, has been practised for generations. The cruelties of the Burman dacoits are phenomenal.3 The Turcomans on the eastern borders of Persia have been robbers for centuries. In Persia and in the mountains of Kurdistan especially there is hardly any security for life or property, while in distressed Armenia an awful whirlwind of lawlessness has swept away almost every vestige of security and order. The traditional attitude of Moslems towards Christians is that of insult and aggression. Dr. William H. Thomson, who formerly resided in Asiatic Turkey and is familiar with Eastern life, has said : "It is not safe at present to travel alone for a mile's space in the Moslem world beyond the reach of some Christian occupying power."4 Arabia, now as of old, is a 1 The Missionary Record, October, 1893, p. 294. 2 Sir Richard Temple, "Oriental Experience," p. 320. 3 "Cruelty is one of the distinguishing traits of the Burman character. Although
taught the laws of the compassionate Buddha, they seem totally devoid of feeling for those who may chance to become the victims of their cruelty. A band of Burman dacoits knows no such feeling as pity for man or brute. While I was in Rangoon a woman was brought into town with both breasts hewn off. This was done to extort
money. A mother was sent out to bring in her silver, and not returning immediately, her child was wrapped in a blanket saturated with kerosene oil and roasted on the spot."—Rev. F. H. Eveleth (A. B. M. U.), Sandoway, Burma. 4 "Arabia—Islam and the Eastern Question," Harper's Monthly, September, 1895.
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land where every man's hand is against his neighbor, so that except in settled localities there is no safety, even for an hour. Africa, except as foreign control is exercised,
Africa the haunt of lawless violence. is a favorite hunting-ground of the outlaw and plunderer. Robbery is a profession; murder is a commonplace incident. From the "tiger-men" of the West Coast through all the central stretches of the Continent warfare and plunder are the most characteristic features of savage life. The Angonis and Yaos in the region of Lake Nyassa, the bloody Masai east of the Victoria Nyanza, and innumerable lesser tribes and clans, live in the constant practice of their hereditary tendencies to lawless violence. The African rivers are often the haunts of pirates. Even in those countries bordering on the Mediterranean the interior regions are the scenes of violence. In Madagascar the dreaded raids of robber bands render much of the island unsafe. In the East Indies and the Pacific Islands where European authority is not in control, native life for centuries has been a gruesome record of conspiracy, murder, rapine, and robbery. 1 IV.—THE SOCIAL GROUP (Evils which are incidental to the social relationships of uncivilized communities, and are due to lack of intelligence or the force of depraved habit) The previous section brought to our attention some of the grosser and more inhuman aspects of non-Christian society, such as have arisen chiefly from intertribal warfare and race hostility. There remains to be dealt with a cluster of evils connected with social relationships of a more personal character, revealed in individual conduct and domestic habits of life. They are in some respects similar to those mentioned in the previous group, with perhaps less of the brutal impulses of barbarism, while, on the other hand, they may be said to reveal with no less precision the moral tone and the social temper of heathen peoples. The fact, however, that they are upon a different and higher plane, and more intimately identified with personal character and feeling, gives them a special significance as representative of the more subtle inner spirit of society. Several of the evils included in this list are not of 1 Chalmers, "Pioneering in New Guinea," p. 281. Cf. Alexander, "Islands of the Pacific," p. 223.
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a character to excite reproach so much as to inspire pity and stimulate a desire to overcome them. 1. IGNORANCE.—The first specification which
The social perils and disabilities of ignorance.suggests itself under this general category is ignorance. This is rather a misfortune to be lamented than a crime to be condemned, yet it is none the less an evil of stupendous magnitude, the fountain of a whole series of deplorable miseries and social disabilities. Human life everywhere needs for its wholesome development and higher progress the guidance and stimulus of knowledge, the incitement of quickening ideals, and the culture of refining customs. Ignorance is a blighting and depressing environment, in which the higher graces of human intercourse cannot be developed, and wherein the nobler life of the social man languishes, while his lower and meaner tendencies are under little restraint. It produces a rank growth of positive evils, which are both a peril and a stigma to society. It places, moreover, a serious embargo upon industrial enterprise, and fixes life in the old routine of antiquated methods, with little hope of improvement.1 l "China is, I suppose, the most striking illustration of arrested development in the world. The people know how to plow and sow and reap, to spin and weave and dye, to extract sugar and partly refine it, to get salt by evaporation, to extract oil from peanuts, to get the essence out of peas and beans; but all these processes are carried on with a crudity and laboriousness that astonishes one from the West, where invention has disclosed so many hidden forces and applied them with such great success. China seems to have lost the inventive gift; at least, it has lain latent so long that nobody seems to know of its existence. The everlasting backward look to see what the ancestors did and how they did it is unquestionably a great deadener to all inventive genius."—Rev. J. G. Fagg (Ref. C. A.), Amoy, China.
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"Two of the greatest evils in China at present are ignorance and poverty; that is, ignorance of modern science and Western improvements. To go Ignorance not always synonymous with illiteracy.from Peking to Tientsin costs me twenty times as much time and ten times as much money as would be required if I journeyed by railroad, to say nothing of the inconvenience and nervous strain. The freight from Shanghai to Peking is greater than from New York to Shanghai. My coal costs me twice as much as it would if transported by railroad instead of on camels. Oil costs more than three times what it would if the Chinese were not too superstitious to have oil-wells sunk. Millions of money are spent every year on walls around cities, only to be washed down by the next year's rains; millions of days of unproductive labor are wasted simply on account of the ignorance and prejudices of the people. If these poor people were led to give up their prejudices, and this unproductive labor were utilized in mining and building railroads, there would be no such poverty and suffering."—Rev, Isaac T. Headland (M. E. M. S.), Peking, China. By ignorance in this connection we do not mean mere illiteracy, although this is usually a prominent feature of it. We refer rather to an ignorance which may be coincident with advanced educational attainments in the heathen classics and in the standard literature of Oriental nations. Its scope is much broader than mere mental vacuity, and includes also a grievous dearth of that intellectual, moral, and social training which comes through contact with truth, and is a part of the broader culture which scientific knowledge gives. A very learned man in the scholastic lore of the Orient may be at the same time a slave to the most degrading customs and a victim to the most puerile superstitions.1 In India and China, for example, we find vast systems of philosophy and imposing curriculums of education, but with it all an obtuseness, a narrowness, a pedantry, an intensity of intellectual pride combined with a pitiful emptiness of mind, which justify the charge of ignorance, whatever may be the measure of attainment.2 An expert analysis of the actual condition of the educated mind of China is given by Dr. Martin in his "Hanlin Papers," and a more striking exhibition 1 "The great reason, perhaps, why China is stagnant is found in her ridiculous system of study, which compels the student to memorize books written in a fine literary style, model his own writing after the impossible rules of this style, and do absolutely nothing in the line of original research. Natural sciences are unknown subjects to the well-read Chinese, who believe still that thunder kills men, and not lightning, and that the bolt is in the control of a god and his wife. Officials still incite the people to join in making as great a noise as possible to drive away the dragon who is devouring the sun or the moon, although the Roman Catholic astronomers, who were in royal favor three hundred years ago, gave China the system by which she foretells when these eclipses are to come to pass, and so enables the magistrates to issue a proclamation beforehand, or the people to find in almanacs the date when the dragon will come."—Rev. J. C. Garritt (P. B. F. M. N.), Hangchow, China. 2 "I think of Hindustan, inhabited for ages by our own kindred, whose ornaments were sought by Solomon for his palace, whose gold brocades were in the courts of imperial Rome, whose poetry, antedating the Christian era, is still read and admired in Europe, without present science, history, poetry, or any recent mechanical arts, except as these have pressed in from abroad, with no geography, even of native production, and no philosophy which asserts itself valid to the mind of the world, constrained to import its very arguments against the religion of the New Testament from the countries in which men have been stimulated and trained by that religion; I think of China, where it is said that the seat of the understanding is assigned to the stomach, but where respect for learning is almost a religion, and where the assiduous cultivation of such learning is the pride of the people and the glory of the throne, without epic or art, with the old-time classics still in their place, but with no living literature to enlighten and discipline the mind of the people, whatever they attain marked, as Frederick Schlegel said, 'with unnatural stiffness, childish vanity, exaggerated refinement, in the most important provinces of thought, and the language itself chiefly characterized by jejuneness and poverty;' and then I turn to the lands which Christianity has filled with its Scriptures and with their unwasting, indefinable impulse, and how vast is the contrast!"—Storrs, "The Divine Origin of Christianity," pp. 243, 244.
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of what might be called learned ignorance it would be difficult to find.1 There is, no doubt, even in lands where education is not unknown, an astonishing degree of absolute, unmitigated illiteracy, but in large sections of the non-Christian world there is this and nothing else. The most remarkable exception to this statement is Japan, where education is now pushed with energy, and where the Government system of schools will already bear comparison with some of the nations of Western Christendom. Even in India, according to the last census, an appalling prevalence of illiteracy is revealed. Less than six per cent, of the entire population can read or write, and among the women only one in three hundred and thirty is able to do so. In many of the Native States there are no educational facilities, and even if provided they are only for the higher castes. The great mass of the population of India resides in its villages, where educational privileges exist only to a very limited extent. The education of India is a colossal task, which, with all the facilities of the English school system and missionary institutions, is as yet but just begun.2 In Assam popular education was unknown before the British occupation of the country in 1826, and even at the present time about eighty-five per cent, of the people are illiterate. The movement for popular education all over India has only begun to be felt in that land.3 China, although one of the most ancient
Enormous percentange of illiteracy in China.nations of the world, is still in its infancy as regards education. The Rev. John C. Gibson, in an essay on Bible versions, read at the Shanghai Missionary Conference of 1890, reckoned a total population of 300,000,000, of which 75,000,000 were children too young to read. If the remaining 225,000,000 of maturer years were divided equally, half being men and the other half women, he estimates that of the 112,500,000 women only one per cent., or 1,125,000, are able to read, and of the men ten 1 Martin, " Hanlin Papers; or, Essays on the Intellectual Life of the Chinese," First Series, pp. 34-50. 2 "Changes in India," by the Rev. J. Murray Mitchell, LL.D., in The Free Church of Scotland Monthly, May, 1896, pp. 101-104. Cf. also "Blue Book on the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India During the Year 1894-95," chap, xii., on "Education and Literature." 3 "The Assamese People," by the Rev. P. H. Moore, in The Baptist Missionary Review, April, 1895, pp. 121-128.
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per cent, is named as a liberal estimate, or 11,250,000 who are readers. The result is that out of 225,000,000 only 12,375,000 are able to read. Another estimate, by Dr. Martin, reduces the number of readers to about 6,000,000. The significance of these estimates is emphasized by a comparison which Mr. Gibson makes with the percentage of readers in twenty-one of the Northern States in America, which is ninety-five and five tenths per cent, of the entire population over ten years of age, leaving a percentage of illiteracy of only four and five tenths per cent, as compared with ninety per cent, men and ninety-nine per cent, women in the Chinese Empire.1 Miss Adele M. Fielde, in referring to the mistaken idea, which many entertain, that education is universal among the men of the Middle Kingdom, states it as her judgment that" not more than one Chinese man in a hundred, taking the empire through, knows how to read, and still fewer can write a letter. Of the women not more than one in a thousand can read."2 The Rev. Jonathan Lees, of the London Missionary Society, who has resided thirty-five years in China, coincides with these statements.3 The Rev. A. H. Smith, in his chapter on "Intellectual Turbidity," dwells with much emphasis upon the brooding ignorance which shadows the intellectual life of China.4 "The Western child of ten years of age," says a writer in The Chinese Recorder, "knows more about the earth, the universe, and the immutable laws of nature than the average Hanlin, or member of the Imperial Academy."5 The effect of all this is sadly depressing, not only to the individual, 1 "Report of Shanghai Conference, 1890," pp. 67, 68. 2 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 94. Cf. "Hanlin Papers," First Series,
PP. 97, 98. 3 "From literature it is natural to turn to the subject of popular education.
Strange misconceptions prevail abroad as to the educational status of the population of China. Because there is a powerful literary class, and because the possession of Confucian scholarship is honorable, being at least nominally a pre-requisite to official position and emolument, it has been inferred that education is general, and even that there must exist something like a system of national schools. This is wholly a mistake. It is true that the knowledge of books is not confined to any class; it is true also that it is prized, though not often, perhaps, simply for its own sake; but there is absolutely no provision for general education, A whole half of the nation, the women and girls, is almost entirely untaught. It is nothing short of pathetic to visit a large village and find a congregation of fifty or sixty recent converts to Christianity, of whom not one can read at all. They can sing (from memory) and pray, but neither rulers nor religious teachers have put within their reach the key of knowledge."—Rev. Jonathan Lees (L. M. S.), Tientsin, China. 4 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 88. 5 The Chinese Recorder, January, 1896, p. 37.
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but to the social, political, and industrial life of China. If we take into consideration the incompetency of such a powerful political factor in the empire as the Tsung-li Yamen, arising from sheer ignorance,
The highly educated ignorance of Chinese officials.we can discover what an incalculable injury it is to the political life of a great empire to be controlled by a body of men concerning whom a recent correspondent of The Times, who "had the honor of discussing with their Excellencies some of the burning questions of the day," remarked that "the strongest impression which I carried away with me was that the whole world of thought in which the Western mind is trained and lives seems to be as alien to the Chinese mind as the language which we speak."1 Then, as regards the incalculable damage done to the industrial interests of the empire by the crass ignorance and unconquerable prejudices of the people, much might be said. Western methods and facilities in all departments of industrial enterprise are regarded with inane suspicion and supercilious contempt. Political economy is quite unknown as a modern science, nor is there any general recognition of the advantages of international trade and the possibilities of industrial enterprise. The Rev. Timothy Richard, in an address before the Peking Missionary Association in October, 1895, expressed the opinion that "China loses a million taels a day by ignorance."2 A curious study in Chinese questions by the Rev. J. H. Hors-burgh, missionary of the Church Missionary Society in Szechuan, is interesting as a revelation of their remarkable capabilities in that line, and also of the childish range of the information which they seek.3 In Korea substantially the same statements will hold true. It is a land of undeveloped, almost untouched resources, simply because of the intellectual slumber of the people and the inanity of what little education they can attain.4 In Formosa, where hardly any literature exists except such as has been provided by the missionaries, in the 1 Correspondence of the London Times, October 9, 1895. In this same connection the correspondent continues as follows: "The wisdom of their sages, which is the Alpha and Omega of their vaunted education, consists of unexceptionable aphorisms, which have about as much influence on their actions as the excellent commonplaces which in the days of our youth we have all copied out to improve our caligraphy, had in moulding our own characters. History, geography, the achievements of modern science, the lessons of political economy, the conditions which govern the policy of Western States, the influence of public opinion, of the Press, of Parliamentary institutions, are words which convey no real meaning to their ears." 2 The Chinese Recorder, January, 1896, p. 50. 3 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, July, 1895, p. 511. 4 The Korean Repository, September, 1895, p. 349.
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Pacific Islands, where a similar
Intellectual slumber of the orient.statement would hold, in Moslem lands, where education as conducted under native auspices is of practically little value, throughout the Continent of Africa, in many sections of South America and the West Indies, there are deep needs arising from the lack of educational facilities. A large part of the world, in fact, may be said to be still deeply wrapped in the slumber of ignorance, and, were it not for the educational efforts of foreign missions, there would be little hope of a speedy awakening. 2. QUACKERY. — Ignorance in some of its aspects may be
The contribution of quackery to the world's misery.regarded as only a negative evil, but when it undertakes to practise medicine and surgery it becomes a positive evil of an aggressive and deadly character. The agonies and sorrows which result from the stupid and cruel inflictions of quackery upon suffering humanity make an awful chapter in the daily experience of mankind. These miseries have been endured for centuries, and must continue indefinitely, unless scientific knowledge and competent skill take the place of the wretched incompetence which now does such harm to stricken victims. The vagaries of quackery would be only an interesting and curious study, were it not for the serious and shocking reality of the harm involved. After all, the thing to be lamented is not so much the resort to useless remedies as the ignorance and credulity which make them possible. It is natural for distressed humanity to seek relief from its sufferings, and this gives to ignorant assumption its opportunity, and opens the way for the adoption of those useless and dangerous expedients which have added such an untold increment to the world's misery. It is amazing to note the ignorance
The charlatanism of the Chinese doctor.of even practitioners of wide reputation in lands where no scientific medical instruction is known. In China the so-called doctors are "the merest empirics, and, having no fear of medical colleges or examination tests before their eyes, prey on the folly and ignorance of the people without let or hindrance."1 With no knowledge of physiology or anatomy, pathological diagnosis is the merest guesswork. Such a remedy as amputation is never, under any circumstances, thought of, since it is regarded as indicating disrespect to ancestors to mutilate the body. A Chinese doctor, entirely ignorant of the distinction between arteries and veins, 1 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 149.
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will feel the pulses of both wrists, with an idea that the beating of the pulse of the left arm indicates the state of the heart, while that of the right represents the health of the lungs and liver. If these signs fail, the tongue will surely yield some mystic augury concerning the nature of the disease. As to remedies, they are composed of many vegetable, mineral, and animal substances, some of them of the most absurd irrelevance. They are referred to in some detail by Mr. Douglas in his chapter on medicine.1 A remedy of noted efficacy is the carcass of a tiger. It can be used in a variety of ways and is supposed to possess marvelous tonic qualities.2 There is a potent remedial power in dried scorpions, and as a remedy for Asiatic cholera nothing excels a needle thrust into the abdomen. In a recent report of one of the Chinese hospitals of the Methodist Episcopal Mission in Central China, an account is given of a woman who had been sick for a long time before she came for treatment, and "had eaten more than two hundred spiders, and a large number of snakes' eggs, without being helped." A native medical prescription in Northern China required a wife to take some 1 Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 149-159. Cf. also Graves, " Forty Years
in China," pp. 226-237. "Chinese doctors profess to be able to diagnose disease by the state of the pulse only. Their knowledge of anatomy and physiology is almost nil, yet in place of exact knowledge they substitute the most absurd theories. To a large extent drugs are unknown, and most wonderful healing properties are attributed to such substances as dragons' teeth, fossils, tiger bones, pearls, etc. Moreover, superstitious notions and practices control and pervert medicine. In almost every case of sickness, idols, astrologers, and fortune-tellers are consulted. It is not wonderful, therefore, that, medical science being in so unsatisfactory a state in China, the cures wrought by the foreign doctors seem to the people little short of miraculous."—Dr. John Kenneth Mackenzie (L. M. S.), quoted in "Great Missionaries of the Church," by Rev. C. C. Creegan, pp. 149, 150. 2 "Just the other day a tiger that had been killed in the mountains was brought into the city and sold for medicinal purposes at a sum equivalent to about fifteen hundred dollars, American money. The least bit of this animal is supposed to impart wonderful vitality and strength to a sick patient. Accordingly, not the least part of the tiger is wasted; even the bones are ground up and taken as medicine. Last summer a large snake was captured, sold for a fabulous sum, and served up in like manner. The result of this kind of theory and practice is the illness and death of thousands where a little medical skill would relieve suffering and prevent death."—Rev. G. E. Whitman (A. B. M. U.), Kayin, China, in The Baptist Missionary Magazine, August, 1893, p. 405. "In China tigers' bones are given to the weak and debilitated as a strengthening medicine, and those who cannot afford such an expensive luxury may yet obtain some of the strength and courage of that ferocious beast by swallowing a decoction of the hairs of his moustache, which are retailed at the low price of a hundred cash (8 1/3 cents) a hair."—Rev. A. W. Douthwaite, M.D. (C. I. M.), Chefoo, China.
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of her own flesh and, having properly prepared it, to give it to her sick husband to eat. The directions were heroically carried out, but without avail. In the case of bullet wounds, prayers are written on a piece of red paper, which is burned, and from its ashes medicine is made. Frequent cases of blood-poisoning result from the putrid animal flesh so often applied to wounds. The superstition of the natives, and their suspicions of foreign treatment, are well illustrated in a letter from the Rev. C. Bennett (C. M. S.), on the plague in Hong Kong, published in The Church Missionary Intelligencer, October, 1894, p. 752. Some of the remedies are not only absurd, but characterized by cruel barbarity.1 Dr. MacKay, in writing of Formosa,
Native specifics in Formosa.has given many interesting facts bearing upon this theme.2 In a recent report of his mission hospital, an account of some of the native specifics for various diseases in North Formosa is given. For anaemia is prescribed a jelly made of the bones of a savage recently killed. An execution of some criminal will be numerously attended by practitioners to obtain the requisite material for making this valuable remedy. For Asiatic cholera the body is pierced with needles. For catarrh a chip is taken from some coffin after it has been let down into the grave, and boiled with other ingredients, and then laid aside for future use. In case of dog bite the tartar from teeth is considered an effective antidote. A dyspeptic must 1 "The doctors are, for the most part, men who have had no special preparation for their work. They do very ridiculous things. Physicians have no protection by law, and any one can practise, no matter how ignorant. The custom, if any one is very sick, is to go to the temple and consult the idols. The latter, of course, answer through the priests, and sometimes they prescribe very cruel treatment. A patient came one day to the hospital, who had been made very sick by walking over hot coals to cure her husband; the idol had told her that she must do so. Another woman came with her forehead badly bruised. This had been caused by knocking her head on the floor before the idol, beseeching that her child might be healed. The people are kind to their sick ones in many ways, but are so ignorant that they do not know how to take proper care of them. It is thought very dangerous to bathe a person when sick, even the hands and face, so we find patients in a very pitiful condition sometimes. They know nothing of surgery, and there is much unnecessary suffering attending childbirth on this account."—Dr. Kate C. Woodhull (A. B. C. F. M.), Foochow, China. " Their medical practice is often barbarous. In cholera and some other diseases they run needles under the nails of the fingers and toes, and into some parts of the body, as a counter-irritant. Tigers' teeth and dried scorpions are popular remedies. Abscesses are carefully plastered over, lest the pus escape. Soldiers sometimes eat the hearts of their enemies killed in battle to make them brave."—Mrs. C. W. Mateer (P. B. F. M. N.), Tungchow, China. 2 MacKay, "From Far Formosa," chap, xxxiii.
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be fed on dog's flesh, especially that of puppies. For ophthalmia the intestines of a bedbug are applied to the eye. For rheumatism a soup is made of the feet of the monkey, combined with other ingredients, such as pork and spirituous liquors. Then there are boiled toads and dried grass, while numerous other childish nostrums are resorted to as expedients for coping with the dread emergencies of disease.1 The Korean doctor and his methods are
Sovereign remedies in Korea and Tibet.described in an article by Dr. Busteed in The Korean Repository for May, 1895. He seems to be very fond of the needle, which he thrusts into the flesh as a sovereign remedy for many maladies. For hydrophobia he prescribes a powder made of the skull of a tiger. This is to be taken internally, and a poultice of garlic applied to the bite. The bones of a tiger are highly valued by the Koreans for their medicinal qualities, and they are regarded as a specific for cowardice. A good strong soup of tiger bones is supposed to make a hero of the most arrant coward. For general debility a Korean sufferer partakes of boiled bear's gall. The loathsome character of some of the poultices applied to wounds by the native practitioner is too sickening to mention. Various diseases are supposed to have special demoniacal attendants, and in a case of smallpox, for example, the principal function of a doctor is to exorcise its demon. This done, all will be well. Dr. Rosetta Sherwood Hall (M. E. M. S.) gives an account of the visit of a Korean doctor to a sick child. The first thing he did was to make a little pyramid of brownish-looking powder upon each breast of the child, and then to set it afire until it burned the tender skin. This was followed by the use of a large darning-needle, which was thrust through each little foot, the palms of the hands, the thumb-joints, and through the lips into the jaw just beneath the nose. In some cases this species of treatment results in suppuration with fatal consequences. The Ainu of Northern Japan, when he is sick, sends for his medicine-man, who, "falling into a sort of trance and working himself up into a kind of frenzy, tells why the disease has come and what demon has sent it." He prescribes some charms which, if worn by the sufferer, will banish the demon and relieve the distress.2 In Tibet the favorite remedy is butter, which is rubbed freely on the patient. Where this fails, as, for example, in case of smallpox, which they especially dread, they often adopt summary methods and dispose of the victims either by burning them or by throwing them into rapid torrents; or perhaps they carry them to a mountain-top, 1 The Illustrated Missionary News, December, 1894, p. 185. 2 Batchelor, "The Ainu of Japan," p. 197.
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where they leave them to recover or die, If the internal or external use of butter is of no avail for ordinary illnesses, the lamas, whose methods are peculiar, are summoned to the rescue. They make a life-sized image of the sick person, dressing it in his or her clothes, not forgetting personal ornaments, and place it in the courtyard. They then sit around this image and read passages from the sacred classics supposed to be suitable for the case. A wild dance with incantations follows, and this is supposed to be effective in transferring the malady from the patient to his effigy. After this the effigy is burned outside the village.1 Even in lands where Western intelligence
Medical destitution in India.has penetrated to a considerable extent the old tricks of quackery are still found. In India sickness is often ascribed to demons or to the anger of gods and goddesses, who are thought to preside over epidemics, and who must be propitiated in order to secure their suppression. "Killed by ignorance" is still the verdict in numberless cases of fatality, and when we remember that the total number of deaths in India every year is between five and six millions, we can appreciate how disastrous are the results of quackery, which has, no doubt, been the only ministry which the vast majority have received in their fatal illnesses. To be sure, the old system, with its charms and incantations, its profitless and often cruel remedies, is gradually passing away, yet the native hakim is the only recourse in the case of vast multitudes. It is estimated by Sir William Moore that" not five per cent, of the population is reached by the present system of medical aid." Even in the great cities, where there are hospitals and dispensaries, more than half of the people die unattended in sickness either by educated doctor or native quack. "If this is the case in the cities," writes Dr. Wanless, "what must be the condition in the 566,000 villages, each with a population of less than 500, not to mention thousands of large towns with a population of from 1000 to 5000,without even a native doctor?"2 The difficulties attending medical practice in India arising from the severity of the conventional rules of society add, no doubt, to the volume of neglect to which we referred. In an instructive discussion in the pages of The Indian Magazine and Review for the latter part of the year 1895 and the earlier numbers of 1896, concerning "Medical Aid to Indian Women," are to be found repeated references to the lamentable woes of Indian women in times of illness and suffering, even though, as in 1 Bishop, Among the Tibetans," p. 105. 2 The Student Volunteer, December, 1895, p. 47.
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many instances, medical aid might be available.1 It is a question whether the so-called hakims or vaidyas, with their foolish and worthless remedies, are any relief, or whether to be unattended is not a milder fate than to be ministered to by those who will gravely prescribe the powdered horn of the sacred bull as a remedy of special efficacy, or who repeat verses out of their sacred books for the relief of a person who has been bitten by a poisonous insect.2 In Burma and eastward the reign of
Empirical devices in Burma, Siam, Persia, and Arabia.quackery is still the occasion of numberless woes to those who might be relieved by intelligent medical aid in their times of distress. The singular and painful custom of roasting the abdomen of the mother of a new-born child is mentioned by Dr. Thomas, of Lakawn, Laos ("Report of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions," 1895, p. 183). The same Report, in the section on Persia (p. 168) mentions the case of a woman who had obtained from a mullah two or three prayers written on paper. Every morning she was to put one of these in a glass of water and when the writing had disappeared from the paper she was to drink the water. In her despair she had come to the hospital at Teheran for treatment. Surgery in Persia is heroic and reminds one of the various methods of 1 "Dr. Macphail (F. C. S.) gives some startling figures as to the medical destitution of India. The Health Officer of Calcutta, Dr. Simpson, reported that during the years 1886-91, out of 49,761 persons who died in that city, 31,221—more than three out of every five—had no medical attendance whatever, even the most insufficient, in their last illness. Less than one third of those who die in Calcutta are attended by those who have had any training in European medical science. . . .In the country districts, 'the Mofussil,' Dr. Macphail shows that an appalling state of things exists. In the villages there are great multitudes diseased for life, blind, lame, deaf, and dumb, because in early infancy or childhood the simplest remedies were not procurable. Native medicine and surgery are often worse than the disease. 'The red-hot iron is freely applied even for such trivial complaints as toothache and headache, or rags dipped in oil are set on fire and applied to the body. So with everything else. The cruelties in the name of surgery which Dr. Macphail describes as being practised at the time of childbirth are such that he ranks them with the suppressed custom of suttee. Surely here there is room for the medical missionary, not in units, but in hundreds."—The Church Missionary Intelligencer, November, 1893, p. 866. 2 "I have seen them repeating verses out of their sacred books to relieve a person who had been bitten by a scorpion. They believe in the indwelling of evil spirits, and when the disease—of whatever kind it may be, and especially if it concerns the nerves—is at all persistent and refuses to yield to their absurd efforts, then it is attributed to the presence of an evil spirit that must be driven out, often by the most brutal treatment, that not infrequently results in driving the spirit out of the person by death. The people in these circumstances are none too anxious to call in their native doctors if they can treat the person themselves. They have a few simple remedies which they fall back upon, but to a large extent they depend upon opium for all forms of disease. It at any rate removes the pain, which is all that they hope for."—Rev. John Wilkie (C. P. M.), Indore, India.
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torture rather than of an attempt to relieve suffering.1 In Arabia an ingenious expedient for relieving a patient is "burning holes in the body to let the disease out, branding sick children with red-hot bars, chopping off wounded limbs and sealing them with boiling tar." Who can doubt the dread woes of quackery when such measures as these are employed? Throughout Africa the belief in the influence of evil
The terrors of quackery in Africa.spirits and their ever-active machinations is all-powerful. They are thought to people the very atmosphere and to dwell in a thousand otherwise innocent things which are commonplace features of every-day environment. They are supposed to be forever busy in inflicting trouble and suffering upon humanity. Some of them are good, but the great majority are evil and bent upon doing harm. Sickness or disaster or distress of any kind is considered due to their malign intervention. There are, therefore, two classes of individuals in African communities whose supposed power is either dreaded or eagerly sought. One consists of those who are looked upon as capable of commanding the evil spirits and so controlling and directing their activity. The other consists of those who have power to banish them or render nugatory their influence. They are known respectively as witches and witch-doctors, although the native titles are many and various. Medical practice, therefore, is almost entirely in the hands of these witch-doctors, magicians, diviners, medicine-men, and devil-doctors. They are usually shrewd, cunning, and cruel, sometimes thoroughly demented, or it may be that possibly they are in some instances actually under the awful sway of demons, of whose mysterious activity in the dark realms of heathenism we know little and cannot therefore dogmatize. The service rendered by these weird characters, being a function which pertains exclusively to them, and consisting, according to native ideas, of an actual conflict with malign spirits, whose brooding terror rests upon every heart, is considered as of special value and regarded with reverential awe. The reign of such an awful delusion in the innermost consciousness of ignorant creatures is fearful to contemplate. We who live in the freedom of enlightenment can hardly imagine the dread alarms of a life supposed to be in actual contact with demons, exposed 1 Medical Mission Quarterly (C. M. S.), January, 1896, p. 8.
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to their whims and spites, their deadly anger, and their cruel malignity,1 What an opportunity does all this offer for a species of demoniacal blackmail, and what power is given to one whose ministry is supposed to be an effective remedy for all the sorrows and woes of life! It is no wonder that they turn in their ignorance to one who is regarded as possessing the power to deliver and defend them in the desperate emergencies in which they find themselves. The Rev. R. F. Acland Hood, in a few "Notes on Witchcraft,"
The demoniacal arts of the witch-doctor.published in Central Africa, March, 1895, has described some of the methods by which the supposed presence of witchcraft is discovered, and the remedies which a witch-doctor will apply for the relief of his patients. "To begin with," he remarks, "there are two classes of spiritual practitioners, which we are constantly meeting in African books of travel as the 'witches' and the 'witch-doctors.' The witches, or wachani, are the people (men and women) who know how to make and to use medicines and charms (uchani). If any one wishes to make use of uchani he will first go to a wachani and persuade him by gift to let him have the uchani which he requires. No one, at least here, wishes to use uchani except for the purpose of harming another. If any one is more prosperous than his neighbors, or if he is merely conceited, then let him look out, as he is sure to be bewitched. Uchani is generally practised at night; then the wachani go about, when every 1 "The darkest feature in popular life appears in their bondage to superstitious fears, cunning diviners, and witchcraft. They live in the midst of an invisible world of spiritual beings influencing for good or evil, but chiefly the latter. Shades of departed relatives are their gods (if they have any), to whom they render worship. Serpents are the representatives of the spirits among most tribes, but the Matabele regard crocodiles as such and therefore never kill them. Certain individuals of both sexes act as media, or priests, by whose agency they communicate with the spirit world or the lower regions. The principal name by which they are designated in Zululand is izanusi, literally 'smellers out.' Before discharging their official functions they study a year or two in the school of African prophets, clothe themselves with the skins of serpents and wild beasts, attach to their heads bladders of birds and small animals, tie about their necks dried roots, the claws of lions and panthers, the teeth of crocodiles, and also fasten a leopard's skin about the loins, frequenting desert places and talking to the moon until they become semi-lunatics. Then they begin their divinations, which are essentially the same in all parts of Africa, the natives beating the ground with canes, while the 'spirit-doctors' shout 'Yizwa! yizwa!' ('Hear! hear!') until the spirit is called up from below to designate some One present as a witch or poisoner. The condition of the poor victim thus 'smelt out' is perilous in the extreme. He is generally killed at once and his body given to the jackals and vultures".— "Kaffir Customs," by the Rev. Josiah Tyler, in Illustrated Africa, December, 1895.
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one is in bed. They call to one another, but no one except the specially gifted can hear them. Perhaps they will go in a body to the house of the person to be bewitched. They go naked, and no one can see them. Before they enter the house they wrest open the door and throw some powdered stuff on the fire, which ensures the man's sleeping; then they enter. If the man has been cautious he will have provided himself with a charm to hold in his hand while he sleeps, and then when the wachani come he will awake. As the wachani see him wake they will beseech him not to tell any one of their coming and will offer him large presents to be silent. It is believed that either if he accepts their presents or if he tells the chief the wachani will kill him, but if he refuses the presents and keeps silence he is safe." There are various other methods of accomplishing the purpose of bewitching an enemy, but when this is achieved the universal recourse is to the specialists, who are supposed to be able to cope with the situation. Upon this subject the same author remarks: "Now comes the remedy for witchcraft, which brings in the witch-doctor. But the witch-doctor is called in for everything—not only when a person is bewitched, but when any accident occurs, or if crops fail, or if war is imminent, in fact, in all emergencies. The stock in trade of a witch-doctor is a set of gourds, or horns, or in these days bottles with different medicines in them, which are not 'taken,' but only consulted, and a skin of some small animal, often a squirrel, which is stuffed with uchani. In the eyeholes are sewn two beads. This stuffed skin is generally held by the tail, and is supposed to answer questions put to it by standing up, nodding, etc. When a person wishes to consult a witch-doctor, he will first find out which of them has the best chisango, as their divining instruments are called. Let us suppose him to be going to inquire why his child is ill and what he should do to ensure recovery; the first thing for him to ascertain is whether the witch-doctor has a good chisango; so he will at first try to deceive him. 'My brother was wounded by a leopard out hunting, and we want to know why it happened.' Then the witch-doctor consults his chisango and says, 'No, you haven't come for that reason.' 'A herd of wild boars has been rooting up the crops in my farm, and I want to know how to stop them.' And so he goes on, until he mentions the real cause of his visit. In case the witch-doctor is taken in by any of these stories, the man goes off without paying anything, and makes it known that so-and-so's chisango is of no use; but when the witchdoctor is correct, he is asked to 'prescribe.' " The above description represents the modus operandi in merely one section of Africa, and chiefly in connection with a single tribe on the
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borders of Lake Nyassa.
Burning remedies and fiery tonics.The customs vary in different localities, and there may be said to be innumerable expedients which are in use in the practice of these masters of the black art. We have here to do rather with their remedies, which are sufficiently wonderful and terrible.1 The red-hot iron is often resorted to and applied freely to the quivering flesh of the patient. Burning under various devices is a supposed cure for many distresses. They cut and slash the flesh and rub irritating and painful medicine into the open wounds. It is indeed hardly possible to mention in detail the many absurdly futile ways in which they seek to accomplish their purpose. Another popular function of the medicine-man is administering some mysterious tonic to the warriors on the eve of battle. It is usually the preliminary to some military expedition. When an army is thus called to "eat medicine," some secret concoction by a medicine-man is administered to the warriors with as much formality as attends the reading of an official address to a European army. Unhappily, the ceremonies are often attended with human sacrifice. In addition, animals are slaughtered, the right fore leg being torn off while alive. This must be done without the use of knife or other utensil, by sheer wrenching of native hands. What then happens in connection with these mysterious ceremonies has been described by Dr. Liengme, a Swiss missionary located in the vicinity of Delagoa Bay.2 A similar military rite is described by a correspondent of The Mail (London Times), April 8, 1896, as falling under his observation in Swaziland. "This concoction, when duly finished," he writes, "is administered to the would-be warrior, and so great is its 1 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," pp. 14, 15. 2 "The ox, bellowing and bleeding, staggers away on three legs, amid the immense shouting of all spectators. After some twenty minutes or more the ox is thrust through with a spear and its misery ended. Then the leg of the ox, the 'unknown' medicines from within the king's hut, etc., are brought out and thoroughly mixed in large pots suitable for the purpose, and after this every soldier in the entire army marches up and drinks or swallows his portion out of the general dish. Dr. Liengme" stated that into the pots which he himself examined there had been thrown pieces of human flesh, bones, and hair in quantity sufficient to be easily recognizable ; nor would a physician and a surgeon in large daily practice be easily deceived. After eating the concoction the soldiers hastened with speed to the little river near by, where, owing to the peculiar composition of the medicine, every mortal fear was vehemently eructed, and nothing but bravest of brave courage remained. Then they were ready to attack anything, lion or Portuguese, no matter what—they must dip their spears in blood. So bloodthirsty do they become (owing to having worked themselves into a frenzy) that often they attack each other."—Illustrated Africa, September, 1895, p. 3.
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supposed power that the very minutest dose makes the tsi buts, or young soldier, invulnerable, and casts a spell over his enemies, delivering them into his hands and assuring him victory on all occasions." Facts like these only serve to illustrate that quackery has a far wider scope in Africa than elsewhere and is not confined merely to medical practice. In Madagascar substantially the same malign reign of the witch-doctor prevails.1 In the Pacific Islands the subtle power of the
The sorcerer's art in the Pacific Islands.charms and incantations of the sorcerer is a commonplace of native experience.2 The anger of the spirits is a daily dread, and the expedients adopted in illness are with a view to placating the spirits rather than relieving the patient. "Natives never believe in being sick," writes the Rev. James Chalmers, "from anything but spiritual causes, and consider that death, unless by murder, can take place from nothing but the wrath of the spirits. When there is sickness in a family, all the relatives begin to wonder what it means. The sick person getting no better, they conclude something must be done. A present is given; perhaps food is taken and placed on the sacred place, then removed and divided among friends. The invalid still being no better, a pig is taken on to the sacred place and there speared and presented to the spirits; it is then returned and divided to be eaten. When death comes, great is the mourning, and the cause, if not already known, is still inquired into. It may have been breaking some taboo or doing something the spirits did not like. Soon the body must be buried, and generally a grave is dug under the house. The older women of the family stand in the grave and receive the body, holding it in their hands if a child, or laying it on one side if heavy, saying, 'O great Spirit, you have been angry with us. We presented you with food, and that did not satisfy. We gave a pig, and still that did not satisfy. You have in your wrath taken this. Let that suffice your wrath, and take no more.' The body is thus placed in the grave and buried."3 Among the Indians of North and South America the same terrible superstitions prevail with reference to the causes and remedies of simple illnesses.4 Is it not apparent that if Christian missions had no other 1 The Medical Missionary Record, October, 1894, p. 210. 2 Alexander, "Islands of the Pacific," pp. 154, 155; Paton, "Autobiography," part ii., p. 135. 3 Chalmers, "Pioneering in New Guinea," pp. 329, 330. 4 Josa, "The Apostle of the Indians of Guiana: A Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Rev. W. H. Brett," pp, 38, 39; The South American Missionary Magazine, January, 1894, p. 12; November, 1895, p. 183; The Gospel in all Lands, July, 1894, p. 303; The Mission Field (S. P. G.), March, 1895, pp. 84-88.
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function than to introduce the resources of enlightened medical science among these victims of the wretched delusions of ignorant quackery throughout the world, there would still be a noble mission and an imperative call for the humane messengers of truth? 3. WITCHCRAFT. — This subject in its relations to medical
The spell of demons in pagan realms.practice has been referred to in the previous section. The witch-doctor, or medicine-man, in his well-known rôle as the "smeller out" or "smiter" of evil spirits, depends upon witchcraft as a powerful adjunct in the practice of quackery. He is believed to be the master of all the powers of evil, and able to deliver victims from those diseases and sufferings which are supposed to be produced by malignant spirits. In the present section we shall refer to witchcraft as connected with demonology and occultism. It is indeed a black art and has a fearful sway over the imaginations of those who, through ignorance or dominant credulity, fall under its spell. It prevails to an amazing extent throughout the superstitious Orient and in the pagan realms of fetichism and nature-worship. Wherever it exists it casts a dismal shadow over life, gives a grim and sombre aspect to nature, and turns the commonplace sequences of human experience into terrifying signs of the presence and malign activity of some mysterious and implacable enemy.1 The whole realm of occultism is a favorite camping-ground of the Oriental imagination. The vague lore of Asiatic and African nations is full of the mystic and gruesome enchantments of witchcraft. The true deliverance from the dominion of these wretched delusions is through the entrance into the mind of that truth which can "make us free" from superstition. Healthful and joyous mental vision comes through spiritual companionship with Him who is able to save from all the powers of evil, who has Himself conquered them, and can give even the most ignorant mind grace and wisdom to gain a like victory. Witchcraft has haunted savage life in all sections of the earth, but its great stronghold in its grosser forms is Africa, where it exerts a truly terrible power in the domestic, social, and even political life of the people.2 Its vagaries are innumerable. Where it holds sway it per- 1 Macdonald, "Religion and Myth," chap, vii., on "Witchcraft"; Ratzel, "The
History of Mankind," vol. i., pp. 54, 55. 2 "This class [witch-doctors] have always been at the beck and call of the
chiefs. As soon as any man without much power in the tribe became rich, he was a marked man. The chief was almost certain to set the witch-doctors after him. They brought a charge of witchcraft against him, and he was stripped of his all, and was fortunate if he escaped with his life. From the first the chiefs saw that Christianity was fatal to this part of their power, and they have therefore been its most bitter and steady opponents."—Rev. Brownlee J. Ross (F. C. S.), Cunningham, Transkei, South Africa.
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vades all human experience, and curses with its blighting touch the
Haunted Africa.whole routine of life. It is an ever ready instrument of persecution and revenge, and at any moment may become a swift and fatal weapon in the hands of suspicion. It is often made an engine of torture, and in the service of impostors is an unfailing agency of extortion. It has had a momentous part to play in politics and war, and has been the favorite tool of savage despots. There are chapters still fresh in the history of Western nations which reveal the ungovernable and resistless power of its delusions even among those who have had the advantages of enlightenment and civilization,1 and we can well imagine what must be the cruel records of its sway among those whose minds are darkened and pervaded by superstitious fears. Throughout the West Coast of the African Continent the arts of witchcraft are prevalent. It is supposed by some of the native tribes that a man may turn himself into an animal and in that form may injure his enemy. At Port Lokkoh, as reported by Bishop Ingham, of Sierra Leone, a man was burned in 1854 for having, as it was thought, changed himself into a leopard.2 Among the Bule of West Africa, east of Batanga, the master in the arts of witchcraft is known as ngee. He is supposed to be able to kill or cure at will and to have command of all the secret forces of the spirit world. Even to look upon this incarnate terror is believed to cause death, and when he enters an African village all the women and children and uninitiated men flee as for their lives. He exercises his authority at will over his victims.3 Dr. John Leighton Wilson, formerly a missionary in Africa, and the author of "Western Africa: Its History, Condition, and Prospects," a volume which was pronounced by Dr. Livingstone to be the best book ever written on that part of Africa, has given in a brief paragraph the results of his observation.4 1 Drake, "The Witchcraft Delusion in New England;" Lang, "Cock Lane and Common Sense: A Series of Essays." Cf. also article on "Witchcraft" in "Chambers's Encyclopædia," new edition. 2 Ingham, "Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years," p. 272. 3 The Missionary Review of the World, May, 1895, p. 363. 4 "Witchcraft is a prominent and leading superstition among all the races of Africa, and may be regarded as one of the heaviest curses which rest upon that benighted land. A person endowed with this mysterious art is supposed to possess little less than omnipotence. By his magical arts he can keep back the showers and fill the land with want and distress. Sickness, poverty, insanity, and almost every evil incident to human life are ascribed to its agency. Any man is liable to be charged with it. Every death which occurs in the community is ascribed to witchcraft, and some one consequently is guilty of the wicked deed. The priesthood go to work to find out the guilty person. It may be a brother, a sister, a father; there is no effectual shield against suspicion. Age, the ties of relationship, official prominence, and general benevolence of character are alike unavailing."—Du Bose, "Memoirs of Rev. John Leighton Wilson, D.D.," p. 201.
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Concerning its prevalence in Central Africa, the Rev. J. S. Wimbush, of the Universities' Mission, writes: "The practical
Witchcraft as a religion.religion of the natives may be summed up in the word witchcraft. Their belief in the supernatural seems to come out especially in times of calamity of an kind, as war, sickness, famine, or pestilence. They attribute it to the power of an evil spirit, but also believe that some person among themselves has induced or caused the evil spirit to send it. Having fixed on some person or persons by the help of a wizard or witch-doctor, the accused have to establish their innocence by drinking poison. If they vomit the poison they are no worse, as they have stood the ordeal and are considered innocent. If the poison kills them, they are considered guilty and deserving of death." Among the Ma-shonas, the Matabele, and the Kaffirs the belief in witchcraft is universal.1 So powerful has been its influence among the South African tribes that it has been an historical factor of considerable influence in occasioning war and regulating the attitude of the native tribes to European administration. Wilmot, in his "Expansion of South Africa," gives an account of a disaster in 1857, when, through the medium of witchcraft, the Kaffirs were induced to destroy their cattle as an expedient for defeating the British. The result, as stated in Mr. Wilmot's volume, was the death from starvation of seventy thousand natives.2 The 1 "The Matabele are great believers in witchcraft, and while the late chief
Lobengula was still in power the number of people killed every year was almost incredible. Sometimes whole villages were destroyed, men, women, and children. Every misfortune was attributed to witchcraft, and almost every sickness."—Rev. Charles D. Helm (L. M. S.), Hope Fountain, Matabeleland, Africa. Cf. Carnegie, "Among the Matabele," chap, iii., on "Witchcraft and RainMaking." 2 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," pp. 11, 12. In this connection
the same author remarks : "Nothing more devilishly cruel than witchcraft exists in the world. A rapacious chief, with equally rapacious counsellors, covets the herds and wives of a wealthy man. As a means to obtain possession of them, 'smelling out' by a witch-doctor is resorted to. The victim is charged with having caused some illness or disaster by means of incantations. In vain the unfortunate man begs for death. This is never granted until for many hours, generally for days, he has been subjected to the most inhuman and revolting tortures. From this Europeans have saved the natives, and civilisation can plead that if this alone were the result of its progress it would be more than sufficient for its 1justification."—Ibid., PP- 12, 13.
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Government of Cape Colony has found it so difficult to overcome the subtle and all-powerful thrall of witchcraft that a Bill has been introduced quite recently in the Legislative Council for the effective suppression of its influence. It is known as "The Witchcraft Suppression Act, 1895," and is truly in the interest not only of good government, but of native progress and enlightenment.1 Still another stronghold of sorcery is among the Negroes
The malign power of obeahism.of the West Indies, where what is known as has for many generations exercised a potent sway over the imagination. It is a species of witchcraft by which a malign or blighting spell is supposed to rest upon the victim through the instrumentality of an obeah man or woman. So powerful is the delusion that the person who has been selected seems incapable of resisting the spell, and is either smitten with some secret disease or pines away until death. The obeah thus becomes l The following is the full text of the Bill: "Be it enacted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly thereof, as follows: "1. Whoever imputes to any other person the use of non-natural means in causing any disease in any person or animal, or in causing any injury to any person or property, that is to say, whoever names or indicates any other person as being a wizard or witch (in the Kaffir language Umtakati), shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding two pounds sterling, or in default of payment to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a period not exceeding fourteen days, unless such fine be sooner paid. "2. Whoever, having so named or indicated any person as wizard or witch as aforesaid, shall be proved at his trial under the last preceding section to be by habit and repute a witch-doctor or witch-finder (in the Kaffir language Isanusi) shall be liable, on conviction, in lieu of the punishment provided by the last preceding section, to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding two years, or to corporal punishment not exceeding thirty-six lashes, or to any two or more of such punishments. "3. Whoever employs or solicits any such witch-doctor or witch-finder as aforesaid, so to name or indicate any person as wizard or witch as aforesaid, shall be liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding five pounds, and in default of payment to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding two months, unless such fine be sooner paid. "4. Whoever professes a knowledge of so-called witchcraft or of the use of charms, either as a witch-doctor or witch-finder, and shall advise or undertake to advise any person applying to him how to bewitch or injure any other person or any property, including animals, and any person who shall supply any other person with the pretended means of witchcraft, shall, on conviction, be liable to the punishments provided by section two of this Act. "5. Whoever, on the advice of a witch-doctor or witch-finder, or in the exercise of any pretended knowledge of witchcraft or of the use of charms, shall use or cause to be put into operation such means or processes as he may have been advised or may believe to be cultivated to injure any other person or any property, including animals, shall be liable, on conviction, to the punishments provided by section two of this Act. "6. This Act shall take effect in any district of this Colony on and after any date not earlier than the first day of September, 1895, which may be fixed by any Proclamation extending the operation of this Act to such district. "7. This Act may be cited as 'The Witchcraft Suppression Act, 1895.' "
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a secret agency for working injury and blighting the life of its victim. In his volume entitled "Cruising Among the Caribbees," Dr. C. A. Stoddard has devoted an interesting chapter to this subject. 1 Obeahism has been very prevalent in Jamaica and in other West Indian islands.2 So serious, moreover, were the effects of these superstitious practices that severe laws have been passed against them, the penalty in some instances being death; yet so deeply rooted were they in the credulity of the people that no legislation has been able to prevent the secret resort to this dismal art. In the islands of the Pacific similar delusions have prevailed. This has been notably the case in Hawaii, and even at the present time many natives are under the sway of sorcery. By the instrumentality of a kahuna, or witch, a person is supposed to be able to produce the death of an enemy, and even the advent of the "white doctor" has not been able wholly to deliver the native mind from the power of these impostors, as has been illustrated during the recent visitation of Asiatic cholera.3 The Rev. William Wyatt Gill, in his "Life in the Southern Isles," reports
Soul-hunting in the South Seas. a curious device known as a "soul-trap," which he discovered among the so-called "sacred men" of Danger Island. By means of this trap the sorcerer was supposed to be able actually to obtain possession of the soul, which when once entangled in its meshes could be hurried off to the shades of the spirit world and served up as a dainty morsel at a mystic feast of spiritual cannibalism. "It 1 Cf. also "Witchcraft in the Caribbees," in The New York Observer, May 9, 1895. 2 "Jamaica Enslaved and Free," pp. 125-131; Work and Workers in the Mission Field, April, 1896, p. 164. 3 "Asiatic Cholera among Hawaiians," by the Rev. S. .E. Bishop, in The Independent, September 26, 1895. Cf. also an article on "Witch-Doctors in Hawaii," published in The New York Tribune, June 21, 1895.
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would then be speedily known throughout the island world that so-and-so had lost his soul, and great would be the lamentation." The sorcerer must thereupon be propitiated by elaborate offerings, and every effort made to induce him to restore the captured soul. This was often accomplished, but sometimes it was pronounced impossible. The soulless victim would then give himself up to despair and fall a prey to such profound mental distress that he would eventually die.1 In New Guinea and the New Hebrides we have accounts of similar uses of sorcery, or witchcraft, for the same base designs. Their sorcerers would claim the power of life and death, health and sickness, and seem to find little difficulty in exercising it. The black art known as nahak is reported by Dr. Paton to be the cause of most of the bloodshed and terror upon Tanna.2 In "Cannibals Won for Christ," by the Rev. Oscar Michel-sen, the author writes concerning Tongoa, of the New Hebrides group : "Every village had its sacred man, who was sometimes a chief. He undertook many functions, sacrificing to the spirits to avert their anger on behalf of sick persons, and practising kaimasi (a kind of witchcraft) to compass the evil or bring about the death of obnoxious individuals" (p. 119). Even in the more civilized countries of the Orient we
Belief in demon possession among Asiatic peoples.find a lively belief in the arts of witchcraft. So impressive have been the evidences of demon possession in China that a distinguished missionary, after a residence of forty years in that empire, has written a large volume upon "Demon Possession and Allied Themes," chiefly based upon what he has observed among the Chinese, and upon information which he has gathered from India, Japan, and other lands.3 The evidence which he brings forward in support of the theory of the actual fact of demon possession in China is sufficiently startling and curious, whatever may be the correct interpretation of it. Unhappily, the victims of supposed possession are often treated with shocking barbarity, cases of which are mentioned by Dr. Christie.4 At all events, the Chinese are profoundly under the influence of the system known as fung-shui, which, although regarded as a capital crime according to the Sacred Edict, is one of the mightiest forces in the social life of the people.5 1 Gill, "Life in the Southern Isles," pp. 180-183. Cf. Ratzel, "The History
of Mankind," vol. i., p. 47. 2 Paton, "Autobiography," part i., p. 227. 3 Nevius, "Demon Possession and Allied Themes." 4 Christie, "Ten Years in Manchuria," p. 86. 5 Moule, "New China and Old," p. 231; Martin, "A Cycle of Cathay," p, 41.
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The profession of fortune-teller is common, and the constant consultation of these diviners is a favorite expedient of the people."1 In Japan the belief in demon possession is found among the Ainu.2 In Korea the exorcism of spirits has the dignity of a profession.3 In India, especially in the Native States, a considerable belief in witchcraft still prevails, although throughout the peninsula as a whole severe restraint is put upon all cases. In Siam and Laos the usual resort in the event of sickness is to the spirit-doctor, that through him it may be ascertained whose spirit it is that is causing the trouble. The unfortunate victim of illness is often punished unmercifully to compel him to tell who it is that is the author of his affliction. If in his delirium or excitement some name is mentioned, possibly that of his best friend, the evidence is regarded as sufficient, and the culprit is warned that he must flee for his life.4 It is unnecessary, however, to give further instances of the melancholy sway of these spiritual delusions and the piercing sorrows that they bring to their superstitious victims. 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. ii., pp. 260 ff. "No people are more enslaved by fear of the unknown than the Chinese, and none resort more frequently to sortilege to ascertain whether an enterprise will be successful or a proposed remedy avail to cure. This desire actuates all classes, and thousands and myriads of persons take advantage of it to their own profit. The tables of fortune-tellers and the shops of geomancers are met at street corners, and a strong inducement to repair to the temples is to cast lots as to the success of the prayers offered."—Ibid., p. 260. Cf. also "Sorcery in the Celestial Empire," in The Literary Digest, June 9, 1894. 2 Batchelor, "The Ainu of Japan," p. 196. 3 The Korean Repository, December, 1895, p. 484; April, 1896, pp. 163-165. 4 "The Lao people believe in possession by evil spirits, and this leads them to practise many degrading things; for example, if a sick person becomes delirious, his friends believe that he is possessed by the spirit of some one who is still living. The spirit-doctor is called, and attempts to ascertain from the sick one the name of the person whose spirit is troubling him. In order to elicit this from the unconscious and delirious sufferer, he pinches, scratches, or beats the patient, often inflicting great bodily injury. Under such treatment the sick one sometimes pronounces in his delirium the name of some neighbor or friend or enemy. The spirit-doctor has done his work. There seems to be but little care for the recovery of the sick one, but the whole neighborhood begins a series of persecutions against the one whose name was mentioned by the patient. Threatening letters are sent to him, informing him that he is accused of witchcraft and warning him to leave the country. Unless he leaves at once, he is further tormented. His cattle are driven away or maimed or killed, or his orchard is cut down. His house is often torn down and burned, and he and his family are compelled to flee to distant parts, homeless, 'friend-less, and penniless, and with a stigma upon them which frequently renders intercourse with others impossible."—Dr. J. W. McKean (P. B. F. M. N.), Chieng Mai, Laos.
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4. NEGLECT OF THE POOR AND SICK.—Tenderness and sympathy in the
The compassionate spirit of Christianity. presence of suffering are characteristic of Christian rather than non-Christian society. Even the most cultured heathen nations of antiquity seem to have been lacking in those refined sensibilities which are so distinctively the insignia of Christianity. We search in vain among barbarous races for any sustained manifestation of that humane spirit which instinctively seeks to relieve distress and minister to the necessities of the helpless and afflicted. The heart of the world when untouched by Christian sentiment has always been singularly callous to the appeal of weakness and suffering.1 Christ has taught with the force of a new revelation the precious mission of sympathy and the sacred duty of healing. The consciousness of kinship and the instinctive promptings of natural affection have in varying degrees exerted their influence among all peoples, in some instances with results far more marked than in others. In the case of individuals, families, and tribes striking exceptions, no doubt, may be noted, which reveal unusual tenderness of heart and kindly habits in the treatment of dependents. As a rule, however, the heartless attitude of the non-Christian world in the presence of distress and helplessness, especially outside the bonds of kinship, has ever been a sad commentary upon "the brotherhood of man." The fact that this is in many instances due to ignorance, incompetence, and lack of facilities, or is the result of misdirected efforts prompted by superstitious notions, while it in a measure excuses the fault, does not alleviate the miseries of the victims. In some countries, as,
Philanthropic needs of Japan.for instance, Japan, the social disorganization attendant upon the transition from an old to a new order may be largely responsible for the failure to care properly for those in distress. According to the old feudal system, the suzerain lord was responsible for the welfare of all his retainers; but this custom has now passed away, and as yet no adequate substitute has been incorporated in the new social régime. There is at the present time great need of charitable organizations in Japan.2 The poor are sadly neg- 1 Uhlhorn, "Christian Charity in the Ancient Church," chap. i. 2 "The old feudal system made it obligatory upon the feudal lord to care for all of his retainers, and they were united in families, so that, while such cases of neglect doubtless existed, it could not be said to be marked. With the giving way of that system society became disorganized. The Government could not take at once the place of the feudal lord, and time must elapse before society could adjust itself to the new conditions. Ancient class distinctions also stood in the way. During this interval there was not a little suffering from sheer neglect. Hospitals for the sick, dumb, deaf, etc., are all new in Japan. If the Japanese fail in caring for these classes it happens rather out of lack of system and knowledge of how to aid them than out of indifference to their wants."—Rev. David S. Spencer (M. E. M. S.), Nagoya, Japan.
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lected, as well as the many lepers, and although hospitals and charitable institutions are being established, it is to be hoped that the Japanese will soon institute more systematic and adequate provision for their dependent classes.1 In other countries much of this neglect is the result of sheer ignorance or incapacity to meet the emergencies which arise, or it may be due to dependence upon resources suggested by superstition, which are not only utterly useless, but in many instances aggravate the sufferings of the victim. The idea that sickness is the result of sin and so an infliction of the gods, or an evidence of the displeasure of demons, as we have previously noted, prevails to a great extent. The recourse is therefore not to curative expedients, but rather to sacrifices with a view to appeasing the evil spirits. In Assam, for example, a long process of inane experiment is necessary to ascertain the cause of illness. Usually the method of discovery is through the breaking of eggs, and the revelation comes through some occult sign, which is as meaningless as it is absurd.2 1 "Prior to the present era Japan had no organized charities. There was little occasion for them. Every neighborhood, or daimiate, cared to some extent for its own poor with a sort of family feeling. Though the cases of suffering and neglect were numerous, they were not obtruded on society at large. The only beggars, speaking in general terms, were priests, pilgrims, and wandering samurai, and they were aided by individuals as much for the blessing or protection received as for the help given. The blind and dumb were taught, but not by society at large, a few simple arts, and thus became self-supporting. Nothing was done for any other class of unfortunates."—Pettee, "A Chapter of Mission History in Modern Japan," p. 141. 2 "There are egg-breakers in every village, and they are called wherever there is sickness. The family buy a basketful of eggs, no matter how old they are. In fact, almost every family in the village keep the eggs which their hens lay for six or twelve months, so that they may be ready at hand when there is any need. The egg-breaker sits down and goes through a process of conjuring. He throws a few grains of rice on his board several times and washes them away again with water. Then he stands up, takes an egg in his right hand, and throws it with force on the board so that it breaks in pieces. It is by the pieces of the shell that he professes to discover the cause of the disease. If certain pieces lie convex or concave in certain places on the board, they are supposed to indicate the cause of the disease and whether the person will live or die. So one egg after another is broken until some sign is given which is interpreted to spit the purpose or preconceived idea of the conjurer. In the same way it is found out what sacrifice should be offered to the demons. All this is done in front of the house and takes place day after day as long as the person is ill. While it is being done the sick person lies and groans in the house, without anybody paying him any attention whatever. This is an indication of the way in which the people neglect the sick, although they spend all they have in order to cure them. It is not in their case altogether a want of care, but a thorough misdirection of efforts, which deprives the sufferer of all benefit. I have no doubt that, humanly speaking, many die from neglect and starvation."—Rev. Robert Evans (W. C. M. M. S.), Mawphlang, Shillong, Assam.
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In India the superstitious reverence for the
Ancient customs in India.Ganges has induced the custom of exposing the sick, especially those who are supposed to be fatally ill, upon the banks of the river. The practice arises from motives partly devout and partly benevolent, with a view to conferring benefit upon the person thus exposed, as death upon the banks of the sacred river is supposed to secure a speedy entrance into heaven. The whole subject is carefully and fully treated by Wil-kins, whose information is derived almost entirely from Hindu sources.1 The custom was far more prevalent in the past than it is at present. When missionaries first entered India the scenes on the banks of the Ganges presented a panorama of horrors. The helpless and suffering were placed there to die, frequently with their mouths and ears filled with mud, by friends, who thus sought to secure their speedy death in proximity to those sacred waters. In spite of the supervision of the present Government of India, the old customs have not as yet entirely disappeared.2 Many other instances could be given illustrating the baneful results of mistaken ideas as to the nature of illness and the methods of cure. The neglect thus induced by superstition and ignorance is not, therefore, a clear indication of heartless cruelty, but may be the result of sheer incapacity to provide a proper remedy. 1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 440-453. 2 "A missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel reported a journey which he took last October, in company with others, upon the Ganges, the boat being towed up the stream by natives, who walked upon the banks. This missionary reports that one day, while they were ascending slowly, a man was seen lying at the edge of the water, while on the bank above eight or nine men sat smoking their pipes and chatting. It appeared that three or four of these men were the grown-up sons, and the rest the brothers or near relatives of the man whom they had left to die at the edge of the stream. They did not wish him to die in his house, fearing that his spirit would haunt it, so they had already performed the funeral rites, expecting that the man would soon die. It seems that when the people have not the means for burning the whole body they burn the tongue, lips, and beard, and this horrible cruelty was committed upon this relative while still living, and who, to all appearances, might have lived for months. The sufferings of the man must have been intolerable, and though his sons promised to take him home and care for him, the probability is that after the interruption was over they filled the man's mouth with mud and threw him into the river. Hinduism tolerates such things even to-day!"—The Missionary Herald, April, 1894, p. 143.
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There are still other cases of neglect resulting from a
The treament of the sick in China.failure to carry into practice theories and acknowledged obligations which if duly recognized and executed would relieve much suffering and misery. In China, for example, there is a code of charity having both a religious and social basis, but it is largely inoperative through wilful neglect and indifference. Its stimulus is mainly the desire of obtaining merit as the reward of good works, and where this stimulus is sufficiently vigorous much may be done, but if the craving for merit grows cold the good works lapse into inactivity. There are scattered here and there homes and asylums for the aged, the friendless, the orphans, and the incapable, but side by side with these institutions we find much shocking callousness to suffering.1 In many sections of China, however, there are no hospitals, dispensaries, or charitable institutions, and the afflicted classes are left to the most awful sufferings.2 Cases of cruel neglect arise from the lack of any suitable provision for the insane, or from the dread of contact with loathsome diseases, or on account of superstitious fear of the presence and intervention of evil spirits. The insane are often confined and chained under circumstances of shocking misery, while the sick, if homeless, are transported from doorway to doorway, since it is the legal custom to hold a man 1 "One of the most striking of all the many exhibitions of the Chinese lack of
sympathy is to be found in their cruelty. It is popularly believed by the Chinese that the Mohammedans in China are more cruel than the Chinese themselves. However this may be, there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who knows the Chinese that they display an indifference to the sufferings of others which is probably
not to be matched in any other civilised country."—Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," pp. 212, 213. 2 "We have here no hospitals or dispensaries, except those of missionaries ; no blind schools, with the same exception; no leper asylums but those established by Christians; no care for the insane, the paralyzed, or the poor. The sick if wealthy are cared for, if poor are neglected. If friendless they are put out to die on the street without food or sufficient clothing, and are moved from door to door, as the person on whose door-step the body is found has to provide a coffin. 'You are not allowed to die opposite the Telegraph Office, as it is a government building,' was a statement I heard yelled into the ears of a dying man last summer. So the telegraph employees moved him to an adjoining dust-heap. "In winter benevolent persons give away boiled rice, wadded clothes, matting for huts and straw for beds; but this is an unusual thing and is done as a work of private merit, not as a public duty. We have institutions for saving infant girls, endowed by the Chinese to prevent infanticide. There are also to be found asylums for 'Friendless Old and Virtuous Widows,' built and endowed by natives as meritorious works."—Rev. Joseph S. Adams (A. B. M. U.), Hankow, Province of Hupeh, China.
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responsible for the funeral expenses of a stranger dying at his gate, and he is, moreover, exposed to blackmail under such suspicious circumstances. In Korea an instance is recorded, in a recent communication from a missionary, in which a sick man was hurriedly transported from village to village for a period of five days, without food, the inhabitants of each village fearing, in case he should die within its precincts, "that his spirit would remain to haunt them and work them mischief."1 Aside, however, from the instances already mentioned, there are
The pitiless fate of the helpless and suffering.numberless cases of neglect of the poor and the sick which are the result of pure heartlessness, and are productive of harrowing sufferings.2 The aged are cast out to die or exposed to wild beasts or to the lingering ravages of starvation. Cases of desperate illness or contagious diseases are left without attention or the victims are consigned in some secluded place to their fate. In many lands lepers are utter outcasts, without sympathy or care, and in some instances are put to death. "Lepers and people suffering from unpleasant diseases are usually destroyed," writes the Rev. G. M. Lawson, of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa. The blind and deformed must shift for themselves.3 The poor are indeed friendless, and can only hope to prolong their lives as they are able to beg for sustenance. Not infrequently the sick and the aged are cruelly killed, in some instances by being buried alive.4 This last crime has been practised in the case of lepers,5 lunatics,6 and 1 The Missionary Review of the World, August, 1894, p. 595. 2 "But what does sickness mean to millions of our fellow-creatures in heathen lands? Throughout the East sickness is believed to be the work of demons. The sick person at once becomes an object of loathing and terror, is put out of the house, is taken to an outhouse, is poorly fed and rarely visited; or the astrologers, or priests, or medicine-men, or wizards assemble, beating big drums and gongs, blowing horns, and making the most fearful noises. They light gigantic fires and dance round them with their unholy incantations. They beat the sick person with clubs to drive out the demon. They lay him before a roasting fire till his skin is blistered, and then throw him into cold water. They stuff the nostrils of the dying with aromatic mixtures or mud, and in some regions they carry the chronic sufferer to a mountain-top, placing barley balls and water beside him, and leave him to die alone."—Mrs. Isabella Bird Bishop, "Heathen Claims and Christian Duty," address given in Exeter Hall, November 1, 1893. 3 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 196. 4 Chalmers and Gill, "Work and Adventure in New Guinea," p. 299. Cf. Alexander, "The Islands of the Pacific," p. 395. 5 The Missionary Review of the World, April, 1895, p. 267. Cf. Bailey, "The Lepers of Our Indian Empire," p. 72. 6 A missionary to the Laos people writes: "Two of their number became crazy, and, as was the custom, they were tied up for a time; but as they grew no better, they were taken out and buried alive in spite of their cries and pleading."—Mrs. S C. Peoples (P. B. F. M. N.), Laos, Siam.
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also infants, who among some degraded races are buried alive in case the mother dies. While it is not customary in China actually to bury children alive, yet what is hardly less cruel is all too common. In case of the serious illness of an infant, it is placed on one side pending the issue. If death ensues, it is cast into the street, to be picked up, carried off in a cart, and taken to a common pit outside the city walls.1 References confirmatory of these statements could be multiplied, but the facts are so notorious that there is no necessity for other than general statements concerning them. 5. UNCIVILIZED AND CRUEL CUSTOMS.—The social habits of heathenism
What are the standards of civilization?referred to in previous sections have certainly not been lacking either in barbarity or in cruelty. There remain, however, some customs, not as yet mentioned, which are beyond question cruel, and others which if judged by the standards of a true civilization—such as a consensus of the average culture of Christendom would sanction and enforce—must be designated as indecent and uncivilized, if not brutal. It is not sufficient to say in challenging this statement that many of these customs are regarded as unobjec- 1 "When a child sickens it has, according to the means and intelligence of the parents, the same anxious care and medical attendance that would be given among us; but if remedies fail of effect and death is apparently near, the situation changes at once. The little thing is stripped naked and placed on the mud or brick floor just inside the outer door. The parents leave it there and watch the issue. If it survives the ordeal, which is seldom the case, it is a true child of their own flesh and blood; if it dies, it never was their child, and is thrown into the street. No power could induce them to give it proper burial in the family resting-place for the dead. If you lived in Peking you would be surprised never to see a child's funeral pass, but if you go into the street very early in the morning you would find the explanation. You would meet a large covered vehicle, drawn by two oxen, having a sign across the front stating its horrible office, and piled to the brim with the bodies of children. Sometimes there are a hundred in the cart at once, thrown in as garbage, nearly all of them naked, a few tied up in old reed baskets, and fewer, never more than one or two, in cheap board coffins. These carts go about the streets each night, pick up these pitiable remains, some of them mutilated by dogs ; they are thrown in like so much wood and taken to a pit outside the city walls, into which they are dumped, then covered with quicklime."—Woman's Work for Woman, February, 1896, pp. 31, 32, quoted from "The Real Chinaman," by Holcombe. "When walking on the wall of the city not long since I found the head of a child, its body having been all eaten by the dogs. Every morning a cart goes around the city and gathers up the dead children which have been 'thrown away.' When a baby dies, instead of burying it they simply throw it out, where it will be gathered up and hauled away by this ox-cart."—Professor Isaac T. Headland (M. E. M. S.), Peking, China.
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tionable by those who practise them. This, if true, only indicates faulty standards of civilization and shows that they need a thorough reconstruction. Civilization is much more than a local subjective code which any barbarian can determine for himself. The mere fact that he is a barbarian renders him incompetent to fix the standards of social order and refinement. Civilization is the matured product of intellectual culture and material progress formed under the guiding influence of religion, morality, decency, justice, brotherhood, knowledge, science, industrial enterprise, and the inventive genius of man. Its goal is prosperity, peace, happiness, and the highest good of the race.1 Its code consists of those principles, laws, and customs which have become regulative among the enlightened nations of the earth, and have been drawn from the higher and purer sources of morality and culture. The elevating and fixing of refined standards of civilization is an achievement which cannot be surrendered at the dictum of a less civilized society, nor levelled down to coincide with the views and traditions of those peoples who have not yet passed the stage of barbarism. Civilization at its best must rather be maintained and cherished as a helpful incentive and guiding standard to communities which are still in a state of arrested development, under the power of blinding ignorance or degrading custom. The
Some customes which are uncivilized and cruel.specifications which seem to call for notice under this general head of uncivilized and cruel customs are such as foot-binding, barbarous and filthy manners, uncleanness in person and habits, lack of domestic privacy, insufficient clothing of the body, promiscuous bathing, disgusting peculiarities in diet, abominable dances and orgies, ascetic cruelties, and heathenish burial rites. 1 An admirable definition of civilization was given by Lord Russell, Chief Justice of Great Britain, in his Address on Arbitration before the American Bar Association at Saratoga, August 20, 1896. His words are as follows: "What indeed is true civilization? By its fruit you shall know it. It is not dominion, wealth, material luxury; nay, not even a great literature and education widespread, good though these things be. Civilization is not a veneer; it must penetrate to the very heart and core of societies of men. Its true signs are thought for the poor and suffering, chivalrous regard and respect for woman, the frank recognition of human brotherhood, irrespective of race or color or nation or religion, the narrowing of the domain of mere force as a governing factor in the world, the love of ordered freedom, abhorrence of what is mean and cruel and vile, ceaseless devotion to the claims of justice."—The Review of Reviews (American edition), September, 1896, p. 320.
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The process of foot-binding has been
Foot-binding in China.accurately described by Miss Adele M. Fielde, long a resident of China, in her "Pagoda Shadows." The suffering inflicted is no doubt most distressing and in some cases intense.1 Taking all China together, it is estimated that "probably nine-tenths of the women have bound feet,"2 The origin of the practice seems to be obscure. It was first known in the imperial household during the T'ang dynasty. It is said to have been adopted as a disguise to natural deformity. At present it is a tool of vanity, and has been made an arbitrary sign of respectability. It was not known in the classical period, and made its appearance about fourteen hundred years after the time of Confucius. It cannot therefore be said to have the sanction of the Chinese sages. It has, however, so firmly established itself in Chinese society that the emperors themselves have been 1 "The bandages used in misshaping the feet are woven in small hand-looms, and are about two inches wide and ten feet long. One end of the bandage is laid on the inside of the instep; thence it is carried over the four small toes, drawing them down upon the sole; then it passes under the foot, over the instep, and around the heel, drawing the heel and toe nearer together, making a bulge on the instep, and a deep niche in the sole underneath; thence it follows its former course until the bandage is all applied, and the last end is sewn down firmly on the underlying cloth. Once a month or oftener, the feet, with the bandages upon them, are put into a bucket of hot water and soaked. Then the bandages are removed, the dead skin is rubbed off, the foot is kneaded more fully into the desired shape, pulverized alum is laid on, and clean bandages quickly affixed. If the bandages are long left off, the blood again circulates in the feet, and the rebinding is very painful. The pain is least when the feet are so firmly and so constantly bound as to be benumbed by the pressure of the bandages. It not infrequently happens that the flesh becomes putrescent during the process of binding, and portions slough off from the sole. Sometimes a toe or more drops off. In this case the feet are much smaller than they could else be made, and elegance is secured at the cost of months of suffering. The dolor ordinarily continues about a year, then gradually diminishes, till at the end of two years the feet are dead and painless. During this time the victim of fashion sleeps only on her back, lying crosswise the bed, with her feet dangling over the side, so that the edge of the bedstead presses on the nerves behind the knees in such a way as to dull the pain somewhat. There she swings her feet and moans, and even in the coldest weather cannot wrap herself in a coverlet, because every return of warmth to her limbs increases the aching. The sensation is said to be like that of having the joints punctured with needles. While the feet are being formed they are useless, and their owner moves about the room to which she is confined by putting her knees on two stools, so that her feet will not touch the floor, and throwing her weight upon one knee at a time, while she moves the stools alternately forward with her hands. When the feet are completely remodeled there is a notch in the middle of the sole deep enough to conceal a silver dollar put in edgewise across the foot; the four small toes are so twisted that their ends may be seen on the inside of the foot below the ankle, and the broken and distorted bones of the middle of the foot are pressed into a mass where the instep should be; the shape is like a hen's head, the big toe representing the bill. There is little beside skin and bone below the knee. The foot cannot be stood upon without its bandages, and can never be restored to its natural shape. It is a frightful and fetid thing. No bound-footed woman ever willingly lets her bare feet be seen, even by those who are likewise maimed. She wears little cotton shoes when abed, putting, as it were, her night-cap on her feet."—Fielde, "Pagoda Shadows," pp. 40-42. 1 Ibid., p. 45.
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unable to dislodge it. No Manchu lady, it is said, binds her feet, and, strange to say, "the Empress of China and the highest ladies of the imperial court allow their feet to grow to their natural form and size. Foot-binding is therefore in defiance of imperial example."1 Dr. Henry is of the opinion that "any persistent attempt on the part of the Government to interfere with the practice would probably lead to rebellion."2 Dr. Talmage, of Amoy, has expressed his opinion that foot-binding is one great cause of the prevalence of infanticide in China,3 and this opinion is confirmed by a statement made by the Rev. F. P. Gilman.4 It is a hopeful sign of the passing of this deplorable custom that in connection with Christian enlightenment the powerful persuasions of Christianity are beginning to undermine its social status, and that And-Foot-Binding Societies are now a recognized feature of Christian missions in China. 1 Woman's Work in the Far East, May, 1894, pp. 117-120. Cf. Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 50. 2 There are some indications, however, that the subject is not to be forever
ignored in Chinese official circles. In the last medical report of the Chinese Maritime Customs (under the supervision of Sir Robert Hart) reference is made by the medical officer at Chungking to "the injuries frequently arising from the practice of compressing the feet of women and girls. It appears that the women of Szechuen Province, and especially of Chungking, bind the feet more tightly than in other districts in the Yang-tsze valley. The practice, too, is more general, for the very poor, as well as the farming community, bind the feet and seem to regard feet of the natural size in women as reproachfully as do the wealthy classes. When questioned closely, not one woman in a hundred will deny that she is a constant sufferer owing to the tight bandages. Many foreigners in China imagine that after a woman reaches maturity she is free from pain, but according to this authority this is not the case. Dr. Macartney, the writer of the report, never found an elderly woman who did not complain of pain. Women with compressed feet cannot stand for any length of time without great suffering, in addition to the agony endured in the early period of binding. Paralysis of the legs frequently ensues on the practice, and in every case treated by him the patient recovered rapidly when the feet were unbound and left free. Eczema and ulceration also are common, not amongst the poor only, but also amongst the wealthy and official classes. In several cases within his own practice gangrene, calling for amputation, followed on compression, and in two cases nature had amputated both feet after gangrene caused by bandaging."—The Mail (London Times), May 27, 1896. 3 "Report of Shanghai Conference, 1877," p. 137. 4 "Foot-binding is common among the Chinese [in Hainan], though the poverty of the people keeps it from becoming very prevalent. Among the Loi, or aboriginal population of the island of Hainan it is almost unknown. Where foot-binding is practised there is a great deal of infanticide, while in regions where it is not known this evil does not prevail."—Rev. F. P. Gilman (P. B. F. M. N.), Hainan.
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It is not worth while to describe in detail the
Uncleanly habits.filthy habits and the unclean ways of the heathen world. It is as a rule unkempt, malodorous, and monotonously repulsive. There are exceptions, of course, in every land, and many in stances of cleanly ways and refined instincts, which only serve to make more offensive the habits of the multitude. In some cases, as, for example, among the better class of Japanese, there is exceptional cleanliness of person ; yet even in Japan we find the Ainu, whose habits are especially objectionable. As a rule, however, heathenism in its more savage haunts sits in squalor, filth, and imperturbable dirtiness. A description of the Karens,1 given by one who resides among them, might serve for many other places where the statements would be equally applicable. The question of clothes is one upon which Christian civilization
Unseemly nudity.has a very firm and pronounced opinion. Whatever variety and adaptability there may be in the styles of clothing in different countries, the person should be decently covered, and this surely is not the case as yet among most savage races. Among semi-civilized peoples, and even within the precincts of civilization, there are customs in dress which are certainly not prompted by the truer instincts of re- 1 "The filthiness of the heathen Karens, especially those in the mountains, almost beggars description. They seldom bathe their bodies and never wash their clothing. They have a superstition that it is dangerous to bathe when affected with anything that causes fever, and that to bathe the body when there is an open sore anywhere on it is sure to make the sore worse. As there is a great deal of fever in the mountains, and open sores are very general, it is rare that all the conditions are favorable, and bathing is consequently very seldom attempted. As to washing such beds as they possess, or their clothing, such a thing is practically unknown. The washing of the vessels which they use for holding their food is as unusual as washing their clothing. It is a common custom to have the pig-pen under the house."-Rev. W. I. Price (A. B. M. U.), Henzada, Burma. Cf. also letter from Dr. J. N. Gushing (A. B. M. U.), of Rangoon, Burma, in The Independent, January 18, 1894, p. 15.
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finement. For a race as advanced as the Japanese their habits in this respect are open to criticism. That they do not recognize the indecorum of the customs which prevail among them is to their discredit, and until there is a decided change in Japanese ways the influence of such laxity cannot but be degrading to the social life of the people. It is noticeable that Japanese Christians "at once become more careful about exposing the person, even among themselves." A missionary writes: "It must in truth be said that there is now in Japan much less nudity than there used to be, but there is room for great and immediate improvement upon present customs." In connection with scantiness of clothing, the idea seems to have prevailed
Barbaric toilets.from ancient times that tattooing and a graceless overloading with ornaments must supplement the lack of clothing. The tattooing process is often most elaborately grotesque and hideous, as is the case among the Chins of Burma, the Maoris, and the island populations of the East Indies and the South Seas. In its complete and fantastic forms it produces corrugated ridges of flesh protruding in the shape of ugly and irregular designs, turning the face, which is usually selected for the highest exhibition of the art, into a shocking caricature of the human features.1 Tattooing is known also in Japan, India, Formosa, Africa, and among the Indian tribes of North and South America. The clumsy and even painful profusion of barbaric ornaments worn upon the lips, nose, ears, neck, and other parts of the person is one of the signs of savagery which only the refining power of Christian enlightenment is able to banish.2 Promiscuous bathing, as in Japan,
Promiscuous bathing.with all due allowance for what may be said in justification of it as an immemorial custom, and granting that it should not be regarded as a manifest indication of immorality or even of indelicacy among the Japanese,3 is yet a habit which they will inevitably abandon as they become more responsive to the spirit of a sensitive and refined civilization. In other countries it is very rarely tolerated, or if practised at all, is recognized as objectionable and something to be concealed. 1 Robley, "Moko; or, Maori Tattooing"; Vincent, "Actual Africa," pp. 432,
439; Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i., pp. 195, 196. 2 Tyler, "Forty Years among the Zulus," p. 61; Rowley, "Twenty Years in
Central Africa," p. 9; Vincent, "Actual Africa," p. 438; Work and Workers in the Mission Field, February, 1893, p. 55. 3 Bacon, "Japanese Girls and Women," pp. 258-260.
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In the matter of diet,
Loathsome diet.while there is much that is repulsive in almost every land, yet nothing seems quite so loathsome as the carrion-eating of the low castes and otitcastes in India.1 Dr.Uhl, an American Lutheran missionary at Guntur, writes: "The non-caste people have the foul and physically defiling habit of eating the carcasses of animals which have died from disease and which often are but a little departure from carrion. The results are seen in the puffy nature of the face and body of those who unceasingly follow this habit, and in their passionate nature." The prevalence of abominable dances,
Abominable dances.marked by wild and unnatural orgies, is characteristic of savage life. These dances are sometimes inspired by the spirit of war. Again, they are religious, or they are festal and social in their character. In many instances they are obscene revels, and present temptations which no savage nature is able to resist. In describing one of these performances in Micronesia, the Rev. Francis M. Price (A. B. C. F. M.) speaks of it as "a most subtle device of Satan, and his most powerful weapon, doing far more harm than all the wars and other evils combined. It is exciting, furnishes the only opportunity that their natural vanity has for expressing itself in decorating the body, and is licentious through and through."2 A similar incident in Africa is commented upon by Mr. George D. Adamson, a missionary among the Bakete in the Congo State.3 1 Thoburn, "India and Malaysia," p. 401. "The chuckler (or cobbler)—at least as I have had occasion to know him—has very much original sin in his nature. He has fallen low among the lowest. But that he can articulate human sounds and mend boots, there is very little to differentiate him from the beast whose hide he tans. Filth is his natural element, and he revels in it. His clothes and his habitation (both very limited in dimensions) are only less filthy than his habits and person. His talk, vile at the best, often reeks with filthiest abuse. He smokes bhang, drinks toddy, and, when he can get it, gluts himself on deceased animals."—Rev, Alfred Dumbarton (W. M. S.), Shimoga, Mysore, India, in Work and Workers in the Mission Field, August, 1895, p. 335. 2 The Missionary Herald, December, 1895, p. 503. 3 Mr. Adamson speaks of visiting the town of Kasenga, where a heathen dance was about to be held. He writes as follows: "As I passed through the main square in the town, I noted that they were sweeping it most thoroughly. On inquiry I found they were going to have one of their evening dances; not the comparatively innocent things indulged in at home, but a real heathenish dance, in which the women will appear minus the little clothes they usually wear, and with the men they will go through the most fantastic and beastly, as well as, to our mind, the most immoral capers imaginable. As this dance proceeds, the 'doctor' (for that is what they call this much-feared man among them) will come out of his little house in the centre of the square and go through the most vile movements, as well as say some most abominable things. His wicked capers form the pattern on which the people model theirs. When he changes his antics a new fashion in these abominations sets in. It is at once seen that until his fell power is broken there is not much chance of doing these people good."—Mr. George D. Aclamson (P. B. F. M. S.), Luebo, Congo Free State, in The Missionary, June, 1894, p. 239. Cf. also Macdonald, "Religion and Myth," pp. 44, 45.
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Ascetic cruelties have been
Tainted asceticism.referred to in a previous section, where self-torture was under consideration. Eastern asceticism is often accompanied by gross features, stamping it with a demoralizing taint. Besides its vulgar character, the cruel nature of many of its exhibitions makes it a degrading and hardening spectacle for those who habitually contemplate it. It prevails extensively in India, except in its more objectionable forms, which have been prohibited by law. The customs associated with
Funeral orgies.burial services are often barbaric and deplorable. A bereavement, sad and dreary enough in itself, becomes the occasion of extortion, and involves an amount of expensive ceremonialism which is extremely burdensome. It is often accompanied by rites and ceremonies which are debasing in their character, and as frequently it presents an opportunity for outbursts of barbarous fanaticism or the indulgence in wicked orgies, which would be objectionable at any time, but become shockingly so in the presence of death. In fact, one of the most beautiful and vivid touches of the religion of Christ is the transformation it works in the presence of death. There is hardly a more striking manifestation of the social tendencies of Christianity, as contrasted with those of heathenism, than that which is revealed at a Christian funeral when compared with the customs incidental to heathen burial. Miss Adele Fielde writes concerning
Mortuary customes of the Chinese and Parsis.the "Mortuary Customs" of China: "When the Chinese wish to declare the extreme vexatiousness of any piece of work, they say, 'It is more trouble than a funeral,' the obsequies of a parent being reckoned the most maddening affair in human experience."1 Chinese burial ceremonies frequently last many days, and are described as "a ruinous burden to the poor, since relatives, friends, and strangers all crowd in and fairly eat them out of house and home." As regards infant burial in China, it is a summary proceeding, usually without coffins, if indeed any burial is 1 Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," p. 49.
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attempted. The shocking custom of leaving babes unburied, to be the prey of dogs or other animals, is all too common.1 Among the Parsis of India burial is conducted with great decorum, but consists in placing the dead body in a "Tower of Silence," which is an enclosure surrounded by very high walls and open to the sky. It is the home of vultures, which swarm in its vicinity and swoop down upon the corpse as soon as it is deposited within the tower. In an incredibly brief time nothing is left but the skeleton. This method of disposing of the dead seems to be preferred to burial. Among the more savage races burial
Burial rites in the South Seas.ceremonies are attended with the most debasing customs. It is well if the living escape, since human sacrifices often form a ghastly feature of the scene. Funeral rites in the South Seas are said to beggar description" for obscenity, noise, cruelty, and beastly exposure."2 Around the grim realities of death have clustered innumerable heathen superstitions that often lead to strange treatment of the bodies of those who have passed away. Many of these singular customs are traceable to the belief, universal in Polynesia, that the soul of the dead person is not separated at once from the body, but lingers in some state of mystic alliance with it, and may be ministered to by the living relatives of the deceased.3 An Oriental funeral is frequently the scene of wild outbursts of grief, no doubt often sincere and expressive of the intense bitterness of sorrow ; yet in many cases the well-known fact that much of this fanatical fury and noise is in accordance with commonplace custom rather than indicative of genuine sorrow deprives it of its impressiveness, and turns a funeral occasion in not a few instances into little more than a ceremonial function. 1 A little poem entitled "No Children's Graves in China," by Andrew
J. Eidson, D.D., will be found in Woman's Work for Woman, July, 1894, p. 183. 2 A typical case is described by the Rev. James M. Alexander, in "The Islands of the Pacific," p. 241. Referring to funeral rites which he has witnessed, he says: "They lasted seven days and were the darkest days I ever saw. Companies came from all parts, filling the air with loud wailings, dancing in a state of perfect nudity around the corpse like so many furies, cutting their flesh with shells and sharp stones till the blood trickled down to their feet, the women tearing out their hair, both men and women knocking out their teeth, indulging in the most revolting licentiousness, and feasting to excess, while muskets were fired and sea-shells were blown with a long, deep, sepulchral sound during the whole night. Verily, I seemed to be for the time on the borders of the infernal regions." 3 Ratzel, "The History of Mankind," vol. i., pp. 46-48.
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6. INSANITARY CONDITIONS.—The science of modern sanitation may be said to be both a creation and a sign of civilization, yet even in the most enlightened communities proper arrangements can be secured only by the oversight and pressure of legal authority. In the non-Christian world, where neither knowledge, custom, public spirit, nor legal enactment exerts any very effective influence in controlling private habits or guarding common interests with a view to sanitary requirements, the whole matter has been left with little or no supervision. Even the crude and imperfect arrangements which are made for public and domestic sanitation are often not only useless, but harmful. In personal as well as domestic habits the most frightfully filthy and abominable customs prevail, and carry with them the penalties of defying nature's laws. Strange to say, some of the most
The sanitary conditions of India.advanced nations of the Orient, as, for example, India and China, are as indifferent as the most barbarous peoples to the simplest laws, and even the ordinary decencies, of a sanitary code. In the villages of India, and also in the large centres of population, even the most rudimentary provision for proper sanitation is neglected, while the most unspeakable desecration not only of the laws, but of the proprieties, of hygienic living exists. The water which is used for drinking and for all household purposes is almost invariably loaded with impurities of the most loathsome and dangerous character.1 Sir Richard Temple states with emphasis that impure water in India " has produced more physical mischief than any cause whatsoever, and perhaps as much mischief as all other causes put together could produce."2 At the Eighth International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, held at Budapest in 1894, the President of the Tropical Section, Dr. Theodore Duka, a surgeon in the Indian Army, presented an address on "Tropical Medicine," in which he referred in some detail to the sanitary state of Indian villages. The following passage is sufficiently explicit as to their condition: "It is almost needless to enter upon a description of the sanitation of an Indian village, for there is a total absence of it. The huts composing the villages and hamlets are erected, for the most part, on flat land or on slightly elevated ground, exposed to the scorching sun and fiery winds, or drenched by rain. The people drink from the pond in 1 "In one and the same tank, for many a town, clothes are washed and people bathe themselves, while also here is the supply of water for cooking and for drinking."—Rev. L. L. Uhl, Ph.D. (Luth. G. S.), Guntur, India. 2 "Oriental Experience," p. 474.
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which they bathe and in which their cattle wallow, surrounded by the refuse of their daily lives. The cattle consist of cows and buffaloes, occasionally of goats, donkeys, and pigs. All live under the same roof and lie upon the ground beside their master and his family. There is hardly a window or an opening for ventilation. The dung-pit is not far from the well-water supply, where the washing of clothes, of animals, and of men is carried on from day to day; and the women provide their households from this source with water for cooking purposes and for drinking. The people have so lived for centuries, knowing and apparently caring for nothing better"1 Even the larger centres of population are no better, except as the British Government, in spite of enormous difficulties, enforces sanitary regulations.2 These government provisions for the public health are often extremely unwelcome to the people, and are looked upon as tyrannical and impertinent, and disregarded whenever it is safe to do so.3 Even in the city of Calcutta the infant death-rate under one year of age, in 1894, was 402 per 1000, and in 1893 it was 415. The Health Officer of the city expresses his opinion that the "high infantile death-rate is due to a want of knowledge on the part of parents as to the care of infants, and to the insanitary conditions of the house."4 Indian pilgrimages, festivals, and enormous concourses at the holy places, with the consequent defilement 1 The Indian Magazine and Review, May, 1895, P- 262. " The heathen Santals almost never wash. Dirt diseases, especially itch, are at certain seasons almost universal. They keep their houses fairly clean. A woman after childbirth is left alone, unwashed for several days. The people eat carrion in almost any degree of putrefaction, also snakes of certain kinds, rats, mice, and snails. The cattle very often occupy the same house with the family at night. Every child swarms with vermin, unless its hair is kept closely cropped or the head shaved. These people will drink water containing sewage, but in this respect they are not so depraved as their Hindu neighbors, who almost constantly drink the water in which they have washed themselves and their household utensils."—Rev. James M. Macphail (F. C. S.), Chakai, Santalia, Bengal. 2 "Native cities, notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of government officers, are in a most filthy condition. Recently Surgeon-Major Roe was appointed to report on the sanitary condition of Rawal Pindi, a comparatively clean city, adjoining as it does about the most important military station of the empire and having been built up principally within recent years. The plain, unvarnished description of just what he saw was sickening."—Rev. Robert Morrison (P. B. F. M, N.), Lahore, India. 3 "A Collector (the highest European officer of the district) told me recently that probably nothing would sooner cause riot among the village population than sanitary laws forced upon them. Their ideas of sanitation are so vague that a long period of gradual instruction must precede any legislation that would be wise." — Rev. James E. Tracy (A. B. C. F. M.), Kodaikanal, Madras, India. 4 The Indian Magazine and Review, July, 1896, p. 383.
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of water used for both bathing and drinking by the multitude, and the prevalent mortuary customs, are also large counts in this indictment of polluted India.1 The result is disease and suffering to an extent distressing to contemplate. A missionary writes: "In some villages [of Ceylon], chiefly owing to the filth and immorality of the people, there is hardly a home free from a painful kind of sickness. In one of the new village schools, out of sixty children present only two were free from sickness."2 The British Government in
The efforts of the British Government to introduce proper sanitation.India is making heroic efforts to remedy these evils. Sanitary Boards are established and proper provisions for public health are being pushed as rapidly as possible. In the Blue Book for 1894-95, on "The Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India," interesting details are given as to the sanitary undertakings now in progress, which consist chiefly in providing pure water-supply for cities, in establishing sewerage schemes, in devising rules and regulations with reference to drainage, in the prohibiting of offensive and dangerous nuisances, and disseminating the knowledge of sanitary rules among the populace. The work of the sanitary engineering department is important, and the introduction of the "Village Sanitation Act" is reported in hundreds of villages. Many costly and splendid plants for the water-supply of important cities and towns are referred to as having been completed, as in Cawnpore, Lucknow, Delhi, and smaller places, with a high-level reservoir in Rangoon. Others are reported as in progress throughout the British provinces, with important drainage schemes ; yet, with all the care and oversight which the British Government can give this stupendous task, the statistics as to the death-rate and the fatalities from various diseases tell with painful emphasis 1 "Sanitation is sadly neglected. In many villages the streets are horribly
filthy, and almost all the approaches are foul and fetid, especially in the morning before the pigs and buffaloes have been round to act as scavengers. While the Mohammedans are careful of the graves of their people, the Hindus who bury are very careless of them. A Hindu graveyard is frequently a ghastly sight, as corpses are laid so near the surface of the ground that the graves are easily rifled by jackals and hyenas. During the prevalence of a bad cholera epidemic the condition of some graveyards is indescribable. Though Hindus are in theory very particular about the water they use, they concern themselves in practice with little more than ceremonial purity and are often very careless as to the condition of their wells. In some places I have seen Brahmans washing themselves and their clothes in wells from which the villagers obtained their drinking water."—Rev. W. Howard Campbell, M.A. (L. M. S.), Cuddapah, Madras, India. Cf. also "Sanitary Reform in India," pp. 7-10.
2 Work and Workers in the Mission Field, May, 1895, p. 209.
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how much there is still to be done. The year 1894 was marked by an exceptionally high death-rate, as the following figures reveal: from dysentery and diarrhœa, 257,808 deaths, as against 196,667 in 1893 ; from cholera, 521,647, being in the ratio of 2.44 per 1000 of population, as against 216,827 in 1893; from fever, 4,952,328, equal to 23.23 per 1000, as compared with 3,716,926, or 17.44 in 1893. The total number of successful vaccinations during 1894-95 amounted to 6,869,271. The result of this precautionary measure was that the deaths reported from smallpox were only 41,604, representing a ratio of 0.19 per 1000.1 The condition of the Native States, and of Farther India,2 including Assam, is even less sanitary than that of British India. China is notorious for the entire neglect of
Malodorous China.proper sanitation. There is even a lively rivalry among its most important cities as to which deserves the prize for surpassing filthiness.3 Peking, the capital, seems to be by no means an unworthy candidate for the highest laurels in the contest, and has even been pronounced by competent judges as the dirtiest city on the face of the globe.4 Mr. Curzon's description of an entrance into the Chinese capital is graphic in its realism.5 "Above all other characteristics of Peking," says Mr. Norman, "one thing stands out in horrible prominence. Not to mention it would be wilfully to omit the most striking feature of the place. I mean its filth. It is the most horribly and indescribably filthy place that can be imagined; indeed, imagination must fall far short of the fact. Some of the daily sights of the pedestrian in Peking 1 Cf. "Statement of the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of India
During the Year 1894-95," PP- 19-23. 2 "In heathen villages the condition of their homes is still much as it was a
hundred years ago, when Father Sangermano described them as a scene of confusion and dirtiness. While cooking meals the rice-water is poured down through the bamboo floors, and this, with all sorts of filth and rubbish collecting and putrefying, produces a stench that is truly nauseating. Itch in its most revolting development is very common here, while in some sections lepers are quite numerous. The children are allowed to run about naked until they are from six to ten years of age. When cholera or other infectious or contagious disease appears, the fatality is often appalling."—Rev. F. H. Eveleth (A. B. M. U.), Sandoway, Burma. 3 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 138. 4 "The insanitary conditions here are such that it would never do for me to
write a description of them, or if I wrote it, you would never care to present it to an audience. What I see, hear, and smell as I go along the street, with my wife or a lady friend walking with me, neither you nor I would dare to speak of before an American assembly."—Rev. Isaac T. Headland (M. E. M. S.), Peking, China. 5 Curzon, "Problems of the Far East," p. 245.
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could hardly be more than hinted at by one man to another in the disinfecting atmosphere of a smoking-room."1 We forbear to finish the paragraph. If all this can be said of the capital of the empire, what must be the state of things (if, indeed, there is any possibility of anything worse) throughout the thronging cities, towns, and thickly populated provinces of the great imperial cloaca of the Chinese Empire! In fact, the attempt to describe the sanitary state of China seems to exhaust the linguistic capacities of all who undertake it. The impression which one has in reading their struggling efforts is that the reality is literally beyond description.2 We are not surprised, therefore, to hear of the recent plague and its awful ravages in Chinese cities, and yet the lesson seems to be quite lost.3 Dr. S. Wells Williams has described in several places his impressions of the noisome and reeking aspects of Chinese cities.4 The testimony in private letters from residents of the country indicates that the China of to-day is no improvement upon the China of the past.5 Japan is perhaps the cleanest country in Asia, yet at the opposite extreme of nauseating defilement is its neighbor Korea. This repulsive story of slovenly sanitation could be continued with dismal monotony as descriptive of the status in all purely Asiatic countries. In fact, the annual threat of cholera which comes in connection with the pilgrimage to Mecca, and gathers sufficient cumulative power to throw a shadow of danger over all Europe, is a sharp reminder of the 1 Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 209, 210. 2 "The Records of the Shanghai Conference, 1890," pp. 269, 270. 3 "Since the plague, which carried off so many tens of thousands, one would have supposed that the decaying piles of rubbish would have been removed from the streets. But not a shovelful has been taken away, so far as one can judge."—Dr. Mary H. Fulton (P. B. F. M. N.), Canton, China. 4 "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., pp. 108, 205. 5 "The Chinese will never be a clean people till they become a Christian people. Superstition keeps the walls of the home black and grimy with the smoke of generations, because white is an unlucky color, and hence there is little whitewashing indoors. Superstition peoples the house with evil spirits, and too much displacing of furniture and sweeping of corners is disturbing and worrying to the spirits, and bound to be followed with evil results. No public sanitation will ever be undertaken until Christian unselfishness takes hold of the Chinese. Now it is every man for himself. He casts the dirt out of his home or yard and throws it on the common highway. Who cares if others are inconvenienced or injured by it?" —Rev. J. G. Fagg (Ref. C. A.), Amoy, China. "Your enquiry as to sanitary conditions is amusing to one who has lived for more than thirty years in a land where sanitation is unknown. The narrow, densely crowded streets and courts of this city; its moat, the convenient receptacle of all manner of abominations, emptied once a year just at the season when most harm can be done by the process; the fetid pools, whose stench fills the air during the summer heat; and the myriads of graves, many of them with half-buried coffins, upon the neighboring plain—these and the like are the surroundings of a population among which typhus and other infectious diseases are of course endemic, but which has never known anything better."—Rev. Jonathan Lees (L. M. S.), Tientsin, China. "In China sanitation is simply ignored; what with filthy personal habits, the absence of practical sewerage provisions, open cesspools, and lack of quarantine measures against infection, the wonder is that any Chinamen survive."—Rev. W. P. Chalfant (P. B. F. M. N.), Ichowfu, Shantung, China.
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deadly results of the defiance of all sanitary laws.1 We could still trace in Africa and the isles of the Pacific the signs of the same insanitary foulness which is almost universal in the heathen world. A striking result of the investigation would be to convince us that "cleanliness is next to godliness," and that Christianity, in coöperation with sanitary regulations, has a cleansing mission of colossal magnitude in the world. 7. LACK OF PUBLIC SPIRIT.—One of the most subtle
The enthronement of selfishness.characteristics of heathenism is the absence of a humanizing sympathy, that is, a sympathy which is not indifferent to human welfare. In its social relations and activities this broad and generous interest in the common good is known as public spirit. Selfishness is a deep and regnant law in non-Christian society. Even within the precincts of Christian civilization an interest in the general welfare sufficiently assertive to act as a practical stimulus to sacrifice and service is none too common, and is recognized as a very choice and noble quality in public and private life.2 Outside of Christendom "every man for himself" is the rule pretty much everywhere. The restraints and requirements of law remedy 1 "The invincible uncleanness of the people, joined to the fatalist's indifference to ordinary precautions against disease, is at the root of the cholera question. It is true that there might be no cholera at all in Egypt but for the ghastly sacrifice of thousands of animals during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. The result is myriads of decomposing carcasses, which form the happy hunting-ground of the cholera microbe, whence he rises like a giant refreshed to open his campaign in all parts of
the world to which the Muslim Hajji returns, bringing his baccilline sheaves with him."— "The Cholera in Egypt," in The National Observer, June 6, 1896. 2 The Outlook, in a recent editorial on what it calls "The Crimes of Good Men," contains the following paragraph: "The source of nearly all the evils with which the lover of his country and his fellow-man must contend is the passive attitude of good men toward public affairs. Very good men frequently lack that sense of responsibiHty which ought to be the inheritance of all right-minded citizens of a republic. If every man were alive to his duty as a citizen, the political corruption of the present day would be impossible."
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the evil results of this spirit in some measure, but there are certain respects in which it is left wholly free, with no one to challenge its injurious tendencies. It is this heedless unconcern for the public good which makes nearly every street in the villages, larger towns, and cities of Asia under native, as distinguished from European rule, simply an elongated cesspool or a common dumping-ground of filth, breedin g disease and death. It is this universal spirit of "passing by on the other side" and refusing to recognize the obligations of neighborhood, much less of common humanity, which is the explanation of such absurd and shameful rascality as often characterizes the treatment of those who are in trouble in China. The Rev. Arthur Smith, in his "Chinese Characteristics," remarks : "Unwillingness to give help to others, unless there is some special reason for doing so, is a trait that runs through Chinese social relations in multifold manifestations. The general omission to do anything for the relief of the drowning strikes every foreigner in China." The same spirit is shown also, as he further remarks, "in a general callousness to the many cases of distress which are to be seen almost everywhere, especially along lines of travel. It is a common proverb that to be poor at home is not to be counted as poverty, but to be poor when on the highroad away from home will cost a man his life."1 A special chapter in "Chinese Characteristics" is entitled "The Absence of Public Spirit," in which many instances are given revealing the indifference to the common welfare which prevails in China.2 In 1 "It is in travelling in China that the absence of helpful kindness on the part of the people towards strangers is perhaps most conspicuous. When the summer rains have made all land-travel almost impossible, he whose circumstances make travel a necessity will find that 'heaven, earth, and man' are a threefold harmony in combination against him. No one will inform him that the road which he has taken will presently end in a quagmire. If you choose to drive into a morass, it is no business of the contiguous taxpayers. We have spoken of the neglect of Chinese highways. When the traveller has been plunged into one of the sloughs with which all such roads at certain seasons abound, and finds it impossible to extricate himself, a great crowd of persons will rapidly gather from somewhere, 'their hands in their sleeves, and idly gazing,' as the saying goes. It is not until a definite bargain has been made with them that any one of these bystanders, no matter how numerous, will lift a finger to help one in any particular. Not only so, but it is a constant practice on such occasions for the local rustics to dig deep pits in difficult places, with the express purpose of trapping the traveller, that he may be obliged to employ these same rustics to help the traveller out! When there is any doubt as to the road in such places, one might as well plunge forward, disregarding the cautions of those native to the spot, since one can never be sure that the directions given are not designed to hinder rather than help."—Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," pp. 208, 209. 2 Ibid., chap. xiii.
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the original edition of the book, published at
Laissez-faire the social law of China. Shanghai, is a chapter on "The Absence of Altruism," which has been omitted in the American edition. Its contents only emphasize the subject in hand. The tendencies of this same spirit are also manifested in the prevalent habit of trespass upon the rights of the weaker members of society by those who are strong. "The misery of the poor in China is their poverty and their inability to lift themselves out of it, since if they cannot do it themselves it will not be done at all." The North China Herald, a prominent journal published at Shanghai, in a recent editorial on the war with Japan, traces the weakness of China to the latter's regnant selfishness. Each individual, considering only his own interests, is indifferent as to what happens to his neighbors or his country. "Patriotism, national pride, esprit de corps," itremarks, "are all unknown, and, what is worse, undesired in the Celestial Empire. . . . The dynasty may be overthrown and. kings may come and kings may go, but so long as the Chinese official can continue to get hold of the dollar he is serenely indifferent to any crisis which may be convulsing the political world." The instinctive egoism of primitive savagery still pervades the barbaric life of the present day,1 and if public spirit is so slow in developing even in the atmosphere of the highest civilization, surely we cannot expect that it will ripen quickly and yield a generous harvest where the promptings of selfishness are so powerful and so free from restraint. 8. MUTUAL SUSPICION.—Social life involves
Confidence as social a tonic.such a web of personal
contact and interdependence, and is so based upon general confidence between man and man, that mutual suspicion, if it prevails to any extent, becomes a solvent of the very bonds which link society together. Public confidence is only another term for financial and industrial stability. Private confidence of man in man is the secret of contentment and security and an essential of social development. 1 "Selfishness is one of the most prominent characteristics of heathenism. The chiefs took the best things for themselves, and tabooed the common people from sharing in them. This extended even to good drinking-water. The sacred men and owners of certain parts of the beach tabooed the sea except to their own special friends. If the taboo was broken the transgressors had to pay the penalty by making a feast. When they could not agree in their disputes regarding ownership of fruit-trees, they cut them down, so that no one would receive any benefit from them. They took advantage of inland natives coming to take salt water from the sea for cooking purposes, and compelled them to pay for it."—Rev. William Gunn, M.D. (F. C. S.), Futuna, New Hebrides.
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Mutual suspicion begets timidity, and prevents that frank and free Interchange so necessary to prosperity and mutual helpfulness. Distrust is, however, one of the most universal sentiments which govern the intercourse of man with man in the heathen world. Men fear one another because they know one another, and they recognize the fact that there is ground for misgivings. The effect is depressing and paralyzing. Every one is alert, cautious, and on the defensive. The Chinese, for example, are especially suspicious; the Koreans are like them; and the Japanese, although not to the same extent, are yet wary and watchful. Some ulterior and secret motive of a dark and scheming, or at least a doubtful, character is usually taken for granted by Orientals in their dealings with one another. It is hard for them to believe in the simplicity and genuine disinterestedness of any one. Nothing is looked upon as square, upright, and open; it is more likely to be crooked, cunning, and deceitful, or at least to have some concealed design. The atmosphere is full of suspicions, which put a painful constraint upon social and personal relations, and add immensely to the difficulties of frank and friendly contact with one another. In China the officials are mutually distrustful,
Every man his own detective in China.perhaps with good reason, since each one either knows or suspects that the other is a rascal. The Tsung-li Yamen eye one another with caution and reserve, and they all look upon the foreigner with the most lively distrust. No mandarin can be seen with a foreigner, or accept his hospitality, without immediately falling under grave suspicion. Sinister designs and portentous conspiracies are always in the air, and it is this deep-rooted distrust and hatred which make the life of the foreigner so full of insecurity in China. The effect of this gnawing suspicion is especially manifest in Chinese domestic life and in all relations between the sexes.1 The real reason for any course of action is rarely accepted as the true one. 1 "There is no social life in China as we understand that term. Men do not trust the prudence, honesty, or virtue of women in general (though there is a great deal of genuine virtue among Chinese women), and women cannot trust men's truth or honor. Therefore there is no commingling of men and women, young or old, for social intercourse outside the family. In all their festivities, whether at weddings or other occasions, the men and women always feast in separate apartments and never meet one another during their stay. There are no concerts, lectures, or other entertainments, except the open-air theatres. Middle-aged and elderly women and little girls attend these freely, under proper escort, but the women are all seated by themselves on the outskirts of the crowd. Even in their religious associations men have their own societies and women have theirs, and these societies have nothing whatever in common, not even worshipping together in the temples."—Mrs. C. W. Mateer (P. B. F. M. N.), Tungchow, China.
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If another is not apparent, one must be invented. The Rev. Arthur Smith, writing upon "Mutual Suspicion" in "Chinese Characteristics" (chap, xxiv.), gives many illustrations to indicate the spirit of Chinese intercourse. They seek protection from one another, and are continually on guard lest they should be taken by surprise. The wondrous and mischievous character of Chinese gossip arises largely from the morbid intensity of their suspicions. Chinese family life is often clouded and irritated by this inveterate distrust. A stranger in a Chinese village gives occasion for the most lively solicitude as to who he is, what his business is, and what he purposes to do. If he arrives after dark he will often find that no one will come out of the house to meet or direct him. The effect of this temper in society is to render it exceedingly difficult to establish any new enterprise or undertake anything which is out of the ordinary line. Something dark and dreadful must be back of it all in the opinion of the wary Chinaman. In India it is exceedingly difficult for natives to coöperate with
The distrustful spirit of Oriental society.one another on account of mutual distrust.1 Even philanthropic effort is often misunderstood and viewed with suspicion. In Persia the rôle of deceit and venality has become so commonplace that the people have lost all confidence in one another.2 Among savages in the South Seas there is constant apprehension of evil designs on the part of some one. They live a life of disquietude, and the shadow of distrust clouds every relationship. Says Dr. Chalmers, in "Work and Adventure in New Guinea": "The state of fear of one another in which the savage lives is truly pitiful. To him every stranger seeks his life, and so does every other savage." In Africa it is difficult to convince a native that any one dies a natural death, so prevalent is the suspicion of evil designs. Poisoning is so much feared that the people are exceedingly loath to eat in one another's houses.3 Even the kings and chiefs are accustomed not to touch their food until either the one who has cooked it, or others appointed for the purpose, have partaken of it. It is not at all uncommon for one who gives food to another to eat part of it himself in order to prove that it contains nothing hurtful.4 The African Kaffir "breathes an atmosphere of suspicion and jealousy in which freedom cannot live."5 "We never trust one another," re- 1 The Indian Magazine and Review, March, 1896, p. 148. 2 Wilson, " Persian Life and Customs," p. 231. 3 Ingham, "Sierra Leone after a Hundred Years," p. 315. 4 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," p. 190. 5 Slowan, "The Story of Our Kaffrarian Mission," p. 24.
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marked one of the Hovas to a recent correspondent of The Times (London) in Madagascar, and the same statement might be made by a man of almost any Asiatic or African nationality. The social effect of these brooding misgivings is to make mutual intercourse reserved, constrained, and wary, while, on the other hand, frank and open confidence gives assurance, courage, and cheerfulness to men, and adds to the happiness and prosperity of society. 9. POVERTY.—The problem of poverty is an old one in the
The ceaseless struggle for survival.economic life of man. The struggle to live has been ceaseless. Slowly and surely man has added other resources to the ordinary products which nature supplies for his support, and has utilized her forces and cultivated her fructifying powers for his maintenance and comfort. The great difference between the abundant economic harvests of modern material civilization, so fruitful in provisions for human needs, and the pinched and meagre resources of early civilization, is due in large part to man's power over nature and his ability to subsidize her capabilities and extract her hidden wealth. The belated civilization of the non-Christian world is still in various stages of ignorance and incompetence as regards the mastery over nature and the intelligent use of her productive capacities. This is especially true so far as the modern industrial plant is concerned, and all those processes of developing and utilizing nature's generous resources which have been brought about by the inventive genius and the economic enterprise of modern times. This backward status is due not only to
The genesis of poverty.ignorance and the disabilities of primitive environment, but to the working of oppression and injustice, on the one hand, and, on the other, to the influence of prejudice, obstinacy, inertia, pride, incapacity, shiftlessness, the power of custom, and general heedlessness as to better modes of living. The result is that an awful status of poverty has weighted a large section of heathen society, and holds it prostrate in helpless and hopeless indigence. Dependence upon agricultural and pastoral resources, even if man escapes the ravages of war and pillage, is destined as population increases either to become a scant reliance or to fail altogether, so that the history of uncivilized man, and even of races with tolerably advanced methods, has been, and is still, often marked by a long and desperate struggle for livelihood or in many instances even for a meagre subsistence. Christianity as an agency for the teaching of saving moral
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principles, the production of a higher order and system in life, the cultivation of broader intelligence, the humanizing of law, the protection of property rights, the introduction of science, the establishment of philanthropy, the awakening of aspiration, the kindling of hope, and the heralding of a new and progressive era among uncivilized man, has a truly helpful mission in the material betterment of society. In cooperation with commerce, economic science, and modern industrial facilities, it will do much to mitigate the sorrows of poverty, and provide a remedy for the suffering and despair which penury produces among races where there is little or no relief from its grinding miseries. Where the struggle for the support of life is
The social import of poverty.intense and prolonged, yielding at best only a sustenance, and often only the daily bread necessary to sustain life, with now and then a temporary failure which threatens starvation, as is the case in China, and would be still in India were it not for governmental assistance, poverty becomes a social evil of portentous and gloomy import. It puts society into a state of distress and helplessness, in which life becomes a desperate and exhausting slavery to daily need. This struggle for existence may contain in an important sense the potency of evolutionary progress, but after it has gone on for centuries with little revelation of its power to alleviate and benefit, one longs for some outside help from a source which will give a new impetus to life, bring more hope and security, provide more sane and effective remedies, and lift the shadows of despair. This is one of the many reasons why the introduction of Christianity and modern civilization into China, and in fact throughout the non-Christian world, is a noble and beneficent undertaking. Once introduced there, it will become a saving power, as it has been in Christendom; not that it will at once banish poverty, but that it will provide many remedial forces and introduce many alleviating instrumentalities. It will at least give a helping hand to many who in their extremity are now without aid. It will tend also to break up that colossal system of pauperism which is incidental, more or less, to all false religious systems, and is so burdensome to the people, under the guise and sanction of priestly requirement, ceremonial obligation, or ascetic practice. Half the pauperism of the non-Christian world is religious, and a large section besides makes its plea in the name of religion, and so plays upon superstitious fears as to gain a ready hearing and impose large exactions. In this connection, however, we are not concerned so much with the explanation of this state of poverty as with the reality and extent of its existence and its social results.
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India is perhaps, more than other non-Christian
India's recurring misery.lands, the home of poverty. This is due to the immense population, which has increased for centuries within the fixed geographical limits of the peninsula, taxing its agricultural resources to the utmost. At the same time a burden of social and religious customs, far more expensive than the people can support, has rested upon them.1 The result of this twofold impoverishment has been the most grinding poverty among almost the entire rural population of India. If, as sometimes happens, the rains fail, and with them the harvests, the people are plunged into the extremities of famine. No more pathetic and dreadful .scenes of starvation have been witnessed than those which characterized some of the great famines of Indian history.2 Even as late as the famine of 1868-70 in Rajputana 1,250,000 people perished.3 A century or so ago there were famines which destroyed millions of the people.4 Mr. John Eliot, 1 "The Rev. C. B. Ward, of the American Methodist Episcopal Mission, has prepared a table of statistics showing some of the details and causes of the poverty prevailing among the working classes within the dominions of H. H. the Nizam of Hyderabad. These figures are the result of thirteen years of careful observation and diligent study of the subject in close contact with the people. These statistics
show, concerning the direct cost of heathenism per annum, that, out of every Rs 100 earned, Rs 36 go for heathen rites and bad or useless habits. If any one questions this, the figures can be produced. Is it a wonder that such a people is called poor?" —The Baptist Missionary Review (Madras), January, 1896, p. 38. 2 "There cannot be the slightest doubt that famines and epidemics were far more frequent and destructive in former centuries than at present. Allusions to terrible famines occur in ancient Hindu writings. The Ramayana mentions a severe and prolonged drought which occurred in Northern India. According to the Orissa legends, severe famines occurred between the years 1107 and 1143 A.D. The memory of a terrible twelve years' famine, 'Dvadasavarsha Panjam,' lives in tradition in Southern India. Duff, in his history of the Mahrattas, states that' in 1396 the dreadful famine, distinguished from all others by the name "Durga Devee," commenced in Maharashtra. It lasted, according to Hindu legends, for twelve years. At the end of that time the periodical rains returned; but whole districts were entirely depopulated, and a very scanty revenue was obtained from the territory between the Godavari and the Kistna for upwards of thirty years afterwards.' "—Raghavaiyangar, "The Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years," p. 4. For account of other famines, consult Ibid., pp. 6, 27, 31, 36, 42. 3 Robson, "The Story of the Rajputana Mission," p. 40. 4 "The following is an account of the famine in Bengal last century: " 'All through the hot season the people went on dying. The husbandmen sold their cattle; they sold their implements of agriculture; they devoured their seedgrain ; they sold their sons and daughters, till at length no buyer of children could be found; they ate the leaves of the trees and the grass of the field, and in June it was reported that the living were feeding on the dead. Two years after the dearth Warren Hastings made a progress through Bengal, and he states the loss to have been at least one third of the inhabitants, or probably about 10,000,000 of people. Nineteen years later, Lord Cornwallis reported that one third of Bengal was a jungle inhabited only by wild beasts.' " — "Pictorial Tour round India," pp. 33, 34.
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in a recently published volume on Indian Famines, states that there have been seventeen within one hundred and twenty-two years. The total mortality of these calamities, extending over centuries, is something appalling. In 1832-33, Madras, one of the districts affected, lost from 150,000 to 200,000 inhabitants out of a total population of 500,000. In 1837, in Upper India there were at least 800,000 victims. In 1860-61, in the Northwest Provinces and the Punjab, 500,000 human beings perished. In 1865-66, in Orissa alone 1,000,000 people died out of a total population of 3,000,000.1 These awful visitations have greatly increased the prevalence of leprosy throughout India. The Leprosy Commission in 1890-91 expressed the conviction that "the greater the poverty of a district, the more prone the latter is toward leprosy."2 It is also one of the causes of child labor, so detrimental at the tender age at which it is exacted by so many of the poor in India.3 The British Government has now established a
The beneficent efforts of the British Government.system of famine relief, or rather prevention, which makes past scenes of suffering no longer possible; but it cannot, of course, do more than save the people from extremities. As regards their condition of poverty, it is still distressing. The rule among the vast agricultural population of the Indian villages is that they live upon what is sufficient for sustenance, or little more. A careful estimate based upon the census shows that there are multitudes who have not more than from six to twelve rupees a year for support. The mean annual income of the people of India is from twenty to twenty-seven rupees, equivalent at the present rates of silver in India to about six to eight dollars.4 Among the resolutions offered and passed at the Indian National Congress of Madras, 1894, was one bearing upon the problem of poverty, introduced by Mr. Seymour Keay, M.P., in which it was urged that "this Congress, concurring in the views set forth in previous Congresses, affirms that fully 50,000,000 of the population, a number yearly increasing, are dragging out a miserable existence on the verge of starvation, and that 1 See The Literary Digest, December 7, 1895, "Famines in India." 2 "Report of the Leprosy Commission in India, 1890—91," p. 98. 3 Satthianadhan, "The History of Education in the Madras Presidency," p. 7. 4 "Report of the Tenth Indian National Congress, Held at Madras, 1894," p. 20.
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in every decade several millions actually perish by starvation; and humbly urges once more that immediate steps be taken to remedy this calamitous state of affairs."1 Sir William Hunter is authority for the statement that 40,000,000 (that is, about one sixth part of the population of India) go through life upon insufficient food.2 The address of Mr. Keay in support of the resolution is full of startling statements as to the deep social misery which Indian poverty inflicts upon the people. Dr. Uhl, in an account of a missionary tour in 1895, in which he visited one hundred and eight Indian villages, speaks of the poverty of the people as "a bondage killing the soul." The subject has been fully and ably treated in a very recent volume entitled "The Poverty Problem in India," by Prithwis Chandra Ray, published in Calcutta. He states substantially the same facts that have been given above. At the present time (November, 1896) a serious famine seems imminent in the Central and Northwest Provinces. The Government is already opening relief works, and with the greatly increased railway facilities of the country at its command, can with energy and promptitude do much to alleviate the distress. In the teeming Empire of China, with all its vast
Chinese poverty and its causes.natural resources, its extensive agricultural labors, the industry and frugality of its people, there is still a state of poverty widely prevalent, which threatens the immediate destruction of vast multitudes in case there is the slightest failure in ordinary production.3The Rev. Timothy Richard, of Shanghai, remarked at a public meeting in Peking, October 18, 1895, that "there has been deep poverty and intense suffering in China for years" ; and he estimates that "from three to four millions die every year of hunger." Instructive facts are also given by the same author in a powerful article on "China's Appalling Need of Reform."4 In the midst of their poverty, when distress deepens, no temporary financial 1 "Report of the Tenth Indian National Congress, Held at Madras, 1894," p. 47. 2 Ibid., p. 49. 3 "The awful poverty of this people is at the root of nearly all the evils with
which society is afflicted. This poverty is due in some small measure to the density of the population, and yet to no great extent, for China is not so overcrowded as some of the more prosperous parts of Europe. Neither is China poor because she is lacking in mineral wealth or agricultural products; for in these she is better furnished than any other country in the world, owing to the vast extent of her territory in a temperate zone. Her poverty is directly traceable to governmental weakness, to the oppression of her rulers, and to her lack of progress in education."—Rev. J. C. Ferguson (M. E. M. S.), Nanking, China. 4 Chinese Recorder, November, 1894; also published in "The China Mission Hand-Book," Shanghai, 1896, pp. 84-90.
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relief can be obtained, except at an exorbitant rate of interest, stated by Mr. Richard to be at least thirty per cent., and sometimes reaching one hundred per cent. He traces to the exigencies of poverty the recurring attempts at rebellion and the formation of so many secret societies. He refers to the fact that the name of Pharaoh is execrated because he threatened the extinction of two or three millions of the children of Israel, while in China "there is a greater number actually starved every year, and ten times that number exterminated every ten years." In an article by the Rev. A. G. Jones, of the English Baptist Mission, on "The Poverty of Shantung: Its Causes and Treatment," after referring to the poverty-stricken condition of the great mass of the population of that province, amounting in all to 30,000,000, the bearing of this fact upon their social status, and its influence as a hindrance to all progress, he proceeds to show that this status is in part due to the excessive proportion of economic expenditure necessary for the support of a Chinaman, as compared with that which obtains in Western nations. The rent of his land (the article refers especially to Shantung Province) is eight or nine per cent. on its value, as compared with three per cent, in Great Britain, France, and Germany. The money which he borrows on his land as security costs him about twenty-two per cent. annual interest, while in England it can be obtained at an annual interest of from four to five per cent. His land yields ordinarily about ten bushels of wheat an acre, or in the very best years about thirteen and a quarter, as compared with twenty-eight bushels to the acre in England. While recognizing the fact that natural causes have something to do with the existence of poverty, he considers that their influence is small as compared with other causes which are in large measure preventable.1 He names as chief among these ignorance, especially of the methods of industrial success, the hampering power of superstition, the prevalence of trickery and injustice, the extortions of the Government,1 especially the "squeezing" which results from the 1 "This province of course suffers from obviously natural and unpreventable
causes of poverty, the same as other provinces, such as drought, locusts, excessive rains, excessive wind, hail, and succession of bad harvests. Regarding this class of causes there is practically nothing to be said at this stage of things. The great poverty of the masses has causes, however, altogether different from these, and quite discernible. They are to be found in the intellectual, spiritual, and moral state of the Chinese, in their governmental system, and in their social constitution and principles." —The Rev. A. G. Jones (E. B. M. S.), in The Chinese Recorder, April, 1894, p. 187. 2 "The condition of the people in China, especially in the northern part, is wretched beyond description. Many of them seem to live all their lives in a state of semi-starvation. Several causes contribute and combine to produce this extreme poverty among the people; one of the most potent is the extortion of the rulers. Trade in many places would thrive and prosper, new forms of industry would spring up, and in course of time become productive of great wealth, were they allowed a natural growth; but these are all strangled in their infancy by the rapacious officials. These rulers become wonderfully expert in devising new methods of oppressing the people. Oh, the grinding poverty of the poor Chinese!"—Letter from the late Rev. J. A. Leyenberger (P. B. F. M. N.), Wei Hien, China.
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system of farming the taxes, the existence of bad roads, making distribution and exchange of commodities difficult, costly, and slow, cumbrous currency, and extortionate rates of interest, combined with antiquated appliances and slovenly management. An interesting aspect of the paper referred to treats of the bearing of missionary labors in their broader results as in a large and true sense remedial in their workings even in the realm of economic life.1 In his volume on "The Real Chinaman," Mr. Chester Holcombe
The sufferings of the poor in China.has a chapter on "The Poor in China," in which he remarks that the status of poverty there differs from that of Western lands in that it usually means "actual hunger and nakedness, if not starvation within sight." He describes in considerable detail the condition of the Chinese poor and the extent of their extremity.1 The Rev. Paul Bergen, of Chefoo, China, in a recent article refers to the distressing poverty of the people as one of the great difficulties of missionary work.3 The facts previously stated go far to explain the frequency and seriousness of Chinese famines. They may come either as the result of a flood or of a scant grain-supply, or may be produced by any one of many contingencies. "China's Sorrow" is the title of a chapter by Mr. R. S. Gundry in his recent volume on China. The reference is to the Yellow River and the fearful devastation of its floods. Mr. 1 The Chinese Recorder, April and May, 1894. 2 Holcombe, "The Real Chinaman," chap. xiv. 3 "Then the awful poverty of the people. No one can know what that means who has not delved and grubbed and worked his way into the inner life of the people, spending days and nights with them, and seeing repeatedly their common meals during seasons fat and lean. This is a bran-eating, not a flour-eating, people with which we have to do—a grass-eating and root-eating people. They live practically without meat. Should there be unhappy demise of cow or mule, dog or donkey, through accident or tuberculosis or general decrepitude, there is a neighborhood feast. They eat occasionally of wheat bread, buy a bit of pork, have a bowl of vegetables, a few ounces of salt fish, but just about as often as the ordinary American citizen indulges in terrapin or canvas-back ducks."—The Church at Home and Abroad, February, 1896, pp. 138, 139.
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Gundry's volume has instructive chapters on the progress and resources of China.1 These famines are so common that only great calamities attract attention and obtain notice.2 "Ten millions in one province of China," writes Dr. March, "perished for want of food and from diseases that follow in the wake of famine. A slight change in the rainfall for a single season will at any time strew the fields and pathways of the East with the skeletons of multitudes who die of want and of the pestilence which comes to glean in the fields where death has already gathered the harvest of millions of sheaves and left nothing but stubble behind."3 Even in ordinary times the desolations of an unheralded, almost unnoticed, famine attain the magnitude of a calamity. Poverty is the cause, no doubt, of the throngs of beggars who roam through China in their rags and filth and desperate wretchedness.4 Truly one of the social miseries of China is its poverty. In Korea, although there is widespread poverty,
Poverty in Korea and Japan.strange to state there is said to be no beggar class as in China, owing to the generous disposition of the people to aid one another. Korean hospitality is proverbial.5 These kindly customs open the door to grave abuses, and the well-to-do are forced into positions where they are obliged, whether willing or not, to help the improvident, who are not lacking, also, in a readiness to impose upon kindness. The causes of Korean poverty are stated by Mr. Hillier, the British Consul-General at Seoul, and are summarized in The Messenger of Shanghai.6 In Japan 1 Gundry, "China Present and Past," pp. 85-199. 2 "Famine refugees! But this is not a famine year? No, not a year of great
famine. But in China, where the great bulk of the population live from hand to mouth, and are dependent entirely upon the product of the soil, there are small famines every year."—Rev. Frederick W. Jackson (P. B. F. M. N.), formerly of Chefoo. 3 March, "Morning Light in Many Lands," p. 156. 4 "Oh, these beggars! In the merest kennels of straw huts, or under a slight
shelter of straw or bamboo, or just on the bare ground, they lay in their rags and wretchedness, men, women, and children, exhibiting open sores, maimed, deformed, and twisted limbs, footless and handless stumps, bleared and sightless eyeballs, whole limbs and faces one mass of corruption, a twisted arm hanging loose at the elbow and swinging around in sickening gyrations—in a word, one might almost say, every conceivable form of bodily misery and moral wretchedness. It was the Chamber of Horrors, rendered all the more awful and heart-sickening by the contrast with the clear blue sky, the bright sunshine, the everlasting hills towering above us, and the gentle, merry, musical little stream at our side."—Miss Augusta T. Graves
(P. B. F. M. S.), Hangchow, China, in The Missionary, February, 1895, pp. 82, 83. 5 The Korean Repository, September, 1895, p. 347; June, 1896, p. 253. 6 The causes of Korean poverty are succinctly stated by Mr. Hillier (British Consul-General), and are worth reproducing for the information of those who still wonder why it is that the opening of this long-closed country has produced such insignificant results. They are: first, want of native capital and the absence of substantial native merchants; second, the exactions of the officials and the burdens laid upon industry; and lastly, the lack of energy displayed by the producing and laboring classes, who feel that it is useless to produce more than is absolutely necessary for their daily wants, as any surplus they might acquire would be seized by the officials. When it is remembered that every officer in this country has to be bought, and that only members of the Nyang-ban, or patrician class, can hold any but the lowest posts, it is evident that no member of the trading class has even the inducement to amass money for buying himself an official position and so raising himself into the ranks of the aristocracy. Degrees of poverty, of course, exist, but it is doubtful whether any member of the trading class has a capital to his name which would meet the wants of the smallest shopkeeper at home, and it is a sine qua non with a Korean that he must receive an advance of money before he will undertake the execution of the most insignificant contract."—The Messenger (Shanghai), January, 1895, pp. 5, 6.
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the struggle for existence is strenuous, although poverty is hardly more general than in Western lands. A recent Japanese newspaper has called attention to the fact that suicide has greatly increased of late, as high as ten thousand cases a year having been reported. The same authority traces this fact to the greater intensity of the struggle for life, in view of the increased cost of living connected with the introduction of Western civilization. It is reported that the poor are becoming more numerous throughout Japan than was the case under the old régime. In Persia there is much pitiful destitution, while in poor Turkey, as the result of the cruel policy of the present Sultan, there is a reign of agony and despair which appeals to the charities of the world. In Africa the same story of poverty has been
The horrors of African famine.written large in the history of savage tribes, with the dire miseries of famine recurring at frequent intervals. The poor people seem to have been swept off by the thousands and tens of thousands, in circumstances of suffering which cannot be depicted. Even now there are the same ever-recurring experiences in different sections of the vast continent, as in Bechuanaland and Swaziland at the present moment. The terrible famine in Bondei and Usagara has only just ceased from its ravages, "A party of eight hundred natives," writes the Rev. Godfrey Dale, under date of April 14, 1895, "had started for the coast to seek food and work, but every one perished on the road."1 In the Pacific Islands, the West Indies, Mexico, and South America there is much extreme and hopeless poverty. 1 Central Africa, July, 1895, p. 107; The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1895, pp. 276, 277.
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The result of our survey is only to confirm the saying of Christ, "Ye have the poor always with you," which is true of all lands, even those where wealth abounds and the best civilization which the world has yet known is found. The pertinence of placing this subject among, the social evils of the non-Christian world arises from the severity and extent of the poverty which exists, the misery it causes, the social depression it produces, and the pathetic appeal it makes for the introduction of such remedies as Christianity and civilization can offer to alleviate the sorrows of the poor. 10. THE TYRANNY OF CUSTOM.—Customs are conventional methods
An impersonal despot on an invincible throne.of living and acting according to established precedents, which have the power of habit and are generally recognized and observed throughout the community. These laws of life include social manners, political methods, economic habits, and religious observances. They exert their control not only in the sphere of practical living, but extend their influence to the realm of thought and feeling. They arise spontaneously, follow the leadings of instinct in their development, and become the accepted, cherished, often revered, rules and methods of social, civil, and religious habit. They control conduct with varying power. In some cases they rule with despotic sway; in others their demands may be somewhat relaxed. In all Oriental lands they exert a wide, exacting, and even fatalistic power. They wield the sceptre of arbitrary dominion over all life. They tyrannize with an imperious and resistless sway, and hold their supreme authority from one generation to another with undiminished rigor.1 They assume over the life and thought of the East a governing and proscriptive power which is most impressive in its mastery, so that they must be 1 "The authority of customs is found, in the first instance, in the feelings which they express and gratify. They are a spontaneous product of the feelings. They shortly, however, acquire an additional authority in the good order they establish, the interests they sustain, the calculable terms of action which they offer. They thus gather to themselves in a most imposing and imperious form all the motives and sentiments which unite men to one another. Any extensive dissolution of customs is a breaking down of the affinities by which men are bound to each other—is social chaos. "Customs are most potent with the ignorant. They in part take the place of those moral motives which bind together the more thoughtful. Men of the widest intelligence hold them in high consideration, but they do so because of the impossibility of supplying their place with the uncultivated. They act in the absence of higher motives. Boys are abjectly subject to the opinions and ways of their playmates. They secure no sufficient ground in reason from which to take up the labor of resistance. "Young men, journeymen, college students, show this disposition to submit to prevalent irrational customs. The governing sentiments of these little worlds rest on tradition. Their members oppose the unreasoned ways of the past to the better methods that are coming to prevail in the wider world which encloses them. Customs are thus the instinctive methods of restraint which overtake those otherwise ungovernable—an anticipation of reason and an organic substitute for its deficiencies."— Bascom, "Social Theory," pp. 33, 34.
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reckoned with as a mighty, conservative, and determining force in all efforts to introduce social changes or religious reforms. They exercise a function which seems to combine constitutional, legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one comprehensive control of all phases of life and all points of contact between man and man, and even between man and the material universe around him, or the Supreme Power above him. The East has so learned this lesson of reverence for and obedience to customs that those which are evil and detrimental have just as firm a hold upon men as those which are good and useful. An established custom becomes, therefore, the open sesame of every otherwise closed door. It is the arbiter of dispute; it gives the word of command; it pronounces a verdict from which there is no appeal; it surmounts difficulty and it settles destiny; it deals kindly with all who submit to its decree, but it subdues and crushes all who venture to call in question its wisdom or defy its authority. It is evident that a social force of such binding
The mysterious sway of custom.and decisive power may be of great benefit, or it may work untold injury. Unfortunately, in the non-Christian world custom is at many crucial points the greatest hindrance to social progress. It sanctions, establishes, and enforces that which is to the infinite injury of society, and has the power to oppose itself strenuously to all reform, and to stay the progress of all change for the better. The tyranny of custom is therefore a fact of immense social import. It weighs heavily against Christianity, against civilization, against all social reform and useful progress, and is usually bitterly hostile to the entrance of liberal views and enlightened methods, opposing with singular tenacity the establishment of more cleanly, refined, and in every respect sane standards of living. It is exceedingly difficult for those who are accustomed to Occidental independence of thought and action to realize the smiting and tyrannizing power of custom in the conservative, restricted social life of the East.1 1 Sir Richard Burton once spent two months with the King of Dahomey, and in conversation with Mr. James Anthony Froude spoke in favorable terms of the king as a benevolent and, on the whole, enlightened savage. Mr. Froude inquired why, if the king was so benevolent, did he not alter the customs. Burton looked at him in amazement and consternation, and said: "Alter the customs! Would you have the Archbishop of Canterbury alter the liturgy?" See Froude, "English Seamen of the Sixteenth Century," p. 37. "The evils which afflict heathen society are found established in those very customs and habits which are like chains of iron fast bound round the bodies of those who have blindly followed them for centuries."—Miss Emily H. Payne (A. B. M. U.), Pegu, Burma.
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It is especially difficult to understand the irrepressible sway of customs in themselves narrowing, retarding, dehumanizing, and detrimental in their tendencies. The giant system of caste in India is an illustration. The customs of child marriage, of enforced widowhood, of sati, of ascetic barbarities, of degrading superstitions, of inane ceremonies, and of many other objectionable features of Indian life, are all of a kind which one would think easy to overthrow when a better way was shown; but, on the contrary, the observance of the whole inflexible routine of custom is the very point of strenuous insistence. It is the breach, not the observance, of the custom which brings ignominy, sorrow, and social ostracism.1 So in the vast social organization of conservative China,
China's homage to established precedent.from the state functions of the Emperor to the binding of the tender feet of some child victim, this dominance of customs is manifest. They cluster around birth, marriage, and death; they determine the downsitting and uprising of all China; they regulate the eating, drinking, and visiting; they dictate domestic, social, commercial, industrial, political, and religious manners and observances. A Chinese must even be ill according to custom, and when he sins he must at least avoid the crowning and unpardonable impertinence of presuming to sin in some unusual way. Finally, when he dies custom seizes him in its iron grip, and he goes to his ancestors with the conventional funeral ceremonies which have been the torment and sorrow of the living for centuries. It would be impossible and altogether unnecessary to undertake to review in detail the innumerable predilections and practices which hold 1 'I am not without my apprehensions that many among you at the very sound of the word' custom' will consider it sinful even to enquire if the change should take place. There are others, again, who, though in their hearts they agree to the measure, have not the courage even to say that it should be adopted, only because it is opposed to the customs of their country. Oh, what a miserable state of things is this! Custom is the supreme ruler in this country; custom is the supreme instructor; the rule of custom is the paramount rule; the precept of custom is the paramount precept. What a mighty influence is thine, O custom! Inexpressible in words! With what absolute sway dost thou rule over thy votaries! Thou hast trampled upon the Sastras, triumphed over virtue, and crushed the power of discriminating right from wrong and good from evil."—Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, in a pamphlet on "The Marriage of Hindu Widows." "The grand characteristic of Hindu society is just its despotic character; its customs and ordinances are so rigid and unbending that no freedom is allowed to the individual. On every side he is hedged in by regulations and prescriptions, so that he can only walk in the narrow rut which these lay down for him. As a necessary consequence, the grand characteristic of the individual Hindu is his want of individuality—his want of a sense of personal responsibility and capability for independent thought and action. The family, the community, the whole social organism, is so prominent, so exacting, so absolute, that the individual in comparison is nothing."— Rev. William Stevenson (F. C. S.), formerly of Madras, India.
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sway in non-Christian society, to its detriment and degradation, since they have already occupied a large share of our attention in the present lecture. There are customs, to be sure, which are excellent and deserve to be perpetuated; but in many cases, usually where the tyranny is most exacting, they are a heritage of sorrow and misery, bringing with them burdens heavy to bear, and hindrances to progress difficult to overcome. What we are concerned to note just here is the tyrannical sway of their influence in society, their power to shut out the guiding light of truth and to stay the transforming entrance of a higher and nobler civilization. We shall have something to say elsewhere of missions as a power singularly effective in the gradual disintegration and final overthrow of the despotic authority of evil customs. II.CASTE.—The social system known as caste,
Caste versus social distinctions.a word supposed to be derived from casta, the Portuguese term for race, is so prominent and important a feature of Hindu society that its consideration fixes our attention almost exclusively upon India. Social distinctions have existed more or less among all races. They are found in classic and medieval society, where they are the outcome either of family rank or political station, or are based upon the grade and character of occupation. Trade guilds were known in the Roman Empire, and also in medieval Europe.1 Such social distinctions, if based upon qualities which deserve recognition and respect, are inevitable, and do not necessarily involve injustice, extinguish brotherhood, or destroy the natural and friendly intercourse of man with man. The peculiarity of the 1 Inge, "Society in Rome under the Cæsars." See chapter on "Grades of Society," pp. 119-171.
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Hindu system, however, is that it creates and insists upon mutually exclusive orders or ranks of humanity, involving an inexorable status of "repulsion between man and man," and that this conception is carried to an extreme which produces among the higher castes an estimate of the lower—and especially of all outcastes—which accords them a position hardly superior, if indeed equal, to that of the brutes. The whole system thus becomes simply an artificial and arbitrary device for exalting one social class and degrading another, upon the basis of purely imaginary distinctions so far as our common humanity is concerned. The origin of caste is involved in
The origin of caste and its social significance.some obscurity. It is the opinion of Dr. John Muir, a distinguished student of Sanscrit literature, and of Professor Max Müller, that in its remote origin it is based upon differences of race, color, and occupation. The fact that the vernacular names by which the caste system is known in the various languages of India are those which signify race, color, and occupation, and are usually fatalistic in their meaning, goes to support this view. While this may be the true view of the remoter origin, it seems certain that the caste system as developed in India is the creation of Hinduism at the hands of the Brahmans1 or their immediate predecessors known by the similar title of Rishas. It is thus a product of Brahmanical legislation, and in its developed form may be regarded as an evolution culminating in a giant system of ranks and orders, in which humanity is separated and labelled, and to each is given a fixed place in the social organism.2 These distinctions are, for the most 1 "The whole caste system as it has come down to us bears unmistakable evidence of Brahmanical origin." See "Madras Census Report for 1871," pp. 122, 123. 2 "Hinduism is a social organization and a religious confederacy. As a social organization it rests upon caste, with its roots deep down in the ethnical elements of the Indian people. As a religious confederacy it represents the coalition of the old Vedic faith of the Brahmans with Buddhism on the one hand, and with the ruder rites of the pre-Aryan and Indo-Scythic races on the other. "The ethnical basis of caste is disclosed in the twofold division of the people into the 'twice-born' Aryan castes, including the Brahmans, Kshattriyas (Rajputs), and Vaisyas ; and the 'once-born' non-Aryan Sudras. The Census proves that this classification remains the fundamental one to the present day. The three 'twice-born' castes still wear the sacred thread, and claim a joint, although an unequal, inheritance in the holy books of the Veda. The 'once-born' castes are still denied the sacred thread, and their initiation into the old religious literature of the Indo-Aryans has only been effected by the secular teaching of our Anglo-Indian schools. But while caste has thus its foundations deep in the distinctions of race, its superstructure is regulated by another system of division, based on the occupations of the people. The early classification of the people may be expressed either ethnically, as 'twice-born' Aryans and 'once-born' non-Aryans; or socially, as priests, warriors, husbandmen, and serfs. On these two principles of classification, according to race and to employment, still further modified by geographical position, has been built up the ethnical and social organization of Indian caste."—Sir W. W. Hunter, "The Indian Empire: Its Peoples, History, and Products," p. 241.
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part, based upon religious, military, literary, social, and industrial associations.1 It is therefore in its original conception a scheme of social and religious classification with a view to establishing and fixing once for all a system of inflexible allotment, which involves at one and the same time cohesion and separation, firmly uniting some members of the community, and rigorously excluding others. It provides for a perpetual system of social segregation, not only on the basis of heredity, but as a method of classified absorption of every foreign element which in future generations might become a part of the Indian social system through conquest or assimilation. No one can doubt that it was an inherent feature of the original conception to designate the supreme place in the social system to the Brahman, and regulate all the rest of society upon a sliding scale of relative inferiority to him, his rank being virtually divine in its superiority and dignity.2 This supremacy of the Brahman was not, however, actually secured without a severe struggle.3 It may be true, as Mr. Bhattacharya contends
Its evolution into a social monstrosity.in his "Hindu Castes and Sects" (an author to whom I would express my indebtedness for much valuable information upon this, to the ordinary lay intelligence, complex and inchoate subject), that the originators of the caste system were not, consciously at least, conspirators against the welfare and happiness of society, nor were they able to foresee the amazing and ramifying influence for evil which it was destined to exert. 1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 139-149. 2 "The most remarkable feature in the mechanism of Hindu society is the high position occupied in it by the Brahmans. They not only claim almost divine honours as their birthright, but, generally speaking, the other classes, including the great Ksatriya princes and the rich Vaishya merchants, readily submit to their pretensions as a matter of course. A Brahman never bows his head to make a pranam to one who is not a Brahman. When saluted by a man of any other class, he only pronounces a benediction, saying, 'Victory be unto you.'... The more orthodox Sudras carry their veneration for the priestly class to such an extent that they will not cross the shadow of a Brahman, and it is not unusual for them to be under a vow not to eat any food in the morning before drinking Bipracharanamrita, i.e., water in which the toe of a Brahman has been dipped. On the other hand, the pride of the Brahmans is such that they do not bow to even the images of the gods worshipped in a Sudra's house by Brahman priests."—Bhattacharya, "Hindu Castes and Sects, pp. 19, 20. 3 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 150.
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In fact, this learned student, who has treated his theme with admirable system and clearness, is inclined to credit its authors with "large-hearted statesmanship" in designing such a facile instrumentality for keeping every one in his place in the social scale. He is, indeed, free to acknowledge that "the ambition that led the Hindu lawgivers to place their own class above the rest of mankind has no doubt an appearance of selfishness" (p. 5). He stoutly contends, however, that they were surely moved by a most benevolent and liberal spirit. Be this as it may, the truth remains that, both religiously and socially, the Brahman claims a monopoly of power and an eminence of position which have solidified into the most extravagant canonization, and even deification, of humanity as represented in his person, which history presents. Not only the substance, but even the very shadow, of the Brahman is sacred. As they were historically the authors of the developed system, so they have remained the most prominent representatives of the caste idea. They illustrate its tendency, and reveal in their characters and claims the ultimate results of its workings, which are seen in all other castes as well as in this supreme one. In its own place each caste is a typical product of the system, and in many respects presents hardly less marked evidence than that found in the Brahmans themselves of its powerful impress upon the social character.1 The system presents perhaps the most complete example of power over human will and action that can be found in the history of mankind, not excepting religion or governmental despotism. Religion, even though it has controlled the higher life and moulded the character and aims of men in accordance with moral standards, has never entered the details of human life and experience with such minute and peremptory decrees, and shaped it in all its minutiae with 1 Mr. Bhattacharya, in his volume already referred to, gives a detailed but well-systematized classification of Hindu castes and their formidable subdivisions and ramifications. A general idea of his presentation of the subject may be gathered from the following heads into which he divides his chapters : (1) "The Brahmans Generally"; (2) "The Brahmans of Northern India", (3) "The Brahmans of Southern India"; (4) "The Semi-Brahmanical Castes"; (5) "The Degraded Brahmans" ; (6) "The Military Castes"; (7) "The Scientific Castes" ; (8) " The Writer Castes" ; (9) " The Mercantile Castes"; (10) " The Artisan Castes Generally Recognized as Clean Sudras" ; (11) "The Manufacturing and Artisan Castes that are Regarded as Unclean Sudras"; (12) "The Clean Agricultural Castes"; (13) "The Cowherds and Shepherds" ; (14) "The Clean and the Unclean Castes Employed in Personal and Domestic Service"; (15) "Miscellaneous Castes." Under these various heads there is a large number of subdivisions and classifications, which reveal the intricate and interpenetrating relations of the system to Hindu society as a whole, from top to bottom.
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such an overshadowing mastery,
The overshadowing mastery of caste regulations.as has resulted from the inexorable and bewildering requirements of caste regulations. The influence of caste penetrates the innermost recesses of the spiritual life, and reaches to the uttermost bounds of outward conduct and habit, concerning itself with the most trivial as well as the most dignified aspects of daily experience.1 Sir M. Monier-Williams remarks: "It is difficult for us Europeans to understand how pride of caste as a divine ordinance interpenetrates the whole being of the Hindu. He looks upon caste as his veritable god, and thus caste rules, which we believe to be a hindrance to the acceptance of true religion, are to him the very essence of all religion. They influence his whole life and conduct." As it exists at the present day in India it is still as assertive in the lives of its devotees as it ever has been in the past, and over all other classes still towers the Brahman, who is regarded by the great mass of Hindus with a reverence which hardly differs from worship. By Brahman in this connection we do not refer to officiating priests, for, although the priestly caste is Brahmanical, the great mass of Brahmans are not priests, and in fact look down with considerable contempt upon the priestly class known as Pujari Brahmans. It is not the priestly office, but his birth- 1 A classic passage upon the regulative supremacy of caste in all its minute ramifications is found in the volume on "Indian Caste" from the pen of the Rev. Dr. Wilson. It is as follows: "It [caste] has for infancy, pupilage, and manhood its ordained methods of sucking, sipping, drinking, and eating; of washing, anointing; of clothing and ornamenting the body; of sitting, rising, reclining; of moving, visiting, travelling; of speaking, reading, listening, and reciting; and of meditating, singing, working, and fighting. It has its laws for social and religious rights, privileges, and occupations; for education, duty, religious service; for errors, sins, transgressions; for intercommunion, avoidance, and excommunication; for defilement and purification; for fines and other punishments. It unfolds the ways of committing what it calls sins, accumulating sin, and of putting away sin; of acquiring, dispensing, and losing merit. It treats of inheritance, conveyance, possession, and dispossession of property; and of bargains, gains, loss, and ruin. It deals with death, burial, and burning; and with commemoration, assistance, and injury after death. It interferes, in short, with all the relations and events of life, and with what precedes and follows, or what is supposed to precede and follow, life. It reigns supreme in the innumerable classes and divisions of the Hindus, whether they originate in family descent, in religious opinions, in civil or sacred occupations, or in local residence; and it professes to regulate all their interests, affairs, and relationships. Caste is the guiding principle of each of the classes and divisions of the Hindus viewed in their distinct and associated capacity. A caste is any of the classes or divisions of Hindu society. The authority of caste rests partly on written laws, partly on legendary fables and narratives, partly on the injunctions of instructors and priests, partly on custom and usage, and partly on the caprice and convenience of its votaries."—Quoted in Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 125, 126.
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right, which makes the Brahman.1 The proportion of Brahmans to the Hindu population may be roughly estimated as one twentieth, and they are separated into numerous divisions and subdivisions. "As a matter of fact," says Mr. Bhattacharya, "the divisions among the Brahmans are so numerous that it is exceedingly difficult, if not actually impossible, to frame an exhaustive and accurate list thereof" (p. 33). The number of separate castes is enormous, and difficult to determine with precision. The "Madras Census Report for 1881" contained 19,044 caste names, and Sir William Hunter states that there are "not fewer than 3000 of them which have separate names, and which regard themselves as separate classes."2 One of the most terrible counts against the system is that it belittles moral distinctions, while it exalts other tests of character and conduct of no moral significance.3 The social evil of the caste system is the aspect of the subject which
What can be said in its defense?calls for notice here. As a matter of course, caste is admired and defended by the great mass of Hindus, and, strange to say, even some English officials in India have defended it as facilitating the exercise of authority by foreign government, and would therefore sustain and foster it as a political convenience.4 The substance of what has been said in its advocacy may be summed up as follows: First, it insures a certain degree of excellence in labor by virtue of its assignment of the sphere of toil to successive generations. Second, it affords some measure of protection by uniting classes with similar interests and bound to help one another. Third, it promotes to some extent cleanliness by its regulations concerning the care of utensils, bathing, etc. 1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 159, 160. 2 Hunter, "A Brief History of the Indian Peoples," p. 97. 3 "Caste carries out its own childish rules and laws with Draconian severity, while it disregards the greatest crimes. A man may be guilty of dakoity and murder; this does not affect his caste; but let him take a glass of water from a European, and caste is immediately destroyed. 'Other religions,' it has been remarked, 'may be seated in the mind and soul; but the stronghold of Hinduism is the stomach.' The most important distinctions between right and wrong are obliterated by caste."—Dr. J. Murdoch, essay on "Moral Courage," pp. 45, 46, in Papers on Indian Social Reform. 4 Sir Lepel Griffin has written of this aspect of the question as follows: " If England continues to rule with justice, moderation, and impartiality, with clean hands and an honest and eager desire to work for the good of the people, there is no fear that the Hindus will ever turn against her. And the explanation of this security is chiefly to be found in caste, which, by depriving the people of ambition, has left each man content with his position in life."—"Caste," p, 21, Papers on Indian Social Reform.
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Fourth, it promotes respect for authority. Fifth, it puts certain restraints upon immorality by confining it within caste lines.1 After all has been said, however, in its favor,
The counts in a great indictment.an overwhelming indictment can be brought against it as involving enormous disadvantages and disabilities to Hindu society. We condense
again, from Papers on Indian Social Reform, the following summary: First, it is productive of physical degeneracy in that it involves the intermarriage of near relatives, and is mainly responsible for early marriages. Second, it is one source of India's poverty, since it places restrictions on foreign intercourse, and makes professions hereditary and labor degrading. Third, it hinders intellectual progress, since it frowns upon general education. Fourth, it is antagonistic to social reform, and rights fiercely for the continuance of every social evil which burdens and crushes Indian society. Fifth, it destroys individual liberty, since it places inexorable disabilities upon its victims. Sixth, it hinders the growth of national sentiment, since it elevates caste above the idea of nationality. It is, in fact, an expedient for ruling out national unity, so that " 'a nation divided against itself' is the proper description of the Hindu race." This, it will be noted, is the very argument used by Sir Lepel Griffin in advocacy of caste as facilitating foreign dominion. Seventh, it creates discord among different classes of society, and has been in the past the fruitful cause of dissensions and quarrels. Eighth, it hardens the heart against human suffering, since the alleviation of suffering can never be attempted in violation of caste regulations.2 1 This statement of what can be said in favor of caste is taken from the paper on "Caste," issued in Papers on Indian Social Reform, Madras, 1893. 2 "As regards the moral influence of caste upon the Hindu nation," says
Vaughan, "it is impossible to denounce the caste system too strongly. Its tendency has been to eradicate human sympathies, to annihilate compassion, to make the heart hard, harsh, and selfish. No one who has not lived in India can understand to what an extent this hardening of the hearts of the Indian people has gone. No people in the world have a stronger sense of family ties than the Hindus. A friendly regard for the wider circle of kinship may be remarked. This goes so far as a respectful acknowledgment of all the members of one's own caste. But anything like an active and general thought of beneficence even towards his caste brethren is not to be thought of. Certainly, outside the caste, the weal or woe of his fellow-men makes no impression on him. We have repeatedly observed along the great pilgrim routes illustrations of this sad truth. We have seen poor creatures lying on the road seized with illness. Hundreds of their co-religionists passed and took no more notice of them than they would of a dying dog. We have heard the poor parched sufferers, with folded hands and earnest voice, pray for a drop of water to moisten their lips, but all in vain. Thus hundreds die uncared for, without sympathy, without help. Probably before death has done its work the vultures and the jackals begin theirs, and so the roads which lead to the holy places are lined with rows of white bones and bleached skulls. Whence this more than brutal hardening? What has dried up all the fountains of human sympathy? It is caste."—Quoted in Warneck, "Modern Missions and Culture," p. 368.
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Ninth, it consigns to hopeless degradation nearly the entire human race, and even assigns to a large section of mankind a rank lower than the brutes. Tenth, it fills certain classes with unspeakable arrogance and pride. The most consummate illustration of conceit in the world is the Brahman. Eleventh, it identifies religion with outward ceremony, and degrades moral standards to the level of external forms and customs. The offenses against caste are confined to such things as eating, drinking, and marrying contrary to rule, or neglecting some of the multiplied regulations of caste behavior. Caste pollution becomes the merest fiction, while moral uncleanness and gross crime are passed over with little, if any, notice. Twelfth, the whole system is based upon false conceptions of the Deity, and its most intense contentions have no basis whatever in truth. Thirteenth, it is in defiance of human rights and all strict justice between man and man. Its arbitrary divisions of sacred and common, clean and unclean, holy and unholy, noble and ignoble, have become crystallized into a regnant system which is despotic to the last degree. A striking commentary upon the whole system is the lamentable,
The ostracism of the Pariahs.almost hopeless, social degradation of the Pariahs, a low caste section of Indian population. An admirable résumé of the their state is given by the Rev. L. L. Uhl, Ph.D., of the American Lutheran Mission, Guntur, in a paper presented at the Bombay Conference of 1892-93, and published on page 550 of its report. The picture he draws is one of crushing social ostracism, of terrible restrictions in everything that concerns their hygienic, physical, intellectual, and moral welfare. The strenuousness of this social excommunication seems to vary somewhat in different sections of India. It prevails in the Native States more than in British India, and among them none is more caste-ridden than Travancore,1 in the southwesterly extremity of the penin- 1 "In Travancore they [Pariahs] are not allowed to pass along the public streets, and even in the city of Madras there is a street at the entrance to which there is a notice forbidding Pariahs to pass that way. They are not permitted to draw water from the village wells, and in many cases suffer severely from this prohibition. I have known places where they have been obliged to content themselves with mud degenerated from a foul hole, though there was an abundant supply of good water within easy reach. Except in a few very exceptional cases, they are not permitted to live in the main village, but occupy huts outside the village boundary. Although English law seeks to treat all classes alike, owing to the prejudices of the subordinate officials, who are Hindus, Pariahs are, as a rule, prevented from entering hospitals, courts, post-offices, and similar public buildings. Every attempt on the part of people belonging to these stations in life to improve their position calls forth the bitterest opposition of the higher classes."—Rev. W. Howard Campbell (L. M. S.), Cuddapah, Madras, India.
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sula. Brahmanism reigns there with its most extravagant pretensions. Mrs. Murray Mitchell, in a volume entitled "In Southern India," refers to Brahmanism as found in that section as follows: "Caste is intensely and exceptionally strong, and, as elsewhere, stands in the way of all progress. The degradation of the low castes, consequent on the absurd and oppressive laws of caste, is terrible here, and hardly to be believed. For example, no native Christian, however educated and intelligent, nor any person of low caste, can obtain employment in a public office, for fear of polluting those officials who may be of higher caste. Then the school difficulties are endless. The children of some of the inferior castes dare not even approach a school where higher-caste lads are taught. The disabilities are inconceivable and so are the injustice and inequality of the laws. Women, too, are degraded to a degree one hardly finds equalled in these days of reform in any other part of India. It is terrible to look at some of the poor, miserable-looking creatures, with hardly any clothing and no sense even of decency."1 A consensus of influential opinion as to the
Some representative opinions on caste.evils of caste by both foreign and native students of Indian history and society might be given at considerable length. Some of the most distinguished and intelligent natives of India have had the courage—and it has required great moral heroism—to renounce caste, and in some instances eminent Indians have done valiant service in seeking to deliver their countrymen from its stupendous bondage. Among them may be mentioned the late Rev. Dr. Krishna Mohun Banerjea, Pandit Bishan Narayan Dar, Raja Rammohun Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen, Sasipada Banerjee, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Raja Sir Tanjore Madhava Row, Protab Chunder Mozumdar, Pandit Shiva Nath Sastri, and Mr. Behramji M. Malabari, the accomplished editor of The Indian Spectator, 1 Quoted in Bailey, "A Glimpse at the Indian Mission Field and Leper Asylums" pp. 33, 34. Cf. also "The Condition of the Pariah Outcastes in India," by the Rev. James Johnston, in The Missionary Review of the World, April, 1895, P- 276; The Baptist Missionary Review (India), February, 1895, p. 56; March, 1895, p. 97; and "The Wrongs of the Pariah," by the Rev. George Patterson, in Work and Workers in the Mission Field, June, 1892, p. 70.
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who, although born a Parsi, had a Hindu mother and knew the system through and through. In the sketch of his life and times by Mr. R. P. Karkaria an instance is given (p. 116) of what it means for a Hindu to break caste.1 Other names might be given, and several of the native papers of India might be designated which have done excellent service in this direction, although edited by Hindus. As viewed from a missionary standpoint,
An indefensible and formidable barrier to social progress.the present workings of caste in Hindu society must be regarded as a social evil of immensely depressing and paralyzing power.2 Missionaries are not alone in this opinion, as learned students, such as Sir M. Monier-Williams and Professor Max Müller, have expressed most emphatic judgments as to the indefensible pretensions and terrible social evils of caste. Anglo-Indian officials of distinction have also united in this verdict. In the "Madras Census Report for 1871" Dr. Cornish, in an "Introduction on Caste," expresses it as his conclusion that it "is now the greatest bar to the advance of the Indian people in civilization and aptitude for self-government."3 In agreement with this is the judgment of Sir 1 " The complex machinery of caste, which unites Hindus and holds them as in a dead man's embrace, is set against them. The horrors of excommunication hang constantly over their heads. The social reformer's task is thus of a most trying nature. Many a stout heart has been broken under the strain of persecution. A man may not care for himself; he may in his own person defy any persecution, however bitter; but when his whole family is condemned along with him, and severed from all intercourse with the society around them,—when for his zeal his near and dear ones are made to suffer with him,—nothing short of heroism can bear him up. It is unreasonable to expect such heroism from many. Karsandas Mulji, a Hindu of Gujarat, showed such courage in the last generation, and for a long time defied caste and superstition. But he too had to yield at last. His last days were embittered by the helpless state to which his family had been reduced. He died in grief and solitude. Caste had proved too strong for his individual efforts. His family could not defy it. They retracted, and underwent a humiliating penance in order to be taken back into the fold of their caste. Superstition and bigotry thus triumphed." — Karkaria, "India: Forty Years of Progress and Reform," p. 116. 2 "Undoubtedly caste is the first and greatest social evil in this section of India."—Rev. D. Downie, D.D. (A. B. M. U.), Nellore, India. "The system amounts to a stupid, selfish, proud, stagnant, degrading tyranny, difficult for us to conceive."—Rev. Robert Morrison (P. B. F. M. N.), Lahore, India. "Caste is one of the greatest evils that are to be found in Hindu society. It separates man from man, fosters pride on the one hand and envy on the other, and effectually destroys individuality by bringing all classes under the yoke of a multitude of minute and vexatious formuke."—Rev. W. Howard Campbell (L. M. S.), Cuddapah, Madras, India. 3 "Madras Census Report, 1871," p. 130.
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Henry Maine that caste is "the most disastrous and blighting of all human institutions." There is evidently a hard fight, in fact a social convulsion, which must come in connection with the break-up of this tremendous system. Its solidarity is something which no mere words can describe.1 It will be one of the most signal triumphs of Christianity over human ignorance, superstition, pride, and stout-hearted defiance when it shall finally make a successful breach in these massive ramparts. The disciples of caste are no doubt aware that their system can never assimilate modern civilization, and can never coalesce with the spirit of the Gospel. It is now the policy of Christian missions not to recognize caste in the Church. In some sections of India, especially in the Native States,
The effort to fix cast disabilities upon native Christians.the position of native Christians is one of difficulty, and characterized by many unjust disabilities. They are even regarded as outcastes, and have been visited with some of the ignominy and ostracism which are common in the case of non-caste people. Their property rights have been declared as forfeited in the Province of Mysore.2 There is serious interference with the custody of children, prohibition of the use of public wells, and other minor annoyances. The Bangalore Native Christian Association has presented an address to the Lord Bishop of Madras, recounting the objectionable features of this situation, and in view of the fact that there are 30,000 Christians in the Province of Mysore, its members requested his aid to secure the removal of these 1 "We conceive that so peculiarly tenacious is the caste cement which binds the courses of its social masonry that the dislodgment of individual stones does nothing to impair the structural integrity of the edifice. The wall of its circumvallation is massive and smooth, and the separation of a fragment from its face is imperceptible in the solidity of the whole. The breach seems to close again of itself, and the defenses, instead of crumbling, seem only the more indurated by their slight and temporary disturbance."—The Church Missionary Intelligencer, July, 1893, p. 500. 2 "A convert to Christianity in Mysore has no rights at all. Act XXI. of 1850,
which confers rights of property on converts in British India, is not in force in Mysore, and consequently a convert cannot claim any share of the family property. If he had by his own earnings brought a large amount of property to the family, he would not be able to claim it in case he changed his creed. The Courts of Mysore would declare that he was patita (fallen from caste), and therefore entitled to no consideration whatever. The embracing of Christianity would make a rich man poor, and deprive the poor of the little he possessed; and the Mysore Courts would not interfere to redress the wrong." See paper on "The Position and Disabilities of Native Christians in the Province of Mysore," by the Rev. H. Gulliford, presented to the Bangalore Native Christian Association, October 9, 1895, and subsequently published as a supplement to The Christian Patriot of Madras.
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disabilities. A similar movement is in operation for the Native State of Travancore, where the situation is still more trying.1 The overshadowing import of caste as found
Milder forms of cast spirit in other lands.in India seems to render it a comparatively insignificant matter in other lands. It is, indeed, not found in China2 or Japan, although the old feudal distinctions were nearly as pronounced as caste classification in India. A powerful class spirit, however, is still found in Japanese society, but perhaps not more so than elsewhere.3 It is not found at all in Siam,4 although it prevails in all its intensity just north in Assam. We have mild phases of it in Korea, chiefly in connection with trade distinctions, for example, the butchers as a class were obliged to observe certain restrictions, which, however, have recently been abolished, largely through Christian influence, by official action of the Korean Government. In some of the South Sea Islands there is a strong caste feeling,5 and in certain sections of Africa it is quite pronounced, as in Dahomey and Bechuanaland.6 1 See editorial on "The Disabilities of Native Christians in the Travancore State," in The Christian Patriot, Madras, November 21, 1895. 2 "Caste, in the Indian sense of the word, is not found here."—Rev. Jonathan Lees (L. M. S.), Tientsin, North China. 3 "Class spirit once existed in Japan, and with great power. It certainly still
exists in a modified form. It cannot be said that the Japanese, even in the Christian Church, are wholly above the influence of the once powerful class spirit. But the manifestations of this spirit here are so seldom and so meagre compared with former times that the Japanese would themselves be almost ready to say that it does not exist. Christian civilization is a leveller, and this phase of the influence of Christianity upon Japan is specially prevalent. The once despised merchant and mechanic classes are rising in power, and are becoming more and more respected by the literary and social classes. The class distinctions that begin to prevail are those which come naturally to society in any land."—Rev. David S. Spencer (M. E. M. S.), Nagoya, Japan.
4 "There is no caste, and the separation between the two extremes of society is not so marked as in Christian lands to-day."—Rev. Daniel McGilvary (P. B. F. M. N.),
Chieng Mai, Laos. 5 "In the northern part of the New Hebrides Group the system of caste has as firm a hold upon the natives as it has in India. They belong to different castes according to rank. The women and children are outside the pale of caste."—Rev. William Gunn (F. C. S.), Futuna, New Hebrides.
6 Illustrated Africa, June, 1895, p. 9; Work and Workers in the Mission Field, February, 1893, p. 63.
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V.—THE NATIONAL GROUP (Evils which afflict society through the misuse of the governing power) Government is a fundamental and universal necessity to the prosperity and efficiency of the social organism. In its rudimentary as well as its more perfected forms it has been an inevitable
The dignity of the State, and the perils of power.feature of associate life through all history. No one form of government, patriarchal, tribal, monarchical, oligarchical, or even constitutional, can claim exclusive excellence or pose as the only possible system which can secure the common welfare. Good or bad rule does not depend so much on the form as on the spirit and method with which government is conducted. Any system may be abused or become the instrument of tyranny, although it is no doubt true that an immensely preponderating danger in this respect attends all forms of personal as distinguished from constitutional authority, since the balancing restraint of recognized responsibility is far more imperfectly realized in the exercise of personal than of constitutional power. The great and legitimate function of government is to secure and conserve the rights of subjects, while ministering to the good order, prosperity, liberty, and higher welfare of society. It has upon occasion the further duty of protecting its authority and its geographical domain from aggression, that it may preserve its title to independent existence. The State has a right to be as an essential condition of social order and safety. It is in reality the necessary outgrowth of the family, and as the family is divine in its origin, so the State is both established and sanctioned by God as the enlargement of family life.1 It is the evolution of primitive patriarchal and family relationships. In this sense "the powers that be are ordained of God" for the benefit of the larger life of man. The history of the world, however, shows what fearful misuse has been made of the governing power. The record of what the world has suffered from bad government is indeed a dark and melancholy chapter in human annals.2 The good of the people has been often heedlessly 1 " The original State was a family. Historically the State of to-day may be
regarded as in an important sense only an enlarged family: State is family writ large."—Woodrow Wilson, "The State," p. 3. 2 On misgovernment under the Roman emperors, especially Diocletian, see extract from Lactantius, in "Selections from Early Writers," by Henry Melville Gwatkin, p. 151.
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forgotten or purposely ignored, while the arbitrary will or personal ambition of the sovereign has become the guiding impulse of government. The fact that the common welfare puts under certain restraints not only the personal desires and projects of the individual subject, but also the will of the ruler, has been a principle all too frequently ignored by those possessing despotic power. In most instances the rulers of heathen history of all ranks and grades have looked upon government as simply a process of self-aggrandizement and exaltation at the expense of those who were subject to their authority. The most prominent conception of sovereignty in action which has occupied the minds and controlled the policy of rulers in the past history of the world, and which still prevails in non-Christian lands, is that it is the most available method for wresting from others the rights and liberties to which they are entitled by every law of justice and honesty. The temptations of power are almost resistless, and in illustration of this we need not travel far from even a civilized environment. If we are to believe much of what is reported in the colonial history of civilized governments, not to speak of the contemporary annals of Spanish rule or of European administration in the Congo Free State under Belgian rule or of German administration in certain sections of Africa, we have still available, even at the present moment, striking examples of how easily men of European lineage can yield themselves to the gross and cruel misuse of official authority. The history of heathenism is, as a rule, marked by despotism. The old Oriental empires and their modern successors are alike in this respect. Savage life has been almost invariably characterized by tyranny on the part of rulers. The non-Christian world at the present day is still to a great extent in the toils of irresponsible power. In some sections there has been great and promising improvement within even a half-century, as, for example, in India, Japan, and the European colonies and protectorates established in various parts of the world. In this connection, however, as we have intimated, some large reservations are no doubt necessary, but they are happily the exception rather than the rule. Under this general group we shall present a few specifications. 1. CIVIL TYRANNY.—The different phases of misgovernment are often so allied in principle and practice that it is difficult to deal with the subject under specific headings without the appearance of overlapping and repeating. This is, in fact, just what happens in the executive policy of despotic rulers, who usually improve every opportunity
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for misusing their power, with no scruples as to method. Some apparent confusion is therefore likely to be incidental to any attempt to expose the complex and intermingled phases of their misrule. By civil tyranny we refer more especially to the arbitrary use of power in trampling upon civil rights and reducing a citizen and subject to the position of a tool and a slave. It is illustrated in making the will of the ruler to be law, and the personal and civil rights of the subject to be non-existent whenever it suits the purpose of the governing power to ignore or violate them. This principle of despotism may be found not only in the ways of kings and superior officials, but in the methods of underlings and petty officers, in some instances with exceptional severity. The position of the helpless subjects, or rather victims,
Civil tyrany in Turkey.of some of the Oriental governments at the present hour would be pronounced absolutely intolerable if there were any remedy available. The attention of the world just now is fixed upon the status in the Turkish Empire under the rule of pashadom. This has been for ages little else than organized brigandage in the name of government. Political rule there is simply martial law under the guise of government in the hands of a ruling caste, whose object is not to protect and defend civil rights, but rather to use positions of authority for purposes of self-aggrandizement, at the expense, when necessary, of every principle of liberty, justice, and law.1 Now and then the slow, inconspicuous, grinding movement of the machinery of misrule loses its self-restraint, and begins to throb with passion and whirl with the propulsion of some unusual excitement, which results either in a massacre or in some extraordinary expedient of wholesale and peremptory blackmail. Just at present there is an acute and virulent outbreak of the passions of misrule, but the spirit which has now come to blows and deeds of blood and cruelty has all along been revealing its tendencies, until maladministration may be said to be the chronic curse of Turkey. A few words from a resident missionary of the empire, written before the recent massacres, reveal the existence of potential extermination as a political programme before the policy was actually put into execution.2 Pub- 1 In the index to Dwight's "Turkish Life in War Times," under the heading "Administrative Anomalies," is given a suggestive list of the eccentricities of Otto man maladministration. 2 "It would be out of place at the present time and in my position to enter upon a tirade against the powers that be, civil and religious, but I may remark in passing that there is much under the well-gilded surface which, if thoroughly exposed, would surprise and shock the common sense and decency of the world. The wildest dreams of a Malthus or a Machiavelli are commonplace in comparison with the schemes which have been calmly contemplated and discussed by different classes of the inhabitants of this land, for the purpose of reducing the numbers of those who do not fall in with the requirements of their own systems. How far these schemes have been, or are likely to be, carried into effect, is a question which may properly be referred to history for a reply."—Rev. Edward Riggs (A. B. C. F. M.), Marsovan, Turkey. Cf. also English Blue Book, Turkey, No. 3, 1896, entitled " Correspondence Relating to the Asiatic Provinces of Turkey, 1892-93"; "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," by Frederick Davis Greene, chap, iii., on "The Chronic Condition of Armenia and Kurdistan"; "Report of the London Conference, 1888," vol. i., pp. 23-27, Address of the Rev. G. E. Post, M.D.; "Transcaucasia and Ararat," by James Bryce, fourth ed., with supplementary chapter on Armenia.
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lic opinion and the influence of the native press are entirely inoperative, being wholly subservient to the fierce power of despotic authority. A volume might be written upon this one subject of Turkish misrule. Would that some Dante of contemporary literature might present it in its realistic hideousness! although we fear no touch of art could sufficiently relieve the revolting ghastliness of this hell upon earth to save the reader from a shuddering misery in its perusal. Persia is perhaps less desperately bad than Turkey; yet the government of the shahs is despotic, and in the case of non-Moslems is often guilty of gross injustice.1 All Central Asia knows only the methods of tyranny. In China the entire government is conducted
Methods of extortion in China.on the principle that authority and power include the opportunity of mulcting the people; and not only the people, but even inferior officials, in accordance with the theory of responsibility which prevails there, are often the capegoats and victims of higher officials whenever occasion admits. Extortion is the rule. Every one in power searches for his victims, and the higher the official the larger must be his ill-gotten gains.2 It is customary not only to arraign the guilty party, but to count his relatives, his neighbors, and even his village, responsible for his misdoings.3 This simply enlarges the area for prosecuting, and practically destroys the principle of personal responsibility.4 Not only is extortion one of the manifest results of this system, but it affords an almost unlimited opportunity for the indefinite imprisonment of both the innocent and the guilty without any attempt to discriminate between them.5 It sometimes happens that prisoners are kept for years 1 Browne, "A Year amongst the Persians," pp. 107, 108. 2 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., pp. 474-482. 3 Ibid., p. 480. 4 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 235. 5 Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 88-91.
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in painful confinement without any effort at trial. "The most common complaint of the Chinese," writes Dr. Graves in "Forty Years in China," "except, perhaps, the ever-present cry of hard times so common in every land, is the injustice of the Courts. They have no confidence either in the integrity of their mandarins or the possibility of obtaining justice at their hands" (p. 104). Is it strange that revolution is a frequent incident in China? The Government becomes so intolerable that a change must be secured at any cost. As regards Korea, its Government has been pronounced
Civil administration in Korea and Japan.by a native Korean to be "a combination of a despotic monarchy and a corrupted oligarchy, with the worst elements of both. The sole design and purpose of the whole machinery is to promote the interest of the fewest possible at the cost of the nation. Most stringent measures have been adopted to impoverish the mind, enslave the spirit, repress the ambition, and discourage the progress of the people, for no other reason than to enable a few to enjoy power and wealth."1 The testimony of a resident missionary confirms this verdict.2 In Japan the old order, which was characterized by grievous defects,3 has been superseded by immense changes in the direction of civilization and reform, yet no nation, however receptive and aspiring, can hope to reverse at once the traditions and customs of ages. While the civiliza 1The Messenger (Shanghai), November, 1894, p. 162. 2 Korea has known nothing but civil oppression for years. There has not
been even a show of justice. A custom which has grown in the last quarter-century will illustrate this. Suppose a dissolute or rascally member of a family having wealthy connections contracts debts, his whole family (even distant connections) are held responsible for the payment of the same. An official desiring to extort
money will (possibly by conspiracy with the rascal) loan money to one who there upon absconds or loses the money in fraudulent investments. Then the process of securing this money from the man's relatives is begun, and these are all compelled to pay to the official whatever he may demand. Failure to do so subjects them to
imprisonment, torture, or death. I knew a case where a distant kinsman by marriage, who had never seen his fraudulent relative, and had never had any business relations with him, was thus compelled to help to pay his debts. The officials and all their underlings (of whom there are ten or one hundred times as many as there is
need for) live by plunder. In this city last winter a lad in the country was reported to have found a treasure in a field. On the basis of this rumor he was arrested by the underlings of an official here, and tortured in the hope of making him surrender the reported treasure. He was beaten so cruelly that death resulted. The officials and underlings are simply a band of conspirators ruling in order to rob the people. To fall into the clutches of the law on a true or false charge means release only upon payment of money."—Rev. S. A. Moffett (P. B. F. M. N.), Pyeng Yang, Korea. 3 Griffis, "The Religions of Japan," pp. 359-363.
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tion of Japan as a whole may be said to be still under the sway of its old pagan ideals, yet the presence of the spirit of reform and its extraordinary activity give promise of the speedy and permanent enthronement of the essential principles of civil and religious liberty in that empire.1 Japan is truly indebted to a few ardent and patriotic spirits who have "followed the gleam" of a higher civilization, and steadily wrought for its introduction into their native land. The infusion of Christianity will be of unspeakable value just at this stage of Japanese transformation. In India the British Government has laid the
British reforms in India.foundation of civil reforms, which seem to guarantee a promising future to that vast country. The difficulties of executive administration are still formidable, yet principles have been incorporated in the policy of the Government which have never been dreamed of before in India. Previous to the advent of British rule the government of the Indian races by native rulers was simply organized despotism of the most cruel order.2 The Native States, although under restraint, are still governed by a system which gives large scope for civil tyranny.3 Of the civil 1 "Anciently, civil oppression existed in Japan, but it would not be correct to declare that it now exists. The doctrine of individual rights has so far advanced as to cause surprise even to the missionary and to the advocate of progress in the Government. The coming Civil Code promises to be so drawn from European standards as to thoroughly protect the individual at every point. Indeed, he is nearly
as well protected now under the law as he is in the United States."—Rev. David S. Spencer (M. E. M. S.), Nagoya, Japan. 2 Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years," Memorandum on the State of the Country and the Condition of the People in Former Centuries, pp. 2-19. An incident is narrated by Mr. Raghavaiyangar which illustrates the arbitrary character of former rulers. He reports that Tippoo Sultan, a ruler of Southern India at the end of the eighteenth century, "used to change the value of the coins in a very arbitrary manner. When he was about to pay his troops, the nominal value of every coin was raised very high, and kept at that level for a few days, and during this period the soldiery were allowed to pay off their debts at the high valuation" (ibid., p. 22). 3 "The poor, and indeed all classes, are subjected to a very considerable amount of civil oppression. The English officials do what they can to administer even-handed justice to all classes, but the subordinate officials, who are natives of the country, and many of them Brahmans, are too often very corrupt and oppressive. Bribery is the rule, not the exception. The police force is almost hopelessly corrupt, and its members are in many cases guilty of cruel extortion. It is by no means uncommon
for them to take bribes from a wealthy offender, and then by means of false evidence secure the conviction of some poor man wholly unconnected with the matter. The village officials are, as a rule, in league with the police, and aid them in their extortion. The subordinate officials connected with the forest and excise departments are little better than the police. Where local government has been introduced, the district and county boards have, where not controlled by a European officer, proved themselves incapable of rising above caste prejudice. In the Cuddapah district one county board issued an order forbidding the use of public rest-houses by any but high-caste Hindus, while another forbade the teacher of a government school to receive Pariah children into his school."—Rev. W. Howard Campbell (L. M. S.), Cuddapah, Madras, India.
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conditions in Assam and Siam it is not necessary to speak in detail.1 In Africa civil rights were practically unknown amid its savage population until European governments instituted colonial administration.2 A representative statement of the African theory of personal rights is given in the words of a resident missionary of Bechuanaland.3 2. OPPRESSIVE TAXATION.—The levying of taxes is a legitimate function of government, since the existence of the State and the wellbeing of its citizens are secured by a just and systematic impost. It is only when this department is administered in an arbitrary, unjust, and extortionate manner that objection can be taken to its methods. Taxation has always been a tempting field for the exploits of despotic power. It is just here that irresponsible government finds its opportunity, and, through ostensibly legal processes, seeks to aggrandize itself by rob- 1 "Heathen rulers are both greater and smaller than civilized ones. They are extremely despotic, but with no order or method. Justice is whatever suits them at the time. Should they occasionally try to follow any rule, they will follow it blindly without taking into consideration either different circumstances or different characters, so that really the one is as bad as the other—rule almost as bad as no rule. Heathen rulers as a class, with, of course, some few good exceptions, rule for their own advantage, and not for the good of the subjects. Taxes, fines, etc., go to the ruler's pocket, and not to the public treasury, because there is no public treasury. Every case of judging between parties is a pecuniary advantage to the ruler. And the result of this with unscrupulous people is that the ruler puts one person against another, that he may increase the number of cases to be judged, and thereby add to his income. This is a very common thing. To begin with, he takes bribes from both parties, and then justifies the one who has given him most, and fines the other in addition to what he has had to pay before. Sometimes he puts it into the head of the one who has lost the case to bring it up again before him under a slightly different aspect. If this is done, he may offer to settle the difference between them, and so get a little more money from one of the parties, or from both. Such a thing as this is of daily occurrence in this country. It is not a very rare thing for a king to give land belonging to one person to another, a favorite. In his kingdom he can get any number of people to do whatever he tells them."—Rev. Robert Evans (W. C. M. M. S.), Shillong, Assam. 2 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," pp. 10, 11, 190, 191. 3 "Their chiefs are the supreme power in the tribe, and in olden times it was death to disobey them. Although their power has in some aspects been curtailed by the presence of the English magistrate, their will is still paramount so far as the internal administration of the tribe is concerned. The government is a despotic monarchy. It is true every chief has his parliament, which consists of his sons, nephews, uncles, and cousins, but, generally speaking, these exist only to endorse his speeches and acts, and to supplement all his words with, 'Thou hast spoken well, O chief!' Said a man to me the other day, 'We must obey the chief even though we know lie is wrong.' This describes the whole attitude of the Bechuana toward their chiefs."—Rev. Alfred S. Sharp (W. M. S.), Mafeking, Bechuanaland.
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bing its subjects. Under these circumstances taxation becomes simply a species of official brigandage. That a large part of the non-Christian world groans under the miseries and wrongs of tyrannical taxation is a fact hardly to be disputed. In India, before the advent of the British Government,
Taxation, past and present, in India.taxes were imposed at the will of rapacious despots, and often collected by military force. The assessment was excessive, and the items on the taxlist were remarkable for variety, ingenuity, and absurdity.1 The state of taxation in Kashmir has been declared by Mr. Lawrence, Settlement Commissioner of Kashmir and Jammu State, to be a history of extortion and oppression extending over centuries, amounting at its maximum to not less than three fourths of the produce of the land, the effect of which was simply to pauperize almost the entire population.2It is needless to say that the British Government has worked an economic and social revolution in that region. There is, however, no little discontent in India at the present time with British taxation. The note of complaint is loudly sounded in the discussions of the native press and, in more dignified form, in the annual reports of the Indian National Congress. To what extent there is justice in these strictures we cannot judge. Perhaps under foreign rule dissatisfaction is more or less inevitable, especially if any extravagance characterizes the military and civil administration of the foreign occupancy. In comparison with the state of taxation under native rulers, there can be no doubt that system, fixedness, moderation, and reasonable fairness have taken the place of individual greed and arbitrary exaction, and that the country itself, directly or indirectly, reaps the benefits of the revenues it yields. In Assam, where the old native system largely prevails, almost every punishment takes in the first instance the form of fines, which become the perquisites of the authorities. In Siam the felicitous ex- 1 "The Native States of India," p. 3; Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years," pp. 9, 31. 2 Lawrence, "The Valley of Kashmir."
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pression for ruling is "eating," since the rulers metaphorically "eat the people."1 In China the system of "squeezing" is reduced to a science,
The science of "squeezing" in China.and is one of the fine arts of government. The imposition of taxes becomes the ready expedient to which Chinese officials resort in reimbursing themselves for the expenses incidental to securing their political position. The dishonesty and extortion which characterize Chinese taxation rest as a crushing burden upon an industrious people,2 and afford to unscrupulous officials a constant opportunity for abusing their authority for the sake of personal emolument.3 Official rapacity in some instances overleaps itself, and the desperate people are driven to violence and revenge, which they often administer in the form of punishment upon the officials themselves.4 In times of political emergency, as, for example, during the late war, taxes of forty per cent, on the value of houses were suddenly exacted from the people, as was the case in Hankow.5 The lack of patriotism in China, and the distrust of those in authority, are traceable to this arbitrary use of power on the part of the officials. The lesser officials are as rapacious as those in higher positions, and there are even self-appointed extortioners, who cloak their fraudulent acts by the borrowed semblance of authority. The law in China becomes in many instances a facile instrument of blackmail in the hands of impudent impostors.6 1 "There is no stipulated amount of taxes, hence a subject is liable at any time to be called upon to meet some new form of taxation as well as an increase in the amount of some old one. And if any of the common people become possessed of more than the ordinary share of property, especially of some form that is usually owned by the nobility, as, for example, elephants, such constant requisitions are made upon this that he usually finds it better to dispose of it. One of our most prosperous Christians in the district of Chieng Hai was thus so pestered by the constant requisitions made upon his elephants that in desperation he sold them."—Rev. W. C. Dodd (P. B. F. M. N.), Lampoon, Laos. 2 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 121. 3 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., pp. 494-500. 4 Martin, "A Cycle of Cathay," pp. 91, 92. 5 The Illustrated Missionary News, March, 1895, p. 42. 6 "The myrmidons of the law are often violent oppressors. In this district three innkeepers, who merely went along with the crowd to view a corpse, were assessed in sums of money equal to $700, $500, $200, respectively, and paid it to the runners, rather than take the chances of going before the magistrate in connection with the case—murder in open daylight. In every town and village there are men, sometimes wealthy, known by the public as 'bullies,' to whom fees must be given or much would be impossible of accomplishment. In this town a proverb runs : 'Cleaning the public well, a small bully; getting up theatricals, a big bully.' The tax for these two things is collected by the bullies, with, of course, perfectly well-understood share of the amounts subscribed."—Rev. Donald MacGillivray (C. P. M.), Chu-Wang, China.
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In Korea the same terrible system of "squeezing" is found.
Official mulcting in Korea.Any one who possesses money is liable to be the victim of extortion.1 A Korean is taxed at a ruinous rate for the privilege of engaging in any honest industry, and he cannot sell the products of his toil or transport them from place to place without running the gantlet of tax stations on the roads and navigable rivers, at intervals sometimes of only a few miles apart. The result is that no Korean can succeed without enlisting against himself a ruinous system of extortion. Industry and prosperity are impossible, since the official classes are forever on the alert to crush and mulct without mercy all who by honest diligence and thrift are striving to accumulate the rewards of labor. The recent revolution and upheaval in Korea were due to these intolerable conditions. The taxes imposed upon the people were so heavy that they became a prohibitive tariff on all kinds of production.2 An incident is narrated by the Rev. D. L. Gifford, an American Presbyterian missionary, which illustrates the ingenious methods of extortion that are by no means uncommon in the experience of well-to-do Koreans. He relates how a prosperous farmer received an official message from Seoul that a title had been conferred upon him, but with the honor came a prompt intimation that he was expected to pay for it, and there followed a series of exactions which it was dangerous for him to contest, all on the score of an empty honor which some powerful official at the capital had made the ostensible occasion for extortion.3 Nothing, however, can surpass the story of extortion which we meet in the history of Mohammedan rule in Turkey and Persia. Taxation in Turkey has been a species of grinding tyranny for centuries. The officials are accustomed to sell for a liberal consideration the right of 1 Savage-Landor, "Corea," p. 163. The author further writes in this connection the following paragraph: " 'What is the use of working and making money,' said a Corean once to me, 'if, when the work is done and the money made, it is taken from you by the officials? You are worn out by the work you have done, yet are as poor as before, that is, mind you, if you are fortunate enough not to be exiled to a distant province by the magistrate who has enriched himself at your expense.' " 2 The Messenger (Shanghai), November, 1894, p. 162; The Gospel in all Lands, September, 1895, pp. 452-454. 3 Woman's Work for Woman, August, 1893, p. 210.
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collecting the taxes, and those who have purchased this privilege
The grinding tyrany of taxation in Turkey and Persia.have the authority of the Government at their command to enforce collection. They must not only reimburse themselves, but also secure a handsome advance upon what they have paid. Their methods are arbitrary and terrifying, and the agents they employ cruel and rapacious. The poor peasantry of Turkey have been doubly, and sometimes trebly, taxed. The Government in the background has often withheld receipts, and then brought in a demand either for double payment or for arrears of taxes, to the dismay and despair of its victims. Much has appeared in current literature of late concerning the ruinous system of taxation in Mohammedan lands.1 In Persia the methods of taxation are similar to those which prevail in Turkey. Each province has its governor, and under him are numerous officials over cities or districts. These appointments are universally by purchase, and out of each sub-governor's domain must come not only funds sufficient to satisfy the demands of his superiors in the Government, but also to reimburse himself and provide an amount in anticipation of his future needs, as before long it is likely he will be supplanted and must purchase another position. Beneath these superior officials are agents, collectors, and subordinate functionaries, who must also receive what they will consider their share of the spoils. The same custom of farming out the taxes exists, and the purchaser is usually some powerful chief, or agha, with whom regular taxes would go but a little way in satisfying his demands. He must impose double or extra taxes, and exact forced labor or gifts or numerous fees as his perquisites. Thus the very idea of government becomes identified with an endless round 1 "The financial management of the Government is probably the worst in existence. Properly speaking, Turkey has no finance. There are revenues, but no regular way of collecting them. There are salaries, but no regular way of paying them. The result is chaos. From the Sultan down to the lowest grade in the public service it is a scramble for money, each one getting all he can and giving up as little as possible. Many of the revenues are mortgaged to pay the loans contracted, chiefly during the extravagant reign of Abdul Aziz, and are under the absolute control of a commission of foreigners. The tithes are farmed out to the highest bidders, who have the whole power of the Government at their disposal to enable them to collect all they can, on the general principle of a division of any profits between the collectors and the authorities. Tax-receipts are repeatedly refused, so that when subsequent collectors come they can take advantage of their absence to collect back taxes to the very limit of possibility. Enumerators for personal taxes make their lists small, so as to lessen the amount for which they are held responsible, while in view of this they levy on the community as high as the community will give. Importers try to secure undervaluation of their goods, landowners undervaluation oftheir land, peasants hide their grain, and men will often bear imprisonment, and even the severest beating, rather than reveal their deposits. "In case of special need at Constantinople, requisition is made upon some province for a certain sum. Forthwith all the efforts of every member of the administration of that province are directed to two things: (1) to lessen if possible the amount demanded; (2) to secure for themselves a portion of the money that must be collected. Spies and informers abound on every hand, and exceptional harvests, fortunate investments, fat legacies, are made the pretexts of all sorts of pressure. Salaries are always in arrears for months, and sometimes years. The announcement that the treasury is to pay a month's salary to the clerks of the departments, or to the army and navy, is a matter of public comment and advertisements in the newspapers. But people must live. Hence bribery and extortion rule everywhere. Judges, officials of every grade, even heads of departments, rely for their support not upon the Government itself, but upon what influence they can exert on the lives and fortunes of others, and upon appropriating at least a little of what passes through their hands."—Bliss, "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities," pp. 290, 291. Cf. Laurie, "Missions and Science" (The Ely Volume), second edition, revised, pp. 68, 69; Greene, "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," chap. iii. ; "Annual Report of the American Bible Society, 1894," p. 134; The Independent, January 17, 1895; The Missionary Review of the World, January, 1896, pp. 52, 53.
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of extortion.1 The central Government is not often an active participant in these vexatious exactions; the sub-officials are usually the guilty parties. The late Shah Naser-ed-Din a few days before his assassination issued a jubilee proclamation abolishing all taxes upon meat and bread throughout his realm. This, however, did not apply to the produce of the soil, nor to flocks and herds, but simply to meat as sold in the market and to bread as it comes from the baker. The whole system of taxation is in a hopeless tangle everywhere throughout the Mohammedan world, except where some foreign jurisdiction supervises its working. Nothing can be said of all North Africa under unrestricted Moslem rule which is substantially different in its tenor from what has been said of Turkey and Persia. Of the district governors of Morocco it is reported upon good authority that their administration "is marked by cruelties and extortions on an infamous scale. Myriads of acres of fine tracts of soil lie in 'flat idleness' on account of the burdens imposed by tax-gatherers." 2 We can hardly pursue this theme further, although much remains to be said. Certainly one of the most urgent calls for reform in the universal government of the non-Christian world is the readjustment and reconstruction of the whole system of taxation. 1 Bishop, "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. ii., p. 199; Wilson, "Persian Life and Customs," pp. 130, 273. 2 Johnston, "Missionary Landscapes in the Dark Continent," p. 38.
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3. THE SUBVERSION OF LEGAL RIGHTS.—The guardianship of the rights of its citizens
The benign mission of law in a civilized society.is one of the noblest functions of the State. It is characteristic of civilized governments that the rights of person and of property are, as a rule, scrupulously guarded. The shelter and protection of the law are, in theory at least, accorded to its humblest citizen. We who are born to the enjoyment of freedom and the security of civilization hardly know how to estimate at its proper value that nice adjustment of the State to the service of the citizen so that his individual rights are conserved, his person defended, and his possessions guarded from attack and spoliation. It is one of the marvels of the modern State that all this is accomplished while at the same time the highest interests of the commonweal are jealously guarded. The precise, impartial, unswerving workings of judicial and administrative law, so far as justice sanctions, in the interests of the individual citizen, and the almost automatic security of the guarantee which he possesses, in common with all others, that he is neither to be defrauded nor mulcted, have become among civilized peoples such an essential feature of ordinary government that we fail to realize the significance of the facts or the value of the boon. Whatever imperfection may attend the administration of the legal codes, even though a miscarriage of justice should sometimes occur, it remains true that, except in the case of improper legislation, the law is an instrument of justice for the help and protection of all who need its intervention. In the non-Christian world this majestic interposition of law for the security of individual rights cannot be counted upon, although it does exist in a somewhat haphazard way. The menace of aggression is rarely lifted, and, without the assurance of legal refuge and protection, is the cause of much popular misery and discontent as well as industrial paralysis. Where the will of rulers is the foundation of law, with little practical restraint except such as the fear of popular revolution imposes, the temptation to make sport of human rights is usually too great to be resisted. In the irrepressible conflict between the authority of rulers and the private rights of individual subjects, little advantage has been gained by the latter among savage or semicivilized races. In some of the more prominent nations of the non-Christian world the development of constitutional limitations, the establishment of judicial restraints, and the evolution of legislative assemblies have made no perceptible advance for ages. The misuse of the governing power and the misdirection of its authority for selfish and despotic ends have become characteristic of semi-civilized and barbarous rule. The indi-
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vidual has been the victim, and the subversion of rights which are his in theory has been the invariable result. Of all Oriental nations, none can compare with Japan an exception in Oriental history.Japan in her willingness to place herself under constitutional restrictions and adopt the principles of civilized government. The new civil and penal codes which have been promulgated indicate an astonishing development in the direction of Western civilization, and the unanimity and dignity which have marked their incorporation into her system of government are greatly to the credit of the Japanese. Japan, however, is an exception in Oriental history. We have simply to cross the narrow sea to the mainland of Asia and we come at once upon the old traditional system of despotism. In Korea the devices for robbing a man of his earnings or confiscating his
Korea follows the rule of spoliation.possessions are both numerous and effective.1 Mr. Henry Norman has referred in some detail to this execrable feature of Korean maladministration. He quotes from an official report as follows: "The rapacity and cruelty of the officials are not conducive to the accumulation of wealth. All stimulus or inducement to increase his possessions and give himself comforts is denied the middle-class Korean; for he is not allowed to enjoy the results of his labor and industry, never feeling sure that the little property he may have (or even his life) is safe from official despotism, and consequently the people have become dispirited and indifferent. Safety and security are found in obscurity only."2 The rights of ownership in property are not, however, the only ones that are violated. More sacred domains are ruthlessly invaded. It is not uncommon that confiscation extends to the wife and daughters, thus inflicting a gross and cruel wrong in violation of rights which are recognized throughout all human society.3 In China official robbery is by
Legal rights the sport of officials in China, Turkey, and Persiano means uncommon, and many are the expedients for accomplishing it under the guise of legality. Even foreign residents of China have had most vexatious experience of the ability of officials to tamper with every property right, even to the extent of persecution and violence. In the Turkish Empire legal rights, even those fully acknowledged in Turkish law, are simply the sport of officialdom. The victims are usually natives of the empire, 1 The Missionary, October, 1894, p. 441; Gilmore, "Korea from Its Capital," pp. 28, 29. 2 Norman, "Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 347, 348. 3 Ibid., pp. 349, 350; Gilmore, " Korea from Its Capital," pp. 29, 30.
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but of late foreign property has been destroyed or subjected to arbitrary and vexatious meddling.1 In Persia confiscation is usually one of the penalties of conversion to Christianity on the part of Moslems, and in some instances painful mutilation of the person, or death, has followed. The Persian agha will not only lay violent hands upon some young Christian woman, but upon the plea of her having embraced Islam will claim her property also.2 Mrs. Bishop, in her letters from Persia, touches upon the well-known facility with which official robbery is accomplished.3 Even in India, until quite recently, the losing of caste was held to involve also the forfeiting of property,4 and at the present time in some of the Native States conversion to Christianity imposes legal disabilities which are most unjust and vexatious. In Africa, unhappily, the native has been the
Insecurity in Africa.victim not alone of the rapacity of local native governments, but the early history of colonization, especially in South Africa, has been marked by gross violation on the part of the Dutch of the rights of the natives. The great injustice and ill-treatment which attended the aggressions of the Dutch colonists have left an indelible stain upon their good name.5 Among native tribes the confiscation of property, and even of wives and children, is all too common. Nobody saves in Dahomey, lest the king should seize the savings. Where the witch-doctor "smells out" some supposed guilty party, although in most instances the suspected person may be absolutely innocent, the immediate confiscation of his property is in order, and he may be thankful if he escapes with his life.6 The recognition of the individual and respect for his legal rights are points in which there is much to be learned throughout the realms of backward civilization. 1 The Independent, May 16, 1895, pp. 14-16; The Missionary Herald, April, 896, pp. 14.6-149. 2 Aurahan, "The Persia of To-day," p. 72. 3 "In Persia a reputation for wealth is the last thing a rich man desires. To elevate a gateway or to give any external sign of affluence is to make himself a mark for the official rapacity which spares none. The policy is to let a man grow quietly rich, to 'let the sheep's wool grow,' but as soon as he shows any enjoyment of wealth to deprive him of his gains, according to a common Persian expression, 'He is ripe; he must be squeezed.'"—Bishop, "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. i., pp. 100, 101. 4 Horne, "The Story of the London Missionary Society," p. 279. 5 Ibid., pp. 56-59; Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," p. 51. 6 Work and Workers in the Mission Field, September, 1894, p. 368; Illustrated Africa, June, 1895, p. 9.
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4. CORRUPTION AND BRIBERY. — Crookedness in official life and gross betrayal of trust in public service have been so manifestly implied in much that has been already said that only a brief reference to these aspects of maladministration in heathen society is needed. China seems to
The characteristic role of Chinese officials.be facile princeps in the rôle of official corruption. There are no doubt some men of integrity in public service in the Chinese Empire, but they are rare and refreshing exceptions to the general rule. There would be no improper emphasis given to the simple facts of the situation to say that the most characteristic thing in Chinese officialdom, from the highest mandarin to the lowest "bully" in a country hamlet, is the misuse of official position, either by the taking of bribes, or the imposition of blackmail, or the accumulation of private gains by the betrayal of public trust.1 As far back as the eleventh century, in connection with the temporary trial of a populist experiment in Chinese government, when special opportunity was afforded to the people to enter the realm of public service, the rapacity, peculation, and corruption of the administration brought into permanent disrepute the populistic schemes of a noted reformer of that age.2 The traditional system, however, from that day to this, has preserved and exemplified with unbroken continuity the transformation of official opportunity into a means of private emolument as the indisputable prerogative of public office.3 The result is disastrous to the governmental service. Office becomes the goal of unscrupulous venality, and is the prize of low cunning, intrigue, and bribery. Not that all mandarins are always bad, but the system is so incorrigibly corrupt that it is almost sure to ruin even a good man. It is next to impossible to secure 1 The Rev. W. Muirhead, D.D. (L. M. S.), Shanghai, China, in a letter to the author, mentions as among the prominent social evils of China the prevalent official corruption, referring especially to the magistrates. His words are as follows: "Though the officials are trained in the ethics of the country, and are chosen for their literary and intellectual ability, and supposed to be most highly influenced by moral and humane considerations, they are looked upon generally as selfish, rapacious, and only in few cases governing for the best interests of the people. They are a byword everywhere, and the crowds of scholars aiming at similar positions in life have the same ends in view and in due course act accordingly." 2 Cf. an article on "Chinese Populism," by William Elliot Griffis, D.D., in The Independent of September 24, 1896. 3 "The financial support of the administration of the Government thus rests upon a deliberately adopted policy of allowing each official to fleece his subjects. The game, then, with nearly every one of them, is how to do this fleecing in the best way, and how to judge shrewdly just where the limit of endurance is on the part of the people. They know as well as any one that a general enlightenment of the people would be a death-blow to their corrupt gains, and therefore they will fight against the 'new civilization' until they are themselves either morally regenerated or overpowered."—Rev. Henry V. Noyes (P. B. F. M. N.), Canton, China.
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an appointment to the public service without purchasing it, either directly or indirectly, and once in office, whatever may be its grade, private advantage becomes the guiding principle of action. This is especially true of all underlings and minor officials, who in many instances receive no regular salary, but are expected to live by what they can extract from the people in the discharge of their function or by the misuse of their authority. In some of the cities of China there are as many as a thousand unpaid police, who have no visible means of support except the extortion which their position renders possible.1 It is a notorious fact that justice is a marketable commodity
The enormities of corruption in China.in all Chinese courts. Every complaint, every effort to secure the interposition of the law, as well as every attempt to escape its penalty, is a business proceeding and a matter of finance, pure and simple. "The amount of money given to the underlings of the court determines the speed with which the complaint reaches the hands of the magistrate; and then if there be no personal gain in the case the magistrate gives the plea no attention, plaintiffs being many, and lucrative business pressing." Thus writes Miss Fielde in "A Corner of Cathay" (p. 122), and she goes on to describe in considerable detail what is involved in the further prosecution of the case, and the wonderfully ingenious methods by which all legal ventures in China are made to yield lucrative gains from both plaintiff and defendant to the magistrate and court attendants. Current proverbs illustrate the popular estimate of all legal processes in China.2 So serious is the moral bankruptcy of Chinese officialdom that the sense of honor, the consciousness of pub- 1 Williams, "The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., p. 476. "In the misappropriation of public funds and peculation of all kinds in materials, government stores, rations, wages, and salaries, the Chinese officials are skilled experts, and are never surprised at any disclosures."—Ibid., vol. i., p. 477. Cf. also Martin, "A Cycle of Cathay," p. 333; Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 33, 86-91; Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 266-268, 282-285. 2 Among them are the following quoted by Miss Fielde: "It is better to live on garbage than to go to law"; "To win a lawsuit reduces one to penury "; "If you consort with beggars you may have a handful of rice given to you, but if you go among lawyers you will lose your last coin" ("A Corner of Cathay," p. 127).
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lic trust, and the demands of patriotism are alike powerless to stay the habitual rascality of the average Chinese office-holder. Even the recent struggle with Japan seemed to afford an opportunity for gross betrayal of the Government by some of the highest authorities. Well-informed observers of Chinese methods have expressed the opinion that her collapse was due, more than from any other cause, to the dishonesty of her administration.1 The facility with which the scales of justice can be turned by the timely casting of a coin upon either side is well illustrated in a description by Dr. MacKay of the method of procedure in a Chinese yamen.2 There is one department of Chinese revenue which claims special notice as an exception to the usual course of procedure. It is the Maritime Customs Service for the collection of the revenue derived from foreign customs, under the supervision of an English official as Inspector-General. The Chinese revenue system as a whole is complicated and cumbersome, and is the happy hunting-ground of a 1 The North China Herald of Shanghai printed the following indictment in an editorial upon China's humiliation : "With wealth practically unlimited, with soldiers simply innumerable, with fortresses believed to be impregnable, and with a strong navy, her defenses went down like a house of cards, as soon as they were puffed on from the outside. . . . Here is a problem not only well worth solving, but of which a correct solution is a vital necessity. To us Europeans it is, as we have shown, simplicity itself. It seems to be fully comprised in one word, . . . dishonesty."— Quoted in The Missionary, July, 1895, p. 299. 2 "From Far Formosa," pp. 105-107. A resident missionary in another section of the empire writes as follows: "It is a common saying that 'right does not avail in courts—only money avails.' In most cases it is true that the man who pays the biggest fee to the magistrate or the one who has most influence in the community gains the suit. Rogues escape the clutches of the law by sending a bribe to the constables. If this is liberal enough, the constables will allow the rogue to escape even at the risk of a beating for their failure to catch him. If he is caught and tried and sentenced, the degree of severity with which the punishment is inflicted depends upon the amount of money he is willing to give the constables and lictors. The magistrates will all take bribes, and so will all the officials, from the lowest to the highest, and nobody is ashamed to do it. Theoretically, office is conferred for scholarship, the third degree rendering a man eligible for office; but the degrees may all be bought, and are, in fact, openly purchased constantly. It requires money and influence to get into office after one has obtained his degree, and promotion in office comes also only by the use of money. The legitimate salary of all officers is unjustly low, and the chances for bribes and squeezes are very many. It is a rare man who will not make the most of them. Indeed, the chief motive in seeking office is 'to get rich,' and it is almost the only avenue to wealth. By law a man has a right to appeal to a superior officer if he thinks his suit has been unjustly decided, but in case of an appeal the judge who has tried the case has only to send a present of money to his superior, and the appeal is ruled out or remanded to the same judge to be retried. In case the appellant can make a still larger present he stands some chance, not otherwise. Military officers are no better men, and they have still more chances to practise oppression and dishonesty. The soldiers' pay and rations pass through their hands, and they make a good percentage off these, as they draw pay for full companies when they are far from full—possibly less than half full. Officers deceive their superiors and their men, and their men desert them in the day of battle—yes, they smell the battle afar off and desert betimes."—Mrs. C. W. Mateer (P. B. F. M. N.), Tungchow, China.
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horde of hungry officials.1 The establishment
The Maritime Customs Service and its excellent record.of the Imperial Maritime Customs under foreign supervision has grown out of the exigencies of the situation, the Chinese administration failing utterly to discharge the duty with tolerable honesty. It originated in a local provision for the admimstration of foreign customs at Shanghai by agreement between the Tao-tai of Shanghai and the British, American, and French Consuls, in 1854, which stipulated that the service at the port of Shanghai should be put in charge of a foreigner. The first inspector appointed was Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Wade. This new system was subsequently extended so as to include in its supervision all treaty ports. It has grown in favor with the Chinese authorities, who recognize the integrity of their foreign servants, and highly appreciate the security and perceptible increment of their revenue. The present incumbent in the 1 Mr. Allen, the British Consul at Foochow, in his last report on the trade of that port, says that" an obstacle to the development of commerce in China, less easily remedied than bad roads, is a faulty, not to say an utterly rotten and corrupt, system of collecting revenue, wherein the vested interests involved are so enormous that nothing short of the reform of the whole fiscal arrangements of China can set it right. The system of farming the taxes, or at least making the official in charge of them remit a certain sum every year, while he puts the balance into his own pocket, insures the largest possible collection at the greatest possible cost and the least possible benefit to the Government. It is said that the cost of collecting likin is seventy per cent. of the total sum realized." In Foochow there are four separate establishments levying taxes on merchandise, each one competing with the others and looking on the revenue collected by them as a loss to itself. These are: (1) The Maritime Custom-House, levying duties on all goods imported or exported in foreign bottoms or in Chinese steamers. (2) The native Custom-House, levying duties on junk-borne cargo. (3) The Likin Office. The likin tax, originally a temporary war tax, is supposed to provide for the wants of the provincial administration and is under the control of the provincial treasurer. It is a universal excise duty from which nothing is exempt, and is so burdensome that it is occasionally resisted by riots. (4) The Lo Ti Shui, or Octroi Office. Intense jealousy of the foreign customs revenue exists in all other revenue departments of China.—Condensed from an article on "The Effects of the Chinese Revenue System on Foreign Trade," in the London Mail, August 12, 1896.
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office of Inspector-General (or I. G., as he is familiarly called) is Sir Robert Hart, whose distinguished career and valuable services make a unique chapter in modern Chinese history.1 It seems more than probable that the model administration of the foreign customs may have a marked influence in helping China to reform her entire system of finance. Korea seems to be a rival of
Official salary-grabing in Korea.China in official dishonesty. The Government is robbed in one direction, and the people in another. The official class, if one can judge from the testimony which every one acquainted with the facts unites in giving, exists for the purpose of defrauding the Government and "squeezing" the people. All financial administration is simply chaotic. In a recent report rendered to the Japanese Government by Count Inouye, he describes at considerable length the governmental and financial status in Korea. His forcible language speaks for itself.2 In his "Problems of the Far East" Mr. Curzon speaks of the immense army of office-holders distributed through the eight provinces and three hundred and thirty-two prefectures of the kingdom, among whom only the superior ranks receive any salary, and this usually in arrears, while the rest must butter 1 Dr. Martin has a special chapter in "A Cycle of Cathay" on "Sir Robert Hart and the Customs Service" (part ii., chap, xiii.), in which he gives much interesting information based upon personal friendship with the Inspector and thorough knowledge of his services. Mr. R. S. Gundry, in his recent volume, "China Present and Past," thus summarizes the personnel of the service: "The work is carried on, under the Inspector-General, by a staff of 30 commissioners, 12 deputy commissioners, and 132 assistants, besides clerks and others, who bring up the indoor staff to 206. The outdoor staff comprises 415 tide-surveyors, examiners, tide-waiters, etc. There are 6 armed revenue cruisers, commanded by Europeans, but manned by Chinese, besides a number of armed launches. The entire service employs about 753 foreigners and 3540 Chinese, or a grand total of 4293. The annual cost is about £400,000 a year, while the revenue collected in 1893 amounted to close on £4,000,000" (p. 197). 2 "There was no practical distinction between the Court and the Administration; no attempt to clearly differentiate the functions of the one from those of the other. There were no financial laws of any kind; no account-books. If the Court wanted money, it put its hands into the coffers of the official section outside the Household; if the officials wanted money, they had recourse to the coffers of the Court. Neither made any scrutiny into the objects of the other's expenditure. When the coffers of both were empty, the provincial Governors were required to find the requisite sum. It was always a welcome mandate to the Governors, for neither the method of collection nor the amount collected was ever closely examined. Each Governor adopted whatever system of requisition promised most prolific results, and the prison doors stood always open for reluctant subscribers. If prisoners died of torture, starvation, or disease before they untied their purse-strings, no inconvenient questions were asked. Neither need accounts be rendered of the sums collected; any excess over and above the contribution called for by the Court went into the pockets of the local Governors. To get a person of substance into prison was officialdom's best opportunity. Hence no line was drawn between criminal procedure and civil procedure, nor did any preliminary inquiry stand between a defendant and the gaol. So soon as a suit was duly lodged against a man the officials were competent to thrust him into prison at once. "Against the terrible abuses practised under such a system there was no redress, for the idea that an administration's first duty is to secure the lives and properties of the people under its sway did not enter into the theory of government in Korea. Government, indeed, had no practical significance beyond the sale of offices. Every official had to buy his post, purchasing either from the central authority or from the local, the necessary funds being furnished by usurers, who exacted interest at the rate of twenty per cent. per month, and the official, having no assurance as to the time that might remain at his disposal before his post was resold to some one else, lost not a moment in recouping his original outlay."—Quoted from the Korean correspondence of the London Mail, August 21, 1895.
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their own bread as best they can.1 In an article on "Korean Finance," published in The Korean Repository, April, 1896, the author states that the revenue which is paid by the people is double the amount which the Government actually receives. "More than one half goes astray after it leaves the hands of the people. Where does it go? It is evident that it goes to fill the pockets of these officials, whose business it is to squeeze the people and rob the Government." In the Turkish Empire and Persia
Bribery at flood-tide in Turkey and Persia.official corruption and a wellnigh universal practice of bribery are habitual features of governmental administration. In both these typical Oriental empires an elaborate theory of good government exists, with hardly any perceptible application in practice. Principles and rules are on record as the impressive symbols of law and order to be appealed to in times of inconvenient exposure as the supposed programme of official procedure, but that they have any control over executive action is so palpably false that it would be a waste of time to assert it. In fact, the "itching palm" is not found among secular officials only, but it lurks under priestly robes also, and ecclesiastical officials are hardly less alert than State functionaries to the material advantages which the use of authority can be made to yield. The native press itself admits the existence of this serious fault in ecclesiastical circles.2 Mrs. Bishop, in her vol- 1 "Problems of the Far East," p. 173. 2 Cf. an article by the Rev. S. G. Wilson, of Tabriz, on "Church Reform—a Corning Armenian Watchword," in The Church at Home and Abroad, October, 1895, p. 309. In this article Mr. Wilson quotes extensively from native Armenian journals, in which the statement made above is confirmed. Mr. Wilson's recent book, "Persian Life and Customs," contains many references to the misuse of official position in that country, especially among the minor officials (pp. 67, 179, 182, and introduction, p. 15).
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umes entitled "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," while giving full credit to the energy and personal zeal for reform manifest in the administration of the late Shah, refers in strong language to the fact that "justice seems to be here, much as in Turkey, a marketable commodity, which the working classes are too poor to buy." She speaks again of "the inherent rottenness of Persian administration, an abyss of official corruption and infamy without a bottom or a shore, a corruption of heredity and tradition, unchecked by public opinion or the teachings of even an elementary education in morals and the rudiments of justice. There are few men pure enough to judge their fellows or to lift clean hands to heaven, and power and place are valued for their opportunities for plunder." 1 In Turkey the condition of the secular administration is so notorious that no one acquainted with the country or having had opportunity to observe the methods of civil and criminal procedure would venture to question the existence of bribery and corruption among the official classes. The most explicit and damaging statements upon this point are to be found in the official communications of diplomatic residents in reports to their respective governments. Mr. Wilson, British Consul-General in Anatolia, writes that "the most open and shameless bribery is practised, from highest to lowest." Mr. Everett, Vice-Consul at Erzerum, says: "The first consideration of the administrators of justice is the amount of money that can be extorted from an individual, and the second is his creed." The spirit which animates the courts of Asia Minor is well defined as "fanaticism tempered by corruption." 2 In fact, the bane of semi-civilized governments is the uncontrollable venality of official life. It was as bad in India as elsewhere a few generations back, and were it not for the vigorous oversight of English authority and the fact that British officials are chiefly in the places of responsibility, there would be nothing to guarantee purity of administration to-day. Our limits of space will not permit us to dwell longer upon this theme. 5. MASSACRE AND PILLAGE. — References have already been made, in several specifications under a previous group in this lecture, to the brutality and rapine which usually attend tribal warfare. In this con- 1 "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. i., p. 103; vol. ii., p. 257. 2 Greene, "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," pp. 74, 113.
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nection we shall say a word concerning
Extermination as a national policy.wanton bloodshed and spoliation as a national policy. It is not often that the purpose of extermination is deliberately adopted and put into execution by an organized government. There are, to be sure, some historic precedents for this ghastly project, but they have usually taken the form of plots or conspiracies rather than an accepted and predetermined plan of action conceived and executed by the government itself.1 That this policy is still a possibility of Oriental statecraft hardly admits of question, however, to any intelligent student of events in the Turkish Empire at the present time. The Armenian nation, a Christian people who are so unhappy as to be among the subject races of the Ottoman Porte, numbering within Turkish territory possibly two millions, have become the victims of the political rage and the fanatical barbarity of their Turkish masters. In common with other Christian races, they have a long and serious grievance against Ottoman misrule, which the Powers of Europe have hitherto sought through vain and empty diplomatic pledges to remedy.2 A few restless spirits among the Armenians,
The Armenian massacres.with vague revolutionary aims, and inspired by hopes of European intervention in the event of disorder, sought to arouse resistance to the intolerable exactions and oppressive wrongs which characterize Turkish rule. The effort was abortive and hopeless from the start and in no way involved the Armenian people as a whole. It served, however, to arouse the wrath of the Turkish rulers, especially the Sultan Abdul Hamid, to be known forever after in history as the "Great Assassin," and a policy of extermination was entered upon. Its execution has found willing instruments in the Kurdish brigands, organized by the Government under the name of the Hamidieh Cavalry, and the Moslem populace, who have joined in the bloodshed and pillage with relish. The awful results are well known to the world.3 The fiendish cruelty of these 1 Cf. The Contemporary Review, September, 1896, article by Professor W. M. Ramsay, on "Two Massacres in Asia Minor," and "Harper's Book of Facts," under the heading "Massacres," p. 494, for many illustrations. 2 Treaty of Berlin, Article 61: "The Sublime Porte engages to realize with out delay those ameliorations and reforms which local needs require in the provinces inhabited by the Armenians, and guarantees their security against the Circassians and the Kurds. It undertakes to make known, from time to time, the measures taken with this object to the Powers, who will watch over their application." 3 The Rev. Edwin M. Bliss, D.D., in his volume on "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities," published in the spring of 1896, gives (p. 554) the following summary of results up to the beginning of that year. Since then other massacres have occurred, notably that of Van in June, and of Constantinople in August, 1896, numbering, according to a conservative estimate, not less than 18,000 victims all told up to November, 1896, which must now be added to the statements given below:
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massacres has never been surpassed. Spoliation, rape, torture, agonizing assaults upon the person, dastardly sport with children, loathsome brutality which no civilized journal would dare to describe, living holocausts, wholesale murder of an inoffensive population, carried on for hours without cessation, and renewed day after day, robbery, looting, burning of homes, and horrible criminal orgies have combined to make a record of inhuman outrage upon Armenians, which the onlooking Christian nations of the world have as yet utterly failed to restrain, a fact which casts a shadow of ignominy over all Christendom.1 Sources for the verification of these facts are not wanting.2 That the facts themselves should be doubted or called in question by any one is due either to a desire to cover them up, or is the result of that strange passion for incredulity which asserts itself sooner or later in some minds concerning almost every great historic incident. This story of massacre, we fear, is not yet ended, and unless European Powers can agree upon some policy of intervention, the Turkish Government will pursue it to the bitter end. Massacre as a policy or as a military expedient is not new in Turkey; it has been put into practice many times before.3 1 As these sheets are going through the press (December, 1896), there are some indications of impending intervention, which, let us hope, will result in effective measures for securing better order throughout Turkey. 2 Blue Books of the British Government, Turkey, Nos. 2 and 3, 1896, entitled "Correspondence Relating to the Asiatic Provinces of Turkey, 1892-93"; Ibid., Turkey, No. 6, 1896, entitled "Correspondence Relating to the Asiatic Provinces of Turkey, 1894-95"; The Contemporary Review, August, 1895, article by E. J. Dillon on "The Condition of Armenia"; January, 1896, article by Mr. Dillon entitled "Armenia: An Appeal "; Christian Literature, February, 1896 (reprint of the above articles); Greene, "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey"; Bliss, "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities"; correspondence of the London Times, April 5, 1895 ; symposium on "The Turkish Question" in The Independent, March 5, 1896; article on "The Situation in Armenia," by Grace N. Kimball, M.D., in The Outlook, November 21, 1896; Bryce, "Transcaucasia and Ararat," newed.; MacCoIl, "The Sultan and the Powers." See also Scribner's Magazine, January, 1897, p. 48. 3 The following figures, summarizing, with minor omissions, the Turkish massacres of this century, are taken from the best authorities: 1822. In Scio and vicinity, 50,000 Greeks (R. G. Latham, "Russian and Turk," p. 417). 1843. In Kurdistan, 10,000 Nestorians and Armenians (Layard, "Nineveh," vol. i., p. 153, Amer. ed., and The Contemporary Review, January,1895, p. 16). 1860. In Lebanon, 11,000 Syrians (Churchill, "Druses and Maronites," p. 219). 1876. In Bulgaria, 15,000 Bulgarians (Schuyler, quoted in The Independent, January 10, 1895). See Senate Ex. Doc. No. 24, 44th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 8. 1877. In Bayazid, 1100 Armenians (C. B. Norman, "Armenia and the Campaign of 1877," p. 296). 1892. In Mosul, 2000 Yezidis (Parry's Report to the British Government). 1894. In Sassun, 12,000 Armenians (Greene, "The Armenian Crisis in Turkey," chap. i.). Cf. article by Theodore Peterson, B.D., on "Turkey and the Armenian Crisis," in The Catholic World, August, 1895, p. 667.
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The Kurds are not capable of conducting warfare on any other plan. Their murderous raid into Persia in 1880, under Sheikh Obeidullah, was marked by similar atrocities.1 We turn from this recent illustration of
Blood-thirst in China, India, and Africa.Armenia as representative of the policy of massacre, to look at the history of other nations. China, upon occasion, resorts to indiscriminate slaughter in order to exterminate her enemies, and especially those in rebellion against her authority. If the Chinese officials could have their own way with foreign residents throughout the empire, it is probable that massacre would be the order of the day. Indian history has its bloody record of wholesale slaughter, especially in connection with the invasion of Timur and his Tartar horde in the fourteenth century. The Afghan invasions of the last century were simply a succession of massacres, and "form one of the most appalling tales of bloodshed and wanton cruelty ever inflicted on the human race." In one of the civil wars which also afflicted India, the Sultan of Gulburga, a fanatical Moslem, took an oath upon the Koran that "he would not sheathe the sword till he had put to death a hundred thousand infidels." Mohammedan historians record in this connection that, from first to last, not less than five hundred thousand "infidels" were butchered by the "true believers." The massacres of 1857 indicate that the old spirit would quickly revive were British Government to be supplanted by native rule. In African warfare a general massacre is sure to follow a victory. The Matabele, the Zulus, the Kaffirs, and numerous other bloodthirsty tribes know no method of subjugation more attractive than this.2 1 Wilson, "Persian Life and Customs," pp. 109-124. 2 Wilmot, "The Expansion of South Africa," pp. 100, 119, 181, 186, 188.
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Madagascar was the scene of massacres as a feature of State policy in the reign of Ranavalona I. (1828-61). The South Sea Islands were long the home of barbaric warfare marked by epochs of indiscriminate slaughter. The passion for bloodshed still burns in millions of savage breasts throughout the realms of barbarism. It is easily fanned into a flame which burns not less fiercely in this advanced period of history than in past ages. VI.—THE COMMERCIAL GROUP (Evils incidental to low commercial standards or defective industrial methods) Next to the national administration, in its influence upon social peace, happiness, and prosperity, comes the commercial life of a people, with its varied financial, industrial, and economic interests. If the commercial status is weighted with low moral standards, fraudulent methods, and paralyzing defects, trade is handicapped and there is little financial confidence. If industrial scope and method are narrow and clumsy, enterprise is balked and business is crippled. The state of trade and productive industry has a direct influence upon social conditions, so that moral hindrances or economic disabilities which affect the commercial prosperity of a people may properly be regarded as social evils. As the gates of modern commerce spring open to the secluded peoples of the world, and the opportunities of business prosperity in the realms of belated civilization become more promising, this commercial incapacity, unless it is remedied, will press more severely on society, and its injury to the well-being of the people will become more serious. A few specifications deserve mention under this general group. 1. LACK OF BUSINESS CONFIDENCE.—Under the head of "Mutual Suspicion," in a previous group,1 facts were brought forward to illustrate the feeling of distrust which pervades non-Christian society. In the present section we view this mutual suspicion in its relations to business intercourse. All trade and bargaining in the Orient excite in the foreigner and the native alike a lively apprehension of trickery or shrewd overreaching. The result is a prevalent lack of confidence in commercial relations, and an abnormal development of the capacity for artful and unscrupulous dealings. 1 Supra, pp. 226-229.
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It is pleasant to note that there is valuable testimony
Commercial distrust in China.from reliable sources which credits many of the better class of Chinese merchants, who are engaged in the larger business operations of the empire, with probity and commercial integrity.1 They are placed in this respect in favorable contrast with the official classes, whose dishonesty and corruption are so notorious. This high standard, however, seems to collapse when we step outside the business offices of a select circle of well-known Chinese merchants in the treaty ports and in the prominent centres of trade. The Chinese people as a whole, in their business transactions, live on a low level of detestable duplicity.2 "Neither buyer nor seller trusts the other, and each for that reason thinks that his interests are subserved by putting his affairs for the time being out of his own hands into those of a third person, who is strictly neutral since his percentage will only be obtained on the completion of the bargain. No transaction is considered as made at all until 'bargain money' has been paid. . . The high rate of Chinese interest, ranging from twenty-four to thirty-six or more per cent., is a proof of the lack of mutual confidence. The larger part of this extortionate exaction does not represent payment for the use of money, but insurance on risk, which is very great."3 The disastrous results to the economic prosperity of China from this reign of suspicion in all business transactions are manifest in the disabilities which obstruct industrial life, and in the general poverty which afflicts a country which might be exceptionally prosperous if the currents of trade moved freely among its immense population, and there was confidence which would justify financial investment and the development of its resources.4 The Rev. Timothy 1 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," pp. 279, 280. 2 "No man trusts his neighbor. It is scarcely possible to imagine the evil effects which this want of mutual confidence produces on society. Trust funds are almost in every case misapplied, or rather appropriated for the use of the person to whom they are confided. Officials are corrupt, and funds that are entrusted to them for public uses are almost always embezzled. This is the rule in China. In most cases I should say that not more than half of the funds which are appropriated for any particular purpose ever reach their destination. The Chinese all know this. It is the recognized state of society. They stand appalled at the magnitude of the evil, but are utterly powerless and hopeless as to any remedy for its removal."—The late Rev. J. A. Leyenberge (P. B. F. M. N.), Wei Hien, China. "Low commercial standards is a feeble phrase to express the dishonesty and general unreliability prevalent in the commercial life of China."—Rev. W. P. Chalfant (P. B. F. M. N.), Ichowfu, China. 3 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," pp. 254, 255. 4 "The general fear of trickery, swindling, insecurity, lying, and injustice represses all commerce, and especially investment and coöperation. Perfidy and mendacity necessitate the most wasteful expenditure of effort to check it, both in the markets and in the Government. The unreliability of samples and want of confidence as to execution of orders in bulk is a direct obstacle to trade. Adulteration tends to destroy business and profit, as, for instance, in the foreign tea trade, which is being gradually lost partly on this account."—The Chinese Recorder, May, 1894, article on "The Poverty of Shantung: Its Causes and Treatment," by the Rev. A. G. Jones (E. B. M. S.), Ching Chow Fu, China.
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Richard (E. B. M. S.), Shanghai, in a paper entitled " China's Appalling Need of Reform," read before the Nanking Missionary Association in November, 1893, deals in a thoroughgoing manner with the enormous loss to the commercial interests of China due to her unwillingness to reform her methods of trade and accept the higher standards of commercial morality.1 Statements of similar tenor may be made
The moralities of trade in Japan.concerning the Japanese, among whom, as in the case of the Chinese, there are examples of integrity and loyalty to trust in some of the larger commercial houses, with the notable extension of these characteristics to Japanese officials in the discharge of patriotic duty, while, as in China, the same singular phenomenon of the collapse of these higher standards obtains in the ordinary walks of trade.2 A decided improvement in the ways of Japanese traders within recent years has been noted by careful observers. Bad faith, which was notoriously the rule, is less universal than formerly. The Japanese Trading Guilds are open to impeachment because of their unscrupulous use of power and unfair commercial methods.3 " It is the united opinion of foreign merchants," writes an American resident, " that the average Japanese have very defective 1 Mr. Richard's article is published in full in The Chinese Recorder, November, 1894, and in " The China Mission Hand-Book," first issue, 1896, pp. 84-90. 2 " There are in Japan a few great merchants whose word may be trusted, and whose obligations will be fulfilled with absolute honesty; but a large part of the buying and selling is still in the hands of mercantile freebooters, who will take an advantage wherever it is possible to get one, in whose morality honesty has no place, and who have not yet discovered the efficacy of that virtue simply as a matter of policy. Their trade, conducted in a small way upon small means, is more of the nature of a game, in which one person is the winner and the other the loser, than a fair exchange, in which both parties obtain what they want. It is the mediaeval, not the modern idea of business, that is still held among Japanese merchants. With them, trade is a warfare between buyer and seller, in which every man must take all possible advantage for himself, and it is the lookout of the other party if he is cheated."—Bacon, "Japanese Girls and Women,' pp. 263, 264. 3 Cf. article on " Commercial Morality in Japan," in The Nineteenth Century, November, 1896, pp. 721-728.
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commercial standards. . . . This is the bane of all business transactions. They cannot be said to be worse than some individual foreigners in this respect, but as a rule their standards have been very low. Happily there are signs of improvement, principally among those who have been influenced by Christian principles." In India, Turkey, and Persia the same lack of
Questionable standards in other parts of the world.business confidence is based upon the same minimum of commercial integrity which characterizes the people.1 In Persia "large partnerships or companies are not usual, because of lack of confidence, and in all the minor intricacies of the world, trade an amount of laborious and unrelenting surveillance is necessary in order to prevent the most abominable fraud.2 In Turkey every one expects to be cheated without mercy unless he can prevent it by adequate safeguards. Where the lack of confidence is so general, financial investments are regarded as attended with exceptional risks. This not only places the rate of interest at an exorbitant figure, but checks the spirit of business enterprise. In North Africa, where Islam has moulded social character, the distrust in all matters of business is so invincible that commercial transactions are almost handicapped.3 Throughout the South American Continent there is a grievous lack of the higher standards of business integrity. " In Central America," writes a resident of Guatemala City, "commercial standards are as low in every conceivable respect as they can get." " In Brazil," writes the Rev. J. J. Taylor, " there is no public confidence." A similar testimony is given by the Rev. J. M. Allis of Santiago, Chile, in a published letter.4 Statements so general in their scope, while they may be 1 Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," p. 408. 2 Wilson, " Persian Life and Customs," pp. 281, 285. 3 " The Moor or the Berber in the ordinary relations of life seems not so unlike other members of the race—fine and manly in his bearing, often industrious, and personally intelligent enough to realize the value of honesty and the disadvantage of the violation of those moral precepts upon which the Koran so strenuously insists. He seems, however, incapable of any efficient social or commercial organization, owing to his unconquerable distrust of his fellow-native. There are few, if any, commercial partnerships among the Muslimm of the Barbary States. Banks are not only unknown, but actually unrealizable institutions. The money not immediately required must be concealed, generally buried, and the secret is often not even communicated to the sons of the owner."—See article on " The Condition of Morocco," in The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, October, 1896, p. 323. 4 " I was recently talking with a business man, who was trying to raise capital in England to put in a complete closed drainage system in the cities of Concepcion, Talca, and Chilian. I asked him why he did not raise it here in Chile. His reply and explanation were significant. He said that the moneyed men had no confidence in any management that might be chosen for such an enterprise. The funds would be squandered and stolen, and bankruptcy would follow, and foreign capital would buy out the assets. This condition of things was because there was no moral or religious principle in the country. The Government makes foreign loans because the people have no confidence in the honesty of the ruling few, and have no power to compel the Government to meet financial obligations unless by a revolution, and then all is usually lost, and heavier burdens imposed. Foreign governments can compel treaties by gunboats, but the citizen is helpless."—Letter in The New York Observer, March 8, 1894.
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absolutely true, should be made and received with a certain discount for individual exceptions. It is rarely the case that a people are altogether bad in any single particular. The average may be higher or lower, and even when it is unusually low there is still a certain percentage of exceptions to the rule, for which due allowance must be made. 2. COMMERCIAL DECEIT AND FRAUD. — Integrity and honesty inspire trust,
The Christian ideal of commercial integrity.but where these are wanting as a basis of commercial dealing no artificial expedient can create and perpetuate that tone of buoyancy and assurance which is the sing of business confidence. The moral standards of trade and its practical methods among semi-civilized peoples are certainly not calculated to banish that subtle distrust which seems to be the most prominent characteristic of business intercourse pretty much everywhere in the non-Christian world. Duplicity, misrepresentation, fraud, and a constant effort to secure some unfair advantage, are all too common in business transactions in every land under the sun. It is in the non-Christian environment, however, that the restraints of public opinion, the standards of honorable dealing, and the obligations of honesty seem to be less effective than elsewhere. There is no more reliable basis of business fidelity than regnant Christian principle. Absolute honesty is the ideal as well as the inflexible demand of Christian ethics. All fraud and deceit are in defiance of the rigorous requirements of that perfect law of just and righteous dealing of man with man which Christianity seeks to enforce. Dishonest business is recognized everywhere in theory as a curse to society. It is especially condemned by the ethical code of Christianity as a serious social offense. In a previous section, under the head of " Moral Delinquencies " (p. 99), reference has been made to untruthfulness and dishonesty as sadly prominent features of non- Christian society. In this connection our attention is directed to the realm of business inter-
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course as a sphere in which these characteristics become especially noticeable. Making, therefore, every proper allowance for individual exceptions, all the more commendable and beautiful because of their rarity in an environment of temptation and lax example, we still seem to have abundant reason to regard the commercial activities of Oriental nations, especially in minor transactions, as shot through and through with unscrupulous dealings. The Chinese are expert smugglers,
Business trickery in China.and much given to cunning fraud in business. Over every financial venture hangs the grave shadow of almost certain attempts at crooked administration. Along every avenue of revenue is the lurking spectre of unfaithful service. Every shop door might have its sign of warning against double-dealing and deception. The weights and measures, as well as the currency, are all tampered with for purposes of cheating. The common copper " cash " of Chinese trade is specially subject to the manipulation and shortage of financial tricksters.1 The result of these dishonest dealings is in the end to hamper trade and check its productiveness. The Chinese tea trade has been steadily supplanted of late by that of Ceylon and India, as has been shown by Mr. A. G. Stanton in a paper recently read before the London Society of Arts. In 1866 China supplied ninety-six per cent, of the tea for Great Britain, and in 1894 only twelve per cent. The statement is made, with reference to this great falling off, that " it is not the result so much of the growth of tea culture in India as of the dishonest tricks of the Chinese trade." 2 The power of this temptation to defraud is manifest even in the distribution of charity, so that the 1 " Bad money, in this province at least, is universal, that is, thin, illicit coins, a certain proportion of which is judiciously mixed on the string of cash, which may. contain five hundred or one thousand. The currency in general is bad. Bank-notes (paper) have only a local circulation. The Government issues none, and the lump silver may be adulterated, as it repeatedly is, with pewter, brass, etc. This silver is changed for cash at so much per ounce, the ounce weight of no two localities being alike. Hence losses of exchange between places a few miles apart. Multifarious weights and measures—no standard for anything. Each place a law unto itself. There is no government inspection of weights and measures."—Rev. Donald MacGillivray (C. P. M.), Chu-Wang, China. 2 " Straw braid promised to be a good business in Shantung. The exports brought large returns. But, as usual, deception and cupidity worked in. The inside of the large bundles was poor work, or no work at all, only refuse. The trade is hurt seriously. So of kerosene, it comes to us from Philadelphia and New York in good condition, but at the ports it is mixed in some way with a kind of cheap oil and water and sold to the natives who know no better."—Rev. John Murray (P. B. F. M. N.), Chinanfu, Shantung, China.
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dispensing of foreign relief funds cannot usually be safely committed to native hands.1 So inveterate is the tendency to palm off the false for the true that even the hated foreigner has been counterfeited with a view to the advantage which it might bring.2 Japan has made remarkable progress
The commercial sinuosities of the Japanese.of late years in the expansion of her commercial interests. Her trade, both external and internal, is increasing rapidly, and promises to enter into serious competition with that of Western nations. A grave danger, however, meets her at the very threshold of her new industrial era. It is the temptation to dishonesty and fraud in business transactions.3 Owing to the absence of all protection in the case of foreign patents, trade-marks, or labels, the 1 " Poor people tell me that, in some places when rice is distributed, not only is an inferior quality substituted for what ought to be given, but it is mixed with plaster of Paris,, which in small quantities makes rice look white, and also makes the eater auseated, thus preventing him from consuming too much. The result is a profit to the officials in charge. Distribution of famine relief funds cannot be left even to native so-called benevolent societies."—B. C. Atterbury, M.D. (P. B. F. M. N.), Peking, China. 2 " There are in this part of China a number of ' counterfeit foreigners.' I was myself taken to be one of that class, because of an ability to make myself understood in Chinese. It seems that one or more enterprising Celestials have gone into the work of dispensing medicines, after the manner of the American physician. Usually two or three men go together. One of these dresses in foreign costume, and talks a gibberish which is not understood by the natives, and so passes for a foreign language. In imitation of American physicians all medicine is given away, but unlike that fraternity the bogus representative of America is quite willing to receive contributions of grain to feed the animal which helps convey him from village to village. In consequence grain pours in upon him by the quantity. This is disposed of by a confederate at the nearest fair, and then Ah Sin departs for ' fresh fields and pastures new.'"—Rev. Franklin M. Chapin (A. B. C. F. M.), Lin Ching, China, in The Missionary Herald, July, 1893, p. 285. Dr. S. S. McFarlane, of the Chi Chou station of the London Missionary Society, in the same section of China, southwest of Tientsin, reports in July, 1896, a similar incident: " For several years past the Mission has been troubled with a Chinaman attired in foreign hat and shoes, travelling in a jinricksha, drawn by a donkey. This Celestial goes about selling foreign sweets as infallible cures for every disease under the sun. A large red notice hangs in front of his chariot, stating his honourable connections with Ta Ying Kuo (England). He gives out at markets and fairs that the Chi Chou Mission Hospital has employed him to sell foreign medicines at a salary amounting to 10s 6d, per month. His reputation is thus established, and his quack remedies sell like wildfire. ... I may mention that our American neighbours, a day's journey away, had a similar experience some time ago with another ' foreign' impostor, who was supposed to have been connected with their medical work and in their honourable employ."—The Chronicle, July, 1896, p. 151. 3 " One thing has been especially noticeable, and that is the low business Standards in commercial life. The result is that the merchant class is distrusted on every hand, and business integrity is the exception and not the rule. A prominent merchant of Yokohama told me recently that many of the storehouses are filled with goods ordered by Japanese merchants, but which they refuse to take, because they hope to buy the same at auction at a less price than was stipulated. It is also a remarkable fact that the banks and large mercantile establishments do not entrust their funds or their business to Japanese clerks and assistants, but employ Chinamen instead. An illustration of the want of moral principle was seen in the appropriation by the officials to whom they were entrusted for distribution, of funds donated for the relief of the sufferers by the earthquake."—Rev. Henry Loomis (A. B. S.), Yokohama, Japan. "And thus we find it the unanimous opinion of those in a position to judge, that Japanese commercial morality is of a defective type when compared even with the standard prevailing in China, where trade has never been stamped as degrading, or with the customs of those nations which, amid all the trickery immemorially associated with trade, have yet kept before them a certain standard of integrity in business as in other walks of life. It is, indeed, a common belief, among those who have investigated the conditions of trade in Japan, that commercial morality there stands almost on the lowest plane possible to a civilised people, and that, with few exceptions, even Japanese who prove estimable and high-minded in every other matter are not to be trusted when business transactions are in question. As a direct outcome of the contempt and degradation visited upon trade in feudal days, all classes now appear to regard commerce simply as a game of ' besting,' and the man who fails to take advantage of his neighbour when opportunity serves is looked upon rather as a fool than as one whose example should be praised and imitated."—Article entitled " Commercial Morality in Japan," by Robert Young (Editor of The Kobe Chronicle, Japan), in The Nineteenth Century, November, 1896, pp. 722, 723.
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Japanese have already obtained an unenviable notoriety by the fraudulent reproduction and use of foreign trade symbols and patent reservations. Their imitations of European products, which they palm off as the genuine article from abroad, have already expanded into considerable variety. Mr. Hillier, British Consul-General in Korea, speaks of "a wonderful reproduction of Pears' Soap, perfect in so far as box, label, advertisements, and general appearance are concerned, but absolutely worthless as soap; and also a clever imitation of Colman's Mustard. These spurious products are sold side by side in the same shop with the genuine article, but at much lower price." If the Japanese fall into the mistake of sacrificing quality to cheapness, and genuineness to fraudulent imitation, their commercial prosperity is doomed to be at least morally discredited. The energy, ingenuity, and skill of a nation so gifted with the artistic faculty should not be betrayed into the service of commercial dishonesty. Upon a basis of fair dealing, and the production of sterling and genuine articles in all lines of trade, they could easily enter into formidable rivalry with Western nations, and in the end win a reputation for in integrity and commercial honor which would
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place them in the front rank of the world's trade. At present, however, boycotts, enforced by the Trade Guilds to facilitate a dishonorable advantage, or cover the fact of repudiation and force a. compromise of a just obligation, are becoming all too frequent, and are not condemned by public opinion. Shady commercial transactions are condoned if they result in profit. The ethics of honesty cannot hold their own where they conflict with the devices that succeed. A Japanese merchant, in discussing with a foreigner a case of practical repudiation of a debt on the part of a Japanese merchant when goods previously ordered arrived at the time of a falling market, remarked, " But if he had taken delivery he would have lost money." This seemed to settle the matter; he was justified in refusing to receive the goods and pay the price. The writer of the article in which this incident is related, Mr. Robert Young, Editor of The Kobe Chronicle,1 remarks: " That is the attitude which, with some few honourable exceptions, is almost invariably taken up by the Japanese merchant. The profit on a transaction must be on his side. If he perceives that he is likely to lose money, he will repudiate his bargains and his contracts, and will permit all manner of evil things to be said of him rather than fulfil his obligations. It is ' business' to secure the greatest advantage for one's self at all costs to reputation, and this seems the only touchstone which, in Japan, is applied to commercial matters. We see in this the direct outcome of the contempt for trade and for all who concerned themselves in barter, which was one of the features of feudal days in Japan. Ethical considerations were held to be out of place in the field of commerce, and as a result we find that men who would not dream of doing their neighbours injustice or injury in the ordinary affairs of life have no hesitation in overreaching them in a commercial bargain. Trade is thus placed by immemorial custom outside the sphere of morality,—it is something to which ethics do not apply any more than they apply to the differential calculus,—and the result is what might be expected." In India deceit is regarded by the
Dearth of commercial integrity in India, Persia, and Turkey.mass of the people as the guarantee of business success. " There is a story of a magistrate who planted a bazaar with pipal-trees, but was waited upon by a deputation of the shopkeepers, who begged him to remove the trees, for they could not tell lies under them, and business would come to a standstill." This request was based upon the common belief that gods reside hidden among the leaves of the pipal-tree, and inflict punishment 1 See The Nineteenth Century, November, 1896, p. 727.
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upon any one whom they hear telling lies. A common oath is made, while crushing the leaves of the tree in the hand, by invoking the gods to crush the maker of the oath as he crushes the leaf in his hand if he is not telling the truth.1 It was formerly the custom for the Government to superintend the management of Hindu temples, but this duty was afterwards handed over to the Hindus themselves. Many complaints have resulted as to the maladministration of temple revenues, and the British Government has been invited to interfere again.2 These remarks do not apply to all sections of the Hindu population, as the influence of the British element, and the contact of the larger merchants with European commerce, have brought new standards to the more civilized and enlightened sections of Indian traders. In Persia and the Turkish Empire there is a deplorable dearth of commercial integrity. A resident of the Turkish Empire of long experience writes as follows: "The ideal of young men here in going into business is to start out without either principal or principle. Blarney and borrowed money are the prime requisites. The economic value of honesty does not come into consideration. To drive a sharp bargain and to escape detection and punishment, to give little and get much, to make people believe that you know all about a given line of business without taking the trouble to learn, to ape the outside varnish of European wares and of Levantine manners, to grow fat on other people's labors, and strut in honors due to another, these are the standards of far too much that is called business." Rev. S. G. Wilson, in his "Persian Life and Customs," gives many illustrations of infidelity to trust and unscrupulous-ness in dealing.3 Through all Northern Africa trickery is implied in commercial dealings.4 That these tendencies are manifest among sav 1 The Free Church of Scotland Monthly, January, 1895, p. 13. 2 "The Great Temples of India, Ceylon, and Burma," p. 85. 3 "Persian Life and Customs," pp. 86, 231, 285, 290. 4 "The most conspicuous evils here are the low moral standards, both in commercial and social dealings, and the substitution of religiousness for righteousness. The Europeans here are mostly Maltese (perhaps the most unscrupulous and morally degraded of nominally Christian peoples, at least of Western Christians), but even a Maltese is universally regarded by the natives as more truthful and generally upright than themselves, and they put it down to his religion, corrupt as it is. They hold that it is a sin to lie, to cheat, or to steal, but they have no practical notion of what lying, cheating, and stealing are. Religion with them has little to do with righteousness or unrighteousness. Business means roguery; a good liar or a clever cheater is envied and respected, and his lying and cheating would not seriously detract from his religious character. Yet they recognize the beauty of upright dealing when they find it."—Mr. Henry G. Harding (N. A. M.), Tripoli, Barbary, North Africa.
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age tribes and barbarous races still lower in civilization than those already mentioned is a fact which need not be dwelt upon. 3. FINANCIAL IRREGULARITIES.—There is no more searching
A crucial test to the average Oriental.test to the average Oriental than the money ordeal. He may reveal most engaging qualities in other respects, but we can never be sure of his moral stamina and fortitude until he has faced the temptation which comes with such dazzling and bewitching power when he feels the thrill of the gleaming coin in his sensitive palm. The same fearful and fateful allurements to unfaithfulness seem to lurk in all financial transactions, large or small, with exceptions which will be referred to presently. When we consider the enormous variety, the fathomless complexity, and the disorderly irregularities of the dealings in money which occupy the Eastern world en masse every day of the year, we realize that this subject brings us into immediate contact with the busiest and most absorbing activities of the entire Orient. It ushers us into the offices of the bankers and money-lenders; we visit the bazaars we stand in the markets; we follow the footsteps of toil; we tramp with the caravans; we sail upon rivers and seas in every imaginable craft; we till the soil and ply every art and industry; we are bewildered with the cunning ways of bargaining, and deafened with its clamor; we enter every public building and call upon every public functionary from Constantinople to Tokyo, and from Moukden to Cape Town; we watch the housewife and her servant just home from the market; we sit by the soldier in his camp, and listen to the ecclesiastic as he tries to probe some crookedness or adjust some hot dispute which has been brought to him for settlement by the parties whose mutual attempts at overreaching have brought both to bay. In all this seething turmoil of the Oriental world the chief subject on every side is the meum et tuum of cash. Yet with all this tendency to crookedness
Some remarkable features of Asiatic banking.there is a vein of traditional fidelity in the large banking houses of the Orient. The great financial firms of every Eastern nation have ways of transacting business which seem to imply and secure exceptional loyalty on the part of certain trusted employees, as well as surprising integrity on the part of those to whom they make advances. In some instances this may be due to conscientious motives based upon moral principle, but in many other cases the explanation will be found rather in the
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power of custom or the claims of self-interest, and perhaps also in the lack of nerve for great crimes, or the hopelessness of success therein. If the idea can be once established that in certain situations there is no precedent for infidelity, that it is contrary to all tradition, and involves swift ruin to the participant and his entire circle of friends, the mystic spell of this status over some Oriental minds becomes wonderful. Every other sin may be possible, and even unfaithfulness to obligations in every other direction may be conceivable, but at the post of duty in the banking house of his master, fidelity is the unwritten and unchangeable law of life to the end. Then, again, self-interest in the case of those who receive advances, and need to be financed year after year in order to survive, is a powerful stimulus to their honesty. A single lapse, and all is over. Every door of hope is closed to them, and the prospects of a lifetime, built in thousands of instances on the expectation of loans when they are needed, are blasted. Once more, the charmed existence of these great Asiatic banking houses seems to awe the criminal instincts of those who might otherwise be ready for plunder. There is not the courage and daring necessary to conceive and execute colossal crimes against them. They have secret ways, also, of securing their profit and safeguarding their wealth, which have worked as well for centuries as the most elaborate modern burglar-proof devices.1 We must provide a margin, then, for exceptional, even in some instances extraordinary, faithfulness in individual cases, or in certain environments in the East; but, with this allowance, it may be said without hesitation that, as a rule, the financial dealings of Oriental peoples are a mass of crooked and tangled unscrupulousness. One of the most prominent figures in
A prominent figure in Eastern finance.Eastern finance is the moneylender. He is everywhere, and his function is important, and yet there is hardly any member of society who needs regulating and supervising more than he. His ruinous exactions are terrible, and press with dire and cruel weight upon his helpless victims, who are mostly from the trading or peasant classes, although every rank in life, from the highest to the lowest, sends its representatives to his door. His rates of interest are rarely lower than twelve per cent., and are frequently as high as fifty or seventy per cent. Perhaps they will average from twenty to thirty per cent, throughout Asia.2 The burden is para- 1 Cf. an article on "Asiatic Bankers," in The Spectator (London), October 31, 1896, in which some of the remarkable features of this subject are most intelligently considered. 2 "Almost all [in India] are in debt, and are so hampered by this burden that it is hardly possible for them to improve their circumstances. The most moderate rate of interest is twelve per cent, per annum, but for small sums one anna to the rupee per month, that is, seventy-five per cent, per annum, or even more, is commonly charged. Frequently rich money-lenders make claims where there is no real indebtedness, and by the production of forged documents succeed in enforcing these claims. I remember a case in which a village magistrate forged a document for ninety rupees against a poor laborer, simply because the man refused to join his faction, and actually obtained a decree for the amount. Often poor people are induced to assent to a document under an utterly false impression. The heads of a Pariah community, for example, in a village in one district were induced to put their marks to a deed of sale for the land belonging to the community, through those who drew up the deed reading it as if it were simply a lease for ten years."—Rev. W. Howard Campbell (L. M. S.), Cuddapah, Madras, India. "The regular rate of interest is twenty-four per cent, per annum, and is so recognized by law. How this produces debt is evident. There are no savings-banks. The facility with which anything may be pawned also tends to poverty. The pawnshops are the wealthiest concerns of every city."—Rev. Donald MacGillivray (C. P. M.), Chu-Wang, China.
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lyzing. Yet from the days when Old Testament lawgivers prohibited usury, even in its strict biblical sense of any interest whatever, until now, the usurious loans of the money-lending oppressor have, been the bane and sorrow of the needy Oriental.1 Debt is therefore a social and economic burden of crushing weight almost everywhere in the East.2 In some countries the grasp of the usurer lays hold upon other things than money—it may be houses, lands, or children, until all is gone.3 In India the money-lender is a busy man, and is found well distributed all through the country, although the majority in North India come from Marwar, a Rajputana State, and are therefore known as 1 Cf. The Spectator (London), February 15, 1896, article on "Money-lending in the East." 2 "Debt is a great evil in India. A very large proportion of the community never expect to get out of debt. Debt is oftenest contracted by foolish expenditure required by custom on occasions such as marriages, births, and burials. It is pretty often to the interest of the money-lender that the principal should not be repaid. It is not unusual to charge interest at the rate of seventy-five per cent, per annum, payment monthly in advance, the bare amount of interest constituting by no means the sole profit of the lender. One of the most serious problems of Government is how to rid the agricultural community from the clutches of the usurer."—Rev. Robert Morrison (P. B. F. M. N.), Lahore, India. 3 "The rate of interest is always very high. Often the note is written thus : 'If not paid when due, one shall become two.' That is, the principal is to be doubled if the note is not paid at maturity. The creditor may then take the whole family as his slaves, or he may take one or two of the children to 'sit on the interest,' as they term it. That is, the services of the children will prevent the accumulation of interest, but will not reduce the principal. Slavery for debt is exceedingly common, and escape from it, when once entrapped, is very uncommon."—J. W. McKean, M.D. (P. B. F. M. N.), Chieng Mai, Laos. "The King promulgated a law a few years ago providing for the gradual abolition of debt-slavery. It is beginning to take some effect."—Rev. W. G. McClure (P. B. F. M. N.), Petchaburee, Siam.
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Marwaris. Other names, as, for instance, sowkar, in the Deccan, prevail in other sections of India. These money-brokers drive a thriving and ruinous business. It is a characteristic weakness of Hindus to fall into their trap. Mr. Malabari, in his "Gujarat and the Gujaratis," has pointed out the insidious wiles of the Marwari, and the fatal ascendancy he soon secures.1 Books upon India give detailed accounts of the inveterate habit of borrowing, and the methods long in use by moneylenders to get the peasantry and small traders into their power, and of the inevitable catastrophe which follows.2 "One of the greatest curses in India," writes Dr. Robert Stewart, "is the Hindu broker."3 The 1 "The Marwari allows credit to his customers till it has reached, say, a rupee;then begins the interest at two annas a month; then it becomes a book debt; then is required a security—an old ring, a few cooking utensils, some wearing apparel, etc. These are lodged with the Marwari till the lodger has drawn upon the shop for about half their value. Fresh security is now required if fresh supplies of rotten grain, adulterated oil, wet fuel, etc., are applied for. He charges heavy interest for the credit money, and he turns to account the security lodged with him. He lends the ring, the clothes, the utensils, or the furniture to others, and charges for the use. If those who have lodged the articles with him object to their being used, why, they must close their account with him! "The Marwari will lend and sell on credit to the last pie compatible with safety. Infinite is his power of lending, so is his power of recovering. The moment the Marwari finds difficulty in repayment, he sets about squeezing the last drop out of the unhappy wretch. He removes from his house everything worth removing. He does not scruple to put his victims to the vilest uses, so he can recover what he thinks to be his due. When all fails to satisfy the relentless fiend, he resorts to the Small Cause Court. Those who know what a summary suit is need not be told that the Marwari has the power to sell by auction everything the debtor may possess. He often buys up everything himself. "The Marwari feeds upon the poorer classes of Hindus, but clerks and others likewise fall victims to his rapacity. His policy is the policy of the 'long rope.' He lends and lends till the man is completely in his power, and is virtually his slave for life."—Malabari, "Gujarat and the Gujaratis," quoted in "The Principal Nations of India," p. 81. 2 Cf. Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years,"Appendices, p. cclxxv.; Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 409, 410. See also "Debt and the Right Use of Money," a timely little pamphlet in the series of Papers on Social Reform, published by the Christian Literature Society, Madras. The beguiling allurements and sinuosities of Indian debt-traps are briefly and instructively treated in this useful tract written especially for Indian readers. 3 " Life and Work in India," p. 127.
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conditions, however, are greatly improved by financial reforms introduced by the British Government.1 In China currency is the
Currency problems in China.sport of tricksters. Few are inclined to part with coin without surreptitiously extracting something of its value; all are reluctant to receive it without carefully testing its integrity. The rate of interest is uniformly high, ranging from twenty-four to thirty-six percent., and sometimes even more.2 The mysteries and uncertainties of Chinese finances are discussed by Mr. R. S. Gundry, in "China, Present and Past," in a special chapter on "Currency" (pp. 141-158). China is still dependent in her treaty ports and vicinity upon the Mexican, Japanese, and to some extent the British dollar issued at Hong Kong, for her current medium and her accepted standard. In the interior the small "cash" and the awkward silver "shoes"—blocks 1 "The extension of the security of property to all parts of the country, the adoption of a uniform currency, the introduction of the money-order system and of currency notes and State banks, and the creation of a public stock in which money can be invested with perfect security, have rendered it now impossible for the money- lending classes to make the enormous gains which they did in former times. . . .There can be no doubt, however, that, with the increase of trade and the growth of a money economy, money-lending classes have increased in large numbers and spread all through the country instead of being confined to the towns. According to the returns of income tax for the year 1890-91, there were in this [Madras]
Presidency 14,621 money lenders with incomes exceeding Rs 500 per annum. There is no means of forming an estimate of petty money-lenders with less income than Rs 500."—Raghavaiyangar, "Progress of the Madras Presidency During the Last Forty Years," p. 160. At the Poona Social Conference held in December, 1895, the president, Dr. Bhandarkar, in his inaugural address referred to the money-lender and his virtual war upon Indian society as follows: "And I will make bold to assert that the chronic poverty of the agricultural classes and the depredations of the proverbial sowkar, or money-lender, are a great social evil. The Government has been endeavoring to do a good deal by means of mere special legislation; but that does not seem to have remedied the evil, and the money-lender continues to charge interest from eighteen to twenty-five per cent, on loans raised on the security of lands. This is a political as well as a social question. The Government has been on several occasions urged to establish agricultural banks. . . . An ordinary bank with agencies at the district towns, and sub-agencies for circles with a radius of about ten miles, will, I think, fully answer the purpose. Money should be lent on the security of land at an interest of from nine to twelve per cent., payable about the same time as the land revenue. Sympathetic, though firm, treatment should be accorded to the peasants, and the agents employed should not be unscrupulous men exacting perquisites for themselves." See for full text of the Address, which deals with many aspects of social reform in India, Delhi Mission News, July, 1896. 2 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 255.
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valued at about forty dollars—are the common currency. The Celestial Empire awaits some system of terrestrial coinage which will be of practical service and guaranteed stability for advantageous commercial use. Just at present financial matters are in a confused and unstable state, and foreign investments, as well as native ventures, are attended with considerable risk, all of which is depressing to China and retards her commercial progress.1 It is sufficient to say, in conclusion, that systematic and regulative measures are desperately needed in the sphere of finance and banking everywhere throughout the less civilized sections of the world. The assurance now felt is almost entirely due to the fact that great banking establishments, under foreign control, backed by foreign capital, conducted by orderly methods, having the confidence of the whole commercial East, and with a bed-rock of moral stability under them, control the finances of the Orient. 4. PRIMITIVE INDUSTRIAL APPLIANCES.—Financial uncertainties
The fixedness of industrial methods in the East.are in league with clumsy tools and antiquated methods in trades, industries, and agricultural labors to retard the development of the East. It is social heresy of the most pronounced kind in many sections of the Orient to forsake the time-honored ways of antiquity for new and improved methods, however advantageous they may be. Every one is afraid to begin, lest he offend public sentiment or become the butt of ridicule, or possibly find himself incompetent to succeed in any other way than that of his fathers for generations past. The gradual development of better facilities has been hitherto checked as if by proscription; the natural transformation of ways and means from the old and cumbersome to the new and facile has been interdicted as if it were high treason to society. The result of this wholesale condemnation of better methods, simply because they are different from the old, is a check to the business prosperity and the social advancement of the East, while it is a serious drawback to progress. In China the old, awkward methods of farming with rude implements are still in vogue, and the modern facilities of Western nations are under a ban of contempt. Harvesting and threshing are done in primitive and laborious fashion.2 The Koreans are, if possible, even 1 The subject has been fully and ably treated by Vissering, "Chinese Currency" (Leyden, Brill, 1877). 2 "Accustomed as we are to large farms and extended systems of agriculture, Chinese farms appear to partake more of the nature of market-gardens than of agricultural holdings. The implements used are primitive in the extreme, and are such as, we learn from the sculptures, were used in ancient Assyria. Two only may be said to be generally used, the plough and the hoe. The first of these is little more than a spade fastened to a single handle by bamboo bands. As a rule, it is drawn by a buffalo or buffaloes, and some travellers even claim to have seen women harnessed in the same yoke with these beasts of burden. From the shape of the share the Chinese plough does little more than disturb the surface of the soil, and rarely penetrates more than four or five inches. . . . The spade is seldom used, and the hoe is made to take its place. Rakes and bill-hooks complete the farmer's stock in trade. The bamboo, which is made to serve almost every purpose, forms the material of each part of the rake; while the bill-hook has a treble debt to pay, serving as a pruning-knife in the spring, a scythe in the summer, and a sickle when the grain is ripe to harvest."—Douglas, "Society in China," p. 126.
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behind the Chinese, while elsewhere in Asia, with the exception of India and Japan, the old, worn-out appliances of patriarchal agriculture sum up the resources of the people pretty much everywhere. Many Asiatic countries, and
The industrial capabilities of the Orient.China not the least among them, are endowed with as yet unexplored resources. Mineral wealth in apparently exhaustless abundance and variety, untouched natural sources of power and production, are kept in wasteful idleness, while the people to work them are swarming on every side, with the finest gifts of patient industry, awaiting that inspiring and guiding leadership which will direct them in paths of usefulness. Asiatics are by no means deficient in capacity; they are able to do an immense share of the world's work with a skill and deftness which, if they could be brought into touch with the appliances of modern times, would astonish and perhaps greatly disconcert the Western nations, who seem to look upon their trade and commerce as beyond competition so far as Eastern rivalry is concerned. Japan has already sent a nervous thrill through the commercial circles of the West, and other peoples of the East will before long add their increment of force to the shock. An illustration of the prompt advantage of the adoption of modern improvements is at hand. China since the days of the Roman emperors, as has been shown by Mr. Gundry,1 has been noted for her trade in silk, but, adhering to her primitive methods, her output was limited, and other nations with improved machinery absorbed a large share of the industry. Now her people are just beginning to adopt the facilities for machine-reeling, and China is coming into rapid competition with her rivals.2 So in the case of the sugar-cane industry in Central China; the native mills are so im- 1 "China, Present and Past," p. 122. 2 "In a recent report from the British Legation in Peking on Chinese commercial topics, silk is described as the most characteristic of all Chinese products, and that which gave the country its name in the West in ancient times. The export is growing rapidly, especially in certain varieties, such as raw steam filature, in which it was half a million pounds in 1894, and three and one half millions last year. The increased export of silk is especially marked in Shanghai, where the total value last year was estimated at nearly six millions sterling. Shanghai has now twenty-five silk filatures; new factories are about to be erected in Su-chau and Hang-chau, which are close to the silk-producing districts, and it is believed that before long all the Chinese silk going abroad will be filature reeled before leaving the country. This will involve a large increase in the silk production, in consequence of the abandonment of the native method of reeling from fresh cocoons. Hitherto the silk producers have never reared more worms than could be dealt with in the ten days that elapse between the completion of the cocoon by the worm and the appearance of the moth, as the perfect insects eat their way through the cocoons to the light, and thus destroy them. But with steam filatures the cocoon is baked, or kiln-dried, so that the chrysalis is killed, and the spinning of the silk can take place at any time. The increased production thereby secured in China will probably seriously influence the production in France and Italy. Sir Robert Hart has been instrumental in introducing to China the Pasteur system of treating diseased silkworms, much to the advantage of the cultivators. Canton comes next in importance as a silk port to Shanghai, and is followed by Chifu, though the yellow silk produced in the districts for which the last is the outlet is not in demand in Europe, for the winding of it is not such as to please European manufacturers. Silk goods manufactured in China are also more largely exported."—The Mail (London Times), November 6, 1896.
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perfect in their processes that an enormous waste of twenty per cent. of the best juice is left in the cane and subsequently burned up. Modern machinery would do away with this loss, and in a recent letter from the Rev. W. N. Brewster, of Hinghua City, Fuhkien, he intimates his intention to make the effort to introduce modern sugarcane mills in that section. Yet, with all the facilities for competition which Western manufacturers possess, native fabrics still hold their own in many parts of Asia. The products of the Indian looms are not so cheap as those of Manchester, but they are more durable, and Sir W. Hunter estimates that about three fifths of the cotton cloth used in India is woven there.1 The facilities of communication
The demand for improved facilities of transportation.form another pressing problem throughout Asia, except where Western capital and skill have "made a highway" for transportation and intercourse. The railway is thrusting itself into China; there is already a magnificent system in India; and Japan is rapidly developing an extensive plant. Siam is as yet untouched, except in the vicinity of its capital,2 although various projects have been announced, and preliminary explorations have been 1 Hunter, "The Indian Empire," p. 702. The whole chapter on "Arts and Manufactures" (pp. 700-721) is an instructive commentary on the industrial capacity and manual skill of native workmen. 2 "The solution of the most pressing problems of Siam's future is, of course, means of communication. So long as this one and only remedy is untouched by any efforts except the present perfunctory and fictitious designs of the Royal Railway Department, so long the vast possibilities of Siamese development must remain unrealized. Take about half an hour's walk from the Grand Palace in Bangkok in any direction you please, and you find you can go no further. Not, however, because the roads are atrocious, as in Korea, or impassable, as in China. They simply do not exist—there are none. Even the great waterway, the one hope and stay of the struggling timber-dealers and despairing rice-traders, is allowed to remain in a more or less unnavigable condition for half of every year. The trade of Siam, the development of Siam, the resources of Siam, have become what they are in the teeth of almost insuperable obstacles. In this complete absence of roads, one can of course only get out of Bangkok and see anything of the country by boat-travelling either on the canals or the main river; and afterwards start from certain recognized centres, on ponies, or more often on foot, with bullocks or coolies for baggage, along the rough trails and jungle paths, created simply by the persistent tramping of feet, without artificial construction of any sort, which still do duty for 'Internal Communications.'"—Norman, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," p. 426.
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made with a view to an entrance from Burma on the north. Throughout much of interior Asia the difficulties of transportation and intercommunication are an insurmountable barrier to development.1 With the progress of the new era of national aspiration and social advance which is opening in all parts of the world, we shall witness the acceptance of industrial facilities and their skilful use, when sufficient experience and training have made them serviceable. In the meantime industries lag under the weight of antiquated methods. VII.—THE RELIGIOUS GROUP (Evils which deprive society of the moral benefits of a pure religious faith and practice) THE universality of the religious instinct in mankind is
The universality of religion.now no longer an open question among the most eminent students of anthropology and ethnology. Dr. F. B. Jevons, in his recent admirable volume, defends the statement that there never was a time in the history of man when he was without religion. He shows that, although some writers have endeavored to demonstrate its falsity by producing savage peoples alleged to have no religious ideas whatever, it is nevertheless, as every anthropologist knows, a discussion which "has now gone to the limbo of dead controversies." He confirms this judgment by show- 1 "In South China we have nothing but the sedan-chair or the pony's back to give any variety from walking. Tens of thousands of men in South China are little more than beasts of burden. Rice and sugar and tobacco and tea are brought for miles and miles on the shoulders of men, as the only means of conveyance, until the produce reaches some river, and is thence transported by boat."—Rev. J. G. Fagg (Ref. C. A.), Amoy, China.
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ing that "writers approaching the subject from such different points of view as Professor Tylor, Max Müller, Ratzel, De Quatrefages, Tiele, Waitz, Gerland, and Peschel, all agree that there are no races, however rude, which are destitute of all idea of religion."1 This universality of religion has been identified with the social life of primitive peoples quite as much, if not more, than with their individual life. Early religion, in fact, entered into the life of the clan or tribe quite as definitely as into that of the family or individual. As Dr. Jevons writes, religion from the beginning "was not an affair which concerned the individual only, but one which demanded the coöperation of the whole community ; and a religious community was the earliest form of society."2 Thus, for good or for ill, the social evolution of humanity has been to a most impressive degree influenced by religious beliefs and practices, and this is especially true to-day in lands where the social and religious life of the people are largely identical. Social degeneracy has been hastened by the defects of religion, and the advance to better conditions has been stimulated by its superior qualities. The great variety of religious beliefs and practices has occasioned widely divergent tendencies in social life. The difficulty has been not so much the absence of religion as its imperfections and perversions. The history of mankind has not been irreligious, but it has been perversely erroneous and wayward in its religious tendencies. The explanation of the religious
The fact of general religious defection.wanderings and defections of mankind is not a matter which it is necessary to discuss here. The theory which biblical history clearly indicates is intelligible and consistent. The fact of primitive monotheism is sufficiently clear as a doctrine of Scripture, and there seems to be no good reason, based upon either philosophical or scientific data, to doubt it; but it is equally plain that early monotheism failed to hold the race in allegiance. Mankind deserted God the Creator and turned to the creature. Man forsook the law of his Maker, turned to vain and superstitious imaginations concerning the supernatural, and through various gradations of totemism, 1 Jevons, "An Introduction to the History of Religion," p. 7. Professor Ratzel, in his "History of Mankind," remarks : "Ethnography knows no race devoid of religion, but only differences in the degree to which religious ideas are developed" (vol. i., p. 40). 2 Page 101.
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fetichism, animism, idolatry, and the prostitution of religion to the service of sensuous and destructive desires, lost spiritual contact with his God and fell into deep and general apostasy. This collapse would no doubt have been universal and final had not God laid hold of a remnant of humanity, and, by spiritual touch and strenuous discipline, preserved them from the prevalent defection, and guided them by many and varied interventions into the ways of allegiance and obedience. Judaism, however, as revealed in Hebrew history, was not free from faults and gross scandals, culminating in an almost total eclipse; although in its deep and wonderful religious development, and as a preparatory training for the spiritual doctrine and the larger life of Christianity, it bears every evidence of its divine mission. In the case of other peoples, however, the spiritual defection has been a dark and overshadowing calamity, which has culminated in the long tragedy of man's spiritual history. The loss of the true God out of the consciousness of the race is a sufficient and, under all the circumstances, a perfectly natural explanation of its religious blindness, perversity, and degeneracy. In the deep and awful excesses of man's sinful career there have appeared from time to time men of nobler and higher, but, alas! most defective vision,
The genesis of ethnic faiths.whose natures have revolted from the spiritual and sensual degradation of their environment, and some of whom have sought, upon he basis of philosophy or ethics or devout aspiration or partial rehabilitation of the remnants of truth still present in religious tradition, to reform the spiritual life of mankind. Such, we may believe, has been in the main the spirit of the purer heathen sages, and the true genesis of the great ethnic faiths of the Orient, which in most instances originated in a revolt from degeneracy, a break with pagan despair, and a struggle to establish a truer and nobler religious cult. These religious revivals, some far purer than others in their original conception, have themselves in time suffered collapse. The resulting cult has become corrupted, and in certain instances defiled by gross lapses into idolatry or compromising alliances with the flesh. There is a pathos in their aspiration, a nobility in their revolt, but, alas! a sorrowful incapacity in their vital spiritual forces to cope with the sinful perversity of the human heart. They have had their partial and imperfect messages to mankind and have helped humanity in a measure; they have brought fitful gleams of light and disproportionate religious instruction ; but they have failed at vital points, and have advocated fatal compromises and concessions, which have weakened, if not in some instances wholly destroyed, their capacity to lift humanity to higher levels.
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Mankind has been in some respects indebted to them, but in other respects they have proved disappointing and deceptive. The world of to-day, with its manifold miseries and iniquities, is probably as good a world as the ethnic faiths could be expected to produce. In considering, therefore, the social benefits which
The social value of true religion.may be hoped for through religious influence, it will be seen that everything depends upon the character of the religion itself. If it is not true in doctrine and pure in practice, if it is not gifted with spiritual vitality sufficiently persuasive and vivifying to control the moral nature, if it does not, in fact, lead men to the living and true God and produce in them a transformation of character after the likeness of the Eternal Goodness, then its powerlessness dooms it to failure. The absolute essential of a true and efficient religion is that it secures reconciliation between God and man, and produces in the latter a worthy moral character. In other words, it must put sinful man into right relations with God, and so renew and purify his nature by the processes of training and soul culture that he is spiritually made over. Whatever else it does, if it does not do this in the case of its individual believers and followers, it will inevitably fail to reconstruct society after the pattern of divine righteousness. There is no basis for purified social ethics except a transformed individual character.1 If, however, the religious life of a community is true to the higher standards of righteousness, a high and noble religious experience will prove an immense and inspiring force in the moulding of social development. In a word, true religion is a fountain of social and national ideals, and is the source of higher ethical impulses in the State. It becomes also a conservative restraint in times of passion and excitement; it creates a respect for law, and quickens the reverence for justice; it rebukes not only individual, but social and even national selfishness; it stimulates the aspiration after liberty; it checks the spirit of revenge and retaliation; it quickens the desire for peace and conciliation; it identifies true manhood with gentleness, true courage with forbearance, true manly and womanly character with virtue. The constructive forces of society are, therefore, moral; the genesis of all true and high enthusiasm for goodness is religious. It is only through religious faith that the influence of invisible realities is brought to bear in an environment of visible things. Faith in immortality, that mighty secret of the soul, comes to us through religion. Only thus can men live here in this world "under the power of the 1 Cf. Hillis, "A Man's Value to Society," especially chap, i., "Elements of Worth in the Individual."
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world to come." Supernaturalism, to be sure, may be an immense power for evil if it degenerates into superstition, but, on the other hand, it may be a magnificent stimulus for good. With God as its centre, and with the illuminating instruction of revelation poured upon it, it becomes wonderfully fruitful in motive power towards individual and social perfection. We turn now to a few specifications illustrative of the unhappy results upon society of a religious life which is destitute of the purifying and vitalizing forces of Christianity. I. DEGRADING CONCEPTIONS OF THE NATURE AND REQUIREMENTS OF RELIGION.—We have said that the influence
The true test of social value in a religion.of a religion upon the individual and social life depends, not only upon the power of its ascendancy over the conscience, but upon the character of the object it presents for worship and the subject-matter of its teaching. If it is conceded that there is but one living and true God, who is alone worthy of religious adoration and faith, and whose moral precepts provide the only safe and helpful guidance to the soul, it follows that if in place of this supreme and holy personal Creator as the spiritual centre of religious faith we have impersonal abstractions, perhaps vaguely personified, or pantheistic theories, or imaginary pantheons, or an environment of demons or fetiches, we have lost touch with a supreme, divine Personality. If we have nature-worship, idolatry, or some gross form of sensualism; if we have mere philosophical dogma, or an ethical code, however elaborate and severe, or pagan mysticism, however ecstatic, or rationalism, however pretentious and dogmatic, or mere humanitarianism, as the sum of religious duty, we are bound to have a moral impression which is worth to society just what the spiritual dignity of its central truth amounts to, and nothing more. We cannot vitalize the moral nature through a religious system which is itself without living spiritual forces. The subject-matter of religious teaching is also a test of its social value. If in place of the sweet, pure morality and the spiritual discipline of Christianity we have crude philosophical formulae, or error posing as truth, or lax ethical principles, or compromises with the flesh, or external formalism, or sacerdotal pretensions, the result is depressing just in proportion to the degeneracy of the religious standards upheld and practised. Thus, if a religion presents ideals of character in its gods which are degrading; if its worship is compromising to true manhood and womanhood; if the creature is exalted to a dignity which belongs only to the Creator; if religion is
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made a matter of forms and ceremonies, of feasts, fasts, festivals, and pilgrimages ; if it fosters asceticism, mendicancy, monasticism, self-torture, or vain display; if it nourishes fanatical pride and intolerance, or sanctions persecution, cruelty, and moral defection; if it gives scope to sins of the flesh and severs morality from piety; if it regards a religious profession as valuable simply in proportion to the material advantages and immunities it brings; if it fails to regard humanitarian service as a part of religious duty, or in other ways lowers the scope and efficiency of its spiritual mission, then to that extent it is sure to fail as an uplifting force in society. In the religious life of China, for example,
Some effects of anscestor-worship on Chinese society.whatever amiable and, were it not for its idolatrous trend, comparatively venial faults may be connected with the worship of ancestors, there are certain aspects of the subject which inflict a burden of needless fears and pessimistic alarms upon all Chinese society. The whole realm of the dead becomes peopled with spirits, not of ancestors alone, but of thousands who have died around them, and of this swarming host the Chinese stand in troubled awe and haunting fear. "They worship them just as they worship devils or demons to keep them away. They regard all such pretty much as they do the living beggars who come to their doors, and the sole object in contributing to either is to induce them to leave. Shopmen who do not wish to be annoyed by the professional beggars can be exempt by paying regularly in advance a certain sum to the king of the beggars, who will place a mark over their doors that is readily understood by all the craft of professionals. Thus the people hope, by contributing at regular periods to the comfort of the forlorn spirits in the other world, in like manner to be exempt from annoyance from them."1 This burden of worshipping the dead imposes an enormous annual monetary outlay upon the Chinese, estimated by Dr. Yates at $151,752,000. This immense expenditure .to quiet the spirits of the dead is not merely a tribute of filial piety or charity, but of servile fear. The living become the slaves of the dead, and all in the name of religion. Mr. Smith, in "Chinese Characteristics" (p. 184), expresses his conviction thus: "The true root of the Chinese practice of filial piety we believe to be a mixture of fear and self-love, two of the most powerful motives which can act on the human soul. The spirits must be worshipped on account of the power which they have for evil." Dr. Henry says in the same connection: "The motives for this devotion are not 1 The Rev. M. T. Yates, D.D., in an essay on "Ancestral Worship," published in the "Report of the Shanghai Conference, 1877," p. 383.
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found in reverence or affection for the deceased, but in self-love and fear of personal distress. The people are chained to the dead. They cannot move or act without encountering prosperous or adverse influences excited by the spirits of the dead. They are kept all their lifetime in fear, not of death, but of the dead."1 This dread of the spirits overshadows the whole life of the Chinese. It gives to geomancy its paralyzing influence, since it is dangerous to disturb the natural configuration of the earth, lest it excite the fatal animosity of lurking spirits of evil. Grading for a railway becomes presumptuous trifling with unseen foes; mining for coal, iron, copper, silver, and other metals is simply a blasphemous assault upon a stronghold of demons. At every turn the Chinaman has to reckon with impending calamity.2 This brooding apprehension gives to the priestly class a monopoly of power in the use of their supposed gift of exorcism, which they are not slow to use. Take, once more, the Chinese doctrine of metempsychosis,
Other illustrations from China.or the possible transmigration of the soul, either for better or for worse, after leaving the present life. Of this Dr. Martin remarks that he considers this doctrine, as generally held "largely responsible for the prevalence of suicide, leading those who are hopelessly wretched to try their luck on another throw of the dice." 3 On the other hand, in the expectation of a reward and a betterment of his condition in the future state, the Chinaman looks to his Buddhist priest as the "established medium, through whom his merits may be demonstrated and made known in heaven, and from whose hands he looks to receive his official diploma of celestial promotion." 4 Here again is slavery, and an opportunity for extortion which is not neglected. Once more, the Chinese doctrine of merit robs morality of its power to command. By special donations, or by gifts to charity or for religious purposes, the Chinese believe that they can make atonement for immoral lives, and so can purchase immunity from the condemnation of public opinion here, and from the judgments of a higher tribunal beyond.5 All this serves to illustrate the moral disorder which settles down upon society as the result of mistaken conceptions of the nature and requirements of religion. 1 "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 125. Cf. also Du Bose, "The Dragon, Image, and Demon," p. 80. 2 Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. 150. 3 "A Cycle of Cathay," p. 39. 4 Curzon, "Problems of the Far East," p. 377. 5 Moule, "New China and Old," p. 170.
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In India the strict observance of caste amounts to a religion with the great mass of Hindus, so that social life is shot through and through with the exactions of that strange system.
The social influence of Hinduism.In other respects the religious ideas and practices of Hinduism are a degrading social incubus. There are features of Hindu worship which no society with any self-respect would tolerate, and which make social morality impossible without an utter break with religion. So mysterious and abominable are the tenets and the ceremonial observances of certain sects in India that educated Hindus themselves stand aghast when they undertake to refer to them in language addressed to Occidental readers.1 Saivism, or the worship of Siva, and Vaishnavism, or the worship of Vishnu, are mysteries into which the very passwords of entrance must be left unsaid.2 Saktism, or the worship of force personified as a goddess, as exemplified in the religious honors paid to Kall, Durga, and other goddesses, often represented in places of worship by living women, goes to an extreme which the Hindu himself recognizes as esoteric.3 Then there is the endless repetition of the names of gods, the worship of heroes, saints, and devotees, and the reverence paid to animals, including especially cows, monkeys, and serpents, and the religious honors rendered to sacred trees and various inanimate objects, all of which tend to lower the tone of religion and degrade it to the level of superstition, until its influence as a social uplift is practically destroyed. It has so little to do with the moral life of the people that religion goes one way and social morals go another.4 Fasts, festivals, 1 Mr. Bhattacharya, in his "Hindu Castes and Sects," designates a number of Hindu sects as "disreputable," and in writing of the nature of Sakti worship he draws a deep veil of reserve over his references. Concerning the image of Siva which they worship, he remarks : "The true nature of such images is not generally known, though it is defined in unmistakable terms in the Dhyan, or formula for contemplating the Goddess Kali." In referring to the image of Kali, he states that popular ideas on the subject by no means reach the mysterious vileness it suggests. "What its real meaning is," he remarks, "cannot possibly be explained here. Those inclined to dive into such filth must study the ritual for Kali worship" (p. 408). 2 Sir M. Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," pp. 73-94, 101, 136, 137. 143; Bhattacharya, "Hindu Castes and Sects," p. 368. 3 Sir M. Monier-Williams, "Brahmanism and Hinduism," pp. 190-192; Wilkins, "Modern Hinduism," pp. 94, 193-321; Bhattacharya, "Hindu Castes and Sects," pp. 407-413. 4 " In this land of mysticism, religion has long been dissociated in the popular mind from ordinary human conduct. To hundreds and thousands of people religion is a something apart from the moral conduct of a person. He may be mean, or selfish, or untruthful, he may cheat his neighbour or rob the poor widow, yet if he performs a number of acts prescribed in the Shastras, or goes through the ordinances of the current faith, or spends some hours of the day in sentimental ecstacies, he consoles himself with the belief that he has fulfilled the best conditions of religious life."—The Indian Messenger, November 27, 1892.
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pilgrimages, holy days, and shrines, sacred waters with supposed powers to purify, innumerable temples imposing in architecture and ornate in furnishing, uncounted idols at every turn in the daily life—all give to the religious life of India a depressing influence disastrous to social weal. Indian Mohammedanism has certain features which deeply compromise its helpfulness, and, although it is far cleaner and more loyal to higher religious truth than Hinduism, its social benefits are sadly neutralized by its moral concessions. The fatal idea that sins against society can be condoned, or atoned for by religious ceremonialism, and even that merit may be accumulated in spite of moral laxity, pervades more or less all the religious systems of India.1 As in China so in 1 Raja Rammohun Roy, a noted Indian reformer at the beginning of the present century, in the introduction to his translation of the Isopanishad, remarks upon this feature of Hinduism as follows: "The chief part of the theory and practice of Hinduism, I am sorry to say, is made to consist in the adoption of a peculiar mode of diet, the least aberration from which (even though the conduct of the offender may in other respects be pure and blameless) is not only visited with the severest censure, but actually punished by exclusion from the society of his family and friends. In a word, he is doomed to undergo what is commonly called loss of caste. "On the contrary, the rigid observance of this grand article of Hindu faith is considered in so high a light as to compensate for every moral defect. Even the most atrocious crimes weigh little or nothing in the balance against the supposed guilt of its violation. "Murder, theft, or perjury, though brought home to the party by a judicial sentence, so far from inducing loss of caste, is visited in their society with no peculiar mark of infamy or disgrace. "A trifling present to the Brahman, commonly called prayaschit, with the performance of a few idle ceremonies, is held as a sufficient atonement for all these crimes ; and the delinquent is at once freed from all temporal inconveniences, as well as all dread of future retribution." In an article on "Social and Religious Reform," published in of June 24, 1887, is found substantially the same verdict, as follows : "The Hindu mythology has to be purged of the absurdities that have overgrown it during centuries of ignorance and of superstitious and timid isolation. In the same manner, the moral ideas of our common people have to be improved. An orthodox Hindu would tolerate falsehood, cowardice, and self-abasement, but would damn to perdition his neighbour who swerves the least from accepted conventions even in the details of personal habits. Such moral perversity does not indicate a healthy social condition. Similarly, our ideas of charity, of social distinction, education, and social well-being in general, have to be drawn out of the influence of an obsolete and backward civilization, and brought in harmony with the fresh spirit of the time."
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India the religious atmosphere is deeply pessimistic. Fear is a controlling influence in religious life. The anger of the gods hangs like a brooding curse over life. The dread of evil spirits dwarfs the mind and chills the heart. Religion is an aggressive struggle to ward off perils and propitiate angry gods or malicious demons. The disadvantages of a religious faith and practice so burdensome, so depressing, so misleading can be fully understood only by one who is familiar with the social condition of the Indian people. In Mohammedan lands there are strange and crude
Islam and its relation to social morality.conceptions of what religion is and what it requires. The influence of Islam, so far as it relates to the cultivation of liberty, purity, justice, and kindliness, is revealed in its own history. It has ever taken an attitude towards humanity which is marked by relentless spiritual and social despotism. True to its historic demand that all unbelievers shall choose between Islam, tribute, and the sword, it offers to humanity its own rigid matrix, into which social life must flow and be cast after the old Islamic model, or accept humiliation and ostracism as the only alternatives. When the fanatical passions of Islam are stirred all guarantees of public order are worthless. Mohammedan feasts and festivals, where the population is not constituted exclusively of Moslems, often involve grave dangers. When the processions of the Muharram Passion Play are in progress no Christian in Persia can venture upon the streets, except at his peril. Wherever Islam is aggressively to the front human society cannot count upon its safeguards, nor the State upon its liberties. It has already smitten some of the fairest lands of the earth with the blight of social disorder and decay.1 Islam carries into the family polygamy, unrestricted divorce, and slavery, the latter, as a rule, being simply an indefinite and unrestrained expansion of the first, under the guise of concubinage.2 In the name of the Moslem's reli- 1 Cf. article entitled "Turkey for the Turks," in The Independent, November 12, 1896, p. 15.
2 "As asocial system," writes Stanley Lane-Poole, "Islam is a complete failure: it has misunderstood the relation of the sexes, upon which the whole character of a nation's life hangs, and, by degrading women, has degraded each successive generation of their children down an increasing scale of infamy and corruption, until it seems almost impossible to reach a lower level of vice. "The fatal spot in Islam is the degradation of women. The true test of a nation's place in the ranks of civilisation is the position of its women. When they are held in reverence, when it is considered the most infamous of crimes to subject a woman to dishonour, and the highest distinction to protect her from wrong; when the family life is real and strong, of which the mother-wife is the heart; when each man's pulse beats loyal to womanhood, then is a nation great. When women are treated as playthings, toys, drudges, worth anything only if they have beauty to be enjoyed or strength to labour; when sex is considered the chief thing in a woman, and heart and mind are forgotten; when a man buys women for his pleasure, and dismisses them when his appetite is glutted, then is a nation despicable."—"Studies in a Mosque," pp. 101, 102.
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gion there is all the scope to desire which an Oriental wishes. Is not female slavery, with all that it practically means, down in the code ? He therefore believes in it and practises it, so far as he is able, with a religious as well as a fleshly zest. The Moslem soldier for centuries has marched to his victories, not alone over the dead bodies of men, but over the dishonored forms of women. He even departs for his Paradise with the gleam of expectant passion in his glazing eyes. The family life of Islam is a nursery of ideas which are necessarily fatal to social purity.1 Its political spirit gives no place to liberty and civilized statecraft. The Moslem creed, in its attitude to both the State and the family, in its spirit of ostracism, in its despotic assumptions, in its narrow bigotry, its rigid limitations to progress, its triumphant adjustment of God's law to man's natural desire, and its failure to generate moral character, is a striking illustration of the social blight which is sure to result from a degrading conception of the nature and requirements of religion. The same difficulties which attended the reconstruction of social morality among
The difficulties of social reconstruction in an environment of religious degeneracy.heathen converts in the apostolic age still hinder the progress of Christianity in modern mission fields. It was not easy to banish pagan laxity from the new life Christians in the great cities of the Roman Empire. Some of the most searching and vigorous passages in the apostolic epistles are directed to the emphasis and elucidation of morality as an essential of Christian living. History is repeating itself as Christianity enters the pagan environment of to-day. Hundreds, even thousands, of natives in different mission fields in Polynesia and Africa, and even in more enlightened Oriental lands, have been, and are still, seeking admission to the Christian Church without quite understanding why their inconsistent morality presents any serious obstacle to their enrolment. Their old religions put little or no restriction upon individual conduct or traditional social customs; why, therefore, should the new faith introduce such troublesome innovations into the realm of every-day life? No student of the religious condition of the world, however, will recognize this state of things as pertaining to a heathen environment alone. In Mexico and the entire 1 Lane, "Arabian Society in the Middle Ages," chap, ix., on "Women."
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South American Continent, where Roman Catholic Christianity prevails, the divorce of morality from religion seems to be almost as grievous and as fatal in many respects as in non-Christian lands. Enough has been said, without dwelling further upon this subject, to show the social demoralization which is sure to attend a low conception of the nature, purpose, and moral demands of religion. Is it not evident that reconstruction of society is made immensely more difficult where there is moral paralysis arising from defective views of the nature and tendencies of a true religious cult? 2. IDOLATRY.—That idolatry is degrading to the spiritual nature of man need
The social degradation of idolatry.not be seriously argued. Its evil effects upon social life are not quite so apparent; yet a little reflection will convince us that the degradation of the individual character means inevitably the lowering of the spiritual tone and the moral sensibilities of society. To banish the living God from the individual consciousness means an immense loss of inspiration, guidance, corrective discipline, moral restraint, spiritual courage, and ennobling impulse to the social life of a people. Nothing will so quickly and hopelessly put the progressive forces of society into a state of collapse, lower the practical influence of ethical standards, weaken the power of higher motives, destroy the sense of responsibility, and dissipate the consciousness of moral obligation as the substitution of idolatry for the worship and fear of a living personal deity.1 If man regards himself as accountable only to dumb images, even though they may be regarded as symbols of, deity, he soon loses his touch with a personal God. The history of idolatry, however, shows that to the popular mind the refinements of the symbolic conception of idols soon lose their distinctive sway, while the idol itself, as an object of reverence and fear, gains a sure ascendancy. The apologetic conception that idols are merely symbols of a supreme deity, and are used as such by idolaters, is far from tenable. The facts of history and experience give little evidence in its favor. On the contrary, idolatry as it actually exists, and has always existed, in the world is almost without exception the worship of idols as such, or at least as the personification of some mysterious forces of the supernatural or natural world.2 1 Cf. March, "Morning Light in Many Lands," chap, xiii., "Faith and Hope in Heathen Lands."
2 "Until recent years no one ever thought of apologising for idolatry. We have now reached a stage, however, when it is a common thing to hear it explained, defended, and justified; a philosophy of idolatry, so to speak, has sprung up, and has been so far accepted that not only is it adopted by the priests and servitors of idol temples, but is endorsed, even if it were not originally invented, by many highly cultivated European apologists. We are told, briefly, that images are intended to, and actually do, help the ignorant masses in their devotions. They are quite unable, it is contended, to form for themselves an abstract ideal, and the concrete image therefore is a step towards progress, as a focus for aspiration and concentration of devotion. It is contended that these idols of wood and stone, of metal or mud, as the case may be, are in no case worshipped, but are really only objects into which the worshipper first thinks the god, and then worships, not the image, but the particular divinity, great or small, good or otherwise, which the image is supposed to represent."—"Idolatry and its Apologists," by the Rev. T. H. Whitamore (W. M. S.), in Work and Workers in the Mission Field, May, 1895, p. 189.
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The opinion of learned natives of India as to the practical meaning of idolatry gives a far truer view of it. Rammohun Roy, early in the present century, writing upon this subject,
Is there a tenable apology for idolatry. notices this specious explanation of idolatry only to condemn it "I have observed," he remarks, "that both in their writings and conversation many Europeans feel a wish to palliate and soften the features of Hindu idolatry, and are inclined to inculcate that all objects of worship are considered by their votaries as emblematical representations of the Supreme Divinity! If this were indeed the case, I might perhaps be led into some examination of the subject; but the truth is, the Hindus of the present day have no such views of the subject, but firmly believe in the real existence of innumerable gods and goddesses, who possess in their own departments full and independent power; and to propitiate them, and not the true God, are temples erected and ceremonies performed." He further remarks: "Neither do they regard the images of these gods merely in the light of instruments for elevating the mind to the conception of those supposed beings; they are simply in themselves made objects of worship. For whatever Hindu purchases an idol in the market, or constructs one with his own hands, or has one made under his own superintendence, it is his invariable practice to perform certain ceremonies, called pran pratishtha, or the endowment of animation, by which he believes that its nature is changed from that of the mere materials of which it is formed, and that it acquires not only life, but supernatural powers. Shortly afterwards, if the idol be of the masculine gender, he marries it to a feminine one, with no less pomp and magnificence than he celebrates the nuptials of his own children. The mysterious process is now complete, and the god and goddess are esteemed the arbiters of his destiny, and continually receive his most ardent adoration."
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It seems clear to a candid student of religious history that if in certain instances the original concept of the idol was symbolical of a supreme deity, it was just as often simply the personification of some force of nature or some lower order of created being. There may be obscurity in the matter of historic sequences or precise details involved in the genesis of idolatry, but its spirit and purpose, and therefore its spiritual in distinction from its historical origin, are clearly intimated by the apostle Paul in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. He there pronounces it to be a device of the wayward imagination of man to substitute a visible, tangible, material object of worship in the place of the spiritual God. It resulted from an unhallowed and presumptuous desire to lower the Deity to an earthly environment, and bring Him into touch with the carnal life and customs of an apostate society. It was a bold expedient to banish the Creator from their thoughts by the invention of some substitute from the realm of the creature.1 1 Archdeacon Farrar has given a trenchant exposition of the genesis and effects of idolatry, based upon this passage from St. Paul. Speaking of heathen idolaters, as Paul regarded them, he says: "The facts which render them inexcusable are: (I) That God did in reality manifest Himself to them, and the invisibilities of His eternal power and Godhead were clearly visible in His works; and (2) that though they knew God, yet by denying Him the due glory and gratitude they suffered themselves to plunge into the penal darkness of ignorant speculation, and the penal folly of self-asserted wisdom, and the self-conceited boast of a degraded culture, until they sank to such depths of spiritual imbecility as to end even in the idolatry of reptiles ; and (3) because mental infatuation, both as to its natural result and as to its fearful punishment, issued in moral crime. Their sin was inexcusable, because it was the outcome, and the retribution, and the natural child, of sin. Because they guiltily abandoned God, God abandoned them to their own guiltiness. The conscious lie of idolatry became the conscious infamy of uncleanness. These 'passions of dishonour,' to which God abandoned them, ruled the heart of manhood with their retributive corruption, and affected even women with their execrable stain. Pagan society, in its hideous disintegration, became one foul disease of unnatural depravity. The cancer of it ate into the heart; the miasma of it tainted the air. Even the moralists of Paganism were infected with its vileness. God scourged their moral ignorance by suffering it to become a deeper ignorance. He punished their contempt by letting them make themselves utterly contemptible. The mere consequence of this abandonment of them was a natural Nemesis, a justice in kind, beginning even in this life, whereby their unwillingness to discernHim became an incapacity to discern the most elementary distinctions between nobleness and shame. Therefore their hearts became surcharged with every element of vileness; with impurity in its most abysmal degradations ; with hatred alike in its meanest and most virulent developments; with insolence culminating in the deliberate search for fresh forms of evil; with cruelty and falsity in their most repulsive features. And the last and worst crime of all-beyond which crime itself could go no further—was the awful defiant attitude of moral evil, which led them—while they were fully aware of God's sentence of death, pronounced as willing guilt—not only to incur it themselves, but, with a devilish delight in human depravity and human ruin, to take a positive pleasure in those who practise the same. Sin, as has been truly said, reaches its climax in wicked maxims and wicked principles. It is no longer Vice the result of moral weakness, or the outcome of an evil education, but Vice deliberately accepted with all its consequences, Vice assuming the airs of self-justification, Vice in act becoming Vice in elaborate theory—the unblushing shamelessness of Sodom in horrible aggravation of its polluting sin."—"The Life and Works of St. Paul," vol. ii., p. 195 sq.
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The spirit of idolatry is the same to-day as it was of old.
The spirit of contempoary idolatry.It is a compound of ignorance, fear, carnality, and the unhallowed desire to identify human conceptions with the object of religious worship. It involves a curious mixture of fearful imagining, brooding terror, puerile coaxing, anxious propitiation, inordinate feasting, and riotous indulgence. It is absolutely certain that idolatry and immorality go hand in hand.1 The moral nature withers and collapses as it bows in adoration before a material image. The ancient Vedic religion, before it became wholly polytheistic, was far purer in its morality than modern Hinduism with its wanton idolatry. The descent into idolatry has always brought the corresponding collapse of morality. It cannot be otherwise, since the materializing of worship means the materializing of moral standards.2 Man cannot rise above the things that he adores: "They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them." 1 Cf. an article entitled "On Idolatry," by the late Rev, Samuel Mateer, of Travancore, India, in The Missionary Review of the World, May, 1895, pp. 331—339. 2 Keshub Chunder Sen thus addressed his countrymen upon this subject: "There can be no doubt that the root of all the evils which afflict Hindu society, that which constitutes the chief cause of its degradation, is idolatry. Idolatry is the curse of Hindustan, the deadly canker that has eaten into the vitals of native society. It would be an insult to your superior education to say that you have faith in idolatry, that you still cherish in your hearts reverence for the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon, or that you believe in the thousand and one absurdities of your ancestral creed. But however repugnant to your understanding and repulsive to your good sense the idolatry of your forefathers may be, there is not a thorough appreciation of its deadly character on moral grounds. It will not do to retain in the mind a speculative and passive disbelief in its dogmas: you must practically break with it as a dangerous sin and an abomination; you must give it up altogether as an unclean thing. You must discountenance it, discourage it, oppose it, and hunt it out of your country. For the sake of your souls and for the sake of the souls of the millions of your countrymen, come away from hateful idolatry, and acknowledge the one supreme and true God, our Maker, Preserver, and Moral Governor, not in belief only, but in the every-day concerns and avocations of your life."
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The idolatry of the heathen world to-day is not one whit less loathsome or degrading or sinful than that of any age of classical history. It stands on precisely
The abiding moral blight of idol-worship.the same level of ignorance, superstition, and spiritual shame, and where its carnality is manifested, its sensual abandon and mystical vileness can match anything in the records of pagan license.1 While there are degrees of grossness, superstition, and degradation in idol-worship, ranging from the philosophical refinements of a limited circle of enlightened Japanese 2 to the dense ignorance of the savage tribes, yet the moral blight of idol-worship is found wherever idolatrous customs prevail. The idol gods of Japan,3 Korea, China,4 India, Africa, and many of the South Sea Islands are not less hideous and repulsive than the idols of the ancients. We need not dwell longer upon this theme. It is sufficient for our 1 Dr. Storrs, in "The Divine Origin of Christianity," p. 38, has given a vivid picture of the immoralities of pagan worship. 2 The persistency of these idolatrous customs is illustrated even in a country so ready to break with the past as Japan. The backward look is evident in the recent action of the Japanese Diet in voting funds for the erection of two temples in Formosa, and in providing a place of worship in Japan where the spirit of a lately deceased prince was to receive religious honors. It is in contemplation at present to celebrate the recent victories over China by the erection of a gigantic statue of Buddha, 120 feet in height, and costing $1,000,000, to be cast out of metal taken from the ordnance captured from the enemy. A department of religious oversight and direction has also just been established, by vote of Parliament, with an official at its head who will have the management of matters pertaining to Shintoism, the old national religion of the country. The appointment of a priestly functionary in the civil government, or one whose office practically involves religious authority, is full of ominous possibilities. It threatens at once the very existence of religious liberty.—Condensed from a Japanese journal. 3 Bishop Hendrix, in articles on "The Three Japans," published in The Independent, May 21 and 28, 1896, speaks of the Official, the Old, and the Christian Japan. Of the second he writes: "There is another, or Old Japan, which is no less devoted to its idolatrous or ancestral shrines than if Commodore Perry had never appeared in the harbor of Yeddo, or if the Mikado had never removed his capital from Kyoto. This Japan probably numbers nearly forty millions. It is divided between Shintoism and Buddhism. It has a hundred thousand more Buddhist temples than there are individual 4 "If I might point out the gravest of the social evils of China—a subject upon which I have studied—it is idolatry."—Rev. H. C. Du Bose (P. B. F. M. S.), Soochow, China. " There are more than thousand temples in Peking, and I have heard Chinese say that there are more than thirty thousand domestic shrines."—Professor I. T. Headland (M. E. M. S), Peking, China Christians in Japan. It is industrious, patriotic, contented, especially when the rice crop is abundant and the taxes not too heavy, or when the nets are laden with fish and the typhoons deal gently with the junks. They know only of the religion of their fathers. They bow before their ancestral shrines, make their offerings of rice, burn incense, make their 'dead boats' at the appointed season for the spirits to return in, and seek to propitiate the fox, whose cunning they so much dread. Morally it is not much removed from the days of the Shoguns, despite the public schools and numerous newspapers, and the elaborate postal system which reaches every part of the empire. Nor is this Old Japan simply rural Japan. The worshippers in many of the temples of Tokyo go on electric cars, and pilgrims to sacred Nikko or Ise go by railroad. Costly shrines are to be found in the homes or business houses of the wealthy merchants or manufacturers in the treaty ports. Children from the public schools are none the less attendants at the temples. Official Japan, with all its wonderful progress, has not overthrown a single altar or destroyed a single heathen temple." In The Japan Evangelist for December, 1895, occurs the following paragraph : "Idolatry is by no means a thing of the past in this country. At a place called Narita there is a celebrated idol of the god Fudo. Thousands of people pray to this image annually. It is said that not for eighty years has the number of worshippers been so great as during the past twelve months."
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purpose in this connection to contemplate the dismal fact that millions, even hundreds of millions, of our fellow-beings are down on their knees every day before innumerable idols. What can we hope to accomplish in the social elevation of the world until a purer and nobler spiritual worship is put into the human heart? Until the adoration of the one living and true God shall take possession of the immortal mind of man, and banish the thronging demons and the grinning idols, there is little prospect of the regeneration of heathen society. 3. SUPERSTITION.—Superstition is faith in the false or unreal. It is produced, in
The prevalence and power of superstition.whatever sphere of thought it may exist, by making erroneous and absurd fancies the bases of faith. A superstitious mind is one which is deceived and imposed upon by convictions or fears or fancies which are visionary like the unrealities they represent. A superstitious society is one which is haunted by mental phantoms and by imaginary visitations which the whole community believes to be real. While the visionary character of these convictions may be granted, yet the superstitions themselves can be very real and portentous to those over whom they have dominion. They fill the imagination and take possession of the mind as if they were truth itself. This is what makes them so dangerous and so little amenable to the reason. The part played by superstitions in the control of the human mind,
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and the decisive sway which they exercise over human conduct, are hardly realized by those who dwell in the light of civilization. Magicians, soothsayers, necromancers, sorcerers, diviners, and astrologers have ever been prowling amid the ruins of man's early faith, and seeking to impose upon him with their audacious claims. The ignorant and superstitious, or those who have become unbalanced in their allegiance to the one divine Guide, become their easy victims. Christianity has had a long struggle with this unclean and uncanny brood, not without serious reverses, and even now only among an enlightened majority of modern Christendom has a final emancipation been accomplished. In the heathen world superstitions, especially of a religious character, abound to an almost incredible extent. They hold an easy ascendancy, and maintain their sway over the mind with singular pertinacity. The struggle which it costs to part with darling delusions is pitiful. The fear and misery which attend the casting out of gross and cruel phantasmagoria from the minds of those who have been under their dominion are touching evidences of the reality of the tyranny which false belief establishes over its victims. In China superstition is the native air of the people. Fung-shui (literally, "wind and water") is a system of geomancy
Geomancy and demonology among the Chinese.which is supposed by the Chinese to contain an esoteric secret of successful living. The earth itself, and the circumambient air, are considered to be the abode of the spirits, and are therefore regarded as sacred and inviolable. Railways, telegraphs, mining, scientific road-making, and all other Western abominations which threaten to disturb the mysterious haunts of the spirits or to disarrange the immemorial fixedness which characterizes the hallowed undulations of the earth's surface, are looked upon by the Chinese as intolerable outrages, involving a terrifying element of reckless presumption.1 The priesthood throughout China, especially the Taoists, who are experts in magic, trade upon the multitudinous superstitions of the people.2 Demoniacal possession is a sober fact to all Chinese. Every one believes in it as thoroughly as he believes in his existence. He can no more free himself from it than he can banish the sunshine. He lives in a grim environment 1 Douglas, "Society in China," pp. 340, 341; Ball, "Things Chinese," sub "Geomancy," p. 204; Martin, "A Cycle of Cathay," p. 41. 2 Douglas, "Society in China," p. 407. Cf. also Fielde, "A Corner of Cathay," pp. 139-151. In this chapter on "Sundry Superstitions" Miss Fielde places in curious array some marvels of the Chinese imagination, grave, gay, and gruesome. See also Henry, "The Cross and the Dragon," p. in, and Holcombe, "The Real Chinaman," p. 144.
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of viewless spirits, whose machinations may at any moment blight his existence. " Possession " is the trade-mark of a regular profession, the members of which rely upon their supposed capacity for solving difficulties and suggesting methods of escape from all the ills of life. There seems to be an extraordinary susceptibility in the Chinese, which brings them easily under the power of occult suggestions. Almost every book on China has its chapter dealing with these phenomena. Perhaps the most notable of them all, considering its source, is " Demon Possession and Allied Themes," by the late Dr. J. L. Nevius, a distinguished missionary of the Presbyterian Church in China.1 The custom of ancestor-worship is allied to the whole subject of demonology, and gives it, no doubt, much of its mighty supremacy over the Chinese mind. In Japan, perhaps, superstitions are not so abundant as in
Japanese occultism.China, but there is still an occult realm in which the great mass of the people thoroughly believe, and where their imaginations are forever excursionizing.2 The sly and frolic-some fox seems to play havoc with the Japanese fancy; at least, he appears to be the most prominent figure in much of the " possession " which the people experience.3 While Japan is becoming enlightened, but only as yet within a very 1 Consult also Du Bose, "The Dragon, Image, and Demon," chap, xxx., on " Demonolatry." Dr. Henry, in " The Cross and the Dragon," p. 170, writes of Chinese superstitions as follows : " Their belief in spirits is notorious. Elves, fairies, brownies, imps, etc., abound. Haunted houses are frequent. They believe in spirit-rapping, plan-chette, alchemy, mesmerism, and divination of various kinds—by bamboo slips, by images, by somnambulism, chiromancy, and palmistry. Branches are hung over the doors to ward off evil influences, and cash swords are suspended inside their bed-curtains as protection against nocturnal spirits. Their roads are always crooked, and abound in sharp turns and corners, so made to obstruct the approach of spirits, which delight in broad, straight ways. The houses on a street are never built in an even line, but present somewhat of a zigzag appearance, as some project, while others are set in. This is done intentionally to check the spirits. Corner houses are avoided because their position affords such facilities for the evil spirits to sweep around them. The gable end of a house with its sharp roof turned to the street indicates that only a barber shop will prosper opposite. The entrance to a house is never direct. A screen just within necessitates a turn to the right or to the left, and the arrangement of the open court, with its flowers and other ornaments, shows a circuitous path to the inner apartments. Many accounts of supernatural appearances are met with, such as the story of the fairy who visited the Emperor Leang, and in reply to his question whence she came, said, ' I live on the terrace of the Sun, in the enchanted mountains. In the morning I am a cloud, in the evening a shower of rain.'" 2 Cf. Lowell, " Occult Japan; or, The Way of the Gods." 3 Chamberlain, "Things Japanese," p. 106.
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limited circle, the vast mass of her people are still under the sway of thronging superstitions, many of them light and trifling, but others serious and portentous.1 Korea is the haunted house among the nations. It is a land of phantom
Korea the haunt of spectres.hosts and demoniacal cohorts. It is afflicted with what Dr. Griffis calls the " delirium tremens of paganism." 2 Its cities, villages, and homes, its palaces, public buildings, and temples, its streets, lanes, and by-ways, its highways, mountains, and caves, with a thousand objects of nature on every side, are all on the defensive with guards and devices to ward off the gruesome visitors, or are themselves objects of suspicion to be either avoided or placated.3 Sickness, distress, and disaster are all supposed to be due to demoniacal agency, and this fact provides lucrative employment to the exorcists.4 Good spirits, especially the supposed guardians of houses, are worshipped 1 " Out of the soil of diseased imagination has sprung up a growth as terrible as the drunkard's phantasies. The earthquake, flood, tidal wave, famine, withering or devastating wind, and poisonous gases, the geological monsters and ravening bird, beast, and fish, have their representatives or supposed incarnations in mythical phantasms. Frightful as these shadows of the mind appear, they are both very real and, in a sense, very necessary to the ignorant man. He must have some theory by which to explain the phenomena of nature and soothe his own terrors. Hence he peoples the earth and water, not only with invisible spirits more or less malevolent, but also with bodily presences usually in terrific bestial form. To those who believe in one Spirit pervading, ordering, governing all things, there is unity amid all phenomena, and the universe is all order and beauty. To the mind which has not reached this height of simplicity, instead of one cause there are many. The diverse phenomena of nature are brought about by spirits innumerable, warring and discordant. Instead of a unity to the mind, as of sun and solar system, there is nothing but planets, asteroids, and a constant rain of shooting stars."—Griffis, " The Religions of Japan," pp. 14, 15. 2 " Corea, the Hermit Nation," p. 306. 3 Curzon, " Problems of the Far East," p. 109. 4 " The belief in demoniacal possession is very common. This belief is fostered by numbers whose interests are furthered by it. The exorcists and conjurers find in the commonest ailments excuses for using their powers in dispossessing the sick body of the sprites which have made it their home. It was no infrequent occurrence, in rambles over the country or when out hunting, to hear the noise of drums and to see a crowd around some house, waiting with eager curiosity to learn the result. Inquiry would elicit the fact that some devils had entered that house, and the sickness of one of the inmates had resulted. Meanwhile, day and night, it may be for a week, the ceaseless beat of drums is maintained, until nature is either wearied out and death results, or she recovers herself and the patient is restored to health. " Spirits good and bad, sprites evil and benign, fairies kindly and malign, abound on hill and in dale, in nook and crevice of the rock, in hollow trees and cunningly hidden caves. Any event of life may be governed by their interference. Luck plays a large part in the economy of native life. Innumerable are the specifics for various ills, the former growing out of the care, and the latter out of the malevolence, of fairies or demons. Children are scared into good behavior and adults are kept at home by reports of spirits that are abroad at night. Omens are seen in the visits of the birds; the dreams which disturb the night are portents; and almost every chance event has for Koreans a bearing on the future."—Gilmore, " Korea from its Capital," pp. 194, 195.
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most devoutly. The sanitary fastidiousness of these guardian spirits is a curious feature of their relation to the people. If they could only be persuaded to exert their influence in the direction of scientific sanitary measures, much good might result.1 India is a land of myths, a perfect "jungle of disorderly superstitions, ghosts and demons, demigods and deified saints, household gods, local gods, tribal gods, universal gods, with their countless shrines and temples."
India and he reign of the mantra.Sir Alfred Lyall speaks of the " extraordinary fecundity of the superstitious sentiment." The whole country is alive with imaginary terrors—it is a realm swarming with ghostly fears. Devotees in every direction are working with might and main to free themselves from some dire fate or win some hoped-for merit. The wily Brahman, with his monopoly of enchantments, can count upon the absolute mental servility of the spellbound Hindus. The mantra is his ready and facile tool. This is a sacred text, usually of Vedic origin, transformed into a spell or charm, which, if pronounced in accordance with some mystical formula and with absolute accuracy of enunciation, be- 1 " There are also self-existent spirits of kindlier disposition and the spirits of the good and prosperous, who may be induced by proper intercessions, accompanied by offerings, to deliver the afflicted from the power of the evil spirits. The good of each individual in this life is dependent on his ability to keep the favor of the latter class, and to do so is the constant and deep anxiety which makes other considerations secondary. Comforts and bare necessities of life are sacrificed for this. "At every house the god of the site is worshipped. At every house, when invited with becoming ceremony, the house-god dwells. This spirit is supposed to bring health and happiness to the inmates of the house, though he is not able always to ward off disease, and in case of contagious fevers he will leave the house till it has been purified and he has been asked to return. The ceremonies attending the introduction or recall of this spirit are rather interesting. The house having been purified and a feast prepared, the mootang (sorceress), who has been called for the occasion, starts out to hunt the house-god. She ties a good-sized sheet of paper around an oak rod, which she holds upright in her hand. She may find the spirit just outside the house, or she may have to go some distance before he indicates his presence by shaking the rod with so much force that many men with their united strength could not hold it still. He accompanies the mootang to the house. Upon their arrival great demonstrations of joy are made that he has come to bless the family with his presence. The paper which was tied around the stick is folded, soaked in wine, a few pieces of cash slipped into it, and then tossed up against a beam in the house, to which it adheres. Rice is thrown up, some of which sticks to the paper. That particular spot is to be the abiding-place of the spirit. The expense connected with this ceremony is considerable, and in some cases poverty compels a family to dispense with it. '' The word mama, which we hear applied to smallpox, is not the name of the disease, but of the spirit whose presence with the victim is indicated by the disease. He has been known in Korea only during the last one thousand years, I have been told, and his native place is Southern China. When the disease makes its appearance the mootang is called to honor the spirit with appropriate ceremonies and a feast. During his stay no work, or as little as possible, is done, even by the neighbors, especially if they have children who have not had the disease, lest, displeased with the lack of respect shown him, he deal severely with them. The parents do obeisance to the afflicted child, addressing it at all times in terms of highest respect. When the twelfth day has passed, if the child live through it, all danger being then supposed to be over, the mootang is again called and a farewell banquet given. A miniature wooden horse is prepared and loaded with miniature sacks of food and money for the spirit's journey, and he is bidden adieu with many wishes for a safe return to his native place."—Quoted from an article on " Spirit-Worship in Korea," by Mrs. D. L. Gifford (P. B. F. M. N.), Seoul, Korea, in Woman's Work in the Far East, May, 1894, pp. 107-109.
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comes an all-powerful talisman. This magical device is used for securing good or evil, as the case may be, and is used by the mantrasastris—Brahmans who make a profession of trading in mantras. They are regarded with supernatural reverence and fear by the Hindus.1 Austerities, curses, omens, the evil eye, and the marvelous horoscope of the astrologer are all of intense significance to the Hindu. That this grim procession of phantasies, and the attendant mystical expedients which they imply, should be inevitable in the mental outlook of the philosophic and acute Hindu seems manifest. Without the true light of revelation and science, he must seek such relief as his own fertile imagination can invent. His deeply mystical, and at the same time deeply sensuous, nature has reared an imposing pantheon of phantasmagoria, where he dwells with restless soul and tortured sensibilities. 1 The following description of the mantra-monger is from the pen of Sir M. Monier-Williams: " No magician, wizard, sorcerer, or witch, whose feats are recorded in history, biography, or fable, has ever pretended to be able to accomplish by incantation and enchantment half of what the mantra-sastri claims to have power to effect by help of his mantras. For example, he can prognosticate futurity, work the most startling prodigies, infuse breath into dead bodies, kill or humiliate enemies, afflict any one anywhere with disease or madness, inspire any one with love, charm weapons and give them unerring efficacy, enchant armour and make it impenetrable, turn milk into wine, plants into meat, or invert all such processes at will. He is even superior to the gods, and can make gods, goddesses, imps, and demons carry out his most trifling behests. Hence it is not surprising that the following remarkable saying is everywhere current throughout India: ' The whole universe is subject to the gods; the gods are subject to the mantras; the mantras to the Brahmans; therefore the Brahmans are our gods.'"—" Brahmanism and Hinduism," pp. 201, 202.
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The same story of talismans, omens, and every-day
The "Arabian Nights" up to date.marvels of jinn, afreet, and magical paraphernalia, runs through the religious and social life of Moslems in India, Persia, and Turkey, while numerous superstitions are prevalent among the unreformed Christian sects of the Levant.1 In fact, the Oriental Christians, except as the enlightenment of modern education has entered among them, are hardly less the victims of credulity than their Moslem neighbors. In Africa there is a rank growth of overshadowing superstitions as real as daylight and darkness to the diseased imagination of the native. Totemism, fetichism, animism, in their pristine vigor or in degenerate forms, are in absolute possession of all the religious and social life of the people. Sorcery, witchcraft, and every phase of demoniacal environment are the intellectual atmosphere of the native African.2 Australasia outside of the modern colonial expansion, but including the
Demon-ridden islands.Pacific Islands, has been noted for immemorial superstitions, many of which were abominable in their character, and all of which held terrific sway over the imagination. In writing of the Pacific Islands, Alexander says: "Distressing superstitions darkened all the lives of the natives and held them in iron bondage. In the long night of their isolation from enlightening influences they had come to worship innumerable gods and demigods and demons, with which they supposed the sky and earth and sea to swarm. With this worship were combined painful restrictions, called tabu, divination, sorcery, the use of charms to cure sickness, and black arts to employ evil spirits in destroying their enemies." 3 Great enlightenment has come to many of these islands, where the long, dark reign of superstition has, to a great extent, passed away. In places where it still holds the old sway over the mind, fears and suspicions predominate in the daily experience of 1 "Superstition in Syria," by Dr. George A. Ford, in Woman's Work for Woman, December, 1895, p. 323; Wilson, " Persian Life and Customs," pp. 84, 132, 143, 157, 220-225. 2 Jevons, "Introduction to the History of Religion"; Macdonald, "Religion and Myth "; Tyler, " Forty Years among the Zulus," chap. xii.; Sibree, " Mada gascar before the Conquest," especially chap. xiii. 3 " The Islands of the Pacific." p. 28. Cf. Ratzel, " History of Mankind," vol. i., pp. 300-330.
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natives. There are still, unhappily, vast populations that are demonridden, and live under the blight of dominant superstitions, childish as well as terrifying.1 Almost everywhere upon the face of the earth a gross
Superstition in a social calamity.darkness of ignorance seems to rest upon the hearts of men. A heavy burden of erroneous belief, both distressing and degrading, has become fixed upon their consciences, and there it remains, except as the light of Christian education and Gospel instruction breaks in upon their night and introduces them into the freedom of the truth. The blighting power of these superstitions on social life is beyond question. It is mental and spiritual slavery to the unreal and the untrue which is blinding, misleading, and sure to result in injustice, cruelty, and the abuse of power. It prohibits the entrance of true light so far as it has power to do so, and maintains entirely false standards of social obligation. It scatters and dissipates the religious sentiment among a mass of puerile and erroneous vagaries, barring out the truth and fixing the dominance of the false. The banishment of superstition will go far toward securing a brighter and more cheerful social life and a higher and more beneficial social order. 4. RELIGIOUS TYRANNY AND PERSECUTION.—The sacred gift of religious freedom is an
The genesis of persecution.endowment from the Creator, and, except where it is claimed as a cover for immorality and crime, is a universal prerogative of man.2 Humanity cannot be deprived of this precious liberty with-out the infliction of a great and cruel wrong; yet this heinous usurpation has been characteristic of both the political and religious life of mankind in all ages. " Christianos ad leones " represents a spirit of persecution which has prevailed more or less through- 1 Michelsen, "Cannibals Won for Christ," chap, xv., on "Native Superstitions"; Chalmers, "Pioneering in New Guinea," chap, viii., on "The Habits, Customs, and Beliefs of Motu and Motumotu." 2 " Liberty is the greatest gift of God to man. It is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable right of every man created in the image of God. The most precious of all liberties is religious liberty. It is rooted in the sacredness of conscience, which is the voice of God in man, and above the reach and control of human authority. It is a law above all human laws that 'we ought to obey God rather than man.' Liberty of conscience requires liberty of worship. Despots allow the one because they cannot help it, but deny the other. Religion in its nature is voluntary, and ceases to be religion in proportion as it is forced. God desires free worshippers and hates hypocrites."—Schaff, "Theological Propaedeutic," p. 470.
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out history. The fact that religion in its primitive form was to such an extent a social function, pertaining to family, tribal, and even national life, has led to the assumption on the part of the State, in its various stages of development, of a large measure of control over the religious life of its subjects. In the Roman Empire the supervision of the religion of the people was made a matter of State policy on political grounds. Bishop Creighton calls attention to the following language of Plato upon this subject, which, he remarks, did not materiall differ from that of the Inquisitor: " Let this, then, be the law: No one shall possess shrines of the gods in private houses, and he who is found to possess them, and perform any sacred rites not publicly authorised, shall be informed against to the guardians of the law; and let them issue orders that he shall carry his private rites to the public temples, and if he do not obey, let them inflict a penalty until he comply. And if a person be proven guilty of impiety, not merely from childish levity, but such as grownup men may be guilty of, let him be punished with death." 1 These sentiments were representative in Roman history. The theocracy of the Old Testament dispensation has been
Christianity rightly interpreted not persecuting in its spirit.misinterpreted by some as sanctioning, and even enforcing, the exercise of civil authority in the sphere of religion. Even the Testament dispensation has been marked by most frightful and iniquitous misuse, not only of civil, but ecclesiastical, power to subdue the consciences of men and annihilate all religious freedom. That this has been the result of a distorted conception of Christianity and a gross abuse of authority has been shown by Bishop Creighton, in opposition to the view advocated by Mr. Lecky, that Christianity sanctions and is in large measure responsible for this spirit.2 A new era of religious liberty has come, 1 Quoted in " Persecution and Tolerance," p. 7. Dr. Merivale, in his " Boyle Lectures," expresses a similar opinion: "Undoubtedly various feelings entered into the demand for the persecution of the Christians. The magistrate regarded them as transgressors of a principle in public law, as evil-doers, as fosterers of treason and sedition, and was disposed to punish them accordingly. But the people generally, and sometimes the rulers themselves, yielded to a superstitious impulse in ascribing to their rejection of sacrifice and of idol-worship every public calamity, which testified, as they supposed, to the wrath of the offended deities. The execution of the Christians was thus popularly regarded as a means of propitiation." — New York cd., 1865, p. 25:, note. 2 Dr. Creighton sums up his conclusions on this subject as follows: " (l) Persecution, or the infliction of punishment for erroneous opinions, was contrary to the express teaching of Christ, and was alien to the spirit of Christianity; (2) was adopted by the Church from the system of the world when the Church accepted the responsibility of maintaining order in the community; (3) was really exercised for political rather than religious ends; (4) was always condemned by the Christian conscience; (5) was felt by those who used it to land them in contradictions ; (6) neither originated in any misunderstanding of the Scriptures, nor was removed by the progress of intellectual enlightenment; but (7) disappeared because the State became conscious that there was an adequate basis for the maintenance of political society in those principles of right and wrong which were universally recognised by its citizens, apart from their position or beliefs as members of any religious organisation. " Such opinions differ materially from those which are generally current on this subject. The origin of persecution is commonly found in the overwhelming claim which Christianity makes on its adherents. Christianity, it is said, regards man's life on earth as but the beginning of an eternal destiny, and asserts that eternity can only bring happiness to those who are within the fold of the Church. Consequently the maintenance of right opinion about religious matters is a point of primary importance for human happiness, rightly understood, and ought in the interests of mankind to be enforced even at the cost of immediate suffering to obdurate and misguided individuals. This is doubtless a logical position and is warranted by the language of the advocates of persecution. But a line of distinction must be drawn between the motives which prompted to persecution and the arguments by which it was defended when once it was undertaken. It is obvious that this reasoning was the only one by which persecution could be defended, and it is equally obvious that persecution needed a defence."— "Persecution and Tolerance," pp. 2-4. Cf. Schaff, " Christ and Christianity," p. 283, for similar views.
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all too slowly, as the centuries have passed, and not without painful and desperate struggles. The close of our present century finds only a portion of mankind enjoying the rights, privileges, and consolations of liberty of conscience. " This principle of religious freedom and separation of Church and State," writes Dr. Schaff, " is slowly, but irresistibly, making progress in Europe, and is becoming more and more an essential part of modern civilization. It develops the power of self-government, which is inherent in the Christian Church. It favors, indeed, the multiplication of sects, but honest division is preferable to an enforced uniformity which breeds hypocrisy and infidelity. The principle of liberty secures also the possibility of a reunion of Christendom on the solid basis of freedom and voluntary consent."1 In the old Oriental empires, except as Western
Religious absolutism the prevailing temper of the Orient.ideas have been introduced and gained some ascendancy, the theory of State control over the religious life of men still holds its place. It is even supplemented and extended in practice by the supposed right of the family, the clan, the tribe, the sect, the village, or even the neighborhood, to maintain an authoritative oversight of the religious life of every member, and inflict exemplary penalties upon any one who de- 1 Ibid., p. 276-291.
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serts the common faith. The attitude of Islam towards apostasy is well known. The penalty, even at the present hour, is death wherever Mohammedan authorities have their own way, free from external restrictions. Other religions may be less bold and relentless, but the spirit which prevails is not dissimilar, and logically carried out would lead to the same result. It is only within the present generation that the death-penalty has been lifted in Japan. The violent aggressiveness of the persecuting spirit throughout the heathen world is hardly understood in Christendom. That it exists with little theoretical abatement, and is still marked by extreme cruelty in practice, is an undeniable fact, although the spirit of Christian civilization exercises a certain constraint, and the presence of the representatives of foreign governments is some check to its otherwise unrestrained fierceness. In Turkey, Persia, North Africa, except Egypt and Algiers, and generally throughout the Moslem world, except where the civil authority is in the hands of Christian rulers, the old Islamic fanaticism is in the ascendancy. No Moslem, unless under very exceptional circumstances, dares to profess Christianity; he knows that his doom would be sealed. The story of Mirza Ibrahim, a recent martyr in Persia, is typical of the hopelessness of escape where a Mohammedan ventures to change his faith.1 The terrible persecution of the Armenians, although perpetrated under the cover of political provocation, has only illustrated the genuine historic temper of Islamic fanaticism. The " noble army of martyrs " has received many accessions within the past year or two at the hands of Mohammedan fiends, who, while honoring their religion, as they suppose, have disgraced their humanity. Unhappily, the spirit of persecution is by no means confined to the Moslem, in contrast with the Christian, element in the Orient. The annals of Protestantism, in its heroic struggles with the old hierarchies of Eastern Christianity, reveal the possibilities of iniquitous persecution which lurk in the misguided minds of the ecclesiastical authorities, and even the laity, of the Oriental Christian sects. In India a strong tendency to persecution is found among Hindus,
A sceptre of caste in India.but it is revealed more in connection with the breaking of caste regulations than in diversity of view in matters of dogmatic belief. There is a disposition to tolerate liberty of thought among Hindus in the realm of purely religious or philosophical conviction, while any infraction of caste regulations is visited with the severest ostracism. The English Government guarantees and is disposed to enforce reli- 1 Wilson, " Persian Life and Customs," p. 300.
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gious freedom, but it is difficult to reach other than notorious and overt cases of persecution. Many complications, also, are apt to arise, which increase the embarrassment of the civil power in taking cognizance of religious matters among the people. In China the spirit of persecution is not awakened by
The peril of Chinese Christians.distinctively religious motives so much as through the influence of political and anti-foreign sentiment.1 It is true, however, that converts to Christianity are often exposed to great perils and severe trials, because the anti-foreign hostility is frequently turned in their direction, since they are supposed to be the dupes and tools of foreigners. The persecution is no less real than if it were prompted by exclusively religious zeal, and it is the fact of their being Christians which calls down upon them these hostile and cruel attacks. " There is scarcely a man, woman, or child," writes Dr. Henry, "among the forty-four hundred Christians in Canton, who has not been exposed to reproach, calumny, injustice, or physical violence because of his religion." 2 The antiforeign propaganda in China breaks out with renewed virulence from time to time, and in such seasons of mob violence the missionaries themselves are exposed to dire peril,3 as has been so shockingly illustrated by the recent massacres. Native Chinese Christians at such times are called upon to face the most desperate possibilities, but have given remarkable evidence of their stability and fortitude. There is the best possible reason for the insertion of the guarantee of religious liberty in the treaties between China and all foreign powers, and although China has conceded such liberty, it is not as yet guarded and enforced as it should be. The history of missions in Formosa contains many thrilling chapters of bloodthirsty persecution.4 The entrance of papal Christianity into Japan in the sixteenth century was attended by the most frightful assaults and tortures in the effort to exterminate its professors. In 1637 a terrible onslaught upon 1 " The spirit of the national life tends in the main to tolerance, persecution usually arising from social or political causes. That which is new is opposed because it is novel or subversive of ancient ideas and practices, and leads to singularity, not because it is regarded as false. The persecution which Christianity has met with has been mainly due to fear of foreign domination, and has had its origin with the literati and official class, who think that they see in it a danger to their own power. It could be easily kept in check if the Government desired to do so."—Rev. Jonathan Lees (L. M. S.), Tientsin, North China. 2 " The Cross and the Dragon," p. 357. 3 Work and Workers in the Mission Field, February, 1896, p. 68. 4 MacKay, "From Far Formosa," pp. III, 167, 191, 337.
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the Christians resulted in the death of thirty thousand,
The passing of persecution in Japan.who were buried in the same grave, over which the following inscription was placed: " So long as the sun shall warm the earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan." The acceptance of Christianity was made a capital offense, while in public places throughout Japan, and even at cross-roads and bridges, were placed official interdicts forbidding the profession of Christianity, under severe penalties. These antichristian proclamations were not removed until 1873. Violent persecutions have taken place even within a few years, but they have been local, and not under the patronage of the Government. The new national Constitution of Japan, promulgated in 1889, guarantees religious freedom.1 Barring the inevitable outbursts of the reactionary spirit, which will probably be only local and temporary, there seems to be every reason to anticipate that an era of religious liberty has come to stay in Japan. In Korea the profession of Christianity is pretty sure to arouse a spirit of persecution, but on the part of Government officials and priests rather than the common people. The progress of Christianity in Africa has not been
The martyrdoms of Uganda and Madagascar.attended by universal demonstrations of hostility, but as a rule African converts have had to face severe trials. It was so in South Africa, and to some extent upon the West Coast, while in Uganda the memorable martyrdom of the three lads who were tortured and burned by the fierce and cruel Mujasi, the chief of the king's body-guards, in 1885, has given a heroic setting to its earliest Christian records. Other horrors soon followed, including the martyrdom of Bishop Hannington, and the great persecution of 1886, under Mwanga.2 The story of the repeated persecutions in Madagascar is well known, especially that of 1849. The Rev. James Sibree describes the precipice (or "place of hurling") from which so many Malagasy Christians were cast headlong.3 He names it the Tarpeian of Antananarivo. Upon this com- 1 " Religious tyranny was once severe in this land. Belief in a foreign faith was even punishable with death. This is simply a fact of history. Then came a period of silent toleration. This was finally followed by the Constitution of February 11, 1889, the Magna Charta of Japanese religious and civil liberty. It is proper now to say that Government persecution on account of religion is wholly a thing of the past. It would, however, be misleading to say that the profession of Christianity is no bar to a man's happiness or social and civil progress in any community in Japan. Where Buddhist influence prevails, a man must still suffer a silent persecution because of his belief in Jesus."—Rev. David S. Spencer (M. E. M. S.), Nagoya, Japan. 2 Stock, " The Story of Uganda," p. 125. 3 Sibree, " Madagascar before the Conquest," p. 36.
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manding site was subsequently erected an imposing memorial church in commemoration of the martyrs. In South America, under Romish ecclesiastical auspices,
Outbursts of intolerance in South America and Mexico.there have been bitter outbursts of persecuting zeal against Protestant missions. In Colombia, in Brazil, in Peru and Chile, the papal authorities have striven to subsidize the Government for their purposes, but of late a spirit of political and religious freedom has, theoretically at least, controlled the South American administrations, although from time to time the Romish hierarchy are able to secure an ascendancy which they are not slow to use. The ignorant and fanatical populace are still largely under the influence of the priesthood. The same may be said of Mexico, where the struggle for civil and political liberty has been strenuous for over a generation. Many martyrdoms have occurred among Protestant converts, but there are signs that liberal sentiments are slowly gaining an ascendancy over the people, while the Government seems intent upon enforcing its guarantee of freedom. In many parts of the West Indies severe persecutions have occurred, and in some of the islands, especially Hayti, liberty, religious and political, is little more than a name. 5. SCANDALOUS LIVES OF RELIGIOUS LEADERS,—The author is not insensible to the responsibility
The import of the theme.involved in venturing upon a subject of such delicate and searching import as the one here introduced. The moral character of the religious guides of the non-Christian world is indeed a most distasteful theme, as disheartening and uninviting as it is painful. Its bearing upon the tone of public opinion and upon the direction of social tendencies is, however, so patent and weighty that it cannot be passed over unnoticed without ignoring one of the gravest and most mischievous social evils of heathen communities. The corrosive example of many of the moral leaders of the ethnic faiths is a most deplorable and pernicious plague-spot in the social status of non-Christian peoples. While this is true to an amazing extent, yet, happily, there are exceptions which are all the more notable and welcome because of the dark background of their environment. There always have been, and there are to-day, some spiritual guides who are gentle and devout in spirit, humble, kindly, sympathetic, and inspired with a desire to minister worthily, in the name of religion, to sorrowing and confiding human hearts. All honor to such as are worthy to be ranked in this class: they are noble illustrations of the power of con-
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science and of the possibility of triumph over an evil environment to one who seeks heavenly succor. In some instances they reveal a graciousness and sobriety of personal character which make them like " a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn." We cannot but hope that, in response to their prayers to God for help and guidance, although He may have been but dimly revealed to their consciousness, such influences of the Holy Spirit have been given as would lead them into the sanctuary of communion with the living God, which we believe to be ever open to humble, reverent, penitent, and spiritually aspiring souls. Such men are not the ordinary product of their religious environment, and it is to be feared that they are comparatively few in number. Another aspect of this subject which should be noted, is that the existence of lax moral standards does not pertain to the religious hierarchies of heathenism alone, but to a lamentable extent is characteristic of the ecclesiastical priesthood of all ranks in the unre-formed Christian Churches of the Orient, as well as of Mexico and Central and South America, although in this connection also there are, happily, exceptions to the rule. Iniquity in high places is an old stain upon the religious history of heathenism. The gods themselves in the Greek and Roman pantheons were morally vile. The temples were trysting-places of vice, whose priests and keepers were guilty of the most abandoned sacrilege, while the grossly depraved emperors of Rome were deified and worshipped.1 A dark shadow of scandal rests also upon the moral character of many medieval ecclesiastics. The influence of their example through a subtle law of traditional heredity will, perhaps, explain in part at least the laxity of the priesthood in certain of the corrupt Christian Churches of the present age. In the non-Christian world of to-day the same strange
Morals of priesthood in Japan.and wanton characteristics are to be found in the lives of its religious leaders. In Japan the moral standing of the Buddhist priest-hood may be inferred from the words of a Japanese pries in his " Farewell to the Buddhists," a document issued by him on severing his connection quite recently with the Buddhist sect. He writes: " It is not a rare thing to see men with shaven heads and attired in black garments 1 Quotations from original authorities will be found in Storrs, " The Divine Origin of Christianity," pp. 385, 572. Cf. also Fisher, " The Beginnings of Christianity," chap, vi., on "The State of Morals in Ancient Heathen Society"; De Pressensé, " The Ancient World and Christianity," American edition, book v., chap, ii., pp. 419-466, on "The Pagan World at the Coming of Christ."
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wandering about in prostitute quarters, or to find women living in temples. My desire was to reform this state of things, but I have been driven to the conclusion that there is no hope. The priests, from the lowest to the highest, are listless. The religion has no rallying power left, no inner life. The people have lost faith in it. Its end has come. What will take its place in the future is Christianity. I say this without doubt or hesitation."1 The Buddhist periodicals themselves have been discussing of late the moral condition of their priesthood. The strictures have been severe, and have dwelt almost invariably upon the subject of impurity. A recent issue of The Japan Mail notes the numerous references from month to month in the native religious press upon the subject of the Buddhist priesthood. A prominent Buddhist paper takes note of three special failings: first, idleness and inactivity; second, immorality; and third, disloyalty to the faith. " The decay of morality is attributed to the priesthood, who fail to check vice and to set an example of activity in good works."2 In an article on "Religious Thought in Japan," published in The Japan Evangelist, February, 1896, the author, in the section on Buddhism, writes as follows: "The immorality and corruption prevalent among the Buddhists have become matters of extensive and severe comment on the part of the secular papers. The Jiji Shimpo is especially sharp in its strictures. The charge is made that even the high priests of the Shin sect keep concubines. Considering the fact that the Shin sect is the sect of Reformed Buddhism, and the leading Buddhist organization of the present, the charge is a very grave one for Buddhism indeed." He then refers to the document entitled " Farewell to the Buddhists," and in a somewhat lengthy quotation from it we find the following paragraph: " Of the immorality of priests it makes me blush to speak." 3The Nation's Friend published an arti- 1 Quoted in The Independent, January 14, 1897, p. 14. 2 The Missionary Herald, March, 1893, p. 88. 3 " In a recent number of theFukttin Shimpo, for example, the publication of the fact that the late chief high priest of the Hongwanji had several concubines as well as a lawful wife, and a son by a concubine, leads a writer to lament his country's lot. He knows that such things are common in small villages and among ordinary monks, but here was the great pope of Japan, the so-called living Hotoke, or divine incarnation, given to this life. What can be said? In one sense the Hongwanji is merely a temple, and its pope is but a priest; but the influence of this temple pervades the nation, and its pope does much to shape the national development. Such things are poison to Japan, the traitor of the State, the sword of Satan. They are of profound importance to our welfare now and for the future. In the Shukyo, a writer on ' National Reformation' bewails his nation's corruption. Those in whose care the moral life of the people lies are themselves immoral. Upper as well as lower classes are tainted. Private utility is pursued through the sacrifice of public good Vices of the lowest and meanest kinds are common. The Land of the Rising Sun is in a dense cloud of falsehood. The light of conscience is fading away. A fundamental reformation is needed. Improvement in politics or social customs will not bring about this needed change. Individual regeneration is a necessity, and to this end the regeneration of young men is the ground of hope. The destiny of Japan lies in the character of its youth."—Quoted in The Baptist Missionary Magazine, September, 1894, p. 461.
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cle entitled " The Good and Evil Effects of Buddhism on History," which was translated by Mr. H. Kannari, and appears in The Japan Evangelist for October, 1893. The first paragraph of the article is as follows: " The priests are more zealous in financial matters or in lawsuits than the laymen. They are busy with envy and strife by day and by night. In their houses fornication is common. The idols of the saints are guarded by those who are inferior to prostitutes. There is a chief of a section of Buddhist temples who makes a large sum of money or a fortune by ostensibly engaging in public works. There is one who offers the harlot on the one hand, and on the other the priest who receives her with pleasure. Who can say that such priests and morality can save the nation of Japan? The corruption of Buddhism is, it can be said, at its worst." In May, 1895, the Japanese Minister of Home Affairs issued a
The Japanese Government gives an official warning.document containing instructions and warnings to the Shinto and Buddhist priests of the empire. The paper is a significant one, and contains plain intimations that the ignorance and immorality of the priesthood call loudly for reformation.1 A native writer, the Rev. K. Y. Fujiu, in "A Review of the Year 1895," referring to this action by the Home Minister, remarks: " This act occasioned not a little commotion among them. Moreover, severe attacks by leading newspapers upon some Buddhist sects on account of moral abuses showed the attitude of popular religious feeling and the needs of the 1 The following paragraph is taken from the document referred to: " Priests of either Shinto or Buddhist sects, charged as they are with the grave duty of propagating religious doctrines, ought to combine both learning and virtue, so as to command the respect of the people. Hence the processes pursued for testing their qualifications should be specially scrupulous and exact, everything savouring of partiality being carefully avoided. It is nevertheless commonly reported of the priests now in holy orders that not a few are distinguished neither by learning nor by virtuous conduct, and entirely unfitted for their posts. Not only do these defects disqualify them to discharge their duties, but the evil also tends to bring about the decline of religious tenets and of general morality, even to the extent of causing the decay of sects and encouraging the spread of false ideas throughout the country."— Quoted in The Japan Evangelist, October, 1895, p. 42.
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time. Bat we regret to see not only that these attacks and admonitions went unheeded, but that the moral condition of the priests is getting worse and worse."1 The Rev. J. H. De Forest, D.D., in an article on " The Japan of 1896—Religiously," writes as follows concerning the aftermath which followed the demise of a leading priest of the Shin sect: " When the head of the Shin sect in Kyoto died, three years ago, many papers were merciless in exposing his harem arrangements. His successor is now being attacked on the same line by some of the ablest papers in the land. The chief priest is accused of extreme extravagance and sensuality, and it is to the glory of Buddhism that a large revolt is in progress against the shameless immoralities of this great temple. There is a demand among Buddhists for purity of life on the part of the priests."2 In the capital of Korea Buddhist priests are practically ostracized, as they are not allowed to reside within the walls.3 The common explanation of this banishment is their evil character. Writers upon Korea characterize the " bonzes," or monks, as lazy and depraved.4 The popular estimate of the religious leaders in China is
Character of religious leaders in China.emphatically to their discredit. Their moral character is too well known to command respect. They are almost universally subjects of open ridicule or hardly concealed contempt. In an estimate of Buddhism by Mr. Ball, in "Things Chinese," the statement is made that " its priests are ignorant, low, and immoral, addicted to opium, despised by the people, held up to contempt and ridicule, and the gibe and joke 1 The Japan Evangelist, February, 1896, p. 154. Cf. also similar articles in ibid., June, 1896, pp. 280, 300. 2 The Independent, January 14, 1897, p. 14. 3 Curzon, "Problems of the Far East," p. no; Savage-Landor, "Corea," p. 217; Gilmore, " Korea from its Capital," p. 188. 4 " By lovers of the picturesque nothing more enchanting than these monastic retreats can anywhere be found; nor will the discovery that, while every prospect pleases, man alone is vile—even though his depravity assume, as is credibly alleged of the Korean bonzes, the most profligate expression, or, as it did in my own experience, the more modest form of larceny on one's personal effects—deter the traveller from keen appreciation of surroundings so romantic."—Curzon, " Problems of the Far East," p. 104. " More interesting to me than the temples and buildings were the bonzes, who are, I may as well say at once, a very depraved lot. . . . Morals they have none; if it were possible, one might say even less than none. They lead a lazy and vicious life in these monasteries, gambling among themselves, and spending much time in orgies. They feed themselves well at the expense of the charitable, and a great deal of their energy is expended in blackmailing rich persons, not of course openly, but through agents as disreputable as themselves."—Savage-Landor, " Corea," pp. 227, 228.
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of the populace. The nuns likewise hold a very low position in the public estimation."1 " They are opium-smokers almost to a man," says Dr. Henry, referring to the priests, " and are held in but little esteem by the people. To be called a Wo-sheung, or priest, is a term expressive of contempt at one's stupidity and general worthlessness." 2 Mr. Henry Norman, in his recent volume, gives an account of a narrow escape which he had from robbery and personal violence at the hands of Buddhist monks at a temple on the outskirts of Peking, whom he describes as "a set of as thorough-paced blackguards as could be imagined: filthy, vermin-covered, bloated, scrofulous, and with the marks of nameless vices stamped clearly on many of their faces." He congratulated himself on escaping with his life.3 Dr. Martin, in referring to the same temple, remarks: " Here twelve hundred lazy monks, filthy and vicious, are housed in the palace of a prince, who, on coming to the throne, gave them his dwelling and ordered them to be fed at his expense. So greedy are these recluses, whose first law is self-abnegation, and so indelicate is their mode of picking pockets, that a visitor always departed with the conviction that instead of visiting a house of prayer he had fallen into a den of thieves." 4 He refers in another connection to monks in general as follows: "Theoretically contemplative, pious, and virtuous, as a matter of fact most of these bonzes, or monks, are lazy, ignorant, and immoral. As such they are unsparingly satirized in Chinese popular literature." 5 The Rev. J. R. Graham, a missionary of the American Presbyterian Church (South), in an article on " The Character of Buddhist Priests," refers to the popular estimate concerning them in China as follows: "The Chinese, almost to a man, know how utterly depraved nine out of ten of the priests are." And again: " The priests are notoriously immoral and corrupt, opium-eaters and gamblers." 6 In an article by Dr. Arthur Neve, of Kashmir, on " The Unevangelized Countries of Asia," the priesthood of Tibet is described as follows: "The Dulai Llama, who is head of the hierarchy, rules the country and receives the abject worship of the people. He is supported by tens of thousands of monks, recruited from the people and living on them—a parasitic growth which 1 Ball, " Things Chinese," second edition, p. 70. Cf. also Douglas, " Society in China," pp. 119, 412, and "Report of the London Missionary Conference of 1888," vol. i., p. 66. 2 Henry, " The Cross and the Dragon," p. 91. 3 " The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," pp. 205-209. 4 " A Cycle of Cathay," p. 244. 5 Ibid., p. 227. 6 The Missionary, June, 1895, p. 274.
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crushes all freedom of thought or action, and under the guise of asceticism encourages the vilest immorality. Nothing short of a military occupation of Lhassa itself by British troops would avail to deliver the country from their yoke. And even in Ladak the power of the Llamas exercises a most baneful influence."1 In India there has been of late much criticism
The moral standing of the Hindu priesthood.on the part of intelligent natives of the moral standing of their religious leaders. According to The Indian Witness, as stated in a recent number of The Christian Patriot of Madras, " There is at present a conspiracy of utterance on the part of Indian journalists to draw attention to the utterly indefensible and worthless character of the Hindu priesthood."2 Of the Siva ascetics it is said, in a volume on "Religious Reform," published at Madras, that they " are some of the worst men in India."3 In their persons they are filthy and disgusting, which is to them, however, a clear indication of sanctity. They live upon the bounty of others, in absolute idleness, no small percentage of the earnings of industrious India going to support them in their debasing sloth. The fakirs and devotees are among the most revolting spectacles of humanity to be found anywhere; yet their power over Hindus is startling. They have been called " the captains-general of Hinduism " by a native authority. Their shocking ascetic practices seem to exert a strange spell over the imagination. Perhaps this is owing in great measure to fear of their curses, which they are ready to distribute broadcast upon slight provocation.5 1 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, May, 1895, p. 348. Cf. also Schneider, "Working and Waiting for Tibet," p. 39. 2 The following extract is all the more significant from the fact that it is found in an influential Hindu journal: " In countries and in religions where there is a certain standard of character insisted upon and exacted from those who are ordained as priests, life offers a basis of agreement even with those whose notions may be diametrically opposed to those of the priestly class. But here, what is the standard of character one expects in a priest? None, absolutely none. So far from the priests having to mend our lives, we have to mend them first or end them. To tell them to regard the notions which contribute to their livelihood as secondary, and to drive at practices which are injurious or dishonest, is to tell them to hang themselves. No doubt there should be exceptions even among our priests, but this admission! is more a matter of logical necessity with us than of actual experience."—Quoted in The Christian Patriot, December 10, 1896. 3 " Popular Hinduism," p. 33. 4 Stewart, " Life and Work in India," p. 205. 6 '' The reverence of the common Hindus for all classes of devotees is very great. A man with a shriveled arm held erect is an object of constant adoration as he walks along the road. Large numbers prostrate themselves at his feet, and that man would be daring indeed who hesitated a moment in obeying any command he might receive from such a saint. This power over the multitude would be a dangerous weapon in the hands of better men than the devotees; but when it is stated that large numbers of these fellows are the veriest scoundrels that walk the earth, the reader can well understand how much oppression they can practise without endangering themselves in any way. In former years they were undisguised tyrants; but for many years past the Indian Government has ceased to pay them any deference whatever. If one of the most sacred of these men violates the law of the land, he is punished precisely as another man; and this has done much, not only to protect the people, but to break the spell which enabled the devotee through long ages to oppress them with impunity."—Thoburn, " India and Malaysia," pp. 130, 131. Cf. also an article on " Hindu Devotees," by the Rev. T. H. Whitamore, in Work and Workers in the Mission Field, August, 1893, p. 320.
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The example which these fakirs set is evil in its influence upon Hindu society,
The priest, the guru, the mohunt and the fakir.although their reputed sanctity is rarely, if ever, questioned. " In the Punjab," writes the Rev. R. M. Paterson, of Guirat, "a fakir is thought to be entirely free to do as he desires. Nothing he does is considered a sin. No one dares proceed against him in the law courts, as all are afraid of his curse." A single fakir in an Indian village may be guilty of the most impudent and atrocious crimes, and yet no one would dare to witness in a court of law against him. " He would send us to hell by his curse," is their deprecating answer to any suggestion of legal prosecution. The guru, who seems to be the executive of the Hindu religion, who is the intermediary in the initiation of the young into the pale of Hinduism, and whose hand places the sacred thread, the sign of being "twice-born," upon the novitiate, has the same mischievous dominion over the Hindu mind. " Both the guru and the priest," writes a native Hindu, " vie with each other in ignorance and conceit. Both are covetous, unprincipled, and up to every vice, but the guru is much more revered than his adversary, owing to the speculative and mysterious nature of his avocations, and to the fact that he is a less frequent visitor. The guru's sway over the family is complete.1 The enlightened Indian press speaks in no uncertain tone as to the personal characteristics of the priesthood. The Hindu Patriot refers to this section of society in the following terms: " Profoundly ignorant as a class, and infinitely selfish, it is the mainstay of every unholy, immoral, and cruel custom and superstition in our midst, from the wretched dancing-girl, who insults the Deity by her existence, to the pining child-widow, whose every tear and every hair of her head 1 Quoted in Wilkins, " Modern Hinduism," p. 30.
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shall stand up against every one of us who tolerate it on the Day of Judgment. And of such a priestly class our women are the ignorant tools and helpless dupes."1 Associated with the most sacred services of Hindu temples and shrines are moral atrocities with which the religious guides of the people are often prominently identified. The mohunt, who is usually the keeper and guardian of an Indian shrine, seems to have absolute control of all funds contributed as votive offerings. He has therefore at his command immense sums of money, which he is free to use in accordance with his own desires, and almost resistless influence over the minds of visitors.2 Hindu pilgrimages to sacred places have certain dark aspects, concerning which there is coming to be much frank and outspoken discussion in the best journals of India. A recent issue of The Bombay Guardian refers to Bindraban, one of the sacred cities of the Hindus in North India. It is full of temples and priests, and 1 Quoted in The Baptist Missionary Magazine, September, 1895, p. 503. 2 "Babu Jogendra Nath Niyogi, B.A., in an able letter to The Indian Daily News of September 25, 1894, states the facts of the case as regards Bengal clearly, in these words: " ' There are three principal shrines in Bengal, viz., at Tarkheswar, Baidynath, and Kalighat. The first is under the management of a mohunt, the second under a high priest, and the third under persons known as haldars. These shrines yield very large incomes, which are entirely at the disposal of the persons referred to. These persons are not bound to give any account of the money to anybody. It is not to be wondered at, then, that vast sums should be squandered and dissipated. The term "mohunt" means a person who, being in charge of shrines, should, among other conditions, remain a bachelor and lead a strictly pure and ascetic life. It is in the very nature of things that, with vast sums of money at their disposal to do them yeoman's service in case of emergency, they should pass their lives in constant plots, intrigues, and excesses. It has been asserted by your vernacular contemporary, The Hitabadi, that no women of attractive appearance, unless accompanied by strong male guardians, can leave the precincts of these places without carrying away with them a sense of pollution. Among the Hindus it is considered an act of piety to see in person the priests at these shrines.' "—Quoted in The Indian Evangelical Review, October, 1894, p. 255. Mr. Bhattacharya, in his learned volume, remarks: "When a shrine is in the struggling stage, the high priest generally leads a pure life and spends a large part of his income in feeding the poor pilgrims. But the high priests of the temples that have a well-established character for sanctity are usually just the kind of men that they ought not to be. There are just five stages in the careers of the successful monks and nuns : first, the beggar; then the charlatan; then the temple promoter; then the princely high priest; and the last of all the debauchee. The theme is one to which justice could be done only by the genius of a Shakespeare."—" Hindu Castes and Sects," p. 362. Cf. also article on " Hinduism as It Is," by the Rev. J. P. Haythornthwaite, in The Church Missionary Intelligencer, August, 1896.
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is especially a resort of Hindu widows. Few of these escape the moral contamination of the place.1 The morality of Buddhist monks in India is certainly not in advance of that of the
The secrets of Buddhist monostaries in Ceylon.average Hindu priest. Dr. J. Bowles Daly, editor of The Indian World, in a recent report presented to the Government by him as a commissioner appointed by the Indian Government to examine into the working of the " Buddhist Temporalities Ordinance," makes some stinging criticisms of the moral status of the Buddhist priesthood in Ceylon. Dr. Daly, it may be remarked, is strongly pro-Buddhist in his sympathies, and does not conceal his admiration for Buddhism as a religious system. In his report he claims to have visited in four years about thirteen hundred of the pansalas, or monasteries, and therefore bases his remarks upon extensive personal observation. Concerning this report, the Rev. J. Ireland Jones, who occupies the position of the James Long Lecturer on Buddhism, expresses the following judgment in a recent issue of The Church Missionary Intelligencer: " His Report to Government, which lies before me, is a very remarkable document; no more striking commentary could have been written on the morality of Buddhism from its practical side. No writer with whom I am acquainted has drawn a darker picture of the Buddhist priesthood as a whole, or has been more severe in denunciation of their dishonesty, untruthfulness, and general depravity. Not only, in the opinion of this candid Buddhist, does ' brutal stagnation of mind prevail in the monasteries '; language seems hardly strong enough to describe the corruption existing on every side. Of one pansala his report is: ' Its funds are mismanaged, and a system of wholesale fraud is being perpetrated.' Of another he says: 'This temple is scandalously mismanaged; its monks, four in number, are idle and depraved.' A third temple had 'procured for itself a terrible notoriety' through the use of poison for the removal of troublesome claimants of its property. And these are but specimens. Other portions of the Report are more gross still, and refer to abominations which forbid mention." 2 In Mohammedan lands religious leadership reflects the spiritual temper and the moral standards of Islam. The intense legalism of the Islamic code is nowhere more strikingly illustrated than in the characteristic perfunctoriness of its religious officials. The imam, the mufti, and the kadi are not, as a rule, models to be imitated. Their offi- 1 See The Sentinel, March, 1896, p. 34. 2 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, August, 1895, p. 576.
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cial life, both in its governing principles and its dubious practices,
The imam, the mufti, the kadi, the mullah, and the dervish.will need considerable reconstruction before it can be regarded as uplifting or helpful in the direction either of political or social righteousness. The numerous orders of fakirs and dervishes, those weird and fantastic mystics of the Orient, with their frenzied utterances, their exhausting ecstasies, their whirling zikrs, and their endless iteration of titles and texts to the music of their rosaries, can hardly be said to contribute to either the moral or the material well-being of society. In Persia the Mohammedan clergy, or mullahs, and the dervishes, are sorry specimens of religious guides. Concerning the latter we have the testimony of Mrs. Bishop, in a recent account of her journeys in Persia and Kurdistan. "They are the 'mendicant friars' of Persia," she writes, " and are under vows of poverty. Some are said to be learned, but they object to discussing religious matters with infidels, and almost nothing is known as to their beliefs. They hold universally the sanctity of idleness, and the duty of being supported by the community. The lower classes hold them in reverence, and the upper, though they are apt to loathe them, treat them with great respect, for fear of laying themselves open to the charge of laxity in religious matters. Many of them deal in charms, and are consulted as astrologers. Some are professed tellers of stories, to which, I am told, no European could degrade himself by listening, but which are most palatable to a village audience. . . . They are credited with many vices, among the least of which are hazy ideas as to mine and thine, opium and bhang smoking to excess, and drunkenness."1 As regards the mullahs, it is interesting to note that one of the strongest counts in the indictment of Mirza AH Mohammed against the Mohammedanism of his day was the scandalous vices of the Moslem clergy and their unfitness to be the spiritual guides of the people. This religious reformer is better known as " The Bab," the founder of the Babi religion, a recent revolt from Mohammedanism in Persia.2 His strictures, as recorded in "The Tarikh-I-Jadid ; or, The New History of the Bab," translated by Mr. Edward G. Browne, are many and unequivocal, and they are significant as coming from a native source, with every opportunity to possess an inside knowledge of facts. The history contains repeated denunciations of the selfishness, hypocrisy, venality, and de- 1 "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," vol. i., p. 237. 2 Cf. article by the Rev. Benjamin Labaree, D.D., on " The Babi Religion in Persia," in The Church at Home and Abroad, October, 1893, p. 296.
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based personal character of the Persian mullahs. It calls attention to the fact that they have had no proper education for their religious responsibilities, and that they grossly misuse their power for unworthy purposes.1 The Mohammedan shrines of Persia, especially that of Imam Riza of Meshed, are notorious for immorality. "The shrine of Imam Riza," writes a recent visitor, " is the great centre round which everything in Meshed swings, but under cover of its protection or service the grossest forms of sin prevail, while traffic in women for the convenience of pilgrims is a business so closely connected with the shrine as to be inseparable from it. A thousand men are employed in its service. It 1 A single paragraph from " The Tarikh-I-Jadid " will suffice: "So heedless are they [the Persian people] that they do not perceive that most of these divines originally spring from the rustic population or the scum of the towns. They enter our cities and colleges with a smock and a staff, and feet full of sores encased in coarse socks and canvas shoes. There, by the alms and votive offerings of the people, by begging from this one and that one, by prayers and fastings paid for at the rate of two tumans a year, by reading through the whole Kuran for a kran, and by fees obtained for the performance of devotions, they manage to live in extreme wretchedness and poverty. After reading a few books, learning Arabic, filling their minds with all manner of doubts, hesitations, and vain scruples, and developing their obsolete superstitions and prejudices, they leave college, take their seats in the chair of the Law and the Imamate, and forthwith become the absolute arbiters and lawgivers of the nation, the controllers of all men's lands and possessions, the owners of horses, mules, gold, and silver. They then think themselves entitled to set their feet on the necks of all mankind, to lord it over the noble, to maintain troops of horses and retinues of servants, to claim to be the vicegerents of the Imam, to receive his tithes> and to make atonements for wrongs. They account themselves the most noble amongst all creatures, and the most perfect, the generality of men as ' like cattle,' and the common folk as ' even more astray.' They become dead men's heirs, consumers of endowments, and collectors of tithes and ' thirds,' and usurp the station of ' the One, the Dominant,' ' to whom belongeth dominion.' " Most people, however, have not sufficient sense to perceive from what sources all these luxuries, powers, shops, villages, lands, aqueducts, possessions, and moneys which the clergy possess are derived. Have they skill in working mines? No. Do they traffic in the merchandise of India, China, America, or Europe? No. Do they traverse land and sea, or cultivate fields which lie waste? No. Have they amassed their wealth by the discovery of new arts? No. This luxury and opulence result, as all, wise or simple, may plainly see, from the plunder of rich and poor, from payments for legal decisions, written or pronounced, from the profits of writing, ' I decree this,' or saying, ' I am witness to this,' and ' It is thus and thus,' and from the hire obtained for the use of their honourable seals. Such being the case, what folly it is to take as guides men so notoriously evil and hypocritical, to follow their opinions, to be governed by their decisions, to cringe to them, flatter them, beseech their favour, and reckon them, forsooth, as the repositories of learning!"— Browne, "The Tarikh-I-Jadid; or. The New History of the Bab," pp. 184, 185. See also Ibid., pp. 77, 189.
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has an annual income estimated by different authorities to be equal to £12,000 in money and 3000 tons in wheat as a minimum, up to £7 2,000 and 12,000 tons as a maximum, amount. Instead of being a 'house of prayer' it is literally a ' den of thieves.' " It is not necessary to dwell upon this theme in connection with the religious leadership of Africa and the South Sea Islands, where the guardians of the spiritual welfare of the people seem to be examples of ignorance and pride, and the masters of every art and device of superstition. They have apparently entered into partnership with the demons they claim to control, to exert a malign influence over human hearts. In South America, Central America, and
Religious guides in South America, Central America, and Mexico.Mexico the religious guides of the people cannot be said to exemplify the morality which Christianity requires. On the contrary, there is much that is gross and lamentable in their lives. In Brazil, Peru, and Chile, and, in fact, pretty generally throughout Central and South America, the immorality of the clergy is notorious and undisguised.1 This statement is not based simply upon the testimony of Protestant missionaries. In 1867 there was published in Paris the report of Abbé Emanuel Domenech, Chaplain of the French Expeditionary Force who represented Napoleon III. at the time of the failure of the French intervention which ended in the death of Maximilian. This Roman Catholic prelate was charged with a special mission to ascertain the true moral and religious condition of the clergy and Church of Rome in Mexico. He 1 " Romanism in Europe and in the United States is manifestly far in advance of anything ever beheld here. There we see something good in that Church. Here the good has been reduced to such a minimum that one scarcely ever beholds anything but weakness and wickedness. There the priests, as a rule, keep up the appearance of Christian perfection, preserving their characters, as much as possible, blameless and above reproach. Here it is nothing for them to be openly immoral."— See article entitled " Peru as a Mission Field," in The Gospel in all Lands, January, 1896, p. 9. " The character of the religious teachers of any people is a fair index to the general moral condition of the masses who receive their instructions. The priesthood of Mexico has a few names that are untarnished in their reputation for virtue, but in the vast majority there is not as great an ' odor of sanctity,' outside of the pulpit, as would befit the ministers of Christ. Many are so notoriously drunken, profane, and lecherous that they are a positive scandal to a society that is itself thoroughly honeycombed by vice and impurity. These men are never expelled from the ministry for their outrageous lives, but are simply changed from one parish to another when their vices or crimes become unbearable."—See article on " The Religions and Moral Condition of Mexico," by the Rev. Samuel P. Graver, in The Gospel in all Lands, March, 1894, p. 100. Cf. also The Missionary Review of the World, March, 1895, pp. 198-202.
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made a tour of personal observation, and published his report after his return to France, giving it the title of " Mexico as It Is: The Truth Respecting the Climate, its Inhabitants, and its Government." The document is a scathing arraignment of the Church and its clergy. We have here to do simply with what he had to say with reference to the priesthood, although the entire report is a weighty indictment against Romanism as it appears in Mexico.1 The Abbé has said in plain words all that we have hinted at in this paragraph. Coming from such a source, the testimony, under the circumstances, is convincing, and is so explicit that it requires no confirmation from Protestant writings. It is quoted by Mr. Butler from a volume entitled " Mexico and the United States," by Gorham D. Abbot.2 1 For further information upon the contents of the report consult Butler, " Mexico in Transition," pp. 27-34, and The Missionary Review of the World, March, 1896, p. 177, article by Mr. Robert E. Speer, on " Mexico: Her Needs and Our Duty." 2 The Abbé writes as follows: " I say that Mexico is not a Catholic country: (1) Because a majority of the native population are semi-idolaters. (2) Because the majority of the Mexicans carry ignorance of religion to such a point that they have no other worship than that of form. It is materialism without a doubt. They do, not know what it is to worship God in spirit and in truth, according to the Gospel. ... If the pope should abolish all simoniacal livings, and excommunicate all the priests having concubines, the Mexican clergy would be reduced to a very small affair. Nevertheless, there are some worthy men among them, whose conduct as priests is irreproachable. ... In all Spanish America there are found among the priests the veriest wretches—knaves deserving the gallows—men who make an infamous traffic of religion. Mexico has her share of these wretches. . . . " The clergy carry their love of the family to that of paternity. In my travels in the interior of Mexico, many pastors have refused me hospitality in order to prevent my seeing their nieces and cousins and their children. It is difficult to determine the character of these connections. Priests who are recognized as fathers of families are by no means rare. The people consider it natural enough, and do not rail at the conduct of their pastors, excepting when they are not contented with one wife. . . . I remember that, one of these prelates passing through a village near the episcopal city, the priest said to him, ' Sire, have the goodness to bless my children and their mother.' The good bishop blessed them. There was a chamberful. Another did better still. He baptized the child of one of his priests. Can a clergy of such character make saints? I doubt. Nevertheless, they must not be taken for heretics. . . . " They make merchandise of the sacraments, and make money by every religious ceremony, without thinking that they are guilty of simony and expose themselves to the censures of the Church. If Roman justice had its course in Mexico, one half of the Mexican clergy would be excommunicated. . . . The well-instructed priests, disinterested and animated by a truly apostolical spirit, holy souls whose religious sentiments are of good character, constitute an insignificant minority."—Quoted in Butler, " Mexico in Transition," pp. 32, 33.
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Is it not evident, from this hasty and imperfect sketch of the moral status of the religious leaders of the non-Christian, and also of some sections of the Christian, world, that we have here a sadly suggestive brief as to the desperate needs of social reconstruction from the top to the bottom? And now this long and dreary, yet needful, review of the evils of heathen society may be closed. Something more than a mere enumeration of its characteristic defects seemed necessary, for the sake of comprehensive and concise information, as well as to give emphasis to the call for Christian reconstruction. It was desirable that the treatment should be sufficiently in detail, and that it should be based upon authentic testimony. I have endeavored to substantiate facts, and have in most instances indicated authorities. Many more might have been given for almost every important statement made. I have written nothing which I do not believe to be true, upon satisfactory evidence. In connection with certain aspects of the subject I have not been able to print some incidents and details which have been given me in the freedom of private correspondence. In others, information too direct and authentic to doubt was not, however, suitable for publication. If the picture is considered by some to be overdrawn, I can only reply that it has been my endeavor rather to photograph facts than to portray them in striking colors, and that I have been guided by fidelity to the truth within the limitations of propriety more than by a desire not to disturb the reader's sensibilities. It will be our privilege in the remaining pages to turn to brighter and more attractive phases of our theme, which the dark background of the present lecture will serve to bring out into vivid and cheering relief. We shall realize, perhaps all the more gratefully, what Christianity means to human society, and what an object-lesson of hope and inspiration has been given to mankind in the victorious life of Christ: " Who brings the fading flower of poor HumanityTo perfect blossoming and sweetest fruit."
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LITERATURE AND AUTHORITIES FOR LECTURE II The subjects referred to in the preceding lecture are so many and varied that the author cannot hope in a brief bibliography to do more than suggest to students some sources of his own information, and indicate where further and fuller investigation of special countries or topics may be made. With a few exceptions only recent books are noted. Missionary volumes referred to in Lecture II., will be found, in most instances, in the bibliography of Lecture I. I. SOCIETY BEFORE THE INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY ANDERSON, ROBERT E., The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the East. N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1896. BLÜMNER, H., The Home Life of the Ancient Greeks. (Translated by Alice Zimmern.) L., Cassell & Co., 1893. BOUGHTON, WILLIS, History of Ancient Peoples. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. BRINTON, DANIEL G., Religions of Primitive Peoples. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. FRAZER, R. W., Silent Gods and Sun-Steeped Lands. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1895. INGE, WILLIAM RALPH, Society in Rome under the Casars. L., John Murray; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. JEVONS, FRANK BYRON, An Introduction to the History of Religion. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. LAURIE, S. S., Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. MASPERO, G., The Dawn of Civilization. (Egypt and Chaldæa.) (Translated by M. L. McClure.) Second edition, revised. N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1896. MORGAN, L. H., Ancient Society. N. Y., Henry Holt & Co., 1878. MOZLEY, Rev. J. B., Ruling Ideas in Early Ages and their Relation to Old Testament Faith. New edition. L., and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1896. RATZEL, FRIEDRICH, The History of Mankind. (Translated by A. J. Butler.) Vol. i. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. SIENKIEWICZ, H., Quo Vadis: A Narrative of the Time of Nero. (Translated from the Polish by Jeremiah Curtin.) B., Little, Brown & Co., 1896. TAYLOR, HENRY OSBORN, Ancient Ideals: A Study of Intellectual and Spiritual Growth from Early Times to the Establishment of Christianity. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896. TYLOR, E. B., Primitive Culture. 2 vols.L., John Murray; N. Y., Henry Holt & Co., 1873. TYLOR, E. B., Researches into the Early History of Mankind. L., John Murray; N. Y., Henry Holt & Co., 1878. TYLOR, E. B., Anthropology: Introduction to Study of Man and Civilization. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1881. WIEDEMANN, A., Religion of the Ancient Egyptians. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. II. SOCIETY IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN AND MEDIEVAL PERIOD BRACE, CHARLES LORING, Gesta Christi; or, A History of Humane Progress under Christianity. Fifth edition.N, Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1893. CHURCH, Dean, The Beginning of the Middle Ages. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. SCHMIDT, C., The Social Results of Early Christianity. (Translated by Mrs. Thorpe. Second edition. William Isbister, 1889.
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STORRS, Rev. RICHARD S., The Divine Origin of Christianity. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1884. UHLHORN, GERHARD, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church. (Translated from the German.) N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883. UHLHORN, GERHARD, The Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1894. III. SOCIETY IN THE MODERN ERA I. JAPAN BACON, ALICE M., Japanese Girls and Women. B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893. BATCHELOR, Rev. JOHN, The Ainu of Japan. L., Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1892. BUCKLEY, EDMUND, Phallicism in Japan. C., The University Press, 1895. CHAMBERLAIN, BASIL HALL, Things Japanese. Second edition, revised and enlarged. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1891. CURZON, GEORGE N., Problems of the Far East. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1894. New and revised edition. L., A. Constable & Co., 1896. GRIFFIS, Rev. WILLIAM ELLIOT, The Mikado's Empire. Seventh edition, with supplementary chapters. N. Y., Harper & Brothers, 1894. GRIFFIS, Rev. WILLIAM ELLIOT, The Religions of Japan. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. HEARN, LAFCADIO, Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan. 2 vols. B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1894. KNAPP, ARTHUR MAY, Feudal and Modern Japan. 2 vols. B., Joseph Knight Co., 1896. LANDOR, A. H. SAVAGE-, Alone with the Hairy Ainu; or, Thirty-eight Hundred Miles on a Pack-Saddle in Yezo, and a Cruise to the Kurile Islands. L., John Murray, 1896. LOWELL, PERCIVAL, Occult Japan : The Way of the Gods. B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1895. MACKAY, Rev. GEORGE LESLIE, From Far Formosa. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1896. MITFORD, A. B., Tales of Old Japan. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1890. NORMAN, HENRY, The Peoples and Politics of the Far East. L., T. Fisher Unwin; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. NORMAN, HENRY, The Real Japan. L., T. Fisher Unwin; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. PEERY, R. B., A.M., Ph.D., The Gist of Japan. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1897. TRISTRAM, Canon H. B., Rambles in Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun
. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1895. 2. KOREA BISHOP, ISABELLA BIRD, Korea and her Neighbors. L., John Murray; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1897. CULIN, STEWART, Korean Games; with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan. P., University of Pennyslvania, 1895. GILMORE, Rev. GEORGE W., Korea from its Capital. P., Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1892. GRIFFIS, Rev. WILLIAM ELLIOT, Corea, the Hermit Nation. Sixth edition, revised and enlarged, with additional chapter on Corea in 1897.N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897. LANDOR, A. H. SAVAGE-, Corea, or Cho-sen, the Land of the Morning Calm. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895. LOWELL, PERCIVAL, Sketch of Corea. B., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1887. MILN, LOUISE JORDAN, Quaint Korea. L., Osgood & Co., 1895; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. 3. CHINA BALL, J. DYER, Things Chinese. Second edition, revised and enlarged. N. Y,, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. BARNES, IRENE H., Behind the Great Wall. L., Marshall Brothers, 1896. CHIROL, VALENTINE, The Far Eastern Question. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. COCKBURN, Rev. G., John Chinaman: His Ways and Notions. E., Gardner Hitt, 1896.
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COLTMAN, ROBERT, The Chinese, Their Present and Future : Medical, Political, and Social. P. and L., F. A. Davis, 1891. CORNABY, Rev. W. A., A String of Chinese Peach-Stones. L., C. H. Kelly, 1896. CORNABY, Rev. W. A., Rambles in Central China. L., C. H. Kelly, 1897. CUNNINGHAM, ALFRED, A History of the Szechuan Riots. Shanghai, Office of Shanghai Mercury, 1895. DOOLITTLE, Rev. J., Social Life of the Chinese. N. Y., Harper & Bros., 1865; L., Bickers & Son, 1871. DOUGLAS, ROBERT K., Society in China. L., A. D. Innes & Co., 1894. DRAKE, S. B., Among the Dark-Haired Race in the Flowery Land. (On the work carried on by the Baptist missionaries among the Chinese.) L., Religious Tract Society, 1897. DU BOSE, Rev. HAMPDEN C., The Dragon, Image, and Demon. N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1887. FAGG, Rev. J. G., Forty Years in South China: The Life of John Van Nest Talmage, D.D.. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1894. FIELDE, ADELE M., A Corner of Cathay. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1894. FIELDE, ADELE M., Pagoda Shadows. B., W. G. Corthell, 1884. GRAVES, Rev. R. H., Forty Years in China. Baltimore, R. H. Woodward Co., 1895. GUNDRY, R. S., China and Her Neighbours. L., Chapman & Hall, 1893. GUNDRY, R. S., China Present and Past. L., Chapman & Hall, 1895. HALCOMBE, CHARLES J. H., The Mystic Flowery Land: A Personal Narrative. L., Luzac & Co., 1897. HENRY, Rev. B. C., The Cross and the Dragon. Second edition. N. Y., A. D. F. Randolphs Co., 1885. HOLCOMBE, CHESTER, The Real Chinaman. N. Y., Dodd, Mead & Co., 1895. JOHNSTON, Rev. JAMES, China and Formosa : The Story of the Mission of the Presbyterian Church of England. L., Hazell, Watson & Viney, 1897. MARTIN, Rev. W. A. P., A Cycle of Cathay. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1896. MARTIN, Rev. W. A. P., Hanlin Papers ; or, Essays on the Intellectual Life of the Chinese. First series. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trilbner & Co.; N. Y., Harper & Brothers1880. (Second series published only at Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1894.) MARTIN, Rev. W. A. P., The Chinese: Their Education, Philosophy, and Letters. N. Y., Harper & Brothers, 1881. (A reprint of Hanlin Papers, first series.) MESNY, W., Chinese Miscellany: A Text-Book of Notes on
and the Chinese. Shanghai, China Gazette Office, 1896. MOULE, Archdeacon ARTHUR E., New China and Old. L., Seeley & Co., 1891. NEVIUS, Rev. JOHN L., China and the Chinese. N. Y., Harper & Bros., 1882. SMITH, Rev. ARTHUR H., Chinese Characteristics. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894. WILLIAMS, S. WELLS, The Middle Kingdom. 2 vols. Fifth edition, revised.L., W. H. Allen, 1883; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883. WILLIAMS, S. WELLS, A History of China. (Historical chapters taken from The Middle Kingdom, with an additional chapter, bringing the history down to the present, by Frederick Wells Williams.)N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897. 4. AUSTRALASIA AND OCEANIA ALEXANDER, Rev. JAMES M., The Islands of the Pacific. N. Y., American Tract Society, 1895. CHALMERS, Rev. JAMES, and GILL, W. WYATT, Work and Ad-venture in New Guinea. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1885. CHALMERS, Rev. JAMES,, Pioneer Life and Work in New Guinea, 1877-94. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1896; Pioneering in New Guinea. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1887 CLARK, KATE M'Cosn, Maori Tales and Legends. L., David Nutt, 1896. CODRINGTON, R. H., The Melanesians.' Studies in their Anthropology and Folk-Lore. L., Clarendon Press, 1891. COOL, W., With the Dutch in the East.. L., Luzac & Co., 1897. CORNEY, PETER, Voyages in the Northern Pacific. Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, T. G. Thrum, 1896. CUMMING, Miss C. F. GORDON, At Home in Fiji. E. and L., William Blackwood & Sons, 1887. GILL, Rev. W. W., Historical Sketches of Savage Life in Polynesia. Wellington, N. Z. (printed by the N. Z. Government), 1880.
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LATIMER, ELIZABETH WORMELEY, Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century. C., A. C. McClurg & Co., 1895. LIVINGSTONE, DAVID, Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa. L., John Murray, 1857. LIVINGSTONE, DAVID, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi. L., John Murray, 1865. LIVINGSTONE, DAVID, Last Journals in Central Africa. Second edition. L., John Murray, 1880. LUCAS, C. P., A Historical Geography of the British Colonies. Vol. iii., on "West Africa" (1894), and vol. iv., on " South and East Africa." L., Henry Frowde, 1897. LUGARD, F. D., The Rise of our East African Empire. 2 vols. E. and L., William Blackwood & Sons, 1893. MACDONALD, Rev. DUFF, Africana; or, The Heart of Heathen Africa. 2 vols. L., Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1882. MACDONALD, Rev. JAMES, Religion and Myth. L., D. Nutt; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. MACDONALD, Major J. R., 'L., Soldiering and Surveying in British East Africa, 1891-94. L. and N. Y., Edward Arnold, 1897. MACKENZIE, Rev. J., Austral Africa: Losing It or Ruling It?. 2 vols. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1897. MAUDE, FRANCIS CORNWALLIS, Five Years in Madagascar; with Notes on the Military Situation. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896. MILNEK, Sir ALFRED, England in Egypt. L. and N. Y., Edward Arnold, 1894. OHRWALDER, JOSEPH, Ten Years' Captivity in the Mahdi's Camp. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1893. Papers on the Liqitor Traffic in Africa. L., Office of Aborigines Protection Society, Broadway Chambers, Westminster, S. W. PIERSON, Rev. ARTHUR T., Seven Years in Sierra Leone. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1897. Political Laws of the South African Republic. (Translated by W. A. Macfadyen.) L., William Clowes & Son, 1896. POOLE, STANLEY LANE, Social Life in Egypt. L., Virtue & Co., 1884. POWELL, R. S. S. BADEN-, The Downfall of Prempeh : A Diary of Life with the Native Levy in Ashanti. L., Methuen & Co., 1896. PURVIS, W. F., and BIGGS, L. V., South Africa: Its People, Progress, and Problems. L., Chapman & Hall, 1896. REEVES, JESSE SIDDALL, The International Beginnings of the Congo Free State. Baltimore, Md., The Johns Hopkins Press, 1895. REINDORF, Rev. CARL CHRISTIAN, History of the Gold Coast and Asante Based on Traditions and Historical Facts Comprising a Period of More than Three Centuries, from about 1500 to 1860. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1895. Report by Commissioner Johnston of the First Three Years' Administration of the Eastern Portion of British Central Africa, Dated March31,1894. Blue Book Africa, No. b (1896). ROBINSON, CHARLES HENRY, Hausaland. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1896. ROWLEY, Rev. HENRY, Twenty Years in Central Africa. L., Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1881. SCHULZ, AUREL, and HAMMAR, AUGUST, The New Africa: A Journey up the Chobe and down the Okovanga Rivers. L., William Heinemann, 1897. SELOUS, F. C., Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa. L., Rowland Ward, 1893. SIBREE, Rev. JAMES, Madagascar before the Conquest: The Island, the Country, and the People. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. SLATIN, RUDOLPH C. (Slatin Pasha), Fire and Sword in the Sudan. (Translated by Major F. R. Wingate.) L. and N. Y., Edward Arnold, 1896. SLOWAN, WILLIAM J., The Story of our Kaffrarian Mission. E., Offices of United Presbyterian Church, 1894. SMITH, A. DONALDSON, Through Unknown African Countries. L. and N. Y., Edward Arnold, 1897. SMITH, Rev. G. HERBERT, Among the Menace: Thirteen Months in Madagascar. L., S. P. C. K., 1897. STANLEY, H. M., How I Found Livingstone: Travels, Adventures, and Discoveries. Second edition. Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1874. STANLEY, H. M., In Darkest Africa. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1890; new edition, L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1897. STANLEY, H. M., The Congo, and the Founding of the Free State. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1885.
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STANLEY, H. M., Thro' the Dark Continent. Second edition. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1879. STATHAM, F. REGINALD, South Africa as it is. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1897. TANGYE, H. L., In New South Africa. L., Horace Cox, 1896. THEAL, G. M'CALL, The Portuguese in South Africa. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. THOMSON, JOSEPH, To the Central African Lakes and Back. Second edition. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1888. THOMSON, JOSEPH, Travels in the Atlas and Southern Morocco. L., George Philip & Son, 1889. TYLER, Rev, JOSIAH, Forty Years among the Zulus. B. and C., Congregational Sunday-school and Publishing Society, 1891. VANDELEUR, C. F. S., Two Years' Travel in Uganda, Unyoro, and on the Upper Nile. L., Office of The Geographical Journal1897. VINCENT, FRANK, Actual Africa; or, The Coming Continent. N. Y., D. Appleton & Co., 1895. WALLER, Rev. HORACE, Slaving and Slavery in our British Protectorate. L., P. S. King & Co., 1895. WARD, HERBERT, Five Years with the Congo Cannibals. L., Chatto & Windus; N. Y., Robert Bonner's Sons, 1890. WIDDICOMBK, Rev. Canon, In the Lesuto: A Sketch of African Mission Life. L., S, P. C. K., 1895. WILMOT, A., The Story of the Expansion of South Africa. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1894. WINGATE, Major F. R., Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1891. WITHERS, H., The English and the Dutch in South Africa: An Historical Retrospect. L., Wilson & Co., 1896. WOOD, H. F., Egypt under the British. L., Chapman & Hall, 1897. WORSFOLD, W. B., South Africa: A Study in Colonial Administration and Development. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. 11. THE WEST INDIES CASSECANARIE, M. D., Obeah Simplified: The True Wanga, What it Really is, and How it is Done. Port of Spain, Mirror Office, 1896. FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, The English in the West Indies. L., Longmans, Green & Co., 1888. Jamaica: Enslaved and Free. N. Y., Carlton & Porter, n.d. LUCAS, C. P., The West Indian Colonies. L., Henry Frowde, 1888. MORRIS, IRA NELSON, With the Trade-Winds: A Jaunt in Venezuela and the West Indies. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1897. MUSSON, S. P., and ROXBURGH, T. L., The Handbook of Jamaica. Second edition. Kingston, Jamaica, Government Printing Office; L., Edward Stanford, 1894. ROHSON, Rev. GEORGE, The Story of Our Jamaica Mission. E., Offices of United Presbyterian Church, 1894. RODWAY, JAMES, The West Indies and the Spanish Main. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons; L.,T. Fisher Unwin, 1896. ST. JOHN, Sir SPENCER, Hayti; or, The Black Republic
. Second edition. L., Smith & Elder, 1889. STODDARD, Rev. CHARLES A., Cruising among the Carribees. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. UNDERBILL, EDWARD BEAN, The West Indies: Their Social and Religious Condition. L., Jackson & Walford, 1862. 12. MEXICO, CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA BRETT, Rev. W, H., Legends and Myths of the Indians of British Guiana. L., Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1880. BRETT, Rev. W. H., The Indian Tribes of Guiana. Second edition. L., Bell & Sons, 1868. BUTLER, Rev. WILLIAM, Mexico in Transition from the Power of Political Romanism to Civil and Religious Liberty. Third edition. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, . CROMMELIN, MAY, Over the Andes from the Argentine to Chili and Peru. L., Richard Bentley & Sons, 1896. GROESBECK, TELFORD, The Incas: The Children of the Sun. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896. JOSA, Rev. F. P. L., The Apostle of the Indians of Guiana : A Memoir of the Life and Labours of the Rev. W. H. Brett. L., Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1887. RODWAY, JAMES, In the Guiana Forest. Third edition. L,. T. Fisher Unwin, 1897.
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WHYMPER, E., Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator. New edition. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896. 13. NORTH AMERICA ADAM, G. MERCER, The Canadian North-West: Its History and its Troubles. Toronto, 1885. BRINTON, DANIEL G., The Myths of the New World: A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America. Third edition, revised.P., David McKay, 1896. BRUCE, MINER. W., Alaska: Its History and Resources. Seattle, Washington, Lowman & Hanford Stationery and Printing Co., 1895. EICKEMEYKR, CHARLES, and LILIAN W., Among the Pueblo Indians. N. Y., The Merriam Co., 1895. FIELD, Rev. H. M., Our Western Archipelago. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. HENDREN, S. RIVERS, Government and Religion of the Virginia Indians. Baltimore, Md., Johns Hopkins Press, 1895. KNAPP, FRANCES, and CHILDE, R. L., The Thlinkets of Alaska. C., Stone & Kimball, 1897. NEWTON, W., Twenty Years on the Saskatchewan, N. W. Canada: A Narrative of Missionary Work. L.. Elliot Stock, 1897. YOUNG, EGERTON RYERSON, By Canoe and Dog-Train among the Cree and Salteaux Indians. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1892. YOUNG, EGERTON RYERSON, On the Indian Trail. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1897. YOUNG, EGERTON RYERSON, Stories from Indian Wigwams and Northern Camp-Fires. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1893. IV. SPECIAL SUBJECTS I. TEMPERANCE. GUSTAFSON, AXEL, The Foundation of Death : A Study of the Drink Question. N. Y., Funk & Wagnalls Co., 1887. MURDOCH, J., Temperance Reform in India. Madras, Christian Literature Society for India, 1897. RUNCIMAN, JAMES, The Ethics of Drink, and Other Social Questions. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1895. Temperance in all Nations. Report of the World's Temperance Congress, held at Chicago, June, 1893. N. Y., The National Temperance Society and Publication House, 1893. 2. THE OPIUM EVIL CLIEFE, H. H. T., England's Greatest National Sin. L., Elliot Stock, 1892. DUDGEON, Dr. J., The Evils of the Use of Opium. (A valuable essay in Records of Shanghai Conference, 1890, pp. 314-354.) MAUGHAN, W. C., Our Opium Trade in India and China. L., Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, Finsbury House, Blomfield Street, 1894. Publications of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, Finsbury House, Blomfield Street, London, England. ROBERTS, Sir W., Opium Habit in India. Second edition. L., Smith, Elder & Co., 1897. ROWNTREE, JOSHUA, The Opium Habit in the East: A Study of the Evidence Given to the Royal Commission on Opium, 1893-94. L., P. S. King & Son, 1895. STRKDDAR, ELEANOR, Aluteh: A Story of the Chinese Hills. Treats of the opium evil in China. L., Stoneman, 1896. TURNER, Rev. F. STORRS, British Opium Policy. L., Sampson Low, Marston & Co. 3. GAMBLING MACKENZIE, W. DOUGLAS, The Ethics of Gambling. L., Sunday-school Union, 1895; P., Henry Altemus, 1897. 4. SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE-TRADE FROUDE, JAMES ANTHONY, English Seamen in the Sixteenth Century. New edition. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. INGRAM, JOHN KELLS, A History of Slavery and Serfdom. L., Adam & Charles Black, 1895. 5. SUPERSTITIONS AND WITCHCRAFT Devil-Dancers, Witch-Finders, Rain-Makers, and Medicine-Men. Madras, Christian Literature Society, 1896.
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ELWORTHY, F. T., The Evil Eye: An Account of this Ancient Superstition. L., John Murray, 1896. KING, L. W., Babylonian Magic and Sorcery. L., Luzac & Co., 1896. MALLOCK, W. H., Studies of Contemporary Superstition. L., Ward & Downey, 1895. NEVIUS, Rev. JOHN L., Demon. Possession and Allied Themes. N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1894. SIMPSON, W., The Buddhist Praying-Wheel: A Collection of Material Bearing upon the Symbolism of the Wheel and Circular Movements in Custom and Religious Ritual. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. V. MISCELLANEOUS DOWKONTT, G. D., Murdered Millions versus Medical Missions. N. Y. (published by the author), 121 East Forty-fifth Street. EARLE, ALICE MORSE, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days. C., H. S. Stone & Co., 1896. HOUGHTON, Rev. Ross C., Women of the Orient. Cincinnati, Curts & Jennings ; N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1877. LECKY, WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE, Democracy and Liberty. 2 vols. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1896. LUCKOCK, Dean H. M., The History of Marriage, Jewish and Christian. Second edition, revised and enlarged. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. LYALL, Sir A. C., Asiatic Studies: Religious and Social. Second edition. L., John Murray, 1884. MILLER, F. MAX, Contributions to the Science of Mythology. 2 vols. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1896. SCOTT, BENJAMIN, A State Inquiry : Its Rise, Extension, and Overthrow. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1890. SINK JEE, Sir BHAGVAT, A Short History of Aryan Medical Science. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. SMITH, W. R., Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia. Cambridge, Cambridge Press, 1885. WAKEFIELD, C. C., future Trade in the Far East. L., Whittaker & Co., 1896. WATKINS, OSCAR D., A Treatise on the Divine Laws of Marriage. L., Rivington & Percival, 1895. WESTERMARCK, Dr. EDWARD, A History of Human Marriage. Second edition. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1894. WINES, FREDERICK HOWARD, Punishment and Reformation: An Historical Sketch of the Rise of the Penitentiary System. N. Y., Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1895. SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE III The evils discussed in the previous lecture have accentuated the call for an effective remedy. It is the purpose of the present lecture to pass in review some remedial expedients which, although sometimes advocated with much assurance, have nevertheless failed to vindicate their efficacy apart from the inspiration, guidance, and cooperation of Christianity. It is not asserted that they are in every instance inherently and necessarily without value, but that, in view of the ordinary tendencies of human nature, they are found to be for the purposes of social reconstruction defective and misleading, incompetent to cope with the difficulties 'and demands of the environment, unless pervaded and directed by the moral power and spiritual enlightenment of Christian ideals. With a view to test the social fruitage of these agencies apart from Christianity, the following propositions are discussed: I. Secular education apart from Christian truth does not hold the secret of social regeneration. II. Material civilization, as exemplified in temporal prosperity, artistic luxury, and commercial progress, cannot guarantee the moral transformation of non-Christian society. III. State legislation in and by itself, apart from Christianized public sentiment, is not an effective instrument of social righteousness. IV. Patriotism cannot be trusted to insure the moral or political reform of non-Christian peoples. It may represent simply a blind and prejudiced adherence to all that is objectionable and injurious in the religious, social, and national life. V. The moral forces of ethnic religions are not capable of an uplifting and beneficent renewal of society. The individual and social product of Buddhism is found to be a paralyzed personality; of Confucianism an impoverished personality; of Hinduism a degraded personality ; of Islam an enslaved personality. The making of a perfected society is not in Shintoism, nor in Taoism, nor in Jainism, nor is
Parsism equal to the task. Other and lesser religious lights lead only into social darkness. Christianity is the supreme gift of God to human society. It is full of religious truth, moral energy, and penetrating influence, making it instrumental, wherever introduced, in changing the current of social life in the direction of higher ideals and nobler culture. As a religious environment it becomes an inspiring and a guiding force in the formation of a new public opinion and in the lifting up of the purer standards of
civilization. LECTURE III
INEFFECTUAL REMEDIES AND THE CAUSES OF THEIR FAILURE
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"Religion, like everything else, is to be judged by its effects. What moral discipline, what type of character has it produced? Does it develop manhood? Has it restrained human passion and selfishness? Has it purified and ennobled the life of the home? Has it been fruitful and beneficent in its influence on social and political institutions? Has it contributed to human freedom and happiness? What educational force has it exerted? What literature, arts, and sciences have sprung from it? Has it been a friend to progress and civilization? In short, what history has it, and to what extent is that history being realized in the public life of the
world?" REV. T. E. SLATER. "Through its whole history the Christian religion has developed supreme affinities for best things. For the noblest culture, for purest morals, for magnificent literatures, for most finished civilizations, for most energetic national temperaments, for most enterprising races, for the most virile and progressive stock of mind, it has manifested irresistible sympathies. It goes wherever it can find these superlative growths of human nature. Where it cannot find them it creates them. Judging its future by its past, no other system of human thought has so splendid a destiny. It is the only system which possesses undying youth. . . . There are religions of the soil. They abide where they were born. They develop no power of self-expansion and no facility of migration. Of this immobile type Christianity is not. It has restless, migratory impulses—tastes, we may almost call them—which forecast its destiny of dominion. It is emphatically the religion of colonization and of commerce. Always and everywhere it is the pioneer of beneficent change. It transplants itself into nascent languages and cements antagonistic races from which elect nations spring. "It is a striking fact, bearing upon this world's future, that civilization gives no sign of perpetuity in history till it is transplanted into Christianity. Independently, like all other social forces of human origin, it rots and dies. Only when it is rooted in Christian ideas does it give promise of a future. The most corrupt nations have been the most accomplished in civilized graces. The most appalling downfalls of great races have been the ending of the most illustrious careers of national renown. The ante-Christian civilizations have betrayed a frightful tendency to the development of cruelty and lust in national entertainments and the rites of national religions. They taught men to luxuriate in the sufferings of their fellows, and to adore their
deities by act of bestiality." AUSTIN PHELPS, D.D., LL.D.
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LECTURE III
INEFFECTUAL REMEDIES AND THE CAUSES OF THEIR FAILURE THE study of the social evils of the non-Christian world has emphasized the necessity for an adequate remedy. Here we deal with a vital point in our discussion. If a remedy is needed, then it is essential that it be the right one. We must scrutinize with care all proposals intended to provide relief and guarantee improvement. If we can determine with our best light that little, if any, dependence can be placed upon certain popular or highly recommended panaceas, then we have cleared the way of approach to something more effectual, and have prepared our minds to accept it with confidence in its adequacy. It will be helpful at this stage of our inquiry to
Christianity the "still small voice" of human history.glance at some of the civilizing agencies which are sometimes named as competent to regenerate heathen society independently of Christianity, and see if they have the moral quality and force necessary to the accomplishment of such a task. Their claims are often put forward with great assurance and plausibility. Education, civilization, legislation, patriotic aspirations, the moral power of ethnic religions, and the spirit of self-prompted reform are all, singly or collectively, referred to as instrumentalities capable of lifting society to the higher levels of morality and of recasting humanity in new spiritual moulds. In reviewing these agencies and scrutinizing their potentialities, we are reminded of the vision of the ancient seer, in which he was taught that the quickening power of the Lord was not in the wind, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire, but in a "still, small voice." It is not in the external commotions, the visible upheavals, the outward and spectacular changes, that the divine energy dwells, but rather in the secret influences within.
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It is the voice of God, at once tender and inspiring, that summons the soul to life and action, and gives it the mighty assurance of indwelling power. It should be borne in mind, moreover, that the agencies
The question stated.above referred to, so far as we are familiar with their influence in Christendom, are already in coöperation with Christianity. They are in part infused with and inspired by its spirit. If the Christian element in these instrumentalities is to be included, then they are practically mission agencies. Education under the spell of Christian influence is one thing, and quite another thing when entirely out of touch with Christian ideals. When pervaded by the spirit of a true religious outlook, it gathers to itself a vital force, a purifying energy, a moral tone, a gracious temper, and a constructive aim which place it in the front rank of helpful social forces. The same may be said of civilization, patriotism, legislation, and the power of public opinion; if these are infused with Christian sentiments, they cannot be looked upon as acting independently of, but rather in coöperation with, Christianity. If the question is to be fairly put, therefore, it must be whether education and kindred forces, entirely separated from Christianity and independent of it, will avail to save society. Missions are not insensible of the value of these instrumentalities as those which yield themselves to moral aims and can thus be consecrated to human advancement. In fact, they are made in an indirect way the very channels of mission activity, and as such are useful and effective, but will they be fruitful in beneficial results without the Christian spirit? Are they in themselves morally vitalizing and reformatory? Upon what basis do they rest in inculcating moral accountability? Have they inherent virtue to renew and refashion the spiritual tone of society? We can safely claim that, tested by such searching criteria, they will be found to be lacking in power to accomplish deep and permanent results ;1 nor have they a watchword, such as Christianity possesses, to stimulate and ennoble humanity. The remedy required must have in it a supernatural and divine efficacy, which never inheres in purely secular civilization.2 This supreme factor of supernatural energy must be mighty, pervasive, effectual, and universal. It must be able to work revolutionary changes in the realm of intellectual perception and moral impulse. Think for a moment what is required of it and what are the forces arrayed against it. It will necessarily be in 1 Cf. Seelye, "Christian Missions," Lecture II., pp. 31-58. 2 Cf. article on "Christian Supernaturalism," by Professor B. B. Warfield,
D.D., LL.D., in The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, January, 1897.
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conflict with debased public sentiment, immemorial social tendencies, dominant customs, hardened sensibilities, confirmed phases of character, much ignorant inertia, and a host of all-powerful superstitions.1 In view of these requirements, is there any remedial agency which is equal to the task, except, as we shall try to show later, the religion of Christ, which it is the function of missions to teach and establish?2 I Education alone, apart from Christianity, will not accomplish it. It is
Is the secret of social regeneration in education alone?not in itself a moral force. In fact, if it is out of touch entirely with Christianity, it often becomes a powerful weapon of evil, and may be subsidized in violent hostility to the higher welfare of society. Let us here guard carefully our meaning. We do not intend to assert that education under Christian auspices, pervaded by the spirit and aim of a Christian purpose, is not a useful and helpful stimulus to social progress. It should rather be counted a noble and legitimate missionary instrumentality. Our contention, then, is that mere education, either elementary or higher, apart from Christianity, with no promptings of Christian morality, no infusion of Christian truth, and no lessons in Christian living, is not in itself an effective instrument of social regeneration. We do not dispute that it is an intellectual stimulus, that it broadens the outlook, and breaks the fetters of superstition, is of benefit in its sphere and way as a ministry to the mental faculties, and that it may indeed be a scholastic preparation for a subsequent study and more appreciative apprehension of Christian truth and morality; yet, while it is in alliance with materialism, agnosticism, or a false and superstitious religious system, its power as a moral regenerator of society is at a minimum. Civilization is not derived from or based upon knowledge in the head so much as it is drawn from and prompted by a true religious and humane temper in the heart and life of man. 1 Cf. article on "Foreign Missions and Sociology in China," by the Rev. Arthur H. Smith, in The Missionary Review of the World, February, 1895. 2 "It must be recollected that the moral standard of individuals is fixed not alone, and sometimes not principally, by their personal convictions, but by the principles, the traditions, and the habits of the society in which they live, and below which it is a point of honour, as well as of duty, not to sink. A religious system is only, then, truly tested when it is set to reform and to train, on a territory of its own, great masses of mankind."—William E. Gladstone.
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The evidence of this lack of regenerative power in mere education is not wanting. The ancient culture and the highest scholastic achievements of Oriental and classical paganism were developed side by side with the grossest moral degradation and the most colossal social wrongs. Classical philosophy in its most ideal development had nothing better to offer as a social system than Plato's dream of a perfect society as represented in his "Republic," and, as Dr. Fairbairn says, "That Republic could not have been realized without the ruin of humanity."1 The Renaissance was a revival of learning, but it was fruitless in moral energy until the Reformation introduced the spirit of a living religious faith into the quickened intellectual development of Europe in the sixteenth century. The deistical revival of the eighteenth century was an effort to alienate learning and religion, and its tendencies are recorded in the history of Western Europe in that century of social reaction and confusion. Coming to more modern times, there are no nations in the world
Is the evidence from Japan, China and India convincing?where education apart from Christianity has had such large opportunities as in Japan, China, and India. The advances of education in Japan have been phenomenal; yet competent observers are convinced that intellectual progress alone has not improved the morality of the country.2 In China, education is the hope and the goal of tens of thousands of toiling students, and the result is represented by the literati of the Celestial Empire, who form, perhaps, one of the most 1 The abortive character of Plato's ideal has been sketched by Dr. Fairbairn, who thus writes of it: "Think where he [Plato] lived, in the fairest land of antiquity, under the brightest sun, amid the most cultivated people, pupil of the greatest teacher and philosopher of his race, associated with the wisest statesmen, heir to an heroic past, moved by a poetry that is still the joy of the scholar, and then conceive him turning in his maturest manhood to think out the model of a perfect republic. And what was it? It was a state where there was to be little freedom, for philosophers were to be kings—and a strange king the philosopher always makes, for he is a man resolute to fit men into his theory, and his best theory is, you may be well assured, a bad frame for the simplest man. And the state these philosophers were to rule was to be one where the home was destroyed, where women were to be held in common, where there was to be a community of goods, where life was to be regulated by rules and hard-fixed methods that would have allowed no elasticity, no play for glad and spontaneous energy. That Republic could not have been realized without the ruin of humanity, and was possible at its best only for the Greek, was conceived in derision of the barbarian, and afforded even to Greek nature only the poorest exercise."—Fairbairn, "Religion in History and in Modern Life," p. 163. 2 Bishop Evington, of Japan, in a speech in Exeter Hall, in the spring of 1894, gave as his emphatic testimony that education pure and simple has not influenced for the better the morals of Japan. See The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1894, p. 287. One of the makers of the New Japan, the "lamented Neesima, revealed his wise discernment when he said: "We seek to send out into the world not only men versed in literature and science, but young men of strong and noble character, who will use their learning for the good of their fellow-men. This, we are convinced, can never be accomplished by abstract speculative teaching, nor by strict and complicated rules, but only by Christian principles, and, therefore, we adopt these principles as the unchangeable foundation of our educational work, and devote oar energies to their realization."
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effective barriers to her social progress. The Chinese system of education, left to itself, would hold the empire in the grasp of an unprogressive and stereotyped social system, and provide no remedy for its stagnation and vacuity. In India one of the ripest fruits of non-Christian education is the Brahman, and it is a demonstrated fact that even under the influence of modern education, unless touched by the illuminating and regenerating power of Christianity, he can remain a Brahman still, and will defend the social anomalies of the Brahmanical system, no matter to what degree of culture his education is carried. The system of caste survives practically intact in a purely educational atmosphere, and high-caste students who have received university education under the government system of non-religious influence have clung to the most puerile features of caste ceremonialism to an extent which even Hindus themselves acknowledge to be a disgrace to intelligent manhood.1 One of the most ignoble spectacles of the modern world is an educated Hindu of high caste, upon his return from a visit to European civiliza- 1 The Rev. M. A. Sherring, in his "Hindu Tribes and Castes," says of some of them: "With all their weight of learning, the possession of which enables them to carry off university degrees and honours, they are perfectly content to mingle among the most superstitious and ignorant Hindus, to do as they do, to obey their foolish dictum as law, and to have no other aim in life than to conform to the most rigid usages of their ancestors."—Quoted in "Papers on Indian Social Reform," section on" Caste," p. 49. "It has been generally acknowledged that secular education alone will not permanently and satisfactorily develop or elevate moral character. It is only, as all missionary experience proves, when a man accepts Christ as his teacher, example, and Saviour that he ever rises above the vices and immoralities of a past heathen life. Education and so-called Christian civilization do work a certain amount of outward improvement, but it is only a whole-hearted acceptance of Christ that does or can produce an abiding and worthy moral character. Old habits and customs die hard, but it is only the men and women who become Christians who ever really rise above national weakness, superstition, and vice. So far as known, not one of our native Christians denied the Faith in the terrible days of the Indian Mutiny."—Rev. D. Hutton (L. M. S.), Mirzapur, North India.
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tion going through the ceremony of expiation in accordance with the requirements of his religion, which consists, among other things, of swallowing a pill composed of the five products of the cow. He is truly spoken of in The Hindu Patriot, a leading native paper, as "an imbecile swallower of penitential pills." The effect of Indian education apart from Christianity is simply to galvanize the social curses that Hinduism has introduced and perpetuated. In a paper presented to the Bombay Conference of 1893 (Report, p. 429), Dr. Mackichan, Principal of the Wilson College at Bombay, writes: "The testimony is borne in from all quarters of the land that secular education, apart from the inculcation of the principles of Christianity, has proved a very doubtful blessing so far as the religious condition of the people is concerned. The Government itself, which presides over this system, is profoundly conscious of its failure, and seems to shrink with some alarm from the consequences of its own action. It turns for help to all who can supply the influences which it must exclude from its own system. Surely this appeal is a testimony of authority and weight."1 1 Dr. Norman Macleod once expressed his judgment upon the problem of education in India as follows: "If the non-religious schools and colleges be left alone, they will eventually leave the bulk of the educated portion of the natives either without any faith in God or without any fear of God. If Christian colleges and schools flourish alongside the secular ones, a true and reverent faith will be seen to be compatible with the highest education." At the recent annual prize distribution at the high school of the Church Missionary Society at Jabalpur, Sir Anthony P. MacDonnell, K.C.S.I., Civil Commissioner of the Central Provinces, presided, and in the course of his address, in which he referred to the difficulties which beset the Government in the attempt to convey moral training in State schools, remarked : "For my own part, I consider the difficulties so great that State schools offer me but little prospect of a satisfactory solution. The problem can alone be solved by such institutions as this, which are free to make religious and moral teaching part of the daily curriculum." He especially commended the school as "one of those which aim at something higher than imparting mere secular instruction, and recognize the great principle that moral training is the only sound basis of education."—Quoted in The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1893, p. 292. The late Sir C. U. Aitchison, K.C.S.I., in an able article on the Brahmo Somaj, spoke of materialism and agnosticism, which, "as the outcome of a purely secular education, are throwing their baleful shade over the educated youth of India."—Ibid., March, 1893, p. 173. A missionary in India writes: "There is one thing which education does not seem to bring to India, and that is moral stamina. The ability to accept and harbor the most debasing social customs of this land is found among Hindus almost as frequently, if not as fully, under the university cap and gown as under the unkempt hair and rags of the village plowman. This is a vast and ghastly factor in the great Problem of India's social and religious renovation."—The Gospel in all Lands, June, 1894, p. 276.
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The fact that government education in India is so fully and vigorously supplemented by the evangelical spirit of mission schools and colleges is a saving influence of the highest value. India, no matter how fully educated, with Christianity ruled out and Hinduism and Mohammedanism still dominant, would wait indefinitely for the day of its social regeneration. Educated Mohammedanism, whether in India or elsewhere, would furnish only another illustration of the impotence of mere secular knowledge to rescue society from the dominance of desolating and degrading evils against which Christianity alone sets itself in sturdy and irreconcilable opposition. There is no doubt whatever that within as well as
Some interesting testimony from Christendom.without the bounds of Christendom a high degree of educational culture may be linked with a depraved moral life. It may even be at the back of the most vicious and dangerous philosophical and social theories. At a recent sociological assembly in Paris, Sir John Lubbock asserted that the experience of England since the passage of the General Educational Act, in 1870, has demonstrated that education has had a direct and perceptible influence in the diminution of crime. While the fact that crime has decreased in England since 1870 was not disputed, yet his assertion that this decrease was due to the influence of popular education was questioned, and it was shown that at least in France experience had indicated exactly the opposite conclusion. The interesting point was then fully brought out that in France the education was purely intellectual, while in England it was accompanied by moral training and discipline; and strong ground was taken in advocacy of the position that mere physical and intellectual education would not lessen crime, but that if a moral and religious element were introduced the reverse would no doubt prove true. It is, indeed, a grave question how far education, intelligence, and even a high degree of civilization, by virtue of their own independent influence apart from the power of moral principle, work for the good of society. Certainly there are strange enigmas in contemporary history in the political, commercial, industrial, and humanitarian aspects of the world, which bring our enlightened age to the Bar, and lead us to question whether the world, if it had to wait upon secular education alone for the inauguration of its social millennium, would not be doomed to a long and hopeless vigil.
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II Civilization as represented in material prosperity, artistic luxury, and
Is there a guarantee of social regeneration in material civilization?secular progress is also of no avail as a guarantee of social regeneration. It is not in itself a moral factor, and cannot be trusted to work for the higher welfare of society. It is true that the modern secular spirit and the world-culture of our age may be given by civilization without Christianity; they may be introduced in a crude fashion in the form of social veneering, by commerce, colonization, education, and foreign intercourse; but it is evident that the advantage of this method is wholly superficial. It is clearly the testimony of experience that no power of moral renovation is inherent in material progress. The spirit of wickedness and the degrading practice of vice are quite as much at home in the godless atmosphere of the great capitals of civilization as amid the barbarous surroundings of Asia and Africa. An environment of luxurious civilization does not change the essential nature of vice, nor give a moral tone or any distinctive elevation of manners to culture. To be sure, there is civilization and civilization, but we are speaking now of a civilization which is not Christianized in any degree. One of the results of the rapidly developing intercourse between Oriental and Occidental
Can the ethnic religions coalesce with Christian civilization?nations will, no doubt, be an attempt to establish a modus vivendi between higher modern civilization and non-Christian religious society. We shall be likely to witness an attempt at the absorption of Western civilization, accompanied by a strict adherence to the religious codes of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Mohammedanism. It is doubtful whether the amalgamation can be accomplished. Christian civilization in its purer and finer features is so much the product of Christianity that the attempt to adopt it on the part of non-Christian cults will be impossible without concessions and compromises which would be revolutionary, and in the end destructive of the ethical and religious supremacy of the alien faith. Conservatism will not yield; the new liberalism will be obliged to break with the old system; and the result will be the entrance and dominance of Christian ideas. There is no country in the world where the experiment could be made with less of a clash than in Japan. Modern culture and Western methods have been, however, to no small extent
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allied with Christianity, and the probability is that a large and dominant infusion of Christian ideals will enter the New Japan to mould and guide her social development. Whether Japan is ready at present to acknowledge it or not, her true national progress and social elevation will depend upon her attitude towards Christianity. She can never inaugurate and foster a Christian, or even any distinctively moral, civilization without Christianity. There is every prospect, however, that she will escape in large measure the terrible blunder of entering upon a new era of progress weighted with the incubus of her old religious cults. The lesson of history is clear and convincing. As Warneck says: "The history of all times shows no example of this, that mere civilization has been the means of elevating again a sunken people. . . . Christianity is not the bloom, but the root; culture is not the root, but the bloom of Christianity."1Japan, as the first Oriental nationality under the stimulus largely of native energy, to break through the barriers of the past and join the march of modern progress, would do well to ponder seriously this suggestive fact. It is a lesson of deep significance and prophetic import to all the waiting peoples of the non-Christian world about to enter sooner or later upon a modern era of rapid and marvelous development. History and experience unite in the testimony that material civilization does not minister to the immortal nature of man, or carry in itself that secret principle of moral energy which touches and renews society with a purifying and uplifting power.2 If civilization in any land or any age is to have the stamp of nobility and the promise of permanence, it must be founded on morality; and the only morality which has stood all the tests of experience and history is essentially Christian. 1 Warneck, "Modern Missions and Culture," pp. 149, 232. Cf. also Cust,
"The Gospel Message," pp. 174-186. 2 "Take any one of the attributes of humanity and educate it to the loftiest
conception of culture, take them all and refine them to their utmost capacity, and you arrive at something infinitely removed from Christianity. Roman jurisprudence, Greek art, Spartan endurance, French taste, German militarism, English commerce —all are evidences, components, necessities of civilization, but singly or unitedly they in no wise make Christianity. 'My kingdom' reigns in sanctified affections and heaven-molded wills and spiritual aspirations. Amid enervating influences Christianity means manliness; in antagonism to the false glamour that gleams around self-assertion, it opposes meekness and forbearance; it signifies the absence of mean ness, and insists on purity of thought and life; it demands self-sacrifice in the stead of epicurean indulgence; sympathy, and not stolidity, stoical indifference, or selfishness, in any of their disguises. In place of all the artificial castes of society, its frontier lines and boundaries, it confesses an all-comprehending brotherhood; it implies a charity so tender and beautiful that it is content to measure a man by his best moods instead of his worst; it means a life linked on to a higher one; it imports the weaving into one strong strand of the will of the Great Father and that of the wayward child."—George H. Giddins, in The Evangelical Magazine, September, 1895, p. 526.
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The highest social life of the ancient world was destitute of the distinctive
The status of man in Oriental civilizations.features of Christian civilization. True, there was an extraordinary development of arts and sciences, immense and profound systems of speculative philosophy, marvelous industrial achievements, magnificent architectural triumphs, imposing public works, abounding luxuries, costly amusements, imperial shows, splendid ceremonialism, commercial enterprise, colonial expansion, colossal military undertakings, vast political machinery, renowned and flourishing municipal life—in fact, the most advanced civilization of the age was centred and solidified in those great Oriental empires. Where, however, was man himself amid all this pomp and glory of visible achievement? He and the whole social system of which he was a part were crouching in the deep shadows of this great fabric of material splendor. With strange and suggestive irony he, himself, seemed to drop out of sight and sink into littleness in the presence of that imposing display of magnificent things. He, the living ego, was submerged in a material maelstrom. Injustice, degradation, misery, cruelty, and vice seemed to reign in his sphere. There was a deification of power and sovereignty as represented in the rulers of men, but there was an awful and crushing humiliation of man himself as represented in the social system. Substantially the same status, so far as the experience of common humanity and the prospects of society are concerned, is revealed in the great Oriental communities of to-day. In Japan, China, and India there is an imposing material civilization manifested in exquisite artistic workmanship, a voluminous literature, architectural triumphs, and industrial accomplishments. The Orientals are in many remarkable respects workmen who need not be ashamed of their achievements. We can spend an hour in wonderland whenever we have the opportunity of visiting some exhibition of their handiwork. The manual skill of civilization has never put forth finer products than the exquisite enamels, the beautiful dyes, the sumptuous carpets, curtains, and hangings, lovely silks, and curious bric-à-brac in gold and silver and bronze, that come to us from the Orient; yet this is all, let us notice, from lands
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where humanity sits in the shadow and does its work in an atmosphere of social degeneracy and eclipse. "The attainments of the Chinese in the arts of life," says Dr. S. Wells Williams, "are perhaps as great as they can be without this spring of action [Christianity], without any other motives to industry, obedience, and morality than the commands or demands of the present life. . . . They have probably reached as high a point as they can attain without the Gospel, and its introduction, with its attendant influences, will ere long change their political and social system."1 The mere introducing of these Asiatic empires into the "sisterhood of nations," or the
Social reform implies a change in the spirit of Asiatic empries, rather than their material civilization.development of commercial intercourse with Christendom, Still less the introduction of Western facilities and inventions, or the exchange of Oriental for Occidental commodities, will not touch the real seat of the trouble.2 The "funded civilization" of the Occident, even though transported bodily into an Oriental environment, will produce no moral fruitage, and will never accomplish the radical social reforms which are sorely needed.3 There is already a degree of material civilization in China, which might be expected to elevate her socially, if such were its tendency. In the Province of Szechuan and up the Valley of the Yangtse there is a development of agriculture and industrial prosperity which has supported interior China for centuries, with hardly a breath of intercourse with the external world; but the result of all this is simply China, and a similar outcome may be expected where civilization alone, without Christianity, holds the helm of society. In New Zealand the testimony of the Rev. Samuel Marsden, an heroic and devoted missionary pioneer among the Maoris, is of the same tenor. "He saw with painful reality that education, contact with Europeans, and increase of knowledge and refinement, did not change the character of the Maoris. Nothing but genuine conversion by the saving power of the blood of Jesus Christ could make such vile and degraded savages into new creatures."4 Replace This Text 1 " The Middle Kingdom," vol. i., pp. 47, 48. 2 " The introduction of railways will not cause a single idol to disappear. Are the temples in Canton any less crowded because this city has electric light and telegraph lines? Universities by teaching natural science may cause students to abandon trust in idols, but will not make them Christians, and the vast millions will continue to worship idols until the ineradicable tendency to worship is satisfied with something nobler than human workmanship can supply."—Rev. Albert A. Fulton (P. B. F. M. N.), Canton, China. 3 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 326. 4 Page, "Among the Maoris," p. 49.
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its being pervaded by the spirit of righteousness and honor.1 It may open the way for missionary enterprise, but in many instances the reverse is conspicuously true, that missions have prepared the way for the advances of commerce, as has been notably the case in Africa.2 But where commerce alone has been depended upon to accomplish the task of the reformation of a corrupt and sunken society, it has invariably failed. Even what has been named the "Gospel of Cloth" is no guarantee of a
Will outside covering secure inside cleansing?higher morality among savage races. Christianity is right in insisting upon a proper clothing of the person; yet native races may be clothed to perfection, but this will not in itself bring them within the pale of decency or cleanse their lives from the foulness of immoral practices. It is the testimony of experienced missionaries that among savage races scant clothing is not in itself an evidence of immodesty, and where vice prevails the attempt to introduce virtue by means of European garments is in vain.3 On the other hand, the Christian instincts of modesty and purity, once implanted in the heart, are sure to cleanse the vileness within and to regulate the proprieties of dress. The shallow and mistaken character of the cry, "Civilization first and Christianity afterwards," has
The cry, "Civilization first and Christianity afterwards," a false watchword.been abundantly revealed in the experience of missions. The universal testimony of missionaries of lifelong observation and ripe capacity for discrimination is unmistakably of the same tenor. Dr. Morfat, after twenty-six years of missionary life, writes: "Much has been said about civilizing savages before attempting to evangelize them. This is a theory which has obtained an extensive prevalence among the wise men of this world, 1 Cairns, in "Report of London Conference, 1888," vol. i., p. 116. 2 Moffat, "The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat," p. 433. 3 The Rev. James Macdonald, in writing of African religious beliefs and
social customs, remarks: "So far as our knowledge of African peoples goes, the kind and amount of clothing worn does not seem to have any influence on public morals. The Waganda clothe from head to foot, and put a man to death if he walks about naked in a public place, but their morality is very low, and offences against
the Seventh Commandment are common everywhere. The Baris go almost naked, and they are in no way noted for immodesty, but rather the opposite. The Gowane are exceptionally well clad, but this does not prevent their having a custom that a girl may not marry till she has borne a child. The paternity of this child is not inquired into. That is her own affair, and the husband has nothing to do with it. The child is sold as a slave. Among the Dyoor, with their scanty aprons hardly equal to fig-leaves, domestic affection is very marked, and the Bongo, who wear little clothing beyond a tail hanging down behind, limit their men to a maximum of
three wives, a rare virtue in Africa."—"Religion and Myth," p. 219.
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but we have never yet seen a practical demonstration of its truth. We ourselves are convinced that evangelization must precede civilization. It is very easy in a country of high refinement to speculate on what might be done among rude and savage men, but the Christian missionary, the only experimentalist, has invariably found that to make the fruit good the tree must first be made good. Nothing less than the power of divine grace can reform the hearts of savages, after which the mind is susceptible of those instructions which teach them to adorn the Gospel they profess."1 To this distinguished missionary also is attributed the saying, "Civilization drives away the tiger, but breeds the fox." The impracticable character of this civilization creed of missions is manifest, moreover, in the utter absence of any missionary enterprise based upon this theory of procedure.2 The true attitude of Christian missions towards commerce and all the modern facilities of transportation, communication, and material progress is to seek to permeate them with the Christian spirit and use them for the moral and social advantage of the people wherever happily they are established. 1 Moffat, "The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat," p. 372. 2 The question is pertinently asked by Dr. A. C. Thompson, in his "Moravian
Missions," "What, now, have the apostles of civilization simple and pure ever done, or what are they likely to do, for savage races? Where are the polished philanthropists who, in their contemptuous prejudice, repudiating evangelical missions, stand all ready with plow and printing-press to start for the dark places of the earth which are so full of the habitations of cruelty? Let their names be handed in. If any men holding to this mistaken idea, that civilization must precede Christianity, are prepared to put the theory to the test, they are men of Christian principle and devotion. The Dark Continent is not without an experiment of that kind. Eighty years ago the English Methodists, under the leadership of Dr. Coke, entertained a scheme for introducing civilization among the Foulahs of Western Africa. A number of well-disposed artisans of various descriptions were engaged to go out, under the idea that after some progress had been made in civilization missionaries should be sent to preach the Gospel. William Wilberforce and some other leading men of the day lent their patronage, and great expectations were awakened; but the scheme proved a complete failure. When the agents reached Sierra Leone their courage failed. They had not strength of motive sufficient to carry them out among the savages. The constraining power of love for the souls of perishing heathen men is required to establish even philanthropic men among a barbarous people; and nothing will so soon start such a people on the highroad of social and material improvement as the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In South Africa, civilization had the field for more than a hundred years all to itself; and what did it achieve? It robbed the natives of their lands; it reduced them to virtual or actual slavery; it debauched them with ardent spirits; it formed illicit connections, by which both Europeans and natives are degraded; in the spirit of a Cortez and Pizarro, it has boldly declared that savage Kaffirs should be made to sink before industrious men of a superior
race".—Thompson, "Moravian Missions," pp. 408-410.
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III State legislation in and by itself, apart from Christianized public sentiment, is not an effective instrument of social regeneration. Legislation may originate from only two sources: it may be introduced by a foreign government, ruling either by conquest or in the form of colonial administration, or it may spring from the native government itself. In the first instance, unless native public opinion is in
Wherein state legislation fails.sympathy with it, it amounts simply to a purely legal pressure from without, which may secure under compulsion the formal observance of specific rules of conduct. However important and useful it may be, it is lacking in inspiration and fails to command the hearty assent and coöperation of native society. It may enforce its exactions while it lasts, but it cannot create a sympathetic spirit. It concerns itself, moreover, with the prohibition of such external acts as may constitute an offense in the eye of the law or that may be prosecuted as a crime. It is in the power of law to punish criminals, but it cannot eradicate the criminal instinct and purpose. Its punishments are not necessarily potent even as a deterrent. No human expedient can change the disposition which is back of the overt act. As a matter of political expediency it is natural that foreign legislative administration should be very cautious and hesitant in pushing any State legislation which conflicts with native opinions and customs of a religious or social character, unless there be the most imperative legal and moral necessity for so doing. Even the British Government in India at first, in violation of its own rule of neutrality, adopted the gravely compromising policy of patronizing Hinduism by participating officially in its revolting public ceremonies, and making grants from its treasury for the support of Hindu temples. Happily, however, another spirit now prevails, but not without considerable pressure from Christian sentiment at home, and still there are strange concessions to native religious customs, especially the obscenity of certain observances of Hinduism and of some of its spectacular ceremonialism. The policy of absolute neutrality in religious matters still obtains, and is likely to do so for a long time to come. As a method of government this is no doubt wise, and would be unexceptionable were it not for the attitude of moral compromise which it involves. It serves to illustrate, however, the prac-
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tical difficulty of social regeneration by law where, native sentiment and immemorial custom stand in the way.1 In the second instance, where native legislation is supposed to be operative, it may be said to be unprecedented to find the cause of moral and social reform taken up by native non-Christian governments, unless the stimulus has come either from Christian missions or from the example and influence of civilized nations.2 The instinct of reform does not originate among savages, nor with barbarous or even semicivilized governments. Stagnation, indifference, and heartless toleration of evil customs have for centuries been the rule in the annals of non-Christian countries. Moral regeneration as illustrated in Christendom is a bright exception in universal human experience. The originating impulse has been planted in society by the power of Christianity before any legislative reforms have been enacted. For the fullest confirmation of this statement we have simply to turn to the history of Eastern nations, such as Japan, Korea, China, India, and other partially enlightened peoples. The step forward in each case where it has occurred has been by virtue of influences and impulses arising from contact with Western Christendom. That great and permanent reforms have been accomplished by
Where reform attends colonial administration its spirit is Christian.Christian powers in connection with colonial administration should be acknowledged with satisfaction and gratitude; but it should be noted also that this has been done under the stimulus of Christian principle and humanitarian instincts, and it may be questioned whether it is not the exception rather than the rule that even the colonial policy of Christendom has concerned itself very much with the moral and social progress of subject races. The British rule in India is the most conspicuous example of what a Christian power can accomplish for the material and social benefit of a people among whom the responsibilities of colonial administration are assumed. While there is still much to be done, yet the record of reforms in India which have been effected by the direct agency of British rule is a noble chapter in the administrative annals of Great Britain. The list itself, as given by Dr. George Smith in his "Life of the Rev. Dr. Wilson of Bombay," is a revelation of the social barbarism of India in the early part of the 1 The Dawn in India, July, 1895, p. 62. 2 "The Christian thought, the Christian tradition, the Christian society, are the great, the imperial thought, the tradition and society of this earth. It is from Christendom outwards that power and influence radiate, not towards it and into it that they flow."—William E. Gladstone.
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present century. Among these reforms may be mentioned the following : the abolishment of sati, or widow-burning; the prohibition of infanticide ; the stopping of human sacrifices; legal restrictions against suicide; the forbidding of barbarous cruelties, such as the impaling of criminals or tearing them apart by elephants, the serious maiming of women and thieves, the extraction of evidence by torture, the trial by ordeal, hook-swinging, and cutting by knives ; the making of slavery a crime; the non-recognition of caste distinctions before the law; the raising of the age of consent; the legalization of the marriage of widows; the establishment of a system of government education. This is a record which must be regarded with intense interest by every lover of justice and freedom. Yet, with no Christian leaven at work in Indian society, can we have any guarantee that all these abominations would not be speedily revived if legal pressure were withdrawn? The facilities of modern civilization which have been introduced, the courts of law, and the admirable system of police for the preservation of public order established throughout India, indicate also the benefits which attend English rule. The history of British colonial administration in other parts of the world has many bright aspects and commendable features, yet the Christian student of British colonization cannot but be pained by many evidences of a dominant policy of political or commercial imperialism, and of some shameful lapses from the standards of enlightened Christian rule. We doubt not, however, that the Christian element in British administration will appear more and more as time goes on. There are many English officials who regret most keenly the shortcomings revealed in the colonial policy of England, and look with the highest favor upon Christian missions as a cooperative agency of incalculable value and promise in filling out the deficiencies of government in the sphere of moral and humanitarian reform. Striking instances, however, may be noted which indicate
Illustrations of the failure of purely legislative pressure.either the incapacity or the failure of legislation, even in the colonial administration of Christian Powers, to reach the social needs of non-Christian peoples. This may arise from the limitations of self-imposed neutrality in regulative legislation concerning all religious and many social matters, as in the case of the British rule in India above referred to; or there may be a culpable failure to act where aggressive legislation or a modification of existing policy is called for. The opium traffic is an illustration. There may still be failure arising from the inoperative character of legislative enactments. In India, for example,
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notwithstanding the official suppression of sati, the legalization of the marriage of widows is practically a dead letter, because of the failure of Hindu public opinion to sanction or respond to the spirit and aim of the enactment. The same may be said of the effort to regulate the question of child marriage and the age of consent, and to guarantee entire religious liberty throughout Indian society. The attempt to inaugurate sanitary measures has often failed, by reason of the unconquerable prejudice of the native populations, as was illustrated recently in connection with the plague at Hong Kong, and to a lesser degree in India. Such objectionable customs as foot-binding are almost beyond the reach of legislation, unless some radical change of public sentiment shall secure coöperation on the part of native society. A study of the colonial policy of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal reveals the strange indifference of these nations to the moral and social welfare of their foreign constituencies. On the contrary, national ambition, commercial advantage, political expediency, and reckless disregard of the moral responsibilities involved in colonial enterprise, mark to a deplorable extent the history of European contact with and government of inferior races.1 In a chapter entitled "A Study of French Colonial Administration," in his recent volume, "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," Mr. Henry Norman presents many instructive and significant facts bearing upon this subject. The history of French aggressions in Siam, Algeria, and Madagascar supplements by facts of a similar tenor what is said there. The story of European protectorates in Africa is yet in its earliest chapter, but there are even now startling anomalies of administration and legislation, which dim somewhat the otherwise brilliant outlook for African progress.2 No doubt Providence uses human government as a preparation for the
The historic of the "Pax Britannica" in the development of India.advances of His kingdom. Rome was an instrument to accomplish a work of great value in preparing the world for the advent of Christianity; so the British rule in India will be used by Providence to facilitate the progress of Christianity in that vast realm. The "Pax Britannica" will no doubt occupy a place of historic honor in the religious and social history of India, equal, if not superior, to that 1 For an historical summary of the darker features of European colonial contact with inferior races, see Warneck, "Missions and Culture," pp. 239-306. 2 See an article on "German Policy in Central Africa," in The New Review, February, 1897, for a searching exposé of the spirit and practice of German administration in East Africa. Cf. also article in The Saturday Review, January 30, 1897, p. 106.
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which has long been accorded to the "Pax Romana" as a preparation for Christianity. The noble part to be taken by British rule over a united India, in anticipation of the development of an Indian Christendom, is as yet but faintly realized. The preparatory and cooperating external instrumentalities would be of little value, however, were the majestic spiritual forces of missionary enterprise lacking. The true, ideal status in this connection is a hearty, sympathetic, and mutually respectful coöperation between the legislative forces of Christian government and the spiritual and moral energies of Christian missions. Missions, on their part, may be greatly facilitated and aided by a generous and sympathetic government policy. Government, on the other hand, may be helped where it is weakest by the moral backing and spiritual inspiration that can come alone through Christian teaching and living. Notable utterances on the part of distinguished Christian officials in the colonial service of England could be quoted in advocacy of this policy of coöperation and mutual support.1 1 At a missionary meeting in Brisbane, Australia, Sir W. Macgregor, the Administrator of British New Guinea, referred to mission work in substance as follows: "He had been several times asked since he had been in Brisbane if the missionaries did any good among the natives. The question surprised him, but he had no hesitation in answering it. His mind was perfectly clear on the subject, and he looked on missionaries as being absolutely indispensable in a country like New Guinea. In a new country like Fiji or New Guinea secular education was entirely in the hands of the missionaries. The Government of Fiji or the Government of New Guinea could do nothing in that direction. In his judgment, the work which the Wesleyan missionaries had done in Fiji in the way of education was perhaps greater than their wonderful work in converting the natives. But apart altogether from the question of secular education, he had no doubt whatever that good government and order would never be permanently established unless they had Christianity as their basis. He wanted to see order established in New Guinea on the basis of Christianity, and he knew it would then survive him. That could only be brought about with the assistance of the missionary societies."—Quoted in Work and Workers in the Mission Field, July, 1892, p. 101. Sir Charles Elliott, when Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, expressed his judgment as to the value of missions as a coöperative agency in the realization of the highest aims of Christian government in India, in the following memorable language : "The point that I would insist on to-day is this: that, whether successful or not, the work of offering Christianity to the people is one that ought to be persevered in, since without that we should fail to utilise one large section of the influence which the European ought to have on the Asiatic mind. I hold that it is the part of missions to carry on and complete the work which England is placed here by Providence to effect, and which would be imperfect without them. The Government of India can do much; if it could not, we who are its servants could not feel the pride and enthusiasm with which we serve it. ... It can bestow education on the masses, and can even offer, with a doubtful and hesitating hand, a maimed and cold code of morals. But it can go no further, and there its influence stops. Consider what a vast hiatus this stoppage implies. Government cannot bestow on the people that which gives to life its colour and to love of duty its noblest incentive; it cannot offer the highest morality, fortified by the example of the Divinely Perfect Life. It is here that the missionary steps in to supplement the work of the official. ... I make bold to say that if missions did not exist, it would be our duty to invent them."—Quoted in The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1894, pp. 249, 250.
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IV Patriotism is not a competent or trustworthy guide in social reform.
Is patriotism a safe watchword of social reform?As regards morality, wisdom, and practical insight, it may be utterly misleading, spurious, and superficial. It has no moral guarantee and no proper standard of intelligence. It may be simply a reflection of the existing status, and represent only a blind and prejudiced adherence to opinions and customs in themselves objectionable and injurious. It cannot alone be safely trusted to promote the welfare, happiness, and progress of society. It is true that enlightened, unselfish, and high-toned patriotism, under the culture of intelligence and Christianity, is a beautiful and commendable trait which has had an inspiring mission in the world. Often has such been fruitful in heroism, self-sacrifice, and high devotion to the welfare of humanity. There is, however, a false and sinister patriotism which may work only disaster and prove a hindrance to true progress. It may be narrow and clannish, and at times only another name for feudalism. It may be inspired with military ambition and the desire of conquest. It may act hastily, thoughtlessly, imprudently, under the unsafe stimulus of pride or national conceit, or swayed by the stormy impulses of passion. It may be so destitute of moral discrimination as to advocate, defend, and promote outworn traditions and serious social evils simply because they exist and have been characteristic of past national history. It may become so identified with a false religious system as to seek the promotion of a socially debasing cult and to limit religion within national lines. Even at its best it is rarely, if ever, an advocate of moral and religious change, but rather seeks to solidify and perpetuate existing religious beliefs. It is usually regarded among non-Christian nationalities as unpatriotic to embrace a new religious faith. This is especially true in Japan, where patriotism, or an intense national
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spirit, is a militant influence in opposition to the progress of Christianity. Patriotism may minister to pride, self-conceit, and national complacency, as in China, and to a considerable extent in India, so that nothing new from without is welcome, though it may be evident that it will be beneficial and reformatory. There is a certain kind of patriotism in vogue at present among Oriental nationalities, which, if it had its own way, would doom them indefinitely to the dominion of all the miseries, evils, and barbarous anachronisms which have ruled them in the past. Intelligent native opinion in India has detected this false note of patriotism,
The temper and trend of patriotism in India.and denounced it as social treachery and in reality a barrier to true national advancement. Sir Madhava Row has condensed much solid sense and wisdom into the aphorism, "What is not true is not patriotic."1 A native Indian who has been influenced by the intelligent study of principles and practices outside and above the range of Hindu thought, and who sees in them something better and more hopeful than prevalent native customs, must run the gantlet of bitter criticism on the part of so-called Hindu patriots, if he ventures to advocate the new in preference to the old, or the foreign in preference to the native. Illustrations of this are found in the Hindu journals, and are strongly deprecated therein.2 The late Mr. Manomohun Ghose, an Indian barrister of distinction, remarked that "he felt a legitimate pride in the ancient civilization of India, but he was bound to say that an undue and exaggerated veneration for the past was doing a great deal of mischief. It was quite sickening to hear the remark made at almost every public meeting that the ancient civilization of India was superior to that which Europe ever had."3 India, in fact, is accepting the educational culture, the sciences and arts of foreign nations, and even the most intense Hindu patriot would not stultify himself by de- 1 The Hindu, a native journal of Madras, says : "We have observed of late a tendency on the part of some of our educated countrymen to apply their mental powers for irrationally reactionary purposes. Social customs and institutions which are evil in their results, and are the product of past simpler and less civilized conditions, have received elaborate defence, and even certain merits have been attached to them." The Subodha Patrika, of Bombay, another native journal, remarks in a similar strain: "Patriotism is now taken to mean a blind praise of all that is ours, and a strong denunciation of all that is foreign. It matters not whether a custom is good or bad; it is ours, and we must praise it." 2 "Papers on Indian Social Reform," section on " Caste," pp. 51-55- 3 Ibid., p. 55.
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claring his preference for the old and obsolete methods of conveyance and intercommunication, or advocate the crude and ignorant conceptions of Hindu geography, science, and mythology. The extension of this adoption of truth, knowledge, and modern inventions, to the realm of social life and religious enlightenment is, however, quite as much the part of true patriotism, and will in the end prevail. In the meantime it is clear that either national prejudice or reactionary opposition, and even hatred, to everything foreign places much of the so-called patriotism almost, if not quite, outside the circle of helpful agencies for social reform. Enlightened and guided by the broadening and ennobling teachings of Christianity, we may expect that it will, in the future history of missions, be a powerful instrument of coöperation, national reformation, and Christian development. V The moral forces of ethnic religions are incapable of accomplishing an uplifting
The social value of ethnic religions.and beneficial social transformation. The source from which, above all others, it would be natural to expect a saving social influence is the religions of the Orient. When we consider the antiquity of these great ethnic faiths, the air of dignity which surrounds their origin, their immense influence in Oriental society, their historic continuity, the reverence which has been accorded them by successive generations, the extent of their sacred literature, and the existence therein of many moral principles and precepts of true wisdom and excellence, we naturally incline to regard them as the guarantee of a helpful and beneficial ministry to society. They certainly represent the best results of human effort, subsidizing mental acumen, enfeebled moral instincts, and the dim light of nature to solve the problems of existence, or at least to illumine somewhat their darkness. So far as intellectual research, thoughtful penetration, and religious insight are concerned, they represent, at least in their original ideals, the consummation of non-Christian philosophy, the concentration of rational wisdom, and the most diligent, painstaking, even agonizing, effort of the Oriental mind to grasp the higher harmonies of truth, to lift the brooding mysteries of life, and offer a way of escape from its sorrows, temptations, and perils. Here surely, then, we might say that we have a stronghold of hope and an effective instrumentality for the social salvation of mankind.
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As we study, however, the theoretical constitution and the practical outcome of these marvelous religious systems, while we are bound to give them credit for saving society from still deeper lapses into social degradation, yet we cannot but be impressed with the unsatisfactory character of their historical results. We must here confine our attention especially to the consideration of the practical fruits rather than the philosophical content of these ethnic cults. Like the great systems of classical paganism, they have had a long probation and an undisturbed opportunity to work out the highest and best product of which they are capable. They have held not only the balance of power, but they have had undisputed possession, free scope, and unchallenged dominion for ages; and yet is the Oriental world really, except as Christianity and Western civilization have entered it, morally much in advance of the state of the Roman Empire at the coming of Christ? Christendom, as the social product of Christianity with its humble entrance into history and its lack of worldly support, may be contrasted with the Orient, where the ethnic systems have had every advantage of traditional prestige, political patronage, and social éclat. The intellectual, moral, social, political, and spiritual map of the world to-day is significant evidence of the differentiation of Christianity as an uplifting power among men.1 Study, moreover, the characteristics of the average Oriental, or of Oriental society en masse, where we may expect to find, if anywhere, the fruitage of the great religious forces of the East. The intellectual status of Oriental society is significant.
Oriental character put in evidence.Of course we expect that there will be ignorance of modern Occidental sciences, arts, inventions, and discoveries in the realm of knowledge, but we hardly expect to find such a prevailing barrenness of intellectual discipline and culture as characterizes the teeming masses of Eastern lands. If we scrutinize the attainments of the learned castes, the literati, the doctors of philosophy, law, and theology, we are im- 1 "Despite the poetic fancy which invests non-Christian religious systems with an aureole of sanctity and beauty, they have been weighed, and found wanting in power to meet the deepest wants of mankind. Whatever their rightful place may have been under Providence in the education Of humanity; whatever the virtues they are calculated to promote among peoples in a certain stage of mental or material development; however beautiful the theory, or elevated the ethics, which some of them embody or enjoin, we cannot accept them as a substitute for Christianity, or withhold its higher light from those who sit beneath their shadow. Nor is this merely a question of dogmatic theory; it is one of world-wide practice involving the happiness or misery of many millions. As the result of her travels over an immense tract of country,—the Polynesian Isles, Japan, Southern China, the Malay Peninsula, India, Ceylon, Cashmere, Western Thibet and Central Asia, Persia, Arabia, and Asia Minor,—Mrs. Bishop speaks of non-Christian lands as a great and howling wilderness, without hope because without God in the world. It is a mischievous delusion to hold that the sobriety of Islam or the ethics of the Light of Asia can restore, as Christianity can, the wastes of sin, shame, and sorrow."—The Quarterly Review, January, 1894, pp. 54, 55.
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pressed with the extent of their researches, but also with the dryness and futility of their learning. We are amazed at the puerilities and the profitless and irrelevant aspects of their traditional knowledge. We are dazed at the vanity and vacuity of their speculations and at the dearth of wholesome thought. There seems to be a characteristic failure in the power of logical and precise thinking. The imagination and memory are abnormally developed, but the faculties of exact reasoning are seriously impaired. There is a certain acuteness, quickness, and mental shrewdness, but little depth, consistency, or poise, and an inveterate tendency to crookedness of mental process and careless inexactitude. If we turn now to moral qualities, the first impression is that of confusion and uncertainty. Moral perceptions are vague and lax. Egregious blunders are recognized, and even acknowledged, which are nevertheless persisted in with singular fatuity and unconcern. We meet with a curious incapacity for the personal appropriation and self-application of moral obligation, and an everlasting shifting and shuffling in the presence of moral responsibility, a conspicuous failure to recognize the force of principle as a motive and constraint in conduct, an enormous exaggeration of the personal over the moral factor in social and political life, an acceptance of theory with a failure to practise, a readiness to assent with a hesitation to act, a large fund of abortive convictions, a serious collapse in moral and spiritual stamina. There is external zeal, but internal hollowness and insincerity. Men are adepts in the arts of deceit, with the most easygoing and undefined sense of obligation to truthfulness. The Oriental character is almost the precise antithesis of the Puritan. Duty, except as it is identified with self-interest, is a dim and inoperative conception. The disposition to throw aside and shift responsibility is almost universal and resistless. The fact of temptation is the prevailing excuse and apology for evil-doing. The Old Adam, in the sense of another irresponsible personality, is the historic burden-bearer of Oriental sins. If he fails, fatalism is a refuge. Stalwart will-power is the exception in relation to all evil solicitations. Easy-going compliance is the rule. The moral nature as a whole, if not in a state of collapse, is universally feeble, except as
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morality is identified with asceticism and external conformity to ceremonial ritual. In the realm of religious experience there is the most chaotic and capricious conception of sin and the nature and measure of personal accountability. There is an exaggerated respect for external requirements, and slight consideration for internal states. The spiritual realm is pervaded by an atmosphere of legalism. Religion is clung to and practised with persistency and zeal, but in a thoroughly ceremonial spirit, while the practical duties of piety are a singular mixture of moral laxity and profitless exaction. Much of the most religious life of the Orient is specially objectionable in its influence upon society. The personal qualities that are characteristic of an Oriental are complacency, pride, self-confidence, and conscious assurance of the superiority of himself and his environment. He has wrought diligently in his own strength for his own glory, and, in his estimation, he has succeeded. He delights in his historic past, and is hardly conscious that his present is any the less worthy of admiration. He needs a thorough toning up in intellectual sincerity and moral manhood, and some lessons in humility. The trend of heredity has been marked by long and steady deterioration, so gradual that he does not recognize it, and is quite unconscious that he, himself, is a representative man in this respect. It is an exceedingly difficult and perhaps invidious thing to attempt to
Its brighter aspects and possibilities.speak thus in general terms of average character in the Orient. There are no doubt many individual exceptions, while national characteristics may present some differentiating features; yet as an all-round statement we venture to express the conviction that there is nothing which can be seriously challenged or pronounced unseemly and unfair in the estimate. A residence of twenty-one years in personal contact with Asiatics, and a somewhat extensive study of Orientalia, have given the author at least a basis for forming his own judgment, which he offers for what it is worth. He would be the last to deny or wish to obscure the fact that there are also many charming and winning traits of character in Oriental manhood and womanhood, such as patience, gentleness, courtesy, hospitality, gratitude, loyalty in friendship, and much genuine and hearty domestic affection. There has been a strong hereditary tendency to hospitality in the social life of Asia, and the ethics of human relationships have been prominent in much of its religious life. The social feelings and habits of the better classes in the Orient are, as a rule, far removed from the barbarism of savage races. There is every reason, moreover, to rejoice in the fact
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that humanity in the East is capable of high culture, stalwart morality, earnest evangelical piety, and beautiful refinement, combined with genuine simplicity of personal character. The Providence of God no doubt has still in store a national training, a social discipline, and a personal regeneration of the Asiatic world, which will prepare it in the future to be the scene of some of the brightest and noblest triumphs of Christianity. It will be instructive, in this connection, to glance at the social history
A study of the social tendencies of Eastern religions.of some of the more prominent ethnic religions, and discover, if possible, the secret of their inability to work out the regeneration of Eastern society. There must be each case a sufficient explanation for such a characteristic and universal failure to lift humanity to the plane of a higher civilization. Can we discover this, and indicate it in its proper context as a satisfactory explanation of the disappointing result? Let us glance for a moment at Buddhism. It has had an immense following of not less than one
Buddhism and its social forces.quarter of the human race. Its manifest weakness is in its failure to establish and enforce moral obligation, and if it fails here, so far as the individual is concerned, it must fail also in the realm of social responsibility. Its conception of God, if indeed any definite conception can be recognized, is at best vaguely impersonal. When you search for a personal Deity, He is not to be found. In its doctrine and worship it is a highly wrought system,
but without that living touch with the divine which is the essence of religion. "God not in it" will be its historic epitaph. If God is not in it, then God's ideal of man and of human society is absent. Its early history revealed a genuine impulse in the direction of charity, brotherhood, and humanitarian ethics, and a missionary zeal which was phenomenal, as well for its patience and gentleness as its heroism, but without the underlying motive and the staying power which were necessary, and without the capacity to work a moral change in man. Buddhism, where it does not merely represent a refined selfishness or a bald asceticism, is now a riotous idolatry, around which is gathered a hireling hierarchy. No religion can live on an ancient and long worn out reputation. It must be judged by the test of its practical outcome in the lives of its followers. Buddhism proposes an escape from the miseries of life, but by means of asceticism and self-immolation rather than by moral victory over them. Its great problem is the universal sorrow; its great woe is existence; and it suggests as a method of es- cape a process of personal sublimation and ecstatic preoccupation, which will in the end reduce human nature practically to a vacuum. So far as its attitude to society is concerned, its practical tendency is to soar out of touch with it rather than stoop to the alleviation of its miseries. It is a system of spiritual monasticism, which presents as its crowning achievement a withdrawal from social responsibility within the shell of a happy unconsciousness of the world. The extinction of militant desires, especially all that may be classed as intemperate and lustful, is its highest purpose. Constructive non-existence of the personality as a social factor is the philosophical and practical goal of Buddhism. So far as any service to society is concerned, its present attitude is negative rather than positive, since "it turns away from the world on principle." Human nature in its noblest and most essential social gifts and capacities, and in its crowning prospects, is, according to the Buddhist ideal, reduced to the mystical exaltation of the individual. Its social creed is the isolation or withdrawal of self for the benefit of self. It is a policy of scuttling, and leaving society to sink beneath the waves. The highest and choicest hopes of Buddhism do not contemplate the social weal, but rather the individual attainment of Nirvana or Arahatship, involving at once the deprivation and desertion of society.1 In brief, the characteristic shortcoming of Buddhism as a
The contribution of Buddhism to society is a paralyzed personality.ministry to the social life of the East is its practical paralysis of the personality as a social dynamic—its attempt at the obliteration of the individuality as a working factor in society; and hence the extinction of its usefulness.2 Not so much in its theoretical conception, but in its practical outcome, it has been found to be lacking in the altruistic impulse, which seems ever to gravitate into egoism. "From the first," 1 Cf. Bishop Boyd Carpenter's Bampton Lectures on "The Permanent Elements of Religion," pp. 150-154. 2 To quote the words of Principal Reynolds: "Not by under-estimating the
reality of self, but by conferring upon it an infinite value and significance, did Jesus free those who believed in Him from the greatest burden; not the burden of existence, but the burden of sin. Jesus Christ abolished distinctions, not by emphasizing the unreality of souls, but by investing all souls with a new meaning, which in itself was more to be desired than all the temporary and vanishing shadows of earthly greatness. Buddha turned men's eyes away from the sorrows of life. He would have men think them out of existence by a species of intellectual training. Christ took all our sorrows and sickness and death upon Himself, that He might take them away; and He pronounced His benediction on the poverty, the mourning, the hunger, the sorrow, the death, which are the handmaids to the soul in its passage into the perfect life."—Reynolds, "Buddhism," p. 22.
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writes Professor Marcus Dods, "Buddhism reserved its highest blessings for the man of contemplation, who could pass through the world as a stick floats down the river—unattracted to either bank." Love for others and corresponding service, although down in the books, have not been and cannot be insisted upon in the spirit and power of Christian altruism. "The contrast between the Gospel of Christ's salvation and the law of Buddha's deliverance is so great that words cannot measure it. The moral culture which schools the mind into utter passivity and indifference to all things and persons is the very antipodes of the spiritual culture which loves and blesses all the works of God, which embraces all souls, and is reconciled to the Supreme Will."1 The proposed deliverance of Buddhism is from the misery of restless desire rather than from sin. Its programme contemplates the deliverance of self rather than of others. Its outcome is rest and ecstasy for the man, not as a member of a perfected society, but as one who has escaped into untroubled isolation. Its supreme desire is the individual Nirvana, that state of mind in which the personality is virtually extinguished and the spirit is in a state of poise and rest. It is a final goal of existence where there is no further prospect of "becoming" to trouble the soul. The possible round of rebirths is ended, and a blissful serenity and security are henceforth the happy portion of the possessor of Arahat-ship.2 This experience, it may be noted, is possible in connection with the present earthly existence. Is it any wonder that the record of Buddhism as a ministry for the elevation and renovation of human society is marked by failure? In like manner let us consider briefly the influence of Confucianism,
Confuccianism and its social role.and see if we can detect the secret of its social shortcomings. At the outset we are impressed with its natural capacity to influence society, and if any mere ethical code can contain the secret of social regeneration, Confucianism might be expected to reveal it. The special sphere which it expressly seeks to regulate is society. It fixes its attention upon the five relationships, between ruler and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger, and friend with friend. The five regular constituents with which it endows our moral nature are named as "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity," and it requires" affection between father and son, concord between husband and wife, kindness on the part of the elder brother and defer- 1 Reynolds, "Buddhism," p. 34. 2 Professor T. W. Rhys Davids, "Buddhism: Its History and Literature,"
pp. 151, 173, 175.
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ence on the part of the younger, order between seniors and juniors, sincerity between friends and associates, respect on the part of the ruler, and loyalty on that of the minister; these are ten righteous graces equally binding on all men."1 There is nothing here which Christianity would repudiate; on the contrary, rather would it sanction and enforce them all. Much emphasis has been given to the fact that the ethics of Confucianism are on a high plane. This is true and should be frankly acknowledged. Indeed, it is to be expected that the human reason, in laying down an elaborate programme of reciprocal duties, if it were true to itself and guided by the light of natural religion and human experience, would instinctively accentuate these points; and not only China, but the world, may be thankful that an ethical code like this has dominated so many millions of our fellow-men for centuries. It is not the simple code of Confucian ethics which has paralyzed China's social development; it is rather the fact that it lacks motive power of the right kind; it is deficient in vitalizing forces.2 The more we study this monumental system of ethical religion the more its fatal weaknesses come to light. Where is God? we inquire. Where is the ultimate basis of authority and the supreme motive of duty? To be sure, there is an annual representative worship of Heaven on the part of the Chinese Emperor, in which he takes the place of his people and is their official substitute in rendering homage to that indefinite entity which is called Heaven and stands for God. The people as a whole assume an attitude of unconcern and irresponsibility towards the Supreme Power. In fact, the attempt on the part of a Chinese subject to offer public worship to Shangti, in accordance with the prescribed ritual, would be counted an act of high treason. There is among the masses no intelligent recognition of authority. There is no motive which is not, in the last analysis, resolved into self-interest, and 1 Legge, "Christianity and Confucianism Compared," p. 12. 2 "The evidence we have to offer is that of experience. We find that
Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism have not made the corpse live, but only garlanded it with flowers. There are good points and teachings in these religions, but they are simply precepts without living power to raise the people. The educated Confucianist is ignorant, proud, and conceited. He only knows what Confucius taught (and does not practise it), and what Confucius did not teach is not knowledge. Go to a Buddhist temple and question the priest. He knows little or nothing of his own religion, cannot interpret the prayers he chants or read the books of his own creed, but leads an idle, vicious life. Like priest, like people. These religions have not lifted a single burden or borne a single sorrow. They have plunged the people into hopeless night as regards the future life, and have given no power to overcome sin in the present one."—Rev. Joseph S. Adams (A. B. M. U.), Hankow, China.
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there is a conspicuous lack of moral accountability. Man is a law unto himself; but as this has never satisfied the intuitive demands of the moral nature, a substantially polytheistic substitute has been found in the ancestral worship of China, and also in the prevalent superstitions of nature-worship.1 We note, too, the excessive overloading and overdoing of the ethical code of duty with supplemental precepts and concessions representative either of expediency, weakness, or folly. On the one hand, is undue laxity; on the other, over-stringency. The rights and interests of the individual are slighted in deference to the State and the family. Excessive power is conceded to rulers and parents. Reverence for ancestors develops into idolatrous worship. The living, on the other hand, especially women and the weaker members of the family, are regarded as inferior, and treated with an undue assumption of power; hence the forced betrothal of children, the evils of polygamy, infanticide, or the heartless committal of girls to a life of misery. The practical outcome of this human adjustment of details reveals a marked absence of the delicacy, the wisdom, the tenderness, the considerateness, and the justice of the Christian spirit. Confucianism stumbles and blunders so hopelessly in the practical application of its code that the issue, so far from securing the happiness and welfare of its followers, with a benignant guardianship of the rights of the helpless and the dependent, has perpetuated the historic shortcomings of Chinese society. We cannot but note also the absence of altruism and the lack of a spirit of sacrifice in social life. There is little appreciation of man as man. Selfishness dominates the whole attitude of the Confucianist, not only towards humanity, but towards his own environment, and often towards even his own family. There is a notable absence of a personal example for guidance and comparison. Confucius himself, according to his own statements, was imperfect.2 The literature which Confucianism has put forth is destitute of spiritual power and magnetic inspiration. It is cold, and powerless to move and quicken and vivify the soul. The practical outcome of Confucianism fails to realize even its own ideal. While there are exceptional characters, and men of amiable and gra- 1 "All the gods of China," writes the Rev. Arthur H. Smith, "may be said to
have been dead men, and by the rite of ancestral worship it may be affirmed that, in a sense, all the dead men of China are gods. . . . There can be no doubt whatever that as a nation the Chinese are polytheistic. There is also the worship of nature. Temples to the gods of wind, thunder, stars, sun, and moon abound. Any kind
of a divinity which seems adapted to exert a favorable influence in any given direction will be patronized." 2 Legge, "Christianity and Confucianism Compared," p. 31.
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cious characteristics in the ranks of its followers, yet they are manifestly not the average product of the system. As a man among men the Confucianist is lacking in moral sincerity, in the altruistic purpose, in humility and the spirit of sacrificial service. As a religionist he is either polytheistic or agnostic.1 The emptiness of Confucianism appears in its annihilation of a divine personality as a source of authority, its undue estimate of the moral power of ethical conceptions, its homage to rule and precept as alone sufficient guides to society. It has exalted ethics as in themselves the personification of authority and an all-sufficient motive.2 It has perverted them by accommodating interpretations, accretions, and misapplications, until they have led on to idolatry, and become the teachers of half-truths, or practical reversals of their original ideals. Its sign of failure is its exaltation of self as the interpreter and exponent of moral obligation. It, therefore, lacks the authority, the motive, the wisdom, and the personal touch of Christianity. The divine personality is in total eclipse; the human personality stands alone and helpless as its own master. We find, therefore, that the crucial defect of Confucianism
The contribution of Confucianism to society is an impoverished personality.as a social force is its impoverishment of the personality, its non-recognition of its needs. It is a religion of shortcomings, of partial truths, of half-power, of undefined responsibility, As a code, while excellent so far as it goes, it becomes in the end narrowed, distorted, misdirected, and misshapen. Its practical result, as revealed in the social history of China, is an imperfectly developed, partially cultured, feebly inspired, 1 Smith, "Chinese Characteristics," p. 316. 2 " One of the ablest Oriental scholars has said that China has the best moral creed outside of the inspired code. Scattered throughout the voluminous writings of recognized authority are profound utterances of high ethical value, applicable to every class, from emperor and prince to magistrate and scholar, trader and laborer. Millions daily study these books, in which rulers are exhorted and admonished to adhere to justice and righteousness in dealing with the people; and no nation on the earth knows better than the Chinese that 'evil has an evil recompense, and good has a good recompense.' But what do the facts disclose as to the ethical fruit of these wise admonitions? China stands forth to-day as one of the most conspicuous examples of the utter worthlessness of mere natural ethics to elevate and purify a nation. They know, but they practice not. The power of the seen and tangible outweighs all considerations when balanced against the possibilities of future compensation. Scores of sayings may be produced from their classics in which prince and people are urged to justice and propriety, and yet there is not on earth a more corrupt set of rulers than those who to-day hold power in this vast empire."—Rev. Albert A. Fulton (P. B. F. M. N.), Canton, China. "I see the results of Confucianism, perhaps the best human system of ethics the world has had, after a trial on a large scale for two millenniums, and, after this long trial, China, like the woman in the Gospels, is only growing worse. Is it not fair to infer that her case is hopeless apart from Christianity? But Christianity can cure all her ills, and it will."—Rev. Chauncey Goodrich, D.D. (A. B. C. F. M.), Tungcho, near Peking, China.
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morally blinded, and socially moribund humanity. The human reason has taken a gigantic leap in its own strength, but it has fallen short, and the result is Confucianism. It is the great historic illustration of the failure of a human ethical code, with no acknowledged sovereignty back of it, no constraining love in it, interpreted and applied by the imperfect wisdom and the moral weakness of man. Let us turn now to Hinduism and scrutinize its record as a
Hinduism and its social record.social stimulus and help to mankind. It was born in a process of nature-worship; it was nursed in pantheism; and it has matured into stupendous ceremonialism and a colossal system of idolatry. The better divinities of its earlier history have been superseded by evil ones. It has developed in its downward trend the most tyrannical and overshadowing sacerdotalism in the religious history of the world. The priestly caste has never assumed such masterful supremacy over the mysteries of religion and the life of men as has been revealed in the triumph of the Brahman. This has been its spiritual and philosophical history for two thousand years. Buddhism at length attempted its impossible rôle of reform, but Brahmanism held its own, and the modern era of Hinduism began. It has since grown by absorption, accretion, and expansion into the most gigantic and debasing parody of true religion in existence. Into its Pantheon have come the most monstrous representations of Deity that the human mind has conceived. The thirty-three gods of the Vedas have grown to hundreds of millions. Siva, Durga, Rama, Krishna, and Kali have taken their places at once of honor and shame in the temples of Hinduism. Truly its last state is worse than its first. With Krishna, Siva, and his supposed wife Sakti, and a multitude of other divinities, have developed the nameless features of Hindu worship, the orgies of its festivals, and the moral taint of its most sacred places. "The worship of Siva, of Vishnu, and the other popular deities," writes Professor Max Müller, "is of the same, nay, in many cases of a more degraded and savage character than the worship of Jupiter, Apollo, and Minerva; it belongs to a stratum of thought which is long buried beneath our feet; it may live on, like the lion and the tiger, but the mere air of free thought and civilized life will extinguish it."1 In its principles and practices it represents at once the religious 1 "Lecture on Missions," p. 47.
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patronage of vice, the enthronement of tyranny, the exaltation of cruelty, the consummation of ceremonialism, the adoration of sacerdotalism, the utmost assumptions of caste, and the most profound depths of idolatry. No religious development of history has succeeded in establishing such lines of separation between man and man as are revealed in the system of caste. A more complete reversal of the spirit of Christianity cannot be imagined. The touch, even the shadow, of a member of a lower caste is pollution to one of higher rank. In the esteem of high-caste Hindus, cows are holier than their brother men, and companionship with them is less offensive than the impure presence of men and women who are separated from them by the intolerance of caste.1 Principal Caird has truly said: "The system of caste involves the worst of all wrongs to humanity, that of hallowing evil by the authority and sanction of religion." What shall we say, moreover, of the status of woman in Hindu society, the position she occupies, and the wrongs she endures, which are directly instigated by the social code of the Hindu? Hence, if we look for the most characteristic note of failure in the
The contribution of Hinduism to society is a degraded personality.social influence of Hinduism, we shall find it in its degradation of the personality as a social factor. This appears in the system of caste, in the treatment of woman, and in the emasculation—almost the destruction, of morality. Its doctrine of transmigration, linking man with the animals, reduces personality to its lowest affinity and robs it of hope. It is immensely to the credit of the Hindu that he has any manliness left, and it is a wonder that Hindu society has survived at all.2 There is a growing spirit of social reform in the more intelligent circles of Hindu society apart from any profession of Christianity. It has, however, been largely under the stimulus of the various movements known as Somajes, and is itself an indirect result of the entrance of Christianity. It is a question how these reform movements will succeed without a closer touch with a living Christianity. Very com- 1 "As a leading Hindu paper of Southern India said not long since of the degraded Pariahs, so we may say of all the social evils that afflict India: 'Hinduism can do nothing for them; Christianity must reach them.' "—Rev. T. E. Slater (L. M. S.), Bangalore, South India. 2 Sir H. S. Maine has said: "On the educated native of India the past presses with too awful and terrible a power for it to be safe for him to play or palter with it. The clouds which overshadow his household, the doubts which beset his mind, the impotence of progressive advance which he struggles against, are all part of an inheritance of nearly unmixed evil which he has received from the past."
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petent observers express grave doubts as to their permanent efficiency.1 Passing on to the history of Mohammedanism, let us see if we can
Islam and its social failure.
note the secret of its social bankruptcy. Islam originated in part in the effort to reform society spiritually and socially. Its progress was marvelous, and the secret of it was not simply the renaissance of its great theological doctrine, but the stalwart wielding of its sword. Its rehabilitation of the doctrine of the unity of God, and its mighty faith in the sovereign decrees of destiny, would no doubt have awakened a spiritual impulse in the minds of its elect votaries; but its claims would have failed to secure any extended recognition had they not been enforced by a military ardor which carried the Saracen hosts through Western Asia and along the northern shores of Africa, until they threatened Europe alike in the East and in the West. Nothing could have been more attractive to the Arabian plunderers than the entrancing dreams of world-booty, which seemed about to be realized in the militant progress of the first century of Islam. Its two watchwords of merit and reward had a magical influence over its followers. 1 "For more than twenty years I have watched the various religious movements which, primarily inspired, as it seems to me, by Christianity, have sought to reform Indian religious thought and Indian social life and conditions; and, making all allowance for any bias or prejudice I may as a Christian missionary possess, I am forced to the conclusion that nothing but Christian life and principle can permanently effect and consolidate even social reforms. The failure of such movements as that of the Brahmo Somaj and the Prarthana Somaj to effect any widely spread social change is now acknowledged. A later movement of a socio-religious kind in connection with the Arya Somaj has appealed to Hindu national feeling and tradition in the north and west of India, and has succeeded in gaining followers on account of its wider design and apparent retention of the old basic Hindu beliefs, while rejecting later and additional Puranic accretions more or less directly condemned by the intelligence generated by European science. This is a movement among Hindus and for Hindus only, and, among other objects, aims at the abolition of idolatry, and modifications of caste, and various social arrangements in the direction of greater liberty. Of all the religious or socio-religious organizations I know in this country, with perhaps the exception of Mohammedanism, it shows the greatest antipathy to Christianity, to the Founder of Christianity personally, and to His teachings, and if allowed free scope would, I am persuaded, be a distinct source of danger in the State. None of these movements, so far as I can judge from their history and results, can at all compete with Christianity as a 'reforming agency which can reach to the roots of the evils which afflict human society'; they are all too limited in their scope, have no elements of permanency in them, and fail to operate as a universally elevating influence to raise all sorts and conditions of men from lower to higher planes of social or moral or spiritual life."—Dr. James Sommerville (U. P. C. S.), Jodhpore, Rajputana, India.
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Its enticing emoluments and its moral compromises are attractive considerations to the average Oriental. It is a combination of a simple religious creed, such as it is, for the soul, and easy-going license for the lower nature. The Moslem devotee bows the knee and worships in good form the God whom he adores, and at the same time bows his head and kisses with heartfelt satisfaction the sins that he loves. In either case the salutation is devout and genuine, a characteristic feature of his religion. His fast of Ramadan for a whole month once a year is made up of rigid abstinence during the day and unchecked license during the night. The Islamic code is a strange mixture of the supersensual and the sensual, of the potency, grandeur, and dignity of spiritual doctrine intermingled with a grovelling carnality and weak license of the flesh. It is a strange and bewildering appropriation of religious teaching, with a debasing transference and readjustment of it to the service of material conquest and fleshly debauch. The Moslem warrior seemed to refresh himself with the inspiration of truth, and at the same time to fire his soul with the ravishments of sensual delights. While fighting "in the ways of the Lord" he draws near to Paradise, but this militant exaltation is no barrier to the seductive enjoyments of earth. At the close of the era of conquest the real social history of Islam may be said to begin, and it has been marked by a notable absence of progress in political civilization or of moral training and culture in the individual and the family. As regards its relations to the civilized world, it is a gigantic and demoralizing social incubus, with no power of coöperation, adaptation, and moral adjustment. Its fixed traditionalism, its legislative rigors, its ceremonial exactions, its spirit of despotism, its degradation of woman, its sanction to slavery, and its cruel fanaticism are impassable barriers between Islam and progressive culture. The Koran invariably calls a halt to civilization. It fixes inexorably the bounds of freedom with an intolerable narrowness and rigor. It is clearly a provincial product of an ignorant and semibarbarous environment. It is a compromise with the spirit and practice of the rude, undisciplined religious and social systems of Arabia. It has not only ostracized, it has made impossible, some of the sweetest and noblest features of Christian civilization. It cannot enter the realm of modern refinement and adjust itself therein. If Islam steps in, the Christian home must step out. If Islam assumes control, freedom must die. If the Moslem becomes the guide and the guardian of social morals, refined womanhood must flee as for its life. The history of Armenia during the past year or two has been a significant commentary on the social as well as the political spirit of Islam, and has revealed in
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lurid, hellish light the desolating, devouring, unnamable possibilities of cruelty in Islamic fanaticism. What then shall we designate as the characteristic note of weakness
The contribution of Islam to society is an enslaved personality.and failure in the social mission of Mohammedanism? It is found in its enslavement of the personality and its non-recognition of the principle of religious and social freedom. Mohammed sealed the doom of Islam when he unsheathed the sword. It has become the executioner among religions. Its method is conquest by arms, and the death-warrant for apostates. Its Koran demands intellectual slavery; its harem requires domestic slavery; its State implies and enforces both a religious and a civil slavery. Its great doctrine of fatalistic submission to inexorable sovereignty has been made to include man in his relations both to the Koran and to the civil and military authority represented in the Khalif, and finds its consummation in its supremacy over woman as both the possession and the slave of man.1 True to its instinct of domination and power, this degrading slavery of woman has been transplanted to the Paradise of Islam, where no nobler function is assigned her than to be the possession of man without stint of number.2 1 "It is this sensual and degraded view of woman that destroys to so great an extent the good influence which the better part of the teaching of Islam might exert in the East. So long as women are held in so light an esteem, they will remain vapid, bigoted, and sensual; and so long as mothers are what most Muslim mothers are now, their children will be ignorant, fanatical, and vicious. . . . If the mother
is ignorant and vicious, the son cannot form a high ideal of womanhood, and thus is barred off from the chivalrous spirit wherewith alone a man may reach to the highest love: that 'Subtle master under heaven,Not only to keep down the base in man,But teach high thought, and amiable words, And courtliness, and the desire of fame,And love of truth, and all that makes a man."The Muslim has no ideal of chivalry like this to make his life pure and honourable; his religion encourages an opposite view, and the women among whom he is brought up only confirm it."—Stanley Lane-Poole, "Studies in a Mosque," pp. 108, 109. 2 Principal Fairbairn's judgment is at once final and true: "The god of
Mohammed . . . spares the sins the Arab loves. A religion that does not purify the home cannot regenerate the race; one that depraves the home is certain to deprave humanity. Motherhood must be sacred if manhood is to be honourable. Spoil the wife of sanctity, and for the man the sanctities of life have perished. And so it has been with Islam. It has reformed and lifted savage tribes; it has depraved and barbarized civilized nations. At the root of its fairest culture a worm has ever lived that has caused its blossoms soon to wither and die. Were Mohammed the hope of man, then his state were hopeless ; before him could only lie retrogression, tyranny, and despair."—"The City of God," pp. 97, 98.
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What now can be said briefly of Shintoism and its social
Is there in Shintoism the making of a renewed society?promise? It is doubtful whether we should really call it a religion, as it seems to have no doctrinal creed, no clearly defined moral code, no standard but the dictates and desires of human nature itself. It was but a phantom of a religion before Buddhism supplanted it in Japan in the sixth century, and since then it seems to have gone into retirement and desuetude. Its recent revival would seem to give it official importance, but it is impossible that it should hold its own in the New Japan. As a State religion it is already an anachronism. The spirit of to-day among that alert and progressive people can never coalesce with the Shintoism of the past.1 It is too much an instrument of intellectual slavery and sacerdotal tyranny. Whatever may be its ideals, it is a narrow, forceless, and ineffective social programme for humanity. What can we say, moreover, of Taoism and the influence of
Has Taoism the secret of social progress?that mysterious philosopher of the Taou (or way), and his little book, which is the tiny basis of the colossal system which has sprung from it? Laotse is the magician of Chinese religious history. His system, like others, was comparatively pure at its origin, but has developed into a vast phantasmagoria of charms, incantations, superstitions, ghostly fancies, and mystical jugglery. It is virtually a religion of quackery, although, like Confucianism, it has a mixture of grain and chaff. Its moral code, however, is destitute of force, and touches society with no genuine uplift. It has a minimum of good mixed with a maximum of evil, and as an instrument for saving society it lacks the life, the energy, the wisdom, and the common sense which would give it success. We can only leave it as too manifestly incompetent to claim further attention. We sometimes hear of Jainism, which originated, like Buddhism, as a
Is there a social gospel in Jainism?revolt from Brahmanism, and has led an obscure and precarious existence in Western India. It is atheistic in spirit, and seems to cherish as the magnificent aim and engrossing occupation of its followers the abstaining from inflicting any injury upon animals, and especially from taking their life. Its moral code enjoins five duties and forbids five sins. The duties are described as, "first, mercy to all animated beings; second, almsgiving; third, venerating the sages while living, and worshipping their images when deceased; fourth, con- 1 Griffis, "The Religions of Japan," p. 97.
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fession of faults; fifth, religious fasting." The sins are named as, "first, killing; second, lying; third, stealing; fourth, adultery; fifth, worldly-mindedness." In practice, however, the emphasis has been laid upon the preservation of animal life. In this respect they have tithed the "mint, anise, and cummin," and neglected the "weightier matters of the law." In a little volume published in India they are referred to as follows: "They care more to preserve the life of a dog, a hen, a diseased and decrepit horse, even of an ant, a bug or flea, than the life of a man. When Kathiawar came under British jurisdiction, the Jains stipulated that cattle were not to be killed for the English troops; but female infanticide had existed for untold generations without any effort on the part of the Jains to check it. They are enjoined not to eat in the open air after it begins to rain, nor in the dark, lest they might unconsciously swallow a fly. They must not leave a liquid open, lest an insect should be drowned. Vayu Karma is keeping out of the way of wind, lest it should blow insects into the mouth. The priests carry a broom to sweep insects out of the way of harm as they walk or when they sit down, and a mouth-cloth to prevent them from entering the mouth. The cots of the Jains are often infested with bugs, as they will not kill them. Some of the richer Jains pay poor men to lie for a time in their beds, allowing the bugs to feed on them, that they may not be troubled when they go to sleep. The Jains look upon themselves as very meritorious on the above account, though many of them are extortioners and oppress greatly those who come within their power."1 Surely the insignificant social scope of Jainism is manifest. Parsism is a relic of the past,2 having hereditary
Can we hope that Parsism is equal t the task?affinities with the ancient religion of Zoroaster, which was nature-worship developed in a monotheistic rather than a polytheistic direction. In its doctrine of Dualism it engaged in an heroic struggle to preserve the character of God from degradation and defilement, but, after all, the Creator is largely identified with His works. The Parsis, however, are not themselves fire-worshippers. It also as a social force has been 1 "The Principal Nations of India" (Madras, Christian Literature Society), pp. 105, 106. 2 "The religion of Zoroaster,—the religion of Cyrus, of Darius and Xerxes,— which, but for the battles of Marathon and of Salamis, might have become the religion of the civilized world, is now professed by only one hundred thousand souls—that is, by about a ten-thousandth part of the inhabitants of the world. During the last two centuries their number has steadily decreased from four to one hundred thousand, and another century will probably exhaust what is still left of the worshippers of the Wise Spirit, Ahuramazda"—F. Max Miiller, "Lecture on Missions," p. 46.
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"weighed in the balances, and found wanting," although hardly any other Gentile religion has so many excellent features and can so easily receive the regenerating influences of Christianity. Parsism has in it much of hope, since with less of confusion and convulsion than others it can receive the pure morality and the spiritual teachings of Christ. Of nature religions as they exist at present in the world, in various
The universal verdict of history as to the social outcome of all non-Christian religions.forms of animism, spiritism, fetichism, and pagan idolatry, with its bloody and licentious rites, there is no necessity that we should speak here. They can never lead society to a higher level and teach it the secrets of regeneration. There are still remnants of religions which might be named,—some of them relics of the past, and others born of present struggle and revolt from ancient systems,—which, however, only serve to confirm the universal verdict of failure which characterizes the social mission of all non-Christian faiths. Sikhism, for example, Sufism, Babism, Drusism, the religion of the Aztecs, the Toltecs, and some ancient cults of South America, the religions of the aboriginal tribes of North and South America, the Teutonic, Celtic, and Slavonic heathenism—all have either had their day or are now on trial, and only one verdict is possible concerning them: they have failed to do for man what Christianity has succeeded in accomplishing and will yet more perfectly and universally achieve. Whatever of partial excellence may be in them is found more perfectly in Christianity. The characteristic shortcoming of them all is their imperfect presentation of truth, their lack of motive power in the right direction, their superficial moral guidance, and the hopeless supremacy of the evil over the good. They need the benign touch, the spiritual discernment, the noble ideal, the moral energy, and the all-conquering element of personality so characteristic of Christianity. It should not be claimed that they all have been entirely powerless for good and have had no worthy moral influence; still less should it be asserted that they have exercised no beneficent power in history and have had no valuable message to mankind. They represent the best philosophical, moral, and religious product of the human intellect, feeling after God in the darkness of ignorance and in the uncertain light of natural religion, with whatever help may have been derived from the residuum of revealed truth, which has never been entirely banished or obliterated from the Gentile mind. They are the fruit of struggle and aspiration and of that imperfect adjustment which the human reason is capable of accomplishing in the realm of religious doctrine and practice. That they contain a measure of original truth cannot be denied; but it is a truth
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that has been misinterpreted, misapplied, overlaid with human vagaries, and prostituted to evil ends.1 The natural religious development of man has not been in the direction of truer vision and higher attainment, but rather towards lower views and baser practices. How sharp is the contrast between religions of human and those of divine origin! Christianity comes as a supreme gift from God, full of truth, energy, and
Christianity God's best gift to human society.unfailing capacity, to change the current of religious life in the direction of regeneration and progressive advancement towards a perfect individual and social development. Both before and after the Incarnation, whether in its preparatory stages or in its New Testament consummation, it is a contribution of spiritual and moral power introduced into the individual experience of man, and so into the general progress of society, in the form of a fresh, vivifying, and energizing religious environment, under the influence of which God and man coöperate in a movement towards perfection. The secret of the noblest social destiny is in Christianity, and the sooner the world recognizes it the better. There is no escaping the conviction that the judgment of
Paul's diagnosis of heathenism still true.Paul as to the religious value and moral standing of classical paganism is as true to-day in substance and spirit concerning modern ethnic faiths as it was of contemporary antichristian creeds in his age. There has been perhaps a kaleidoscopic transposition of philosophic principles, a rehabilitation and relabelling of external ceremonialism, and some readjustment of immorality to its modern environment; but the evidences of lineal descent and spiritual heredity are unmistakable. The "vain imaginations" are still to the front, the "foolish heart [or understanding]" is still "darkened," the professedly "wise" are none the less "fools," the "creature" is still honored rather than the "Creator," the "things that are not fitting" are still in their place of prominence, and they are admired and defended by the heathen apologists of to-day with the same strenuous zeal and stout-hearted complacency as of old. But the victory of Christianity, although it may seem to come slowly and "not with observation," is as assured now as it was then. We have thus passed in review the prominent, in fact the only possible, rival forces which can be brought into comparison with Christianity as possessing any supposed capacity for effecting social changes of 1 Cf. "The Religions of the Orient," an address by the Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M.D., D.D.
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a helpful and elevating nature. We have seen good
The watchword of missions is Christianity, both for individual and society.reason to regard them as in themselves hollow and ineffective. Some of them are useful, indeed even valuable, as instruments and adjuncts of Christianity; but without its coöperation, and uninfluenced by its pervading spirit, they are doomed to failure. Education, material civilization, State legislation, patriotism, and ethnic religions are not in themselves gifted with the power of social regeneration. Each in its own way fails at vital and crucial points. There is manifest need of a nobler and higher ministry to society from some authoritative and inspiring source, and that this ministry is provided and freely offered in Christianity is a cheering fact to which we shall in the next lecture give more special attention.
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LITERATURE AND AUTHORITIES FOR LECTURE III To avoid repetition, many volumes mentioned in the other lists are not included in this, although they would properly find a place in the literature of Lecture III. The reader is therefore requested to consult the other bibliographies as in some instances supplementary to the one given below. ADAMS, BROOKS,The Law of Civilization and Decay: An Essay on History.L. and N.Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. DORCHESTER, Rev. DANIEL,The Problem of Religious Progress. Revised edition. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1895. FEATHERMAN, A., Social History of the Races of Mankind5 vols. Trëubner & Co., 1881-88. GRAU, Rev. R. F., The Goal of the Human Race; or, The Development of Civilization : Its Origin and Issue. (Translated by Rev. J. G. Deimler and Rev. W. St. Clair Tisdall.) L., Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., 1892. HUNTINGTON, Bishop F. D., Social Problems and the Church. Cambridge, Mass., The Church Social Union, 1895. JAPP, A. H., Master Missionaries: Chapters on Pioneer Effort throughout the World. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1883. LAURIE, S. S., Historical Survey of PreChristian Education, L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. LESSING, G. E., The Education of the Human Race. Fourth edition, revised. (Translated by W. Robertson.) L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trëubner & Co.. 1896. MACKAY, T., Methods of Social Reform: Essays, Critical and Constructive. L., John Murray, 1896. MAHAFFY, Rev. J. P., A Survey of Greek Civilization. Meadville, Pa., Flood & Vincent, 1896. PATTISON, S. R., Gospel Ethnology. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1889. SEELYE, Rev. JULIUS H., Christian Missions. N. Y., Dodd, Mead & Co., 1875. STEELE, Rev. ROBERT, The New Hebrides and Christian Missions, with a Sketch of the Labour Traffic. L., James Nisbet & Co., 1880. WARNECK, Dr. GUSTAV, Modern Missions and Culture. E., R. W. Hunter, 1882. YOUNG, ROBERT, The Success of Christian Missions. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1890. BUDDHISM BEAL, Rev. S., Buddhism in China. L., S. P. C. K., n. d. BERRY, Rev. T. S., Christianity and Buddhism: A Comparison and a Contrast. L., S. P. C. K., n. d. CARUS, PAUL, The Gospel of Buddha. Fourth edition. C., The Open Court Publishing Co., 1896. COPLESTON, REGINALD STEPHEN, Buddhism, Primitive and Present, in Magadha and in Ceylon. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1892. DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS, Buddhism: A Sketch of the Life and Teaching of Gautama. L., S. P. C. K., n. d. DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS, Buddhism Its History and Literature. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896. DAVIDS, T. W. RHYS, Lectures on the Place of Buddhism in the Development of Religious Thought. L.,S. P. C. K., 1881. EDKINS, Rev. J., Chinese Buddhism. L., Trëubner & Co., 1880. HARDY, R. SPENCE, Manual of Buddhism. L., Williams & Norgate, 1880. I-TSING, Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago (A. D. 671-695)(Translated by J. Takakusu.) Letter from F. Max Müller L., Henry Frowde, 1896.
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KELLOGG, Rev. S. H., The Light of Asia and the Light of the World. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1885. OLDENBERG, H., Buddha: His Life, Doctrine, and Order. L., Williams & Norgate, 1883; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883. REED, ELIZABETH A., Primitive Buddhism : Its Origin and Teachings. C., Scott, Foresman & Co., 1896. SCOTT, Rev. ARCHIBALD, Buddhism and Christianity: A Parallel and a Contrast. (The Croall Lectures.) E., David Douglass, 1890. SIMPSON, WILLIAM, The Buddhist Praying Wheel: A Collection of Material Bearing upon the Symbolism of the Wheel and Circular Movements in Custom and Religious Ritual. L. and N. Y., The Macmillan Co., 1896. SUBHADRA BHIKSHU, A Buddhist Catechism. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1895. TITCOMB, Rev. J. H., Short Chapters on Buddhism. L.. The Religious Tract Society, 1883. WADDELL, L. A., The Buddhism of Tibet. L., W. H. Allen & Co.; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1896. WARREN, HENRY CLARKE, Buddhism in Translations. Harvard Oriental Series, vol. iii. B., Ginn & Co., 1896. WILLIAMS, Sir M. MONIER-, Buddhism in its Connection with Brahmanism and Hinduism. L., John Murray, 1889. CONFUCIANISM DOUGLAS, ROBERT K., Confucianism and Taouism. L., S. P. C. K., 1895; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1895. FABER, Rev. ERNST, A Systematical Digest of the Doctrines of Confucius. (Translated from the German by P. G. von Moellendorff.) L., Trüubner & Co., 1875. JENNINGS, FOSTER H., The Proverbial Philosophy of Confucius. N. Y., G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896. LEGGE, JAMES, Christianity and Confucianism Compared. (Present-Day Tracts Series.) L., The Religious Tract Society, n. d. MACGOWAN, Rev. JOHN, Christ or Confucius— Which? or, The Story of the Amoy Mission. L., J. Snow & Co., n. d. HINDUISM BEACH, HARLAN P., The Cross in the Land of the Trident. N. Y. & C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1895. BHATTACHARYA, JOGENDRA NATH, Hindu Castes and Sects. Calcutta, Thacker, Spink & Co., 1896. CALDWELL, Bishop, Christianity and Hinduism. L., S. P. C. K., 1879. COLEBROOKE, H. T., Essays on the Religion and Philosophy of the Hindus. Revised edition. L., Trübner & Co., 1873. MACDONALD, K. S., The Brahmans of the Vedas. Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1896. MITCHELL, J. MURRAY, Hinduism Past and Present. Second edition, revised. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1897. MITCHELL, J. MURRAY, The Hindu Religion: A Sketch and a Contrast. (Present-Day Tracts Series.)L., The Religious Tract Society, n.d.
The same is published in a book entitled Two Old Faiths. Meadville, Pa., Flood & Vincent, 1891. OLDENBERG, H., Ancient India: Its Language and Religions. C., The Open Court Publishing Co., 1896. PHILLIPS, MAURICE, The Teaching of the Vedas: What Light Does it Throw on the Origin and Development of Religion?. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1895. Philosophic Hinduism. Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1893. ROBSON, Rev. JOHN, Hinduism and Christianity. E. and L., Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1893. STRACHEY, Sir J., India. New edition. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1894. Upanishads (The). (Translated into English with a Preamble and Arguments by G. R. S. Mead and Jagadisha Chandra Chattopadhyaya.) L., Theosophical Publishing Co., 1896. Vedas, An Account of the. Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1892. WILKINS, Rev. W. J., Modern Hinduism. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1887. WILKINS, Rev. W. J., Hindu Mythology. Calcutta, Thacker, Spink & Co., 1882. WILLIAMS, Sir M. MONIER-, Indian Wisdom. L., W. H. Allen & Co., 1876. WILLlAMS, Sir M. MONIER-, Brahmanism and Hinduism. Fourth edition, enlarged and improved. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1891. WILLIAMS, Sir M. MONIER-, Hinduism. L., S. P. C. K., 1890; N. Y., E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1890.
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WILLIAMS, Sir M.MONIER-, Religious Life and Thought in India. L., T. Fisher Unwin, 1887. WILSON, H. H., Essays on the Religion of the Hindus. 2 vols. L., Trübner & Co., 1862. ISLAM ALI, SYED AMEER, The Life and Teachings of Mohammed: or, The Spirit of Islam. L., W. H. Allen & Co., 1896. ALI, SYED AMEER, The Ethics of Islam. Calcutta, Thacker, Spink & Co., n.d. ALI, MOULAVI CHERAGH, The Proposed Political, Legal, and Social Reforms in the Ottoman Empire and Other Mohammedan States. Bombay, Education Society's Press, Byculla, 1883. ARNOLD, JOHN M., Islam: Its History, Character, and Relations to Christianity. L., Longmans, Green & Co., 1874. ARNOLD, T. W., The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith. L., A. Constable & Co., 1896. BAHADOR, SYED AHMED KHAN, Essays on the Life of Mohammed. L., Trübner & Co., 1870. HAINES, C. R., Islam as a Missionary Religion. L., S. P. C. K., n.d. HUGHES, Rev. T. P., Dictionary of Islam. L., W. H. Allen & Co., 1885. HUGHES, Rev. T. P., Notes on Mohammedanism. New edition. W. H. Allen & Co., 1894. JESSUP, Rev. H. H., The Mohammedan Missionary Problem. P., Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1879. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM (Translator), The Beacon of Truth ; or, Testimony of the Coran to the Truth of the Christian Religion. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1893. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM (Translator), Sweet First-Fruits. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1893. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM, The Coran: Its Composition and Teaching, and the Testimony It Bears to Holy Scriptures. L., S. P. C. K., n.d. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM, Mahomet and Islam. L., The Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1895. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM, The Life of Mahomet from Original Sources. L., Smith, Elder & Co., 1877. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM, The Caliphate: Its Rise, Decline, and Fall, from Original Sources. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1891. MUIR, Sir WILLIAM, The Rise and Decline of Islam. (Present-Day Tracts Series.) L., The Religious Tract Society, n.d..
The same is published in a book entitled Two Old Faiths. Meadville, Pa., Flood & Vincent, 1891. OSBORN, ROBERT DURIE, Islam under the Arabs. L., Longmans, Green & Co., 1876. OSBORN, ROBERT DURIE, Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad. L., Seeley & Co., 1878. SELL, Rev. EDWARD, The Faith of Islam. New edition. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1896. SMITH, R. BOSWORTH, Mohammed and Mohammedanism. N. Y., Harper & Brothers, 1875. STOBART, J. W. H., Islam and its Founder. L., S. P. C. K., n.d.. TISDALL, Rev. W. ST. CLAIR, The Religion of the Crescent. L., S. P. C. K., 1895. WHERRY, Rev. E. M., A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran. 4 vols. B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1882. WHERRY, Rev. E. M., Islam; or, The Religion of the Turk. N. Y., American Tract Society, 1896. WORTABET, Rev. JOHN, Researches into the Religions of Syria. L., James Nisbet & Co., 1860. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF RELIGION BARROWS, Rev. JOHN HENRY (Editor), The World's Parliament of Religions. C., The Parliament Publishing Co., 1893. BARROWS, Rev. JOHN HENRY, Christianity the World Religion. (Haskell Lectures delivered in India.) Madras, The Christian Literature Society, 1897. BARTH, A., The Religions of India. L., Trübner & Co., 1882; B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1882. BETTANY, G. T., The World's Religions. N. Y., Christian Literature Co., 1891. Reissued in separate parts by Ward, Lock & Bowden, N. Y., 1892. CHAMBERLAIN, Rev. JACOB, The Religions of the Orient. N. Y., R. Brinkerhoff, 1896. CLARKE, JAMES FREEMAN, Ten Great Religions. 2 vols. Thirty-fourth edition.B. and N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1895.
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COBBOLD, G. A., Religion in Japan: Shintoism, Buddhism, and Christianity. L., S. P. C. K., 1894. CUST, ROBERT NEEDHAM, Common Features Which Appear in All Forms of Religious Belief. L., Luzac & Co., 1895. DODS, Rev. MARCUS, Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ. L., Hodder & Stoughton, 1893. DÖLLINGER, J. J. I., The Gentile and the Jew in the Courts of the Temple of Christ. 2 vols. L. and N. Y., Longmans, Green & Co., 1865-67. Du BOSE, Rev. HAMPDEN C., The Dragon, Image, and Demon; or, The Three Religions of China. N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son, 1887. EDKINS, Rev. J., The Early Spread of Religious Ideas, Especially in the Far East. L., The Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1893. EDKINS, Rev. J., Religion in China. L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1884. ELLINWOOD, Rev. F. F., Oriental Religions and Christianity. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892. FABER, GEORGE STANLEY, The Origin of Pagan Idolatry, Ascertained from Historical Testimony and Circumstantial Evidence. 3 vols. L., Rivington, 1816. Faiths of the World (The). St. Giles Lectures. Second series.E. and L., William Blackwood & Sons, 1882. FALKE, ROBERT, Buddha, Mohammed, Christus. Part I. (descriptive)Güters-loh, Bertelsmann, 1896. GRANT, G. M., The Religions of the World in Relation to Christianity. L., A. & C. Black ; N. Y., A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1895. GRIFFIS, Rev. WILLIAM ELLIOT, The Religions of Japan. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. HARDWICK, CHARLES, Christ and Other Masters.. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1886. HARDY, R. SPENCE, Eastern Monachism. L., Williams & Norgate,, 1864. HAUG, M., Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsees. Third edition, edited and enlarged by E. W. West. L., Kegan Paul, TrenchTrübner & Co., 1884. HOPKINS, EDWARD WASHBURN, The Religions of India. B., Ginn & Co., 1895. Indian Evangelical Review (The), Calcutta Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. London. Journal of the American Oriental Society. KARAKA, DOSABHAI FRAMJI, History of the Parsis. 2 vols. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1884. LEGGE, JAMES, The Religions of China. N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1881. LYALL, Sir ALFRED, Asiatic Studies: Religious and Social. L., John Murray, 1884. LYALL, Sir ALFRED, Natural Religion in India. Cambridge, The University Press, 1891. MACDONALD, Rev. JAMES, Religion and Myth. L., D. Nutt; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1893. MARTIN, Rev. W. A. P., Hanlin Papers; or, Essays on the Intellectual Life of the Chinese. First series. L., Trübner & Co.; N. Y., Harper & Bros., 1880. MARTIN, Rev. W. A. P., Hanlin Papers; or, Essays on the History, Philosophy, and Religion of the Chinese. Second series. Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1894. MARTIN, Rev. W. A. P., The Chinese: Their Education, Philosophy, and Letters. N. Y., Harper & Bros., 1881. MATHESON, Rev. GEORGE, The Distinctive Messages of the Old Religions. E. and L., William Blackwood & Sons, 1892. MAURICE, Rev. FREDERICK DENISON, The Religions of the World and their Relations to Christianity. Fourth edition. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1861. MENZIES, A., History of Religion. N.Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1895. MITCHELL, J. MURRAY, Non-Christian Religions: Their State and Prospects. Present-Day Tracts Series. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1897. MITCHELL, J. MURRAY, The Zendavesta and the Religion of the Parsis. (Present-Day Tracts Series.)L., The Religious Tract Society; N. Y. and C., Fleming H. Revell Co., 1887. MOLLER, F. MAX, Sacred Books of the East. L. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895. Non-Christian Religions of the World (The). (Bound volume of Present-Day Tracts.)L., The Religious Tract Society, n.d.
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Outlook (The.) (The Message of the World's Religions. A series of articles on the prominent religious faiths of mankind, beginning with the issue of June 26, 1897.)N. Y., The Outlook Co., 1897. RAWLINSON, Canon GEORGE, The Religions of the Ancient World. L., The Religious Tract Society, 1882. Religious Systems of the World. (A collection of addresses delivered at South Place Institute.) Second edition. L., Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1892. REVILLE, Rev. A., Prolegomena of the History of Religions. L., Williams & Norgate, 1885. Revue de l'Histoire de Religion. Paris. SPARHAM, Rev. C. G., Christianity and the Religions of China : A Brief Study in Comparative Religions. L., Office of London Missionary Society, 1897. TERRY, Rev. MILTON S., The Bible and Other Sacred Books. N. Y., Hunt & Eaton, 1890. THOMAS, E., Jainism; or, The Early Faith of Asoka. L., Trübner & Co., 1877. WARREN, President W. F., The Quest of the Perfect Religion. (Baccalaureate Address, Boston University, 1886.) B., Rand A very Co., 1887. WILLIAMS, Sir M. MONIER-, Modern India and the Indians. L., Trübner & Co., 1887.
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SYNOPSIS OF LECTURE IV The need of a supernatural remedy for the evils of non-Christian society is asserted and advocated, and the adaptation of Christianity to wage a beneficent and effective crusade against the moral lapses and social cruelties of heathenism is argued, under the following heads: I. Christianity alone offers the perfect and final solution of the problem of sin. Its method of expiation and its assurance of justification and forgiveness contrast favorably with every expedient known in the religious history of man. II. It provides a new and powerful motive in the moral experience of mankind. III. It suggests new views of society. Its estimate of the individual man brings it into sharp and significant contrast with the pagan conception, which is substantially the prevailing one in the non-Christian world of to-day. IV. The code of social ethics advocated by Christianity is an immense improvement upon that which prevails under any ethnic system of religion. The ethical systems of Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Mohammedanism are examined and compared with the social ethics of Christianity. The superior ideals and the beneficent fruitage of the Christian code are demonstrated. V. Christianity introduces new moral forces into heathen society, especially the noble impulse to missionary service. VI. Philanthropic ideas are generated and quickened into activity by the entrance of Christian teaching and example among non-Christian peoples. VII. Historic Christianity is declared to be equal to the task above outlined. Its power is shown to be in its supernaturalism and its transcendent appeal to the heart and will of man. Its sufficiency in itself, without any compromise with the ethnic faiths or any surrender of its unique and exclusive character, is insisted upon. Its claim to be a supreme, absolute, universal, and final religion, having its origin in the infinite wisdom and condescending love of God, is accepted unreservedly and in opposition to the theory that it is a product of natural evolution, or the outcome and consummation of the religious searchings of the race, or the outgrowth of other religious systems. Christianity is from Christ, and Christ is from God. In His own incarnate personality He is the highest source of wisdom. In His teaching and example we have the inspiration and pledge of individual righteousness and social morality. LECTURE IV
CHRISTIANITY THE SOCIAL HOPE OF THE NATIONS
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"There is one great difference between Christianity and the best of other religions. They come to men as they are, and tell them that they must make themselves good. But Christianity comes to them and changes them from what they were, brings them a new birth, touches them with a divine life and power in their hearts, and so enables them to begin to be better. The religion of Jesus is a new commandment, with power to obey it." REV. HENRY VAN DYKE, D.D. "Certainly whatever else Christianity may be, it is a religion whose object is to make men moral. And any one who affirms that Christianity did not introduce into the world new moral forces merely convicts himself of ignorance of history. Granted that the Christian Church has made many mistakes and committed many crimes; granted that she has on particular occasions retarded science and obstructed healthy political movements ; yet it is not to be denied that the Christian religion tends to make men moral, and does so with a persuasive and effective force which belongs to no other influence which has ever been brought to bear upon men. The individual is necessary to society; and the morality of the individual is essential to the wellbeing of society. In the interests of civilisation, therefore, Christianity is indispensable as the only hitherto discovered efficient and universally applicable conservator of the morality of the individual." REV. MARCUS DODS, D.D. "The great characteristic of Christianity and the proof of its divinity is that it has been the main source of the moral development of Europe, and that it has discharged this office, not so much by the inculcation of a system of ethics, however pure, as by the assimilating and attractive influence of a perfect ideal. The moral progress of mankind can never cease to be distinctively and intensely Christian as long as it consists of a gradual approximation to the character of the Christian Founder. There is, indeed, nothing more wonderful in the history of the human race than the way in which that ideal has traversed the lapse of ages, acquiring new strength and beauty with each advance of civilisation, and infusing its beneficent influence into every sphere of thought and action." WILLIAM E. H. LECKY, LL.D. "That Christianity should become the religion of the Roman Empire is the miracle of history; but that it did so become is the leading fact of all history from that day onwards." EDWARD A. FREEMAN, LL.D.
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LECTURE IV
CHRISTIANITY THE SOCIAL HOPE OF THE NATIONS OUR survey of non-Christian society has brought to the front many desolating and cruel evils which all must acknowledge need correction. Our scrutiny of remedial agencies apart from the Christian system has not encouraged hope and expectation as to their efficiency. The object of the present lecture is to show the adaptation of the religion of Christ, by virtue of its lofty ethical teaching and its subtle spiritual sway over the higher nature of man, to mitigate or abolish those evils which have so arrested our attention and aroused our sympathies. This is a large and majestic claim for Christianity, and, if it can be sustained, puts it in the front rank of the beneficent and helpful forces of social progress. The consensus of spiritual experience justifies the conclusion that
A supernatural remedy needed.the effective remedy must be extra-natural; that is, it must be from some external source. It will not spring up as a spontaneous outgrowth of man's natural gifts, having its roots in the powers and capacities of the individual soul or in the moral tendencies of human society. It is not inherent in man's mental and spiritual nature, weakened and depraved as it is by sin. He is not, by any ordinary gift of his being, competent to organize and accomplish either individual or social regeneration as a self-originating process. This may seem a bold statement to some who know humanity only in the environment of Christendom, but it should be noted that man as a factor in the Christian civilization of our day is himself the product of Christian forces which for generations have wrought towards his moral elevation, and have produced in him a degree of discernment and a
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measure of capacity to respond to higher ideals which otherwise he would never have possessed. This remedy must, moreover, be religious in its essence and power, not simply political, patriotic, economic, social, or even ethical, in its tone and scope. It must take possession of the deep springs of the spiritual life of man, moving him from within, quickening and renewing the vital energies of the inner life, and supplying motives and impulses which find their realm of influence and activity in the higher faculties of the soul. We go a step further and assert, in loyalty to the whole spiritual history of mankind, that the remedy must be from a divine rather than from a human source. A weighty confirmation of the truth of these statements may be
Religion the saving force of history.derived from the fact that the natural tendency of society everywhere, apart from some supernatural interposition bringing inspiration, guidance, and power, is to go wrong and stay wrong. There are certain grooves of evil into which human nature untouched by the remedial agencies of divine influence is sure to run, and its course therein is ever towards lower depths. Evolution may be downward as well as upward, and under merely natural auspices it is found to be invariably in the direction of moral degeneracy. There is no effective moral revolution on record except that which has been prompted and guided by supernatural forces as the adjuncts of a God-given religion. This is the strong position of Mr. Kidd in his recent volume on "Social Evolution." Religion has ever been the saving force in human history. How otherwise can we explain the moral helplessness and social decay of humanity, as a universal rule, up to the present hour, wherever the spiritual inspiration and the ethical force of religion have been absent? Left to itself, society seems to be self-destructive and to have no remedy within its own resources.1 This sociological point 1 "Taking society as it is, with power to originate its destruction, and ever multiplying its infirmities without alleviation or remedy, it is more than a mystery. It evokes the most considerate inquiry as to its nature, its constitutional diathesis, its inherited bias, its proclivities to evil and good; and especially does it suggest an inquiry into its origin, whether it is resting on a right basis, and whether it possesses the power of recuperation or the power of adequate recovery to an ideal. History speaks with no uncertain voice of the infirmities of the social structure, of collapses of governments, religions, and nations from inherent corruption, and of the inability of society to correct its evils. As a natural organism or the product of the instincts of human beings, it has been on trial long enough. For relief from its infirmities it has resorted to naturalistic remedies, but always without avail. In other words, it has sought to restore itself by the very means that destroyed it. "The world has tried pagan sociology long enough. Neither by Plato and Socrates, nor by Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, has the race advanced beyond the boundary lines of its infirmities or overcome the friction of its activities. Under the influence of pagan philosophy social degeneracy ensued, and the mighty civil structures of Greece and Rome perished. Equally futile in modern times have been the naturalistic theories of reformers, socialists, and economic teachers, all of whom, in their short-sightedness, have failed to apprehend the situation, and provided inadequately for its improvement. Wise and learned they may have been, but society has reveled in corruption while they proclaimed their theories. . . . The explanation of the failure of the political economist is not in his want of wisdom, but in his naturalistic conception of society and in his theory of the adequacy of naturalistic forces and processes for its preservation and restoration. He needs to learn a new lesson without forgetting the old."--Article on "Sociological Christianity a Necessity," in The Methodist Review, May, 1891, pp. 451, 452.
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of view does not involve any change in the scientific aspects or the natural construction of society, but it brings into the foreground the necessity of a change in its temper, its moral tone, and its impelling spirit. It suggests the natural status plus moral power; it implies the scientific product plus spiritual energy. What human society needs in order to make possible any substantial progress towards perfect conditions is a moral resurrection, and this science alone will not suggest and cannot provide; it can hardly discover that it is necessary. Loyalty to the facts of history, however, requires us to be still more
The determining moral factor in a Christian philosophy of progress.explicit, and points to the simple truth of experience that without the light and guidance of Christianity, or the religious life which was distinctively preparatory to it, human nature has developed in the direction of moral disability and decadence, with no power in itself to escape from this downward trend. The present condition of the non-Christian world, after centuries of experience, only gives an added emphasis to this statement; rather it places it upon the plane of demonstrated and incontrovertible truths, based upon data as old as humanity and yet as fresh to-day as ever. The irresistible presumption is thus created that humanity is, and will continue to be, sunk in a moral slough, save as the religion of Christ offers it a solid basis upon which to stand. Apart from Christianity and its vital influence, there is no hope. The principles which have helped mankind, the institutions around which society has rallied, the motives which have permanently inspired the beneficence of the race, and the watchwords which have put heart into altruistic undertakings, have all come from Christian sources, reckoning these sources as inclusive of the divine religion as it has existed in the world both before and after the Incarnation. The full consideration we have given to the claims of certain rival gospels of social regeneration has not been time misspent if it has con-
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vinced us that they are not gifted with the necessary moral force and spiritual vitality to
Christianity's endowment of power.carry society to higher levels and make its individual members each a new creature, in touch with the eternal Source of power, and moulded by saving ideals. We will endeavor now to complete our survey of the situation by a careful study of the special adaptation of Christianity to effect a permanent and saving transformation of society when once it has been introduced. Nothing, surely, has ever wrought in human history which was better able to accomplish radical and fundamental changes in the tendencies of society, and create an environment so directly conducive to the lasting well-being of humanity. Its great distinguishing characteristic, aside from the transcendent wisdom of its teachings, is its power of moral renovation and its motive energy. The trouble with other instrumentalities is that after they have done their best and produced their ultimate result in human character, they leave man still morally incapable and give him no permanent impulse in the right direction. However much they may inform the mind, polish the manners, and restrain the external acts, however great may be the patriotic enthusiasm and the religious fervor which are produced, yet the basis of incorruptible moral principle is lacking, the illuminating guidance of truth is missed, and the inspiring touch of spiritual life is absent. The relation of Christianity to the world's progress is an aspect of the philosophy of history which has been thrown far too much in the background in the thinking of our present generation. Christian philosophers—at least some of them—have not asserted it as boldly and as unreservedly as they were justified in doing, while the evolutionary philosophy which has so overshadowed and permeated the intellectual drift of our times has magnified to an unwarranted degree the scope of naturalistic forces in social evolution.1 The function of Christianity, l "Evidently the Master, at whose feet reformers must sit, did not organize as to its form a new society, for it remained in His hands entirely unchanged. He did not interfere with its ineradicable tendencies to home, government, industry, and religion. Had He intended to promote a revolution in social science He did not manifest the purpose by overturning, checking, or to any degree interfering with, the fourfold naturalistic products. . . . While, however, He recognized society in its naturalness as a product, and in its wholeness as a human necessity, He saw the impossibility of reconstruction, repair, and progress through human and naturalistic agencies, and provided for its necessities as no philosopher or reformer had conceived or understood. He must be credited with holding such a view of the race as would allow the introduction of a new spirit, new principles, and new purposes, and of forces non-naturalistic and non-human. As man cannot regenerate himself, so society cannot regenerate itself. The one as well as the other must be born from above. . . . Yet the change proposed by the Master was not a change in constitutional form, but of essence, of spirit, of principles, of laws, of methods of life, and of relation to divine ideas and agencies. Going deeper into the problem than all others, He distinguished between naturalistic forms and idealistic principles, preferring to state the latter, while the forms might be left to care for themselves."— The Methodist Review,May, 1891, p. 454.
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(including the Old Testament, as part of its history) as an influence in the transformation of human life, its range and power as a, factor in the whole complex movement of the world towards its goal, is one of the most fascinating and noble phases of social science, and will be recognized as such more and more as the sublime mission of Christianity in society becomes further apparent. The scope and importance of the subject demand that we scrutinize more in detail the essential features of that social ministry which reveal the unique adaptation of the Christian religion to promote the welfare of mankind. I Christianity alone provides an adequate method of deliverance from sin and its penalty.
Christianity alone has solved the difficulties of sin.This may seem to bear more directly upon individual than upon social experience. This is true; but sin is a social curse as well as an individual offense, and only sin-freed souls can constitute a perfected society. A society of saved individuals is potentially a saved society. In fact, even a modicum of illuminated, regenerated, forgiven, God-inspired, and God-possessed individual souls forms a moral leaven which will eventually penetrate and save the whole; and, moreover, there is no possibility of social renewal and transformation except through the personal work of divine grace in the individual heart. Let us cling unhesitatingly and unreservedly to this vital dictum of our Gospel, "Ye must be born again." The new birth is the central fact in the spiritual environment of the Christian. It involves that illumination of spirit and that act of faith which are in themselves the signs of a majestic change in the whole attitude and outlook of the soul, and which secure to it all the benefits of the Redeemer's atoning work. Christ Himself thus becomes the sin-bearer. He removes the crushing burden of conscious guilt. If that be not lifted, the true religious life of humanity is paralyzed and society is morally helpless. Every ethnic religion has stumbled just here. Its
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doctrine of sin and the measures it proposes for deliverance have been the sign of its failure. On the other hand, this is the distinctive excellence of Christianity. There is a common basis of ethics in the reason and conscience of humanity, but Christianity reveals the only way of deliverance from sin. We may have the most elaborate system of ethics,—Confucianism glorified, Buddhism transfigured with a flawless code of conduct,—but, like the perfect law of Judaism, all this will only reveal more clearly the incapacity of man to exemplify ethical perfection. We need not insist upon the fact that sin reigns in non-Christian hearts.
Conscious guilt among non-Christian races.There is a feeling in some quarters that pagan society is comparatively innocent in God's sight, because its members cannot be held responsible to the same extent as others who enjoy the full light and knowledge of the Gospel. Let heathen society be judged by its own standard of knowledge and conscious responsibility, and there can be no shadow of doubt that sin, both in the sense of personal sinfulness and of overt transgression, is one of the most vivid and pervading facts of consciousness among all non-Christian races. To be sure, the natural result of the prevalent legalism is to develop spiritual pride and a complacent consciousness of merit, but this only indicates that the heathen have a mistaken confidence in the effectiveness of their own self-imposed methods of gaining the favor of their gods and of securing deliverance from the wrath and judgment which they are conscious their sins deserve. The various methods of propitiation, and the apprehension of judgment and punishment in the prevalent religious experience of non-Christian peoples, indicate plainly enough the consciousness of guilt. The inner experience of Christian converts testifies to their previous consciousness of sin and condemnation, and reveals their grateful appreciation of the assurance of forgiveness and reconciliation. In all the ethnic faiths there is a sufficient recognition of the misery and condemnation which sin involves, but the burden of sin finds expression rather in the fear of vengeance and in the dread of calamity, woe, and suffering, than in a sense of guilt, impurity, and transgression of a holy law. The result is that the deliverance expected and implored, either as the reward of merit or the fruit of sacrifice, by the disciples of non-Christian cults is from the calamities, miseries, misfortunes, and fierce judgments of deity, both in this life and the life to come, while Christianity alone teaches the sweet secret of repentance and puts into the heart the humble plea for forgiveness and reconciliation through the merits of Christ. It brings thus an immediate peace to the conscience-stricken heart, insures a
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present forgiveness, and opens a new path of hope, bright and fragrant with the presence of a reconciled Lord. Here is the old, the vital, the precious, the matchless preëminence of the Gospel as a deliverance from sin illustrated in contrast with all the abortive methods of heathenism. It brings, through faith in an atoning Mediator, a full, free, and immediate assurance of salvation from sin and its condemnation, while all other systems involve the hopeless task of earning this coveted benefit by long, wearisome, uncertain, and virtually worthless methods of sacrifice and legal obedience. The practices in vogue, for example, in connection with popular
Hindu methods of expiation.Hinduism to obtain merit and to secure the pardon of iniquity are in many instances so puerile and degrading as to be repugnant to the common sense of humanity. The giving of alms to lazy mendicants, notorious for vices, the participation in pilgrimages which are too often characterized by license without ordinary restraints, the torture of the body, the pronouncing in endless iteration of the names of the gods, the elaborate sacrificial ritual, the paying of due reverence to the Brahman, the swallowing of penitential pills of disgusting character, are among some of the expedients adopted by Hindu devotees. The spiritual counsel embodied in many of the "Sacred Books of the East" is such as no Christian reader can peruse without sadness and loathing. It is said in the "Padma Purana," "He who carries in his body a drop of water in which a Brahman's toe has been washed gets all his sins immediately destroyed." And, again, in the "Mahabharata" is found the following strange announcement: "He who contemplates the Ganges while walking, sitting, sleeping, thinking of other things, awake, eating, breathing, and conversing, is delivered from all sins." Such trifling as this with the mighty power of sin is all in vain. Such shallow expedients for lifting the burden of guilt and providing any satisfactory basis of reconciliation with the deity are futile and hopeless. On the other hand, the Gospel of perfect and final reconciliation, if accepted with full recognition of its import, stills at once and forever the reproaches of a guilty conscience, and imparts to the soul the peace and courage of assured forgiveness. With this marvelous experience comes a new self-consciousness, which humbles at the same time that it uplifts the soul. A higher value is thus given to life, a fresh hope to existence; a strange passion for good is aroused where formerly a love for evil prevailed. The man is, in fact, a new creature, and has within his transformed individual character the promise and potency of a nobler social ideal.
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The old Gospel is as potent and as true to its transforming record in mission
The Gospel has lost none of its potency.fields to-day as it was in the apostolic age. The classic story of Paul's conversion on the way to Damascus can be paralleled in the history of mission conversions on many fields. A Chinese native preacher was proclaiming the Gospel of immediate, perfect, and eternal salvation to a group of countrymen. A notorious character, the chief of the gamblers of that district and the terror of the neighborhood, was passing by. He was a bold, desperate, and hardened leader in all iniquity. He paused and listened, and that wondrous message reached his heart. "If Jesus can do this for me," he said, "then He shall." He then and there accepted Him, and went to his home to close his haunt of crime, and broke at once and forever with his past life and former associations. This incident, told at the Shanghai Conference of 1877, is but a typical illustration of the unimpaired power of the Gospel, if sincerely and unreservedly accepted, to secure an instant and complete change in the relation of the soul to God and His holy law.1 The experience of pardon and reconciliation is not all that the Gospel brings in its
It brings not only pardon, but imparts power.remedial mission to sinful man. It gives him also an endowment of power to resist sin and live in righteousness. Nowhere else can the soul obtain the high impulse and the moral stamina which it needs to engage successfully in its conflict with temptation and surrounding evil. "There is no good Indian but a dead one" is the complacent verdict of those who have aroused the hostility and treachery which lurk in his natural heart. "There is no good Indian but a regenerate one" is the more kindly testimony of the missionary. Lieutenant W. H. Wassell, in Harper's Magazine for November, 1894, gives abundant testimony to confirm the truth of this happier verdict concerning the once barbarous and bloody Sioux. A few facts here, and only a few, can be quoted, gathered at random from fresh missionary testimony in widely separated fields, as revealing the power of Christianity at the present hour to transform the moral character not only of individuals, but of whole communities. In November, 1894, on the east coast of Formosa, a sailing vessel was slowly drifting landward in a dangerous sea. On the shore, face to face with the doomed vessel, were a mission chapel and a village of Christian converts, the fruit of the missionary toils of Dr. G. L. MacKay, of the Canadian Presbyterian Church. The native pastor, Mr. A-Hoa, 1 "Records of Shanghai Conference, 1877," p. 103.
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Dr. MacKay's first convert on the island, hastily beat the drum as if to call the villagers to worship,
Som representative facts gathered from recent reports.but his object was to gather them all for the work of rescue. Some of them were sent to the ship through the heavy sea to let the crew know that there were no savages and that if they wished to come ashore there was a Christian chapel which would be placed at their disposal. The captain, his wife and child, and the entire ship's crew were safely housed in that place of refuge, and before the close of the day twenty-one Europeans and Americans met one hundred and forty-six native converts for a service of thanksgiving and worship in that house of prayer. "Note well," says Dr. MacKay in reporting this incident, "that twenty-five years ago that crew would have been murdered, the vessel plundered, and no one left to tell the tale."1 At the recent Annual Meeting of the Rhenish Missionary Society, Herr Pilgram drew a striking contrast between the state of society thirteen years ago and at the present time in the Toba District of Sumatra. "Then everything was unsafe; no one dared to go half an hour's distance from his village. War, robbery, piracy, and slavery reigned supreme. Now there is Christian life everywhere, and churches full of attentive hearers. . . . The faith of our young Christians is seen in their deeds. They have renounced idolatrous customs; they visit the sick and pray with them; they go to their enemies and make reconciliation with them. This has often made a powerful impression on the heathen, because they saw that the Christians could do what was impossible to heathen—they could forgive injuries."2 Two Bavarian missionaries were chatting one day with a group of converts in Central Australia, when the conversation turned upon the moral character of their lives before their conversion, and it was asked if any of them had ever committed a murder. Out of nine converts who were present only one had never killed a man. But Christianity had wrought a mighty change in each case and given the strength of a renewed nature.3 In the northeastern extremity of Australia, upon Cape York peninsula, is Mapoon, where the Moravians, in connection with the United Presbyterians of Australia, have established a mission among the Papuans, who were known as degraded cannibals sunk in immorality, and especially bloodthirsty and treacherous. The result of their labors 1 The Missions of the World, March, 1895, p. III. 2 Quoted in The Chronicle, February, 1895, p. 48. 3 The Chronicle, June, 1895, p. 174.
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has been wonderful. "Four years ago no unarmed vessel dared to put into Port Musgrave, owing to the reputation of the Batavia River blacks for savagery and cannibalism. Now they come there to make repairs. About two years ago a party of shipwrecked sailors were rescued from cannibal blacks, fed and cared for, and led through miles of jungle to Mapoon by the mission Papuans, without the knowledge of the missionaries until they arrived there."1 Among the Kols in India has just been celebrated the jubilee anniversary of the establishment of the Gossner Mission, a report of which was given in Der Missionsfreund, the organ of the Berlin Missionary Society. The number of professing Christians connected with the mission is about forty thousand, and their jubilee commemoration was a season of Christian enthusiasm and rejoicing over the power of the Gospel. The mission was begun in 1845, when the people were given to devil-worship and led a deeply degraded life. "Surely such a Jubilee," writes the chronicler, "is a grand testimony to missionary work, to the presence and power of the Spirit, as in the apostolic days, in reclaiming the most abject, and raising them speedily to a high plane of earnest Christian faith and life, and consequently of civilization."2 The late Rev. Dr. Tyler, a veteran missionary among the Zulus, stated that "after forty years of service the contrast between the time when I entered and left the field was very wonderful. Witchcraft had ceased, the cruelties practised by spirit-doctors were ended, superstitions had lost their stronghold, and a knowledge of Gospel truth was widely diffused. . . . The reports of an annual meeting of Zulu Christians a few years ago showed the contributions for that year to have amounted to $2573 for 1509 members, or the sum of $1.70 for each church-member."3 "Look at our Christians," writes, in a private letter, a missionary in Assam. "What attractive Christian homes you can find in Sibsagor! what patriarchal simplicity and purity among our Christian Kols! See heathenism with its incredible vice, and then see our hundreds of Christian homes in upper Assam, with their simple, beautiful family life, and you will then know what Christianity has done for these people. Come and see our church in Sibsagor, full of clean, well-dressed attendants, all of whom are Christians. You will find among our sixteen hundred Christians no paupers, no beggars, no criminals. Go to 1 The Missionary Review of the World, July, 1896, p. 494. 2 The Mission World, November, 1896, p. 504. 3 Life and Light for Woman, August, 1895, p. 356.
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the jail here, which is full, but you will find no Christian in it. Come and see, and you will be convinced that Christianity is the power to lift these heathen people out of their degradation."1 From the scenes of recent cruel massacre at Erzingan, in Eastern Turkey, is reported the death of a convert from Mohammedanism, who was once a member of that fierce community of whose cruel outrages upon Christians we have lately heard so much. The Rev. W. N. Chambers, of the American Board, in writing of him says: "His life had been stormy, but his death was peaceful and triumphant. His wife, still a strong Moslem, used to say, 'I am thankful to the Protestants. My husband used to blaspheme and beat me. Now he treats me with gentleness and consideration.' "2 In the far north of our own Continent the venerable Archdeacon Phair writes from the Diocese of Rupert's Land of the change which the Gospel has produced in the lives of Indian converts. Gambling, conjuring, dancing, and all sorts of heathenism have given way before the mighty power of the Gospel. "The men who, with painted face and plaited hair, spent their days and nights in yelling and beating the drum are now found 'clothed, and in their right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus.' Outside the Gospel there is not enough power in the world to accomplish a change like this."3 Amid the darkest heathenism of the Pacific Islands may be gathered some of the most striking testimonies of changed lives through the influence of the Gospel. In a recent article by the Rev. Robert Mackenzie, on "A Century's Conquest in the Pacific," is a record of humanity redeemed from the vilest depths of heathen abomination and cruelty to reformed character, righteous living, and humane customs, which cannot be surpassed in the earth's history. Group after group of savage islands has been transformed and cleansed, and new men and women have sprung up out of a horrid environment of licentiousness and bestiality. If there were no other chapter of Gospel triumph in the history of missions, this alone would be sufficient to demonstrate the power of Christianity to regenerate society.4 When the Jubilee of the Wesleyan Methodist Mission in Fiji was celebrated in 1885, the Rev. James Calvert wrote concerning it that fifty years previous there was not a Christian in all Fiji, but then there was not an avowed heathen left. Cannibalism had for some years been 1 The Rev. C. E. Petrick (A. B. M. U.), Sibsagor, Assam. 2 The Missionary Herald, July, 1893, p. 283. 3 The Church Missionary Gleaner, May, 1894, p. 67. 4 The Missionary Record, December, 1894, p. 336.
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wholly extinct, and other customs of cruelty and barbarism had disappeared. Concerning these changes Baron de Hubner, a German scientist and statesman, who had travelled extensively, remarked to the Rev. A. J. Webb, "I must say that the change which has come over these islands is wonderful—no candid man can deny it."1 Concerning the transformations effected by the Gospel in New Guinea, the Rev. S. McFarlane, LL.D., has given most emphatic and striking testimony. "I feel sure," he writes, "if the churches could be made to realize the present salvation which Christianity brings to these people, saving them from the hell of heathenism, with its cruelty and cannibalism, and lifting them into a very heaven of peace, happiness, and progress, they would cease to speculate so much about the future, feeling that there is enough in their present salvation to fire our enthusiasm."2 It is perhaps almost unnecessary to take the time to bring forward facts like these, which could be multiplied from many mission fields, but, strange to say, there are many who deny the efficacy of missions to produce the ordinary fruits of Christianity in the hardened and sterile soil of heathen lives. Charles Darwin described a Christmas that he once spent among the Maori converts to Christianity, and said, "I never saw a nicer or more merry group, and to think that this was the centre of the land of cannibalism, murder, and all atrocious crimes! The lesson of the missionary is the enchanter's wand." Sir Charles Elliott, formerly Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, remarked in a recent address on missions in India, "The Government [referring to British rule in India] cannot bestow on the people that which gives to life its colour or to love of duty its noblest incentive. It cannot offer the highest morality fortified by the example of the Divinely Perfect Life."3 II Christianity, however, does much more than provide a redemption from sin. It brings the soul under the sway of loftier incentives. It 1 Work and Workers in the Mission Field, May, 1892, p. 12. Cf. also, for information upon mission work in the South Sea Islands, The Missions of the World, June, 1894, p. 156; The Chronicle, December, 1892, p. 283; July, 1893, p. 194. 2 The Missionary Review of the World, July, 1895, p. 511. Cf. also an article entitled "Pioneering in New Guinea," by the Rev. R. Mackenzie, in The Missionary Record, August, 1895, p. 230. 3 The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April,1894, p. 250. For an extended quotation from the address, see supra, p. 374.
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places the new man under the power of convictions which give a fresh meaning and zest to life.
The supremacy of the Christian motive.He finds himself intently scanning a programme of service which has become strangely attractive and imperative. The spirit with which he regards his fellow-men is changed, and he begins to play a new rôle in social life. The Christ in His personality, His example, and His ideals comes into the foreground. We all know the immense power and commanding influence of motive. Mere knowledge of what is right and obligatory may be entirely inoperative without the? impelling incentive. Christianity supplies the living motive in a new and powerful form. Ethnic religions in their philosophic content are possessed of moral maxims and theoretical ideals which, if strictly observed in practice, would make them a beneficent ministry to the world. But, aside from their fatal imperfections in methods of dealing with sir, they are weak almost to the extent of moral paralysis in the realm of ennobling impulse. Not that they are without strong appeals to man's cravings and hopes, but this appeal is to the lower rather than to the higher susceptibilities of his nature. If we compare the secret springs of action and the incentives to duty which we find in Confucianism, in Hinduism, in Buddhism, and in Islam, with the lofty, soul-quickening, and soul-transfiguring motive power of the Gospel, we will note the great difference in the quality rather than in the quantity of the motive. Christ Himself is Lord and Master in the realm of Christian incentive. There is nothing more wonderful in God's universe than the personality of Christ; there is nothing more marvelous than its influence over the human heart. In the great battle with individual temptations, as well as in the strenuous struggle with old associations, in the break with traditional customs, in the uprooting of deeply seated tendencies, in the pangs of isolation, perhaps in the stress of persecution, and in the paths of sacrifice, obedience, and service, only the motives which contact with Christ inspires can sufficiently cheer, invigorate, and fortify the soul. Some one has said that the great need of Africa is a conscience.
A master motive in morals the great need of the world.The great need of the world is a sufficiently powerful and truly unselfish motive, backed by conviction of duty and inspired by personal devotion to Christ. This, and this only, is able to overcome the trend of heredity and lead the soul to break with its past, rise above its environment, and become Christlike in its attitude to its fellow-men. The great social evils of the world are impregnable, except as this motive of Christlike devotion inspires the heart. The social espionage
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and despotism of the Orient are even more terrible than its State tyranny. Who has raised a finger against the giant wrong of caste, except as he drew the courage and the wisdom to do so, either directly or indirectly, from the religion of Christ? The words of Dr: Duff were true when he said: "What, then, can exorcise this demon spirit of caste? Nothing—nothing but the mighty power of the Spirit of God, quickening, renewing, and sanctifying the whole Hindu soul. It is grace and not argument, regeneration of nature and not any improved policy of government, that will effect the change—in a word, it is the Gospel, the everlasting Gospel, and that alone, savingly brought home by the energy of Jehovah's Spirit, that can effectually root out and destroy this gigantic evil." This supreme motive of love, this mystery of devotion, which the Gospel of Christ awakens and vivifies, is the open secret of missionary effort, not in Christian lands alone, but wherever Christian churches have been planted among non-Christian peoples.1 Nor is it only this; it is also the incentive to social reform in these foreign communities. The inspiration to deliver society from its traditional evils is but another phase of the workings of the missionary spirit of the Gospel. This we are beginning more fully to realize, and to give it its due not only for its beneficent operations, but for its comprehensive scope—seeking not only for the highest spiritual progress of humanity, but also for its truest moral and best material well-being. 1 "We have no room in this short chapter to describe the villages, houses, canoes, pottery, weapons, and native life of the New Guineans, nor to trace the history of the different stations formed along its coast. For these details the reader can turn to the books written by Mr. Chalmers and Dr. McFarlane. There is, however, one thing we must find space for, and that is to raise a memorial in honour of the noble army of South Sea island missionaries and martyrs, who have given their lives for the salvation of its people. During the past twenty-three years nearly three hundred Christian teachers and their wives from the Society, the Hervey, the Samoan, and the Loyalty Islands, or from noble little Niué, have willingly, even eagerly, gone forth to labour there. Some have been spared to work on for many years—Conspicuous among them Ruatoka, the greatly respected teacher of Port Moresby, who has been at that station since its commencement; but others have been obliged to leave, broken in health, aged before their time; and, sadder still, no less than a hundred and twenty of them have died of fever, or have been poisoned, or brutally killed. Well may a missionary express his conviction that, though perhaps lacking the polish and culture of Europeans, these faithful native teachers will bear comparison with Christians anywhere for strong, sincere, and whole-hearted devotion to Christ."—Cousins, "The Story of the South Seas," p. 192.
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III Christianity gives a new aspect to society. It not only changes the man and his motive,
but also his outlook towards his fellow-men. What is the Christian as distinguished from the non-Christian conception of man? Does it not consist in this: that Christianity places a far higher and more ennobling estimate upon the individual as created in the likeness of God, and the object of divine love and compassion, for whom a marvelous sacrifice has been made, and for whose sake God, in the person of His Son, has taken the form of a servant? There is no religion which regards with such respect the individuality of man and seeks so sympathetically to guide, foster, and develop it, and eventually assigns to it a destiny so glorious. Other religions are sure to supplant or suppress it and, it may be, claim an undue sovereignty over it. The non-Christian conception in all ages of history has been marked by an underestimate of the individual and an undue exaltation of civil, political, and religious authority as represented by the hierarchies of the State and the Church. It was so in ancient paganism, and such is the case now in all barbarous and even semi-barbarous environments. The dignity of the individual as Godborn, and endowed with freedom, with civil and religious privileges, with personal rights which no human authority can legitimately ignore or violate, is the exclusive legacy of Christianity to humanity. These things have never been recognized except where Christian conceptions of man have prevailed. "The great notion in all the ancient empires," writes Dr. Fairbairn, "was that the king or the priest owns the people. The idea of man as a conscious, rational, moral individual, of worth for his own sake, of equal dignity before his Maker, did not exist in antiquity till it came into being through Israel."1 That this monstrous misconception of the social, civil, and religious status of humanity
The pagan conception still lingers in Oriental tradition.still prevails throughout the non-Christian world may be demonstrated by the study of the conditions of human life in almost any one of the great empires of Asia or among the tribal governments of Africa. No more ghastly illustration of the spirit and tendencies of Moslem rule can be found, even in all its dark and desolating record, than that which Christian nations have recently beheld, with shuddering sorrow and indignation, but with 1 "Religion in History and in Modern Life," p. 123.
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strange apathy, in the contemporary history of Turkey. The Turkish Government, with imperious complacency and arrogant assumption of power, claims to own those subject Christian races. Their life, their property, their sacred honor, their earthly all, are regarded as wholly at its disposal. Persia, if its slumbering fanaticism were aroused, would be ready for the same overweening rôle of defiance to every right of humanity. India, previous to the restraints of British rule, held in slight esteem some of the most precious prerogatives of human life, and even to-day, were that rule withdrawn, there is no guarantee, save the power which Christianity may have attained, that man, woman, or child would be safe from the old barbarism of the past. Not only the social and civil, but even the religious, status of man in India is after the pagan rather than the Christian ideal. The Roman arena may not be there, but that great Colosseum of Caste seems to make all India one vast pit where, with hardly any figure of speech, humanity is thrown to the lions. There is no pity, no compassion, for low-caste humanity. The only sanctity that is recognized pertains to the higher ranks of caste exclusiveness. The Pariah is the offscouring, while the fact that he is a man rather than a beast is a matter of insignificant importance. He is simply the victim of a great system with no basis of morality, with no respect for his humanity, which appears to have been devised for the express purpose of establishing over him an inexorable tyranny. Turn now to China, and we find the same failure to appreciate the sacredness of man as man, the same crushing and grinding power of what in that country represents the State. We have not to go back far in the history of Japan before we meet with an overshadowing system of feudalism, while even at the present hour the theory that the Mikado, if not divine in his person, is divine in his right and authority, is still a part of the political code. In the realms of savage as distinguished from semi-civilized rule man is everywhere but a puppet and a slave, with even his right to live taken from him or at any moment liable to be ignored. It is characteristic, therefore, of the non-Christian estimate of man that it fails to recognize the sacredness of his personality, ignores his rights and privileges as an individual, and counts.him a victim and tool of Church or State, as occasion or mere caprice may require. Man as representative of humanity has no charter of rights, while the poor, the weak, the ignorant, the enslaved, the helpless, the widow, and the orphan are those who, as a rule, have to bear the burdens and sufferings which are incidental to the system. Nothing is more striking than that deep and happy consciousness which so often comes to
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Christian converts when they first realize the magnitude of the change in their personal status which has been wrought by their acceptance of Christianity. It is hard for them at first to realize that their old position of inferiority and insignificance as the puppets and slaves of power has at least in theory, if not altogether in fact, entirely passed away, and that they have entered into a new and direct relationship to Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, and have joined the common brotherhood of the redeemed. Christian missions are the champion of this new conception of man as man, which is destined in the end to revolutionize the political and social ideals of non-Christian peoples. The success of missions will be revealed and emphasized more and more, as time goes on, by the intensity of the irrepressible conflict between the old and the new view of man as a citizen of the State and a member of society. On the strength of this, some critic of missions may be inclined to denounce them as an unwarranted intrusion into a peaceful realm of traditional wrong and well-established despotism; but is not this resistless tendency to bring in new and beneficent changes the historic glory of Christianity which commends rather than condemns it ? Another conspicuous aspect of the non-Christian estimate of man is its undervaluation
Heathen statecraft still clings to its absolutism.of the sacredness of life. It is Christianity which establishes the idea that the State, as represented by its rulers, is bound to respect human life and will be held accountable to God for any violation of its sanctity. The pagan theory was not only that the State possessed absolute mastery over its subjects, but owned its gods as well, and was the appointed guardian of their rights, and entitled to enforce the observance of every religious duty, even at the instant sacrifice of the sacred right to live. That the State is accountable to God, because man is the child of God and under His protection, is a new and revolutionary teaching of Christianity. The State, without any offense to the non-Christian theory of its relations to human life, can destroy it at will for any one of many reasons: it may be to dignify worship, to gratify vanity, to allay superstition, to ward off evil, to satisfy vengeance, to sate the appetite for blood, or even to free from the burden of support. The old heathen empires would never tolerate a question as to their authority on this point. God Only has ever called them to account, and it is the Providence of God in our day which has marked the guilt, and in His own time will allot the punishment of the Turkish Empire, whose dark history of oppression and unscrupulous violation of the sacredness of human
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rights will surely ere long consign it to judgment at the hands of the Almighty. A further characteristic of the non-Christian estimate of man is a
An inadequate conception of brotherhood.failure to recognize the fact of human brotherhood. We should place an emphasis here upon the word "human," since our reference is to the larger brotherhood of humanity which Christianity teaches. There is in the higher ethnic faiths, especially Buddhism and Mohammedanism, a recognition of a narrower tie of fraternity, based upon religious or national affinity. It is, however, only the shadow of Christian brotherhood, an artificial and forced relationship founded upon religious or political expediency, rather than rooted in the deep spiritual consciousness of a common love and a common destiny through living union with a divine Lord and Saviour. In the larger outlook of a common origin, a common provision for redemption, and a universal mission of love and service, it gives no sign of the grander ideal of Christianity. That this larger recognition is characteristic of Christianity needs no proof, and that Christianity carries it into heathen society is a matter of history and experience. It is the Christian spirit among native converts of India which has established at Madras a "Native Christian Association" for promoting the personal and social interests, while at the same time advancing the influence of Christianity through the "manifestation of a higher character in the individual, and a more beneficent spirit in the corporate life." It is in harmony with the historic tendencies of Christianity to promote mutual helpfulness, and plan for the higher progress of humanity. Another estimate of society which is characteristic of the non-Christian
Meagre philanthropic results of heathen systems.outlook is that of predominant selfishness and a prevalent indifference to the public good. Uhlhorn has convincingly shown, in his "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," that all pagan antiquity was thoroughly egoistic. "Self was the centre around which everything revolved. A man of the ancient world despised whatever he drew into his service, and hated everything which opposed him."1 The spirit of benevolence and altruism introduced by Christianity, which finds its highest spiritual expression in the missionary outlook and purpose of the Christian religion, is at variance with the whole temper of the heathen world. The conception, no less than the working, of this ideal is so out of harmony with the previous outlook of converts to Christianity that it is difficult to bring them to a full and Replace This Text 1 "Conflict of Christianity with Heathenism," p.192.
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generous practical recognition of it. It is something so new and difficult of comprehension by the average mind of man that even Christendom is not entirely free from the subtle sway of the pagan conception. Israel of old could hardly grasp the significance of missions, and to this day there is need of a far more loyal and generous appreciation on the part of the Christian public of this regnant thought of the Gospel. Christendom is too busy, or too preoccupied, or does not realize as it should, the value of an individual soul in God's sight, although, to its immortal honor, the Christian Church, and to some extent its environment of Christendom, is recognizing with new enthusiasm the supreme obligations of spiritual unselfishness as a first law of the Gospel. Even mission fields are bringing forth fruit, and missions are reduplicating themselves abroad. This new outlook dawns slowly both in Christendom and outside of it, but it comes with the acceptance of Christianity. The vision seems to tarry, but the prospect brightens. The world needs this new atmosphere in the home, this new spirit in the community, this new force in the nation, this new estimate of the value of man as in God's likeness and in God's care. Have we not, even in contemporary European history, evidence at once painful and startling that the heart of civilization does not yet beat at all true to the idea of human brotherhood? This is the spirit of Christian missions, in whose outlook upon humanity "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for all are one in Christ Jesus." IV Christianity provides a code of ethics which is both essentially valuable and
The rue criteria of value in ethical systems.sufficiently authoritative. The value of an ethical system depends upon several vital points: (1) The ideals should be correct. (2) The precepts should be right. (3) The motive should be sufficient. (4) The authority should be supreme. Tested by these criteria the value of various systems of ethics in force among non-Christian peoples becomes open to question; yet an imperfect or a partially effective ethical code may not be without a certain value. It may be good and useful in some particulars or up to a given point, and even though it may be positively objectionable in some respects, yet its usefulness as a whole may not be entirely destroyed by this fact. The ethics of Confucianism and Buddhism, for example, whatever may be the
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imperfection which characterizes them, have nevertheless differentiated the existing civilization of Asiatic nations from barbarism and bestial savagery. They have accomplished this, however, because there is in them something of essential excellence, and owing to the fact that they teach many things which are found in more perfect form in the Christian code. They reflect the natural conscience of man, and represent, although in a disproportionate and disjointed system, much of the ethical content of primitive revelation and of the later Hebrew Decalogue. In fact, the ethics of non-Christian religious systems, where they have not been made subservient to evil desires and prostituted in fleshly compromise, are in a large sense the analogue of Christian ethics, but in an emasculated state—the life-essence having been withdrawn, the moral force weakened, and the impelling motive enfeebled. We may change the illustration and say that the various parts of the skeleton are to be found in a more or less imperfect state, but without proper articulation, and of course unclothed with flesh and destitute of vital energy. Life, the symbol of authority and the mystic sign of an indwelling spirit of power, is wanting. The graces and signs of righteous living—in biblical language, the "fruits of the Spirit"—as the culmination and crown of a vitalized ethical code, are not present. The best side of ethnic religions is, however, their ethical teachings.
The importance of the ethical element in religions.A religious system can hardly afford to fail altogether in its theory of morals. Even whatever of moral laxity, judged by Christian standards, exists in the ethics of Buddhism or Mohammedanism, for example, is stoutly defended by the disciples of those religions as correct and unobjectionable from an ethical point of view. No serious religious system can safely risk its influence and its prestige by upholding a moral code which offends the universal natural conscience of mankind. We do not expect, therefore, to find that the ethical standards of the great non-Christian religions do serious violence to the natural instincts and the imperative moral judgments of mankind. Their defects and failures will appear rather by comparison with the revealed will of God and the religious sanctions which He has established for the guidance of human conduct. It will be found that their basis of morals is insufficient and that the source of authority has been perverted. It is because the wisdom which propounds is inadequate, and the power which commands is deficient, that non-Christian ethics reveal such fatal weakness, and result in such an abortive practical outcome. Another point which deserves emphasis in this connection is that ethics as at present under discussion are not confined merely to the
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theoretical code, but include also the practical outcome as
How can the value of an ethical system be verified?historically exemplified in the moral life and conduct. By Buddhist ethics, for example, we mean not only the didactic code of morals covering the right and wrong of conduct which is taught by Buddhism, but the resultant which we find in the life and conduct of its followers. A theory of ethics is of little value if it is not exemplified in practice and if it has not the power to vitalize the moral nature and govern the conduct of its adherents. The serious point of difference between the ethics of Christianity and Buddhism is not chiefly in the content of their respective codes, but in the spiritual completeness and the impelling power towards realization which are characteristic of Christianity. Christian morals are not only pure and perfect in substance, but they are gifted with that subtle energy which marks the Gospel as a spiritual force. They are not concerned simply with what ought to be, but they demand realization in the life and conduct. In estimating the ethics of ethnic systems we should not fail to take into consideration, in addition to the morals which are taught in the code, those which are revealed in the life. When we speak, therefore, of the importance of transformed ethics in non-Christian lands we refer not only to the necessity of a new ethical code, but to the urgency of a new moral life. In fact, the advent of another system of ethics would be useless if it did not result in a corresponding change of conduct. An additional emphasis is given to this point if we note that even the theoretical ethics of ethnic religions are virtually out of sight in the practical life of the people. Society is ruled rather by the law of custom—the ethics of the status quo—than by the ideal code which is recorded in the books. Ethical principles have been largely supplanted by the unwritten law of custom, so that when we speak of Buddhist ethics, for example, we are referring for all practical purposes to Buddhist living rather than to its ideal code. The latter, although not perfect, is quite a different thing from the ethics which we find embodied in the moral habits of the people. Even their moral judgments have, as a rule, drifted away from the code, and reflect rather that environment of traditional custom which has become the standard of social morality. The ethical development has been chiefly in the wrong direction, and has culminated in fixed habits of life, which have become the reigning force in society rather than the authoritative moral code which is in the background. The resultant life is either utilitarian or hedonistic or ascetic rather than strictly moral in its controlling motives. It lacks sound fibre, has little, if any, consciousness of God, a feeble
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and darkened realization of duty, and no clear and commanding standard of right and wrong. In the previous lecture we examined the practical outcome of the ethnic religions as
The scope and purpose of the present discussion.revealed in their impress upon the personality, with a view to gauging their social influence and value. We found reason to regard their effect as depressing and enfeebling, and, in large measure, destructive of the nobility and stamina of the personality as a social dynamic. In the present lecture we shall scrutinize rather their ethical basis and outcome, both as recorded in the code and revealed in the life. Our object will be to make it plain that the world needs the ethics of Christianity, that the ethnic systems do not provide a substantial basis for morals, nor the authority, the motive, the standard, the ethical content, the sustaining energy, and the spiritual glow which are necessary in a practical code in order to secure individual victory as well as the moral progress of society. With this purpose in view we must examine in some detail the ethical structure and the underlying religious basis of the more important of the ethnic faiths. 1. The ethics of Buddhism, regarded either as a code or as a life, if closely scrutinized, fail to retain that position of eminence which is claimed for them by some apologists. High praise has been accorded to Buddhism because of its ethical system, which certainly has many excellencies; and were it based upon theistic premises and inspired with the Christian rather than the Buddhist ideals, it would be a powerful instrument in the establishment of a high morality. It is the interpretation of the code in harmony with Buddhist notions, and the consequent import given to its terms, which ruin its usefulness as an incentive to sound and true morality. A word of caution is in place here as to the impropriety of reading Christian
The ethics of Buddhism--some introductory remarks.ethical conceptions into Buddhist phraseology. Whatever significance Buddhist terms may have, they cannot be regarded as synonymous with similar expressions in the Christian code. If we find, for example, that "doubt" is forbidden, it must be borne in mind that it is doubt as to the truth of Buddhist doctrine; and so "ignorance" should be interpreted as ignorance of the teachings of Buddhism. The word "law" means always the Buddhist conception of law, as having no reference to a supreme Law-giver, but rather to that "unchangeable order of things according to which we must regulate our lives if we would escape pain." The Buddhist knows no law of the conscience and no law of God. Again, when the soul or the
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self or the individuality is spoken of, we must not forget that, in the estimation of the Buddhist, all separate existence of an independent entity known as the soul is a delusion. Man possesses no independent existence, and cannot say, "This is I," as he is only a transient, perishing part of a great whole.1 When the word "salvation" occurs it is not to be understood at all in the evangelical Christian sense. No Buddhist "seeks for any salvation which he is himself to enjoy in any future world." It pertains to his present life, and it signifies deliverance from those delusions, desires, and apprehensions which the Buddhist creed repudiates. Nothing is known about salvation from sin or its penalty.2 Again, in the "Noble Eightfold Path" there is a strenuous demand for rightness in several particulars, but the "right" things which are called for are to be understood and interpreted in accordance with Buddhist conceptions.3 The "saintship" of the Buddhist code is that consummation which is contemplated in Arahatship, or the becoming worthy in the Buddhist sense. All idea of "immortality" must be interpreted in the light of the doctrine of Karma, in accordance with which man is simply a link in the chain of cause and effect, and thus his immortality means that he cannot escape from the law of Karma, that is, he will only continue to exist in the sense of forming a part of the endless chain of sequences.4 It is plain that Buddhist terms cannot be understood in the Christian sense without a reversal of their meaning. The idea that there is a community of life and spirit between the two, or that Christianity is in any way derived from or dependent upon Buddhism for its history and teachings, is wholly without foundation, as the highest authorities upon Buddhist literature unhesitatingly affirm.5 Buddhism is a gospel of deliverance from the miseries of existence. Its method is through man's unaided mastery of himself and victory over his environment. It draws a sharp distinction between the laity, or the rank and file of its adherents, and a superior order known as the "Brotherhood of the Elect" (Sangho), consisting of all those who separate themselves from the rest of mankind by entering upon the struggle after Arahatship and the attainment of Nirvana. The members of 1 Rhys Davids, "Buddhism: Its History and Literature," pp. 125-127, 133,142. 2 Ibid., pp. 131, 149, 150, 154. 3 Kellogg, "The Light of Asia and the Light of the World," pp. 301-304. 4 Rhys Davids, "Buddhism: Its History and Literature," pp. 128, 129. 5 Cf. Ellinwood, "Oriental Religions and Christianity," pp. 164-170; Grant, "The Religions of the World," p. 129.
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this order are called bhikshus, or monks, and samanos, or ascetics.
Some distinctions to be noted.The two classes are frequently called aryos, that is, the noble or elect, so that the expression the "Brotherhood of the Elect" may be regarded as a comprehensive designation of those who are in rank above the laity and are seeking for sainthood. When they have attained the rank of saints they are known as Arahats, or possessors of Arahatship. These latter only are possible candidates for Nirvana, a height of attainment to which no layman aspires or can expect to reach. The most that a layman can hope for is a favorable rebirth, and it is this discouraging prospect of endless rebirths from which the Arahat hopes to be delivered. It will be noted that the basis of this system is pessimism.1 Its underlying postulate is the misery, not chiefly of moral degradation, but rather of physical existence. By existence is understood our career 1 The following readily accessible sources of information, to most of which repeated references are made in this section, are recommended to those who desire to study further in popular literary form the ethics of Buddhism: "A Buddhist Catechism," by Subhadra Bhikshu (New York and London, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1895). "Buddhism" (the Duff Lectures, 1888), by Sir Monier Monier-Williams (London, Murray, 1889). "Buddhism: Its History and Literature," by T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D., Ph.D. (New York and London, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1896). "Buddhism" (a manual in the series of "Non-Christian Religious Systems"), by T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D., Ph.D. (sixteenth edition, London, S. P. C. K.; New York, E. & J. B. Young & Co., 1894). "Christianity and Buddhism," by T. Sterling Berry, D.D. (London, S. P. C. K.; New York, E. & J. B. Young & Co., n. d.). "The Light of Asia and the Light of the World," by S. H. Kellogg, D.D. (London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1885). "Oriental Religions and Christianity," by F. F. Ellinwood, D.D. (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1892). "Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ," by Marcus Dods, D.D. (London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1893). "The Religions of the World," by G. M. Grant, D.D., LL.D. (London, A. & C. Black; New York, A. D. F. Randolph & Co., 1895). Articles on Buddhism in Bettany's "The World's Religions," "Religious Systems of the World." "The Faiths of the World" (Giles Lectures), and "Present-Day Tracts," No. 46. Article entitled "A Plain Account of Buddhism," by John Beames, B.C.S., in The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review for July, 1896, and January, 1897. Articles entitled "Nine Centuries of Buddhism," by F. Becker Shawe, of Ladak, Tibet, in The Missionary Review of the World for April, May, June, July, and August, 1896.
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here upon earth, involving as it does sorrow and suffering as an inevitable lot,
The pessimistic basis of Buddhism.and also our continued existence in the interminable cycles of rebirth. Death is, therefore, simply a phase in the changes of existence, to be followed by rebirth in accordance with the good or evil we have done in this life, or, in other words, in harmony with our Karma, by which our present state has been determined and which will decide hereafter the character of future rebirths. Karma simply represents the inexorable workings of the law of causality, by which absolute justice is meted out to every human being, as determined by his deserts, whether they be good or evil.1 The problem of Buddhism is, therefore, how to escape from existence with its attendant miseries. It offers no help in securing this deliverance from any source other than man's unaided power to master himself. Man must in his own strength enter alone upon a desperate struggle to suppress his "will to live,"2 to annihilate his desires and passions, reverse the constitutional tendencies of his nature, triumph over everything in his earthly environment which would attract or chain him to life, and become superior in his mental state to everything earthly and material. It is part of his victory to loathe his physical self, to despise every pleasant and desirable thing connected with ordinary earthly life, and become separated from his fellow-men in a realm of shadowy and colorless mental exaltation. It will occur to us at once, as we compare this system with Christianity, that it is established
The secret of its wide extension.upon the basis of man's wisdom; it represents blinded and staggering humanity, crushed and dismayed by the insoluble problem of sorrow, and baffled by the dismal enigma of existence, searching for light and groping after a way of escape. It arose amid the intellectual and spiritual darkness of India six centuries before the Christian era, when the consolations of religion and the inspirations of morality were so sadly needed. The very fact that Buddhism proposed a way of deliverance from the sorrows and miseries of life was in that age and in that environment its secret of success. It brought also a message of universalism, in opposition to the limitations of caste, and advocated an ethical system in place of the burdensome and elaborate ritualism of Brahmanism. Its timeliness, as well as the purport of its message, was the secret of its expansion. It was a creed of action, a code of virtue, as opposed to wearisome 1 "A Buddhist Catechism," p. 48. 2 Ibid., pp. 47, 48.
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may disregard if he prefers. They are intended as "counsels of perfection," and are especially important only upon certain sacred occasions. These are as follows: (6) Not to eat at prohibited seasons. (7) To abstain from dancing, the singing of worldly songs, the visiting of public plays and musical exhibitions. (8) To avoid the use of ornaments of every kind, perfumes, oils, and ointments—in short, anything that leads to vanity.1 The commandments which are incumbent upon the bhikshus (monks) form a still higher code, and include the eight rules already mentioned, with the substitution of strict celibacy in place of the third, and the addition of two other commandments, as follows: (9) To abandon the use of luxurious beds, to sleep on a hard, low couch, and to avoid all and every worldly vanity. (10) To dwell always in voluntary poverty. There is still a third or highest code, which is intended for Arahats, or those who are in the way of saintship. The substance of this exalted law is included in what is known as the "seven jewels of the law," which are to be strictly observed, and in the "ten fetters" from which the candidate for saintship must free himself.2 The marked distinction between the laity and the priesthood in the application
The status of the Buddhist laity.of these different codes has resulted in a degree of laxity and indifference to all ethical requirements on the part of the laity which has placed them by theselves and freed them largely from all moral restraints. They are practically without oversight on the part of the superior orders, and are left to live as they will, in accordance with their own inclinations. They are accountable to no one, and live pretty much as they please. In fact, they are little ac- 1 "A Buddhist Catechism," pp. 60, 61. 2 The "seven jewels of the law" are as follows : "The four earnest meditations; the fourfold great struggle against error; the four roads to saintship; the five moral powers ; the five organs of spiritual sense; the seven kinds of wisdom; and the noble eightfold path." The "ten fetters" to be overcome, according to Dr. Rhys Davids, are as follows: "The delusion of self; doubt; dependence on rites ; sensuality, or bodily passions ; hatred; love of life on earth; desire for life in heaven ; pride; self-righteousness; ignorance." For a full exposition of the "jewels" and the "fetters" consult Rhys Davids, "Buddhism: Its History and Literature," Lecture IV. and Lecture V. "4. The Noble Truth of the Path which leads to the Cessation of Suffering. The holy Eightfold Path; that is to say, Right Belief, Right Aspiration, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Means of Livelihood, Right Endeavour, Right Memory, Right Meditation."—Page 365.
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quainted with the moral teachings of Buddhism, which have hardly any perceptible influence over their lives. They are not candidates for saintship, nor are they seeking to attain Nirvana. They know nothing of the "Noble Eightfold Path" as a rule of conduct. The sense of obligation is feeble, the consciousness of duty as an impelling motive has little, if any, determining sway. The layman's attitude to Buddhist ethics is, therefore, one of practical indifference.1 In the case of the priesthood and the candidates for Arahatship the code is one of strict asceticism, withdrawing them from contact with human life, and segregating them in a special order, in which strict celibacy, poverty, and mendicancy, attended with mystical meditation and severe struggles after a superiority to earthly environment and to the ordinary constitution of man, are characteristic features. It will be seen that in the case of laymen this superior code is entirely inapplicable and inoperative. In the case of priests and seekers after Arahatship its application involves such isolation, asceticism, and practical withdrawal from contact with society that it robs them of all capacity for social service. There are several points in the Buddhist ethical system which deserve
Some characteristics to be specially noted.special notice if we are to discover its defects and recognize its incapacity to meet the social needs of man. Its ideals are unworthy, profitless, and obscure. They have no reference to the development of individual character. There is no goal of positive attainment in sight. The result desired is negative, consisting of the suppression, elimination, and evacuation of the social relationships and the nobler aspects of manhood. Escape is the key-word, asceticism is the method, Nirvana is the goal. Existence is that which is to be escaped from, and in the process nature as revealed in the spiritual, intellectual, and physical constitution of man is to be trampled upon and stamped out as an evil and hateful thing. Individuality, as has been noted, is not only undesirable in itself, but is a delusion, since the development of individual character is an impossibility, and even if possible would simply make man a more helpless and wearied victim of the evils of existence and the curse of rebirth. The only identity of individuality which Buddhism allows is that of an endless chain of sequences, linking cause and effect in unbroken continuance, known as the doctrine of Karma. This may be interpreted as a resistless destiny, determined by the fact that man reaps what he sows, his life here determin- 1 Cf. in confirmation of this statement a series of articles by F. Becker Shawe, of Ladak, Tibet, entitled "Nine Centuries of Buddhism," in The Missionary Review of the World, April, 1896, to August, 1896.
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ing the character of his rebirths hereafter. We find in this nothing corresponding to our conception of the soul as the seat of permanent character; in fact, it denounces what it calls this "heresy of individuality." Its conception of sentient being is that it is a congeries of qualities (skandhas) consisting of five constituents: material attributes, sensations, ideas, tendencies, and thoughts. The resultant is sentient existence, but under conditions of impermanence.1 There is, therefore, an entire absence of the inspiration which is based upon the
What is the Buddhist victory?consciousness of permanent individuality. Man is simply a part of the moving current of destiny, and is swept on to a fate which cannot be distinguished from oblivion. The only victory to which he can aspire is somehow to escape his destiny, and the method by which he hopes to attain deliverance is destructive rather than constructive. After he has passed through a round of experience which is implied in asceticism, celibacy, mendicancy, withdrawal from the world, suppression of desire, contempt of existence, all-conquering equanimity, sublimated mysticism, and sublime independence of the rest of mankind, he is about as useless and inane a specimen of masculated humanity as can be conceived of; yet this is his great victory. He has been retired from the world and crowned with Arahatship. He has attained a perfection so subtle that it cannot be described except in negative terms. He has become so saintly that he is absolutely worthless to the world. He has escaped from self, and from all the misery which selfhood involves, and has passed into a realm of ecstatic inanity.3 What that state is which is popularly known as Nirvana is apparently beyond
The mystery of Nirvana.the power of the most learned students of Buddhism clearly to determine. A careful perusal of the writings of Buddhist scholars leaves one in a maze of perplexity as to whether Nirvana means annihilation or simply freedom from the weariness and pain of existence.4 The definition of the term given in "A Buddhist Catechism" (p. 45) is as follows : "A condition of the mind and spirit 1 Rhys Davids, "Manual of Buddhism," pp. 90-93. 2 "The most sacred bonds that unite man to man—the ties of home life and of
affectionate friendship—were absolutely condemned as hindrances to spiritual progress ; and no place was found for a Being who might alike be adored and loved with all the heart and all the strength and all the mind."—Berry, "Christianity and Buddhism," p. 103. 3 Kellogg, "The Light of Asia and the Light of the World," p. 350. 4 "What is Nirvâna ? If we go back to the literal meaning of the Sanskrit word, Nirvânam (pronounced in Pali Nibbânam), we find that it means extinction, or, more strictly, the state of being blown out—as the flame of a candle is blown out. But scholars have long been disputing whether in its application to Buddhism this word means total annihilation or simply blissful existence. It may be stated thus. That Nirvâna means extinction all admit. But the question is, What is it that is extinguished? "Is it the man himself? If so, then Nirvâna means total annihilation. Is it the man's passions? If so, then Nirvâna means a state of blissful rest, and freedom from the pain of desire and existence. . . . "The view most recently advocated by Oldenberg and others, and that which, on the whole, seems to be nearest the truth, is that neither Buddha himself nor his earlier disciples laid down any clear and definite dogma on this point. The Buddha himself seems, in fact, to have shrunk at the last moment from the logical consequences of his own arguments. They brought him to the brink of the awful unfathomable gulf of nothingness, and he recoiled from the prospect. He was asked whether the ego, the self, exists after death. He gave no answer. Then he was asked whether the ego, the self, perishes at death. Again he gave no answer. The enquirer, not being able to obtain a reply, went away. Then his disciples asked him why he gave no answer. He replied, because to say either yes or no to either of these questions might engender error."—John Beanies, B.C.S., in The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, July, 1896, p. 155.
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when all will to live, all striving for existence and enjoyment, has become extinct, and with it every passion, every desire, all covetousness, every fear, all ill-will, and every pain. It is a condition of perfect inner peace, accompanied by unswerving certainty of salvation gained, a condition words cannot describe, and which the imagination of a worldly-minded person would strive in vain to paint. Only one who has himself experienced it knows what Nirvana is." This is further explained in a note appended to the above definition, which reads as follows: "In spite of the correct explanation of Nirvana, given long ago by distinguished scholars, there still prevail among most Europeans curious conceptions concerning it. Literally translated, Nirvana means: Being extinct, being blown out, as of a flame extinguished by the wind, or which expires from want of nourishment. From this it was believed that the inference to be drawn was that Nirvana signified 'nothing.' This is an erroneous opinion; Nirvana is rather a condition of the highest spirituality, of which, however, no one can have an adequate conception who is still fettered by earthly ties. What is it, then, that is extinguished or blown out in Nirvana? The will to live is extinguished—that striving for existence and enjoyment in this or in another world; extinguished is the error that material possessions have any inner value or can endure; extinguished is the flame of sensuality or desire; extinguished for ever the wandering will-o'-the-wisp of the I (ego). It is true, the perfect saint, the Arahat (only such an one can attain Nirvana in this life), continues to dwell in the body, for the effect of error and guilt in earlier births, which has already
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begun to be active, and therefore represents itself as animated body in temporality, cannot be made void ; but the body is perishable, the hour soon comes when it passes away. Then nothing remains which might induce a new rebirth, and the Arahat passes on to eternal peace, the Parinirvana, the Nirvana beyond. Parinirvana in the sense of other religious doctrines and scientific materialism is, it is true, total annihilation, complete dissolution of individuality, for nothing remains in Parinirvana which in any way corresponds to the human conception of existence. But from the point of view of one who has attained the degree of Arahat the world with all its phenomena is rather a 'nothing,' a mirrored picture, a gleaming soap-bubble, a tormenting dream, and Parinirvana the entrance into true being, into the eternal, the imperishable, where there is no state of differences, no strife, and no suffering." Dr. Rhys Davids is a strenuous advocate of the view that Nirvana is synonymous with perfected Arahatship, is attained, if at all, in this life, and represents the ideal saintship of the successful Arahat, who, however, passes on into final extinction beyond death; but this extinction (Parinirvana) is not Nirvana, but rather the issue or result of it.1 In any case Nirvana cannot be the portion of laymen, but is reserved for the Arahats.
The crown of Arahat.Arahatship becomes, therefore, simply another name for sublimated egoism. It is in certain of its as pects self-mastery, but it is also, so far as the service of mankind is concerned, self-negation. The ideal Arahat is a man who is side-tracked off the main line of altruistic aspiration and effort. He stands aloof from the world's conflicts, out of touch with human development, profoundly satisfied with his own serene isolation.2 The outcome of this system is pessi- 1 "Manual of Buddhism," pp. 111-123; "Buddhism: Its History and Literature," pp. 150-152, 163, 164. 2 "It [Buddhism] does not tell the ascetic to live in the world in order by his teaching and example to raise it to a higher level. He is to pity the world, but to pass it by and devote himself to solitude, abstraction, and indifference. Indeed, the Eight-Fold Path itself is to be followed, not from love to one's neighbour, but as a means of securing one's own release from the pain of existence. The eight right things group themselves under three heads: Righteousness, Abstraction, Knowledge; and these in their turn lead to Nirvâna. But it has already been pointed out that in order to attain Nirvâna there must be total severance of the soul from all sublunary affairs. If, therefore, a man loves his neighbour he breaks the rule of indifference. An ancient text says : 'All pain and suffering on earth arise from that which is dear to me. He, therefore, to whom nothing is dear is free from pain, and he who strives to attain to that state in which there is no pain allows nothing in the world to be dear to him.'" —The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, July, 1896, p. 157. Cf. also Ellinwood, "Oriental Religions and Christianity," p. 176.
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mism as a social creed. There is no room for optimism so far as any plan for the moral elevation of society is concerned. We note further that the precepts of Buddhist ethics are obscure and morally confusing.
Moral confusion in Buddhist ethical precepts.They are all aimed at escape from existence, and have nothing to say about deliverance from sin. In fact, the Christian conception of sin as the transgression of a divine law is unknown to Buddhism. The great evil to be contended against is not disloyalty and disobedience to a supreme will, but is inherent in the very fact of existence. Man's misery, therefore, is not traceable to his sin, but to his existence, and there is no remedy except in his escape from that environment in which he has been placed by the Creator. The consequence is that the ethical precepts of Buddhism are intensely legal, exceedingly detailed in their application, and involve a severe struggle on the part of man, with no helper to aid him. He works out his own deliverance with no reliance upon a higher power, with no place for prayer, and no one to listen even should the heart cry out for help. Then, again, the great motive which underlies the ethical aspiration of Buddhism is
The abasence of a nobel motive.selfish desire. In the case of laymen, as Arahatship is not within the range of their hopes, even the stimulus of selfish aspiration is absent, and they are left to themselves with hardly any commanding motive influencing their lives. The Buddhist laity are, therefore, almost universally in a state of moral indifference, living commonplace lives, with hardly any outlook beyond their material environment.1 There is no moral struggle, no social aspiration, no ethical impulse. Life becomes a careless existence, with little moral nerve or serious purpose. Christian altruism based upon love of God and love of humanity is only feebly, if at all, operative. The elaborate but ineffective ethics of Buddhism have failed utterly to arrest
Wherein Buddhist ethics have failed.idolatry or to check polygamy and polyandry. They have not produced a high standard of morality, nor have they led mankind into the path of progress, or stimulated the spirit of practical philanthropy. On the contrary, the growth of individual character has been stunted, and social life has been kept on a level of moral torpidity. Buddhist ethics have failed to adjust themselves even to the requirements of the simpler and freer life of Eastern society, and it is plain that they could not be reconciled with the more complicated demands of modern industrial and economic progress. Present-day civ- 1 The Missionary Review of the World, May, 1896, pp. 327-332.
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ilization would of necessity be compelled to ignore the whole system. It is a simple fact that some of the most sterilizing and demoralizing forms of social evil found in the non-Christian world are dominant in lands where Buddhism prevails, and, although it would not be right to charge these things directly to its account, yet it has done little in past centuries to modify or remedy these vitiating customs, and there is no prospect that it will do better in the future.1 There has been an enormous development of monasticism under especially burdensome conditions, so that all Buddhist society is loaded with a horde of useless drones.2 Ceremonialism, in spite of its repudiation, has had a phenomenal development, while its ingenious mechanical devices for devotion have never been surpassed in the history of formalism.3 That another code of ethics than the one identified with Buddhism is needed for the highest welfare and perfection of human society is, therefore, evident. Another ethical foundation than that of the constitution of nature is necessary, since without a supreme personality as a source of authority ethics become a more or less vague and uncertain 1 "This religion is not a social force; it aims not at a Kingdom of God to be built up by the united efforts of multitudes of the faithful, but only at saving individual souls, which in the act of being saved are removed beyond all activity and all contact with the world. Buddhism, therefore, is not a power which makes actively for civilisation. It is a powerful agent for the taming of passion and the prevention of vagrant and lawless desires; it tends, therefore, towards peace. But it offers no stimulus to the realisation of the riches which are given to man in his own nature; it checks rather than fosters enterprise; it favours a dull conformity to rule rather than the free cultivation of various gifts. Its ideal is to empty life of everything
active and positive rather than to concentrate energy on a strong purpose. It does not train the affections to virtuous and harmonious action, but denies to them all action, and consigns them to extinction. This condemnation it has incurred by parting with that highest stimulus to human virtue and endeavour which lies in the belief in a living God."—Menzies, "History of Religion," p. 379. 2 " Where are Buddhist charitable hospitals ? Where free dispensaries ? Where orphanages? Where teachers of the deaf and dumb? Where asylums for the idiot or the leper? We must go to Christian countries, and to the efforts of Christian people in Buddhist countries, if we would see these. While Christian countries are —very slowly and with many a halt and relapse, yet still surely—advancing, Buddhist countries have been for centuries stationary, or are even, as Tibet and Mongolia, engaged in a retrograde movement."—F. Becker Shawe, in an article entitled "Nine Centuries of Buddhism," in The Missionary Review of the World, August, 1896, pp. 583, 584. 3 For a condensed résumé of the defects of Buddhism, consult Grant, "The Religions of the World," pp. 147-157; Kellogg, "The Light of Asia and the Light of the World," pp. 376, 377: and Dods. "Mohammed. Buddha, and Christ," pp. 169,170.
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reflection of impersonal law. Another doctrine of responsibility, emphasizing the facts of sin and guilt,
Why Christian ethics must supplant the Buddhist code if there is to be social progress.and recognizing the possibility of pardon and deliverance, is essential to the culture of moral character. A clearer standard of right and wrong is necessary for the guidance of conduct and the accentuation of duty. Another ideal of existence and its significance is required, unless life is to be altogether misinterpreted and misused. There must be another theory of personality, or soul existence; another programme of a religious life and of the application of the ethical code to all classes of men; another view of the claims of the unfortunate and the afflicted, who, in spite of the supposed humanitarianism of Buddhism, are now despised and practically ostracized from the consolations and hopes of religion. There must be another conception of man's duty to society, as involving a call to service rather than the desire of isolation ; another view of the essence of duty and the basis of obligation, which are now resolved into selfish expediency; another view of the sacredness of human nature and the possibilities of regeneration, sanctification, and redemption through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of the body. There must be another conception of the sacredness and dignity of the daily life of mankind, since no industrious and faithful son of toil can now hope for the higher blessings of Buddhism, or be counted other than an alien and an outcast from its choicest privileges, and that for the very reason that he is walking in the humble path of earthly duty. There must be a truer vision of the destiny of man in place of the dismal doctrine of rebirths, the inexorable law of Karma, and the mysterious annihilation which is incidental to Nirvana ; and, finally, there must be an entirely new appreciation of the fact that man is in desperate need of divine help, since the only practical outcome of present experience is either foolish complacency or listless indifference. Buddhism fails to recognize the moral needs of man and is impotent to supply them. With all its fine ethics, it is the most notable example of the policy of laissez-faire, both in religion and sociology, which the annals of heathenism record.
2. Confucian ethics have produced apparently the best social status we can find outside of
The ethics of Confucianism.Christendom. The social and domestic life of Japan is largely the product of Confucianism, and this is of course true of China, so that in this respect both nations are representative. Professor Henry Satoh, of the Imperial Commercial College, Tokyo, has stated that Buddhism is a failure among educated Japanese, and that the Confucian system of ethics is preëminent
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there.1 Both of these great nations are favored above all others, apart from Christendom, in having the influence upon their people of whatever is good and helpful in Confucian morality and in its comparatively high ideals of domestic and social life. That there are, however, grave and vital defects in the ethical teachings, and especially in the moral forces of Confucianism as compared with Christianity, cannot be denied. The scope of its ethics is narrow, being confined to earthly relationships, with exclusive reference to an earthly environment. Responsibility is here narrowed and dwarfed ; God is afar off,—in fact, unrecognized,— while the motive is earth-born and temporal. The source of authority is impersonal and undefined; it may be said even that it is hardly discernible. The filial relation, with the obligations it implies, has, in reality, almost altogether taken the place of the God relation. The whole system has drifted into a deification of the dead and a religious worship of the departed, especially of immediate ancestors. "Serve the dead as the living, the departed as the present," is the summary of the code of ancestral worship.2 This is probably the least objectionable phase of idolatry which the world presents; yet how far is it beneath the worship of the great Creator, and what a shadowy basis of moral obligation it affords! The portentous complacency of the Chinese is nowhere more conspicuously
The Confucian view of the moral status of man.illustrated than in the estimate of man which Confucianism places at the basis of its moral system. "The heart of man," it is authoritatively stated, "indeed, is naturally perfectly upright and correct." And again: "He [man] is endowed with a natural rectitude all complete."3 Where, then, is the standard of Confucian morality? It is virtually in man himself, and what authority is back of the law other than that of the one who is himself to honor and obey the law? True, there are references to heaven and to nature, but they represent an impersonal source of authority, of which the Chinese have practically but a feeble consciousness, if, in fact, they recognize it at all. The great unknown "It" of Confucianism cannot be regarded as a possible substitute for the God of Christianity, who dwells in the heart, makes sacred by His presence the home, and pervades with His influence the society of Christian communities. It is just here that Confucianism, with its cold and elaborate ethical formulae, signally fails.4 1. The Gospel in all Lands, September, 1895, p. 449. 2 Faber, "A Systematic Digest of the Doctrines of Confucius," p. 81. 3 Legge, "Christianity and Confucianism," p. 10. 4 "But after our most generous estimate of the results of Confucian culture, we must at last confess that it has failed to realize its own ideal of the State, of the family, of society. We must further urge that many of the evils of Confucian civilization are inherent, and not accidental, that they are the fruits of the system of teaching, and not simply those evils that belong to human nature, which Confucian culture has not thus far succeeded in uprooting. Virtue is extolled as the highest good, but it has no perennial fountains from which to derive its life. It is at best only the fruit of self-culture, and begets in the heart of the Confucian scholar the sense of superiority over other men. The tendency of this self-culture is revealed in the fact that reverence for sages and ancestors has terminated in idolatry. Selfishness is the tap-root from which all the evils that afflict human nature have had their nourishment; and Confucian culture, while it has done much to repress the repulsive manifestations of selfishness, has done little to check the luxuriance of its growth. Selfishness rules in the relations of the family, in the intercourse of friendship, in the organization of society, in the transaction of business, in the administration of government, in the worship offered to ancestors, heroes, sages, and other imagined gods. Even the best moral and spiritual aspirations of the people terminate in self, and do not lay hold of any permanent good."—Rev. D. Z. Sheffield (A. B. C. F. M.), in the "Report of the Shanghai Conference, 1890," p. 468.
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It gives us its commandments without a commander. It provides a court of justice, but withholds the judge. It establishes a system of constitutional law with no executive. It has much to say in the abstract about "the way of the superior man,"1 but little power to enforce its precepts. It is like a modern engine, built with mechanical skill and elaboration, but destitute of the facilities for generating steam. The social fruits of Confucianism reveal the magnitude of this defect. We find that the
Some social frutis of Confucian ethics.irresponsible power which has been given to parents develops into a system of domestic tyranny. The fine ethics of the home have been of little avail against the stormy waves of passion, which have swept them under and obliterated them in favor of a polygamous system. Truthfulness, sincerity, and the recognition of the rights of others have not been characteristic of Chinese social life. Its failure to adjust moral standards to each other is seen in the fact that the discharge of filial obligations is in reality a sufficient religious cult, and that duty, or even ordinary filial behavior towards parents, takes precedence of what may be considered moral obligation.2 The law of chastity applies only to woman; for man there is license. The fraternal relationship in the family, moreover, involves such a subordination on the part of the younger brother that there is practically no equality in brotherhood, while "sisters are not even mentioned." 1 Faber, "Systematic Digest," pp. 54-101. 2 "In China filial piety is recognized as the basis of social order. By the orthodox it is even held to supply the place of religion; so that 'he who serves his parents at home has no need to go far away to burn incense to the gods.' "—Martin, "Hanlin Papers," Second Series, p. 199.
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The nobler, the more vigorous,—in fact, the God-given and God-enforced,—ethical code of Christianity must be substituted in place of the impersonal and imperfect ethical system of Confucius, if domestic and social life in China and Japan is to take on a higher form and be saved from degradation and decay. The supreme achievement of Christian missions would be to introduce God into China and Japan, and give Him His rightful place of authority,1and His Son Jesus Christ His incarnate dignity and His mediatorial office. At present the ultimate source of wisdom and of authority is the "nature of things." Moral obligation is based upon what may be designated as the inherent fitness of things, or upon the perception of the relation of man to his environment, both material and social. The fountainhead of morality may be indicated as what ought to be—man himself being the judge, and the constitution of nature and society being regarded as the symbol of moral authority. Of this system of ethics Dr. Martin has written : "Whatever of value to the student of virtue it may have contained, it certainly did not contain the 'beginning of wisdom.' For, skilfully as Confucius had woven the chain of human relationships, he failed to connect the last link with heaven—to point out the highest class of our relations. Not only, therefore, is one grand division of our duties a blank in his system, but it is destitute of that higher light and those stronger motives which are necessary to stimulate to the performance of the most familiar offices."2 3. The practical ethics of Hinduism have been incidentally before us in previous lectures.3 Some of its moral teachings resemble those of Buddhism, but in others we find something more degenerate and objectionable. In place of Buddhistic atheism we have pantheism as a 1 "It may be true enough that God reflects His will sometimes in the deepest instincts of our nature, sometimes in the organic requirements of human society, which, indeed, is not less His work than are the body and soul of man; but unless moral precepts be rested on belief in Him, ay, and, let me add, on what He has told us about Himself and His will, they will not really control conduct and life in the long run. A society which is losing or which has lost those masculine beliefs, those energetic, soul-controlling convictions, which purify and invigorate the heart and will, cannot recover its vital forces by a talismanic repetition of beautiful moral sentiments or by a picturesque delineation of their practical effect."—Liddon, "Essays and Addresses," pp. 58, 59. 2 Martin, "The Chinese: Their Education, Philosophy, and Letters," pp. 132,133. For an elaborate exposition of Confucian ethics, consult the article from which the above quotation is taken, entitled "Remarks on the Ethical Philosophy of the Chinese," Ibid., pp. 125-149. The same essay is published in " Hanlin Papers," First Series, pp. 163-193, and in the volume of The Princeton Review for 1862.
3 Supra, pp. 72, 89-91, 119-125, 131-133, 157, 241-251, 331-333, 387-389.
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philosophical and polytheism as a practical basis, and from an ethical point of view the
The ethics of Hinduism.difference is slight. Over against the Buddhist negation of the soul as a distinct and permanent entity we have the pantheistic conception of a temporary, separate existence as part of a great whole, to be in time absorbed again into the original substance from which it came. In place of the distinctively spiritual and ethical tone of original Buddhism we find a materialistic element and a tendency to nature-worship which place Hinduism on a lower level and give it a grosser trend. The religious feelings of the early Hindu seem to a remarkable degree to have been impressed with the phenomena of the material universe. Light, fire, the wonders and terrors of nature, the reproductive powers, and even bodily stimulants and intoxicants, became objects of religious veneration. An element of vague and undefined personality attached itself to some mysterious beings, of whose existence the phenomena of nature were the signs and evidences, and to whom religious worship was rendered. The earliest of these seems to have been Varuna, the God of Heaven, possibly the waning shadow of the true God of early monotheism. Indra, a fierce and cruel deity, and many others might be named. The tendencies of nature-worship led these early Aryans by easy and sure steps downward towards polytheism and idolatry, and into the realm of superstitions, charms, talismans, incantations, sacrificial rites, and unrestricted ceremonialism, with a phenomenal development of sacerdotalism. The deities were not all good ; in fact, those which were evil seemed to grow in number and power, and must be especially recognized and propitiated. Thus the historic trend developed into modern Hinduism—the most consummate product of superstitious fear, religious pride, fleshly compromise, sacerdotal pretension, and idolatrous abandon which the world has ever presented in systematic form.1 The elevation of the Brahman to the exclusive and mystical prerogatives of the priesthood, whatever of national or racial basis there may have been in the Aryan invasion for the caste system, synchronizes precisely with its coalition and adoption as a characteristic of Hinduism. Religion became a matter of external rites performed by an exclusive caste, with hardly any reference to spiritual worship of a 1 Cf. article on "Hinduism as It Is," by the Rev. Jacob Chamberlain, M.D., D.D., in The Missionary Review of the World, April, 1897. Dr. Chamberlain rightly objects to the thoroughly untrue and idealized picture of Hinduism which was presented by Swami Vivekananda and others at the Parliament of Religions.
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supreme deity. The era of speculation and philosophy led Hinduism into the mazes of an intellectual labyrinth. The clue of primitive revealed truth, if, indeed, it had not been already lost, was now wholly gone, and with it all hope of philosophical sobriety and sanity. It is a question if modern Hinduism does not represent the most startling and dismal aberrations in the history of religious speculation.1 The foundation of ethics, according to Hinduism, is neither in God nor in the God-implanted conscience.
The Hindu regulates his own standards.Pantheism refers questions of ethics ultimately to the human reason, or at least to human interpretations of the system of nature, which of course can be made to subserve man's own purpose, while the measure of responsibility is reduced to a minimum. Polytheism will give its sanction to almost any virtue or any vice which the imagination of man may conceive. The very sins and cruelties of the Hindu have in many instances an ethical and religious endorsement. Nothing can be more erroneous and dangerous than the Hindu conception of the Godhead as an unconscious substratum of being which becomes conscious in the material universe, 2or in living creatures, or in divinities which man's imagination has created. By this process the stream of ethical thought is poisoned at its 1 "Hinduism, as it has been developed during the last thousand or twelve hundred years, resembles a stupendous, far-extended building, or series of buildings, which is still receiving additions, while portions have crumbled and are crumbling into ruin. Every conceivable style of architecture, from that of the stately palace to the meanest hut, is comprehended in it. On a portion of the structure here or there the eye may rest with pleasure, but as a whole it is an unsightly, almost monstrous, pile. Or, dismissing figures, we must describe it as the most extraordinary creation which the world has seen—a jumble of all things : polytheistic pantheism; much of Buddhism; something apparently of Christianity, but terribly disfigured; a
science wholly outrageous ; shreds of history twisted into wild mythology; the bold poetry of the older books understood as literal prose; any local deity, any demon of the aborigines, however hideous, identified with some accredited Hindu divinity; any custom, however repugnant to common sense or common decency, accepted and explained; in a word, later Hinduism has been omnivorous ; it has partially absorbed
and assimilated every system of belief, every form of worship, with which it has come in contact. Only to one or two things has it remained inflexibly true. It has steadily upheld the proudest pretensions of the Brahman, and it has never relaxed the sternest restrictions of caste. We cannot wonder at the severe judgment pronounced on Hinduism by nearly every Western author. According to Macaulay, 'all is hideous and grotesque and ignoble' ; and the calmer De Tocqueville maintains that 'Hinduism is perhaps the only system of belief that is worse than having no religion at all.' " —J. Murray Mitchell, "The Hindu Religion: A Sketch and a Contrast" (No. 33 of "Present-Day Tracts"), pp. 32, 33. 2 Monier-Williams, "Hinduism," p. 86.
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fountainhead. It is made corrupt and deadly before it enters into the life of man, where it is often transformed into moral rottenness. This becomes in its turn, according to pantheism, a revelation of deity; so the vicious circle is complete. Personal guilt is thus a very secondary matter. It is almost impossible for a Hindu to sincerely and humbly repent before a Supreme Being for what he himself is morally. Ceremonialism is the highest law of his religion, and morality in thought and conduct is something which historically he regulates for himself. Atonement is thus transferred from a moral to a ceremonial plane and becomes only puerile in its spirit and practice. The goal of personal holiness embodied in permanent character is out of sight. The transmigration of the soul is the most that Hinduism can promise until there is final absorption and extinction in the great ocean of being. With this system as its foundation, do we wonder that the ethical code of Hinduism has gone astray to an extent hardly paralleled in religious history ? It has degraded the sources of its authority by its bald pantheism and the low moral character of its gods ; it has devised principles and precepts which are an offense to even the natural conscience of man ; it has produced discord in moral relationships; it has confused the physical and the spiritual; it has adopted and sanctioned caste, making moral and religious differentiation a matter of blood and fate rather than of character;1it has shadowed family life by its treatment of women, by child-marriage and the horrors of Indian widowhood, which would still include the sati if all restraint were withdrawn. The notes of failure in Hindu ethics are discovered when we point out that there must
Some grave defects in Hindu ethics.be a changed conception of God in His being, His personality, His relation to the universe, His moral character, and His supreme authority; another view of the personality and destiny of man; a recognized distinction between the moral and the immoral; a cleansing of the Augean pantheon of the gods; a recognition of righteous character combined with humility as the true sign of honorable caste in the spiritual kingdom; a discovery of the dignity of the inner graces of purity and love in contrast with empty ceremonialism ; an acceptance of the practical obligations of brotherhood and humanity as regards the submerged nine tenths of India; a discrediting of asceticism as the badge of holiness and the sign of superiority; a total change in the status and treatment of woman; a suppression of child-marriage ; a removal of the disabilities of widowhood; and an abolishment of the unclean scandals connected with shrines and temples. 1 See supra, pp. 241-251.
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Several of these may seem to be religious rather than strictly ethical features of Hinduism, but a true and vital system of ethics depends upon a religious basis. If religion goes wrong, then ethics are sure to be blighted or distorted. It is impossible, moreover, to derive the ethics of Christianity from the religion of the Hindu. No permanent or worthy system of ethics can be founded on Indian pantheism, Hindu reform movements, unless they are essentially Christian, are therefore doomed to failure. "Back to the Vedas" as the watchword of a Brahmanical revival is no doubt an attractive idea to devout Hindus, but as a method of reform it is a delusion. Nothing can grapple with the deep-rooted religious and social customs of Hinduism which does not arise in the strength of a renewed nature and in the power of a transformed character. The only twice-born men who can change the morals of India for the better are those who are born again by God's Spirit into the likeness of Christ. 4. The ethics of Islam remain to be considered. Mohammedanism originated in an attempt at
The stength and the weakness of Islam.reconstruction by one who was profoundly and justly dissatisfied with the religious life of his times. His sources of information were Jewish, Christian, and heathen, for the religious life of Arabia in the seventh century was essentially heathenism. Islam is therefore a compilation of teachings and practices drawn from the above sources, and expanded under the guidance and pressure of circumstances into a system. Its strength has been that much essential truth was incorporated, chiefly adapted from Judaism ; in fact, in many respects Islam is a garbled reproduction of the religion of the Old Testament, with the evangelical element left out and its ethics twisted and misinterpreted. Its weakness consists in the adoption of religious ideas and social customs which are saturated with error, loathsome with immorality and injustice, antagonistic to both natural and revealed ethics, and stale with the provincialism of the desert.
Mohammed's conception of God is, after all, but a half-truth. Some attributes have been
Half-truths and ethical compromises of the Moslem religion.grasped boldly and firmly, but are altogether out of focus with other perfections which, although essential elements of the divine character, have been ignored or misinterpreted. The deity presented in Islam represents an effort of the Arabian imagination to adjust God to an uncouth and immoral human environment, without too much disturbance of the moral status quo. Some characteristics of the Godhead have been exalted and emphasized to the
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extent of exaggeration ; others have been forgotten and eliminated to the extent of detraction. The Moslem, true to the Eastern conception of absolutism, has drawn a realistic picture of the inexorable supremacy of God as the master of destiny and the universal ruler, while, on the other hand, no one can fail to perceive how offensive to a desert warrior of the faith is the Gospel of heavenly condescension as revealed in the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the doctrine of divine indwelling, or in the privileges of fellowship, communion, and personal, spiritual union of the soul of man with its God. It is true that Mohammedanism declares God to be "compassionate and merciful," but it is to sin as well as to the sinner that He offers His condoning grace. Herein is the fatal defect in the ethics of Islam. God is made to forget Himself and to become in certain respects a participator by law and by sanction in the iniquities of the Islamic code and the irregularities of Islamic practice. More than this, with bold and shocking realism, God is pictured on the throne of His majesty, in the white light of His stainless purity, as the distributor of "houris with large dark eyes," and the maker of "lofty couches" for the nameless pleasures of Paradise.1 Mohammed as a reformer was incapable of coping with his moral and social environment. The result has been that, owing partly to his imperfect vision of truth and his inability to comprehend the higher moral harmonies of righteousness, and partly through force and stress of circumstances as his leadership became more real and responsible, he compromised and adjusted both religion and morality to the degenerate spirit and life of his times. He grasped the sword; he toyed with sin; he made it easy for men to be his followers without a break with scandalous social customs; he made room for iniquities which to his moral sense at least were venial,—perhaps not even objectionable, —or which, in any event, it would cost too much to condemn; he conceived the idea of a religious headship holding at the same time the sceptre of political power. The results are Islamic history written in blood
Islamic ethics far below the danger point.and tears, a militant religion with a trail of despotism covering large sections of three continents, and an ethical and social system which has not ceased to be a menace to the world. Its civil creed is powerless to lead mankind out of degradation, since it despises woman, sanctions polygamy and concubinage, allows divorce at will, and justifies slavery. Its political creed will never point the way to freedom—rather it for- 1 The Koran, sura 56, verses 12-37. Cf. also sura 55, verses 54-78; sura 2, verse 25; sura 3, verse 15.
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ever sounds its knell.1 Its fanaticism, which has usually been quiescent by restraint rather than by choice, is still ready for any excesses with all who do not yield allegiance to its demands. Its political supremacy has exercised over soul and body a withering bondage, and its religious experience has been legalistic and external, making man's higher life a round of observances rather than an inner spirit of moral purity and power. Words hardly seem needed to show that the ethics of Islam have sunk far below the danger point, and that social life can never be morally pure, or political progress be towards light and freedom, or individual standards of living become ethically straight and sound, until a nobler moral code shall prevail. The stern finger of history, dark with blood-stains of the past, and dripping even now with the fresh blood of victims, points steadily to the outer darkness of social barbarism and political tyranny as the unchangeable way of Islam. It is hardly worth our while to take up in detail other non-Christian religions. Those that have been mentioned are representative, and in some respects the best that can be found in the history of the race. If we now call Christianity to our aid as a teacher of social ethics, we are conscious at once of a marvelous
The nobility of Christian ethics.and subtle change in the moral atmosphere. There is not only high obligation, conscious responsibility, and recognized accountability, but there is sufficient authority to quicken and invigorate the conscience. We enter an atmosphere of love, loyalty, and privilege, We have a high code of social duty, vivified by the personal influence and winsome example of Christ, the great Teacher and Exemplar. Christ's assumption of His supreme place as the ruler of human society is called by Dr. Fairbairn "the most dramatic moment in the experience of collective man." When our Lord enters the realm of human intercourse and mutual obligation He brings with Him those matchless ethical principles which make the social standards of Christianity the most refining and ennobling that the world has ever known. These principles, fortified by Christ's love and put into practice, are not only regulative, they are 1 "If in Christendom the attempt has been often made to weave into one inextricable woof the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Cæsar, yet, as we thankfully own, in the end the attempt has always failed. In Islam it has completely succeeded, and succeeded, not as a perversion and defeat of the intentions with which Mahometanism was founded, but as the truest realization of all which it was intended to be. The despotisms of the East are not accidents, but the legitimate results of the Koran; and so long as this exists as the authoritative book nothing better can come in their stead."—Trench, "Lectures on Medieval Church History," pp. 55, 56.
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aggressive. They rule out what is evil; they rule in what is right. No hoary custom is sacred if it is wrong; no time-honored traditions are to be spared if they should perish; no selfish indulgences are to be condoned if they do injury to our fellows; no code of indifference, or fatalistic pessimism, orlaissez-faire philosophy is to be allowed to hold sway in defiance of the Gospel law of love. The social code of Christianity touches the conscience, awakens responsibility, and inspires action. It is broad and far-reaching in its scope; it insists upon individual and domestic purity; it introduces the principles of liberty, toleration, individual equality before God, justice, philanthropy, mutual respect and consideration, and the highest standards of righteousness, as equally binding in all social relations as in the individual life. It has a clear and ringing message as to the honor of womanhood, the rights of children, the sanctity of marriage, the duties of truthfulness, morality, and temperance, the obligation to respond to the claims of humanity, the call of suffering, and the appeal of the weak and dependent. It teaches a noble ideal of citizenship, and enforces that consideration which is due to the public weal from every individual member of society. It presents a high standard of commercial integrity, and denounces fraud and deceit in business as an offense, in view not only of what man owes to man, but to God as well. It scrutinizes the principles and practices of government, and is in active sympathy with just taxation, equitable laws, and their fair execution; it looks into prisons and into all departments of civil and police administration. It brings to book ecclesiastical authorities wherever a religious hierarchy assumes to countenance moral laxity by license or example. It demands religious liberty even at a perilous cost. Christianity stands for much besides, but it is essentially a teacher of ethics, and as such it has never faltered or failed. From its earliest conflicts with the abominations of Roman society down to our own times it has been a fountain of ethical culture and a valiant champion of morals. "The early churches were societies for the amendment of life," and the Christian atmosphere to-day in all lands is one in which immorality is treason, and injustice an intolerable offense. The Christian spirit, moreover, if it is true to itself, must seek, not its own, but that which is its neighbor's. It cannot be bribed into silence, it cannot be cowed into acquiescence, it cannot be beguiled into indifference, when it is face to face with what is unfair, unjust, unrighteous, and morally injurious to society. It has no easy battle to fight. Christian social ethics are and must be militant in their spirit throughout non-Christian society. In fact, they must be militant here in the best at-
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mosphere of Christendom. No man liveth to himself if he is an apt pupil in the school of Christianity, and it is an immense and splendid gain wherever this new code is made effective in the practical life of heathenism. It is just here that one of the noblest functions of Christian missions appears; for how can the Christian system of ethics be introduced into the personal and social life of heathen lands except by their agency? V Christianity introduces a new moral force into social life. No one can come into close contact with
Christianity introduces new moral forces into mission lands.Oriental lands, or with primitive conditions in any part of the non-Christian world, without being conscious of the overshadowing power of the dead past. To be sure, the Orient of to-day is awakening, but only in sections of its vast area, and not even in these scattered localities by virtue of any inherent tendencies towards progress, but because Christian missions and Western enterprise are beginning to exert their quickening and broadening influence. This change comes slowly, and the historic environment is still mighty. The stupefying spell of inertia, the holding power of conservatism, the misguiding influence of false patriotism, the tyranny of custom, the fear of persecution, the dread of defying public opinion, the apathy of intellectual and moral sluggishness, incapacity to deal with new social questions, and habitual surrender to tradition and archaic usage, are still the reigning factors in Oriental society. There is no vivid consciousness of the possibility of better things, no inspiring call to action, movement, agitation, and struggle towards reform. The law of heredity has been working the wrong way for centuries, until moral capacity has lost its fibre and become enervated and all but lifeless in its stagnation. All things yield to the thrall of moral surrender. The will-power lies in a dead calm, sleeping in the lotus-laden air of that to-morrow and to-morrow spirit of the Orient. Under such conditions as these a self-prompted and aggressive movement for social reformation is not within the range of probability, unless a life-giving breath of higher aspiration comes to quicken the deadened sensibilities. Christianity, however, brings new energies, new ideals, and new hopes. Its historic record in all ages reveals a wonderful and subtle power to develop unexpected, even unsuspected, capacities in individual men, and to crystallize character in society. It can do what nothing else can accomplish; it can make alive. It possesses the power of moral change, the secret of a quickened conscience; it can renew and
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transform the man, no matter what may have been his antecedents, and however discouraging his surroundings. Then what a penetrating and transforming power there is in the quiet working of its spiritual leaven! what an intense touch, what a varied influence, what an allround enforcement of right principles and straight living! It is only as social activities are rallied around recognized principles, and inspired with Christian impulses, that the light breaks, and the life comes, and society becomes a new creature in which "old things have passed away." Dr. James Stewart, in his beautiful volume upon "Lovedale," that ideal missionary institution in South Africa, says in his chapter upon "The One Hope of Africa" : "I never yet met an African who wanted to be troubled with the Gospel till it began to trouble him. But when it does trouble him effectually, marvellous is the change it makes. It would delight the heart of the most thoroughgoing evolutionist of the school to which the now distinguished author of 'Social Evolution' belongs, to see how the preferences and 'interests of the individual' become subordinate to 'those of the social organism,' and how the antagonism between 'the inner and the outer life, the natural man and the spiritual man,' is reconciled when the new religion lays hold of the slightly evolved primitive man. It all lies in this, that Christianity awoke the sleeping spiritual man. Or if the evolutionist, as necessary to his argument, will not concede that the spiritual man was sleeping, the new religion took him by the hand and led him out of a land of thick darkness, gloom, and horror,—filled with malevolent shades and dreaded spectral powers,—and brought him into the clear, sweet light of a simple belief in a God of goodness and love, such as Christianity reveals. It cannot be otherwise, since that religion comes from Him in whom is no darkness at all."1 Christianity is morality, butit is far more than codified moral principles. It is religious consciousness, but it is much more than an inward emotional experience. It is truth, but it is something finer and better than a perfect norm of doctrine. It is truth lived, truth vitalized in character, truth assimilated and reproduced in Christian manhood and womanhood. In the lawless it can inspire the love of order and respect for authority. Nations of cannibals, as in the South Sea Islands, have been made so orderly and law-abiding that no armed force is needed to maintain the public peace. There is a hopeful and permanent outlook to this transforming power of Christianity in the fact that it is the universal custom of missions to develop the missionary spirit in native churches, to establish 1 Stewart, "Lovedale, South Africa," p. 43.
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institutions and implant moulding agencies which become growing factors in social development.
It carries with it the law of missionary service.From every field which missions have entered, far and near, among receptive races as well as among those which were unresponsive and unimpressible, come the same tidings of the living energies of the Church of Christ, and its adaptation, due to the indwelling Spirit of God, to introduce a new era of social progress and nourish by its mysterious spiritual power the impulses and aspirations of a better life. Transplant the Church of Christ to any strange and hitherto alien society, and it carries with it that great law of missionary propagation which its Master has imposed; and what is the spirit of missions embodied in that great command of Christ other than the biblical or divine formula for individual and social reform? It will make the Church of Christ in all heathen lands the herald of a new age. With Christian missions come Christian literature and organizations for its dissemination, of which those noble agencies, "The Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge among the Chinese" and "The Christian Literature Society for India," are conspicuous examples. Then, again, there are the vivifying and stalwart energies of Christian education, in themselves an immense increment to the vital forces of peoples who have hitherto lived in ignorance. The mission school is the maker of a new generation in mission lands, and a generation once educated demands a like privilege for its children.
Here are moral forces to conjure with in social development. They are the makers of character. They fit men to rule themselves and to rule each other, and no social conditions can be permanently bettered unless there is character, individual and social, back of them. Christianity is our only hope where these transcendent spiritual forces are to be planted anew in the deeper life of society. VI Christianity gives a new import and stimulus to benevolent and philanthropic effort.
Christianity a stimulus to philanthropy.We might say rather that it advocates a new policy of kindliness, for heathenism, ancient and modern, has practically no programme of philanthropy and humanitarian ministry. That this is true of ancient pagan cults is the testimony of history, emphasized by the highest scholarship. We do not mean that either in ancient or modern times separate acts of beneficence and
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charity were not to be found, or that there were no tender hearts, no humane sympathies, among individual members of society. Instances which reveal kindly instincts and generous deeds on the part of large-hearted men and women may be found, as Uhlhorn has indicated. What we understand, however, by benevolence, philanthropy, and humanitarian charity, as a religious principle in contradistinction to an individual impulse, as a code of duty in social relations, as a system to be advocated, sustained, and continuously practised, was not, or is not now, a feature of ethnic religions. If the semblance of an argument to the contrary can be based upon the theoretical content and philosophical spirit of their sacred books, it cannot be argued with any success from the evidence of practical living, or demonstrated by the actual outcome of the social history of heathen society. Regulated and systematic benevolence is historically a child of Christianity. We could present not a few instances and illustrations from modern
Illustrations from the field.
missionary history revealing the growing impulses of Christian philanthropy in the lives of converts and in the organized work of mission churches. Examples like the Okayama Orphanage of Mr. Ishii, in Japan, are visible signs of that philanthropic culture which the religion of Christ, in spite of many hindrances, quickens as beautifully in the Christian hearts of the present generation as in those of any other age. The postal telegraph and the railway were hardly established in Japan before a "Postal Telegraph Mission" and a "Mission to Railway Men" were organized—the former reaching with a gift of the Scriptures and a personal message each postmaster in the realm, and the latter visiting through its agents every railway station in the empire, providing it with a copy of the New Testament, and seeing personally its employees. There are already movements on behalf of prisoners both before and after their exit from the jail. And so the great outlying field of social life, with its toilers, its outcasts, its distressed victims of crime and calamity, is entered by the Christianity of mission fields—somewhat slowly, it may be, but in the end as earnestly and as loyally as elsewhere; and the same sweet story of large-hearted charity which has characterized its earlier history will mark the development of the Christian spirit in the environment of modern heathenism. Another and a very important phase of this philanthropic ministry is its programme for the elevation and improvement of society, as well as for the relief of its distresses. Christianity stands for the making as well as the mending of mankind. It believes in the discipline of im-
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provement as well as in remedial offices in behalf of the unfortunate. It is working towards a "new heaven and a new earth," and not merely one which is patched up and made over on the principle of doing the best you can with a hopeless case. I do not see, therefore, how any candid student of the social and economic progress of the
Missions entitled to a place among civilizing agencies.world can fail to be impressed with the value of missions as a reforming, civilizing, and philanthropic agency. Where can we find an instrument so capable, so efficient, so direct and resistless in its workings upon the inner life and the outward form of society? Are we to wait forever upon evolution, when the secret and power of involution has been committed to our trust? In this sphere of service missions have been quietly working to an extent which has secured scant attention in comparison with their more spiritual achievements. Their social influence has developed slowly and is not conspicuous as yet in its visible outcome; but the task is immense and difficult, and it is not strange that results should mature gradually and somewhat obscurely. If, however, it is true, as we may surely believe, that Christian missions carry with them to non-Christian lands a sovereign and effective method of deliverance from sin, while at the same time they implant in the life of society new capacities, new desires, new motives, new appreciations, perfected ethics, vitalized moral forces, and fresh altruistic impulses, then Christianity is indeed the hope, as its Master is the Light, of the world. It is, at least in its spiritual sphere of influence and impulse, a divine remedy for social evils and a divine programme of social progress. Its ideals and its resources for realizing them form the noblest spiritual gifts of God to human society. We do not mean, of course, that the religion of Christ indicates precisely the practical method of dealing with social problems either at home or abroad, but that it creates the atmosphere which makes the approach to their solution easy and possible; it lays down principles which are a mighty solvent of difficulties; it puts into the heart the paramount desire for an honorable and fair adjustment of mutual rights; it gives an infallible standard of justice and morality which points to the conditions of a true and permanent civilization. No problem can be finally solved, no evils can be effectually banished, unless approached in a spirit essentially Christian. No system of sociology as a whole can be finally adopted and made serviceable to society, unless it is pervaded by Christian ideals and controlled by Christian principles.
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VII We have considered in some of its prominent features the adaptation of Christianity to produce
Is historic Christianity equal to the task which has been outlined?satisfactory results in the realm of social regeneration. Another and an important question remains to be considered: Is historic Christianity capable of accomplishing this noble mission? Is it what the individual and social man universally needs? Is it suited to every race and to every phase of religious and social degeneracy? Is its influence alike helpful and effective to all national temperaments and all racial developments? Is it indeed universal in its adaptability, unlimited in its capability, indestructible in its spiritual forces, imperishable in its historic position, with power to adjust itself to every nationality and every social environment, and to work out its surpassing results in every land and every century without the slightest diminution of its vigor or the least decadence of its mastery over the history and destiny of the human race? We have no hesitation in replying to this question in the affirmative, and with a special
The supernaturalism of Christianity is the secret of its power.emphasis on the word "historic." Indeed, it is just historic Christianity—that is, Christianity true to its historic ideal—which is needed, with its incarnate Christ, its revealed Word, its regenerating Spirit, its illuminating doctrine, its basis of sober history, its practical inspiration, its law of righteousness, its mighty secret of love, its lessons of brotherhood, charity, simplicity, humility, and crowning devotion to the welfare of humanity. These supernatural agencies and spiritual forces are not in the least irrational or incongruous in that divine system which has been established for the government and development of the race. In God's working plan both the supernatural and natural coöperate in harmonious unity; they often coalesce, so that to man's vision the dividing-line is blotted out. It is not necessary, as some mediators in the interest of science are inclined to do, to resolve the supernatural, almost to the extent of effacement, into the natural; nor is it wise to suppose, with others, that there is any hopeless conflict or mutual antagonism between nature and reason. There is surely a higher unity which nature, reason, and the supernatural subserve, each in its place, in fulfilling the divine purpose. All of these have ministered to the culture of man and the progress of the race as chosen instruments of a Supreme Will whose mastery over
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them is complete, yet without any dishonor or misuse of any one of them.1 Staking all upon nature, and making faith in the apparent teachings of biological history, however
A sufficient basis for faith in the Christian system.instructive in their proper sphere, a source of certitude more solid and satisfying than faith in the supernatural as revealed in the spiritual and providential activities of God, is placing the limited powers of nature too exclusively in the foreground. It is reducing the Deity to the domain and dictum of science to an extent which cannot be justified when we consider the explicit teachings of Scripture on the subject, and the immense probability in favor of other methods used by God in guiding humanity towards perfection. We must not forget either that a notable majority of master minds, eminent in the history of mankind for intellectual insight and discrimination, have regarded the evidences of a supernatural system as worthy of their abiding confidence. The inner realm of God's gracious contact with the individual intelligence of man is an unwritten, even unknown, factor in history, and it is just here, in the scope and power of the supernatural, that there is possible reconciliation of the mysteries of God's dealings with man. The difficulty is that absolute demonstration is practically impossible; yet to him who has eyes to see and ears to hear, there is ever accessible a realm of experimental evidence where 1 "The belief, absorbing and pervading, of the Kingdom of God was the heart and strength of the Psalmists' religion. With this belief they interpreted their own marvellous history; with this belief they looked abroad on nature, they trained and quickened their own souls. Translated into our modern ways of speaking, it was a profound, ever-present conviction of the reality of the supernatural and unseen. I say 'supernatural' for want of a better word. I mean that, beyond and around this great familiar order of things under which we live, and our fathers have lived before us, whose general conditions and laws we have faculties to discern, there is another and greater order implied in the very mention of the name of God; an order whose laws and ways, except that they must be moral ones, we know not and cannot know. To the Psalmists the Kingdom of God is not merely an ideal, but, though they cannot explain or grasp it, an actual, present reality. The things unseen are ever accompanying, bordering on, influencing, the things that are seen. That real existence, which we, with our habits of thought and imagination, confine to things which we can handle and test here, belongs as certainly to the works and doings of the unseen Lord of the world in that vaster universe which even our thoughts cannot reach to. And it was not only the reality of this unseen system and order which had such hold on the Psalmists' minds: it was its supremacy over that order to which we are here accustomed, its continual presence, its uninterrupted permanence. The things which are seen—it was their faith as well as St. Paul's—are for the time; the things which are not seen are eternal".—Dean Church. "Pascal, and other Sermons," pp. 167, 168.
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individual belief may be nourished and deepened into personal conviction. As a general rule, however, the law of faith is fundamental in the spiritual kingdom; but we may have faith in the direct activities of God through spiritual agencies in the history of universal man, as well as in nature and natural law. They all represent the open secret of His system of government. We shall then have all that faith needs to sustain and cheer the heart and to illumine the intelligence in face of the "Riddle of Existence." That the actual progress of Christianity in the world has been characterized by
Historic Christianity defined.many a slip—that, as exhibited in the lives of men, it has often missed its opportunity, neglected its privileges, misused its power, and been untrue to its Lord in spirit and practice—cannot be denied. Misinterpreted and misapplied Christianity, however, is not historic, except in the sense of a defective exemplification of it. Its true historic character as a religious system is based upon the facts which mark and distinguish its genesis and history as a God-founded and God-established religion, and which differentiate its teachings, requirements, and ideals from all other religious systems. Historic Christianity is God-illumined rather than man-reflected. There is no one period of Church life to which we can point and say, "Here we find ideal historic Christianity fully, absolutely, and universally reproduced in human experience." There is a serious difficulty, therefore, in identifying its reproduction in human life with its ideal character. We turn to the original conception, the essential essence of the religion of Christ as He revealed it in His life and example, and as His Word pictures it, and establish its historic character upon the basis of its genesis, requirements, and manifest tendencies. To what extent fundamental and ideal Christianity has been exemplified in the world concerns its reproduction in the lives of its followers rather than its historic character. It is happily true that its history has been also a practical exemplification of its principles in the lives of sincere believers and loyal followers in all ages— not by any means a perfect exemplification, but one which God has manifestly been pleased to accept and honor, and which the world has recognized with admiration and reverence. It must be acknowledged, however, that the glorious name and the fair fame of Christianity have been sadly tarnished and dimmed by corruptions of doctrine, usurpations of authority, and travesties of practice. We may regard this as the work of an enemy, involving a result which, in some respects, is a practical reversal of the purpose of Christ. This corrupt product may
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be pronounced to be unworthy and unhistoric rather than historic. Only biblical Christianity, Scriptural in theory and in practice, is representative and entitled to be called historic; and concerning this broadly orthodox form—so broad as to include the true invisible Church of Christ as represented in all evangelical believers—it may be boldly said that it is fully sufficient for the task of the world's social regeneration. The distrust of historic Christianity, or rather the demand for a revolutionary reconstruction of principles and methods,
Why is historic Christianity distrusted as a social power?is traceable at the present time to two sources. It is manifest in Christendom in a disposition on the part of some social reformers to arraign Christianity, chiefly as represented in the visible Church, with intemperate criticism and severe condemnation as having outlived its usefulness, because of its alleged indifference and scandalous shortcomings in the sphere of social duty, and its unwillingness to exchange its function as a spiritual teacher for a militant entrance into the arena of economic conflict. Another manifestation of a distrustful and derogatory estimate of the historic value of Christ's religion is to be found in the spirit of compromise exhibited both at home and abroad. The new science of the Comparative Study of Religion has allied itself in some instances with a creed of rationalistic liberalism, and cultivated a tendency to rate Christianity as simply one of many other equally accredited religions. In the foreign field an imperfect grasp of its unique and exclusive character on the part of some native scholars has encouraged a disposition to essentially modify it by a compromising combination with other religious systems. With reference to the assaults of radical reformers it is sufficient to say that Christianity as God has given it,
Are the criticisms of social extremists justified?with its essential teachings and ordinances, represents the most facile and effective instrument for influencing the individual, and through the individual for renewing society, which has yet been devised in the history of religion. If this is the divinely chosen system for bringing truth into contact with men, then it is hardly to be expected that those who seek light from God rather than from human wisdom will be prepared to give up their faith in the value of Scriptural agencies. That Christian methods of work may be improved and readjusted is true, and few, if any, would assert that Christianity is fully grasping its opportunity; but that the Church of Christ is the appointed instrument for developing spiritual culture and impulse is equally clear. There is an ever
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The spirit of compromise to which we have referred is too much inclined to ignore the exclusive
Must Christianity compromise with the ethnic faiths?character of Christianity and its Old Testament forerunner, which was itself in the direct line of descent from primitive revelation, and to tone down the Christian religion to a spiritual affinity with ethnic systems. Christianity is thus made to divide its honors with other religions, as differing from them, not in genesis and kind, but merely in degree. A mistaken conception of the origin of Christianity and the dignity of its lineage is usually at the root of this inclination to rank it as on the same level with other religious systems. All religions, Christianity included, being regarded as the product of evolutionary processes, the entire religious development of the race is read and interpreted in terms of evolution. Christianity, therefore, becomes simply one branch of an original trunk, one phase of the religious growth of mankind. In this aspect of it there is nothing exclusive or supreme in its origin or history. Other religions are, according to this view, as likely to be true in their teaching, to reveal with equal precision the will of God, and to contain genetic elements traceable to an origin not less worthy and authoritative. A slightly different and even more subtle form of discrediting the claims of Christianity in this spirit of
Shall Christianity be regarded as the outgrowth of other religious systems?compromise is to consider it as the outcome and consummation of the religious searchings and struggles of the race. According to this notion, it is a sort ofsummum bonum of the religious history of mankind. It is conceded to be an advance and improvement on other religions, but is made up of what is good therein. Christ, according to this view, was a compiler rather than an author of religion. While Christianity is acknowledged to be divine in its dignity, it is not regarded as the only religion which God has founded, or as the one religious system which can be directly traced to a divine source, and which has come to man as a distinct gift through chosen channels of inspiration based upon unique historic verities, and identified with the one incarnate Christ, the one divine Book, and the one dispensation of the Spirit which human history has known. Christianity stands rather as a supplement and consummation. It is a sort of latter-day harvest and ingathering of, all the excellencies of other religious systems, and simply a fuller revelation of what had been imperfectly presented therein. The result of this generalization is that several ethnic religions must be regarded as occupying about the same relation to Christianity that Judaism does. They are partial and preparatory, or in some instances parallel, and find in Christianity their per-
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fect consummation. This idea so multiplies the channels of divine communication with man that we must find God as a direct teacher and a gracious, saving factor in all religions, which must be regarded as authoritative expressions, albeit imperfect and partial, of His thought, to be eventually supplemented by the Christian system. The logical result of this conception is that Christianity, in its turn, may undergo a process of evolution in its contact with and assimilation of existing ethnic systems, and result in a compromise suited to the tastes of contemporary heathenism. The moving current of religious evolution may thus go on and on until the comprehensive, all-inclusive conglomerate appears. The attitude of God, therefore, as a religious teacher in human history has been tentative, with no marked discrimination in favor of any one religious system, until by a process of combining shadowy half-lights He has produced the fuller and more perfect light. This whole theory, in both of its aspects, is unhistoric, unscriptural, and even irrational. The religion of
The unique and exclusive glory of Christianity as a religious system.Christ is not an amalgam; it is not of mixed blood, a sort of Eurasian among religions. It is of royal blood; its lineage is direct and its birth divine. The honor and dignity of its inheritance it can share with no other religion. Although it is manifest that in other religious systems there may be more or less original truth derived from primitive divine teaching, yet as a whole they are so dominated by error and corrupted in practice that the modicum of truth which they contain has been neutralized and practically reversed by the predominance of the false over the true.1 1 "Take that Sacred Book of ours; handle reverently the whole volume; search it through and through, from the first chapter to the last, and mark well the spirit that pervades the whole. You will find no limpness, no flabbiness about its utterances. Even skeptics who dispute its divinity are ready to admit that it is a thoroughly manly book. Vigor and manhood breathe in every page. It is downward and straightforward, bold and fearless, rigid and uncompromising. It tells you and me to be either hot or cold. If God be God, serve him. If Baal be God, serve him. We cannot serve both. We cannot love both. Only one name is given among men whereby we may be saved. No other name, no other Saviour, more suited to India, to Persia, to China, to Arabia, is ever mentioned—is ever hinted at. 'What!' says the enthusiastic student of the science of religion, 'do you seriously mean to sweep away as so much worthless waste-paper all these thirty stately volumes of Sacred Books of the East just published by the University of Oxford?' No, not at all; nothing of the kind. On the contrary, we welcome these books. We ask every missionary to study their contents and thankfully lay hold of whatsoever things are true and of good report in them. But we warn him that there can be no greater mistake than to force these non-Christian bibles into conformity with some scientific theory of development, and then point to the Christian's Holy Bible as the crowning product of religious evolution. So far from this, these non-Christian bibles are all developments in the wrong direction. They all begin with some flashes of true light and end in utter darkness. Pile them, if you will, on the left side of your study table, but place your own Holy Bible on the right side—all by itself, all alone, and with a wide gap between."—Sir Monier-Williams, in an address at the anniversary of the Church Missionary Society, in London, 1887.
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The fact that there is nothing which is true in itself in other religions which is not more fully and perfectly revealed in Christianity does not at all indicate that Christianity is therefore made up of what is good in other radically defective or imperfectly developed religious systems. While it may be correct that Christianity, in a certain sense, is a supplement, complement, and corrective of other religions, yet this fact does not give us the secret of its true genesis. It is thus perfect because it is the gift of infinite intelligence. It is thus complete because it contains, either in direct statement or by implication, all the absolute truth which God has been pleased to reveal. The norm of religious truth, which was implanted in the early history of the race, as we have reason to believe,
Two general tendencies in the religious history of mankind.by a primitive revelation, was monotheism, with its simple duties of worship, sacrifice, faith, and obedience. From this norm there was in one direction a development towards corruption and apostasy, but with original truth still lingering deeply imbedded in the religious creeds of heathenism, however it may have been corrupted. This heritage of truth, with much of its original likeness destroyed, appeared in the later ethnic systems of the world, but so distorted that it was recognizable with difficulty. Yet in this sense there is truthin heathen systems, just as there is God's likeness still in humanity, however fallen; and this truth in some individual instances has fructified into nobility and beauty of character through what we must regard as the special agency of that free Spirit of Life who worketh when and where He willeth. In fact, all down the line of apostasy we may believe that God has not ceased to vouchsafe to man many restraining influences in the form of gracious solicitations, as He has certainly not failed repeatedly to warn and rebuke by the visitations of His judgments. In another direction, under the guidance and culture of persistent teaching and training through direct spiritual instrumentalities, there was a development, struggling and imperfect, it may have been, down an historical line of patriarchs, prophets, and the elect nation of Israel, towards the fuller light and power of Christianity, which came to its culmination in its appointed time. The first may be called, in a loose sense of the word,
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an evolution of religious degeneracy, not without divine remonstrances, and with attempts on the part of reformers at various stages in its history to stem the tide of apostasy and reverse to some extent the trend of its debasement. The other was, in the same popular signification of the term, under the special guidance of God, an evolution of theistic doctrine, Messianic culture, moral training, ethical ideals, devout religious experience, and spiritual standards of righteousness, which culminated in the Christian system, with its Incarnation, Atonement, Regeneration, organized institutions, and laws of a righteous life. Christian missions are awakening at the present time all through the world the echoes of that great conflict of
Echoes of the early conflicts of Christianity.early Christianity with surrounding heathenism. The conditions are wonderfully similar, and substantially the same perils are involved in the issue. Let us not forget the lessons of that conflict. The sad story of Christianity's degeneracy into medieval corruption and decay is simply the result of an unhallowed alliance with heathenism with a view to compromise. Let us not forget that Christianity, like its Master and Lord, is "chiefest among ten thousand," and that the holy seed planted in heathen soil must bring forthafter its kindif it is to survive and flourish. God's supremacy can allow of no partnership. God's personality cannot be interpreted in terms of pantheism. His spirituality will tolerate no idolatry. His Incarnation is once for all consummated in Jesus of Nazareth. His Spirit is alone the only possible source of regenerate life. His Atonement can give no place to legalism. His holiness can make no compromise with sin. And so Christianity throughout all its essential features can neither acknowledge the coördinate authority nor share the honors of its prestige with any other religion. If it is true to itself in this respect, there need be no doubt of its sufficiency. It has wrought with unrivalled mastery in the past; it is still achieving its victories, both at home an d abroad, in the present generation. It retains every element of power; it holds every Secret of past success.
Universal mastery the final heritage of Christ and his religion.It is still as fully capable of leadership, and as able to subsidize and transform for its high purposes all the forces of modern times, as it has always been in the past. The wonder, the magic—the divine wisdom, rather— of Christianity is its power of adjusting itself to all human environments and of Christianizing without destroying them. It transcends with its spiritual influence the institutions, laws, and customs of nations, and summons to its service literature, science, art, and inventions. In this respect it reveals its immense superiority to mere
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civilization, which is an outgrowth of its environment, more or less advanced in different ages and localities, and in its spirit is subservient rather than superior to its surroundings. The highest and noblest achievement of Christianity, however, is its power to lead the individual heart out of and above its environment into spiritual contact with God. The transformed and renewed personality — kindly, unselfish, true-hearted, and pure — is the ultimate solution of social evils and the sure promise of a redeemed society, fashioned at last into the likeness of Christ. "All things grow sweet in Him,In Him all things are reconciled.All fierce extremesThat beat along Time's shoreLike chidden waves grow mild,And creep to kiss His feet."LITERATURE AND AUTHORITIES FOR LECTURE IV The bibliography of Lecture I being applicable for the most part to Lecture IV, many books which would otherwise find a place in the following list are omitted, because they are included in the literature of that lecture. The bibliography of Lecture IV should, therefore, be supplemented by that of Lecture I. The literature and authorities on ethnic religions have been placed in the bibliography of Lecture III, to which the reader is referred.
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ABBOTT, Rev. LYMAN, Christianity and Social Problems. B. & N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1896. ADAMS, Rev. H. C. An Interpretation of the Social Movements of Our Time. Cambridge, Mass., The Church Social Union, 1895. ADDERLEY, JAMES, Looking Upward: Papers Introductory to the Study of Social Questions from a Religious Point of View. Second edition. L., Wells Gardner, Darton & Co., 1896. Anicent Faith in Modern Light (The). (A series of essays, by T. VINCENT TYMMS, EDWARD MEDLEY, ALFRED CAVE, and others.) E., T. &T. Clark, 1897. BOARDMAN, Rev. GEORGE DANA, The Problem of Jesus. Revised and enlarged edition P., American Baptist Publication Society, 1897. BRACE, CHARLES LORING, Gesta Christi; or, A History of Humane Progress under Christianity. N. Y., A. C. Armstrong & Son; L., Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1893. BRUCE, A. B., Apologetics; or, Christianity Defensively Stated. Third edition. E.,T. &T. Clark, 1896. BUSHNELL, Rev. HORACE, Nature and the Supernatural. L., R. D. Dickinson; N. Y., Charles Scribner's Sons, 1880. BUTLER, Bishop JOSEPH, The Works of Joseph Butler. (Edited by the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone.) 2 vols. L., Henry Frowde, 1896. CALDERWOOD, HENRY, Handbook of Moral Philosophy. Fourteenth edition, revisedL. and N. Y., Macmillan & Co., 1895. CALDERWOOD, HENRY, Evolution and Man's Place in Nature. Second edition. L. and N. V., The Macmillan Co., 1896. CANDLISH, JAMES S., The Kingdom of God Biblically and Historically Considered. E., T. & T. Clark, 1884. CARPENTER, W. BOYD, The Witness of the Heart to Christ. L., S. P. C. K., 1878. CAVE, Rev. ALFRED, The Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice and Atonement. E., T. & T. Clark, 1890. Christianity and Scepticism. (Boston Lectures, 1870.) B., Congregational Publishing Society, 1870. COATES, D., Christianity the Means of Civilisation. L., Seeley & Co., 1837. CRAUFURD, Rev. A. H., Christian Instincts and Modern Doubt. L., James Clarke & Co., 1897. CRAWFORD, Rev. JOHN HOWARD, The
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