MONGOLIA by F. M. Chapin

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 6, 1896

MONGOLIA

By F. M. Chapin

BY REV. F. M. CHAPIN.

MONGOLIA has long been a problem to missionary societies. The immense tract of country occupied by the tribes who roam over its territory offers a serious difficulty, since it is impossible to reach only a few people from one station. Different tribes have different dialects, a difference very manifest in the only Bible at the disposal of the missionary, since of the few who can read, a great many are unable to understand what is meant. The people are the most religious of all the followers of Buddha. Probably nowhere else in the world is there manifest so much superstition mingled with the mechanical observation of rites and ceremonies as out on the great plains. In this respect they form a marked contrast to the Chinese. The latter, whatever may be their practice as to inviting priests to read prayers for the dead, are thorough Confucianists. In Mongolia, Confucius is well-nigh unknown; but Buddha, and particularly that form of worship which has been introduced from Thibet, is the sacred religion of the people. A few Mongols have received the truth; many more have acknowledged its power and their own duty to accept it, but the fear of relatives and friends, the certainty of being “put out of the synagogue,” has deterred them from an open profession.

With the exception, possibly, of the fever-stricken region of Africa, no mission field calls for the intense heroism, coupled with great intellectual qualifications, such as are demanded of the missionary who gives himself to this great work. In order to reach the people, a man must possess two languages, Mongol and Chinese, must have an iron constitution, capable of enduring the rigors of severe winters on the bleak plains, and, above all, a love that “overcometh the world.”

There is no census of the Mongols; they are supposed to number 2,500,000, but this number is purely an estimate. The conditions of life to the north of here during the last winter must have been pitiable in the extreme. Murrain broke out among the herds and swept off fully one-third. A similar disease killed off half of the sheep. And as the government had bought or seized a large proportion of the horses, the Mongols were reduced to penury.—Rev. F. M. Chapin, in the Independent.