COMMENTING on the late C. E. Convention, the New York Voice of July 15 says:— “So far the Christian Endeavor movement has escaped the reaction which generally has followed such a marvelous and rapid growth in other organizations. Numerically it continues to be the greatest thing in modern religious activity. Meeting a growing demand for less division and more union on the part of Christians, it has more than met the ardent expectations of its most ardent admirers. If it can steer clear of the rock on which moral organizations wreck their usefulness, and that pride in the mere power of numbers, its future days may be its best days in advancing the cause of Christ’s kingdom in the world.”
To this we might add, if it would “steer clear” of that “rock,” it will have to cut loose from that class of would-be leaders who are attempting to allure it from the Christian field into the political pool. Its fast-growing numbers are already a tempting morsel to that class of religio-political agitators who think to gain political vantage through the pretext of “advancing the cause of Christ’s kingdom in the world.”9
The “power of numbers” is a dangerous religious element, and is a power which, controlled by human agency, invariably wrecks the cause to which it is attached. A resort to political power is ever and always a dependence on the power of numbers, and if the Christian Endeavor Society allows itself to be led into the political arena as a means of furthering any political purpose, it must thereby inevitably make shipwreck of Christian usefulness.
W. N. G.
LOVE
By G. W. Perry
Says Jesus, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” We often say with Peter, “Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.” How does he know that we love him?—“This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.” “Keep yourselves in the love of God.” Jude 21. How shall we keep ourselves in the love of God?—Keep his commandments. We manifest our love to each other, and also to all men that we are his disciples, when we have love one to another. John 13:34, 35.
Therefore we conclude, with the apostle, that love is the fulfilling of the law. Rom. 13:8. This is not to say, however, that the law is done away; for that love is the fulfilling of the law in the sense of obeying the law. We could not love or obey anything that is done away or destroyed. Let all the people then say with Christ, “Blessed are they that do his [the Father's] commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14.
The blessing is pronounced because we do, or obey. And we obey because we love. So the apostle says, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.”
G. W. PERRY.
College View, Neb.
Duty Over Inclination
WHAT a man wants to do is one thing. What a man ought to do may be a very different thing. It is a man’s duty to do what he ought to do, whether he wants to do it or not. It is the straight line of duty, rather than the bent of his inclination, that a man’s life course should conform to. Following his natural tendencies is about the worst thing a man can do in this world.—S. S. Times.
AN APPEAL.
By Julia Loomis
CALIFORNIA! California! "the home of the brave,"
Who have stood like "tried soldiers," our country to save
From the on-coming wave of so-called "Reform,"
That would sweep our fair land, like a cyclonic storm.
O, yield not the conflict, that thy "star" be not dimmed,
Let thy hills and thy valleys, by Liberty limned,
Ring with freedom of thought, of voice, and of pen,
And the birthright of choice, bequeathed to all men!
To thy fair sons and daughters, if any we find
Who, in the name of religion, the conscience would bind,
In all candor and love to such would we say,
Seek the Guide-book of God and learn thou God's way.
"Not by might, nor by power," saith the eternal One;
"By my Spirit" alone, can the hard heart be won.
Then force not one soul, whom God hath made free,
But win him by love, his errors to see.
Can human law save from the wages of sin
Where God's mighty Word has failed men to win?
O, turn to the real! O, turn from the dream!
Learn from Calvary's Cross how Christ can redeem.
And then if thou'rt tempted from henceforth to raise
Thy weak arm of flesh in defense of "God's ways,"
Remember that human law wickedly tried
And condemned our dear Lord to be crucified.
And he who does ill to one lamb of the fold,
Does it even to Christ. He hath said it of old.
MRS. JULIA LOOMIS.
Question Corner
“Enquire, and make search, and ask diligently.”
No. 631. Of the Holy Ghost—Sinful Flesh.
(1) Why was Christ conceived by the Holy Ghost? (2) Did he have sinful flesh the same as we have? W. W. G.
1. The Scriptures do not say that Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost. See Matt. 1:20, margin, and Luke 1:35. Jesus was begotten of God, and God's power in operation is his Holy Spirit, “the power of the Highest.” Only by being begotten of God could he be called the Son of God; and only by uniting his own “eternal spirit” with humanity could Deity become incarnate, or dwell in flesh. How it could be done is beyond our knowledge. The fact that it has been done is proved by every soul that is born again by faith in Christ Jesus.
2. Yes, the flesh of Christ was sinful flesh; for he was “made of the seed of David according to the flesh” (Rom. 1:3); “in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren” (Heb. 2:17). Had he not been in sinful flesh he could not have “condemned sin in the flesh.” Rom. 8:3. But he “did no sin” in himself, but he “bore our sins in his own body on the tree.” 1 Peter 2:24.
No. 632. Three Days and Three Nights.
How can it be possible that Christ was “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth,” as stated in Matt. 12:40, if, as stated in “Christ Our Saviour,” page 42, he “was buried on Friday [sixth day] and arose on Sunday [first day]”? S. A.
There is no such statement on page 42. Is it page 142? “The heart of the earth” does not necessarily mean the grave. It is a purely arbitrary interpretation to say that it does. The three days and nights may begin with the betrayal of Christ into the hands of the rulers of this world. Then it was that Jesus said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53; see also John 12:27. Again, parts of days are reckoned as whole days. In this view Jesus was three days and three nights, or, as we would say, three days, in the hands of the powers of darkness. There is not a scintilla of evidence to show that Jonah was in the stomach of the great fish any longer period than a part of two days and the whole of another. If Jesus were betrayed the evening following the fifth day, he was practically all of the sixth day, all of the Sabbath, and a part of the first day, “the third day,” in the hands of the powers of darkness. Luke 24:21.
CHRISTIANITY IN JAPAN.
Nations are not converted en masse. It is to him who knows the nature and working of true Christianity a sad picture to see a nation adopting Christianity, or any part of Christianity, in form thinking that it has the real. This Japan has done to a certain extent, and she has been hailed by some as a “Christian” nation, especially in her regard of Sunday, an institution that is no part of Biblical Christianity either in form or life. All of Christianity that is dear to Japan she sees in modern education, advancement in arts, sciences, mechanics, and what, generally speaking, contributes toward “national greatness.” This Japanese idea is expressed in an article, “What America Can Do for Japan,” in a Japanese monthly journal, the Far East (Tokyo), of June, 1897. The writer is a learned Japanese, who graduated from Meadville Theological Seminary and Alleghany College, and afterward spent three years in Metaphysics at Harvard University.
He states that the Japanese tendency is to look for the best in the world. As America opened Japan to the world, the Japanese at first copied everything from America, but later she saw superior things in other countries, as, for instance, the educational system of Germany and the European banking system. In religion America had done most for Japan. Her missionaries were more devoted, less selfish and grasping, than the Portuguese and Spaniards. The writer says:—
“But even in this, when we examine critically the work of Americans, we find it to be something like that of John the Baptist. They have been preparing the way for the coming of a national religion.”
“Japan could not always be a child, and soon the growing minds became tired of the emotional form of Christianity introduced by the Americans. Since the rhythmic law governs the universe, we can not say that Japan will not fall again from the intellectual and rational plain into the pit of mere sensationalism, but we can not help thinking at present that the American form of Christianity is gradually becoming unpopular among the intellectual men of Japan. Where, then, is she looking for the new religious dynamo? To the writer’s mind, she will for a while at least examine her own religious forms. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Shintoism, and by the aid of the philosophical systems and sciences of all nations, and specially the German rationalism, she will endeavor to establish a religion suitable to her own people. It is useless to spend money, time, and energy for the salvation of souls. Japanese are seeking higher morality and religion, for a higher end in view. America must not think she can supply Japan with everything; and Japan will be greatly disappointed if she tries to get everything from America.”
This reaction from Christianity might have been helped if the professed servants of Christ had preached, not the “Christianity” of America or England or Germany, but the Christianity of Christ; not simply a better religion than the heathen cults, but the life of God brought down to men. The Japanese, or any other people, will never find the religion they need till they look beyond all nations to God, the Creator and Redeemer.
ROB AN' JAMIE.
By Priscilla Ann Baker
“What makes Mr. Baker call me mother?” Why, didn't I ever tell you about Robert an' James, our little boys? I didn't? Well, then, I will.
Dear me, it hain't shorely—yes, I do reckon it must be thirty-five year this comin' summer sense little Rob wus born. Why, he'd a ben in the prime of life, with a fambly growin' up 'roun' him, like as not, if he'd a lived.
How time does fly, for shore! But I can see him yit, a chubby, brown-eyed, wrigglin' little chap. Let's see, I guess, yes, Jamie come when he was three, with his blue eyes an' golden hair, an' when they wus seven an' four, you never see no sweeter little lads, I know you never.
That's their pictur over the mantel, there, took from a ambrotype, but it ain't half as pretty as they wus. An', sir, they jist knowed a lot. Little Rob begun his books at four, an' I never knowed when he learned Jamie his letters; an' we got 'em nice little books about animals an' sich, and took a child's paper fur 'em to read Sabbaths, an' Baker got a Noah's ark, an' they could ask more questions about all them animals an' birds than any one grown pusson could answer, workin' at it stiddy.
They learnt to say their prayers at night, an' mornin's, an' some psalms an' proverbs, an' “the blesseds.” They wus alwus willin' to listen to us when we read, an' tried to explain to them about Jesus when he was here, how he talked to the people that followed him, an' made the sick folks all well, an' laid his kind hand on the little children's heads. An' when I tole 'em about the bad people nailing him to the cross, an' his bein' put in the tomb, the little fellers had got to love him so fur his kindness to everybody, an' all his blessed words, that they sobbed like they wus clean heart-broke.
I remember it wus one winter night I tole 'em the first time about his death, when they had on their little white gowns, Jamie on my lap an' Rob on the big rug I'd braided, right in front of the fireplace. Pore little chaps, they had tender hearts, never would kill a cricket even. Not but what they had some bad ways, now an' then, bein' stubborn or flyin' mad for a minute; but they wus right most of the time, an' alwus anxious to ask forgiveness when they see they wus wrong, which is more than you kin say of lots of Christians, an', really, more than I've alwus lived out myself, an' Baker, tho' we come lots higher to it than we used to.
They'd been asleep two or three hours, an' we'd set there, an' every little bit we'd hear a long sobbin' sigh from one or tuther of 'em, fur, do you know, somehow or nuther, I'd forgot to tell 'em that Christ had rose from the dead, thinkin' of course they knowed it.
Well, the next mornin' they were talkin' about it the first thing, an' I tole 'em how he rose again, an' all the disciples saw an' talked with him, now an' then, fur forty days, an' then how he took 'em out to the Mount of Olives, an', as he blessed 'em, rose right up into the sky among the clouds, and they didn't see him any more. O, but they wus excited when I said that, an' when I tole 'em about the angels tellin' the disciples he would come back again the same way as he went, they jumped up an' down, an' clapped their han's!
“Then he'll take all the people that's like him to live in the nice big houses,” said Rob, “an' Jamie an' me can play out on the gold streets, can't we?”
“An' down by the river, that we'll see clear through,” said Jamie.
They went on about their plays, but in an hour or so Rob says: “Mother, what'll we do about grandma when Jesus comes? She wanted to live with him, she said so, an' now she's dead, an' ole Mis Rogers, too, an' little Frank Thomas.” Then I tole him how when the Lord comes, the dead who have loved him will be made alive, an' Baker got down the Bible an' read about it to 'em from Thessalonians.
From that time on they wus as happy as birds, an' never got tired of talkin' about the beautiful city that is to come “down from God out of heaven.”
I mind, too, about Uncle Dan'l Phillips an' Jamie. Uncle Dan'l's a mighty good man, but when he wus a boy he lived 'roun' men that swore, an' he has too much dander to work with stock. You'd live in the house with him a year, maybe, and never hear it out of him, but then, afore you'd know it, some day the critters would git into a stampede, an' frolic around over fences an' through growin' crops, as they will onct in a while, an' all at onct he'd up an' swear at 'em like he had no sense. Well, one day, when we had the boys, Uncle Dan'l would have it that I should come over an' make 'em a visit, and Baker come after me in time to eat supper with 'em. We went, me an' the children, an' while me an' Aunt Annie was talkin' an' visitin' like a house afire, the little chaps went out to the barn along with him.
His roan heifer got herself shoved through the hedge some way, an' went fur the young cabbage like she'd been in a famine. She'd rip a hull one off at a bite, fur they wusn't overly big yit. Uncle Dan'l got after her, an' she'd take 'roun' that truck patch, an' shy every time she'd come nigh the gap, an' nab a cabbage every chance she'd git. It wus hot an' stillin' that day, an' finally Uncle Dan'l set down on a stump and swore. Of course that didn't do a mite toward drivin' the heifer out. Rob had gone into the medder after clover blossoms, but Jamie was there an' heerd what he said. We didn't know a breath of what wus transpirin' till we heerd him, too, an' then she ran out, an' helped git the animal back to pastur'.
Jamie had climbed up onto a fence, an' stood lookin' on; an' after he wus dead, Uncle Dan'l tole us what followed. He said Jamie's face wus still white, an' his eyes wide open, when he got the fence mended, so he took him down silent an' carried him back to the barn, where he set down in the big shaded doorway.
Pretty soon the little fellow turned his face up to his'n, an' says:—
“Uncle Dan'l?”
“Yes, Jamie boy.”
“O Uncle Dan'l, wusn't that you said to the cow, wusn't that sayin' God's name in vain? Wusn't it—wusn't it swearin'?”
An' when Uncle Dan'l said, “Yes, Jamie boy,” agin the little fellow caught him 'roun' the neck a sobbin'.
He held the little body clost, an' tried to quiet the chile, sayin', “Never mind, Jamie; never mind. Uncle orten to hev talked so afore you, an' ben so mad. But don't be scart, little one.”
“But you won't git to live in that new city10with Jesus an' God, an' O, O, he'll burn you up with the folks that steal an' lie an' kill somebody! O Uncle Dan'l, Uncle Dan'l!” An' he clung to his neck, an' sobbed agin. The old man cried, too, an' after a little, they two kneeled down, the man confessin' his sin, an' realizin' as he never had before that “the wages of sin is death,” the chile a helpin' him pray for forgiveness for Christ's sake. An' then the peace that only one who's answered ever knows came to both the sinner an' his little friend.
I'm so glad the boys had such a firm faith in God, fur it helped me when they wus gone. Yes, they both died together, an' it nearly took me an' Baker, too, but I kin talk about it now.
One mornin' that fall I wus busy ironin' an' bakin', and Baker went out to chop down some big poplars over along the branch, considerable this side the wood's pastur' spring. The little boys went with him. They both started off after him, an' first Rob an' then Jamie—my four-year-old baby—run back to kiss “mother” good-by. I can see 'em now, my two little sons, as they ran away after their father, playin' tag as they went, an' Rob turnin' back to say, “Yes, we'll be careful,” when I called fur 'em to be shore not to let the poplars fall on 'em.
I worked away busy till dinner time, singin' hymns, an' goin' to the door now an' agin to look at the woods all red an' yaller among the green an' brown. I wus happy, an' thought of my pleasant home, my dear little boys, what a clever man Baker wus, an' that we wus well an' prosperin' right along. I've wondered sense if I didn't feel a little proud of what we'd done an' had, when I see Jane Alton an' her man go by, who'd had a good start, an' are still pore, an', maybe, I didn't give God the glory for our prosperity.
I got a good dinner, fur everything wus plentiful that fall, an' I knowed they'd all be powerful hungry.
The boys hardly ever stayed outdoors half a day, but I didn't worry about their not comin', fur children alwus like to see trees fall, an' several times before noon I heerd 'em crashin' down. But come noon I see Baker comin' over the knoll with his ax over his shoulder an' no boys. I run out an' asked where they wus, an' he thought they'd come to me about ten o'clock, fur they'd started towards the house then.
Of course we both wus scared, an' run fur the branch, fur there had ben some heavy rains of late, an' it wus tolerable till an' here an' there had pretty deep holes. We kep' along it a quarter of a mile, an' there we found their tracks goin' along up to a high bank of gravel an' sand; an' as we come to that, Baker, who had outrun me, give a scream, an' when I looked, I saw part of the bank had caved in, an' Rob's hat lay on the grass to one side.
We wusn't long gettin' shovels, an' a neighbor passin' by come an' helped; but we wus too late, for the pore little lads—God help me!—wus choked an' smothered there together.
They had ben diggin' in the side of the bank, we s'posed, fur they each had sticks in their han's, an' the bank, on account of bein' washed by the freshets, wus ready to fall.
I can't tell no more about it, fur the year that come after seems like a nightmare to me, an' I guess my mind wus nearly gone, but that's why Baker always says “mother” so kind of gentle like, an' reads the fourteenth chapter of John so often, where the Saviour promises to come again an' receive us unto himself, that where he is, there we may be also; an' the one in Thessalonians that tells how he'll descend out of heaven with a shout, the voice of the archangel, an' the trump of God, his sleepin' dead be raised immortal, an' the righteous that are alive be changed to be like him.
When the sky is blue, an' the great, soft, white clouds move along so slow an' stately across the heavens, their edges all fringed with shinin' glory, I always think of how he'll come on a cloud, an' “all the holy angels with him.” What a glorious an' solemn sight that will be! An' it's fur all of us, fur “every eye shall see him.” You know how bright an' glorious the angel looked that rolled away the stone at the door of the tomb—his countenance like lightnin' an' his raiment white as snow, an' the keepers fell down like dead men.
It says in the Revelation to John that in heaven there's “ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands” of angels, an' when they “all” come, so bright an' beautiful along with Christ “in the glory of his kingdom,” “King of kings, an' Lord of lords,” most glorious of all the company, all float down the great wide sky, no wonder that the people who have been too wicked or proud or careless to love him an' do his commandments, will run to the mountains an' call to 'em an' the rocks to fall an' hide 'em from his face. O, how I wish they'd do their callin' now, fur he says “he that calleth on the name of the Lord shall be saved”! Then it'll be too late to become one of the people of God, who, both dead an' alive, will be made immortal, an' rise “to meet him in the air.”
I know our Rob and Jamie will be with 'em, an' if we're faithful that then they'll be give back to us, an' we all will be “ever with the Lord.” It is a blessed comfort, an' we both say with John, “Even so come, Lord Jesus.”
PRISCILLA ANN BAKER.
A Deceiving Devil.
It makes no difference to the devil as to how he deceives if he can only destroy by his deception. If he can make men believe that God has the character he himself does he is pleased, for then men will reject God. If he can delude people into the belief that there is no devil, it suits him just as well, for then they will call evil good. Recently Satan deceived the colored people of Mountville, S. C., to believe that he is dead, and they should bury him. The New York Evening World of August 26 tells us that at that time thousands of negroes had gathered at the above place, mad with religious zeal, amounting to frenzy. The excitement began about the middle of August, on the reception of a new church bell, which was rung steadily for six consecutive hours, and then it was tolled, and rung, and rung and tolled, with but little intermission for two weeks. From North Carolina and Georgia and Alabama and Florida they came by the hundreds, the excitement fed by wild exhorters. The devil is dead, was the great cry. Those thus carried away neither ate nor slept. Many shouted and sung and danced till they fell in cataleptic fits or trances. “Sometimes a strange hush comes over the throng and then, as tho at a signal, all turn and face the east and shout in concert: ‘Lo! see the stars and moons and suns roll back from our path to heaven! Hear the mighty song of welcome go from universe to universe!’” The last news is, that a few of the leaders claimed to have buried the devil in secret, and the people were admonished: “Brethren, you are now free. The devil is buried. Let us all go home and live right, for there is no devil to tempt us any moah.” And the devil laughed. The poor deluded ones will find him as active as ever. He works with mighty power. But Jesus Christ is the Mighty One. Against all such deceptions as the above religious craze, God’s Word has warned us. None need be deceived who will make that Word their guide-book, and Jesus Christ their “Leader and Commander.”
Paternalism in Government
Paternalism in Government.—Thus speaks a reformer in the New York Voice of September 2: “Those who cry out against paternalism in the State, speak as ‘fools and blind.’ Paternalism is the reason and business of government.”—John G. Woolley, in Christian Endeavor and Good Citizenship Department. Those whom Mr. Woolley thus accounts as fools and blind can afford to bide the issue; the logic of oncoming facts will demonstrate that they are right and that the foolish and blind are those who believe the government to be a great big nursing father or mother to dandle and pamper her children, to instruct in morals, to prescribe religion and church, and to take all the God-given manhood out of every son of Adam. It is the old heathen idea. When that, combined with the Roman Catholic idea that “the church” is a mother of both State and people, is crystallized into statute law, we will have reached the climax. Manhood then will be among the martyrs, and civil liberty be a thing of the past. The only reason and business of civil government, according to the true American idea and the Christian idea, is to restrain incivility and guard the equal rights of all, Christian and infidel alike.
Another Smirching of the Church.
We have on our table a handbill of a minstrel show to be given by the ladies of a Presbyterian Church on the 17th of last month. “All the latest Negro melodies, funny gags, jokes, amusing dialogues. Twenty ladies in burnt cork. Music by the best home talent.”
This has been paralleled by Methodists and Baptists. Is there any reason to believe that Christians who will lend themselves to such work in the name of the church have any genuine experience in the guidance of the Holy Spirit?—Christian Advocate (Methodist).
PEACE
By Mrs. M. R. Diefendorf
BY MRS. M. R. DIEFENDORF.
How can I hunger? There is bread
Enough, and yet to spare;
No mortal such a feast can spread,
No human skill prepare.
How can I thirst? There is a cup
Of rare and costly wine—
A ransom Jesus offered up
For just such needs as mine.
How can I fall when His dear arm
Is underneath me lain,
Or, overcome with dread alarm,
Shrink from the touch of pain?
How can I sink, tho storms increase
And darkness shrouds the sea?
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on Thee.”
—New York Observer.
AN INDIAN CONFERENCE.
MR. L. B. WOLF, a missionary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, sends the following report to the N. Y. Independent:—
“Kodaikanal is, in the general opinion, the most delightful ‘hill station’ in South India, if not the most invigorating in all India. The missionary bodies muster strong here, and there are generally from ten to twelve societies represented. Last year it was determined to start, if possible, a conference of all missionaries who meet on these hills from year to year; but when the question was brought under discussion, a larger idea was developed, namely, that instead of a Kodaikanal Conference, embracing only those missions and missionaries who assemble here, the attempt should be made to embrace all south India and dependent provinces. A committee was appointed to draft a constitution, to report at a general meeting one year hence. This committee did its work during 1896-97, and presented a draft set of rules for the control of the conference, which were approved at meetings held in the month of May this year.
“But at the start of this enterprise we had only to expect the verification of the proverb, ‘All beginnings are difficult.’ The first real difficulty in the way seems to be the question as to the basis of our organization. All are agreed that we should come closer together, and endeavor to work more harmoniously, presenting a united front to Hinduism; but there is a difference of opinion as to whether this will be best secured by an organization based on the individual, or on the mission as an organizing unit. We of Kodaikanal have from the first insisted on an organizing of the mission forces by regarding the individual as the only possible present basis, especially when the difficulty is remembered of getting a large body to act, as well as the unfairness, when the smallness of many missions is considered. A large mission would have no more power or voice than a small one, with five or ten members. We have, in the face of an adverse opinion from the missionaries of Ootakamund, determined to start our organization, have settled upon a constitution, and have determined to lay our plans before each missionary in south India, with the hope that the present organization may be the beginning of a closer union and more concerted action in all matters of importance, and all mission work in this part of the great Indian field.
“A three days’ conference was held on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of May; and live missionary questions were discussed. Dr. Jones, of the Madura Mission, read a paper on ‘The Different Methods of Mission Administration,’ the Rev. J. H. Wyckoff, of the Arcot Mission, followed with a very thoughtful paper on ‘The Best Means to Develop a Native Pastorate.’11On the second day the Rev. W. H. Findlay, of the Wesleyan Mission, opened the discussion of the question of ‘The Relationship of Missions to the Educational Department of Government,’ and Miss M. Root followed with an admirable paper on ‘Work among Non-Christian Women and Girls.’ All these subjects were opened for discussion, and many valuable hints and suggestions fell from the lips of the various speakers in the course of the five-minute speeches that followed.
“The session on the third day was of a more popular nature, with the purpose in view of enlisting all Europeans more fully in Christian work. Addresses were made by the Rev. Mr. Sharrock, of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, on ‘A Brahman Convert,’ Mr. Eddy on ‘The Students’ Volunteer Movement,’ and the Rev. L. B. Wolf, on ‘What Some Christian Laymen Have Done for India.’
“The above is an attempt to carry out one of the objects of the association, the plan being to hold an annual conference, such as this, at some place in south India. I am sure that the eighty or one hundred missionaries present at this first meeting are unanimous in voting it a success.”
BURNING TREE OF BURMA.
There has lately been added to the collection of plants at the Botanic Gardens at Madras, India, a specimen of a strange tree. It is in size scarcely more than a bush, but others of its species are known to have attained, in their habitat in the Himalayas, Burma, and the Malacca Peninsula, the dimensions of a large tree, from fifty to seventy-five feet in height. The Madras specimen is surrounded by a strong railing, which bears the sign: “Dangerous—All persons are forbidden to touch the leaves or branches of this tree.” It is, therefore, a forbidden tree in the midst of the garden, but no one is tempted to it, for it is known to be a “burning tree.”
This name is a misnomer, for the tree stings rather than burns. Beneath the leaves there are stings, comparable to those nettles which when touched pierce the skin and secrete a fluid which certainly has a burning effect. The sting leaves no outward sign, but the sensation of pain persists sometimes for months, and is especially keen on damp days, or when the place which has been wounded is plunged in water. The natives in the parts of Burma where this tree grows are in such terror of it that they fly in haste when they perceive the peculiar odor which it exhales.
If they happen to touch it, they fall on the ground, and roll over and over on the earth with shrieks. Dogs touched by it yelp and run, biting and tearing the part of their bodies that has been touched. A horse which had come in contact with a “burning tree” ran like a mad thing, biting everything and everybody that it could reach. A missionary at Mandalay, who investigated a leaf of the plant with his forefinger, suffered agony for several weeks, and for ten months felt occasionally darting pains in his finger.—Information.
Obedience Is Nobler Than Freedom
By Lytton
OBEDIENCE is nobler than freedom. What's free?—
The vex’d straw on the wind, the froth’d spume on the sea.
The great ocean itself, as it rolls and it swells,
In the bonds of a boundless obedience dwells.
—Lytton.
Kind Wishes and Good Deeds
By Richard Henry Dana
Come, send abroad a love for all who live,
And feel the deep content in turn they give.
Kind wishes and good deeds—they make not poor;
They'll home again, full laden, to thy door.
—Richard Henry Dana.
A Work Too Great for Fame
By Mary Clemmer
To SERVE thy generation, this thy fate:
Written in water swiftly fades thy name;
But he who loves his kind does, first and late,
A work too great for fame.
—Mary Clemmer.
REST WON BY TOIL AND PAIN.
Is not the way to heavenly gain
Through earthly grief and loss?
Rest must be won by toil and pain—
The crown repays the cross.
In tears and trials thou must sow,
To reap in joy and love;
We can not find our home below,
And hope for one above.
As woods, when shaken by the breeze,
Take deeper, firmer root;
As winter’s frost but makes the trees
Abound in summer’s fruit.
So every heaven-sent pang and throe
That Christian firmness tries,
But nerves us for our work below,
And forms us for the skies.
—Selected.
WESTERN AFRICA.
A LADY, recently returned from western Africa, writes concerning the life of European settlers there:—
“A VILLAGE IN AFRICA.”
“Nearly all the traders, officials, and explorers rule the natives with a rod of iron and commit the greatest cruelties, especially upon the girls and women. It is no wonder that death often cuts them off in one of their sprees; but, altho this happens often, it has no effect upon those who remain. They are a little subdued until the funeral is over, but even when returning from the grave, they joke about their dead friend and return to their regular ways of life. The ‘woman’ of the dead man changes masters often before the funeral. Every imaginable vice exists among the white people who are the exemplars of the natives. The immoral lives of the European merchants and officials make hard work for the missionaries. To say that the missionaries are hated by the white people is putting it mildly. To be sure, they turn to us when there is sickness among them, or their dead must be buried, but at other times they hinder our work whenever they can.
“Protestant missionaries seldom get credit for the work they do. At least, officials and explorers hardly ever give them their just dues, altho they often praise the Catholic missions. It is true that the Catholic missions, in most places, have nice buildings and a large school, and these outside appearances give rise to glowing reports. The explorers remain only a few days at a station, and have not time to find out the inside workings of the different missions, nor the treatment which the children receive. The whip of hippo hide, which is the means of persuasion in the Catholic missions and is frequently used on the natives, disappears when visitors are present. More than half of the children hardly learn to read, but have to work hard on the farm. The brighter ones are exhibited in the schoolroom to the passing stranger . The natives are not slow in finding this out, and the Catholics can not get freeborn native children in their neighborhood. So they carry on a slave trade with the interior. The slave children are compelled to stay in the mission until of age, and in most cases even longer. These things can not be learned during a short visit, and since the hospitality of the Catholic missions and the quality of their wines are famous all along the coast, explorers and others sound the praises of these establishments.
“Explorers carry black girls with them into the interior and bring them back with them, if convenient. I know whereof I speak and can confirm it at any time. Civilized nations would have stricter laws if they only knew, but it seems as if they did not want to know, about the true state of affairs, and if the real facts reach the ears of European governments they are quickly hushed up, and the public at large knows nothing about them. The only remedy for these outrages seems to be for white men to take their wives with them, and through the influence of educated women a different atmosphere will be found in African society.”—Missionary Review.
THE UTILITY OF MISSIONARY EFFORT.
AMONG the recent contributions to the London Mansion House Fund, for famine relief in India, is one of a little over $4,000 (£344) from the Fiji Islands. In connection with this gift, the English magazine Work and Workers may well call attention to the fact that when Queen Victoria ascended the throne, sixty years ago, the Fiji Islands were inhabited by pagan cannibals, to whom not one ray of light from the Christian world had come. These people were peculiarly ferocious. The Wesleyan Society, which in 1838 had planned to commence work within the group, declared in its report of that year that the missionary must prosecute his work “before the sailor and the merchant will dare to frequent those now inhospitable shores.” And now we have an illustration of what the missionary has accomplished. The Fiji Islands are so far christianized that out of a population of 125,000 about 100,000 are reported in the government statistics as Wesleyans. The whole face of society has changed. In place of brutal orgies there is an orderly and thriving community, and now the grandchildren of the cannibals, whom it was seriously feared would slay and eat the first missionaries, have sent $4,000 to feed the poor of India.—Missionary Herald.
