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Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichA, il est film6 A partir de 1 a9>(;Se supArieur gauche, de geuche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. by errata led to >nt ine pelure, apon A 1 2 3 32X 1 2 3 4 5 6 / / S^cuouC- THE GREAT Missionary Failure BY REV. CANON ISAAC TAYLOR. TORONTO: THE NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, *- ^ fly IlEV. CANON ISAAC TAYLOR. The stormy controversy which followed upon the reading of a cer- tain paper at the last Church Congress has thrown considerable light upon the results and methods of missionary work. It has calle:! forth papers of permanent value from lay experts, including eminent Indian civilians and African travellers, while from the champions of the great missionary societies we have learnt much as to their plans and prospects. Two main questions have been discussed. 1. Have we reason to be satisfied with the results of missionary enterprise ? 2. If not, what are the causes of the failure, and how can they be remedied ? There is no question as to the magnitude of the efforts that are being made. Upwards of a million sterling is annually raised in this country for Protestant missioDS, and probably another million in America and on the Continent of P^urope. About six thousand European and American missionaries aud some thirty thousand native agents are employed. Clearly there is no lack of men or means. With all this ei^ort is it probable that the world will become Christian ? The terrible Malthusian theorem has in the first place to be faced. Is the natural rate of increase among the heathen greater or less than the number of conversions ? Unfortunately the lower races multiply faster than those higher in the scale. Negroes, Chinese, Hindus, and Japanese are extremely prolific. It would probably be a low calculation to take the annual increase of tho THE GREAT MISSIONARY FAILURE. population of the heathen world at twelve per thonnand, a ratio which is less than the known rate of increase either in England or in Bengal. Now since by the most recent estimates the population of Chin'* is 882 millions, of India 254 millions, of Africa 206 millions, at Japan 38 millions, and of Ceylon, Persia, Afghanistan, Corea, and the Burmese Peninsula 42 millions, it will be seen that, leaving oal Tibet, Borneo, and other regions of which the population is un- known, the non-Christian population of Asia and Africa is upwards of 920 millions, so that the annual increase by excess of births over deaths must exceed 11 millions. Dr. Maclear, the Principal of a Training College for missionariest who is perhaps the greatest living authority on the subject, esti- mates the annual increase of native Christians due to missionary efforts at G0,000. If this estimate is approximately correct, it would take the societies 188 years to overtake the increase of non-Chris- tian population in a single year. For every additional Christian we have every year 188 additional heathens or Moslems. la spite of all the efforts that are made there are upwards of 10 millions more heathens and Mahommedans in the world than there werela year ago. The missionary societies say we are advancing, and so we are. But in spite of our advance, instead of overtaking the work, the work is ^overtaking us. It is like the tortoise racing with a rail' 'ay train ; the longer . the race continues, the farther the tortc" . < left behind. Dr. Mt : ir's estimate may be tested by the returns of some of the societies. The expenditure of the Church Missionary Society is given in the balance sheet at £238,157 19s. 7d., but a jam of jE48,604 5s. 8d. locally raised is not brought into the account, and there is a laij^a expenditure, both at home and abroad, which is also omitted, probably bringing the total up to Jg800,000. This society is therefore by far the largest and the most successful in ex- istence, and the results of its operations are tabulated in a form which makes them more easily available for statistical purposes than those of other societies. We may, therefore, take it as a rep- resentative society, doing a third or fourth of the work done by all the societies of this country. The number of "native Christian adherents" in the regions above named was 147,575 in 1877. The increase by birth at 12 per thousand, would be 1,771, and there were 2,771 adult baptisms in the ensuing year, against which must be set off a decrease of 1,805 adherents in certain missions (due probably to relapses to heathen- ism or conversions to Islam), leaving a Det increase of 966 adults, which added to the calculated increase by births gives an increase of 2,737 on the year. But the native Christian adherents were 147,585 in 1887 and 150, 796 in 1888, showing an increase of 8,211. Compared with 2,737, the calculated increase, this seems to show either that the increase by births should be taken at 15 per thousand, or that nominal ad' ?■ THE GREAT MISSIONARY FAILURE. 5 ;. berence is increasing, or that a number' of children are reckoned as adherents who relapse into heathenism when they leave school. To be on the safe side, let us take the annual increase of native Christians due to the labours of the Church Missionary Society ut 4,000 ; whence it would appear, that if the increase of the heathen by birth is 11 millions a year, it would take the society 2,750 years to overtake the additions made by birth in a single year to the non- Christian population ; while, if the population remained stationary, and all the converts remained steadfast, it would take more than 330,000 years to convert the world, or nearly a million years if the relapses are taken into account. The chief efforts of the Church Missionary Society are devoted to India. Here the number of "native Christian adherents" is stated as 104,105 in 1887 and 100, 751 in 1BS8. giving an increase of 2,580. At this rate it would take the society nearly a hundred thousand years to convert India. But the Church Missionary Society is only one agency am ong many. According to General Haig, the spokesman of the societies, the annual increase of native Protestant Christians in India duo to the labours of thirty-five societies is 19,311, add the increase of Roman Catholics is 21,272, or 40,583 in all. But for every addition- al Christian there are about 12 additional Moslems and 52 addition- al heathens. It would take all the agencies put together sixty-four years to overtakethe increase of the non-Christian people in a single year. It must be remembered that more than half of the whole con- verts of the Church Missionary Society are in one or two districts in the extreme South of India. If these were to be ex- cluded the results would be still more discouraging. Vast districts are practically untouched. Thus in Baroda, with a population of 2,185,000, Learly double that of Wales, the number of Christians, including Europeans and Eurasians, is stated to be 170. In the Bombay Presidency 92.7 per cent, of the native Christians are said to be Roman Catholics. In Travancore, after seventy years labour, only 3.3 per cent, of the native Christians are claimed by the Church of England, and 90 per cent, by the Church of Rome. China is perhaps the most disheartening case. The population is reckoned at 382,000,000. The annual increase by the excess of births over deaths would be about 4,580,000. Last year the Church Missionary Society baptised 167 adults. At this rate it would take the Church Missionary Society twenty-seven thousand years to overtake the gain to heathenism in a single year. If the population were stationary it would take more than 1,680,000 years to convert the Chinese Empire. If the progress is slow the expenditure is lavish. Last year in Ceylon 424 agents of the Church Missionary Society spent ^11,003 15s. 7d. in making 190 adult converts out of a population of ne^^rly three millions, but the relapses were more numerous than tho converts, as there was a decrease of 143 in the native Christian adherents. In China 247 agents of tne sanio ii THE GREAT MISS'ONARY FAILURE. sosi 'ty spent £14,875 3a. in makinfj 107 converts out of a population of 3 32,000,000. in Northern India, (Bengal, Bombay, and the North- West Provinces) 715 agents made 173 converts at a cost of i;U,180 2s. 5d. And many converts are paid. In Hong Kong there are 94 communicants and 35 paid native agents. In Egypt and Arabia there are 10 communicants and 7 i)aid native agents. Ju Yoruba, after forty years of labour, not 5 per cent, of the people are converted, hu lan sacritices are not discontinued, while the native Christian adherents decreased last year by HH5. It is plain that the failure does not arise from a niggardly expen- diture. But there can be no doubt that vast sums of money, and the still more precious lives of hosts of devoted laborers, are thrown away in the prosecution of hopeless enterprises. In the missions to Egypt, Persia, Palestine and Arabia, where there are no heathen, the Church Missionary Society employs one hundred and nineteen agents, and has spent £28,545 4s. 7d. in the last two years. The net results are nil. In PLgypt, last year, there were two " inquir- ers," one a Negro and the other an Egyptian, but the inquiries did not lead to any further results. In Arabia a sick robber who was doctored by a missionary promised to abstain from robbing for ten days. In Palestine, the one Moslem convert of last year, a weak- minded orphan girl who required constant guidance, aud for whom the prayers of all English Christians were invoked, has gone over to Rome and is now immured in a nunnery. In Persia we aro told that " a great and wondrous door has been opened for the gospel," but no converts are mentioned, and the door seems to consist of a Persian who reads the Bible, which is one of his own sacred books. I have several correspondents amongthe Persian Moslems, aud they constantly quote the Bible, with which they seem to be almost as familiar as with the Koran. It is plain that these fu.ile missions should be given np. A few Eastern Christians may be perverted, but the missionaries raake no way among the Mahommedans. To extort from Sunday- school children their hoarded pence for the ostensible object of coaverting *'the poor heathen," and to spend nearly £12,000 a year ia fruitless missions to lauds where there are no heathen, seems jO me to be almost a crime, the crime of obtaining money under fp.ise pretenses. Last year, when I called attention to this waste of resources that might better be applied elsewhere, say in Southe^-n India or San- t ilia, where the results are encouraging, Dr. Bruc j, the chief offender', auswered me by a cry for larger sums to bo expended in his result- less enterprise. So much for quantity, and now what is the quality of the con- verts. Mr. Johnston, the well known i^frican traveller, who is our Vice-Consul in the Cameroons, siys, " in many important districts where the missionaries have been at work for twenty years, they can scarcely number, in honest stitistics, twenty sincere converts. In other parts, where large numbers of nominal Christians exist, their religion is discredited by numbering among its adherents all THE GREAT MISSIONAUY TAlLUnE. the dranlcards, liars, rogues, and unclean livers in tlio colony. In the oldest of our West African possessions all the unrepentant Magdalenes of the chief cities are professing Christians, and the most notorious one iu the place hoasts that she *' never missed go- ing to church on a communion Sunday." Three years ago in a nominally Christian village, a quarrel broke out. and not a few were killed. The victors cooked and eat tho bodies of the slain. As a punishment, the native pastor annour.cfd that they were "suspended from church privileges." Cannibalisni is punished by temporary exclusion from the Holy Communion I Of the native pastors Mr. Johnston says, " With a few very rare exceptions those native African pastors, teachers and catechisty whom I have met have been all, more or less, bad men. They at- tempted to veil an unbridled immorality with an unblushing hypof- risy and a profane display of ' mouth ' religion, which to an honest mind seemed even more disgusting than the immorality itself." Jn the 77 //'^.v 1 publicly challenged a contradiction of Mr. Johnston's statements, but none has been forthcoming. These are the reports of lay travellers. Occasionally wo get similar testimony from mis- sionaries themselves. Mr. Hall, a missionary from the Church Missionary Society in Bengal, writ a of one village, '• Alas ! I must confess that neither reader or schoolmaster have much influence with the people. Both are in the habit of drinking; the school- master has been dismissed for bad conduct. Drunkenness, quar- relling and fighting are of frequent occurrence." Of another vil- lage he says, "Alas! I have the same story to tell. There aro serious complaints against the schoolmaster. 1 cannot put my band on one man in our village and say he is truly r verted." Of a third village he says, '• The people here are oj bad." No won- der that iu Bengal, as in Western Africa, dec)\ ., ire reported in the native Christian adherents. " Doubtless," Mr. liall adds, " this report will be thought a dismal one, and I know from experience 't is not likely to be popular. Reports that cannot speak of success and growth, and anecdotes of conversion, are not taking to the pub- lie mind." The converts are few, and many of them of bad quality. It is best to face boldly the fact that missions as now conducted are less successful than we could wish. Why do they fail ? I will first take "he apologies offered by the missionaries and then give the expla- nations of lay observers. In their annual report the committee of the Church Mis sionary Society say their failure to convert Mahommedans is be- cause the baleful sway of Islam shuts the heart against the gospel. It would be as logical for Moslems to complain that they have not converted Europe because the baleful sway of Christianity shnt;^ tlie heart against Islam. Such a pitiful platitude means, if it means anythin'g, that the Moslems do not become Christians because they like their own religion best. And why do they like it best ? Let^ Dr. Legge, a missionary of thirty-four years' standing, epeak. IIe» THK GREAT MlSSlDNAltY FAILURE. tbiuks that we nhall tail to make couverts bo Iod^ as Cbristiauity preseuts itHclf infected with the bitt3r iuterual animosities of Chris- tian sects, i*ud associated in the minds of the, natives with the drunkenness, the i)rotli<^acy, and the gif»autic social evil conspicuous amouf^ Cliristian nations. Bisho[) Steere thought that the two f^reatest hindrances to success were the squabbles of missionaries among themselves and tiie rivalry of societies — there are two hun- dred and twenty- four of them — who tout for converts. This internal animosity of Christian sects is well illustrated by the report of Mr. Squ'res, the local secretary of tlie Church Mis- sionary Society in the Bombay Presidency, who states tliat '*one of the greatest hindrances in missionary ellort" is the existence of so many Christians who do not belong to any of the Protestant so- cieties. Strange to say, the existence of so many Christians is a great hindrance to the spread of Christianity ! Mr. Squires, with his i)7 assistants, baptised last year ^6 adults and 92 children, at a cost of .i'U,441 7s. Id., and the coverts made by his society, after sixty-six years of labour, do not amount to '2,000, while the devoted Roman priests are converting, educating, and consoling thousands upon thousands, at a nominal cost, which comes, not from any wealthy society, but mainly from the converts themselves. No wonder Mr. Squires is jealous of his successful rivals. This unwise rivalry of the societies is illustrated by the detailed reports of many of the missionaries. Thus Mr. Hall complains that one of his "inquirers" has been "decoyed" and baptised by a mis- sionary of another society. "Inquirers" take advantage of this rivalry for converts, and put themselves up to auction. Mr. Bell writes that an "inquirer," to whom, pending the inquiries, he was paying a salary of A'l a month, struck for higher pay and went off tc a rival missionary to "inquire." In another case an unusually acute missionary found that one of his inquirers had been pursuing the lucrative profession of going round to mission after mission and getting repeatedly baptised. Of course, after every fresh baptism, he reappears in the missionary statistics as a fresh convert. Dr. Bruce has complained that we do not succeed because the sums spent on missions are insufficient. It would rather seem that the floods of money which are poured out are the cause of much of the weakness of the missions. It is curious to note that the most costly missions are frequently the least successful, while, on the other hand, those on which the smallest sums are spent show the best results. It is not always easy to compare the results with the expenditure, as in the reports of several societies the tabulation of results does not apply to the same geographical areas as the tabulation of ex- penditure. Two missions, one prosperous and the other ineffective, are sometimes lumped together in the accounts so as to bring out a delusive general average. Thus about two-thirds of the native Christian adherents of the Society for the Propagation of Jhe ()l native Christians in Madras. But where materials are su|)plied for formin*^ such comparisons it would appear that njissions relatively unsuccessful are more costly than those which exhibit the best results. Thus we are able to compare the Bombay and Travancore missions of the Churc^b Mis- sionary Society. Each cost about I'O.OOO, J>onibay the most, and each has seven I'juropoan missionaries on its staff. In Uombay there are less than 2. (>()() uiitive Christians, while in Travancore there are upwards of 20,000. In Bombay there are under 1,000 communicants, in Travancore over O.OOO. In JJombay last year there were 128 bii])tisms, in Travancore Or)7. Or compare the Punjab and South Indian nnssions of the same society. Each cost about tl(),()00, the Punj d) the most, and each has about twenty European missionaries. In the Punjab there are lees than 3,000 native Christians, in the other upwards of (57, 000. In the one there are under 700 communicants, in the other over 14,000. In the Punjab the baptisms are less than OOO, in South India more than IJ.OOO. In the small district of Tinnevelly the results are as great as in all the rest of India put together. It is plain tliat the expenditure bears little or no relation to the results. The cause seems to be twofold. In the successful missions the native pHsU>rs are zealous and numerous, a few Europeans be- ing enjployed to guide and superintend them. In the unsuccessful missions the Church is exotic, and the costly European missionary fails to secure results which are easily attained elsewhere by native labourers of the right sort. The second cause seems to be due to race The aboriginal Hill tribes and the Dravidian races of South- ern India seem to be far more open to Christian teaching than the Hindus and Moslems. Sir William Hunter, the most competent of experts, does not expect any large accessions from Islam or orthodox Hinduism, but he tells us that there is in India half a mi'diou of low-caste or aboriginal tribes who are certain to be ultimately won over to one of the three higher faiths. Here then there is a promising field. Common sense would dictate the v.iser course of concentrating our efforts on the Dravidians of the south and the non-Aryan Hill tribes of the north, who if once won over to Hinduism or Islam become in- accessible to the a})peals of the Christian missionary, ami not to waste our resources and the precious fleeting years on the 10 TUB CHEAT MISSIONARY rAILtTRET. Moslems and high-oaste Brahmans on whom we make do apparent impression. It was the opinion of Bishop Steeretbat the success of a mission- ary depends on his acceptance of the outward features of the native life. The preacher's hut, his goods, his dress» his food, should he the same as those of the natives. European missionaries fail be- cause they attempt to make Asiatics or Africans into middle-class English PhiliHtines, which they never will be. Islam succeeds bet- ter than Christianity largely because it leaves tbe people, Asiatics or Africans, undisturbed in all the outward circumstances of their lives. In tile most successful missions, such as those of the Wes- leyaus to Fiji, where in some circuits 98 per cent, of the natives are enrolled, or the missions of the London Missionary Society in Madagascar or Polynesia, or the missions of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Chota Nagporo^ or of the Church Missionary Society in Tinnevelly, the cause of success is obvious. The mission has not been a feeble exotic, but 'mtives have been taught by natives. It has been well said that the teachers wh( ut* appeal success- fully to Asiatics or Africans should be as .hi. ^ as possible to English rectors or dissenting ministers. iioi: odelled on the pattern of an Islington district are door ^o la .ure. The man who can best touch the hearts of Indians ^ust be a celibate and an ascetic, abstaining from alcohoU living like the natives on rice» receiving no payment, either a mendicant or working with his own hands, giving up everything that makes life comfcurtable, convert- ing, not by argument, but by exhibiting in practice that absolute self-renunciation which is the only language the natives can under- stand. Whether the efforts of tbe Salvation A.rmy in India will be per- manently successful it would be premature to say, but at all events they show a better comprehension of the way in which Indians can be reached than tbe professional married missionary of the old type. Mr. Tucker, their leader, has given proof of his sincerity by surrendering a lucrative post in the Indian civil service. He heads a barefooted regiment of 200 soldiers, who go for life, who give up everything they have, who receive no payn>ent, bnt are content with are subsistence. They abstain from the flesh of animals, the i^^' .;hter of which is an abomination to the Hindu ; they touch no. ;i,u:o]ioi ; their food is a handful of rice and curry, which they beg -' T^) day to day from those to whom they minister. Like the L'^t.^es, they oil their bodies with colza oil, they go> barefoot, with tiirl.ans to protect them from the sun, and their dress is a few yards of calico, costing about five shillings. The whole maintenance of eatih missionary does not exceed two shillings a week, or five pounds a year. Like the successful Moravian missionaries in South Africa or the West Indies, their object is to become natives, to live among the imtives exactly as the natives live, simply exhibiting a nobler- life and higher aims. They have only two rules— c instant praver and absoluts seclusion from all contact with the English,. The TnE GfiEAT MISSIONARY FAILUBE. 11 Enijlisb despise the natives, and the natives hate the English for their arrogance. The Salvation Army treats the natives Hke brethren. They do not scatter their forces, but go in bands of forty or fifty together. They never argue or discuss doctrines, or go into the "evidences" of Christianity. They exhibit the ascetic life which appeals so strongly to the Hindu. They oay, "see wbat our religion does for us, how hat / it makes us, and how it enables us to despise poverty and conquer the troubles of the world, how it makes us contented and cheerful and free from sin." The natives like tho drums and the tomtoms, the lively singing and the bright banners and the processions, and follow them in crowds, while they find the Church Missionary Society services on the Is- • lington model dull and slow. It may not be a high ideal of religion, but it appeals to Indians, just as it appeals to the least educated classes at home. The Salvationists believe that only Asiatics can appeal success- fully to Asiatics. They adopt the outward life of Asiatics, and abjure European dress, European food and European customs. We can see the good sense of this. TVould a Chinaman with his pigtail, feediucion snails, birds' nests and lizards, have any chance of converting English ploughboys to Buddhism ? They would sim- ply laugh at him or detest him. And an English missionary in a black coat, eating pork or beef, which is as much an abomination to a Hindu as a lizard to an Englishman, has about the same chance of converting an Indian peasant. To try and make Asiatics into Europeans as well as Christians, is as though a Chinese mis- sionary strove to make Europeans into Chinamen as a preliminary to making them into Buddhists. The Salvation Army also shows its wisdom in refusing to argue or discuss the evidences for Christi- anity. India will not be converted by Paley's Eiidencra, but by the exhibition in practice of the superiority and beauty of the Christian life. A clever Hindu will beat a half-educated missionary in argu- ment. Mr. Routledge, formerly editor of The Star of Jiulitt, and one of the Indian correspondsnts of the TimcK, tells us that at a dinner he heard a baboo (clerk), standing behind the table, com- pletely defeat a missionary who was one of the party. The baboo, he says, beat the missionary out and out iu downright hard reason- ing, never losing his temper for a moment. Mr. Routledge once examined the advanced students in a mission- ary college in the presence of the principal. He asked, "Does tlie Christian education given in these colleges tend to make Chrja- tians?" '• No." "Do you believe in tho Christian religion ? " "No, no, no!" with one solitary "Yes." "Why ?" "We don't believe in the Incarnation or the Atonement." Vast sums are frittered away on such collegos. Sir William Hunter has explained to us why the controversial method fails with the Hindu. Ho tells us tiuit an argument be- tween a Brahmin and a missionary seems to the poj)uiace to rr solve itself into a wrangle as to the comparative merits of the Hindu 12 THE QREAT MIS8I0NARY FAILURK. triad aud the Christian Triuity, and the comparative evidence fof the incarnation of Krishna and the incarnation of Christ. The un- educated native, if he is to have a triad and an incarnation, prefers to keep his own. As for the educated natives, the missionary colleges have undermined his belief in the Hindu triad and the Hindu in- carnation, and he thinks that all triads and incarnations belong to a state of mental development which he has passed. The principles of the iSalvation Army — absolute self-renunciation, voluntary poverty, aud conformity to the conditions of native life — have been the distinguishing features of successful missions. In spite of the widest theological differences, success has uniformly at- tended missions conducted on such methods. To this must be attributed the wonderful triumphs of the Moravians, and of Xavier and the early Jesuits. In spite of the prodigal expenditure of the Protestant societies, three-fourths of the native Christians in India are descendants of the converts of the early Jesuits. In those districts where Xavier labored, 90 per cent, of the native Christians are Homan Catholics. In Travancore alone there are half a million of them, twice as many as the two Church of Eug* land Societies can claim in the whole of Africa and Asia. The same conception of the fundamental conditions of successfol missionary enterprise is shown by the Oxford Brethern at Calcutta) who, like the Jesuit fathers, lead lives of apostolic simplicity and of the greatest austerity and self-denial ; but they are few in number and their work is on a small scale. The true principle of missionary effort is also exhibited* in the Universities' Mission to Eastern > Africa. None of their missionaries receive any stipend ; their pas- sage out and home is paid, and they are allowed to draw JB20 a year for clothes. It is their privilege to be allowed to work for the love of God and man. We find men of high endowments, and many of them of fair university attainments, sacrificing a career at home, and giving themselves, with high-minded devotedness, to the work. Hence we get real results. Sir W. Hunter reminds us that for the last twenty-four centuries every preacher who has appealed to the popular heart has cut him- self off from the world by a solemn act, like the Great Renunciation of Buddha. He must be an ascetic, and must come forth from his solitary self-communings with a message to his fellow-men. Our missionari'^s have not these qualifications. He tells us that the natives regard a missionary as a "charitable Englishman who keeps an excellent cheap school, speaks the language well, preaches a European form of their old incarnations and triads, and drives oub his wife aud little ones in a pony-carriage. The pouy-carriage is obviously fatal to the missionaries' influ- ence. If St. Paul, before starting on one of his missionary iourneys, had required St. James and a committee at Jerusalem to guarantee him i."{00 a year, paid quarterly, and had provided himself with a shady buuglow, a punkah, a pony carriage, and a wife, he would not have changed the history of the world. THE OBEAT MISSIONABY FAILURE. 18 Another cause of failure which has been pointed oat by Bishop Steere is the inferior quality of the material. He complains that we take men of an inferior social class, governed, sent out, and paid by a superior sort of men formed into a committee in London, with a set of examiners to see that the inferior men are not too in- ferior, and a set of cheap colleges where the inferior men may get an inferior education, and a set of inferior bishops to give them a Bort of inferior ordination, and then expect them to achieve results which can only be expected from men of the highest quality. Half-taught men, Bishop Steere says, such as the so-called mis- fiion colleges turn out, are much more likely to be useful in England to preach to those who share their ignorance and their prejudices than among nations whom the cleverest among us only imperfectly understand. Naturally these inferior and ill-educated men ^ are narrow and bigoted, of a type who would not be ordained by any English bishop or thought good enough for the curacy of a country villai^'e in the Fens, and these inferior men are sent to do the difficult work of preaching in Tamil or Swahili, and coping with the acute intellects of Hindus and Moslems. No wonder they fail miserably. Mr. Aske, of the Buganda Mission, says that considering the material that is sent out, the marvel and miracle is not that so little is done but so much. Send out. he says, some good men instead of half* educated, wholly unht persons. You set down one or two illiterate, injudicious missionaries among two orthreemillions of heathen, and then expect results ! Staying in a country house with a munificient supporter of the Ohurch Missionary Society. I was told that a devoted young man, studying at one of the missionary colleges, was coming on a visit to his patron. He arrived. I was surprised not to see him at dinner And askedif he was ill. My kindly host explained that, being the son of the blacksmith in the neighboring village, the butler objected to wait on him, aud that he found it more pleasant and congenial to dine in the servants' hall. Such men get ^300 a year and a social position which they could have got in no other way. In Tndia they become sahibs, which «ats them off at once from any real influence. Mr. Routledge says if the missionaries would succeed they must cease to be sahibs, and become the brothers of the people. He de* scribes the native catechist walking humbly three or four steps be* hind the missionary, not daring to walk abreast of him. The Ro* man Catholic missionaries succeed better than the Protestants because they abjure sahibism, and because they cast in their lot with the people, and depend on their offerings for subsistence. I believe our methods are not only unsuccessful but altogether wrong. We must return to those methods which were crowned with such marvelous triumphs in the centuries which saw the con- version of the Roman Empire and of the Northern uatious. Th© modern method is to hire a class of professional missionaries — a 14 THE GREAT MISSION ABT FAILURE. /■ mercenary army, which like other mercenary armies, may be ad- mirably disciplined and may earn its pay, but will never do tlie work of the real soldiers of the cross. The hireling may be an excellent hireling, bat for all that he is only a hireling. If the work is to be done we mast have men influenced with the apostolic spirit, the spirit of St. Paul, of St. Golumba, St. Golum- banus, and St. Xavier. These men brought whole nations to Christ, and such men only, if such men can be found, will reap the harvest of the heathen world. They must serve, not for pay, but solely for the love of God. They must give up all European comforts and European society, and cast in their lot with the natives and live as the natives live, counting their lives for naught, and striving co make converts, not by the help of Paley's Evidences, but by the great renunciation which enabled Gautama to gain so many mil- lions of disciples^. As one of the greatest of missionaries has said, the best preachera are not our words, but our lives ; and our deaths, it need be, are better preachers still. We must hold up the spec- tacle of devoted lives to enable the people to undersband the first elements of the Christian faith. General Gordon, in one of his last letters, has told ns the same hard truth. Writing from Khartoam, he says m his trenchant style: "There is not the least doubt that there is an immense virgin field for an apostle in these countries among the black tribes. But where will you find an apostle ? A man must give up every- thing, understand — everythinfj, everything ! No half or three-quarter measure will do. He must be dead to the world, have no ties of any sort, and long for death when it may please God to take him. There are few, very few, such. And yet what a field !" And Gen- eral Gordon, a zealous Puritan Protestant, if ever there was one, found none but the Koman Catholics who came np to his ideal of the absolute self-devotion of the apostolic missionary. In China he found the Protestant missionaries with comfortable salaries of 4^300 a year, preferring to stay on the coast, where English com- forts and English society could be had, while the Eoman priests left Europe never to return, living in the interior with the natives as the natives lived, without wife, or child, or salary, or comforts, or society. Hence these priests sncceed as they deserve to suc- ceed, while the professional Protestant missionary fails. True missionary work is necessarily heroic work, and heroic work can only be done by heroes. Men not cast in the heroic mould are only costly cumbrances. John Williams, of Eromanga, who converged the Polynesian can- nibals, was such a hero. The Moravians who, among the Hott^en- tots lived as Hottentots, who took no salaries, but toiled with tlioir own hands for a livelihood, who in the West Indies sold themselvps for slaves that they might influence the slaves, were heroes and they have had the reward of Christian heroes in a plenteous har- vest of human souls. But the modern professional missionary, with his punkah and his bungalow and his pony carriage, who Y THE GREAT MISSIONARY FAILURE. 16 travels first-class, who marries at twenty-three, and ia always clamouring to the society for grants for his wife and children, is not a hero, and fails as he deserves to fail. Bishop Steere writes : " Let me say that all missionaries owe a deht of gratitude to those who call attention to the mistakes and failures of missions." To him, more than to any man, they owe a debt of gratitude for showing in his own practice the more perfect way. I also in more humble fashion have been trying to point out what are the causes of the undeniable failure ot missionary work. From individual missionaries, such as Mr. Mackay, of Uganda, one of the most dar- ing and heroic pioneers of missionary enterprise, 1 have received the warmest thanks. From the shores of the Victoria Nyanza he writes to tell me that missionaries in the actual field of work look on what I have said about missionary work with sincere sympathy, and not with the bitterness and wrath with which I have been met by the paid secretaries of the missionary societies, who, he says, scorn correction, and never look beyond their own narrow groove. He haa bidden me to place these his words on record, and it is with pride and pleasure at being honoured with the approval of such a true missionary hero that I accomplish his behest. Isaac Tailob. «*^ ^ i I 1 1 MISSIONARY FINANCE. 1 In my former article I compared the expenditure in certain' mission Helds with the results claimed by the societies, and en- deavoured to show that where the expenditure is most lavish the results are frequently the most disappointing. I also maintained that the methods adopted by some societies seemed more judicious than those of others. To this it has been replied that statistics, even those put forward by the societies themselves, are fallacious — that a mere record of conversions and baptisms is no real test of the work done or the progress made. 1 will therefore turn to another test of efficiency to which this objection does not apply, and I will examine the home expenditure of two typical societies, and compare the cost of collection and man- agement of funds, and the systems of c^udit and accounts. In the former article I took the Church Missionary Society, whose operations are larger than those of any other society in existence, as a typical instance of the modern method of employing salaried professional missionaries, and I took the Universities Mission to Central Africa as a type of the old apostolic method of employing missionaries who are not attracted by the offer of any temporckl advantages, but who serve from no other motive than the iove of God. It so happens that these two societies are also the best repre- sentatives of two opposite methods of raising funds, and of keeping, auditing, and publishing accounts. The one makes lavish use of paid agency and a costly secretariat, the other relies mainly on voluntary and unpaid efforts. In the one case the account of the expenditure is vague and to a great extent delusive, in the other it is explicit and precise. This comparison will, I think, tend to show that in the case of the society whose labours ^'u the mission field are the more judicious and efficacious, the home expenditure is also more economical and satisfactory. 1 take these two societies merely as represeutatives of two opposite systems. I believe the managers of both are actuated by the best intentions, there is nO' 18 1KI«SI0MAB7 FIMAKCB. prac- have imputation of any but the highest motives ; it is merely the tical question of the relative efficacy of the methods they adopted. I have had a lengthened correspondence with the secretaries of both societies. In the casu of the Universities Mission every inquiry was frankly answered. It is plain that they think they liave nothing to conceal or justify, they are anxious that everything should be known, apparently believing that the better their plans were understood, the more they would commend themselves to those interested in the success of missionary work. They also gave me full permission to publish what I liked, and even drew up a bal- ance sheet in a new form which I suggested, classifying the various items of expenditure under di£ferent heads. In the case of the Church Missionary Society the correspondence was less satisfactory. I pointed out that the balance sheet did not balance, that the real cost of collection greatly exceeded that stated in the balance sheet, that enormous sums raised and expended for missionary work were omitted from the balance sheet, that the audit did not appear effec- tive, that the tabulation of results did not apply to the same geo- graphical areas as the tabulation of expenditure, and that the eociety did not appear to be exercising efficient control over the expenditure in the missions or over the home expenditure on the collections of funds. I much regret that I am'uuable t2,34G 9s. 'id at a cost of .£12 9s. Od.; another collected ^£315 5s. 2d. for £i 10s. This partly explains why it costs one society about i:80 to raise the money for each missionary, while the other does it for about $20. For each European missionary the Church Missionary Society spf^nds about £30 in management. If the management and control were entrusted more largely to the colonial biHhot)s, who are on the sfjot, and are the proper peisons to exercise it effectively, the Church Missionary Society would not ueed to keep up a quasi-episcopal staff of secretaries in Salisbury MISSIONARY FINANCE. 23 Sqnaro at a cost equal to the salaries of two English diocesaD biuliops. Ou the other hand the maDar^ement ami control of the miKsioDS )iractically costs nothing to the UDiversities Missiou. Hishop Smythies has a stipoml of £'600 a year from the Colonial Binhops* Fund, hut I hope I am violating uo contideuce iu sayiog that at the time of Lis cousecration he very nobly made axrangeineuts for turning over the whole of it to the miHsion, so that ho lias nothing which he can call his own, either from the mission or from the en- dowment of the see, but he lives and sliares alike with the mis- sionaries under him. Naturally they follow his example. Each is allowed to draw a sum not exceeding £'20 a year for clothes and personal expenses, but no one except the treasurer knows how much each missiouary draws, and I iind that last year 5^> niissionaries drew i;7UG in all, or an average of £V6 l)s. Bd. each, instead of the £20 they might have drawn, while one of them at his own expense built a new wing to the girls* scliools at a cost of £200. The notice to intending candidates for the Universities Missioo reads as follows : — *' The Bishop is quite unable to offer any inducement in the way of salary or periodical holiday, ultimate pension, or temporal advantage of any kind ; it is necessary that those who join the mis- 8ion should do so with the single desire to live for, and willingness, if it be so, to die in their work, because it is Christ's." The Bishop only offers a free passage, lodging, and board at the common table, and i.'20 a year for clothes and personal expenses, and a passage home if health requires it — not else. On these terms, hare subsistence, with no pecuniary inducements, the Universities Mission gets a higher class of men than the Church Missionary Society, which offers ample salaries and pensions, and liberal provfsion for wife and children. In fact the absence of pecuniary inducement rids the society of all the bad bargains of other societies — young men who wnnt to marry as soon as they are ordained, and who seek an iin^icdiate income and a social position. On the other hand, the services of the missionaries of the Universities Mission are practically gratuitous. Hence the small cost at which the work is done, while the motives of the workers being beyond all suspicion, the work is more zealous and efficients No one goes out to Zanzibar unless his whole heart is in the work. Let us now take the total expenditure of the Church Missiouary Society and the Universities Mission, and divide it by the number of European labourers employed, and we shall see what the work of each labourer really costs. The Church Missionary Society owns to an expenditure of i;238,157 IDs. 7d., and there is an expenditure which I estimate at about £68,000 which does not appear in the balance sheet. Last year 3S3 European niissionaries were era- ploytd, and 309 during the previous year» so that the total expendi- 24 MISSIONARY FINANCE. tare per European missionary is between £900 and £1000. The same calculation for the Universities Mission gives £254 for on& year, and £225 for the other — say £240 on an average. For each European missionary the expenditure of one society is about four times as great as the other. In each case a share of the expendi- ture on building, freight, passage money and home charges i& included. The actual cost for the maintenance of each missionary of the Universities Mission seems to be about £88. To arrive at thig I hav& taken the station at Kiungani, where the maintenance of 7 mission- aries and 100 boys came to £1,135. One missionary and 14 boys cost therefore £162 2s. lOd., and taking the boys at 2s. a week it leaves £88 for the support of each missionary. How much is the^ actual cost of each missionary of the Church Missionary Society probably no one, not even the secretaries, can say, but we may probably take the average salary at £300, and perhaps add another £200 for allowances for wife, children and prospective pension,, bringing the total up to about £500. This brings us to the fundamental difference between the systems of the two societies. The missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, as a rule, marry young, they are offered liberal salaries^ pensions, and provisions for their wives and children. The dis- tinguishing feature of the Universities Mission is that their mission- aries are celibates. Out of sixty-two only three are married. There are no allow- ances for their wives as such, but only as members of the staff ; and there are no allowances for children. There are no pensions either for themselves or their widows. Now it is the system of married missionaries which makes the CImrch Missionary Society so costly. For the same sum the Uni- versities Mission is able to employ four times as many missionaries, and presumably to do four times as much work. If the Church P/iissionary Society were to adopt the rules and the financial methods of the Universities Mission, probably more than £200,000- I. year would be set free for additional effort. Whether missionaries should be celibates or married men is a difficult question, and there is much that may be said on either side. In favour of matrimony it is urged — 1. That a woman's influence is needful for teaching girls. It i» replied that this influence can be as well or better exercised through sisterhoods. 2. That missionaries feel lonely and want society. It is replied that brotherhoods of men living in community are much more effec- tive than isolated missionaries. 3. That scandals are prevented. It is replied that the serious lapses from morality which we have lately had to de]^lore have not occurred among celibates, but among married missionaries and wid- owers. 4. That St. Peter was a married man. It is replied that St. PauU a much more successful missionary, was a celibate. MISSIONARY FINANCE. 25 5. That celibates get restless, and come home after a few years. The answer is that married missionaries constantly resign because the climate does not suit their wives, or because the wives do not wish to be separated from their children. With a married couple the chance of necessary resignation on the ground of health is ob- viously increased. 6. The real argument for married missionaries is not usually avow- ed. It is that the Society cannot get the requisite number of men without offering the opportunity of early marriage as a bribe. The reply is that the Universities Mission does get men who are will- ing to go out as celibates. Therefore they get, so to speak, the pick of the missionary market; they get man zealous, devoted and single-hearted, free from the least suspicion of the taint of worldly motive. As to the relative cost of the two systems there is no dispute. Last year the Church Missionary Society spent ilG,320 Bs. lOd. on a Home for missionaries' children, besides ^£8,611 10s. lid. on the children, while of the £lS,'S'dd 128. 5d. spent on juttits, passages, and sick allowances probably two-thirds — judging from the expendi- tures on such matters on the Universities Mission— was for wives and children. Let us say £'8,000 to be within the mark. Then, while the cost for food and clothes of a celibate missionary in the Universities Societies is under £100, that of a married missionary of the Church Missionary Society cannot, as we have seftn, be put at less than £800, while some good observers reckon it at £500. We may take the saving on this head at £60,000, at least on the 833 missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. Hence last year the Church Missionary Society would have had £93,000 more to spend on direct missionary work. The number of missionaries might have been doubled if the plans of the Universities Mission had been adopted. The objects are so different that it is hardly possible to compare the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel with the Church Missionary Society. The Society for the Propaga- tion of the Gospel, with 482 European clergy, spent last year £3,- 782 15s. 4d. on pensions, furloughs, children, passages, and outfits. The Church Mitisionary Society, with 201 European clergy, spent on the same items £30,935 lis. 6d., without reckoning the £16,320 8s. lOd. spent on the Children's Home. The proportionate outlay of the Church Missionary Society on the same scale as the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel would be £2,050, showing a saving of more than £28,000. In such matters the practice of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel is intermediate between that of the Church Missionary Society and the Universities Mission. Doubtless the celibacy of the Roman Catholic missionaries affords an explanation of the small cost at which they are conducted, and probably also of their comparative success. All the great apostolic missionaries — the pioneers of missionary enterprise — were celibates. St. Columba, St. Columbanna, St. Aidan, St. Chad, St. Gall, St. Paulinus, St. lioniface, St. Me^^hodius, and St. Francis Xavier were 2G MISSIONARY flXANCS, celibates. The ^eateat of them all, St. Paul, gives a sufficient rea- sou for his own practice : " He that is namarried careth for the things that belong unto the Lord, how he may please the Lord, but he that is married careth for the things that are of this world, hovr he may please his wife." lo the case of many modern missions there is an additional reason for self-denial in this respect which did not exist in the case of St. Paul. The climate in the surroundings of savage life reader many mission stations, especially in Equatorial Africa, wholly unfit for the residence of young English wives. A modest, pure-minded English girl cannot live unscathed among almost naked savages, with their brutish habits aud habitual indecency of speech and action. Then again the mortality among the wives of missionaries is terrible. Many go oui only to di&. Africa is strewn with the graves of missionaries' wives. In childbirth tliey are far removed from a mother's care or even from medical assistance, and they have to rely oa such aid as can berendored by some clumsy native midwife. it is unjustifiable and selfish cruelty for a missionary to take a young wife to places beyond the last outposts of civilization, with a climate deadly to Europeans, and where children who survive their birth must be reared in presence of the brutal animalism of savages with no sense of decency or shame. It is an unwarrantable degra> dation to bring up youngchildren amid surroundings of indescribable obscenity. It has been well said that an African mission is -a campaign, and soldiers do not take wives with them into battle. Dr. Oust, a mem- ber of the committee of the Church Missionary Society, tells us that after witnessing the sorrowful spectacleof a long succession of young wives passing through the committee room into African graves, ho has vaiuly protested against such unwarrantable aud useless sacrifice of life. Indeed, it r>my almost be said that a man so selfish as to take a woniixn he loves to such a fate is hardly fit to bo accepted as a missionary. It is such men — not the celibates, but the widowers and married men — whohavebeen the cause of recent scandals. And a man who cannot be trusted among repulsive African ntgresses without the safeguard of matrimony cannot be said to l>ave a true missionary calling. For my own part I do not think any very hard and fast line ran be laid down. For pioneer work in savage lands and deadly climates no married missionary should be accepted. But in well- established missions in more healthy regions, such as Polynesia, New Zealand, Madagascar, or Tiuneveely, the case is uiifercut. But it is just from these districts that Europeans should as soon as |)088ible be withdrawn, in order that the Church may become native and n t exotic. In any case misnionaries, like Indian civilians or officers in the army, should not take out wives when they first join. They should wait till they have mastered the language aud learnt their work. After ten years of celibate service a year's furlou>^h might be ^raMtod« Mli5S:0NAKTf FIJfAfTCE, 27 and then if a woman of mature ape were chosen the mortah'ty among missionaries' wives might not be ao great, while the number oi children to be provided for by the parent society might probably no*; be 80 excessive. I; is I think very much to be regretted that societies, such as the Colonial and Continental, the Society for the Conversion of the Jews, and the Church Missionary Society, whose methods and financial management are moat open to criticism, should be mainly support- ed by men who belong to one school of thought, while the societies which represent the opposite pole ot opinion, should be managed on sound principles. It is important that the school of thought repre- sented by the Church Missionary Society should be as well repre- sented in the mission field as it is at home. Therefore I am especially anxious that the Church Missionary Society and the Colonial and Continental should reduce their home expenses in something like a fair proportion to their expenditure abroad, and that they should publish accounts which would inspire greater confidence among their supporters. If this is not done, if they do not speedily set their houses in order, the subscriptions of men of the world and men of business who have no decided party bias, but who simply desire to subscribe to the best managed agencies, will infallibly be transferred to societies which keep unimpeachable accounts, and spend the largest proportion of their income on actual work. The question is whether, in addition to the pressure of opinion, there is any practical way of enforcing such reforms as may be need- ful. The subscribers, for the most part, are unorganized, and have little real power. But we have an instructive analogous case of the way in which reforms may be brought about. Great abuses in hos- pital management were remedied by the institution of the Hospital Sunday Fund, which was distributed among the London hospitals by an impartial committee in strict proportion to the effectfve work which each hospital was doing, any hospital not managed on busi- ness principles, or not keeping proper accounts, being excluded from all participation. The judicious distribution of the Education Grant among voluntary schools has in like manner been productive of enormous improvement. Following the same principle, I should advocate the institution of diocesan missionary funds, which should, as far as possible, relieve the societies from the costly work of getting in their subscriptions, and a^so promote annual collections in all churches on stated days. If this could be done through the ruri-decanal organization it would render needless much of the costly machinery of the local secretari- ato. on which the two great church aocieties spend yearly about £20- (00, which would then be set free for effective work, instead of be- ing squandered in the collection of funds. IJut this would not be the chief advantage, since the apportionment of the church collections by a diocesan connnitteo would supply a strong motive for sound fmfincial management. Every society which did not account for the whole of its roceii)t8, whose accounts were not properly audited, or 28 MISSIONARY FINANCE. which spent money in the payment of converts should be excluded from participation till such defects were remedied. The grants should be divided in proportion to the effective expenditure of each society in the mission field, office expenses, and perhaps also the pension list and the provision for wives and children, being deduct- ed. Thus the Church Missionary Society, which spends nearly ^70,000, at home, and fails to include in its balance sheet some ^60- 000 received abroad, would obtain less in proportion than the Uni> yersities Missions, which accounts for every penny it receives and has a very small home expenditure. Thus, as in the case of the hospitals, there would be a strong motive for reform in all those matters which call for amendment. If such diocesan missionary funds were established in every dio- cese it might ultimately become possible to affiliate the English dio- ceses to definite fields of missionary labour, in the same way that wealthy West End parishes have been a^liated to poor parishes in the East of London. A good beginning has been made by the Cam- bridge Mission to Delhi, and the Oxford Mission to Calcutta, and the Mission of the United Universities to Zanzibar. The affiliated dioceses should not only supply 1 he money, but should endeavour to find the men, and the men who had been sent out by any diocese should, on their return, be considered not to have forfeited theis claim to promotion in that diocese. There would thus be more special knowledge, while greater sympathy and interest would be excited at home. It might thus be possible also to extend what has been called the comity of missions. There is abundant work fcr every agency, and the work would be better done if there were less rivalry among the societies, and if each of them had a clear and defined field of labour. Fiji might be left to the Wesleyans, Madagascar and Tahiti to the London Missionary Society, and some West Indian Islands to the Baptists ; while certain districts m Southern India, where Xavier established a clear claim as the pioneer of missionary work, might well be left to the Church of Rome. The period at which the world will be converted is apparently so remote that there is ample work for all, without exhibiting to the heathen the unedifying spectacle of jealous rivalry between com- peting missionary agencies. Isaac Tatlob. I A V^ THE REV. CANON ISAAC TAYLOR Has created quite a sensation in England and on this Continent by his speech at the Church Congress recently held in Wolverhampton (Eng.) upon the above subject. The Canon said the faith of Islam was spreading across Africa with giant strides, and it retained a permanent hold on its converts. He said that over a large portion of the world Islamism, as a missionary religion, is more successful than Christianity. (Sensation.) Not only are the Moslem con- verts from Paganism more numerous than the Christian converts, but Christianity, in some regions, is actually receding before Islam; while attempts to proselytize Mohammedan nations are notorious] j nnsncessf ul. We not only do not gain ground, but even fail to hold our own. The faith of Islam already extends from Morocco t'> Java, from Zanzibar to China. It has acquired a footing on the Congo and the Zambesi. Uganda, the most powerful of the negro States, has just become Mohammedan. In India, Western civiliza- tion, which is sapping Hindooism, only prepares the way for Islam. Of the 255 millions in India 50 millions are already Moslems, and of the whole population of Africa more than half. It is not the first propagation of Islam that has to be explained ; but it is the per- manency with which it retains its hold upon its converts. Chris- tianity is less tenacious in its grasp. An African tribe onco con- verted to Islam, never reverts to Paganism, and never embraces- Christianity. Though quite unfitted for the higher races, it is ad- mitted to be eminently a civilizing and elevating religion for bar- barous tribes. Christianity is too spiritual, too lofty. Islam has done for civilization more than Christianity. (" Oh, oh.") Take e.g., the statements of English officials or of lay travellers as to the praotioal results of Islam. When Mohammedanism is embraced by a- 80 CHRISTIANITY AND MOHAMMEDANISM. ne^ro tribe Pa^aDisni> devil- worship, fetlBhism, cannibalism, human 8acritice,iQfancticide, witchcraft at once disappear. The natives begin to drcss^ filth is replaced by cleanliness, and they acquire personal di«iuity and self-respect. Hospitality becomes a religious duty, drunkenuess becomes rare, gambling is forbidden, immodest dances and the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes cease, female chastity is regarded as a virtue, industry replaces idleness, license gives place to law, order and sobriety prevail ; blood feuds, cruelty to animals and to slaves are forbidden. A feeling of humanity, bene' volence, and brotherhood is inculcated. Polygamy and slavery are regulated and their evils are restrained. Islam, above all, is the most powerful total abstinence association in the world ; whcre*^ as the extension of European trade means the extension of drunk- enuess and vice and the degredation of the people ; while Islam introduces a civilization of no low order, including a knowledge of reading and writing, decent clothing, personal cleanliness, veracity, and self-respect. Its restraining and civilizing effects are marvel- lous. How little have we to show for the vast sums of money and all the precious lives lavished upon Africa t Christian converts are reckoned by thousands — Moslem converts by millions. These are the stern facts we have to face. They are extremely unpleasant facts ; it is folly to ignore them. We ought to begin by recognizing the fact that Islam is not an anti-Christian faith, but a half-Chris- tian faith— an imperfect Christianity. ("Oh") Islam was a replica of the faith of Abraham and Moses, with Christian elements. Judaism was exclusive. Islam is cosmopolitan — not, like Judaism, confined to one race, but extended to the whole world, Moslems acknowledge four great teachers— Abraham, the friend of God ; Moses, the prophet of God ; the Lord Jesus, the vork of God ; and Mohammed, the apostle of God. In the creed of Islam the Lord Jesus stands the highest of the four. Though the teaching of Mo- hammed falls grievously short of the teaching of St. Paul, there ia nothing in it antagonistic to Christirnity. It is midway between Judaism and Christianity. It is better than Judaism, inasmuch as it recognizes the miracles and the Messiahship of Jesus Christ. This reformed Judaism swept so swiftly over Africa and Asia because the African and Syrian doctors had substituted abstruse metaphy- sical dogmas for the religiou of Christ. They tried to combat licentiousness by celibacy and virginity. Seclusion from the world was the road to holiness, and dirt was the cliaracteristic of monkish sanctity. The people were practically Polytheists, worshipping a crowd of martyrs, saints and angels. Islam swept away this mass of corruption and superstition. It was a revolt agaiust empty theological polemics ; it was a masculine protest against the exal- tion of celibacy as the crown of piety. It brought out the funda- mental dogma of religion — the unity and greatness of God. It replaced monkishness by manliness. It gave hope to the slave, brotherhood to mankind, and recognition to the fundamental facta of human nature. Ihe higher Christian virtues — humility, purity S2- CHRISTIAK.TY AND MOHAMMEDANISM, 81 \ of beart, forgiveness oi injuries, Bacrifice of self — these are not the virtues of Islam. The Christian ideal is unintelligible to savages ; but the lower virtues which Islam inculcates are what the lower races can be brought to understand — tempeirance, clean- liness, chastity, justice, fortitude, courage, benevolence, hospitality, veracity and resignation. They can be taught to cultivate the four cardinal virtues and to abjnre the seven deadly sins. The Chris- tian ideal of the brotherhood of man is the highest ; but Islam preaches a practical brotherhood— the social equality of all Mos- lems. This is the great bribe which Islam offers. The convert is admitted at once to an exclusive social caste; he becomes a member of a vast confraternity of 150,000,000, A Christian convert is nob regarded as a scK;ial equal ; but the Moslem brotherhood is a reality. We have over-much "dearly-beloved brethren" in the reading desk, but over-little in daily life. ( Laughter.) True, the Koran offered a material paradise ; but the social privileges attained in this world are a more potent motive. The Jews, of all races, the most susceptible to lofty religious ideas, needed nevertheless a training of 2,000 years before they were fitted for the higher teach- ing of Christ. Can we expect the negro, with a low moral and cerebral development, with centuries of fetishism and savagery be- hind bim, to receive at once that lofty Christian morality for which even the prophets and heroes of Hebrew history were not prepared 7 The teaching of Islam i» not too spiritual or too exalted, but it i9 the school which may educate the African into fitness for a higher faith. The Church of England has not been able to make any per- manent impression on the African. Islam with its material para- dise, or the Salvation Army with its kettledrums— (laughter) — or the Church of Rome with its black Madonnas, may be able to des- cend to the level of the negro ; but the Church of England with its Thirty-nine Articles will not be the Church of Equatorial Africa for many generations. The two great practical difficulties in the way of the conversion of Africa are polygamy and domestic slavery. Mohammed, like Moses, did not prohibit them — that would have been impossible ; but he endeavored to mitigate their evils. Slavery is no part of the creed of Islam. It was tolerated as a necessary evil by Mohammed, as it was by Moses and St. Paul. In the han'^s of the Moslem it is a very mild institution, far milder than negro slavery in the United States. Polygamy is a more difficult question. Moses did not prohibit it. It was practised by David, and is not directly forbidden in the New Testament, though contrary to its spirit. Mohammed limited the unbouud'd license of po]y»,'aray ; it is the rule rather thau the excep- tion in tlie most civilized Moslem lands, European Turkey, Aliiiiers and Egypt. The more intelh'gent Moslems are of opinion that the time is coming for its restraint or abolition, as nnsuited to the times. I'he Bishop of Tiahore, among others, has made a conrage- oua protest for the a