24,000

4 000

1,000

Europe:

Austria-Hungary

Belgium.

1,750,000

4,000

Bulgaria.

Denmark...

France..

60,000

Portugal.

Roumania.

400,000

141,000,000 205,000,000

The Mohammedan Mission Field.

THE Mohammedans number 180,000,000 in Asia and Africa, and constitute one of the great influential factors in the future religious history of the race. The Gospel is to be given to them. All the Christian Churches which have any missionary zeal admit this. Thus far they are almost unaffected by the great missionary movements of the nineteenth century.

They believe in one God, and in the divine origin of the Old and New Testaments, but regard the Scriptures as corrupted, deny the divinity of Christ, ignore the spirituality of religion, and look upon Christians as their hereditary enemies. Having seen only the oriental type of Christianity, they despise its immorality and idolatry and protest against the creature-worship and image-worship of both the Greek and Latin Churches. Images, pictures, and saints are the abomination of the Mohammedan world.

The pagans of the second century objected to Christianity that it had neither altars nor images; the Moslem of the nineteenth century objects to Christianity that it has only images and altars.

The Christian missionary to-day urges a Mohammedan to accept Christianity. He is met with the derisive reply, "Thank God, we are not idol-worshipers as are you Christians, and, God willing, we never will be. We have lived among Christians twelve hundred years, and we want none of your creature-worship. There is no God but God." The missionary may protest and explain, but until he can show the Moslem a pure Christianity in life and doctrine, and illustrate by living examples the Bible ideal of a Christian Church, his appeals and arguments will be in vain. This state of things confronted all Christian missionaries in oriental lands fifty years ago, and it confronts them to-day.-H. H. Jessup, D.D.

WE have introduced into this magazine the "Young People's Department," which we expect to fill with mission stories and narratives, poetry, dialogues, and exercises, suitable for recitation and use in missionary anniversaries and other missionary meetings.

Dr. Butler's new book, Mexico in Transition, is meeting with general favor and well deserves the highest commendation. It should be introduced as rapidly as possible into all our Sunday schools. All our pastors need the information it gives, and after reading it, if they will commend it to their people, a large circulation can be obtained for it among the laymen. It is published at two dollars by Hunt & Eaton and Cranston & Curts.

It is greatly to be hoped that the British government will see its way clear to retain its protectorate over Uganda in Africa, and keep a sufficient armed force there to preserve peace. Bishop Tucker and the other English missionaries in Uganda unite in expressing the conviction that the withdrawal of British protection will be followed by a general war and the inevitable massacre of Christians.

The Decennial Conference of Protestant missionaries in India assembles in Bombay, December 29, and continues in session one week. Among the announced speakers we note the following from the Methodist Episcopal Church: Bishop Thoburn, Dr. E. W. Parker, Dr. T. S. Johnson, Rev. J. E. Robinson, Miss Thoburn, Dr. J. E. Scott, Rev. F. W. Warne, Dr. Dennis Osborne, Rev. A. W. Prautch.

Bishop Joyce returned to the United States last month after a six months' stay in Europe, holding the Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, and Italy Conferences. He reports that at all the Conferences held, and at many of the church services, there were revivals, with over five hundred persons as seekers, and over half the number professing conversion. It is probable he will visit the same fields the present year.

We noticed last month that the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society had anthorized Bishops Andrews, Hurst, and Foss, and the corresponding secretaries, to select a colored man to act as a field agent among the colored churches. The committee have appointed as the agent the Rev. Dr. J. W. E. Bowen, of Washington city. He is an alumnus of Boston University, and will doubtless prove a valuable aid to our work among the colored people.

The Methodist ladies of Aomori, Japan, to help in paying a debt which rests upon their church, worked industriously in making bookmarks of silk and crape. Mrs. Swartz, of the Japan Mission, brought these with her to America, and is selling them for the ladies at ten cents each. Each book

mark is neatly wrapped in the kind of paper that the Japanese use for window panes, making pretty holiday gifts which "actually came from Japan.” They will be sent by mail upon receipt of ten cents each, with one cent each to cover postage. Address Mrs. H. W. Swartz, 1106 Adams Street, Syracuse, N. Y.

We sometimes overlook a very convincing evidence of the inspiration of the Bible. Dr. Parker, of London, writes: "To me the Bible is inspired because it is inspiring. I cannot read it and be indolent. Nor can I read it and be indifferent to the claims of poverty and suffering. All its commandments are outgoing, such as cast, give, sow, heal, go, forgive-wonderful words when carried out in all their meaning; wonderful because the whole book is wonderful. Yes, I see difficulties, and hard questions, and vexing problems about every theory of inspiration. But my concern is with the book itself, and to my very heart it is the voice and the message of God."

There are more men and women ready to go out as missionaries to the heathen than money offered for their support. Dr. J. J. Lafferty, of Richmond, says: "If the Methodists would take a tenth of their income only, not property (and the tenth is far below the standard of apostolic Christianity), and challenge the ministry to move upon the heathen, there would be a march of missionaries undreamed of." Dr. A. J. Gordon, of Boston, writes: "The wealth of Protestant Christians has increased so enormously during the century that the evangelical Christians of the United States are credited with possessing thirteen billions of dollars. But do they possess this wealth, or are they possessed by it? is the question which must be raised when I tell you that these same Christians contribute annually only twenty-five cents per capita for foreign missions, and that this contribution is computed to be but one thirty-second part of one per cent of their wealth."

It has been said of Brazil that all religions are made free before the law, but one of our missionaries, Rev. Justus H. Nelson, Presiding Elder of the Brazil District, is now in prison, and will remain there until next March, because he published in the Brazilian Christian Advocate his opinion that the worship given to Mary by many of the Brazilian Roman Catholics was idolatry. He was condemned on the ground of having committed an "outrage against the Catholic apostolic religion." The Brazilian penal code makes it a crime to "outrage any religious confession, by blackguarding any act or object of its worship, or by disrespecting or profaning publicly any of its symbols," the penalty being, "imprisonment from one to six months." It is seen that the Roman Catholics are still dominating the Republic.

We should be glad to see some of the ablest of our ministers at home going out to the mission fields as missionaries. Such men are greatly needed there. It has been well said that " No service of Christ calls for greater consecration or skill in understanding or tact in influencing men than this of introducing the Gospel to those ignorant of it and prejudiced against any religion besides that which they have inherited, and in which they are rooted. No service requires broader sympathy with men, and keener appreciation of the fitness of the Gospel in its simplicity for all classes and conditions of men. missionary who is provincial in his training, who burdens the Gospel he carries to the heathen with insistence on nonessentials and the adoption of the customs with which he has been familiar, will prove to be worse than a failure."

The

Bishop Joyce relates the following incident, the facts of which he ascertained on his recent visit to Denmark: "Mary Nielsen, a servant girl, born in Nakskov, on the island of Lolland, went to America a few years ago, and became a servant girl in an American family. Last year she sent our superintendent of the Denmark Mission a draft for one hundred and seventy-five dollars, and asked him to send to her native town of Nakskov a Methodist minister, to preach to the people there the Gospel of that Christ who had done so much for her. And I am glad to record that I had the pleasure of sending a Methodist preacher there, whose work through all the year is made possible by the consecration and self-denial of this Danish servant girl toiling in a distant American home, carefully saving her hardearned dollars that the people of her native land might learn that Christ is a personal and a present Saviour of the soul."

There are many signs in China showing that Western ideas and ways are rooting themselves among the people. The Monthly Messenger, of the Presbyterian Church of England, says: "The boys of Chungking, a free port far up the Yang-tse- Kiang, in one of the western provinces of China, are now having an English education brought within their reach. The new viceroy of the province, Li, is a man of liberal mind, and he has issued an elaborate proclamation, announcing the opening of a school for the study of English and mathematics. The special object is stated to be to select and train bright Chinese lads who may hereafter be of special service to their country in her foreign relations. Hardly was the proclamation issued before seventy or eighty names were handed in. A building has been rented, and two native gentleman in connection with the telegraph office have been engaged as teachers. That this beginning is intended to develop into a college for the study of foreign sciences is considered certain, and it is hoped that Li's progressive ideas will favorably affect the sentiment toward foreigners in this interior port."

41

India and Malaysia is the title of a new book. The words themselves are familiar to members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for they speak of our most successful missions and of him who since 1888 has been known, honored, and beloved as "Bishop of India and Malaysia." It is fitting that Bishop Thoburn, after a missionary experience in India of thirtythree years, should give us this royal octavo work of five hundred and sixty-two pages, containing much of information respecting the government and people of these countries, and also a history of our own missions there. The book is written in the clear and easy style of the bishop. It has been needed, and will serve to deepen our interest in the grand and heroic work being done by our missionaries under the superintendency of Bishop Thoburn. We are glad to see that the publishers, anticipating large sales, have made the price only two dollars for a book which generally would cost from three to four dollars. It is well illustrated, and is published by Cranston & Curts and by Hunt & Eaton. It should have a place in every Methodist family.

There was in New York city a number of years ago a man who, after he had passed middle life and had become a millionaire, was hopefully converted and confessed Christ in the regular way. No one doubted the fact of the change. The man had had faithful instruction when a boy, but had become so complete a worldling that for years he had never entered a church or opened a Bible. By the blessing of God upon the preaching of a minister to whom he took a fancy, he recalled the truths taught him in early years, exercised faith and repentance, became a regular and devout attendant upon ordinances, and showed every outward sign of a renewed nature. But there was one exception. His purse, as the saying is, was not converted. He gave when offerings were called for, but it was in driblets, less even than was given by those who had not a hundredth part of his means. And this continued till his death. He was open to conviction on other matters, but not on this. Argument, appeal, and entreaty were all and always in vain. And when he died the Lord was not remembered in the disposal of his millions. The estate went to the heirs without a single charitablo bequest. Why was this? How are we to account for such a marked exception to an otherwise excellent life? We suppose the fact to be that the man had never been trained to give, never learned by experience the pleasure of giving. His only thought for years upon years had been accumulation, and so his nature became incurably warped. If so, what intense interest and importance does the fact give to all endeavors to train the young to the exercise of constant and cheerful giving to the Lord's cause ? In the plastic years of childhood a bent may be given to character which will never alter. The young may be taught to know the joy of being helpful to the needy.

42

Proportionate and Worshipful Giving.

THE Christian Steward furnishes the following excellent explanation of the best giving:

There may be system, without proportion, in your gifts. You might give a cent a week, or a cent a month, to the Lord's work, and give it regularlythat would be systematic, but it would probably fall far short of what you ought to give. Proportionate giving means giving in proportion to our income. A wage-earner who receives a dollar or two dollars a day ought not to give as much as the man who has a yearly income of one thousand dollars. And the latter cannot be expected to give as much as the man with an income of ten thousand dollars a year.

I know a church member who years ago, when he was comparatively poor, was in the habit of giving five dollars annually to Foreign Missions, and five more to Home Missions. He prospered in business and became rich, but he never increased the above Had he been a proportionate giver he would have increased these subscriptions to keep pace with the increase of his wealth. This is what he ought to have done. Of him to whom much is given much is required.

sums.

This is what is meant by proportionate giving. To make it still plainer, suppose you have an income of tive hundred dollars a year. A certain proportion, or percentage, of this amount (say ten per centthat was the Old Testament rule, and a Christian can hardly do less than the ancient Jew) you put aside for Church and benevolent work. Then your proportion would be fifty dollars, which amount you would give away during the year to such objects as your conscience would approve. Or, if your pay comes by the day, or at the end of the week, or monthly, take one tenth of it or the proportion fixed upon, and lay it aside in some safe place, to be used for the Lord's work.

Then you always have a Benevolent Fund on hand, from which you can draw, as occasion requires, or - conscience and love prompt. Giving becomes thus a sacred pleasure instead of a disagreeable duty. Of -course, if you keep a set of account books, the same -end will be secured by crediting "Benevolent Fund" with the different amounts from time to time, and charging it with whatever you give away for benev olent objects.

Those who have never tried this plan have no idea what a delight and a blessing it proves to be. This is the testimony of hundreds of proportionate givers. But more and better than this, it is scriptural! "Let everyone of you lay by him in store AS God hath prospered him."

By worshipful giving, we mean a giving in the which God is worshiped. We should make our offering on the Lord's day in the same spirit with which we praise him in song, or bow before him in prayer. The angel said to Cornelius: "Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God."

Not the prayers alone, but his prayers and his alms, or gifts. The two acts of worship went together. The trouble with many professing Christians of to-day is. that, although they can pray devoutly enough, they seem to think that worship has taken a recess when the time for the collection comes.

Very few regard the offering as, equally with prayer or praise, an act of worship. Yet such it is. It is so represented throughout Scripture. The high priest offered gifts as well as sacrifices to the Lord. A part of the worship ordained of God for the people was that "they shall not appear before the Lord empty: every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord thy God." Similar to this is the New Testament injunction: "Upon the first day of the week let everyone of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him."

Each passage teaches proportionate giving-that is, giving in accordance with one's ability, as God hath prospered him. They teach with equal clearness worshipful giving-giving as a part of the wor ship of God: "Appearing before the Lord"-that is, for his worship-" upon the first day of the week" -that is, upon the Lord's day, the day especially set apart for his worship.

The collection, or, as it may better be called, the offering, is as much a part of the worship of the Lord in the service of his day and house as the reading of the Scriptures or the singing of hymns. "Honoring the Lord with our substance and with the first fruits of all our increase" is of as much importance as honoring him with our words, and often a much surer test of our sincerity.

The psalmist says: "Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name "-this we do in our ascriptions of praise through song and prayer. But the psalmist does not stop there. "Bring an offering," he adds, "and come into his courts" (Psalm 96. 8). Thousands of our churches, and tens of thousands of our members leave "the offering" out. Only their prayers come up for a memorial before God. Seriously, do you think Cornelius's prayers would have reached up to heaven had they not been accompanied by his alms?

The devout Jew offered acceptable worship by the bringing of his gifts to the altar of God, and if the proper and honorable maintenance of the priesthood and the ordinance of tabernacle and temple worship had need of those offerings, how almost infinitely more does the world-wide work, laid upon the Church of Christ, have need of devoted, generous gifts from Christian worshipers. Surely we have here the mind of Christ.

Come, brethren, let us go to church determined to omit no part of the service; let us sing and pray with the spirit and with the understanding; let us also bring an offering, each one "as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord our God." That is worshipful giving.

IN the North India Conference there are forty-two native pastors who draw all their support entirely from the people.

The King of Korea has presented to our hospital in Seoul a signboard containing the name given to it by him, which being translated is, "Widespread Relief Hospital."

The new Methodist Episcopal church at Quetta, Afghanistan, organized about a year ago by Rev. W. H. Daniels, was dedicated by Rev. G. I. Stone on September 25.

Bishop Joyce writes: "The Protestant cause is growing in Italy; the Roman Catholic Church is having less and less influence upon the people, especially thinking people. The pope has less influence in Italy than he has in some parts of America."

The Star of India reports that there have been about fourteen hundred baptisms in the Oude District of the North India Conference for the twelve months ending October 1, 1892. This is an increase of twenty-five per cent over the baptisms of last

year.

The Indian Witness for November 12, 1892, reports that the aggregate additions to the Christian community connected with the Methodist Episcopal missions within the bounds of the old North India Conference for the year ending October 31, 1892, amounted to fourteen thousand four hundred and ten persons, children and adults.

The Lucknow Christian College was opened with imposing ceremony on October 31, 1892, by the lieutenant governor. Addresses were made by Rev. Dr. T. J. Scott, the principal, Rev. W. A. Mansell, and the lieutenant governor. The building is de scribed as a "splendid structure, large, and well ventilated, and admirably adapted for the purpose for which it is intended. It is a square, two-story structure, flat-roofed, and surmounted by an ornamental parapet, with an airy and beautiful tower at the front right-hand corner. The building is almost entirely surrounded by a two-story veranda. The main hall will seat seven hundred persons."

The Rev. W. A. Mansell has infused new life into the vernacular Sunday school work of the Methodist Episcopal Mission, Lucknow, by bringing together all the vernacular schools, Christian or non-Christian, for the quarterly review. The Hindu and Mohammedan Sunday school boys were particularly pleased with the arrangement and took much pride in reciting topics and golden texts for the quarter along with the Christians. The influence of such association is beyond description. Were there no home influences opposing it, the hundreds and thousands of nonChristian Sunday school children would grow up Christians in creed just as do the children of Chris

tians. As it is, the strongest religious and theological influence they receive is from Christianity. The inevitable result is not difficult to foresee.-Indian Witness.

Notes from the Norway Conference. REV. J. Thorkildsen writes from Bergen, Norway, November 17:

"At our last Conference session Bishop Joyce presided, and we had a very good and spiritual Conference. The bishop spent four Sundays in our country and preached in several places, to the great benefit of his hearers.

"Formerly we had but three districts in the Norway Conference, but our work was this year divided into five districts. Two of the presiding elders are also pastors, one in Tromso, and the other in Trondhjem. One presiding elder is principal of our theological school, and only two are presiding elders exclusively, namely, those on the Bergen and Christiania Districts.

"The Bergen District, of which I am the presiding elder, reaches from Kragero to Voss, a distance of six hundred and thirty miles, and contains nearly all the towns and several country places situated along the coast from Kragero to Bergen. It has 17 preaching places, 12 stationed preachers, 11 churches, 127 probationers, and 1,122 members.

"We have only one society numbering over 300 members, one over 200, and three over 100. The most are very small. The largest, Arendal, pays its pastor without aid from the Missionary Society, but the others can pay but little, as both our members and adherents are poor.

"On my last visit to the district we had some revivals at our meetings, and we look forward to having a general revival throughout the whole country."

Giving the Bread of Life in Japan.

BY REV. J. W. WADMAN.

THERE is a city called Noshiro, which lies between two of my appointments, and in which I am obliged to rest a night when I make a tour of my district. I have long had evangelistic designs on this place, and although a hotbed of Shintoism, and although my helpers have discouraged me from making any attempt upon the place single-handed and alone (there was no Christian in the place or within forty miles of it), I felt that the power of God was equal to the work to be done, and hence earnestly prayed that a way might soon be opened for me to preach the Gospel to that dark and idol-worshiping city. When passing through the place last spring, on my way to the churches beyond, I chanced to stroll out in the after