and ignorant, for centuries the serfs of the rich landlords, yet a spirit of inquiry has taken hold of them in many places and they are turning in large numbers from the worship of idols and demons to the worship of the Lord Jesus. They have been ignored religiously for centuries by Hindus and Mohammedans, their very touch regarded as defiling by both. Now that they are turning to our Lord, they have been subjected in many places to fiery trials, and again and again they have shown that they are ready to suffer rather than give up their new-found Saviour, although there have not been wanting cases of apostasy when exposed to sharp persecution. In one place they were refused the privilege of digging a well unless they renounced their faith in Christ. In another village the head men had dead animals thrown before the houses of the few Christians, the sickening odors making it almost impossible for them to stay in their houses. Our preachers laboring among them have been subjected to much persecution and many indignities. In one town the people banded together to drive the preacher away by refusing to let him draw water from the public well. He was forced, when the man he had hired to bring him water was ill, to go himself from house to house begging a little water for his wife and children. Thus, and in many other ways, has the adversary stirred up opposition to this work, and the end has not come. We may expect much more of bitter persecution as the converts increase in number. UNDERMINING THE CASTE SYSTEM. The conversion of these lower castes means the pulling out of the under stones on which caste rests. This will not be permitted without a struggle on the part of the higher castes. Already in some places they are taking alarm, seeing that this movement means the bringing them down in time. They are beginning to inquire with some anxiety who will do certain kinds of work when the Chuhras and Mihtars become Christians, work now done by these lowly people, but which it is impossible for a high caste to do without religious defilement. Another cause of thanksgiving is the increase in the contributions by our churches, and a growing desire and effort on the part of some of them to be self-supporting. The contributions of the thirteen churches of the Lodiana Mission amounted, in 1890, to the sum of Rupees 2604; in 1891, to. Rupees 2515; in 1892, to Rupees 1816; in 1893, to Rupees 4918; in 1894, to Rupees 5358; in 1895, to Rupees 5738. A system of grantin-aid to the presbyteries, based on the amount of the contributions of the churches, has been adopted by the mission, and this promises to develop the liberality of the churches. It ought to be borne in mind, however, that the large increase in communicants, from five hundred and eighty-five in 1890, to two thousand one hundred and fifteen in 1895, does not mean an increase in financial strength, as such an increase in membership would indicate in America. Probably three-fourths of the converts added to the churches during the past few years have not an average income of two dollars a month, and their household effects would bring only a few dollars per house, and so what most of them give must be out of abounding poverty. One of our pastors at a recent gathering of Christians, at which some of these converts were present, urged them to set apart as the Lord's portion a little of their daily food before it is cooked, and told them that this was his custom. We must look more and more to the Holy Spirit to suggest methods for the lifting up of these poor people, methods adapted to the condition of the people. It will not do to adopt methods simply because they have been successful in other countries, where the conditions of life are entirely different, where there is no caste system, and a small percentage at least of the converts are able to read. Of the village converts in North India during the past five years not one in a hundred has been able to read when baptized. We cannot ordain elders of such converts, and commit to them the building up of others in spiritual knowledge and life. Hence, our great need to-day is men to live among these converts, teach them to read the Bible and observe all things commanded by our Lord, as well as to preach the gospel to the many ready to receive it and to make an open confession of our Lord as their Saviour. For the gift of such men from the Lord of the harvest join us in constant prayer. COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES. THE WEST BEHIND THE EAST. WILL THE EAST STAND BEHIND THE WEST? HOWARD AGNEW JOHNSTON, D.D., Pastor of Forty-first Street Presbyterian Church, Chicago. A SIGNIFICANT ITEM IN GEOGRAPHY. No argument is necessary to convince the Presbyterians of our eastern States that the church must be keenly alive to the necessity and blessings of higher Christian education. The simple statement, however, of the Treasurer of the Presbyterian Board of Aid for Colleges and Academies, makes it evident. that eastern Presbyterians are far behind their theory in their devotion to this great cause. Some significant facts explain this failure. One-half of the constituency of our denomination is east of the longitude of Pittsburgh, while seven-eighths of the whole. number are east of the Mississippi river. All will agree that higher Christian education largely explains the successful work of the Church of Christ in the eastern section of the land. But the very blessings thus enjoyed render it well nigh impossible for the dwellers in the east to appreciate the necessity of planting Christian colleges and academies in the new and plastic sections of the west, which are greatly destitute of these same blessings. Every eulogy upon Christian Education in the east is an argument for Christian education in the west. HOW DOES THE STATE UNIVERSITY AFFECT THE PROBLEM? When statements like the above are made to eastern Presbyterians, they frequently ask: "Is it ot true that the new States have their fine State universities with opportunities such as the older States never enjoyed in the days of their beginnings?" The question touches the very heart of the problem. A vital need of the church today is a clear understanding of the conditions that influence education in the newer sections of the land. The most serious feature in the problem of higher Christian edu cation is the fact that these great State universites are not established for the distinctive purpose of such education. It is imperative that the Christians of this land see clearly that we must have something besides the State university in the west, as well as in the east, if we are to make anything like the same conquest for Christ. We gladly concede to the State universities that praise which they deserve for their superior work in many lines of instruction; but the fact remains that they do not emphasize, and could not be expected to emphasize, the positive phases of the Christian faith. They must be free from any denominational bias, in order to maintain that untrammeled religious liberty for which our constitution stands. Instructors may be Christians and may WHAT IS THE TRUE AIM OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION? We count it a fundamental postulate that our youth must be carefully trained, first of all, in that body of truth which builds up the soul, into an intelligent Christian faith and life. As we would not be willing to have them trained in mathematics or in the classics by any indirect method, no more can we be satisfied at the thought of anything short of making the supreme thing in their life the supreme thing in their training for life. Do we not touch the root of our failure just here? Are we truly making the training of the soul the supreme thing in the lives of our youth? Are we laying to heart with sufficient seriousness the truth that however splendid the achievements which our youth may realize from their training in the schools, unless they are trained in building a Christian character, the word "failure" must be written across the record of their lives? Unless we follow up the logic of this conviction, we shall lose this land for Christ. AN ILLUSTRATION FROM MR. SPENCER. The truth just stated is vital to our appreciation of the duty which challenges our allegiance. Herbert Spencer, in his Data of Ethics, illustrates the way that we pronounce anything a success or a failure according as it accomplishes that which its form of construction shows it was intended to accomplish. A knife is intended to cut, and whatever else it may do, however ornamental it may be, unless it will cut, it is a failure as a knife. An umbrella is intended to keep off the rain, and though it may serve fairly well as a cane, unless it will keep off the rain, it is a failure as an umbrella. Who will hesitate to say that the study of man's nature and constitution makes it plain that God intended man to grow into a life that is conformed to Jesus Christ? But must we not then say that whatever else a man may become, however well he may serve for a tailor's model, whatever fortune he may amass in the treasures of this world, no matter how brilliant he may become in intellectual attainments, unless he shall develop those qualities which mark the spiritual life of his immortal soul, he has perverted his highest endowments to inferior and baser ends than his God intended; he is a failure as an immortal soul. Christian character must be the chief end in all our education of our youth. A QUOTATION FROM MR. BRYCE. But this is not all. The State university cannot meet the demands for an educational equipment in the newer States. Moreover, no State can afford to have it do so. Through all the east it is well known how a college or an academy makes a precious atmosphere in the community for miles. around. The west must also have it, by multiplying institutions that come close to of the homes of the people. Mr. Bryce says our small colleges: "They get hold of a multitude of people who might not resort to distant places of education. They light up many a community with what is at first only a farthing rush-light, but which, when the town swells to a city, or when endowment begins to pour in, becomes a lamp of glowing flame, which may finally throw its rays over a whole State or nation." They are striking words and true. A CHALLENGE ΤΟ THE STEWARDS OF CHRIST. Could our eastern friends but visit a few of these institutions and see what self-sacrificing work is done and what splendid results are accomplished in them, there can be no doubt that many generous hearts would be touched and many purses would be opened with responsive and helpful sympathy. What more blessed service could a consecrated steward of the Lord give than to carefully look into these institutions, and select one which commends itself to him, with a view to nurturing it into strength? The claim of Christ upon his people, to whom he has given wealth, is certainly very strongly voiced in the needs of many of these western institutions. To respond to that claim would be to achieve a work which immediately bears precious fruit, and plants the living seed of increasing fruitfulness for all time to come. ADVANTAGES SECURED THROUGH THE BOARD OF AID. Many advantages are secured to such givers by giving through the Board. All gifts are forever secured to the Presbyterian Church by mortgages to the Board. The donor thus allies with himself the prestige and the coöperation of the whole church by recognizing her agent in the field. All colleges and academies receiving aid through the Board, pledge themselves to teach the word of God as a text-book, thus insuring direct training in Bible study during the most important of the student-years of the youth. The officers of the Board, with their familiarity touching the institutions, are prepared to give valuable information to all who may desire it. It is well to take advice of a landscape gardener, where to plant a tree.-ED. MINISTERIAL RELIEF. MISSIONS AND MINISTERIAL RELIEF. These two forms of Church work, Missions and Ministerial Relief, are at opposite poles. One of them leads on the vanguard of the Lord's army into the very thick of the fight. Its look is forward to the ever-widening fields of conquest. "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." The other, looking back over the past, is tenderly caring for the disabled and wornout veterans, whose days of activity in the service of the Church are gone. Yet after all, there is a bond between them which is not always kept in view. THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. In the last number of this magazine we noted the significance of the fact that in the General Assembly of 1849, it was an Elder who made the historic motion, upon which the Church actually started Ministerial Relief into operation. This Elder was the venerable and beloved Walter Lowrie, a commissioner to that Assembly from the Presbytery of New York. But the name of Walter Lowrie had been for years recorded in the Minutes of successive Assemblies as that of the Corresponding Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, which position he held from the organization of that Board in 1837 until the year before his death in 1869. At this same General Assembly of 1849, he was in fact present as Secretary, and had already presented his Annual Report on behalf of the Foreign Mission Board, before thus taking part in the discussion concerning the support of disabled ministers, which, says one who was a member of that Assembly,* "was carried on exclusively by the Elders." His act in making the motion from which have resulted all the blessed activities of organized relief for the worn-out servants of the Church was closely connected with his *Rev. Dr. J. H. Mason Knox in his address before the General Assembly of 1894. See the August number of THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, p. 141. position, not only as an elder but also as the Secretary of Missions. His experience as the official leader of the Church in its Foreign Mission enterprise would naturally have taught him the urgent importance of establishing on a sure foundation this work of Ministerial Relief, even for the Missionary cause itself to say nothing of its inestimable benefit to the worn out pastors of home churches. His own Board was charged with the prosecution of an intensely aggressive campaign. The permanently disabled missionaries, no longer available for active service, had nevertheless fully earned by their faithful service in the past the right to be cared for. They could not possibly be cast off, in time of old age. Yet to assume the care of them would not only introduce an embarrassing element into the operations of the Mission Board, but would cripple its energies not a little, by withdrawing from its treasury the sum needed for their support. The contributors to that treasury did not make their gifts to it for any such purpose. They had in mind the one thought of persistent advance in the name of the Master upon the kingdoms of the world. The whole organization is for that object distinctively. It is at once evident how the Secretary of Foreign Missions was fitted, as such, to lead the Church into organization for Ministerial Relief. His own Board could go forward then, unhindered by the necessity of using its funds for the support of the missionaries who had broken down in its service, or had reached a helpless and dependent old age. Upon our files is a letter written more than thirty years ago, by the Rev. Dr. John C. Lowrie, the son of Walter Lowrie, and his successor as Secretary. It is a long and carefully prepared letter, addressed to the Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Jones, the first Secretary of Ministerial Relief; and it reveals that peculiar interest in the questions pertaining to Relief, and intelligence concerning them, which might be expected from a Secretary of Foreign Missions. In his able and forcible address before the General Assembly of 1890, afterwards printed, Dr. Ellinwood, the present Senior Secretary, showed how the Foreign Board, in addition to the support of its large force of ordained ministers and native helpers, and out of its one inadequate treasury, carried on varied activities which, here at home, are distributed among several different Boards. "It is," said he, "a Church Erection Agency. It builds not only churches, but homes for its missionaries." This work at home, is allotted to a separate Board with its own treasury, supplied by a special annual offering from the churches; abroad it is carried on by drawing upon the treasury of the Foreign Board. In its schools, "from the lowest grades to the College and the Theological Seminary," it does a work similar to that of the Board of Education and that of Aid for Colleges. The one treasury, which supplies such varied enterprises, should, therefore, be given proportionably large support. But the omission, from this list, of the Relief Board is a significant fact. Ministerial Relief is one work which the Mission Board has no need to duplicate on the Foreign field. It is our high privilege and sacred duty to care for the support of its disabled missionaries. the Synod of New York, at Saratoga, in 1893, Dr. Roberts, the Senior Secretary of the Home Board, spoke eloquently of the self-denying labors of its missionaries, upon salaries so small that they could not lay by anything for their support in prolonged sickness or helpless old age. And when he added that the Board could not bring itself to dismiss one of these broken-down men from its service without advancing him a full quarter's salary, the great audience broke out into long continued applause. No argument was needed to show them that the worn-out missionary-who had consecrated himself to a work which, in the years of his strength and vigor, allowed "no margin above an economical support,”—should not be left in his dependent old age to suffer for his daily bread. But how serious would be the hindrance to the aggressive work of the Home Board, if out of its treasury should be drawn the support of these worn-out missionaries after this one quarter's advanced payment was all gone?* The same principle holds good concerning the Freedmen's Board likewise. It is the Board of Ministerial Relief which, in accordance with the very purpose of its existence to care for the disabled servants of the church, frees the treasury of the Mission Boards from large drafts upon their funds, which are so urgently needed for their active and aggressive campaign. THE FRIENDS OF MISSIONS. Each of our Mission Boards is to be congratulated upon having so many friendsevery one of them an enthusiast. Indeed it is hard for us to think of a really devoted disciple of the Master whose heart is not aflame with missionary zeal. Such a mission advocate is sure to be a helper in every other He is one to whom all the good work. Boards may with confidence appeal for aid. But when we present to such an one the cause of Ministerial Relief, we may, for him, base its claims upon more than those general considerations which show the sacred duty and privilege of the Church to care for its wornout servants. We can show him how effect ively it relieves the Mission treasury, and so *The address made at this Missionary Congress by the Secretary of the Board of Relief has been republished from the volumes of its proceedings, and can be had upon application at the Office. It enlarges upon the point here made. |