350 SHORTER CATECHISM—A FRIEND OF THE ZULUS-MERCHANT MISSIONARIES. [April, being in the least affected by them, some are able to surmount them, but carry the scars of the battle through life, and some are unable to surmount them at all, and are lost in the battle. "Thus we sail on, sometimes with fair winds and sometimes with adverse winds, sometimes over a quiet sea, and again through a stormy one, but carried through all by our heavenly Father, and saved from destruction by the lighthouse of the Bible. "Finally we near port, and some, relying on their own strength to carry them the rest of the way, sink and are lost within sight of the harbor which they have tried so hard to reach; but others, relying on God, retain Jesus as their Pilot, and are guided safely to the long-desired haven." THE SHORTER CATECHISM. The Christian Observer, one of the religious weeklies of the Southern Presbyterian Church, recently began the publication of a series of articles on the Shorter Catechism. The editor, Dr. Beattie, believes there is a tendency to-day to despise doctrine and rest content with ill-digested views of the great truths of the Christian system. He therefore emphasizes the importance of systematic doctrinal instruction of the young both in the home and the church. The introductory article in this series gave some account of the origin of the Shorter Catechism. The second, entitled, "Man and the Scriptures," was an exposition of the first three answers, while the third, "The Nature of God,” covers answers four, five and six. At about the same time The Occident began a series of expositions of the Catechism, with introductory articles on "Doctrine and Character" and "The Westminster Assembly." The awakened interest in this study will be an admirable preparation for the celebration, November 5, 1897, of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the presentation of the Shorter Catechism to Parliament by the Westminster Assembly. North and West seconds the suggestion that every Presbyterian, old and young, repeat the Catechism on that day, since there is great reward in having mastery of such a statement of truth. Have our readers, pastors, parents and teachers, carefully considered the possibilities of the Christian Training Course which has been outlined in THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, and for which helpful suggestions are furnished each month? The book of reference in the Biblical department for the first year is the Shorter Catechism. We commend this course to the serious consideration of each reader. A FRIEND OF THE ZULUS. The Hartford Seminary Record for February contains appreciative tributes to the late Josiah Tyler, D.D. He made one feel that it is a most manly thing to be a missionary. He had made clear and large contributions to the new nation which is becoming a force in South Africa, and without any egotism he made one feel that by his forty years' work he had made real history. Anything that pertained to the Zulus interested him strongly. He cared for them body and soul, and thought no pains too great, if only he might save some. A few years ago a Zulu man said to Dr. Tyler: "If I die before you do, I will wait at the door of heaven, and when I see you coming I will go straight to the heavenly Father and say, 'Here, Father, is the teacher who brought to my people the story of your love, and to whom I owe everything.'" MERCHANT MISSIONARIES. The mother of Henry Drummond was bidding good-bye to a nephew. The lad had earnestly desired to be a missionary, but ill health made this impossible; and now the physician had ordered him to a tropical climate where he was to engage in business. Mrs. Drummond's parting words were these: "Remember, James, to be a merchant missionary." It is the avowed purpose of every member of the Epworth League, says the Christian Advocate, to live up to the utterance of Bishop Simpson: "We live to make our own Church a power in the land, while we live to love every other church that exalts our Christ." The Epworth League has no admiration or sympathy for that sectarian exclusiveness which sees no good in any church save its own. Its attitude is one of generous friendliness towards other churches, and readiness to cooperate with them in any good work. * * The Bible Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, Chicago, will hold during the month of April a Conference for Ministers and Christian Workers. In addition to the regular work of the institute there will be special lectures and Bible studies, beginning on Wednesday, April 1, and continuing until the end of the month. A similar conference held during April of last year was attended by nearly one hundred persons from different parts of the United States, and was felt to be of great profit. Those who intend to avail themselves of this opportunity should communicate with Superintendent R. A. Torrey, 80 Institute Place, Chicago, Ill. Are you indisposed to pray in the meeting of your society? It is because you have cut short your private prayers, says Rev. Dr. R. F. Horton, and have not through the week experienced fervor or enlargement in them. Have you nothing to say on the subject under discussion? It is because you have neglected to live it through the week. Or perhaps you have prayed and lived and yet are weak and motionless at the meeting. You have neglected to offer yourself as a living sacrifice; consequently a self-conscious shyness and a guilty reserve make it impossible for God's word to come out of your life, or his thought to find suitable expression in your mind. terior. * * * Dr. Theodore Monod speaks thus of a Christian Endeavor Society formed a year ago among the young people of his church in Paris, says the InThe formation of that little nucleus of young believers, meeting every week for prayer, and every month for renewed consecration to God's service, and apportionment to every worker of his share in the common task, has been to us what the balmy breezes of spring are to field and forest. The influence has been felt by the whole parish. The old channels have been filled with water, and other channels have been dug beside them. The new institution commends itself to me by proving itself at once spiritual and practical, strong and supple." 351 honor laughs you in the face and asks you what you are going to do about it, just wherever God puts you, in all hours of the day and in all days of the year, fight the good fight, run the good race, and then your consecration meeting will be no form or ceremony, but that of soldiers telling of their scars, and of pilgrims telling of their celestial city. Rev. W. J. McKittrick. In his article in the March Forum on "The Best Thing College Does for a Man," President Charles F. Thwing tells us that the American college can never cease to be an agency for the training of a man in the great business of living. It enriches his life; it deepens and broadens his view of truth; it ennobles his aims; it strengthens his choice of the right; it clarifies his vision of, and his love of, the beautiful. The college pours oil into the lamp of character and makes its light more radiant and more lasting. When these functions are lost, if they ever be lost, they must be assumed by some other power. For, so long as the race continues, so long are its members to be trained to think, to judge, to reason, to act with independence and with justice, to work laboriously, and to be large and true and noble men. These qualities represent the best thing which a college can do for its students. SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDY. [Siam is the foreign mission topic for May. These suggestions are given one month in advance to accommodate those who wish more time for study.] HELPFUL HINTS. Read the article on Siam in the Encyclopædia of Missions, published by Funk & Wagnalls. See Questions 24-38 in the CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD for May, 1895, page 454. In the same issue, page 403, may be found a list of books of reference and articles in magazines. The Missionary Review, May, 1895, contains an article on Hindrances and Helps in Evangelizing Laos Land. Study the Model Programs for meeting on Siam and Laos in Woman's Work for Woman, April issue, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896. See also Over Sea and Land for May, each year. In the Geographical Journal, December, 1895, may be found an article on Southwest Siam. Littell's Living Age, February 22, 1896, contains an interesting article on The Wild Wa, an aboriginal tribe dwelling among the Shans who were the forefathers of the Siamese. Consult Missionary Memorials [Presbyterian Board of Publication, $1.00] for sketches of missionaries in Siam and Laos who have died. 1350.-Founding of the ancient capital, Ayuthia, and beginning of authentic history. 1759-1767.-Struggle with the Burmese, who burned the capital and ravaged the country. 1767-1782.-Reign of Pin Tat, a Chinaman, under the title Phya-Jat. 1782.-Founding of the present capital, Bang kok. 1819.-Printing of the first Christian book in Siamese, a catechism translated by Mrs. Ann Haseltine Judson. The first railway in Siam, a line twenty-five miles in length, running from Bangkok southeast to Paknam on the coast, was opened by the king in April, 1893. A continuation of this line to Korat, 165 miles northeast of Bangkok, is in process of construction. From Korat it is proposed to continue it east to Bassak on the Mekong river. Another projected line will cross the Malay Peninsula from Singora on the Gulf of Siam to Kedah on the Bay of Bengal. As Kedah is just north of Penang, a constituent part of the British colony the Straits Settlements, this railway will bring Siam into closer commercial relations with the colony. See CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, November, 1895, page 430. Consult an article in The Independent, June 6, 1895, on Railroads in Siam. SIAM AND OTHER NATIONS. The settlement by England and France of their differences in southeastern Asia involves a wholesale plundering of Siamese territory by the two powers. Under the new convention Great Britain consents that France shall take the whole western valley of the Mekong river, and part of the eastern valley of the upper Mekong. England absorbs the territory west of the Menam Valley, together with the Malay Peninsula. All that is left to Siam by this barefaced robbery is the valley of the Menam. She is too weak to do more than protest.-Zion's Herald. See map in Review of Reviews for March, 1896, showing these changes. CONTEMPORARY THOUGHT. -Mr. Henry M. Stanley, writing in the February Century the story of the development of Africa, says of the missionaries: They are not all reputed to be first-class men, but it is wonderful what earnestness and perseverance will do. We have only to think of Uganda with its 200 churches and cathedral and its 50,000 native Christians, read the latest reports from Nyassa Land, and glance at the latest map of Africa, to be convinced of the zeal, devotion and industry of the missionaries. -The Literary World, reviewing Slatin Pasha's volume, Fire and Sword in the Sudan, says: Of the state of affairs in the Sudan he gives a melancholy picture. The horrors of the slave-trade, the despotic cruelty of Khalifa, the extent and depth of public depravity, the miseries of prevalent diseases, the wretchedness of the helpless women and children, make up a condition of things which it sickens one's heart to look upon. The nearest approach to a God-forsaken country on the face of the globe to-day must be this remote inner corner of Africa between the Great Desert, the Congo Free State and Abyssinia. -The keynote of institutional work is, ministering to the entire man and interesting yourself in every department of his being. The Rev. John L. Scudder begins thus his article in the Sunday School Times on the work of the Jersey City Tabernacle. Its aim has been to study the wants of the community, and supply them if possible. Mr. Scudder, who thoroughly believes in the practicability and spiritual value of institutional methods, says in conclusion: The salvation of society lies in saving the cities, and to save the cities you must convert the tenement-house population, and the best way to reach them is through the institutional church. -The American school system as a whole owes its high quality in no small measure to the noble character, enthusiasm, and devotion of women who make teaching not only a means of livelihood, but in addition thereto a mission service of love for their work and for children. To increase this love is to increase the best part of their services, and to diminish it is to degrade it to mere drudgery and routine. As the culture of women gradually rises, it becomes more and more evident how unjust have been the discriminations against them in this field, where in higher and higher grades of school work their services are becoming no less valuable than men's. Dr. G. Stanley Hall in Atlantic Monthly. -The character-building home, the church and the school, are the tripod upon which civilization rests. History has made it plain that the highest standard of civilization can be hoped for only where heart and mind are equally cultivated; where intellect and ethics receive like consideration. If the civilization of to-day is better than was the Judaic civilization of old, it is because the intellect is not ignored. It is because the mind is cultivated and broadened. It is because science and art are supported and encouraged. If the civilization of to-day is better than was the civilization of ancient Greece, it is because it is based on morality. It is because the heart as well as the head is cultivated. It is because the benevolent affections are not ignored, but are strengthened and made to flower.-Harris Weinstock in The Altruistic Review. -Of the Indian women who live in the settlements of the Hudson Bay Company in Northern Canada, Mr. Caspar W. Whitney writes thus in Harper's Magazine: They sleep and dance and smoke, but their sleeping comes as a well-earned respite after the day's toil; their dancing has the outward appearance of a sacrifice, to which they are silently resigned; and smoking is an accompaniment to work rather than a diversion in itself. The woman is the country drudge. Her work is never finished. She chops the firewood, dries the fish and meat, snares rabbits, and carries her catch into the post on her back; makes and embroiders with beads the mittens, moccasins and leggings; yields the lion's share of the scanty larder to her husband when he is at home luxuriating in smoke and sleep, and, when he is away, gives her children her tiny pret (allowance) of fish, and goes hungry without a murmur. -The Shanghai Messenger, of which Dr. J. Edkins is editor, says of the Tunghaks that though started in 1861 as a religious sect they have become political through oppression and local injustice. It was the purpose of the founder, Ts'ai Tsz-yü, to carry out the Christian teaching that God hears prayer and will reveal himself to man. If God reveals himself to the men of the west, thought this Korean, will he not reveal himself to me in this eastern land? The system of doctrine and practice which he elaborated was founded on the Confucian classics. Though he gave as a reason for not becoming a Christian his desire to found a new sect, yet, at the time of a persecution of Roman Catholic Christianity in 1864, he was beheaded on the ground that he was a Christian. The indignation of his followers smouldered as a hidden fire till the rebellion of 1892-93. The rebellion was the occasion of the late war in Korea. -A new interest has been awakened in a matter of literary history connected with the great Algonquin race, to which a very large proportion of the Indian races belong, writes Edward Everett Hale in Lend a Hand. Mr. Gilfillan, a coadjutor with Bishop Whipple, has observed that the Lord's Prayer, as rendered by John Eliot, in the Massachusetts language, is intelligible to an Ojibwa Indian. And it is well known that the Chippeway or Ojibwa language belongs to the same stock as that of the Massachusetts tribes. But the spelling adopted in the translation of the New Testament 353 The into Chippeway is so different from that used by Eliot, that there seems an arbitrary difference between the languages as presented to the eye. antiquarians have supposed that Eliot's Bible is a monument of a dead language. But Mr. Gilfillan's observation shows that an intelligent Ojibwa might work out its sense, much as a Dutchman could work out Luther's Bible. -The Negroes are making their way. The disabilities under which they rested during the reconstruction period are gradually disappearing. What the average man, of whatever race or color, needs, anywhere in the world, is a chance to make the most of himself to utilize the equipment, physical and mental, with which he is endowed. With every passing year the number of Southern blacks who find this opportunity and use it is increasing. This comes as a result of the multiplication of industries and the enlargement of local enterprise; but it is the outcome in a special sense of the educational progress everywhere apparent. . . . . Undoubtedly the illiteracy of the great mass of the blacks is a serious obstacle to Southern progress and a menace to the interests of good government; but with the growing tolerance of opinion and a widening appreciation of their value as industrial producers, there will come a more liberal educational policy, and with that a steady diminution of the dangers which are inseparable from a condition of illiteracy.-Hon. John Y. Foster in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly. -A writer in the Fortnightly Review tells of an ideal employer, M. Léon Harmel, a nineteenthcentury apostle of the workingman, whose factory is near Rheimes. It is solely and entirely to their essentially Christian character that Harmel attributes the vast measure of social and economic success by which his various schemes have been crowned. Two ideals, the one religious, and the other economic, underlie his work. The first object is to make the average workman a good Christian; the second to train him into an independent, selfsupporting, self-respecting citizen. În Harmel's opinion it is absolutely indispensable that the religious motive should precede that which is social. The moral, religious and educational welfare of his workpeople fall as strictly within the sphere of the employer's duty as their actual industrial labor. It is his bounden duty to allow his people every reasonable facility for the fulfillment of their religious duties, to shield them from immoral influences, to disseminate wholesome and Christian literature among them, as well as to provide them with wellbuilt cottages, and the means of healthy recreation. -The pastor should find his place in the Sundayschool as pastor, and organize classes of young people, provide courses of instruction and himself supervise them, that he may remove from the thought of the church that somehow the Sundayschool is a substitute for the pastorate, and that Sunday-school teachers are sufficient to do the work which the commission of the Master imposes upon the ministry. The pastor thus asserting and making effective his relation to the childhood of the church, should make sure that the Sunday-school is itself so organized and officered as to promote immediately and continually the building up and enrichment of the church. Superintendent, teachers, pupils, committees, parents and church officiary should be taught to look up to the pastor of the church as pastor of the Sunday-school-the supreme officer-and they should feel that he knows the details, loves the work, gives suggestion and counsel to the officers and teachers, and is foremost in furthering, in all possible ways, the strength, the harmony, and the practical efficiency of this important department of the church.-Bishop John H. Vincent, D.D., in Homiletic Review. -The village and city graded schools of the South, writes Rev. A. D. Mayo in Education, are established by a local tax, in addition to all other sources of income; and, without this factor, this class of valuable schools could not exist. But in the open country and the smaller settlements where three-fourths of the Southern children live, the neglect of this supplement to the meagre sum obtained from invested funds, a State tax or direct legislative appropriation, is the most discouraging feature of the present situation. The great mass of the Southern people, who never had much personal concern for the Negro, or interest in slavery, now holds the helm in public affairs. There is danger of a restriction of the educational opportunities of the Negro. This danger can only be met by a thoroughly planned, wisely directed and persistent effort among the colored people, to induce them by personal effort, out of their small means, to contribute the very moderate sum that in every country district will somewhat increase the school term, improve the quality of the teacher, make the schoolhouse better, and unite them to "set a back fire" of educational self-help which will leave the ruling power no excuse for withholding a generous public support from the people's common school. -Mission-houses do not grow of themselves. Gospels are not translated into African tongues, nor are converts spontaneous products of human nature. I am somewhat familiar with African facts, and to me these things represent immense labor, patience, and self-sacrifice. For the first six years or so very little visible effect is produced by missionary teaching and influence. The mind of a pagan descendant of innumerable centuries of pagans appears to be for some time impenetrable to the Christian doctrine, and no matter how zealously a missionary may strive with him, he continues to present a wooden dullness, until by and by there is a gleam of interest; he catches the idea; the interest becomes infectious and spreads from family to family, and converts multiply rapidly. At the town of Banza Manketa, for instance, one day 900 natives came to Mr. Richards, the missionary, and requested to be baptized by him. He had labored among them many years, but hitherto converts had been few. The missionary imposed conditions on them. He said they must first assemble their fetishes, idols, and stores of gin, and destroy all in the market-place. And they went forth with and did it.-Henry M. Stanley in The Century. -It is a simple delusion that the system of free schools established throughout the United States, and in which confidence is reposed as the main bulwark of the Republic, is sufficient to stem the flood of ignorance, or to secure such education of the people as shall make them capable of intelligent self-government. It is a fallacy to suppose that any schools, however good they may be, can educate. Their work is to give instruction, and, as Bishop Butler said long ago in a memorable phrase, "Instruction is the least part of education." The education which shapes a child for his duties as a man and a citizen is mainly that which he gains from the influences of his home and the community to which he belongs. If these be good, the instruction of the school may confirm and add to them; but if they are bad, the school can do little to counteract them. The school may enforce some mental discipline, may cultivate some intellectual tastes, may instruct in the means for obtaining a livelihood. But in the great majority of the free schools in the United States little is done to train the judgment, to quicken the imagination, to refine and elevate the moral intelligence of the pupils. The work of the school has no direct tendency to prepare the child to become a good and intelligent citizen.-Charles Eliot Norton in The Forum. -In his article on "The New South" in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, the Hon. John Y. Foster says there is in all the populous communities a higher moral standard, a broader and keener solicitude for the enforcement of the penalties against crime and the suppression of the more odious forms of vice, and a profound respect for the institutions of practical religion. In the matter of Sabbath observance and attendance upon religious worship, the principal States of the South are in advance of the North. In several of these States the temperance sentiment is practically dominant, embodying itself in local option and prohibitory laws, and the saloon is in no sense a force in politics or the social life, and Sunday desecration, outside of one or two of the larger cities, is practically unknown. Atlanta, during the Exposition, every saloon and every hotel bar was shut tight on the Sabbath, and it will be remembered that the Exposition itself was closed on that day by the practically unanimous vote of the managers. With the return of prosperous conditions, the Church has everywhere quickened its activities, and its message is being carried more widely and aggressively than ever before into the dark and waste places which so sorely need its beneficent influence. Every aspect of the New South, material, intellectual and moral, is full of promise. In the decade ending with 1890 In thirteen of these States increased in wealth to the extent of $3,659,262,000, and their later growth has been even more remarkable. In this fact there is the fullest guarantee of continued expansion of those higher forces which constitute the real strength of Christian civilization. The men of the South have not forgotten the past, but they have buried out of sight the ghastly memorials of their unavailing strife, and their faces are turned in hope and resolute purpose to the future. What grandeur of achievement, what magnificence of reward it may hold, what measure of blessing through them for the nation, who can tell? -Christianity, the religion which has already contributed so much to enrich the ethical ideas of the peoples of Europe and America, has contributed a very important and essential element to Japanese ethical thought. I refer to the idea of individuality or personal liberty. This idea is now at the foundation of our political, legislative and social order; and it is something our people never |