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the advice
of that ignorant negro slave, viz., by doing what Matthew and the
other evangelists require. Be ye doers and not hearers only of the
word.
There
are many shortcomings in the Christian lives of many negroes it is
true, and the same is true of white men. Then, negroes are a very
superstitious people, and not a few white people are also. The fact
remains that Africans are naturally a religious people, and a most
hopeful class of persons to do missionary work among. Surely the many
millions who are such great sufferers, because of their deep
degradation, ought to have the gospel preached to them at the earliest
period possible.
FROM AFRICA.
BY PROF. C.
A. CLEMENS.
We
indeed thank the good Lord for calling us to win souls for Him and to
labor in His vineyard. In the silent moments when one thought and
another flashes through my mind and I consider the love which you and
others in civilized countries show toward us by the provisions of
missionaries and means to support them, and by your prayers to bring
Africa to the knowledge of the Lord, I become more and more convinced
of the continual richness and divine fullness of the Christian
religion. If you who cannot pretend to claim either kith or kin to us
are so interested as to support our cause by sending us the blessed
gospel of Christ, how much the more should we labor with all diligence
and fervent prayer to disseminate the words of truth in the Master's
vineyard even here among our brethren in this benighted land.
Our
dear Brother Wilberforce is doing all he can. May the self-denials he
has made from time to time for the good of our country be plenteously
rewarded when the Lord comes to make up His jewels.
There
is a great scope for an aggressive missionary movement in Imperreh
land. Whilst we aim to reach all classes of people, our main object is
to draw the children -the boys and girls-who to-morrow will be the
fathers and mothers of our continent. In our work at the schoolroom we
do not wish to make any boast, but by the help of the Holy Spirit do
our duty and let the work show and tell for itself. I am sure Brother
Wilberforce will from time to time inform you of our regular
engagements. We need health and strength to be able to do effectually
what the Lord has called us to do.
MISSIONS IN
SYRIA AND ASIA MINOR.
There
are in Syria and Palestine 252 foreign laborers, men and women; 168
being in Syria and 84 in Palestine. Of the 168 in Syria there are men,
73; wives, 34; unmarried women, 61. Of the 84 in Palestine there are
men, 34; wives, 14; unmarried women 36; the totals of the 252 in Syria
and Palestine being 107 men, 48 wives, and 97 unmarried women. Of the
men S3 are ordained, and 26 are physicians, and one of the unmarried
women is a physician. This is certainly a large corps, and should be
effective in doing great good to the souls and bodies of the people.
The
population of Syria and Palestine is not far from two million six
hundred thousand. This gives, on an average, one foreign laborer to
every ten thousand of the people. But it should be born in mind that a
large part of these laborers are engaged in educational work, having
under instruction not far from nineteen thousand children and youths.
For this reason certain centers like Beyroot, Damascus, and Jerusalem
have more than their share of foreign laborers, while some of the
outlying districts have none |
Beyroot has
fifty-two foreign laborers, with a population of one hundred thousand.
Of these twenty-two are in the Syrian Protestant College, and almost
all of the rest are in various institutions, American, English,
Scotch, and German.
Jerusalem,
with a population not half that of Beyroot, has twenty-eight laborers,
who have charge of schools, hospitals, and general evangelistic work.
The
large institutions like the Syrian Protestant College, the Prussian
Orphanage, and the British Syrian Institution for educating teachers,
the American Female Seminary, and the Hospital of the Protestant
Knights of St. John in Beyroot, with the boarding schools, orphanages,
and hospitals in Damascus, Brummana, Nazareth, Jaffa, Bethlehem,
Tiberias, and Jerusalem, will no doubt remain for many years to come
in foreign hands and be maintained by foreign funds. It will be a long
time before the men or the means can be found in this land to conduct
such institutions.
And
in the evangelistic work, the founding of churches and communities,
the obstacles of self-support are very great. The people seem to be
growing poorer instead of richer. In Asia Minor the flourishing
self-supporting churches in Aintab, Marash, and Kharpoot have been
well-nigh blotted out by the recent massacres.
In
Syria and Palestine tens of thousands of the active and enterprising
young men have emigrated to North and South America and Australia,
depleting and almost destroying various little country churches.
Whatever
may be said by defenders of the government, it is not denied that it
is the fixed policy to obstruct the building of churches and the
opening of schools by Christians everywhere and always. Christianity
is at a discount.
On
the other hand, the Eastern and Western Churches, the Russian and
Roman, are now engaged in a desperate struggle for the preponderance
of political and ecclesiastical influence in the historic land.
Russian and French gold are pouring into the country. Priests, monks,
fathers, brothers, sisters, clerical and lay, swarm in all the
historic and non-historic sites. Rival buildings, churches, schools
and hospitals spring up in Galilee, Samaria and Judea, and all through
the mountains and seacoast cities of Syria. They fight one another,
and only unite in opposition to Protestant missions.
The
Russians now have thirty-four schools in Palestine and Syria. The
redeeming feature of these schools is the fact that they require the
use of the Arabic Scriptures as a textbook in all their schools, using
the translation of Dr. Van Dyck, published at the American Press by
the American Bible Society. They are also using numerous religious,
moral, and educational works from the American Press.
All
their schools are free. Tuition and books are given without money, so
that even in places where the people have been willing to pay a
moderate sum for the education ' of their children, they now can have
it for nothing. With the Jesuits on the one side, and the Russians on
the other, bidding for pupils, you can hardly expect the principle of
self-support to gain ground in the little Protestant communities.
And
yet solid progress has been made. The natives of Syria contributed
during 1895 for the education of their children in Protestant schools
and for church expenses the sum of $19,000 which is a very creditable
showing. Of this sum $11,000 was paid as board and tuition to the
Syrian Protestant College. Yet during the first few years of this
college almost all the pupils were taught gratuitously. The Female
Seminary of the American Mission received last year $1,200 from
pupils, whereas thirty years ago its boarders were lodged, fed, taught
and clothed without charge.—Henry
H. Jessup, D. D. in Mission News.
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