the esteem of men. His prudence was not from natural timidity, but based on a large observation of facts, and, in time, upon a larger experience of the various methods of labor in many lands and in most diverse circumstances. He could be bold on occasion, as well as prudent, ready to seize on opportunities at the critical moment. Yet neither his prudence nor his boldness rested on the calculations of a merely worldly wisdom. Both were inspired and quickened by a firm, cheerful, unwavering faith in the Divine plan of redemption, and in the gospel of Christ as the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. In days of trial and perplexity he never faltered. Upon the withdrawal of the Presbyterians so generally, leaving the Board heavily in debt, and after the great fires in Chicago and Boston, he never dreamed of contraction. He had faith in God and in the churches of Christ. He looked up never coming to a meeting of the Committee without first asking the presence and blessing of God. Here was the hiding of his power. He was a good man, full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.

Mr. Stoddard had a warm Christian heart. His words of sympathy and of cheer will be missed at the Mission Rooms, where his presence was always welcome, as that of a brother and a personal friend. We all loved Mr. Stoddard. The memory of those farewell meetings at his house, and at that upper chamber in Pemberton Square, will linger long in the hearts of missionaries in distant lands.

Mr. Stoddard gave largely for all Christian objects during his life, early adopting a plan of systematic beneficence for the disposal of his means after a suitable provision had been made for his family. Notwithstanding this plan of making himself, to a great extent, his own executor, he left a bequest of $5,000 to the Board he had so long and faithfully served.

66

'Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth; for the faithful fail from among the children of men."

"THE PHILISTINES BE UPON THEE."

SUCCESS has its dangers. Human agency sometimes takes to itself the credit due to the Divine. Results gained satisfy, and effort flags, or unworthy motives blend with the pure aspiration, and the life-current from above ceases to flow. Sometimes evil influences from without assail, distract, and pervert, all the more dangerous if they come baptized into a Christian name, and find lodgment in the hearts of believers not wholly freed from worldly ambition, imperfectly grounded in the truth, or still clinging fondly to some old error or superstition. There is nothing sadder in the experience of missionaries than this, to see those over whom they have labored and prayed and rejoiced in hope, turned away from the simplicity of the faith, and the fruit of years of toil perverted, and then perhaps appropriated by those who bear the Christian name.

Happily the great body of those engaged in the work of evangelization are one, whatever their denominational name, as was so finely illustrated at the recent conference at Allahabad, where representatives of twenty different societies, Church Missionary, Presbyterian, American Board, Baptist, Methodist, English, and American conferred together on the interests of the common

cause, as brethren in Christ, presenting to Heathenism, Mohammedanism, and Romanism a beautiful example of the essential unity as well as cordial sympathy of all evangelical Christians. The high church Ritualist, Episcopalian, and Lutheran were not there. With them the Church, or to use a term lately applied in the "New Englander" by the Nestor of our Congregational churches, Churchianity, is more than Christianity. If their object were to win the heathen to their system we should have small ground of complaint, though we might regret that their zeal was no more profitably directed. But, in too many instances, this does not seem to be the sole, or even the primary object, but, rather, to take advantage of the labors of others, to reap where others have sown, to proselyte to their system from those already interested in the truth.

The time to begin their efforts in the Hawaiian Islands was when the work of evangelization was complete, when a Christian literature was created, when churches and schools were established and sustained by the people, and a larger proportion of the population were enrolled as members of the churches than could be found even in New England.

The time to send a bishop to Madagascar is when the labors of the London Missionary Society have been crowned with marvelous success, when more than 300,000 of the natives are under religious instruction, when the early triumph of the gospel appears to be fully assured. The particular place is not some heathen district of the island, not yet reached, but the capital, where the greatest results have been achieved, where, taking advantage of any difficulties that may arise, or any possible disaffection, proselytes may be won to the Church, however disastrous may be the effect in distracting weak or only partially educated minds, and turning the attention from Christ, as the Redeemer, to the forms of a ritual service.

Last October, four hundred native Christians, at Ahmednuggur, sat down together to commemorate the dying love of Christ, among whom were eleven school girls from the seminary, who had just made profession of their faith. It was an occasion of the tenderest interest and of the greatest encouragement for the future, and marked Ahmednuggur as one of the brightest spots in the India missions of the American Board. It was just the place and time for the high church Bishop of Bombay to put forth his efforts. Protests are of no avail. We have no rights which Churchianity is bound to respect. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof," including the hard-earned fruits of years of Christian toil. Everything belongs to the Church, and she has only to take possession of her own!

Not the least damaging part is the method pursued, the taking up of native agents who have lost the confidence of our missionaries, and have been refused admission to our churches, or the enticing away of some really good men by the offer of higher salaries, or of larger pecuniary grants, in aid of schools and churches, than are warranted by that policy which aims at the earliest possible establishment of self-sustaining, independent churches of Christ.

We cannot always anticipate such utter failure as befell these efforts in the Hawaiian Islands. Our work has suffered in the Madura mission from the intrusion of the Leipzig Lutherans, and among the Dakotas in this country from divisive movements, and the rich harvest of many years, for which our missionaries, from fathers to sons, have toiled, is reaped for other garners than our own.

1873.]

Influence of Missionaries on the Social Life of the East.

187

Of yet graver character is the effort in progress in the Turkish missions. The centers chosen are, of course, such points as Aintab and Diarbekir, where are to be found the largest Protestant communities. A number of other places are included in the programme. Churches and chapels to be built, preachers and schools sustained, by foreign funds, these are among the means employed, and they strike directly at the efforts hitherto made to develop live, working, selfsupporting institutions of the gospel. One of the saddest things about it is, that many good men in the native churches may be led away by the temptations. placed before them, and good men in England and in this country are misled into doing what they must one day regret.

But sadder yet, if possible, is the burden thrown on the hearts of the missionaries. May God in love and mercy help them in their time of need, and overrule all to the progress of his kingdom. Despite all these various hindrances, the good work goes on. The coming triumph is sure, but at the expense of much undeserved weariness and care and sorrow of heart, on the part of the little missionary company whom God is using in the great work.

We almost dread to mention the success that may crown our labors in any part of the field, lest the Philistines be upon us.

INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES ON THE SOCIAL LIFE OF THE EAST.

BY A MISSIONARY IN TURKEY.

It is generally known that the social life of Orientals is one of great degradation, but the extent of this degradation cannot properly be appreciated except by those who have been eye-witnesses of it. We do not now refer, specially, to such seaport and commercial towns as Constantinople, Smyrna, Beirut, etc., where the native civilization has developed a more refined if not a purer social order, and where resident Europeans have, for many years, strongly influenced the social life of the native population.

It is a fact, manifest to all observers, that wherever the influence of the gospel has not penetrated, the ignorance, superstition, and degradation of the masses of the people of Turkey is extreme. Cleanliness, order, and even decency, are generally ignored in their dwellings and in the care of their persons. They live, and eat, and sleep so almost exactly like domesticated animals, that it is difficult. to discern the human element at all. As to what we mean by home, the domestic hearth, and the proprieties and amenities of daily social life, there exists the profoundest ignorance and the most stolid indifference.

The wife and mother makes no toilet on rising in the morning. She has slept in the clothing, such as it is, that she had worn during the day. She does not think of giving any attention to her own or her children's dressing or hair, except once a week, or less often, when they go to a public bath, or elsewhere perform some special ablutions. The children, when they wake, jump up from the mats on which they have slept, and are turned out to shift for themselves. The only making up of beds is a hasty rolling up of "that whereon they have lain,” and piling the whole up in a corner or closet till evening. They eat pre

cisely as those animals do whose fore-feet are hands, except that there is one dish, and perhaps a wooden spoon for each person. The sleeping, the eating, and the work, often of more than one distinct family, are in one room, and (I speak without exaggeration) that room is frequently, I may say commonly, in such a state as no well-to-do American farmer would consider tolerable for the animals he is fattening for his table.

like the wild ass's colt."

What

Let us look into one of these so-called rooms. The walls and floors are simply dried and hardened mud. In and about the fire-place are a few copper cooking utensils. On the right side are bags of wheat, flour, barley, etc., and various trappings and other appurtenances of the donkeys and oxen, of course alive with vermin. On the left of the fire-place is the pile of so-called beds, also densely populated with living creatures. Lower down is the spinning-wheel. Overhead are suspended cabbages, strings of onions, etc., while the poor, neglected children, dirty and in rags, grow up The American missionary comes, with his family, to reside among a people with the social habits above described. What course shall he pursue? principle of social life, and of the economy of the household, shall he adopt? He may take either one of three courses. First, avoiding the disorder and uncleanliness of the people, he may make a total change in all his habits, live without furniture, in one or at most two rooms, diminish household work to a minimum, and try to raise the social life of the people by adopting their customs, and at the same time setting them an example of neatness and order which is not too far off for them to hope to reach it. Or, second, the missionary may carry his own social habits intact among the people to whom he goes, sequestrate himself from the native population entirely, in regard to all his modes of living, make no attempt to cull out of native customs anything there may be good in them, and strive to reach the native mind only by means of the gospel he preaches.

No doubt the majority of readers will say that the first of these two courses is by far the more promising of good results. Few missionaries, however, and a still smaller number of missionary ladies, could long survive the violent change from an American home, surrounded, as it ever is, with the atmosphere of refinement, purity, order, and the helpful sympathy and love of mother, sister, friends, neighbors, to a home like those above described, even if within it cleanliness and order take the place of uncleanliness and disorder. The spirit may be heroic, but there is not the corresponding heroism in human flesh and blood. The strongest constitution among us will break under such an attempt to come down to "the level of the people," before the foreigner has acquired the language, and familiarized himself with local habits of thought and manifestations of character, so as to be prepared for usefulness. The attempt has been made, and it has proved like the splendid but reckless charge of a hundred men upon the massive walls of a well-defended fortress. The heroism has been useless. The result has been a failure.

There is, however, a third course possible, a mean between the two courses already indicated, and it is the one adopted by American missionaries generally in Eastern lands.

The missionary leaves his native country, but he takes with him as much of its social atmosphere as he can. He remembers that it is the Gospel of Christ

1873.] Influence of Missionaries on the Social Life of the East. 189 which has given to his own country its social elevation, and that it is the want of the gospel's influence which has degraded and debased and animalized social life among the people to whom he has come. He desires to preserve health and strength, both to himself and to his family, that he may be strong to labor after experience has more than doubled his usefulness. Therefore he, on the one hand, adopts of the local customs such as he can without prejudice to health and Christian propriety. He drops the conventionalities and the costly fashions of the civilization he has left; but he does not try to dress as the natives dress, lodge as they lodge, or eat as they eat. He clearly sees that a course for him so suicidal would be positively wrong. More than two rooms in his house he certainly must have; yet "sitting-room" is for him parlor, drawing-room and sitting room, all in one. He has his own study, and the "prophet's chamber" on the wall is not unprovided. He is conscientiously careful to make all the appointments of his household, so far as they affect the health, the wholesome appearance, and the entire training of his children, in sharp contrast to what he sees around him. He is careful, in the midst of a state of society but little advanced from barbarism in this respect, to show to his wife that tender and thoughtful and respectful care which a missionary's wife, if a lady anywhere should receive it, most richly merits.

Yet in carrying out a plan like this, on a salary and at a rate of expenditure considerably less than that of pastors similarly situated at home, the missionary finds his position the occasion of some things he will regret. He is assailed with criticisms from jealous natives, and sometimes from his own ill-informed countrymen. His expenditure is several times that of one of the common native families. His house seems "a great house" beside theirs. He receives clothing, and furniture, and sometimes provisions from western markets. It is diffi cult for natives to see the real and oftentimes very great self-denial of his life. Even those who see most of his every-day walk, and those who receive the gospel through him, sometimes envy him the social comforts to which they have not yet risen. Such objections and criticisms as these are certainly not pleasant; but it is natural that the native eye should first be attracted to the accidents rather than to the substance of our social life and domestic economy; that they should think the difference between us and them measured simply by the greater number and better quality of our household furnishings, and by our monthly expenditure, rather than by the higher moral and rational plane of our social life, and the greater spiritual efficiency that our disbursements procure for us.

Observe now the actual working of the principle the missionary adopts, in its influence on the social life of the Protestant communities, and especially among those who come most under his personal influence. See how it affects the social life of the native pastors and preachers, who are his pupils, and bear the impress of his personal influence in a more marked manner than all others. Here we witness just the result we desire to see, namely, the beginning of a natural and healthy social progress, the elements of a reformation from within. We do not (as in the seaport towns, where native women, for example, ape, in the most grotesque and expensive way, the extremes of Frank fashions) find here any great change, of an outward and showy sort, from old customs. We see but little increase in household expenditure. But we see a vast change, a moral revo