IN these last days it is becoming quite common to rejoice over the growing affinity between Catholicism and the Protestants. This condition is taken as a token of Christian unity, and that the world is growing better. The New York Christian Advocate quotes F. Marion Crawford (not approvingly, however), who, in writing from Italy concerning Leo XIII., says:—
“We have, nevertheless, so far advanced upon the rough times that religious warfare is a thing of the past. We may even venture to hope that all extremes or virulence in feeling and speech are at an end between the different denominations of those who believe in one God.”
That there is an increasing tendency to compromise differences, especially in Great Britain, Germany, and the United States, no one will deny; but which party is doing the compromising? It is Rome's boast that “Rome never changes,” and how could “infallibility” change? On the other hand, we have heard the sentiment expressed in a Protestant pulpit, by a noted Protestant professor, that the Reformation was a mistake; and the speaker was indorsed by numerous ministers of various Protestant denominations.
Who, then, is making the advance, that the relationship is becoming so much more cordial than in former times? Is it not Protestantism in apostasy? For true Protestantism can not change its principles any more than the principles of Roman Catholicism can change. There are loud claims that Rome is becoming more liberal, but quite recent documents show that where in some countries there is a surface showing of liberality, it is not a matter of fundamental principle, but of expediency. Here is a decree of the pope, issued as late as 1881:—
“The supreme excommunication, reserved as the special prerogative of the pope, is hereby pronounced against all those who give their names to the heretical sects, of whatever denomination, who take part in their religious services or listen to their preachers, who print the invitation to these services or the subject of the discourses. They commit moral sin who go to sing or play in Protestant churches, the publishers who print Protestant books, and the architects, contractors, masons, and laborers who work in the construction, repairs, or decoration of any Protestant church. Parish priests are hereby instructed to see that no one will work for Protestants.”
Later still, in the year 1899, the Vatican organ expressed the propaganda's opinion of Protestantism in these significant words:—
“The evil plant of Protestantism, which in the fifteenth century poisoned England, half of Germany, and a part of Switzerland, had as cultivators, as all well know, the corruption of the customs of the people and the favor of perverse governors, who, infected by moral rottenness, might truthfully be termed the negation of God. Every time these generating causes were accentuated, then the evil plant flourished, and every time that the sacred civilization of the Roman Church regained its place, then the evil tree was seen to wither up and disappear. This has been the history for four centuries. To-day the iniquitous schism is nearly at an end. When the so-called pastors of its more than hundred sects meet each other, they laugh among themselves, as did the ancient augurs of paganism. England and Germany are speedily returning to the mother church. Only a few shanties of refuge are left to heresy in the remote parts of the far-away Americas, from which the propagandists, parasites, and epileptics of Europe draw some encouragement at the sound of dollars. Our beautiful and beloved Italy, first among the nations, has never obeyed the internal teachings, but has denied the false prophets who came to sow discord among us.”
Rome sees the trend of professed Protestantism Romeward, and sees its consequent weakening. We are in “perilous times” (2 Tim. 3:1-7), in the days of deception, when the enemy of souls is working “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness” (2 Thess. 2:10). For this reason the masses of professed Christianity see the church and the world walking together, and imagine that the world is being drawn to the church, when, in reality, it is the church going over to the world. And for the same reason they see Protestants walking hand in hand with Rome, for political purposes that are purely Roman in principle, and imagine that Rome is advancing toward Protestantism.
It is a matter of prophecy that compromise between Protestantism and Rome means a Protestant-republican “image” to the Roman power. It is a matter of history that every concession of Protestant principle means so much recouping of Roman prestige. It has been demonstrated right in our own country that departure in any degree from Protestant-republican tenets, no matter what the pretext, redounds to the advantage of Rome. When Protestantism clasps hands with Rome, it is only to be drawn over to the Roman banqueting house.
Protestants should beware of the delusion, no matter from what source, that Rome is becoming more liberal, or that “we have so far advanced upon the rough times that religious warfare is a thing of the past.”
SUNDAY DESECRATION—THE REASON.
AMONG the contributions in the Topeka Capital of March 14 (Sheldon edition) is a solicited report on "Sunday Observance," by Wilbur F. Crafts. The readers of the SIGNS will be interested in this review by the foremost advocate of Sunday observance by law:—
"To the Editor of the Capital—
"You have asked me to report on the above subject at a time when the sabbath is more attacked from the front and rear than ever before. Its worst foes are those of its own household, Christians who patronize Sunday trains, Sunday newspapers, and Sunday mail. One often hears a preacher speaking openly of going on a Sunday train, which is run in violation of both human and divine law. Churches advertise in Sunday papers that are also violations of both codes. Sabbath-schools adjourn fifteen minutes before church to leave time to sandwich a visit to the post-office in between the services. In a New York village I recently heard a Methodist preacher say that communion would be in the evening because so many of his members worked in the paper mill in the earlier hours of the sabbath. Thousands of persons are received into church membership while they are breaking the sabbath laws of heaven and earth, on the ground they might lose something if they refused. What fools the martyrs were who lost life rather than do wrong!
"With such news coming in from the churches we can not expect much from those who represent the State. The telegraphic despatches report that the national Democratic committee journey to Milwaukee on Sunday to see what facilities it could offer for the next Democratic convention. These are not sinners above all other politicians in regard to the sabbath. The Post-office Department during this administration has steadily rejected the local option plan of closing post-offices on the sabbath, which Mr. Wanamaker inaugurated and Mr. Wilson followed. And recently the Postmaster-general recommended such a change in the eight-hour law for postal employees as would make it apply to the sabbath as well as other days so far as postmasters chose to require full time on that day. A protest, made at the suggestion of the undersigned, has quashed this effort of the department.
"Business is encroaching more on the rest day. Even in Pittsburg, the best of large cities in this matter, Sunday work is increasing in the mills, even those that are earning forty millions a year not being content to give their men the full benefit of the sabbath.
"The most inexcusable of the new attacks on the sabbath is that of the golfers, who are mostly people of abundant leisure, who play too much already. And yet a Connecticut court has held that Sunday golf is not illegal.
"The greatest victory for the sabbath this year was the swift suppression of the novelty of Sunday papers in London. Two rival daily papers issued Sunday editions. The nobility, including even the sporty Lord Roseberry, and the workingmen, joined in condemning this attack on the British sabbath. Business men withdrew advertisements. Workingmen bought other papers, which advertised 'no Sunday paper,' and thus in a few weeks both Sunday papers were suppressed. The contrast with the supine weakness with which we have said, 'The Sunday paper has come to stay,' ought to arouse us to a new and ceaseless battle for rescue of our half-lost sabbath.
"There has been some good fighting here and there. Baltimore is, at this writing, battling against a special bill in the Maryland Legislature to make other exceptions than 'mercy and necessity,' which would destroy the fairness of the law, and so cut out its very heart, as New York, in contrast with Pennsylvania, illustrates. People will despise a law which says that one may sell tobacco while another may not sell books.
"The Philadelphia Sabbath Association has been closing up some of the small shops that have disregarded the law in Pittsburg, and a civic league of young men from the young people's society auxiliary to the Reform Bureau, is checking the very beginnings of sabbath-breaking in that exemplary city.
"The best omen for this and all other Christian reforms is that stalwart Christian literature is in such enormous demand. It surely indicates that the great 'plain people,' in whom Lincoln so much trusted, tho fooled by the political oligarchy so often, are seeking light on the Christianizing of society.
"WILBUR F. CRAFTS,
"Supt. of the Reform Bureau,
"Washington, D. C., March 10."
It is well to note that among the chief desecrators of Sunday are professed Christian observers of Sunday. Their example is tenfold worse than any worldling's can be. The trouble is there is little conscience behind Sunday observance, because there is no scripture upon which conscience can rest. True, men attempt to use the fourth commandment to support the day, but the application is false, and eventually reacts upon the user. If men only had God's Word to support Sunday observance, they would ask no other law. They take the best they can get, human legislation, always, if effectual, ending in injustice and oppression.
PROSTRATION OF SOCIETY WOMEN.
THE evil effects of fashionable society life are very apparent from the facts set forth in the following paragraph from a recent San Francisco Chronicle:-
"The long strain of the social season is beginning to make alarming inroads on the health of prominent hostesses. Several times during the past week dinners have been practically suspended on account of the sudden illness of those seated around the board. At a dinner given Thursday by the Swiss minister, Mme. Calvo, wife of the minister from Costa Rica, became indisposed at the table and fainted before aid could be rendered. Mme. Hengelmuller fainted at a dinner given by the Secretary of State, as did Mme. Assis-Brasil at a dinner given by Assistant Secretary of State and Mrs. David J. Hill. At a ball at the German Embassy Thursday night more than a score of ladies were taken ill. One Cabinet hostess gave a dinner of sixteen covers last week, and only five of her original company sat down to the feast. Miss Wilson and Miss Cassini are among the most prominent of the younger set who have temporarily withdrawn from social duties."
A DECEPTIVE PROSPERITY.
THE details of the American foreign commerce, ending with February, show a remarkable increase. Every few months we get reports of the great increase in the commerce of this country. Ordinarily this ought to indicate great prosperity, and the discontent of the laboring man ought to be at an end. But such is not the case. The smoldering embers of discontent were never more ominous, and the conflagration that may break forth was never more greatly to be feared. This world is in the grasp of the powers of evil. You can not meet a man anywhere who does not deplore the political corruption that is polluting the world everywhere and hurling it to the ruin that inevitably follows decay. Vice is brazen with boldness, and crimes of every description defy justice and laugh at the idea of retribution. Can a just God look upon such a condition as this with indifference? Will He not arise and execute justice in the earth?
We should not be blindfolded by the theories of those who, with frenzied voices, are telling us that we are on the eve of general prosperity and universal peace and good-will. The material that is in the world now could not build anything but the exact opposite of such a happy condition. Let the Lord be heard in His own words as He speaks to us of this time. He says: "The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung." Zeph. 1:14-17.
There can be no mistaking the time to which the foregoing scripture applies. Neither can there be any mistaking that it is describing scenes that are all about us, and that will be greatly intensified in the days that lie just before us. Be not deceived. Stand in the light of God's Word.
A MILLION-DOLLAR FEE.
By T.
THE wonderful possibilities as well as achievements in the way of suddenly coming into the possession of large fortunes in these times is quite strikingly illustrated in the bit of news that was sent out a few days since in regard to the size of the fee that Attorney James B. Dill received for the services rendered by him in bringing about the Carnegie-Frick steel combine. He received, so it is reported, $1,000,000 for that one transaction. Mr. Dill is still a young man, and began his career as a reporter.
These great combines and corporations give wonderful opportunities for a few men to grasp fabulous sums of wealth in a very short time. But how about the great mass of humanity who are left to one side to suffer, while these few are surfeited with an over-abundance? Men may theorize and speculate upon the subject, but the correct light in which the matter should be viewed is very plainly set forth in the Word of God. Hear His words, as recorded by James:—
"Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5:3-8.
Observe that the foregoing scripture not only speaks of the heaping together of treasure in the last days, but it also speaks of the cries of the laborers. This is a most striking prophecy of the capital-and-labor troubles that have been the vexation of the closing years of this century, and that promise to bequeath to the incoming century the most terrible troubles that the world has ever known. The oppression of the rich, as well as their heaping together of treasures, is most clearly pointed out in this prophecy. But the Lord does not direct us to any political or social remedy for the evil. There is none to offer. But the bright hope is held out, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." It is to the coming of the Lord that we are to look for relief from the evils of this present time. That great event is the one hope before the world. It promises complete deliverance for every one who receives it.
Injustice and crimes of every sort and description will continue to increase, and it will soon be impossible to be relieved from the oppression and perils that will hover about us on every hand, except as we are kept by the all-powerful hand of Jehovah. And in the midst of these evils and oppressions let us heed the admonition, "Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door." James 5:9.
T.
THAT MISSISSIPPI CRIMINAL AGAIN.
By R. S. Owen
THE readers of the Signs who have seen the account of our trial for Sunday work at Amory, Miss., will doubtless be surprised to learn that another chapter has been added to the history of the case. We had supposed that our acquittal in the justice's court would be the end of the matter, and in ordinary cases of criminal offenses it would have been. But while railroads and steamboats are allowed to run all lines of their business at full blast on Sunday, and much other Sunday work is being done without any interference, yet for an observer of the seventh day to be seen in his garden on Sunday using a hoe, is so serious an offense in the eyes of zealous advocates of Sunday laws that it is not to be passed by with an acquittal of one jury.
When Bible arguments for Sunday fail, then there is a great zeal for the laws of the land. "Our laws must be respected," say they. But after the case is tried in court and the defendant acquitted, their zeal for Sunday leads them to disregard the law of the land, and they try to bring the Sabbath-keeper into another court for the same offense, which the law expressly forbids. So we were summoned to appear before the circuit court at Aberdeen to answer again for the same charge.
Our case was called up in due order March 13, upon which we stated to the court that our case had been tried and we were acquitted in the justice's court at Amory, and asked that our case be thrown out of court. When the witnesses came, they were questioned on that point, and as they confirmed our statement, the case was dismissed at once.
In these trials we have realized the presence of God in overruling all to His glory. We have improved the opportunity to disseminate the principles of religious liberty by circulating literature, and we hear many express themselves as favorable to these principles. Among these expressions we have the following, signed by the leading men of the community:—
"To Whom It May Concern.
"WHEREAS, An effort is being made by certain parties to bring hardships upon a class of conscientious Christian people known as Seventh-day Adventists, by repeatedly arraigning them before the courts for the most trivial acts of labor which they may have done on Sunday, after having rested the seventh day, which they believe to be the Sabbath;
"Therefore, We, the undersigned, do hereby express our disapproval of any such course as will lower the dignity of our State, by thus using it as an instrument of persecution.
"Adopting the language of George Washington, we believe that 'every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience.'"
R. S. OWEN.
The Open Door and World Peace
By Editor
FOR the present, diplomacy seems to have gained a triumph in the matter of the "open door" policy of trade in China. What a glorious thing it would be if every dispute in this world could be settled good-naturedly by arbitration, rather than by resorting to arms! All those who truly submit to the Prince of Peace will have their difficulties settled by Him in that way. But, no matter what the beliefs or hopes of any may be in regard to the triumphs of arbitration in the affairs of this wicked world, we know from the sure Word of God that the conditions of strife and turmoil and war will grow worse and worse, until the nations of the whole world, driven on by the furious impulses of demons, will make their wild rush for the great and final battle of Armageddon. We pray for the success of the great-hearted men who are doing all they can by peaceful measures to stay the tide of evil and murderous war that is pressing like a furious storm upon the world. They are instruments of God in doing this work. But their success will not be in the final settling of peace upon this world of evil impulses; that good time of peace is reached by the second coming of Christ, at which time all evil will be destroyed, and all who persist in wrong-doing will have to perish with their wrongs. The Lord is certainly using statesmen now to hold these evils in check, as already stated. It is all for the purpose of giving men a chance to repent and get ready for the great consummation of all things, which is right at hand; and after this work that these statesmen are now doing is fully accomplished, it is our earnest prayer that they may have their eyes so fully open to the perils of this time that they will see that their only hope is in the sheltering hand of Jehovah, and, ere it is too late, they may make sure that their bark is anchored in His secure harbor.
THE reports of the suffering from famine in India still continue to come in. Most harrowing accounts of the destitution and distress in Puerto Rico are also reaching us. Added to these is the wail of hungry men and women that is coming from those who are destitute of food in Hawaii. These are but a few of the beginnings of the great distresses that will sweep this whole world in these last days. Satan is seeking to ruin every one in all the earth, but the Lord has provided a shelter for all who will seek it. In these times of peril, are you in the harbor that is sheltered by the omnipotent hand of Jehovah?
THE law passed by the Chickasaw Indian nation providing that white men must pay a license fee of $1,000 to marry Chickasaw Indian girls, went into effect on March 26. The law also provides that the white man who is a candidate to marry a Chickasaw girl, must prove that he is of good moral character.
ALL the talk of planets in certain positions affecting persons and the world, is astrological nonsense. God rules over all. His power still controls the heavens. Read Isaiah 40, and be comforted.
A BRITISH cruiser has been ordered to Taku, China. The reported reason for this action is that the country around Tien-tsin is greatly disturbed, and a British missionary has been killed.
RABBI ISAAC M. WISE, who was probably the most distinguished leader in the Reformed Jewish Church, died at his home in Cincinnati on March 26.
CHARACTER OF THE CHINESE.
By W. E. Howell
A FEW days ago I was asked this question, "Can you love the Chinese enough to go and work for them?" My answer was, "I can not help loving them;" nor do I think any one else could who has had daily association with them for the sole purpose of doing them good. No one responds more quickly to kindness than the Chinese man; and none make more faithful and constant friends when you have once entered into their confidence. In spite of the popular contempt for the Chinese, and the generally-entertained opinion that they are far inferior to the ordinary mortal, there are just as amiable, honest, and intelligent creatures among them as among any other race. More than this, there are characters among them that are gentle, lovable, and affectionate, who not only elicit your admiration, but command your love and incite an interest to lift them out of the moral and physical degradation, in spite of which many of them exhibit these noble traits.
A Spiritually-Minded and Ever-Reliable Chinaman.
A man is not to be measured so much by the absolute rule of right as by what he is under the circumstances and environments of his life. I have often felt rebuked by the patience and unselfishness of the Chinese schoolboy. Could the contempt that is generally held toward the Chinese man be once laid aside, and could he be taken for just what he is and what he will prove to be under proper treatment, much of the race prejudice cherished against him by Europeans, and especially by Anglo-Saxons, would disappear.
It is not to be supposed that what has been said of the estimable traits of the Chinese applies to them universally, or as a rule, or even in very large proportion; but because a man wears a cue, eats rice with chopsticks, and lives in uncanny places, it is not justifiable to conclude that he is wholly depraved, or that he is not worthy of our prayers, our labor, and our love.
It is true that the Chinese man is in a state of terrible bondage—to superstition, to idolatry, to custom, to avarice.
His superstition will not permit the physician to mutilate the body in any way; consequently surgery can not be practised ordinarily, the Chinese man preferring death to losing or deforming even the smallest part of his body. The reason for this is found in his belief that physical imperfection in this life is not removed in that which is to come. The same superstition forbids dissection after death; hence the Chinese ignorance of his anatomy, and perhaps his lack of interest in the study of physiology in English schools.
One of our schoolboys, while at play, fell from the limb of a tree to the ground, sustaining no injury except a little fright. On being sent home, his father came immediately to the school-ground and offered a burnt sacrifice on the spot where the boy struck the ground, in order to appease the evil spirit which he believed caused the boy's fall.
Another schoolboy sickened and died; and for days afterward no other boy could be persuaded to sit in the seat previously occupied by the boy who had died, believing the seat to be infested with evil spirits.
In the ordinary progress of school one boy will often refuse to sit on a seat made warm from contact with the body of another, for fear the other's spirit will be imbibed.
Nearly every Chinese man wears a ring of ivory or other material on his wrist or arm, as his talisman, it being the more effectual if it comes from some unknown or mysterious place.
His idolatry is polytheistic. He sees a god in every tree and cloud and mountain. If the tree is struck by lightning, it was inhabited by a bad god; if it affords protection in a storm, its god is good. If the earth-quakes, the god of the mountain is angry, and must be appeased by sacrifice and oblation.
Chinese customs are proverbially ancient and rigid, and conform in many remarkable features to Bible customs and usages, yet with such essential differences that they can usually be regarded as just as great perversions as the worship of a distinct god in every object of nature is a perversion of the worship of the God that created the heavens and the earth; or as evil is a perversion of good.
Their avarice is as deep-seated and penetrating as the root of evil would naturally be in those who are so fully without God that they have no power to oppose its evil and tyrannical sway.
On the whole, there is so much to admire, and yet so much to be corrected, that the conclusion is inevitable that there is no more attractive and yet needy subject for missionary effort than is the Chinese man.
W. E. HOWELL.
WITHIN FOUR WALLS.
By Lucy E. Guinness
[A Missionary's Story.]
MISS SPENCE, of the London Missionary Society at Benares, had taken me one morning to see some of her zenana pupils. We went to several houses, all alike in principle, though richer or poorer in contents—men's apartments in front, the women's in the most secluded part of the house—mother-in-law, young wives, daughters, and children shut up within four walls.
"Do you never go out?" I asked them.
"No."
"Would you not like to go?"
"Yes."
"Surely you must have been sometimes?"
"Once I went down the Ganges to bathe," a pretty young wife told us.
"She went in purdah," explained the older woman, "went in a shut-up palki-gari* early, very early, in the morning before it was light. She was back before the sun rose. No one saw her."
We looked around at the court-yard, at its mud floor and walls, its irregular doors leading into a few small rooms. The place seems quite a poor one; the rooms are low and dark, almost unfurnished—no rugs or carpets, chairs or tables, pictures, sofas, ornaments—nothing but rough, unpapered walls, cooking utensils, and a bed or two. Here these half dozen women spend their lives—the old mother, the blind girl, the two young daughters-in-law with their children—grind and eat, bathe and sleep, sit together and gossip. The neighbors who have called in to listen to the Miss Sahiba live in just such another place next door, within four walls.
We were waiting here for Ranee—waiting for her to dress—for her, at least, and her husband. It had been an unexpected triumph. We had called in to see her, had climbed the narrow stairs to her tiny bedroom (furnished with nothing but a bed), and had found pretty Ranee dressed in a simple, half-transparent sari, and beaming with delight at our visit. She is the only woman in this Brahman house, a house as poor as it is proud, and spends her life in cooking and doing what small housework is wanted in the narrow quarters she, her husband, and her husband's two brothers occupy. The father-in-law lives elsewhere usually, but is very fond of Ranee, and had actually told Miss Spence one day that he would allow her to visit the mission house sometime; but the promise was a dead letter, excuses being promptly made whenever fulfilment was proposed.
To-day, however, we pressed the husband—a slight, weak-looking creature, but devoted to his wife, whom he calls Ranee (queen) in compliment—to carry out the promise, and by dint of long persuasion had succeeded.
"She will not see a man?" he queried anxiously.
"No, no; there is no man at the zenana house."
"She must not be seen from the street."
"You shall come with her, Kashi. You shall see her safely shut up in the carriage, and close all the windows yourself."
"Well," he conceded at last, after a long hesitation and discussion, "come back in fifteen minutes and we will be prepared."
Fifty minutes or more had passed on other visits, and now we came back to the narrow alley, in through the short passage to the hot little back yard, with its ruinous mud walls, through a breach in which a bit of the next-door yard is visible.
"Ranee!"
A sound of shuffling upstairs. No one answers.11"Ranee!"
A pause.
Presently the husband appears on the small balcony. "I am putting on my clothes," he remarks.
"We have waited more than fifteen minutes, Kashi."
"Ah, Miss Sahiba, we possess no clocks."
Ranee's brilliant face looks smilingly over the light railing. They have both bathed and oiled themselves, and rearranged their hair with special attention. She is dressed in two delicate muslin saris, one over the other, each gayer than the one beneath, and daintily bordered with black. Over all she wears a soft pink chaddah.
After some more delay the husband comes downstairs. "I have put on my best clothes," he remarks affably.
It is easy to smile approval, and rather difficult not to laugh at the odd figure he presents, with his naked brown feet and legs surmounted by the usual bunch of white stuff, the dhoti, worn by the Hindu gentleman, plus a sky-blue shirt and European waistcoat, whose striped cloth front and cotton back are surmounted by yards of fine white muslin loosely twisted like a lady's scarf about his neck.
The anxious face of the young Brahman appears above the whole. "You are sure, Miss Sahiba, that she will not see a man?"
Not till we are seated in the palki-gari with every shutter closed, his younger brother inside with us and Ranee, and he himself upon the box, is Kashi satisfied, if then. The jolting roads jar the carriage shutters an inch or so apart as we drive, and Ranee glances shyly out; but the brother, a lad of twelve or fourteen, hastily shuts them up. Her momentary vision of the great world is over.
How that graceful Indian woman, in her jewelry and muslins, her lips dyed scarlet with the betel she was chewing, her brilliant dark eyes flashing with delight, enjoyed that dull drive in the hot darkness of the palki-gari and the few minutes allowed her in the mission house!
The ladies dared not offer afternoon tea. To eat with us would have broken her caste; to suggest such a thing would have been a faux pas. The husband was on tenter-hooks lest some man should appear, and in about five minutes hurried her away back into the covered trap, and across town to the little side way, where she lives within four walls, cooking every morning in her tiny kitchen, waiting on her men-folk, cleaning up the little house, looking forward daily to the missionary girl's visits, trying hard to learn to read, and praying for a son.
"I pray to all the gods, and now since you have come I pray to Jesus also," she would say.
"But the gods can not hear you. You should pray to Jesus only."
Ranee looks up with her soft, wistful eyes—the message is so new.
An elephant, almost life size, was painted on the lower wall of the last house we went to, a large, commodious, rambling place, with a half dozen men lounging in one of the court-yards in the midday siesta, and apparently no women anywhere. On a sort of lower roof, open to the hot sky, we found at last the two girls we had come to see, young, gentle-mannered creatures, who could not speak a word of English, and had not been visited much yet. We sat down on the baked-mud ruins of some old cooking places; Miss Spence brought out a primer, and the two girls pressed close to us with solemn, interested faces. Soon they were patiently attempting to spell out syllables and understand the pictures and meaning of the page, lost in a painful struggle with the mysteries of print.
The younger, a shrewd, thin child of perhaps thirteen, not married yet, strange to say, was the sharper of the two. Her companion, a placid-looking young wife, gazed with hopeless eyes upon the primer, and seemed to take in little of what was said of Christ, tho she evidently liked to have us there. Puzzling out the letters, her brown finger on the page, her dark young head bent earnestly over the task, she sat in front of me, her knees pressing unconsciously against mine, her little sister-in-law, equally intent beside her, making a table of my lap. We could not stay long with them; the glaring heat of the afternoon sun warned us that time was passing.
It was so hard to go, so hard to look at those young faces, with their questioning, sad eyes, seeing them thus for the first and only time, unable to express to them the blessed truth of which one's heart was full, never to see them again until the great day.
"I have hardly ever visited these girls," said Miss Spence, in explanation of their evident ignorance and anxiety to learn. "There are so many houses! We can not visit any of our zenanas oftener than once a week, and we can not undertake to visit all the homes to which we are invited."
We rose to leave. The two girls watched us, looking sad and puzzled.
"Come back soon," said the little one.
Soon! Shall we ever go back?
We said good-by, and left them there in the women's quarters, finding our way downstairs through the rambling Hindu house till we came to the painted elephant at the entrance.
I looked back. They were standing, silhouetted against the hot Indian sky, wistfully gazing over the parapet of the roof into the inner court-yard, across which we had passed. I shall never forget those faces, the dumb pleading of the eyes that followed us, the pathos of their ignorance, and of their willingness to learn. Within those four walls we left them waiting, waiting for Christ—for you.
GOD KNOWS.
By Bert Russell
He knows the path we ought to tread,
In gladness, pain, or sorrow;
He metes all change with loving hand,
To-day and for the morrow.
He knows the work that each must do
Before our toil is ended;
Then let us trust and wait the while
Our wills with His are blended.
With each new day He gives us grace
To bear the world's cold frowning,
But when is past our life of toil,
There'll come a day of crowning.
Bert Russell.
ECUMENICAL CONFERENCE ON FOREIGN MISSIONS.
By Editor
New York, April 21 to May 1, 1900.
This will be the largest missionary conference ever held. For ten days over 2,000 delegates from all mission fields will consider the great problems of missionary work, reviewing the past and gaining encouragement and counsel for the future.
What is said there will be of interest to every one whose heart is in the great cause of foreign missions, whether as a worker in the field, or as a supporter, counselor, and sympathizer at home.
It is inevitable that the number of those attending the conference should be very limited, and of those who come no one can be present at the sixty and more meetings that will crowd the ten days.
That the need of all may be met and that the substantial value of the conference may be preserved for future consideration, the Executive Committee have decided to publish a report under the title:
Ecumenical Missionary Conference.
This report will be published in two volumes, handsomely printed and bound. The material will be carefully prepared and edited, so as to exclude nothing essential, and include nothing non-essential, and will be in three parts:—
I. The Story of the Conference, Its Origin, Conduct, and Personnel.
II. Contributions of the Conference, Papers, Addresses, and Discussions.
III. Appendix, including (1) a list of Foreign Missionary Societies, with official addresses; (2) the Organization and Roll of the Conference; (3) a Summary of Missionary Statistics; (4) a Selected Bibliography; and (5) an Index.
This report should be in the hands of every pastor and every missionary worker, and in the library of every church, Sunday-school, and Christian Endeavor Society. It will cast a flood of light on the problem of missions, and it will bear testimony to the power of the Gospel to uplift fallen humanity and establish Christian society.
That the volumes may be within the reach of all, the retail price has been fixed at $2.50. Persons subscribing before May 1 will, however, receive them for $2.00. Send word at once to the Publication Committee Ecumenical Missionary Conference, room 823, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
