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FOREIGN
MISSIONS
THEIR
DANGERS AND DELUSIONS
BY
C. COHEN
London:
THE FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING CO., Ltd.,
1 Stationers’ Hall Court, E.C.
Price Ninepenee.
��NI 44
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
THEIR
DANGERS AND
DELUSIONS
BY
C. COHEN
London:
THE FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, Ltd.,
1 STATIONERS’ HALL COURT, E.C.
1901
�BY THE SAME AUTHOR.
AN OUTLINE OF EVOLUTIONARY ETHICS
s. d.
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EVOLUTION AND CHRISTIANITY ..
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WHAT IS THE USE OF PRAYER? ..
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THE DECAY OF BELIEF
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PAIN AND PROVIDENCE
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London:
THE FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING CO., Ltd.,
1 Stationers’ Hall Court, E.C.
�NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY
FOREIGN MISSIONS.
I.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
If anything had been needed to impress upon the
public mind the necessity for a clearer understanding
of missionary methods and results, recent events in
China would have made good the deficiency.
That
missionary activity in that country should have been
largely instrumental in producing, not only a lament
able loss of life and a serious dislocation of commercial
relations, but also the conditions for a quarrel between
various European Powers, is a state of affairs that must
give rise to a strong feeling of uneasiness concerning
these Evangelistic societies.
The control by a few
London societies of some thousands of agents, who
hold themselves responsible to none but the officers of
their own society, the presence of these people among
uncivilised or semi-civilised races, creates an element
of danger against which we cannot be too carefully
guarded.
If all these missionary ladies and gentlemen were
persons of judgment and tact, the danger would still be
great; but they are far from being that. It is the common
experience and the common testimony of travellers and
others that, while they may be often honest and earnest,
they are usually ill-balanced, fanatical, and greatly
lacking in the necessary judgment for dealing with
people who, in manners and customs, differ radically
from themselves. Throughout the reports issued by
the various societies—and these are bulky enough, in
all conscience—one rarely meets with the slightest
�4
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
indication of respect for the customs or feelings of the
people on whom the missionary gratuitously thrusts
himself. Whatever is not Christian is of the Devil
seems to be the general rule ; and one can faintly
imagine, from the fanatical impertinence of the lower
class of Evangelists at home, where they are restrained
to a considerable extent by the common sense of their
neighbors, what their conduct would be when these
restraints are removed.
But the danger of missionary activity is not con
fined to, nor has it commenced with, recent events in
China. Far from that being the case, it is scarcely
too much to say that wherever missionary work is
going on, the danger of it causing trouble is. always
present in a greater or less degree. As it is, a
great many troubles can be partly traced to this
source. In New Zealand most of the outbreaks in
the early part of the century were caused by the action
of missionaries in grabbing the land belonging to
the natives. The Church Missionary Society’s agents
alone claimed 216,000 acres, for which nothing but a
few axes and similar things had been given in ex
change. The native chiefs, who imagined that they
had received the axes in exchange for their hiero
glyphics at the foot of the deeds of exchange, naturally
objected to the transaction when they discovered its
real meaning, with the inevitable result.1 In India
the missionary bodies, by repeated remonstrances,
induced the governing powers to withdraw from the
maintenance of the Hindoo temple funds that had
been taken over on the express understanding that
they should be used in their interest, and thus played
no mean part in inflaming the native mind and
preparing for the mutiny.2 Of West Africa Miss
Mary Kingsley says: “ The evil worked by what we
1 For full particulars see Thomson’s Story of New Zealand, i. 269
and ii. 154-58.
2 See article by Sir A. C. Lyall in Fortniyhtly Review for April,
1872. ■
�GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
must call the missionary party is almost incalculable.”
She asserts that it has led to our policy of destroying
the native states, and is the cause of our wars in West
Africa.1 And now in China wTe have had brought
home to the public mind, what has been lying buried
in Parliamentary papers issued during the last thirty
years, that here, too, it is missionary zeal, missionary
indiscretion, the outraging of native susceptibilities by
fanatical Evangelists, that are chiefly responsible for
the existing condition of affairs.
The good results of missionary labors would, indeed,
need to be striking to compensate this constant source
of danger; and, in order to see what the results are,
one requires something more than the vapid, mawkish
statements given at missionary meetings, or issued in
missionary circulars. Unfortunately, however, the
materials for forming an exact judgment can hardly
be said to exist. For many reasons—some obvious,
some otherwise—travellers seem remarkably shy of
criticising missionary work. Probably the kindness
which they receive from the missionaries, as one white
man from another ; probably the force of religious
organisations, which are still strong enough to make
people pay for attacking any of their agencies—may
account for their comparative silence; but the fact
remains.
What is equally remarkable is what
we may call their negative testimony. • If they
do not criticise adversely as much as one would
expect, neither do they praise; and this is extremely
significant. One may rest assured that if the number
or character of the natives Christianised was striking
enough to command notice, then notice would be taken
by men who are often themselves Christian, and often
have friends among the missionaries. As it is, we
get accounts of the amiability and self-sacrifice of
some missionaries—accounts that we need neither
question nor discuss ; but there is a suspicious silence
1 JEcst African Studies, p. 322.
�6
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
concerning the success of their enterprise. Where
the statements are clear and definite they are usually,
as will be seen later, condemnatory.
From the missionaries themselves we can neither
expect nor receive unprejudiced statements of their
work.
Either we get the accounts of ill-balanced
enthusiasts, who see in every pretended conversion
in India, Africa, or China the promise of the conver
sion of an entire people, or we get reports from another
class who write with a too obvious eye upon home sub
scriptions.
A long study of missionary reports has
only served to convince me of the utter unreliability
of many of the statements contained therein. The
idle curiosity of one native is transformed into “ a
heart hunger for the gospel,” and subscribers are
warned to prepare themselves for great results, which
never arrive. The request of another for a Bible,
probably because he thinks it may be of use as a
fetish, although he may be unable to read it, is strong
evidence of the “ power of Jesus over the forces of
evil.”
Uneducated, uncivilised Africans are represented
as giving utterance to semi-poetic speeches that
have an obvious smack of London training-colleges;
and in one case I noted a sentence, said to have been
used by the Bomans concerning the early Christians,
put into the mouth of a poor woman in Yoruba.
Canon Isaac Taylor, and many other friends of the
missionary movement, have not hesitated to label
these high-flown speeches as so many pieces of de
ception practised on the British public ; and Sir H. H.
Johnson says they are all so much “gammon” to
“ encourage the British people to find funds.”1
Native life, too, is usually misconceived, sometimes
deliberately misrepresented.
Native customs, which
may be harmless enough in the native eyes, and
wdiich only become obscene under the influence of
1 British Central Africa, p. 191.
�GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.
7
missionary teaching, are adduced as proofs of
unbridled immorality, and there is served up for home
consumption a distorted picture of the African;
because, “ unless it were stirred up by horrors, the
English public would refuse to subscribe.”1
Unfortunately, however, so far as the number of
the converted is concerned, one is compelled to depend
upon the missionary returns; and, with whatever
reservations these may be taken, we can at least feel
assured that these under-estimate neither the quantity
nor the quality of the work done. It has also to
be borne in mind that these reports do not meet the eye
of the general public as they leave the hands of the
agents abroad, but only after they have passed through
those of their London superiors, who naturally take
care that nothing of a too unfavorable character
shall appear. It is tolerably certain that, if an
impartial committee of investigation were appointed,
missionary work would appear in a far different light
from that in which it is usually presented to the world.
Even on the reading of their own reports a great
many of the conversions are obviously fictitious, while
the quality is enormously exaggerated.
On the surface all may appear well; but when one
takes such general statements as “A great and
wondrous door opened to the Gospel,” “A great
outpouring of the spirit,” “People turning with
eagerness and desire to the message of the
Gospel,” etc., etc., and compares them with actual
results, or checks one year’s returns with those of
previous years, or one society’s account with that
of another society, it is then that one sees how utterly
insignificant the positive results are—so insignificant
that the annual increase in the number of the
followers of the non-Christian religions, from the
surplus of births over deaths, far outnumbers the
converts to Christianity in all parts of the world.,
1 Kingsley’s West African Studies, pp. 321-2.
�FOREIGN MISSIONS :
In what follows I have not thought it advisable to
take into consideration the work of all the missionary
societies in the places passed in review. To do so
would only be to increase the reading matter without
there being any corresponding increase in the informa
tion derived from its perusal. There is such a weari
some monotony in missionary reports, the same tales
appearing year after year, and with society after
society, and such a constant relation borne by the
number of converts to the number of missionaries
employed, that one may fairly take four or five
societies as being typical of the whole. Nor have I
thought it necessary to examine at length the purely
financial aspect of missionary work—although much
might be said on this head. All that is needful is to
give to the reader some idea of the resources of the
societies with which we shall have to deal.
II.
FINANCIAL.
The annual expenditure of the whole of the mis
sionary agencies of Great Britain is roughly estimated
at about one-and-a-half millions sterling. Of these
societies the Church Missionary Society comes first,
with an income for 1899-1900 of £404,906 and an
expenditure of £367,268. These sums, however, do
not include moneys raised and expended in the
missions, which form no inconsiderable item, and
about which no very clear information is given.
There is appended to the financial statement a very
cautiously-worded certificate from a firm of ac
countants, who confine themselves to the curiously
empty statement that the balance-sheet is in agreement
with the books of the C. M. S. Payments to mis
sionaries is included under so many different heads—
�FINANCIAL.
9
salaries, allowance for house, conveyance, education
of children, etc.—that it is impossible to make an exact
calculation; but it cannot be less than £500 per head,
and is possibly more. The collection of funds runs
into an item of £25,843 4s. 7d., and their administra
tion to £15,917 15s. 2d. Nineteen clergymen receive
between them £5,432 6s. 8d.—an average of just over
£284 each, as “association” secretaries, and whose
sole duty, so far as I can discover, is to preach a
missionary sermon once now and again. The agents
in the society’s employ abroad, white and colored,
number 8,077. We shall see the nature of their
performances later.
Next in size conies the London Missionary Society,
with an income of £150,168 14s. lOd. and an expen
diture of £171,903 19s. 7d. The foreign secretary,
the Rev. M. Wardlaw Thompson, receives £800
per year, the Rev. A. N. Johnson, secretary, £500,
the Rev. G. Cousins £400 as editorial secretary. The
retiring allowance for secretaries seems to run to
£200 and £250. This society employs about 5,665
agents, and there is the same difficulty in finding out
the cost per head as I have pointed out exists in the
case of the C. M. S.
The foreign missions of the Wesleyan Methodist
Church are carried to different European cities as well
as to the customary missionary hunting-grounds—a
form of propaganda both needless and impudent.
The number of agents, the majority being unpaid,
reaches the enormous figure of 8,946. The income
from January 1 to December 31, 1899, amounted to
£133,690 9s. Id., the expenditure to £133,738 9s.
The home expenses include the salaries of four secre
taries (all clergymen), £1,000; and, as usual, there is,
Gn account of the same gentlemen, further charges for
“ Children, Rent, Rates, Taxes, House Bill, House
Repairs, Repairs and Replacement of Furniture,
Coals, Gas,” etc., amounting to £872 6s. 6d. One
wonders what they are supposed to spend their
�10
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
salaries on, particularly as they all appear to have
churches in addition to their secretarial salary and
allowance.
The Baptist Missionary Society has under its con
trol 5,464 agents.
Its expenditure for the year
ending March 31, 1900, was £73,716 ; income,
£66,593 11s. 5d. Salary of general secretary, £500 ;
association secretary, £450.
It will be seen from the above brief epitome' of the
resources of four of the principal missionary societies
that the work is carried on on a fairly large scale;
and, on the whole, there is a gradual increase in the
number of agents employed, and consequently in the
money raised.
One word further before coming to an examination
of the work in detail. A very ready reply to all criti
cism on missionary work is that the men and women
engaged in the work are honest and earnest, and that
a great deal of good is done in introducing education
and the different civilised arts among undeveloped
races. I do not see that either reply can fairly meet
the objections disclosed by a careful examination of
the facts of the case. That some of the men and
women engaged in the work are in deadly earnest
need not be questioned; but it is a poor movement
that cannot boast as much. Nor need it be questioned
that in some cases good may be done by the intro
duction of purely secular elements, such as schools,
medical knowledge, etc. But, after all, these are the
incidentals of mission work, not the essentials; and if
the missionaries were limited to these secular agencies,
their ardor would soon cool. The main object of these
organisations, the purpose for which huge sums of
money are subscribed, is to bring the non-Christian
people to a belief in Christianity; and it is conse
quently by the success of the missionaries in doing
this, as well as the influence of the new faith on the
livesof those who are converted, that the value of
missionary work must be ultimately decided.
�INDIA.
11
III.
INDIA.
The Number of Converts.—India is the classic
ground of missionary enterprise.
We read of
flourishing churches being established there as
early as the fifth century, with proselytising being
vigorously carried on in all directions. But, like
many other and more modern missionary enter
prises, it came to nought. The converts dwindled
away, the organisations disappeared, and at the
beginning of the present century the churches found
in India practically virgin soil. Since the opening
of the century the work of propagandism has been
vigorously prosecuted; and if the reports of the
number of people converted were really genuine,
or the conversions lasting, Christians should by
this time represent a much larger portion of the
population than the beggarly one hundred and fiftieth
they are said to muster.
In India, too, missionary work is carried on under
peculiarly favorable conditions. It is true that the
Government of India stands aloof from all religions,
protecting all, but patronising none—a procedure not
by any means to the taste of the missionaries ; but
still its representatives are professedly Christian, and
this must always have its due influence on the people
at large. What, then, are the results of missionary
enterprise in our Indian Empire ? We will take, first
of all, the question of the number of converts, and deal
with the societies operating in the order of their im
portance.
The Church Missionary Society comes first both in
the amount of its expenditure and the number of its
�12
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
agents.1 For the year 1899-1900 these latter numbered
3,424, Europeans and natives, and there was sent out
for their support £113,630 17s. 6d.
These 3,424
agents baptised during the year 8,423 people. Out
of this number, however, 5,978 were children, and
there is nothing in the Report to indicate whether
they are the children of existing Christians, of the
adult converts, or simply children that have been
baptised without their parents. As there is evidence
that a very large number of the adult conversions
are those of unmarried people, it is clear that these
are, for the most part, the infant children of existing
church members, in which case the Report is so far
misleading, since it sets up the idea of converts gained
from non-Christian religions.
The baptism of children in any case can hardly
rank as a serious performance; and if we put these
on one side we get a balance of 2,445 adult baptisms
as the work of 3,424 agents for an entire year. This
is not a very striking effect of the work of so
large an army, but even this result has to be dis
counted. The report for the previous year returned
the number of communicants at 33,804. Adding to
this number the 8,423 adults and children for 18991900, the number should now stand at 42,227,2 whereas
the actual number is only 35,640. This registers a
decrease in one direction of 6,587, against an increase
in another of 8,423, and leaves a net gain of 1,836 as
the fruits of 3,424 people working for a year, and
receiving from home over £113,000.
1 I have placed under the heading of “Agents” missionaries,
teachers, medical missionaries, etc. All help in the work of evangeli
sation, and we have to reckon their united efforts in estimating the
results. In speaking of expenditure I am referring to the sums
transmitted from Great Britain only.
2 I am aware, of course, that all the children would not become
communicants at once, but this should be made good by the increase
of communicants from the baptisms of previous years. As I am
seeking to test the permanence of these results, it will be seen that
this is not an unfair method,
�INDIA.
13
If instead of taking one year’s work we take three
or four, the results are poorer still. Comparing the
report for 1900 with that for 1896, we note that the
total increase of communicants only numbers 3,631,
which, instead of giving us even 1,836, just about
halves the number, or 918 per year ; or, in round
figures, each convert represents an expenditure of
£110 of English money, and the year’s labor of four
missionaries, and these latter backed up by numerous
charitable agencies, such as schools, dispensaries, etc.
We have reached this result by taking the work en
bloc. Let us see how it looks in detail. The Bengal
missionaries have been at work since 1814. The last
report placed the number of agents at 443, who re
ceived from home over 15,000. During the year 101
adults have been baptised.
But even here some
reduction has to be made, as during the past four
years the net increase has been but 334, out of which
number at least 120 would be accounted for by the
increase of births over deaths among the Christian
community already existing, which would leave a
paltry 214 as the outcome of four years’ work by
443 agents, and an expenditure of about £60,000.
At Allahabad, the report informs us (p. 215),
“ most of the educated classes appeared to have a real
conviction of the truth of Christianity” ; yet on
comparing results we find the communicants have
decreased by 28 since 1896. One of the agents, Mr.
Waller, remarks plaintively: “What can a man do
in the face of such objections as I heard the other
day—‘ Christ did not suffer willingly, for he cried,
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”’
Or again: ‘ Christ did not know the future, for He
said to the twelve (including Judas), “ Ye shall sit on
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now we know Judas went to hell, and never will judge
the tribes.” ’ It is a great pity that ingenuity should
be exercised in such a wrong direction.” Mr. Waller
has our sympathy.
�14
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
Benares, with a staff of 27 agents, has 23 fewer
communicants than it had in 1895. Madras, with a
staff of 66 agents, has increased by 93 in four years.
In Tinnevally there are 1,018 agents : 373 adults
were baptised last year, but the total increase since
1895 is only 227. Yet nothing is said in the annual
report of the losses, while much is written concern
ing the encouraging nature of the conversions, which
are obviously lost almost as soon as made. The
Punjab and Sindh Mission, with 228 agents, has,
while reporting hundreds of conversions, 60 less than
it had four years ago, and has received from home
during that time between £80,000 and £90,000. Yet,
again, nothing is said of these losses ; and the sub
scribers are led to believe that the missions are
stronger by these reported conversions. I am wrong,
though, in saying nothing is said of the losses.
There is mention of two cases of “backsliding,” and
a casual remark that the plague has prevented any
“ great advance ” in the work. This, in face of the
figures cited above, is instructive. One would like to
hear a missionary’s definition of what is meant by
“ obtaining money under false pretences.”
The London Missionary Society has in India 1,844
agents, for whose support there was sent out, during
1899, the sum of over £47,000. Except incidentally,
the number of people converted each year is not
given—a circumstance which reflects more credit on
their shrewdness than on their straightforwardness.
But as in the report for 1896 the Church members
were returned at 9,809, and in that for 1900 at
10,998, there has been a consequent gain of 1,189 in
four years. This gives us an average growth of 297
per year, without allowing for the increase of births
over deaths ; or, to look at the matter from another
point of view, each additional church member repre
sents the work of six missionaries for twelve months,
and an expenditure of £158 per member. At this
rate the conversion of India would cost the trifling
�INDIA.
15
sum of 45,346 million sterling.
Fortunately, this
expenditure is not likely to be consummated in a hurry.
Details of the work show pretty much the same
features as I have noted in connection with the C. M. S.
In Calcutta, we are warned, “ the actual number of con
versions seems very small when the very large staff of
workers, European and native, is taken into account.”
How many conversions there were we are not told;
but judging from the fact that, in spite of an army of
eighty-three agents, there are sixty-five fewer church
members than there were four years ago, they cannot
have been very numerous. Mr. Young, one of the
missionaries, may well lament that “the number of
those won for Christ is appallingly small ” (1900,
p. 101). Perhaps some light is thrown on the situa
tion by a remark in the report for ’96 to the effect
that ‘ ‘ there is need of a class of workers intellectu
ally stronger and more capable of successfully meeting
argument and criticism” (p. 59).
At Berhampur there are forty-six members after
seventy-six years’ work. And the result of four years’
labor, with a present staff of forty-eight agents, has
been eight members—one convert to every twenty-four
missionaries per year. Yet the report declares, “ In
all parts of the district and in all branches of the
work there is movement” (p. 110). At Benares “the
native church is slowly growing in numbers ” (Report
for ’96, p. 63). Very slowly, since, whereas in that
year there were forty-six members, after seventy-six
years’ work, to-day, with a staff of thirty-seven, there
are
—a decrease of ten. Still, Mrs. Greaves
reports, “We believe a quiet work is going on among
the women.” Methinks there is some humor in this
“believe.” At Mirzapur, with twenty-three agents,
there are forty-seven members after sixty-three years’
work. In ’95 there were fifty-one. At Almora, where
there are fifty-six agents, it is admitted that the
members do not increase very rapidly, “ because the
losses very nearly equal the gains ” (p. 122). When
�16
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
so much is admitted more may be expected, and we
are not disappointed—the church members have
decreased by just about half since ’95. At Bellary
there were, in ’95, 172 members. In 1900, in spite of
the efforts of forty-six agents, these had dropped to
166. Kadiri, with fourteen agents, has dropped from
twenty-one in 95 to nineteen in ’99. The report for
1896 said of Salem (p. 95) : “ The hostility which was
so painfully manifest a couple of years ago has now
almost entirely ceased, and Mr. Devasagayam has
been much encouraged by the attentive hearing of the
crowd, and also by the friendly and sympathetic
attitude of the educated classes.” An altogether
cheerful account until the discovery is made that there
is now one member less than was returned in the ’96
report—in spite of there being seventy-eight agents
at work. The population of Salem is over 50,000;
the L. M. S. numbers 234 church members after
seventy-six years’ work. In Madras missionaries of
the L. M. S. have been at work for seventy years.
There are now 201 church members and sixty-three
agents. During the past four years these latter have
secured ten new members. At Tittuvlei thirty-six
agents have managed to lose six of their members in
four years. It is only when we thus compare actual
results with the statements made, concerning the
progress of the work, that we are in a position to
estimate the value of sermons delivered by returned
missionaries and others. And let it be noted, again,
that I am . taking these results not from the lips of
hostile critics, but from their own published reports.
The Wesleyan Methodists-have in India 904 paid
and 1479 unpaid agents—2,383 in all. Its expenditure
on India for 1899-1900 amounted to A28,479 Is. Id.
In Madras there are 332 paid and 242 unpaid agents.
These 574 ladies and gentlemen baptised last year
ninety-seven persons; the church membership, how
ever, only increased by sixty-four. In the Mysore district
679 agents baptised sixty-two adults. The native church
�INDIA.
17
Membership has, however, increased but by five during
the year-—a condition of things concerning which, with
becoming candor, they say : “It cannot be pretended
that these figures are satisfactory” (p. 89).
In
Calcutta 189 agents baptised fifty people and lost
thirty. They are “ looking for the mighty workings
of the Holy Spirit in the coming year.” In Lucknow
and Benares 241 agents have secured the baptism of
twenty-five persons.
Inquirers, we are informed,
were plentiful; but “their motives were not so pure
as we require them to be, and none have been
accepted.”
Altogether in India the 2,883 agents
secured the baptism of 604 adults ; but as the
church members have increased by 309, we have to
write 295 off this magnificent result.
Next to the Wesleyan Methodists come the Baptist
missions with a staff of 12721 agents, and an expendi
ture of £25,989 12s. 2d. There are all the usual
flowery statements of the progress made, with the
customary insignificant results in the shape of actual
growth. One or two specimens may serve. The
Beport for 1899 contained the following from one of
the society’s agents in India: “I have never before
experienced such a general desire on the part of vast
multitudes of the people to listen attentively and
thoughtfully to the preaching of the old, old story of
Jesus and his love” (p. 16). From another : “ I have
seen an audience of out-and-out idolaters and Moham
medans held spell-bound many times since I came to
India” (p. 17). And the result of all this “spell
bound” attention, and “general desire of vast multi
tudes ” to listen to the Gospel ? Well, in 1898-9,
919 agents baptised 435 persons and lost 261,
leaving a balance of 174. In 1899-1900, with 1,272
agents, there was an increase of 369 and a decrease
of 385.
1 This number includes 720 day and Sunday-school teachers, who
play quite as important a part in securing converts as the clergy and
evangelists.
�18
FOREIGN MISSIONS: •
Again I have to point out that when we compare
statements with facts there can be little doubt of the
deliberately misleading nature of the reports. It is
difficult to conceive, even with the assistance of the
inane twaddle with which the reports are filled, that
men and women on the spot could be so blind to their
real position, as the assumption of absolute honesty
on the part of the writers would involve.
Here, then, are the grand results in India of four
of our principal missionary societies.
They have
maintained in round figures over 8,900 agents, have
sent out from Great Britain in solid cash over
T215,000, and have secured an increase in the native
Christian community of about 2,500 persons. And
meanwhile the bare increase of births over deaths
among the non-Christian population must number at
least a million per year. Instead of making progress
they are actually, in proportion to population, losing
ground.
Bogus Conversions.—But the figures concerning
conversions that are supplied to us by the different
societies have to be yet further discounted, if we
would form anything like an exact idea concerning
missionary operations. I have assumed in the fore
going that the converts gained represent a change
from “heathenism” to “Christianity.”
This is
undoubtedly the impression formed by all who read
the reports of conversions.
It is, however, very
largely an erroneous one, since in numerous instances
the cases are simply those of people who have left one
mission, for more or less interested reasons, and have
joined another.
By thus going from mission to
mission, posing first as a hopeful inquirer, next as a
convert, a single individual may be transformed into
a dozen or more before he reaches the British public;
not one of the reports making the slightest reference
to the fact that many of their cases have been “ con
verted ” before reaching their hands. If we were to
deduct the number of these “ rice Christians,” people
�INDIA.
19
whose only object is to secure a certain payment per
month, and who leave whenever the payment ceases
or whenever they see a chance of getting more else
where, the statistics of baptisms would undergo a
remarkable shrinkage.
That this is no exaggeration on the writer’s part
one or two citations from the report will prove conclu
sively. The L. M. S. complains that the Seventh-day
Adventists raided some of their stations, and a
pamphlet had to be published so as to enlighten the
people (Report 1900, p. 99). In other places they
complain of the same people, and also Roman
Catholics, Mormons, and others (pp. 232-8).
The
Baptists in their Report for ’96 say : “ Among other
discouragements under which our missionaries in
Bengal have labored, our Barisal brethren have been
greatly distressed by the action of the Society for the
Propagation of the Gospel.” And again: “Like other
stations of our society in Bengal, the church at Soory
has suffered greatly by the strain upon her that has
been made by several adjoining missions. Mention
might be made in particular of the Church Missionary
Society, the Wesleyan Society, and the American
Episcopal Methodist Society.”
The C. M. S. accuse the Roman Catholics of steal
ing over 400 families belonging to their congregations,
and generally enticing away converts by dishonorable
methods (1896 Report, pp. 323-344).
The Roman
Catholics in turn blame the Protestants for stealing
their converts, and, as they are far more successful as
missionaries, there seems little reason to doubt the
genuineness of the charge.
The Salvation Army comes in for specially severe
censures. The C. M. S. report for 1900 asserts that at
Kangasha the Army enticed away nearly half the con
gregation (p. 324). The report for 1896 asserts that
all the Army’s converts are drawn from other Christian
bodies, and that the native agents employed “ are
such as it is impossible to respect.” It further states
�20
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
that there is no evidence to show that “ one Moham
medan or Heathen has ever been brought by Salvation
Army effort to professing in his home his adhesion
even to unbaptised Christianity ” (p. 216).
Still
more serious charges were made against the Army by
a Mr. Gillespie, of the Irish Presbyterian Mission,
Ahmedabad. In a pamphlet published in 1896 he
declares that the agents employed by the Army are
often men of evil reputation, and those who join
suffer both spiritually and materially from the change.
A large portion of the pamphlet is devoted to proving
the unreliability of the figures furnished by the Army
concerning its work in India. Thus, on the Bareja
Farm Colony Mr. Booth-Tucker reports twenty-five
families regularly at work.
Mr. Gillespie found
only one. At Gugerat the Army claimed 75,000
“ adherents,” and 10,000 enrolled adult soldiers.
Mr. Gillespie challenges them to produce 100 real
converts. He says that, knowing Gugerat thoroughly,
he knows of only one man who could be called a
genuine convert. In the Paneh Mahala Mr. Tucker
reported 3,000 members. Mr. Gillespie failed to find
one after a diligent inquiry. He also says that the
parade of Salvationists before General Booth on one
of his Indian tours was secured by selling red jackets
at a quarter of their value, and promising food and
clothing gratis on future occasions.
Now, I have no intention of sitting in judgment
on any one of these statements ; they are probably
all well founded. I quote them to show that in a large
number of cases these so-called “conversions” are not
conversions at all. They are simply a transfer of pro
fessional cadgers from one Christian body to another.
No announcement is made in any of the reports that
many of their “ converts ” come from other Christian
bodies ; that might give rise to awkward questions at
home ; and so the public are carefully encouraged in
the belief that their conversions are drawn from the
non-Christian population. Let any reader look back
�\
\
INDIA.
21
at the figures I have given, showing the extent of the
growth of the native churches ; let him or her allow
for the natural increase due to the birth-rate, and
deduct the proportion that have simply stepped from
one mission to another, and then look at the result in
the shape of genuine conversions. If raising nearly a
million and a half sterling annually on the strength
of such reports is not obtaining money under false
pretences, what is it ?
Schools and Conversions.—In addition to the direct
attack made on non-Christian religions in India, there
is an indirect attack made through the medium of
medical dispensaries and schools. That good is done
by these secular agencies need • not be denied,
although there is a wide difference between destroying
faith in Hinduism and creating faith in Christianity.
Still, neither dispensaries nor schools are there with
the primary object of dispelling disease or spreading
education, but for the purpose of manufacturing
Christians; and it is on this success in this direction
that they must stand or fall. The C. M. S. Report
declares that ‘ ‘ the educational work in India continues
‘ to demonstrate its usefulness as an evangelistic
agency’” (p. 347), and other societies report pretty
much the same thing.1 The position of affairs in
India in regard to education, it is worth noting, is not
very unlike the position in England, the religious
schools running in rivalry to the Government schools,
which they seek to supplant.
Thus, the C. M. S.
report expresses “ the great need for missionary
schools which are capable of holding their own with
the well-equipped Government institutions” (p. 252);
and the L. M. S. Report states that at Trevandrum more
than 150 girls have left “ Mission schools to secure
1 “The primary object of every missionary college... .should be the
conversion or salvation of the pupils. It was for this purpose such
institutions were originally founded, and there is no reason to make
any alteration ” (Report of Centenary Conference of Foreign Missions
1888, ii., p. 242).
�22
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
a higher standard of education in Government insti
tutions, a fact which we very deeply deplore ” (p. 181).
The last phrase shows clearly enough the real object
of these schools, and how very sincere is the concern
for the people’s educational welfare.
What, then, is the value of these schools as instru
ments, of conversion? None of the societies give the
least information on the subject—except indirectly:
we are left to find out as we may. We shall, how
ever, get some idea of their value if we compare the
number of scholars with the number of conversions.
In 1896 the number of scholars in C. M. S. schools
in India was 52,004.
But as the increase in the
number of communicants, from all quarters, between
1896 and 1900, was only 3,631, and as the reports of
the various missionaries attribute nearly the whole of
these to the influence of their preaching, it is difficult
to see in what way these schools “ demonstrate their
value as evangelistic agencies.” The fact is that but
very few of those who pass through missionary schools
ever become Christian ; while some of the bitterest
native opponents of Christianity are those who have
had such training. The truth of the first portion of
this statement can be seen by two or three quotations
from the C. M. S. reports. At Bannu, Punjab, out of
340 scholars two were baptised. At Karachi the con
version of one boy out of 476 scholars is referred to as
a “ noteworthy event.” At Amritsar among 691
scholars there were “no conversions.”
The L. M. S. had in India in school 33,184 scholars;
since then the total gain from all quarters has been
1,189. The Baptists register 6,000 scholars. In 1898
they gained 52 converts; in 1899 they lost 16.
Finally, . at the Centenary Conference, held in
London in 1888, the Rev. Mr. Matthieson declared
that “ there are some who have been brought
to Christ through these colleges, but it is
notorious that the great majority of them remain in
decided unbelief in regard to the Gospel” (ii., 247).
�INDIA.
23
Another speaker held “that the outcome of these
institutions, considering the vast sums of money spent
upon them, is not adequate; the Christian influence
that comes from them is of a very meagre descrip
tion” (p. 250). And yet another confessed: “ We have
no conversions outside the mission schools, and the
Christians that are brought out of them are
very few.”
Where, then, are the glorious results that we are
assured flow from the educational work ? Certainly they
are not evident in the published returns; and it is
not unfair to assume that missionary modesty is
hardly great enough to hide these results if they
existed. The truth is that, while the Hindoo is
willing enough to avail himself of the chances of a
European education, he decisively turns his back on
the religious instruction. The case referred to on p. 17
of the C. M. S. Report of a man who had no objection
to his son becoming a Christian because “I have
noticed Christians are coming to the front, and I want
my son to come to the front,” is typical of the pre
dominant motive in attending mission schools. One
may place at the side of the empty assurances of
interested parties the explicit declaration of Mr. W. S.
Caine, M.P., on his return from India, that
“Educated India is looking for a religion, but turns
its back on Christ and his teaching as presented by
the missionary.......As far as turning the young men
they educate into Christians is concerned, their
(the missionaries’) failure is complete and unmis
takable.” 1 And a well-informed writer in the Con
temporary Review for February, 1888, sums up his
Indian experience in the following words :—
“Christianity has taken but a poor grip on Hindoo India. The
creed has, except in Tinnevally, no perceptible place in any one
province. Its votaries are nowhere really visible among the popula
tion. Its thoughts do not affect the life, and perplex the orthodoxy
of the creeds. No Indian Christian is a leader or even a quasi-leader
1 Birmingham Daily Post, February 14, 1889.
�24
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
among the Indian peoples; and a traveller living in India for two
years might leave it without full consciousness that any work of
active proselytism was going on at all.”
_ Quality of Converts.—One more aspect of mis
sionary work in India demands notice before turning
to other countries. I have said enough of the quantity
of conversions; what of the quality ? That this i's
poor is admitted on all hands. Indeed, if we were to
take a map of India and note the places where the
most numerous conversions are recorded, we should
find the population to be principally the lower
Aboriginal races. With the higher races and the
educated classes Christian missions altogether fail to
secure a foothold. With unconscious satire Sir W.
Temple declared, addressing a missionary audience :
“ There is a sect called Hindu Theistic Reformers.
It is for you, my Christian brethren, to direct that
movement in the direction of Christianity. There is
difficulty in so attracting it, because these people have
considerable intellect, they are not easy to reason with,
and cannot possibly be talked over.”2
Much outside testimony concerning the quality of
Christian converts might be cited from the testimony
of Sydney Smith, at the opening of the nineteenth
century, that the native who bore the name of Chris
tian was “ commonly nothing more than a drunken
reprobate, who conceives himself at liberty to eat and
drink anything he pleases, and annexes hardly any
other meaning to Christianity,” down to almost
similar evidence in our own day. I prefer, however,
to keep to the missionary reports, as being more
conclusive. The C. M. S. Report for 1900 states that
the Bengali Christian Church, “ here as elsewhere, is
suffering from the effects of a deep-rooted tendency to
look upon Christianity as God’s method of excusing
sin, rather than God’s means of removing it.” (A
missionary euphemism for saying converts are worse
2 Oriental Experiences, p. 163.
�INDIA.
25
after conversion than before.) “ The result is a low
ideal of Christian possibility and attainment fatal to
real aggression and usefulness” (p. 191). To the
question, “ What is the character of the converts ?”
the reply is : “ While year by year there is a distinct
growth in spirituality, yet at present there is a rather
low standard of Christian living ” (p. 301). The
evangelisation of the heathen, we are informed
(p. 286), depends ultimately upon the native preachers.
Yet of these the Rev. Mr. Stone writes that he is dis
tressed, above everything else, at the ignorance of
some, and the utter lack of earnestness of others
(p. 307).1 Of Tinnevally the Rev. Mr. Walker writes :
“ To the superficial observer all seems fair and
hopeful. It has taken us missionaries a long time
to. look under the surface to the inner reality of
things. There is a sensitive plant in South India
which is green and fair, and bears a flower of lovely
hue.......But if you touch it the flowers droop and the
leaves curl up into a shapeless skeleton.’ I have
often thought of that shrinking plant as, in some
respects, an emblem of the Tinnevally Church”
(p. 319). At Pulga the whole of the population of
the village turned out to meet the missionary, and
would not rest until he had sent back for medicine
chest and magic-lantern (p. 266).
There were no
converts.
The London Missionary Society refers sorrowfully
to the fact that “We have but little to record in the
way of open success among the high castes.” The
more, successful work is “ among the lower castes who
live in the outskirts of the city. These poor and
degraded people work as coolies in the streets.......are
wonderfully ready to receive teachers. They may not
always be so, as the Government is talking of giving
them an education—and, of course, this means a
1 _ The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel also notes that the
native agents regard preaching as a means of enjoyment (Report for
1899, p. 81).
�26
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
Christless education” (’96 Report, p. 113).
The
Report for 1900 contains the following from different
agents: “ Our people are gathered together from the
lower castes, are poor in the extreme ” ; but sub
scribers are encouraged “not to despise the low ideas
and motives with which they come to us” (p. 186).
Again : “A very large proportion who profess them
selves Christians, and are baptised, are so very
ignorant that great care and patience are required to
make them intelligently acquainted with the funda
mental truths of Christianity” (p. 145). That is,
they are converted first, and taught Christianity
afterwards.
This may, perhaps, account for the
numerous lapses. In the Yercaud Church “ certain
of its members have had to be severely disciplined”
(p. 157). In. Northern Travancore “the Myanadu
Church....... might be one of the most successful and
influential churches.......But its spiritual power has
gone.”
The members “frequently spend their
leisure time in quarrelling among themselves ”—a
form of Christian enjoyment not strictly limited to
India. “ Aggressive Christian work is impossible.
The past year has witnessed a long series of unhappy
quarrels in the Church” (p. 188). At Trevandrum
“ only a third of the Christian adherents can read”
(p. 190). Among the Mala Christians, a lady worker
writes: “ When one questions them by themselves,
the one appalling factor that forces itself upon one is
their unimaginable ignorance.......In most, the anxiety
for the daily bread is the largely bulking factor in
their consciousness” (p. 137). It is the Maias that
the Wesleyan Methodists say “ furnish us with the
great majority of our converts ” (’99 Report, p. 76).
A very interesting table might be constructed,
showing the relation between poverty-stricken dis
tricts, famine years, and the number of “ inquirers.”
Hunger and “ inquiring ” seem to go hand in hand.
Thus an agent of the “ Friends’ Foreign Mission ”
writes : “To our own mission the famine year, 1897,
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
27
will stand out as a memorable one, on account of the
unprecedented ingathering of inquirers and orphans.
These two classes can be numbered by the hundred,
and almost by the thousand. The converts ice cannot
number.” And if any ask, “ Are not there people
coming because of the distress ?” the triumphant
rejoinder is : “ May not God be sending the distress
to arouse people from their sins ?”x
It is needless to multiply quotations of this char
acter. One might go on indefinitely, and reinforce
them, if necessary, by the opinions of outsiders. The
fact that the native churches have to be maintained
by money sent out from England is a sufficient indi
cation of their character.
And that hundreds of
thousands of pounds should be wasted year after year
on enterprises of this description, always unneces
sary and often positively injurious, is one of the
many glaring follies—or frauds—that characterise our
religious life.
IV.
CHINA AND JAPAN.
China and the Gospel.—During the past twelve
months special attention has been directed towards
missionary work in China, and, whatever else has been
brought about, its evil influence in that country has
been made tolerably clear. In India, as we have seen,
we have to chronicle, in proportion to effort, failure ;
but in China there is not only a record of failure,
but the exercise of an influence prejudicial to the
welfare of the Chinese people and to their friendly
relations with other countries. For the outbreaks in
China point to a much more serious matter than the
1 See Samuel Baker: a Sketch of Friends’ Missions in India by
C. W. Tumphrey, pp. 12-5, 160, 182.
�28
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
mere failure of a religious propaganda. It is one of the
most significant features of all the Chinese outbreaks
during the last forty years that they should have been
specially aimed against missionaries of all descrip
tions.
Among many people who are strongly
influenced by religious feeling this would not be
surprising, but with such a people as the Chinese this
circumstance is strange enough to call for explanation.
It must always be borne in mind that the Chinese
are both a naturally peaceful and a religiously tolerant
people ; and, provided decent respect be shown to the
normal customs and institutions of the country, out
breaks need neither be expected nor feared. Mr.
Alexander Michie, in his book on Missionaries in
China, after declaring, as the result of a longpersonal experience, that “ hatred of missionaries
is practically universal throughout China ” (p. 9),
altogether denies that this hatred is due to the
native dislike of Christianity. Not that the Chinese
are developing any feeling of attachment for it; they
are simply indifferent to it. He says :—
“ Against the easy-going assumption of the missionaries, that when
they are hated it is their Master who is hated, there stands the broad
historical fact, in China, of toleration and patronage extended to the
two great foreign religions, Mohammedanism and Buddhism........ So
far as religion pure and simple is concerned, the Chinese bear the
palm among all the nations of the earth for toleration, and the pre
sumption is therefore irresistibly strong that it is never the religious
but some other element in the missionary propaganda that rouses the
passions of the Chinese ” (p. 11).
So also Prof. R. K. Douglas :—
‘ ‘ The Chinese have always shown themselves singularly tolerant
of faiths other than their own, more especially when the new religions
are professed only by strangers, and are of a non-proselytising nature.
They have allowed Mohammedans to live in their midst, and to hold
offices of all ranks, without imposing on them the slightest disability ”
(China, p. 370).
Clearly we have to look for some cause outside the
mere fact of a strange religion being preached, to
account for this intense hatred of missionaries. True,
the Chinese dislike the Christian teaching, and those
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
29
who are acquainted with the written attacks on mis
sionaries know that the bitterest of all are composed
of texts selected from the Bible, such texts as could
not be read to a mixed audience at home. Mr. Michie’s
remarks on this head are worthy of note. He says :—
‘ ‘ What is an educated heathen likely to make of the evidence of the
central truth of Christianity, the miraculous birth, as presented to him
for the first time in the New Testament ? What the Chinese literati
do make of it the missionaries know very well, and have known for a
long time, though few dare speak out.
“ It so happens that, impure as the Chinese imagination may be,
the whole body of their classical literature does not contain a single
passage which needs to be slurred over or explained away,
and which may not be read in its full natural sense by youth or
maiden. And to people nurtured on a literature so immaculate in
these respects there are things in the Bible which are calculated to
create prejudice against its teachings, even in well-disposed minds ”
(pp. 66-7).
It is also clear that missionaries, by their general
conduct, apart from teaching, excite great dislike.
Not only are harmless or even admirable associations,
such as societies whose bond of union is abstinence from
alcohol, opium, tobacco, meat, or impurity, branded
by missionaries as “wiles of the devil,” since they
teach the Chinese to trust to their own efforts to be
virtuous,1 instead of embracing Christianity; but
the missionaries’ conduct in dealing with Chinese
worship is such that, if a foreigner were to behave in a
similar manner to English Christians, his protection
by the police would be a matter of urgent necessity.
One missionary boasts of having in a Chinese temple
stood “ with his back towards the tablet of Confucius
(and) addressed the assembled crowd on the folly and
sin of worshipping deceased men—perhaps the first
Gospel discourse ever delivered in a temple dedicated
to the worship of the Chinese sage ” {Social Life of the
Chinese, Rev. J. Doolittle, ch. 14). Another, a lady
this time, stood on the steps of one of the principal
temples playing the concertina and singing, “ Come to
the Savior; make no delay!” (cited by the Rev.
1 See Michie, pp. 56-7.
�30
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
Dr. Wenyon, Wesleyan, in an address in London, on
November 12, 1900). What would happen to an
Atheistic lecturer who attempted to attack Christianity
in Westminster Abbey, or deliver an address on the steps
of St. Paul’s, need hardly be said. Mr. A. B. Freeman,
in his book, The Attache at Peking, published last
year, observes that the picture of a Chinese Buddhist
preaching Buddhism in pidgin English to an audience
at Charing Cross would give “ some measure of the
effect produced on a Chinese crowd' by a missionary
whom I have seen perched upon a cab outside the
Tartar city of Peking, haranguing a yellow crowd of
gapers in bastard Chinese, delivered with a strong
Aberdonian accent.”
There is small wonder, on the face of such facts,
that more than one traveller has reached practically
the same conclusion as Mr. Little, who doubts “ if
China will ever be Christianised, especially now that
innumerable different sects of Protestants from
Europe and America have entered the field and
rendered confusion more confounded to the naturally
sceptical Chinese mind,” and believes that “ the
millions spent by the good people at home in placing
the teaching before them, in its present shape, is
money thrown away, and which would be spent to
more advantage in reclaiming the ignorant poor
around them.”1
But neither the eccentricities of missionary be
havior nor the objectionable character of missionary
doctrines are enough to account for the bitter feeling
amongst Chinese of all classes against missionaries.
It is a very real and a very practical grievance that
would seem to be chiefly responsible for Chinese illfeeling ; and its nature can be best stated, perhaps,
in the missionaries’ own words. The C. M. S. Report
for 1899 (p. 329) says :—
“It is now a very common practice for men whose sole object is to
plunder, to avoid paying their debts, and to escape punishment by the
1 Through the Yang-Tse Gorges, pp. 232-4.
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
31
authorities, to place their names as Romanists on the register of the
Roman Catholic Church. They are then entitled to the protection of
the Roman priest, and bishop, and of the French Consul, and can,
and do, commit acts of violence with impunity.”
The Report for 1900 also says :—
“ The anti-foreign and anti-Christian sentiment finds some pallia
tion and excuse for its existence, alas ! in the arbitrary acts of inter
ference with native tribunals.... to serve the interests of a religious
propaganda ” (p. 360).
And on page 883 we are told of “ churches ” that have
been organised by natives for the express purpose of
affording protection in law cases.
Of course, the Protestants confine the charges to
the Catholics ; the Catholics are equally ready in
bringing the same charge against Protestants. There
is. plenty of evidence, however, that this interference
with native tribunals is pretty common to all. The
L. M. S. Report asserts that their missionaries care
fully avoid interference in law cases, except “ where
downright oppression and interference with religious
liberty are involved.” There could hardly be a more
complete admission of guilt. It is exactly the plea
that is used by Roman Catholics to justify their acts
of interference. Besides, who is to say where there
is an act of interference with religious liberty ? Could
anything be more preposterous than a number of
evangelists claiming the right to override the legal
tribunals of a foreign country in the interests of their
converts ? What the average evangelist is at home
most of us.know ; and what he is likely to be abroad,
with, all his natural narrowness and fanaticism in
tensified, we can faintly imagine. And far from it
being true that it is Roman Catholics only who
interfere in law cases, a very large number of the
Parliamentary papers issued during the last thirty
years, dealing with China, contain repeated warnings
to Protestant missionaries on this very matter.
As far back as Nov. 13, 1869, the Foreign Office
wrote of and to Protestant missionaries :—
“ There is good reason to suppose that the animosity which has
�32
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
lately been more intensely shown towards missionaries on the part of
the ruling authorities in China is in a great measure to be attributed
to the injudicious conduct of the native converts to Christianity....
There seems sufficient reason to believe that converts assume, and have
acted on, the assumption that by embracing Christianity they released
themselves from the obligations of obedience to the local authorities,
and from the discharge of their duties as subjects of the Emperor,
and acquired a right to be protected by the European Power whose
religious tenets they had adopted.”1
The Chinese Government has raised protest after
protest against the fact that “missionaries set them
selves above the law, and their converts, improving on
this, oppress and insult those who are not of their
faith.”2
Our Ambassador at Peking at the time, Sir Ruther
ford Alcock, in transmitting the protests of the Chinese
Government to our own Foreign Office, denied that
the hostility to missionaries was due to the Chinese
dislike of foreigners, asserted that the presence of
missionaries inland was adverse to the development
of China, and said that, if the British Government
refused protection to missionaries inland, “ certain
pretensions of the missionaries to supersede the civil
power would either cease to exist or be less boldly
pushed.......while their converts, learning wisdom and
moderation from their religious teachers, would no
longer provoke the hostility of surrounding popula
tions.”3
1 Parliamentary Paper on China, No. 9, 1870, p. 13.
2 See China Papers, No. 9, 1870, and No. 3, 1871.
3 China No, 9, 1870, pp. 16-18. This opinion is endorsed by
M. Little in 1888—Yang-Tse Gorges, pp. 234-5. The circumstances
under which missionaries claim the right to settle in all parts of
China are of a piece with missionary “sharp practices” in other
directions. The treaty of 1859 between China and Great Britain
gives British missionaries the right to settle in certain areas. The
French treaty, concluded at the same time, has the same provision
for French subjects. But a supplementary convention was drawn
up a year later, and a clause inserted, without the knowledge of the
Chinese signatories, giving French missionaries the right to settle
anywhere. The Chinese Government submitted to this fraudulent
transaction, because it wq.s not strong enough to resist. Thus .the
�33
CHINA AND JAPAN.
It will be seen from the above statements that the
complaint against missionaries is both old and wellfounded ; and it is clear that no self-respecting
Government can quietly tolerate a band of men and
women setting themselves up as an independent
power within its dominions. In one case, at least,
the Chinese Government drew up a series of sugges
tions for the future conduct of missionary work which,
if they had been adopted, might have prevented later
troubles. After the Tientsin riots of 1870 the Govern
ment presented its famous “ missionary circular ” to
the different foreign consuls for their consideration.
The circular consisted of eight propositions, of which
the following were the most important. In China all
the child asylums, of which there are very many, are
under Government supervision. A register is kept for
each child admitted, who is carefully trained in the
religious belief of its parents or guardian, and may be
adopted by childless people or reclaimed by its
parents.1 The refusal of missionaries to comply with
these regulations, as well as the much higher rate of
mortality in Christian orphanages, has always
excited the dislike and distrust of the people, and
more than one riot has resulted from this cause.2
The riots of 1870 and 1891 owed their origin to the
refusal of the missionaries to hand back children
to their parents, because to do so would plunge
them into heathendom and imperil their immortal
soils.
French claim the right to settle anywhere on the strength of an act of
deliberate fraud, and English missionaries claim the right because
the French do. It is a fine lesson on the value of missionaries as
“ moralisers.”
1 It is almost needless to point out to those who have studied
China that the accounts of infanticide furnished by missionaries are
enormously exaggerated. It is done with a view to raising subscrip
tions ; and one might read all the missionary reports published with
out discovering that such institutions as orphanages existed in China.
2 See Mr. Howard Vincent’s From Newfoundland to Cochin China.
Appendix, p. 368, and Miss Simcox’s Primitive Civilisations, ii_,
p. 378, and China Paper No. 1, 1892, p. 56.
C
�34
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
With these facts in mind, the Chinese Government
suggested (1) that Christian orphanages should be
placed under Government supervision ; (2) the legal
status of missionaries in the interior to be clearly
defined, and steps taken to prevent their converts
successfully defying the local authorities ; (3) exami
nation into the antecedents of converts (to prevent mis
sionary stations becoming refuges for wrong-doers), and
regulations to be drawn up concerning the mixed atten
dance of men and women at places of worship—a pro
ceeding which greatly scandalised the Chinese sense
of propriety.1
This circular was presented to all the foreign
Powers represented in China, but, owing largely to
the protests of missionaries, its suggestions were
peremptorily declined. The truth of the matter would
seem to be that the missionaries are not averse to
foreign intervention, but rather court it. • Anyone
who reads missionary reports attentively will see that,
with nearly all, the break up of the present political
constitution of China is regarded as an essential
preliminary to the conversion of the Chinese. Seeing
that China, as it is, will not have the Gospel, the next
thing is to create a China that will. Consequently,
every fresh act of intervention is hailed with gladness ;
while it seems to be the general policy of missionaries
to irritate both people and Government as much as
possible, and then appeal to their respective countries
for protection against assaults which their own illadvised conduct has provoked. This point was put,
with all a seaman’s bluntness, by Admiral Richards in
one of his communications to the British Government
in 1892. He says :—
‘ ‘ It seems to be the special aim of missionary societies to establish
themselves outside treaty limits; and, having done so, they are not
prepared to take the risks which they voluntarily incur, but, on the
contrary, are loudest in their clamor for gunboats, as their contribu
tions to the Shanghai press sufficiently demonstrate.... It appears to
1 For full text of circular see Pari. Paper China No. 1, 1872.
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
35
be necessary, after the lessons taught by these occurrences, that some
understanding should be arrived at with regard to missionary societies
in China.... It seems altogether unreasonable that the societies should
exercise absolute freedom in going where they please, and then their
agents should look to her Majesty’s Government for protection.”1
But, despite the repeated protests of the Chinese and
the warnings of the British Government, interference
with and defiance of Chinese authorities by missionaries
has increased to such an extent that, as one of the
speakers at the Newcastle Church Congress of 1900
admitted, “ It is at times impossible for a heathen to
obtain justice in his own courts.” And Sir B. Hart,
who probably knows more about China than any other
man living, points out as one of the principal causes
of the last outbreak that “ Missionary propagandism
was at work all over the country, and its fruits—
Chinese Christians—did not win the esteem or good
will of their fellows, for....... they shocked the official
mind and popular opinion also, by getting their
religious teachers, more especially the Roman
Catholics, to interfere on their behalf as litigants.”2
The complaint of the Chinese that missionaries
serve as a centre of disorder must, therefore, be
admitted as well-founded; and if the complaint is
oftenest heard against Roman Catholics, it is not so
much that they are ethically more blameable, but that
their converts outnumber Protestants by something
like fifteen to one. And it is also plain that, as long as
missionaries persist in their present methods, a per
manent solution of the Chinese question is impossible.
The Chinese are not savages; they have their customs,
habits, their civilisation, as we have ours, and pride
themselves on their preservation and perpetuation.
Travellers who do not write with an eye to the effect
of their stories in increasing subscriptions at home
speak of the Chinese as peaceful, industrious, thrifty,
and tolerant, possessing all the charitable institutions
1 Pari. Paper China No. 1, 1892, p. 24,
2 Fortnightly Review, November, 1900.
�36
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
upon which we pride ourselves, and with a degree of
commercial honesty that will compare favorably with
that manifested by Europeans.1 It is simply absurd,
not to say dishonest, for missionaries to write and speak
of the Chinese as though they were absolute savages, and
on this assumption refuse to pay any respect to the
institutions of the people on whom they gratuitously
thrust themselves. And it may well be questioned,
after the tales that have reached Europe concerning
the conduct of missionaries during the occupation of
Peking by the allied troops, their wholesale looting,
and inciting officers to burn down the houses of the
Chinese,2 whether their presence is likely to have a
beneficial effect on the practical morality of the
Chinese people.
After all, as Dr. Dillon has pointed out in his
picture of European robbery, brutality, and indis
criminate slaughter in China, all the Chinese ask of
Europe is to be let alone, or at least that missionaries who
thrust themselves upon them shall respect their customs
and institutions. It is, too, one of the ironies of the
situation that Russia, one of the “ civilising ” powers,
would not permit missionaries within its own borders
1 “ It must not be supposed that, to quote one of the many false
impressions derived from missionary reports, that the Chinese are so
steeped in materialism as to be callous in regard to moral training,
and have to be dependent on Western charity for their spiritual food.
... .That a people so generally well read as the Chinese, and possess
ing in the teaching of Confucius a doctrine in no sense inferior to
Christianity... .should ever pin their faith to a work like the Hebrew
books of the Bible seems to a layman preposterous ” (Little, work
cited, pp. 257-8). “No doubt Europe has much to teach the Chinese
in the art of war, in pure science, and in those mechanical and other
arts which have developed with such leaps and bounds in the Western
world... .But apart from these subjects... .Europe cannot teach them
much; while it has something to learn from them. Their code of
ethics is as high as ours, and their systems of local government (by
parish councils) had, until the first intrusion of Europeans, a
durability which every Western nation must admire and envy ” (Sir G.
Goldie in the Daily News, July 13, 1900.
See also Simcox’s
Primitive Civilisations, ii., chapters 28 and 32.)
2 See article in the Daily Mail for January 4, 1901.
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
37
the liberty they have in China. In Russia no mis
sionary would be allowed to preach for a moment.
Yet the missionary societies do not seem anxious to
send agents there. China, however, is not a Christian
Power ; she has no huge army or navy to protect her
interests; she is consequently open to the exploitation
of the world, and is the easy prey of every society
of fanatical evangelists and clerical office-holders that
cares to take advantage of her weakness. How long
it will be before their action drives China into
becoming a huge military force, or European common
sense sees the necessity of restraining the impertinent
ardor of irresponsible evangelists, the future alone can
decide. But that China will not have the missionaries
or their gospels seems the one certain feature of an
uncertain situation.
Missionaries and their Converts.—The society operat
ing on the largest scale in the Chinese Empire is the
China Inland Mission, conducted by the Rev. Hudson
Taylor, who seems as irresponsible as General Booth,
if not more so. This gentleman appears to possess
all the intolerance and mental narrowness of the lowclass evangelist; and his agents, of whom there are
1,525 in China, are said by Mr. Michie to be among
the most peculiar and eccentric of Chinese mission
aries, being looked at askance even by other Christian
agencies. I must again remind readers that in dealing
with figures concerning conversions and church mem
bership we have no means of testing their accuracy,
except in seaports ; and it is worthy of note that it is
in precisely these places, where the figures might be
tested by Europeans on the spot, that the fewest cases
of conversion are reported. The most numerous cases
of conversion occur, if we are to trust the reports, in
places where almost the only Europeans are mission
aries. Still, we have to rely upon their unsupported
statements, and it will be seen that even then the case
is none too rosy.
According to the annual statement for 1899, the
�38
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
China Inland Mission has been evangelising China
since 1854. Since its commencement, forty-six years
ago, it claims to have baptised 11,495 men, women,
and children. As a matter of fact, the total number
of “communicants in fellowship’’—whatever that may
mean—is returned at 7,895 only; so that 3,600,|a
fairly respectable proportion of the whole, must rank
as backsliders, or doubtless figure as “converts” of
some other society. During 1898 the 1,525 agents
baptised 1,164 people, including children of existing
converts.
This would give us an average of four
missionaries for every three baptisms, and an average,
cost of £45 10s. 6d. per baptism. Not an enormously
successful result in view of China’s five hundred
millions of population, even granting the genuineness
of the statistics, and allowing nothing for cases of
reversion.
Taking some of the provinces separately, the results
work out curiously. In the province of Kan Suh 110
have been baptised in twenty-four years, fifty-three of
which have gone back. In ’98 fifty-seven agents
worked for twelve months without securing a single
convert. In Shen-Si 116 agents baptised eighty-four
cases. In Chih Li sixteen agents labored for twelve
months; result nil. In Shan Tung 192 have been
baptised in twenty-one years, but only seventy-five of
them are left. In ’98, with fifty-six agents, there were
three conversions—eighteen missionaries to each
convert. In Kiang Su there have been 184 baptisms
in forty-six years, . sixty-nine of which have disap
peared. In ’98, with seventy-seven agents, there was
one baptism. In Yun-Nan there have been forty-three
baptisms in twenty-three years, but only fourteen
remain. There was one baptism in ’98, with twenty
seven agents. In Hu-Nan there have been nineteen
baptisms in twenty-five years, with eleven agents at
work. 'When one compares these results with the
population of the Chinese Empire it is evident that
not only are the societies failing to convert the people;
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
39
they are not even keeping pace with the increase of
population. This alone would give an increase of
nearly two million per year.
Taking the societies in the order of extent of opera
tions, the Church Missionary Society comes next with a
staff of 576 agents and an expenditure of £31,321 6s. lid.
The returns are given for the three districts into
which the work is divided—South, West, and Mid
China. In the first-named 314 agents baptised during
’99 744 adults and 343 children—a surprisingly large
proportion of the latter. In Mid China 162 agents
baptised 276 adults and ninety-six children. In West
China forty agents baptised six adults and two
children, forming a grand total of 1,026 adults and
411 children as the result of the work of 576 mis
sionaries for twelve months.
As the figures stand, and counting all as genuine, we
should have the unusually large total of nearly two
converts per missionary. But the society says nothing
of losses, a by no means inconsiderable item, and is
thus in the position of a business that takes no notice
of bad debts in balancing accounts. We must, there
fore, attempt the calculation unaided.
Comparing
the number of communicants in ’95 with those in ’99,
we find, not an increase of between five and six thou
sand, as the figures published each year would lead
us to expect, but of 1,621 only; so that at least two
out of every three converts are subsequently lost, and
of this nothing is said in the report. Or to put it in
another way, over 500 missionaries working for four
years have secured 1,600 out of China’s huge popula
tion, and at a cost of over £100,000—an average cost
of over £60 per convert. At this rate and at this
cost it would take over twenty-seven thousand million
sterling to convert the present Chinese population,
while the year 1126900 will have dawned ere the
conversion of the last Chinaman will be celebrated.
The London Missionary Society, while employing
fewer agents than the 0. M. S—413 only—has a
�40
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
somewhat larger English expenditure, which reaches
£36,851 11s. 2d. This may be accounted for either
by their operations being more costly, or by their
agents raising less money locally than the agents of
the C.M. S. This society gives no tables of “Baptisms
for the Year,” nor does it mention the number of
converts, except incidentally. There is instead vague
talk of progress made, and it is only when the facts
leak out that we see how misleading such assertions
are.
The only method I have of estimating the
success of the L. M. S. in China is by taking the
church members for the current year and comparing
them with the numbers given in previous years’
reports.
This method brings out some rather
curious results. At Hong Kong there were in ’99
forty-three agents, in ’95 there were forty-seven. In
the report for the year ending March 31, 1896, it
was said that “ audiences behave with decorum and
listen with apparent interest to Christian teaching,”
while “the native Christian church is steadily, though
at present very slowly, increasing ” (pp. 21-22). The
reliability of such statements may be determined from
the fact that, while in ’95 the church members mus
tered 266 after fifty-three years’ work, in ’99 they had
fallen to 225. This is the result of the steady increase.
Yet the 1900 report makes no mention of losses, and
has still the same vague talk of progress.
At Canton there are 253 church members after
ninety-three years’ work. At Chiang Chiu, although
there has been a “ marked improvement in the atten
dance and greater eagerness to hear the doctrine,” there
has only been an increase of fifty-two in four years,
with twenty-five agents at work, the members number
ing 357 after forty-eight years’ work. At Shanghai
there are 450 church members, including Europeans,
after fifty-seven years’ preaching.
“ The people,”
we are informed, “ mostly listen with attention, as if
wishing to understand the message and its claims on
their faith and obedience. Still many seem to get no
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
41
farther ” (1900 Report, p. 57). At Wu Chang the mis
sionaries “ have frequently to dismiss the congrega
tion on account of the lateness of the hour, when our
hearers themselves would gladly stay longer ” (p. 68).
Comparing statement with results, we find that,
whereas in ’95 there were sixty-six church members,
in ’99 there were eight only, with a staff of eleven
agents. A pretty result of congregations being un
willing to leave, and of thirty-three years’ preaching !
At Tientsin, where there are twenty agents, there
were in ’95 106 members after forty-nine years’ labor.
The ’96 Report dwelt on the “abundant signs ” of
better things. The only trace of them is an increase
of twenty-seven in four years, unless we count the
“spirit of discontent and faction ” which has “wrought
serious mischief ” (1900 Report, p. 78) among Tientsin
Christians.
At Peking there are 291 members after twenty-one
years’ work with a staff of twenty-five. The Report
for 1900 dwells on the cheering fact that no less than
160 people recorded their names as “inquirers.”
This is a fine example of the suggestio falsi. The
assumption is that these “inquirers” will later
become Christians. Their own Report hardly bears
out such a view. In 1895 101 put themselves under
instruction as “inquirers.” How far did they pro
gress? The missionary’s own confession is: “Our
list of inquirers is always a fairly large one......But
for one reason or another most of these, sooner or
later, like the seed on stony ground, wither away;
few are gathered into the church ” (’96 Report, p. 52).
Bearing in mind, also, that the church members have
decreased from 520 in ’98 to 291 in ’99, one hardly
sees the promise of their “ inquiry.” And with this
decrease of 50 per cent, before us, the remark in
the Report for the current year, that “ the large
majority of the converts remained staunch and true,”
is peculiarly “ childlike and bland.” The real purpose
of so many writing themselves down as inquirers is
�42
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
told unconsciously in two sentences in the Annual
Report to the effect that “ With few exceptions it is
from among the poor that wre gather our converts,”
and “ The Chinaman is ready to take all that he can
get, without giving anything in return.”
The expenditure of the Wesleyan Methodists in
China amounted to £6,815 14s. lOd. There were 125
paid agents and 73 unpaid—198 in all. There is no
mention of the number of baptisms or conversions in
the usual table of statistics; but, checking the figures
for 1900 by those of ’99, the church membership
shows an increase of 158—less than one per mis
sionary.
There is a striking uniformity in these
results, no matter the society or country with which
we are dealing.
The only other organisation calling for notice is the
Baptist Mission. This body employs in China 274
agents, who last year received from England
£11,244 19s. Id. In 1898 the agents numbered
298. These baptised 293 and lost 156, leaving a net
gain of 137. In 1899 the efforts were unusually suc
cessful, 271 agents securing a net gain of 352—an
average of abouff one and one-fourth of a convert per
missionary. There are no uncommon features about
the Baptist mission calling for special note, but there
are the same delusive general statements of progress
being made.
The Rev. C. Spurgeon Medhurst
visited 147 villages in ’98 in which preaching had
been carried on, but found converts in 26 only. The
same gentleman, writing a year later, has “no con
versions to report,” yet he is “ hopefully watching
inquirers who are groping towards the light,” and
“ confidently looks forward to annual baptisms by the
thousand after a few more years’ persistent work.”
And from the Rev. Mr. Burt comes the ingenuous
confession that “ Chang Chiu is a specially difficult
field owing to the superior social position of the
people”—a confession that has its i’s dotted and t’s
crossed by the Rev. Mr. Nicholls’ remark, that it is
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
43
“ in these stricken counties we have most of our
church members.” One need not look much farther
for the cause of people writing themselves down as
“ inquirers.”
A good illustration of the utter unreliabilty of the
statements contained in missionary reports concerning
the work done or the outlook before the missions is
contained in the following sentences from the Baptists’
Report for 1899, pp. 54-80 :—
“Notwithstanding all drawbacks, China to-day is one of the most hope
ful mission fields in all the world.... The Government of China, imperial
and provincial, by the stress of circumstances, is coming to be theprotectors
of missionaries and their work. The people of China are turning with
respect and desire to the message of the Gospel........There never was
such a spirit of inquiry in regard to Christianity as is manifested
now.”
To those acquainted with the history of missionary
work in China, such statements bear upon their face
the. impress of either ill-balanced enthusiasm or
deliberate misrepresentation; and had not recent
events decisively proved their falsity, such statements
might well impose on the class for whom these reports
are written. As it is, and in the light of Chinese
history during 1900, one can safely say that no man
moving among the Chinese people and coming into
continuous contact with Chinese officials could
honestly have written such words as the above. Such
a state of blindness, such inability to comprehend
feelings that must have been only too obvious, as the
writer’s belief in the statements quoted would imply,
is. simply incredible. There does not exist in my
mind the shadow of a doubt that such statements,
with many others of a similar kind that might be
quoted, are deliberately manufactured with a judicious
regard to their effect on home subscriptions.
The quality of the Chinese convert is as poor as the
quantity is limited. It would be too much to expect
the missionaries to dilate on this aspect of their work,
especially as their reports pass through the hands
of the home authorities, who naturally delete all
�44
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
that is most unfavorable to their enterprise. Still,
reading between the lines of the reports, some indi
cation may be found of the quality of the “ saved
souls.” I have pointed out above the motives animat
ing “ inquirers,” who seem to look on missionary
stations as charitable organisations run by a compound
of knavery and folly. They are ready enough to
avail themselves of the opportunity of an English
education, but, as the L. M. S. says, “A desire for
English education has sprung up, and knowledge of
the English language is eagerly sought for, both for
commercial and political reasons.......this movement
....... is mainly, if not entirely, secular in its inspira
tion and motive” (Report for 1897, p. 22). And in
the Report for 1900 it is said: “The present wide
spread movement in favor of English is not likely to
work much good to the Chinese race (i.e., not likely to
make Christians of them) so long as the vast majority
of those who study English do so for hand -to-mouth
commercial reasons” (p. 38).1 These admissions
effectually dispose of the schools as means of Christian
propaganda. The incident related on p. 26 of the
Report for 1896, where the converts turned the church
into a loan office, and refused admissions into the
church, so as to limit the profits to as few as possible,
also casts a curious side-light on the character of
Chinese Christians. In the light of these and similar
confessions, one can understand the lament of
Missionary Pearce : “It grieves me to see so little
apparent advance in things divine....... church mem
bership set down in the ‘ form of statistics ’ means, in
a large number of instances, only a weak type of
Christianity” (1900; p. 36). Nor is the suspicion
awakened by such expressions likely to be destroyed
by the feeble defence that the accusation of “ converts
1 Mr. Little says (work cited, p. 236) that “ In Ichang the Bibles that
are distributed broadcast are largely used for the manufacture of boot
soles,” and, further, that no respectable Chinaman would admit a mis
sionary into his house.
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
45
professing Christianity for what they can get ” is
untrue, “ except in a few cases.”
There is much
virtue in a “ few.”
A missionary, the Rev. Griffith John, who is de
scribed as the most experienced in China, openly
lamented “the lack of spiritual discernment in the
great bulk of his converts.
The truths that are
lodged in their intellects do not appear to move them
deeply.
Their spiritual nature is not intensely
quickened and greatly expanded by the things of
the Spirit of God, neither are their moral activities
powerfully energised by them” (quoted by Michie,
p. 3). The testimony of the C. M. S. Report fully
bears out this opinion. In West China, where forty
agents have twenty-two communicants after eight
years’ work, a woman had to be excommunicated
for practising sorcery as a means of livelihood
(p. 409), and at another station “the number of
baptised Christians was the same as in 1898, and
some of them were anything but satisfactory.” Many
“ expressed a desire to join ‘the religion,’ ” but “ their
motives, on investigation, were found to be unworthy ”
(p. 407)—a euphemism for “ on the make.” It is
admitted that “ inquirers come in from a variety of
motives—not ideal ones, perhaps ” (p. 386); and of
the Christians at Fuh Ang we read that, “of the six
or eight Christian shop-keepers in Fuh Ang city, not
one closes his shop on Sunday. Gambling by Christians
is at present also a great cause of sorrow to us ; not
only gambling, but gambling in which they invariably
win, proving they are professional tricksters. In the
more idle times.......they make a living in this way. I
am afraid, after some further trial, that a large num
ber of names will have to be struck off the rolls of
some of the Fuh-Ning stations” (p. 380). As the
total number on the rolls muster only ninety-two, the
prospect is a hopeful one. We read of one case of
conversion brought about by the desire of a woman to
have healthier babies (p. 410), while the following will
�46
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
well illustrate the mental calibre of both missionary
and convert:—
After feeling our way up a dark staircase... .we reached a very
dirty loft, where the girl lived
It was a very bad case; she had once
before been possessed, and the devil had been cast out by the prayer
and faith of Patience and others; but as soon a>s she was well she
returned to her idols, and her last state is worse than the first. At the
name of Jesus she sneered in a horrible way, and we really felt the
presence of the Evil One” (379).
It is useless to multiply instances. It will be seen
that. missionary work in China, both in quantity and
quality, runs on all fours with missionary work in
India. Only in China we have the added evil that we
are dealing with a foreign power, and the arbitrary
acts of fanatical evangelists in forcing upon a people
a religion they do not want and will not have serve
but to cast upon the nation an additional burden in
the shape of sending out troops to quell disturbances
that have been largely created by missionary zeal.
Missions in Japan.—From China to Japan is a
natural and an easy transition, although the transition
is far from a favorable one so far as missionary work
is concerned. Indeed, Japan is, perhaps, the most
hopeless case of all, since the societies have to face an
educated opposition that is fully alive to the nature of
European culture, and quite as fully opposed to the
Christian religion. In China the usual reason given
by missionaries for their failure is Chinese hatred of
Western ideas. In Japan this excuse is obviously
futile. If anything, the Japs are too eager to embrace
European ideas and customs ; and the really remark
able thing is that they have not been induced to take
Western religion along with Western culture. That
they have not done so, and do not intend doing so, the
following very brief review of the work in Japan will
prove.
Neither Baptists nor Methodists seem to have any
agents in Japan. There are American societies repre
sented there, with which we are not concerned; but
the principal English societies are the C. M. S. and
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
47
the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. This
last-named body had, in 1899, seventy-nine agents,
who baptised seventy-three adults—less than one per
missionary, without reckoning losses—and received
from England £2,812 9s.
The C. M. S., which
operates on a larger scale, had in Japan, in 1896, 206
agents ; in 1900, 241. The figures for the various
years are as follows :—In 1896, 206 agents baptised
292 adults ; in 1899, 249 agents baptised 296 adults ;
in 1900 the baptisms numbered 461. So much for
the gains ; now for the losses. In 1896 the communi
cants numbered 1,646 ; in 1900 they are returned at
1916. This gives us an increase of 270 in four years,
or an average of sixty-eight per year, the 270 costing
over £50,000. The losses seem more severe in recent
years.
Thus in 1900 the communicants actually
decreased by 117, which, when added to the 461
adult baptisms, gives a total decrease of 578.
In the face of these figures there is small wonder
that the reports have a somewhat pessimistic tone.
The ’99 Report sorrowfully admits that, “as a rule,
the upper and moneyed classes stand vigorously
aloof from Christianity ” (p. 374). Bishop Evington
writes that the work “ continues to bring us surprises
and disappointments, some of them cutting to the
quick, and, but for God’s promises, enough to plunge
us into despair ” (’96 Report, p. 368). Four years
later the same gentleman laments that many of the
catechists leave to get more money in Government
employ,, and “this finally leads to their deserting
their religion ”—a confession which throws a strong
light on . their reasons for embracing it. It is, too,
<£ a growing, conviction that our Japanese Christians
are lacking in a true sense of what is understood by
responsibility” (1900 Report, p. 431). Lapses are
far from uncommon. The Report for ’99 made much
of the case of “ a boy (who) fell in with Christians,” and
was “ longing for the day of his baptism” (p. 401) ;
but the 1900 Report informs us that the boy “ never
�FOREIGN MISSIONS :
came forward for baptism, and there was little
encouragement with the efforts to reach the women ”
(p. 447).
At Oyamada “ twelve families quietly apostatised,”
and there have been no adult baptisms for four years.
Mr. Brandram reports of Nobeoka : “ Some thirty
Christians were baptised. I really hoped that we
should have a strong church there,” but at present
“ only three show any signs of real faith. I do not
think we baptised hastily, but, whether we did or not,
things are very sad indeed there now....... Nobeoka is
a small town, and everyone knows everyone else, and
the Christians’ lives have not shown the excellence of
Christianity.”
The Rev. A. B. Hutchinson also reports : “There is
a constant lapsing or drifting away from our ranks.
This fading of the Christianity of individuals and
families is one of the saddest features in the story of
Missions in Japan.” A great deal of this state of
things is attributed to the spread of ‘ ‘ infidel litera
ture, which has been sent out in large quantities and
from Christian lands.” It is difficult to see the bear
ing of the cases cited of one “ educated and refined
gentleman, who said that he was searching after the
truth, but could not believe in the existence of God ” ;
of another who “ considered prayer to be a vain super
stition ”; or of a third who, when asked “ whether he
ever thought about his soul, replied : ‘We hardly ever
think about such things,’ ” unless it is to show the
effects of “ infidel literature.” It is, however, cheer
fully recorded that the children were quite willing to
hear “a very nice story,” and be shown a picture |
and the Rev. Mr. Pole records that he gave a series of
lectures “ on points of doctrine as maintained against
(1) the unorthodox sects, (2) the orthodox Noncon
formists, and (3) the Church of Rome.” What effect
this example of Christian amity was expected to have
on the Japanese is not clear ; but, as the same gentle
man notes, with evident pride at his own profundity,
�CHINA AND JAPAN.
49
that “ not more than three or four were able to follow
satisfactorily the details of the arguments,” it pro
bably makes little difference.
The prospect of Christianity in Japan is thus, on
all accounts, a tolerably hopeless one. Not only do
both Government and people treat Christianity with
that good-natured indifference, which is perhaps the
greatest obstacle to its diffusion, but they seem fairly
indifferent to religion in general. The Japs, while
taking their civilisation from Europe, have been cute
enough to distinguish between essentials and nonessentials, and have left its religious beliefs severely
alone. The schools of the country are completely
secular, no minister or preacher of any religion being
admitted therein.
Their regulations, according to
Archdeacon Shaw, one of the S.P.G. agents in Japan,
are framed “ with the deliberate design of removing
the children from all opportunity or chance of
religious instruction at the most impressionable period
of their life” (Report for ’99, p. 97). And the con
clusion of Mrs. Bishop is that “Interest (in Chris
tianity) had given place to indifference.......Agnosticism,
the result of Western education, was spreading enor
mously, and an educated Agnostic youth was a
‘ yellow peril,’ not to Japan alone, but to the whole
Far East ” (Newcastle Church Congress, 1900).
When to this we add the testimony of Professor
Chamberlain that the Japanese “bow down before the
shrine of Herbert Spencer” (Things Japanese,p. 821),
and of Professor Dixon, that “ Religious indifference
is one of the prominent features of new Japan” (Land
of the Morning, p. 517), it does not seem as though
the unveracious shibboleth of the evangelist, “the
Bible the source of England’s greatness,” is likely
to gain much of a foothold in the “ Great Britain of
the East.”
�50
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
V.
AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
The African Mission Field.—For many reasons
missionary work in Africa has superficially a much
more successful appearance than it has in many
other places. Of a lower culture than any of the
other nations we have passed in review, the
African is more easily impressed by the superior
knowledge of the whites, while his inherent supersti
tion renders the transition to Christianity less difficult
than it is with other people. Not that the number
of converts in Africa is ever in any sense great; a
glance at the results summarised below will show the
reverse ; but there is a certain air of success about
African missions delusive to all but those who know
the facts of the case. When these are ascertained,
one discovers that in the vast majority of cases all
that the missionary really accomplishes is the
breaking down of the old tribal restraints and virtues
without the creation of any adequate substitutes.
The African is brought into close contact with a civili
sation that has taken its possessors many centuries to
acquire, with the inevitable result that he embraces
nearly all its vices and passes unheeded all its
virtues.
Testimony on this head seems pretty general and
fairly conclusive. M. C. Comte de Cardi, in the appendix
to Miss Kingsley’s West African Studies, remarks that,
“ whilst fully recognising the efforts that the mission
aries have put forth in this part of the world, I regret
that I cannot bear witness to any great good they have
done” (p. 478). He further asserts that, while among
the females some were admirable for their decency
and good behavior, yet among the males he did not
meet a single one of whom he could speak favorably.
�\
AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
51
Mr. Scott Elliot declares roundly that the “ ordinary
mission boy is an unmitigated scoundrel.”1 In Cape
Colony, Natal, and the Transvaal one of the com
monest announcements following an advertisement
for a Kaffir “ Boy” is “No mission boy need apply.”
Even firms well known for their strong professions of
Christianity decline to employ converted Africans in
their stores. Sir H. H. Johnston, our present Special
Commissioner for Uganda, and a man of many years’
experience in Africa, says :—
“It too often happens that, while the negro rapidly masters the
rules and regulations of the Christian religion, he still continues to be
gross, immoral, and deceitful.... They (missionaries) may have
succeeded in turning their disciples into professing Catholics, Anglicans,
or Baptists, but the impartial observer is surprised to find that
adultery, drunkenness, and lying are more apparent among the con
verts than among their Heathen brethren.”2
And again :—
“I regret to say that, with a few—very rare—exceptions, those native
African pastors, teachers, and catechists whom I have met have been
all, more or less, bad men. They attempted to veil an unbridled
immorality with an unblushing hypocrisy and a profane display of
mouth-religion which, to an honest mind, seemed even more dis
gusting than the immorality itself. While it was apparent that not
one particle of true religion had made its way into their gross minds,
it was also evident that the spirit of sturdy manliness which was
present in their savage forefathers found no $lace in their false,
cowardly natures....
“It is not on the spread of Christianity that African missions can at
present base their claim to our gratitude, respect, or support.... In
many important districts where they have been at work for twenty
years they can scarcely number in honest statistics twenty sincere
Christians—that is to say, twenty natives understanding in any
degree the doctrines or dogmas they have been taught, and striving
to shape their conduct by their new principles. In other parts of
Africa, principally British possessions, where large numbers of
nominal Christians exist, their religion is discredited by numbering
among its adherents all the drunkards, liars, rogues, and unclean
livers of the colony.
In the oldest of our West African posses
sions all the unrepentant Magdalenes of the chief city are pro
fessing Christians, and the most notorious one in the place would
1 A Naturalist in Mid-Africa, p. 353.
2 Fortnightly Review, April, 1889.
�52
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
boast that she never missed going to church on a Communion
Sunday.”1
. Besides other drawbacks in Africa, Christian mis
sions' have also to compete with a rival missionary
faith in the shape of Mohammedanism. This is not only
a rival, but a successful rival. This greater measure of
success may be due partly to the presence of certain
elements in Islamism which are not present in
Christianity, and partly because it is free from contact
with drink, which is taken to Africa in such enormous
quantities by Christian nations. But the success of
the Mohammedan preachers as compared with
Christian evangelists seems unmistakable.
Mr.
Bosworth Smith, in his work, Mohammed and Moham
medanism, says:—
“ Nor as to the effects of Islam, when first embraced by a negro tribe,
can there be any reasonable doubt. Polytheism disappears almost
instantaneously; sorcery, with its attendant evils, gradually dies away;
human sacrifice becomes a thing of the past. The general moral
elevation is most marked ; the natives begin, for the first time in their
history, to dress—and that neatly. Squalid filth is replaced by a
scrupulous cleanliness; hospitality becomes a religious duty; drunken
ness, instead of being the rule, becomes a comparatively rare exception.
Though polygamy is allowed by the Koran, it is not common in prac
tice, and, beyond the limits laid down by the prophet, incontinence is
rare; chastity is looked upon as the highest, and becomes, in fact,
one of the commonest, virtues. It is idleness henceforth that degrades
and industry that elevates, instead of the reverse.... Christian
travellers, with every wish to think otherwise, have remarked that the
negro who accepts Mohammedanism acquires at once a sense of the
dignity of human nature not commonly found even among those who
have been brought to accept Christianity ” (pp. 32-5, 6).
Some of the most intelligent and powerful of the
African tribes, among whom may be named the Foulahs
and Haussas, are almost entirely Mohammedan. The
scarcity of Christian negroes in the Government
service is remarkable. And as to Mr. Smith’s further
statement, that “ one half of the whole of Africa is
already dominated by Islam, while, of the remaining
half, one quarter is leavened and another threatened
1 Nineteenth Century, November, 1887.
British Central Africa.
See also the same author’s
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
53
by it” is borne out by the statement of one of the
C. M. S. agents, that on the Niger “the Moham
medans are rapidly making converts, and the whole
country seems likely soon to give in its adhesion
to the false prophet” (Report 1900, p. 93). And
if Canon Isaac Taylor’s statement, that no Pagan
tribe in Africa which has accepted Islam has ever
yet fallen back on Paganism, or has ever yet
advanced to Christianity, be true, it would seem that the
faith of the “ false prophet ” does not experience the
constant drain in the shape of “ backsliders ” to
which Christianity is subject.
Conversions.—In Africa, for the reasons named
above, the “ conversions ” are, on the whole, more
numerous than in other places; but even here, if we
leave out one or two places, the results are strikingly
poor. Thus in the Sierra Leone district 186 agents
belonging to the C. M. S. received from England
£5,684 16s. 2d. and baptised 57 adults. In the Niger
district 65 agents received £11,908 15s. Id. and
baptised 97 adults. There is a standing announce
ment that over 4,000 have been baptised ; but, as the
communicants number at present only 313, one has to
count the balance, along with others, amongst the
lapsed.
In Eastern Equatorial Africa—excluding
Uganda — there are 154 agents who received
£12,177 9s. 3d. One of the agents writes that he
has been much struck by “the earnestness of the
people, the heart-hunger shown on the faces” (p. 100).
The best comment on this is that the 154 agents
succeeded in baptising 46 adults. Yoruba and Uganda
are the only two places in which large numbers of
** baptisms ” are reported. In Yoruba 181 agents
received £11,908 15s. Id. and baptised 501 adults.
Ia Uganda 1,551 agents report the baptism of 3,524
adults and received from England £14,477 19s. lid.
Altogether the C. M. S. has in Africa 2,137 agents.
During
1899
these
received
from
England
£57,512 12s. 6d. and reported the baptism of 4,225
�54
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
adults and 2,265 infants. Looking back for four
years, however, instead of the increase in communi
cants being over 20,000, as they should be if these
conversions were genuine, we find the increase to be
but 6,192, an average of 1,548, which means that
three out. of every four, after figuring in annual
reports, disappear.
The Wesleyan Methodists devote a large part of
their attentions to South Africa, where, unless rumor
belies them, they are not remotely interested in the
prospects of the Companies and the extension of
the British dominion. Owing to the disturbed state
of South Africa, and the consequent absence of reports,
I am bound to limit my survey to other parts of
Africa where this society is at work. No record of
baptisms for the year is given, and so one is compelled
to test the work by the growth of church members.
In Sierra Leone during 1899 there were 571 agents
and an increase of 156 church members, with an
expenditure of £3,351 Os. 7d., exclusive of money
locally raised. In the “ Gambia Section ” there has
been an increase of 57 with 70 agents. The Gold
Coast district reports an increase of 89 with 1,262
agents; while Lagos has an increase of 74 as the work
of 456 agents. The missionaries’ own admissions as
to the quality of these converts we shall see later.
The London Missionary Society has in Africa 61
agents, who received from England during 1899
£T2,903 Is. 4d. The growth in membership averages
about 76 per year. The attendance at church has
fallen since it ceased to be compulsory (p. 225,
Report for 1900), buta certain amount of business
seems to be done in making wardrobes, portable dark
rooms for photography, etc., for the European in
habitants (p. 223).
The Baptists employ in Africa 214 agents. The
cost of these to the London offices was ^15,041 10s. 7d.
Much money, however, seems to be raised locally,
of which no details are given. Thus, the mission
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
55
steamer earned in one year £350 carrying freight, and
there is mention of a large number of passengers
being carried also. In the matter of conversions,
during 1898 there were baptised 94 persons and lost
40. During 1899 the 214 agents baptised 120 and lost
58, leaving a net gain of 62. The Rev. S. C. Gordon
opined, in 1899, that “the mighty power of God was
working upon the people, and they are dissatisfied
with their heathen customs” ; but the only result of
the “mighty power” at this station, backed up by
ten agents, has been the baptism of three persons and
the loss of one. There is the usual lament concern
ing the “ very low tone of spiritual life evinced by
some of our church members,” and the Rev. A. E.
Scrivener writes expressing his belief that the
committee “will not be surprised to learn that,
although we [he and 46 assistants] had the joy
of baptising five young women about the middle of
the year, our numbers do not show any increase,
but a small decrease” (1900 Report, p. 99).
Quality of Converts.—The opinions given above
from outsiders concerning the quality of mission
converts is amply borne out on reading between the
lines of the various reports. The admissions made by
one society in a single year (C. M. S. Report, 1900)
will be enough to show this. Concerning the Niger
missions there is a standing lament, year after
year, that “ a higher standard of Christian life is
much needed”—an admission that anyone who has
visited that part of Africa will readily endorse. At
Lokoya, where there are thirty communicants after
ten years’ work, “ two yielded to temptation.......and
fell into sin ” (p. 91). On the profit side one of the
female inquirers has given birth to twin girls, “ which
has been a source of great joy to all Christians ”
(p. 90). At Frere Town, with twenty-eight agents,
there was one baptism, and the motives of “inquirers”
are amusingly sketched by Mr. Binns, who writes that
their principal object seems to be to gaze at themselves
�i
56
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
in looking-glasses, and wear the most creaky shoes
they could obtain (pp. 98-9). A number of ‘1 inquirers ”
who figured in the previous year’s report as giving
great hopes “ were removed from the register for
irregular attendance or misbehavior, and some of
the catechumens were struck off the rolls for grave
offences” (p. 113).
Other inquirers were “under
the yoke of strong drink” (p. Ill), and they were,
presumably, dismissed also. Perhaps one may regard
the villagers, who, for a whole year, prayed morning
and evening, and then, “ when nothing came of it,
they gave it up” (p. 74), or the statement that
“when the new Prayer Book arrived in the country
the part which seemed to have the greatest attraction
for the native mind was the calendar” (p. 123), as
evidences of the growth of a scientific spirit. The
permanence of the conversions is shown by the fol
lowing statement from Archdeacon Wilkes, writing of
Uganda, where the largest number of conversions are
made : “It is piteous at times to see how the work
falls off if the European who has been in charge is
removed, and to see that every advance has to be
made by the European missionaries urging the natives
on” (p. 121). As a matter of fact, a self-support
ing native church in any part of the world is a rarity.
All have to be kept going by European labor and
European money.
The eagerness of the African to get Bibles, etc.,
of which much is made in missionary reports, has
a curious light thrown on it by an experience of
Mr. Scott Elliot. Almost the first native he met
begged hard for a Bible. As he had not a Bible to
give, he presented the man with a book of another
description. He found subsequently that the native
was unable to read (Naturalist in Mid-Africa, p. 56).
The appeal for Bibles seems to be either a strategic
appeal for charity, or a desire to use them as fetishes
to ward off evil spirits. A similar instance is related
by Sir H. H. Johnson (Hirer Congo, p. 53). In this
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
57
case a native chief attended the chapel service, fol
lowed it with much apparent devotion, and at its
conclusion “promptly demanded the loan of a hand
saw to effect some alteration in his canoe.”
The North African Mission.—Before dismissing
Africa, it may be interesting to take a brief glimpse
at a small society, the North African Mission,
described in the Report of the Centenary Conference
as being enterprising and having “ most encouraging
prospects.” It will well illustrate the mental calibre
of the average missionary, as well as what mis
sionaries understand by “ most encouraging ”
prospects. This mission commenced work in 1885 ;
I have followed it since 1891, in which year the
income reached £5,695 10s. 3d., and the expenditure
£5,298 14s. 3d. Of this sum £6 4s. 6d. went to the
natives in gifts of food, etc., £313 12s. lOd. for the
maintenance of hospital and payment to servants, the
balance to missionaries at home and abroad. In 1895
the income had increased to £7,845 ; in 1899 to
£10,920 11s. 8d., the same proportion being main
tained between the various items.
There are no
exact statements of results in the shape of conversions
or members in any of the reports, although a
number of speeches are put into the mouths of
“ inquirers,” which are obvious fabrications to all who
know anything of Mohammedan life and character.
The following passages from the Reports for ’95 and
’99 will give an idea of the success of the mission—
the italics in each case are mine.
The Report for ’95 opens with the sorrowful
admission that there is “little to encourage in the
way of result,” and one has to compliment the writer
of the report on the accuracy of his summary. In
Morocco, where there are thirteen missionaries, the
work is summarised by Dr. Terry thus :—
Number of individuals who have heard the Gospel once..
Number who have heard it more" than a dozen times
..
Addresses given
..
..
..
..
..
..
2,500
250
420
�58
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
Gospels and testaments sent to all parts ..
Many hundreds
Baptisms
..
..
..
..
..
..
.. None
Conversions
..
..
None for certain, as far as we know
Yet the report calmly informs us in another portion:
“ Conversions there are by no means few or far
between.” From Tripoli, where there are five agents,
Mr. Reid thanks God for “giving me more than I had
asked or thought.” As the same gentleman writes,
“ I am not able to report any conversions, or even
any regular inquirers,” his requests of the Lord must
have been a minus quantity. One is not surprised to
learn that “ Although the gratitude for efforts put
forth for men’s bodies is so great as to be almost
embarrassing at times, the result of the preaching, on
the other hand, is very small.” The only conversions
mentioned occurred at Tunis. There are thirteen
agents there, and there have been “ signs of a great
spiritual advance.” This “ great spiritual advance ”
consists of three regular attendants, two of whom
“ have professed to be born again, and, though very
ignorant, they have lived consistently.” The third
one “shows much intelligent interest in the reading,
but we fear his mincl is not quite sound.” This seems
the net result of the year’s work—three attendants,
two ignorant and one mad.
The results recorded in the Report for 1899 are of
the same description: “In Tetuan there has been
encouragement.”
Some Spaniards have been con
verted—presumably from Roman Catholicism—but
the only gain from the non-Christian population is a
“ Moslem girl,” who said “ she was trusting Christ
for salvation.” There is the customary qualification
that she is “ young and ignorant,” which to anyone
but a missionary would seem to discount the quality
of the gain. This is the only case of conversion I
can discover. Mr. Reid writes cheerfully from Tripoli
that he and his five fellow missionaries “ are still not
able to speak of converts [after twelve years’ preaching}.
But we know a good work is being done.”
Mr.
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.’
59
Lilley writes from Tunis (twenty-five agents) that the
results are ££ To the outward eye very little,” but
“ one Arab has decidedly shown his faith in Christ by
his . consistent walk.”
Mr. Cuendet writes from
Algiers : ££ Apparently no Kabyle has been converted
in Algiers this year
but he has experienced several
wonderful indications, as per the following: “One day
I spoke very plainly to a young man of whom I had
great hope. He was very much impressed, and I
could see tears in his eyes. But since that day he has
not come to the meetings, and 1 have not seen him again.
I firmly believe the Lord will follow such souls.” Mr.
Lochhead writes that he “ spent six months in Scotland,
and had many opportunities of telling of God’s work
in Africa ”—in Scotland. He laments that “ it is not
ours as yet to report definite conversions among the
people (after fourteen years’ preaching), but in due
season we shall reap if we faint not.” Finally, Dr.
Churcher writes : ££ Specially do we need help for
those too sick to work and too poor to feed themselves,
who come to us and simply say £ UY are going to stay
with you till zve get better ’—and that seems about the
limit of their interest in the mission.” Perhaps, how
ever, the palm for satire has to be given to the text
printed on the front page of the annual statement—
“ Who hath believed our Report ?” It is evident that
Mohammedans can rest in safety beneath the assault
of the North African Mission. As a matter of fact,
the number of converts to Islam in England during
the last ten years far exceeds those brought from
Islamism by the N. A. M. Yet this is a mission which
is glibly referred to as having “ most encouraging
prospects.”
Is it incurable stupidity or deliberate
knavery that is responsible for such statements ?
Palestine—Mier what has been said of the chief
centres of missionary enterprise, we need give but
a brief glance at the work in purely Mohammedan
centres. . There is, too, such a wearisome monotony
about missionary reports and statistics that one is far
�60
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
from doing an injustice to missionaries in assuming
that the known is a fair sample of the unknown.
In Palestine the C. M. S. has 177 agents. One of
the agents, writing in the Report for 1900, says :
‘ ‘ When I look back upon the twenty-three years that
I have been in the country, I am simply wonderstruck at the very great results........ There is no doubt
that the door to the Moslems is opening more and
more, especially here in Jerusalem" (pp. 154-5). Let
us see what these “very great results” are. I have
four years’ reports lying before me ; they work out as
follows:—
Year.
1895
1896
1899
1900
Agents. Adult Baptism.
149
151
174
177
.....
...
...
.. ..
0
2
6
1
...
...
Expenditure.
£
s. d.
16,011 9 2
15,006 3 3
18,790 16 8
16,710 14 11
Here, then, are the “ very great results ” that
reduce the missionaries to a “wonder-stricken” state.
Over 150 missionaries in four years have succeeded
in baptising nine adults, for performing which feat
they have received from England over sixty-six thousand
pounds—an average cost of over seven thousand
pounds per convert.
The Baptists have in Palestine thirteen agents. In
1899 these baptised five and lost three—net gain, two.
Yet Mr. El Karey, the missionary, writes “ that, not
withstanding the opposition—much bitter opposition
by the Turkish Government, police, and soldiers—
the native Christian church grows ” (1899 Report,
p. 81). I suppose “ grows ” is accurate concerning a
church that gains two in a year, with thirteen people
working; but it strikes one as being unduly optimistic;
as also does the assurance from the same gentleman a
year later, that “ in many hearts the good seed of the
kingdom has not been sown in vain ” (p. 83).
Persia.—In Persia there are 59 agents belonging to
the C. M. S., to whom was sent L5,373 3s. 9d. During
1899 twelve adults were baptised, and the Rev. Mr.
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
61
Stileman writes: “We are now for the first _ time
(after 25 years) rejoicing over a whole family of
Persian Christians.” Bishop Stuart writes gloomily
that “ we are as yet only gathering out the stones,”
and that “ there is little to report save that we are
holding on.” Evidently the “ heathens ” are holding
off. Miss Bird more optimistically writes that “ in Jaffa
and Ispahan the work is growing steadily.” There is a
certain feminine diplomacy about Miss Bird’s report.
Undoubtedly the work is growing, but as to the con
verts, that is another question. There has been an
increase of fourteen communicants in four years.
In Egypt there were in 1899 45 agents; in 1900
54. In two years they have succeeded in baptising
one adult, for which performance they have received
from England about £12,000.
There are several
“ promising ” cases, however, of which the following
may be taken as a sample. It concerns “ A great
change witnessed in a Mohammedan boy about
eleven years old. He was brought into the hospital,
and did not know the difference between God and
Mohammed. He became interested, and begged for
a New Testament to take home with him. He could
not read, but,” says the missionary, “he went off to
his far-off village carrying his book, and said to me,
‘ I will never forget Jesus—never.’ We have not seen
him since” When such a remarkable result brought
about in a youngster eleven years old is thought worthy
of chronicling, one can form a fair estimate of the
character of the unrecorded work. For Arabia, where
there are thirteen agents, there is no report of any
thing in the shape of converts since 1897. But as
during that year the thirteen failed to convert anyone,
doubtless there is nothing to report.
Converting the Jews.—A survey of foreign mis
sionary work would be incomplete without some
reference, however slight, to the most curious of all
missions—those for Christianising the Jewish race. In
England there are eight of these societies, employing
�62
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
294 agents. Scotland possesses five, with 71 mis
sionaries ; even Ireland counts one—the Irish Pres
byterian Mission to the Jews, with 27 missionaries.
Each of these societies sends agents to different parts
of the world, wherever there are any number of Jews
worth noting. I intend taking but one society—the
London Society for Promoting Christianity amongst
the Jews—as a type of the whole, and in so doing I
am putting the work in its most favorable aspect, since
it. is the largest and wealthiest and most successful
of all. And to make it easier for those who are
interested enough in the subject to test the truth of
what follows, I intend dealing at length with the
movement in England only, where it is conducted
under the most favorable conditions.1
The London Society for Promoting Christianity
amongst the Jews—or, as it has been not inaptly
called, “ The Society for Turning Bad Jews into
Worse Christians ”—employed during 1898-9 63 paid
missionaries, 12 missionaries’ wives, and 18 honorary
workers.
The expenditure for that year was
£38,439 14s. lid. ; for 1899-1900, £36,601 5s. lid.,
about half of which sums is spent in Great Britain.
There are eight clergymen acting as district secre
taries, who are credited with receiving between them
£2,435 19s., and two general secretaries, the filev. W.
Fleming and the Bev. W. T. Gidney, who take £833
annually. One striking feature about this type of mission
1 I append, however, the following brief summary of work and
results in various other parts of the world from the Report for 18991900
Place.
Agents.
Baptisms.
Expenditure,
x s. d.
Austria..............
2
....
0
....
285 18 4
France ..............
3
....
3
....
569 6 11
Holland ..........
2
....
1
....
617 8 2
Rome..................
2
....
0
....
400 15 8
Constantinople..
8
....
0
....
947 14 2
Smyrna..............
3
....
0
....
428 9 8
Jaffa..................
2
....
0
....
377 7 9
Persia ..............
13
....
4
....
1,033 7 6
Damascus..........
7
....
0
....
689 12 7
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
63
is the number of military men who are associated with
it. Thus, out of four vice-presidents three are military
officers, and out of a committee of 19 no less than
eight are drawn from the same class. It would be an
interesting inquiry to determine how far several years’
service under an Indian sun is causally connected
with this frenzied eagerness for the conversion of the
Jews.
There are no tables stating how many baptisms
pave taken place during the year ; but, as far as one
can make out, by checking the different cases reported,
there were 28 in 1898, of whom 20 were children,
and 25 in 1899, of whom 9 certainly were, children.
The total is certainly not more than 25, although, owing
to the manner in which the Report is drawn up, there
may be less. Thus, the 28 mentioned in the ’99 Report
appear and disappear like lightning-change artists in
a music hall. Page 7 gives the 28 at one sweep ;
page 8 gives an instalment of a score; page 10 gives
two instalments of 11 and 9 respectively; page 12
impresses the reader with one batch of 5 and
another of 2; and, finally, page 21 lands another
instalment of 4. By this method 28 baptisms—
20 of which are children—appear as sixty-nine. The
Report does not actually state that number, but it
conveys that impression, and probably not by
chance.
In round figures—excluding children—the converts
work out at about £1,100 per head, each one repre
senting a year’s labor of six individuals. Not a very
startling result, even if all the cases baptised were
genuine, and remained Christian after their conversion.
But neither assumption will bear examination. It is
significant that the converts are drawn almost
entirely from among the indigent foreign Jews.
The better-class Jews—better intellectually or socially
—will have nothing to do with the missionary, as is
confessed by the agents over and over again. In the
Report for 1899 Miss Dora Barry confesses she has
�64
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
“tried to reach a Jewish family of the better class,
but, though I have been again and again, I cannot
gain admittance.” Miss Barry has evidently found
the task of converting the Jews a hopeless one, as I
see by the current Report that she has retired. Mr.
G. Priestly writes plaintively that the attitude of the
Jews “towards me is one of supreme contempt”
(p. 23). Mr. Bachert also says: “I have met on
several occasions Jews of high intellectual calibre who
have forsaken Judaism, not, however, to enter the
Christian Church.”
And a year later the same
gentleman laments that his labors have been marked
“ with no perceptible progress so far as admittance
into Jewish houses of the better class of Jews is
concerned.” Yet, inface of the paucity of conversions
and these admissions, the Rev. E. H. Lewis calmly
writes: “ All Jews residing in the United Kingdom
do feel after Christianity” (p. 45), and Mr. Priestly
writes in all seriousness that Jews have told him that
the one thing that keeps them from baptism is that
“ Christianity is so perfect that it is fit for angels in
heaven only, not for men on earth ” (p. 29).
The class of Jews who become converted, and the
reason for their conversion, are pointed out quite
clearly, albeit unconsciously, by the missionaries
themselves. In the Report for 1899 the Rev. E. T.
Sherman states that during the year he was visited
by about twenty Jews, “ some for help, others as
pedlars.'” In the Report for 1900 Mr. Bachert writes :
“ I have received a good number of visits from Jews,
but they were of the poorer class; some came from
sincere motives, others for what they could get ”
(p. 17). “ The Wanderer’s Home,” at Bristol, seems
to be taken by Jewish tramps quite literally, and Mr.
Eppstien writes that the applicants for admission
come, “ some with pure, others with interested
motives” (p. 28). The Rev. J. Lotka writes from
Birmingham that after the Christmas services cloth
ing was given away to adults and toys to children,
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
65
and then proceeds to say everything in the following
passage :—
“ Most of the Jews who attended the Bible classes... .were such as
have no abiding place anywhere. They go about from town to town
in search of work, or under the pretence of doing so, and call on the
missionary in the hope of receiving assistance, just as they would call
on the Jewish Board of Guardians. To such Jews—and their number
is legion—the Mission House is a sort of house of refuge. They come
there seeking shelter from the cold of winter and the heat of snrrnnsr.”
After this further citations would be superfluous.
Of course, to those who know anything of the work
ings of the various missions to the Jews, it is no new
information that its converts are practically bought.
In many cases the missionaries lie in wait for the poor
downtrodden specimens of humanity that land here
from “Holy Russia”; in other cases they do not
hesitate to entice young people away from home, more
than one case of this kind having come under my
own observation. But in the majority of cases the
converts are simply professional “ Schnorrers ”—
cadgers who have drained Jewish charitable organisa
tions of all that they feel inclined to give. When
further help from this source is refused the commonest
of all threats is that they will apply to the mission for
help. Sometimes the threat serves its purpose, at
other times it fails. In the latter case a visit is paid
to a mission, and a fresh addition is made to the list
of “ inquirers.” Having in many cases gone through
the same mill himself, the missionary usually knows
well enough the motives animating the applicant, but
it suits his purpose to assume that he has a genuine
case. All the missionaries tabulate the number of
“ inquirers ” they receive, and this term is elastic
enough to cover anything and everything—from the
man who asks a question out of idle curiosity to the
one who is on the eve of baptism. A more or less
regular allowance is given to these inquirers from the
various funds for assisting poor Jews, and the
potential convert is usually willing to keep on'
“ inquiring ” as long as the allowance holds out.
D
�66
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
Sooner or later, however, the allowance ceases.
After the individual has served the agent’s purpose
of. figuring in one or two annual reports as an
“inquirer,” he must either be baptised or leave;
even after baptism he is got rid of as speedily as pos
sible, save under exceptional circumstances.
A favorite plan among many missionaries is to visit
a possible convert in the guise of a brother Jew,
sympathise with him on his poverty, his ignorance of
English, and offer to find him a place where he will
be found work and taught English. In such cases
the capture is drafted off to the “ Operative Jewish
Converts’ Institution,” or some similar place, and
for a time set to work for a small sum weekly.
But here he cannot remain for more than about six
months, unless he accepts Jesus. Many leave ; a few
remain and agree to conversion. During the time
of probation all goes well. After being baptised and
paraded in the Annual Report as a convert, trouble
begins. The object is to get rid of him so as to make
room for new comers. Ultimately, in spite of the
original promise that he would be employed for at
least three years, the poor devil is got rid of on some
pretext or other, and what becomes of him afterwards
the Society neither knows nor cares. In a few cases
a situation is found for him, and in a still smaller
percentage of cases he is trained as a missionary,
although it is a significant commentary upon his
character that the field of labor allotted to him is
one in which he is not known.
I have said that the Society neither knows nor cares
what becomes of its “converts.” I ought to qualify
the statement by saying that it often knows, but does not
care, for in a vast majority of the cases the baptised
Jew usually rejoins a Jewish community in this or
some other country where his career is unknown.
Indeed, one can safely challenge any of the societies
for converting the Jews to put their hands upon
ten per cent, of their converts who are leading
�AFRICA, AND ELSEWHERE.
67
Christian lives five years after they have been erased
from their pension list.
I have in my possession
documentary evidence of the destinies of a great
many of these converts on whose behalf the British
public have been bled, but for obvious reasons do not
care to disclose them.
Let the Society, however,
accept my challenge, and the accuracy of my descrip
tion of their methods of working can soon be
demonstrated.
To return to the reports. Although the number
and quality of the converts reported leave much to be
desired, yet there are some wonderful results other
wise. Dr. Ellis, the head of the London staff, reports
that during the year his agents have given away
“ 146 Bibles, 262 portions, 344 New Testaments,
1,231 portions, and 5,403 tracts.” This is evidently
a branch of the work that admits of indefinite exten
sion, although the ordinary door-to-door bill distributor
might show a larger record, at about two shillings per
day. Dr. Ellis also held “ discussions and conversa
tions ” with 291 Jews during the year. The conclu
sion to be drawn from this fact is not indicated ; pro
bably it is quoted as some sort of confirmation of
Judges xv. 15-16. The Bev. A. Bernstein also reports
“interesting religious conversations,” and the com
pilers of the report select “ the following instances of
encouragement from the Bev. Mr. Denman’s experi
ence 5—
** * I have quite altered my views about Isaiahliii.,’ said an educated
Jew....1 (But) I am quite content to leave all to the mercy of God, and
not question how He made atonement.’
“Another Jew asked me to write out for him, to read quietly, the
proofs that our Lord was descended from David, and was the son of
Mary. This was the result of many conversations, and has led to
further talk.
One Jewish medical man... .who cannot grasp the Deity of Christ
in the New Testament, is reading a book I lent him called Jesus is God.
He says he thinks a great deal more about the facts of Christianity
than I imagine.”
A. sense of humor seems needed with Mr. Denman.
The Bev. N. Herz notes that “ one blessed result
�68
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
of our united endeavors is, that in no previous year
have so many copies of the Scripture been given
away.” The Rev. Paul Bendix noted in 1897 the
“ significant sign that many Jews at present take
part in the celebration of Christmas, not religiously,
but socially.” Nothing seems to escape the lynx-like
vigilance of this gentleman, for in 1899 he notes : “It
is a fact that some of them have a Christmas-tree.”
Here is progress indeed ! First Christmas festivities,
then Christmas-trees; soon we may expect to see the
Jews of Highbury celebrating the birth of Jesus by
getting drunk “ allee samee Clistian,” as Bret Harte’s
Chinaman would say. Mrs. Guttmann, a lady worker
in the same district, gets on remarkably well. She
visited 2,000 houses during the year, there were 2,093
persons seen and spoken to, 200 portions of New and
■Old Testaments given away. “ Some of them are read
and returned without comment, others are brought
back with various expressions of regret or approval.”
Similar wonderful results might be quoted from pro
vincial missionaries, but these will serve. When
we have such absurdities as the above quoted as
“ instances of encouragement,” one almost despairs
of human sanity or honesty. Yet this is all the
society has to show as the result of a year’s work
in Great Britain! Is the game worth the candle ?
To those who manage to squeeze a living out of the
movement, probably yes ; but what of the general
public ? How long will it take to convert 8,000,000
Jews at the present rate of increase ? How much will
it cost to convert them at the present rate of payment ?
And how much are they worth when they are con
verted ?
Of all Christian missions, that for the conversion
of the Jews has the least justification for its existence.
Other missions may plead that they are at least taking
to lower races the elements of higher secular civilisa
tion, and that by the introduction of fresh habits
these people will be ultimately benefited. The Mission
�CONCLUSION.
69
to the Jews can plead no such extenuation. I do
not see it even claimed that the Jew becomes better,
either individually or socially, as a result of his
adopting Christianity. What he was before his bap
tism, that he remains afterwards. The whole object
of these missions is at best a theological one; what it
is at worst I leave those who have read the foregoing
pages to say.
VII.
Conclusion.—Every task must end somewhere, and
mine must, at any rate for the present, end here.
I
do not pretend that the foregoing brief review of the
missionary movement has by any means exhausted
the subject. A great deal might be written concerning
the deliberate misrepresentation of the life and customs
of the people among whom the missionary resides ;
an offence that is particularly grave when dealing
with people like the Chinese or the inhabitants of
India. I have referred to this matter but slightly
for two reasons : first, because I have not wished the
mind of the reader or the attention of any possible
critic to be distracted from the real point at issue—
namely, the quantity and quality of the converts
gained; and, secondly, because, if I had dealt with
that aspect of the matter, I should have needed a
large volume instead of a small pamphlet. But I do
not think anyone who studies the lives of the non
Christian peoples, as depicted by non-missionary
writers, can doubt the truthfulness of Miss Kingsley’s
statement, that the missionaries draw distorted pic
tures of the people they seek to convert, in order to
bring in subscriptions at home.
There are,, too, several aspects of missionary life—
particularly in South Africa—-upon which I have not
dwelt, for the reason that, although sure of the
facts myself, and with the full belief that there is
�70
FOREIGN MISSIONS:
proof enough to command the assent of any impartial
jury, yet I am at present lacking the necessary docu
mentary evidence to demonstrate the truth of charges
that might be made. I have preferred to make no
statement that was not supported by positive proof;
and, as readers will have observed, in most cases the
proofs are taken direct from the reports of the missionary
societies.
As it is, I do not think that anyone who carefully
considers the bearing of the foregoing pages will
assert that there is anything like an adequate return
for the huge expenditure of energy and money that is
going on year after year. I know all that may be
said about “the devoted men and women who sacri
fice the comforts of civilisation,” etc., etc. I know
that it is true in some cases, and I know that in others
it is the veriest drivel that ever found vent. There is
no more hardship in the life of the average missionary
abroad than in that of the average white man in the
same country, and often not so much.
The latter
usually faces all the dangers faced by the missionary,
and is without a great many of the compensating
pleasures enjoyed by the preacher. Nor is it any
reply to what I have said to argue that certain secular
benefits flow from the presence of the missionaries.
Every movement has to be tested by the success with
which it achieves its object, not by the incidental results
of its work. The object of the missions is to make
Christians, and it is by their success in this direction
that they have to be judged.
Not that I am willing to admit that there is any
great good done by the missionaries in any direction ;
at any rate, the good is not at all commensurate with
the efforts put forth. And it may well be questioned
whether the probable good done by spreading a slight
knowledge of English or of Western science in India
or China is not more than balanced by encouraging
sectarian feelings in the one case, and breeding inter
national animosities in the other. It is surely far
�CONCLUSION.
71
from an insignificant fact that the white people
resident in China or India or Africa are usually those
who speak most slightingly of the benefits of mis
sionary work. A great deal of praise is bestowed upon
it by the clergy at home, and by a number of old
ladies—of both sexes—at Exeter Hall meetings ; but
those on the spot think generally but little of it. That
I am not overstating the case will be seen from the
following sketch of the attitude of the average AngloIndian, drawn by no less a personage than the Rev.
Principal Fairbairn. The sketch was intended as a
satire, but it nevertheless expresses the truth:—
“ The orthodox Anglo-Indian, though possibly himself a Christian,
must believe that Christianity produces the most disastrous results in
India. He should remember that the natives already possess two
excellent religions of their own—i.e., Hinduism and Islam. He should
point out that almost invariably converts to Christianity spring from
the lowest orders of the people, and that the hope of financial gain is
the main inducement towards baptism rather than any real conversion
of the heart. He should himself, as an official, be very careful to
abstain from even a suspicion of in any way favoring Christians; and,
as they are, of course, worse than other natives, he will neither
employ them as household servants himself nor suffer others to do so
without warning them of their folly.”
Although intended as satire, I do not think it can
truthfully be questioned that the above is a fair picture
of the attitude of the average European resident in
India towards missions. And what is true of India is
equally true of China. If the presence of mission
aries in China were to be determined by the votes of
the white residents, they would be withdrawn at once.
Even in the case of uncivilised races, it may be
questioned whether the forcing on them of European
customs is a real benefit. Let us take a single illus
tration of the least injurious effect of Christianising
the lower races as depicted by Lord Stanmore, late
Governor of Fiji1:—
“In the centre of the village is the cricket field, a desolate expanse
of dry earth, on one side of which is the church, a wooden barn-like
1 Speech at St. James’s Hall, May 31, 1894, reported in the Daily
Chronicle. for June 1.
�72
FOREIGN MISSIONS :
building. If entered, it will be found filled with crazy benches;
beyond them rises a huge octagonal pulpit, in which, if the day be
Sunday, we shall find the native minister arrayed in a greenish black
swallow-tail coat, a neckcloth, once white, and a pair of spectacles
which he probably does not need, preaching to a congregation, the
male portion of which is dressed in much the same manner as him
self, while the women are dressed in old, battered hats and bonnets,
and shapeless gowns like bathing-dresses, or, it may be, crinolines of
an early type. Chiefs of influence and women of high birth, who in
their native dress would look, and do look, the ladies and gentlemen
they are, are, by their Sunday finery, given the appearance of atten
dants on Jack-in-the-Green. Hard by is the school where, owing to the
proscription of native clothing,1 the children appear in tattered rags, under
the tuition of a master whose garments resemble those of an Irish scare
crow, and is probably repeating a list of English counties, or some similar
information equally useful to a Polynesian Islander.... The whole life of
these village folk is one piece of unreal acting. They are continually ask
ing themselves whether they are incurring any of the penalties entailed
by infraction of the long table of prohibition, and whether they are
living up to the foreign garments they wear. Their faces have, for the
most part, an expressionof sullen discontent; they move about silently
and joylessly, rebels in heart to the restrictive coils on them....... They
have good ground for their dissatisfaction. At the time when I visited
the villages I have specially in my eye, it was punishable by fine and
imprisonment to wear native clothing; punishable by fine and im
prisonment to make native cloth; punishable by fine and imprison
ment to smoke tobacco; punishable by fine and imprisonment to make
the native beverage kava; punishable by fine and imprisonment to
wear long hair or a garland of flowers; punishable by fine and im
prisonment to wrestle or to play at ball; punishable by fine and
imprisonment to build a native-fashioned house; punishable not to
wear shirt and trousers, and, in certain localities, coat and shoes also;
and in addition to laws enforcing a strictly puritanical observation of
the Sabbath, it was punishable by fine and imprisonment to bathe on
Sundays. In some other places bathing on Sundays is punishable by
flogging, and to my knowledge women have been flogged for no other
offence, by order of a native teacher, whose action was by no means
so decidedly disapproved by his white superior as it should have been.
Men in such circumstances are ripe for revolt, and sometimes the
revolt comes.”
With this picture before us, which contrasts
curiously with the missionaries’ reports, one may well
query whether the life of the Polynesian Islanders
has, after all, experienced much of a change for the
better by the introduction of a new religion. The
truth is that the missionary is far too apt to measure
1 A regulation not probably unconnected with the desire to push the
sale of Manchester cottons.
�CONCLUSION.
73
the morality of a race by the readiness of a people to
repeat the shibboleths of his own particular faith,
rather than by any common-sense standard of human
well-being; and one finds over and over again that
customs, harmless enough in themselves, become in
the mouths of missionaries evidence of gross immo
rality, and their suppression proof of unqualified
improvement.
But it is the gratuitous character of these missions
that strikes the outsider most forcibly. The people do
not want the faith of the missionary, and, as the figures
show, a great many of them will not have it, and on
the strength of their own statements but few are the
better for accepting it. According to Mr. Little, the
bulk of the Chinese people believe that all Europeans
are wealthy. Their reason is that it seems to them
that when people are so anxious to put things right so
many thousands of miles away from their native land,
they can have little that is wrong at home.
The
Chinese seem to me to be fairly reasonable in their
contention. There is something in the Gospels about
removing the beam from one’s own eye before clearing
the mote out of another’s ; and surely, while there are
so many wrongs to right, so much misery that needs
alleviating, so much ignorance that needs dispelling
at home, it is sheer folly—to use no harsher term—
to spend millions of money and waste the energies of
thousands of men and women on a movement in which
folly, knavery, and stupidity are almost inextricably
mingled—a movement in which the presence of a
handful of earnest but misguided individuals serves as
a cloak for crowds of office-holders, and others of a
still more dangerous description.
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Foreign missions : their dangers and delusions
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Cohen, Chapman [1868-1954]
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Missionaries
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Missionaries
Missions
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T
E
T
s
ON
THE WING.
BRIEF NARRATIVE OF MY TRAVELS AND LABORS AS A MISSIONARY
SENT FORTH AND SUSTAINED BY THE ASSOCIATION
OF BENEFICENTS IN SPIRIT LAND.
.'j;
' ■
BY
JOHN MURRAY SPEAR.
PREFACE BI ALLEN PUTNAM.
BOSTON:
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY,
No. 14 Hanover Street.
1873.
�Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873,
By
WILLIAM WHITE & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
Stereotyped at the Boston Stereotype Foundry,
No. 19 Spring Lane.
�PREFACE.
BY ALLEN PUTNAM.
Careful students of the spiritualistic literature which
the last twenty-five years have been furnishing, have noticed
from time to time allusions to,' and occasionally rather distinct
accounts of, extensive a^Mations of spirits in the spirit world,
whose special purpose was and is to devise and use ways and
means for systematic and extensive action, upon men, with a view
to reform and improve the religious, civil, social, domestic, and
individual conditiorM the dwellers Upon earth.
In his “ Present Age and Inner Life,^beginning at page 82,
A. J. Davis gives interesting descriptions of his visions of “ The
Spiritual Congress,” its readings of the prominent nations on the
earth, its prophecies concerning many of them, and its purpose to
come nearer to earth/*-to do whatsoever good thing we find to do
with one accord, for so shall at last Eternal Justice be done on
Earth as it is in Heaven.” Methods of associated spirits in
acting upon men are hinted at in “ Twelve Messages,” by John
Quincy Adams, page 417. Allusion is made to an u assemblage
of spirits,” by Dr. Hare, page 14, in “ Spiritualism Scientifically
Demonstrated.” The fact of such associations is most promi
nently presented, however, in the “ Educator,” embracing com
munications through John M. Speaa^where the “ General As
sembly,” which seems but a large committee appointed by the
“Spiritual Congress,” have outlined the projects of the spirit
world for improving the condition of men more fully than in any
other work that the writer has seen. This very large General
3
�4
PREFACE.
Assembly subdivided itself into at least seven sub-associations,
each having its specific field of labor.
One of these committees was called the “Association of
Beneficents,” consisting of Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin,
and ten others of kindred spirit, who chose and set apart John M.
Spear to be their scribe, “ to execute their schemes, and to com
plete their beneficent intentions 5 ’land they sent him forth, “ with
out scrip,” and have kept him journeying up and down over the
earth for twenty years, calling,, under impression, upon numerous
people, giving huge volumes of communications, most of which
have been recorded, have i»iusweleased him from his position
as their scribe and communicator, asked from him a brief out
line report of his doings, and requested him to submit it, for in
spection and revisal, to myself. The reader will find the work a
simple and interesting narrative, by a man of fidelity and faith —
showing how the invisibles can sustain those who confide in them
without any misgivings.
The writer has had tatter intimate knowledge of very many
mediums for spirit communkjaiTo'ns, but among them all, of no
other one who seemed to him so trustful of the wisdom, power, and
beneficence of his spirit gyles and controllers as Mr. Spear. In
him has been manifested the nearest approach I have ever seen to
that Abrahamic faith which could raise the knife to slay one’s
son at the bidding of a supermundane call. He is the only
medium whom I ever heard say to the spirits, “I am entirely
at your service—do with me, and through me, whatever you
judge to be useful to my iellow-m@n.” They seem to have taken
him at his word, and his submission has indicated the sincerity of
his devotion. His trials and buffetings have been most severe.
The thorough fitting of him for his work apparently required him
to sever all old domestic and social ties, even by processes which
caused him to be despised of ^nen*—of most men ; though a few
who knew the source and purpose of his eccentricities could ap
preciate and sympathize with the suffering philanthropist. It
was from the outset, and has been for more than twenty years, my
�PREFACE.
5
privilege to know enough to secure for him my sympathy in his
most-intense mental and affectional agonies, and my admiration
of a man who would submit to be dumb as the lamb in the hands
of its shearers, because of his unfaltering faith in the wisdom and
love which chastened and molded him, that he might become a
better instrument for benefiting his fellow-men.
If the question be put, whether it is right for one thus to sur
render his individuality,/tfaejgse reply seems to be, that it is not;
yet we must either admit exceptions, or be severe in our condem
nations of Abraham, when he made preparation to sacrifice his
son, and commendatory of Jonah for his attempt to get away from
the presence of the HLord by taking ^voyage at sea.
Sending the thoughts off bEoad^ oy<ar the fields of spirit reve
lation and history, and letting {teem generalize the apparent
teachings, a fair s tatement QfiTth!e1m »iS^ be substantially this :
The different associations of beneficent spirits, though having a
common benevolent pufeppse toward men, can best accomplish
their work by causing the® human fesSuments to misunderstand
each other, become somewhat at variance, move in quite distinct
paths, and be kept to a great e-x^^Mgnorant of each other’s do
ings. Some can be^ made most useful in the quiet home and
social circles ; some upon the rostrum and before the public;
others under the ban of society: these classes, and others into
which mediums might b®ii®|Hed^ become, or are made to become,
measurably rivals, and are not exempt from jealousies and re
criminations.
No one of all mediums whom-»®ve known came into the
field of mediumship with a better record for purity of morals, for
active beneficence, for devotion to whatever promised to relieve
human suffering, than Mr. Spear. For many years, as a clergy
man of good standing in the denomination of Universalists, and
especially as the prisoner’s friend, he labored in season and out
of season, in summer’s heats and winter’s colds, with the appro
bation, respect, and support of very many of the ablest and best
among the clergymen, the physicians, the lawyers, and the mer-
�6
PREFACE.
chants of Boston. I have full confidence that his purity and devo
tion to humanity’s good were then genuine, and that they have
never lessened in degree or character to this day. Whatever
seeming disregards of the proprieties or moralities may have
been manifested through his organism were not his own acts,
though most men, without conscious injustice, will hold him re
sponsible for them. He is to a greater extent than most others
an unconsciozis medium; has no knowledge of, and no control
over, any word or act of his lips or body when in the trance.
Such being his susceptibility, provided his controllers judged thatz
they could accomplish their work throughWhim better by making
him “despised and disesteemed of men,” they had power to
manifest such action through him as would bring him into con
tempt when tried by any human standard. Mediums of this
class may have less advantages for pefcSonaljpevelopment and
education than others, but they are obviouslyffirose through whom
spirit teachings come most free from adulterations or perversion,
and are therefore among the most reliable as reporters of spirit
utterances.
Once, before a vast crowd which had assemffed to hear him
lecture in a hall at Cleveland, Ohio, he was made to turn his back
to his audience and speak to the wall, Whether^is was because
the magnetisms flowing from the assembly were unfavorable to
control, or whether the spirits wished, by humiliating him, to ren
der him more pliant in their hands, or whether they had other
motives for it, has never been revealed. But such was their
usage of him.
His eccentricities are not discordant with many manifested
by prophets of former ages. All history, Jewish and Christian
as well as Pagan, teaches that seers and prophets were often
manifestors of unseemM| and sometimes of uncleanly actions,
admissible only by maniacs. Read of Saul as a prophet, and you
will find that when the spirit^as*upon him, he stripped off his
clothes in public, and “ lay down naked all that day and all that
night,” obviously acting in such harmony with the ordinary man
*
^z
?
�PREFACE.
7
ner of those who were subject to spirit control that his acquaint
ances asked in astonishment, “ Is Saul also among the prophets ? ”
Turn to the writings of Ezekiel and you will find that he was
made to lie on his left side three hundred and ninety days — then
on his right forty days, and that he received instructions for
preparing his food which it is indelicate to quote. He was
directed also to smother the deepest' affections. The spirit said
to him, “ Forbear to cry ; make no mourning for the dead; ” and
he adds, “ So I spake unto the people in the morning, and at
even my wife died.” MHfe case, as is in some others, the deep
est and holiest affections of mortal life must give way to the .free
exercise of mediumistic functions.
On the side showing the consequences of resisting the spirit,
look at Jonah. Trying to get away “from the presence of the
Lord,” that is, from the call of his controlling spirit, he paid his
fare for passage by ship to Tarshish; when out at sea he was
thrown overboawMEa^»owecWBv‘ amgreat fish,” vomited out
again upon dry land, and then made to prophesy that in forty
days Nineveh should be overthrown; yet, as the Ninevites re
pented, God
his threat made through his
prophet, and the^eSeMbnah was made to appear as a lying
prophet. This so maddened him that in his wrath he said, “ It
is better for me to die than to live;” and many a modern medium,
truthful and obedient, has been made to feel as much ashamed
and mortified at wh®w®|i b|||®>aiiWand done through them as
Jonah was.
The methods of invisible intelligences, who are obviously intent
on promoting the highest interests of men, are not always in full
accordance with
of expediency and right.
Their ways are not a^^S’ wafe. Frequently, when human
organisms are controlled by spirits for communicating with mor
tals, those organisms are made to manifest actions and utter
ances far from harmonious with the ordinary ways and speech of
the minds and hearts to whom such organisms specially belong.
Sometimes the ordinarily gross and sensual become proclaim-
�8
PREFACE.
ers of high spirituality in refined and polished diction — also, the
highly spiritual and refined are sometimes made to utter coarse
thoughts in offensive language, and to manifest almost beastly
disregard for the decencies of refined life.
Facts like the above furnish a just basis for very charitable
judgments as to the individual, personal character of those
ordinarily benevolent and estimable persons who are sometimes,
as mediums, made to do what sqeiety may justly censure. We
are so accustomed to consider whatever comes out through human lips as the offspring of the head and heart for which those
lips were especially formed, that we find it difficult to ascribe
them to any other intelligence. However it is essential to a just
judgment of persons whose outer organisms are highly mediumistic, that we overcome that difficulty, and look upon mediums, at
times, as only trumpets or pencils used by others than their own
ers, and not expressing the sentiments and thoughts of those who
ordinarily use them, but of some temporary borrower.
A. J. Davis, in his “ Present Age and Inner Life,” page 186,
says, “John M. Spear stands quite prominently before the
world‘as a missionary medium.’ Recommended, as he is, to
public credulity by virtue of his well-known truthfulness, sim
plicity, and uniform conscientious philanthropy of character,
his spiritual experience is particularly and generally interesting
and acceptable. According to my wrceptions of his state, he is
a compound medium —pulsatory, missionary, and
speaking. The most prominent manifestation, it seems to me,
and the most reliable in his case, is the missionary develop
ment.” The work from which the above extract is taken was
published in 1853, while the commission of Mr. Spear is dated
April 1, the same yearl| consequently the characterization was
written before Mr. Spear had scarcely entered upon his
special labors.
Those who have so long employed Mr. Spear, and have moved
the hearts of men to supply his needs, now, when he is permit
ted to put off the harness and seek the repose which his advanced
f
.
�PREFACE.
9
years and previous toil make very desirable, express a hope that
“ the readers of this narrative will give some substantial tokens
of their personal regards, and their appreciation of his numerous
love-labors,” for the purpose of helping him to a small, quiet,
comfortable home, where he may rest from active labor, and pass
his remaining days amid peaceful and happy social and domestic
enjoyments.
J
Allen Putnam.
J-*-*— '/> // g
426 Dudley Stre^ Boston, Oct. 20, 1872.
APPHNDiXU
Prophetical^ apprehending that such enunciations as are
contained in the
agaj^me feast amount of unpub
lished manuscripts emanating from the same source, will in future
ages be regarded as a rich collection of prophetic gleams, I am
disposed to make public a sample of what the spirit world is
purposing to accomplish. In 1859 there was transmitted to me
the following docum®HWM® the public is hardly prepared to
receive, though it must admit that it is pregnant with most
momentous suggestions.
�TO THE APOSTLE OF PRECISION.
It belongs to the unfoldive labors of the General Assembly to
teach of the vast field of adjustments and of true balance or Pre
cision. The papers now in the hands of the Assembly are quite
numerous, and some are most Intricate, and, to some extent, of a
character not usually laid before ®he public eye.
First. Of the origin and<g||||Ba of the human species, which
is a masterly effort by the author to show that man has been,
and, in harmony with certafe laws, can be again, generated with
out the ordinary copulative processes.
Second. And therefore a child may be begotten to order as one
begets a spade, shovel, or hoe ; and the work will be perfect in
correspondence with the Elementist who combines and arranges,
and with the condition-of the mother and the harmony and wis
dom of her surroundings, 1— and
Third. Scales can be so perfectly constructed that all varia
tions, however slight, may be seen by the mos| precise micro
scope ; and in this paper the history and variations of the com
pass are noticed by a careful microscopist, — and
Fourth. The reasons why there is a lack of sexual precision
on some planets, and why^ere is just sexual equipoise on other
planets, — and
Fifth. What elements are important to constitute precision
of life ? What to constitute a mathematician, what a surgeon,
what an engineer ? — and
Sixth. Of the overcoming of gravitation by the application of
electricity and the magnetlms, so that the steam-car can be made
to move with yet greater precision and increased velocity, — and
Seventh. Of the human <®ody as an electrical machine, and
acted uponby persons in the higher lifes, — and
Eighth. Of insulatory laws for certain practical purposes.
These and kindred subjects are considered by the Branch of
Precisionists, for and in b'ehalf of the General Assembly, and re
ports thereof are made at suitable seasons. The Apostle of Pre
cision is a middle man, and hence he has the ability to, as it
were, hit the mark, find both radicals and conservatives gather
about him, and he becomes to both an able counselor and valu
able guide.
For and in behalf of the Branch of Precision of the General
Assembly.
Isaac Newton.
Given September 17, 1859.
10
�NARRATIVE.
Retiring from the field of domestic and foreign
missions, in which I have been diligently and con
stantly employed Kor twenty years, and called now to
resign my commission to another, it is impressed upon
my mind to make a brief report of my labors, hoping
it may be of service to her who is to succeed me in
directing the missionary work; and it is felt also to
be due to the numerous friends with whom I have
been and am associated, and who, by their words and
deeds, have encouraged and assisted me. It is proper
to say that my labors have been performed in Faith.
Very few have so understood my mission that they
could give me either counsel or assistance, and there
fore my trust has been in the invisible world. Most per
sons have doubted if the spirits from whom I claimed
to have received my commission, had even an exist
ence, and not a few considered me deluded, if not
demented, when I assured them it was my belief that
they did exist, did communicate, and had organized
to promote certain specified purposes.
The association by whom I was commissioned had
not at command any tangible means by which my
11
�12
„
j
NARRATIVE.
traveling expenses and daily needs could be met.
Such was the nature of my labor that I must have
constantly near me a competent amanuensis, since
otherwise much that was to be said by me, while in
the superior state, would be lost. Over and above
these things, I was informed that I must leave all
other pursuits, however •pleasan^honorable, or profit
able, that I might devote myself altogether to my
mission; and it was further shown me that I must
disconnect myself from^moM? associations of either a
private or public character, els< I could not do my
best in the field I was entering. Leaving all earthly
considerations, I gave myself unreservedly to my mis
sionary work. Thoughtful ^^fons,^ho value the
world’s approval,'its honors, emoluments, and reputa
tion, can somewhat realize the early struggles that
opened before me. I met them, when they appeared,
as best I could, and pursued my onward way, feeling
that if I was deluded, God was just, would not for
sake me, and in due time^mgprror being discovered,
I could retreat and warn.^hers of danger.
My mediumship may be said to have commenced
April 1, 1852. I was then in a measure prepared to
begin my missionaS. work., and was from that time
sent out on some domestic missions of an individual
character. Names of persons were given me of whose
existence I had noEgthe tightest knowledge. I was
told where they dwelt, when to see them, and was so
acted upon when in their presence, that I immedi
ately relieved them of their infirmities. The prompt
ers of these missions exhibited unusual intelligence
and great benevolence, and I became much interested
in obeying them.
�NARRATIVE.
13
In July, 1852, John Murray, the father of Univer
salism in America (whose name I bear, and by whom
I was dedicated when an infant), through my hand
wrote a programme of subjects, upon which he de
sired, through my instrumentality, to speak. A pho
nographic reporter, Miss Matilda Goddard, being en
gaged, twelve messages were delivered in Boston, my
native city, at regular intervals. The themes were
of a moral, religious, and spiritual character, and were
subsequently published by Bela Marsh. Two messa
ges were now given me: the first, dated September 11,
1852, was written through the hand of my beloved
daughter, Mrs. Sophronia B. Butler; the second, dated
September 12, 1852, was written through my own
hand. Here they are : —
First. “You will soon be directed in the work you
are to be engaged in promoting. The teachings will
come in a way and at a time least to be expected.
To-morrow you will receive almost important commu
nication from a number of spirit friends. Do all they
direct in all cases. |^ulaw to receive new teachings
— different, from those' you have received. Have
Faith. s A new work is open before you, and great
shall be your reward, as you shall see. Some new
spirit friends will soon teach you. You will know
your work to do. Be quiet: all is well that is done
with good impressions, and yours are. When the
new light shines in upon the minds of the inhabitants
of your earth, then shall the world be changed. It
shall grow wiser and better, so that after a few years
things shall be altogether changed, and you will
hardly believe that things were as they now are.
�14
|
NARRATIVE.
The day to spread joy and happiness is near at hand,
when all shall love one another, and all shall feel that
they are brothers. The darkest complexioned man
shall not be crushed on account of his color, but you
shall live, eat, drink together, and not know any dif
ference,— shall feel that you are all of one great
family, and are to do good to all around you. Great
and important will be the instruction given from the
spirit world, and men will soon be directed by their
friends there. Their faith shall bejstrengthened by
the communications they will receive. They shall be
restored to health by spiritual physicians, and new
mediums shall be made throughout the world, and
their truth shall teach men to lead good and pure
lives. Crime shall decrease, and beautiful thoughts
shall fill men’s minds. When they attempt to do
wrong, they shall be directed differently, and all shall
pass pleasantly along.”
Second. “ A most Important Communication. Your
spirit friends, whose names when on ^our earth will
be hereafter mentioned, mogt earnestly desire now to
communicate important information, which will be
most useful to you, and through you to the inhabit
ants of the earth on which you nowSbr the present
dwell. It is perceived that your past manner of liv
ing, thinking, and laboring has admirably prepared
you to engage in a new and impfeant labor.
“ You will for a coming season be under the more
especial supervision and immediate direction of the
spirit friends whose* earthly names will be mentioned.
They have been commissioned, prepared, instructed,
and qualified to direct, prepare, and- lead you on in
your important work. They will be, some of them,
�NARRATIVE.
15
always near you, and when it is seen that you re
quire assistance of one or more, or all, it shall be
freely given unto you. You will now be most quiet,
most patient, and at the same time most watchful and
most active ; and your wants shall be supplied as they
come unto you. Let this be most carefully preserved,
and placed in a conspicuous position, that it may be
seen and read.
Benj. Rush,
John Howard,
Franklin,
Oliver Dennett,
John Murray,
Zacheus Hamlin,
Joseph Hallett,
Thos. Jefferson,
Roger Sherman,
John Spear.
“September
I looked at these remSkable messages with much
care, and finaly show®d'tnern IRome valued friends.
Most of them doubted. For a time I hesitated. But
while in this unsettled and unhappy state of mind,
doubtful whether Spiritualism was or was not a delu
sion, it was my good fortune to hear an able address
on spirit manifestations, given by Allen Putnam, Esq.,
in Roxbury, Mass.
_
I looked critically at the speaker as he entered the
desk, observed the class of persons assembled to hear
him, among whom were many of the most respectable
citizens of that ciS noticed the fairness, candor, and
clearness of his statements: and the evidences pre
sented were, to my mind, irresistible ; and from that
time I date my perfect, unwavering conviction of the
truth of an open communication between persons in
the spiritual and material worlds, and then concluded
I would not retreat. Other messages came, and
among them the following: —
�16
NARRATIVE.
MESSAGE FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF BENEFICENTS.
“ The undersigned, by the instrument which is
being herein communicated, say to the inhabitants of
the earth on which this Scribe dwells, that an associa
tion, called ‘ The Association of Beneficents,’
has been selected, qualified, and commissioned, to
teach of the Benefices ; and they now say and declare
that they have in contemplation a system of revealments which will much surprise the dwellers of the
lower earth. They moreover make declaration that,
through the various instrumentalities which now are,
and which, as they are most needed, will be under
their control, teaching, and direction, this association
will greatly, wisely, and seasonably instruct and bless
the diseased, the suffering, and the wretched of the
aforesaid earth. And they declare that this scribe,
known by the name of John Murray Spear, is now
chosen and set apart to execute their schemes, and to
complete their beneficent intentions! \
Benjamin Rush,
Benjamin Franklin,
John Howard,
Roger Sherman,
Oliver Dennett,
Thos. Clarkson,
Joseph Hallett,
John Murray,
John Pounds,
Thos. Jefferson,
John Spear,
I. T. Hopper.
“ Communicated and dated April 1,1853 (being the
commencement of thf united labors of the Association
of Beneficents), and delivered into the hand of John
Murray Spear.”
It was now supposed I was insane.
Physicians and
�NARRATIVE.
17
others were sent to converse with and examine me.
I showed them the above commission. They looked
upon me with tender, compassionate eye, as they de
cided that I had become a lunatic. I knew their ver
dict, and greatly feared I might be confined in an
asylum for the insane; but I was mercifully preserved
from such unhappy fate. I was then made to avoid
society, to write much, to make strange drawings, to
do many things that I did not comprehend, and some
that seemed to me quite foolish and ridiculous.
My missionary fieWKoon began to enlarge. I was
commissioned to visit the city of Cleveland, Ohio, at
a distance of seven hundred miles. I expected there
to meet John M. Sterling, a gentleman whom I had
seen at Worcester, Mass. He was absent from home,
but I made the acquaintance of Dr. Abel Underhill,
Dr. John Mayhew, Horace Fenton, and others. A
meeting was called in Brainard’s Hall the Sunday
after my arrival. A large assemblage convened to
see and hear me. WR3|ithoW tW slightest preparation
on my part, without the least hint of what I was to
say or do, I was mQ<J^p^jfc>rth the following dec
larations : —
“We come from the higher life to declare things
which are soon to
place, — which are schemed
in wisdom and will be completed in beneficence. We
come to harmonize things apparently discordant, and
out of discords to bring concords. We come to in
struct the uninstructed of things supereminently prac
tical. We come to inspire the inactive to high states
of activity. We come to promulge a more critical
knowledge of Nature’s- laws. We come to raise the
low to conditions eminently high. We come to intro2
�18
NARRATIVE.
duce, by wise schemes, a new and better era. We
come to supersede things apparently unimportant by
things which are practical and highly useful. We
come to institute and organize a new Church, to es
tablish new systems of Education, to teach of new
Architectures, to organize new Governments, to teach
of new Garments, to instruct of proper Foods, to teach
of the more symmetricdLainfolding of mortal bodies,
and thereby the more perfect unfolding of spiritual
bodies. We come to select wise instrumentalities to
execute beneficent schemes.
“We come to introduce a new era, unlike the two
prominent eras of the past, namelw the Jewish and
the Christian. The Jewish was an era of Force ; the
Christian was an era of Feeling. The third era, which
has now commencA
the era of Wisdom. It will
embrace, however, both Force and Feeling, adding a
still nobler attribute, making of the thr^fe one grand,
beautiful Trinity,—’•Force, Feeling, Wisdom. Thus
no truly useful thing of the past will be lost or de
molished. Force and feeling will be deleted by Wis
dom, leading all to ask, in simplicity of (Spirit, ‘What
wilt thou have me to do ? ’ This question, they who
come from the higher life are now prepared to an
swer, so that each one can find his proper place.
“ The preceding era® have hadpheir primary books,
which, to a very considemble extent, have molded the
public mind of their respective times* Containing, as
they have, portions of permanent. truths, they have
been preserved from 5jhe moMering hand of time,
answering the purposes for which, in highest wisdom,
they were designed. The era which has now begun
has its book, superior to those of the former eras.
�NARR ATI V E.
19
This has been termed The Book of Nature ; but,
for distinction’s sake, it may henceforth be called The
Book of Unfoldings. It can never be superseded,
because it is perpetually unfolding. It has no last
chapter; but chapter after chapter will be revealed,
precisely in proportion to the mental expansion of its
readers.
“ The unfoldings of former eras ended when they
were founded. On their respective foundations super
structures were reared 9Ht these could not be broader
than their bases. Th® new era, unlike the former, is
to be founded on imperishabfl, indestructible, and
ever-multiplying Facts. Hence its base can never be
wholly laid; for there can never arrive a period when
facts shall cease to multiply. As a consequence, no
book can be written by
hand comprehending
the basis-facts of the new era; for they will embrace
those of the past, the present, and the interminable
future.
“ The eras of the past have only, to a limited ex
tent, satisfied man’s expanding mental wants. Theyhave been unable fully to fill vacuums, because they
were angular in their unfoldings, and, of necessity,
created mental angularities. The new era, deriving
instruction from the past, the present, and the future,
will develop Truth in its completeness or circularity.
Consequently, its primitive lesson has been the forma
tion of circles ; and there have been gatherings around
the tables of your dwellings. It was not primarily
for the mere purpose of listening to unusual sounds
that these circles were organized; but it was symbolic
of truths which are to be unfolded.
“ The former eras have been commenced, and to a
�20
NARRATIVE.
very considerable extent perpetuated, by the mascu
line sex. And in the second era one declared, ‘I
suffer not a woman to teach.’ From the utterance of
that unseemly declaration woman has been denied the
right of public teaching. Thus has one sex monop
olized the power which has been wielded to the high
est detriment of the other A The new era, unlike the
two preceding, for the purpose of regaining a lost
equilibrium, will, for a suitable season, place the fem
inine element in preponderance. Another Trinity is
to be introduced, namely, Economy, Convenience,
Beauty ; and woman, being specially adapted there
for, is to aid in its development.
“ The students of preceding eras have especially been
taught to reverence the books, writtffli by mortal hands,
for their respective periods. In the new era, truths
alone are to be reverenced, for truths are immortal.
“In the eras of the past, reverence of individual
persons has been taught. In the new era, man, as A
grand whole, with all other portions of Nature, is
to be reverenced.
“ The teachers of past eras have established forms
and observances, suited to their respective degrees of
unfoldment. The new era dwells not in outer forms,
ceremonies, or observances. These are but the scaf
folds of the superstructure; they are transitory, and,
of necessity, pass away. Each individual person will
be left free to express her or his thought in her on his
way; so that woman and man, wife and husband,
daughter and son, will be at liberty to adopt forms,
ceremonies, and observances, as they may from season
to season find to be individually agreeable.”
At Cleveland, while in the trance condition, my
�NARRATIVE.
21
eyes being closed, persons whom I never had seen
entered the room where I was seated. I approached
one of these, a lady, and addressing her, gave her the
name of “ Leaderess.” Returned to my normal con
dition, I inquired what I had been doing, and was in
formed, among other things, that I had made an ad
dress to Mrs. Caroline S. Lewis, and had designated
her as the Leaderess. This was all inexplicable to
me, as it certainly* w^ta to herself and others. I
saw nothing then to beT led which called for any
Leaderess.
I was now commissioned to go from Cleveland to
some springs that had been discovered by a spirit
medium, and were owned by Oliver G. Chase, John
Chase his brotherland W. W. Brittingham, on a farm
then occupied by John Chase, in Farmington, Pa.
Accompanied by Horace Fenton, Dr. Abel Underhill,
Dr. John Mayhew, "Samuil Treat, Dr. and Mrs. Burritt, William E. Dunn, Emily Hickox, Caroline Sykes,
Sarah Fuller, and Hannah F. M. Brown, I left Clever
land on the 10th of May. I have not much recollec
tion now of the things I was impressed to say and do
while at the springs; but remember I was directed to
make a second appointment to be there again in a few
weeks. All was yet dark and mysterious to me; but
I decided to move on a little further, supposing and
hoping these strange missions would soon terminate.
At a time previously named I made a second journey
to Cleveland, accompanied by my beloved daughter,
now in the spirit world, Mrs. S. B. Butler, who acted
as my amanuensis. From there I made a second visit,
by spirit direction, to the spiritual springs in Farming
ton, and arrived there on June 10th. At that time,
�22
NARRATIVE.
the domain where I now write (Kiantone) was pur
chased by Horace Fenton, Dr. Underhill, and
others.
I was then directed to go to Rochester, N. Y., and
Niagara Falls, and Dr. Abel Underhill was requested
to accompany me, which he did. While at the Falls,
some statements were made in respect to the future
of the American nation, and of a union of the Canadas
with the United States! At Rochester, June 30,1853,
seated with Charles Hammond, a writing and speaking
medium, interchangeably, i. e., I naming the first,
third, &c., and he' the second, [fourth, &c., we were
made to announce the existence of sWen associations
in the spirit world, Ithe names of whichfas reported by
Dr. Abel Underhill, are as follows®—
1. Association of Beneficents.^
2. Association of Electricizers.
3. Association of Elementizers. j
4. Association of Educationizers. '
5. Association of Healthfulizers. .
6. Association of Agriculturalizers.
7. Association of Governinentizers.
Some time subsequentMto these announcements, it
was furthermore intimated that all these bodies sus
tained a subordinate relation to a yet more numerous
and comprehensive organization, called the “ General
Assembly ” of the spirit world, from which they were
special delegations or committees. The following pa
per, communicatee! as will be seen, about a year after
the commencement of I these unfoldings, contains a
lucid and succinct statement of the mutual relations
of these several alleged bodies, and of some of their
methods of operations : —
�NARRATIVE.
23
ADDRESS TO THE INHABITANTS OF THIS EARTH.
“ Something more than a year since, a number of
persons in the spirit world resolved to associate to
gether for the promotion of several scientific, useful,
and philanthropic purposes. Organization- was the
result. A body called the General Assembly was
formed. Entering immediately on its duties, the
General Assembly resolved to organize several subor
dinate bodies. Seven, a numerical perfection, was the
number determined on. Cheerfully these subordinate
bodies immediately commenced their labors. They
selected a prominent person to journey from place to
place, with a view of seeking, selecting, and appoint
ing its general agent. At the earliest possible mo
ment these subordinate bodies commenced their dis
tinct, though co-operative labors.
/
“ It was deemed wise, by the subordinate bodies, for
that asso ciatiora which would, of necessity, bring out
most prominently important fundamental principles,
to first enter upon the work,whereby forming a sub
stantial basis upon’which kindred associations could
safely build. Among these bodies was one significant
ly denominated the Electric-izers. At the head of
that association the name of Benjamin Franklin was
placed. His great intellectual ability, his skill as a
diplomatist, and his philanthropy, qualified him for a
position so important. That association in due time
commenced its laborsjwcarrying them forward to a con
dition when others might wisely commence their
efforts.
“Each of these subordinate bodies has now un
folded its general plan, and presented its fundamental
�24
NARRATIVE.
principles. Difficulties have been encountered in this
undertaking, but they have not been more numerous
than are usually connected with labors of this charac
ter. Looking carefully over the whole ground which
has thus far been traveled, the General Assembly is
satisfied with the results.
“ The General Assembly, as such, takes this oppor
tunity to somewhat^ fully declare its purposes and
plans. While the subordinate bodies have each their
distinct labors, acting uSfe a class or classes of per
sons, the General Assembly proposes to affect in sev•erSj. ways the general mind,—hence its name. And
its labors and plans will generally tend to the promo
tion of the more individual labors of the subordinate
bodies.
“ One of the first, objects which the General Assem
bly proposes to accomplish is to- select from a large
class of persons a body of representatives, each being
distinct, and yet all, when unitedrforming a whole.
They will be selected in different locations, and, to
some extent, in different nations f but the majority
will be from this, the American nation.
“ When the General Assembly has completed this
branch of its labors, it will then proceed deliberately
in unfolding its general plans, which, briefly, are the
following: —
“ ‘ First, to construct a new general Government^
selecting from the governmental institutions of the
past and the present the essential and the useful, hap
pily combining and arranging the s'ame, introducing
new principles, and constructing for the inhabitants
of this earth a new general government, presenting •
it as a model to this and other nations.
�NARRATIVE.
25
“ ‘ Secondly. It proposes to prepare a general Code
of Laws, embracing essential moral principles ; and it
proposes to present this code to the consideration of
distinguished legislators, eminent jurists, and other
judicial persons.
“ ‘ Thirdly. It proposes to present certain religious
or spiritual teachings, embracing the essentials gath
ered from the various Bibles and other volumes of the
past, connecting them with the highest spiritual teach
ings of the presentthus bringing together compre
hensively all that spiritual instruction which man
needs, and constructing a basis upon which a new,
living, and rational Clvwrch can be built.’
“ While the General Assembly will be engaged in
promoting its general labors, the subordinate associa
tions will continue, quietly and perseveringly, their
respective efforts, tiding, as far as may be practicable,
the general undertakings of the Assembly. That its
plans may be promoted, certain selected persons will,
at a proper time, visit fet only certain important loca
tions in this nation, but will also visit other nations.
Various persons, from time to time, will be employed
in generally advai^jgg ' the objects contemplated by
the General Assembly. Obstacles which may lie in
its way will be, by various means, removed. Persons
friendly or unfriendly, whether in the garb of friend
ship or otherwise, will be exhibited in their true char
acters.
“For and in behalf of the General Assembly,
“ Daniel Webster.”
The names of the original twelve Teachers selected
by the General Assembly were as follows : —
�26
NARRATIVE.
Allen Putnam, Roxbury, Mass., Apostle of Precision.
Distribution.
Jonathan Buffum, Lynn,
“
“
Devotion.
Daniel Goddard, Chelsea, “
“
Government.
Eliza J. Kenney, Salem,
“
“
Resignation.
Emily Rogers, Utica, N. Y.
“
Harmony.
Thad. S. Sheldon, Randolph, N.Y., “
Freedom.
Mary Gardner, Farmington, Pa.
“
Education.
Angelina Munn, Springfield, Mass., “
Direction.
Eliza W. Farnham, New York City, “
Treasures.
Jno. M. Sterling, Cleveland, 0.,
“
Commerce.
Thos. Richmond, Chicago, Ill.,
“
Accumula
George Haskell, Rockford,*^
“
tion.
A basis for a new government and a new church
was indicated, and twelve representative persons
selected, some of whom have been translated to the
spirit world. Persons in England have been chosen
to aid this work, among whom is Mary Howitt, who
was called the “ Celestial Poetess; ” Dr. J. J. Garth
Wilkinson, called the “ Spiritual Analyzer; ” Andrew
Leighton, called the “ British Interchanger.” Numerous others in Great Britain and other lands, among
whom stand prominent William and Mary Tebb, of
London, were given spiritual names, but I am not
permitted to recall more at this time of writing.
To each and all of the twelve apostles addresses
4ave been made, stating in explicit language what
the Assembly desired, through their aid, to accom
plish. Nearly one hundred papers have been given
to the Apostle of Commerce, upon the subject of com
merce in its inner and outer, its spiritual and material
sense. More addresses have been made to the Apos-
�NARRATIVE.
27
tie of Treasures, on spiritual and material wealth, of
their value and good uses, and not a small number of
papers have been transmitted to the Apostle of Har
mony. To the extent they have promulged the
ideas and thoughts given them, they have been the
teachers representing the “ General Assembly.”
While on my w|y back to my native city, from
Rochester and thejFalls^Kwas informed that it was
proposed to bring out, through me, a New Motive
Power, and that I must be prepped for revelations on
that subject. They lame, and continued to come, for
nine months : following out with precision the varied
instructions as tnOggwere rgiven, an external mech
anism was elaborated, vibratory motion was secured,
which was perpetuiMBWong as the mechanism lasted;
but on being removed by direction to Randolph,
N. Y., a mob broke into the building in which it was
stored, and the machine was demolished ; though the
principles brought out by its construction are pre
served, and in due time that work, as I was informed,
is to be resumed. I was much assisted in this effort
by Mrs. Sarah J. Newhm, Al E. Newton, Thaddeus
S. Sheldon, S. C. HOl Jonathan Buffum and wife,
Samuel G. Love, and many others, whose names do
not now come to me. I was now commissioned to visit
Cincinnati, St. Louis, and other important places, and
while at the last-name® place a course of twelve lec
tures was given of JElements; Warren Chase, Mrs.
French,. Mrs. Hyer, Horace Fenton, and others, assist
ing me in various ways to their transmission. I was
now instructed to again visit the domain, with some
others, to engage in excavatory labors. It had been
declared through several mediums that an ancient
�28
NARRATIVE.
and highly cultivated people had dwelt there. Driven
from this location, they here deposited certain valua
bles, which were to be exhumed and used for certain
beneficent purposes. Here I worked, in the heat of
summer and the frosts of winter, for seven months,
entering into the bowels of the earth more than one
hundred and thirty fee^> ^during many privations,
suffering much through doubt and anxiety of mind.
When that work terminated I was informed that at a
future day it was to be recommenced. While engaged
in this labor a valuable minerA spring was opened,
and very many papers were transmitted and carefully
reported, some of which compose “ The Educator,”
a volume of more than s’even hundred pages, carefully
prepared for the press by A, E. Newton.
January 1,1861, an organi^fen was founded under
spirit direction, called the “Sacred Order of Union
ists,” which was to termifliSatl harness contracts at
the end of seven years. Its general purposes are ex
pressed substantially thus: T® unite man to man,
nation to nation,- planet to planet.; To abolish war in
all its forms, and to promote universal peace. To or
ganize various beneficent aodw-operative institutions,
which, without injuring the rich^^would greatly aid
and help to educate the poor and improvident classes.
To establish such religfelSl^institutions and ceremo
nies as are in harmony with man’s nature, and tend to
his highest culture. To establish a system of meas
ures which will encourage iwustry, render labor hon
orable, remunerative, and attractive. To institute
means whereby education may be made thorough,
equal, and universal. To secure to all a right to the
cultivation of the soil for useful purposes. To ad
�NARRATIVE.
29
vance and encourage all the important sciences and
the useful arts. To teach of the intimate and sacred
relations which exist between the material-and spirit
ual worlds. To aid and encourage inventors in the use of their powers for human advancement. To open
new fields of thought, institute new and unitary meth
ods of labor and of daily life, and to encourage perpet
ual progress, and so instruct mankind that they may
bring heaven down to earth and lift earth up to
heaven.
The following werejthe precepts of this order : —
I. Thou shalt be strictly just in all thy dealings
and in all thy intercours^ with thy fellow-men.
II. If thou seest thy neighbor at fault in word or
deed, thou shalt teach him the way of everlasting fife,
and lead him therein.
III. Thou shalt not covet the goods of another, in
thought, word, or deed.
IV. Thou shalt make ft thy daily prayer to so walk
before thy fellow-men that th^example may be wor
thy of universal imitation.
V. To the extent of thy individual and social pow
er thou shalt contribute to the virtue, sobriety, indus
try, neatness, order, and happiness of thy kind.
VI. It shall be thy pleasure to aid the sick, the
distressed, the poor, and the oppressed; to weep with
those that weep, and rejoice with those that rejoice.
VII. Thou shalt not|ommit adultery of any name
or nature in thy thought, by thy heart, thy eye, or
overt act.
VIII. Thou shalt welcome all new thoughts, retain
the good and eschew the evil.
IX. Thou shalt avoid all harsh, unseemly, or
�30
NARRATIVE.
angry debate, and thy affirmation shall be yea, and
thy denial nay.
X. Thou shalt strive to so perfect thy dress that
thy whole body and spirit shall be enlarged and
improved thereby.
XI. Thou shalt eat of such food as shall be con
ducive to the highest health and harmony, as shall
best fit thee for thy daily labors..
XII. Thou shalt ever speak the truth, whatever
may be the cost to thee or to others, reserving to
thyself the right to decide when and where thou
wilt speak, and wheg be silggt.
With my wife I 'fcoae traveled for more than
fifteen years, she essentially aiding me in the labors
to which I have devoted the best part of my life.
I have labored without price, but not without re
ward, finding it in the love of the work itself. I
have been specially sent four times to that remarka
ble people, the Mormons, dwelling" in Utah. Some
seed there sown has grown. Some excellent friends
of moral, social, and religious progress have there
been led to the building of a Liberal Institute, in
which free thought and free speech are encouraged,
and the way has been opened by which That abomina
tion, Polygamy, may eventually'disappear. I have
several times visited, by direction, the Shakers, to
observe their order, neatness, economy, industry,
modes of worship, manners and customs, and I have
ever been welcomed by them in the most cordial
manner, and refreshed in the outer and inner man
while with them.
A suit of their garments, presented me by Elder
�NARRATIVE.
31
James Prescott, I have preserved with care, wearing
them only when they would serve to make fitting con
ditions for the reception of certain writings. I feel
sure they are the purest and most spiritual body
of persons I have ever met.
In business matters the associated spirit world has
exhibited much skill and commercial insight. It
has predicted the state of the flour, stock, and real
estate markets with accuracy. Tracts of land and
buildings have been purchased, and held or sold ad
vantageously under its guidance. Much more might
have been done in this direction had capitalists had
more faith in the unseen. The future of many indi
viduals, living in the New and the Old World, has
been predicted wi^<pi^^iir®n, tana d national convul
sions and wars
been foretold years before
they have occurred.
December 30, 1853, my hand was moved to write
thus: —
“ It is now permitted to be prophetically declared
that the following events are at hand, and that they
will transpire without the aid of miracle, and without
suspension of Nature’s laws.
“ First. Several nations holding important and
high influential positions on your earth, will soon be
engaged in most acrimonifcs and sanguinary strife.
“ Second. The American nation will not be except
ed from the great commotions which are at hand.
“ Third. The more especially oppressed, enslaved,
and hunted, will, of absolute necessity, be emanci
pated.
�32
NARRATIVE.
“ Fourth. There will be dissolutions, and unions,
and new governments, as necessary results of the
mighty national struggles ; and, among these unions
and disunions, there will be a union of the United
States with the Canadas and neighboring provinces.
These unions will cause a dismemberment of some
of the now Confederated States ; and, as a conse
quence of that dismembermentj there will arise a
new and glorious REPUBLIC, which shall have for
its basis “JUSTICE, EQUALITY, AND UNI
VERSAL FREEDOM”
“ Fifth. Prominent persons will be placed at the
helm of the new ship of state, whose motto shall be,
‘ ETERNAL PRINCIPLES, NOT PARTIES.’
“ Sixth. A new Religion shall take the place of
dead forms, which shall lead to high, energetic action,
and to wise endeavors to elevate the oppressed, and
instruct the uninformed.
“ Seventh. The new Republic will invite to its
broad shores the greatly enlightened of all the nations
of your earth ; and by new co®Mnations of character,
of thought, and actio®, there shall be a new and
higher order of being than has at any former period
inhabited your earth.
“These prophecies are presented at this present
moment, that greatly spiritualized persons may be
wisely informed, and somewhat [prepared for the
important things which are at hand, and also that
they may be unmoved and undisturbed when they
transpire.
“For the Association of Governmentizers,
“ Robert Rantoul.”
�NARRATIVE.
33
■ The fall of Napoleon III. was seen and stated
several years before that remarkable national event
occurred.
Hundreds of programmes have been written of
things proposed to be done, of messages to be de
livered, of series of discourses on an immense num
ber and variety of themes; all of which has been
done with wonderful exactness.
I will narrate a singular mission to Hamilton
College, New York. I was informed that it was in
contemplation to give through me a series of twelve
papers on Geology, a subject on which I have not
read, and in which, to this day, I take but little
interest, my mind being of a moral, social, religious,
and philanthropic cast, rather than scientific.
I was directed to go to Clinton, where the above
named college is. Arriving there, I made the ac
quaintance of Professor Avery, a liberal-minded and
large-hearted gentleman. Informing him of the
strange mission on which I was sent, he inquired
if I had a programme of the proposed course. I
placed the outline in his hand which had previously
been given me. Critically inspecting it, he asked
how long I was in writing it; J answered, about
twenty minutes. Evincing surprise at my reply, he
remarked that the subjects proposed to be treated of
were very important.
He then desired to be informed what aid I needed to
enable me to do the proposed work. I replied, I had
been instructed to obtain, if possible, a room in the
college building, and to secure the use of its cabinet.
The Professor kindly assured me I should have the
assistance I had named, and further said he would
3
�34
NARRATIVE.
hear the discourses, adding, that he has lectured on
geology ten years, and was orthodox on that subject.
Before I was prepared, however, to commence the
discourses, the Professor was thrown from his carriage,
and his ankle being sprained, he was unable to walk.
He then kindly invited me to occupy his private
dwelling, and offered a suitable room for the delivery
of lectures. Accepting his generous offer, two gentle
men (Dr. Abel Underhill and Thaddeus S. Sheldon)
reported the lectures as they were delivered. The
minerals needed to illustrate the several subjects dis
coursed of were brought from the college, and in
spected while my eyes were closed. The Professor
heard all that was said, and carefully observed all that
was done. When I had finished my work, and had
returned to my normal state, I inquired of him what
I had been doing. His reply much surprised me.
Said he, “ You have taken up geology just where the
books stop. You have not contradicted what they
teach, but have presented, finer thoughts, some of
which have been hinted at by a few English geolo
gists, but are not considered orthodox.” And he
added, with a pleasant smile, ‘fcE shall teach some
things you have said, but shall not tell where I ob
tained them.” Thus ended my mission to Hamilton
College to give lectures on geology.
I can not refrain from adding that Mrs. Avery
kindly seconded her husband’s noble efforts, and I
will also add that the lectures embraced, among other
points, Concretions, Petrifactions, Man Geologically
Considered, Woman as a Combinist, Conchology,
Pearls, Rubies, Diamonds, the Various Ores in their
Natural Conditions, Coals, Rods, Talismans, Charms,
�nAbe.ATi v k.
35
Discovery of Natural Deposits, Uses of Knowledge,
&c.
To carry forward these labors, needed means have
come in unusual ways. Among the generous donors
and benefactors, John M. Sterling gave the first dol
lar, and his purse and heart have ever been ready
when he has felt it was his place to act. Another has
done more labor and given much means, who has been
translated to the higwer life, Thaddeus M. Sheldon, of
Randolph, N. Y. Much hard labor and liberal means
have been furnished byHorace Fenton, of Cleveland.
Dr. Abel Underhill for many months acted as my
amanuensis. Caroline S. Lewis has traveled with me
extensively. John
bMn liberal with his
means, and done muchto aid the social work. Jona
than Buffum and wife, Oliver Chase and wife, Stephen
and Mary Gardner, Dr. George Haskell, have been
ready to give a genemus helping; hand when their aid
has been needed. In. England, foremost among the
numerous persons who have assisted me, I am pleased
to mention the names of Andrew Leighton, of Liver
pool, James Burns, William' and Mary Tebb, Thomas
Shorter (Editor of London Spiritual Magazine), John
G. Crawford, Georgiana Houghton, all of London, and
Thomas Grant, of MaidstoneJ Through their kind
counsel Mrs. Spear was aided in the preparation and
publication of a littie workfon the position of woman,
and in founding the London Spiritual Institute.
Many pleasant recollections come to me as I write, of
counsel, encouragements, and benefactions, while in
California. Among these, stand out in bold relief the
names of Laura Cuppy, William Smith, and William
M. Rider. At Utah, I have been encouraged in many
�36
NARRATIVE.
ways by William and Mary Godbe, Henry Lawrence,
and others. In pursuing my missionary labors, I have
been in twenty-nine of the States and Territories of the
American Union; have traveled extensively in Eng
land ; have been in Wales, Scotland, Ireland, France,
the Canadas, and Central America. Under commis
sion, I have visited England from the United States
twice, and been sent to Paris four times. Few per
sons can be aware of the trials, sorrows, difficulties, or
pleasures, joys, and encouragements that attend me
diumship. Most mediums, who have had much expe
rience, and have been beibre the public, have been
looked upon with a degree of suspicion, and have been
thought to be self-seeking. In my twenty years’ ex
perience I have not been exempt from trials. Persons
have come to me for counsel in respect to their health,,
their private or public mutters. Advice has been
given. Following, in whole or in part, directions or
■ suggestions, results have not always been as pleasant
and satisfactory as they anticipated, and they have
blamed me. In vain have I said to such, “ I did not,
as a person, give you the counsel you have followed.
I did but give you what, at the time, was given me.”
Disappointed, they have heaped abuse on my head.
Sometimes I have felt called on to severely reprove
persons for unwise or wicke:d«conduct, and instead of
reforming, they have become my deadly enemies. I
have been sent on special missions to find certain per
sons ; selecting some,1 others have complained because
they were not chosen. But I had no choice in the
matter. I felt that I was acting under the direction
and guidance of unseen intelligences, who had associ
ated to accomplish certain specified purposes; and
�NARRATIVE.
37
there I rested. In some cases I have been compelled
to differ with, and to separate from some, for whom I
had had the highest respect and tenderly loved. These
trials, borne mostly in the secret chambers of my soul,
have been hard to endure. My missions have not al
ways been promotive of immediate union and peace,
but have sometimes been provocative of discord. Indi
viduals, families, and neighborhoods that had previ
ously dwelt in love and union, have been so disturbed
and separated, that I have been regarded as “ a pesti
lent fellow, and a mover of sedition.” But they,
under whose guidance I was, have taught me when
reviled not to revile again, but to return good for evil.
Doubtless the numerous trials and sorrows I have
borne, have had their good uses. Usually it is through
tribulation that we come into the fullest enjoyment
of highest truths. Bu^there is another side to which
I turn in my missionary labors. I have had more joys,
perhaps, than most persons. - Dearly have I loved the
work in which I was ®gaged. I have been helped to
see that, beyond the clouds that were round about me,
there was a living, guiding, intelligent, beneficent pur
pose, — the elevation, regeneration, and redemption
of the inhabitants of this earth. Although I have
been called to travel hundreds of thousands of miles in
my native land and foreign countries, yet, at the termination of my labors, I can truly say that all my needs,
if not all my wants, have been seasonably supplied.
Sometimes they have seemed to come in ways im
pinging on the miraculous, and occasionally in answer
to prayer. As an encouragement to others, I will
mention a few instances: —
Some fifteen years ago, when in Cleveland, one
�38
NARRATIVE.
morning when dressing, I perceived that I needed
new nnder-clothes. I looked to Heaven for them.
On the evening of that day my friend, John M. Ster
ling, called on me with a bundle under his arm, say
ing, as he entered, “ I have always worn cotton
flannels, but recently I bought woolen. I did not
feel comfortable in them, and so laid them aside.
This morning it occurred to me that you might want
them, and here they are.” I felt sure Heaven had an
swered my prayer the morning it was offered. When
engaged in developing the new motive power, of
which I have before spoken, I was directed not to ask
for external aid, being assured it would come when
needed. A Spiritualist from New Hampshire called
on me. Inspecting the mechanism, he said, “ I per
ceive it needs nursing. I think I will sell a share I
hold in the Boston and Maine Railroad and send you
the proceeds. At all events,” he continued, “I will
give you ten dollars now; ” which he did, and de
parted. Subsequently he informed me that he had
sold the share for one hundred dollars; but inasmuch
as he had already given me ten dollars, he hesitated
whether to send the one hundred or only ninety dol
lars. He had two sons who were mediums. They
knew nothing of the question in their father’s mind.
One evening they said,Father, we must read the
Bible.” They read the conduct of Ananias and Sapphira; and turning to their father, said, “ It won’t do;
you must not keep back a part of the price ; ” and he
immediately forwarded to me the one hundred dollars.
It came at an opportune moment, strengthening my
faith in the work to which my whole energies were
then directed.
�NARRATIVE.
39
While on our first mission to England, we engaged
I rooms near Regent Park. One week we had not the
means to pay our rent. Among strangers, as we then
were, we knew of nothing to do but to pray. We
knelt by our bedside, and asked for the aid we needed.
Our prayer was answered in the following remarkable
manner: A lady, Mrs. McDougal Gregory, drove to
our door, and entering our apartment, said, “ I never
make calls on Sunday, but this morning, although
Sunday, I felt I must come to you, without knowing
the purpose for which I have come.” Neither Mrs.
Spear nor myself said a word to her of our pressing
needs. But on rising to leave, she said, in a tender,
affectionate tone, “You are far away from your native
land, among strangers, and as there is war in your
country, perhaps you do not receive remittances as
often as you need them.” She then placed in Mrs.
Spear’s hand the amount needed to pay our rent.
Dear woman, she knew not of the faith and trust in
God and the invisibles with which she, by her words
and deeds, was inspiring us. Neither did she know
that she had been sent in answer to our prayer on
that dark and cloudy Sunday morning. I have said,
on a preceding page, that I was commissioned to go
to Paris four times. Although unable to speak, the
French language, yet Mrs. Spear had a sufficient
knowledge of it to answer needful purposes. At the
outset of these French missions we always had just
enough to reach our destination, but not means to
live there or to return to London; and yet all our
wants were supplied. During one of these visits, we
met a noble Russian gentleman, Alexandre Aksakof,
who had read with interest, in his native land, the
�40
NARRATIVE.
“ Educator.” He was not content to express his
pleasure at our meeting in words, but made a hand
some money-present, which -helped us on our way, and
encouraged our hearts to continue our foreign missinnary work. One day, just as I was about to commence
a journey from London to the North of England, a
lady medium called to see me. I informed her of my
purpose. Seating herself quietly, she said, “It is
right for you to go, and I peaceive that I must pay the
expenses of the journey.” I wondered how she could
know the sum required. Taking out her purse, she
handed me the exact amount. By what power was
she sent to me? Who informed her of the precise
sum needed to make that journey ? Very many more
instances might b^Jtamed of providential aid, but I
will narrate only one.
Awaking one morning from my slumbers, while in
California, I said to Mrs. Spear, “ I ought to go im
mediately to Salt Lake City.” When the first morn
ing postman came, he brought a letter from William
Godbe, of Salt Lake City, a gentleman deeply inter
ested in Spiritualism and other progressive ideas, who
had just left the Mormon Church, informing me that
our dearly-beloved friends, William and Mary Tebb,
of London, were there; that they had intended to
come to California to visit us, but it was now doubt
ful if they would make the journey on account of Mr.
Tebb’s health. I now felt an irrepressible desire to
start at once for the “ City w the Saints,” but did not
see the quarter from whence the needed means were
to come to make the journey, a distance of more than
eight hundred miles. But to my great astonishment
and delight, the second postman brought me a letter
�NARRATIVE.
41
from Colonel G. F. Lewis, of Cleveland, in which was
enclosed a check for money, to be used, as he said, for
missionary purposes. This letter had been twenty
days on its way. It should have reached me in five
or six. I made the journey to Salt Lake, and on my
return to California I had more means than when I
started. Who impressed Colonel Lewis to send me that
money? I had long known him, but he had never
before sent me a dollar. How came he to write it
was to be used for _missionary purposes ? I did not
know that he took interest enough in these missions
to aid by word or deed. Where was that letter for
twenty days which should have reached me in five ?
Had there been detention of the mails at that time ?
None. The road was open all the way from Cleve
land to San Francisco. , How came the letter to ar
rive the very morning jhen jt was so much desired
and needed ? Thesiil questions are easy to propose.
Who can answer them ?
August 6, 1872uteh® “Report of Domestic and
Foreign Missions,”
written up to July 30, being
read to the “Spirit Missionist” (Mrs. Manley, my
successor), she wrote thedfes^'ollows: —
“ Blessed angels of lovti and wisdom crown thy
head with the ever-living immortal flowers of power !
Powerful utterances they give thee at this time;
power and strength are seen in the air, and come, as
health cometh, by thy own life. Blessings are com
ing even at this life-season. Aids and auxiliaries are
coming not seen. Knowledge cometh to thee of
thousands of aids never before known. Ever present
with thee is the love of God, — ever present the home
love of all ages. The sorrowing flee to thy own home
�42
NARRATIVE.
of rest in the coming time, and a beautifully roundedout home mansion shall be the one given to thee,—not
as compensating thee for thy labors, but as a token of
love and affection from varied lives. Most lovingly
do we tender our thanks to thee for all thou hast suf
fered, and all thou hast passed through to attain the
eminence now seen, whose principal hights are seen
but by few of earth’s dwellers. Somewhat we have
to say to thee : One dawning of glorious morning
stars is seen for thy life ; one glorious home shall be
made the light of the age, and never shall any want
who eat at thy plenteous board; never shall any fam
ish who drink of the wine given by the celestials, even
at thy home table. How wonderfully hast thou been
led! ever by high intelligences. How proudly we
come to thee in this humble room, and give thee
choicest flowers of heart’s ease, that thy life may be
refreshed! One land is seen for thee to rest on, even
for a few days; and the ones who love to listen to
sweet home songs, even the birds of the air, will love
to sing to thee ; will give to thee for couches sweet
mosses, — being mosses from the garden of Christ.
“ One love we will give thee of the fruitsdain on the
table of the Divine. We will eat with thee this day ;
we will ask our writer to eat with thee, to make
lovely life to be known; we will ask all here to eat
with thee, to be as one harmonious family. Eat and
receive fresh fair flowers of inspiration. Wash in the
waters of sweet life-giving elements ; make sweet the
air with thy songs, because the air is so holy, so full
of divine songs and celestial harmonies at this hour,
we would baptize each form. Hear what is given at
this natal hour 1 Natal hour, why were ye so long
�NARRATIVE.
43
coming ? Whosoever liveth to narrate to the children
of men a history of this movement thousands of years
hence, will call this a day of feasting when the pow
ers crowned thy brow with the diamond crown of
strength; when added to thy life were powerful aux
iliaries, who must come and lean on the strong anchor
of truth. Eat and be called the, master of th^family;
eat and be called the one whom the gods of wisdom
delight to honor. Eat and be refreshed, for truly it
is said, Whom the angels of wisdom love they give
sweet feast seasons, and fullness beyond the earth’s
fullness. Whatever is given thee accept in the spirit
of love, and take it as a gift from the higher intelli
gences. Their eyes read the smiles of many, and
their strength will be given to influencing many to
leave thee a memorial of their interest in thy labors.
We will make request for the blessed light of the
General Assembly to give thee.a mantle, to make
thee a staff, even a staff of strength, to enable thee
to live ever as one who eateth at the table of power,
and needeth not the viands that sustain the children
of earth. Needs shall be supplied; and manifested for
thee shall be the tenderness of love coming from thou
sands of souls who receive the bread of wisdom from
thy teachings, the wine of love from thy leaves of
righteousness. Hold! here cometh a messenger from
the Assembly, — one man of love, called Sheldon, who
hath a huge wheaten loaf; and here cometh one
harvest basket from combined lives, that not one hour
shall thy strength fail. Eat now, and be as one who
hath supped with the assembled souls. A chain of
gold we give thee, — a chain of gold we give unto the
writer. Let peace ever reign in your lives. Let
�44
NARRATIVE.
sweetest harmonies ever be here where your lives fest
in seats of power. Let this hour be as one life of
blessed rest. Morning is dawning, and the sun hath
hid his face from the glorious realities of the coming
Sun of righteousness.”
MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, THIS DAY
CONVENED BY THE DIRECTION AND THE CALL OF
THE SPIRITUAL CONGRESS, ASSEMBLED IN GENERAL
CONCLAVE.
Old things, customs, manners, habits, are passing
f away, to clear the path for those that are to take their
places. The Spiritual Congress this day directs the
General Assembly, it being one of its numerous auxil
iaries, to declare through you, its general agent and
communicator, to the inhabitants of earth, that through
its varied instrumentalities a social revolution has now
begun, that is to extend from individuals to families,
and from families to tribes and nations, shaking and
removing whatever can be shaken, while that which
can not be shaken will remain. The Spiritual Con
gress holds this day one of its grand jubilees, it being
the twentieth anniversary of its annunciation to the
clear vision of the chosen Apostle of Nature. Well
has he performed his work, and he soon retires from
public life to engage in proposed private pursuits, for
which, by his social position and spiritual and intel
lectual culture, he has become eminently prepared.
On the 12th day of the 9th month of the present year
the general labors and mission of the General Assem
bly closes its conjoined efforts, and with its cessation
terminate all the missions of its apostles, teachers, and
�NARRATIVE.
45
healers, including those of its general agent and com
municator, and it desires that all documents, books, or
other property, be placed in the hand and at the dis
posal of the newly-selected spirit missionist, and she
will in due time direct of their future uses and dispo
sal. Personal addresses are not included in this direc
tion. Retiring to private life, the general agent and
communicator of the General Assembly will accept
such assistance as may be tendered him or his com
panion, or to their friends or agents; and as sums of
cash or other property shall be tendered them, the
same shall be placed in the careful hands, or be under
the direction of, the gentleman known in the spirit
world as the Homeologist; he making such provision
for the home of the communicator of the General As
sembly and his companion as shall be in harmony with
his business judgment; thus securing one home for
the earnest and faithful, it will open the way for other
homes, that in the time of the present social revolu■fion will be needed. Some will be concealed from
the gaze of the world, while others in open field will
fight valiantly the great battle now to be commenced;
their weapons being spi^tual, they will be mighty to
• silence, overcome, and conquer the evils of the present
disorganized social state. The faithful Deborah is to
co-operate with the Homeologist in the home efforts in
such ways as has been and will be indicated, through
z the writing of her who is known by the General Assem
bly as the spirit missionist, she becoming an interme
diate agent until other movements on the part of the
spiritual congress shall have, through her, been made
known to other parties. The General Assembly now
directs the general agenl and communicator to offi
�46
NARRATIVE.
cially inform the Homeologist of the work desired of
him, and it also directs that the report begun be fin
ished on or before the twentieth anniversary of his
appointment, and that the address of the spirit missionist, and also the message now being given, be in
corporated into the report to the spirit missionist;
that the general agent keep in his own care the origi
nal of the report, and that another copy of the same
be placed in the hand of him who temporarily is called
the Colonial Supervisor.
Inspected by the Mission Committee of the Spirit
ual Congress, in connection with the Committee of
the General Assembly |l and unitedly sanctioned and
unanimously approved by the President of the Spirit
ual Congress, John Hancock, and the President of the
General Assembly, Benj. Franklin.
Frances Wright, Secretary,
and General Communicator of the Spiritual Congress,
in conjunction with the General Assembly.
August 7, 1872.
“Dear Spirit Missionist: I place this report
in your hands, having in some degree trodden the
missionary path ; rough though it has sometimes
been, it will be easier for those who come after me to
follow. It is ever to be borne in mind that while
Paul may plant and Apollos water, God give th the
increase. Allow me to ask that you heed with care
the voices that shall salute your spiritual ear. Retir
ing from missionary labors, I now proceed to the
organization and upbuilding of colonial homes, to
�NARRATIVE
47
which, you will be welcome when the infirmities of
age shall be upon you, receiving there the reward's
of private and of public duties faithfully performed.
Let thy motto ever be, ‘ Do justly, love mercy, act in
harmony with the light given thee.’ ”
John Murray Spear.
Ancoba, N. J., September 12, 1872.
�Friends who may desire to make contributions of any kind/
to furnish the comforts of a home for Mr. Spear, in harmony
with the kind hope expressed by Mr. Putnam, in his PrefaceCp. 9,J can send the same to either of the following named per
sons, or directly to Mr. Spear, 241 North Eleventh Street, Phila!
delpliia.
Allen Putnam, 426 Dudley Street, Boston.
Thatcher Hinckley, Hyannis, Mass.
Mrs, Oliver Dennett, Portland, Maine.
Dr. George Hashell. Ancora, N. J.
Mrs. Caroline S. Lewis, Cleveland, Ohio.
Mrs. Thomas Hornbrook, Wheeling, West Virginia.
Dr. John Mayhew. Washington, D. C.
Fox Holden, Watkins, N. Y.
Oliver G. Chase, Jamestown, N. Y.
Milo A. Townsend, Beaver Falls. Pa.
Thomas Richmond, Chicago, Illinois.
Warren Chase, 614 N. Fifth Street, St. Louis, Mo.
Laura Cuppy Smith, 179 Temple Street, New Haven, Conn.
A. B. Child, West Fairlee, Vermont.
Andrew T. Foss, Manchester, N. H.
Mrs. Mary Godbe, Salt Lake City, Utah
Wm. M. Rider, San Francisco. California.
Mrs. H. F. M. Brown, San Diego, California.
Andrew Leighton, Liverpool.
William Tebb, 20 Rochester Road, Camden Road. London.
Hay Nisbett, 164 Trongate, Glasgow.
Alexander Aksakoe, St. Petersburg,
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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Twenty years on the wing: brief narrative of my travels and labors as a missionary sent forth and sustained by the association of beneficents in spirit land
Creator
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Spear, John Murray [1804-1887.]
Putnam, Allen
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Boston
Collation: 47 p. ; 20 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Smaller sheet bound in following last page listing people who have made "contributions of any kind to furnish the comforts of a home for Mr. Spear ...".
Publisher
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William White and Company
Date
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1873
Identifier
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G5223
Subject
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Missionaries
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Twenty years on the wing: brief narrative of my travels and labors as a missionary sent forth and sustained by the association of beneficents in spirit land), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Missionaries
Spiritualism
Spiritualists-United States
-
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PDF Text
Text
NATIONAL SECuLAR^^^lETY
r .
J &
A
WOODEN GOD
BY
COLONEL R. G. INGERSOLL
ONE
PENNY
London:
THE FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, Ltd.
2 Newcastle Street, Farringdon Street, E.C.
1903.
�PRINTED BY
THE FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, LTD.,
2 NEWCASTLE-STREET, FARRINGDON-STREET, LONDON, E.C.
�6 257^2.
N4
INTRODUCTION.
---- 4—- The contents of this pamphlet are reprinted from the complete
• ‘ Dresden Edition ’ ’ of the works of the late Colonel Ingersoll;
and the title there attached has been retained on the present
title-page. “A Wooden God” was written by Colonel Ingersoll
on March 27, 1880, in the form of a letter to the Chicago Times.
It is now published in England for the first time—with just the
omission of the opening words “To the Editor.” The lapse of
t .verity-three years has not impaired its pertinence or its value.
It is still a very useful criticism on the dealings of the Christian
nations with China.
�A WOODEN GOD
—•—♦——-
To-day Messrs. Wright, Dickey, O’Connor, and Murch,
of the select committee on the causes of the present
depression of labor, presented the majority special report
upon Chinese immigration.
These gentlemen are in great fear for the future of
our most holy and perfectly authenticated religion, and
have, like faithful watchmen, from the walls and towers
of Zion, hastened to give the alarm. They have in
formed Congress that “Joss has his temple of worship
in the Chinese quarters, in San Francisco. Within the
walls of a dilapidated structure is exposed to the view
of the faithful the god of the Chinaman, and here are
his altars of worship. Here he tears up his pieces of
paper; here he offers up his prayers; here he receives
his religious consolations, and here is his road to the
celestial land
that “ Joss is located in a long, narrow
room in a building in a back alley, upon a kind of
altar;” that “ he is a wooden image, looking as much
like an alligator as a human being; ” that the Chinese
“think there is such a place as heaven;” that “all
classes of Chinamen worship idols;” that “the temple
is open every day at all hours;” that “the Chinese
�5
have no Sunday;” and this heathen god has “huge
jaws, a big red tongue, large white teeth, a half-dozen
arms, and big, fiery eyeballs. About him are placed
offerings of meat and other eatables —a sacrificial
offering.”
No wonder that these members of the committee were
shocked at such an image of God, knowing as they did
that the only true God was correctly described by the
inspired lunatic of Patmos in the following words “ And there sat in the midst of the seven golden
candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with
a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with
a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like
wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of
fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned
in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of
his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword: and his
countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.”
Certainly a large mouth filled with white teeth is pre
ferable to one used as the scabbard of a sharp, twoedged sword. Why should these gentlemen object to a
god with big, fiery eyeballs, when their own Deity has
eyes like a flame of fire ?
Is it not a little late in the day to object to peopie
because they sacrifice meat and other eatables to their
•god ? We all know that for thousands of years the
“ real ” God was exceedingly fond of roasted meat; that
he loved the savor of burning flesh, and delighted in the
perfume of fresh, warm blood.
The following account of the manner in which the
living God ” desired that his chosen people should
�6
sacrifice, tends to show the degradation and religious
blindness of the Chinese;—
“ Aaron therefore went unto the altar, and slew the
calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. And the
sons of Aaron brought the blood unto him: and he
dipped his finger in the blood, and put it upon the
horns of the altar, and poured out the blood at the
bottom of the altar: But the fat, and the kidneys, and
the caul above the liver of the sin-offering, he burnt
upon the altar ; as the Lord commanded Moses. And
the flesh and the hide he burnt with fire without the
camp. And he slew the burnt offering; and Aaron’s
sons presented unto him the blood, which he sprinkled
round about upon the altar.......And he brought the
meat offering, and took a handful thereof, and burnt it
upon the altar.......He slew also the bullock and the ram
for a sacrifice of peace offering., which was for the
people: and Aaron’s sons presented unto him the blood,,
which he sprinkled upon the altar round about, and the
fat of the bullock and of the ram, the rump, and that
which covereth the inwards and the kidneys, and the
caul above the liver, and they put the fat upon the
breasts, and he burnt the fat upon the altar. And the
breast and the right shoulder Aaron waved for a wave
offering before the Lord, as Moses commanded.”
If the Chinese only did something like this, we would
know that they worshipped the “ living ” God. The
idea that the supreme head of the “ American system
cf religion” can be placated with a little meat and
“ ordinary eatables ’* is simply preposterous. He has
always asked for blood, and has always asserted that
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin.
The world is also informed by these gentlemen that
“ the idolatry of the Chinese produces a demoralising;
�effect upon our American youth by bringing sacred
things into disrespect, and making religion a theme of
disgust and contempt.”
In San Francisco there are some three hundred thou
sand people. Is it possible that a few Chinese can
bring our “ holy religion ” into disgust and contempt ?
I n that city there are fifty times as many churches as
joss-houses. Scores of sermons are uttered every week;
religious books and papers are plentiful as leaves in
autumn, and somewhat dryer; thousands of Bibles are
within the reach of all. And there, too, is the example
of a Christian City.
Why should we send missionaries to China if we can
not convert the heathen when they come here ? When
missionaries go to a foreign land, the poor, benighted
people have to take their word for the blessings
showered upon a Christian people ; but when the
heathen come here they can see for themselves. What
was simply a story becomes a demonstrated fact. They
come in contact with people who love their enemies.
They see that in a Christian land men tell the truth ;
that they will not take advantage of strangers; that
they are just and patient, kind and tender ; that they
never resort to force; that they have no prejudice on
account of color, race or religion; that they look upon
mankind as brethren; that they speak of God as a
universal Father, and are willing to work, and even to
suffer, for the good not only of their own countrymen,
but of the heathen as well. All this the Chinese see
and know, and why they still cling to the religion of
their country is to me a matter ot amazement.
We all know that the disciples of Jesus do unto
.others as they would that others should do unto them,
�8
and that those of Confucius do not unto others anything
that they would not that others should do unto them.
Surely, such peoples ought to live together in perfect
peace.
Rising with the subject, growing heated with a kind
of holy indignation, these Christian representatives of a
Christian people most solemnly declare that:—
“ Anyone who is really endowed with a correct know
ledge of our religious system, which acknowledges the
existence of a living God and an accountability to him,
and a future state of reward and punishment, who feels
that he has an apology for this abominable pagan
worship is not a fit person to be ranked as a good
citizen of the American Union. It is absurd to make
any apology for its toleration. It must be abolished
and the sooner the decree goes forth by the power of
this Government the better it will be for the interests of
this land.”
I take this, the earliest opportunity, to inform these
gentlemen composing a majority of the committee that
we have in the United States no “religious system;”
that this is a secular Government; that it has no
religious creed; that it does not believe or disbelieve in
a future state of reward and punishment; that it neither
affirms nor denies the existence of a “ living Godand
that the only god, so far as this Government is con
cerned, is the legally expressed will of a majority of the
people. Under our flag the Chinese have the same
right to worship a wooden God that you have to worship
any other.
The Constitution protects equally the
church of Jehovah and the house of Joss. Whatever
their relative positions may be in heaven, they stand
upon a perfect equality in the United States.
This Government is an Infidel Government. We
�9
have a Constitution with man put in and God left out ;
and it is the glory of this country that we have such a
Constitution.
It may be surprising to you that I have an apology
for pagan worship, yet I have. And it is the same one
that I have for the writers of this report. I account for
both by the word superstition. Why should we object
to their worshipping God as they please ? If the
worship is improper, the protestation should come not
from a committee of Congress, but from God himself.
If he is satisfied that is sufficient.
Our religion can only be brought into contempt by
the actions of those who profess to be governed by its
teachings. This report will do more in that direction
than millions of Chinese could do by burning pieces of
paper before a wooden image. If you wish to impress
the Chinese with the value of your religion, of what you
are pleased to call “the American system,” show them
that Christians are better than heathens. Prove to
them that what you are pleased to call the “living God”
teaches higher and holier things, a grander and purer
code of morals than can be found upon pagan pages.
Excel these wretches in industry, in honesty, in rever
ence for parents, in cleanliness, in frugality; and above
all by advocating the absolute liberty of humah thought.
Do not trample upon these people because they have a
different conception of things about which even this
committee knows nothing.
Give them the sariae privilege you enjoy of making a
God after their own fashion. And let them describe
him as they will. Would you be willing to have them
remain, if One of their race, thousands of years ago, had
pretended to have seen God, and had written of him as
follows
�IO
“There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire
out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it,
....... and he rode upon a cherub and did fly.”
"Why should you object to these people on account of
their religion? Your objection has in it the spirit of
hate and intolerance. Of that spirit the Inquisition was
born. That spirit lighted the fagot, made the thumb
screw, put chains upon the limbs, and lashes upon the
backs of men. The same spirit bought and sold,
captured and kidnapped human beings; sold babes, and
justified all the horrors of slavery.
Congress has nothing to do with the religion of the
people. Its members are not responsible to God for the
opinions of their constituents, and it may tend to the
happiness of the constituents for me to state that they
are in no way responsible for the religion of the mem
bers. Religion is an individual, not a national matter.
And where the nation interferes with the right of con
science, the liberties of the people are devoured by the
monster superstition.
If you wish to drive out the Chinese, do not make a
pretext of religion. Do not pretend that you are trying
to do God a favor. Injustice in his name is doubly
detestable. The assassin cannot sanctify his dagger by
falling on his knees, and it does not help a falsehood if
it be uttered as a prayer. Religion, used to intensify
the hatred of men towards men under the pretence of
pleasing God, has cursed this world.
A portion of this most remarkable report is intensely
religious. There is in it almost the odor of sanctity;
and when reading it, one is impressed with the living
piety of its authors. But on the twenty-fifth page there
are a few passages that must pain the hearts of true
�11
Believers. Leaving their religious views, the members
immediately betake themselves to philosophy and pre
diction. Listen:—
“ The Chinese race and the American citizen,
■whether native-born or one who is eligible to our
naturalisation laws and becomes a citizen, are in a state
of antagonism. They cannot, or will not, ever meet
upon common ground, and occupy together the same
social level. This is impossible. The pagan and the
Christian travel different paths. This one believes in a
living God ; and that one in a type of monsters and the
worship of wood and stone. Thus in the religion of the
two races of men they are as wide apart as the poles of
the two hemispheres. They cannot now and never will
approach the same religious altar. The Christian will
not recede to barbarism, nor will the Chinese advance
to the enlightened belt (whatever it is) of civilisation......
He cannot be converted to those modern ideas of
religious worship which have been accepted by Europe
and which crown the American system.”
Christians used to believe that through their religion
all the nations of the earth were finally to be blest. In
accordance with that belief missionaries have been sent
to every land, and untold wealth has been expended for
what has been called the spread of the gospel.
I am almost sure that I have read somewhere that
“ Christ died for all men,” and that “God is no respecter
of persons.” It was once taught that it was the duty
of Christians to tell all people the “ tidings of great
joy.” I have never believed these things myself, but
have always contended that an honest merchant was
the best missionary. Commerce makes friends, religion
makes enemies; the one enriches, and the other im
poverishes ; the one thrives best where the truth is told,
�12
the other where falsehoods are believed. For myself, I
have but little confidence in any business, or enterprise,
or investment that promises dividends only after the
death of the stockholders.
But I am astonished that four Christian statesmen,
four members of Congress, in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, who seriously object to people on
account of their religious convictions, should still assert
that the very religion in which they believe—and the
only religion established by the “ living God,” head of
the American system—is not adapted to the spiritual
needs of one-third of the human race. It is amazing that
these four gentlemen have, in the defence of the Christian
religion, announced the discovery that it is wholly in
adequate for the civilisation of mankind; that the light of
the cross can never penetrate the darkness of China;
“ that all the labors of the missionary, the example of the
good, the exalted character of our civilisation, make no
impression upon the pagan life of the Chinese; ” and
that even the report of this committee will not tend to
elevate, refine, and Christianise the yellow heathen of
the Pacific coast. In the name of religion these gentle
men have denied its power, and mocked at the enthu
siasm of its founder.
Worse than this, they have
predicted for the Chinese a future of ignorance and
idolatry in this world, and, if the “ American system ”
of religion is true, hell-fire in the next.
For the benefit of these four philosophers and prophets
I will give a few extracts from the writings of Con
fucius, that will, in my judgment, compare favorably
with the best passages of their report:—
“ My doctrine is that man must be true to the
�i3
principles of his nature, and the benevolent exercise of
them toward others.
“.With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and
with my bended arm for a pillow, I still have joy.
“ .Riches and honor acquired by injustice are to me
but floating clouds.
“ The man who, in view of gain, thinks of righteous
ness; who, in view of danger, forgets life, and who
remembers an old agreement, however far back it
extends, such a man may be reckoned a complete man.
“ Recompense injury with justice, and kindness with
kindness.
“ There is one word which may serve as a rule of
practice for all one’s life ; Reciprocity is that word.”
When the ancestors of the four Christian Congress
men were barbarians, when they lived in caves, gnawed
bones, and worshipped dried snakes, the infamous
Chinese were reading these sublime sentences of Con
fucius.
When the forefathers of these Christian
statesmen were hunting toads to get the jewels out of
their heads, to be used as charms, the wretched Chinese
were calculating eclipses, and measuring the circum
ference of the earth. When the progenitors of these
representatives of the “ American system of religion ”
were burning women charged with nursing devils, the
people “ incapable of being influenced by the exalted
character of our civilisation ” were building asylums for
the insane.
Neither should it be forgotten that, for thousands of
years the Chinese have honestly practised the great
principle known as Civil Service Reform—a something
that even the administration of Mr. Hayes has reached
only through the proxy of promise.
If we wish to prevent the immigration of the Chinese,
�J4
iet us reform our treaties with the vast empire from
whence they came. For thousands of years the Chinese
secluded themselves from the rest of the world. They
did not deem the Christian nations fit to associate with.
We forced ourselves upon them. We called, not with
cards, but with cannon. The English battered down
the door in the names of opium and Christ. This
infamy was regarded as another triumph for the gospel.
At last, in self-defence, the Chinese allowed Christians to
touch their shores. Their wise men, their philosophers
protested, and prophesied that time would show that
Christians could not be trusted. This report proves
that the wise men were not only philosophers but
prophets.
Treat China as you would England. Keep a treaty
while it is in force. Change it if you will, according to
the laws of nations, but on no account excuse a breach
of national faith by pretending that we are dishonest for
God’s sake.
�WORKS BY THE LATE R. G. INGERSOLL
The House of Death.
Funeral Orations and
Addresses, is.
Mistakes of Moses, is.
Cloth, 2s. 6d.
The Devil. 6d.
Superstition. 6d.
Shakespeare. 6d. •
The Gods. 6d.
The Holy Bible. 6d.
Reply to
Gladstone.
With an Introduction by
G. W. Foote. 4d.
Rome or Reason ? A
Reply to Cardinal Man
ning. 4d.
Crimes against Criminals
3dOration on Walt Whit
man.
3d.
Oration on Voltaire. 3d.
Oration on Lincoln. 3dPaine the Pioneer. 2d.
Humanity’s
Debt
to
Thomas Paine. 2d.
Ernest Renan and Jesus
Christ. 2d.
Three Philanthropists.
2d.
Love the Redeemer. 2d.
The Ghosts. 3d.
What Must We do to be
Saved ? 2d.
Take a Road of Your
Own. id.
What is Religion ? 2d.
Defence of
Freethought. 4d.
Is Suicide a Sin ? 2d.
Last Words on Suicide.
2d.
God and the State. 2d.
Faith and Fact.
Reply
to Dr. Field. 2d.
God and Man.
Second
reply to Dr. Field. 2d.
The Dying Creed. 2d.
The Limits of Tolera
tion.
A Discussion
with the Hon. F. D.
Coudert and Gov. S. L.
Woodford. 2d.
Household of Faith. 2d.
Art and Morality. 2d.
Do I Blaspheme ? 2d.
Social Salvation. 2d.
Marriage & Divorce. 2d.
Skulls. 2d.
Live Topics, id.
Myth and Miracle, id.
Real Blasphemy, id.
Why am I an Agnostic? 2d.
Christ and Miracles, id.
I Creeds&Spirituality, id.
i The Christian Religion.
I
3d-
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Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
A wooden god
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Ingersoll, Robert Green [1833-1899]
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: London
Collation: 14 p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: First published 1880 as a letter to the Chicago Times (27 March) and reprinted from the Dresden edition of Ingersoll's works. No. 96b in Stein checklist.||(WIT) Publisher's advertisements ("Works by the late R.G. Ingersoll") inside back cover. Part of the NSS pamphlet collection.
Please note that this pamphlet contains language and ideas that may be upsetting to readers. These reflect the time in which the pamphlet was written and the ideologies of the author.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Freethought Publishing Company
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1903
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
N414
Subject
The topic of the resource
Missionaries
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (A wooden god), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
China
Missionaries-China
NSS