THE METHODIST COLLEGE IN INDIA. abolished," Jesuit schools and colleges would certainly step into the place which government is vacating, and even so far as government does not vacate it would give their own spiritual and moral impress to every thing. Protestant schools and colleges have still certain advantages, but will, in any case, find it very hard to maintain their place in front of the lavish expenditure, the patient determination, and organizing skill of the Jesuits. To abolish Protestant schools and colleges would be simply to hand over the future of India to the Jesuits. They expect that through education the future will be theirs; and with the narrowness of view characteristic of Protestant Missions, I greatly fear that their expectation will be realized. Now, I would rather that India should become Jesuit than that it should become absolutely irreligious; but it is not a prospect to which I look forward with pleasure. The Jesuits are at work toward their ends by other than direct means. I have reason to believe that the attacks so often made by the secular and Anglo-Indian press upon Protestant Mission education are made in the interest of the Jesuits. They are now immensely more active in education than any Protestant Mission, but their institutions are never attacked in the ordinary secular press, which tries so hard by every weapon of misrepresentation and abuse to induce Protestants to give up educational work. It would not surprise me if some of the papers at home which take the same line were also laboring for the great Jesuit end, but as to this I do not pretend to know any thing. . . . In glancing through my letter, I observe I have said nothing on the probable effect of Roman Catholic education on the religion and morals, etc.; but I am very hurried, and I need not discuss this. You know at home, as well as we, what Jesuitism is, and can understand what effect its dominance would have. I am no fanatic about such matters, and have friends whom I value among Roman Catholics; but I may remind you that if the mind of India be molded by Jesuit influence, the effect will be in the highest degree adverse to all that Protestants value most in religion and morals and culture generally. III. From the REV. F. H. BARING, M.A., Fellow Punjab University: In reply to the questions in the circular you have kindly sent me, I would say: 1. That in my opinion it is most important that there should be one thoroughly efficient Protestant missionary college in each part of India. I would urge this not only on account of the Christian influence the professors have on their pupils, but also because their influence on the university, senates, and in other ways is invaluable. 2. At the same time, it appears to me that it would be much the best plan if the various missionary societies would unite to make one strong college (as in Madras), and not spend their strength on more than one college in each part of India. 3. The Brahmos and others do a great deal by lectures to the educated classes in various places, a work which, it seems to me, has received scarcely sufficient attention from missionary societies. I hope your committee may see their way to do something more than is being done at present in this direction. With regard to your paragraph five, I may mention that, so far as my experience goes, I do not know one missionary who would willingly employ a non-Christian teacher were a Christian available. I would, however, deprecate the home authorities making any hard-and-fast rules on the subject. The missionaries are well worthy of confidence, and should be trusted to do what is best under the circumstances. IV. From the REV. W. SHOOLBRED, D.D., missionary 7 of the United Presbyterian Church to Beawar, Rajpootana, and ex-Moderator of U. P. Synod: As I have a very strong opinion on the necessity of keeping up your colleges and high-schools in India, I send you just a line to say so. Apart from the very important work which these institutions is doing in leavening the best young minds in India with Christian truth, and thus preparing the educated classes for receiving Christianity en masse when caste bonds are relaxed and broken, I regard them as serving a most important and valuable purpose in keeping the higher education in missionary rather than government hands. The education given in government colleges is in most instances a curse rather than a blessing to the young Hindus. A great many of the professors and teachers are, I am sorry to say, atheists, agnostics, or positivists. These make no scruple of violating the neutrality clause, and teach their hopeless and soul-destroying doctrines, sowing them broadcast among the pupils; while the Christian teachers in government colleges who have a conscience are obliged to respect the neutrality clause, and refrain from teaching Christianity. The result of withdrawing the mission colleges would simply be to throw the whole higher education of the country into the hands of these atheistic government teachers, with a most disastrous effect on the future moral and spiritual state of the youth of India. I would, therefore, strongly deprecate the closing of your colleges, which have done and are doing a noble work, and which, if the higher castes in India are to be effectually reached and acted on, must be maintained. V. From GEORGE SMITH, Esq., C.T.E., LL.D., Secretary of Free Church, Foreign Missions Committee: I am so hard driven that I see no chance of doing justice to the circular even shortly. I can only say that the lives and writings of Carey and Duff, John Wilson and Stephen Hislop, are unanimous in the conclusion that the best means of evangelizing the Brahmanical and educated natives of India is the Christian college taught by aggressively Christian men ever on the watch, and with leisure to seek for inquirers among the students. In any missionary method all depends, under the Spirit of God, on the men whom you send out as missionaries. If full of zeal for souls, as well as cultured, they will use the method educational, preaching, medical-best fitted to bring about conversions. If the Church at home does its duty to such men by prayer and means, the fruit will come, though not always in the way or at the time expected. VI. From J. MURDOCH, LL.D., Indian Agent Christian Vernacular Education Society: I beg to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of the copy of your "Interim Report on Educational Missions in India." One good result of the inquiry is, that it has elicited such a valuable collection of letters on the subject. Brief replies to your circular will now be sufficient. It would be a great calamity if the higher education in India fell exclusively into the hands of government, the Jesuits, and Hindus. In each presidency there should be one thoroughly equipped Protestant college, directly evangelistic in its aim and course of instruction. It should be manned exclusively by picked men, ordained missionaries, able to resist the secularizing influence of university examination. All connected with it should feel that they are missionaries and not simply professors. Dr. Millar says: "When the work of mission schools begins 8 OUR DEBT TO THE HEATHEN, AND ITS PAYMENT. to be adequately followed up in India, which it has not even begun to be, it will be time enough to ask for any tangible evidence of what it has effected." (Interim Report, p. 50.) How is this to be done? Principally by the appointment of missionaries to labor among the educated classes, to deepen, if pos sible, any impressions produced in schools and colleges. The number of missionaries employed.need not, perhaps, be greater than at present, for in some places educational work might be concentrated." With such facts before the Methodist Episcopal Church, will her one college in India be left uncared for when God is by baptisms filling this Church with chil dren at the rate of 200 per month-children that must be educated? This is the first expensive building the India Mission has ever asked, and in comparison with other lands this is but little. Twenty thousand dollars will give us our buildings all complete. Last year the sum given in dollars was less, as the American silver bill had not then changed the money-markets of the world. Dr. Dr. Peck, at our Mission Rooms, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York, will give information and receive funds for this college, as will Dr. Baldwin, at same address. Johnson, who has lived many years in Lucknow, is also now in America, and can give full particulars. Address also at Mission Rooms. Signed, for Board of Trustees, E. W. PARKER, President. Our Debt to the Heathen, and Its Payment. BY REV. WILBUR F. COOKMAN. tion of the Christian Church to the non-Christian world in a light that addresses itself at once to her intelligence, her conscience, and her sense of honor. In declaring himself a debtor to the Greek and to the barbarian, St. Paul represents his fellow-apostles and the whole Church of all ages. This acknowledgment is not made on the ground of a special commission to the Gentiles exclusively. It is true that he was a chosen vessel to bear the Lord's name unto the Gentiles, but not to them exclusively, for he gave large place in his sermons, epistles, and the churches he established to the Jew. His commission to bear the Lord's name unto the Gentiles did not differ from the great commission given to the twelve other than in its breadth. It was a repetition of a part of the great commission; a repetition made necessary because the twelve had either failed to understand the universal character of their orders, or had willfully disobeyed through prejudice against the Gentiles. God gives no commissions, imposes no obligations, offers no privileges under the New Testament dispensation that include or exclude any man or people on the ground of nationality. The death of the Son of man meant the breaking down of the middle wall of partition between man and man. In Christ Jesus there is neither Greek, nor Jew, nor Roman, circumcision nor uncircumcision, but all are one in Christ Jesus. If there were any exclusive features about St. Paul's commission they were geographical. He was to give himself chiefly to Gentile localities. Such distinctions may yet be made in the divine call to labor in spiritual vineyards. Bishop Taylor and some of his heroic band believe in a special call to Africa, and we are not dis TEXT.—I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barba-posed to call in question their faith. rians; both to the wise, and to the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you which are at Rome also (Rom. 1. 14, 15). The work of preaching the Gospel to every creature, of Christianizing the world, and of helping the Church in heathen lands to a self-supporting basis is a work of such magnitude and duration as to demand for our missionary organizations broad and permanent foundations. The call of the Church for men and women to devote their lives to this work meets with a hearty response; but the call for money to equip, send, and support them falls in a measure unheeded. This does not prove that the Church is poor in gold and silver; the facts contradict that; but it does prove that she is spiritually poor and heavy of hearing. This latter defect, which is largely responsible for the former, will be remedied in part, at least, when the pulpit sounds the true note with proper emphasis. The pulpit has been too well content in having reached the shallow landsprings of the emotion whose supply is only temporary; we must dig for the mountain currents of conscience and intelligence. When these shall have been thoroughly probed we shall have abundant and perpetual supplies. Then St. Paul and his fellow-apostles were laboring under the same general and universal commission, “Go. ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." Again, the great commission as given to the twelve applies to the Church. The twelve disciples represented, yea, constituted the Church. The pronoun ye of that commission was used in the same sense as previously in "ye are the salt of the earth," and "ye are the light of the world;" no one would argue that the earth lost its salt with the death of the twelve, or that the light of the world went out with the lives of the apostles. The Church of God is one in all ages and in all climes. This is shown by the one foundation-Christ. If the foundation is one the superstructure must be one. He is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and "other foundation can no man lay." This unity is shown also in the one head, "and he [Christ Jesus] is the head of the body, the Church." If there is but one head there can be but one body. In his intercessory prayer Jesus prays not for his disciples alone, but for all who should believe on him through their word, that they might all be one. The Church being one in foundation, in head, in The text reveals the relation and consequent obliga- origin, and in privilege, is one also in duty. Hence, the OUR DEBT TO THE HEATHEN, AND ITS PAYMENT. obligations upon her in her early history are still binding, unless the occasion which imposed them has passed away. In this case it has not, for there are hundreds of millions of human creatures who have not had the Gospel preached to them. Therefore, if Paul and his fellow-apostles were debtors to the heathen, so are we who constitute the Church of to-day. Having, then, put the Church upon the ground occupied by St. Paul when he gave expression to the text, let us now survey the wide range of our obligation. The Epistle to the Romans was written in Corinth, and the writer adopted the Greek method of classifying the world's inhabitants. The Jew divided mankind into two classes-Jew and Gentile. The Greek divided them into two sets of classes, one based upon nationality— Greek and barbarian-and the other upon intellectual status-wise and foolish. These two sets of classes embraced all men, and Paul meant to admit that he was a debtor to all men; and that the Romans might fully understand him, he ventures a degree of repetition by naming them specifically. If such was the sweep of his debt, and we stand in his room, ours is alike all inclusive; no race, no nation, no locality, no intellectual status, no color is excluded from the realm of our obligation. But this is not merely a debt of the Church in its collective capacity. Paul did not say we are debtors; but he speaks in the singular, and says, "I am debtor;" and I would remind you, Christian mother or sister, that God stands you in Paul's footprints, and he would have you say in the same spirit in which these words were originally uttered, as you look out and behold the vast millions who sit in the regions of darkness, I am debtor to all these. A great debt! do you say? but not greater than are your resources, not wider than your possible influence. A stone dropped into a lake will displace every particle of water in that lake, so God designs that every Christian shall exert an influence that shall never cease, until from center to circumference the race shall be lifted a notch higher in the scale of spiritual, moral, social, and physical improvement. St. Paul is still paying his debt, his influence is still living and widening, and will continue until the utmost bounds of the human race are reached. A great debt, indeed, is ours, but when we look godward our resources are unlimited. The philosophy of this debt is not to be found in the principle of value received. The poverty of heathenism is apparent in this, that it has nothing to give. It never contributed any thing to the world's progress, its course has been steadily downward. Heathenism to-day, untouched by Christianity, is worse than heathenism 2,500 years ago. It cannot reproduce the golden ages of Egypt, Babylon, Greece, or Rome. Its unaided production of great men is a thing of the past. Its most prominent intellectual productions are saturated with poison, and cannot benefit us only as Christianity has the power to neutralize their deadly influence and extract their sweetness; the touch of its social system is paralyzing; the breath of its morals 9 is death; it cannot break off its own shackles or lift up itself from the accumulated débris of ages, much less can it help others. On the ground of value received we owe the heathen nothing, he has given us nothing. Neither is the philosophy of this debt to be found chiefly in the fact that the heathen is our fellow-man, our brother, though he has claims upon us on that ground that we cannot ignore. But it is in this, that God has given us something for the heathen, and God has made the Church the custodian of the Gospel for all the world, the executor of Christ's estate. Who are the legitimate heirs of this bequest? To whom does the Gospel belong? It has already been said that the Church is a debtor to the whole world, but as this was only a deduction from the assumed relation between St. Paul and the Church of this age, and might be called in question, we desire to rest this important truth upon a broader basis. Let us hear then : 1. The testimony of the prophets of the Old Testament. Moses says: "In thee [Abraham] shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Also, "Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people." Why rejoice, but in the prospect of sharing with them the blessings of the Messiah's reign? David in portraying the extent of Solomon's kingdom at the same time gives us a type of Christ's kingdom. He says: "He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth. They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him; and his enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.” Isaiah says: "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek." Also, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my Spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles." Hear also the witness of Daniel: "There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him." These witnesses, though Jews, agree in their testimony that Christ's kingdom is an universal kingdom; hence, all his subjects are entitled to the blessings of his reign. 2. Look again for light on this important question to Christ's human relations. Relationship is the chief ground on which heirship is determined. Jesus does not make prominent his Jewish origin. In both his public and private discourses he omits any reference to any special relation, by descent, to the Jew. St. Matthew traces his origin back to Abraham-does not stop with Isaac, in whom Abraham's seed was called, and thus relate him exclusively to the Jew; but goes back to Abraham, and makes him a brother to Ishmael as well as to Isaac. Luke traces his genealogy back to Adam, and thus makes him a brother to all of Adam's descendants. Again, Jesus does declare himself to be the "Son of 10 OUR DEBT TO THE HEATHEN, AND ITS PAYMENT. man," in a higher sense than he is the son of Mary, though she were both Jew and Gentile. He is the Son of man in its generic sense. He is focalized humanity. Just as a ray of sunlight is a combination of all the colors of the solar spectrùm, and is equally related to each, so is Jesus a combination of all the elements of all the nations. He is perfect humanity and equally related to all people. Then all people have a like claim upon him. Every son and daughter of Adam is his heir. At the same time that one angel shouted to the Jewish shepherds, "Unto you is born this day a Saviour," another whispered into the listening ear of the far off East, "Unto you a King is born," and we of the far West have taken up the strain and sing, "To us a child of hope is born, and who dare deny our right to sing that sentiment? Then, if he is equally related to all men, and heirship is determined on the basis of relationship, all men are alike his heirs; and though the inheritance may have fallen into the hands of a few, it is not theirs exclusively. 3. The invitations of Jesus show who are his heirs. These invitations are universal. An invitation always carries with it an implied promise to bestow the thing to which invited. Here, then, are invitations and promises, upon the same conditions, to all. 4. The impartial character of Christ's personal ministry shows that the benefits of his kingdom were designed alike for all; his personal benefactions were conferred irrespective of nationality or social or intellectual condition. It is true that he confined himself to Palestine, and concentrated himself largely upon twelve men; but it was a necessity that he should concentrate himself somewhere a necessity that grew out of the obtuseness of men's minds to perceive, and the slowness of their hearts to believe the truth. If you would kindle a fire with the sun's rays you must focalize and hold them steadily upon combustible material. However hard and obdurate, the Jewish people afforded the best soil to be found at that time for the reception of the truth; and the simple yet strange-minded disciples were the most docile of that nation; but it is a glorious fact that Jesus did "eat with publicans and sinners," and conveyed his healing, forgiving, and happifying power without respect of persons. 5. Again, Jesus died for all men; "he tasted death for every man," etc. Then all should be privileged with the benefits of his death, and they are deprived of their rights to whom these privileges have not come. Who is responsible for this deprivation? deny that every man is an heir of Christ, or that all should enjoy the benefits he has provided, or that the Church to whom he has committed his estate should make an universal distribution of it? Christ and the Gospel no more belong to us than they do to the blackest and veriest savage of the jungles of Africa, and God holds us under bond to give these riches to that savage. He is what he is because he has not them; we are what we are because we have; reverse our possessions in this and you reverse our conditions. THE PAYMENT, It is of great importance that we have a right disposition toward a debt, and specially toward one that God imposes; for a mere outward service is not pleasing to him. "If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath." "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver." Paul showed his disposition toward his debt in two ways: 1. He acknowledged it. This is what some professing Christians do not do. They regard missionary work as mere charity, and they can give or withhold; and the pulpit too often presents it as a charity, that which appeals to the sympathies. But it is more than that—it is a debt; it appeals to our sense of justice and honor, and no man can be just or honorable in the sight of heaven who, seeing this matter in its true light, does not acknowledge it as a debt. In asking for contributions to our missionary enterprises we are asking people to pay an honest debt, to be just and loyal to God and man; and our request should be presented with more authority and assurance than that possessed by the tax-gatherer of a government that insures life, protects property, and fosters virtue; for God is the great governor, and it is the benign influence of his government that has bestowed upon men all their wealth, and given them the ability to extend his rule to earth's remotest bounds. We are not asking for what belongs to man, but for what belongs to God, and the most simple justice ought to prompt to a hearty response. We are asking for God's gold to transmute into redeemed souls. 2. Again, Paul's disposition toward this debt is seen in his expressed purpose to do all in his might to pay it: "As much as in me is," etc. Paul was not partial toward the Romans; his disposition toward them was the same as that toward the Greeks and all other barbarians. His whole life was one desperate effort to pay this debt in full to all men. Have we such a holy determination? Have we such a zeal in this work as will enable us to say to the heathen when we meet him at the judgment, 6. The gift of tongues on the day of Pentecost and "I did what I could to save you?" The facts and figures subsequently indicates God's design as to the spread do not show a general consecration of the Church to of the Gospel and the universal heirship of man. In the payment of this debt. If the Church were fully dethe light, then, of prophecy; in view of the equal rela- voted in purse and heart and brain to the accomplishtionship of Christ to all men; from the testimony of the ment of this task, in one fourth of a century the most universal character of his invitation, the impartial char- solitary places of the earth would be made to rejoice. acter of his personal ministry, the unlimited applica- O, for a Pauline missionary enthusiasm to seize the tion of his death, and the provision made in the gift of Church! Then would she have $50,000,000 upon her tongues for preaching the Gospel to all nations, who can altar for this work where now she has only $1,500,000. OUR DEBT TO THE HEATHEN, AND ITS PAYMENT. The currency with which this debt must be paid is the Gospel of Christ. There can be no substitute for this. We are giving heathenism the material and intellectual products of our Christian civilization; and that is well. But that is not the work of the Church as such, and these things are no substitute for the Gospel, though they help in its distribution. It is not the duty of the Church to educate in the arts, sciences, and literature, only as they are needful in preparing the way for and helping in the distribution of the Gospel. To give the Gospel pure and simple is the duty of the Church; and this is the supreme and primary need of the heathen. It is the need of the soul; without it the soul has no food, no drink, no clothes, no rest, no hope, no light, no life; and the soul is the man. The soul's need is the source of all need, and the soul's supply will culminate in supplies for the entire man-"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Give the heathen the Gospel and you give him in embryo all that the highest forms of civilization signify, save their vices. Mr. Gladstone says, "It can and will correct all that needs correcting; leading statesmen, scholars, thinkers, and reformers depend upon it as the chief hope of humanity. There can be no substitute for the Gospel. There must be no failure in giving this-the supreme, the all comprehensive thing." THE METHOD OF PAYING THIS DEBT. 11 sary to counteract this effect and give a true representation of the effect of the Gospel upon the lives of men. But while this debt is to be paid with a preached Gospel, it must not be inferred that the sole responsibility devolves upon the preacher. God means to equalize the burdens of life. He says, "Bear ye one another's burdens." There are two factors in this work-the preacher and the sender: "How shall they preach except they be sent ?" When God calls a man to preach the Gospel, he calls the Church not only to hear that man, but to send him to preach. In the fact that hundreds of men and women are offering themselves for missionary work, God is calling loudly to the Church for the means with which to send them, and we must either go or sendpreach in person or by proxy. When the drafts were made during the Civil War to replenish the army, the man who was drafted could do only one of two honorable things-go or send a substitute. God has issued a draft for the prosecution of this war between light and darkness out on the far frontier, and this draft has fallen upon the whole Church-not a member has escaped; and we must go, send, or act the deserter's part and suffer his fate. The need of more soldiers is great. Those upon the field see that the enemy is demoralized, but they are too few to fully seize the golden opportunity, and are crying to us for help. Bishop Taylor wants scores of The method announced by Paul, as by Jesus, was that recruits in Africa. Bishop Thoburn thinks that the of preaching the Gospel. In his Epistle to the Romans Paul writes the Gospel. It is presented in a strong light in almost every feature; yet he does not regard his duty to the Romans done until he has preached to them this Gospel. Jesus commanded his disciples to preach the Gospel to every creature. The Ethiopian eunuch had the prophecy of Isaiah, and was reading that portion of it where the Gospel is most concentrated. Indeed, the picture before his eyes was the cross with its bleeding victim, and the interpretation thereof; yet the Lord sends Philip to preach that same Gospel to him that he was reading. A preached Gospel is just as necessary to the heathen to-day as it was then. It is a good thing to give the Bible, but that must be followed by the living preacher. The eunuch did not understand what he read, and many heathen have made long journeys to find a missionary to explain to them the Gospel that they have read. Then the living preacher is necessary to give a living demonstration of the word of God; for in the track of the missionary, and ofttimes ahead of him, go men and women to practice the vices that have grown up in the fertile soil of Christian lands; and often before the heathen sees the missionary he sees the rum-seller, the gambler, the sharp, unprincipled tradesman, and all those lewd fellows of the baser sort, who claim to represent our Christian civilization. A sad experience with this class drives the the heathen to say, "If these are the products of Christianity we want none of it." The missionary is neces time has come in India for a nation to be born in a day. More helpers are needed both at home and abroad, in all parts of the world; and hundreds of men and women equipped with an education, with a consecration to God, and with the baptism of the Holy Ghost, are saying, "here am I; send me." O, for a consecration of the the sending power which God has bestowed upon the Church in great measure! The measure of our individual obligation in the payment of this debt is shown by the text-" as much as in me is." Paul meant to say that he was under obligation to the extent of his ability to preach the Gospel to all classes here named, and we must measure our obligation by the same standard. The missionary must take as his motto ""Tis all my business here below and they have a grand record in their devotion to the | work to which the Church has sent them. Now, we who stay at home, and thus take upon ourselves the responsibility of sending, must send to the extent of our ability in sending power, which consists chiefly in our money. It may be impossible for one to determine for another how much should be given; but it is perfectly safe to say and easy to demonstrate that the Church as a whole is not doing her duty. The average member of the Methodist Episcopal Church is worth about $800, and that wealth is increas ing at the rate of $40 per year. The average contribution for distinctively missionary work, excluding local |