THE ARENA.

INDIA AND CHINA AS COMPARATIVE MISSION FIELDS.

AT the last meeting of the General Missionary Committee there was what is reported in an American Methodist weekly as "one of the most remarkably able debates ever had in the history of the General Committee." We learn that "the debate occurred on the relative claims of China and India," and that "the controversy was as to which has the greater claim on the Church? By the admission of speakers in the Committee a wonderful hold has been won by India on the sympathies of the whole Church. It was said, "The Church is biased in favor of India;" again, "The tide is unfairly in that direction; " again, "Bishop Thoburn has hypnotized the country." To us who know the facts of the wonderful work going on in our missions in India it does not seem strange that the Church should be, not "hypnotized," but waked up, by a recital of the wonderful works of God. It is not "bias," but deep sympathy for a mighty work of evangelism, such as our foreign field has never had before. No General Committee has any right to misinterpret or stem this "tide." The Spirit of God is saying to the Church, "Push the work in India with great power." It surely is not wise at a time like this to talk about keeping all missions to one iron rule of supply or scaling all down alike. Indeed, those who opposed giving India more than China seemed to see this; hence the effort to make it appear that the claims of these two countries are the same, or at least that no special help must be extended to India.

It was argued that India does not enter into the future of America-a selfish plea which has, after all, no foundation. As a matter of fact, India has entered into the life of America, and will enter, as China cannot. The people of India are Aryan, of our blood and speech, our kinsmen, also, in mythology and thought. Their philosophy and thought to-day are influencing us much more than the mentality of China can. It was urged that India is the "ward" of England, while China is the "ward” of the United States. Now, there is very little in this desperate argument, for the fact is that China, also, is more the "ward" of England than of the United States. The commercial relation of England to China is much closer than that of the United States. England touches China all along her Indian border. At Hong-Kong she has territorial possession in China, and at that point and in Singapore and the Straits Settlement she rules over far more Chinese than the United States ever did or perhaps ever will. England is constantly, as an Asiatic power, in negotiation, territorial and political, with China. Hence, if it comes to the matter of relation, England, and not the United States, should evangelize China; and, as a matter of fact, England has far more mission work in that country than has the United States.

The true way to look at this matter is to recognize the claim of any

mission field to be settled in the light of the real opening presented, as indicated by success. India is the "ward" of all Christendom. Here, in a vast territory, three hundred million souls are open to all possible civilizing and Christianizing influences. India is in a state of tremendous transition, such as is no other country on the globe to-day. Here, in a population equal to one fifth of the world, changes, great beyond conception, are taking place. Communities equal to considerable cities become Christian every year, the converts of our mission alone numbering about fifty a day for the entire year. Here is the opportunity of the ages, and all Churches are justified in making special effort for India. If comparative results are an index India is now a most hopeful field for Methodism. She was entered ten years later than China, yet her faster growth is seen from the study of the following table, made up from the most recent figures available:

From this table it will be seen that the foreign missionaries in India are in number nearly double those in China; that the number of helpers is three times greater; that baptisms are nearly nine times as many; and that the total of the members and probationers of our Church is more than five times greater.

When our General Committee comes together again it is to be hoped that they will have studied the situation better, and that they may accord to India the aid demanded by the hour. When the time of refreshing comes for China, then help must be commensurate with the demand. Bareilly, India.

T. J. SCOTT.

THE URGENT DEMANDS OF OUR GREAT FIELD IN CHINA.

To all thoughtful Christians having in mind the command of their Redeemer to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature the Chinese empire, containing as it does one fourth of Asia and having considerably more than five million square miles, with a population of about four hundred millions, presents an unparalleled field for the activities of the Christian Church. While the idolatry of China is free from the obscene rites practiced under other forms of paganism and the ethics of Confucius are incomparably in advance of most other heathen teachers, the people are nevertheless in great need of the Gospel of Christ, all their native systems of religion having failed to bring them nearer to God or to elevate their spiritual or moral condition. No greater problem can be presented to the Christian Church of this age than the conversion of the vast multitude of people inhabiting the Chinese empire. It must be for some great and good purpose that, in the marvelous providence of God, this great nation has been preserved for four thousand years. The intellectual ability of the people, the great honor paid to students, and the high

rank accorded to literature give the greatest hope for the future development of China, and assure us that when converted it will take high rank among Christian nations.

While all this is true it is also true that there is a better opportunity for the prosecution of the Gospel enterprise at this time than ever before. It is possible for the missionary of the cross to proclaim his message anywhere within the bounds of the empire. The five hundred Christians of thirty years ago have increased to fifty thousand actual communicants and, probably, to over two hundred thousand adherents. Places which we could only enter with difficulty thirty or forty years ago are now centers of revival interest and power, as, for instance, the city of Hinghua, in our Foo-Chow Conference, from which the Rev. W. N. Brewster wrote very recently that, at the close of a three days' meeting which filled the chapel so that an extra meeting had to be organized outdoors, over one hundred new converts were received into the Church; and in the whole Conference more than a thousand were added during the last year, and nearly as many in North China.

There seems to be quite a general feeling on the part of the missionaries that a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God is near at hand and that within a few years we shall witness the conversion of large numbers in different parts of the empire. Bishop Thoburn, with the prophetic insight which characterizes him, in speaking of the great movement in India said: "It has not yet reached China, but it will not be long before that land will also be experiencing like scenes of divine power in the conversion of large numbers of souls."

It is perhaps to be regretted that, in view of what was thought to be the necessary reduction of one ninth on the work generally at the last General Missionary Committee, there was some discussion of the comparative needs of China and India. The fact is that both of these great mission fields need much more than we can supply; and, whatever may be said as to the greater obligation we may be under for the conversion of China, the fact is that we have very large results in India and that we must take care of the converts we have and enter the doors which God is opening before us in every direction.

We have never thought it necessary to proportion our appropriations to the ingathering of members in any particular mission. In 1870 the Foo-Chow Mission had 1900 members and probationers, and the North India Mission 839; but in 1871 only $16,224 were appropriated to FooChow, while $81,302 were appropriated to North India. No doubt the continued large appropriations to the great field in North India during the years when, so far as numbers were concerned, the Foo-Chow Mission seemed to be much the more prosperous have had to do with the great ingatherings of these later years in which we all rejoice. Reductions in our appropriations to China now may seriously cripple the work and retard the accomplishment of the great results for which we have reason to hope in the near future. It would be a great calamity to allow our conquests for the Master to be retarded by the fears created in a season of

financial panic. The increasing success of our work, and the new fields opening before us and calling for helpers, conjoined with the increasing number of consecrated young men and women offering themselves for service, show that the providential order is to go forward; and we cannot afford to disregard it or to refuse obedience. We ought, if possible, not only to keep up the appropriations of the past years, but to make considerable increase to meet the growing demands of the work in connection with our four missions in that great empire. There ought to be no note of retreat sounded in any portion of our great field, and least of all in any of our missions among the heathen. S. L. BALDWIN.

New York City.

HAPS, MISHAPS, AND PERHAPS OF METHODISM.

IN Bishop Goodsell's article, "Whither?-A Study of Tendency," in the Review for January, 1893, we find much food for reflection and somewhat for suggestion, if one may presume so far toward an episcopus. In the course of events Methodistic during the greater part of the first century after the organization of our Church the liturgy was left behind with several other good things, such as the college, the seminary, and hospital work. The order of deaconesses was wanting in all Protestant Churches ab initio. Now that our Church is taking up these neglected things all our bishops, editors, and publishers utter many and strong commendations which do much to encourage and hasten forward these good works, except the "tendency" toward restoring the ritual. About this there is a hesitancy of speech. I second most heartily E. R. Lathrop's suggestion, in the "Arena" of the July number, that our book agents publish an edition of the Sunday Service which John Wesley prepared for us. Why should not this movement be commended by our bishops in their quadrennial and their several annual addresses? Such help would afford the cause something better than a mere index of prog

ress.

Bishop Hurst has recently, and by example, taught us to seek after the "old paths," in that he used the form of prayer from the apostolical constitutions (viii, 20) of the fourth century in consecrating deaconesses in Washington, D. C. There is a vast field of Methodism, however, where the people never see or hear a bishop. The ritualistic tendency has not reached the rural churches. But it is here, especially, that we need more emphasis upon that which differentiates Methodism from the Congregational Churches in forms of worship. The lack of reverence for the house of God and the Church of God cannot be otherwise remedied.

When we consider "our tenuity in the great cities" shall we attribute so much of our failure to "the rapidly fading remnant of an itinerancy" that it should be put away as an impediment? Perhaps we might better conclude, after considering carefully what becomes of a great society after a Spurgeon leaves it, and what useful service the strong men of Methodism give who build into half a score of churches thirty years of toil and then add twenty years more in the broader pastorate of an itin

erant episcopus, that this "tenuity" in the cities is not a feature of Methodism alone. It belongs to Protestantism. Dr. Cuyler says: “Dr. Strong confirms the opinion which I have long held, that the proportion of American people who regularly attend a place of worship on Sunday is diminishing." The Roman Catholic Church gathers the masses in the cities. Protestant Churches are losing them. What is to be done? It is not a question of settled or limited pastorate. The whole Protestant Church must follow the leading of Methodism and establish Christian hospital and deaconess work in all our large cities. Such a movement

would promote that union of the Protestant Churches which is essential to ultimate success. If we have only a "fading remnant of an itinerancy" in some of the cities there yet remains the great country places in the West and South, with undiminished congregations, where the itinerant will continue to go abroad for another century at least. And before the Church enters upon her third century the little New England village station will have become tired of being left to be supplied" and will have recalled the itinerant preacher-perhaps.

American statesmen, too, will soon be compelled to inquire into the condition of our cities, where the proportion of Americans in public offices is diminishing, and where the American young men are discriminated against in labor organizations dominated by foreigners. Bound together in the same bundle are the two pressing questions, Shall our cities be Christian? Shall our cities be American? The deaconess and hospital work will help to gather in the masses to the Church. A revival of ritual will help Methodism to hold the children of her own people.

Lexington, Ky.

J. D. WALSH.

A GREAT NEED.

WERE I asked to form a list of things in my judgment most essential to the well-being of society in this country from this time forth, after due recognition of the Church and the public school, as respectively first and second by unquestioned right, I should place third upon the list the press. Society needs, for the development of that high grade of public morals so necessary to the best results and for the conservation of recognized standards, a public press having conscientious scruples and moved by moral considerations. The press of the future, to be worth most to the people for these purposes, ought to be free from the taint of favoritism toward popular sins and, so far as practicable, free from the domination of parties or of classes. This "consummation devoutly to be wished" is unfortunately not yet, and not very likely to be at any very early day. Even supposing a few of the better and larger journals of the times to be above reproach in this regard-a supposition requiring the exercise of some charity-yet it remains undoubtedly true that the general attitude of the press toward moral issues of the present day is far from being complimentary to the country. Setting aside religious journals as out of this discussion entirely, the outlook is not hopeful. Perhaps exception ought