The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-10-14


 through the hostile reports of the i'm moral European populations In the port cities whose unworthy lives are sharply rebuked by pure Christianity
 Missionary work in Asia, even by the confession of many non-Christians, has been gandly fruitful, and l regard the outlook as magnificently promising The toll and self-sacrifice which have been put into it are prodigious, and the notion that missionaries live a luxuri- ous and self-indulgent life is the fabrl- cation of ignorance and malice. Hav- ing been for four months in missionary homes, know the sorrows, trials and daily tolls of these men and women, the anguish of separation from chill dren, the many discouragements by which their work is accompanied but by which they are never discouraged, the many erroneous and undeserVed criticisms by which they are assailed. And I wish to affirm before the Chris tian public i'll America what you all we'll know, that these men and women, true representatives of the spirit and kingdom of Jesus Christ, are worthy not only of our confidence but of our pl ety iQl eitiu SCH -SeiCllLClllE So-oPSiS GU ton. Christianity is not aseeticism, and asceticism of the Hindu sort is in- compatable with Christian living. Our representatives in the Orient require for their wearisome and nerve destroy ing lives the environment of Christian home, and l am glad that missionary homes reproduce in a simple, unpreten- tious way the '1ecencies and comforts of English and American households and I am glad that the missionaries are few in India or China who try to con- form to the habits of life prevailing about them, and thus diminish their strength, lessen their powers of service, and cut short their years of usefulness. There is a self-denial which is genuine and spiritual, finding expression in low ing service to others, and in the begin nings of missions heroic and painful sacrifices are sometimes required, but it is wrong for missionaries to Hinduize Christianity by adopting the life-de stroying austerities which in India are associated with so-called holiness. And I am glad that the standard of a Christian civilization has been raised amidst the abjectness of Asiatic life by the representatives of our faith.
 It is a most grateful recollection that the work which I was commissioned to do in the East and far East was in any degree a help to these noble men and women, and now coming back to Amer ica, shall rejoice if my testimony is to be of any service in deepening devotion to that missionary cause which Dr. Wayland rightly believed to be the sub- finest that ever awakened the hopes and called forth the moral energies of mankind. It was a lectureship founded by a devoted member of the Congrega- tional church in Michigan City, Mrs. Caroline E. Haskell, which led me to the Orient, and among the brightest visions which met my eyes in the dark continent of Asia and elsewhere were the mission stations at which your gifts and efforts have kindled points of celes- tial light. It would be agreeable to me to recall, were there time the kind nesses shown to us by your represen- tatives in Turkey, India, Japan and Hawaii, to lay a wreath on the brows of my friend, Dr. Hume, one of the most hustling and sweet hearted and successful missionaries, or on the head of Dr. J. F. Jones of Madura, or to pay fitting tribute to the Christian teachers, men and women whom we met in Scutari, Kobe, Tokyo, or sailed with across the Pacific But these friends would prefer that should speak not of them but of the cause which lies close to their hearts. You ought to thank God that you have had such great part in the battle for a Christian civilization In Asia and the isles of the sea; that you are in spirit ual accord with the successors of Paul and his apostolic brethren now engag- ed in crusade with which the cru sades of Godfrey and Richard were childish and barbarous.I remember, how in Constantinople the English compan- ions in our voyage almost winced when the came to realize what a shining rec ord America, by her schools, churches and colleges, had made in the last sixty years in the Ottoman empire, set over against the measureless shame and cruel diabolical selfishness of the Euro pean powers who have been plunging from one depth of infamy down into those lowest depths where now all the devils hiss and riot and applaud. And if I were asked to name that place which I have seen in all the world where Christian civilization, as. shown in general intelligence and morality and good will among different races, in the abundance of schools, asylums and churches, in widespread material pros- perity and in zealous devotion to the expansion of Gods Kingdom on earth had reached it's brightest manifesto tions, should mention without 9 mo- ment's hesitancy tiny state ill the Pa- cifc which Congregational missions lifted out of savagery and which may before long be linked to the American commonwealth, the island republic of Hawaii.
 There are tive things which most deeply touch the heart of the American patriot, and American Christian. These are the flag and the cross, our country and our country's duty to the whole world America for Christ, and Christ for all men. One returns home with a new and stronger faith in the gospels universal efficacy after hearing the old Christian hymns sung in Arabic and Marathi, in Hindu and Karaneces, in Tamil and Bengali, i'll the tongues of China and Japan. Many a time In the early Sabbath hours the voices of chill d ca,.rxyir1gr bp old t1IpaG in, cf,o