The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-13
He Is a Veteran of Oriental Mission
Work, with a Record Of Forty
Six Years Labor.
OBSERVATIONS ON FILIPINos
FRIARs ARE BAD LOT, HE SAYS,
WITH A HURTFUL INFLUENCE.
The Bishop Urges United States Gov
ernment Not to Allow Monopoly
of Opium Trade.

A man dressed in clerical garb, short Of
stature, with closely cropped. gray beard
kindly gray eyes and a face bronZed by an
oriental sun, sat on the rostrum at Merid-
ian-street Church last night. He arrived
in the city but short time before the
opening of the service and his presence
caused a stir among the members of the
conference. He was greeted warmly every
where The new arrival was Bishop j. NJ.
Thoburn, one of the most distinguished
men in the Methodist Church.
He did not talk at the service last night,
but tonight ct 1880 he has consented to
address the Epworth League of the city at
a general rally to be held at Roberts Park
Church. Bishop Thoburn will be at the
Hotel English while in the city. Forty
four years of his life he has spent in
foreign mission work, striving with the ma
tives of India, the Malay peninsula and the
Philippines. He left Indiana the 21st of
last March, and will sail for his post of
duty on Nov. g. going from New York
to Bombay by way of London. The bishop
is on his way East from Portland, Ore,
where he buried his wife and son. He loves
the work and will spend the remainder of
his life in trying to do something for peo-
tive of Ohio. He ordained the first Protest
ant Filipino minister that ever preached
in the islands These exercises took place
i'm Manila i'm March, 1900. The candidate
for ordination Nicholas Zamara. who
has since been doing good work for the
church. In the Philippines the Methodist
church has 5,c00 native members and there
are large number who are applicants for
membership.
PREACHED IN MANILA.
Bishop Thoburn first preached in the city
of Manila in 1899 to an English audience,
and he kept up these English services for
some time The Filipinos would look in on
the services, but would not sit down. At
length he began preaching to them through
an interpreter. Bishop Thoburn relates
that at the time he went to the islands
there was no one aside from the friars who
could perform marriage ceremony. The
friars charged so much for burying people
and performing marriages that thousands
of the natives could not afford the luxury
of a marriage ceremony The result was
that they got along without the ceremony
General Otis finally issued an order that
all ministers of the gospel might perform
these ceremonies. and this order became
public about the time young Nicholas
Zamara became an ordained preacher He
was a very busy man at once. Thousands
of people who had never been legally mar
ried came Hooking 10 him, and to other
Filipino preachers as fast they were
ordained 10 have themselves legally united.
OPPOSED TO THE FRIARS
Bishop Thoburn is bitterly opposed to the
friars and says they are a bad lot and
poisonous to the moral atmosphere of the
islands. Missionary work i'm India is max
ing great progress. the bishop says. When
he went to the country. over forty years
ago. there were thirteen converts to the
Methodist faith Now there are I30 on
I'VE have q college for women and one