MISSIONARY REVIEW.

THE DESCENDANTS OF HAWAIIAN MISSIONARIES.

AFTER the extinction of the house of the Kamehamehas, in the Hawaiian Islands, the citizens there were confronted by new circumstancesthe unchecked flooding of the land with intoxicating liquors; the revival of the old heathen practices of sorcery, even to the extent of interfering with the board of health and its hygienic regulations; the influx of Chinese and Japanese; and other similar social and political conditions confusing and dangerous to the body politic.

All this naturally led to complications and contention. Among the persons active in seeking to control the situation in the interests of purity and good government were some citizens who were sons of early American missionaries to the islands. In the criminations and recriminations incident to the strife engendered by the situation, those citizens who were missionaries or sons of missionaries came in for their share, and charges against them of present worldliness were freely bandied about. It was alleged, for instance, that they owned four fifths of the property of the islands. It now turns out that the largest property holders of the Hawaiian Islands are not missionaries or sons of missionaries; and, in fact, there is not even a plantation owned by the son of a missionary. Several plantations are, however, managed by corporations whose stock is from time to time on the market and is available in small sums. In these corporate stocks some teachers and sons of missionaries, it is true, have invested small savings; but no one of them is even so much as a manager on any plantation, while some do work on them.

So far from any serious charge of secularization being established against the descendants of these missionaries as a class, it is now shown that not less than seventy children of such missionaries have entered missionary service in other lands, and about as many more have engaged in such service in the Hawaiian Islands themselves, carrying on the work established by their fathers and mothers. Of those who have wholly engaged in secular pursuits not more than ten have accumulated anything that could be accounted even a moderate fortune, though many of them are creditable lawyers, judges, physicians, teachers, and clerks. In a list of one hundred and one cabinet officers of the government there appear eight names of the descendants of missionaries, while not more than ten descendants of missionaries are found in other offices under the government. These descendants of missionaries are active in social and benevolent works, some of them being engaged in caring for the moral and religious training of the fifteen thousand Japanese and the thousands of Chinese whose immigration to the islands has added a disturbing element to the population. More than one half of the $15,000 raised for the Young Men's Christian Association building in Honolulu is said to have

been contributed by sons of missionaries. One missionary, himself a missionary's son, is serving without salary as the pastor of a church. More than one of the missionaries, out of his savings and investments, has given back to the American Board treasury more than the total amount received from it. There is, also, a constant demand for money to conduct mission schools and industrial establishments wherein to train native Christians to be thrifty citizens; and to these objects the descendants of missionaries are continually giving both time and money.

SELF-SUPPORT IN FOREIGN MISSIONS.

THE term "self-support" has been restricted by some missionary societies to the support of pastors by native churches. It is, however, confusing to thus limit the word, rather than to apply it to the total giving of native Christians toward the support of the Gospel and religious institutions among themselves; for this benevolence is what indicates their Christian development and their independence of foreign resources. Natives of the several countries in which missions have been established are not unaccustomed to make contributions for the support of their own religions before they become Christians; and there is no reason why they should not give of their ability after adopting Christianity in, at least, the same ratio, other things being equal. It has been estimated that the Chinese give from one fifth to two fifths of their income to the single object of ancestor worship. Mr. S. Wells Williams has estimated the total contributions of the Chinese for the support of idolatrous customs at one hundred and twenty million dollars annually, one half of which, he believes, goes to ancestral worship. Hindoos, also, contribute a vast sum in the aggregate to religious objects; and, though the individual gifts are in infinitesimal amounts, they constitute a fair percentage of the income of the donors. It is sometimes the case that the profession of Christianity results in the destruction of the means of livelihood. Among such instances are the cases where the income has been derived from idolatrous customs, temple revenues, or service; and in the complex religious usages of heathen countries these sources of income ramify much farther than appears at first thought.

It is a pleasure to record the fact that native churches generally contribute liberally and often self-sacrificingly, though the aggregate may not seem great to persons accustomed to the larger incomes of Christian communities in Western lands. The native churches of India, between 1851 and 1861, thus gave 93,431 rupees, while in 1871 alone they gave 85,121 rupees, or nearly as much as in the former decade. The native Christians connected with the Methodist churches in heathen lands probably give an annual aggregate of more than $100,000. The Wesleyan missions in the Fiji Islands meet their own expenses, including salaries of foreign missionaries, and hand over a large surplus to the Australian Conference for mission work in other parts. Native Christians in the New Hebrides make it a rule to give one tenth of their time to the spread

ing of the Gospel, and two dollars apiece to the missionary collection. They once contributed 3,700 pounds of arrowroot to print an edition of the Old Testament, and $6,000 to translate the Gospel into one of the native languages. The converts of Annatum volunteered to give the price of the season's crop of cocoanuts for the roofing of two churches with corrugated iron The chief dependence for obtaining foreign clothing and other goods is copra; and they also agreed to give all their copra for six months, thus dispensing with the comforts, if not with the necessities, of life. In fulfillment of this agreement they gave twentysix tons of copra, valued at $574. While so giving one of their churches was destroyed by a hurricane; and, in addition to what they had already done, they also gave their arrowroot crop to repair the damage. The Bassein College, in Burmah, is of indigenous growth. The native Christians passed a law that every disciple should give a basket of paddy and twelve cents in money. Having thus contributed the whole cost of the land and buildings, they pay the wages of the teachers and the board of the pupils. Less than five per cent of the total expenditure came from outside. In 1849 they undertook the support of their pastors; in 1850 they added all the native evangelists; in 1880; while heavily taxed and yet in deep poverty, they began building their own churches. The native Christians of the Reformed (Dutch) mission at Amoy, China, in 1882 gave $1,877. There were then 750 church members. In 1883, 758 members gave $1,958; in 1884, 742 members gave $1,631; in 1885, 783 members gave $2,107; in 1891, 968 members gave $3,382.

THE FINLAND AND ST. PETERSBURG MISSION.

THIS mission was organized in 1892. Our work in Finland, however, was actually begun in 1879. In 1881 Finland appears as a regular circuit of the Sweden Conference, and the Finland District of that Conference was organized four years later. At first the work was largely confined to the Swedes resident in the country, of whom there are nearly 350,000, out of a total population of about 2,500,000; but more work is constantly being done among the Finns themselves. Indeed, most of the Swedish missionaries are unfamiliar with the Finnish language and are compelled to use interpreters when preaching to others than their own people; and only as native preachers have been trained and employed has much success among the Finns been attained. Even so recently as in 1891 there was but one preacher who could preach in the Finnish language. Work in St. Petersburg was begun in 1889, principally among the Swedes and Finns there resident. It is through this mission, if at all, that Methodism must reach Russia. In Finland our preachers at first suffered much opposition from the local authorities, and were bitterly denounced by the ministers of the State (Lutheran) Church; yet some of these ministers now openly encourage our work and frequently attend our services, and our Church has been finally recognized by the Finnish government and has a legal right to hold property. Methodists, however, must withdraw

from the State Church, which many hesitate to do, this being considered a great sin among the common people; and no children but those whose parents are Methodists are permitted to attend Methodist Sunday schools. The people suffer from the prevailing drunkenness and immorality and from the religious formality and indifference which curse the country. And yet the Finlanders, though difficult to stir, or to bring to a definite conclusion, and reticent in revealing their deepest feelings and experiences, are thoroughly earnest when once aroused and remain firm in their new convictions. There are five ordained and ten unordained missionaries, a dozen stations and circuits, 587 full members, 160 probationers, and 790 Sunday school scholars. If the work can once be thoroughly intrenched in the large cities and towns the country districts can easily be evangelized therefrom. But one great need, which must be supplied before Methodism can command a proper respect from the people, is the erection of a suitable church in Helsingfors, the Finnish capital, a city of sixty-five thousand persons. From the newly started Book Concern in that city there have recently been published in Finnish the Discipline and a hymnal containing nearly four hundred hymns. Two monthly papers are issued-Nya Budbararen ("The New Messenger ") in Swedish, and Rauhan Sanoma ("The Messenger of Peace") in Finnish, each with a circulation of about twelve thousand copies.

INDUSTRIAL MISSIONS.

MISSIONARIES have sought, by various means, to secure their converts against possible loss of income caused by their abandonment of the faith of their fathers. It is desirable, also, to aid them in developing a Christian civilization. In Liberia the Lutheran Mission has made a venture in coffee farming, which has resulted in a remarkable development of the native converts. Bishop Taylor has aimed at the same results by establishing mission farms in South Central Africa. Mr. H. W. Fry, of London, a Christian business man who has visited many mission stations in India, recently submitted a proposal to the Calcutta Missionary Conference, which at their request he has formulated in a circular. Mr. Fry thinks that many missionaries would be able to commence industrial missionary enterprises if they had funds for the initial outfit, and that many Christians who cannot donate largely to the work would gladly invest small sums in such business ventures if these could be carefully investigated by a company of business men. It is proposed, therefore, that a syndicate of Christian business men be organized in London, to receive proposals from missionaries for self-sustaining industrial missions to be conducted by native Christians. Applicants will be required to specify the object of the work proposed; to describe its location and facilities for communication; to state the amount of capital required; to estimate the working expenses and probable profits; to name the security, if any, to be furnished; to mention the difficulties to be overcome; and to give other detailed information called for in the catalogue of questions.

FOREIGN OUTLOOK.

SOME LEADERS OF THOUGHT.

H. Hackmann. Although the Germans are very exact and very thorough in their researches, yet the leaders of thought among them are not always the most reliable of their scholars. Novelty attracts attention even among them; and if to novelty an author can add plausibility and force of style he is sure of a following more or less extensive and slavish. It may be said that nothing is inherently improbable to a German thinker. Hence, the most absurd hypotheses, if backed up by a considerable erudition, receive respectful consideration and are sure to modify, if not to mold, opinion. These remarks are illustrated in the case of Hackmann. It is his opinion that Isaiah was a prophet of evil, and about all the passages which offer hope to Israel are excluded by him as not of Isaianic origin; while everything which contains threatenings is pronounced by him to be Isaianic. This turns the evangelical prophet into another Jeremiah. Of those portions which he allows to Isaiah and which are supposed to be prophetic of evil he makes the most possible. For example, chap. xxix, 1–6, is made to mean that Jerusalem shall be besieged and frightfully humbled, and that Jehovah will visit upon Jerusalem frightful storms and raze it to the earth. Verse 7 is made to mean precisely the opposite of what it seems to mean, namely, that the Lord will come against Jerusalem with dread, such as is experienced in a terrible dream. In order to carry out his hypothesis that Isaiah prophesied evil and not hope, he deals in the most remarkable way with questions of genuineness. For example, chap. xxxii, 9-14, which seems to threaten actual destruction to the city itself, is regarded by many critics as spurious. Hackmann himself is not able to come to a certain conclusion regarding the passage, but holds it safer to accept it as genuine. Yet he treats it, except in the note in which he gives expression to his uncertainty, as though its genuineness were unquestioned. In fact, he employs violence and art all the way through to explain away passages which conflict with his theory and to make the most of those which seem to favor his views. Nevertheless, he is welcomed into the ranks of the Old Testament scholars of Germany as though he were perfectly fair and just in his treatment of the questions under consideration.

F. Traub. He has received high recognition from learned societies in Europe, as well as from individual scholars, especially as to his views concerning the moral order of the world. He is a Kantian in his theory of knowledge, but with a sufficient independence of thought to preserve his individuality. According to him, it is not the world per se or the world as a whole, but the world of phenomena, which is capable of apprehension by theoretical thought. Practical thought, proceeding from the moral law,