YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

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THE DAY MISSIONS LIBRARY

MISSIONS AND CULTUEE.

JALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO.
EDINBURGH AND LONDON

C_y

MODERN MISSIONS

AND

CULTURE:
Gbetr flDutual delations.

DR. GUSTAV WARNECK,
PASTOR AT ROTHENSCHIRMBACH, NEAR EISLEBEN.

«

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY
THOMAS SMITH, D.D.
PROFESSOR OF EVANGELISTIC THEOLOGY, NEW COLLEGE, EDINBURGH.

ilJeln Coition.

EDINBURGH:
JAMES GEMMELL, GEORGE IV. BRIDGE.

PREFACE TO SEtJOND EDITION.

This book has for a considerable time been out
of print, and many applications have been made
for copies, which could not be supplied. This
edition is a reprint of the former, with only some
verbal amendments.
T. S.
Edinburgh, 1st March 1888.

TKANSLATOE'S INTRODUCTION.

I PROCURED the original of this book as part of the " appa
ratus " for the study of a subject on which I contemplated
the composition of a treatise. In the course of reading
it, I formed the opinion that, in respect of extent and
variety of research, and in respect of clear statement, Dr:
Warneck's book is superior to any that I could expect to
write ; while almost in every case the conclusions which
he derives from authentic facts are, in my judgment,
sound and convincing. I therefore abandoned the idea of
original authorship, and betook myself to the humbler
task of translation. The result I now offer to the reader,
with a considerable amount of comfortable feeling that I
am thereby conferring on him a favour. As to the trans
lation, I believe that it is accurate, and I have not sought
to invest it with any degree of ornament. There are
some peculiarities which have made my task somewhat
difficult. There is, for example, the distinction which the
author makes between certain things which are not dis
tinguished in the same way by us ; as instruction, educa
tion, refinement, civilization, cultivation, culture. I may
mention that the author always speaks of " the modern
mission " as a unity, and that this occasionally modifies his
thought and expression. In the title, and generally

vi TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
throughout the book, I have adopted the usual English
mode of speaking of " modern missions," which have, of
course, much in common, but which do not certainly
possess absolute unity. I am not aware that there is
aught else connected with the translation that requires to
be specially adverted to.
For reasons stated in the text, I have omitted two lists
of works published by missionaries, and I do not think
that the omission needs any apology. But I have to state
that, in addition to this, I have reduced the number of
notes from 415 to 48. The 367 which I have excluded are
only references to authorities, which, in the great majority
of cases, are German periodicals, not easily, or not at all,
accessible to readers in this country. I have translated
all the notes which contain more than such references.
There is one point on which I very strongly differ
from Dr. Warneck; and, indeed, the statement of this
difference is what I have mainly in view in the composi
tion of this introduction.
The author repeatedly speaks in somewhat disparaging
terms of the educational method of conducting- missions
in certain cases, which is associated with the name of my
late friend, the beloved and revered Dr. Duff. In one
passage he admits that that system has been culturally
successful; but he repeatedly indicates his opinion that
it has not been so evangelistically. As I was for twenty
years Dr. Duff's colleague in Calcutta, and gave the main
part of my strength to the working of that method, it is
fitting that I should assume the rdle of its apologist now.
But I do not think it necessary to enter upon a general
apology. I shall content myself with an argumentum ad
hominem, which ought, I think, to be regarded as sufficient

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. vii
to neutralise the objections which Dr. Warneck makes
to the system.
First oi all, I would point out that neither Dr. Duff,
nor any other advocate of the higher missionary educa
tion, ever represented it as in all cases and in all circum
stances the best method that could be employed, or in any
case the only method that ought to be adopted. All that
we ever argued was that in the particular condition of
matters in the great cities of India, and especially in the
Presidency cities, there was an opening for evangelistic
work of this particular kind, and that access could be had
in this particular way to a large and influential portion of
the native community, who were utterly inaccessible to
any other evangelistic influences. This is a fact absolutely
indisputable. If it be true that not many of this class of
the people have been converted through this instrumen
tality — and no one regrets this more than I do — it is also
true that a considerable number have been converted,
while none of that class have been converted in any other
ivay. It is quite possible that the method may have been
tried in circumstances for which it was not suited ; but for
this neither Dr. Duff nor his associates can be held respon
sible. In one place, for example, Dr. Warneck states it
as conclusive against English education that Sir Ashley
Eden dissuaded its introduction into the mission-school at
Ranchi. Will Dr. Warneck believe me when I say that
I should have given precisely the same advice, and that I
am . very confident that Dr. Duff would have done the
same? But it does not follow that a method which
-would have been wholly unsuitable to the aboriginal tribes
of a remote province was unsuitable to the intelligent and
cultured youth of the metropolis ; nor is there any incon
sistency betwixt abstaining from forcing English educa-

viii TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
tion upon those who have no desire for it, and granting it
to those who are determined to have it, and who will have
it whether we grant it to them or not.
Secondly, so far as the principle is concerned, there is
no difference between the elementary education which Dr.
Warneck advocates, and the higher education which he
disparages, if he does not condemn it. To teach the
savage to read is not an evangelistic work, any more than
to teach the non- Christian men of intelligence such science
or literature as they are capable of apprehending. But all
missionaries, according to the testimony of our author
himself, have recourse to the former in dealing with the
" nature-peoples ; " what difference is there in principle in
having recourse to the latter in dealing with the culture-
peoples ?
Thirdly, that state of matters which Dr. Duff found
when he went to Calcutta half a century ago, and which
exists still, was simply this : there was a large and con
stantly enlarging body of young men who must be edu
cated, and educated mainly through the medium of English.
These young men were destined to exercise the most potent
influence over the destinies of India, and over its relation
to Christianity. There was no question as to whether
they should be educated or not, or as to whether they
should be taught English or not. Both these questions
were already answered affirmatively. The only question
yet unanswered was whether they should be educated
Christianly or unchristianly — that is, as I hold, and Dr.
Warneck holds — anti-christianly. This was the question
which Dr. Duff had to consider ; and it was the life- long
devotion to the working out of the answer which he was
led to give to this question, that entitles him to occupy
one of the highest places among modern missionaries, and

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. ix
among the benefactors of mankind. To have infused a
Christian element into the great mass of modern Indian
thought ; to have enlisted on the side of the Gospel a very
large amount of the talent and influence which would
otherwise have been ranged in determined opposition to it ;
these are works which have been given to few men in our
time to do ; and for the doing of them Dr. Duff is entitled
to the most unrestricted commendation on the part of all
who value the Gospel.
Fourthly, I regret as much as any one the "culture-
caricatures" which Dr. Warneck so scathingly condemns.
I admit that our missionary education has not been able
altogether to prevent these; but it not only has not
caused them, it has greatly diminished them. Grant
that there may be occasionally a spice of pedantry, or a
measure of self-conceit, in some of those who have been
educated in our missionary institutions, and grant fully
that pedantry and self-conceit are not desirable, but very
undesirable, qualities. But let it not be forgotten that
those in whom these qualities exist would have had them
in manifold greater degree if they had been trained on the
Government-education system, or would have had them,
combined with gross ignorance and debasing superstition,
under the vernacular or oriental system. It is not the
missionary education that has originated the evil; but
the whole aggregate of influences to which the more in
telligent natives are subjected in such a city as Calcutta.
No one has pleaded better than Dr. Warneck for the
missionaries among barbarous races, on the ground that
they are not responsible for the evils which they have not
been able to prevent ; and I ask no more than that the
same plea be admitted on behalf of Dr. Duff, his coad
jutors, and his successors.

x TRA NSLA TOR 'S INTROD UCTIO N,
Fifthly, while I freely admit that a multitude of causes
have co-operated, under the guidance of divine provi
dential wisdom, for the production of the mighty change
which has taken place in India since Dr. Duff first went
to it, I maintain that the higher Christian education
which he introduced has, more than any other cause,
given it so much as it has of a favourable direction evan
gelically. It was the higher missionary education that
alone made female education, possible ; and that promises
to do more for the evangelisation of India than any other
cause or process.
Sixthly, the question, and indeed the only question,
with which the Church has now to do, is simply whether
the class which must, ere long, control the thought, and
consequently the destinies, of India, is to be handed over
to unchristians and atheists, or whether an effort is to be
made, and made perseveringly and prayerfully, for the
deliverance of the land from what every Christian man
must regard as the greatest evil that could befal a people.
It will be much in accordance with the method of the
book if I adduce relevant testimonies from two eye-wit
nesses, neither of them missionaries.
Sir Monier Williams, Professor of Sanskrit in the
University of Oxford, writes as follows : —
" South India is not behind the North in its zeal for educa
tion. Indeed, if advance of education is to be measured by its
promoting among natives of all ranks the power of speaking
English with fluency, the palm will have to be given to the
colleges and schools of Madras ; and here, as in other parts of
India, missionary schools are, in my opinion, doing the best work.
The education they impart is openly and professedly founded
on a Christian basis. They teach the Bible, without enforcing
ecclesiastical dogmas on their pupils. Indeed, my second tour

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xi
has impressed me more than ever with the benefits which India
derives from the active efforts of missionaries of all denomina
tions, however apparently barren in visible results these efforts
may be. Moreover, I think that the part that they have
hitherto played is as nothing compared with the role they are
destined to fill in the future of our Indian Empire. The
European missionary is daily becoming a more important link
between the Government and the people. He is confided in
by natives of all ranks, and is often able to do what the Govern
ment, with its wise professions of neutrality, cannot effect.
Missionary schools attract the children of parents of all creeds,
though they openly aim at permeating their minds with a spirit
hostile to those creeds. It may be very true that their Bible-
teaching tends to destroy without necessarily reconstructing ;
but it is gradually and insensibly infusing principles incom
patible with the pantheistic ideas with which the Indian mind
is generally saturated. If it does not always build up the true
creed in place of the false, yet it lays the foundation of a future
belief in a personal God. It substitutes for the slippery sands
of Pantheism a basis of living rock, which may be afterwards
thankfully occupied by evangelising missionaries as a common
standpoint, when the Gospel is confronted in argument with
the Veda and Koran.
" My conviction is that the vast work of Christianising India
will not be accomplished entirely through missionary instru
mentality, but rather through the co-operation of Divine and
human agencies, working in a great variety of ways. Yet I am
equally convinced that it will be principally effected, and far
more slowly, gradually, and insensibly than is commonly ex
pected, through impressions made on the minds of children by
a process of education like that which our missionaries are
carrying out in their schools. Of all such schools visited by
me in Southern India, there were two, the merits and effective
ness of which struck me very forcibly. These were those of the
Free Church of Scotland at Madras, under Mr. Miller and Mr.
Kae, where about iooo pupils are under education; and the

xii TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
Church missionary, schools, under Bishop Sargent, at Tinnivelly,
in which latter district there are about 60,000 converts to Pro
testant Christianity.''
Elsewhere in the same volume Sir Monier says :
" With regard to the progress of Christianity in India, I will
only at present record my opinion that the best work done by
the missionaries is in their schools. In some important places,
such as Benares, the missionary schools are more popular than
those of the Government, although the Bible is read and
religious instruction given in the former, and not in the latter.
Education is, indeed, causing a great upheaving of old creeds
and superstitions throughout India, and the ancient fortress of
Hinduism is in this way being gradually undermined. The
educated classes look with contempt on idolatry."
It may be objected that Sir Monier Williams, while
a Christian man, is an unexceptionable witness to the
cultural value of missionary education — which is not only
not disputed, but is maintained by Dr. Warneck — but is
not so trustworthy with respect to its evangelistic import
ance. Without discussing this question, I shall adduce
some of the many statements of one to the value of whose
testimony the same objection cannot be taken.
Mr. Henry Stanley Newman- went to India a few
months ago, mainly with the view of visiting the missions
of his own body, the Society of Friends. He is no special
advocate of educational methods, and it does not appear
that educational operations are carried on to any consider
able extent by his Quaker brethren. But wherever he
finds such operations carried on, he bears hearty testimony
to their importance. I give a few specimens : —
" Last, but not least, of the missionary enterprises we visited
in Puna was the Free Church Institution, or Scotch Mission

¦TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xiii
Marathi School for the education of the upper classes of boys.
Nearly 200 young men and Brahman boys here receive a good
education. The school is in the old palace of the native chief,
Phadke. The whole district is surrounded with traditions of
Marathi warfare and conquest, and this fine old residence
abounds in beautiful carving and panelling. The central courts
are open to the sky, and are environed with a labyrinth of
rooms where Phadke maintained his wives and suite. These
are now converted to holier purposes, and form excellent class
room accommodation, where Sanskrit, algebra, and mathematics
are taught by experienced masters. ... In this princely hall
Phadke held his durbars, and now we gathered in the name
of the King of kings to a Christian durbar, to hear the Gospel.
Phadke himself probably never had more high-caste Brahmans
ranged around him than were now gathered before the Christian
teacher, to hear the message of God's love to man unfolded
from the Scriptures. As I watched the fine, intelligent
countenances of these young men, who must soon take leading
positions in native society, I rejoiced that Christian love had
devised a plan for systematically giving them day by day the
glad tidings of great joy.
" It is by a great variety of methods that the missionary
enterprise in India can alone be accomplished ; and we act
unwisely if we attempt to compare one department of service
with another to the detriment of either. Rather may we
admire the way in which, different men by different means are
working in the same great conflict of light with darkness, and
knowledge with error."
Mr. Newman gives an interesting account of a visit to
the Free Church Institution at Madras— the same to
which Sir Monier Williams refers — and then continues : —
" The affection of these students for Mr. Miller is something
beautiful, yet nothing but the power of God can make them
Christian converts. Though only a small proportion of them
actually make an open profession of Christianity, Mr. Miller

xiv TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION.
tells me that , there is an immense change going on in the
feeling of the people in favour of Christianity, I inquired of
Mr. Miller what proportion of the scholars were Christians,
He replied that there were about 100 Christians to 900 Hindus.
Who can measure the influence for good exerted upon these
900 Hindus as they daily receive systematic, scriptural instruc
tion from Christian teachers in their respective class-rooms 1
Some may imagine they endure the Bible lesson for the sake
of the privileges of the college. On the contrary, Mr. Miller
says : ' The Bible lesson is one of the most popular lessons we
have.' It happened to be the hour for Bible study when we
visited the college. We entered one class-room after another
with Mr. Miller quite unexpectedly. We found the young
men sitting thoughtfully at their desks with their Bibles
before them, the teacher sitting below at his table giving the
lesson and questioning them on it. In England we may call
such men heathen ; but I never saw more reverent attention at
a Bible class anywhere, or more complete evidence of sustained
interest than in these classes, where nine-tenths of the scholars
profess Hinduism."
Mr. Newman's account of the missionary institutions
in Calcutta is briefer than we should have liked. But he
gives incidentally a notice of one effect of missionary
education : —
" Mr. W. R. James, of the Baptist Mission Press in Calcutta,
told the meeting that hundreds of the educated babus of the
city are now week after week attending open-air services in the
public gardens in Beadon Square, listening to the preaching of
the Gospel on the Sabbath ; and that the people of Calcutta
are stirred on religious topics as they have never been before."
There is another subject on which I should like to say
a few words. Dr. Warneck seems to represent it as
doubtful whether caste distinctions ought to be absolutely
prohibited in the Christian Church. He says, truly enough,

TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. xv
that all missionaries agree that they must be abolished
eventually, but that some advocate a certain measure of
toleration with a view to ultimate abolition, while others
insist upon immediate and absolute abolition. I cannot
see how the former course is possible, even if it were de
sirable. The caste system of India admits of no degrees.
A man either keeps his caste wholly, or wholly abandons
it. It does not admit of modification ; although, of course,
the evil results of it may sometimes be kept in check to a
considerable extent. But itself is an unmitigated and
unmitigable evil. It originates in Hinduism ; it is the
grand maintaining power of Hinduism ; it is utterly irre
concilable with Christianity. I think I am safe in saying
that it would never have been tolerated for an hour in the
native church, but for deceptions practised upon the
earlier missionaries, leading them to believe that caste
was only a civil distinction of ranks. No doubt their
tolerance of it makes it very difficult to get rid of it now.
But I am confident that, while there may still be a few
missionaries who shrink from the struggle of its ejection
from those churches in which it has unhappily been
allowed to remain, these are becoming fewer and fewer,
while the overwhelming majority are persuaded that it
must be got rid of at whatsoever cost.
T. S.
Edinburgh, 2gth January 1882.

AUTHOE'S PEEFACE.

It is no mere form of speech when I assure the reader that I
submit to the public the following study on the mutual relations
between modern missions and culture, not without a certain
measure of timidity, and when, more than in the case of my
earlier works, I" bespeak for it a mild and indulgent judgment.
The subject which it treats is so comprehensive that the more
thoroughly it is gone into, the more one is humbled, because he
more and more vividly realises that his powers are not adequate
to the magnitude of the task imposed on them. Then there
exist scarcely any previous books of note which have treated the
subject in question profoundly and temperately. Thus it was
necessary to collect and to sift the requisite material from a very
wide spread literature, belonging to the most diverse fields, and
representing the most various standpoints — a laborious work, the
difficulty of which, notwithstanding long-continued diligence in
collecting, is all the more likely to be overlooked, as it is so
difficult for a country pastor, living at a distance from the great
libraries, to get possession of the suggestive sources. Lastly, the
mission-literature, abundance of which I had at command, has
hitherto, in a remarkable way, devoted only a somewhat step
motherly attention to the subject in hand. It has been its part,
both in reports, and also in monograms of mission history— and
generally quite properly— to present the purely religious side of
the missionary enterprise ; and the excursions which it has made,
often very effectually, into other territories, are for the benefit
of geography, ethnology, the science of religion, and philology,
rather than of culture-history.

xviii A UTHOR 'S PREFA CE.
Since I have ventured, notwithstanding, to publish my work,
I hope, in the first place, to obtain some indulgence, because I
make an attempt which I did not seek. The theme which I
have handled sought me ; I did not seek it. A missionary lecture
was demanded of me, on some subject connected with the cir
cumstances of the times, and contributing to their illustration.
The relation of missions and culture was deemed not unsuited to
this object. The lecture, which, of course, could but very spar
ingly treat a subject so wide and many-sided, was for me an
intrinsic neces'sity to consider it more thoroughly, and the result
of this consideration is the book in the reader's hands.
But that I publish this book, notwithstanding my perfect
knowledge of its defects, has a1 very personal reason, which I am
candid enough to acknowledge. It is this : that while , I leave
it unpublished, it makes demands on my time and attention, and
until it is disposed of, I cannot devote myself to my other task :
the continuation of my "Mission-Hours." It was not originally
my intention to take any other literary work in hand before the
completion of the " Mission-Hours." But there is a peculiarity
about plan-making. One is quite unawares drawn from the
straight road into side-ways of which he has never thought, and
he has not in his power to say, I will not walk therein. He
must, else his peace is gone.
So I was obliged to bring the present work to a conclusion.
That it is, in a certain sense, a book for the time, which in the
mirror of the mission gives instructive answers to the thoughtful
upon important home-questions, was a further reason for not
delaying its publication. Probably there is many "a word spoken
in season," which, although it might be better spoken a couple
of years later, would not produce such conviction as it does
now, though the present expression of it is defective.
In diligence and labour, at least, I have not been in fault, as
the references referred to in the notes will make manifest to the
reader.* So far as it was possible for me, I have always gone
* The English reader, however, must take it on trust, as, for reasons
stated in my Introduction, I have suppressed almost all these notes. —
Trans.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xix
back to the original sources — often a toilsome way, but which,
in more respects than one, has proved very instructive to me,
since it has not only shown me that even quotations have their
casualties, but also that much wisdom consists in decking with
borrowed feathers, and that very often the acknowledgment is
withheld from the bird on which the feathers grew.
Some important sources became accessible to me, unfortu
nately, only while the printing of the book was in progress, so
that I could use them only, so to speak, in patchwork fashion
during the correction. So it was with the last articles of Gerland's
important treatise on " The Future of the Indians," with Hubbe-
Schleiden's excellent book " Ethiopia," and with Lady Barker's
"Year's House-Keeping in South Africa," a very instructive
book, although so very humorous; and the "Report" of the
German Government on the treaty of peace with the Samoa
Island. On this account there are many acknowledgments of
authorities in the text, while many have been relegated to the
notes, for which I have to apologise.
That I have introduced abundant quotations, especially from
non-missionary sources, will not, I hope, be charged as a fault
upon the book. I regarded it as my vocation to argue by means
of facts, and to allow these facts to speak in the words of those
from whom I took them. A mere reference to the authorities
would have been of little use to most readers, because these
authorities are only in the smallest measure accessible to them.
To those who have the inclination to thoroughly study particular
parts of the book, I hope that I have rendered a welcome service
by the multitude of references.
I should regard it as a specially desirable result cf my work
if missionaries were incited by it to give somewhat more space
even in their reports than has been generally done heretofore to
their direct and indirect cultural works and their results. It
would contribute essentially to the better understanding, and
perhaps also to the higher estimation, of the mission, if these
influences of missionary operations were brought more pro
minently forward in the mission reports, which have a trans
forming operation upon the daily life both of converts and of

xx AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
heathen. We at home — and not the directors only — might thus
have a distinct apprehension of the ways in which the mission-
history of the present day is a culture-history.
From the reproach of a blind enthusiasm for culture I shall
be more than protected by the second section of my book, even
if the Introduction should not afford me this defence. Assuredly
there is little protection against misunderstanding ; none against
misrepresentation. Little as it comes into my thought to change
the work of the spread of the Gospel from the salvation of the
sinner through Jesus Christ, the Son and the Lamb of God, into
a mere culture-mission, just as little would I give countenance
to the error that "godliness " has ceased to be "profitable for
all things," and to have " the promise of the life that now is
and of that which is to come."
THE AUTHOR.
ROTHENSCHTRMBACH, 8th September 1879.

CONTENTS.

I. State or the Question.
PAGE
Similarity between fashions and cant- words — "Culture'' as a cant-
word — The " Culture War '' — Christianity the chief among the
culture-forces of the world — Hence the opposition to Christianity
as an enemy to culture a contradiction — The Biblical faith not a
conquered position: — Proof from the facts of missions — What is
culture ? • — Distinction between culture and civilization — The
modern conception of culture without morality — The religion of
the present (Secularism) not the best nurse of culture — Godliness
has the promise of the present and the future life — No morality
without religion — As is religion so is morality; and as is the
eultus so is the culture  12
No appeal for pardon for missions on account of their cultural import
ance — The object of Christianity and of missions— Culture an
additional gift — How far the proof of the cultural importance of
missions forms an apology for them — The mutual relations be
tween missions and culture — A complicated question — The value
of proof -materials — Partizanship for aud against — TJnreliableness
of hostile report — Division by ten — -Hatred of Christianity —
The eye influenced by the heart — Scientific spectacles — Blindness
— Dissatisfaction with the disappearance of the pura naturalia —
Nudities — Trustworthiness of the missionary authorities — Criti
cism and confirmation of them ....... 30
Notes to I.  353

CONTENTS.

II. Eelation of Missions to Culture. PAGE
The three principal mission-periods in their various relations to culture
— The cultural superiority of the present day, especially of modern
missions — Concurrence of manifold culture-factors — Character
istic peculiarity of the mission as a culture-factor — Distinction of
the cultural influence of missions in the so-called " nature-peoples"
and " culture-peoples ''  32
The material department of culture — Clothing — Missions as a pioneer
of commerce— Hostility of traders to missions, and explanation of
the fact — Manufacturing activity — Elements of architecture —
Encouragement of manual labour — Industrial work-shops, Love-
dale — The civilization of the natives by missions cheaper than
war— The Bible and the hatchet — Industrial missions — By their
fruits ye shall know them — Agriculture — A royal witness — The
judgment of a jurist and merchant — A visit to Edendale — Train
ing to labour — Contradictory charges — The charge of unwisely-
exercised benevolence, and its refutation — The law of gradual
development — Sierra Leone — Liberia — The West Indies and the
slave states of North America as instances against the cultural
power of missions — Criticism of these instances — The professed
representatives of material interests not civilizers of the "nature-
peoples " — The civilizing influence of modern missions on the so-
called " culture-peoples " — Yamamoto, China, Japan, India . 1 1 1
The intellectual department of culture — The mission the greatest re
finement society in the world — The enriching of languages — The
advancement of unwritten languages into written — Bible transla
tion and its influence on the intellectual life of the people —
Foundation of a new literary epoch — Literary productions of
missionaries — Importance of the primer — Missionary school-work
both among culture and nature-peoples — Its great extent — The
training of native teachers and preachers, and its importance for
the culture-life of the natives ....... 149
The moral department of culture — Connection between new senti
ments and new morals — The gospel of Christ the Magna Charta
of humanity — " To the poor the gospel is preached " — The saving
of human life — The Gartenlaube and Herr von Hellwald — Sup-

CONTENTS. xxiii PAGE
pression of human sacrifice, cannibalism, child-murder, ceaseless
war — Humanity in warlike operations — Care of health — Action
of the mission with regard to the suppression of the slave-trade
and of slavery — Social and moral elevation of the female sex —
Service of missionaries' wives — • Moral renovation of conjugal
and domestic life — Cessation of the sale of wives and of infant-
marriage — Caste — Transformation of the cival and political life —
A glance at the Sandwich Islands, Polynesia and Madagascar — ¦
The missionary and politics — The new moral virtues of charity
and beneficence — Care of the poor, the sick, orphans — Influence
even on the heathen — Honesty, truthfulness, industry, temper
ance — Then and now . . . . . . . .211
Notes to II  358

III. Relation op Culture to Missions.
The two chief sources of the modern mission-life : the religious
awakening and geographical discoveries — Modern means of com
munication — Commercial relations and colonies — An erroneous
judgment of Wolfgang Menzel — Direct and indirect advantages
to missions through culture — Training to and through labour —
Whether civilizing must precede christianising — Facts speak un
favourably for this theory — Difference between this theory and
the fact that civilization does pioneer-service for the mission . 237
The other side of the medal— The two chief dangers of the modern
civilization for the non-Christian peoples — The selfishness of most
of the representatives of civilization, and our absolute cultural
superiority — Proofs of the former fact — Universal opinion —
Special proofs from Van Diemen's Land, New Zealand, Tahiti,
New Hebrides — Labour-traffic in the South Sea — John Williams
and Bishop Patteson victims to these iniquities — Other evil con
sequences for the mission — The spread of Islam in the Dutch
colonies — The neutrality-policy in matters of religion of the Indo-
British government — The opium traffic— The treatment of the
Chinese in America — Civilization and the Indians — The negroes
in the United States and the West Indies— Civilization in its

xxiv CONTENTS.
PAGE
relation to the natives of South Africa— Brandy— Missions an
atonement for the corruptions introduced among the unchristian
peoples  3°°
Our cultural superiority primarily an advantage secured to the modern
mission by Divine Providence — The disadvantages of this cul
tural superiority — Great gulf between the missionary and the
objects of his labour — Danger of Europeanising, denationalising,
and culture-caricaturing of native agents and Christians — Culture
caricatures everywhere, among barbarous and among half-civilized
peoples — The introduction of European concepts of law — The
desire for equality — The tragic side of culture caricatures — A
fatal leap — The difference between a culture wrought out and one
merely imported — By the latter children are all at once made
into grown men — Danger of unrooting and dependence — Precocity
— Early ripening — The dying-out of the nature-peoples in its
relation to the civilizing and the christianising of them — Exten
uating circumstances — Real defects — Multiplicity of languages —
A parallel between the controversies in the apostolic and the
modern missions — Men with the originality and the large-hearted-
ness of a, Paul the chief need of the missions of the present
day — No blind zeal for culture — A beautiful dream — Viribus
Unitis  352
Noras to III  368

MISSIONS AND CULTUEE.

i.
STATE OF THE QUESTION.
There is a remarkable relation between party cries and
fashions. It is not only that both change — and assuredly
at present they change quickly ; not only that over their
origin there often broods a mysterious darkness ; they
are also powers, yea, mighty powers, which wield a
tyrannous sceptre, to which the masses blindly submit.
As people comply with the fashions, so do they employ
the party cries of the times. With millions it is as it
was once with the Ephesians when aroused by the gold
smith, Demetrius, who for two hours shrieked, great is
diana of the ephesians, albeit the more part knew not
wherefore they had come together (Acts xix. 32). But
perhaps it is just on that account that these cries are so
potent weapons in the great contest between belief and
unbelief, which, according to the well-known saying of
Goethe, constitutes the most special and the deepest
theme of the history of the world and of mankind.
Among the watchwords of the present, Culture for
A

2 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the moment plays a leading part — certainly, as it appears,
not altogether with its former youthful enthusiasm. As
if they had drunk an intoxicating cup, the so-called
culture-strife has maddened our contemporaries, after
" free " Protestantism had for a long time played a sort
of prelude, by the inauguration of the phrase — "a
reconcilement of Christianity with present-day culture."
When there is a contest, or when reconcilement is
sought, there must naturally be an enemy. Who is that
enemy ? Essentially none else than the old, historical,
biblical Christianity, however it may be attempted to
mask this enemy by means of rhetorical subtleties, which
are accustomed in these days to play a kaleidoscopic
game with historical matters. The culture-strife ! The
word, not in what may be called its official sense, but
taken as a battle-cry of the day, may be explained as
intimating a struggle for culture in opposition to Chris
tianity. Its tendency is to discredit biblical Christianity
in public estimation, as a contrast to culture, or as a
hindrance of culture.
There are truths which one is almost afraid of damaging
when he propounds them. Such a truth is the fact that
among the culture-forces of the world Christianity is the
most powerful. We do not say that Christianity is the
only culture-force. In the development of human culture
there are other very influential factors, neutral with
respect to Christianity, or even opposed to it. Were it
not so, there never could have been any culture, either
among heathen peoples or in times of general defection
from Christianity. But Christianity is the most intrinsic,
the most fundamental, the most inspiriting of culture-

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 3
factors. When even on the first page of the Bible God
gives to the man made in His own image the command
— shall we say ? — or the promise, " Subdue the earth,
and have dominion over it " (Gen. i. 2 8), what is this
but the highest culture-task ? And when Paul, the
great apostle of the Gentiles, in a profound exposition of
the well-known mission-command, "Go ye into all the
world and preach the gospel to every creature " — when
he speaks of an " earnest expectation of the creature
towards the manifestation of the children of God,"
and of its deliverance " from the bondage of the transient
state to the glorious liberty of the children of God ''
(Rom. viii. 21), does he not set up a culture-ideal,
which is sought for in vain outside of Christianity ? We
shall not appeal to the verdict of a great historian — a
Macaulay — who declares, "Whoever does anything to
depreciate Christianity, is guilty of high treason against
the civilization of mankind." Even fanatics for Materi
alism, like Frederick von Hellwald, are obliged to ac
knowledge it as an incontrovertible fact that "Modern
culture undeniably rests upon the view of the world
derived from Christianity." Only now this culture acts
as did the prodigal son in the parable ; when it has come
to man's estate it has turned its back, with its portion of
its father's goods, upon its father's house, and in a strange
land has forgotten its origin. But when one confesses
that the modern culture undeniably rests upon Chris
tianity, aud yet takes the field against it as an enemy of
culture, he not only sets himself in opposition to himself,
but saws away the branch on which he sits. The modern
view of the world strives of course to weaken this con-

4 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
elusion by the assertion, that Christianity, like all else in
this transitory world, has its time, and hence there
appertains to it only a temporary importance in the
evolution of human culture. Grant that in former times
it wrought in the laying of the foundation of culture, it
has now through the advance of scientific knowledge be
come an overborne stand-point ; a new view of the world
has come in its place, and with the modern culture which
is under the influence of this view, the old Christianity
stands in irreconcilable opposition.
In the first place, this assertion — which, like so many
more of the axioms of the modern-world views, is not
supported by any scientific proof, but is a simple enun
ciation of belief, or rather of unbelief — contains either
a logical or a psychological contradiction. Since the
Christian-world view is undeniably at the foundation of
the modern culture, then, when this culture shall be de
veloped, it must either hold fast by this world- view, since
every organism necessarily falls when it is separated
from its fountain of life ; or else we must make a clean
sweep of all the culture that has come down to us ; for
when the root is declared to be dead, of necessity the
branches and twigs which it bore must be dead also.
But that the sweeping away of the culture which has
hitherto grown on the soil of Christianity, as is attempted
by the Nihilists, would be a gain for culture, will
scarcely be asserted by the most enthusiastic advocate
of the modern-world view. We shall, however, state
another objection to the above assertion. So far is
Christianity from being an overborne stand-point, that it
is rather proving itself now to be an overbearing one.

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 5
In confirmation of this truth we appeal in this place
only to the Mission. In his mission-speech delivered in
Westminster Abbey, on the 3rd December 1873, Max
Miiller, the famous investigator of languages and religions,
elaborates the thought that the missionary religions are
alive, the non-missionary are dead.2 Now, it is an un
deniable fact that since about the beginning of this
' century the evangelical church has, in constantly increas
ing progression, offered thousands of evangelists to the
heathen nations of the world. At this moment there are
over 2300 male ordained missionaries — and for the
carrying on of the mission work in progress, many
millions of marks yearly — now about 24 millions.* The
faith which has set this missionary activity a-work is
manifestly no overborne stand-point. Now, an extensive
inquiry shows that the introduction of Christianity
effected by this missionary activity brings really a new
leaven of culture among communities hitherto heathen,
and not only among the " nature-peoples," but also among
the comparatively refined nations ; and so, it appears to
us, is the fuller proof, so much the more convincingly
produced, that the gospel of Christ is still a culture-force
of the first rank ; as, on the other hand, the fact is un
deniably manifested that the culture of the present day,
divorced as it is from Christianity, not only produces no
cultivating effect, but that it produces a positively per
nicious effect, upon the heathen peoples.
But before we enter upon this inquiry, the presently
dominant Babylonian confusion of things and words
imposes on us the necessity of premising some expla-
* A mark may be counted as about equivalent to a shilling.' — Trans.

6 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
nation of the term Culture.3 Culture is in itself mani
festly an entirely neutral conception. All depends upon
what is the object of the education which we designate
by the foreign word culture. According to our apprehen
sion, this object is constituted of all the gifts and powers
bestowed on man, by the cultivation and application of
which he makes nature — or, as the Scripture says, the
earth — subject to him, turns its good things to account
for his service, and thereby furthers his well-being in
this world, as well as his intellectual and moral improve
ment; Accordingly, we distinguish a threefold domain
of culture — the material, the intellectual, and the moral;
but not so that each forms an isolated field for itself,
but that all three constitute an organism, in which one
member always serves the others, and contributes to the
nurture and development of the others. The end of all
culture is nothing else than to make the life of man on
this earth truly worthy of man and happy ; and so
material and intellectual and moral good must be equally
the object of the education. Only when this is so is
there a harmonious, a deep-rooted, a really felicitous and
ennobling culture.
Consciously or unconsciously the modern view of the
world takes a far narrower conception of culture, limiting
it to mere civilization. It concerns itself essentially
only with the care of the material and intellectual good.
With quite unmistakable satisfaction Von Hellwald, in
his History of Culture, repeatedly intimates that " times
of high culture-flourish are always times of deep immo
rality." Yea, he directly makes the assertion that " the
so-called corruption of morals stands in direct proportion

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 7
to the increase of civilization, and is positively no retro
gression, but a quite natural phase of development," and
will have " advancement wholly divested of the idea of
an ethical amelioration." Thus we have here in the
plainest terms a culture without any moral foundation ;
and quite naturally, for, as the same Herr von Hellwald
is never weary of repeating, " right, morality, moral, is a
mere sound," the conception of good and evil is variable
and purely subjective ; " in history there is only a law
of nature, which is completely apart from any ethic or
morality ; " " all development of culture is only a struggle
for existence, in which the stronger is always victorious,
in which the end sanctifies the means, and from which
love is excluded." It follows absolutely as a consequence
that a care of moral good can be no more mentioned as
an integral factor of culture-development.
We shall not stop to point out the further consequents
of this conception of culture apart from morality. Herr
von Hellwald is himself obliged to confess that the " so-
called " corruption of morals has " often enough hastened
the downfall of nations." Thus we have a culture which
conducts to ruin! We cannot think of denying that
often enough in times of high outward culture the deepest
corruption of morals has actually obtained. But history
has taught us that we were then always standing before
whited sepulchres, the stink of whose corruption, in the
midst of all the odours of culture, ere long poisoned the
atmosphere. Despite all the jeers and all the denials of
the representatives of the modern view of the world,
there is a moral world-ordinance, whose ethic laws fulfil
themselves with the same necessity as do the laws of

8 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
nature. " He who soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh
reap corruption " (Gal. vi. 8). The world's history in this
respect accomplishes a world's doom.
The so-called modern view of the world, which desig
nates itself as " the religion of this world " in opposition
to the historical Christianity, puts forth, not without a
certain appearance of right, the assertion that it is better
adapted than a " religion of the next world " to promote
culture — that is, external -civilization. But how remark
able ! When the social democrats enunciate the same
proposition in their own way, and explain it as meaning,
" The heaven is taken from us, let us claim the earth,"
then the most advanced representatives of this view of
the world hasten most energetically to repudiate the
mental parentage of these social-democratic culture-ideas.
Why do they deny the consequences of their own
doctrine ? It must not be an alluring evolution of cul
ture, when the masses robbed of heaven claim the earth.
Or is it meant that culture leads not the plebeian masses,
but the aristocracy of gold and of science, to possess
themselves of the earth by the renunciation of heaven ?
Now, irrespective of the fact that with inexorable con
sistency the' plebeians will follow in their way the ex
ample which they see the aristocrats set them, and that
" the struggle for existence," which, according to the
dogma of this view of the world, the two parties must
fight out with one another, and in which the victory
awaits the stronger, will of necessity lead to barbarism
instead of an advance of' culture — apart from this, there
is nothing new under the sun. There has been such a
thing as that the aristocratic strata of human society,

STATE OF THE QUESTION. g
after they have cast away all religion of the other world,
have basked on a lofty height of material and mental
civilization ; but the splendidly constructed house which
they inhabited has tottered and fallen. Greece and
Borne have fallen to the ground.
It may be noted as a godly irony, that the men who
renounce heaven cannot continuously possess the earth.
It sounds like a paradox, but it is a piece of that godly
wisdom which the apostle of the Gentiles so boldly calls
foolishness, that the religion of the other world is the
best and surest means of cultivating the present world.
The Saviour of the world said, " Seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all such things shall
be added to you ; " and the apostle's commentary on. the
Lord's word is, " Godliness is profitable for all things, and
has the promise of this life and of that which is to
come" (i Tim. iv. 8).
Never and nowhere is there a culture enduring, truly
ennobling and blessing men, without care of moral good.
We may invent railroads and telegraphs and telephones,
we may adopt the most rational husbandry, and may by
the help of the most ingenious machinery improve
industry to the uttermost; we may minister to the most
exquisite luxury, and the most refined taste ; we may
manufacture rifled cannon and torpedoes ; we may make
marvellous discoveries by chemical analyses and micro
scopes ; .we may calculate the orbits of the stars ; and
even in the field of philosophy, poetry, and art, we may
effect important results ; we can, now that the develop
ment of culture is in progress, reach a high pitch of
material and intellectual civilization, without the moral

10 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
powers being at all employed in originating or promoting
it. But this one-sided and unharmonious culture is a
light, which shines indeed, but gives neither warmth
nor life. The well-known assertion of the Duke of
Wellington, that such culture, divested of faith and
morality, makes clever devils, is perhaps somewhat too
strong ; but so far it is undoubtedly true, and is acknow
ledged with a certain cynicism even by the materialists,
that a purely material and intellectual culture can exert
no influence to ennoble and bless mankind. But if this
be so, what is a war on behalf of this culture against
Christianity but a war for civilized barbarism ? The
training of the moral is at once the foundation and the
crown of culture.
But strictly there is no fostering of morality without
the fostering of religion. The fact that there are people
who religiously believe and do not lead earnest moral ,
lives, and people who religiously are unbelievers, and who
are distinguished by such lives, proves nothing against
the truth of this proposition. For where there is religion
without morality, the religion is only form and pretence ;
and where there is morality without religion, there is
either a concealed faith, an altar to the unknown God
(Acts xvii. 23), or the morality is only self-imposed,
subjective. Certainly a man's life may be to some
extent regulated morally by the bare idea of humanity
without the idea of God, by the idea of the dignity of
man, according to which it may be determined, without
respect to the divine will, what shall be good and what
evil. Only it is manifest that in this way only a purely
subjective morality can take its rise, and that every age,

STATE OF THE QUESTION. u
every nation, yea, every individual, is entitled to claim
the right for himself to determine, according to his own
judgment, what shall be honourable and moral. The
moral conceptions of good and evil formed in this way
must of necessity be fluctuating, and the inevitable
consequence of the mutability of these conceptions is
ultimately the view that morality is only a vain sound.
" A morality without religion is in itself an untrue self-
dependence, a freedom destitute of a deeper foundation,
and resting on an essential contradiction."4 In truth,
that only can be an objective morality which is a binding
rule independent of my own choice, which stands above
me, while the result of my own legislation does not con
stitute it. But such an objective rule standing above
me, universally obligatory, is only possible when a living
God is lawgiver and judge : in other words, morality
exists only inside of religion.
And as is the religion, such is the morality. The
idea of an inter-religious — or, as the favourite phrase of
the day is, an inter-confessional — morality is as much an
illusion as is an irreligious morality. Even a superficial
acquaintance with the science of religion and ethnology
teaches us that there is one morality in Parseeism,
another in Confucianism, another in Brahmanism, another
in Buddhism, another in Petichism, another in Islam,
and another in Christianity ; yea, that differences bearing
upon the moral domain are found even inside of Eomanist
as well as Protestant Christianity. The most perfect
religion has also the most perfect morality. Christianity,
as the religion of truth, includes therefore, as even its
chief enemies must admit, the most perfect, the most

12 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
ideal, moral teaching. Thus it is self-evident that
morality must find its best fostering under the dominion
of Christianity ; and, since without the fostering of
morality material and intellectual culture leads ulti
mately to ruin, that culture thrives best under the
dominion of Christianity.
Notably the words Cultus and Culture have not an
accidental resemblance. As etymologically they are
derived from one root, so also the departments of life
which they designate stand in an organic combination.
As is the cultus, so is the culture!" So it was among the
cultured nations of antiquity, the Egyptians, Babylonians,
and Persians. Thus the Greek culture stood in undeni
able fundamental connection with the religious cultus,
and became its reflection. So is it till this day with the
Chinese, who — to adduce a right strong example — are
prevented by their faith or superstition from construct
ing railways, although in other respects Confucianism
favours material culture to the uttermost. So it is
among the so-called nature-peoples, whose worship is not
more elevated than their culture. So it is in Islam,
whose religious system obstructs the reforms through
whose introduction diplomacy would fain prolong the
existence of the Turkish empire. So the cultus of
genius has its own peculiar culture. Should it come to
this, that the doctrine of the bestial descent of man
shall lead to ape-cultus, of which the gorilla-flirtation
which was lately going on in the metropolis of intelli
gence already betrayed the footsteps ; then doubtless also
a congenial ape- culture will be introduced ! On the
other hand, in proportion as the worship of God in spirit

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 13
and in truth — which Christianity inculcates as the religion
of truth — is practically realised, in that proportion also
true culture is founded and perfected. It is truly a fact
of demonstrative power for every one who will look at
it, that the Christian nations have become the bearers of
culture. If this culture in its further development has
often become, alas ! not homogeneous with the Christian
cultus-ideal, the fault lies not on it, but on backsliding
from it, or on its imperfect realisation. It is as unin
telligent as it is unfair to lay the blame on. Christianity
that within its domains all evils are not removed, and
paradisaic conditions are not introduced. Christianity
does not work, and in accordance with its nature, cannot
work, with external necessity of nature. It is spiritual
seed, which must fall upon a good soil, if it is to bring
forth good fruit. But the good soil is the hearts of men,
and these hearts are — despite all the protests of modern
philosophy and natural science — endowed with free will.
Now, this will refuses to give admittance to Christian
truth, or rather it tramples that truth under foot, and
does what is in direct opposition to it, yet unreasonably
tries to make Christianity responsible for the consequences.
The men who obey the natural passions of their evil hearts,
instead of the precepts of the gospel, who wilfully and
constantly sow tares among the wheat, oppose the powers
of life and culture which belong to Christianity. In
proportion as men really give admittance to the gospel
of Christ, they maintain an honourable existence, are
ennobled, enjoy happiness and contentment, and attain,
so far as the order of nature in the present world admits
of the total removal of evil, to a condition of felicity.

14 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
At the same time, it must not be forgotten, that even
when the gospel is accepted, the treasure is borne in
"earthen vessels," and that the leavening process, still
but imperfect, is accomplished amid many troubles.
Among the hostile party there are some — in Germany
still very few 6 — not disinclined to tolerate Christianity
on account of its undeniable bearing on culture, and
even to let the mission have its way among uncivilized
peoples. Bespecting this utilitarian theory, we must
guard against a misunderstanding — namely, lest there
should be any appearance of our being solicitous about
such remarkably magnanimous tolerance, candour as well
as honour demands that we should at the outset declare
most distinctly that we do not handle our theme with
the view of begging pardon for Christianity, or specially
for the diffusion of it among unchristian peoples. Chris
tianity claims recognition for its own sake. The Son of
God did not come into the world primarily to introduce
culture into it, but " to seek and to save that which is
lost " (Luke xix. i o), that through faith in Him sinners
might receive forgiveness of sins and holiness of life.
Accordingly, we carry on missions, not primarily with
a view to the introduction of culture, but with the
view of inviting the heathen to the Saviour of sinners,
who saves their souls and renews their hearts. As the
gospel of Christ, at its entrance into this world, had to
be first brought primarily to those peoples who in a
certain sense had enough, and more than enough, of
culture already, so now we carry on missions, not only
among the uncivilized, but also among the cultured
peoples. And in this we as little do a superfluous work

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 15
as the apostles did a superfluous work when they went
with the message of the gospel to the Greeks and
Eomans. Man lives not by culture alone ; his heart is
formed for God, and cannot rest in culture. What
would it profit a man if he should gain the whole world,
and had not a remedy for his soul's hurt ? It is to
hold out to the hungry man a stone instead of bread,
when culture is offered instead of religion. Man is a
citizen of two worlds, and no civilization makes up for
the kingdom of God and His righteousness. But the
great Saviour of the world, who gives to sinners eternal
life, brightens for them also the transitory life on earth.
He who gives the greater can easily give the less. When
on one occasion the scribes doubted whether Jesus had
power on earth to forgive sins, thus spake He to a
paralytic : " Stand up : take up thy bed and go to thy
house" (Matt. ix. 6). "Works of this sort were not
precisely His field and His province," the Wandsbeck
preacher says somewhere : " He was set over the invi
sible as a helper and healer of souls ; and all the visible
miracles were only by-works, which He performed in
order to open men's eyes to what they saw not, by
means of what they saw." But although His kingdom
was not of this world, He yet proved that He was Lord
and Master of visible nature, which always and on every
occasion lovingly helped and served Him. Just so it is
with the mission. Its first and chief end is to save the
immortal souls of men for the kingdom of heaven, by
the proclamation of eternal redemption which has been
accomplished by Christ Jesus. But the mission, in
making heathens Christians, makes them also for the

16 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
first time properly men ; and in planting the kingdom of
heaven among them, it plants also true culture. Culture
is not the chief end of the mission, but it is its necessary
result, a gift to boot, a by-work, an earth blessing falling
as a crumb from the rich table of the gospel, a fulfilment
of the promise that godliness is profitable for all things,
and that the man who is renewed into the image of God
is best equipped for the subduing of the earth.
But an apologetic view presents itself to us. We
would seek to teach men to judge of the tree by the
fruits, and to convince the opposers of Christianity and
of the mission that the gospel of Christ and culture hang
together as cause and effect, as root and plant. While
• we lead the proof that he who conducts a Christian
mission plants culture also, we may also prove conversely
that he who is a friend of culture must also be a friend
of Christian missions.
But our theme speaks of the mutual relations between
missions and culture. People are accustomed almost
always to look on the one side, How far do missions
promote culture ? That is confessedly a very important
side of the question — so important that no one can write
a history of culture without at the same time entering
upon the history of missions. But the medal has also a
reverse. Culture in its turn enters into relation with
missions, and it is not possible to write a history of
missions without entering upon the domain of the history
of culture. It is manifest that as the mission exerts an
influence upon culture, so also does culture upon the
mission ; and it will be the task of the second part of
our theme to inquire whether, and to what extent, this

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 17
influence is helpful or hurtful. We shall see, in the
course of this inquiry, that it brings us in contact with a
difficult question, and with very complicated relations.
It is not enough for its solution that we point out by
facts what attitude the representatives of the Christian
culture of the West, living among heathen nations, or
even ruling over them, assume towards the mission,
whether they by word and deed recommend or disparage
the gospel. The question is rather about culture as such,
not only about its personal representatives ; and specially
about culture in the narrower modern sense of the term,
so far as it is by preference occupied with the care of
material and intellectual good. However much on the
one hand the mission has to thank this culture because
it has often been its pioneer, there is on the other side
the great strife to which it everywhere challenges the
mission. The investigation of these relations will show
that this strife is as many-sided as it is painful and
partly hopeless. The mission has not only to contend
with rude unculture, but as much with over-culture,
destitute of Christian moral foundations and motives, and
the immediate transference of our culture-acquisitions to
strange peoples and relations, which the mission must
resent, so that in the true sense of the word we have to
speak of a manifold culture-war on the part of the
Christian mission.
Before we enter upon the first main division of our
inquiry, a preliminary remark must be permitted with
reference to the materials of proof which we are to
employ.. We have been very earnestly careful to
bring together our materials from the most diverse

18 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
quarters, and have by no means taken partial counsel
from the accounts of missionaries. But it were certainly
unreasonable that we should appeal only to witnesses
who are quite unconnected with the mission, or are
indeed hostile to it. As little as one could, e.g., write a
history of the German-French war, if he should depend
only on French sources, could one sketch an accurate
picture of the results and struggles of the mission if he
had recourse only to professedly neutral or even hostile
authorities. We freely admit that the missionaries write
for home, and hence that their accounts, notwithstand
ing all efforts after strict impartiality, may not always
be perfectly objective. But we must at the least bring
the same charge against the hostile witnesses. If the
former are a priori tuned for, the latter are against,
missions; and every one knows that in matters with
which the inclination of the heart has to do, an absolute
objectivity is generally impossible.7 There is much
jugglery carried on with so-called freedom from prejudice.
Unbelief and hatred are the worst prejudice. Whoever
is from the outset unfavourable to Christianity, cannot
give an unprejudiced view and judgment of the mission.
While, therefore, we make use of the mission-records
with a certain criticism, the same criticism has a moral
duty to perform upon those accounts which are derived
from the hostile camp. Thirty years ago the distin
guished geographer Meinicke, in his book, which is still
well worth reading — The People of the South Sea and
Christianity — in the special chapter, The Missionaries
and their Opponents, in which he weighs the pro and
contra with great sobriety, characterised some of the

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 19
sources from which unfavourable judgments of missions
are derived :
" We are thus brought to the question " — so he says,
p. 252—3 — "what amount of trustworthiness we are to
expect from "the colonists ?  Notwithstanding
many differences in respect of intelligence, they consist
generally of two classes — merchants, and sailors with
mechanics. The latter class are generally regarded as
the off-scourings of the European and American marine :
whom fear of punishment, laziness, or desire of a life of
sensuality, has brought here, where, as Europeans, they
take a higher rank, and are subjected to no restraint. . . .
The other class consists of men who have settled in the
ports for the sake of trade, and belong to the educated
classes. But they are almost all of worldly tendencies,
having come only to make money, and — what is an
important fact — unmarried. That the views and wishes
of the great majority of these are little in unison with
those of the missionaries, is easily understood. There has
thus constantly existed a deeply-rooted and embittered
hostility between the two parties ; and there are two
points especially which have generally wrought pre
judicially in the matter — the intercourse of the colonists
with native women (for even the more refined Europeans
live in those islands without any feeling of the shame
and decency which in more civilised lands regulate life,
at least externally), and the traffic in brandy, in which
a great proportion of the • merchants take part. The
action of the missionaries, who have constantly used all
their influence to suppress these two evils, must naturally
have excited bitter hatred against them on the part of

20 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the other Europeans  Consequently, it cannot be
denied that the fountains, from which flow the charges
that are brought against the missionaries, are very
muddy ; that the men from whom these malevolent
accounts proceed are deficient in intelligence and Chris
tian sentiment, and still more in candour and im
partiality." These relations have not essentially changed since
then, as the latest describer of a Trip across the Pacific
Ocean, Max Buchner, expressly confirms : yea, they have
in some respects become worse, as we shall have to show
further on. Avarice and sensuality exert their corrupt
ing influence over the colonists and merchants who are
estranged from Christianity, and it is evident that the
accusations which they bring against the mission originate
in animosity, and therefore deserve little credit on the
part of sober men ; as indeed Buchner himself, who has
just been mentioned, one of the most decided enemies of
the mission, declares that he always begins by dividing
their assertions by ten ! Meantime there is a point of
view to which the assertions of such witnesses are
welcome, and which, therefore, willingly receives them.
And, alas ! this point of view is not without representa-
¦tives even among men of science. When, e.g., Dr. Brehm,
the well-known zoologist, in a popular lecture on the
Ostiaks, openly expresses a wish " that they might long
remain heathen, lest their good qualities should be lost ; " 8
or when the editor of the Ausland carries shamelessness
so far as to place Christianity on the same level with
syphilis,9 surely no further proof is needed to show that
men who so inveterately hate Christianity are absolutely

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 21
unfit to be received as witnesses in matters connected
with the mission.
No more are the accounts of travellers to be regarded,
without more to do, as trustworthy sources. Apart from
the fact that these gentlemen, through ignorance of the
native languages, generally receive their judgments from
a second or a third unclean hand, and that they stay too
short a time in the places which they visit to institute
thorough investigation, they are for the most part unfit
to give accounts of missions even as respects their culture-
results. As a rule they have aimed at quite different
things, geographical, zoological, botanical, anthropological,
and such like questions ; and in these things they see
something ; but it is notorious that one cannot see things
for which he has no eyes.10 " Provided attention is paid
to it" — so Luther excellently translates Eom. i. 20,
" the being of the invisible God is seen in His works."
But millions pay no attention to it, and, therefore, see
nothing. It is astonishing and almost incredible, how
differently, not merely uneducated people, but scientifi
cally educated people, have seen the same objects,
according as the eye was with which they regarded it.
When Eousseau's ideas of the felicity of the state of
nature were still running in their heads, travellers saw
cannibals as the true innocent children of nature, whose
life they could not sufficiently praise as the pure nobility
of paradise ! But when the reaction against this extra
vagance set in, and " science " afterwards set about seek-
ing for " the missing link " between man and ape, then
we were constantly told of savages, regarding whom it
was doubtful whether they ranked higher than beasts.

22 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
" Science," like other mortals, has its spectacles, through
which it looks. Does one wish to see that the un
civilized nations are incapable of culture, then he of
course sees no culture-results, even when he stumbles
over them. In his extremely interesting " Recollections
of an Indian Missionary," our countryman, Leupolt, re
lates a very amusing incident, which strikingly shows
how blind certain people are to the most patent facts of
missions. " It happened," says our author, " some thirty-
five years ago, that a regiment coming from Benares passed
through Cawnpore. The officers of that garrison gave
their comrades a dinner, to which ladies also were invited.
In the course of it one of these ladies asked a captain of
the regiment that was being entertained, what the mission
aries were doing in Benares. The captain assured her that
there were no missionaries there. 'But they have an
orphan-house there,' replied the lady. ' Pardon me ; there
exists no institution of that kind,' said the captain.
" ' But I regularly pay an annual subscription to it.'
" ' I believe that ; but I was three years in Benares, and
must have seen the institution if it existed.'
" Then the gentleman who sat at the lady's right hand
said quietly to her, ' Wait a little ; ' and then he asked
the captain, ' Did you use to go to church, sir ? '
" ' Yes. We were commanded to attend.'
"'But who preached in Benares, for there is no
Government chaplain there ? '
" ' True ; we had no padres ; but the service was
conducted by clergymen, who were much beloved by
our men.'
" ' Strange ! Captain ; you attended services which were

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 23
conducted by missionaries, and you know nothing of the
existence of these gentlemen ! '
" ' W-h-a-t ! Were they missionaries ? '
" ' Now, another question, sir. Did you ever see the
long building in the street which leads by Sigra to
Marawaddi ? '
"'Certainly; it happened once that a fox was lost
there, and I rode into the compound. There was a heap
of little black rascals, who grinned at me. They knew
where the fox was, but they would not tell me.'
" ' Then you were in the precincts of the orphan-house
of which the lady beside you spoke.'
" ' Indeed ! I did not know what it was. I took it for
an indigo-factory, or something of that sort.' "
So it is in India — and in Africa and the South Seas
it is the same.
In reading the accounts given by scientific and un
scientific travellers, the impression has often been made
upon us that the gentlemen were annoyed at not finding
the nature-peoples in puris naturalibus. Certainly the
annoyance has its origin partly in a zeal for science — a
zeal, according to our limited apprehensions, at the least
pedantic and overstrained — which, in the interests of
ethnology, would rather have seen the savages retained
in their natural condition than civilized and Christianized,
that they might be scientifically analysed, and literature
be enriched by the analysis. But in part also it rests
upon a merely ordinary sensuality, for which science
serves only as a cloak, as indeed in other cases it must
often do duty as a lofty, ornamental stopper of gaps,
when principles, concepts, and burdensome things of that

24 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
sort, fail. There are travellers, especially among the
constantly increasing class of tourists round the world,
who go forth expressly to seek for these naturalia, and
who record with unmistakable delight, when they have
discovered them, or have induced the natives to exhibit
them. In the pursuit of these things, they forget and
overlook what has been already done for the advance of
civilization through the influence of the mission ; or, if
they cannot ignore it, they jeer at it and caricature it, and
thus their statements about the mission are coloured by
their disappointment. Hence the frequent phenomenon
that even countries in which heathenism is virtually
abolished are spoken of in the authentic representations of
travellers, who are either indifferent or hostile to missions,
as if no ray of Christianity had ever entered them.
Let us adduce only two illustrations from the most
recent literature of travels, the first from Von Weber's
Four Years, in Africa ; the second from Buchner's Trip
across the Pacific Ocean. The former book we know only
from the Ausland, whose character our quotation will
show. But first we must apologise to our readers for
presenting these quotations in all the "nudity" in which
we find them ; for this is indispensable to an estimation
of this class of travels-literature. We refrain from any
remarks of our own ; the quotations speak for — or rather
against — themselves. The Ausland commends Mr. Von
Weber as a man who is no " negrophilist," and who
" gives a deadly blow to the hollow humanity-phrases, and
to the English Government, which depends upon such
phrases, and upon the equalising of the blacks with the
whites." In his visit to the Bechuana town, Thaba-

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 25
Nchu, Mr. Von Weber had an opportunity of attending
a national dance, on occasion of a wedding, at which
both sexes were arrayed in semi-European costumes.
But this uncommonly interesting exhibition, which is
referred to as a proof of the "pure, unsophisticated and
unperverted, good-natured, and amiable, child-like nature
of the black race," did not satisfy the traveller's zeal for
investigation. By the garden hedge he saw hundreds
of young maidens, some of them with the most lovely
faces, who were attending the festival as spectators.
" Not one of them had any European clothing, but all
wore the primitive, far more interesting, national costume
of the genuine Kaffir maiden. Their bosoms and. arms
— and of what astonishing modelling they were, such as
might fascinate any artist ! — are without covering, as
well as their legs, to far above the knee." And all these
maidens had so refined and intelligent and noble features
that Mr. Von Weber felt himself about as much captivated
in their presence as if they had been English or German
ladies at a ball. At the least, there came over him a quite
peculiar feeling of modesty when, with his gold eye-glass
on his nose, he examined them one after another, and
thought that he discovered in their astonished, earnest,
nobly-formed faces something like scornful indignation
at his obtrusive observation, wholly unprovoked as it
was by them. He went to one of the prettiest, and
offered her five shillings if she would induce her com
panions to come to his waggon, and there to go through
a dance after their own fashion. When the maiden
refused the money, this German gentleman induced a
negro to bring them to comply with his wishes, and it

26 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
succeeded. " And now he had for two hours, at his
waggon, an exhibition of so splendid a ballet that he
assuredly could not have seen a finer at a representation
of the Africanerin in Berlin or St. Petersburg." The
excited description of this ballet we leave to our readers,
while we turn from the enthusiastic admirer of these
" sons of South Africa " to a no less ardent glorifier of
the blooming maidens of the South Seas.
With Herr Buchner, a man who expressly proclaims
himself as " no friend of hypocrites," and is " not out of
sympathy with any sort of men except the sanctimonious
Reverends with their white neck-ties, their smooth-parted
hair, and their heavenly-illuminated faces" — whom indeed
he occasionally styles plough-boys — the native ladies
play a prominent part. While he takes care very often
to give accounts of his meeting with them, he writes —
to our no small amusement : — " Mission-stations, since
the last war in New Zealand, seem scarcely to exist any
more, as in former times." And yet the inquiring
traveller spent two months in New Zealand, and was
even in places which were themselves mission-stations.
Is not this an amusing pendant to Leupolt's Benares
captain ? But — as already remarked — there is a peculi
arity about eyes : they see only what the heart desires.
The national dances, which are in part very obscene, and
which are generally performed only in secret, and when
bespoken by Europeans, never escaped our traveller in
any of the places which he visited. He saw the Haka of
the New Zealanders, the Meke-Meke of the Fijians, and the
Hulu-Hula of the Hawiians, " which among the many
lascivious Polynesian dances, has the character of being

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 27
the most lascivious." In lewd romancist style he de
scribes these dances most particularly. " I regard myself
as fortunate," he says in one place, " to have been present
at this Meke-Meke." "I was delighted," he says in
another, "to find still so much originality of customs.''
With scorn worthy of Heine, he speaks of the shawls and
the " modest clothing " which the " pious missionaries "
have forced upon the natives ; and always records it with
satisfaction where the females of the islands "threw
aside the untasteful and unnecessary garments, while
their womanly instinct told them that he liked them
better so." With quite unmistakable predilection, the
traveller dwells upon the sight and exhibition of the
nude, in his descriptions of bath scenes and such like.
" The nude legs produced a sufficiently aesthetic effect,
because they seemed to grow from a short girdle of leaves,
which formed the only clothing of the handsome girl."
But truly disgusting is what this German physican tells
us of the captain of the boat which conveyed him, with
some like-minded companions, back to Honolulu. " First
he showed us the movements of the Hulu-Hula, with
all its horrible refinements ; then he railed at the ladies
of pious Kohala, who have abandoned it, and praised the
maidens of his own district, who are still expert in it.
This was all the more interesting that he made the most
diabolical grimaces of which the fiendish face of such an
obscene and lascivious Kanaka is capable when he speaks
of women. The crew applauded him jubilantly."
But enough, and more than enough, of these quota
tions. That travellers who see with these eyes and
write in this style, be they ever so scientifically equipped,

28 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
cannot be regarded as competent witnesses when they
depreciate the mission, needs no further proof. There
are also other books of travel, which inquire into the
naturalia, not only in respect of sexual matters, and do
not seek to attain piquancy by means of lascivities like
those mentioned, but which set out with the design of
inquiring into and exhibiting antiquity ; and so, con
sciously or unconsciously, they ignore the changes which
missions have effected in the sentiments, morals, and
ways of living. These sources also can only indirectly be
made use of as affording proofs with a view to our sub
ject ; that is, so far as there can be read between the lines
a testimony for or against the mission ; and their state
ments have more or less value according as their authors
are more or less unprejudiced with regard to Christianity.
In every respect the accounts of the missionaries have
the advantage that they are supplied by those who under
stand the matter. Even among those representatives of
science in Germany who are not animated by hatred
against the gospel of Christ, the conviction is constantly
gaining ground that the missionaries are the most cre
dible reporters. Thus, e.g., writes Professor Dr. Gerland,
well-known as an anthropologist, and as possessing an
intimate knowledge of the South Seas : " I have very
carefully and repeatedly studied and compared the sources
of information regarding the Australians. The mission-
reports, which I have accepted as vouchers, can stand
any critical test. They contain no trace throughout of
any original revelation among the New-Hollanders, such
as Fr. Miiller (Allg. Ethnologie) supposes ; they merely
state distinctly what they have found.

STATE OF THE QUESTION. 29
On the other hand, the same scholar decides as follows
as to the untrustworthiness of the accounts from other
sources. " Further, in this inquiry " (whether there be
any peoples without religion, but the remark with refer
ence to this is quite universally applicable), " there must
be the strictest criticism of the persons from whom we
get the accounts. Nothing can be proved by what single
individuals may say, and especially when they are
degraded, as those belonging 'to the native-peoples may
easily be in their intercourse with white men. Often
too, those who were questioned, being wearied or annoyed
by endless questions, have given manifestly false and
scornful answers, as our own uneducated classes often do
in like circumstances ; and often they answer falsely
through hope of gain. Moreover, those who only stay
a short time among a people cannot form a correct
judgment of their religious conceptions " — nor of their
moral progress and the changes in their outward life, by
comparison of the past and the present. "Hence the
naturalists, who in their travels have come into contact
with this or that people and have questioned them, can
not be regarded as conclusive witnesses without further
confirmation." On the ground of this acknowledgment, which is con
firmed by an abundance of amusing misunderstandings
and mistakes, into which even experienced travellers,
such as Bastian, have fallen, schedules of queries, with a
view to the attainment of sure ethnological results, have
lately been sent to the missionaries, who were once
treated so contemptuously ; because, as Dr. PechueL
Losche writes to the author — the assistance of these

30 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
gentlemen is peculiarly valuable, as their education and
their knowledge of languages facilitate the most accurate
results. According to the judgment of wholly impartial
scientific experts, the matter stands thus : Why in all the
world should those missionaries be unreliable witnesses,
when the subject of the culture-effects of missions is under
consideration ? Are they not in this department precisely
the competent persons who understand the subject ? Who
can better compare the past with the present, who better
trace and estimate the changes in moral, intellectual, and
material life, than those who live constantly among the
people, understand their language, and have a Samaritan
eye, a Samaritan heart, and a Samaritan hand to help
them ? Grant that they often treat the subject too
sanguinely, and present us with too favourable accounts
— although those who are acquainted with periodical
mission-literature could also adduce sufficient instances
of the opposite — still we have but to make a little abate
ment, and paint in a few shadows from the hostile camp
in the pictures whose lights appear to be too prevalent.
But to set aside the missionary sources as untrustworthy,
were as if in a history of a war the accounts of military
men, or those of artists in a history of art, should be
declared to be partizan, and, therefore, not to be made
use of ! We shall employ the reports of missionaries
with all fair criticism ; but they must continue to be
the main foundation of our representation. We shall
take care constantly to supplement them, or even to
correct them, by the testimony of such persons from the
neutral camp as have a claim to credibility, and even, so
far as possible, to allow the enemies to speak.

( 3i )

II.
RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE.
The two mission eras already completed, the apostolic
and the medieval, bore, as in many other respects, so
also in their relation to culture, a very different character
from modern missions. On its entrance into the world
Christianity found at once in Greece and in Eome a
material and intellectual culture already far advanced;
while the African and Asiatic cultured kingdoms of
antiquity had fallen more or less from the height of
culture which they had once attained. It was under
the special leading of divine providence that these cul
ture-peoples formed the object of the first Christian
missionary efforts. This is not the place to inquire into
the reasons why it pleased God to send the first mission
aries to the North rather than the East. Here we have
to do only with the question: In what relation did the
mission then stand to culture ? It may seem to a super
ficial observer that the mission did not prove itself a
promoter or even a conservator of culture, since we have
before us the undeniable fact that the so-called classic
culture crumbled away. Was Christianity unable, or
was it unwilling, to sustain that culture ? The answer
to this question is essentially contained in the following

32 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
points. First, the whole culture of antiquity was morally
undermined, and its crumbling into ruins is not to be
charged upon Christianity, but upon heathenism, or the
practically materialistic tendency of the age. Secondly,
Even in antiquity cultus and culture stood in the closest
mutual relation, and the new cultus could not possibly
amalgamate with the old culture. However destitute of
faith the so-called educated classes might be, especially
in the first centuries of the Christian era, the culture
still bore universally the stamp of heathenism, to which"
the new faith stood in most decided opposition. It may
be that men like Tertullian in their zeal went too far ;
it may be that there was reason to ascribe to the first
Christians a certain narrowness in their attitude towards
art, science, and the amusements of the age ; yet it is
c'ertain that Christianity would have been heathenised
had it, without more to do, adopted the heathen culture
into itself. We see that this adoptive process, when it
actually took place almost 1500 years later, in the time
of Humanism and the Eenaissance, was not accomplished
without important troubles and aberrations — troubles
which, but for the Eeformation, would have been most
detrimental to the Christian world. How would it have
been if this adoption had taken place at first 1 Thirdly,
In the nature of things it was impossible that Chris
tianity in the first stages of its extension and taking
root, which were accomplished after the pattern of the
mustard-seed and the leaven, should be able to lay new
moral foundations to such an extent that the whole
heathen culture should have been thereby regenerated,
while the leaders of this culture stood in absolute oppo-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 33
sition to the gospel. A fourth very important point with
respect to the independent development of the European
peoples, we shall consider afterwards in another con
nection. Nevertheless, the apostolic mission, as even fanatical
haters of Christianity, such as Von Hellwald, have to
confess, produced eminent cultural results, which indeed
were essentially in the department of morals.1 Since
our subject relates only to modern missions, we content
ourselves here with a few remarks. The right of
individuality, the recognition of the dignity of man, and
therewith of humanity, the equality of the sexes, the
regeneration of marriage and family life, and the educa
tion of children, the gradual abolition of slavery, the
moral esteem of labour, and therewith a new economical
arrangement, with a whole range of new moral virtues,
unselfish love, universal charity, beneficence, meekness,
purity — all these are foundations of culture which the
gospel of Christ was the first to lay, and which it laid
not only in peculiarly favourable circumstances, but in
universal human society, whose lowest strata indeed it
elevated. The classic culture was, so to speak, aristo
cratic ; it was not, any more than intellectual refinement,
a possession of the masses. In the gospel, on the con
trary, it is said, "With God there is no respect of
persons." What the well-known adversary of the
Christians, Celsus, brought as a reproach against Chris
tianity, that its adherents consisted of " weavers, tailors,
and tanners, peasants, and simple women," the old
apologists turned to account as a proof of its spiritual
power. " Among us," they said, " you will find ignorant

34 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
persons, mechanics, old women, who, although they can
not prove in words the wholesome influence of the
Christian doctrine, prove it by the fact of the whole
some influence of the sentiments that flow from it." On
the ground of the planting and nurture of this new
moral good; the new Christian culture grew.
The medieval mission occupied an entirely different
position in relation to questions of culture. It had to
do essentially with uncultured peoples, for whom it was
pre-eminently the culture-bringer. This fact is so
incontrovertible that even the author of the History of
Culture in its Natural Development cannot help under
taking the defence of the medieval mission against its
blind adversaries, and expressly confessing — although
with many invidious side-thrusts — that our whole actual
culture-development rests upon the Christianisation of
Europe.2 The restriction of our theme to the modern
i mission admits only of our briefly stating this fact ; for
1 its special confirmation we must refer to the monographic
works which treat of the subject. Doubtless, the
medieval mission, and indeed the missionaries with the
f hardest personal labour, made most important contribu
tions to agriculture, to building, to music and painting,
and in part to handicrafts, and even to commerce, and
still more to the study of science, the establishment of
: schools, the foundation of national literature, and, finally,
the refinement of rude manners through the gradual
inculcation of Christian virtues. For all these culture-
' movements the medieval mission did much, notwith
standing the extraordinary and often somewhat violent
way in which it was conducted. No doubt, this culture-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 35
process was accomplished gradually, and not without
disturbances. In order that the hitherto heathen peoples
of Europe might not have a comparatively completed
culture indiscriminately thrust upon them, which doubt
less would have been hurtful to them, physically and
intellectually, the educative wisdom of the Divine govern
ment of the world arranged it so that they had to make,
so to speak, a development of culture ab ovo, in which
they advanced only step by step on the long and toil
some way of their own work.3 Upon this Divine peda
gogic depends essentially the solid foundation, as well as
the permanence, of the Western Christian culture; while
— as we shall see further on — the almost immediate
conveyance, to the heathen peoples of the present day,
of this culture, which with us has grown gradually by
development for more than a thousand years, forms one
of the chief difficulties of the modern mission.
The culture question is far more complicated for the
modern, than it was for the apostolic and the medieval
mission. In both these earlier periods, there was no
such difference of culture between the subjects and the
objects of missionary work as is the case now. The
apostles and their successors upon the whole stood on
the same level, in respect of culture, with the peoples to
whom they preached the gospel — indeed, rather below
them. The medieval missionaries, indeed, occupied a
higher platform of culture than the heathen nations
among whom they laboured; but the difference was,
more or less, only relative, and the Christian world
which supported them was by no means highly cultured.
The modern missionaries, on the contrary, go from

36 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
nations whose superiority in culture over the heathen
nations of the present day — even the so-called culture-
peoples, such as the Hindus, the Chinese, and the
Japanese — is absolute. Besides, through the interven
tion of secular commerce, a multitude of representatives
and factors of the modern culture alongside of the mis
sionaries, and often in opposition to them, exert an
influence over the objects of their missionary operations.
On the one hand, this superiority in culture, as we shall
further on have to show more particularly, affords to the
modern mission advantages which the apostolic and the
medieval did not possess ; but, on the other, it causes
difficulties which were unknown in the earlier mission
eras ; and it is hard to determine which are greater, the
advantages or the difficulties. This higher level of cul-
/ ture necessitates that the missionaries, wherever they
come, appear as the bearers of the Christian culture of
the West, whether they desire it or not ; and assuredly
they bring with them to-day a wholly different culture
I from what they would have brought if they had come
one, two, or three centuries ago. It is the culture of
\ the nineteenth century that goes along with them.
Even so secular commerce, wherever it enters, must also
bring with it certain elements of culture, no matter
whether it has any consciousness of them or not. It
were altogether a short-sighted prejudice to represent
the gospel proclaimed through the mission as the only
cultural power among the unchristian nations. Culture
penetrates everywhere of itself, independently of the
: gospel, like the atmosphere, which cannot be prevented
from penetrating even into closed apartments. Secular

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 37
commerce, European colonial powers, political relations,
travels of research, are all, intentionally or unintention
ally, eminent culture-factors. We emphasise this, that
we may not be charged with exaggeration or one-
sidedness. In this concurrence of so manifold culture-factors it
is naturally often very difficult, and in some measure
impossible, to determine what influence is to be credited
to one or other of them. They work into one another's
hand with respect to civilizing energy, and here also the
saying is not rarely verified. " One soweth, the other
reapeth." Yet there are definite advances in culture
which can with certainty be pointed to, as more or less
exclusively effected by means of missionary operations.
The mission, in its relation to culture, differs from all
other culture factors in two particulars. First, that its
planting and fostering of culture among unchristian
nations are not only casual and occasional, but are the
result of principle and essential necessity. Throughout
the whole of the following representation, we shall have
our attention called to two points in order to its illustra
tion. The mission, as the proclaimer of " repentance
and the forgiveness of sins," aims principally at a change
of the sentiments, a renewal of the heart. That is
distinctly the characteristic of Christianity, that it
transfers religiousness and morality from outward observ
ances to intention. But with the change of sentiment
there necessarily goes hand in hand a change of view,
with the change of intention a change of civilization,
with the change of the inner life a change of the outer
life, a new moral atmosphere must ba formed ; and hence

38 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the community of converts from heathenism — and in
directly also the surrounding heathen- — are influenced
in their innermost principles. But it is precisely by this
means that the mission lays the special foundation of
culture. The evangelic mission, as its fundamental
principle, proclaims the gospel to the heathen in their
mother-tongue, and as soon as possible gives them the
Bible translated into that tongue. It necessarily follows
thereupon that it teaches them to read, founds schools,
calls a literature into being, and so gives an entirely new
impulse to the entire mental life.
Secondly, the mission in its cultural efficacy is actuated
by quite different motives from all other culture factors.
While with them the motive is essentially egoism in
its distinctest form — often indeed under the flag of
" humanity " — the fundamental motive of the mission is,
" I have compassion on the multitude." Upon its heart
lies in truth the well-being of the natives, both eternal
and temporal. To it the heathen are not an object of
government, as to the colonial politician; nor an object
or enrichment, as to the merchant ; nor an object of
knowledge, as to the scientist, but an object of salvation.
Hence, despite all imperfection on the part of its agents,
its watchword is, " We are not weary ; " '' Love is long-
suffering and kind, it seeketh not its own, is not
provoked, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things." The mission desires not
to take aught from the heathen, but only to give to them.
In this motive, as well as in the gifts themselves which
she brings, there lies quite another and far more power
ful cultural energy than belongs to colonial policy, or

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 39
commerce, or science. However the mission may be
despised by the " great after the flesh," her weakness is
stronger, even with reference to the culture of the
heathen, than their strength. For this fact our treat
ment of the subject will furnish proofs.
It is usual now-a-days to divide unchristian peoples
into two main groups, "nature-peoples'' and "culture-
peoples." We cannot altogether admit the accuracy of
these designations, for — to quote Delff — " The conscience
and the morals of the so-called nature-peoples do not
express the natural original condition of mankind ; but
stand towards it in a retrogressive direction, and the
people themselves are deteriorated." Moreover, the so-
called culture-peoples in their communities are not to be
regarded as truly cultivated according to our ideas. It
would be more correct to speak of savage and half-
civilized peoples. However, for the sake of brevity and
common usage, we must adapt ourselves to the accepted
terms, since even a faulty terminology cannot always be
ignored with impunity.
It is obvious that the relation of the mission to culture
is various according to the condition of the peoples with
which it has to do ; that it is one among the savages,
another among peoples more or less civilized. Max
Muller, in his Mission Discourse already mentioned,
characterises the office of the missionary among savage
uncivilized peoples as " fatherly, patriarchal." " Let us
but read the lately published life of Patteson, Bishop of
Melanesia; let us follow him as he sails in his mission
ship from island to island, prays for children, takes them
away with him, nurses, washes, combs them, as a mother

40 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
does her own child, clothes them, feeds them, and when
he returns to his episcopal palace, gives them instruction.
Indeed, in his so-called palace, he does all himself that
elsewhere is done by housemaid, cook, schoolmaster,
physician, bishop ! " " This work of the fatherly mission
is clear and simple, and the results already attained are
palpable. Let us look at Polynesia, at Melanesia, at
missions such as that of Tinnevelly in India, at Africa.
These works of Christian love prosper everywhere."
Truly we find Miiller's testimony to the cultural energy
of missionaries very decisive. Among savage peoples the
missionary must be everything, teach everything, set the
example of doing everything. He must be a father among
children, the patriarch of a great family, the teacher among
scholars, he must be architect and husbandman, merchant
and artisan, road-maker and schoolmaster, counseller in
the affairs of the community, and literateur ! He must
put his hand to axe and plough, and his wife must teach
the native wives to use the broom and the needle. Among
all uncivilized peoples the missionary labours at laying
the foundation of culture. Later on, the germs of cul
ture which he lays, develop themselves without his direct
care, and the development of culture becomes more and
more independent on his immediate action. Thus it is
natural that the cultural results of the mission amono- O
the so-called nature-peoples are most patent, and are
most generally acknowledged.
The case is different among the so-called culture-
peoples, Hindus, Chinese, Japanese. Here the missionary
finds a certain civilization previously existing, at least
among the higher classes. We shall see further on that

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 41
it is a mistake to regard this civilization as a commou
possession of the peoples that have been named. Even
among the so-called culture-peoples there is work enough
for the missionary in laying the foundation of culture.
But in making this general statement we admit certain
exceptions. The missionary would do a very superfluous
work were he to make roads in India, labour at agri
culture in China, or teach handicrafts in Japan. His
culture-task is here far higher, more spiritual, more in
ternal. Apart from educational and literary activity,
through which the mission exercises an eminent cultural
influence in the directest way even among these peoples,
it here works, like the apostolic mission, essentially by
means of its power of moral regeneration, transforming
the morals, the social relations, the spiritual atmosphere,
and thereby begets, so to speak, a new creative genius,
which, to quote the words of the British Indian Govern
ment, "inspires the stereotyped life with new energy."
Apart from this morally regenerating and spiritually
enlivening culture-action of the mission, the modern
Western civilization, which is flowing in by means of
commerce, would be only outwardly grafted upon the
peoples of the East, would be a new patch upon an old
garment, and would tend to corrupt and destroy, rather
than to enliven the people.
After these indispensable preliminary remarks, we
come at length to the subject. We begin with the lowest
stage of culture, the use of material goods, and in the first
place among the so-called nature-peoples.
The missionaries find these peoples, at least in the
warm latitudes, in a condition of nakedness, immodesty,

42 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
and impurity. It is manifest that the retention of this
state of things cannot consist with the moral views of
the gospel, with its demand for purity and decency. In
order to waken and to cultivate the feeling of modesty,
the Christian missionary must insist upon a certain
measure of clothing. There is certainly no necessity for
introducing everywhere European clothing. Our Lord
Jesus Christ did not clothe Himself after our manner ;
and we hesitate not to designate those missionaries as
narrow-minded pedants, who regard it as a requirement
of Christianity to thrust the inhabitants of the tropics
into our forms of dress. But however much freedom
may rule in reference to the form of the dress, dress
itself must be definitely required for the cultivation of
purity. The Ausland reproaches the missionaries with
"stupidity," because they have introduced among the
female islanders of the South-Sea clothing with a cotton
shirt, and asserts that " the requirements of modesty are
only conventional, a product of culture and fashion, an
aesthetic, but not a religious necessity ; " and imputes to
the mission the chief blame for the dying out of the
nature-peoples. How singularly these people contradict
themselves, in their blind zeal to be able to cast a stone
at the mission ! They would fain be the special bearers
and promoters of culture, and they forbid the inculcation
of modesty, which they themselves designate as a product
of culture. Through the introduction of light clothing
the mission is chargeable with the extirpation of the
nature-peoples ; while elsewhere the want of clothing
and other bodily comforts is represented as one of the
reasons for this lamentable fact. Suppose the mission

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 43
left the savages in their native costume ; without doubt
it would be brought as a charge against it, that it was
not introducing even the most elementary civilization.
But now it introduces this civilization, and is charged as
" a murderer of races," and it is declared that " a certain
degree of ugliness is even essential to piety," since " the
chaste clothing which the pious missionaries impose upon
the female islanders is an untasteful anachronism."
The introduction of clothing among the converts is
so general a fact that to wear clothing and to be bap
tized, or to be a catechumen, are often synonymous. It
is to be regretted that this is not effected without cari
catures. We do not apologise for the -missionaries in this
matter, but, as we shall see by-and-by, the vanity of the
natives, and much more the commerce which recognises
no educative or moral motives, are much more responsible
for it than the mission.
The natural consequence of the use of ever so ele
mentary a clothing is the inauguration of commercial
intercourse, and the introduction or extension of at least
a simple industry. The clothing-stuffs must either be
manufactured or bought. Leaving out of view for the
present the importance of the work, to which in this way
the natives are compelled, since they must earn the price
to be expended on the articles which the new necessities
require — leaving, without consideration for the present
the training to work — it is very evident that in order to
the supply of the new demands production must ensue,
which shall make their realisation possible. Suppose
this production does not go directly to the manufacture
of the clothing materials, it must be directed to such

44 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
things as may be employed in trade as articles of barter,
with which payment may be made for the goods pur
chased; and it is manifest that thereby an impulse is
given to a new and very important advance in culture.
Let us next advert for a little to the trade which is
occasioned by the activity of the mission. In Metla-
katla, a mission station formed among the Indians of
British North- America, nearly opposite Queen Charlotte's
Island, there has been established, under the direction of
the missionary Duncan, a well conducted trade, which
excludes the demoralising influences of the white traders,
and which supplies the whole means of livelihood to the
Christian colony, which now numbers about 800 souls.
This trade has enabled the Indians not only to build a
church, costing about 30,000 marks, a spacious parsonage
and school-house, about a hundred neat dwellings for the
colonists, a large store, a saw-mill, a smithy, a soap-
manufactory, carpenters' and other work-shops, but also
to pay a yearly contribution to the church of about 9
marks for each grown man and 5 marks for each boy.
Concerning the Basutos, among whom the Paris Mission
now counts more than 5000 self-sustaining church-
members, the physician Casalis states : " They are be
ginning to dress decently, wide tracts of land are culti
vated, the plough is introduced, roads and streets are
formed, a regular postal connection is instituted, there is
a considerable trade, especially in maize, so that the
traffic amounts to nearly 3,000,000 of marks a-year.''
English goods to the value of about 1,500,000 marks
yearly, according to the testimony of the veteran Moffat, go
to the native races in and around Kuruman, where lately

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 45
scarcely a pocket-handkerchief, or a string of beads or
other trifles, was bought. Into the Samoan Islands,
whose inhabitants are almost entirely Christianised,
clothing stuffs and raw material of the value of about
1,000,000 marks yearly are imported, while the exports
amount to about 2,000,000. Down to the year 1833,
according to the testimony of the English consul Williams,
there was little or no regular trade, and before the
introduction of the gospel the islands, so far as the
civilized world is concerned, were a perfect blank. After
an interval of fifty years, on the other hand, more than
fifty ships landed yearly, which exported cocoa-nut oil
in great quantities. Even in Micronesia, where, as is well
known, the mission is still of recent date, a vigorous
trade is through its means heginning to flow in. Thus
the Globus incidentally notices the account of a voyage
of the well-known mission-ship the Morning Star through
Micronesia with peculiar satisfaction : "As a proof that
the conductors of the mission-brig in their voyage round
the islands have an eye to the practical side, the follow
ing items may be quoted from the ship's list of cargo :
92 barrels of cocoa-nut oil, 45 bundles of mats, 1 5
boxes of mussels, 850 cocoa-nuts, 1 bag of tortoise-
shell, 122 boxes of curiosities, weapons, and other native
articles." According to a calculation made by the
missionary Whitmee, every missionary sent to the Poly
nesian islands produces an annual trade-revenue of at
least 200,000 marks. "Of course, the trade is organ
ised by merchants, but the missionary originates it."
Further examples are scarcely necessary ; facts are
supplied by all mission-fields of so convincing a char-

46 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
acter that already notice begins to be taken in national-
economic literature of the " universal economic im
portance of the Christian mission." More and more
ridiculous becomes the reproach of the unproductive
ness of the money expended on the mission. Already
from a merely mercantile stand-point it is being re
cognised more and more as well-invested capital.
" The greatest and most direct advantage accrues to
the merchants, from all missions," says Dr. Hiibbe-
Schleiden in his last published book, Ethiopia. An
American clergyman, Hood, has calculated, on the ground
of statistical data, that the traffic originated by means
of the mission repays tenfold the capital expended.
The mission to the Sandwich Islands cost the American
Board 5,000,000 dollars in all; while the trade — which,
be it observed, does not come to the benefit of the
mission but of the commercial community— amounted at
the end of sixty years to about 16,000,000 of dollars,
with a clear yearly profit of 2,644,000 marks, so that
the profit of two years covers the whole of the capital
expended. An acute merchant, who had been invited
to establish a mercantile business in New Guinea, said
lately to the London Society's missionary, Whitmee,
" Your mission there has not been so long in operation
that it would be advisable for us to go there yet." The
mission is in a twofold respect a pioneer for commerce.
It creates the needs of civilized life, and is at the same
time a protective power, afar in the heathen world, which
contributes more to the security of commerce, than many
ships of war. Wherever Christianity has struck its
roots, their trading vessels can land safely, and the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 47
traders can fearlessly go on their way. " It is not yet
long '' — so testifies the missionary Moffat — " since it was
regarded as a very dangerous undertaking to travel into
the interior, and in fact it was a risk to go a mile from
the mission-station (Kuruman). Now, I am glad to be
able to say that through the influence of the missionaries
the natives are so far advanced in civilization that they
can be depended upon. Now traders and others almost
constantly travel among the savage races without incurr
ing danger or being plundered. It is to be remembered
that formerly traders were often treacherously murdered
by the natives, or taken prisoners and never released.
Now all fear of this is at an end." Thus in Western
Africa and in the South Seas the mission has afforded
the best guarantee of security to commerce, by restrain
ing the savagery of the natives. " In fact, in every place
which has come under the influence of the missionaries,
I have always found the natives peaceful, friendly dis
posed, and inclined to fair trade." Such is the testimony
of Captain Markham, commandant of the English ship
of war, the Rosario, in his report to both Houses of
Parliament. The fact is so well known and indisputable
that it is wholly unnecessary to adduce further proof of
it. Where in all the world has any other cultural factor
accomplished aught like this, even with force at its
disposal ? In the South Seas the kidnapping ships
frequently tried to throw the natives off their guard,
and allure them on board, by dressing up one of the
crew as a missionary clergyman ! Should not this
diabolical craft, by means of which the mission has been
so much discredited, and to which, e.g., the noble

48 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Patteson, bishop of Melanesia, fell a victim, be regarded
as a proof that under the mission flag a safe landing can
be effected, and that it has power to tame the savages ?
And not savages alone. China has indeed been opened
to Western commerce by the force of cannon, and this
force is still its chief protection. But without doubt the
central kingdom would stand opener to Western com
merce had its doors been opened by mission- work instead
of war. At all events the English consul at Tient'sin,
Forrest, testifies that more has been done towards the
opening of China by the unselfish charity practised by
the missionaries in the late terrible famine than by a
dozen wars.
But while the mission, by giving stimulus and security
to commerce, has — as must be acknowledged — done so
good service to culture, and has established a claim to
the gratitude of the commercial world, it is remarkable
that trade has shown much bitterness, and furnished
matter of accusation against the missionaries, who have
been charged with being traders themselves, and with
robbing the natives, not indeed to enrich themselves, but
to fill the mission-treasury. As the accusation, which
the Gartenlaube lately dished up anew in one of its
slanderous articles against the mission,4 will probably
come again into fashion, it seems to be incumbent on
us to interject a few remarks here in order to elucidate
the facts of the case. It has been already pointed out
why it is that colonists and traders are so hostile to
the mission, and raise so many evil reports concerning
it ; and so we are prepared to mistrust the testimony of
accusers who are so little entitled to be regarded as

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 49
impartial. These gentlemen feel themselves hampered
by the missionaries in their lawless plundering of the
natives. In the first place, we accept with satisfaction
the acknowledgment that no accusation is brought against
the missionaries of any desire to enrich themselves
personally — as Dr. Pechuel-Losche expressly assured
the writer orally, on the ground of a peculiarly abundant
experience — although, indeed, we by no means deny that
here and there a case may have occurred in which a
missionary has extended somewhat beyond the measure
of necessity the barter which he was obliged to carry on,
since he could not pay in money for what he needed.
We do not consider it our duty in any measure to deny,
or even to cloak, real faults. Being fully aware of the
danger to which personal trading exposes the missionary,
all missionary societies, so far as we know, have for
bidden their agents to engage in it, excepting in so far
as by their position they are necessitated to provide for
the supply of the necessaries of life by barter for natural
products. Yet in certain mission-fields — e.g., in the South Seas —
the missionaries do carry on a sort of trade. Why is it
so ? It is the aim of all healthy missionary action to
found self-sustaining churches of converts from heathen
ism, who, without aid from the home mission treasury,
build churches and schools, pay pastors and teachers,
and send evangelists of their own to their heathen
countrymen. Doubtless, a highly commendable aim,
which, apart altogether from the blessed influence on the
religious life, should be acknowledged by all friends of
culture as an eminent cultural factor, since it is manifest D

50 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
that through this training in independence there must
be an extraordinary advance in independent action, and
both mental and spiritual powers must be awakened
which have slumbered hitherto, and whose waking con
stitutes a great advance in culture.
Thus the natives must pay a certain church contri
bution, which involves a larger production on their part
than existed hitherto — a circumstance which, regarded
from a cultural point of view, can only recommend the
mission to the favourable regard of the friends of this
stand-point. This church rate, as well as perhaps
the additional outside mission contributions, the people
in the great majority of cases cannot pay in money,
because this currency does not exist in the lower stages
of civilization. The natives consequently must either
dispose of their products to the trader and exchange
them for money, or else they must pay in kind, as was
formerly the universal custom in our own country. In
many cases the mission prefers the latter method, simply
because it is not certain that the sale to the trader is
advantageous, and because the gift in kind has a greater
material and moral value. In this way the mission
comes into possession of a portion of the products of the
land, which it must sell, at least in part, in order to
procure money for its own use. Now, do the mission
aries commit a wrong if they themselves bring these
products to Sydney to market, instead of handing over
the profits to intermediate traders, who are hostile to
the missions ? The case is quite similar when, as we
stated with respect to Metlakatla, the missionary super
intends the private trading of his Christians, or some-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 51
times takes it into his own hand. He does this for no
other reason than to protect the inexperienced people
from being over-reached, to prevent the exchange of the
products for brandy and such like articles, and to cut
off, as far as possible, the demoralising influences of
unprincipled white traders. Can he be blamed for this ?
It is on grounds like these that several missionary
societies have been induced formally to constitute mis
sion trading companies at their stations ; as the Church
of the Brethren, which is partly dependent for its sub
sistence on the profits of its trade, the Basel and the
Ehenish missionary societies. It is really the know
ledge, or, as it may be confidently said, the sense of
duty, that the mission has a task assigned to it as an
educator in culture, which has formed the motive for
founding such trading companies, which, as facts in-
controvertibly prove, have been a great blessing to the
natives. For no unprejudiced person can deny that it
were a stigma upon civilization to give the name of a
culture-power to a trade which is based upon a system
of robbing the natives, and upon their physical and
moral corruption "through brandy. Simply in a cultural
aspect it must be regarded as matter of congratulation
that the mission companies, by the undertaking of a
trade founded on morality, and honestly designed for the
good of the natives, are seeking to do away with the
influences of the demoralising and oppressive trade. In
other respects, the question as to the connection of the
mission with mercantile operations is far too complicated
to admit of our entering upon all the circumstances of it
in this place. For our purpose, that of pointing out the

52 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
cultural importance of the mission as a trader, enough
has been said.
Still more important than the trade originated by the
mission is the handicraft which it has established and
promoted. This also takes its start from moral motives.
It is not only that the requirement of modesty neces
sitates the providing of some sort of clothing, however
simple ; but Christian morality desires also a dwelling
corresponding to human dignity, decency, and purity.
Building plays an important part in the mission. First,
the missionary builds a simple small house for himself,
to which he soon adds a school and a church. Generally
he must himself superintend this work; often enough,
indeed, he must execute it with his own hand, and it
stands him in good stead to have been a tradesman at
home. But he induces the natives also to help him, and,
much patience as it requires on his part, he undertakes
to instruct them. Gradually his word and his example
produce their effect, and the converts from heathenism
begin to build new and more decent dwellings for them
selves. " Before the arrival of the missionaries " — we
read in an article in the Revue des deux Mondes (15th
June, 1866) — "the natives had no word to express
home comfort. How different it is now ! The low leaf-
thatched huts have given way to comfortable houses.
The improvement of the dwellings is said to elevate the
character of the inmates. Therefore in some schools the
pupils are even instructed in the elementary principles
of architecture. All kinds of household furnishings , are
now seen under roofs overshadowed with bananas. There
are no people for whom comfort has not some attraction."

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 53
For a long time not the missionaries alone, but also the
native evangelists and Christians, are the teachers of
their heathen countrymen in the elements of architecture.
Wherever they go, they plant the civilization to which
they have themselves been elevated. Not otherwise is
it in Africa — e.g., at the Basel stations, on the West
coast. A certain Mr. Harris, who, at a meeting of the
Anthropological Society in England, had reproached the
missionaries as do-nothings, " who live in high houses
and give costly entertainments,"6 and had caricatured
the negroes as a mere sort of "imitative brutes," was
answered, among others; by Zimmerman, who had been
for a quarter of a century a missionary on the Gold
Coast. "Did not I put tools into the hands of these
natives and teach them to fell timber, to saw boards,
and to make them into doors and window- frames ? Did
not I myself dig the clay and make the first hundred
bricks, in order that the imitative brute might do the
same ? Did not I dig the ground and build the founda
tion walls of brick and lime, until I could trust these brutes
to proceed by themselves ? Yes ! I have now a house
which shelters me, and, compared with the sheds of the
natives, it is more like a palace. You say : The African
is like the ape, an animal gifted with the power of
imitation. Well ! Only his power of imitation goes a
little beyond that of the brute. He imitates especially
the missionary ; and . hence it comes that the mission
now possesses a second house, and these brutes have just
finished the building of a sch'ool, and are setting about
the erection of a chapel, which will far surpass my
dwelling-house — all of bricks. And in the towns, where

54 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
twenty-two years ago, saw, chisel, and plane were un
known, there are now tradesmen who saw and work
wood, make bricks and build with them, hammer and
forge iron, and for all that they can do they have to
thank the missionaries." Not otherwise is it on the
Niger, to say nothing of Sierra Leone and Liberia, among
the Herero, the Hottentots, the Kaffres, and the Basutos.
Yea, even in India there is in this respect a notable
difference between the Christian and the non-Christian
villages. In short, wherever the mission has got foot
hold, there more respectable and cleaner dwellings take
the place of the miserable huts, with their filth and
their rude furnishing ; there an elementary architecture
begins to spring up. With reference to Minahassa in
Celebes, the well-known naturalist Wallace testifies :
" The missionaries have a right to be proud of this
place. They have helped the Government in a remark
ably short time to convert savage tribes into a civilized
people. Forty years ago the land was a wilderness, the
people a multitude of naked barbarians, who decorated
their roughly-made huts with human skulls. Now the
place is a garden, worthy of its beautiful national name,
Minahassa." Inseparable from this of course is handiwork, as has
been already indicated by the foregoing quotations. We
pass by for the present the Basel Industrial Institutions,
regarding whose cultural value to the whole of the West
Coast of Africa, one note of praise prevails among friends
and foes : ' — to cast a hasty look upon the well-known
Berlin Mission Station Botschabelo, which has become a
flourishing culture-establishment in Basutoland. There

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 55
is there, for example, a waggon-manufactory, under the
superintendence of a German foreman. " We enter the
first apartment, a smithy, where stands the black
hammerman, Adam, by the vice ; a gun-lock which he
has been repairing lies before him. Now he has the
solder-pot in his hand. What is he soldering ? Tin
moulds for all sorts of baked figures, which are to be
upon the Christmas tree. If we wait a little longer, we
shall see how he fixes an iron tire upon a waggon-wheel.
From the smithy we go into the second workshop, the
carpenter's shop. There again stands a black workman,
Jacobus, who measures with compasses, cuts, hews,
planes, &c. We see him with a waggon-axle in hand.
The man was formerly very stupid; now there is no
appearance of stupidity about him. From the Basutos
we pay a visit, among the Kaffres, to the Free-Scottish
Mission-Station, Lovedale. Here proper industrial schools
are established, which already exhibit astonishing cul
tural results. We pass by the waggon -factory, the smithy
and the carpentry, to enter first into the bookbinding
shop, which, on account of want of room in Lovedale
itself, is situated about two English miles off, in an old
inn in King William's Town Street. Bookbinding is
not a favourite occupation among the Kaffres, and so
there are only two black apprentices in this occupation.
But the excellence of the execution is shown by the fact,
that in an exhibition held some years ago in Cape Town,
two ornamental bindings done here carried off the prize>
although numerous specimens were sent by white work
men from all parts of the colony. Where books are
bound, they must also be printed, and, in point of fact,

56 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Lovedale has its own press. This occupies two apart
ments. In the lower is the large printing press, and all
the heavy work is carried on. Here, besides a multitude
of books, two or three periodicals in Kaffre and English
are printed, of which over 30,000 copies are despatched
yearly through the post. In the upper room are the
cases of type — a work which the Kaffre takes to with
special pleasure. Close by is a book shop, under the
oversight of a European, but served by Kaffres. Here
there is a great stock of books of all sorts, especially
books of instruction and school-books, and the demand
is considerable. The book shop is also the post-office,
and its black superintendent is postmaster. The mission^
station requires a branch office for itself ; for the 5 00
persons, or thereabouts, who are connected with it —
pupils, scholars, apprentices, overseers in the industrial
department, teachers, missionaries, and church members
— imply no inconsiderable amount of correspondence.
Exclusive of the copies of periodicals, the Lovedale post
forwards yearly upwards of 10,000 letters and packets.
Even a telegraphic office has been established. Dr.
Stewart, who was teaching chemistry and physics, was
desirous to make his instruction on electricity as real
and practical as possible, in order to exhibit to his
scholars how the electric current is employed for the
conveyance of messages from place to place. With this
view he first made some experiments in the schoolroom,
and then laid a telegraphic wire to Alice. The experi
ment succeeded perfectly, and when his scholars had
made good progress in this new art, Dr. Stewart applied
to Government, and in 1872 obtained their consent that

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 57
Lovedale should be a telegraphic station. The black
telegraphists prove themselves as expert as their col
leagues in England. In 1876, the number of messages
received and sent was 2105, and among them were not
a few from or to natives. A similar institution has been
established by the Scottish Free Church Mission among
the Fingos at Blythswood. Of the many testimonies
which have been borne in the most diverse quarters to
the excellent influences of the Missionary Institutes on
the civilization of the Kaffres, we introduce only one,
that of the present Governor of the Cape Colony, Sir
Bartle Frere, who, in one of his messages to the Cape
Parliament, says : " Nothing can more surely prevent
future Kaffre wars than the multiplication of Institu
tions like those of Lovedale and Blythswood, especially
if they extend their industrial training so as to include
agriculture." And with what comparatively small means does the
mission accomplish such cultural results ! According to
accounts given in the Cape Argus, every Kaffre that was
killed in the last Kaffre war but one cost the Govern
ment 2500 marks! We believe this sum to be stated
far too low. What immense sums the present Zulu war
is swallowing up cannot yet be estimated. Only the
expenditure on war-materials already amounts to more
than 2,000,000 marks. Without doubt it is a far more
costly thing to kill the natives than to Christianise them.
If the Government gave the mission but a tithe of the
war charges, there would be more than ten times as
many Kaffres saved for culture as the wars have
destroyed. Still more striking is this fact in the case of

5« MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the North American Indians. The sums are absolutely
terrific which the Indian policy and the Indian war
absorb. It has been computed that every Indian shot
down by the troops of the United States has cost some
400,000 marks, without reckoning the destruction of
private property and the expenditure of human life !
Let us suppose that the sum is stated too high, and let
us reduce it even to its fourth part — is it not altogether
a terrible thing that the death of an Indian should cost
1 00,000 marks ? It is not long ago that in our
Chamber of Deputies railing witticisms were indulged in
about the 5 00 thalers which every Kaffre was said to cost
the Berlin Missionary Society. We have not yet heard
that attention has been called in the same quarter with
moral indignation to the many thousands of thalers that
a slaughtered Indian actually costs the North American
Government! A look at Metlahkatla, with its neat
houses, its regulated trade, its industries, its well orga
nised community and its well-conducted inhabitants,
shows at how surprisingly cheap a rate a Government
can accomplish cultural results even among the Canadian
Indians. They have only to give material and moral
support to missionaries like Mr. Duncan ; a Govern
ment cannot itself produce such men. It is matter of
much rejoicing that the fundamental principles on which
the Metlahkatla missionary has proceeded in the forma
tion of his Indian community have been accepted by
Act of Parliament and order of Government for the
whole Canadian Confederation. But for the carrying
out of these principles, men filled with the spirit of Mr.
Duncan are required, and these men must be supplied

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 59
by the mission. A vigorous support of the mission is
as wise as it is wholesome policy. Professor Gerland is
perfectly right when — founding upon the fact that " as
soon as culture approaches the nature-peoples, not as
hostile but pacific, and elevates them to its level, instead
of exterminating them, there is not one of them that
may not be won " 8 — he claims support for the mission
from the civil powers. " The powers which have colonies
among the nature-peoples — England especially — have
the greatest interest in a proper efficacy of the missions ;
for by means of them they would at once avoid useless
wars, and further, the natives themselves would be won
for the colonies. For political reasons the missions
ought to be supported by all means, not forcibly intro
duced, only supported, and at the same time watched
over with observant eyes."
After this digression, if such it can be called, we must
once more return to the impulse given to industry by the
mission. It is a suggestive symbol that the statue of
Dr. Livingstone erected in Edinburgh represents the great
traveller and missionary with the Bible in one hand, and
the other resting on an axe. With these two great
means of culture — to which the plough might have been
added — the men have in fact set to work who have
proceeded to East Africa in these last years, to erect for
their noble countryman a living monument after his own
heart. It is well known that in connection with the
Scottish Free and Established Churches, the English
Church, and the London Missionary Society, in the
course of the last years, missionary expeditions have been
set to work at the Nyassa, Nyanza, and the Tanganyika

60 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Lakes, which form parts of the various enterprises to
which the zeal for discovery and for missions has every
where given rise in the present day. It is evidently
impossible as yet to speak of any considerable result of
these undertakings, apart from the roads that have been
made, the cultivation of land which has already been
entered on, and the terror which has been communicated
to the slave-dealers. But in their whole tendencies and
designs these mission-settlements are foci of culture. As
Livingstonia and Blantyre, which are already established
after the pattern of Lovedale, so the settlements on
Nyanza and Tanganyika will become industrial missions
like that which was somewhat earlier established at
Frere Town (Mombassa). Lay missionaries are associated
with the ordained men, and their immediate task is to
become teachers of the natives in all sorts of handiwork,
navigation, agriculture, trade, &c, whereby at the same
time the scandalous slave-trade may be supplanted by
better and honourable industries. This is not the place
to enquire how far those so-called Industrial Missions,
which Bishop Crowther has also recommended for the
Niger mission, are based upon evangelical and perfectly
sound and right principles. We have here to do only
with the fact that truly magnificently equipped mission
ary undertakings have a decided cultural tendency, and
in order to the realising of it are ready to make very
important offerings of men's lives. Now many champions
of culture at home have their mouths indeed very full of
culture-phrases, but do nothing in order effectually to
plant culture where its introduction is beneficial. Or shall
it be deemed a great act of culture-heroism to slander

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 61
the mission, which effectively, with the greatest sacrifices,
fights culture-battles and achieves culture- victories ? On
this question we are forcibly reminded of the well-known
song of Emil Eittershaus, which Pastor Weber, in his
address to the Berlin Conference in August, 1877,
quoted as a testimony from the hostile camp, to the
loving activity of the decried "pietists." The song is
worth making room for in this place.
" The cloud of grief is o'er our heads suspended,
The tear of anguish to our eyes will start ;
We ask ourselves, Wherein have we offended
That so estranged we are from every heart 1
Freedom's grand gospel we've been still proclaiming ;
Our hand has never in the fight grown tired ;
What crime in acting, or what sin in aiming,
Has made us fail in that which we desired ?
" Ye Liberals, listen ! Well now, without shrinking,
Without reserve I tell it clear and bold :
Upon the Alpine pinnacles of thinking
Full many a heart is frozen icy cold.
We fight against the poisoned fangs of lying,
A lofty aim beatifies our breast ;
But how the prodigal, the poor, the sick, the dying,
With love to help — this secret we have missed.
" Speak ! Do we visit poverty's damp dwelling ?
Say ! Does your kindly sympathy allure .
To- tell the woe wherewith the heart ia -swelling?
And have you helped when help was in your power ?
For future times indeed you've oft been writing
A fair prescription — a well-ordered plan :
Who helps to-day with love to help inciting,
Himself forgetting, is the proper man.
" Behold the prisoner from his cell departing !
O God ! what curse does still his steps pursue !
Whose eye is on him on his new path starting 1
Who loving helps ? Do you 1 or you ? or. you 1

62 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Nay, none of you. Nor he, nor any other,
By cunning tale, your sympathy can hst.
There is but one who calls the outcast brother,
And bids him speed — it is the Pietist."
Only quite trifling variations are necessary in order to
adapt this noble testimony to our purpose. In place of
the Home, we have only to substitute the Foreign mission
— in place of the poor and the prisoners, the uncultured
heathen. Who goes to them to bring them culture ?
Is it you — you who exalt culture so far as to substitute
it for religion ? It is not you. Who teaches these poor
heathen to build dwellings and make roads ? Who
teaches them handicrafts and husbandry ? Who makes
their existence worthy of humanity, and cares for their
earthly well-being ? It is the pietist — none other than
that pietist who is constantly reproached as the enemy
of culture. A well-known Israelitish sage long ago made
this statement, which has been accepted and freely quoted
even by unbelievers : " By their fruits ye shall know
them." It almost appears as if the culture- war were de
signed to cause even this word to be forgotten.
As the mission originates and advances trade and
industry, so also does it agriculture and horticulture.
Through the practice of agriculture, and the division of
property that is connected with it, and the development of
the conception of rights, the mission brings into operation
a means of culture of extreme importance. Wherever
the qualities of the soil admit of it, every mission station
is a sort of experimental farm. If only to provide for
his own subsistence, the missionary in most mission dis
tricts has to resort to some field or garden culture, to

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 63
import new plants and animals, &c. As in his house
building, so in his field-cultivation, he takes the natives
into his service, teaches them to use the spade and the
plough, and to follow for themselves the example which
he sets them, so as to improve their outward condition
as much as possible. So far as the character of the land
admits of it, the missionaries endeavour to accustom the
nomadic tribes to stationary life ; and great as the diffi
culties are which generally stand in the way of their
endeavours, yet they are not without results, as, e.g., the
history of the Ehenish mission in the Namaqua and
Herero Lands shows. In many mission-fields — e.g., in
South Africa and partly in the South Sea Islands — the
mission is a great land-owner. No little blame has been
cast upon it on this account. It may indeed be ques
tioned whether it was right for the mission in New
Zealand, in some sort of concert with the colonists, to
participate in those great land-purchases which have
proved so disastrous to the peace of the people. But,
so far, it is beyond doubt that the motive was not
acquisitiveness. The object rather was to secure exist
ence for the mission as against the all-absorbing acquisi
tiveness of the colonists, while at the same time it
provided a guarantee for what was becoming a necessity,
the employment and the maintenance of the natives.
In the acquisition of land in South Africa there was
a two-fold object — first, to maintain the mission by the
produce or rent or quitrent ; and next, to afford to the
natives opportunity and inducements to engage in agri
culture for the improvement of their own condition.
Most of the mission-lands there were leased to the

64 iVISSIONS AND CULTURE.
natives at a comparatively small rate — a proceeding
which in some degree secures the independence of the
natives against the constant encroachments of white
colonisation. There is a vast difference between the
possession of the land by white colonists, and its posses
sion by the mission. The latter has the good of the
natives earnestly at heart, while the former pursue selfish
ends. Only in the hand of the mission is the cultivation
of the "soil at the same time a means of education and
refinement for the natives. So in Australia the Church
of the Brethren * with its enduring love, which ever
seeks and helps the most wretched, have taken up the
Papuas when almost trodden under foot by the colonists,
and at the stations Ebenezer and Eamahyuck have
accomplished very happy results, which have even found
favour in the eyes of the Globus. Even people unfavour
able to the mission cannot wonder enough at the changes
which have been effected for natives who were regarded
as incapable of civilization ; at the orderly houses in
which they live, the cleanly clothes which they wear,
the healthy children which they rear, and the industry
with which they cultivate their fields. At Eamahyuck
they produce arrowroot, a specimen of which gained
a prize at the World's Exposition in Vienna. Moreover,
the hop is cultivated there, 'and all things have been
introduced that the station requires as necessaries of life.
All this, as well as further commendation of the decency,
frugality, and readiness of the inhabitants of the station,
is confirmed by a Government Commission, which under
took a revision of the land settlement in the beginnino-
* Whom we -call Moravians.— Trans,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 6$
of 1877.9 The Government of Victoria have lately
commissioned the missionary brethren, Hagenauer and
Kramer, to make a circuit among the native blacks, and
urgently to invite them all. to settle at the mission
stations. Let us hear what the eloquent Meinicke testifies in
general with reference to the training in agricultural
work by the missionaries in the South Seas : " The
reproach which has been cast upon the missionaries that
they give no heed to civilization in comparison with
conversion is most unfair. They have done far more
for civilisation than those who censure them. It did
not escape them that traffic with European countries is
necessary for the further refinement of the South Sea
peoples, and they soon perceived that, as these islands
supply but a few natural products fit to become objects
of commerce, the cultivation of such objects must be
encouraged. Most of the attempts to stimulate the
natives to this have been made by the London mission
aries in the Society Islands. As early as 1 8 1 8, they
attempted to teach the manufacture of sugar from the
canes which are so abundant in Tahiti. The attempt
was frustrated by the jealousy of Pomare ; and the
subsequent undertakings of the sort (in Tahiti and
Hawai) have been in the hands of other Europeans
intent upon their own profit, and consequently they
have had no influence on the inhabitants. In 1821,
the Missionary Society sent one Blossom, a carpenter,
and a man called Armitage, to teach them the dressing
of cotton ; but their endeavours had no success, and it
was undoubtedly a mistake to try to employ a people

66 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
unaccustomed to sustained labour in a business which
is so complicated, and which requires so much perse
verance. There was more success with some other em
ployments, which the Society Islanders owe to the mis
sionaries. In Eimeo Mr. Simpson has introduced the
manufacture of ropes from cocoa-nut fibres and the
bark of the hibiscus tiliaceus. In Eaiatea the cultivation
of tobacco soon spread after the settlement of Williams,
and promised well until the duties imposed at Sidney,
the only port where the product could be sold, greatly
injured it. Since 1835, the Americans on the island
Naui have been making a similar attempt to that of the
London Missionaries, to teach the manufacture of cotton
cloth." And since then far more has been done, and
with better results, in all quarters for land cultivation,
and arboriculture. Even the Gartenlaube, in the abusive
article already mentioned — " The Island Ninafu," — gives
involuntary testimony that the islanders must reap a
very considerable harvest of cocoa-nut oil or Copra, since
they were able to pay the otherwise impossible Govern
ment tax of 28 marks a year for each adult, to say
nothing of their contribution to the mission, which the
anonymous writer, confident of the credulity of the
mission-hating readers of the Gartenlaube, screws up to
48,000 marks — that is, 160 marks per head of the tax-
paying population !
At a conference of the native pastors, deacons, and
teachers, held in Rarotonga, the following resolution,
among others, was passed : " Also, we would encourage
the people at all the stations not to live in badly built
but well built houses, to sleep in beds, and not on a

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 67
litter of dried grass, and to be careful in all matters of
cleanliness. The chiefs and land-owners should be asked
to make over uncultivated lands to others : but the
people who take such lands, unless they cultivate them,
shall' be liable to be fined."
Cast we now a glance at West Africa. In Sierra
Leone and Liberia agriculture has indeed been some
what neglected in comparison with trade, " which plays
decidedly the chief part," and with handicraft, in which
" the free negroes specially excel," but greater attention
has been paid to it of late. All the more has been
accomplished in this direction by the North-German
and Basel Missionary Societies. The former conducts
coffee-planting under the superintendence of special
managers. It has given particular attention to palm
and orange plantations, and is able to report that these
are thriving vigorously. The works of the Basel Society
on the Gold Coast deserve a more detailed notice in this
connection. Let us hear a report on the Station Abokobi
by the Missionary Zimmerman in 1874.
" When I look back upon the time when, in May
1850, Brother Locher and I, with the Brothers Dieterle
and Mohr, first passed through, when Abokobi consisted
of three such wretched huts that the brethren did not
stop, but only Brother Dieterle called out to us from a
high hamper, "That is Abokobi; if you wish to look
at it, come on afterwards to Kpongpo, which is half an
hour's travel from this where we stop ; " — or, when I
remember how in October 1854, when, having been
plundered we fled before the English cannon, and found
a resting-place here for ourselves and our forty people, we

68 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
had to be content with two small apartments and a shed,
I can only say, " The Lord has founded Abokobi and
caused it to grow, even as the mustard seed." That
must be acknowledged even by the heathen, who have
no eyes for what is spiritual in missions. So much is
proclaimed by its outward aspect, inasmuch as it exhibits
all that could be desired in respect of its wide extent
and its luxuriant vegetation. Coming by the road from
the south, from Osu (Christiansborg) upon the still half-
heathen south end of the village, there lies before you
the main street of the village, running south and north,
50 feet broad and 1000 feet long, lined with handsome
shady trees which completely cover it, and planted with
the fine Sierra-Leone grass, with a beautiful road of iron*-
pyrites in the middle. It is crossed at right angles by
three bye-streets of equal length running east and west,
lined with fruit trees, mangoes, oranges, and lemons, on
which, at our arrival in December 1873, a ripe crop
was hanging along with splendid blossoms, which have
now ripened into a second crop of fruit. Similar to the
main street is a parallel street running south and north,
and at the intersection of this with the middle east and
west street, which runs between the mission-house and
the school, an open square forms the middle point of the
village, on which the chapel stands. Eastward from this
square, and abutting upon the main street, stand the
mission-house and the girls' school, being the corner
houses of the main street and the middle cross street.
Near the chapel stands the teachers' house, and on the
two outer cross-streets, where they intersect the main
street, the old mission-house, now occupied by the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 69
catechist Paul Fleischer, and the house of Paul Mohenu,
form goodly corner-houses. Opposite the old mission-
house stands the second catechist's house. Around the
chapel and the mission dwellings as a centre are grouped
the houses of the Christians. All of them have sufficient
accommodation, for here there is no lack of ground, while
the heathen part of the village, and its suburb the old
little village, is somewhat more closely built. Five roads
of course only footpaths, but better than in other negro
villages, lead outward in all directions. Those from the
south and the north are daily trodden by hundreds of
burden-bearers laden with oil and goods. If the village
had water, or if the Dakobi brook, which flows ten
minutes' walk eastward, were only regulated so that it
should not form swamps, the village would soon become
a town ; for although it numbers only between 5 00 and
600 inhabitants, of whom nearly one half are heathen,
yet it is already superior in size, though not in popula
tion, to all the villages round about, indeed to most of
our negro-villages; and already a goodly number of
tradesmen are settled here."
In the notes we give a special view of the activity
displayed by this church in the advancement of
husbandry.10 On the 1 8th December of last year, the Basel
Missionary Society celebrated the fiftieth-year jubilee
of its work on the Gold Coast, which has been as labo
rious as it has been blessed. With reference to the
encouragement of land-cultivation, the unadorned Eeport
mentions the results that have been effected. " Wells
have been dug, roads made, plantations formed, experi-

70 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
ments have been made for the importation of useful
animals. Wherever the mission has been established.
even the outward appearance of the country has been
changed. The primitive forest, with its poisonous vapours,
begins to disappear, and makes way for regular planta
tions ; friendly Christian villages rise up alongside of
the filthy towns and villages, &c."
On the 1 2th February of the present year, Leopold,
King of the Belgians, as president of " the International
Society for the Exploration and Civilizing of Africa," wrote
to S. Crowther, bishop of the Niger mission, as follows:
— " I have received the communication which your
Grace was good enough to address to me on the 23rd
September of last year, and regard it as a privilege to
enter upon lively intercourse with a prelate whose burn
ing zeal and energy have already produced so important
results for the civilisation of Africa. The example set
by the bishop of the Niger country is an important
encouragement for our designs. The work to which he
devotes himself is full of difficulties. We Belgians would
congratulate ourselves were we able to contribute our
stone to this great edifice. Our undertakings are still in
their infancy, but I allow myself to hope that it shall
be our lot to reap some fruit in the future. It would be
very pleasing to me if your Grace would from time to
time make me acquainted with your works and their
results, as also with your plans for the future. Although
our field of operations is far distant from the Niger, yet
we take a lively interest in what is in progress there. I
cherish the sincerest good wishes for your Grace, and
beg you to receive the assurance of my esteem."

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 71
In his important book lately published, Mhiopia, Dr.
Hiibbe-Schleiden speaks of the missions on the Gaboon,
and their cultural significance. The testimony which he
gives rests upon his own personal observation, and is of
so much greater value since it is from the mouth of a
jurist and merchant, and since it relates to districts in
which the direct fruits of missions are not yet consider
able in point of numbers. Among other statements, our
countryman makes the following : " These two missions
— the American Presbyterian in the south, and the French
Catholic in the north of Libreville — are among the most
important things that can be seen with respect to modern
culture in Gaboon. In the first zeal for their different
confessions, it has been the attainment of both institutions
to impart to a negro tribe at least the external aspect of
our civilization, so far as perhaps no other tribe of the
Ethiopian race has been brought to it. This tribe is the
Mpongoues, the remains of the old Pungo-tribe, who are
now erroneously called the Gabonese. . . . The American'
mission station is universally known, especially through
the prominence of the name of the place on maps and in
books of travel, as the Baraka mission. To such pro
minence this mission is well entitled, since it has not at
its command anything approaching to the resources which
the French mission employs, and since, however its prin
ciples make teaching and preaching its main work, it is
all the more to be acknowledged that it has given and
is giving unmistakable proofs of a blessed efficiency. Of
course it is not to be expected that any mission should
turn Ethiopians into Europeans, and in fact the Mpon
goues are to this day thoroughly negroes in character,

72 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
manners, and sentiments, as well as in their outward
appearance. Also to change the inner being of a race
just as of an individual man, is a far more difficult and
tedious process than to teach them manners, knowledge,
and dexterity ; and in obstinate conservatism the negro
scarcely falls behind our European peasantry. But the
inner being will gradually follow more outward advances,
if not in this generation, yet, perhaps, in the next, or in
the third or fourth succeeding generations. No education
can begin with a real understanding of civilization;
practical directions in all sorts of useful things must
lay the foundation, and instruction in the more easily
intelligible departments of human knowledge must after
wards widen gradually the horizon of intellectual view.
When it is considered that these negroes are still
living without the essential conditions of our civilization,
our European relations of right and life, and cannot be
easily brought under their influence, the unprejudiced
observer must rejoice to see the intellectual cultivation
of at least the younger people advancing. . . . But
it is not language and intellectual cultivation alone
that they have learnt from the mission, but above all,
European handicrafts and a certain taste for independent
labour. " The results attained by the French missions in
Senegambia and Bagamoyo, on the east coast of
Equatorial Africa, opposite Zanzibar, are well known
and have been often told ; and the same spirit is at work
here in Gaboon. But all such attempts have a real
advantage in Western Equatorial Africa, that Islam and
Mohammedan half-culture have not penetrated there,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 73
and consequently the missionaries have not to contend
with such distinct prejudices against our culture.
" Catholicism also may perhaps claim peculiar facili
ties for winning the Fetish worshipper to our civilization,
since the missionary, renouncing in the first instance an
intrusive mtellectualism, gives the negro, in substitution
for his fetish, the consecrated cross and the images of
saints and for the rest devotes himself forthwith to
practical and immediately attainable ends. Be it the
mysterious working of this homoeopathic image-worship,
or be it the practical maxims and the sound energetic
sense of the missionaries, the eminent results of these
missions cannot be denied. Most of those who labour
in the Catholic mission in Gaboon are Alsatians and
Lotheringians ; and the exterior of their stately establish
ment bears the impress of the spirit which rules within
it. All is solidly built of stone. In front is a plain
but very spacious church, and beside it the mother-
house, through which a broad passage leads to the court
behind. Bound the latter are placed dwelling-houses
and school-rooms ; then farther back workshops, dormi
tories, a hospital, and again a school-house, and behind
all, whatever is necessary for the extensive plantations
of the mission, as well as for its cattle-breeding. Near
the store-houses and the cattle stables are the beginnings
of factories for machinery, in order to an improved
treatment of the products of the land. Very interesting
indeed are the experiments which have been made here
with a pressing machine, for the easier obtaining, and
purer preparation, of the palm oil.
" Besides reading, writing, and arithmetic, the Gabonese

74; MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
here practise music also, for which they have much
talent ; but above all, instruction is imparted to them in
handicrafts, according to their personal choice and ability.
There are shoemakers and tailors, joiners and carpenters,
smiths and engineers, even a watchmaker has been
trained among them. Still the plantations of the insti
tution form the most important feature of the educational
methods. " Almost all the useful products of tropical and tem
perate climates, such as costly fruits and vegetable
medicines, have been experimentally planted there, and
generally with favourable results. Particularly large
coffee plantations, though planted in a most unfavourable
soil, give quite extraordinary returns. These are now
very convenient for the mission, as they contribute more
and more to defraying the considerable expenses of the
establishment. But of far greater importance is the
result thereby attained for the whole country ; as these
plantations have for the last twenty years been cultivated
entirely by the pupils of the mission. They are thus at
least habituated for a long time to regular work; and
although the taste of the Mpongoues is naturally more
for trade than agriculture, yet in the case of many of
them it is to be observed that even in their commerce they
have attained to some conception of what a European
man of business expects of them, and what sort of work
is most lastingly profitable to them.
" One often hears the missions on the African coasts
blamed and held responsible for the misuse which their
earlier pupils have made in later life of what they learned
in the missions. Indeed, among the lower class' of

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 75
European traders the view is universally prevalent that
all the missions there do more harm than good. The
folly of such a view is so palpable that it can hardly
be thought necessary to advert to it, since it is enter
tained by scarcely any intelligent merchants. Certainly
it is not to be denied that often many, and sometimes
all, the results of the moral influences to which the pupils
were subjected in the missions have been lost as soon as
they have intermarried with their uneducated country
women, or in other ways have been brought into associa
tion with the circles that stand apart from the missions
or are hostile to them.
" It is, further, an indisputable truth, that, while it is
advisable to distrust the negroes of so cunning a tribe as
the Mpongoues in every transaction, this is still more
necessary with respect to those who have attained a
certain measure of education in the missions, and have
thereby still more developed their intellectual capacities.
But least of all are the merchants justified in giving
currency to this reproach, since not only is it to them
that the greatest and directest advantage accrues from
all missions, but also because, while no one in the
world is to be held wholly answerable for the evil referred
to, the trading Europeans in that country are most
responsible for it."
In a very entertaining book — A Year's Housekeeping
in South Africa — an intelligent and finely observant
Englishwoman, Lady Barker, the wife of an English-
Government Official in Natal, describes a visit to the
mission station of Edendale, the substance of which we
quote as the conclusion of our notices of the material

76 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
civilization produced by the mission ; at once on account
of the vividness with which it is related, and also on
account of its applicability to a hundred other mission
stations. For this does not relate to a particularly noted
station. Even to many who are fairly acquainted \vith
mission history, Edendale may scarcely be known even
by name. Even in the Reports of the Wesleyan Mis
sionary Society, to whom the station belongs, not much
is said of it. Thus the Annual Report for 1878 only
mentions that here the missionary, Mr. Eva, is labouring
with a native catechist and two schoolmasters, that the
church consists of 292 communicants and 64 candidates
for baptism, that 83 children attend the two day-schools
and 137 the two Sabbath-schools, and 1220 adults the
public worship. It is then added : " At this important
head station our work is not extending as we could wish,
because some of the most faithful members of the church
have been removed." With these dry notices let any
one compare the lively account of the thoroughly objec
tive lady-observer, who saw and described things of
which the missionaries as usual give us either the most
meagre account, or none at all, and he will "get the
impression" — as the Evangelical Missionary Magazine
(1879, p. 203) remarks very pointedly — "that the mis
sionaries do not overstate their achievements, or seek to
idealise their converts. On the contrary, it seems to con
firm what a well-informed man has said of the Indian
missionaries, that they are rather disposed to under
estimate than to over-estimate their work."
Let us now let the lady tell her own story : — " The
great want in every landscape in this country is trees,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 77
but the settlement which we are to visit is completely
surrounded by them. There is something unspeakably
home-like in this. The adjacent fields of tall, green,
sugar-cane-like maize-plants, give the impression of luxu
riant fertility. The still air bore to us the shrill voices
of children and women, who were laughingly conversing
in the streets on either hand, mingled with the deeper
tones of men talking in as lively a fashion ; and as we
emerged from the shade of the trees on the broad village
street, we saw the talkers and were greeted by them.
Before the houses sit tidy, comfortable-looking men and
women, the former busy plaiting with their lithe fingers
neat baskets and mats of reeds and rushes ; the latter
eating Kaffir-corn, jor shelling it and preparing it for the
market. Everywhere Kaffir-corn and children ! Fat
black babies were rolling with delight in the dust, or
gnawing boiled maize-cobs. . . . The inhabitants of
Edendale do not live in Kaffir-huts, but in neat-looking
little houses of brick, all exactly like one another. They
have yellow or red painted doors, and are half-covered
with creeping plants. Whoever doubts whether the
natives can be civilized, should visit this or similar
stations, to be convinced how easily the Kaffir adopts
comfortable usages and customs, and how well pleased
he is to live in honourable and orderly fashion with his
neighbours. Edendale is a mission-station of the Wes-
leyans, and the history of the settlement is extremely
interesting — interesting because it is neither the result
of a costly organisation, nor of an artificial system of
conversion, but is the special work of a single man, and
a proof that the natives can appreciate the blessings of

78 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
association and civilization. Therefore I feel myself con
strained to bear testimony to the immense amount of energy
and sound practical knowledge of mankind which the mis
sionaries of the Wesleyans and Baptists bring to bear upon
the improvement and profit of the black masses all over the
world. I am myself a steadfast adherent of the Established
Church, and am second to none in love and reverence for
my own form of worship ; but I do not see that that
should hinder me from acknowledging facts which have
impressed themselves upon me since my childhood."
The far-travelled lady then pictures, from her own
observation, the simple mission appliances of the dis
senters in Jamaica and in the Himalaya valleys, in
contrast with the artificial system, of the Episcopal
Church, and then continues : " Edendale had doubtless
just such a humble beginning ; but as I saw it on that
fair, mild, autumn day, it was difficult to conceive of
the place in that undeveloped condition. To our right
rose a neat brick chapel, which was exceedingly pretty
after its sort, the inside furnished and adorned with
clean seats and pretty 'Wood-work. The simple building
cost more than 20,000 marks ; but almost every penny
was contributed by the Kaffirs, who twenty-five years
ago had probably never seen a brick or a seat, and were
in every respect savages." After expatiating on the
other preaching stations, the schools, the founding of
the station, &c, the narrator goes on: "As I looked
over the fertile fields with their luxuriant harvest, and
into the enclosed garden-plots in which a superabundance
of vegetables was growing, I could scarcely realise that
these fields and gardens were, a comparatively short

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 79
time ago, uncultivated land. ... At every few steps
you came upon a little canal, made with a spade in a
few minutes, which conveys a clear stream of water
down from the hill to garden and house. . . . The
people have done all with their own hands, and last
year they contributed more than 4000 marks for the
payment of their minister. I confess that I felt my
heart greatly drawn towards this pious-minded, hard
working, little community. ... At the special and
urgent request of the owners I went into one of the
houses. You have no conception how cleanly and
orderly it looked in every respect, and how readily the
Kaffir adorns his dwelling. Indeed, he carries it rather
too far.
"I am no political economist, and indeed the com
bination of the words frightens me ; but I cannot help
remarking that we are leaving unused the good material
which lies ready to our hand. When one comes here,
it is told him as something terrible that there are in
Natal 300,000 Kaffirs and only 17,000 whites. The
observation is commonly added, that we can only look
to immigration for the salvation of the country. I can
not help thinking that this is not what we want, at all
events, not of such whites as are commonly designated
as the lower classes. . . . Could we get a small number
of teachers, and accomplished, clever tradesmen, to co
operate with the missionaries, who are spread over the
whole country, and have already quietly done an infinite
amount of good, in establishing art-schools ; in this way
we should more and more be enabled to utilise the
material which we possess in the Kaffirs. We must

80 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
find ways and means to bring the Kaffirs into the great
brotherhood of civilization. They are a clever, good-
humoured, and easily -governed people. Their great
defect is laziness; but in Edendale I heard no com
plaint, and saw no sign of it."
We see that the modern mission is doing, in respect
of material culture, for the heathen nations of the pre
sent day, the very same, and indeed greater services than
those which the medieval mission confessedly accom
plished for the peoples of Northern and North-Eastern
Europe. But now through all these services she is
putting in motion a culture-factor, with which the
culture-development of mankind is quite essentially con
nected : — viz., labour. There no doubt has been, and
is now, labour outside of Christianity. The Gospel was
not the first introducer of labour into the world, but it
has ennobled it. The peoples of antiquity also laboured ;
but all labours which required physical strength were
regarded as humiliating to freemen. This sort of labour
was utterly destitute of its moral value- — a defect which
was very closely connected with the slavery of antiquity.
It was Christianity that first gave to labour its moral
foundation, honour, and sacredness. We appeal in proof
of this assertion to Dr. Uhlhorn's eloquent discourse,
Labour viewed in the light of the Gospel, where the
subject is treated, argumentatively and historically, in
a manner as profound and convincing as it is simple
and intelligible. With the heathen nations of the
present day it is as with the peoples of antiquity —
labour has no moral estimate put upon it. These peoples
may be divided into labouring and non-labouring classes.

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 81
The former class includes the Chinese, the Japanese, and,
with great limitations, the Hindus ; the latter compre
hends almost all the nature-peoples. A certain blessing
of nature rests upon a labouring people, and a certain
curse of nature upon a non-labouring. Yet even in
relation to the former, Christianity has a great task
assigned it. It must be the moral regenerator of labour
wherever it is, and its moral founder wherever it is not.
That it is the former, we shall find repeated opportunities
of pointing out in the course of our inquiry ; that it is the
latter, the course of our argument thus far has already
made good by many examples. The mission is the most
triumphant weapon in the war against the laziness of the
nature-peoples. Let us for once adduce a testimony from the Romanist
camp. Father Horner, whose missionary exertions in
East Africa have become more widely known through the
report of Sir Bartle Frere, thus writes : " Having for more
than twenty years been occupied with the regeneration
of the blacks, I have had recourse to the only means of
raising them from the deep degradation of centuries, viz.,
Labour consecrated by Christianity. With this view I
have established schools for agriculture and handicrafts
at Bagamoyo. I am convinced that the result of the
African mission will in great part depend upon the
respect and love of labour, wherewith it inspires the
blacks, to whom it proclaims the Gospel. Every one
knows that the natural listlessness and laziness of the
negro is the greatest hindrance to his moral elevation.
We can gradually subdue his vices, when, in connection
with the principles of Christianity, we associate the

82 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
love of labour ! Yes ! Herein lies the secret of civi
lizing." Notwithstanding these principles, equally acted on
by the Evangelical Mission, and illustrated by Bishop
Crowther as far back as 1870, the reproach has often
been cast upon it that, by the liberality which it prac
tises, it rather encourages than corrects laziness, and that
in many instances it is the expectation of a comfortable
provision, and worldly advantages of all sorts, that allures
the people to become Christians. In particular : at one
time after the fashion of the Gartenlaube, the accusation
is brought forward that the mission plunders the natives
to the extent of impoverishing them : she " shears the
heathen sheep." At another time the accusation runs
after the manner of Langhans, that she carries her
beneficence to excess and makes only "Rice-Christians."
In the blind zeal with which the mission is assailed it is
not perceived that the one accusation neutralises the
other. One is strongly reminded of a certain judicial
trial which took place 1850 years ago, in the case of a
noted Israelitish prophet, whose death- sentence was a
foregone conclusion, and of which the old record only
states : " But the high-priests and the elders and the
whole council sought witness against Jesus to put Him
to death ; but their witness agreed not together " (Mark
xiv. 55). Assuredly the mission practises beneficence;
and one would suppose that thereby it would earn the
commendation of those who belaud the parable of the
Good Samaritan as the special marrow of the whole of
Christianity. On other occasions it is a favourite charge
against the believers in the Bible that a priest and Levite

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 83
passed by the man who needed help. Now in the
mission the priest and Levite do not pass by. Well !
this also must be matter of accusation against him, that
he helps ! No doubt it happens to the missionaries, just
as it does to other people in the civilized world, that
their beneficence is abused, and that idlers now and again
take advantage of it. M°re than this : sometimes the
compassion of a mission-agent is greater than is con
sistent with discretion, when, e.g., the young converts are
driven from their caste, robbed of their property and their
previous means of support, and know not how they are
to live ; or, when a common calamity occurs, such as a
drought and famine, an epidemic or a war ; or, when the
poverty of the people and their inability to help them
selves are overwhelming— ^the missionaries have often
practised a perhaps mistaken beneficence, so that they
have shared the last of their possessions with the destitute
Christians and heathens. In this way they have got the
repute of being rich people and helpers in all necessities.
But of this repute, after all, they have not much to be
ashamed. To the Saviour also many people came,
seeking help in their temporal necessity, and by reason
of the confidence they had in Him, He did not reject
them. Suppose there be much abuse, yea much hypocrisy
underlying all this, and suppose that before the judg
ment-seat of cold, intellectual estimation the support
afforded would be condemned — yet the mission secures
this great gain, that the natives recognise the missionaries
as men in whom they have confidence, and who deign
to treat them as friends ; u and this recognition is in
directly a cultural gain, for men in whom confidence is

84 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
placed win and exert influence, and the missionaries
employ this influence for the elevation of the natives.
When, for example, in Tinnevelly and the Telugu country,
nearly 60,000 heathen last year applied for baptism,
chiefly induced thereto by the Christian charity put forth
during the preceding terrible famine, which made a
great impression on their hearts ; no doubt there might
be much chaff among the heaps, and it might appear
manifest that their embracing of Christianity was induced
by an outward advantage which they had enjoyed. But
a little patience, and it will soon be shown that the
benefits experienced do not make the people idle but
industrious. That must have taken place already, for in
a short time the new Christians have to build churches
and schools, and to support their native teachers and
pastors — a duty which, according to the latest accounts,
they are already beginning actually to discharge. That
the Missionary Societies cannot support such multitudes
must be clear to every understanding. They must be
trained to labour.
Even apart from the duty of self-support, which the
mission uniformly inculcates upon the natives as soon
as possible,. it is, with all its practice of beneficence, an
enemy of sloth and a teacher of labour. Wherever it
comes it establishes the old ordinance of God, " six days
shalt thou labour," designates, with the apostle of the
Gentiles, idleness as " disorderly walking," and declares,
" He who will not work, neither shall he eat." It is
by no means unconditionally necessary that agricultural
schools and industrial workshops be established every
where. Wherever a sound Christianity is planted, there

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 85
work spontaneously grows ; it necessarily presents itself
as a moral duty. If this now and then does not happen,
the fault is not chargeable on the mission, but upon the
relations which she is unable to control, or perhaps on
the individual missionaries ; and it is not fair to hold
the mission responsible for the faults and failings of
individual mission-agents, or for the hindrances which
she has not caused. As in all professions, so also among
missionaries, there are some who are not up to their
calling ; but it is a disingenuous fallacy by generalising
to represent special exceptions as the common rule. We
are not so blind as not to see the deficiencies which
attach to our mission work; but we have also a right to
repel unjust reproaches.
To the class of these unjust reproaches belongs also
this, that magical effects are expected of the mission,
and she is condemned when she does not work miracles
in the twinkling of an eye. But not only in the depart
ment of the religio.us life, but in that of the cultural life
as well, the results of the mission are subject to the law
of gradual development. It proceeds not by bounds,
but by steps and degrees, and not in straight, but in
curved and zigzag lines. That is nature's law, and only
then is a development sound, when it is accomplished
in accordance with this law. Otherwise it is unnatural
-r-a house built on the sand. It is a misfortune when
we — as is happening, alas ! in our home relations of late
— forsake in the mission this way of slow, solid develop
ment, and cannot wait till the seed sown ripens naturally
and gradually to the harvest. As in our own Fatherland
there needed a development of more than a thousand

86 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
years before we reached our present height of culture, so
among those peoples who now form the object of our
missionary operations, we ought not to expect that they
should reach the same stage in a couple of decades. It
were an injury to these peoples were we systematically
to aim at this. It would produce — as the second part
of our inquiry will show us — caricatures of culture ; yea
— what is far worse — it would lead to lassitude and
death. While the truth of this remark in general must be
acknowledged, it is specially applicable to training to
labour. Laziness is a fault of the people rooted by the
habits of centuries, and privileged by national customs ;
and it is simply impossible to overcome it in one or two
generations, especially when we consider how great
additional difficulties are caused by climatic conditions.
Laziness is an absolutely colossal natural power, to whose
merely relative conquest among a people centuries are
required. Indeed, many ethnologists,, as is well known,
entertain the view that it can never be overcome, and
thence that all the efforts which the mission puts forth
are in vain. If the so-called nature-peoples are to be
brought to labour, they say that there is no other means
than external constraint, so that, from the politico-
economical point of view, slavery is completely justified.12
For the supposed inefficacy of the efforts made on the
part of the mission, apart from South Africa, dependence
is put upon the small cultural results in Sierra Leone
and Liberia, the West Indies, and the United States of
North America.
Let us, in the first place, look at the two West

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 87
African Negro States just mentioned. We have no
intention to paint in fair colours the cultural relations
in these States, especially in Liberia ; while we must
energetically protest against the meaningless, exag
gerated pictures of noted enemies of the mission', such
as a certain Mr. Reade, in his notorious book Savage
Africa, or the Globus and Ausland. Dr. Grundemann,
in his edition of Burkhardt's Little Mission Library, has
set forth the dark side in the cultural conditions of these
States with great sobriety and perfect impartiality, and
we adopt substantially his representations. There are
in Liberia, far more than in Sierra Leone, caricatures of
culture in abundance, but very little of solid culture.
Here and there we find the most luxurious comfort,
but among the great mass much laziness, uncleanliness,
immodesty and immorality. Trade is considerably
developed in some directions, and in handicrafts com
paratively good results have been attained ; but, on
the other hand, agriculture is still little attended to,
although of late it has been stated with thankfulness
that Liberia is now devoting herself with greater energy
to husbandry, and especially to coffee-planting. Thus,
in respect of their cultural results, and especially in
respect of the laboriousness of their inhabitants, Sierra
Leone and Liberia are by no means brilliant specks of
light in the midst of the darkness of Africa, as they
have often been represented by enthusiastic friends of
missions. But any one who should hold the missions
exclusively, or even mainly, answerable for this, would
certainly give no brilliant proof of his knowledge of the
circumstances of these countries. It is well known that

88 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
neither Sierra Leone nor Liberia forms a natural state-
union, depending upon national community. In the
former there are those rescued from the hands of the
slave-traders, in the latter negro-slaves transported from
America, with whom a sort of experiment in colonisation
has been made. These people had scarcely aught in
common, except their black colour. In Sierra Leone,
amongst the negroes who belonged to the most various
tribes of the interior, there prevailed a Babel-like con
fusion of tongues, into which some unity could be in
troduced only by the endeavour to naturalise English
as the language of the country. This engrafted language
of necessity led to absurdities and to caricatures of cul
ture. To Liberia, indeed, the black settlers brought the
English language with them from America. But the
oneness of language was not sufficient to produce amal
gamation among multitudes of men who were wholly
strangers to each other. To this was added, that, on
the ground of a quite ignorant philanthropic liberalism,
negroes who were in no way trained and ripe for inde
pendence, were far too much in Liberia, and altogether
in Sierra Leone, left to themselves, instead of bein«
placed under the educating influence of a benevolent
but strict government, and of energetically administered
laws. Thus the whole foundation of these settlements
was unsoundly laid at the beginning, and it was in the
nature of things that their development should be un
sound, and should disappoint the high expectations which
were formed regarding them. Finally, let it be considered
that by continuous contact with advanced Western cul
ture, which produces a blinding impression on the poor

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 89
negroes, and excites them to childish aping, the relations
would become even more unsound and perverted; and
every intelligent man will understand that the mission
here stood face to face with special difficulties, for whose
overthrow her strength was glaringly disproportioned.
We are far from acquitting her representatives of all
blame for the small amount of solid cultural results
hitherto attained in these negro states. Many mis
sionaries have even been, and still are, under the crip
pling influence of the liberal doctrine which would
foolishly transfer immediately to uncivilized hordes the
cultural and constitutional relations of the civilized
world, and thereby mar their independent action and
the development of a sound culture, because it does
not put limitations upon freedom, and does not employ
sufficiently energetic discipline.
But liberalism, which commits similar mistakes at
home, has no right to throw stones at the missionaries
on this account; rather should it in this exhibition of
mock-culture perceive that it is no master in cultural
education, and should condemn very leniently when
now and again its own blunder is reproduced in the
mission-field. All these circumstances being taken into
account, we must be content with small and but mode
rately solid cultural results ; and may well vindicate
the mission, when, on the ground of the partly unsatis
factory experiences in the Christianised negro states in
question, a general charge is brought that it is inefficient
in implanting a taste for labour. We are all the more
entitled to do this, as unquestionably Sierra Leone at
least has become a blessing to the West Coast of Africa,

90 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
since from it have been founded hopeful mission-churches
in Lagos, Abbeokuta, and on the Niger.
Neither can we allow the appeal to the West Indies
to pass as an instance unfavourable to the cultural in
fluence of the mission. Here slavery has been the
paralysing factor, and it needs no proof that under its
degrading influences a training to independence and
independent action was a matter of impossibility. Cer
tainly, the negro slaves laboured; but they did it as
beasts of burden under the constraint of the driver's lash.
No mention of a moral estimate of labour could be even
intelligible under this yoke ; not even when comparatively
patriarchal circumstances prevailed. The mission has truly
done for the West Indian slaves what she could ; and
considering the most unfavourable conditions under which
she wrought, and the hostile counter-agitations which were
set a-going on the part of many slave-owners, she has
effected all that was possible in respect of the church and
religious life. That she has effected little for the culture-
life no intelligent man can blame her ; for that it is
slavery that is responsible, which, even in its mildest
form, treats men as chattels and as beasts of burden.
Thus it was quite comprehensible that when eman
cipation came, the slaves who were set free wholesale
and entirely, proved to be indolent and unreliable
workers. They must have learned, while under the
yoke of slavery, to regard labour as a matter of con
straint, and it was a perfectly natural law of reaction,
that, when the constraint ceased, laziness broke out
again as an inward, unsubdued principle. It is incon-
testably true that the abolition of slavery has been,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 91
from a politico-economical point of view, a great mis
fortune both for the West Indies and for the Southern
States of the American Union. It is just as true that
the wholesale and entire emancipation of the slaves has
not hitherto been any considerable cultural advantage.
But it is not true that the mission bears the real blame
of this fiasco. Certainly she is a sharer of the blame,
in so far as she in her energetic agitation for the aboli
tion of slavery, was deficient in wisdom respecting the
necessary education — a charge, however, which is essen
tially palliated by the consideration that the slave-owners
strenuously opposed all training of this sort. The mis
fortune was that, under the influence of the liberal
doctrine, freedom was given to the slaves, without their
being previously trained to the wholesome use of freedom.
The emancipation had to be gone through with. It
was a moral-religious necessity, and a stigma lay upon
Christendom so long as the heathenish institution of
slavery was tolerated in her midst. But then abuses
which have existed for centuries cannot be suddenly
removed from the world, without the production of in
juries which are often greater than the evils which are
to be got rid of. Without the preliminary training for
freedom, even freedom is a fatal gift. It is a funda
mental error of the liberal doctrine that it ignores the
simple natural law of a progressive development, that it
lacks patience, and lavishly bestows freedom while there
is not a ripeness to use it. An Act of Parliament could
abolish slavery; but no Act could teach men who had
never known a free, independent life, all at once to use
the freedom which was bestowed.

92 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
But let us be reasonable. It is so, alas ! in this sinful
world, that evils which, like a disease, are transmitted
from generation to generation, are generally got rid of,
not in the way of sound, prudent reformation, but in
that of sudden and violent revolution. We may call
this a fatality, and we may lament the fatality ; but it
is a fact, of which the chief blame lies at the door of
a blind egoistic conservatism, which obdurately opposes
the removal of real evils. But while the sudden aboli
tion of slavery is in some degree justified in the light of
this truth, there must also be allowed to be palliations
for the reverses which are its necessary consequences.
The mission was never in a position to charm into regular,
quiet labour, the negroes who had been brought out of
fetters and bonds. Neither in the West Indies nor in
the Southern States of North America did she fail to put
forth the most laborious efforts. The " Jubilee singers,"
who first visited our fatherland last year, have given us
a palpable proof of this. Assuredly in no other quarter
has so much been done, and is being done, towards the
education and national improvement of the emancipated
slaves as on the part of the Christian mission. But while
she has not been able satisfactorily to accomplish a task
which, in reality through the fault of others, has become
a gigantic one, it is all the more unfair to reproach her
on this account, because her accusers do not touch the
task with one of their fingers.
Also in respect of the North American Indians, no
fault attaches to the mission that it has not succeeded
in moving them to a greater extent to the undertaking
of cultural labour. It is the egoistic civilization that

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 93
has prevented extensive cultural results among the
Indians. It is notoriously the black history full of
falsehood and treachery, full of perjury and violence,
full of robbery and murder, which has made the inter
course of the white settlers with the red natives an
almost unbroken course of bloodshed. How could works
of peace grow from such a sowing of blood ? A strong
tree has, in name of civilization, been cut off from its
roots, how could the rootless and constantly transplanted
tree bear fruit ? Even here, in the most self-denying
and most enduring love, the mission has done what she
could ; but almost always when she has begun in abodes
of peace to teach the Indians the works of culture,
civilisation, greedy of land and gold, has put in opera
tion her scandalous work of destruction.
Besides, had the red man been gradually won to cul
tural work, the unchristian conduct of his oppressors
with their civilization would not have disgusted him
with their religion. But now it is only among fragments
of the oppressed people that it has been possible to over
come this intelligible hatred, against the cultural efforts
of the white man; and assuredly it is the mission that
has gained this victory. Of the 266,000 Indians, who
are still in the territory of the United States, the mis
sion has gathered together, in 171 churches, 27,215 as
full church members of various denominations, which
will represent about 80,000 Christian Indians in all. A
survey of these communities of Christian Indians, and a
comparison of them with their countrymen who are still
heathen, afford the most convincing proof of the cultural
power of the mission, even over a human material

94 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
rendered so unfavourable by the grievous faults of the
representatives of a heartless civilization. Assuredly we
owe it to the energetic agitation of the mission and its
friends that President Grant introduced a more humane
Indian policy, according to which the nomination of
Indian agents was virtually handed over to the various
religious corporations which support Indian missions;
and that the present President declared : " Many, if
not most, of our Indian wars have had their origin in
broken promises and wrongs inflicted by us; and the
progress of the Indian has been slow, because the treat
ment which has been awarded to him has not admitted
of more rapid and more general progress. We cannot
expect that they should improve when we do not keep
our word with them to respect the rights which they
possess, and when we do not hold out to them a help
ing hand, but rather tread them down." According to
official data, in consequence of the Indian policy of
Grant, which is favourable to missions, between the years
1868 and 1876, the houses of Indians had increased
in number from 7476 to 55,717, the cultivated acres
from 54,207 to 318,194, their cattle from 42,874 to
811,308 head. We do not, indeed, put unconditional
confidence in these American official statistics. The
houses may have been built, and the cattle may have
been bought; but whether Indians inhabit the houses
and altogether maintain the cattle, is by no means
beyond doubt, considering the well-known tactics of the
agents, who have very large pockets for the Indians'
money; for, alas! it has not been possible in all cases
to appoint thoroughly Christian men as agents. Only

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 95
where the mission-churches were able to take charge of
the Indians has the new policy been really a blessing.
So far it has in every case been put beyond doubt, that
cultural effects are achieved among the Indians, in pro
portion as they are treated on Christian principles. A
few examples will suffice.
In the course of last year Mr. Good, a missionary of
the Propagation Society, who is stationed at Lytton in
Columbia, received a communication from Mr. Sprout,
the Under-Secretary for Indian Affairs in Canada and
British Columbia, in which, amongst other things, it is
said, " I cannot leave Lytton without expressing to you
my sincere acknowledgment of the remarkable effects of
your mission-work among the Indians of this district.
It has given me great pleasure to have stayed among
these Indians, and to have seen with my own eyes the
good conduct, the self-respect, the promptings, I might
almost say the aspirations, of their awakened nature
after a civilized life. Only those who know the uncivil
ized life from their own observation can estimate the
change which has been effected here. Mr. G. Blenken-
sop, the secretary of this commission, who possesses the
most accurate knowledge of the Indians of this province,
directed my attention to the excellent condition of the
people of this place, and daily intercourse with them has
furnished me with proof of the perfect accuracy of his
representation." The agent of the Episcopal mission, which is most
energetic among the Indians, and which maintains alto
gether 52 labourers among them, especially among the
Oneidas, Sioux, Chippewas, Dakotas, and Schoshons,

96 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
furnishes the following official report for the present
year : " Under the oversight of the engineer-agents, the
following industrial works have been executed entirely
by Indians — a steam-power corn and saw-mill, a turning-
lathe, an iron and wood planing-machine, a water-mill, a
tinsmith's shop, a carpenter's shop, a smithy, a slaughter
house, a warehouse. Under the direction of the agricul
tural agents, agricultural works of all sorts have been
carried on. Indians who as lately as three years ago
strutted in ragged blankets, adorned with feathers and
all sorts of frippery, now wear decent clothing, follow
the plough, and cut grass and corn with the reaper and
mower." The examples adduced by Waitz, on the ground of
which he expressly declares that " for the advances
which the Indians have made, we have mainly to thank
the mission," we pass over, in order to give a testimony of
the latest date by Gerland. In a series of very im
portant, profound, and thoughtful articles — as are all the
articles of this investigator — Gerland unfolds the result
of his latest studies on The Future of the Indians of
North America — a work to which we shall revert further
on. We give but one of many facts which it contains.
" The Tuscurora, formerly a most warlike tribe, are now
Christians and civilized. Their chiefs built the first
school-house in 1 8 3 1 . It seems to be partly owing to
their circumstances that they are more independent than
the other Indians of the agency. They get no money-
subsidy, but only grants of useful articles, to the value of
90 cents a-head. They are a temperate, industrious,
active population of cultivators, and their lands, products,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 97
and implements are not inferior to those of their white
neighbours. The Oneida and the St. Regis Indians are
entitled to equal commendation. Although other tribes ;
in other Reservations do not stand so high, though all
these Indians receive State- Subsidies — the Seneca, e.g. on
four Reservations receive 11,902 dollars — though even
here much remains to be done for the future — and
among what culture-people is this not so ? — yet we can ;
close our observations on the Iroquese authoritatively
and confidently with the assertion that the Iroquese are
not being exterminated by civilization, that they have not
died out and will not die out before its breath, but that
in the future they will increase and develop more and
more. Their history is an absolute refutation of the theory
of the dying-out of the nature-peoples."
From the mouth of an eye-witness, Dr. Grundemann,.
we have the following information regarding the Seneca
Reservation at Cattaraugus in the State of New York,
which corresponds perfectly with the statements pub
lished by Gerland in the article already referred to :— ¦-'
" While those remnants of the Indians of this state, who
have not become attached to the mission, are perishing
in most hopeless starvation, mostly beggarly figures
without a home, or else mountebanks exhibiting them
selves in an imitation of the old Indian ornaments, the
Indians on this Reservation have become settled people
and cultivators, who practise a more rational husbandry
than many farmers, and enjoy a proportionate success.
One of these Indians harvested 600 bushels of corn in
one year. A regularly arranged agricultural and cattle
exhibition contributes to the stimulation of their zeal.
G

98 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Ten years ago the 1500 heathens, or thereabout, who
lived on the Reservation, did not fall far behind the
somewhat more numerous Christians in their cultural
labour. But had the tribe not attached itself to the
mission, and the part that remained heathen to their
Christian relatives, the whole of them would have come
to grief, as so many of their people have." A still more
striking instance is furnished by the Indian Colony of
Metlakatlah, founded by Mr. Duncan, which has been
already mentioned more than once. Concerning it the
Governor-General, Lord Dufferin, after seeing it with his
own eyes, made the following statement, among others,
in his official report : " I have visited the wonderful
settlement of Mr. Duncan at Metlakatlah, and the
interesting mission at Fort Simpson, and am thus in a
position to prove by facts that a scene of peace and
innocence, of idyllic charm and material comfort, can be
presented by the energetic men and women of an Indian
community, when it is under the wise superintendence
of an intelligent and pious missionary. . . . We want
not so much costly appliances, as a number of men who
understand how to develop and use in the right way
the means which we possess. Bring your Indians to the
position to which Mr. Duncan has taught us to raise
them, and you will have added to their actual power an
important contribution of real life-force." Since then
the principles according to which Mr. Duncan proceeded
in the instruction of his Indian church, as has been
already remarked, have been accepted by Act of Parlia
ment and Decrees of Government for the whole Canadian
Federation. Thus has the humble missionary done an

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 99
extremely important cultural service to the more than
100,000 Indians of British North America, whose full
importance the future will disclose.
So far we see that among the culture-factors it is
really the mission that succeeds in civilizing the nature-
peoples. The professed representatives of material inte
rests, traders and colonists, from whom we might have
expected influences of at least external civilization, have
after all brought little solid cultural gain to the savage
peoples. For proof of this assertion a glance at North
America, South Africa, and the South Seas is enough.
The aborigines of these vast regions are not civilized by
the European civilization, but have simply been ruined,
and are continuously being ruined, even materially. The
civilization lacks the compassionate heart, which stretches
out the helping hand to the poor natives, and the con
straining motive which would invite them to a change of
their former mode of living. The representatives of the
material interest do not come to the natives to help them,
but to enrich themselves. Therefore they regard the
natives as either their servants or their enemies. Thus
in reality they have no interest in their true civilization.
But suppose they had such an interest, they have not
the power to exert a deep-penetrating civilizing influence.
" Spread out before a savage all the advantages of
civilization," said the black evangelist, Taylor, of
Senegambia, at the last annual festival of the Paris
Missionary Society, " and he can fairly answer you that
from his point of view he is as happy as you — perhaps
more so. Why he should eat with knife and fork, why
he should wear shoes and stockings, he cannot see. It

ioo MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
is a matter of taste. He feels no necessity to follow
the behests of civilization to the sacrifice of his natural
inclinations, in order to seek a happiness which you find
therein. But lead him to the foot of Christ's cross, and
all is changed. There you meet a deeply felt craving of
his heart ; there you bring to him the most powerful
incentives to virtue, to holiness, to the slaying of the
lusts of the flesh. Thence the essence of civilization has
entered his heart."
This testimony is confirmed by the judgment of a
man who, by forty years' labour in the South Sea Islands,
has established the right to be reckoned among competent
witnesses. " There is a certain class of men," says the
missionary Murray, " who dispute the indirect results of
the mission, on the ground that the missionaries one-
sidedly pursue only religious aims. These are the same
people who are wholly without sympathy with the special
aim of mission-work, and regard everything under the
point of view of profit for the earthly life. Nevertheless
they show themselves to be very little acquainted with
the actual mission-work. Of course we freely confess
that our time and strength are mainly devoted to the
special work of evangelization; that the Bible is the
chief subject of our instruction ; and that, so far as we
take subordinate things in charge, these must always
stand in a certain relation to the spiritual life. And as
the result of a long experience we have no doubt that
the way in which we have hitherto proceeded with
reference to the latter point, is wholly the right way.
Even material culture, to our great satisfaction, is best
promoted by missionaries who confine themselves most

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. iol
rigidly to the' evangelization work which is committed
to them. No outward advances which are to be durable
can be prematurely and without preparation forced upon
a people. They must have a deeper and a firmer founda
tion than the authority of a chief or the influence of a
missionary. The people must be elevated mentally,
morally, and religiously ; — so elevated that they shall
really feel the wants which awaken a longing after the
attractions and demands of the civilized life. The inner
and the outer must go hand in hand, otherwise a reaction
necessarily follows." Hence it has hitherto been labour
in vain to civilize nature-peoples, without at the same
time christianising them. At the best, caricatures, as
they are exhibited in abundance on the colonial field,
are in this way produced.
In view of this fact people are perhaps sufficiently
magnanimous to hand over the civilization of the nature-
peoples to the mission, as people in certain circles at
home are not disinclined to acknowledge Christianity
expressly as beneficial for the lower classes. Among
the civilized heathen peoples, on the other hand, it is
asserted that the missions, at least the pietistic ones,
prove inefficient, and are in no wise a cultural element.13
What shall we say to this ? We appeal again to a fact
— viz., that the distinctively classical culture-peoples of
antiquity formed the object of the first Christian mission.
There is, if we may so speak, a. godly irony in the world's
history, and it seems to us that it is most humiliating
for natural men, who are so proud of their knowledge
and their power, that the classic culture-world behoved
to be handed over to the contemned preaching of the

102 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Cross, as a remedy for the deep sores which were con
suming it. Even the fullest material and intellectual cul
ture cannot arrest the process of corruption into which
a people rushes when this culture lacks an enlivening
religious-moral foundation and the sanctifying 'Spirit of
God. We are sending even now missionaries to the
Hindus, Chinese, and Japanese, not indeed with the
immediate object of promoting the external civilization
of the civilized heathen peoples, but to fill them with
a new spirit, and awaken them to a new life. This
new spirit necessarily effects a transformation and an
advancement upon the previous culture-life. We do
not deny that for these heathen peoples of the present
day, whom we are accustomed to designate as the
culture-peoples, the intimate contact with the Christian
culture-peoples, such as is produced by commerce and
colonial policy, forms a new cultural epoch. But for
one that looks deeper, it is beyond question that this
new cultural epoch must prove not a development
upwards, but downwards, if it is not accompanied by
an inner regeneration. A few years ago, blind Yama-
moto, one of the wisest and most patriotic men in
Japan, said to an American missionary : " I like your
railroads, telegraphs, steam-ships, and all your wonder
ful machines. I rejoice that your science is taught in
our schools. I long for the day when your humane
laws shall be introduced into all our country. But
Japan needs more than all these things. The hearts
of the people must be changed. Buddhism is a parcel
of lies, and the doctrine of Confucius, admirable as it
is in many respects, falls altogether short of this. I

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 103
believe that Protestant Christianity alone has the power
to change the hearts of the people." That is the one
thing needful. Although our civilization actually brings
railways and telegraphs, rifled cannon and breech-loaders,
domestic comfort, and even science, to the nations of
the East, not it, but only the Gospel of Christianity,
can give them the new heart which they need for
their regeneration. But in order to the introduction
of a new cultural epoch, there needs a new creative
spirit ; and this spirit the mere conveyance of our
civilization cannot impart. The heathen culture-peoples
can externally appropriate many of our cultural acquisi
tions ; they may even copy them ; but in truth there
results no vital cultural gain to them from this.
Let us now look somewhat more closely at the culture
which these peoples possess. We fear it is by no means
so brilliant as it seems to be assumed by many to be.
China is undoubtedly entitled to the precedence. It must
be unreservedly confessed that extraordinary laborious-
ness, energy, perseverance, dexterity, are virtues charac
teristic of Chinese civilization, and that they especially
excel in agricultural work, and handicraft, and even in
art-work. Only it is so, as a visitor of the Paris World -
Exhibition lately said : " With beautiful and cleverly
wrought material, there was an absence of thought, mind,
creative genius, the world of the ideal; and while the
peoples of the East are strangers to that world, they are
destitute also of the science which brings natural materials
and human talents into right harmony, which, with the
magician's rod of intellect, unbinds the forces and powers
of nature, and makes them the slaves of mankind. It

104 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
is the industry which effloresces from this that constitutes
what in the higher sense is called culture ; and this
industry, which is a triumph of modern science, belongs
peculiarly and alone to the Christian peoples. These
comparatively young peoples have far outstripped the
old culture-peoples in virtue of the new spirit." In his
important book, which has been already referred to, Cul
ture and Religion, Delff has amply illustrated the same
thought in what we regard as a masterly way : " The
Chinese," he says, "are a civilized people, but not a
culture-people ; they have refinement, but they are not
inwardly refined. Their culture has only the appearance
and the show of culture, inasmuch as it lends a certain
external smoothness and harmony to the outward forms
of social movements. It works in these relations not as
an inner life-principle, but only regulates them from
without, by means of custom and routine ; it works
mechanically, and in it society is not a self-moving
organism, developing and displaying itself according to
its own real proportion, but only a mechanism, which
accomplishes its movements with the blindness of instinct,
and in whose parts the inner proportions are in no wise
spontaneous life-forces. China has a special importance
for the philosophy of history, because we learn from it
to distinguish and separate civilization and culture."
Delff convincingly traces back this merely mechanical
and material culture to the naturalistic religion and moral
of the Chinese, which itself "bears a wholly external,
mechanical, and preponderatingly negative, passive char
acter. It attends less to refinement of thought than to
outward propriety ; it only requires an outward compli-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 105
ance and acquiescence, and it is not a personal power,
but a habit of life." But so it is, as is self-evident, that
a new, really inward, spontaneous advance in culture
induced by creative thoughts — and not a mechanical
seeming culture — is possible only when a new principle
of spirit and life is introduced .into the development.
But this new principle of spirit and life can be naught
else than the evangelical Christianity. The Evangelical
Mission has been too short a time at work in China, and
amidst the mountains of difficulties which stand in opposi
tion to it, has still proportionately too small results, to
admit of the visible exhibition of a cultural working of
the sort indicated. But it is beyond doubt that in a
few generations it will appear. " Superstition," writes
the sober Chinese missionary, Faber, " is the main hin
drance of the progress of Western civilization in China.
For example, the aversion to the settlement of foreigners
in the land, to steamships and railways, has its chief foun
dation in the ridiculous wind and water doctrine. All
of them are in opposition to the old endeared customs,
the national pride, or even to. peculiar scientific theories.
How else can a mutual understanding and recognition
be reached, than by laborious instruction ?
" The missionaries are the fittest persons for this, because
they can speak the language of the country. They are the
gauges of the force of the steam which is boiling in the
cauldron. It were presumption to withdraw the indicators.
Instead of wasting gall and paper in calumnious and heart
less tirades against the missionaries, it were better to do
all that can- be done to help them in their difficult work.
In Japan, an enlightened ruler has already opened

106 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the land to the Christian culture of the west, so that it
is pouring into it like a stream. But the scene which
this cultural revolution presents to us is not wholly
pleasant. Apart altogether from the many elements
which are undermining all faith and all morality, and
which are floated on the culture-stream to Japan — the
stream itself runs in a foreign bed, from which only
artificial canals are dug over the land. It does not
spring from inland fountains. The imported culture is,
more or less, only veneer-work, and however it may
deceive by the brightness of its outward polish, it lacks
solidity and depth. If the Japanese people do not get
the "new heart," of which Yamamoto spoke, the new
culture will fall to the ground, especially as the astound
ing haste with which it has hitherto been introduced
must have the effect of laying a burden immediately
upon the people which probably they cannot bear at
once. Undoubtedly God, who makes use of manifold
ways and means, in order to " open the door of faith
to the heathen," has, by the opening of Japan to the
Christian culture of the West, prepared a way for the
Evangelical Mission into the newly-opened empire ; but
it will be only when the latter shall have made good its
footing in the land, that the former will have found a
firm foundation. One well acquainted with Japanese
matters, to whom we are indebted for one of the best
works on the Kingdom of the Mikado, a work resting
upon profound studies and personal observation — the
American Griffis, who was for four years a professor in
the Imperial College at Tokio, and enjoyed" the closest
intercourse with the most prominent statesmen, scholars,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 107
priests, and artists of Japan, concludes his book — which
is full of the highest admiration of the cultural acquisi
tions hitherto made — with the characteristic words : " Can
an Asiatic despotism, which is founded upon heathenism
and lying fables, regenerate itself ? Will the stupendous
reforms, which are already undertaken, consolidate and
perfect themselves ? Can a nation appropriate to itself
the fruits of Christian civilization apart from its roots ?
I do not believe it. Unless the modern enlightened
ideas of government, law, society, and the rights of
individuals, strike their roots in far wider circles, unless
the people generally are truly refined, and a stronger
spiritual power take the place of Sintoism and Buddhism,
it is scarcely possible that more should be gained than
a glittering veneer-work of material civilization, and the
introduction of foreign burdens which must lead to the
same destruction of the Dai Nippos before the overlying
nations of the west, that has befallen the dying-out
races of America. But a new sun is rising over Japan.
In 1870, there were but ten Protestants in the whole
kingdom, now (1876) there are at least ten churches,
with 800 members. [In the end of 1878, there were
1700 members, and a Christian community of about
4000.] Slowly but irresistibly the nation is being
leavened by Christianity. In the next century the word
Jno.ku (paganus) will have the same meaning with
heathen. With the energies which are rooted in a pure
Christianity, Japan will, I am strongly convinced, sooner
or later, take her place among the foremost nations of
the world, and be at the head of the Asiatic peoples who
now play a part in the world's history.

108 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Cast we now a glance upon India, which indeed is
rather a collection of mankind than a people, and of
which it is scarcely possible to speak without erroneous
generalisations. We leave out of view altogether the
Buddhist regions in the North and East. Buddhism
is in its nature distinctly hostile to culture.14 The
peoples who live under its sway resemble, according
to Graul's pithy dictum, a churchyard. Only Jesus
Christ is able to waken these dead, and to fill them with
new life. But at present we have to do only with the
Brahmanist Indian. The renowned culture of this pro
verbially old " wonderland " is in the present more than
doubtful. "Much fairy scenery as of the thousand and
one nights," gigantic ruins, sensual and sense-stupefying
virtuosity, without sound foundation, harmonious pene
tration, and people-enlivening energy. The missionary
Stern, who laboured twenty years in Bengal, replies very
neatly to Mr. Buss : " Many judge of the Hindus of to
day according to the condition of the old Aryans of the
Vedic period. I am convinced that it would be less
erroneous to seek for the Greek of classical antiquity in
the Greece of to-day. The modern Hindus are, except
in so far as they are influenced by the European mind,
in a condition of utter stagnation." Not even in material
respects, with which alone we have now to do, has this
culture been able to elevate the people. It is a very in
structive fact that India, "that wonder-land, where the
bosom of the earth and the water deals out in inexhaus
tible abundance all precious treasures of the mineral
kingdom, gold, gems, pearls — where the surface of the
earth is adorned with the most various charms, and the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 109
most intense vitality of plant and animal life, where
Nature, almost without labour, gives a luxuriant harvest
three times in a year, and spontaneously presents men
with the most exquisite fruits for refreshment and de
light "—that this India, notwithstanding the most praise
worthy cultural efforts cf the British Government, is,
according to the testimony of the most competent judges,
a poor land, whose agriculture stands on a low level, and
which is ever falling into greater financial difficulties, to
say nothing of the calamities which repeated great famines
bring upon the population. In that wonder-land foreign
adventurers collect immense treasures; but the natives
not only are not improving, but are being impoverished.
But culture cannot be obtruded upon any people from
without. The religiously neutral Indo-British Govern
ment may spread a network of railroads and telegraphs
over the whole land, may make one after another of the
acquisitions of our civilization accessible to the natives,
may even cause our natural science to be taught in their
high schools — with all this they but put a new patch on
an old garment, bring culture-patches but no new culture,
a show of culture but no effective life of culture. So
long as caste — to mention only this one thing — is not
effectually overcome, producing, as it necessarily does,
distinctions of nature betwixt men of the same nation,
as if they were distinct races and beings, so long is a
sound, harmonious culture, effectively embracing the whole
people, an impossible thing. No doubt this eminent
hindrance of culture is shaken by the European civiliza
tion ; but nothing can effectively overcome it except
the Gospel of Christ. The last Viceroy of India, Lord

no MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Lawrence, is altogether right when he asserts that " how
ever many benefits the English people have conferred
on India, the missionaries have accomplished more than
all other influences together." 15 Evidently it is not to
be understood as if the missionaries had done more in
the immediate fostering of outward culture than the
Government, commerce, and continual contact with the
European civilization. Not little indeed has been done
on the part of the mission in the most direct way for the
advancement of the material progress of the Indian
people, as e.g., by the Basel Society's Industrial Work
shops, the Christian Industrial Schools at Multan, Satara,
Secundra, &c, the founding of Christian "villages, the
encouragement of agriculture in Tinnevelly and Travan-
core, the improvement of the rural dwellings, &c. But
the chief point is — to quote again the words of the Indo-
British Government Report : " Through the efforts of
the missionaries a new energy has been breathed into
the ossified life of the vast masses of people subject to
the British rule, which makes them better men and better
citizens of the great State to which they belong." Even
in relation to culture the saying holds good : " It is the
Spirit that giveth life ; " and this life-giving Spirit neither
the Hindu reformation, the visibly declining Brahma-
samaj, nor European science separated from Christianity,
can impart to the Hindus. Undeniably this science bears
a very important part in the culture-formation of the
present day, and in point of fact it sets new culture
forces in motion even in India. But while we in Western
Christendom can bear these forces of civilization born
of materialism, so long as our people's life rests upon the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. in
positive life-principles of the Gospel, and the counter
acting forces of Christian morality can in some measure
paralyse their undermining influence — a heathen nation,
which wants those resisting forces which flow from a
positive well of life, must be irredeemably ruined by a
merely materialistic culture. Materialism, as the denial
of spirit, is consequently also the negation of life ; it is
death. Jesus Christ, on the contrary, " the Lord, who
is that Spirit " (2 Cor. iii. 1 7), is also " the Life " (John
i. 4 ; v. 26 ; xiv. 6). As certainly as Jesus Christ is
absolutely the Saviour of the world, so certainly is the
mission, which brings this Jesus Chiist to the heathen,
the only cultural powef which regenerates them to a new
culture-life. The decisive battle for the culture-life of
the people must be fought on the religious-moral field.
We have, perhaps, dwelt too long in the treatment of
the influence of the mission on the awakening and foster
ing of material culture, which, indeed, strictly speaking,
is not its peculiar field and province. Far more directly
and comprehensively the cultural service of the mission
is directed to the promotion of the spiritual life, which
in its turn exercises a mighty reflex influence on the
advancement of material civilization.
Without doubt the mission is the greatest " refinement-
society " in the world. Among the current phrases with
which the enlightened children of the nineteenth century
are made to be afraid of the Gospel of Christ, one of the
most common and the most effective is, that it stupefies
the peoples. The culture strife of the present day is repre
sented as a contest of scientific refinement with churchly
unrefinement, the struggle of the light of illumination

112 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
with the darkness of the old Bible-belief. It is no part
of the task assigned to us to defend Christianity in general
against this absurd accusation, by pointing out the old
petitio principii which lies at the foundation of the artful
contrast. It is, it appears to us, most clearly refuted by
the action of the mission, which, wherever we meet with
it, shows itself as a refining power of the first rank.
Confessedly it is the first principle of the evangelical
mission to proclaim the Gospel to every people in their
mother-tongue. Our missionaries are therefore instructed
to learn that language as soon and as thoroughly as
possible. That they thereby render the most meritorious
service to the science of language; and indirectly also to
ethnology, in so far as they as linguists are the best
qualified to give trustworthy information concerning
the sentiments and the manners of foreign nations —
as is acknowledged more and more by the foremost
authorities — comes only incidentally under our notice
with respect to our present design. Far more important
is the advantage which accrues to the peoples who come
under the care of the missionaries. This is in general
the great distinction between the service rendered to
science by the action . of the missionaries, and the work
of the professional scientist, that the former benefits the
nations, the latter benefits only science ; for while to
science foreign nations are essentially an object to be
known, to the mission they are the objects to be saved.
The former investigates the peculiarities of lands, peoples,
and languages in order to increase our knowledge ; the
latter in order to bring salvation to the natives. Geo
graphical, ethnological, or linguistic investigation is the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 113
end of science, but only means towards the end of the
mission. We send our missionaries forth, not for the
purpose of collecting scientific material ; but they must
collect this material, in order to accomplish the purpose
which the mission aims at. The Word is the weapon
with which they especially wage their war, and hence
they must become masters of speech.
In the first instance they proclaim the Gospel by word
of mouth. Never does the popular speech in which they
do this contain the whole of the expressions which they
need in order to designate the facts and the concepts of
the Christian salvation. The language which they have
learned is found, more or less, to be too poor for the
preaching of the Christian salvation. There must, there
fore, of necessity, be an enriching of the language, partly
through the connecting of existing words with new con
cepts, and thus the refining of the previous meanings
of the words ; partly through the introduction of words
newly formed, or borrowed from foreign languages. As
at its first entrance, so even now, on its introduction
among a people -who had been hitherto excluded from it,
Christianity exercises a speech-refining power.16 It is
manifest that thereby a very important cultural factor
is introduced into the intellectual life of a people. It is
not only that the circle of sentiments and conceptions
of the natives isstrengthened and enlarged, not only
that the language is enriched and enlivened, there is
also imparted a stimulus to new mental activity, which
spreads its undulations outward beyond the region of the
religious. It is difficult to trace this influence precisely,
because it is so mental in its concrete individual effects ;
H

114 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
but it is proved by the elevation of the common condi
tion of refinement wherever it has taken effect among
any people who have been the object of the mission,
whether in the Middle Ages or in the present day.
The cultural importance of the missionaries' concern
ment with language is much more manifest in the pro
clamation of salvation by writing. It is one of the
fundamental maxims of the Protestant missionary pro
cedure that the fountain of revelation — the Bible — is to
be put into the hands of every people as soon as possible.
Without controversy a general possession of the means
of communicating thought is essential to every pervasive
and lasting popular enlightenment. Just as little is it
to be doubted that a people without writing stands on
a very low platform of mental enlightenment, so that a
special advancement in culture begins for a people with
the advancement of their language into a written lan
guage. Now for this special advancement a great
number of heathen peoples in the present day — in the
South Seas, in Asia, in Africa, and in America — are
indebted to the Evangelical mission. We cannot give
their number precisely. Buss puts them — certainly far
too low — at 30; Hoffman — too high for his time (1855)
— at more than 100. We shall probably be near the
truth if we say from 70 to 80. That is truly an
eminent cultural achievement, on account of which
alone the mission should be honoured by cotemporaries
as a cultural power of the first order.
But the mission has not only given a written language
to peoples who were hitherto entirely without writing ; it
has in addition, by means of its Bible-translation work,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 115
introduced a new literary epoch among all the peoples
among whom it carries on its work. According to the
Seventy-Fourth "Annual Eeport of the British and
Foreign Bible Society " (p. 237), the Bible, in whole or
in part, has been, printed in 303 languages or dialects.
Of these, the Society named has superintended the trans
lation and publication in 172 languages directly, and in
53 indirectly: in all, 225 languages, and for the most
part in more than one edition. More than four-fifths of
these translations have been made since the formation
of the Society, and for the most part by missionaries.
Besides the general catalogue contained in the Eeport
before us (p. 228-237) there is a special historico-
ethnographical table, brought down to the latest date,
regarding all the translations of the whole or of portions
of Holy Scripture into the Indian languages and dialects,
made by Protestant missionaries, and generally printed
by help of the British Bible Society, and many of which,
since their first publication, have either been translated
anew, or revised and improved. This table exhibits 5 8
Indian languages and dialects to which the Bible has
been made accessible since the first decade of this century.
Many Bible translations, and not only in India, are pro
duced in indigenous presses, which are wrought by
natives, as, e.g., the Samoan Bible, whose cost has been
fully defrayed by the native Christians. Of the New
Testament 15,000 copies, of the whole Bible 12,000
have been issued. To mention specially the Bible
translation work of the German Missionary Societies,
the Church of the Brethren (Moravians), so far as we
know, has produced 2 (Eskimo and Tibetan) ; the Basel

116 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Society, 6 (Tschi and Ga in Africa, Kanarese, Malayalim,
and Tulu in India, the Hakka dialect in China) ; the
Barmen Society, 6 (Nama, Herero, Borneo, Battia, the
Punti dialect in China, Niassa) ; the Leipsic Society,
I (Tamul) ; Bremen, I (Ewe) ; Gossner's mission, i
(Mundari) ; the Berlin South African Society, i or 2
(Zulu and for British Kaffir-land) ; Crischona, 2 (Ahmaric
and Galla ; in all, 2 1 Bible translations, while Hermanns-
burg does not appear to have undertaken this department
of work.For the purpose of our inquiry we have not to advert
to the value of these Bible translations for the spread of
the Gospel, but rather the value they have had, and still
have, for the spread of culture. Confessedly, Ulfilas's
and Luther's translations play a foremost part not only
in the Church history, but also in the history of litera
ture and culture in Germany. Both have been of the
most far-reaching importance, for the development of the
language, and for the advancement of the intellectual
education of the people. When a Herr von Hellwald
puts forth the assertion that the German Church Eefor
mation brought no cultural gain, it is perfectly palpable
with respect to his fanatical hatred against the Bible,
and his naive ignorance of all matters relating to the
religious life ; but scarcely any one will perceive in it a
proof of his qualifications to write a history of culture.
Had Luther done nothing more than give our people the
German Bible, for this one deed even those who cannot
appreciate his deserts in the furthering of our religious
life must have assigned him an honourable place in the
history of German culture. The German Bible has

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 117
awakened a wholly new intellectual life in our nation,
and has made a way for intellectual refinement even
into the humblest cottages — a fact which Gustav Freitag,
for example, fully estimates in his Pictures from the
German Past. With Luther's Bible translation the art
of reading was introduced among our people, and the
foundation was laid for our special popular schools.
Who shall estimate the cultural advantage which the
German Bible alone, as a house-book and a school-book,
has conferred for three centuries and a half on the educa
tion of our nation ? No literary production has exerted
any influence upon effective popular education even
approaching that exercised by Luther's translation of the
Bible. We are not, however, so enthusiastic as to put all
translations of the Bible, made by the missionaries of
the present day, on the same level, in point of value and
efficacy, with Luther's version. But having to illustrate
by an obvious and indubitable example the importance
of Bible translation for the intellectual life of a people,
we exemplified it by reference to the Lutheran version.
Most of the Bible translations of our missionaries are
indeed but very mediocre works, and we are not of those
who blindly estimate every new version as a vast mis
sionary feat. This confession we make even at the risk
of receiving very ambiguous commendation at the hands
of the Eomish enemies of the Bible Societies. The mis
sionary translators have to write in a language which is
not their mother-tongue ; and, besides, many undertake
the work of translating far too soon, and many also
without the necessary scientific and otherwise essential

118 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
qualifications. Therefore we frankly confess that even
the successful Bible translations accomplished by the
missionaries are really only provisional works, for later
versions to be effected by the natives themselves. Yet
even these more or less successful provisional works do
a great cultural service, inasmuch as they supply to the
people a means of education which, however linguistically
imperfect it may perhaps be, gives to both Christians and
heathens an impulse to a new intellectual life. Even
so, that by means of these Bible versions the language
is subjected to a process of advancement and refinement,
the intellectual life is put in motion. " To me it is not
a matter of doubt," writes a competent judge on these
matters, the early missionary Jellingham, " that by the
spread of European education, along with the influence
of mission schools, even the East Indian languages are
essentially improved in accuracy, and even partly in
copiousness. As soon as a language becomes a " school
language," and is employed for teaching scientific sub
jects, the style necessarily becomes more pointed and
precise, loses its childish diffuseness, and a great multi
tude of words acquire a more definite meaning. Thus
the translated Bible is important for the Christian popu
lation, even as a means of refining the native languages.
The Bible, in its many translations into the most diverse
languages, is certainly designed of God for this end
among others, to bring these languages, in their intellec
tual content and in their expression of concepts, nearer
to one another, and to render them more homogeneous
and more intelligible. Without the Bible mankind would
be without a great means of intellectual unity, and a

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 119
common interpreter." In addition to this, we must not
forget — what we shall have to speak of more fully
further on — that with Bible translation comes the school,
and with the school the education of the people. In
Bengal, for example, where, before the publication of the
first Bible translation, scarcely a thirtieth part of the
population could read, the number of readers in the
course of fifty years increased threefold. To this not
only the mission schools had contributed, but also the
heathen schools, which were instituted by the Brahmans
in opposition to the missions, and the Government schools,
which were called into life by the direct and indirect
stimulus of the misisons. " Whereas, at the time when
Henry Martyn came to India (1805), the vernacular was
in the rudest condition, and knowledge was imprisoned
in the inaccessible, labyrinthine castle of the Sanskrit,
and all access to it by the people was prohibited by the
Brahmans, while in Mohammedan circles all instruction
lay behind the thick veils of the Arabic and Persian
languages, so that the Bengali and still more the Hindi
were scarcely written languages ; they now contain a
sacred and secular literature, which began with the Bible,
and is increasing every year. The Bible pours out light
and life, awakens the languages from death: this awaken
ing in its turn promotes translation, and a process is
afoot which indeed will never, or only very slowly, come
to its goal without oral preaching, but with it must
necessarily end in the Christianising of all lands and
provinces." But Bible-translating is by no means the only literary
achievement of the missionaries. We confine ourselves,

120 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
in the first instance, to India. What takes place there
is so much the more important, as in that land we have
to do with an old culture-people. We are in the fortu
nate position of being able to adduce, with respect to the
great influence which the missionaries exert by their
extensive literary exertions, upon the advancement of
the natives of that country, the official testimony of
the religiously-neutral Indo-British Government, whom
nobody will charge with any partiality for the mission.
In the Eeport for 1872 it is said, among other things:
" No class pays greater attention to the study of the
vernacular languages than the missionaries. The effect
of this is too important to be overlooked. The mission
aries are universally well acquainted with the natives.
They have issued hundreds of publications both for
schools and for home reading, in the fifteen most pro
minent languages of India, and in various other dialects.
They are the authors of several dictionaries and gram
mars; they have written important works on the native
classics and their philosophic systems, they have really
stimulated the great increase of native literature, which
has been produced by educated Hindus of later years."
" There are (1 872) in India twenty-five mission presses.
In the ten years 185 2- 1862 there issued from them
1,634,940 portions of Holy Scripture (mostly single
books) and 8,604,033 tracts, school-books and writings
for general use. In the ten years, 1862-72, there
appeared 3410 new works, in thirty languages, and
there were 1,315,503 portions of Scripture, 2,375,040
school-books and 8,750,129 Christian tracts and books
put in circulation."

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 121
Now, these millions of books must find readers.
Apart altogether from the diffusion of Christian ideas
which is unquestionably effected by them, what a new
movement do they introduce into the " stereotyped life "
of the very classes who have hitherto had virtually no
part in the mental activity of the educated higher classes !
The Christian mission-literature opens a new epoch of
Indian literary history, and this new epoch of literary
history lays the foundation for a new epoch of Indian
cultural history. With the sacred and secular literature
introduced by the mission, a new intellectual education,
and that of the people, has been brought into India. No
doubt, since the new literary epoch began, other factors
besides the mission have played important parts. There
has also sprung up a filthy literature which is working
moral evil. It is manifest that consequently the mission-
literature has a new importance for the moral life of the
people ; and it is pleasing to be able to state that under
the impulse given by the mission, a society has been
formed in Calcutta, composed of Christians and heathens,
to counteract the obscene press — a society at the head of
which, along with the leader of the Brahma Somaj and
the president of a society for the defence of Hinduism,
stands the well-known learned missionary, Dr. Wenger.
Even in China the literary activity of the missionaries
is receiving more and more recognition at the hands of
the political press, which otherwise is but little favourable
to the mission. Thus the China Mail, of 4th December
last, contains a learned article on " Protestant Missionaries
and School-Books among the Chinese," in which not only
the " classical purity of the style " is commended by

122 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
which these writings throw the natives into astonish
ment, but especially the resolution of the Shanghai Con
ference to assign to a committee the publication of a
series of school-books and books of science, is highly
praised. " Dr. Edkins, one of the most prominent
Sinologues, has promised a text-book on logic and
comparative philology ; Mr. Griffith John, who became
known twenty years ago by his treatises on the Moral
Philosophy of the Chinese, is to write a book on ethics ;
Dr. Martin, Principal of the Pekin College, and trans
lator of a text-book on international law, and other
writings, is occupied with works on political economy
and mathematical physics ; while Mr. Fryer, the inde
fatigable translator to the Chinese Government, and
editor of the Chinese Scientific Magazine, will prepare
works on mineralogy, chemistry, and the industries of
Europe. Dr. Williamson, who for years past has been
producing important scientific treatises of the Society for
the Difusion of Useful Knowledge, and has made for him
self a name by an original philosophical dissertation on
the origin of the world, is to write on the physiology of
plants, on culture-history, and comparative religion. Dr.
Dudgeon, the well-known author of a Chinese anatomical
atlas, and of a work on the diseases of China, has pro
mised a text-book on physiology, while Dr. Osgood will
produce a similar one on anatomy. Mr. Mateer, the
author of numerous Chinese school-books, has undertaken
arithmetic, geometry, and trigonometry. There are many
other well-known names in the list, all of which we can
not mention. It is enough to state that Mr. Faber, whose
sermons on the Gospel of Mark are in the hands of all

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 123
native Chinese preachers, whose brief exposition of the
Confucian doctrine, and whose works on Licius, Mencius,
and Micius have secured for him a foremost place among
Sinologues, has undertaken to furnish a Chinese commen
tary written from a Christian standpoint, on the most
important Chinese classics." The article designates this
work as the most important undertaking which has been
entered on by Protestant or Catholic missionaries in China
in the course of the present century.
Turn we now a glance to the literary activity of the
mission exerted among peoples who have been hitherto
without a literature. It is a widespread prejudice that
for the so-called nature-peoples only second-rate mis
sionaries are required, while to the culture -peoples
scientifically educated men must be sent — a prejudice
on which of late an entirely new mission method has
been established. We shall not make ourselves charge
able with any paradox by maintaining the opposite view.
But we have no doubt that we need very accomplished
men as missionaries among the uncivilized peoples-
We do not mean under all circumstances university-
trained missionaries : for it would first have to be proved
that these are in all cases the most accomplished men.
But we mean men naturally gifted, soundly and solidly
educated, especially apt in the acquirement of foreign
languages, and qualified by singleness of heart and
decision of character for the treatment and training of
uncivilized peoples, men who can both descend to the
level of those below them, and gradually raise them to
such civilization as they are capable of. The task
assigned to these men seem to us as great as — indeed

124 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
greater than — that which is to be performed among the
Hindus or the Chinese. Even the acquirement of a
language, which must, so to speak, be first discovered,
requires great acuteness, as well as great patience. Now,
the missionary must not only himself learn the languages,
not only must he construct a grammar and a lexicon of
these, he must also reduce them to writing, and lay the
foundation of a literature, however elementary. That
is a mighty task ; and this task has been taken in hand,
not by science, so proud of her powers, not by commerce,
that celebrated civilizer, not by the European colonial
policy, so much belauded as the educator of barbarians,
but by the despised mission, wherever she has planted
her foot amid barbarism.
The performances in this direction are already so
extensive that it is scarcely possible to enumerate them.
Besides, the published accounts are very insufficient for
forming a catalogue. We content ourselves with stating,
so far as our information, mostly derived from private
correspondence, extends, what literary work, apart from
Bible translations, has been done on the part of the
German missionary societies.
[I have omitted the long list given by the author,
because it gives no idea of the number of works pro
duced by the whole body of missionaries, nor of the
size or character of those produced by the German
missionaries. The list contains upward of 2 60 items ;
but a frequently recurring one is " tracts " or " school-
books." — Trans.]
This is, as has been said, only the literary achieve
ment of the German missionary societies, and we fear

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 125
that it is not complete. But it is well . known that the
missionaries in the service of the German societies —
about 515 in number — are only about a fifth part of
the ordained missionaries sent from Europe and America,
and we have good grounds for the assumption that the
whole of their literary productions are much more than
five times as numerous as those produced by Germans.
That our readers may have a fair impression of the
important extent of these works, we only mention that
the great American Board, alone (A. B. C. F. M.) have
converted into written languages sixteen hitherto un
written dialects, and have published in 46 dialects about
2300 writings of the most varied extent and contents.
The Hawaian literature alone numbers 107 works.
Among the publications of the Society there are eleven
religious newspapers in ten languages, which are sup
ported mainly by natives. We give further, in form of
a note, the carefully prepared catalogue of an English
Society — (the Church Missionary Society.)*
Of course the greater part of this very varied literary
products is of a religious character. But however con
temptuously many enraged friends of culture in these
days may think of theological literature, it is still a
literature ; and the fact cannot be set aside that even
among the now civilized nations of the Christian West,
theology has taken the lead in the march of literature.
It is with literature as with the school. Both have
come forth from the womb of the Christian Church.
So also among the still uncivilized peoples of the present
day, religious literature generally opens the epoch of
* This Catalogue also I omit. — Trans.

126 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
literary history. Among the literature products, for
example, we meet with many song-books. Most of the
hymns in them may be accommodations of home church-
hymns ; still, by means of them a stimulus is given to
religious poetry ; original poetic productions soon follow
— weak enough probably at first — as, among others,
the example of the Tamulians, the Kohls, and the Sotho-
negroes proves — productions which more or less approxi
mate to popular songs, and are of no small importance
for the evangelisation of the people. But along with
the writings of religious matter, there is no lack of
secular books, as our catalogues show. We find — not
to speak of grammatical and lexical works — collections
of proverbs, tales, &c. ; books on arithmetic, history, and
geography, and popular scientific writings ; before all,
primers and school reading-books. It was a mark of
narrow-mindedness to call the publication of a school-
primer, or, if you like, an A B C book, an unimportant
work. Even in our circumstances it is by no means
an easy task to produce a really good primer. There
are many indeed who undertake such work, but few who
succeed. And how much greater are the difficulties
among a people which either possesses no written lan
guage, or is to only the smallest extent occupied with
reading ? In such a case a primer is in fact a pioneer
work. And this pioneer work devolves on the mis
sionary. The task thereby assigned him is truly not
less than that of a colleague 'who perhaps writes learned
controversial treatises in opposition to the Indian or
Chinese philosophers, and the service which he renders
by means of his primer perhaps contributes more to

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 127
general cultivation than the lectures delivered in the
high schools of the Hindus of scientific capacities.
In closest connection with this literary activity of the
missionaries stands the school activity, which they exer
cise most extensively, both amongst barbarous and civi
lized peoples. This school activity is the necessary result
of the mission design, and the necessary requirement of
the mission method. The evangelical mission must put
the Bible into the hands of the converts ; but, in order
that they may learn to understand the Bible, they must
first teach them to read, and must instruct them in the
meaning of it. According to the commission given them
by the founder of the mission, they are to make men
His disciples by baptism and instruction. It is not
indeed strictly school teaching that is commanded in this
precept, yet that is developed from it with absolute
necessity under the relations of the present day. We
stand up very decidedly for missionary school activity.
We have neither any idea of converting missionaries into
schoolmasters, nor can we consent to the introduction of
a sort of compulsory schooling, or to the production of
educational caricatures by a school-standard injudiciously
placed too high. But with all the protestations that we
must take against didactic unskilfulness, the old principle
still holds good, abusus non tollit usum. Without school
teaching no mission praxis is to be thought of at the
present day. Granted that we cannot teach the old to
read, we cannot help instructing the children in this art.
Infant-baptism demands infant-teaching, and infant-
teaching demands the school. And although at the
outset we restrict ourselves to oral instruction and to

128 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
religious subjects, it is in the nature of things that read
ing and writing must soon be introduced, and all sorts
of similar instruction must follow. It is often contested
now-a-days to whom among us the maternity of the
school belongs. Only party, prejudice can doubt of the
decision on this point. As in these days the mission is
everywhere the mother of the school, so with us also, the
foundation of the school was laid with the introduction
of Christianity ; and especially as a result of the Refor
mation they were built on this foundation. Certainly,
other powers have since done much to foster and help
the schools, and have greatly advanced them. But the
mother remains the mother. Still no mother is the sole
educator of her child ; schools, intercourse with others,
and life do more than the mother can do. But even
when the son becomes a professor, or a general, or a
privy-councillor, his mother is still his mother ; no one
but his mother has given him life, and begun his educa
tion. It appears that we are come to the beginnings
of the same process in the case of the schools, which we
have already gone through in relation to the blessings
of material culture. The Gospel of Christ, brought by
the mission, has laid the foundation, and given the first
impulse to the one as to the other. Other factors have
afterwards entered into the development, and have
advanced the schools mightily through newly-created
forces, till the grown-up children have constantly for
gotten their origin ; yea, have turned their hand against
their mother. It is the old lamentation, " I have nour
ished and brought up children, and they have rebelled
against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 129
'his master's crib, but Israel knows not, and my people
considereth not ! "
This by way of parenthesis. Let us now summarise
what the modern mission is accomplishing for the school.
According to the latest statistical statements — those for
1874 — which, on account of the difficulty of collecting
the whole material, are no doubt very imperfect, there
were about 400,000 scholars receiving regular training
in the mission schools, a number far exceeded by those
of the present day. According to the statement of Buss,
" Ten to twelve thousand schools of various sorts owe
their institution to the mission.. In India alone, accord
ing to the reckoning of Dr. Mullens, the mission, in the
year 1862, was maintaining nearly 2000 schools, in
which not fewer than 81,850 children were receiving
education, while the number of Government schools did
not exceed 500. According to the last official report
of the Indian Government, the number of scholars under
the school-tuition of the mission had in 1871-72 risen
to 142,952, so that in ten years there is an increase of
about 62,000 scholars, or 79 to 80 per cent. Should
the mission schools increase in the same proportion in
the future, the number of their pupils in twenty years
will rise to nearly half a million. At Minahassa, in the
Celebes, the Netherlands Mission Society alone supports
more than one hundred different schools, to which is
chiefly to be ascribed the powerful influence which Chris
tianity there, under the guidance of the missionaries, is
exerting, in increasing proportion, over the formerly
heathen population. The most diverse classes and their
requirements are provided for in these establishments.

130 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
The mission not only provides common Christian schools'
for children of all ages, which in the most important
places are divided into elementary, primary, and secon
dary schools ; but also infant schools, adult schools,
seminaries for teachers and preachers, boarding schools,
what are called feeding schools, orphan houses, industrial
schools, Sunday schools, &c. In some only the young
people of the converts are educated, others receive Chris
tian and heathen children indiscriminately. The institu
tions for the training of native teachers and preachers
are of special importance, and to their success more and
more interest is attached. India alone, in 1872, had 85
such seminaries, with 1 6 1 8 pupils, and 2 8 normal schools
for female teachers, with 567 scholars 
"The schools not only form the strong ground upon
which an extensive development of the entire Christian
community may be best secured ; they also give a great
impulse to the impression of Christian sentiments upon
the ranks of those who are not yet converted. Chiefly
through them the general cultural condition of the
heathen population is being gradually improved. A
pleasing instance, of this is to be found among the in
habitants of the Sandwich Islands, who, in the course of
forty or fifty years, have been changed from a rude race
of savages, given to cannibalism and prostitution, into a
well-governed, orderly people, occupying a respectable
position in the scale of general refinement and material
prosperity. To this mighty change the school instruction
that has been provided for them has been not the smallest
contributor. Schools established among unchristian
peoples are in fact a salutary and continuous creation ;

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 131
and had the mission done naught else but given schools
in various parts of the world to uncultured or half-
civilized peoples, it would have thereby deserved the
constant thanks of mankind. After hundreds of years
to eome, the peoples interested will acknowledge with
thankfulness the blessed influence of these missionary
institutions." We have accorded so much space to the testimony of
this man, because no one can impute to him a partizan
preference for the " pietest " mission. But Herr Buss
is a man in whom party zeal has not destroyed truth
fulness, and who, in allhis polemic against the " pietist "
mission, has been honest enough to see and to acknow
ledge the good that is in it. In view of the testimony
of such an opponent, who has really made missions a
study, what avails the cry of the ignoramuses prejudiced
by party feeling, that the mission, as a work of unen
lightened men, only stupefies the people, and consigns
them to mental bondage ?
On account of the importance of the matter, it is
necessary to add some other testimonies. First, once
more with reference to India. " With respect to educa
tion," Lord Napier, late Governor of Madras, testifies in
the address already mentioned, " the aid of the religious
societies is of incalculable value for the Government and
the people. The missionary bodies, by the transforma
tion and extension of the school-system, afforded help,
without which the Government could not have instituted
their reforms. Especially for the lower classes, the
educational work of the mission is the only successful
one. And this side of their assiduity is fully acknow-

132 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
ledged and esteemed by the educated natives." But
besides the numerous elementary schools for the people,
there is also a considerable number of higher schools, a
sort of gymnasium, conducted by missionaries, and
attended by heathen and Mohammedan scholars. It is
well known that it was the distinguished Scottish mis
sionary, Dr. Duff, who most successfully gave the
impulse to these educational institutions, which after
wards exerted a widespread influence in the educational
policy of the Government. Certainly, the Christian
character of these institutions is not denied ; and the
Bible is read and explained in all the classes ; but the
Christian element is put too much in the background in
comparison with the common scientific instruction which
is eagerly sought ; while it is a fact that comparatively few
of the scholars who attend them openly embrace Chris
tianity. One may have but a low estimate of the mis
sionary value of these institutions ; * but the special
friends of culture should give them all praise for their
cultural value ; for it is beyond all doubt that by these
schools the mission has introduced an element of en
lightenment among the higher classes of the Indian
people, which they could never have originated of them
selves. The official Report of the Indo-British Govern
ment, which has been repeatedly mentioned, speaks of
the missions-school system generally, and especially of
these higher schools, with the highest commendation, and
states with satisfaction that in the period from 1862 to
1873, 1621 alumni of these institutions passed the test
of proficiency in one of the three Indian universities.
* See Translator's Introduction.

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 133
On occasion of his second journey into India, Monier
Williams, the well-known Oxford Professor of San
skrit, passes the following judgment on these mission
schools : — " Here " — in Madras — " as in other parts of
India, the mission' schools are doing, in my opinion, a
noble work. The education which they impart rests,
openly and professedly, entirely upon a Christian basis.
The Bible is learned without the ecclesiastical dogmas
being pressed upon the scholars. My second journey
has strengthened, more than was the case before, my
conviction that India is deriving the greatest benefits
through the energetic efforts which the missionaries of
all denominations are putting forth. What has been
hitherto attained is as nothing in comparison with the
part which they are destined to play for the future of
our Indian empire. Every day the European missionary
is becoming a more important link between the Govern
ment and the people. He is the object of the greatest
confidence to the natives of all classes, and is often able
to accomplish what the Government, with its policy of
neutrality, is powerless to effect. The mission schools
attract the children of the adherents of all religions,
although they professedly inspire them with a spirit
adverse to these religions. It may be that the mere
Bible teaching often serves only to destroy without neces
sarily constructing ; but it constantly and unobservedly
infuses principles incompatible with the Pantheistic ideas,
with which the Hindu mind is commonly saturated.
Although it does not always immediately substitute the
true faith for the false, yet it lays the foundation for a
future faith in a personal God. For the deceitful sandy

134 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
foundation of Pantheism it substitutes that of a living
rock, upon which afterwards the specially evangelising
missionaries can build more extensively, when the value
of the Gospel is compared with that of the Vedas and
the Koran. It is my conviction that the immense work
of the Christianisation of India is to be accomplished not
only by specific mission methods, 'but rather by the co
operation of Divine and human instrumentalities in a
great variety of ways. And so I hold that it will be
brought about especially — more slowly and quietly, and
without observation indeed, than is commonly expected
— by the impressions produced upon the minds of the
children by the educational process which is going on in
the schools of our missionaries. Of all the schools which
I visited in Southern India there were especially two
which astonished me by their meritorious operations — viz.,
the Scottish Free Church Institution in Madras, in which
there were about iooo scholars; and that of the Church
Missionary Society in Tinnevelly, under Bishop Sargent,
in whose district there are about 60,000 evangelical
converts from heathenism."
Not only the missionaries, but also the Indo-British
Government, through the direct and indirect impulse
given by the mission, are zealously undertaking school
work, on which they are spending large funds. It is
reasonable and right that we should have a word of
acknowledgment for this; and all the more because,
according to the grant-in-aid system, many mission
schools are subsidised by the Government, and mis
sionaries are willingly appointed as school inspectors.
But the religiously-neutral standpoint brings the Govern-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 135
ment in all their good designs for the natives into an
unsound method of education, which is dangerous even
to itself. The Government schools must be professedly
and by statute without religion, and irreligious schools,
in India as well as at home, train a godless and immoral
race. The higher mission schools mentioned above have
much that is doubtful about them, notwithstanding their
Bible instruction; especially that they are more con
cerned to prepare their pupils for the university exa
minations than to form in them a thoroughly religious
moral character; but the Government schools, which are
entirely without religion, however they may contribute
to the • spread of intellectual advancement, are very
dangerous in the interests of moral improvement. Not
the missionaries alone, but even the earnest heathen, are
the opponents of these schools. In a lecture which
Babu Amurtha Lai Bose, an agent of the Brahma Samaj,
delivered a few years ago at Bangalore, on the Govern
ment system of education, he declared openly that it
has brought many evils on the land ; that the youth of
Bengal are utterly ruined by it. Specially explicit, and
as it appears to us, to the point, and instructive also
with respect to our own school policy, was a lecture
which the First Prince of the kingdom of Travancore
delivered some time ago in a literary society.17 The
following is part of his statement : — " School education
is extending more rapidly in this land than anywhere
else in the world ; but the educational influences of it
are not making equal advance ; and it is an unhappy
fact that the education which the school affords does not
extend to the whole mass. School education aims at'

136 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
three results with different" degrees of certainty. First,
and most certainly, it furnishes the mind with know
ledge. Secondly, and less certainly, it sharpens the
capacity of the reason, strengthens the reasoning faculty,
and ripens the judgment. Thirdly, and least certainly,
it fortifies and purifies the moral man. Without this
third, the balance is lost. Without moral character, a
man is as useless as a watch which has a strong main
spring, but has no balance. Our school education comes
but little into contact with the moral man. On the
other hand, the effect of Christianity upon the morals of
the people has been astonishing. I am not a Christian,
but I accept the Christian moral teaching. . . . Our
school education contributes but little to moral progress.
Now, as the germ of the future tree, is in the innermost
part of its fruit, so the germ of moral development is in
the innermost being of the man. Here it is that the
movement must begin. ... So far it is certain, that
there is a God who knows what we think and do, that
we are morally responsible men, and that our life should
be regulated accordingly. Let this great and solemn
truth fill your hearts, and from that moment there is
hope of moral development."
People occupying our position are often disbelieved
when they assert that intellectual education, without
moral foundation, is a very doubtful cultural gain. Per
haps the testimony of a heathen will be more convincing.
When he freely states with reference to Christianity that
"its effect upon the morals of the people has been
astonishing ; I have my own views regarding it ; but I
accept the Christian moral teaching in its full perfection,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 137
and have the highest admiration of it," we cannot take
it amiss in a heathen ; but a Christian should know that
the Christian faith and the Christian morals are con
nected as the root and the stem, and that he betrays a
defective judgment who thinks that the latter can be
cultivated while the former is cast overboard. He who
detaches a flower from its root causes it to wither.
The testimony of the Prince of Travancore receives
new confirmation from precisely similar experiences in
Japan. " It is true " — so writes a young Christian
Japanese a short time ago — "that schools, academies,
and seminaries have now been established in all parts of
Japan, in which provision is made both for general and
for special departmental education. But what advan
tage do these schools promise for the real well-being of
Japan ? What, for example, is the character of the
Imperial University, as men are pleased to call the
highest of all these schools ? I attended this university
for two years, and tell only what I have myself seen and
heard. There are here, under the special protection of
the Government, nearly 8,00 students, sons of the richest,
noblest, and worthiest men of the country. Some 25
foreign professors are teaching medicine, chemistry,
jurisprudence, literature, and natural science. But the
students learn quite other things ; they smoke, they drink,
they do worse things than these. They despise all
morality and religion. Shall it be the unhappy fate of
these disciples of science to be instructed in all the arts
of an accomplished man, without morality and religion ?
Mill and Spencer, Darwin and Conite, are working
greater havoc in Japan than was ever wrought by the

138 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
cloudy mythology of Sinotism or the dark superstition
of Buddhism. And who are we that we should be able to
oppose them, and protect the coming generations from
their poisoned darts ? Christians must establish an
educational institution, from which a Christian spirit
shall go forth, and which shall provide as comprehensive
scientific instruction as is given in the University of
Tokio." The great importance of the missionary school system
in the history of culture is that it seeks to impart to the
culture-peoples of the West * an intellectual education
resting on Christian, religious, and therefore moral foun
dations, an education which does not eat away the life
of the people at its innermost root, but renders it healthy
and strong.
Among the nature-peoples it is practically the mission
alone that is occupied with education. We give only a
few specimens from the wide territory which it is culti
vating. According to the last Annual Report, the Basel
Mission on the Gold Coast, where there are about 4000
Christians under its care, maintains 4 1 schools of various
kinds at all its stations and out-stations : infant, common,
and middle schools, two seminaries for teachers and one
for preachers, with 112 various classes, which in all are
attended by 1 1 3 5 male and female scholars, without
counting the Sabbath schools. What an educational
leaven among the black population ! Even the small
North-German Missionary Society, which occupies only
four stations on the Slave Coast, and besides its Seminary,
has only four schools, which may be attended by about
* Qu. East. — Trans.

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 139
150 children, is by means of them sowing a widely self-
propagating seed. " If we would estimate the importance
of the school-work," writes the inspector of this Society,
" we must remember that, apart from Waya, from which
a special report has not come to hand, 27 different dis
tricts of Eweland are sharing the blessing of a Christian
school-education." Very important are the school operations developed
by the London Missionary Society, which in all its
mission fields maintains 1707 schools. In Madagascar,
for example, where fifty years ago no one thought of the
education of the people, there are, according to the latest
yearly report, 745 schools of various sorts under the
superintendence of this society, regularly attended by
41,457 scholars. Upon the Polynesian Islands under
the Society's charge there are 590, with 19,270 male
and female scholars ; while the Wesleyans have in the
same islands 1697 day-schools, with 49,203 scholars.
The Church Missionary Society have up to this time
called into life 1499 schools, in which as many as
57,145 scholars are being educated. Of these schools,
29 with 1488 scholars fall to the lot of Yorubaland,
and 7 with 235 scholars to that of the Niger mission-
field, first opened by Bishop Samuel Crowther. As the
Globus reports, a competitive examination lately took
place at Otago in New Zealand between the five best
Maori children in the mission-school for natives, and as
many white children of the English schools, in arithmetic,
geography, writing, spelling, and reading. " In dictation
the Maoris were easily beaten; but in arithmetic they
solved 22 out of 30 examples correctly, while the English

140 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
children solved only 14. The results in geography were
about equal, though somewhat in favour of the Maoris.
They had the advantage also in writing, but were inferior
in oral spelling. At the close the judges declared that
upon the whole neither party was superior to the other
— a result which was not unexpected by those who knew
the intellectual powers of the Maoris." With respect to
the school work of the Wesleyans in the Fiji Islands, the
Globus, which is otherwise little friendly to the rnission,
and quite lately Sir Arthur Gordon, the governor of these
islands, speak out with full recognition. Dr. Wange-
mann, an old Prussian Seminary director, is pleased
beyond his expectation with what has been accomplished
by the various mission-schools which he visited on occa
sion of his tour in South Africa. Under the superin
tendence of the American Board — to mention further
only this one society — there are now, with the exclusion
of the Sandwich Islands, which are now ecclesiastically
independent, 653 schools with 26,170 scholars, of whom,
however, only a small part belong to barbarous races.
No doubt the numbers which we have presented are
insufficient as compared with the vast masses which the
mission has not yet reached with its school operations.
Yet they show that the mission is doing what it can for
the intellectual elevation of even the most degraded
peoples. A by no means inconsiderable department of the mis
sion schools has to do, as has been already pointed out,
with the training of native teachers and preachers. The
training of these forces is almost a necessity for the
mission, since it is obvious that, in proportion to the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 141
extent of the field of labour, the always small number of
European missionaries is altogether insufficient, even, for
example, to conduct the indispensable school operations.
And more than this ; however important the foreign
missionaries are as pioneers, and however indispensable
their superintendence may be for a long time to come,
yet the formation of real churches of the people can only
be accomplished when their own people in larger numbers
take the work in hand independently. In his Recollec
tions, already quoted, Mr. Leupolt relates an instructive
anecdote. When he was one day engaged in street-
preaching at Kasipur to a respectful and attentive
audience, a Brahman came forward and addressed the
assemblage in these words : " Look at these people ; see
what they are doing to you."
"They are preaching to us," was the answer.
" Good. But what has the Saheb in his hand ? "
" The New Testament."
"Right; the New Testament; but what does that
signify ? I will tell you. It is the Gospel-axe, in which
a European handle has been fixed. Come to-day, you
find they are wielding the axe. Come to-morrow, they
are doing the same. And against what are they wield
ing the axe ? Against the goodly tree of our Hinduism,
against our religion. It took a thousand years for the
tree to strike its roots in the soil of Hindostan. Now it
spreads its branches all over India ; it is a goodly, noble
tree ; but these men come day by day with axe in hand.
They look at the tree and the tree looks at them ; but it is
helpless, and the strokes of the axe sound continually.
Great and strong as it is, it must eventually fall."

142 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
" All right," answered the missionary ; " but consider
that many a poor handle is broken, and many a one slips
from the axe, and it is always a long time before a new
one comes from Europe and becomes serviceable."
" Ah, were that all, it would in truth be well. The
fall of the tree would be prevented. But how does the
matter really stand ? The axe finds that the handle is
no longer serviceable ; does the wielding of it cease ?
Not at all. It climbs the tree, it examines it and says,
' There is a beautiful branch, of which a new handle
might be made ! ' Up springs the axe, down falls the
branch, and straightway it is formed into a handle. The
European handle is taken out, the native handle is
inserted, and the swinging goes on afresh. Ultimately
the tree falls under the handles which have been made
of its own. branches."
The great extension which the mission work has
attained — in the South Seas, for example — is due in no
small measure to the active co-operation of the native
teachers and evangelists. The London and Wesleyan
Missionary Societies , together have 329 ordained, and
1 1 80 unordained, native agents. In India there are
more than 400 ordained pastors, and probably ten times
as many unordained native agents ; in Madagascar the
London Missionary Society has 62 ordained and 3169
unordained native agents ; the Church Missionary Society
has in all its districts 170 ordained native pastors, and
2680 other helpers in schools and churches; the
American Board has 126 and 1052 of these classes in
its service. And to notice further only one German
Missionary Society — the Gossner Kohl-Mission employs

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 143
6 native ministers, 1 1 probationers, 8 8 catechists, 7 1
village teachers, 12 teachers in the great schools in
Purulia and Ranchi, and 4 colporteurs — in all 192 men
— who are all, alas ! paid from the mission treasury.
We can scarcely err if we estimate the whole number of
these labourers at 22,000 to 24,000, and their number
is increasing every year. At first sight this will perhaps
appear to be a disproportionately large number. " I
ask myself," says the visitor, who communicates the
statistics of the Gossner Society, " whether so many are
necessary, and after strict inquiry must confess that many
more such helpers can and must be appointed. The
whole community lives in more than 1000 villages,
scattered over a wide territory, and the catechumens and
young Christians need, on every account, a firm hold of
a man under the superintendence of the missionaries.
The education of the Christian children, of catechumens
in order to baptism, and of the baptized for the Holy
Communion, the holding of daily morning and evening
prayers, as well as Sabbath services in more than 100
chapels, the protection of the inexperienced Christians
from going over to the Anglicans or the Jesuits, who are
both labouring in our immediate neighbourhood, the
counselling of them in all the circumstances of life,
especially in their social requirements, besides the ex
tremely desirable influence on the surrounding heathen ;
— all this makes it appear desirable that the number of
native helpers be not restricted, but if possible increased,
of course under the condition that well qualified men
be employed in the several offices." In general these
remarks are applicable to almost all mission-fields.

144 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
It is here that the interest of the mission is most
closely connected with the interest of culture. A great
part of the culturally important education of the people
lies in the effort to make the native Christians as soon
as possible self-acting and self-standing ; for hardly in
any other way can the mental power of the people be
so wakened and strengthened as by the necessity to
furnish forth from among themselves men to undertake
their spiritual leadership. It is one of the most irrele
vant accusations, made only through ignorance and party
feeling, that the evangelical mission aims at establishing
for itself a lordship over the heathen, by seeking to hold
them continually like children in leading-strings. Granted
that among the missionaries there are individuals who are
deficient in breadth of view, and in the full understanding
of their educational task. Yet it is, the longer the more,
the energetic effort of the collective evangelical mission,
and especially of those who have gone forth from the
home free churches, to set the young converts as soon as
possible on their own feet, and to hand over to them the
work that has been begun among them ; so far as this
can be done without injury to their healthy development.
We refer, in confirmation of this, only to the essay of an
American missionary, Sturgis, who convincingly expounds
the principles on which the training of the natives in
self-help is to be conducted, and which, with few excep
tions, are more and more acted upon as the methods of
the collective evangelical mission. For example, in
Sierra Leone, Liberia, and perhaps also in the Sandwich
and some other South Sea Islands, the zeal in this
direction has been' somewhat too precipitate;

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 145
But another charge which has been made with refer
ence to native assistants we shall not leave unnoticed,
and that because, we are- sorry to say, it is not entirely
without foundation. "Many of these assistants," it is
said, " are induced to enter the service of the mission
only because they receive pay from the mission treasury,
and so the independence of these people is of the most
doubtful character." It is no design of ours to paint as
beautiful what is not beautiful. Undoubtedly, in the
appointment of mission assistants there has not always
and everywhere been a sufficient regard to prudence and
economy; and it may well be that many natives have
" made a gain of godliness." We cannot in this place
enter upon a detailed exposure of this evil, which, besides,
can never and nowhere be entirely avoided. Let us call
attention to the essay, The Bible-office of the Elder in its
bearing on Modern Missions. We confine ourselves here
to one remark. Even the native labourer is worthy of
his hire ; but this hire should have a proper proportion
to the customary modes of life of the natives; and
wherever it is at all attainable, should not come from
the home funds of the mission, but should be contributed
by the converts themselves, as even the heathen provide
for their priests. The more this simple principle of
mission praxis is universally adopted — as it is, in fact,
followed already in a wide circuit — so much the sounder
will be the institution of native helpers, and so much the
more influential, not only for the extension of the Gospel,
but also for the culture-life of the natives. In this way the
danger which threatens the native helpers, of greediness,
self-conceit, and denationalisation, will be as much as

146 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
possible diminished, and a stimulus will be given to
their countrymen to exert all their mental and physical
powers in order to provide the means which are necessary
for the maintenance of a native ministry.
But the educational leaven which this native ministry
is among their own countrymen, even for their intel
lectual life, cannot, as it seems to us, be too highly
estimated. We are, indeed, not at all blind admirers
of the high scientific teaching which the native helpers .
receive in many seminaries for preachers. We cannot
altogether get rid of the impression that something is
often grafted on which does not become an inward
possession, and is only superfluous ballast, so far as the.
office in view is concerned. Thus, for example, we
hold the teaching of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, which
is given in many of these schools, to be premature.
Even English would be better omitted in many cases, and
we wish German were altogether proscribed. Whereto
serves this load of tongues ? It not only distresses the
poor natives, and lays upon them a burden which they
cannot bear as yet, but it puts an arrest upon their
healthy mental development, embarrasses them, deprives
them of their simple naturalness, their sound judgment
and mother-wit, and puffs them up.
Probably they do not learn any of these languages
so that they really master them ; and suppose they did
get more than a smattering of Greek and Hebrew, and
suppose that some were actually able to read the Bible
without help in the original, were it educationally wise,
with this view, to make subjects of instruction obliga
tory, which from the nature of things must be reserved

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 147
for time's of riper development ? It is, as we shall
show more fully further on, one of the greatest draw
backs due to our modern cultural pre-eminence, that
we seldom have sufficient self-denial not to wish to con
vey the fruits of our intellectual life, without more to
do, to places where a sound pedagogic would first scatter
the seed.
We go further. We do not altogether advocate any
systematic schooling of the native helpers. The men
who are selected as such will certainly be much better
prepared for their offices by association and private
instruction on the part of certain missionaries, than by
a long and systematic school curriculum, unnatural to
their habits and to their age. It is not a great amount
of information that makes them expert in their offices,
but their qualification as witnesses for Christ, in con
nection with the natural gift of aptness to teach, is
their Christian character. Excessive knowledge will be
to them an armour in which they will comport them
selves as awkwardly as when one lays aside his simple
sling and stone.
Thus we are utterly indisposed, with the educational
enthusiasts, to advocate a method which might screw
up the natives at once to the height of our gymnasial
and university standards. But just as little is it in
our thoughts to grant a license to ignorance. We only
advocate that the training be natural. Manifestly the
native assistants must stand on a higher level of intel
lectual and spiritual acquirement than their country
men ; they must be their teachers and educators. Not
only must they all be able to read and write, but their

148 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
speech must be powerful; they must also in some
measure master the substance of the Bible, and possess
the otherwise necessary elementary knowledge. Still,
the simpler, more natural and sounder their instruction
is, the more really portable, mastered, and possessed
by their own minds it is, so much more advantageously
can it be employed for others. Show-learning has a
very doubtful value anywhere, and in the mission-field
at least we should resist it with all our might. We
must of course in this matter guard against pernicious
generalisations. One thing is not suitable for all.
The measure of the instruction of the native agents
must be proportionate to the elevation of the people
among whom they are to work. The higher this is,
the higher must that be. Thus in India, China, and-
Japan we need more highly-educated native teachers
and preachers, than, e.g., in the South Sea Islands or
in West Africa. But everywhere the ascent will be
gradual, and generations must pass ere the standard of
the training schools approach that of similar institutions
at home. But the wiser and the more educationally proper is
the instruction we provide for the native agents, so
much the higher may we estimate their importance for
the culture-life of the people who are under the influence
of the mission. We do not conceal from ourselves that
with many thousands of these native agents the case
must be, as the Inspector of the Gossner Mission after
his visitation-tour plainly stated with respect to not a
few of the Kohl catechists, namely, that "they by no
means correspond with the reasonable expectations which,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 149
from our point of view, might be formed of their know
ledge ; " and that we must not judge of the great mass
of them by some prominently accomplished men, such
as S. Crowther, Johnston, Tiyo Soga, Joel Balu, &c.
Still, these thousands with their education, altogether
scanty according to our notions, but greatly superior to
that of. their countrymen, are a leaven among their
people, which even for the intellectual life is a mightier
power than all foreign elements. Education, like Chris
tianity, will really take root among a people only when
natives are at its bearers and workers. It is in the
nature of things that their activity be defective at first;
but the more the intellectual training grows like the
mustard-seed and permeates the people like the leaven,
the more real will it be. It holds good in this, " Good
things take time ; " and " the husbandman waiteth for
the precious fruit of the earth, and is patient until he
receive the morning and the evening rain " (James v. 7).

We come now to that department in which the cui-1
tural influence of the mission is most directly and most
fundamentally manifested — the moral department. It is
an open and visible fact in our home relations, that mere
civilization, with all its mechanism and its comforts, has
no power to render people happy or to ennoble them.
So it shows itself utterly incapable of this among the*
heathen nations. The history of all times shows no
example of this, that mere civilization has been the
means of elevating again a sunken people. Even the

ISO MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
impaftation of knowledge, which is so much overprized
in our day, and almost put in the place of religion, does
not possess this faculty. It was like a draught from a
fresh spring to read this confession recently in a published
document of a German University — that of Greifswald
i — in its well-known address to the Emperor William.
The mission would be doing a work of very doubtful
value were it only bringing civilization and knowledge to
the heathen. But its cultural ability is far deeper and
more real. Through the Gospel which it proclaims it
plants a new sentiment, and with it a new morality.
Here lies the true heart-point of the culture-organism
of a people's life, and with reference to this point the
mission works without essential aid. Colonial govern
ments may contribute by their laws to the reforming of
many evils, but they are incapable of producing a better
morality proceeding from an inward change of sentiment,
unless at the same time they take the forces of the
Gospel into their service. There can be no law given
which can give life.
We begin our survey of the department of the moral
or the moralising influences of the mission, by stating a
fact which is of prime importance for culture — viz., that
it is the Gospel of Christ that has brought true and uni
versal Humanity into the world. Neither the ancient
nor the modern heathenism knows aught of the real
dignity of man ; and hence, even when it is in possession
'of civilization, it lacks the universal respect for men and
love to men. The right and the value of personality, of
personality simply, the loving care even for the little and
the feeble, are things unknown to it. But without the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 151
recognition of universal human dignity, and of the right
of simple personality, even of the least, there is no real
humanity. They are magnificent, world-transforming thoughts,
culture-principles of exceeding comprehensiveness, which
the Gospel of Christ expresses with reference to this
single point. By God's causing His only-begotten Son
to become man, in order by Him to make men His own
children, He has not only shown to men a love beyond
all conception, but has also imparted to them an honour
and dignity, a nobility, than which no higher can be
conceived. Could the angels feel envy, they might envy
men this honour. What a value must the individual
souls, even of the poorest and most sunken men, have
in the eyes of God, when over their salvation, as the
Saviour assures us, all heaven holds a festival of joy
(Luke xv. 10). In Christ Jesus, God is our Father, and
we all constitute with one another a family, in which
are none but brothers and sisters. With God there is in
truth no respect of persons (Acts x. 34). Here there is
" neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female ;
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. iii. 28). What
a magnificent idea of humanity is this ! And when, with
this magna charta of humanity before their eyes, prophets .
of our time come forward and declare that Christianity
is the enemy of humanity, it is no less absurd than it
would be to charge upon the sun that it is the maker of
darkness. Now the more the Gospel of Christ is proclaimed in
its Biblical purity, and believingly accepted, the more
powerfully are its ideas of humanity displayed. In the

152 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
apostolic and post-apostolic age, they were exhibited
most manifestly and most powerfully in the social life
of men ; in the Middle Ages they only very slowly and
imperfectly obtained prevalence ; in the modern mission,
which stands on the point of view of the Reformation,
they exhibit their power again more influentially and
more distinctly. As in the apostolic time, so also now,
the mission in all places lays hold of the poor, the
oppressed, and the sunken, and strives to elevate them
as much as is possible. As the Saviour once indicated
His Messiahship to the dispirited John by the sign that
" the Gospel was preached to the poor," so does the mis
sion authenticate itself in a similar way as a real work.
As then, so also now, the kingdom of God is not built
from the top downward, but from the base upward. We
know well that on this account people contemptuously
shrug their shoulders, and with the old an ti- Christian
Celsus scoff at the " weavers, tailors, and tanners," which
the modern mission also has in its churches. But it
occurs to us that this scoffing harmonises but badly with
the humanity, whose apostles the representatives of the
modern view in opposition to Christianity boast them
selves to 'be. Is not the material, mental, and moral
elevation of the lower classes of the people of extreme
importance for the culture-life of a nation ? So it does
not look well for humanity, when, on the ground of the
new-fashioned law of the " struggle for existence," scarcely
a slave's part is assigned to most of the so-called nature-
peoples, as beings of a lower type, in the culture-history
of mankind ; 18 when their civilization is declared to be a
Utopian enthusiasm, and on the other hand the most

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 153
refined persecution, yea, the extermination of them, calls
forth no word of horror. People speak contemptuously
of the fact that the mission obtains its chief results among
the nature-peoples. It appears to us that those who
speak thus give a blow in the face to their own repre
sentations of humanity, and afford to the Gospel of Christ
the testimony that it alone teaches and practises universal
respect and love towards men. People may make as
many witticisms as they will as to the cost to the mis
sion of the salvation of a Kaffir's soul ; notwithstanding
it is more humane to be at some cost for the salvation of
barbarians than to scoff at them. This scoffing perplexes
us the less, because our efforts on behalf of humanity
have in fact had surprising results — results which are
sought for in vain in the case of the modern forces of
civilization. Even a quarter of a century ago the
geographer Meinicke wrote : " It is scarcely possible to
deny the extraordinary importance of the missionary
efforts of our time ; they are as yet in reality in their
infancy ; yet it is certain that they will wholly trans
form the nature and the relations of the unchristian
peoples, and will thereby produce one of the most
magnificent and most colossal revolutions tha't human
history contains."
But to leave off general reflections. As a special in
stance of the transformation effected by the mission in the
domain of the moral life, we shall begin with a manifest
and obvious fact, which not even our fanatical adversaries
can deny — the conservation of human life. To all
heathens the statement is more or less applicable, " Their
feet are swift to shed blood." How many human sacri-

154 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
fices are demanded by the worship of the gods, how
many by witchcraft and superstition, how many by
cannibalism and despotism, how many by abortion and
child-exposure, how many by inhuman war-usages, and
by other cruelties and unmercifulness !
During the stay of the German expedition on the
Loango coast a frightful epidemic broke out, which
carried off many of the natives. " Everywhere in the
neighbourhood sounded day and night the incantations
of the magicians to banish the sickness, the dull sound
of the wooden drums, frequently intermingled with the
long-drawn wail of mourning families, the crack of
muskets, and all the usual tumult connected with the
burying of the dead." Even the principal chief of the
coast, Muboma Liumba of Yanga, succumbed to the
disease, in consequence, according to universal opinion,
of the evil influence of witchcraft. There was conse
quently a palaver held, in order to discover the guilty
one, upon whom, according to the customs of the country,
death must be inflicted. And what did the members of
the Loango expedition do ? " We soon ascertained " —
writes one of them, who pictures the palaver very graphi
cally — "'that several persons, particularly various chiefs
of the district — we could not but perceive the political
intrigues — as well as wives of the dead man, were
accused. We, of course, refrained from interposing in
any injudicious way in their favour. We were neither
called, nor had we the power, to fight against peculiarities,
which, being intertwined with the whole views of a
people, cannot be separately reformed." Without passing
any criticism upon this statement, which very forcibly

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 155
reminds us of the "icicle adhering to the roof of the
temple of toleration," and which yet gives doubtless a
true account of the motives which led to the resolution,
we shall confront these representatives of science with
two missionaries, who in quite similar circumstances
acted directly oppositely ; and we shall confidently leave
to the reader to decide whether they thereby incurred a
charge of injudiciousness, or whether they did a laudable
work of humanity. The first of these missionaries is the
well-known bishop of the Niger Mission, S. Crowther.
On one of his visitations, the black bishop came to
Osamare, " where the very barbarous superstition prevails
as to the witchcraft of old women, which has cost many
of them their lives. When a woman is accused of
witchcraft by any priest in the interior Ibo country, she
must infallibly die, even if she is the wife of a king or
of a rich man. The accused, in order to prove their
innocence, must submit to the divine judgment of a
poisoned draught, which, in nine cases out of ten, results
in death." Before this, the black missionary, During,
had, by his 'intervention, saved such a poor woman from
death, which had given courage to the Prince Olodi soon
after to take the part of his mother successfully, when
she was to have submitted to the ordeal. During
Crowther's stay a charge of witchcraft was brought
against the sister of the war-minister Odogu, who, being
an attendant on the Christian worship, was determined
also to rescue the unfortunate woman from the ban of
the ancestral prejudice. The affair had caused great
commotion among the people. Then the bishop preached
on Gen. v. 5. In his sermon he explained in pointed

156 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
language that old age gives no ground for a charge of
witchcraft, that it is a murderous barbarity to accuse
one's own mother of witchcraft, and so to procure her
death at the age of fifty or sixty years. Then he told
in moving words that his own mother was still alive,
that she was cared for by grandchildren and great-grand
children, and that no one thought of taking her for a
witch, though she was about eighty years old. After
this address the bishop appealed to the individual chiefs
and their counsellors, earnestly impressing upon them to
put a stop to the barbarous custom, and he had the
satisfaction of being assured, by some at least, that his
word had " gone deep into their ears."
It is self-evident that wherever Christian communities
are formed, heathen ordeals, the offering of human
sacrifices at the beginning of any undertaking, the killing
of slaves and of wives to accompany the dead into the
other world — customs which are universally prevalent,
and not in West Africa only — it is self-evident that they
must cease when the Gospel of Christ begins to become
a power. The second example leads us to the Fiji Islands, at
the time of the beginning of the mission there. A chief
had died, and it was intended to strangle one of his
wives in accordance with the ancestral custom. Mr.
Hunt, the missionary, who had got information of this
intention, immediately went to the house in which the
revolting act was to be perpetrated, explained, without
regard to the danger which he incurred, the cruelty as
well as the immorality of the design, spoke of the value
of human life, the benevolent customs of the Gospel, &c.

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 157
" The house was full of women and children, who were
to assist at the murderous scene. The poor widow sat
apart upon the sheet which was to be her shroud. Her
body was anointed with oil, and she wore new clothes.
Hunt addressed himself to the woman, and told her
what a crime she would be guilty of if she voluntarily
gave up her life in this way. He adjured her to remain in
life, showed her her children, and in their name entreated
her to live, in order to love and care for them. But the
woman showed impatience and displeasure. ' If you do
not strangle me,' she declared, ' I will be burned alive, or
I will kill myself.' It was an exciting scene, especially
when the executioners entered to perform their bloody
service. Hunt did his utmost also with these dark men,
but they persisted in contemptuous silence. Then some
one whispered to the missionary that a present would
propitiate the barbarians. He ran to his house to bring
a walrus tusk, while one of his colleagues remained.
Immediately the executioners set themselves to their
work. They dragged the woman, notwithstanding her
protestations, into another house, and when Hunt
succeeded in pressing into it, he found the poor victim
of barbarous heathen customs at the last gasp." This
time, indeed, the interference of the missionary was un
successful ; but the story is one of the thousand proofs
of the greatness of the difficulties and the dangers
with which the missionaries had, and still have, to
contend, and brings into so much clearer light the
transformation which is being gradually effected. If we
consider attentively the nature of this transformation, we
find most of the most prominent features of the Fijian

158 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
character more or less completely obliterated. Canni
balism is completely extinct, and child-murder has
ceased in like manner. Human life is no longer
recklessly squandered, and the strict administration of a
law founded upon God's Word takes the place of private
revenge, whereby murder was avenged by murder. Of
course it is unreasonable to suppose, as some people do,
that civilization can suddenly force itself upon a bar
barous people.
But far greater than our astonishment at the behaviour
of the scientific travellers on the Loango coast is our
indignation when we read the following vindication of
the exposure and murder of children, after the Spartan
fashion of killing weakly children at their birth, by the
author of the latest Culture-History in its Natural
Development. "A method, the humanity of which may
well be disputed, but which undoubtedly has for its
result, according to the law of selection, the rearing of
a beautiful and strong and healthy race of men. We
see here a quite a notable example of artificial improve
ment of the human race, since only the perfectly healthy
and strong children are allowed to live, and they alone
are permitted to have offspring." Apart from the fact
that in this, as in so many other cases, the fanaticism of
the Darwinian doctrine makes men blind to the truth,
since it cannot be decided immediately after birth,
whether the child is strong and beautiful or not, and a
perfectly sound offspring is not a necessary result of the
strength of the parents — what sort of culture is that
which is literally founded on blood and murder ? Doubt
less, Herr von Hellwald will also find grounds, in his

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 159
system of natural development, to vindicate the child-
murder which is still universally practised by many
heathen peoples without compunction, and to vilify the
missionaries who are striving with all their might to
save 'infant life. What must become of the heathen if,
instead of the Gospel of Christ, the views of this culture-
champion were brought to them ! What is becoming of
us, even the slowest of apprehension are gradually begin
ning to apprehend.
But let us leave these dark pictures, and return to
the more lightsome works of the mission-culture. As
on the Niger and in the Fiji Islands, so everywhere, the
mission is the champion of humanity. The firmer and
deeper it strikes its roots, so much the more effective is
the protection of human life which it affords. We pass
over, as being universally known, the impulse which the
mission has given to the suppression of infant-sacrifice
and widow-burning in India, child-exposure in China,
&c. In the Polynesian Islands it has achieved perhaps
its most astonishing triumph of this kind. " Christianity
has the undeniable merit," says E. Oberlander, who is by
no means prepossessed in favour of the mission, " that it
has suppressed cannibalism, human sacrifice, and child-
murder, ameliorated the family life, restrained drunken
ness, and wherever it has got a footing, has led to
orderly establishment of rights ; to say nothing of the
fact that it has put an end to the continual wars in the
islands. The Protestant missionaries have manifestly
exerted the greatest influence on the culture of the
natives. Often have the natives acknowledged to them
that they would have been destroyed if they had not

160 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
come to them." A man who has so accurate a know
ledge of -Polynesian matters as Professor Gerland declares,
notwithstanding all the objections which he has to make
to the methods of the mission : " As hitherto the mis
sionaries have the greatest merit, so far as the nature-
peoples are concerned, so when we inquire respecting the
future, our eyes fall first upon the missionaries. When
we consider that the Polynesians, it may well be said, owe
their preservation hitherto to them, that the Hottentots
and many American tribes have only and exclusively by
their means had an opportunity of experiencing the good
effects of civilization, we cannot too earnestly wish that
their blessed work may extend ever wider." Meinicke,
both in his earliest work, The Peoples of the South Seas
and Christianity, and in his latest masterpiece (2 vols.),
The Islands of the Pacific, gives overwhelming proof that
" the bloody wars of former days have almost entirely
ceased, and where such have taken place among the
converts, they have been conducted without the profitless
cruelty which always accompanied them in heathen
times." " Nowhere," says he, " has the influence of
conversion in this respect been more striking and more
extensive than in New Zealand, where formerly the
greatest barbarity and savagery prevailed. The inces
sant wars and massacres, the strangling of slaves, the
eating of human flesh, have been abolished, through the
missionaries alone, so far as their influence reaches; and
even were their method essentially wrong, and their
undertaking a failure, they, must be honoured for this."
The English consul Prichard expresses himself as follows:
" Among the many happy results which the introduction

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 161
of the Gospel has produced" in these islands, no one is
more remarkable than the suppression of the constant
state of war. The weapons of war and instruments of
death may now be seen hanging from the rafters of their
humble cottages, covered with dust and become unusable,
or they are converted into tools of industry, or they are
given to visitors as useless curiosities. Formerly the
natives brought their ^offerings with terrible strictness to
their heathen altars ; now they rejoice in the reconciled
God whom they have in Christ. Many who formerly
seldom met except on the battle-field, full of mutual
enmity, now live in peace with one another as brethren
in Christ. When the Wesleyan missionaries settled
among the cannibal Fijians, they found them in the
lowest state of degradation. Soon after Mr. Hunt's
arrival, the heathen dragged forward some dead bodies,
which they laid down in front of his house, with the
intention of roasting and eating them. When the mis
sionary shut his windows that he might not be compelled
to see this horrid sight, a chief ordered them to be opened,
and declared that he must make himself acquainted with
their customs since he was going to live among them.
The captain of an American ship-of-war, who heard of
this reception, endeavoured to persuade Mr. Hunt to
leave. But he declared that he would remain and risk
his life."
Darwin also throws his weighty testimony into the
scale : " The slanderers forget, or rather they will not
consider, that human' sacrifice, the power of an idolatrous
priesthood, a systematically refined sensuality which has
no parallel in all the world, child-murder — that all this

i63 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
is put away and abolished, and that dishonesty and
intemperance and impurity have been to a great extent
lessened through the introduction of Christianity. It
is the basest ingratitude, on the part of the writers
of travels, to forget this. Were it their lot to stand in
expectation of suffering shipwreck on some unknown
coast, they would direct a fervent prayer to heaven, that
the teaching of the missionaries might have reached its
inhabitants." Even in quarters where the mission has not been
able to collect large Christian churches, the natives have
been humanised under the influence of the missionaries.
Thus, our countryman Geissler, who, with heroic perse
verance laboured for fourteen years on the NW. coast
of New Guinea, despite many discouragements, great
privations, and manifold sufferings — relates that in the
year 1859 the shipwrecked crew of the Constant, after
spending sixty-nine days at sea in a small boat, and
being completely exhausted, landed on the coast of New
Guinea, got a friendly reception and were supplied with
provisions by the natives ; whereas, two years earlier,
the same people had slain other shipwrecked sailors;
and in 1868, they exercised similar compassion in
ransoming from their more barbarous countrymen a
party of stranded Javanese, and handing them over to
the care of the missionary.
In the foregoing instances it has been already in
dicated that the greater humanity implanted by Chris
tianity has been maintained upon the whole, even in
times of passionate excitement, in which the temptation
to return to the old cruelties has been specially great,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 163
as, for example, in war times. In consideration of the
importance of this point, it seems necessary for us to
enter into some details. It is well known that in con
sequence of the sale of certain lands in New Zealand,
a bloody war broke out in i860, and raged, with some
intervals, till 1864. "In the year 1825 the chief
Hongi in one onslaught killed about 1000 men, whose
bodies were roasted in a heap and eaten. In the above-
mentioned war (1860-4), on the contrary, no case of
this kind has come to our knowledge. Cannibalism was
universally practised at the earlier period. The usual
name for slaves was mokai, a term by which dogs and
pigs were- also designated, because its meaning was
' creatures which serve as food!" Now no man is so
named or regarded. While our soldiers were encamped
at Gate Pah on the east coast, they were suddenly sur
prised by the natives, and fled in panic-fright, so that
the officers tried in vain to stop them. General Booth
was mortally wounded, but lived long enough to tell
that they refused to kill him as he requested them to do,
and with the assurance that they would do no harm to
the prisoner, they carefully carried him and laid him in
front of a house. When he begged for some water, a
Maori brought it to him, and was paid for this service
of love by the loss of his life, because, in tendering it,
he had to expose himself to the fire of our soldiers..
Nothing was taken from the officers but their swords ;
the gold chain and watch which General Booth wore
were delivered up to his relatives. Even the Ausland
tells a similar tale of the time of what was called the
Hau-Hau disturbance : — " Cannibalism appears to have

1 64 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
gradually become even physically repulsive to the Maoris.
Not long ago a man called Sullivan was murdered, or,
according to Maori notions, executed. He had been
warned not to make any encroachment on the territory
of the natives, and had, notwithstanding the threatened
punishment, disregarded it in the making of a road.
He was thereupon put to death by the natives, and his
heart was sent to headquarters to the king, who immedi
ately ordered it to be buried. It thus appears that, even
among the Hau-Haus, cannibalism is extinct." In the
face of this it seems — to put it mildly — not very
humane, when Dr. Buchner, in his Travels already
mentioned, expresses himself thus : " I am altogether
unable to turn up my eyes in horror at cannibalism, as
many people consider it proper to do. The abomination
of cannibalism consists, in my judgment, only in the
arbitrary putting to death of individuals by those in
power, not in the eating of the bodies, which probably
had its origin in a physiological necessity, through the
want of the larger animals ! " (Be it noticed, in passing,
that in the Ausland for 1871, p. 198, it is stated, in
opposition to Dr. Buchner, that the anthropophagous
preference which he ascribes to the aristocrats is alto
gether unproved.) In the Kaffir war, also, of 1877-8,
it is recorded that even the heathen chief Sandili gave
orders that "no woman and no child, and no private
man among the whites, should be put to death, and that
no mission-station should be destroyed, for he had no
war with them ; " so that far less cruelty and far less
destruction occurred than in previous wars — a humanity
which, even on the testimony of the reporter in the

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 165
Globe, "can only be regarded as a fruit of the ideas of
humanity which have influenced even the morals of the
heathen, as a new atmosphere that has arisen, in conse
quence of mission operations."
As to the power which the Gospel exerts over such
barbarians as have embraced it in lively faith, only a
single example from the South Seas, and of the most
recent date. Shortly before his visit to England, the
missionary, Mr. Taylor, assembled the New Zealanders
who had become believers through his means. The
religious farewell service, held in the closely-packed
church, closed with the communion of the Lord's Supper.
When the first row were kneeling in a semicircle around
the table of the Lord, a man suddenly rose and went
back through the whole length of the church to his seat.
After some time he returned and partook of the holy
sacrament. After the close of the service, the missionary
questioned the islander respecting this singular behaviour,
and received the following answer : — " When I approached
the table I did not know beside whom I should have to
kneel. Then I suddenly saw that I was beside the man
who some years ago slew my father and drank his blood,
and whom I then swore I would kill the first time that
I should see him. Now, think what I felt when I
suddenly knelt beside him. It came upon me with
terrible power, and I could not prevent it, and so I
went back to my seat. Arrived there, I saw in the
spirit the upper sanctuary, and seemed to hear a voice :
' Thereby shall all men know that ye are My disciples,
if ye have love one to another.' That made a deep
impression upon me, and at the same time I thought

1 66 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
that I saw another sight — a Cross and a Man nailed
thereon — and I heard him say, ' Father, forgive them :
they know not what they do.' Then I went back to
the altar."
The mission not only operates towards the respecting
and sparing of human life, but generally for the further
ance of bodily wellbeing. In no case can their most
determined enemy reproach them with acting like the
priest and the Levite, who passed by without helping
the half-dead man who had fallen among murderers.
" It admits of no doubt," says the anthropologist Waitz,
who is by no means an uncritical friend of missions,
" that upon the whole the work of the missionaries has
furthered the bodily weal of the people of the South
Seas far more than it has been prejudicial to it." He
has mainly in view the indirect furtherance which has
been effected by the moral elevation. "It must be
confessed that with the introduction of Christianity
into the South Sea Islands many of the gross vices
which we have specified as causes of the destruction
of their inhabitants have been entirely banished, many
others have been diminished in no inconsiderable measure,
so that the depopulation which they were producing has
received a certain check. The bloody wars, the canni
balism, human sacrifice, and child-murder, have almost
wholly ceased, aud it must be stigmatised as a gross
calumny, proceeding from party spirit, when, for example,
a French voyager has striven to disseminate the view
that the terrible depopulation of the Sandwich Islands
must be accounted for by the strict laws and the systems
of intimidation which have arisen and been maintained

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 167
under the influence of Protestant missionaries ; that the
women fled to the hills and killed their illegitimate
children in order to avoid the intolerably severe punish
ments which would otherwise have befallen them. Eather,
if justice is to be done, should it be acknowledged that,
besides the well-known blessed efforts of the missionaries
for the material welfare of the islanders, their anxiety
for the suppression of drunkenness and excesses of all
sorts, and for the encouragement of industry, deserves
all praise."
But apart from this indirect sanitary care, which, as
a Divine blessing, accompanies moral improvement, the
work of the missionaries contributes directly to the
furtherance of the bodily wellbeing of barbarous as well
as of civilized heathens. In his learned monograph on
the Dying-out of the Nature-Peoples, Gerland, in two
chapters — one on the treatment of the sick among the
nature-peoples, and the other on the small care of the
nature-peoples for their bodily welfare — shows on what
a low stage sanitary treatment stands among these
peoples ; and, mutatis mutandis, a similar state of things
may be found among the so-called civilized heathen
nations, especially with respect to the treatment of the
sick. Wherever our missionaries have come, in Green
land or in the Fiji Islands, among the negroes of
West Africa, or among the Hindus, Chinese, and Japanese,
they have afforded medical aid to the sick. " During
cholera epidemics, for example, in Tinnevelly," writes
Dr. Gunter, on the ground of special experience, in
opposition to the calumny of the well-known opponent
of missions, Langhaus — " all the churches have been con-

1 68 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
verted into hospitals, and the missionary has given
medicine to all the sick, and has cooked for all the
hungry. In the neighbourhood of a mission, whenever
an inquisitive child scalds himself by upsetting the rice-
pot, whenever a snake-bite or a sudden wound occurs,
the missionary is sent for. He has to betake himself to
reading and inquiry ; perhaps in the necessity he finds
new medicines : and his homeopathic pills, or experiments
with the water-cure, &c, attract the attention even of the
physicians at home, attached as they are to tradition.
In short, he is a man, and as such endeavours to be of
services to his neighbour." In all the larger cities of
the civilized heathen world, e.g., Peking, Canton, Tokio,
Madras, &c, the mission partly maintains very important
hospitals. In China alone there are now eighteen such,
with twenty-four dispensaries, and thirty-three young
people who are being trained for this profession. But
among the barbarians, where the healing art essentially
consists in the most immoral witchcraft, the missionaries
render medical service on an extensive scale. They are
afraid of no contagion, they treat small-pox and cholera
patients, and even take care of lepers. But not content
with furnishing the missionaries generally with a dilet
tantish knowledge of medicine, there are being sent a
continually increasing number of university-educated
medical missionaries, of whom there are up to this time
at least eighty- — perhaps 100 — and among them there
are men of considerable eminence. There is even pub
lished a special magazine on this branch of missionary
agency : Medical Missions at Home and Abroad, with the
motto, evayyekitynevoi Kai OepairevovTes travrayov ; and

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 169
there are special medical missionary societies. Just
now it is in contemplation to send medically-educated
ladies, especially to India, in order to afford medical aid
in their times of sickness to the female sex who are
immured in the Zenanas. Without entering here upon
any criticism on the medical action of the missionaries,
we only remark that it is not merely the matter of
medical aid which has saved the lives of thousands, and
that through this aid the messengers of the Gospel win
for themselves the confidence of the natives ; but at the
same time they become teachers of mercy, and under the
influence of their example the treatment of the sick
becomes more reasonable and more humane.
As a further instance of the humanity exercised and
extended by means of the mission, the abolition of the
slave trade and of slavery should be adduced. We do
not, of course, mean to give the mission the exclusive
credit of all that has been done iu the course of this
century for the healing of what Dr. Livingstone calls " the
world's open sore." But, however great may be the
part which liberalism and policy have borne in the
removal of this scandal, by which the Christianly-
civilized nations have disgraced themselves for centuries,
yet they were especially the friends of missions, who, as
champions of emancipation, prepared the way for its
ultimate accomplishment. We have but to mention
Wilberforce, with whose name the suppression of the
slave trade and the abolition of slavery are inseparably
associated, and who was a decided Christian, and a warm
friend of missions — or to study the history of the West
Indies' mission, and the unwearied efforts of a Burchell

170 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
and a Knibb — or to advert to the hostilities to which
the missionaries were subjected in the West Indies and
the Cape on the part of the slaveholders, who saw in
them the special ringleaders of emancipation — and it will
be impossible to undervalue the prominent influence
which the spiritual combatants of the mission cast into
the scale towards the settlement of the slave question.
Even the clever political move of Lincoln would scarcely
have been possible, had not the Christian spirit of North
America, especially through its powerful elevation in con
sequence of the great awakenings of 1839 and ti 857,
prepared for it. However little it may be doubtful that
the mediaeval church, in its relation to slavery, often
assumed a position unworthy of Christian humanity, as
little can it be disputed by its opponents that the
mission-church of the Eeformation has treated the slave
question in the spirit, if not always with the sobriety,
of the apostolic mission. A few exceptions, such as have
occurred among the Boers of the Cape Colony and in the
Southern States of North America, where greed and
dogmatic narrowness have led to the biblical vindication
of slavery, cannot shake the truth of this assertion. Of
course, there has generally occurred, as has been already
remarked, some disturbance, when the hour of freedom
has struck for the slaves held in Christian lands, as this
has been at the last brought about by the authoritative
behest of the power of law. But the mission-inspector
Zahn rightly remarks : " The great diseases of mankind
are seldom healed by their being skilfully brought to full
ripeness and then removed. The selfish folly of some
who will not acknowledge the evil, and the well-meaning

, RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 171
impatience of others who cannot quickly enough remove
it, generally produce this result, that, instead of a whole
some reformation with its blessings, a revolution ensues
with its painful commotions." We may blame the
mission that it was deficient in educational wisdom, but
we cannot reproach it with not having represented the
human rights of the slaves. It is notable how, in these
last years, the page has been turned. Formerly it was
often a liberalism, detached from the Spirit of the Gospel,
that took to itself the credit of fighting for the human
rights of the slaves, and made it a reproach against the
Church that she did not altogether keep step with her in
her march of emancipation ; but now, since the Darwinian
"struggle for existence " has been introduced by the
special science of the day into the culture-historical
development of mankind, the matter stands so that
liberalism undertakes the vindication of slavery, scornfully
laughs at the mission for its striving for emancipation,
and registers, with a sort of a malicious joy, every dis
appointed hope of its accomplishment. But it is not
only in Christian lands and colonies that the mission
stood up for the human rights of the slaves ; it is work
ing with all energy for their liberation also in the heathen
and Mohammedan world. The magnificent exertions of
Livingstone, whose eloquence, born of compassion, stirred
up Europe to the liberation of its black subjects, not
less than the powerful voice of Wilberforce had done
before, are in so fresh and universal remembrance that it
is not necessary to describe them particularly. Mainly
in consequence of the impulse given by this indefatigable
friend of the slaves, the British Government have con-

172 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
eluded a treaty with the Sultan of Zanzibar, and by
means of their cruisers have at least made the trade of
the East African slave- dealers more difficult. But the
mission is not yet sitting with folded hands. Not con
tented with the fact that at Frere Town on the east
coast a foundation has been laid for a colony of liberated
negroes, similar to those which already exist on the west
coast, she sent expeditions also into the interior of the
dark continent, with the view of laying the axe to the
root of the evil by the establishment of mission-stations,
as well as the introduction of fair commerce and manu
factures. By these undertakings the wounds of a thou
sand years will not be quickly healed, but we have no
doubt that with them the dawn of the sun of freedom
has risen upon Central Africa. Wherever in the modern
mission-field Christianity attains a certain power, there
slavery ceases. Thus, for example, the Basel mission,
" without any help from the English Government, has
accomplished the cessation of slavery in her Christian
communities, by requiring that every Christian who
possessed slaves should give them letters of manumission,
in return for an engagement to pay a fixed sum for
ransom." In New Zealand the universal sentiment of
the obligation of Christian humanity has abolished slavery
without money payment, while England has had to pay
^20,000,000 to British subjects in her colonies, in
order to be able to emancipate the slaves ; and in
America emancipation became possible only through a
bloody civil war. In Tonga the simple narrative of
what England had done for the abolition of slavery was
sufficient to induce the king to present all his slaves with

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 173
their freedom. In Madagascar a proclamation by the
Queen — who, as is well known, has become a Christian
— on the 20th of June, 1877, decreed that all slaves
imported into the island should be set free. Now the
abolition of the existing domestic slavery also is expected.
Meantime ordinances have been passed which seek to
secure the most humane treatment possible for the native
slaves, and to place the buying and selling of them under
the strictest control of the Government.
More directly than the emancipation of the slaves,
the mission effects the deliverance of woman from the
degrading position which she occupies everywhere outside
of Christianity, and the social and moral elevation of the
female sex. One well acquainted with this matter, who
has written a special monograph on the subject, speaks
unreservedly of a " slavery of the female sex as the one
feature which distinguishes heathenism and the religion
of Mohammed, in their moral and social life, from Chris
tianity, in the Islands of the South Sea, all over Asia
and Africa, and as far as the primitive forests of America,
and from New Zealand to the North Pole." " It were,
of course," he goes on to say, "foolishness to suppose
that the lot of this weaker half of mankind can be the
same among all peoples and races, under the influences
of all religious and social arrangements. Eather, we find
women now imprisoned in the female apartments as a
sport of man's caprice, now moving freely in the market
and the street, now brooding listlessly in dull existence,
now excited and active in daily employments ; here we
see her scarcely touching the burdens of life with the
tip of her finger, there dragging their whole weight like

174 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
a poor beast of burden. But one thing we always find,
that she is excluded from the small education which man
possesses, and is treated as the inferior part of mankind,
while the Gospel proclaims aloud : ' Give due honour to
the woman as the weaker vessel, and as fellow-heir of
the grace of life.' "
Even among the classic culture-peoples of antiquity
the full dignity of humanity was not accorded to woman.
In the full and complete sense mankind consisted only
of men. Therefore Christ has brought a twofold deliver
ance to woman — the common deliverance from the guilt
and bondage of sin, and the -special deliverance from the
bondage of the man, and the privation of social rights.
The Gospel makes man and woman equal ; they are one
in Christ. Christianity is in this matter the restoration
of God's old ordinance, according to which the woman
should be the help-meet of man, but not his servant or
his slave. These principles have wrought a complete
transformation in the female world, and exerted the
deepest influences over the culture-life of the Christian
peoples — influences which are of so much greater import
ance for married and domestic life, and for the education
of children, as Christianity has also restored monogamy
to its old holy right.
As formerly among the ancient Greeks, so also among
the heathen culture-peoples of the present, women are
almost entirely in a condition perfectly uneducated. The
mission takes both sexes under its care, and establishes
girls' and boys' schools. As the heathen custom in India
does not permit the attendance of females of the higher
rank in public schools, a special female mission has been

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 175
started, which sends female teachers into the female
apartments — the Zenanas — in order to bring education,
along with the light of the Gospel, into these dark places.
A little while ago a Brahman, a lawyer of high position,
said in a public meeting, " All honour to the great and
good people who have exerted themselves to impart to
us the blessing of female education. Without reference
to our religious differences, we must confess that the
missionaries of the Christian religion are at the same
time the pioneers of every good work." After overcom
ing many difficulties, there have now been established in
India seminaries for female teachers. Professor Monier
Williams, who has been already mentioned, who has had
opportunities of becoming acquainted with these, writes
thus in the Contemporary Review : — " In the matter of
the training of native female teachers much has been
done, especially by the C. M. S. in the Sara-Tucker
Institute at Palamcotta. I visited this Institute at the
beginning of last year (1877), and must bear testimony
to the solidity of the work that is done there. They
have already trained successfully a considerable number
of native female teachers, and have stationed them in
various districts of Tinnevelly. They have succeeded in
attracting girls of the higher castes into their best schools.
Thus it is shown that by the energy of a few male and
female missionaries the way is prepared for the education
of the female sex in India." In Madras, the mission of
the Free Church of Scotland alone had in 1873 five
day-schools. for girls of the higher castes in the city, and
four in the country, with an aggregate attendance of
876 scholars, who paid fees. In 1843, the first girls'

176 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
school began with nine scholars, who were with difficulty
induced to attend by money and other rewards. In 1 86 1
a beginning was made of charging fees, and twelve- years
later there were in Madras 200 scholars paying £60
a-year in fees. Thirty years ago it was told in Madras
that the girls enticed into the schools by the missionaries
were to be sold into Europe ! Thus a great revolution
has been effected. There are now girls' schools in most
of the larger cities of India. In Ceylon also these receive
a most appreciative testimony on the part of the Govern
ment officials. Although the statistical tables may at
present show comparatively small numbers, there is a
breach made in the fortress which brings its conquest,
not into near, but into certain, prospect. What a revolu
tion will ensue in the culture-life of India, China, and
Japan, as soon as our means of education have been
brought within the reach of the women of these lands ;
and what a new creation will accrue to the barbarous
peoples when the female sex shall be brought under the
influence of a regular education ! It is not without
reason asserted that the world is governed by the chil
dren ; and it testified to great educational wisdom when
Napoleon, in unconscious agreement with Pestalozzi,
sought for the reformation of education by means of the
mothers. The education of the future mothers is a main
foundation for the education of the people, and thus the
education of the female sex is a chief factor of the
collective culture-life.
Not, indeed, education in knowledge alone. We need
everywhere not learned, but simply educated and morally
pure, pious mothers. A pious mother is a more blessed

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 177
educator than a learned one, and generally also a better
wife. Manifestly, the mission works rightly in this
direction first. Among most of the heathen peoples,
especially those that are wholly uncivilized, there is
little or no chastity among the girls. Among ourselves
there is unchastity enough, but it is regarded as a crime,
and must be concealed. But when the latest historian
of culture, Herr von Hellwald, is not ashamed to say :
"Prostitution is nought else than the consequence of the
greater limitation, by monogamy, of the natural instinct
which increasing culture demands, but whose gratifica
tion is an everlasting necessity to the human animal" —
it is, indeed, an indication of his moral or rather immoral
standpoint — -(since moral is for him a mere sound), but
it is no indication of public moral sentiment. The
matter is otherwise in the heathen world, in which, more
over, "prostitution is by no means the consequence of
the restriction of the instinct of nature by monogamy."
There, universally, fornication is as little regarded as a
sin as it was formerly among the ancient Greeks, and
our missionaries have, as Paul had among the Corinthians
(1 Cor. vi. 13), to awaken the conscience with respect
to chastity. When once the sin is concealed, which was
formerly no matter to be ashamed of, there is already a
moral advance. But although the effectual suppression
of it has not been attained to the extent that must be
desired, the blame does not fall upon the missionaries,
but — apart from the lust of the flesh, which is not over
come in the turning of a hand, where people are accus
tomed, in accordance with the old ancestral morals, to
regard the evil as something indifferent — really upon the
M

178 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
immoral representatives of the Western civilization, who
suppose that they have a right to deal with the unestab-
lished female converts, along with their heathen sisters,
as prostitutes. The facts in proof of this statement are
so many in all quarters, that any special information
were superfluous. Whenever travellers like Buchner,
who shows his unmistakable preference for the puris
naturalibus, praises, or rather blames, the modesty of the
women of New Zealand, Fiji, and, with limitations,
Hawaii, that is a more striking proof that the work of
the missionaries has not been in vain, than when an
American mission-inspector avouches it. But with the
practice of chastity is everywhere associated a very real
elevation of woman, the reflex influence of which must
tell upon her surroundings; with it the self-respect of
the woman grows, and the respect of husband and child
for her ; and not only the domestic, but also the public
moral atmosphere is purified — to say nothing of this,
that health and the increase of population are promoted,
two points which are of the greatest importance for
every people, but especially among the decreasing nature-
peoples. In relation to the intellectual and moral elevation of
the female sex, the missionaries' wives are very influential
helpers of their husbands. It is quite a common prac
tice among our Eomanist opposers to speak with con
temptuous scorn of our married missionaries, and to
commend the celibacy of theirs, not only as most merito
rious " virginity," but also as a specially potent mission-
method. We allow the merit and the virginity to speak
for themselves; and we freely confess that in certain

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 179
circumstances the unmarried missionary has the advan
tage, over the married, of greater independence and
facility of movement; but were these advantages much
more considerable than they are, they would still be
thrown into the shade by the greater blessings which
the marriage of our missionaries brings, not only to
themselves, but to the heathen and the converts among
whom they labour.
It is well known that not only in India and China,
but also among many barbarous peoples, the customs of
the people preclude the intercourse of the male mis
sionary with the female sex.. There it is naturally the mis
sionaries' wives who conduct this intercourse. " They
exert within and without the house," says the article
already quoted from the Revue des Deux Mondes, " a
sympathetic influence, which contributes much to the
extension of the missions. Better suited than the men
to deal with the women and the sick children, they win
their hearts more easily than they by their ministrations.
Barbarians can scarcely imagine an unmarried evangelist.
When Catholic missionaries landed, along with Sisters of
Mercy, on the South Sea Islands, the natives regarded
these as the wives of the priests, and could by no means
be brought to abandon this idea." The wife is more
fitted than the husband to plant and to foster, by word
and example, womanly proprietiety, decorum, habits of
order and cleanliness ; and the history of missions in all
places furnishes proofs that in these departments the
missionary's wife does a great and good pioneer service.
The practice of polygamy prevails extensively in
heathendom, although the circumstances of the less

180 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
wealthy do not admit of their actually having many
wives. There is no occasion for any proof of the demora
lising effects of this institution, which does not less
pervert the essential nature of marriage than it degrades
woman, poisons the family life, and renders the training
of children illusory. Now, although theoretically some
thing may be said for a degree of tolerance of polygamy
in a period of transition, on the ground of apostolic
example, yet practically this forbearance has been of no
use, but at the commencement of the mission the axe is
laid at the root of polygamy as a practice absolutely
irreconcilable with the Gospel. That has naturally had
many harsh and disadvantageous consequences, especially
that the acceptance of Christianity by a chieftain has
been now and again prevented ; but it has had the great
advantage that the path has been cleared, and the heathen
regard the introduction of monogamy as the manifest and
necessary consequence of the acceptance of Christianity.
With the introduction of monogamy, marriage straight
way becomes a far firmer bond than it was before.
Mutatis mutandis, it holds true of all heathens what the
missionary Cousins relates of the people of Madagascar:
— " In the heathen times the greatest laxity prevailed ;
and even marriage, although to a certain extent sanctioned,
was but a slight restriction. An old proverb among the
Malagassi says, 'Marriage is not tied with a fast, but
with a slipping knot, so that it can be easily loosed,'
and this is constantly practised. When an unchristian
Malagassi wishes to divorce his wife, he has only to
speak two words. It costs him no trouble ; he has not
to bring together a mass of proofs. He has not to

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 181
resort to a judge of matrimonial causes, but simply to
say to his wife, ' Madam, I thank you.' " It is evident
that this frivolous separation comes to an end with
monogamy, and that it not only affords to the woman a
protection against arbitrary repudiation, but also elevates
her position and her moral esteem. Only in monogamy
has the wife a position worthy of her — a position of
equality with her husband — and marriage is a con
secrated moral life-communion. By its means a new
spirit comes not only into the conjugal, but also into
the family life. "Few things," says the Madagascar
missionary just quoted, "have delighted me so much,
during the two months since my return to England, as
observing the influence which Christianity exerts over
the home-life. In the good tone, the heartiness, the
purity, the wise control, the universal order which we
find in a Christian home, we have a striking picture of
the power of Christianity. These are the fruits which
have their origin in a Christian root, and which become
appreciable and precious to one in Madagascar from their
non-existence." And not in Madagascar only. In India,
China, and Japan, there is equally wanting that inward,
hearty, and lively communion of life which with us binds
together the members of a family, and makes the home
a state of happiness and the most intimate communion.
Naturally, Christianity, when newly introduced, cannot
all at once create the family sentiment and the family
enjoyment which have hitherto been non-existent ; but
by the honourable position to which it elevates the wife,
and the moral consecration which it imparts to marriage,
it lays the foundation for them. But thereby again the

1 82 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
mission does a deed of culture which lays hold of the
collective life of the people, since marriage and the family
form the foundation-pillars of their social life among
every culture-people.
With the removal of the degrading position of woman
and of polygamy, the evil practice of the purchase of
wives, which prevails among almost all nature-peoples,
and is not unusual even among civilized heathen, is
being gradually superseded. By this practice the wife
is treated really as a vendable commodity- — the position
is assigned her of a domestic slave. The obstacles which
his practice, formerly naturalised by centuries of custom,
present to the mission which acts in opposition to it, are
so much the greater, as covetousness has a great deal to do
with it. " It is the great effort of fathers and mothers,"
— it is said in a minute report on this matter in Zulu-
and — " to bring their daughters as soon as possible to
market, and to exhibit them to their purchasers in good
condition, so as to increase as much ' as possible the
number of their oxen and cows by the sale of them.
The girls themselves are so little desirous of a change in
their condition, and are so sunk in consequence of the
degradation of their sex for many centuries, that they
regard it as a disgrace not to be sold ; and their vanity
is flattered when their beauty or their tall and strong
figure raises their price to a considerable number of cows.
The husband consequently possesses a right of property
in his wife, as much as he has in his spear or his waggon
or his oxen, and he justifies the basest treatment of her
on the ground that he has given his cows and oxen in
payment for her." The South African missionaries have

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 183
often taken counsel with one another in their general
conferences as to the position which they must occupy
in opposition to this degrading purchase and sale of
wives. That it must be abolished, they are unanimous ;
they only differ as to the way in which this is to be
effected. While some would prohibit it peremptorily by a
law, others would leave it to the continually strengthening
evangelical spirit to overcome it. Thus it is stated by
the Scottish reporter just quoted: "The native Christians
in the Wesleyan churches were not positively forbidden
to sell their sisters and their daughters. On the other
hand, a great proportion of the natives who have been
gathered into the Church of Christ by the American
Board have already given up the practice of wife-selling
as sinful and heathenish." Without entering here upon
any theoretic discussion, it is enough to remark that the
native Christians, the more their hearts are renewed and
their consciences enlightened, begin everywhere to regard
it as an iniquity to traffic in their own flesh and blood, and
that the firmer Christianity fastens its roots, this example
will gradually renew the morals of the people.
The treatment of woman comes before us in another
and not less important form in India, where, as is well
known, girls are commonly married or betrothed in their
infancy. It is again really the mission that has directed
attention to these infant marriages, which have been
hitherto forbidden by no law, and which yet are so scan
dalous, and which prevent the physical and mental
development of the poor girls. Not content with teaching
and warning, the Calcutta missionaries, in their Confer
ence in 1877, addressed a petition to the Governor of

1 84 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Bengal, apparently on the motion especially of the native
professor in the Free Church Institution of Calcutta,
Banerjya, who still earlier pleaded for a legislative settle
ment of this question. In this petition they asked for
the appointment, in the first place, of a sort of Govern
ment commission, to collect the necessary statistical
materials, so that the character of the evil might be
accurately known, and more extensive opposition to it
might be offered. Energetically and practically the
Santal Christians have taken the matter in hand. When
in April of last year Bishop Johnson visited for a con
firmation service the station of Taldschari, which is under
the superintendence of the C. M. S., a conference of
elders was held under his presidency, in which the resolu
tion which had previously been arrived at was affirmed
— " that among the Santal Christians no marriage should
take place unless the bridegroom had attained the age of
1 8 and the bride that of 16 years."
How sad the fate of women in India, who often become
widows at a very early age, and who are regarded as dead
in life, and. how the mission strives to set free these poor
girls, who are, as it were, buried alive, from the curse which
lies upon them, and how it strives for the legalisation of
the re-marriage of widows ; — all this is so generally known
that a mere advertence to it is sufficient.
Let us tarry a moment longer in India. There caste
is still the great social chain which fetters the life of the
community, "and holds them in a dwarfish, decrepit
childhood," as a native Indian pastor expressed it. Even
among the classes of the people who have been crammed
with education by European unbelievers, the power of

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 185
caste is but little broken. "You know we have no
longer any religious belief," said a learned Hindu to the
missionary Leupolt; "one may believe what he will,
provided only he keep his caste ; our customs and our
caste hold us together." " Caste is more than Hinduism,"
said a man of high caste who had embraced Christianity ;
and the native clergyman, formerly mentioned, adds :
" Caste is something wholly different from what is
understood elsewhere by social distinctions. These are
grounded upon talent, education, power, riches; caste,
on the other hand, depends exclusively on purity of
birth. The proud and lofty position of the Brahman,
his priestly right, his privilege of being the sole inter
preter of the Veda, and all his other immunities, have
their ground, not in moral or educational superiority,
but only in his birth. And conversely, a Sudra may
possess ever so superior moral qualities, education,
strength, riches, yet he may not presume to put himself
alongside of the most degraded and silly Brahman, and
to eat with him." Not only is intercourse, not only is
all intellectual emulation and striving laid under a
chain, but lovelessness is formally sanctioned. "A
proper caste-man would be kinder to a vulture, a cow,
or even a serpent, than to a pariah who lies before him
fainting with thirst or bleeding to death. The smallest
contact with him is pollution. If a pariah come into
his house, he not only drives him forth as an unclean
leper, but he washes the floor, which his feet have made
unclean, with cow-dung and water.19
Now, as has been already remarked, it is not indeed
the mission alone that is striving to break this terrible

186 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
chain. The whole pressure of European civilization is
helping powerfully to this end. For example, the rail
road is a powerful underminer of the strength of caste.
" When in former times one went on a journey or under
took a pilgrimage " — it was explained by a Hindu of
high rank to the missionary Leupolt — "he went with
his gift to the astrologer, and inquired as to the fortunate
termination of his journey. But now we have got to
buy a time-table, and we know that the time for setting
out is when the bell riDgs. While we are sitting in the
railway carriage we grow hungry and thirsty ; the
Englishman pulls out his packet of provisions, and eats
and drinks ; but what can we do ? There is no other
alternative for us but to follow his example, and to eat
in the carriage in his company. We are thirsty; what
is to be done ? Some one from the outside offers us
water, but we have no time to ascertain whether the
seller is a man of our own caste, so we give him the
price and drink the glass of water ; and now our Brah
mans say that this is quite in accordance with our
Shastras. But you need not ask where it is so written,
for it is nowhere to be found."
Now, how stands the mission in relation to caste ?
There is perfect agreement that caste is a great social
evil, and must be overthrown by the Gospel of Christ ;
but there are different views in regard to the way and
manner of its overthrow. There are caste-stormers, and
their number is very large, who would, so to speak, use
the knife and cut off the ulcer at once, who therefore
make the openly-declared breach of caste by eating with
men of lower caste a condition of baptism. Others again

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 187
— and it appears that this view is gaining ever more
advocates in later times — are for a more gradual healing
of the malady from within outwardly, and for a temporary
tolerance of caste under certain important limitations.
It is well known that Graul adopted the views of the
old Halle missionaries, and that till this day the Evan
gelical Lutheran Mission Society of Leipsic takes this
view. It is evident that we cannot here enter upon a
theoretical discussion of this difficult question, upon
which many a time judgment has been freely pronounced,
without the critics having any apprehension of its great
complexity. In this place we have only to do with the
question as to what the mission has actually effected,
whether by the more vigorous or by the milder practice,
towards the abolition of caste. Alas ! not much ; no
doubt not only hundreds but thousands of people of the
higher castes have renounced caste, but what are they in
comparison with the hundred millions who still regard
the breach of caste as the most terrible of all crimes ?
No doubt in the Christian churches members of all castes
meet in one place of worship, drink, with rare exceptions,
from one communion-cup, and theoretically acknowledge
that they are all brethren, and must love and help one
another. But caste remains — and not only in the
churches of the milder practice — a powerful restriction
on the civil life of the community, making itself especi
ally conspicuous in this, that people of the several castes
live in separate dwellings, do not eat with one another,
avoid inter-marriages, and, so far as possible, all social
intercourse.* That seems confessedly a poor result.
* See Translator's Introduction.

188 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
But when we consider that neither in ancient nor in
modern mission-history has the acceptance of the Gospel
had to encounter a more gigantic obstacle than caste,
and that a system which so dominates the whole life of
the people cannot possibly come to an end in two or
three generations, we shall not think lightly even of the
small breach which has now been made in the fortress,
but shall see in it the first step towards the capture.
Though this capture may be at a greater distance than
many sanguine friends of missions suppose, and the siege
may still require great patience, the ultimate issue can
not be doubted. The preaching of the Gospel is the
death-knell of caste.
The mission has wrought a transformation in the civil,
social, and political life of other fields, especially among
the savage peoples, more conspicuously than it has in
India. Let us look at the Sandwich Islands, which we
have heretofore mentioned only cursorily. It is well
known that here the mission completed its peculiar work
almost ten years ago, and wrought a change which in a
comparatively short time converted a people, who stood
on the lowest stage of culture, into a nation, at least
outwardly civilized. It is not our intention to idealise.
We allow it to be taken as a fact, for example, that the
chastity of the female islanders does not always withstand
the temptations presented by strangers ; that the old
idol-worship is often practised in secret [although the
assertion of Buchner as to the sacrifices at the present
day to the goddess Pela is a fiction, as the Doctor is told
even in the Ausland (1879, p. 199), where his reviewer
shows, by a host of examples, that he has allowed him-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 189
self to be imposed upon] ; that the Western civilization
is in many particulars but an outward varnish, and is
often felt to be a fetter and a burden ; that in particular
the constitutional form of government, with its modern
parliamentarism, is in reality a comedy, &c. But when
we compare the past and the present, the most unfriendly
critic must pronounce that a change has here taken place,
so stupendous that even considerable defects and disturb
ances cannot prevent its recognition. " At their present
stage of culture the Hawaiian s are certainly a peculiar
compound of old barbarism and new civilization." They
exhibit two grades of culture, which are separated from
one another by a deep chasm, as, indeed, it could not
possibly be otherwise with a civilization so rapid. After
these introductory observations, we think the spectacles
are dark enough to prevent our treating the following
picture as an unshaded light-picture. Whoever was at
Hawaii on the 15th of June, 1870, must have received
an overwhelming impression of the cultural power which
the mission has put forth. Honolulu, the capital, with
its royal castle, its circus and theatre, its comfortably-
furnished houses, its beautiful, cleanly hospitals, was
decked out in most festive fashion. Thousands of people
in their Sunday clothes moved joyously through the
streets, and a stately steamer, manned by natives, brought
crowds of festal visitors from the adjacent islands. At
the ringing of the bells the multitude was formed into a
festal procession, which, at the stroke of ten o'clock, put
itself in motion. In front went two companies of native
infantry and one of cavalry, and with these were joined
the civil officials from city and country, and the oldest

1 90 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
missionaries in carriages. Then followed the younger
American and native clergy, the representatives of various
societies, and the members of the National University
of Lahainaluna; 800 gaily-dressed children, the male
and female scholars of the Sabbath-schools, closed the
procession, whose destination was- the large stone church
of the metropolis. When the multitude were in some
measure quieted here, there entered, attended by his
minister and the widowed queen Emma, the King
Kamehameha IV., who was greeted by the assembly
rising to their feet with the song " Hail to our King,
hail ! " The gallery opposite the royal seat bore the in
scription, wrought in evergreens, " 1820 — Jubilee 1870"
— and underneath, the national motto, " Eighteousness
exalteth a people." Thus Hawaii celebrated the fifty-
years' jubilee of its evangelisation. We forbear giving
extracts from the speeches which were delivered on this
occasion by the representatives of the American Board,
the Hawaiian Government, the American embassy, the
native clergy, &c, and the proofs afforded by the whole
what a mighty change of their whole morality, what a
progress in their intellectual education and external
civilization the islands owe to the mission. Perhaps the
judgment of an entirely disinterested correspondent of
the New York Tribune, Mr. Dana, a Boston lawyer, will
have more weight with many readers. Mr. Dana belongs
to the Episcopal Church, which is by no means prepos
sessed in favour of the Congregational American Board.
" It is not a small matter," writes this eye-witness, early
in i860, "that the missionaries of the American Board
in less than forty years taught this people reading, writ-

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. i9r
ing, arithmetic, and sewing. The natives whom, on their
arrival, they found as half-naked savages, who lived in
the breakers and on the sands, fed on raw fish, given
over to sensuality and oppressed by rude chieftains, are
now decently clothed, live in regular marriage, and avail
themselves of Divine worship more regularly than the
mass of people at home. The most distinguished Kana
kas take part in the management of public affairs in the
constitutional monarchy under which they live, have
their seats on the judge's bench and in the legislative
body, or occupy the position of local magistrates. . . .
As matters now stand, I have nowhere found so strict,
and yet so judicious, and well administered ordinances
with respect to offences. The Government and the best
of the citizens stand as a good genius between the people
and the hosts of their foreign invaders. As regards the
interior of the islands, a traveller, even with money, can
wander without escort through the wildest districts. As
I came straight from the hills of California, I was pro
vided with the girdle which is so indispensable there,
and with all that hangs from it, but I soon learned that
such means of protection are unheard of in Hawaii. On
the other hand, I did not find a hut without a Bible and
a hymn-book, and family worship and grace at meals
are as universal as they were one hundred years ago in
New England."
" The Government " — so proceeds, with reference to
the whole evangelic mission-field of Polynesia, the
testimony of the Catholic reporter of the Revue des Deux
Mondes, already quoted — " the Government was formerly
a horribly cruel form of despotism ; now it has subjected

192 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
itself to laws. The protection of life and property is
secured by inviolable compacts. Officials administer
justice ; even the institution of the Jury has been intro
duced." In his speech, delivered on occasion of the
fifty-years' Jubilee festival of the evangelisation of the
Tonga Islands, the king of these islands, among other
things, said : " Other peoples have accomplished much
more, but they required many centuries for their
advances. We may well be proud of the attainments
we have made in a half-century. A heathen people has
embraced Christianity ; barbarians are half civilized ; you
find churches and schools in all directions ; every kind
of slavery is removed ; a constitution has been granted ;
laws govern ; courts of justice are in operation ; various
departments of administration are in action ; roads
intersect the whole country ; shops are opening in every
village ; and all aids to civilization are beginning to
beautify the land." And the latest narrator of a Voyage
through the Pacific Ocean, the mission-hater, Dr. Buchner,
who has already been repeatedly quoted, collects his
description of the state of things which he found there,
notwithstanding many caricatures of culture, into the
following testimony : " Despotism and cannibalism on
the part of the nobles, mutual fear, insecurity of life and
property, a condition of war of all against all, formerly
pressed heavily upon the people. Now, in the Chiistian
time, peace and order have been introduced among them,
and since hypocrisy makes them happier, why should
hypocrisy be reproached as an evil thing ? "
An interesting document upon the latest measures,
adopted by the Christian Government of Madagascar,

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 193
especially upon the institution of 156 newly-appointed
officials in the province of Imerina, to whom the super
intendence of police, the department of health, the
registration of civil status, the inspection of schools, &c,
are assigned, contains a recently published green-book,
in the introduction to which the Queen says, among
other things : " I thank God much that the Gospel of
Jesus Christ has been introduced into my country and
kingdom, to make my people wise, and to teach them
to know God, whereby is eternal life. And for the sake
of the protection which I have received from God, and
which I acknowledged as very good, I therefore founded
my kingdom upon God." In rightful acknowledgment
of the duty thence incumbent on her for the welfare of
her people, the Queen addresses herself to the newly-
installed officials in the following words: "I have
thought good that you, who are among the great ones
of my kingdom, and are accustomed to manage affairs,
be by me selected Sakaizam-Bohitra (lit., friends of
the cities), that you may take care of my kingdom,
encourage the people to learn wisdom and to send the
children to school, induce the lazy to work, reward the
diligent, help the people to live happily on their hold
ings, and protect the widows and orphans. Therefore I
place you here in the middle of Imerina, that you may
superintend my people, and that all in the whole pro
vince may live in peace." Then there follow, under 86
heads, the regulations for these magistrates, all of which
relate to the performance of judicial, administrative,
sanitary and educational functions.
The missionaries have often been accused of mixing
N

194 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
themselves up, uninvited, with politics ; and even so
friendly a critic as Meinicke believes, notwithstanding a
full recognition of the purity of their intentions, that
their action in this respect cannot be wholly justified.
We quote the strikingly characteristic passage, because,
in making the charge, it contains a good part of the
apology, which it considers insufficient : " Even in
political changes which have taken place more recently,
the influence of the missionaries must not be misunder
stood. That the old state' arrangements could not consist
with the acceptance of Christianity, was soon seen by the
natives themselves. They naturally betook themselves to
the men who had won their entire respect and confidence,
and asked their counsel. They gave it, undoubtedly, with
the best intentions, and all the subsequent legislation
shows that it was followed, as well as the institutions
which have been introduced, for example, into the Society
Islands. But these efforts have not always had the results
at which these clergymen aimed. While it is not to be
doubted that the political relations require transformation,
it is quite as evident that these peoples do not possess the
ability themselves to effect such a reform. But that it
is proper for the governments of the refined peoples of.
Europe to found a new political life in these islands by
more or less direct influences, can scarcely be doubted.
What the missionaries have done in this direction has
not, apart from the legalising of the old dynasties, pro
ceeded from the spirit of the peoples; rather it has
constrained that spirit, and it is partly on that account
that the laws have not at all met with uniform obedi
ence ; the constitutional ordinances have not taken root.

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 195
But this participation of the clergy in political counsels
has had other and disadvantageous consequences for
them. They frequently employed the influence which
they had acquired to further their efforts of all sorts
through the help of the princes who were devoted to
them, and while this has brought them many advantages,
yet the disadvantages are permanent, and have showed
themselves in reactions. On the other hand, they led
the princes also in their relations to foreign powers, and
have thereby been often involved in circumstances which
were unsuitable to their office ; thence contentions have
arisen which they should have avoided at any cost."
We must confess that our much-esteemed countryman
in this argument is unintelligible to us, and that after
the just introductory remarks we expected at least an
apology for the missionaries, if not a vindication of
them ; somewhat after the fashion in which the jurist
reporter of the New York Tribune, already mentioned,
gives it. " Certainly the missionaries have influenced
the legislation of the kingdom (Hawaii), and it is
fortunate that they have done so. Influence from one
party or the other was a condition of the development
of the natives. If the missionaries had not gained the
upper hand over the foreign merchants, &c, a handful
of these people would have oppressed and ruined all."
That the arrangements adopted were not always in
accordance with the national spirit we fully confess, and
with Meinicke we regret it. Nor do we deny that the influ
ence which the missionaries possessed was now and again
misused ; yet we must, according to our best knowledge and
conscience, undertake the defence of men who found them
selves in so difficult a position, against the accusations

196 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
founded on rumour, and must at least plead mitigating cir
cumstances for the mistakes which they have fallen into.
The question as to the relation of the missionary to
politics is a very complicated one, which is in no wise
decided for intelligent people by the phrase, " The mission
has nothing to do with politics." "The heathenism,"
says Dr. Ostertag very pointedly, " with which the
missionary has come to contend, is not merely a system
of doctrines of faith and of instruction as to the worship,
of the gods, while in other respects it remains without
influence and reflex action upon the civil and national
life of a people ; but it is always and everywhere so
much interwoven with all the forms of life of a nation,
that the whole social and political condition of the people
stands and falls with their religion." The .history of the
old Eoman Empire, as well as that of the old German
States, testifies this as strongly and unmistakably as does
the most recent history of the smallest heathen island-
groups in the South Seas. The Gospel, inasmuch as it
comes into conflict and enters upon a life-and-death
struggle with the national heathenism of a people,
involuntarily shakes also the foundations of their social
and political life ; and it is quite comprehensible how in
the case of the Lord Himself, His accusation before Pilate
ran upon political sedition, and how afterwards the people
of Thessalonica rose against the apostle Paul with the
charge : "These men who are turning the world upside
down are come hither also ; these all do contrary to the
decree of Caesar." Unfortunately our space does not
admit of our going into the detail of the question in
hand. A view of its complication is afforded by the
truly masterly, we might say classical, address of the late

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 197
experienced secretary of the C. M. S., Mr. Venn, which
he delivered on occasion of the ordination of young
missionaries in i860, and to which we must refer our
readers. In this address, by means of the most striking
examples, the right bearing of the missionaries with
respect to social and political questions, whether among
civilized or uncivilized peoples, and whether in relation
to colonial or native governments, is so pointed out in
sharp lines, that non-interference with political matters
is insisted upon as much as possible as the fundamental
rule; but at the same time it is shown that where the
great principles of righteousness, humanity, and Chris
tian duty are involved, the missionary must all the less
withhold his counsel and his aid in political questions
of mixed character, as he is regularly the most natural
and the most unselfish representative of the interests of
the natives. In our home Christianity there has now
come into fashion a sort of system of seclusion, which,
by confining religion to acts of worship and private life,
would save all public relations from its influence. The
more advanced enemies of Christianity, who do not
play hide-and-seek with pious phrases, designate this
policy as starving it out. In the mission-fields, fortu
nately, simpler and sounder conditions still prevail. The
force of the relation is here so great that the religious
life cannot be restricted to the place of worship or the
chamber of prayer. The old relation cannot remain;
and the more childlike the natives are, the less can the
missionaries maintain the principle of non-intervention.
In theory it is all very good ; but when, for example,
the Christian Sotho negroes in Botschabelo found a new
city, or even a new state, must the missionary keep

198 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
himself aloof from the organisation of it ? Or when
the Kohls are enslaved in the most unrighteous way
by their Hindu oppressors, shall the missionary not
meddle with the social question ? Or when, in the
Sandwich Islands, sexual inconstancy urgently requires
legal suppression, is the missionary doing wrong when
he labours for it ? Or when in Herero-land or in
Kaffir-land the introduction of brandy threatens corrup
tion to the laboriously gathered churches, must he refrain
from helping the adoption of measures of protection
against drunkenness ? Or when in New Zealand the
colonisation of the islands or the seizure of lands by the
English crown is in hand, is it wrong for the missionary
to give advice to the natives ? Or when in Yoruba-
land threatening war-clouds are rising, may he not
negotiate for peace ? Or when the Kaffirs rebel against
the colonial government, is it forbidden him to utter
his sentiments regarding the attitude of the Christian
churches ? Or when in Madagascar the national and
communal constitution is being reorganised, when there
are discussions about laws relating to Sabbath observance,
marriage, school-attendance, the care of the poor and
the sick, the sale of brandy, the manumission of slaves,
the slave-trade, &c, shall the missionary not dare to say
a word, even if the confidence of the people and the
Government expressly invite him thereto ? Enough of
examples. We fully confess that there are missionaries
who have gone too far in intervention, yea, who have
many times " made flesh their arm." But it is always
easier to criticise than to amend; and it is a difficult
question where, especially among the barbarous peoples,
the greater evil arises, whether from the mistakes which

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 199
intervention, or from those which non-intervention, brings
with it.
The new organisation of the civil and national com
munity-life is also influenced by the religious com
munity-life, without the direct interference of the
missionary. Wherever the mission strikes root, it
founds and organises Christian churches. But the reli
gious community, which is a thing more or less unknown
to heathenism, consists not only in the outward union
of those who have become believers of the Gospel, but
it is a body, an articulated organism, in which one mem
ber serves the others, each one according to the talent
which it possesses. Here is a school for the learning
and the exercise of the sentiment of community, an arena
for the action of the most manifold powers, a state of
freedom for all ; here in action and passion characters
are formed, which become examples and leaders to others.
The more organised the religious community, and the
fresher the life which pulsates in it, the greater is its
reflex action upon the relations of the civil community.
It is not only that the men who undertake an active and
independent position, as elders, deacons, Sabbath-school
teachers, class-leaders, &c, obtain respect and influence
also in the civil community, but the community-spirit
which reigns there must of necessity exert its reflex
action upon other social relations, especially upon the
communal and the national life. Thus, for example, in
Madagascar, the installation of the above-mentioned new
communal magistrates would have been simply impossible,
had not the spirit of the Gospel influenced the Govern
ment, and had not the Christian churches trained the proper
persons. Also, in the South Sea Islands, despotism could

200 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
not have been got rid of, had not the Christian community-
spirit become sufficiently strong to burst its chains.
Amidst all the imperfection with which the mission-
churches of the present day realise the biblical idea of
Christian morality, they produce a host of virtues with
which the culture-life of the peoples can nowhere and
never dispense, unless it is to sink into a mere "nature-
process," and to degenerate into that barbarous " struggle
for existence," in which the conqueror ruthlessly marches
over the corpses of the vanquished, and any conciliatory
conclusion is impossible. We mention first the virtues
of love, of mercy, of beneficence. Neither the heathenism
of ancient nor of modern times has practised these virtues
much or at all. It is to the great thoughts of mercy of
Jesus Christ that the poor and the sick, the most
neglected and fallen, are indebted for humane treatment.
Only a few examples. When would the Sandwich
Islanders in their heathen times have thought of in
teresting themselves in the poor lepers, and of bringing
contributions for their treatment ? As the Globus in
forms us, there exists, since 1865, a Eoyal Board of
Health for the Archipelago, through whose exertions
a leper colony has been founded in the island of
Molokai, which belongs to Hawaii, into which, up to the
end of March 1878, there had been admitted in all
1827 lepers, of whom 692 were alive at that date.
The cost of maintenance of this colony amounted
formerly to £1 3,000, but last year the Legislature voted
about .£2000 more, in order to be able to supply their
banished brethren with many necessaries which have
been hitherto unprovided for, as lights, soap, more
frequent rations of meat, and medicines. Further, an

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 201
annual salary of £1000 was granted for an accomplished
physician, who will devote his life to the oversight and
treatment of these unfortunate people, and who has been
found in the- person of a Dr. Emerson, the son of one who
has been for many years a Hawaiian missionary. . . .
When it is considered that the above appropriation for the
maintenance ofthe colony amounts to about six shillings for
every person, man, woman, and child, of the really and com
paratively poor population of the Island- Kingdom, no one
can withhold his recognition of their great magnanimity.
An example from New Guinea has been already
given, how the word and the example of the mission
aries make even the heathen merciful. A similar case
is quite recently reported from Terra del Fuego. "A
Liverpool coal-ship took fire not far from the southern
most point of America ; the crew betook themselves to
the boats, and the captain, with his wife and seven
sailors, were cast upon the desert and cold island of
Holste, where they remained as in a prison, their boat
having been smashed. They had passed forty-eight
days in this terrible position, when at last some Terra-
del-Fuegans, attracted by a white towel hung out by
the shipwrecked ones as a signal of distress, landed in
their boats, but only to find a single individual alive.
In earlier times they would immediately have stripped
the corpses, and would probably have abused them
shamefully, while they would have killed the survivor
and stolen everything. But now it was shown that the
mission was not operating upon them in vain, but had
succeeded in training them to gentler practices. They
did all that they could for the poor man ; kindled a fire,

202 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
cooked something for him to eat, gave him water to
drink, and then hastened, not without leaving a watcher
with him, to the mission-station, where, with tears in
their eyes, they told the missionary, Mr. Bridges, and
Captain Willis, of their sad discovery. At once these
made in the mission-ship for the designated point, but
reached it only after a very stormy voyage of eighteen
days. Of course it was too late. Even the last was dead.
There lay the nine bodies untouched. The natives had
not even taken from them the warm clothes, which might
have been very useful to themselves. Some papers that
were found showed the country and the fate of the unfor
tunates. Mr. Bridges sent an official report of the whole
transactions to the Governor of the Falkland Islands,
the result of which was that the Queen of England ex
pressed her warmest thanks to the missionaries, and the
Board of Trade presented a pound to each of the Terra-del-
Fuegans who had a part in the finding ofthe unfortunates."
In many churches of converts there is a regulated
care of the poor and the sick, as well as a provision
for widows and orphans, and how considerably this new
moral spirit influences the common social life is shown
by this, that even the heathen around them are begin
ning to imitate the Christians in these matters. Thus,
in Bengal, the useful institutions which the Serampore
missionaries called into life, their Benevolent Institution
in Calcutta, their Savings Bank, and the foundation of
the Agricultural Society, their Hospital in Serampore,
&c, have given an impulse to similar undertakings in
town and country. A particularly instructive example
of this sort is afforded by the constitution and operation

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 203
of a society which was founded in 1863 at Uttarpara,
a provincial town in Bengal, under the name Hitakari
Sabha, that is, the society for public advantage. The
object of this society is stated in its rules : " To instruct
the poor, to bring help to the needy, to clothe the naked,
to furnish medicine without charge to the destitute sick,
to support poor widows and orphans, to promote economy,
and in general to improve according to its ability the
social, moral, and intellectual condition of its own
members, as well as tlieir neighbours in Uttarpara."
Similar experiences are told from China. Thus, for
example, at Fumum and in Shiklung, stations of the
Ehenish missionaries, the heathen Chinese have built
foundling hospitals, opened free schools, and furnished
medicine gratuitously to the sick poor ; while also from
Canton,. Amoy, and other mission districts, similar
examples are known of the imitation by the heathen
of Christian works of love. That the comprehensive
exhibition of Christian charity in the East Indian as
well as in the Chinese great famine, has excited not only
admiration, but imitation, is shown, for example, not
only by the quotation given in note eleven, but also by
the following testimony of the Shanghai Courier of the
1 oth June of last year : " When we consider the contrast
between the work of these men, the missionaries, who
in some cases have sunk under their exertions, and the
self-seeking lives of the great mass of men, we must give
the tribute of our highest admiration to their sacrifice and
faithfulness, and be thankful that such examples have
been afforded us. These men are the pioneers of civiliza
tion and of Christianity, and have fallen fighting on the

204 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
field of slaughter, and it is encouraging to see that forth
with other volunteers are hastening to fill up the gaps."
Further, the mission awakens and fosters the virtues
of integrity, truthfulness, and industry. Thus Colonel
Field, who for thirty years was an energetic official in
various districts in India, states : " I once lived in a
Christian settlement, whose inhabitants had received
a considerable tract of land for cultivation. In order
to cultivate with success, these people constantly re
quired advances, to negotiate which they had to resort
to the bankers in a neighbouring large heathen city.
They were very well known. And what impression
was made by what was known of them ? The bankers of
the place never lent to their heathen countrymen without
getting from them a bond, or requiring other security, so
that they could apply to the courts if necessary. They
never asked anything of the kind from the Christians.
They contented themselves with a promise by word of
mouth, so great confidence had they in their integrity."
That the English officials find the most upright and
trustworthy people among that portion of their staff
who have attended mission schools is proved by a testi
mony of Sir Bartle Frere (Note 17). So in the last great
famine, native Christians were preferred as inspectors over
the labourers, because both those under them and those
over them could reckon more securely on their honesty.
In the great military rebellion of 1857, tne Christians
of the settlement of Sikandra, near Agra, about 220 in
number, being sorely threatened by the mutineers, had
been, at the earnest entreaty of the missionary, Mr.
French, received into the Fort of Agra. Sir Herbert

o

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 205
Edwardes, the renowned conqueror of Multan, tells as
follows of the advantage which the Europeans derived
from the reception of these fugitives, who were at first
regarded with distrust : " It may be easily supposed
how our countrymen, who had crowded themselves
together there, were deserted by their heathen servants.
There were no Mohammedan boys who served the
Christian families, no Mohammedan cooks, no bakers,
no heathen servants to do for their English brothers
and sisters those services which, in a climate like India,
a European cannot himself do. In this universal ne
cessity these native Christians of Sikandra took the
places of those who had run away from them 
They were even required — and this is a very remarkable
fact — to bake bread for the European soldiers. Why
so ? With respect to all other natives, it was feared
that they would put poison into it. Yes, there were
times when, even if heathen and Mohammedan bakers
offered themselves, no one of them could be trusted.
But the native Christian approved himself as a faithful
ally. In consequence of this faithfulness, proved in the
hour of greatest danger, the English retained most of
the Christians of Sikandra in their personal service."
" Our Christians," it is said in a report to the direc
torate of the Baptist Missionary Society, " are visibly dif
ferent from the heathen. Their moral sense is sharpened,
so that those immoral practices which are constant
among the heathen seldom occur among them. The
way in which they treat their wives is a contrast to the
rough treatment to which many Hindu wives are sub
jected. In their intercourse with one another they are

206 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
more friendly and upright than the heathen. These make
nothing of bearing false witness in court ; our Christians
recoil from this sin." All this means something in a
country where even the heathen and Mohammedan
officials are regarded as so dishonest that even the
postage stamps, for example, must be rendered unusable
by the senders' putting some mark upon them, since
a letter with uneffaced stamps would be exposed to the
danger of untraceable disappearance.
" A Christian Santal was once going through several
villages to make an extensive purchase of rice. In the
first of the villages he got part of what he required, in
the .second also he got some baskets, and so forth, all for
cash payments. But when he brought out his money at
the last village, he saw that he had not enough. He
was twelve shillings short of the sum necessary to pay
what he had bought. It is a thing unheard of among
the Santals to give any goods on credit, so that the man
saw that he had no alternative but to ask the seller to
take back twelve shillings' worth of the rice. Mean
time, the seller had perceived that he had to do with a
Christian, and as this impression was confirmed on his
directly putting the question, he declared, without more
to do, that he would be content in the meantime with
the partial payment, and would trust to the buyer that
he would soon bring him the balance. Unfortunately,
the tax-collector came next day to the village to collect
the dues. The man who had given his rice on credit
was not able to pay his dues fully at once, and told, by
way of excuse, what had befallen him. But the official
deemed it incredible that a Santal should part with his

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 207
goods without getting the money for them. His suspicion
was confirmed by the fact that the man could give neither
the name nor the residence of his debtor, and only took
his stand upon this, that he was a Christian, and would
certainty pay the twelve shillings ere long. Even the other
villagers did not believe the story, and the collector sen
tenced the supposed liar to a suitable measure of stripes."
A few days after, that Christian returned and paid his
debt. His creditor had scarcely recovered from his
undeserved ill-treatment ; but he forgot his pains through
the joy of being able to vindicate himself and his
honourable debtor before his neighbours and acquaint
ances. He called them all together and said triumph
antly : " You laughed at me lately because I trusted to
the word of a Christian. There he is. Look well at
him. I have not dunned him for his debt. I knew
neither his name nor where he lives, and yet he has
come to pay me the twelve shillings ! "
Captain Briggs, in his book Sunny Days in Salween,
published twenty years ago, writes thus : " As an official
of eight or nine years' experience on this (the Tenasserim)
coast, I can vouch for the great moral elevation among
the Christian Karens. I venture to assert that ten
Christian villages give less trouble to the police than one
heathen Karen village. Indeed, our registers show that
in one heathen town, Taungbyuk, there is more crime
than in the whole Christian district of this province."
" The theft and impurity which men so universally
practised in .the heathen times " — writes Meinicke re
garding the Christian South Sea Islanders — " are now as
unfrequent as in a civilized European country, and they

208 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
would be still rarer, were the islands not so much visited
by the profligate crews of merchant and whaling ships."
Of Aitutaki — an island of the Hervey group, in which
the venerable veteran Eoyle laboured for forty years, and
which is now under the care of a native pastor — Harris,
who visited it in 1876, after describing its progress in
external civilization, writes thus : " It was a real
pleasure to meet with so many dear people, as these
Aitutakians are. They know the truths of the Gospel
not merely theoretically but from practical experience ;
and their daily life forms a commentary upon these
truths. The name Aitutaki has a pleasant sound for all
captains who visit this group. I was told that they
leave their commercial transactions altogether in the
hands of the Aitutakians. When a captain has brought
his goods ashore, and has told the chiefs what articles
of barter he wishes in return, he usually goes away
again, and the chiefs undertake the full responsibility
for the goods consigned to them from the ship. When
they have collected the articles of barter, they pay for
them out of the stores of the white man, and hand to
the captain an accurately prepared account, with a strict
valuation of the country produce delivered, and of the
European goods taken in payment. Their conduct in
these matters gives universal satisfaction, and I have often
heard them spoken of with great respect and pleasure."
Even Buchner cannot help testifying that he, in spite of
the suspicions cast upon them by the white colonists, has
learned to know the Fijians as upright men.
Whenever European colonists require the service of
natives to manage their work, they prefer the Christians

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 209
before their heathen countrymen, unless they be in
principle opponents of the mission, Lady Barker, the
wife of an English Government official in Natal, whose
interesting book, Three Years of the Life of a Housewife
in South Africa, has been already mentioned, states : " On
all sides, since I have been here, the advice has been given
me to employ no Christian Kaffirs as servants, but I
might know on what the prejudice rests, which people
have against them : ' If you would have a good servant,
take a Kaffir who comes direct from the kraal,' I was
universally told. It happens that we have two of each
sort, two Christians and two heathen, in our service, and
there can be no doubt which are the best." One more
proof in conclusion. The well-known official judgment
of the Indo-British Government, as to the importance of
the mission, closes with these words : " The indications
of a solid advancement effected in the short space of two
generations, and now becoming visible on all sides,
furnish good hope for the future moral growth of the
native population of India. The Indian Government
cannot but acknowledge the great obligation under
which they lie to the benevolent exertions of these six
hundred missionaries, whose stainless example and self-
denying labour are inspiring new power into the petrified
life of the people under the English rule, and making
them better men and better citizens of the great empire
to which they belong."
It is far from our intention to assert that these and
similar virtues, as, for example, temperance, which — to
adduce but one example — is commended among the
Kohl and Santal Christians, are found in every in
dividual convert from heathenism, and in prominent o

210 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
measure. We know very well that moral qualities
cannot be appropriated by way of mechanical necessity,
but only gradually and imperfectly become the common
property of the young Christians. It is in the mission
churches, which everywhere are nought but fragments
of future national churches, quite as it is in home
Christianism. . Not only are there defects, but many
faults and tares grow among the wheat. Still there is a
mighty difference between the then and the now. In
his repeatedly mentioned book on the South-Sea
Missions, Mr. Pritchard says very strikingly with refer
ence to the civilizing effect of the mission generally:
" No one can fully understand the advance in civilization,
who is not somewhat familiar with the condition in
which the Polynesians were when the mission began its
work. The difficulties in the way of introducing among
them industry, and other customs and manners of
civilized life, are entirely unknown to those who have
not seen the old heathenism and its obstinate character.
The tourist may find little to admire and much to
criticise, while such as knew the people in their former
degradation, and see them now in their comparatively high
civilization, cannot be sufficiently astonished." In quite
peculiar measure, this remark is applicable also with re
spect to the above-mentioned moral virtues. The converts
are by no means a moral ideal, yet their present general
condition bears the same proportion to their former
heathen condition that the morning dawn bears to the
darkness of night. But the deficiencies and faults are
now recognised as sins, and discipline is administered in
regard to them. The passions of the natural human
heart have no longer exclusive control of the behaviour.

RELATION OF MISSIONS TO CULTURE. 211
New fountains of life are opened, and new powers of
resistance are brought into action, which more or less
paralyse selfishness. There is a centripetal force which
ever draws the erring conscience of the people back to
the purifying and saving fountain of life.
Were it haply so, as the latest historian of culture,
Herr von Hellwald is not ashamed to assert, that, " right,
morality, and moral are but an empty sound," and that
" the so-called corruption of morals stands in direct
proportion to the growth of civilization " — then our
missionaries would be doing not only a superfluous, but
a positively scandalous work, when they are striving, by
the awakening and fostering of moral and social virtues,
to lay a new foundation for culture among the heathen.
Then consequently the most blooming culture must grow
from the moral corruption of the heathen, and we must
introduce the heathen immorality among ourselves,
instead of planting the Christian morality among them.
It is indeed almost fabulous how blind these fanatics of
materialistic culture are to the most evident facts.
Apart from the fact that at home it is now sufficiently
manifest to what barbarism a culture leads "whose
growth is in direct proportion to moral corruption," a
glance at heathen lands should furnish them with the
proof, that it fares ill with civilization where "right,
morality, and moral are an empty sound ; " and that it is
when Christianity converts these things into realities
that a culture-epoch, bringing blessings for the whole
culture-life of a people, first begins.

212 )

III.
RELATION OF CULTURE TO THE MISSION.
That the Mission of the present day is a cultural power
must have been put beyond doubt, to every unprejudiced
person, through the facts which have been imparted,
however incomplete they are. But our theme speaks of
the mutual relations between the modern mission and
culture. We have thus still to inquire whether con
versely the modern culture is a missionary power.
When the question is asked as to the fountains from
which the mission-life of the present day has sprung,
the only one that will commonly be mentioned is the
religious awakening which, since the end of last century,
has laid hold of circles, at first small, but gradually
greater and greater, of England, Germany, and America.
Doubtless that is quite correct ; for only churches that
are religiously alive engage in missions. Indeed, the
efficacy of these fountains was all the more potent for
the extension of the kingdom of God among the heathen,
because they were soon divided into many brooks and
streams. The partition of Protestantism into ecclesi
astical denominations and directions is commonly re
garded as only a shady side of the evangelical Church.
But it has, under the leading of the good hand of God,
its light sides also. One of these light sides lies in the

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 213
domain of the mission. However many denominations
and church organisations there are, there are as many
mission-centres at home. The so-called " free " Protes
tantism, notwithstanding the strong excitement produced
by the book of Buss already mentioned, has hitherto led
only to criticism of the " pietistic " mission, and to the
putting forth of a somewhat fantastic plan of missions,
but not to any missionary action of its own. Certainly,
this abundance of mission-centres — of which there are at
least seventy in Europe and America, without reckoning
independent missions conducted by British colonists and
by native Christians — has essentially contributed to
make the missionary activity within the evangelical
Church so universal and so energetic. Without this
partition of the stream it would have been impossible
that now there should be at least 2300 ordained
evangelical missionaries doing evangelistic service in
almost all the known and accessible countries of the
world, and that in recent times about ;£ 1,2 00,000
annually are contributed in voluntary gifts for the
carrying on and extension of the work. The enemies
of the mission strive to represent this division of the
work in a bad light : because they assert that the
emissaries of the several Protestant camps obstruct one
another in a scandalous way among the heathen, and by
their differences in doctrine and in organisation hinder
rather than further the spread of the Gospel. It cannot
be denied that cases of this kind do in fact occur.
Especially the English Propagation Society (S. P. G.)
is rightly accused of discourtesy towards other societies.
But in general the agents of most of the missionary
societies occupy a position like that of Lord Macaulay,

214 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
who, after his return from India, declared : " I have
lived so long in a land where the people worship cows,
that I do not make much of the differences which
separate Christians from Christians." When, even in
home Christianism, in presence of -the heathenism which
is ever more and more manifesting itself, the differences
between the various ecclesiastical parties are more and
more thrust into the background, so it is naturally the
case on the proper heathen mission-field. Nothing
makes men so large-hearted as does the mission. Thus
the official report of the Indo-British Government, to
which reference has been repeatedly made, expressly
testifies that the missionaries in India "labour together
with well-known cordiality. Although they belong to
different denominations, yet the nature of their work,
their isolated position, and their long experience, cause
them to attach far greater importance to the many
particulars in which they agree than to those in which
they differ, so that they heartily lend a helping hand to
one another. By friendly understanding they divide the
districts among them, and, with few exceptions, it is
their constant rule not to intrude into one another's
territory. The numerous missionaries in the several
Presidency cities form a Missionary Conference, hold
periodical meetings, and discuss in common subjects of
importance, &c." And not in India only, but also in
China and Japan, West, South, and East Africa, the
West Indies and Polynesia, as well as in the general
Missionary Conference held in London in December last,
the mission affords proof that the motto is ever more and
more prevalent, viribus unitis.
But the religious awakening is by no means the only

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 215
fountain of the modern mission-life. The discoveries,
especially in the South Sea, which have been made during
and since the last quarter of last century, first gave to
the religious awakening its missionary direction. The
age of the Eeformation was assuredly a time of religious
awakening, but it did not issue in missionary work. And
that certainly not for the reason that the young evangelical
Church had at first too much to do at home, so that it had
neither time nor strength remaining for extending the
kingdom of God among the heathen. That might be
said also of the Apostolic Church, and yet it was a
missionary church. At this day also we have struggle
enough within the old Christendom, and yet we are
carrying on missions with ever increasing energy. Eather
at the time of the Eeformation the eye was wanting for
the mission-task, and this eye was wanting mainly because
the Protestant countries had little or no direct connection
with the heathen peoples. No doubt a period of dis
covery had preceded the Eeformation, and especially by
the discovery of America, a new world was gradually
opened up. But all these discoveries directly affected
only the Catholic States, Portugal and Spain, and within
the Eomanist Church they called forth missionary zeal,
which, though not very spiritual, was yet not insignificant.
The limited missionary action of the pietism of Halle at
a later time, and the more extensive operations of the
Church of the Brethren, manifestly received their impulse
from the Danish foreign relations. Still, even in the
eighteenth century there was not within the evangelical
Church any general undertaking of missions to the heathen.
Certainly, rationalism bears a good share of the blame ;
but it is as little to be held responsible for the neglect as

216 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
is the orthodoxy that prevailed before it. The fulness of
the time was not yet come. The Danish Halle mission,
and that of the Hernhuters, have but a transient import
ance for the mission of the present day, similar to that
of the forerunners of the Eeformation for the Eefor
mation. It was " the geographical undertakings of last
century, the general application to thoughts of humanity,
although these at first showed themselves hostile to reve
lation, the political movements, the American War of
Independence, the contests about slavery, the French
Eevolution, and other movements, that first prepared the
wide field on which the modern mission could grow, and
grow as it has done." It was especially the newly-
awakened interest in foreign peoples and countries, that
begot the thought of missions in the circles of living
Christianity. Then it happened that the later invention
of the steam-engine produced great new means of com
munication, which reduced the greatest distances to
comparatively small spaces, and rendered possible a
world-intercourse which far surpassed in magnitude ali
previous relations betwixt foreign lands. To these
auxiliary forces the mission of the present day owes, not
indeed its existence, but a great part of its stimulation,
and at all events its comparatively rapid and important
extension. It is impossible to write the history of the
modern mission, without its being at the same time most
closely interlaced with the history of discoveries, rela
tions of commerce, and colonies. As geography is,
according to the competent testimonies of such men as
Peschel and Petermann, deeply indebted to the mission ;
so, conversely, discoveries and commerce have often pre
pared the way for the mission. " Geography, commerce,

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 217
and the spread of religion," writes the former of these
two, "have, singularly enough, a common history. The
discoverer is the avant-courier of the missionary, while
the missionary himself is often a discoverer. Where
commercial connections are formed, there the missionary
settles ; and where missions are founded, there com
mercial connections are developed." Thus Livingstone
also would have his travels of discovery regarded as a
pioneer-service for the mission. " The end of geographical
action should," according to his well-known dictum, " be
only the beginning of the missionary enterprise." It is,
in the best sense of the term, an edifying matter to see
how the King of the heavenly kingdom, to whom all
power is given in heaven and earth, has the reins of the
government of the world in His hands, and makes the
advance of culture-history subservient to the extension
of His Gospel. Scientific discoveries, modern means of
communication, world-commerce, colonial policy, render
to the mission of the present day similar services to
those which the warlike expeditions of Alexander the
Great, the dispersion of Israel, and the Eoman universal
empire rendered to the apostolic, and the policy of the-
Frankish kings and the German emperors to the medieval
mission. True it is, as we shall soon see, that the world-
commerce, rendered possible by means of the modern
civilization, has its great dangers for the spread of the
Gospel among the unchristian nations, as well as for
their physical and intellectual wellbeing. Still, it were
very short-sighted, on account of this undeniable shadow-
side, to overlook, or even to undervalue, the immense ad
vantage which the mission of the present day has derived,
and is continuously deriving, from the modern civilization.

o

218 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
It is not only a very harsh, but also a very one-sided,
and therefore, notwithstanding much truth that it
contains, a very erroneous judgment which Wolfgang
Menzel pronounces on the mission of the present day,
on account of its connection with the modern culture.
Undoubtedly the world-commerce brings into heathen
lands a great mass of evil men, who disgrace the name
of Christ, and by their covetousness, sensuality, brutality,
&c, obstruct the entrance of the Gospel. But the asser
tions of Menzel shoot far beyond the mark, and therefore
go for nothing. Who ever " misused the leaves of the
Gospels as wrappers for the opium poison ? " So far as
we know, that has not occurred to any missionary, or
even to any opium-trader. What can the mission do
for the opium trade ? A man like Menzel should have
known that the mission is its most decided enemy ; and
when the critic makes the assertion that " Christ, who
stretched out His arms to draw all His human brethren
to Himself, has, under the influence of the modern
civilization, been imperceptibly changed into the horrid
form of the Indian goddess of death, Kali, who carries
a distinct instrument of slaughter in every one of her
many hands," — it is indeed a strong speech, which would
be comprehensible if it came from the mouth of a social
democrat, but when uttered by a Christian apologist like
W. Menzel, admits only of the explanation that pessimism
fails to learn to distinguish and discriminate. Many repre
sentatives of the modern civilization, alas ! resemble the
Indian goddess in question; but Christ is not changed
into her likeness ; and we ask once more, how can the
mission, which proclaims Chiist to the heathen, help it,
that the world-commerce leads also many men who do

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 219
discredit to the Gospel into distant lands ? It is utterly
out of the power of the mission to prevent the intro
duction of evil elements into heathen lands. It is a
result of the imperfection of the mission now, as well as
in the apostolic time, that in its field of labour people
are not wanting on whose account the name of God is
blasphemed among the heathen " (Eom. ii. 24). In this
sinful world we must be prepared for offences, even in
the holiest works which we engage in, and even if we
could do it, it were a very indiscreet zeal that would
separate the mission of the present from the culture of
the present. We should thereby saw through, if not the
whole, yet a good part of the branch on which we sit ;
or to use the biblical comparison, we should uproot much
wheat with the tares.
It is essential to a right treatment of the subject to
take into account also the furtherances which the modern
culture undeniably contributes to the mission, else we
should incur the merited reproach of blind blustering.
Thus, it is one of the many one-sided statements and
over-statements of Menzel, that " all so-called Christians,
wherever they come, slaughter the poor heathen, rob
them of their lands, or enslave them." It is a misre
presentation that " the colonists who came in multitudes
from England destroyed the work of the missionaries in
New Zealand," and other statements of a like character.
God be thanked ! not all emigrants are godless and
immoral creatures. There are among them also upright
men and faithful Christians, who, by word and example,
directly and indirectly, build up the kingdom of God
among the heathen, and render good service towards
civilizing them. Among the numerous colonists of the

220 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Polynesian Islands and of South Africa, there are not a few
f urtherers of the evangelisation of the heathen. British,
American, and German commercial houses support the
mission as their pioneer and helper ; many officers and
soldiers of the English army and navy — as Sir Herbert
Edwardes, Major Martin, General Havelock, Commander
Markham, and many others — as also a great number of
officials of the British Colonial Government especially —
we mention only Sir Lawrence,* Bartle Frere, Napier,
Muir, Gordon, &c, have rendered to the mission the
most valuable services. The "father of missionaries,"
Hendrik van Zyl, in South Africa, and Emde, the " watch
maker of Surabaya " in Java, have become universally
known through the fine monument which Wallmann has
erected to them. But how many like furtherers of mis
sions are there among the emigrants of all lands, whose
names and doings have obtamed less publicity !
The Apostle Paul writes to the Thessalonians (2 Thess.
iii. 1) — " Beloved brethren, pray for us, that the Word
of the Lord may run." As in the apostolic time, so now
also, the Word of God is running before, along with,
and behind the missionary proper. It diffuses the
fragrance further than the feet of the messengers make
their imprint, or the sound of their words reaches. God
makes even the air a herald of the Gospel, and the
wings of the wind do service as His messengers. Our
Kingly Lord has in great wisdom ordained it so, that the
great mission periods always fall upon times in which a
great movement and migration is going on among the
* So the Author. It matters not whether he meant Sir John (after
wards Lord) Lawrence, or his brother Sir Henry, the latter of whom it is
my delight to have numbered among my intimate friends. — Trans.

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 221
peoples. As, on the one hand, the mission does cultural
service, so on the other, culture also does missionary
service. It is a well-known fact, for example, that
Japan, which was so long closed, has been opened to the
Gospel through help of the modern commerce, and that
China also has been constrained by the same means to
open its ports to foreigners, and its long-closed regions
are becoming more and more open. The direct incite
ment to the establishment of a mission in the territory of
King Mtesa, Uganda on Lake Victoria Nyanza, we owe
to the travels of discovery of Stanley. That the mission
aries of the Basel Missionary Society have been able at
last to find firm footing in the Ashantee-kingdom is in no
small degree a consequence of the victory of the English
arms. " Life on the Gold-Coast," it is said in the
interesting Annual Eeport, " has experienced a remark
able revolution during the past year. A fresh movement
has taken the place of the previous stagnation. The
English Government is displaying an energy which could
not be perceived during the last quarter of a century.
The chiefs and kings must simply obey ; slavery is
abolished, roads are projected and formed, government-
buildings are erected, new officials are appointed, troops
are enlisted, police are introduced, the establishment of
schools is in hand, &c. The feeling of the missionaries,
the churches, and the people is in general changed.
Fear for the future and depression of spirit have given
way to joyous expectation and to new activity. The
churches are again in better order since the return of the
men from the war ; the heathen have received a strong
impression from the subjugation of the Ashantees, — the
advantage of education is recognised as it never was

222 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
before. Many are embracing Christianity. Our mission
has obtained a recognition on the part of the English
Government, such as we should never have expected
for it." Since then it is known that the two first
mission-stations in the kingdom of Ashantee have been
actually founded.
But it is not only that commerce, in its manifold
ramifications, first opens to us many missions-fields, and
places the missionaries under a certain protection of right ;
it works also, both negatively and positively, for the
Christianising of the heathen ; negatively, through the
overthrow of heathen superstition and heathen im
morality ; positively, through the formation of a spiritual
atmosphere, and the conscious aud unconscious intro
duction of Christian views and sentiments.1 Commerce
is a leveller. Only ignorance or narrow-mindedness can
question that in India the Government has not only
abolished widow-burning and child-murder, but has also
effected a far-reaching undermining of Hinduism by the
introduction of European refinement and civilization,
which must of necessity be favourable to the mission.
What an important mission-pioneering service, for
example, the railway has rendered, has been already
pointed out. In like manner, it is manifest that the
introduction of European culture into Japan, notwith
standing all the elements of unbelief and immorality
which are rushing in along with it, is preparing a field
for evangelical Christianity. The old religions necessarily
crumble down in presence of the new civilization. Japan
needs and seeks a new religion. In a similar manner,
the way was prepared for the Gospel in the Sandwich
Islands. Through the conquests and experiments in

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 223
civilization of Kamehameha I., as well as through the
breach of Tapu by Liholiho, his successor, without the
inducement of any religious motives, and the formal
renunciation of idolatry, " the valleys were exalted and
the hills brought low," just when the voice of the mes
sengers of peace was heard.
There are also in this respect preparations going on
now, similar to those in the time of the apostles. In a
heathenism become unbelieving, is being developed a
receptiveness for the Gospel of Christ. As Pilate was
the representative of a great portion of the refined Greco-
Eoman world of his time, so also of many Hindus,
Japanese, and other heathens of the present day. We
know very well that a heathenism become unbelieving
is all the less to be regarded as a Christian conquest,
that it is unbelieving, nominal Christians, through whose
words and actions this religious bankruptcy has been
brought about ; still, we have assured confidence that, as
in the first centuries of the Christian era, it was not
scepticism and unbelief, but the Gospel of Christ that
gained the victory; so it will turn out also with the
heathen peoples of the present day. As no living being
can exist in a vacuum, so no people can in continuance
endure the vacuum of unbelief. No one lives by the
destruction of food. When a people has, like the
prodigal son, spent its religious inheritance, it then
begins to starve; and when it has long enough had
experience of the husks of unbelief, it says, at least in
its better parts : " I will arise and go to my Father."
The unbelieving modern culture makes the heathen
peoples hungry, by helping to destroy their ancestral
beliefs, and in full, time the mission finds a people

224 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
become hungry, to which it offers, not in vain, the bread
of life.But more positive preparations for the evangelising of
the peoples also go forth from the modern civilization.
Of necessity a knowledge of Christianity, though it may
be but superficial, is spread among the heathen people
with whom the world-commerce comes in contact. So,
for example, in geographical and historical books, which
are written and read by the heathen Chinese, is found a
short "sketch of the doctrine by means of which the
foreign barbarians hope to be happy after death." In
India, also, the representatives of the Brahma Samaji
have, by their discourses and their writings, contributed
to make the Gospel of Christ known among the educated
Hindus. Even controversial writings in opposition to
Christianity, such as are the order of the day in India, in
China, and even in Japan, must tend to direct the atten
tion of the body of the people to Christianity, as they
are also proofs that acquaintance with the doctrines and
facts of the Gospel extends far beyond the circle of
baptized converts. In all mission-fields, but chiefly in
those which are in closest contact with the Western
culture, such as India, China, and Japan, there are tens
of thousands, thousands, hundreds, who, without becoming
Christians, have adopted Christian views and habits. A
similar process is going on among the barbarous peoples.
Without perceiving it, they change their habits and their
superstitious views under the influence of the forces of
Western culture, amidst which they are placed. With
out observation, a new spiritual atmosphere is being
formed, which, by decomposing heathenism, is working
out a preparation for evangelisation. Only, this sort of

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 225
preparation is for the most part very tedious, and is not
always in ways with which we have sympathy. But all
ameliorations, even those of the spiritual field, require a
long time, and means of amelioration are, apart from
circumstantial improvements of all sorts, in no small
measure, products of decomposition. Before the mission-
field can be sown, often before it can be ploughed, it must
be levelled, drained, and manured ; and to this auxiliary
work culture oftentimes contributes, under the leading
of Divine Providence. Thereby there comes much seed
of tares into the soil, but we must not forget that never
and nowhere in this world does the sower scatter his
seed only upon clean, good land (Matt. xiii. 3). We
may regret that the preparatory help-work of culture is
neither in general carried on from morally noble motives
nor has in view ideal evangelical aims, that it rather
pursues selfish ends, and suffers itself to be led by selfish
motives ; but it ever remains a triumph of Divine Pro
vidence that it can turn all things, even the egotism of
men, indirectly to the furtherance of the interests of God's
kingdom, and can regulate even evil, so that good comes
of it at the last. With reference to the heartless repre
sentatives of the modern culture among the heathen of the
present day, the old saying holds good : " Ye thought to
do evil, but God thought to do good, that He might do
as it is this day, to save much people" (Gen. 1. 20).
We must, in conclusion, attend to another important
matter, by which civilization renders an important
pioneer service to the mission, especially if it compre
hends and seeks to accomplish its task, not only in
egoistic, but also in moral and educational directions —
namely, that it is an educator to and through labour. It
p

226 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
has been already adverted to in the former department
of our inquiry, that in training to labour lies a chief
secret of civilizing. The colonial governments, as well
as commerce, have before them a great field of action in
this direction, which their own interests must induce them
to cultivate. We shall show further on that certainly
that interest, when it has been exclusively impressed
into the service of covetousness, has led to the grossest
wrongs committed upon the savage and the half-civilized
peoples. But we must not, on account of these impress
ments, overlook the blessings which — although often
enough not philanthropy, but selfishness, has formed the
leading motives — have in part accrued to savages, who
by nature are excessively inclined to laziness, in that
directly and indirectly they have become accustomed to
labour; and we rejoice that more and more that senti
mental philanthropy which fosters laziness, instead of
overcoming it, is recognised as folly. The maxim which
is more and more energetically acted on by the English
colonial policy, We must make these Kaffirs work, when it is
brought into practice in a humane way, gives a help to the
work of the mission which cannot be sufficiently estimated.
"Every proper Englishman," says the very learned
Hiibbe-Schleiden, in his excellent book Ethiopia, with
reference to this very point, "carries with him somethino-
of that special good tone which is chiefly heard in Exeter
Hall, and which makes the stranger think of home
somewhat as the church-music of a Palaestrina or an
Orlando-di-Lasso does the musician of the present day.
But such doctrinaire abstractions, however well meaning
they may be, are perfectly unintelligible to men in the
state of nature. On the negro they are in favourable

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 227
cases only lost ; in other eases he abuses them." " Doc
trine alone," he says in a passage worthy of special
attention, " does not make culture ; rather it is only the
practical working of it that first attracts barbarians to
it. If ever any doctrine can make a beginning of such
development, it is that one which stands at the begin
ning of all human culture : " In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread." Culture does not come to men from
without, but through self-acting development of its forces
from within ; and wherever missions have been conducted
on this principle, they have had success. But the means
are wanting of carrying out this principle on a larger
scale, and of pressing on with it into the interior, and
even the great institutions for training the negroes
through and to labour would not help them much,
unless the realisation of the products of such labour
were made possible by trade. To accomplish this task
effectually is possible only to commerce or kindred
undertakings, and to missions only when they are sup
ported by such undertakings. They must labour in the
service of commerce, which there represents civilization;
and this commerce, or these undertakings, can do nothing
better than work along with the missions prudently, so as
to turn to account their practical powers, and be helpful to
them in continually extending the ground once won.
In order to this, certainly the spirit which now rules
the commerce there (in West Africa, but also in many
other countries) must be greatly changed; and I do not
say this only with reference to the system of trust-
giving [a system of credit which the author regards as
the chief evil of the trade carried on there, and which
he designates as " a crime without extenuating circum-

228 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
stances "], but with reference to the whole character of
European management ; for at present, the isolated
efforts of the missions among the coast tribes are
counteracted not only by the wildness of nature, but
also by the bewilderment of our uncomprehended culture.
This evil it will be difficult to remove. But the spirit
which is there working extensively can and must be
regenerated ; and until it be changed there will scarcely
be a word to say of a development of the Ethiopians,
or a successful education of them by means of labour.
Still, there is reason to hope that at a not far distant
future, missionaries, teachers, and workmen, in associa
tion with a rational commerce, will penetrate with a bless
ing into the interior of the country. This culture-problem
is the mission of commerce ; its gospel is labour."
Wherever commerce or colonial governments accom
plish this task, where they succeed, by authority, by
moral and intellectual ascendancy, by rectitude, humanity
and patience — much patience — in making uncivilized
men work, and in inspiring them with a sentiment of
order, punctuality, law, and obedience, there they render
to the mission an important pioneer-service ; and again,
wherever commerce secures to the barbarians who have
become Christians, the means of eating their bread in
the sweat of their face, and of improving their material
condition by honourable industry, then it is a welcome
ally in the difficult work of their education. We
acknowledge with thankfulness that especially the Eng
lish colonial governments, though with varying ability
and success in the several colonial territories, exert
themselves to accomplish this culture-task, and that in
the closest possible co-operation with the missions, of

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 229
whose efforts for the good of the natives, as well as for
the sound development of their own rule, they under
stand the value, and therefore, as a rule, support them
according . to their ability ; while the Dutch system of
labour-tax in the Sunda Islands, so far as we can judge
of it and examine its results, serves far less the objects
in question. There are also, God be thanked, not a
few commercial houses, and among them especially
German, Hamburg, and Bremen firms — as is strikingly
shown, for example, by the report of the German govern
ment regarding the friendly relation with Samoa —
which, by means of trade conducted in the spirit of
kindliness and rectitude, are exerting an influence on
the advancement and education of the natives, which
indirectly and directly is favourable to the mission.
Would that there were on the part of commerce as
hearty a recognition of the efforts of the mission, and
that the acknowledgment were more general, that in a
full respecting of the tasks and objects, as well as the
limits of the two cultural forces, a friendly greeting and
co-operation is demanded for their mutual advantage as
well as for the good of the natives.
While we distinctly recognise a preparatory import
ance of the modern culture for the extension of the
kingdom of God among the heathen, notwithstanding
the selfish motives, the' unworthy behaviour, and the
anti-missionary position of many of its representatives,
yet we are far from advocating the view that the mission
needs not begin its work until culture has finished its, at
least in a relative way ; in other words, that in principle
and systematically culture must precede the mission. It
astonishes us to find even so sound a moralist as priest

230 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Gerland among the apologists of this theory. " The
.nature-peoples," he writes, "must first be made human,
then Christian. They are slowly trained to and through
culture, whose highest bloom will be Christianity. Not
knowledge and understanding — were it even the highest
wisdom — but rather action and independent formation
of their own life, give to men their moral standing
and their moral strength. Let these be awakened,
strengthened, promoted, and Christianity is promoted.
It is nevertheless true that those criminals who have
escaped from the convict settlements, and squatted in
various districts of Oceania, by the fragments of culture
which they have communicated to the natives, have
prepared and smoothed the way for Christianity and
the missionaries, without their wishing it, and although
along with the culture they at the same time taught
them many crimes. But if we will see speedy results
without sufficient preparation, we shall effect nothing.
The mission reports sufficiently prove how foolish such
an attempt is, and how often it leads to the most
lamentable self-deception. Only the most loving labour
and the self-sacrificing devotion of many generations can
produce real and permanent results. We do not demand
of the nature-peoples to rise by flight to the height of
refinement which the most gifted culture-peoples have
reached in the course of centuries, with so frequent
relapses, so keen conflicts, so constant labour."
If the closing remark of the foregoing quotation, with
which in other respects we perfectly agree, be placed
in immediate connection with the question under con
sideration, then we must evidently wait for centuries
with the evangelising of the nature-peoples — which

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 231
cannot be in reality the meaning of a man who expressly
confesses that the Polynesians owe their salvation to
the missionaries. The whole mission of the present day
among the nature-peoples, of which Gerland himself
speaks with so high recognition, would have been a
useless undertaking, had it been necessary that it
should be preceded by a tedious elevation of them to
the height of our culture. Yet more ; condemnation
must be passed upon the mediaeval mission among the
Germanic and Sclavonic peoples, for in point of fact
culture did not prepare the way for it, but conversely
it for culture. Thus it is impossible that the professor
can hold his theory in full earnest. It is very defec
tively supported even by the facts to which he alludes.
Of course one might speak of a preparatory influence
of European civilization in Hawaii, New Zealand, Fiji,
Tahiti, and the Gilbert and Marshall Islands under
certain limitations, but upon the whole the fact is that
in the South Sea Islands culture prepared the way for
the mission, less than conversely the mission prepared it
for culture. Certainly the " way-preparing and smooth
ing" services, which escaped convicts have rendered to
the evangelisation of Oceania, must be reduced to in
calculably few eases, which were more than neutralised
by the multitude of stumbling-blocks and hindrances
which were thrown in the way of the mission by these
doubtful representatives of civilization. Sanguine mis
sionaries, who expected " speedy results without sufficient
preparation," have often been disappointed ; such dis
appointments are not wanting also among sanguine
culture-theorists, who addict themselves to the idea
that the possession of a certain civilization is the surest

232 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
way to the acceptance of Christianity. Outside of India
and China, for example, British Kaffraria and Java are
not deficient in such examples of self-deception.
It is very prettily said that we " must first awaken,
strengthen, and promote the activity which gives to men
moral standing and moral strength," before we bring
Christianity to them. Only we beg for information as
to the secret of the means by which the realisation of
this good counsel is to be effected. It is called mockery
to deal with a man when we ask something from him
which he, as he is, cannot perform, and when we put
into his hands no sufficient means for its performance.
" Oh, these impotent doctrines ! " exclaims Adolf Monod,
with reference to the enemies of the faith, who say to
the sinner : '' Do good works, subdue your passions ; be
temperate, honest, stainless, and you shall obtain pardon
of your sins." " Oh, these impotent doctrines ! which
give counsels to a sick man, which his sickness makes
it impossible for him to follow; which say to a lame
man, walk ; to a blind man, see ; to a sinner, sin not."
That is, to use a strong expression of Ludwig Harm, to
yoke the horses behind the waggon. " Give what thou
commandest, and then command what thou wilt," says,
on the other hand, the wise Augustine. To us it seems
that it is just the Gospel that gives the strength which
awakens the required energy, and imparts the indis
pensable moral standing. We plant and promote civili
zation when we present the Gospel, and we make
the nature-peoples human by making them Christians.
Christianity is not the bloom but the root; culture is
not the root but a bloom of Christianity. Apart from
a few half-successful experiments, as perhaps those of

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 233
the Eaja Brooke in Sarawak, we look in vain in the
history of the ancient and the modern mission for
examples of the heathen being slowly prepared, to and
through culture, for the acceptance of Christianity ;
while conversely there is no lack of examples that the
systematic way through civilization to evangelization has
been not only a circuitous but a wrong way.
Samuel Marsden, the founder of the New Zealand
Mission, at first shared the view now put forth by
Gerland. " Civilization," he declared, " must work in
preparation for conversion. As the natives on these
islands are altogether without contact with the com
mercial world, they are necessarily in a condition of
greater ignorance and barbarism. They are on that
account less prepared for the acceptance of the Gospel
than the Eskimos in Labrador and the negroes in the
West Indies. Trade, manufactures, and arts are natu
rally fitted to plant industry and taste among a people,
and thereby to prepare the way for the introduction of
the Gospel, and to lay the foundation of a Christian
community." " But the first experiments," remarks
Meinicke, " might have shown that the whole plan was
a failure ; not a single conversion was reported. The
children were sent to the schools because the clergymen
gave them food and clothing ; the iron implements
which they distributed, and on which the greatest hopes
were placed, every one received willingly, and upon the
whole the agriculture was greatly improved, but only for
the purpose of bartering the produce for gunpowder and
muskets, and setting off, as soon as the harvest was over,
to rob and murder. The taste for such expeditions grew,
instead of disappearing. In addition to this, the position

234 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
of the missionaries was meantime very insecure. Their
property appeared to the natives so valuable that it
incited them to attacks and robberies, and the total want
of authority was a great inducement thereto." In short,
the whole experiment, which had been eagerly under
taken, collapsed ; and after twenty years' experience
Marsden himself declared : " Civilization is not necessary
before Christianity. We may give them both simul
taneously if we will ; but it will always be found that
civilization follows Christianity, rather than conversely.
If we speak with a poor heathen simply of his God and
Saviour he will understand it. The heathen are no
blockheads ; they apprehend the things of God more
readily than learned gentlemen among ourselves. The
rest will come of itself." Similar experiences resulted
from repeated civilization- experiments on the Papuas in
New Holland. At first the Government granted them a
large territory in the immediate neighbourhood of Port
Jackson, and employed all means of persuasion and
encouragement to allure them to permanent settlement,
cultivation and useful manufactures. But the blacks
soon disappeared ; and now stately country-seats of white
men occupy the site of the former Black Town. No
better fared it with the model husbandry at Paramaga,
in the neighbourhood of Sydney. Some black families
were settled there, and provided with all that was
necessary for land cultivation. A qualified super
intendent was at the head of the whole enterprise, and
gave instructions in the works of husbandry. The chil
dren of the natives were taken into an institution and
educated. Yet the undertaking was an utter failure,
and had to be abandoned after a few years. It is well

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 235
known how the Mission of the Church of the Brethren
afterwards succeeded in that which these civilization-
experiments attempted in vain.
Experiments have been made with individual bar
barians to improve them by means of our civilization.
The best known is the history of Omai of Raiatea, whom
Cook brought with him to London. When he was taken
back to his home, a European house was built for him, a
beautiful garden was planted around it, and presents
were made him, not only of horses and goats, but of
gunpowder, balls, muskets, swords, an electric machine,
a barrel organ, and all sorts of toys and gew-gaws. And
what was the consequence of this civilization without
Christ ? As soon as the ships were gone, Omai
abandoned his clothing. He was the king's friend, and
must often shoot a man to show how far his musket
would carry, or how quickly his pistol would kill ! In
other respects he lived in idleness and profligacy till his
end. Similar was the case of the New Zealand chief
Hongi, who, in like manner, was taken to London and
was there " civilized." The first thing he did after his
return to New Zealand was after a battle in which he
was victorious, he tore out and swallowed the right eye
of his slain enemy, and bit into the still fluttering heart,
while around him hundreds of slain foes served as food
for his victorious army ! When we inquire into the
causes of the failure of the old Portuguese mission in the
kingdom of Congo, they are not to be sought in any
want of attempts at civilization. It is asserted by some
that such attempts must precede the introduction of
Christianity. Now, in Congo they were made in abund
ance. But, as has been truly remarked, the character of

236 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
heathenism is indolence ; and as long as no moral and
spiritual elevation has taken place, no forward or upward
movement can be expected in a heathen community.
From within to without, not from without to within, the
genuine ways of the salvation of men, and also the ways
of culture proceed, otherwise there is only varnish and
show. It is a universal experience that wherever the
natives have come into contact with the European
civilization by means of commercial intercourse, without
at the same time, being placed under the influence of
Christianity, neither their energy nor their morality has
been, upon the whole, improved. On the contrary, one
hears on the part of the whites only lamentation over
increasing depravity and untrustworthiness, as merchants
and travellers again and again assert, and Waitz proves,
e.g., of the negroes. Greed may indeed make the natives
more cunning and the desire of imitation may induce
them to the adoption of many European customs ; but
whether they are thereby won for civilization, or brought
a hair's-breadth nearer the acceptance of the Gospel, is
very doubtful. The "loving labour and the self-sacri
ficing devotion " which Gerland rightly requires, in order
to the exertion of a blessed influence, are wanting in
most of the representatives of civilization. What brings
them among the heathen, and especially characterises
their action among them, is egoism in a coarser or more
refined form. A pure culture-mission, which from nobler
motives has proposed as its aim the elevation of the
heathen in civilization and morals, we have not till this
day seen, and it is scarcely to be expected that such
will ever be set agoing.
But do we not, by this argumentation, put ourselves

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 237
in contradiction with our previous assertion of a pre
paratory importance, fo'r the Christianising of the nations,
of the spread of modern civilization by means of com
merce ? We think otherwise ; only it is necessary in
this matter to divide and distinguish. It is one thin"
to acknowledge the manifold services which commerce
renders to the mission incidentally, for the most part
unconsciously and indirectly, and quite another thing to
make civilization systematically a mission-method. In
the former case we stand in the presence of the Divine
discipline which is both governing and evangelising the
world, which knows how to employ the cultural develop
ment of mankind, with all its attendant evils, to break
down the walls of heathenism, and to prepare the way
for Christianity. In the latter case we have to do with a
false principle, which sets out with an over-estimate of
the nature and the powers of civilization, and an under
estimate of the nature and power of the Gospel. Nothino-
but dark jugglery can deduce this principle from that
fact. Although in the apostolic age the universal
diffusion of the Greek language, and in the middle age
the conquest policy of Charlemagne undeniably prepared
the way for the mission, no one would deduce from this the
principle, that the universal diffusion of a language — as
English, e.g., at the present day — or the wars of conquest
of Christian rulers, must of necessity precede the extension
of the Gospel, and be converted into a mission-method.
Just so it is with contemporary civilization. The world-
governing wisdom of God permits it to render subordinate
service to the extension of His kingdom among the heathen ;
but what is a triumph of the divine providence man can
not, without more to do, make a rule of his conduct.

238 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
In late years the great famines have been the means,
in the hand of God, who has visited these lands, to open
the door of faith to many of their inhabitants; but
nobody would on that account venture on the assertion
that we must first produce great famines in order to
make the heathen people receptive of the Gospel ! The
world-ruling God, of whom it is said in a well-known
hymn, "He has ways in every direction, He never is
destitute of means," is, if we may venture to say so, an
educator on a large scale, and His manifold (iroXviroiiciXos)
wisdom preserves His methods of evangelisation from
all narrow-minded methodicalness. All things must
serve Him, and He rules all in accordance with His holy
thoughts of peace ; even when men think to do evil, He
knows to turn their sin into blessmg. Even in the history
of missions, His thoughts are often enough not our
thoughts, nor His ways our ways. We must think after
His thoughts and walk after His ways, in order to escape
that stiff and narrow methodicalness which knows only
one way of evangelising the nations. As in the Old
Testament times, hewers of wood and drawers of water
were required in the sanctuary, so, in the New Testament
temple-service, Gibeonites are appointed, who must help,
even without their knowledge or will, that in all manner
of ways the Gospel of Christ may advance. We are
large-hearted enough fully and thankfully to acknowledge
that work of the outer court which the modern civiliza
tion is doing for the mission of the present, but while
we are so, we can neither regard it as the conditio sine
qud non for Christianising, nor resolve to do that work
ourselves before we preach the Gospel.
We hope that our impartial recognition of the services

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 239
which culture renders to the mission sufficiently secures
us from the charge of unfairness or blustering, and that
it will continue to do so, when we now proceed to treat
of the reverse side of the medal. The modern civiliza
tion has indeed a side fraught with extreme danger for
the welfare of the heathen, and especially for their
Christianisation ; and that in two respects — first, because
the spirit which actuates many of its representatives is
too frequently, alas ! not the spirit of Christian love, but
that of unrestricted selfishness ; and, secondly, because
our absolute superiority in culture makes it so difficult
to evangelise the people with educational wisdom.
The mission-inspector, Plath, in his address delivered
after his return from his Indian visitation-tour, published
under the title of Northern Impressions of Missions, after
doing the fullest justice to preparatory cultural infiuences
in the Christianising of the country, and especially to
the action of the Indo-British Government, goes on ' to
say : " The silent revolution thus introduced would
advance much more successfully still, were it not for one
thing. However much the new ordinances and regula
tions are antagonistic to heathenism and Islam, one thing
is decidedly favourable to these systems. While the one
(the ensemble oi European culture) acts almost like a hot
house, as when amongst us the growth of tropical plants
is promoted by a warmer atmosphere, the other may be
likened to a cold-house, in which by ice-machines and
other appliances in hot countries, the atmosphere is so
cooled down that northern plants can grow in it. What
is that which is producing so cooling an effect in India ?
The sins of the Christians living among the heathen and
the Mohammedans, of Europeans and Americans, who

240 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
though baptized, have fallen away from Christian faith
and Christian morality. Among the civilians, military
men, planters and merchants, there are, alas ! not many
pious Christian men. Most of them lead a worldly life
in our sense of the term ; many are shamelessly addicted
to drunkenness and unchastity. ... It is thus no
wonder that intelligent heathens and Mohammedans
with reference to these sins inquire whether this be
among the blessings of Christianity."
A respected and intelligent Hindu, Surendra Nath
Banerjya, a heathen, said, in a meeting of students in
Calcutta on the 28th of April, 1877: "What India
requires for its regeneration is not so much Christian
Bible passages, sermons, and addesses, but the presenta
tion of a truly Christian life, a gentleness, a meekness,
a love, a forgiveness, such as that was for which Christ
lived and died. The great contrast between what Christ
taught, and what one in India sees of Christian life,
has been the greatest hindrance to the spread of this
religion." " Of all that I heard in India," said Mr. Duckworth,
at a farewell service on the departure of missionaries,
" nothing made a deeper impression on me than what
was once publicly said by a native of high position and
intelligence, two of whose children were baptized, but
who himself belonged to the class of almost Christians :
' If the Christians here would only put in practice a
tithe of what they profess, India would soon be con
verted. What we ask of you is not Christianity, but
Christians.' It is well known that, at least in former
days, it used to be said of Englishmen going to India
that they left their religion at the Cape."

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 241
We have similar complaints from all mission-fields.
A native Japanese, in his pamphlet A Japanese in
America, writes thus : " The conduct of the foreigners,
with exception of the missionaries and a few laymen, is
a scandal on the name of Christianity and of civilization,
and retards the progress of both. . . . Such behaviour
at home would be criminally prosecuted, but in the lands
of the East these European tyrants are under the pro
tection of the cannon. Let them treat a native ever so
shamefully, he must swallow his vexation, unless he lose
his discretion. If he do not, he brings the whole of his
dear fatherland into danger of being made to expiate the
suffering of a hair in the head of one of these villains.
The fact is not difficult to explain, that Christianity has
made no great progress outside of Europe. It needs
only be considered that those Christians who go into
foreign lands behave worse, or at all events not better,
than the heathen. Above all, they are slaves of Mam
mon ; they frequent bad houses ; they swear most
thoughtlessly ; they insult the natives, jeer and maltreat
them, and conduct themselves as loftily as if each one
of them were a Julius Cassar. And all this goes on on
Sundays even more than on week-days."
" There is no doubt," says the discreet and experi
enced missionary, Hugo Hahn, who for several decades
has nobly borne the burden and heat of the day among
the Herero in South Africa, " that the immoral and
generally anti-christian Europeans are everywhere the
greatest hindrance of the mission of our day. Here and
elsewhere, where the restraints of decency are not to be
respected, they show themselves as they are, in all their
alienation from God, and in all their pollution. The
Q

242 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
ground of the bitter hatred of so many against the
mission is, that the presence of the missionaries is still
somewhat a restraint upon them. Without exception, I
have hitherto found that the Europeans who remained in
real connection with their churches, and still possessed
the feeling of propriety and love of virtue, were friendly
to the mission ; while with the others the love of sensua-
ality inspired their hatred against the mission. Wher
ever such Christians are met with in the heathen world
there is discovered a depth of moral starvation, a bank
ruptcy of all feeling for what is good."
On the West Coast of Africa the experiences are
similar ; and even from Oceania we hear the same
complaints. Let us hear only Professor Gerland, a
witness as competent as he is impartial : " In the first
place, it must be confessed that all culture-peoples have
conducted themselves in the same way, cruelly, reck
lessly, and unmanfully towards the nature-peoples who
have come into contact with them — Spaniards, Portu
guese, Dutch, English, French. . . . The almost always
inhuman and murderous way in which the Europeans
subdued the nature-peoples, and generally exceeded them
greatly in savagery, compels us to an anthropological con
clusion of no small importance, for we see clearly that ' the
gulf which separates the civilized man from the barbarian
is by no means so wide as is commonly supposed.' . . . Let
it not be said that the atrocities perpetrated by the Euro
peans were the doings only of individuals, and so that only
the particular individuals should bear the blame of them ;
they were pretty equally practised by the whole colonial
people, and were everywhere highly approved by them;
yea, they are very far from being reprobated even now."

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 243
These are, however, general verdicts. In order to
justify them, we must not refrain from adducing special
facts. But among the masses of these it is manifest that
we can only deal with a small selection. We purpose
to make this selection, so that we shall not only advert
to the most diverse countries, but also shall communicate
only such facts as are characteristic of the conduct of
whole classes of white nominal Christians towards the
natives, and whose argumentative force cannot be shaken
by the excuse that they were only single individuals, who
by such enormities have covered the Christian name with
reproach among the heathen.
In 1876 the last Tasmanian died. Whatever doubtful
questions there may be about one point and another
relating to the dying-out of the nature-peoples, we have
no occasion to discuss it with reference to the native
Tasmanians. They were thoroughly peaceful men, these
Tasmanians. But how were they treated ? Let us first
hear Gerland. "In Tasmania," he writes, "the popula
tion is simply destroyed in consequence of the English
war of extermination against them." " It has not
vanished before the civilization — as the modern theory
represents it — but before the barbarity of the white men.
They were shot down like wild beasts ; regular hunts
were undertaken against them through the island."
" Here also was a convict settlement, and what con
sequences it brought upon the natives the following
story shows. A convict persuaded a native, to whom
he gave a loaded gun, that if he fired into his ear, he
would have a very pleasant sensation. He showed him
with an unloaded gun what he had to do. Whereupon,
of course, the native shot himself ! In other respects

244 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
also they were most shamefully treated, like wild beasts,
as is officially confirmed. At the time of the first
settlement an officer amused himself with firing cart
ridges among the peaceful natives ! Other scandalous
deeds of the same kind occurred frequently, and it was
not till 1 8 1 o, seven years after the colonisation, that
it was decreed that the murder of a native should be
regarded and punished as murder. At last the embittered
natives were roused, in 1826, to a war of life or death, in
which they were with difficulty, but effectually, subdued,
a reward of .£5 being offered for the capture of an adult,
and one of £2 for that of a child. Darwin, who is of the
opinion that their extermination is due to their shameful
treatment by the English, likens the war against them to
one of the great East Indian hunts." 2
How literally accurate this comparison of Darwin's is,
proof is furnished by the Ausland, without its uttering
a word of indignation. " In the year 1830, the governor
Arthur resolved by a raid to drive out all the blacks who
were in the island. The plan of operations was pub
lished beforehand in the newspapers, and it consisted in
driving the natives, by an immense cordon, to Tasman's
Peninsula, which is attached to the island only by a
narrow isthmus. Once there, they would be easily
watched, and the colony would be freed from the plague
and the danger of them. Although all experienced hunters
shook their heads at the undertaking, yet, besides 300
soldiers of the line, 3560 volunteers presented themselves
for the ' savage-hunt.' On the 4th of October, 1830, the
several parties mustered at the rendezvous, and began to
extend themselves into a cordon, yet so that nowhere was
there a greater space betwixt two men than 60 paces.

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 245
The absence of danger and the novelty of the undertakino-
had induced many amateurs to attach themselves to the
line, as the cordon was called."
We shall call only one perfectly impartial witness
as to the treatment of the Tasmanians by the white
colonists, in order to complete our proof that not only
the Christianisation, but even the civilization of the
barbarians has nothing to expect from the far greatest
number of representatives of culture in foreign lands.
Christmann, who, in his book Australia, delineates with
considerable interest the war of extermination waged
against the natives, communicates the following traits
amongst others : " No armed cattle-herd allowed any
opportunity to escape which offered itself of shooting
down a native like a dangerous beast of prey. A few
stripes were regarded as a sufficient punishment when
any one mutiliated a coloured boy by cutting off, e.g.,
his ears and his nose, or hacking off -his little finger, to
be used as a pipe-stopper ! . . . The colonists united
together, and in the neighbourhood of the cities and the
principal settlements, undertook excursions into the woods,
to drive back, as they said, the hostile tribes, but, in fact,
to exterminate them. The horrible deeds that were done
in these raids makes one's hair stand on end. Thus, on ,
one occasion, a band of blacks, men, women, and children,
were discovered by means of their fire, and a number of
colonists immediately armed themselves— as the technical
term was — to hunt them. They came unobserved close
upon the encampment, when the dogs of the Australians
gave the alarm. The natives sprang to their feet ; but at
the same moment some of them fell dead, and all who could
not get out of the light of their own fire were slaughtered.

246 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
So it was with the women who did not save themselves by
timely flight. When the battle was won (!) a little child
was found, creeping on the ground. One of the inhuman
Europeans caught it by the feet and tossed it into the fire."
" The aboriginal population in Polynesia," says the
distinguished Wallace, according to the statements of
Gerland in the Globus, " remains only where few white
men have homes ; but whenever these settle — almost
in all cases without wives — they take away the best
and strongest native women. In consequence of this
disturbance of the balance of the sexes, fruitfulness
diminishes among the aborigines, the diminution being
hastened by imported diseases and spirituous liquors.
It is not before the civilization, but before the barbarism,
of the whites, that the inferior races disappear. For what
else is the taking away of the women ? (it is, of course,
only for so-called temporary, that is, irregular marriage).
What else is the forcible dispossession of the natives, who
are not allowed to have any right to their lands and fields,
simply because they are the weaker ? — what else is the
introduction — -and in Polynesia and America too often
the forcible introduction — of spirits, but such white bar
barism ? " It is to be well observed that it is not mis
sionaries, but representatives of science, like Wallace and
Gerland, who maintain this view.
We only refer, in passing, to the Maori wars, which
undoubtedly were brought on mainly through the fault
of the English, the Government as well as the colonists.
The complaints which the natives in New Zealand made
of the arbitrarily legalised purchase of land, the injustice
of the taxes imposed upon them, the want of legal pro
tection, the introduction of brandy, &c, cannot be regarded

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 247
by impartial judges as altogether unfounded. We
mention only cursorily the French occupation of Tahiti,
which resulted not only in a bloody revolt of the natives
against their unrighteous aggressors, but also in the saddest
religious oppressions and disturbances. As is shown by
Meinicke in his book on The Islands of the Pacific Ocean
— a work founded on the most solid studies, and
rigidly objective — as is described in detail by Christmann
and Oberlander in their Oceania — as is proved from
original sources by Gerland in the sixth volume of
Waitz's Anthropology of the Nature- Peoples — there is
hardly a group of islands on which white traders and
squatters have not been guilty of more or less crying
wrongs inflicted on the natives. Although in vindication
of so many wrongs there is pleaded the right of self-
defence against the inhumanities of the natives, yet this
attempted justification in most cases fails, because as a
rule the whites had been the first to provoke these
cruelties. Thus, for example, writes the missionary
Murray, a man acquainted with the circumstances of
these islands through a residence of forty years : " So far
as my experience goes, the character which the earlier
visitors have attributed to the natives is not deserved.
[Be it noted, in passing, that we see from this apology
for the natives, which accords with numerous similar
testimonies from other mission fields, how unfounded
is the reproach which is so constantly brought against
the missionaries, that they take pleasure in painting the
natives as black as possible.] Doubtless the black tribes
on some islands in Torres Straits have been guilty of
great barbarities ; but it is very probable that their
behaviour would have been entirely different under a

248 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
different treatment of them by the foreigners. I have
wandered freely among them, not only when others had
been before me, but also where foot of white man had
never trodden, without any weapon, and I have never
been in any way injured by them. I have found in my
long experience that the law ever holds good in intercourse
with men, whether barbarians or civilized, that what we
do to others they do to us in return. Our treatment of
them regulates theirs of us. Exceptions to this law occur
rather among civilized men than among barbarians."
How painfully has the mission often had to pay for
the cruelties perpetrated by the whites, by which the
natives have been roused to vengeance. Only two
examples may be adduced in which this fact is posi
tively proved. It is well known that John Williams,
the apostle of the South Seas, was killed by the
Erromangans in revenge for the excesses committed by
the sandal-wood traders. " The sandal- wood," writes
the missionary Gill, " which is brought into market
from the New Hebrides, is literally stained with human
blood. We could tell of horrible things which the
cannibal islanders have perpetrated on the foreigners ;
but we say not too much when we assert that not a
tenth part of these atrocities would have been committed
by them had not the far greater wrong-doings of the
white man incited them to revenge and retaliation.
Indeed, one cannot but wonder that a single foreigner
was allowed to come off with his life when he was once
in their power. We have heard of sandal-wood traders
who first invited a chief to come on board, and then
kept him, perfectly innocent though he was, as a
prisoner until the natives had brought whole boat-loads

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 249
of sandal-wood for his ransom. A captain came to
one of the New Hebrides Islands, not far from Erro-
mango, but found that the natives were at war with a
neighbouring tribe. They declared that they could
deliver no sandal-wood so long as the war lasted.
Thereupon the captain offered to help them against
their enemies if they would supply him with a full
cargo of sandal-wood. The offer was joyfully accepted,
and immediately the captain sailed for those parts of
the island where the enemy was. Here, with horrible
hypocrisy, he formed friendly relations with them, and
invited them on board his ship. Whole flocks of them
went. Then the signal was given, and all the asto
nished natives were slain, except such as leapt into the
sea and escaped by swimming. A single individual was
spared and retained as a prisoner. With this spoil
the captain returned, and delivered his prisoner into the
hands of his enemies, who received him with great
jubilation, slew, and ate him. Then the ship was laden
with sandal-wood in all quietness."
The second example of vengeance taken on the mis
sionaries for the violent deeds of unprincipled " civi
lized" white men, is the murder of the noble Bishop
Patteson. The Oceanian colonies, which were extend
ing year by year, needed labourers, and the white
people were not in sufficient numbers ; therefore it was
tried to get black and brown labourers. The colonists
promised to the ships' captains a bounty of about ^"10
for every islander that they brought, and it may be sup
posed that so lucrative a trade would be gladly under
taken. It is far from us to impute to the colonists a
direct intention of introducing a new species of slavery

250 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
and slave-hunting. But, in point of fact, the procuring
of natives, often from the most distant islands, assumes
the character of the worst sort of kidnapping. Even
where there was a desire to deal fairly, there was often
wanting the means of communicating intelligibly with
the islanders, who speak many and diverse languages.
The poor natives who were hired as labourers in most
cases knew neither what they should have to do nor
how much pay was promised them ; neither where they
were going nor when they were to return. The meanest
deception was practised in the formation of sham con
tracts. For example, the ignorant people were made to
hold up their fingers and to say, " Three yams ; " this
was then construed as meaning " three years' service."
Very many never returned to their homes. Under all
sorts of false pretences they were induced to go on board
ship, and were carried off, or heavy iron weights were
thrown into their canoes, so as to swamp them, and then
the people were fished up from the water, and imme
diately they set sail. If they resisted, recourse was at
once had to fire-arms. In many cases the robbers
gave themselves out as messengers sent by Bishop
Patteson, so as to throw the islanders off their guard !
The imported labourers were badly treated by many of
the colonists. " I cannot speak to them," said a Fiji
colonist to Bishop Patteson, " I can only point out to
them what they have got to do, and when they are lazy
I flog them." At length the English Government took
the matter in hand, for alas ! even from Sydney, no
justice came for the suppression of this kidnapping,
which resulted in so much bloodshed and embitterment.
A ship of war, the Rosario, was sent into the South Sea

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 251
under the command of Captain Markham, in order to
institute the necessary inquiries. That officer, in an
official report, and also in a separate book, has published
his own observations, as well as the inquiries which he
conducted with reference to the so-called labour-traffic.
The above representations are taken in substance from
this thoroughly authentic and objective source ; and also
the following enormities, which touch on the extreme
limits, of credibility, are related in it. On the Northern
Hebrides Islands it is the pride of the chiefs to have
the largest possible collection of human skulls. White
captains have engaged themselves to act as purveyors of
skulls for these chiefs ! They took skull-hunters on
boards their ships, landed them on the remoter islands
to slay as many men as they could, and then brought
them back, with their spoils, to their home. For this
they got from their receivers a goodly number of their
subjects, to be taken as labourers to the colonies. A
man called Murray had sunk a number of canoes in
which the islanders were innocently paddling round his
ship, by throwing iron weights into them, and had fished
out about eighty of the people who were thus thrown
into the sea, and had taken them into the ship. The
prisoners, who were crowded into the hold, made a
disturbance in the night, and tried to get out. As a few
shots did not restore quietness, they went on for eight
hours firing blindfold among the wretched creatures, of
whom only five remained unwounded. On examining
the scene of slaughter in the morning, fifty were found
dead ; and not these only, but also sixteen who were
severely wounded, were thrown overboard, and then the
ship was coolly washed in order to prevent detection !

252 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Such are a few of the many horrors which have been
perpetrated in connection with the so-called labour-
traffic. Those whose nerves are strong enough to bear
further disclosures of this sort, we refer to the Evan
gelical Missions Magazine (1872, p. 377, ff.) It scarcely
needs proof that such conduct of the representatives
of civilization must have had most momentous conse
quences for the mission. Apart from the hatred which
the natives felt towards all that bore a white colour, and
the acts of vengeance which they perpetrated without dis
tinction on the first and best Europeans on whom they could
lay hands, how ruinously must it have acted upon the
Christian development of all the churches, where twenty,
thirty, or forty members were suddenly carried off, with
out its being known what had become of them ! What
demoralisation it must have wrought when husbands and
wives, parents and children, were forcibly separated !
Again and again the sailors engaged in the kidnapping
made the natives distrustful of the missionaries, as people
who wished to take possession of their lands and reduce
them to poverty. What calumnies were circulated in
the newspapers against the messengers of the Gospel,
because they to the best of their power stood up for the
rights of the natives in opposition to their oppressors,
and brought to light the crimes connected with the labour-
traffic ! Only two examples : A sailor, W. Irving, mate
of the ship Fason, had sworn that the missionary Milne
induced the natives of Nguna to shoot at him. This
Irving, four months after this pretended attack, came
back to the island, and himself informed the astonished
missionary that all Australia was raging against him.
How stands the fact ? Irving had stolen some islanders,

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 253
and among them the wife of a chief. As he was bring
ing his captives in the boat, and was steering to the -ship,
two shots were sent after him, one by the embittered
husband of her whom he was carrying away. Forthwith
the Australian press demanded that for this deed of
violence done to an English sailor the missionary must
be called to account, and the Government sent a ship of
war to inquire into the matter. But before the arrival
of this ship, a new misfortune befell. Milne was on a
missionary tour when the steamer Fanny brought some
islanders back from Fiji to Nguna, and with the purpose
of taking others on board. The chief, whose wife had
been stolen, inquired after her in vain ; also the wife of
another married man was not among those brought back.
Immediately the natives, determined to take vengeance,
climbed on board, killed the five sailors whom they
found there, but could not reach the captain and the
mate, who had already been wounded, who fired at them
from the cabin. But they cut through the anchor-chain,
so that the ship went aground. In the night the captain
and mate escaped to land, and made for the mission-
house. The three teachers from Earotonga, who were
there, received the fugitives, and concealed them from
the rage of the natives. After six days the mate became
insane, withdrew from his hiding-place, and was killed
by the heathen. On the seventh day a ship anchored,
and to it the three teachers brought the captain in
safety, at the risk of their own lives. And what was
their reward for this ? A few days after the departure
of this vessel, three privateers entered the harbour
together, the Daphne, the Marion, and the Lismore, to
avenge the bloodshed in the Fanny. On Sunday morn-

254 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
ing the white men landed, but instead of going to the
district whose chief had committed the deed, they went
to the mission-station, attacked and dispersed the con
gregation assembled for worship, put the three teachers
in irons, shot down an islander who looked as if he would
defend them, and destroyed a newly-built baking-oven
and hearth. The teachers in their fetters were then
dragged on board and threatened with death unless they
should immediately confess that the crew of the Fanny
were murdered by the missionary's order. It was not
till after Milne's return that the release of the innocent
men was effected.
In later times this labour- traffic has been put on a far
better footing, partly in consequence of the vigorous control
of the British Government, partly through the energetic in
tervention of the missionaries, partly through the better judg
ment arrived at by the planters, which has been produced
especially by the example set by the Hamburg house of
Godefroy & Son. To attempt absolutely to prevent the
engagement of islanders as labourers for the neighbouring
plantations would be an excessive act of war, and therefore
preposterous, not only with reference to the development
of the plantations, but also to the advance of the
natives in civilization. When this engagement is entered
into on conditions which the natives can understand,
when they are really engaged of their own free will,
when the contracts made with them are conscientiously
fulfilled, and the labourers are. kindly treated, there can,
as little objection be taken to their temporary sojourn
in the neighbouring islands, as to the engagement of
labourers from Posen or Eichsfelde into the remoter
districts of our fatherland. The Eeport of the German

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 255
Government, in many respects an instructive document,
contains a full description of the labour question in
the South Seas, from the pen of the experienced Consul
Weber, the essential contents of which we give in a
note,3 as a voice from the camp of the parties attacked,
and who have thus space given them for their vindica
tion. According to this temperate and circumstantial
representation, which, especially with the support of
foreign testimonies, vindicates the honour of the German
commercial houses, many corrections must be made of the
apprehension, so unfavourable to the planters, which has
hitherto prevailed as to the existing relations; although we
must not forget that the apologist speaks a little pro domo,
and especially his introductory remarks on the earlier oc
currences are undoubtedly too fair-coloured. There is also
complaint enough in reference to the engaged immigrants
from Europe, as to the shameful purchase of souls, and
that even to the present day (Globus, xxxvi. p. 29, ff).
In order to complete our representation of the rela
tion of the representatives of civilization towards the
South Sea Islanders, we take from the Report just men
tioned two other quotations, which have nothing to do
with the labour-question, but which relate mainly to
the wrongs and deceptions connected with the acquisi
tion of land, and are significant as to their character :
" With respect to the causes " — (it is said, p. 1 4, f.) —
" which afforded a special pretext for the annexation of
the Fiji Islands, the following may be adduced. The king
Thakombau had, almost all through his reign, to wage
war with other chiefs, and in later years he was unsuc
cessful, because the opposite party, who were partly
settled in the Island of Ovalan, which was also the place

256 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
of settlement of most of the whites, were assisted by
them with war materials. Afterwards in. the course of
the war there occurred some injury of the property of
Americans and Englishmen, who held king Thakombau
responsible for it. Thus, two Americans, one of whom
was American Consul, claimed as compensation for in
considerable damages, with which Thakombau had no
thing to do, first a sum of about £600, which gradually,
without reason, was increased to £3000. After two
American ships of war, to whose commanders the consul
applied to enforce this and another demand upon Tha
kombau, had declined to do so, because they held the
claims to be unrighteous, a third naval commander not
only undertook it, but demanded £9000. This man
extorted from the .king, under threats of death, a bond,
under which he engaged to pay it within a year. This
was for him absolutely impossible, and in his necessity
the king addressed to the English Government the first
request for annexation, and the taking over of this obliga
tion. The request was declined ; and now a speculative
company was suddenly formed in Melbourne, and offered
to pay the money if king Thakombau would make over
200,000 acres of land to the company. The king con
sented, because he knew no other way of helping himself;
but he Gould as little make over that land as he could
pay the money, because no such extent of land belonged
to him personally ; and this as well as various English
claims formed a main ground of his again offering the
Fijis to the English, or at least acquiescing in the pro
posals for the annexation."
Again, p. 25, the Report says: "As I mentioned
before, considerable tracts of land in the islands have

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 257
been acquired by Europeans and Americans, and accord
ing to all probability, the Government of Samoa, as soon
as it is sufficiently established, will challenge the title-
deeds of these acquisitions. The case with respect to
these land acquisitions stands thus. All through the long
years of' continuous war, the pressing necessity of the
natives was for arms and ammunition, and while they
were prevented by the disturbed times from producing
anything, they sold their land. In this way many Euro
peans bought land at comparatively low rates. But soon
it came to this, that in many cases land was sold by per
sons who were not its proprietors. From that time all
respectable settlers — that is, those who really intended to
cultivate the land — acted very carefully ; for example,
the factory of Godefroy took this course : when a chief
offered land for sale, he was certified as the real pro
prietor by chiefs who were personally known to the
factory ; then the close of the bargain was effected in
presence of one of the European consuls, who summoned
the chiefs as witnesses before him ; but, in the first in
stance, only a small sum was paid as earnest-money.
The house then had the land measured and marked off,
and made use of every means of ascertaining whether the
seller was really the proprietor. Only when, after some
weeks, nobody had protested against the sale, which had
gradually become known all over the district, the re
mainder of the price was paid.
" But some speculators, and especially the Polynesian
Land Company, acted quite otherwise. They in some
cases bought from one belligerent party the land belong
ing to the other ; in some cases they would buy from
R

258 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
any natives indiscriminately of course at ridiculously low
prices. The whole capital was nominally ^20,000, a
very small portion of which was spent in the purchase of
414 square miles. Whether the seller were really the
owner, or whether the land for sale existed at all, was
not inquired into ; for the cultivation of the land was
not the object, but the sale of paper titles to a joint-stock
company which was to be formed in London." It is
evident from these extracts what interest this sort of
land-purchasers must have had in circumstances of an
archy, war, &c. ; and the report contains the most striking
documentary proofs that for the political disorder in the
Samoan islands the blame really rests on the whites.
The revolt of the natives in New Caledonia, which
broke out in June of last year, will be in the remem
brance of the reader. It was much decried in the news
papers of the time, and was made use of by ignorant and
ill-disposed parties to extract from it a complaint against
the mission. Let us hear what the Sydney Morning
¦Herald indicates as the causes of this revolt : " The
seizure of the Kanaka land by the French Government;
disregard of their customs ; desecration of their burial-
grounds and their tapu ordinances; stealing of women;
imposition of immoderate government service; with
drawal of pensions due to the chiefs; the absolutism
of the commandantship ; the brutalities of subordinate
officials, &c." And the Catholic Mission (1879, p.
149, ff.) contains the assurance, from the pen of
Monsignor Vitte, the vicar-apostolic of New Caledonia,
that these statements, notwithstanding many exaggera
tions, contain " much truth." " Twenty-five years a"-o,"
writes the French prelate, "France took possession of

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 259
New Caledonia ; in such a course of years many lament
able events must have occurred. That individual officials
and colonists, far from the eye of -authoritative control,
and lost in the wide forests, have allowed themselves to
be hurried into deeds of barbaric violence, and have com
mitted outrages against the women and the property of
the natives, cannot be denied. Perhaps also the higher
officials have shut their eyes to these things, and have
distressed the people by immorality. All this has
embittered certain Kanaka tribes, and given the imme
diate impulse to all the tribes of Foa and to the north of
Burnil to take to arms." In a letter of ist November,
1874, this same prelate brought prominently forward the
scandal which was caused by the whites. " By the term
scandal I do not mean the vices of the whites, but their
direct opposition to the conversion of the Kanakas, and
their direct seduction of the converts to apostasy and
heathenism. Some set themselves in opposition to con
version, in order to be able to make use of the natives
for the gratification of their base passions ; others desire
to treat the Kanakas as slaves, whom they can harass and
subject to compulsory service at their pleasure. Others
again set themselves in opposition out of pure hatred to
religion. It is, alas ! but too true that for seven or eight
years the Catholic Church has had to struggle through a
virtual persecution. The heathen chiefs had adopted the
" parole," that is, " the religion of soldiers," by which it
was attempted to counteract that of the missionaries. " I
a Kanaka," they said ; "Ia soldier ; I nothing of the
missionaries' religion." They succeeded in inspiring them
with opposition and contempt for the doctrines of the faith,
and certain persons eagerly poked the fire of their hatred.

260 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
" Almost all the catechumens left us, and on my coming
to the vicariate, I found apostates in thousands."
Peace is now fully restored ; but at what a price ! "The
revolt," we are told by the vicar-apostolic, " was sudden,
and was conducted with great energy. Our troops attacked
the guilty tribes, burnt their villages, laid waste their plan
tations, felled their cocoa-trees, shot down their warriors,
and took a great number of their women and children
prisoners, whom they distributed as slaves among the
tribes which remained faithful. . . . The black popula
tion of the island, which, before the outbreak of the
revolt, numbered at the most 20,000, certainly lost
2000 of their children.
Enough of the South Seas. Let us now turn to the
Indian Archipelago, where the Dutch have their colonial
possession. This colonial possession is more important
than is generally supposed. It contains 27,855 square
miles, with nearly 21,000,000 of inhabitants, among
whom there are only 36,500 Europeans, but 256,000
Chinese, and 1 1,000 Arabs. In this Dutch colony we
are met with the astounding fact that, notwithstanding
the supremacy of a Christian, or at least a European,
civilized power, as rapid and comprehensive a spread of
Islam is being accomplished as scarcely in any other land,
even Central Africa not excepted. " Looking back " — so
writes one who is thoroughly cognizant of the matter from
his own observation, Dr. Schreiber — " Looking back upon
the past, we find that by far the greatest part of the pro
gress that has been made by Islam in the Indian Archi
pelago has been since the occupation of it by the Dutch.
In Sumatra, indeed, before that time, Acheen and Menang-
kabau had become Mohammedan, and thence had Islam

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 261
found its way into Java. But in Sumatra, as well as in
Java, the great majority of the people were still heathen
when the Dutch began to conquer that island, and only
since the time of the Dutch supremacy has Islam been
introduced into Borneo, Celebes, and the Moluccas. Now
the whole population of Java (about 1 8 millions) is,
nominally at least, Mohammedan. In Sumatra there is
no more any heathen population; and in Borneo and
Celebes, at least half are Mohammedans. Altogether, in
the Indian Archipelago, where a heathen population finds
itself in contact with Mohammedans under a Dutch
Government, Islam is making rapid progress. . . . The
fact that the Dutch rule, wherever it comes, propagates
Islam, is so incontrovertible that in Sumatra " — where Dr.
Schreiber lived seven years as president of the Rhenish
mission there — "the Mohammedans even believe that
Allah has given the rule to the Dutch, in order that, by
means of the Dutch rule, all heathen tribes may be con
verted to Islam. I have even met with heathens in
Sumatra who were extremely astonished to hear that I
and the other Dutchmen (i.e., Europeans) were not Moham
medans ; so much in their eyes are the Dutch Government
and Islam one and the same."
The reader naturally asks in astonishment, What is
the cause of this strange phenomenon ? Does the
Dutch Government, directly and on principle, interest
itself in the extension of Mohammedanism, in opposition
to the Christian mission ? It were untrue to assert so,
although in fact many of its officials occupy this
position ; and the official neutrality in matters of re
ligion, which, as is well known, is characteristic of the
Dutch policy at home as well as in the colonies, is

262 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
regarded as indifference, and even as opposition, to
Christianity, and this necessarily leads to its being dis
credited. The special ground, however, is different. The
Dutch Government Mohammedanises because it Malayises.
The Malayan language is the language of Government in
its intercourse with the natives. Every official, whether
European or native, must speak it. In this way the
chiefs, who play the chief part in the personnel of the
Government, are obliged to acquire this language. They
thereby soon become accustomed to regard the Malayan
language, and then the Malays themselves, as something
superior ; they are ashamed of their mother tongue, and
even call themselves Malays. But with the Malayan
language, they acquire also Malayan habits ; and, as the
Malays are Mohammedans and fanatic propagandists of
their faith, they acquire Islam also, which must all the
more appear- inseparable from Government service, and
even from the Government itself, as the latter regards
itself as wholly precluded from any open manifestation
of its Christian confession.
This is not the place to enter into a criticism of the
Dutch colonial policy. We have here only to call atten
tion to the distressing fact that a Christian culture-power
is not preparing the way for Christianity, but for Islam.
That even culture gains no advantage from this erroneous
policy needs as little proof for those who are acquainted
with the Dutch colonial districts, as does the apprehension
that the Government, through this growth of Moham
medanism, is itself digging the grave of it own rule.
Before we turn to China, we must cast a glance upon
British India. Apart from the want of personal Chris
tianity in many of the Western Christians there, over

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 263
which hot only the missionaries, but even the heathens,
lament, the Indo-British Government system is also,
through its policy of religious neutrality, far removed
from being a mission-power. We shall say nothing of
the old East India Company, with its notorious favouring
of heathenism, and, notwithstanding the Act of Parlia
ment of 1833, its traditional systematic repression of
missionary action, although the obstacles which it put in
the way of the extension of Christianity are commonly
not taken sufficiently into account when the Indian mis
sion is reproached with comparative fruitlessness. The
so-called pilgrim-tax, from which the Government formerly
derived no inconsiderable revenue — e.g., £58,727 in the
year 18 14-15 — as well as the official maintenance of
heathen temples, the official honouring of the idols, and
other scandals of the same kind, have been legally pro
hibited since 1833; but since then as well a,s before, the
highest officials have regarded it as their duty to dignify
the idol festivals by their presence. Thus, last year Sir
Eichard Temple, Governor of the Bombay Presidency,
" honoured " the festival of the elephant-headed, rat-
mounted god Ganpati by his presence. The Dynan
Prakash, a heathen paper, gave the following account of
it : " As we stated in our last number, His Excellency
yesterday evening paid a visit to Mr. Balwant Eao
Vinayak Shastri Patwardhan, at his private residence in
Tulsibhag, and by his presence contributed to the dignity
of the Ganpati celebration. His Excellency was accom
panied by his private secretary, Mr. Hart, and by Captain
Plant. Among the other European gentlemen and ladies
we saw the Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Gibbs, Mr. and Mrs.
Eobertson, Mr. and Mrs. Eliot, the French Consul, with

264 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
his wife and two other ladies. It was arranged that on
this occasion the Kirtan was delivered by a famous
orator. His Excellency was present for more than half-
an-hour, and appeared to be extraordinarily gratified with
all that he saw and heard."
The Bombay Guardian, No. 29, gives the following
commentary on this statement: "Thus it appears that
His Excellency had been invited a week before to the
idol-festival, and had accepted the invitation. The Kirtan
(oration) which was delivered was in praise of the idol
Ganpati. Her Majesty's representative sat in a large,
brilliantly-lighted hall, together with the image of Gan
pati, which was enthroned at the other end, and received
the adoration of the worshippers. And there His Excel
lency sat for half-an-hour, and was extraordinarily grati
fied with all that he saw and heard. And other English
ladies and gentlemen were also present. There are many
among the natives who deeply lament over the super
stition and degrading idol-worship of their people, and
long for the day when their land shall be free from the
curse, of idolatry. It may be supposed with what
astonishment, and with what distress, these must see
that the Governor and people of the highest reputation
have sanctioned this idolatry by their presence 
We have here, further, prominent professors who have
come from England as principals of the Government
schools, who write, in the English journals, carefully
elaborate bitter attacks upon Christianity. We have,
further, His Excellency the Governor, with his principal
officers, who also call themselves Christians, helping to
support an idolatrous exhibition in honour of Ganpati.
We have a highly-intelligent native gentleman, to whom

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 265
the Government and the professors are zealous to do
honour, giving the weight of his body in rupees to the
gods ; we have the English newspapers carefully avoiding
writing a single word which might in any way express
sympathy with the Gospel, while their columns are wide
open for attacks upon Christianity and the laudation
of other religions. What else can an inquirer suppose
than that the Gospel of Christ is more noxious and more
dangerous than any other doctrine ? The natives see
the men who occupy the highest positions in the Govern
ment, and in the education department, in conjunction
with the secular papers, employing their influence to
confirm the people in their indifferentism with respect to
the invitation to come to Christ, and then they scornfully
ask the missionaries, How comes it that you have not
more success ? "
The Act of Parliament of 18 13, which was passed
under great resistance, expressly stated that "it is the
duty of England to promote the interests and the welfare
of the population of the British possessions in India, and
that for this end' such means shall be employed as are
calculated for the introduction of useful knowledge among
the natives of India, and for their moral and religious
elevation." The term neutrality was never introduced
into the debates of that time. Both Houses of Parlia
ment acknowledged that it is the duty of England — that
is, of the English Government — to further Christianity
in India. In the later Charter of 1833, which put a stop
to the unnatural administration of idolatrous endowments
by the Government, the declaration is made for the first
time that the Government must be neutral ; which, in this
connection, could only mean that it should neither support

266 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
nor forcibly suppress idolatry. Thus, when, on the autho
rity of an official proclamation of 7th April, 1859, it is
asserted that the British Government in India has from
the first been founded on the principle of absolute religious
neutrality, on the principle of refraining from all inter
ference with the religious views and usages of the natives
and the exclusion of religious instruction from the Govern
ment schools ; no doubt the practice is rightly indicated
which is traditionally followed to this day ; but this prac
tice is in no wise legalised. " In the contradiction between
these two documents" (of 18 13 and 1859)- — says Sir
Herbert Edwardes, the well-known conqueror of Multan,
and one of the saviours of India during the military revolt
of 1857, m his famous speech of ist May, i860 — "lies
a most striking proof that we have made great retrogression
in the course of half a century." This only by the way,
in order to the rectification of a wide-spread error.
It is not our business here to develop in any way the
principles on which the Indo-British Government should
regulate its religious policy, so that it shall prepare the
way for the spread of Christianity, while it respects the
convictions of the natives. We confine ourselves only to
the statement of facts. But it is a fact that the Indo-
British Government, although it does not now any more
put direct restrictions upon private missionary action,
stands neutral with respect to Christianity, especially in
its school-policy, in such a fashion that thereby the moral
and religious elevation of the natives can hardly b'e pro
moted. We say not that the Government intended this.
But it is in the nature of things that the neutrality policy
in matters of religion is upon the whole injurious to reli
gion. Even when it does not wish it so, this policy must

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 267
experience the truth of the declaration : " He who is not
with me is against me, and he who gathereth not with me
scattereth abroad " (Matt. xii. 30). Quite unintentionally
neutrality seems as a cloak for direct and indirect hind
rance, yea, for opposition to Christianity. In actual life
circumstances are arranged otherwise than in theory. We
may try to prevent it ever so much, but neutrality is so
construed as to permit all attacks upon Christianity, and
to represent all positive furtherance of it as irreconcilable
with the neutrality principle. Thus it has happened
that, as is shown by the article quoted from the Bombay
Guardian, and might be proved by many other testi
monies, the Indo-British Government has plenty of assail
ants of Christianity among its servants, especially in its
higher schools, while a direct furtherance of its extension
is regarded as inconsistent with official position. While
there is excessive toleration towards unbelief and super
stition, there is intolerance towards the Gospel of Christ.
We are far from desiring that a Christian colonial govern
ment should conduct missions after the fashion of Char
lemagne ; but we think that it becomes it to act as a
Christian government, which is not only not ashamed of
the Gospel of Christ, but which also gives to the natives
an opportunity of learning to know Christianity, with
out using any pressure on them to accept it. It is no
blind religious fanaticism that leads us to speak thus.
In his speech formerly mentioned, which attracted so
much attention at the time of its delivery, one cognisant
of the circumstances of India, and an authority like Sir
Herbert Edwardes, said freely in public: "During the
few' months since I came home from India, I have often
had occasion to talk with men in high, powerful, and

268 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
influential positions, and not seldom have I been asked
with honest earnestness and great solicitude what ought,
in my judgment, to be done for India. To this I have
always answered, without reserve or hesitation, that,
according to my view, we should stand out in India as a
Christian government. When I have been asked why, my
answer has been : In the first place, because I bold it to be
our duty ; in the second place, because a Christian policy in
India is the safe and beneficial course for England and for
the natives." For the proof led, by means of plain facts and
actual experiences, of the rectitude of the latter assertion,
we must refer to the powerful speech itself. It is neither
a Christianly moral nor a statesmanly wise policy when,
under a Christian government, the attitude towards religion
is like that in the old Eoman empire, where, according to
Gibbon's well-known dictum, " the various religions were
regarded by the people as equally true, by the philosophers
as equally false, by the Government as equally profitable ; "4
which, however, did not prevent the persecution of Chris
tianity. It cannot be otherwise than that this neutrality
must work with misleading, dereligionising, and, therefore,
demoralising effect on the natural conscience.
And this is, in fact, the case in India in very great
measure in consequence of the religion-policy. " Eeligion
is for the Hindu," says Sir Herbert Edwardes, in the speech
which we have so often quoted, " a reality. It is the thread
on which his whole life is spun. All his daily doing and
driving, all the arrangements of his life, are like so many
beads which are strung upon this thread. His feasts, his
meals, his fasts, his ceremonies, his domestic life — all is
bound up with his religion. The native is nothing without
his religion ; it is the bone-structure of his whole being.

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 269
Therefore he cannot understand a government which does
not concern itself with religion. He cannot conceive of
such a body without a soul." But this is not the worst.
By its religious indifferentism the Government is robbino-
especially the higher classes of the population of their
present religious beliefs, without offering them any sub
stitute. What must the result be ? A community with
out any religious and moral support, a community from
under whose feet the ground is taken, and which must
ultimately become a most dangerous element even for the
Government. We have already had occasion to adduce
heathen judgments as to the dangers of non-religious educa
tion. We add here, from a great abundance of testimonies,
only one, which is altogether beyond suspicion, which we
take not from a mission-report, but from the Ausland !
" Dr. C. Macnamara," it is there said, " now physician in
Westminster Hospital in London, lived twenty years in
India, and in that time had abundant means of learnino-
the feelings and views of the natives regarding the condi
tion of things at that time. According to him, it is the
firm and ever growing conviction of very many among them,
that while England has saved many millions of human
creatures from the misery of anarchy and of a state of
chronic war, the native community is nevertheless advanc
ing to early decomposition." " A great number of the old
families are extinct. The mothers and wives of the risino-
generation see their sons and husbands falling a prey to
vices, which formerly were never heard of, completely in
different to their family or other ties; they form the
sharpest contrast to the past, when there were not so many
laws, education, or taxes, but when it was the most terrible
stain upon a man to be regarded as an undutif ul son. The

27b MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
adolescent Hindu generation is falling away from the native
religion, and living, disastrously for itself, without any reli
gious belief. Secular educationis leading to gross materia
lism and to haughty socialism. Thence the necessity lately
of regulating the native press, which probably was designed
to stop for a time one of the many valves through which
the Europeans had the means of ascertaining the state of
feeling among the natives — feelings which, as I fear, will
only too surely break out into a rising, in comparison with
which the rebellion of 1857 was a mere quarrel."
As was formerly remarked, we can neither fall under
the suspicion of overlooking the many benefits which the
British Government has really conferred upon India, and,
therefore, indirectly upon the mission, nor be liable to the
reproach of failing to perceive that the religious vacuum,
which must be the result of the official neutral policy, is
preparing the way for the Gospel of Christ, which is dif
fused by unchecked private mission-agency. We take back
nothing of what we have already remarked with reference
to one or other of these points. But it is one thing to
assert that the British Government is doing much good
for the material civilization of India, and that it must,
notwithstanding, yea, even by means of, its religious indif-
ferentism, help to pull down the ramparts of heathenism ;
and quite another thing to say that the Indian Government
is a direct mission-force. After the facts that have been
given, even the friend of that Government must designate
the latter assertion as untrue. The indirect furtherances of
the mission which the Government policy effects, should not
be despised by the friends of missions. Still, the Govern
ment remains fully answerable for the many injuries which
its policy demonstrably does to the extension of the king-

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 271
dom of God ; and it is manifest that the advances of the
mission in India would be much more considerable than
they actually are, if the Government, with the most liberal
respect for conscience, acted on a Christian policy, instead
of one of religious indifference.
This policy, alas ! is wanting also in the trade with China.
Here is really the stone of stumbling, yea, the rock of offence
— the opium-traffic — which is carried on not only under
the protection, but indirectly to the profit, of the Govern
ment. " The same nation which, in the former half of our
century, by a heroic act wrenched itself free from the curse
of the slave-trade, and subsequently from that of slavery
in its colonies, and thereby did all that it could to put a
stop to a main cause of the wholesale murder, and which
is striving at great cost to-day to stop it in Eastern and
Western Africa — the same nation it is that, in the latter
half of the century, in defiance of the complaints, the sup
pliant entreaties of the Chinese Government, and the out
cry of the Christian conscience within itself, is, by means
of its opium, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of Chinese,
in yearly increasing progression, to its desire of gain, or
rather its fear of a deficit in its Indian budget; whi^h,
with, its poison, is strangling not only the bodies, but almost
always at the same time the souls, the whole mental and
moral strength of its victims ! — a monster-form, with one
hand generously dispensing life and freedom to the negro-
world, with the other forcibly inoculating the quivering
giant body of China with death and bondage ; blessed by
thousands in Africa, cursed by millions in Asia — so stands
England with her colonial policy before us. The flag of
Albion bears a broad stain." So says Professor Christlieb
in his classical writing, The Indo-British Opium- Trade and

272 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
its Effects. With respect to the historical development of
this disgraceful trade, and its ruinous effects on India and
China, we must refer to the authentic statements in that
pamphlet. But with respect to its obstructive influence
on the progress of the mission in China, we cannot but ad
duce at least a few testimonies. First of all, it is manifest
that the British opium-policy, so vehemently opposed and
so reluctantly tolerated by China, and which relies on the
protection of British guns, not only enhances into hatred
the already so strong Chinese antipathy to foreigners, but
affords a certain justification of that hatred. We say nothing
of the crippling influence which is thereby exerted upon the
commercial relations between China and the outside lands;
nor of the opposition, enhanced to obstinacy, to the laying
down of railroads and telegraphs in the Middle Kingdom ;
to the raising of the coal-treasures, &c, which has not till
this day been overcome. How much does the shameful
avarice, in which the opium trade has its foundation, close
millions of Chinese hearts against Christian preaching ! for
the Chinese now make no distinction between the foreigners
who bring them the opium, and those who bring them the
Gospel. Here also the messengers of the Gospel must suffer
for the sins of their countrymen. A missionary of the
Protestant Episcopal Church of America in 1869 visited
the head-station of the province of Honun in Kai-fong-tu.
There a crowd of people, whom the learned men had imme
diately collected in opposition to him, drove him from the
city, and shouted after him : "You killed our emperor, you
destroyed our summer-palace, you bring poison into the
country to ruin us, and now you come to teach us virtue."
On the walls of a foreign establishment in Shanghai there
was found some years ago a placard to the following effect :

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 273
" How ridiculous is it that the barbarians come to Shanghai,
and think that with their preaching they shall be able to
gain the hearts of the people. It is too late for us to be
able to recognise a good work in it. Twenty years ago they
might have preached with a prospect of success. But now
the opium, the source of evil, has poisoned the heart and
mind of the people ; for since they have taken evil counsel,
their soldiers have, without any reason, brought suffering
and devastation on our district, and have slain 10,000
people. In heart covetous, in judgment short-sighted, they
entered upon this error. Now they distribute tracts, but
their doctrine is not good. The people hate them in their
inmost hearts. . . . Sin-laden yourselves, you propose to
amend others. When you would speak of sin, speak of
your own misdeeds, which are so excessive that if each one
of you were cut into two halves, the punishment would be
but too slight. Hypocritically proclaiming a strange doc
trine, you come here like devils to turn everything upside
down. To corrupt the people thoroughly, and thereby to
glorify your own virtue, you regard as a good work."
To be obliged to hear such reproaches belongs to the daily
experiences of a Chinese missionary. The evil odour into
which the whole English nation has brought itself, forms
till this day a frightful counterweight against all the efforts
of individuals to benefit the Chinese people. "English mis
sionaries," says the experienced Edkins, " have no fair field
for their efforts in China, so long as the honour of their
nation is stained through the cultivation and manufac
ture of opium, under the immediate control of the Indian
Government. Moreover, the opium smokers, whose number
in China now amounts to millions, are inaccessible to the
word of the Gospel, in a far greater degree than even brandy-
s

274 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
drinkers. Not only does the use of this poison deaden all
nobler feelings, it also weakens in the highest degree the
strength of the will, and holds those who are addicted to
it in an irretrievable bondage. A man who is held captive
by this demoniac power can evidently be no member of a
Christian church." " Let it only be considered," writes the
eloquent Dr. Ostertag, "that this vice is so widespread
among the people of China, and just among the coast-
people, Vho hitherto are chiefly accessible to the mis
sionaries, and it will be comprehended why the mission
there is moving comparatively so slowly. Even when here
and there an opium-smoker yields obedience to the Gospel,
while he groans under the burden of. his bondage, how'
seldom does it happen that he is set free from it and be
comes a steadfast disciple of Christ."
Let us now quit Asia, and take advantage of a California
steamer to proceed to San Francisco. It is well known
that no inconsiderable Chinese emigration to Western
America has taken place. According to trustworthy esti
mates, there must now be about 150,000 Chinese in the
United States, of whom the majority belong to the Pacific
States, some 60,000 to California alone and about 30,000
to the city of San Francisco. While, therefore, China was
compelled, and is still compelled, by the culture-states of
the West, through the argumentation of cannon, to open
her closed doors to the foreigners, which she would not do
on any other terms, and to protect their lives and property
against all popular injury — how are the Chinese treated
in America, at least in California ?
In the year 1868 came Burlingame as ambassador
extraordinary of China to America. Even in Francisco,
where at first the Chinese immigration had been welcomed,

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 275
notwithstanding that the waves of antagonism were then
already rising high, he was received with honour. His
negotiations with the Government of the United States
led to the so-called Burlingame-treaty, by which the same
protection of law was assured to the Americans in China,
as to the Chinese in America. Art. 5 of this treaty ran
thus : " The United States of North America and the
Emperor of China recognise sincerely the natural and
inalienable right of every man to change his dwelling and
his nationality, and also the advantage of free emigration
and immigration for scientific objects, or in the interests of
industry or settlement." But instead of treatment worthy
of a Christian civilized state, and protection from constant
insults by mobs, being secured to the Chinese immigrants
by this treaty, the anti-Chinese movement began after this
time to come to its height. Not only were obstructions
put in the way of the immigration of the troublesome
strangers by legal quibbles, often of the smallest sort, but
also, without any hindrance on the part of the magistrates,
and even with direct or indirect encouragement from them,
the hatred against them, bred of envy, was shown by false
accusations, ignominious treatment, intrigues of the most
ignoble kind, in order to free the land again from the
" yellow curses." It may be proper to adduce only a few
data, while for further details we refer to the article, The
Chinese in California, in the Allgemeinen Missions- Zeits
chrift (1879, p. 2 5 1, ff.), which, chiefly founded on Gibson's
instructive hook,.The Chinese in America, contains authentic
information in sufficient abundance. " We have again and
a^ain adduced proof" — it is said in an article of the San
Francisco Chronicle of 24th March, 1 876 — "that American
labour cannot compete with Chinese, because the China-

276 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
man is contented to live like a pig, while the American
wishes to live like a human being. The Chinese workman
is satisfied with a bowl of rice and two cups of tea a-day,
while the American occasionally uses beef and mutton, and
takes it ill when he has to dispense with bread and butter.
The Chinaman even sleeps in a hole — the American uses
a bed. Thus the question arises : Are we to desire cheap
labour, when it can be got only by lowering our workmen
to the level of the beastly heathen ? " And on 1 7th
March the same paper writes, in reference to an announce
ment of the arrival of 1017 additional Chinese immi
grants : " What does the arrival of these 1 o 1 7 Mongolians
mean ? It means the dispossession of 1 o 1 7 white men
and women from the situations which they now enjoy.
For it has . been- proved that white labour and Chinese
cannot co-exist," &c. But the opposition was not confined
to newspaper articles, or anything of so moderate a kind.
Public meetings were held, in which it was declared:
" We must seize these cunning brutes by the throat. We
must throttle them till their hearts cease to beat, and then
throw them into the sea." And such speeches and reso
lutions were practically carried out by the populace. The
Chinese, while peacefully going their way along the streets,
were treated with blows and kicks, they were thrown upon
dung-hills, their houses were burnt, &c. In short, they
were ill-used, insulted, wronged in every way, and all with
the express approval of public sentiment. Only the friends
of missions took the part of the oppressed. But how were
they assailed and insulted 'on this account ? The rage ex
tended itself even as far as the German press. Thus, e.g.,
it is said in an article of the Hamburg Correspondent, of the
3rd Feb., 1878 (supplement) : "That so little heed is given

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 277
in influential quarters to the prayers and threatenings of
California (for banishing the Chinese from the country), is
especially due to the Puritanical press of New England,
which, in its sweetly-silly hypocrisy, is constantly raving
about the brotherhood of all men. As this press and its
influential partizans in the United States have, by cocker
ing and drenching with their unsound and inhuman ideas
of humanity, converted the negroes from industrious planta
tion-labourers into corrupt good-for-nothings, so the same
party is not ashamed to stake the culture of the Caucasian
race, in the expectation that they can bring over to Chris
tianity the Chinese, which, as is well known, is hardly
effected by missionaries in their own country — reason
sufficient to further the immigration by all means. As
there is not sufficient confidence in the converting zeal of
the Californians, there has been sent from the West,* from
Boston, the breeding-ground of the hypocrisy, a warlike
champion — Otis Gibson is his name — to San Francisco,
who has been installed with a large salary, and is now
labouring for conversion and fusion of races." In this
tone the article — which is inspired by passionate hatred,
and which, by its extravagant exaggerations and its un
dignified invectives, sufficiently corrects itself — goes on at
great length. We spare the reader. What has been quoted
is quite, sufficient to show how men of that sort would
treat the Chinese.
As already remarked, the communal and states magi
strates have taken part in this Chinese-hunt. Thus, e.g.,
a law has been framed that every Chinaman who is put in
prison shall have his queue, or, as it is derisively called, his
pig-tail, cut off, which, as is well known, is the greatest
* Qu. East ?— Trans.

278 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
ignominy for a citizen of the Middle Kingdom ; unjustly
high taxes are imposed upon Chinese immigrants and
labourers ; no one is permitted to land, as to whose volun
tary coming and moral character sufficient evidence cannot
be produced, &c. Indeed, the Californian Legislature sought
last year to lay the axe at the root of the whole Chinese
immigration, by a resolution that no ship should henceforth
land more than 1 5 Chinese — an international outrage and
breach of treaty, which was prevented by the veto of the
President. We do not ask now what the English, what the Ameri
cans, would say if their countrymen in China were treated
in the same way. Facts in abundance give the answer to
this. We ask rather : What do the Chinese say to this
treatment in a Christian civilized country ? On this point
we do not need to resort to conjectures. For example, The
Independent of the 3rd April of the present year contains
the judgment of a Chinaman living in America, to the
following effect : " It is you who break the treaties, who
are intolerant towards foreigners, who break off the inter
national intercourse, when your interest demands it ; you
need not be surprised though China makes reprisals, though
she will have neither you, nor your civilization, nor your
religion." Some time ago an American met a finely-dressed
Chinaman in a very filthy street in San Francisco. Com
ing in opposite directions they met upon a narrow gang
way, which formed a sort of bridge in the filthiest part of
the street. Instead of giving way to the stranger, as civility
demanded, the citizen of the Free States showed his superi
ority by pushing him into the deepest mud. The China
man quietly rose all over muddy — " You — Christian • I
— heathen." Who will blame the ill-used man, if he

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 279
thought within himself, " Heaven, I thank thee that I am
not as these Christians " ? It is evident that by such treat
ment not only must the Chinese be hardened against Chris
tianity, but that they must carry back with them into their
fatherland a prejudice against our civilization and our
religion, and must propagate it among their countrymen.
In Australia also a similar Chinese-hunt is a-foot. The
Austral Steam Navigation Company, which conducts the
postal service between the Eastern colonies and San Fran
cisco, in November last had taken Chinese sailors into its
service. This gave rise to great bitterness on the part of
the other sailors, who struck. Public meetings were held
— those in Sydney attended by 10,000 men — in which
sympathy was expressed with the men on strike. The most
vulgar rudeness towards the Chinese was indulged in; their
houses were burnt, they were beaten, yea, one was thrown
into boiling water ! In Queensland, the parliament passed
a bill which prescribes that on every Chinaman on his
arrival a capitation-tax of £10 shall be imposed. The
Governor at first hesitated to give his sanction to this
treaty-breaking resolution, and the English Government
supported him. But as the parliament unanimously passed
the same bill a second time, it received the ratification of
the English Government. In Queensland, besides this
capitation-tax, every Chinaman must pay £3 for permis
sion to dig for gold (Europeans pay ios.), and for opening a
shop £10 (Europeans pay £$). In New South Wales the
Government, under the pressure of the public voice, has
introduced a similar bill, which will certainly pass. Who
will wonder if the Chinese take reprisals for this wrongful
treatment of their countrymen in foreign lands, upon the
foreigners in their land, especially upon the missionaries,

2S0 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
who often get little protection from the consuls ? When
very recently a Chinese mob pulled down the building of
the C. M. S. at Fuchow, and a complaint was made to the
vice-king, this answer might have been given : " My
countrymen at San Francisco have had their houses pulled
down and have been treated in the most shameful way. I
fully sympathise with you in your indignation now. You
have good reason for your displeasure."
But the treatment of the Chinese is insignificant in com
parison with that of the North American Indians. Let us
look only for a few moments at this story of wrong, con
tinued by civilization till the present day, for which it is
well known that President Lincoln saw a righteous retri
bution in the terrible bloodshed of the great American
Civil War. Very soon after the European immigration .
the enmity began between the white and the red man.
The Massachusetts Indians, soon irritated by the arbitrary
acts, the deceptions, and at last the robberies perpetrated
by the settlers, prepared themselves for revenge. But be
fore they set out on their expedition they were attacked,
and a great massacre of them ensued. Still more settlers
came and took possession of the land. Ground and territory
were indeed obtained by purchase — often enough, however,
only by sham-purchase — but gradually they thought less
and less of appropriating the land which they desired, driv
ing back the natives, breaking down their opposition by
bloody violence, inciting one tribe against another, &c. Let
the anthropologist Waitz, whose inquiries are as thorough
as his statements are sine ird et studio, be our voucher.
He thus writes : " The longer the more did the settlers
conduct themselves as the only rightful lords of the soil,
proclaimed the Indians who were hostile to them as rebels,

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 281
demanded of them their weapons, as soon as their de
meanour excited distrust they summoned them before the
courts, or made war upon them — all as their own advan
tage required. They concluded treaties by intimidation,
interpreted them arbitrarily, and observed them only so
far as it appeared profitable to them, negotiated with those
whose help they needed or whose enmity they feared."
Upon documents whose meaning and application the
Indians either did not understand or misunderstood, they
founded the claim to subject the Indians to the jurisdic
tion of the colonists. Breaches of promise, false charges,
conspiracies, assaults, bloodshed, and deeds of violence of
all sorts were more and more frequent, the more the number
of the settlers increased, and the provocation of the Indians
under their oppression was intensified. On the Hudson,
in Pennsylvania, N. Carolina, and Virginia, S. Carolina and
Florida — everywhere was the same unrighteous and cruel
treatment of the natives, who naturally sought in every way
to avenge themselves on their oppressors. But let us leave
these old customs of the 1 7th and 1 8th centuries, with their
inhumanities bordering on incredibility, and make a few
statements respecting the Government policy of the United
States in more recent times. Formerly the red man was
deprived of the land which he had hitherto possessed, essen
tially by the fault of the settlers as single individuals, in
war and peace, by purchase, fraud, or simple seizure ; but
now this tragic fate was legalized. " After the end of the
American War of Independence began the stipulations of
the Government with the Indians regarding the cession of
territory on a large scale, and regarding the yearly rent to
be paid for it. The Government had reserved for itself the
right of purchase, and in this way, down to the year 1820,

282 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
upwards of 200 millions of acres of land had been acquired.
For 191 millions they had paid 2-^ millions of dollars ; and
from scarcely an eleventh part of this quantity of land, 22
millions of dollars had been got by selling it again to indi
viduals, while the buyers remained indebted for an equal
sum. The whole yearly rents which the Indians obtained
amounted to 154,575 dollars, of which only 80,325 dollars
were permanent rents., That was without doubt a good
bargain, which casts a bright light on the policy of plunder
ing. ... To pay the yearly rents in money was the most
convenient and most profitable way for the Government,
but the most hurtful for the Indians, of conducting the
land-purchase. Both parties knew right well, and every
year's experience showed, that the yearly rent was nothing
else than misapplied alms, which must destroy every in
ducement to work, and must foster indolence. This gave no
concern to the white American ; for he was right glad that
the Indians were going to ruin, and he was able to remove
from himself the appearance of the blame thereof."
In California, also, it fared badly with the Indians. " The
discovery of gold," says Mallery, " brought upon them with
a sudden rush a flock of lawless and greedy diggers, settlers,
and adventurers of the worst kind, while there was no pro
tection afforded by law or regulating morality. A horde
of robbers broke like a tornado upon these gentle natives."
. . . "Did a tribe" — so writes Powers, who is well ac
quainted with these circumstances 6 — f' complain that the
gold-diggers had polluted their salmon-streams, or did they
steal a couple of cattle, within twenty days,not a soul of them
would be alive. I have more than once, on winter evenings
by the fireside, heard the old Oregon heroes laughingly tell
how, while on a stag-hunt, they had shot down an Indian

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 283
" buck," or a woman, whom they happened to see, purely
for amusement, although the tribe to which these belonged
were living in perfect peace with the Americans."
The longer the more it appeared advisable to remove the
Indians as far as possible from the settlements of the whites,
and so the period of " settlements " begun. But scarce had
they entered the new district when civilization pressed them
further back, and, however the possession was guaranteed
by solemn treaties, they must give way to the whites and
withdraw further to the West, without reference to the
question whether their welfare would be destroyed, and
the beginning of civilization, which had in some cases been
made among them, would be stopped. It is interesting to
read the speeches which the Indian chiefs, provoked and
irritated by such notorious breaches of treaty delivered
on various occasions, and it is incomprehensible how the
Government officials had the courage to plead the Govern
ment regulations in opposition to their cries for justice.
Suffice it to quote one passage. At the great meeting
called at Green Bay in 1830, John Metoxen, the honoured
chief of Stockbridge, said, among other things, in presence
of the Government officials : " Because we supposed our
great father to be a truthful and honourable man, who
would not break his word, but had a strong arm to make
that word good, we believed all that he said to us. We
allowed his white children to come into our fair land and
our dwellings in the State of New York, and we ourselves
took our wives and children in our arms and came hither
over the great lakes to live by the Fox- river. We lighted
the council-fire and made peace with our brothers the
Winibagos and Menomenies, we gave them money for their
land. They said they would be glad to see us, and that

284 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
we should come to live among them, and we should be all
one people. They promised to give up hunting and fishing,
and to cultivate corn like us, and that their women should
act like our women, and that we should become good and
great together like the white people. All our hearts were
full of joy. Brothers ! we little thought that our great
father, President Munroe, should so soon die, and that
another should come into his office who would forget what
he had promised. We little thought that our present great
father has so many papers lying on his desk, and that he
would be unable to find the paper on which his treaty with
us is written. You see, brothers, the white man is here ;
he has brought strong water to sell to our people, whereby
they become mad, and quarrel with one another. The
Indian can be seduced to anything when he has strong
water. It makes him frantic ; he will not work ; he will
beat his wife and his child; he will even murder them,
although at other times he would pine away with grief for
them. And yet the great father promised us that the white
man should not come here to sell strong water. But you
see, brothers, that a great multitude of white people have
come into our land, to live here. They tell us that they
will remain, that more of them will come, that they will
have our land, and we must wander away to the Missis
sippi. All this makes us very sad. We lived in peace
with the Winibagos, &c. ; our council-fire burned well, and
never went out. Then came the white man and threw a
great stone into the fire, and scattering the burning brands
around, and shouted, ' There is no peace.' Our brothers,
says he, are going to take back the land which they had
sold us. They could now sell it again to the whites, and
get payment for it a second time."

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 285
People boasted that they had given the Indians agri
cultural implements, sent artizans and teachers to them,
and established schools and model farms. But, apart from
the poverty of all institutions of that sort, the model farms
were situated in districts to which no Indian ever came; the
tools did not reach their hands. Millions of dollars destined
for their civilizing disappeared, without any one knowing
what became of them. The Indians who were driven from
their "possessions were brought to the so-called Reservations.
How matters went on there, only a few examples from the
West will show, as Gerland has communicated them in his
instructive article on The Future of the Indians. The Yuki
received an old burial-field for a dwelling. On the other
hand, they never received a dollar of the fifteen-years' com
pensation that was granted them for the land which they
ceded. It all found its way into the pockets of the agents.
The Modok were brought into a reservation which lay in
the territory of their enemies, the Mukaluk, and here they
were continually subjected to the most' dreadful ill-treat
ment ; their women were outraged, their wells and streams
were polluted and poisoned, &c. And when at last, when
no attention was paid to their complaints, they decamped
and migrated to their old home, they of course fell to war
with the settlers there. They had become saucy and in
solent, "they had learned to contemn the wretched farce of
the reservation-husbandry." When Indians got a good
reservation, the colonists often drove them back, and the
agents could not, or would not, restrain these encroachers.
In the year 1 877 the Indian agent, Captain Parker, reports
on the Hupa-reservation : " The reservation is now in cir
cumstances of the greatest depression. The corn-mill has
been abandoned ; it is useless. Still worse is the saw-mill.

286 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
The hedges are in the most deplorable condition, houses
are fallen down, the cattle shed is carried off. There are
some eight or nine hundred acres of good wheat land, but
not a single acre in cultivation, as also an ample breadth of
pasture-land. The Indians are peaceful and quiet ; many
among them are active and industrious. They complain
bitterly that their cattle sheds and agricultural implements
have been taken and sold to the whites."
That the inhumanities towards the poor, provoked
Indians, have not ceased even now, is proved in the saddest
way by an execution that took place early in the present
year. Some 150 Chayenne Indians were imprisoned in
Fort Eobinson in Nebraska, because they had not stayed
in the new settlement assigned to them, but had gone on
a robbing expedition to procure food for themselves. They
decidedly refused to go back to the abandoned settlements,
on the ground that the climate and hunger would destroy
them. The captain charged with taking them back at first
sought to make them submissive by depriving them of food
and firewood. But when hunger and cold did not subdue
them, and the Indians were singing their death-song, as
being ready to die, then five companies of cavalry were
ordered to drag back the recusants by force. The Indians
then, notwithstanding their weariness, stood on the defen
sive, resolved on a life or death struggle ; then they fled.
Many, especially women and children, were again captured,
more were killed, a new pursuit was instituted after those
who had escaped. The handful of red men fought most
desperately against at least twenty times their number of
soldiers ; very few fled, and these few probably in their
flight succumbed to their wounds. " A number of dis
obedient, cunning, treacherous Indians, who make no more

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 287
account of the lives of our officers and soldiers' than if they
were dogs, endeavoured to escape from the custody of our
troops, and used violence. They were treated as they
deserved ; and it is foolish to try to excuse their criminal
behaviour." Such is the judgment of General Sherman
on this occurrence, while at least a portion of the American
press acknowledged in this policy " a reproach on our age
and our people."
Manifestly such hostile treatment of the Indians by the
representatives of civilization, persisted in for centuries,
must have laid great obstacles in the way of the Christian
missionary there. " In consequence," says Waitz, " of the
bitterness between the two races the distrust of the Indians
with respect to Christianity grew ever greater and greater.
The Senecas once made it an express condition of peace
with the Shawans that they should never become Christians.
They suspected, in the spread of Christianity, a new means
of oppression ; they feared a new deception." " Too many
lies in the white man's prayer-house," said a Delaware :
"they say, 'Thou shalt not steal,' but they steal the Indians'
land; they say ' Love thy neighbour,' but they will not pray
with negroes." How often have the missionaries had to
hear it said to them, " Go and better your own country
men ; " and the well-known Canadian was not altogether
wrong into whose mouth Seume puts the words, " See, we
savages are still better men."
" Not the unsusceptibility of the Indians " — says Frits-
chel at the close of his admirable work, which is founded
on the most thorough study of authorities, the History of
Christian Missions among the Indians of North America in
the 1 yth and 1 8th Centuries — "but the conflict of the races,
the constant inflow of the wave of immigration of the

288 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
white population into the Indian land, hindered and frus
trated the various missionary efforts, even such as had
already attained quite magnificent and much-promising
results." In the latest Survey of the Mission Work of the Church
of the Brethren from 1 869 to 1 879, it is said in reference
to the mission to the Indians :- — •" The Cherokees are the
most civilized tribe of all the natives who live west of the
Mississippi, and the most numerous. They are surrounded
by white settlers, who are watching for the moment when,
the independence of the tribe having ceased, the land shall
be divided among individual Indians, or by lies and frauds
shall pass over into their hands. The Cherokees, on the
other hand, cherish a well-founded mistrust, yea hatred,
against all whites, because they have been already despoiled
of their former rights and liberties. This sentiment cannot
act otherwise than obstructively and destructively upon our
mission work. The wildest licentiousness prevails among
the people. The dissatisfaction and uncertainty respecting
their political position calls forth great indifference in their
religious life," &c.
The conflict between the whites and the Indians in
America is often represented as a war of civilization against
barbarism, and for the sake of the victory of civilization,
the annihilation of the red-skins is considered to be quite
in order.7 It is not necessary that we divest this sophis
tical expression of its glory. Waitz has already had the
courage to do so, and openly to declare it. " It is a coarse
distortion of history when the war of the Indians against
the whites is represented as really a war of barbarism
against civilization ; rather in it right is struggling against
violence, helpless short-sightedness and feebleness against

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 289
refined craftiness and avarice." In such matters the
anthropologists get readier belief than the theologians.
Besides the wrongs done to the Indians, there rests upon
the American civilization the burden of another crying
wrong, that, namely, which has been done to the African
negro slaves. It is neither our design in this place to
relate the history of the slave trade and of slavery, nor to
undertake a representation of the abominations to which
they have given rise. We frankly admit that the pictures
sketched in Uncle Tom's Cabin, that sensational romance
which attracted so much attention in its day, contained
exaggerations ; and that he who should make use of parti
cular crimes, which have really been committed, as a gene
ralising representation of the treatment of the slaves, would
falsify the actual circumstances. But after these admis
sions, there remains so great a residue of the most heinous
guilt, that those cannot be charged with wrong who regard
the North American terrible civil war as a punishment, or
an atonement for the crimes committed against the sons of
Africa, as well as against the aborigines of the country.
The moderate treatment of the slaves, demanded per
haps by selfishness, — for they cost a great deal of money,
— cannot in any way justify the accursed institution itself.
There are two quite different things — to introduce slavery
into Christian lands, and not to abolish it in heathen and
Mohammedan countries. The former is to act in the most
flagrant way in opposition to the fundamental principles
of the religion which is professed. In the latter case slavery
is most closely connected with the religious conceptions'
and the social relations, and can only be suppressed when
these are changed. In the former case the introduction
of slavery is a retrogression into the barbarous which has

290 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
been long overcome ; in the latter, its continuance is a
necessary consequence of the low moral position which has
not yet been discovered to be low. The former is action
in opposition to better knowledge and conscience ; in the
latter it is bona fide. Hence, also, however paradoxical it
may sound, the treatment of slaves among non-Christian
people, as Waitz most strikingly proves, is much more
humane than among the civilized Christian peoples !
But apart altogether from the treatment, there is this
terrible thing in slavery as practised by civilized Christians,
that one man regards another man as a mercantile com
modity, to be bought and sold at his pleasure, and to be
put to labour as a sort of soulless animal. " It was a long,
long time ago," — writes a correspondent of the Berlin
People's Journal in connection with the visit of the black
jubilee-singers to our country — "that I stood in a lonely
wood in Arkansas on outpost duty. It was in winter. All
at once it was as if the wind bore words and a distinct
melody. The sound came nearer, and I heard distinctly
a human voice, which strangely harmonised with the
whistling of the wind and corresponded with the voice
of nature. The sound reached me —
' Eock me to sleep, mother ; '
and then followed a long-drawn, woeful refrain,
' All day, all day ! '
The songstress who gave so soft, musical expression to
the entreaty that her mother would rock her to sleep all
the day, was a ragged negro child of about ten years of
age. I spoke to the songstress, and asked her — ' Where is
your mother ? ' ' Sold,' was the answer. ' Your father ? '
' Sold.' ' Your sisters ? ' ' Sold.' ' Whom then do you

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 291
belong to, Maggie ? ' The little girl was in perplexity, and
after thinking a long time, then said shyly and timidly,
' The driver.' These statements comprised the whole life-
history of the little slave-girl, and in this was reflected the
misery and all the heartrending wretchedness of her race."
How many thousands of life-histories of immortal human
beings are told in this one unadorned history, and how many
tears and broken hearts are comprised in the one word
Sold. But also much demoralisation is comprised in the
same word, as slavery tears asunder all conjugal and family
bonds, it lowers the black race so that it loses both natural
morality and at last all sense of modesty, and in the sexual
relations is ruled only by animal inclination. It has there
fore come to this in Maryland and Virginia, that slaves are
carefully bred so that the quality may be improved without
importation from elsewhere.
" The question here," writes Waitz, " is about something
wholly different from the import or transference of labourers,
about something different even from an immense amount
of material suffering — the perfect moral depravation of the
slaves and the slave-dealers is a necessary consequence
of slave-dealing, and this as necessarily extends to the
master who buys them, and to his family. The slave is
by his position addicted to lying and stealing, he is and
continues to be the natural enemy of his master, who, on
his side, must aim at deceiving him as much as possible
as to his interests, at embruting him, or not allowing his
mental capacity to rise above a certain low grade, since
otherwise his whole relation to him could not continue to be
maintained. To care for the education of the slaves means,
in all cases, to make emancipation a necessity. But apart
from all abuse of labour, which everywhere is so easy for

292 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
men wherever it is quite unrestricted, apart also from the
hardening of heart which must ensue where slavery fami
liarises with the sight of pain and destroys the instinct of
sympathy,it brings a dishonour upon work, which is equally
injurious to the master and the slave. . . . Under the con
stant pressure of the rod, all is at last hypocrisy. The
slaves are simply machines, as much without wills as a good
domestic animal, which at last has no other enjoyment of
its existence than in being well and abundantly foddered
at fixed times. . . . The negroes removed from their home
are no longer people ; their language and their country are
forgotten ; all family bonds are torn asunder. ... It may
be that in later times what was necessary for their physical
existence has been done. This was not the case formerly,
and it has been done of late only after they were morally
ruined." Slavery has now been abolished in almost all Christian
states and colonies, in most cases indeed after long and
difficult, and sometimes bloody, struggles. But its demora
lising effects are far from being at an end, to say nothing
of their being superseded by the implantation of new
virtues. The depravation inoculated for centuries has its
after effects even in a state of freedom. As was formerly
pointed out, little or nothing was done on the part of the
slaveholding states to educate the blacks for an eventual
emancipation. The mission had been obstructed in every
way, and in several states instruction and baptism had been
legally prohibited, and threatened with punishment. "The
sudden emancipation must now," as Waitz remarks, " have
acted similarly, and even worse, than the proclamation of
a universal communistic division of property would act
among us in Europe, by which the lower classes would

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 293.
find themselves incited to tyranny against the higher. It
is due only to the almost incredible good-nature of the
negroes, that not only no scenes of horror, but that not even
any disturbance, has occurred on this occasion." After
emancipation the negro is generally like a prisoner dis
charged after years of captivity, who does not know what
to make of his freedom. The previous deprivation of rights
has everywhere been brought to an end ; but in the public
sentiment the free negro remains still a being of inferior
sort, who is to be treated with contempt. " The prejudice
of race exists in the United States in a strength and ex
clusiveness which have not their parallel anywhere else.
Even in the Northern States the coloured man is an
outlaw and a reprobate. Even as far as the quadroon,
the negro and his posterity is branded with the name
of the refuse of mankind, and is put under the ban of
a curse which represents him as not even worthy of
toleration." A great part of the North American as well as the West
Indian negroes had indeed become Christians while slavery
still ruled. But no man of intelligence would put the re
sults of the mission to the credit of the civilization intro
duced by the system of slavery. Certainly the oppression
under which the poor blacks sighed made them peculiarly
receptive ofthe tidings of the Gospel; but that these tidings
were brought to them is not due to the slaveholders either
in North America or in any other colony.8 Without their
co-operation, and generally in spite of their very active
opposition, the slaves have been brought to Christianity by
the agents of the Christian mission, impelled by. the love
of Christ — a triumph of the God who governs the world,
who always knows how to bring good out of the wickedness

294 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
of men, but who should never be introduced in support of
the old immoral maxim, " Let us do evil, that good may
come." And even after the emancipation, it has been, so
far as we see, only the missionary societies that have, at
great cost, earnestly laboured to educate the freed slaves
to a right use of their freedom, and to make of them useful
members of human society. If the result hitherto is com
paratively small, the blame lies not on the mission, but
upon the representatives of civilization, who give little or
no support to its efforts for the accomplishment of its
gigantic undertaking, and who should be ashamed of finding
fault with those who are doing their best. Napoleon was
once walking along a street with a lady who was unwilling
to give way to a man carrying a burden, who was coming
in the opposite direction. The emperor drew her aside,
saying, " Eespect for the burden, madam." If people will
not support the mission, let them at least respect the work
which it is doing and the burden which it is bearing. It
is certainly not generous for those to sneer who will not
themselves touch the burden.
Gerland, in his book on the Dying-Out of the Nature-
Peoples, introduces the chapters which describe the treat
ment of these peoples by the whites with the words : " We
come now to the darkest points in our whole picture, to
the darkest portion, perhaps, of the whole history of man
kind." For those to whom the facts hitherto stated shall
not appear sufficiently to prove the truth of this assertion,
a glance at the history of the behaviour of the white immi
grants towards the aborigines of South Africa will remove
all doubt. " The poor aborigines of South Africa " — thus
Wangemann, in agreement with Von Rohden, pictures the
occurrences there — " had too soon to experience that the

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 295
Christian, who, instead of introducing the Gospel, and with
it the powers of a new life, brings only himself, his civiliza
tion, his desire of mastery and gain, is far more oppressive
than the heathen, and far more dangerous than the beasts
from which the barbarous heathen can protect himself.
The history of the poor people, since they had the mis
fortune to come into contact with the colonists, is compre
hended in a few words : The white man has first made use
of the aborigines, then over-reached and defrauded them,
then robbed them, then enslaved them, then ill-used and
hunted them like wild beasts of the forest, and at last
exterminated and banished all that would not serve him.
. . . With the increasing population of whites, all means
of independent sustenance was cut off from the free Hotten
tots. Their cattle-pastures were in possession of the white
men, the game was scared away by the cultivation of the
land — what remained for the poor people but to retire
into the caves and clifts of the hills, and thence, by theft
and plundering of their white oppressors, to obtain the
necessary support of life ? A state of war ensued. To
the haughtiness of the stronger were united the passion
and the thirst of revenge of those who had been injured
in the war, and so the Boer lost the last trace of human
feeling with respect to the Hottentot. The word man
was understood as meaning only a white man. The blacks
were called " black cattle," " black sheep," " black com
modities," and as such the poor creatures were treated.
To shoot down a black in mere wantonness was not re
garded as murder. When one of our missionaries was
remonstrating with a Boer that he had again stained
himself with human blood, he answered, " Oh no, sir, such
a sin as killing a man I never committed." " But last

296 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Thursday you shot down your black servant." " Oh, you
mean a sheep, sir ; yes, I shot him."
In the matter of the crying wrongs done by the colonists,
the Colonial Government showed itself faint-hearted and
feeble, which naturally confirmed them in their insolence.
" Thus the godless character grew among the Boers without
restraint, and while the Government at the beginning of the
eighteenth century had permitted deeds of insolence, it
came to this at the end of the same century, that they be
came abetters of the wrong-doers, and helped in shedding
the blood of the natives. In the year 1702, there was an
expedition of colonists, 45 men strong, provided with 4
waggons and 32 draught-oxen, undertaken among the
Hottentot tribes, and returned rejoicing with 2200 head
of cattle and 2500 sheep, which had been taken as booty,
or obtained from their owners by barter for worthless
articles, brass buttons, tobacco, and brandy. At the end
of the same century (1792), in the diary of the leader of.
a military commando are the following entries : —
' 27ft September. — The first kraal, Kurassin, taken ; 75 Buschmans
killed ; 21 made prisoners.
15th October. — Another kraal discovered; 85 Buschmans killed;
23 taken.
20th October. — A third kraal discovered ; 7 killed ; 3 taken, &c.'
This statement contains no misdeeds of special atrocity ;
it was merely the report of an officer regarding the day's
work assigned him." " We may in some measure estimate
the extent," adds Waitz to these facts, which we have taken
from him ; " the extent to which this destruction of the
Buschmans was carried when we consider that Colonel
Collins in 1 809 heard an otherwise respectable man relate
that he and his people within six days had killed or taken

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 297
prisoners 3200 Buschmans, to which another answered
that the commandoes in which he had taken part had cost
2700 Buschmans their lives. Thomson knew a colonist
who in 30 years had taken part in 32 such raids, in one
of which 200 Buschmans were killed. With the com
mencement of the English rule at the Cape, the commando
system should have been put a stop to ; but the Boers were
so much accustomed to it that it was impossible to abolish
it all at once. Between 1797 and 1823, there were 53
commandoes officially planned. It is not doubtful that in
1823 the system was in full operation again after some
interruptions, and it appears to have fared worse with the
Buschmans under the English rule than even under the
Dutch." In the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free
State, the Boers have in part continued the ill-treatment
of the natives down to the latest period.
" After the foregoing '' — so Waitz concludes his state
ment — " there can be no need of additional proofs that the
Boers offer a most decided resistance to all efforts to raise
the natives from their barbarism, and especially therefore
to the mission ; and no one will be surprised to hear that
they not rarely formed plots against the missionaries, even
against a Livingstone, whose station of Kolobeng they
destroyed. Even the officials greatly opposed the mis
sion, because tlieir only concern was to obtain labourers
for their extensive properties."
We must therefore agree without reservation with Ger-
land when he states that under the influence of culture,
the Hottentots are become much ruder, lazier, and morally
worse than at the time when we first became acquainted
with them. And Wangemann says : "Could the Hottentot,
when for more than a century he has been treated like a

298 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
beast, when he had to see his children stolen from him, his
wife and his daughters subjected to outrage, when he him
self was never for a moment safe from the rifle and the sam-
boke. of his white tyrants — when, moreover, he never heard
of God and His Word — could he become aught else than
a spiritless and stubborn animal ? Was it to be wondered
at that he made no conscience of stealing from his master,
of lying and cheating whenever an opportunity was afforded
him? — that he sought in brandy at least a temporary excite
ment, and wallowed in impurity and lasciviousness ?
"It was inevitable that the population of the country
visibly diminished, and that in the same proportion the
white masters were necessitated by the lessening of the
number of servants to get a supply in other ways. A
motley assortment of slaves from all the neighbouring
peoples — Mozambiques, Negroes, Kaffirs, even Hindus,
Malays, and mongrels of all sorts, was formed, and a
bastard generation grew up. Thousands of Mohamme
dans moved into the country. Such is the population
which the mission found in the Cape Colony, without
nationality, without morality, without rights, without
religion, almost without superstition, without a language
of their own — a people wholly sunk in sin and misery."
The representations now given of course refer mainly
to what are now Cape districts. But mutatis mutandis,
the European civilization further northward and eastward
has not dealt much better with the coloured aborigines,
to say nothing of the slave trade, which has brought
matters to such a pass among the blacks of the dark con
tinent that they conceive of the devil as white. To avoid
too great diffuseness, we omit any special remarks on this ;
we pass by also the repeated Kaffir wars, as well as the diffi-

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 299
culties occasioned by the faults^of the English Government,
in order to advert, in a few words, to the destructive influ
ence which brandy is exerting among the black population
all over the continent, wherever white men have settled.
We let only two eye-witnesses speak. The mission
superintendent, Kropf, who, from almost twenty-five years'
labour in British Kaffraria, thoroughly knows the state of
matters there, writes with reference to the causes of the
war with Xosa Kaffirs in 1877-8: 9 "British Kaffraria
was annexed to the Cape Colony. ... Of the permission
to erect brandy-shops for the blacks, which was not allowed
in British Kaffraria till then,use was most extensively made.
It is notorious that the black people are so fond of nothing
as of fire-water. Sir George Grey had trained the Kaffirs
to sheep-farming, in order to make them more settled.
But now sheep and cattle and all else went into the
pockets of the spirit-shopkeepers ; and the Kaffirs were
poorer and more godless than before. The growing con
sumption of brandy was one of the chief causes of the last
war. No one in our country has even an approximate
conception of the misery which brandy has produced here.
In the treatise of Professor Christlieb on the Indo-British
Opium Trade and its Effects, he says, 'Substitute Kaffirland
for China, and brandy for opium, and you will not only
have a true representation of the misery in this country,
but will learn what has caused it — viz., the shopkeeper
policy of England.' "
How colossal is the import of brandy into West Africa
is shown by the statement of the negro-pastor, Johnson,
who, in his interesting report on his visitation-tour in
Yorubaland, writes thus : " Brandy-drinking opposes a
dreadful obstacle to our work and the real progress of the

300 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
country. The trade in rum is, alas ! rapidly increasing ;
nothing sells so well ; the consumption is very great. I
have seen with alarm a comparative table of the custom
revenue of Lagos for last year (1877). In the year 1 876,
the import of spirits in six months amounted in value to
£2 4, 3 2 6 . In 1 8 7 7 it rose in the same period to £6 g,g 3 3 ,
while the sale of cotton goods only rose from £135,060
to £155,995. The blockade imposed on the harbour of
Dahomey explains in some degree indeed these astound
ing figures with respect to the custom-house at Lagos ; but
the fact remains, notwithstanding, that the consumption
here is increasing. Any one who knows what misery
drunkenness has produced elsewhere, and who feels, as I
do, that his own countrymen have not the strength long
to withstand this deluge of rum and brandy, will be grieved
in heart at the sight of his home and of other coast-lands.
Certainly it is deeply to be deplored that this poison comes
from Christian lands, some of which have sent missionaries
into this country. Unless a remedy be applied, this
brandy-deluge threatens to become a greater curse for
Africa than all the foreign slave-trade with all its hellish
cruelties has ever been." In Banana, at the mouth of the
Congo, Dr. Gussfeld had occasion to pass through the store
houses of the Dutch Trade Emporium. " First," he writes,
" I went into immense apartments, in which were cask by
cask in rows, and cask on cask in towers. Every one is
filled with that poisonous liquid, which is known by the
name of negro-rum, and finds its way into the remotest
villages, even beyond the great forest. Another apart
ment is occupied with cubical green-painted cases, each
containing a dozen bottles of Geneva (gin). This liquid,
a drink of the worst sort, passes for something far finer

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 301
than the rum, and forms a favourite beverage of the negroes
of rank.- Without rum or gin it would be impossible to
conclude any bargain." It is known from Stanley's travels
how, in the neighbourhood of the West African coast, the
fully equipped expedition was in the greatest danger of
being refused passage through a certain district, because
it was not prepared to offer rum as tribute ; so much has
European traffic accustomed the poor blacks to the receiv
ing of the ruinous brandy. Indeed, rum takes the place
of money in the traffic.
Let a little episode be permitted here. The report
submitted to the German Reichstag with reference to the
treaty of friendship concluded with the Samoan Islands,
contains the following passage : 10 " On shore (of the Island
Taritari) we found the whole population seated in groups
under the cocoa-trees, with gin-bottles, and the greater
part of them perfectly drunk. Whether this was the
Sunday forenoon service was not clear to us. There are
missionaries in the island." On the ground of this quota
tion communicated to the Reichstag by the Bamberg
deputy, and received with satisfaction by the " Honourable
House," the said gentleman remarked that " the said report
deals humorously with missionary matters." We must
confess that this " humour " does not greatly impress us,
and besides we utterly lack the ability to apprehend the
logic of it. Be it so, as the report states : — surely the
fact that there are missionaries in the island is not charge
able with the intoxication of the multitude of islanders.
Even its fanatical enemies have not, so far as we know,
accused it of teaching the people to drink brandy. But
it has been the trade, which imports the gin-bottle, and
thereby lessens extremely the success of the mission.

302 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
Where is the logic of a humorous remark on the mission ?
Why is not the trade held responsible for that which it
alone has caused ? We most painfully regret the occur
rence of the passage quoted in an official publication of
the Imperial Government, otherwise so worthily conducted,
and striving to be fair even towards the mission. Such
humorous dealing with the mission — to use no stronger
expression — we never meet with in the English Blue Books.
Also, we must be allowed to doubt whether " satisfaction "
is the proper expression of feeling in so " honourable a
house " as the German Reichstag is, when it is " humor
ously " suggested of a maudlin gathering around the gin-
bottle that it is perhaps in this way that they perform
their Sabbath morning service !
We now return once more to Western Africa. To our
astonishment Dr. Hubbe-Schleiden defends the brandy
trade in Equatorial Africa, in so far as he disputes the state
ment that this trade is demoralising the blacks. " The
fact is, at all events," writes this man, who is otherwise so
distinguished by his thoughtful, solid judgments, " that the
negroes have not learned from the Caucasians to know the
effects and the use of spirituous liquors. They understand
quite well, by fermentation and the addition of herbs, to
make their own palm-wine and their beer intoxicating.
Further, it may be concluded from the fact that a great
deal of palm-wine is still drunk by the negroes, that the
supply of rum does not satisfy their demand for intoxicating
drinks. Further, even among the most sunken coast-tribes,
and at the worst of times, the imported rum has never
exceeded a third of the value of the total imports. Further,
while the quantity of rum under the East African trade is
no doubt increasing absolutely, it is very considerably

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 303
decreasing relatively, that is in proportion to the other
articles of trade ; which are mostly of a durable kind.
From this it is clear that through the influence of the trade
even in places where the mission and other instruments
of our civilization are not acting, the demand for rum is
comparatively restricted, and in this view the good in
fluence of the trade outweighs its bad aspects. Lastly,
and this is here the decisive point of view, rum has, besides,
an economical importance, through which it becomes quite
indispensable for trade, as it serves one of the essential
functions of money with us."
Must it not be that an esteemed authority, who was him
self energetic as a merchant in West Africa, is here doing
a little pleading on his own account, and that his objec
tivity, otherwise so strict, is thus a little discomposed ?
We know right well that the African, not only of the
West Coast, but also of the East, and the central interior,
has uniformly a great fondness for intoxicating drinks ; as
is confirmed anew by the reports of the various mission-
expeditions, especially towards the Victoria Nyanza. But
does anyjustification ofthe brandy-traffic follow from this?
Does it justify me, when I give a man brandy, that he is
a drunkard already ? To us the opposite conclusion seems
the right one. Precisely because the disposition to drink
is already existent, so much the less ought opportunity to
be afforded for its gratification, lest it be thereby increased.
Dr. Hubbe-Schleiden introduces into his books, which are
in many respects so excellent, views thoroughly sound,
with which we are in sympathy, that the negro, being not
yet ripe for independence, must be to a certain extent
treated as a child, and must be subjected to the educative
power of authority and moral ascendancy. Why will he

304 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
be untrue to his own principles, when the question of the
brandy-trade is under discussion, regarding which he must
confess that it at least contains temptations to complete
demoralisation ? Is it educationally wise and morally right
to lead men into temptation, who are in fact unfit to resist
the temptation 1
Granted that the demand is far from being satisfied with
the supply, are there not in civilized Europe laws which
prohibit the supply of brandy to the drunkard who demands
it ? Must we not, since we occupy not only the mercantile,
but the moral and educational standpoint, in the first in
stance act just so with respect to the feeble negroes. Dr.
Hubbe-Schleiden finds comfort in this, that brandy forms
but a third part of the imports, and that the quantity of
rum imported is not increasing relatively, though it is abso
lutely. May not this conscience-soothing argumentation
be somewhat influenced by sophistry, as it so easily adapts
itself to self-justification ? To us it seems terrible enough
that the importation of brandy amounts to a third part of
the total importation. In other words, that means that
the consumer receives brandy for a third part of his articles
of exchange, or drinks a third part of his income."" Let us
suppose this proportion transferred to a European civilized
state, and what astounding moral, cultural, and even mer
cantile conditions would ensue ? Then our author expressly
acknowledges the absolute increase of the quantity of rum
imported. We can find only moderate comfort in this, that
the import of goods " mostly of a durable kind " is increas
ing, because the counteraction of the demoralising effect of
* Let us be fair even to an opponent. No doubt a very considerable part
of the consumer's income is spent on articles of home growth, whereas it is
here assumed that the whole is spent on imported commodities. — Trans.

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 305
the brandy thereby is rather apparent than real. It can
not much alter the fact that the drinker who gets more
brandy gets also more of other commodities.
Finally, we cannot recognise as relevantthe decisive view
of the economical importance of brandy as a currency.
Granted that now the commercial intercourse cannot be
carried on without this currency. But whose is the blame ?
Undoubtedly it is the trade's. It was in mercantile respects
very advantageous, especially at the beginning of the com
mercial intercourse, to take the products of the country in
exchange for brandy. In this way purchases were made
very cheap, and the natives, whose evil propensity was thus
gratified, were most conveniently deceived. The native
who is longing for rum, and who is already intoxicated,
forgot and forgets — as Dr. Gussfeld expressly states — the
proper value of the commodities. Now the people are
accustomed to this currency ; but does it follow from this
that they are never to be weaned from this evil custom ?
Does it not rather follow that when new ways of trade are
opened, we must introduce them ? Surely other and more
real articles of traffic may be brought into the market,
which would "serve," instead of brandy, "the essential
functions of money with us." It is so, for example,
wherever missionary trading societies exist. Why should
brandy find its justification elsewhere as an indispensable
medium of exchange ?
But enough. We fear that we should be doing a super
fluous work were we to undertake a lengthened proof of
the demoralising effects of the importation of brandy.
Suppose that an opportunity were given to intelligent
Africans, and even to some South Sea Islanders, as has
been given to the Indians of North America, to speak

306 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
publicly on this subject in the presence of white men,
they would, like them, picture with extreme eloquence
and emotion, the ruin which the fire-water brought to
them by the representatives of civilization has wrought
among them. (Cf. Note 9.)
We close our panorama of the unwholesome fruits which
contact with the European civilization has brought in
abundant measure to the non-Christian peoples, however
little it is exhaustive of the subject. Many volumes must
be wiitten, if we would give a full view of this " darkest
portion" of the history of civilization. But the state
ments which we have made, derived only from the most
absolutely trustworthy sources, and by no means includ
ing the most dreadful, are more than sufficient to justify
the assertion that the civilization in question, whose repre
sentatives are, alas ! so numerous everywhere in all non-
Christian lands, that this sort of civilization is so far from
being a pioneer of the mission, that it rather makes the mis
sion a Christian and national debt of honour, as a sort of
amends to the misused, robbed, and demoralised heathen.

It is certainly to be thankfully regarded as a special
dispensation of God's providence, that the mission-work
of our century, which is ever assuming larger dimensions,
proceeds from peoples who are also the bearers of the
culture of the present day, and who impress the non-
Christian peoples by their immense cultural superiority.
Apart altogether from the apologetic value of this fact,
inasmuch as it affords alike to Christians and to heathens
the incontrovertible proof that Christianity must be a

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 307
cultural power of the first order; apart also from the
pioneer-service, which in the strictest sense of the word
this culture has rendered, and is continuously rendering to
the modern mission by its magnificent means of communi
cation : apart, finally, from the hundreds of aids which it
affords the missionary for the improvement of his position,
and the more comfortable arrangement of his vocation — it
gives him also, even among the so-called civilized heathen,
a position of superiority which was wanting to the apostles
in their time. " The Caucasian has, in the cultural develop
ment of his race for many thousands of years, an advantage
over the Ethiopian," and also over other uncivilized peoples,
" by which he is superior to him as the man to the child,
and wherever the consciousness of this superiority remains,
there will also that advantage remain, however personally
he may be ungifted in comparison with the acute children
of nature." " The missionary goes forth," writes the experienced
Livingstone, "with all the support that art and science can
afford. It would have been otherwise had God so ordered
that heathen peoples had made the discoveries which are
now the property of those lands from which the missionaries
go forth. Other nations appear to have been near to reach
ing these discoveries, but their development was always
arrested by a something. The Chinese knew the art of
printing, the compass, and gunpowder, long before they
were thought of in the West. Porcelain and silk-manufac
ture, painting, chemistry, anatomy, astronomy, and litera
ture — all made progress there up to a certain period ; but
then, instead of advancing to their amazing practical ap
plications, as among the Christian peoples, the inventive
faculty degenerated into a remarkable national instinct of

308 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
imitation. What would the missionary have been able to
effect in China if the Chinese had got ahead of us in our
discoveries in art and science ? What arguments could an
unscientific missionary have brought against a Buddhist
priest who might have withstood him armed with the know
ledge of the magic lantern,11 and the manipulations of
chemistry ? The Arabs were on the point of making
several of our later chemical discoveries. We got from
them our arithmetical and algebraic characters, our paper-
making, our gunpowder, and most of our best medicines.
Had they made our discoveries, while they at the same
time believed that they must propagate their religion by
the sword, what should our poor island country have been
able to effect in opposition to Mohammedan ships, guided
by the compass and propelled by steam ? But since God
has so ordained it, that every missionary who goes among
the heathen bears on himself the stamp of a superior civi
lization and power,he has the constant advantage of belong
ing to a superior race, which is recognised as such by the
whole world. The embassy will be favoured by the prestige
of this superiority, and wherever it is received this happens
with some of the most prominent heads of the tribe."
His superiority in information places the missionary
everywhere in the position of becoming a teacher and
educator among those peoples to whom he is sent, and even
among the so-called cultured peoples, for example in India,
it gives him, even in the eyes of the educated classes of the
people, the right of educational action, and procures general
respect not only for the popular schools, but also for the
schools of learning which are under his direction. For
direct opposition to religious error also it renders him
important service. When, for example, according to the

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 309
Puranas, the sacred Mount Meru is represented as the
central point of the earth, and is said to have a diameter
of 32,000 yogans at its top, and of 10,000 at its base, so
as to resemble the seed-capsule of a lotus-flower ; also that
within the world-enclosing hill Lokaloka there are seven
seas, one of salt, one of sugar, one of wine, one of butter,
one of curds, one of milk, and one of water, and seven
continents; and. that the whole earth floats like a great
ferry-boat on the original sea, a moderate amount of geo
graphical knowledge, such as everybody possesses in Chris
tian lands, suffices to demonstrate the erroneousness of this
representation, and thereby to utterly shake the credibility
of the heathen religious authority. But such a demon
stration on the part of the missionary has more weight on
this account, that he is a man belonging to a people who
excel in scientific intelligence, and is regarded a priori
as better instructed in these matters.
But it is not the intellectual superiority alone that
procures regard, in the eyes of the people among whom he
lives, for the European missionary, even the average mis
sionary, whose intelligence, measured according to the
standard of our University science, is very moderate.12
Even what he brings with him, or what he knows soon
to provide for himself, though but the modest residue of
our civilization, his dress, his dwelling and its furniture,
his work tools, his whole bearing and manner of life, his
noble family-life, his greater dexterity and capacity, his
ability to render help in sickness and other emergencies,
&c, give him a preponderance over those around him,
Above all, it raises him in their estimation that he belongs
to a people, great, influential, far advanced in civilization,
of whom they have perhaps only a very dark and erroneous

310 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
conception, but know at all events that they are in every
respect far ahead of their own people. And it is not of
little consequence that the natives receive the longer the
greater impression of the mighty, far-reaching power of
his home-land, under whose protection, though so far off,
the missionary still is, and may thereby be restrained in
no small measure from constant attacks on his life and
property. At all events, there would be far more murders
and robberies, if the heathen did not recognise the strong
arm of the protecting power that stands behind the mis
sionary. The advantages afforded to the modern mission
by our civilization are far more important than the draw
backs which necessarily spring from it.
It has always appeared to us to be one of the most
wonderful masterpieces of the Pauline mission-method,
when the great apostle of the Gentiles writes of himself:
" To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the
Jews ; to those who are under the law, I became as under
the law, that I might gain those who are under the law.
To them who are without law, I became as without law
(though I am not without law before God, but am in the
law of Christ), that I might gain them who are without
law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain
the weak. I have become all things to all men, that by
all means I might save some" (i Cor. ix. 20 ff.) We
may think of the normative importance of the apostolic
mission-method as we will ; but without all doubt this
avowal of Paul concerning himself contains a principle of
unchangeable permanence and of universal obligation for
the mission work of all times. Not only the principle of
individualising in reference to the spiritual dealing with
individuals, but the principle of accommodation in reference

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 311
to the missionary pedagogy of nations. Even our Lord
Jesus Christ, who was sent by the Father to become the
Saviour of fallen mankind, and to establish in it the
kingdom of God, became a man like unto us in all respects,
sin excepted.
We are not now writing a treatise on mission-method ;
andweshouldbe chargeable with an unwarranted digression,
were we to enter upon the establishment and development
of this principle. But the connection of our deduction per
mits, yea, demands, of us to glance at one side of it. The
missionary must become a fellow-countryman to those
whom he would win ; a Chinaman to the Chinese, a Hindu
to the Hindus, an Indian to the Indians, a Herero to the
Hereros, a Batta to the Battas. Manifestly it is not meant
that he should appropriate to himself their national evil
practices, for he stands, like Paul, under the law of Christ.
Neither is it meant that he share with them the standing-
ground of their sunkenness, for he is to raise them aloft
from their sunkenness ; but that he deny himself, yea,
that after the example of Christ, he humble himself, in
order as much as possible, in conformity with their national
peculiarities, to live among them as one of their own, who
puts himself on a level with them in all respects, excepting
those whose character is specifically heathen and barbarous.
Precisely thus will he best succeed in elevating the people
morally, intellectually, and even materially in a sound and
lasting fashion, and in becoming an educator of the people
worthy of the name in every respect — even in respect of
civilizing them — when by his loving accommodation he
makes the people forget that he is a foreigner among them.
The more he succeeds in living himself into the views,
habits, and modes of life of the people, the more does he

312 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
bridge over the chasm which divides the foreign people
from him, and the more surely does he gain influence.
There is thus assigned to the missionary a task ex
tremely difficult in itself, and full of self-denial, which
even with the best will and the largest-hearted devoted-
ness to his calling, he will only partially fulfil. Our own
narrow-mindedness — as well as the want of sympathy in
our whole manner of viewing strange national peculiarities,
which are often so difficult of comprehension because they
are so different from our own — heaps up mountains of
difficulties, whose height we learn to know in proportion
as we approach them. But these difficulties are doubled,
multiplied tenfold, yea, sometimes made insurmountable,
by the cultural superiority which not only separates the
missionary from the people among whom he preaches the
Gospel, but which also is the possession, in greater or less
degree, of all the white foreigners who settle there, and
which demonstrates before the eyes of the non-Christian
nations what is the object of secular commerce. On more
than one side this superiority in culture forms a wall be
tween the messenger of the Gospel and the objects of his
action, which self-denial, united with the greatest wisdom,
scarcely succeeds in wholly pulling down, and which is for
him a constant temptation, instead of placing himself as
much as possible on the same level with the strange people
in their usages, &c, to engraft his European customs on
them. Apart from the prudential measures demanded by
climate, which even the missionary cannot neglect with
impunity, but which constantly present him before the
eyes of the people as a foreigner, and give him the appear
ance of a man of importance and wealth — it will be im-

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 313
possible for him to renounce all the requirements of civi
lized life, to which he has been accustomed from his youth,
and to order his manner of life completely after the manner
of the natives. It unhappily happens not rarely that the
bounds of necessity in this respect are more or less over
stepped ; and we cannot but take occasion to express our
disapprobation of the extensive scale of comfort and of
luxury which is sometimes found among English and
American missionaries — very seldom among Germans.
When, for example, missionaries' houses, not only in India
and China, but even in Africa and Oceania, are provided
with most elegant furniture, or when missionaries' wives
go about like ladies in costly dresses — that may indeed be
demanded for the English or American parishes through
the social relations there ; in the mission-field it is a luxury
which quite unuecessarily widens the chasm, already so
great, between our culture and the non-culture or half-
culture of the natives. It is a well-known fact that a
country clergyman whose house is extravagantly furnished,
and whose wife plays the part of the fine lady, enjoys no
great influence in his parish. The man or the woman is
too fine for the people; they feel themselves separated from
him, and hold aloof. They do not wish that the pastor
should lodge and live like the day-labourer ; on the con
trary, they would take offence if he should do so. But
they expect that his arrangements and mode of life should
make him and his house accessible to the humblest of his
parishioners. The barbarous and half-civilized man has
quite the same feeling. He also in his way takes offence
at unwarranted luxury, inasmuch as he shrinks from this
lofty culture, and, consciously or unconsciously, justifies
this shrinking on the ground of the distance betwixt him

314 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
and the missionary ; and in some cases feels himself con
stantly tempted to the most shameless beggary from a man
who is, to his apprehension, inexhaustibly rich ; in others
he incurs the greatest danger of making himself a ridicu
lous culture-caricature.
While we so decidedly reprobate all unwarranted
luxury, we cannot possibly recommend to the missionary
to renounce all the comforts of civilization, to which his
constitution is to a certain extent habituated by his home
culture. Even in India and China that could not be
carried through, still less among perfectly uncivilized
peoples. In the greatest number of cases the missionary
must lodge, dress, and eat otherwise than the natives.
He must educate his children. In short, the whole cut of
his life arrangements, even though he resolutely abstains
from every luxury, will bear the impress of the European
civilization to which he has been accustomed from his
youth. He would make a caricature of himself were he
to lay aside altogether the habits of his civilized education,
and be as a barbarian among the barbarians. The chasm
which thereby exists between him and the natives is a
much greater hindrance to the mission than either friends
or foes generally suppose. It is that which gives a cer
tain appearance of justice to the saying which continually
recurs under most manifold variations among the most
diverse heathen peoples, that " the Christian religion is
suited to the white man, but not to us." In it lies also
one of the reasons of the fact that in Africa and on the
Sunda islands the Mohammedan missions are much more
successful than the Christian,18 because the agents of the
former occupy so nearly the same position in respect of
civilization that the heathen do — a fact which not a few

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 315
of our travellers and ethnologists have perverted into the
assertion that Islam is in effect the only form of religion
suited to these people. That even the missionary who
lives, according to our ideas, in the simplest fashion must
appear to the heathen who occupy a cultural position so
far below ours as a sort of Croesus, from whom it is held
a right thing to beg and to be maintained by him, is an
additional shady side.
But the evil effects of our cultural superiority reach still
further, and go still deeper. The native agents, and indeed
the Christians generally, are exposed by it to a great
temptation, viz., to be Europeanised and therefore de
nationalised when they are Christianised ; and the danger
exists for Christians as well as heathens of degenerating
into often ridiculous culture-caricatures, instead of tread
ing the path of a sound civilization.
Reference has been already made to the danger of over-
education and wrong education to which the native assis
tants are exposed, from the fact that the schools in which
they were trained for their calling have been formed too
much on the model of similar institutions in civilized
Christendom, without its being considered that with us a
millennium has passed, during which the actual curriculum
of our higher schools of instruction has been gradually
formed. There is demanded of the uncivilized or half-
civilized heathen a bound to the educational height on
which we now stand. This immediate educational bound
gives rise of necessity not only to hypocrisy, feebleness, ig
norance, and half-knowledge, but also to self-conceit, look
ing down on their countrymen, and consciously or uncon
sciously the wish and the effort to imitate the European
missionary even in ways of the outer life, and indeed to

316 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
their doing so. To lodge and dress as he does, many of
the native assistants regard as the essential of their new
office. It is, however, the most tolerable part of the evil,
that these Europeanised gentlemen, having accustomed
themselves to European wants, claim for the leading of a
life " suitable to their position " a salary which the convert
churches are not able to contribute, and so they fall as a
burden upon the mission-treasury. Worse still it is that
this desire for a high and ever higher salary exposes many
native assistants to the suspicion of having embraced their
new calling for the sake of " filthy lucre ; " that this sus
picion undermines the respect for them on the part both
of Christians and heathens, and excites a sort of jealousy
between them and the better-provided European mission
aries. But what we hold to be worst of all is, that these
Europeanised assistants separate themselves from their
countrymen, lose their position among the people, and by
their denationalisation cause their fellow-countrymen to
regard them as no longer "flesh of their flesh and bone
of their bone." So it happens that that which is precisely
the object aimed at by the employment of native assis
tants, the rooting of Christianity among the people, and the
self-sustenance of the native churches, is hindered and
retarded. There are, of course, exceptions among the
Europeanised native labourers, who by their talents, their
tact, their authority, and their Christian thoroughness,
neutralise as much as is possible the evil referred to, as
e.g., Bishop Crowther, whom the negroes regard as a "black
Englishman," or the well-known Kaffir pastor, Tiyo Soga,
who had a Scotch wife. Yet even regarding such men,
who rose head and shoulders above the great mass of their
colleagues, it may be questioned whether their European-

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 317
ising has not been rather a hindrance than a help to their
influence, and whether their transplanting to English high
schools has not been of very doubtful value for their in
fluence among their black fellow-countrymen. In fact,
those native labourers who have remained rooted among
their people, though far less civilized, such as a Khotha-
biu, a Quala, a Joel Bulu, a Sylvanus Item, have had a
far more extensive influence.
The native Christians are exposed to a similar danger
to that which besets the native assistants. Only too easily
there insinuates itself into many among them a confusion
between Christianity and European civilization, so that
they regard themselves as converted to the former when
they have appropriated to themselves a few fragments of
the latter ; as also among the heathen the idea extensively
prevails that to wear European clothes and to become
Christians are identical. It were unfair to lay the blame
upon the missionaries alone of this confusion, or of the
prejudices generally associated with our civilization.14 The
missionaries are by no means the only representatives of
the Christian civilization among the heathen peoples. The
number of Western Christian men of culture who are drawn
into foreign lands by worldly commerce is far greater in
most of the mission-fields than the number of the mis
sionaries. In all these representatives of Christianity,
even in those who make themselves a scandal by their
immorality, the heathen see essentially the same civiliza
tion that they observe in the missionaries ; thus they
cannot be much blamed if they identify them.
With this constantly occurring identification is con
nected another evil, viz., that the young Christians exchange
their national modes of life and customs for the European

318 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
civilization to a greater extent than the Gospel requires,
and thus they alienate themselves from their countrymen.
It is often, indeed, on account of the abandonment of
heathen idolatrous customs, which is* inseparable from the
acceptance of the Gospel, that the heathen say to their
countrymen who have become Christians : " You are no
longer our associates, since you refuse to take part in the
observance of our festivals." 15 But not rarely occasion is
given for this reproach against their Christian country
men through the needless assumption on their part of
European forms of civilization, and that not only among
the barbarous peoples, but even in India and China ; while,
certainly, it ought not to be overlooked that through
the intimate connection between heathen customs and
national customs it is often difficult to decide where aban
donment is a duty, and where retention.
More firm-grasping and more injurious than the evils
which have hitherto been noted, and which are more or less
neutralised by Christianity, is that which the superiority
of our civilization produces on the non-Christian peoples in
this way, that it induces them immediately to appropriate,
to engraft, or rather to stick on, to themselves, some out
ward form of our civilization, and that they thereby exhibit
culture-caricatures, which are not only ridiculous, but are
hurtful to their effective civilization and Christianisation.
We are not without caricatures of this sort even among
ourselves. When, for example, people who have suddenly
become rich, and who occupy a very low level of inward
and outward refinement, build themselves splendid houses,
and put pianos, book-cases, &c, in the luxuriantly furnished
rooms ; or when boys strut about with gloves, frock-coats,
cylinder hats, or girls in the most modern dresses and false

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 319
hair ; when one hears them spoken of or sees how they
comport themselves, it is hard to say whether the im
pression produced is more comic or disgusting. And yet
the unnaturalness which here depends upon the unbridged
distance between the outward and the inward, is far less
hurtful than when such disproportions meet us in Africa or
in the South Seas. But in this there is no difference, that
the caricature — among white people or among coloured —
makes them conceited, takes from them all character, and
deadens them against religious and moral impressions. So
long as the heathen went about in their fantastic heathenish
dress, or in a state of nudity, they were not at all such fools
as they are now, when the civilization, which they ape, has
invested them with silk veils, chignons, and such like, and
therewith has turned their heads. Formerly they were
human beings as nature made them, now many of them are
become jackanapes. Of course, they have remained in
wardly just what they were. The tinsel of civilization has
only superficially varnished over the old heathenish evil
nature with all its pollution, so that it shines out through
a hundred chinks. We take only a cursory view.
Without stopping at Sierra Leone or Liberia, to which,
in this connection, reference has been made already, we go
straight to .South Africa. Thus, e.g., Dr. Wangemann, in
his tour of inspection, tells us how "the English from all
round about assembled to attend a Christian Kaffir wed
ding, where the bride was decked out, after the latest
fashion-journal, in velvet and in silk stockings," and a
clergyman of the Anglican Church came up to him in per
fect ecstasy and said : "Is it not a beautiful sign of progress
and civilization that we have already got so far with the
blacks?" One can scarcely trust his ears; but, alas! there

320 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
are even among those engaged in missions, and especially
amongst Englishmen, people enough who take culture-
caricature for culture. " A similar Kaffir wedding," writes
the same authority, " took place lately. The bride in fine
muslin dress, a veil of the finest texture, scarcely close
enough to conceal the head of hair beneath it, with sashes,
white satin shoes, an expensive shawl — only the gilt chain
with medallion is wanting to make the whole complete.
But even for this provision is made. The missionary's
wife, enraptured by the ecstatic sight, takes them from her
own neck and hangs them around that of the Kaffir lady.
A few days after a German lady visits the newly-married
Kaffir lady. She finds her stretched on the sofa, while
her mother is sewing stuff for her husband. ' Dost thou
then not thyself do this work ? ' ' No ; such work do I
not.' ' Now what doest thou then ? ' 'I read novels ! '
Of course, a whole row of oxen must disappear from the
rich father's herds in order to pay for these gew-gaws.
But the greater part is bought on credit."
The consequence is that even the newly- confirmed will
come to church in like adornment. Many English mis
sionaries rejoice over this " triumph of the Gospel," and
encourage such nuisances. But even Germans in the neigh
bourhood have to suffer by the contagion. . . . But the
money-making English merchant has got his percentage,
and such encouragment of trade contributes essentially to
the advance of the national economy ! Sister Kropf made
the experiment of setting up an opposition shop, in which
only suitable and ordinary goods were sold ; but the Kaffirs
do not come to it. It is only tinsel and frippery that
they seek, and that not for ready money, but on credit.
Our shop must be shut up with a loss."

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 321
With much humour, Lady Barker describes a number
of such comic culture-caricatures. Only two specimens.
" I lately saw a Kaffir wearing a hat of the most original
pattern. It was a large, pliable, grey felt. Strong strings
were fastened to its brim on both sides. The Kaffir had
put on the hat so that it was upside down, and the crown
stood on his skull, in which position the head-piece was
kept by the two strings fastened to the ears and under
the chin. The black fellow had all sorts of other finery,
polished bones of fowls, feathers stuck in his hair. The in
verted hat, whose soft crown was besides fastened to its
possessor's woolly wig by wires from soda-water bottles,
crowned the whole. I never, I think, saw a more laugh
able sight ; but Charlie (the black servant) stared at the
head-piece in admiration, and with his hands struck to^
gether, and called out in his best English and in the most
insinuating manner : ' Has Inkosa (my lady) not an old
hat, ma'am ? — a hat like that ? ' Doubtless he cherished
the ardent desire to imitate this wonderful fashion." 16
The second picture transfers us to the mission-station
of Edendale, which is otherwise so heartily commended by
the lady, and of which we have already made mention.
Unhappily, culture-caricatures are not wanting even here.
The authoress visited the house of the occupant of the
station. The sitting-rooms were simple, and were fur
nished with suitable articles. " But the walls of the room
were the most brilliant and the most comic that I ever
saw. Originally painted white, they were now completely
covered with red, blue, and yellow patterns, which formed
correct symmetrical and geometrical figures. A many-
coloured star, inside of a cross, appeared to be one of the
most favourite patterns. The effect was very much as if

-322 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
a kaleidoscope had been turned towards the wall, and all
the coloured figures had adhered to it. But grand as the
room was, it sank to zero in comparison with the visitors'
room and the English bedroom. . . . When the door of
the former was opened, I started back in amazement at the
mighty roses and lilies which seemed to rush upon me.
Never in my life have I seen anything similar in the way
of wall-paper. The pattern would have been large enough
for St. James's Hall. Chairs and sofas were covered with
marvellously-coloured chintz, and brilliant covers of pearls
and wool adorned the tables. China toys and pictures were
in profusion. ... At one part of the little room some
bricks had been taken from the wall, so as to form a niche,
in which stood vases and statuettes. The whole was draped
with red scolloped calico. I must confess that the black
hostess and her numerous female friends showed to ad
vantage on this elaborate background. ... At last we
went into the bedroom — the men also going with us — and
there was an iron bedstead, a chest of drawers, and, to
crown the whole, a complete toilet-table hung round with
white and red stuff, and provided with a looking-glass. In
front of the looking-glass on the table stood half-a-dozen
of China cups, which were arranged in systematic order,
the saucers reversed. ' What are the cups f or ? ' I asked
in simplicity. 'That's the English fashion, missus; all
white ladies have cups standing upon such tables.' " Lady
Barker, in order not to bring herself under the suspicion
of bad taste, cast no doubt upon this assertion, and pro
ceeds to describe the wardrobe of the mistress of another
house : " The owner was highly delighted when I said to
her that I might well borrow some of her beautiful dresses,
and still more when I assured her of the simple truth that

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 323
I do not possess half so beautiful things. Silk dresses of
all the colours of the rainbow waved on all the pomegra
nate bushes ; and one might have stocked a shop with the
mantles and jackets. The young and very pretty woman
was the wife of a rich, elderly man, and I could well sup
pose how her light, dainty figure would look in these
heavy and voluminous dresses."
We turn from Africa, without stopping at Madagascar,
where similar pictures would meet us in abundance, to the
islands of the South Seas. On his railway journey from
Foxton to Palmerston in New Zealand, Buchner travelled
with a Maori, who immediately entered into conversation
with him. " He made me take notice of his fine clothes,
of his boots which came up to his knees, and also that he
wore drawers. I must admire and feel them all, trousers
and waistcoat, boots, coat and hat. Specially proud was
he of his gold watch, which he held with triumphant
laughter over against my silver one. He told me the price
of every article, and was astonished, and perhaps also in
credulous, when he asked me the price of mine, and I did
not know." At Napier, a town of 3000 inhabitants, the
upper class of natives lived quite in European style. The
traveller saw brown cavaliers and ladies on horseback. The
ladies wore waving long habits, cylinder hats with flying
veil, and held riding-switches in their gloved hands. But
he was offended by their black unarranged hair, and in all
their movements he found so much uncouthness and angu
larity, and that their affectation had a highly comic if not
a repulsive effect." Similar displays were presented to him
in Tauranga, where he saw Maori ladies with bristling un
combed hair, but elegant bonnets and veils, while all were
barefooted. A single lady, not altogether young, moved

324 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
painfully and awkwardly in tight boots. The same tra
veller notices like things at Hawaii, a singular mixture of
old barbaric and new civilization.
Enough of pictures, which, under modifications, are more
or less applicable to all the nature-peoples in contact with
our civilization. And not to these alone. India and Japan
have also their culture-caricatures ; only, China hitherto
forms upon the whole an exception, because it has dealt
very shyly with our outer civilization. People speak, as
is well known, of young India, and young Japan ; and by
these terms is understood not only that direction which
represents sound progress, that is, the organic incorporation
of Western culture into the proper national life, but much
more the caricatures which are inseparable from it, the
rootless plants, the unnatural mongrel-forms, and the
transitory circumstances which proceed from it. Even
among the so-called intelligent society of India, even among
those who have obtained the title of Doctor by a university
examination, there is, with many exceptions, not very much
real intelligence. They have appropriated the show much
more than the thing. " In many cases, of all that they
have learned nothing remains but a few phrases, which are
used again and again, and with many, intelligence is only
an outward whitewash. It is notorious that the ambition
of ' young Bengal ' is to imitate Englishmen in dress and
manner. Great numbers of their babus may be seen on
the esplanade as well-rigged dandies. More rarely their
ladies adopt the European fashions." But what is worst
of all is, among these young Indians the new-fashioned
intelligence consists mainly in this, that they make pre
tence of having completely broken off from the faith of
their fathers, .while they are firmly bound in the fetters

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 325
of caste-prejudices, notwithstanding their eating of beef-'
steaks. The indifferentism, without faith, destitute of
all religious and moral earnestness, is often enough — as
indeed it is also among ourselves — only the tinkling of
the bell, by which they think that they can most infallibly
make a public display of their advancement in culture.
Even in the Japanese reform movement, which altogether
deserves our highest regard, and more than that, our sym
pathy and admiration, and which must be recorded as an
important phenomenon in the history of the world, far less
than all that glitters is gold. Our culture- enthusiasts are
accustomed to exert themselves somewhat one-sidedly in
extravagant laudations of this magnificent culture-revolu
tion, and to be almost blind to its shady side andits dangers.
When, for example, in the largely circulated book of Hintze
the last chapter is headed " The New Japan," we are pre
sented with an optimistic glorification of all new measures,
which does not give a very brilliant proof of the critical
ability and educational sobriety of the author. With re
ference to the fantastic proposal of the Japanese consul in
Washington, Arinori Mori, to make the English language,
with certain modifications, the language of his country, he
scarcely shows any hesitation, and speaks with bated
breath his doubt of the possibility of a project so startling
by its novelty and its boldness. Only on one point Mr.
Hintze is very conscientious, viz., on the point of religion.
Here with unmistakable complacency he gathers together
all the current objections of the Japanese to the intro
duction of Christianity into the " Land of the Sunrise,"
while the thought never occurs to him whether the new
culture can strike its roots effectively in Japan, where, as
Mr. Griffis puts it, its root, that is, Christianity, is not

326 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
introduced with it, and does not, as Yamamota expressed
it, " renew the hearts of the people."
That the reforming zeal of the government extended
to hairdressing, and brought so many French hairdressers
into the country, that according to our author, it swarmed
with them, we must be permitted to doubt his statement ;
and as to the statement that a determined opposition to
the introduction of European fashions and clothes has been
exhibited in the province of Mito, but is to be overcome
by some determined individuals, this is too much even
for the Yokohama Courier; and he made the following
thoroughly correct and sound satirical remarks upon it,
which Mr. Hintze characterises as only harmless humour :
— " We are going forward almost too fast. It is all right
that we introduce reforms, and lay great stress upon
scientific education ; but we cannot appropriate the morals,
customs, and tastes of the Europeans by a hand's turn, nor
forthwith set aside the old Japanese nature. Now look
at one of our young gentlemen. They walk about the
streets of Yeddo in European dress, which, however, they
have garnished with gold lace and embroidery, as if they
were foreign officers and diplomatists. But when the
young gentleman comes home, he quickly undresses and
dons his comfortable Japanese coat. It is unpleasant to
him to sit on a chair, as it gives him a pain in his back ;
and when a Japanese friend pays him a visit, he greets
him by falling on his knees and bowing his head to the
ground. Why does he not receive him in European
fashion ? Because with the assumption of a foreign garb
he has not been able to change his habits and his modes
of thinking. He puts the chair aside and seats himself on
the mat. At noon he is guest of a European, and finds

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 327
the viands excellent, but at home he holds by his native
dishes, &c."
We do not purpose to sift all these Japanese reforms,
which are giving birth to more or less ridiculous and in
jurious culture-caricatures among the population of that
country. We shall only advert to a few of them. " With
the co-operation of a French and a German jurist," Hintze
informs us, with great satisfaction, " a new penal code, on
the basis of the Code NapoUon, has been framed, and has
been carried through the parliament." We leave the
parliament to stand on its own merit, although we feel re
garding it something as Buchner does with regard to that
of Hawaii, that it makes rather a comic impression .on us.
Among the faults of the French colonial system, the author
of Ethiopia, a scientific and thoroughly intelligent jurist,
reckons the introduction of the French " legal relations and
legal conceptions into the colonial territories, especially
their law-books, which, whatever advantages they may have
in Europe, are as unsuitable for international relations as
any other nationally-coloured legal ordinances. The law-
life is an essential portion of the people's-life ; and perhaps
in none of the relations of life does the character of a people
so distinctly declare itself as in its conceptions of law.
Corresponding to the more theoretically arranged nature
of the European continent, and among these rather pre
ceding than following, the French were able to construct
their legal conceptions into a system in codes, and they
have since developed these in accordance with their life
and their ideas of law. But no law-book in all the world
is so little adapted to the simple patriarchal relations of
uncivilized or half- civilized lands, as are the French codes,
the Code Napoleon as little as the code of commerce, or

328 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the penal code, or the code of criminal procedure. . . .
All must march in the Parisian line ; the small metropolis
on the Senegal must be a miserable copy after the great
metropolis on the Seine ; and so the jails are filled."
Now certainly Japan stands on a higher cultural level
than Western Africa ; yet in principle the mistake is the
same, and we cannot doubt for a moment that when an
impartial and moderate juristically cultivated observer
shall give accurate accounts of the modern legal relations
introduced into Japan by the acceptance of the French
legislation, just such monstrosities will be brought to light
as those of which Dr. Hubbe-Schleiden tells us in West
Africa. Be it remarked, in passing, that with the com
mendation bestowed in this connection by our author upon
the English, that they do not codify any jurist theories for
their colonies, and that they look more to good judges and
the experience of local practice than to good laws, we
agree only with limitations, as we have been repeatedly
assured by Indian missionaries, especially by such as are
labouring among the Koles, that European formulism, un
intelligible to a great part of the natives, permits litigation
to such an extent that very often summum jus is summa
injuria ; those who go to law without the advice of the
missionaries are ruined, and the gaining of a case often
depends only on greater cunning, or upon lies and fraud,
or upon accidental circumstances.
There are sicknesses in the modern world, which are
nursed and cockered, rather than healed ; yea, whose in
troduction is trumpeted forth as a great healing, and oppo
sition to which is laid under a bann as an offence against
the progress of mankind. Such a sickness is the desire
for equalising, not only in the well-known democratic or

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 329
republican sense, but also in the international sense ; so
that the meaning really is, that to every people must be
given a system of law and constitution, cut after the same
liberal model, in order to make them free, happy, and
civilized, as if the same coat would fit every man ! " The
worst principle for the civilization of Africa " (and of other
lands as well), says Hubbe-Schleiden, here, as often else
where, hitting the nail on the head, " is the humanity-
parody, liberty, equality, fraternity." All civilizers who
seek to model and equalise the various most distinct
peoples, instead of individualising them by educating them
according to the well-known principle suum cuique, do
not plant culture, but only produce culture-caricatures.
But these culture-caricatures, alas ! have not only their
comic, but also their tragic side. The leap which is re
commended to the non-European peoples by the pure-
force and steam-engine civilization, is often for them, in
the literal sense, a deadly leap. Let us not be deceived
by appearances. When the savage, who yesterday was
clothed with a simple skin, steps forth to-morrow in
European costume ; when he who lived yesterday in a
simple hut, to-morrow takes possession of a stone house ;
when he who yesterday employed the arrow, the club, and
the bow, arms himself to-morrow with the breech-loader ;
when the half-civilized Japanese, who yesterday lived in
a land hermetically sealed against the foreigner, to-morrow
sends his sons and daughters to European and American
high-schools — there certainly appears to be a great ad
vance, which certain culture-fanatics cannot sufficiently
commend ; but in reality it is a breaking off with the pre
vious development, which, instead of impelling the spirit
to spontaneous activity, destroys the proper curative energy

330 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
in it, and at the best effects a too early ripening, whose
blooms are feeble and short-lived. Every unnatural leap
in the movement of progress avenges itself, and the houses
built on the sand fall in heaps, when the winds blow and
the waters swell.
It has been already adverted to, with reference to this,
how much we have to thank God for the wisdom and the
loving guidance, that our fathers, on their being evange
lised, did not forthwith adopt the complete full culture of
the classic peoples of antiquity, since thereby their self-
action and self-standing, and so their cultural stability
itself, would have been endangered. Our culture-history
begins, so to speak, ab ovo, and climbs, step by step, to its
actual height. Our cultural acquisitions have not fallen
into our lap as something ready-made; we have made
them for ourselves, and it is this culture-making which
renders us specially a real culture-people, because with it
and by it we have grown into culture. Three hundred
years ago, although we were without those magnificent
cultural acquirements which foreign nations have now
appropriated from us, yet we were in reality a far more
cultured people than the Japanese are to-day. The culture
which we then possessed was the natural fruit of our own
labour, it was our possession, which we ruled ; it was rooted
in our people's life, and was therefore a seed for the future.
The culture, on the other hand, which the Japanese have
to-day, can, as a Japanese minister in America expressly
states, " make no claim to originality." It is imported, like
manufactured goods, from without, and at the best, genera
tions must pass away before the exhortation of the poet is
fulfilled respecting it : " Earn it in order to possess it."
Therein lies the danger for individuals as well as for

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 331.
nations, that fruits are shaken into their lap, for which they
have not laboured, and for whose appropriation and appre
ciation they are not ripe. Our culture, which has slowly
advanced by real development to its present height, is
pasted outwardly upon the mission-peoples of the present
day, not only by the missionaries — as cannot be too em
phatically stated — but in many unintentional ways by
secular intercourse ; and thus the monstrous demand has
been made of them by a sudden revolution to abandon
their whole previous being, and to appropriate to them
selves things of which they have neither the need, nor the
understanding, nor the capacity. Our cultural superiority
thus demands of children either at once to become full-
grown men, or to use our culture-results as a sort of play
thing. If the latter course is followed, the result is culture-
caricatures. If not, but an earnest effort is made to comply
with the former demand, the peoples in question must
suddenly throw overboard the habits of life which were
suited to them and they to the modes. It is manifest that
the shattering of their whole previous manner of existence
must be all the more dangerous for their physical, psychical,
and moral life, as the new manner which takes its place
is an exotic plant. So these peoples fall into the tempta
tion of losing themselves, and becoming unrooted from the
soil in which they have grown. But the more unrooted
and unstable a people are, and the more their national life
is decomposed, the more difficult subjects they are for
the work of national Christianisation.
The demand for a sudden appropriation of our cultural
acquisitions presupposes an intellectual effort, which im
poses too much at once on the peoples concerned, and
which cannot continue without injurious after-effects. We

332 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
speak only of the intellectual effort which lies in the depart
ment of the school. Important and undeniable as are the
efforts and the results of the Mission in this department,
as has been already pointed out, yet it cannot be denied
that, especially when a high standard is aimed at, a leap
is called for, which scarcely a few individuals can take
without injury, but which, in the great mass of cases, results
in strange tumblings, if not in broken arms and legs.
In what strong language should we charge with educa-
tional unskilfulness one who should allow a child, who
had received only a simple primary school teaching, to
overleap the gymnasium, and enter the university at once !
The appropriation of the intellectual training which we
induce by our instruction of uncivilized or half-civilized
peoples, involves a demand in some respects still more
erroneous. People who have hitherto had virtually no
acquaintance with school or literature, must be screwed up
at once to a height of education, which is about equivalent
to that of the lower and middle classes of our home popula
tion. Thus, what among us is the product of almost a
millennium's development, is taken as the starting-post
for the uncivilized peoples of the present day, who generally
occupy a lower cultural position than did our heathen fore
fathers, when the civilizing of these peoples first began
with their Christianising. Thus, a tree which has grown
slowly in one soil is transplanted with its leaves and flowers
or fruits into a strange and hitherto uncultivated soil, on
which, even if the rooting be upon the whole successful,
the tree must necessarily be enfeebled. We do not assert
that on the mission-field of to-day we must begin again
ab ovo precisely as in the mediaeval, and that the training
process must occupy so long a time as it has with us. The

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 333
acquisitions of our cultural development should, of course,
be helpful to us in our present missionary and civilizing
actions. We do not need to labour for them in the sense
of making them anew. But we must educationally econo
mise, these acquisitions soberly and wisely, so that we do
not transplant the tree itself into the strange soil, but
only sow in that soil the seeds which it bears.
Children knowing beyond their years are an unpleas-
ing, precocious children an unnatural, phenomenon. The
former usually carry something dwarfish about them, the
latter usually come to an early death. But an impression,
partly of premature intelligence, and partly of precocity,
is produced by no small proportion of forcibly trained sub
jects among the heathen peoples of the present day. The
show of progress with which the new knowledge invests
them is too dearly bought with the loss of their natural
ness, their, original force, their mental independence, and
perhaps also their bodily health.
In an article on the " Latest History of the Sandwich
Islands," the Ausland — of which we have certainly the
right to say, " What can that periodical do for the good of
missions ? " — makes some remarks bearing on our present
subject, which with all earnestness we recommend, sub
tracts subtrahendis, to the consideration of missionary
labourers. He thus writes : " In the foregoing statements
much may be apparently alleged in favour of, or at least
in apology for, missionary action in the South Seas [as if
the paper were ashamed of such a confession, and felt the
need of an apology for it !] The missionaries in Hawaii
are as little to be acquitted of all blame [for the dying out
of the people] as the philanthropists in Van Dieman's Land.
In their zeal to save the uncivilized peoples, they did not

334 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
always go to work with the needful prudence. Our Western
methods of education stand too much in the foreground
with them. They believed that by means of reading and
writing alone an uncivilized people can be changed into
refined, intellectually developed, sensible men. ... A
great part of the mischief which befel Queen Emma is
undoubtedly to be ascribed to the sudden transition which
her people effected in the course of a few years. One of
the most important lessons for every missionary, as indeed
for every teacher, must always be to maintain a pro
portion with the powers of his ward or scholar — [certainly,
if only the non-missionaries, who come into relations with
the heathen, would also lay it to heart]. Nothing is easier
than to pour in knowledge with a funnel, nothing more
difficult than to free the spirit from the fetters of ignorance,
and to lead it to new and elevated self-action. [If only
the idolisers of knowledge at home would believe the
Ausland /] And although the individual may not him
self immediately sink under the oppressive weight of un
digested knowledge, the evil consequences are unfailing on
the race generally."
We must here advert in a few words to the " extinction
of the nature-peoples " in so far as civilization and mis
sions are placed in causal relation to it. From the deduc
tions hitherto made, it follows that such a relation cannot
be absolutely denied. Altogether apart from the system
of murder and robbery which has been applied to most
of the nature-peoples by the selfish representatives of our
civilization, and which alone accounts in great measure for
the decrease of their numbers — it cannot be denied that,
even in the more or less immediate conveyance and appro
priation of civilization in itself, there is an element of

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 335
physical and psychical weakening, which, in combination
with many other, and, indeed, worse factors, is not alto
gether without a share in the tragic fate of the races in
question. Only, as the thoughtful and thorough investi
gations of Gerland, and the later ones of Mallery, chiefly
with reference to the North American Indians, show by
facts, the asserted extinction does not take place by any
means to the extent that had hitherto been assumed on the
ground of unreliable and thoughtlessly accepted estimates.
Therefore the matter stands not so, that contact with our
culture in itself, when other abnormal relations do not
exist, produces straightway the extinction of a race, or that
the axiom hitherto accepted that the peoples in question
decay before the breath of culture, merely from defective
life-power, because they are destined by nature to destruc
tion, should be universally acknowledged as a scientifically
attained standpoint. " Had the approach of culture " —
so Gerland sums up his investigation on the subject —
" been carried out peacefully, even though hastily, there
would have ensued among them, as among the old Germans,
a period of standing still, but then a vigorous life would
have bloomed forth." Therefore, on the assumption of
normal conditions, we can properly assert only this much :
that the sudden transference of our culture to uncivilized
peoples results in its first stage in a cessation of increase,
or even in a slight decrease of the population. In the
causation of this phenomenon the mission bears a part,
not, indeed, in so far as it is a work of evangelisation,
but in so far as the introduction of a certain measure of
Christian Western civilization cannot be absolutely sepa
rated from it. We very decidedly desire a greater measure
of educative wisdom and patience in the introduction of

336 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
this culture than has actually existed in many mission
fields. But even although the missionaries, in their zeal
for culture, have now and again forgotten that natura non
facit saltus, yet the objection does not apply properly to
the mission, but only to the mode of its procedure. But
in any case we should perpetrate a folly, yea, we should
demand an impossibility, were we, in order to avoid the
acknowledged evil, to impose upon the mission the attempt
to refrain from every direct or indirect effort at civiliza
tion. Apart from the consideration that these efforts would
be put forth by other culture-factors, and, indeed, in a far
less educative fashion, the mission could not, by reason of
the inseparable connection which subsists between Chris
tianity and our modern civilization, thus suspend her
civilizing influence. The eventual diminution of the
population is thus an evil inseparable from our cultural
superiority, which must necessarily be taken into account,
as depending on the nature of things. When, however,
the Ausland brings the charge against the missionaries
that " in the anthropological history of the globe they play
the leading part as race-murderers," it only shows thereby
that its hatred of Christianity has robbed it of the capa
bility of objectively estimating insuperable difficulties, so
as to have made it altogether blind to the fact that the real
murderers of the nations that are dying out are to be sought
among the non-missionary representatives of our civiliza
tion. As we have sufficiently shown by testimonies already
given, the peoples in question are indebted to the mission
aries, not for their annihilation, but for their preservation.
It is by no means by the enemies of missions chiefly
that the proposal has been made to suspend missionary
action entirely among the so-called out-dying races, because

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 337
it only hastens their extinction, and does not produce any
fruit for the future — a proposal quite to the taste of the
Ausland, which, in a rare fit of tender philanthropy, " will
not have the last hours of these doomed races tormented
by the infliction of a useless education, by the tortures of
a dull school-house," while it has no word of indignation
for the already described chain-driving of the natives of
Van Dieman's Land ! Suppose the fact of the dying-out
were as the advocates of this theory assume, should the
mission withhold the comfort of the Gospel from the dying ?
After a selfish civilization has so fearfully trifled with the
existence, the bodily and moral health of these peoples,
is it not a certain amends, and therefore a small comfort,
that at least in their dying hour the mission has brought
within their reach the salvation that is in Christ ? Sup
pose, when the dying-out process is in operation, it were
hastened by the mission — would the short period for which
the bodily life might possibly be prolonged, be a sufficient
equivalent for the deprivation of the eternal life which is
offered in the Gospel ? He who can answer this question
in the affirmative is altogether incapable of understanding
the mission ; for the mission-command and obedience to
it have this for their foundation, that Christ and His
salvation are the treasure above all treasures.
But the fact is by no means so that the dying-out is has
tened, or is first introduced by the mission. Every careful
investigation, such as have been instituted by Meinicke,
Waitz, and especially Gerland, has furnished proof that
wherever a rapid diminution of population has taken place,
entirely different factors must be held answerable for it.
Where, on the other hand, the old heathen crimes have
not already produced a sort of incurable consumption,

338 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
and the murderous influences of European selfishness
have given place to a fair treatment of the natives, then
the process of extinction either does not go on at the
same rate, or it is stopped, or there begins gradually to be
an excess in the birth-rate over the death-rate — as soon
as Christianity has in some measure taken root, and the
transition period is past. As Gerland has already called
attention to this fact, so it is confirmed by multitudes of
the most recent reports of the missionaries. The statistical
material available is not sufficiently extensive, and for
numbers depending upon mere estimates for the earlier
periods, is not sufficiently authentic, to warrant extensive
conclusions. Who knows if, instead of rough convicts,
sailors, selfish traders and colonists, the messengers of the
Gospel had come first to the peoples in question, and with
out injurious associates, whether the evil would not have
been avoided, or at least have been checked at the outset,
or materially lessened ? The physician may be called to
a sick man too late, and who in that case would hold him
responsible for the death of the patient ? No doubt the
physician also may make a mistake in his treatment ; and
we think that our representation should save us from the
reproach of representing the missionaries as infallible. But
unsupported charges, originating in mere blind hatred
against the mission, we cannot leave unnoticed.
Thus the bodily injury which the mission produces
among the dying-out nature-peoples is reduced by calm
examination of matters of fact to a very small amount, is
really limited to the period of transition from heathen to
Christian usages, and must, even for that period, be re
garded as an evil inevitable in consequence of our cultural
superiority, but which is compensated more than a hundred-

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 339
fold by the temporal blessings and sanitary advantages
which the mission brings in its train. The result is not
so favourable with respect to the endangering of mental
originality and independence. In spite of the many
encouraging experiences in the case of a whole host of
specially-gifted individuals, in the case of the great masses,
the impression remains of undigested knowledge, unnatural
imitation, and childish precocity — disadvantages which,
we fear, will operate long after the transition period.
In our modern missionary action, we cannot avoid either
the introduction of the school, or that of literature. The
close connection in which not only our culture, but our
Christianity, stands with both, almost compels us to their
introduction, whether we will or not. Our mission-method
would be unnatural were we to separate what has grown
together through a thousand years' development, and what
also in principle has a common belonging. Therefore, we
cannot much wonder at the occasional defect of that educa
tional wisdom and patience which neutralises as much as
possible the dangers necessarily connected with the intro
duction of a new epoch of intelligence, by bringing itself
¦down to the standpoint of the people, dealing for a long
time only with elementary subjects, advancing slowly, and
laying no burden upon them till they have strength and
maturity to bear it. It is too natural that one should see
in the circumstances of home the model after which he
strives to fashion the foreigners, and so quite involuntarily
he falls into equalising, and in this effort overlooks the
differences of the varying standpoints, and upsets himself
in the not always ambitious, but often purely unselfish, de
sire to produce even visible results. Finally, we must not
forget that the missionaries are entitled to be judged under

340 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
a plea of extenuating circumstances, if they are unaware,
as is, in fact, the case of many, of the danger to which
the natives are exposed through the immediate application
of our system of education to them. Even among ourselves,
and indeed in the most intelligent and influential circles,
the number is very great of those who have no perception
of this, that the overloading of the popular school with
scientific stuff is a sin against the sound education of the
people. Still, there is often a bona fide mistake on the part
of the mission. No doubt the missionary supposes that he
is doing a good work when he " schoolmasters " an old
woman, who has received baptism, for months like the
young catechumens, and tortures her not only with the
catechism, but also with the alphabet, because his heart is
not large enough, and his view not wide enough, to act
under toto ccelo different circumstances otherwise than in
accordance with the views that prevail at home. No doubt
the missionary has the best intentions when he instructs
old and young without distinction, and is very indignant
because the baptized converts (and perhaps even the
heathen) are not immediately enthusiastic in sending their
children to school, forgetting how long it was at home be
fore elementary instruction and school attendance, rendered
compulsory by legislation, became universal among us. No
doubt the missionary means nothing but the good of the
natives when, in the newly-founded schools, he deals not
merely with the simplest elements, but after a short time
introduces civil and ecclesiastical history, geography,
natural science, even mathematics, physics, foreign lan
guages, &c, while he stands under the ban of the pre
judice which he has brought with him from home, that
the more is the knowledge, the higher is the intelligence ;

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 341
and while he is not pedagogue enough to say to himself
that the heights of intelligence are reached, not by flight,
but by slow climbing, and that for different men, different
positions, and different standpoints, there are different
grades of education. No doubt the missionary aims at
what is in his eyes the noblest object, when as soon as
possible he puts the translated Bible into the hands of
natives formerly unable to read, and writes book upon
book in order to create a literature in the language of the
people, because he is of opinion that what his countrymen
at home possess, the objects of his missionary care cannot
obtain too soon, forgetting that a people hitherto without
any literature neither can nor ought to become a literary
people off-hand.
In all these cases there is bona fide action in imitation
of the conditions which have been developed at home, and
in this action lies the plea, subjectively, of extenuating cir
cumstances. But, objectively, the fault has been committed
nevertheless. Upon only one of the mischiefs just adverted
to — viz., the multiplicity of languages which prevails in
many mission-fields, and has been introduced into not a
few mission-schools — a few remarks may be permitted. It
needs no proof that a people which exchanges its mother-
tongue in whole or in part for a foreign language, there
with abandons a very essential part of its national peculi
arity, its original self. Now, it cannot be charged upon the
evangelical mission that it originates this change of lan
guage. On the contrary, it is in general very earnest that
every people should retain and improve its own language.
The opposite practice is only exceptional, and is almost
unanimously condemned by the directors, when, perhaps,
for the sake of ease, here and there English or American

342 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
missionaries, instead of themselves learning the language
of the people, encourage the natives to adopt a corrupted
English. Only one case is known to us in which there
has been on principle a renunciation of the language of the
country, and the English has been introduced as the lan
guage of instruction and intercourse. We refer to the
method of Dr. Duff, who was of opinion that English will
be in time the language of the people in India, and that
without the general spread of this language, European
intelligence cannot become really prevalent there. Not
withstanding the important extraneous results which the
Duff system has undeniably provided, the opinions among
competent mission-labourers as to its value for the Chris
tianising, and even for the civilizing, of India, are still
very much divided.""" But apart from this special Duff-
system in India, which is hitherto limited to the higher
schools, and from the unintentional exceptions already
alluded to, the modern mission, without any fault of its
own, but in consequence of the colonial relations and the
commercial intercourse of the present day, in most of its
fields of labour, stands face to face with a multiplicity of
languages, which it is compelled by the circumstances to
take into account. The natives, who have to do either
with the officials of colonial governments or with foreign
merchants, must to a certain extent adopt these languages,
and thus they garble English, Dutch, or Malay, French,
Spanish, or Portuguese, or even at the same time learn to
express themselves in more than one of these lano-uao-es.
In the Cape Colony, for example, they must torture them
selves with Dutch and English ; in the Sunda Islands, at
least some of them, with Malay and Dutch ; in India, with
* See Translator's Introduction.

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 343
Hindi and English, &c. The speech-caricatures which
are thus produced have also their tragic side. The
often astonishingly corrupted English, which, for example,
the negroes speak,17 or the deformed Dutch of the Hot
tentots, which, in its turn, has corrupted the language
of the Boers, or the Hindi which the Koles must learn,
works in the mass with the effect of depriving them of
character and nationality, as it presses back the mother-
tongues. Thus, for example, the English-garbling negroes
think themselves to be English gentlemen, and in their
vanity cut a figure which is often as ridiculous as it is
lamentable.18 Into this confusion of tongues the mission is now pitched,
and it must be confessed that no easy task thereby falls
to its lot. In the wholly well-intentioned effort to render
a service to the natives by facilitating their intercourse with
the foreigners, or to make the literature of a foreign lan
guage accessible to them, it often teaches in its schools one
or even two of these foreign languages. However compre
hensible, however excusable, however under the circum
stances even necessary this is, it is still an 'evil, which is not
favourable either to the rooting of Christianity among the
people, or to a sound education. Let us suppose that, in
our home-schools for the people, one or even two foreign
languages were taught and spoken, what a confusion would
this produce in the children's heads, and how unsolid would
it make the whole of the teaching ! What necessity exists
for the teaching and speaking of High-German in the
schools in the Low-German-speaking districts ? But how
much greater must the mischief be which is occasioned by
the multiplicity of languages among a people which is still
in the initiatory stage of its school-development! Moreover,

344 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
with respect to the work of Christianisation,the experiences
of the mission are by no means satisfactory. Thus, for
example, among the Indians, as well as in Syria, the hopes
which the agents of the American Board attached to the
learning of the English language were completely dis
appointed. " With some interesting exceptions, it has
turned out that those redskins who acquired the best know
ledge of English have generally been the farthest from the
acceptance of the Gospel, and have showed the least readi
ness to make use of the means of grace. They saw them
selves elevated above the mass of their countrymen, they
became vain, and their foolish heart was darkened." Similar
was the experience in Syria. There the Board founded, in
the year 1835, the High School of Beyrout, and introduced
English as the language of instruction. For seven years
they persevered in this method, until it was manifest that
the pupils were only being denationalised by it. In 1 842
the school was abandoned, and a new one established in
the Lebanon, with Arabic as the language of instruction.
The advantage was soon visible. In West Africa, in Nether
lands India, and in English India, the foreign language
which the natives have learned in the mission- schools has
often enough become the .occasion of their turning their
backs upon Christianity for the sake of external advan
tages, and of their being lost for co-operation with the
missionaries, without any real advantage otherwise accruing.
While every English-speaking native considers himself fit
for, and entitled to, an office in the Government service,
even high English officials have dissuaded English educa
tion in the mission-schools, as has been already noticed.
Under another point of view, the premature introduction
of the ancient languages into the institutions for edu-

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 345
eating native assistants fails — to which attention has
been already called.
The apostles found themselves in a much more favour
able position in this respect, as compared with the modern
mission. Their field of labour lay, apart from the Jews,
really within the compass of the territory of the Greek
language. Though Greek was not the mother-tongue of
a great part of the population of that territory, yet it was,
so to speak, thoroughly acclimatised by a process of assimi
lation which had been going on for several centuries, so
that even under the political sovereignty of the Romans, the
Latin was not able to drive it from its dominion. We doubt
whether the English has the same providential destiny to
be the world-language of the present and the future, which
the Greek undoubtedly had to be that of its time. Apart
from all other reasons of doubt, there are now too many
culture-peoples in rivalry with England, which are equally
occupied in the great world-mart,' and whose languages are
at least as good as the English, and in some respects better,
to give to the latter a probable prospect of a victory which
should lead to sole supremacy. At all events, we are still
far from this issue, and the difficulties resulting to the
modern mission from the multiplicity of language, which
have been but faintly sketched in the foregoing remarks,
will rather increase than diminish for the future. Wherever
the representatives of the modern culture come, they not
only claim the land and the people for their interest, but
also stimulate them to adopt their language. They comport
themselves as the lords of the still uncivilized world, and re-
gardit as self-evident that this world is subject to them, and
therefore that it is in point of fact adopting their language —
a fact which the mission is almost powerless to counteract-

346 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
In the apostolic age, as is well known, a keen battle was
fought on the question whether the heathens must first
become Jews before they could find admission into the
Christian Church, or whether the acceptance of the Jewish
ceremonial law might be dispensed with in their case.
Mutatis mutandis, we are fighting an analogous battle in
the mission of to-day. Assuredly we do not mean, in the
sense so dear to the " free " theology, that for the purpose of
justifying faith the same indifference must be claimed for
the historical facts of the Gospel that the great "Apostle
of the Gentiles " ascribed to the Jewish ceremonial law.
Such a contention, even when it is conducted bona fide,
aims, really not at a reformation or a refinement, but at a
dissolution of Christianity, as is sufficiently indicated even
by Von Hartmann ; and it can be a matter of no doubt that
in this the " free " Protestants have not Paul on their side.
Nor have we in our eye, in the parallel referred to, the
difficulty for the mission of to-day which lies in this, that
its labourers bring with them a complete doctrinal con
ception, which has gradually assumed a form, which
indisputably has not been uninfluenced by the whole
culture-life of the Christian West, and especially by its
philosophic development. From the most orthodox stand
point it cannot be denied that our cut-and-dry doctrinal
forms, our doctrinal terminology, is a hindrance to the
missionary, which often, without his being aware of it,
-stands in the way of the intelligibility of his preaching
and its entrance among the heathen. A missionary must
work out for himself a certain freedom from this doctrinal
form, and must proclaim among the heathen the great works
of God, with as much as possible of Biblical simplicity, and
as little dogmatically as possible ; and in this respect there

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 347
is a propriety, with all decided holding fast of the positive
standpoint, in speaking of a conflict between dogmatic
narrowness and evangelical breadth.
But even this point of view, great as is its importance
in missionary practice, and however it may be regarded
as closely connected with our subject, is still not that on
which we are to insist. Our higher culture constitutes a
difficulty for the modern mission, quite similar to that
which the Jewish ritual system did for the apostolic. In
consequence of their Jewish education and views, this ritual
system was most closely connected in the minds of the
Jewish-Christian apostles with religion itself, even with
their faith in Christ. Christ was to them the Messiah
promised by the prophets, no doubt as the Saviour of the
world, but as the King of Israel, the reformer and sanctioner
of the Jewish religious system in its traditional entirety.
Israel was still to them the chosen people, the centre even
of the kingdom of God instituted by Christ; and the
heathen were only to be incorporated into it. To Chris
tianise and to Judaise were therefore regarded by them as
different terms to express the same missionary work. In
quite a similar way we now identify Christianising and
civilizing, if not even Christianising and Anglicising,
Germanising, &c. ; as the latter occurred in the mediaeval
mission. Our higher civilization is a continual temptation
to us to alter the concept of religion. " From our earliest
youth " — writes Dr. Anderson, the aged and experienced
director of the American Board — " our idea of the Chris
tian religion is identified with education, social order, and
a certain correctness of morals and manners, which we
regard as alone right ; in short, with our civilization. It
is among us all quite undeniable that the civilization of

348 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
centuries forms a great part of the manifestations of our
piety ; and we seldom consider how our personal religion
would appear to a casual observer, were we wholly deprived
of the culture which we possess in common with the world
around us." How natural it is, then, that the missionary
should connect, with the acceptance of the Gospel which
he preaches, certain of our customs, which yet do not belong
to the essence of Christianity; that he should thereby alter
the purity and simplicity of the Gospel, and, without
knowing or wishing it, should make conversion to Chris
tianity more difficult to the heathen, who stand so far apart
from our conceptions of civilization. How often is it that
not disaffection to Christianity as such, but disaffection to
culture-demands of civilization which we identify with it,
forms the ground of the non-acceptance of the Gospel !
We urge most expressly the plea of extenuating circum
stances with reference to the behaviour of our missionaries
in this extremely difficult position, as we are very far from
casting reproaches upon the Jewish-Christian apostles on
account of their Judaising method of missions. The saying
is applicable, " To comprehend is to forgive." But what
a misfortune it would have been, and how would the de
velopment of Christianity into the religion of the world
have been delayed, if not prevented, had not the Apostle
of the Gentiles triumphantly beaten these Judaising
mission-methods off the field ! And just so we must
recognise the identification of Christianisation and civi
lization as an evil for the mission of the present day, whose
avoidance is as earnestly to be contended for in the interest
of the work of evangelisation as in that of a sound cultural
development. Not much is gained in this matter by
theoretical distinctions. We need among the missionaries

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 349
men of the originality and large-heartedness of a Paul,
who, with their personal life of faith firmly rooted in the
central truths of the Gospel, shall know to distinguish with
Christian tact the essence of Christianity from those
adjuncts which have grown with, it among us through our
cultural development, but yet are not essential to it, and
who shall understand to strike out original ways among
people and circumstances entirely different from us and
ours ; men who, as Paul was to the Jews a Jew, and to
the Greeks a Greek, shall accommodate themselves to
national customs and usages, which may not be wrong,
although different from ours ; who shall, childlike, conde
scend to childish peoples, in order to train them gradually
to youths' and man's estate.
We are well aware that we are assigning a great task,
which will always be but imperfectly accomplished by the
best intentions and the most original endowments of the
missionaries. Our modern culture is quite another power
than the Jewish religious ceremonial was in its day. Our
culture rushes like a stream which bears down all obstruc
tions. It may be called a fatality under which the modern
mission stands — yea, which it follows, whether it will or
not. The blinder the cultural zeal, so much the greater
the fatality. From the representatives of material interests
there is not much to be expected. Even the pertinent
counsels given by so thoughtful a man as Hubbe-Schleiden,
we have not much prospect of seeing realised, excepting
in so far as interest coincides with them. But this interest
among the representatives of the material interests — with
the exception of a few ideally intelligent men — is always
one-sided, for it has really only its own advantage, and
not that of the natives, in its eye. The task of cultural

350 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
education, on the other hand, can only be accomplished
when the interest of the natives is also aimed at, and they
are regarded as men to be saved, and not only as means
of enriching ourselves. More is to be hoped from a sound
colonial policy, whose interest, rightly understood, coin
cides with that of the natives. But suppose that this
possesses also the necessary practical wisdom — an assump
tion which is by no means realised by every colonial
government — still it is very questionable whether there
exists in it that measure of self-denial and patience withr
out which educational tasks cannot be accomplished. Thus
we have to seek for the special cultural education pre
eminently in the mission.
It is therefore a twofold cultural contest which the mis
sion has to maintain — a struggle against the heathenish
unculture, and a struggle against the Christian overculture
— and we suspect that the latter is the more difficult. The
seven-leagued-booted strides, so far as, according to experi
ence, they bear in them the seeds of death, are very destruc
tive, and it requires both wisdom, self-denial, patience, and
courage, to put bit and bridle upon them. But the mis
sion labourers should have this courage. In the midst of
a culture-intoxicated generation, they should be, in the full
Bible sense of the term, sober men, who, by thoughtfulness
and moderation in the field of labour assigned them amon"
the heathen, shall represent a sound, natural, and gradual
progress. Only in such a progress of growth lies the guarantee, for
the non-Christian peoples of the present day, of a cultural
development rich in blessings for them. If the culture-
peoples of the West are in earnest for their civilization —
if they would be not only the possessors of their lands and

RELATION OF CULTURE TO MISSIONS. 351
the spoilers of their strength, but their benefactors — if they
would deal with them as equal-born human beings, who
in the great business pf the world serve one another more
and more, each one with the gifts he has received — they
must, in the interest of culture, lend as much aid as pos
sible to the mission. The mission is not only, as we have
shown in the first part of our enquiry, the founder of a new
cultural spirit ; it falls to its lot also, as the deduction which
we have now conducted has sought to prove, to have the
chief share, in opposition to our eminent cultural supe
riority, in the solution of the problem of cultural education.
As the mission thankfully acknowledges every aid which
is afforded to its evangelising work by the modern culture
and its representatives, and, so long as positive hostility
does not prevent it, seeks to conduct its work as much as
possible in concert with it, so ought it surely to be on the
other side. Apart altogether from the abundant cultural
pioneer services which the mission renders to colonial
policy, secular traffic and science, even the most zealous
representatives of civilization cannot deny that the effects
wrought on the non-Christian peoples by the contact of
our civilization often require to be atoned for, or at least
to be neutralised, and always to be completed, by a
religious-moral force. This force we possess in the Chris
tian mission.
The author of Ethiopia, in the chapter on " The Ideal
and the Material Advantages," laments that in Equatorial
Africa " explorers and missionaries on the one side, and
merchants on the other, have each gone in their own way.
The former have often seen in their trading brethren
enemies rather than their supporters ; and, in fact, it is
not the Mohammedan traders alone that have contributed

352 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
to the ruin of the land and its inhabitants. But, in the
same way, we commonly find among the merchants a certain
depreciation of these ideal efforts ; . . . and yet both the
merchant and the scholar are striving for the same object —
the opening-up of Africa. Why will they not unite for
its attainment ? Their interests supplement and work
into one another, so that the ideal and the real objects are
in this case quite inseparable." 19 We leave the Tightness
or the wrongness of the one-sided procedure imputed to
the missionaries to stand on its own merits, and only appro
priate to ourselves the expressed wish for the associate
action of merchants and scholars, while we extend it gene
rally to the mutual relations of culture and missions and
their respective representatives. What a blessing would
result for the Christian and the non-Christian world
were the idealistic dream brought into realisation, that
culture and missions should inscribe upon their banner
the motto — VIBIBUS TJNITIS!

NOTES.

NOTES TO PART I.
Note i, p. 2. — Leading article of the National Zeitung of ist July 1877.
" What is the precise object of the gigantic strife which the German
empire has taken upon its young shoulders, to wage in the name, and for
the benefit, of mankind ? Is it only the two conceptions of the May laws
— conceptions which have long been in vogue elsewhere without any con
test? Neither of these would have caused so keen excitement. From
the outset we have to do with the question of principle, whether the
Church, with its claim to be a superhuman divine institution, the bearer of
immediate revelation and infallible truth, has the right to rule without
restriction over the thought and the life of mankind, or whether it rather
belongs to human society to order its life and its thought according to
autonomic laws of its reason and its conscience. "
Since then it has been thought good to continue the contest with a less
open visor, and here and there better views have been expressed. The
following plain statement meets us in E. V. Hartmann's Self-Destruction
of Christianity, and the Religion of the Future (Berlin, 1874). "Chris
tianity," it is said, p. 17, "is not only in opposition to science, but to cul
ture in every sense." " That the present struggle between State and Church
bears on both sides the character of a war of extermination no one can
doubt, who can distinguish the unconscious tendencies of history from the
objects which are temporarily and consciously professed. . . . The deepest
sense of this warfare is the decisive question whether in the judgment of the
men of to-day, the future or the present, the heavenly or the secular, has
the precedence, whether the Christian interest or the cultural interest pre
ponderates " (p. 32). " Many write and speak of the present culture-strife •
but only a few of them have made it clear to themselves that it is the last
desperate struggle of the Christian idea before its disappearance from the
stage of history ; against which the modern culture has to summon forth
its utmost strength, for life or death, in defence of its great acquisitions "
(p. 33). The well-known "philosopher of the Unknown" makes very easy
work for himself in the pamphlet referred to. With the elegance of diction
and the fallaciousness of argument which he has at command, he constructs
for himself a caricature of Christianity, which he, in accordance with the
well-known proverb that only the stupid are modest, imposes upon his credu
lous readers as the only correct representation of the Christian idea. When
reading this book, as well as that of Von Hellwald — which should be mentioned
along with it, although it is indeed far more profound — we cannot get rid of
the impression that even for admired philosophers it is too hard a task to
write of matters for which they lack the inward understanding. People
Z

354 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
should not set themselves so much on the high horse against the dogmatic
confusion of the orthodox ; it will occur to us that that of the non-orthodox
is at all events not less.
Note 2, p. 5. — A Missionary Discourse in Westminster Abbey, yd Dec,
1872. — "Among the various classifications which have been attempted to
be made of the religions of mankind, there is one which must be of peculiar
interest to us to-night, viz., the division of them into converting and non-
converting. This classification is not founded altogether upon a merely
external or unessential distinction. On the contrary, it proceeds upon the
most essential feature of the religious life. . . . Let us now look again at the .
religions in which the true missionary spirit is working, and then at those
by which every attempt at conversion, indeed every open confession of the
truth, is treated with pity or contempt — what do we see ? The former are
living, the latter are dead. "
Note 3, p. 6. — It is in the highest degree characteristic that Fr. v. Hellwald
in his Culture-history in its Natural Development to the Present Day, a book
of 800 pages, although he poses in the most pretentious manner as advocate-
general of the " mighty science," gives not a vestige of definition of the term
Culture. Note 4, p. 11.— Martensen, The Christian Ethic. — "Unless the worldly
morality be regarded as a mere means, as a teleologic movement towards a
higher object — the object which alone is in itself absolute — it must remain
altogether unsubstantial and unintelligible. Assuredly if the light of religion
were extinguished, it is inconceivable why and how a moral life should be led
under all these finite and temporary relations. It is only the religious morality
that casts light upon the worldly, and imparts to it a real importance and
necessity." The social democrats who excel in clear-sightedness, and in a
certain way even in honesty, the liberalism which sports with fire, see this
right well, and express it in their own way quite freely. So for example the
Volkstaat in the well-known sentence : — " One of two things. Either there
is no God, and then we can change the old laws as much as we please ; or
there is a God, and then we should be altogether bird-limed. But fortunately
no one has hitherto been able to prove the existence of God ; therefore we
must assume that the moral and the right as made by men, may be changed
by us as our need requires. And thus the so-called eternal first principles
remain in force only so long as we find them convenient."
Note 5, p. 12. —Delff, Culture and Religion ; The Development of the Human
Consciousness, Historically and Philosophically Treated (Gotha, 1875). — An
important, but, we suspect, a little-known book. Although we do not by any
means agree wholly with the author, and do not share either his religious or
his philosophic standpoint, yet we cannot with sufficient earnestness recom
mend it to our readers. It is altogether no light ware which the book presents,
and the author is a sort of free-lance who goes his own way, undisturbed
amidst the fashionable views of the day and the watchwords of parties, and
strikes out right and left with his keen weapon. But he is a man who is of
the truth, and who, with the earnestness of true science, handles his great
subject in a manner as luminous aud thorough as it is impartial and real — a
happy contrast to the frivolous and useless Culture-history of Herr v. Hellwald.
The proof that religion and culture are reciprocal or congenuine things, appears
to us to be convincingly conducted in Delff's book, and with reference to all
the religions of the world, although it may not be possible to agree altogether
with some of the philosopher's arguments. It is no brilliant testimony in
behalf of our age, which so prides itself on its scientific progress, that a book
of this sort seems to be almost struck off from the catalogues of public liters-

NOTES.

355

ture, while a wretched composition like Von Hellwald's Culture-history has
speedily reached a second edition.
Note 6, p. 14. — "Missions, and the missionary undertaking," says Dr.
Fabri, as moderately as pointedly, in his latest pamphlet, Does Germany need
Colonies ? "are, to the greater part of the public among us to this day, dark
and doubtful concepts. A portion of our press, led on by the widely-circulated
and influential Gartenlaube, are persistently earnest upon making all that is
connected with the mission either ridiculous or contemptible, and that by
means of attacks whose ignorance is only exceeded by their malevolence. This
state of matters rests mainly upon two foundations. All missionary activity /
is rooted primarily in a positive religious bent. Whoever does not share this, I
whoever does not know the power and importance of the Gospel, whoever like '
so many of our most-read periodicals, does homage to an outspoken materialist
view of the world, to him this religious impulse to Christianise foreign nations
is naturally incomprehensible, and every lively manifestation of it will be to
him a stumbling-block and an offence. But anger and offence usually make
men blind. Thus, from ignorance is evolved, in the course of nature, the
inability to examine impartially, and estimate such a phenomenon as the fact
of missions, even with respect only to their universal cultural importance.
Even in England and North America, there are many people who, from
their religious or irreligious standpoints, shrug their shoulders at the mission.
But hardly any one there will deny a cultural importance to the mission, or
its utility for the commercial enterprise or colonial annexations which follow
in its wake ; no paper of any respectability or repute would venture upon the
attempt, in the spirit and tone of our Gartenlaube, to brand the mission facts
as an affair of crazy enthusiasts or hypocritical pietists. Such an attempt
would be met with general indignation. That it is otherwise in Germany is
due only to the (alas !) widespread anti-religious current ; but there come
into the account certain factors which have their roots in the peculiarity of
our whole national development. This in some degree excuses this unworthy
demeanour. Our long-repressed political development in Germany ; our per
sistently unsound amalgamation of Church and State, which, instead of lead
ing to respect for every religious conviction, has commonly dragged down
religion itself into the tumults of political partisanship ; our general gross
ignorance of foreign and colonial matters ; the insignificance of the matters
with which we have been occupied for centuries, and which still re-echoes
all through our political and ecclesiastical party-life ; these in some measure
form excuses for the lack in wide circles of the ability to apprehend, even in
respect of its cultural importance, an international genuine Christian work
such as the mission presents to us. Yet even in this direction there seems
to be preparation making for some advance. Thus recently the Eolnische
Zeitung (Cologne Gazette), in a series of leading articles on the "extension
of England" in South Africa (June, 1877), briefly and forcibly characterises, 1
and warmly acknowledges, the cultural importance of the mission, and its /
service to linguistic, geographical, and anthropological researoh. In the course (
of its advocacy of the English annexations in South Africa, it took occasion
to point out that the easy and inexpensive annexation of that extended
territory on the west and east coasts of South Africa was essentially due to
the pioneer-work carried on for thirty years by German missionary societies,
and that the British Colonial Ofiice was in a position to turn to its own
account the capital and labour contributed from Germany. There are many
other friendly notes sounding in our press in later days along with those of
malice. Would that this friendship might become more general under the
influence of impartial and intelligent apprehension of the mission work and
its importance ! "
Note 7, p. 18.— Delff, op. cit. in his first chapter, " Belief and Knowledge, "

356 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
adduces convincing proof of this. "In all knowledge there is something
which is not wholly or mainly governed by reflection, but by conditions be
longing to personality ; and this something is precisely that which defines the
peculiar direction of our thoughts. Were all that is in knowledge conditioned
certainly and exclusively by reflection and intelligent grounds, it would be
possible to convince any one of his errors, and to win him to the more correct
view (at least to a certain extent, corresponding to his intellectual ability).
If we had only 'heads ' to deal with, there would be no occasion to correct
the ' many thoughts ' which go apart in diverging directions " (p. 3). "There
are certain things in the scientific composition of a man which belong quite
distinctly to the category of moral convictions, which afterwards so attach
themselves to logical convictions, that these latter are dependent upon them
and their sources" (p. 4). "Ideas, concepts, decisions, conclusions — all that
in reflection belongs to the conditioned consciousness — is mediately the pro
duct of the mind, induced by au assumption and reduced to an objectivation.
It rests essentially on a relation to the objects, in which only the outside of
them is operative — their appearance to the senses, as it is said — and is
abstracted from this appearance, and transferred into the objective view of
the mind. In this mediate action, which is restricted to what is outward,
there operates an immediate reference which does not go forth from the
sphere of the man, from his understanding and senses, to the sphere of the
objects, but will immediately grasp the whole nature of the object in the
separate appearances, and will represent it in itself; and which proceeds
from the inner central and total power of the man, from his nature, and is
the peculiar action of that nature. This immediate reference or action is
always principaUy concerned in that mediate, and is the foundation of it.
We call it belief, whereby every defined thought, as, for example, the religious
thought, is modified " (p. 5, ff. )
Note 8, p. 20. — Rhenish Westphalian Post, 12th March 1877. We subjoin
the article as characteristic. On the Sth of March, Dr. Brehm of Berlin gave
a lecture in the Town Hall, on the popular and family life of the Ostiaks, a
tribe of people in Siberia. The close of it was as follows : "As we become
familiar with many things, so we acquire a liking for the Ostiaks. They
are men with the minds of children, and we must cherish the wish for them,
that they may long remain heathen, so as not to lose their good qualities."
Outbreaks of hatred against Christianity are with Dr. Brehm nothing new,
and the words quoted indicate what is his sentiment regarding the mission.
But it will naturally be asked what sort of qualities they are, for the sake of
which the wish must be cherished that Ostiaks may long continue to be
heathen. A few passages from Brehm's lecture will make this clear. The
lecturer is describing the beastly gluttony of the people. "The Ostiak is
going in for 'a good time.' He chooses a goodly stag and throws over it
the unerring lasso — a blow on the head with a hatchet stuns the creature,
and a knife thrust into its heart puts an end to its life. With great clever
ness the stag is flayed, and the spleen and liver are taken out. That is the
most relished tit-bit. All bloody it is swallowed ; the faces and hands of the
eaters are besmeared with blood ; the whole family, down to the smallest of
earth's citizens, partake of the tit-bit, and even it gets a bloody visage. But
the greatest delight of the child is when it gets a marrow bone, and sucks it
just as our forefathers did. The bloody feast is done. The house-mother
cuts the remainder into pieces and cooks them. The Ostiak returns into
the tent. Satiated as he is, he longs after additional enjoyment. He casts
off his fur jacket, and seats himself half-naked before the fire. The vilest
tobacco is to him an endless enjoyment. The smoke of a pipe made in the
simplest way from a piece of paper brings in the house-mother, and soon
the whole family are smoking. Meantime the meat is again and again re
sorted to. The wife sets up the fly-tent and makes the bed. The herds-

NOTES. 357
man plays yet a while with the dog and the child promiscuously, and then
creeps under the fly-tent. The youngest child is lifted after him, the four
teen-year-old son follows with his wife ; then comes the house-mother, and
soon the whole family lies in deep sleep. Next morning the same life begins,
and so it goes on every day."
There is also a description of the fisherman's feast. " The fish are unsealed,
cut up, the livers taken out, and the entrails removed. The livers are swal
lowed, the whole members of the family take part in the feast, and soon
present an appearance similar to that presented by the family of the herds
man after the bloody feast ; with this difference, that in this case the colour
ing is brought out with train oil. If the hunger is not yet appeased, a raw
fish is cut up and eaten with salt. After the bustle is over, quietness prevails
for some time, and the occupation which may be seen then is well fitted to
confirm Darwin's system in the matter of atavism. Towards noon the
stomach craves for something warm. A fish-soup is prepared of the most
exquisite kind — only not exquisite for a European stomach. Two or three
Ostiaks consume a quantity of it that would suffice for twelve or fifteen
Europeans. Then matters go on in the fisherman's tent precisely as in that
of the reindeer-herdsman."
The Ostiak goes to Obdorsk, where an annual market is held. Here there
is trafficking and bartering ; the Ostiak is shriven by the priest, contracts
are entered into, and taxes are levied. This annual market is a universal
festival for the people. Around the market-place are arranged a circle of
tents. Every morning the Ostiak, laden with hides and accompanied by his
loving wife, goes into the city ; every evening he returns without hides,
without money, with a disordered head. Brandy turns him into a wild
beast. All drink brandy. The Ostiak sells all for brandy — himself, his
faith, his soul. Brandy is his evil demon. His first hides he sells at a high
price, the last he gives away for a glass of brandy. He returns home in
poverty, he makes the best resolutions, he swears never to taste brandy
more. But soon this experience loses its effect, and he thinks only on
the pleasure which he has enjoyed in Obdorsk. That all his property is
gone is indeed sad, that he had to go to prison was not too pleasant ; mean
time he is again free. There will be more hides, and he resolves in any case
to go back to Obdorsk n«xt year.
The Ostiak has several wives, but only one tent. The first wife is the
mistress, the others are slaves. If a second wife is childless she' is the
most miserable creature in the world, and is subjected to the most terrible
Maltreatment by the first wife.
We might almost doubt the sanity of the man who could see such things
with his own eyes, and describe them, and then draw the conclusion stated
above, did we not know to what a man may be brought by hatred of Chris
tianity. And we cannot really wonder at it, since the purely materialistic
view of the world, which brings men down to beasts, must regard such horrible
things as the foregoing as quite admirable. The concepts of religion and
morality must be abandoned. We regret that Dr. Brehm did not stay in
Siberia with his child-minded favourites, so as to exempt our people from
his immoral views. It is surprising that Brehm did not add to his wish this
other— that the Germans might again become heathens !
Note 9, p. 20. — Ausland, 1877, p. 894, ff . In connection with a recommen
dation of the Japanese antichristian literature, " Bemmo " thus writes :
"Along with the other blessings of Aryan Christian culture, small-pox,
syphilis, oppressive taxation, steam-ships, railways, rifled cannon and
fraudulent bankruptcy, the Americans and British are specially anxious
to introduce their Christianity among the Japanese."
Note 10, p. ZT.—Ellinwood, the Great Conquest (New York, 1876), p. 153.

358 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
"A foreign traveller who visited New York, could have but a very imperfect
conception of its religious life, if he had not some sympathy and some inter
course with the Christians in it. A deputy of the Scottish General Assembly
would have collected a great mass of facts in a few weeks, while a London
sportsman who spent a year in the New York club-houses, or an infidel
German who lived in hotels, would be able to say but little about it. He
would repeat the cut-and-dry censures of the circle with which he frater
nised, and would report in general terms that the religious life of the country
is a pure deception, that the clergy are a band of ragamuffins, and the church
members a flock of hypocrites ! "

NOTES TO PABT II.
Note i, p. 33. — Culture-History, p. 435 : " Still it must be fairly admitted
that notwithstanding this " — that is, notwithstanding its subsequent de
generacy in the warmer climates ! — " Christianity, even among the ancients,
matured views, which, according to modern conceptions, are usually called
higher views, as, for example, with reference to abortion, child-murder, the
exposure of children, suicide. — Fiually, it contributed to the suppression of
gladiatorial shows, awakened an opposition to capital punishment (? Eom.
xiii. 4), and an extended taste for beneficence which was wholly unknown
to classical antiquity. Altogether, humanity is the almost exclusive acquisi
tion of the Christian epochs."
Note 2, p. 34. — p. 554: "The Christianising of Europe, however rude it
may appear, was the indispensable foundation of the cultural development
of the present day." And still more distinctly, pp. 436 and 438: "If we
examine the effects of Christianity among the northern barbarians, where
mainly it meets us, a beneficent, ennobling influence is unmistakable. . . .
The barbarians would probably have been morally ruined and physically
deteriorated by advances towards the culture-lands of the South, had not
Christianity given them a moral support. It could not well be otherwise
than that, in the hands of the Germans, Christianity should assume ruder
forms, corresponding to their spirit and their cultural level. . . Still its
efficacy remained sufficiently powerful to engraft some of the above ideas
upon the rough Norlanders. Even the so-called darkest centuries bear many
features of great and genuine nobility. They far excel the noblest times of
the heathen civilizations in active benevolence, in sentiments of veneration
and of loyalty ; while in the humanity which shrinks from the infliction of
pain, they were superior to the Roman civilization, as with respect to purity
they were to the Greek. . . . Thus it cannot surprise us that the Christi
anity, which helped the northern tribes from deep barbarism to rise to the
level of mediaeval civilization, proved afterwards a hindrance to further
development, and had to be again set aside. Therefore it is not proper to
undervalue the importance of Christianity for this early period, or in any
way to condemn it. What may be said of the Christianity of the 15th and
16th centuries has no application to that of the centuries from the 5th to
the 10th. By means of it, which preserved these peoples physically and
morally, the modern culture has become possible." In like manner, Von H.
acknowledges the importance of the mediaeval mission for agriculture. "A
more favourable time for German land-cultivation first set in, in the South
and South-West, with Christianity, as many convents and other religious
institutions were located in places previously unknown. Through them
many wastes were cleared and cultivated, through them many previously

NOTES. 359
unknown culture-plants were introduced into the country." When he
further asserts : "The services of the convents in the preservation of the
classical writings are certainly not to be estimated highly, since most of the
treasures of antiquity have been preserved by the Byzantines and the
Arabs" — he forgets that there are not only Greek but also Latin classics,
and that for the preservation of the latter we are specially indebted to the
monasteries. Note 3, p. 35. — The often-quoted Culture-History of Von Hellwald, despite
its enormous exaggerations as well as- its superficialities, and its manifest
mistakes and omissions, is not wanting in strange gleams of light, undeniable
truths in the philosophy of history, traces of massive judgment and impartial
sense of justice, which make it possible for us now and then positively to
value the book. For example, when, with reference to the slow and com
paratively imperfect mediseval culture, he expresses himself (p. 437) in
manner following : — " Then this complaint (viz., that the mediseval Christi
anity kept the people for a thousand years in spiritual bondage) forgets that
the German world had to make a beginning in culture, that there is no way
of transferring culture to new peoples, and of sparing them the long, labo
rious way of labour. Even the culture-peoples of to-day are the heirs of
the historically-buried nations which served them as schoolmasters in their
childhood, the existing civilization had to be acquired through their own
effort, as all knowledge can only be attained by study. The Middle Ages
were the time, of learning — that hardest work of the child — not of knowledge,
for the German and New-Roman peoples ; and it is altogether irrelevant, if
not meaningless, to compare with it the blooming season of the Greek. That,
as the highest culture-attainment of the ancients, must be compared with
the modern ; and this comparison is not altogether in favour of the classic
Greek. But an incalculable period preceded the blooming season of the
Greeks ; we know not how long the Greeks required for their highest cultural
attainment. And it is oDly this dark period that can be brought into com
parison with the Middle Ages. "
Note 4, p. 48. — A quite unexpected apology for the missionary, Baker,
who is treated so slightingly and scornfully by the Gartenlaube, is furnished
by the Report of the German Government, presented to the Reichstag
regarding the treaty of peace with Samoa. The testimony of this official
document must have all the more powerful effect, even in the judgment of
the readers of the Gartenlaube, since, according to the expression of the
Bamberg Reichstag-commissioner, it "treats the subject of missions with
humour " — an expression which is justified by a few lamentable passages —
but it shows, at all events, that people who stand aloof from the mission
have not discovered in it a vestige of partizan predilection for it.
While, according to the nonsensical statements of the Gartenlaube, the
missionaries, under the pretext of the doctrine of Christ, are shamelessly
undermining the temporal well-being of the natives, and the " avaricious
priesthood have put in operation a system of extortion which cries to heaven,"
so that the natives are brought face to face with death by starvation, and the
anonymous author has on several occasions seen the natives commit them
selves to the waves in their rotten canoes, in order to escape from their clerical
bondage— oh, it is affecting to read it !— the Report states : —
" Mr. Baker, the superintendent of the mission, has great merit in respect
of the furtherance of the productiveness of the land, and the industry of the
people. His eagerness to improve the land and the people, is indeed ascribed
to the motive of increasing the voluntary church contributions. However
this be, this effort must be advantageous to the country ; and by means of
the influence which Mr. Baker exerts over the king, much good has already
accrued. For example, good, broad roads have been made in all the islands.

36°

MISSIONS AND CULTURE.

. . . Mr. Baker is at present occupied in introducing, on a large scale, the
cultivation of cotton, coffee, and maize, after entering into a contract with
the house of Godefroy as to the purchase of them. That house owes its suc
cess in part to the skill with which it knows how to adapt its operations to
the circumstances. The Tongans generally give their commodities at some
what lower prices, rather than have too much trouble with them. The house
of Godefroy, therefore, adopts the method of taking the copra in an unmanu
factured state, the cotton and the coffee uncleaned orunhusked. That cele
brated house has further, through Mr. Baker's mediation, obtained a privilege
on the islands of fishing for pearl-mussels. . . . Thus at present the interests
of the mission, so far as these are represented by Mr. Baker, the most influ
ential man in the country, and those of a great German mercantile house, are
working together ; and there is good hope of elevation of culture, and a con
siderable increase of products for exportation from those exceedingly fertile
islands." As to the starvation of the natives, which the Gartenlavbe brings to light,
there does not seem to be much fear of it. The anonymous author of the
jealous article appears, in his blind zeal, to have little respected the laws of
thought ; since, if the greedy missionaries are oppressing the natives in a way
that calls for the vengeance of heaven, so that they are impoverished, starved,
and eagerly court death, they would be acting very stupidly in stopping the
fountains of their own livelihood ! But let that pass.
According to the statistical data of the official Report, the exports of the
islands in question are steadily increasing ; certainly copra, on which the mis
sionaries seem to have imposed ataxforthemselves, is produced and exported
in ever-increasing quantity. The export of this article from the several island-
groups by the German mercantile house amounted in 1876 to 3,905,000 marks,
1877 to 4,722,000, 1878 to 4, 896,000 marks, and the total exports to 5.209,000 ;
6,103,000 ; 7,021,000 marks in these respective years. Of these exports the
Tonga group alone contributed 920,000 marks in 1876 and 961,000 in 1877.
The Report repeatedly states that Tonga — where the terrible Baker is the
most influential man — enjoys " an orderly domestic Government, which has
succeeded in maintaining unbroken peace for many years. "
'* As I have already remarked/' writes Captain von Schleinitz, " the Wes
leyan mission possesses a great influence in the islands. Originally sent and
supported from England, and afterwards from Sydney, it has been for some
time practically self-sustaining, because it has contrived to furnish itself with
unusual sources of income. The natives tax themselves, for the purposes of
the mission, with a yearly tribute, which amounts to about ten marks per
head of the people (according to the Gartenlaube it is forty-four marks), and
in all to about the same as the whole of the state-taxes, that is, about 200,000
marks. The contribution is for the most part paid in natural products, and
the Wesleyans are necessitated to sell these to European traders, excepting
so many as they can themselves send to Australia with their mission -brig.
The house of Godefroy has naturally been anxious to be as far as possible the
only purchaser of these products, and has profited thereby."
Note 5, p. 50.* — An instructive glance at this relation is afforded by an in
teresting article in the Evangelical Missionary Magazine for 1857, p. 34, ff. (
entitled The Interests of Trade and the Mission. By the example of the
Hudson's Bay Company, and by reference to important English sources, it is
shown what an organised system of robbery the traders followed there by the
presentation of rum, cheating the Indians out of all that they possessed
skins, furs, &c. Such traders might well say to the missionaries, We must
treat you with as much jealousy and hostility as if you were a competing
fur-trading company. If you succeed, we must fail. The company, by open-
* Reference omitted in text.

NOTES. 361
ing its territory to Christianity, has ruined its trade. In April, 1874, Mr.
Steinberger, special agent of the U.S.A., submitted to the senate a report on
the Samoa Islands, in which, amongst other things, he says : "The mission
aries are, beyond all doubt, more important, and more efficient instruments
in the civilization of that people, than all other causes put together. With
the exception of a few, merchants are enemies of the missionaries. There
are German and English merchants and brandy-dealers who regard the
natives and their property as a common prey, and in the interests of mer
chandise often have recourse to moral corruption."
Note 6, p. 53. — It is a part of the noblesse with which many gentleman
travellers conduct themselves towards the missionaries. When they visit
their lonely stations, they are received with the most cordial hospitality.
Not only is all desired information imparted to them, but, often at a sacrifice,
the best that kitchen and cellar afford is set before them ; and then
those who have been so entertained express their thanks by denouncing,
in conversation and in books, the missionaries as leading an idle and luxu
rious life.
Note 7, p. 54. — On this subject see Les Missions EvangeliquesauXIX" Siecle,
1877, and Indian Evangelical Review, 1877. Only one additional testimony —
that of a French Catholic merchant : — ' ' AU things contribute to this — commerce
works in concert with the extension of the Gospel. The religious work goes
hand in hand with that whose object is lawful. Whether in the interest
of heaven or of earth, the zeal is the same. From the ordained clergyman
to the last workman in the factories and workshops, every one is lovingly
and zealously active. This Christian life in the midst of forests and barbarous
men affords an edifying spectacle. Here, for the first time, I almost forgot
my fatherland, and was surprised to find myself envying, as an ideal of
happiness, the peaceful and methodical life of these men, who live here
without ambition, and have voluntarily shut themselves out from the old
world." Note 8, p. 59. — Dying-out of the Nature Peoples, pp. 131 and 138. In his
" Anthropological Contributions," vol. i., pp. 3, 13, the same author says : —
" That the mission is of the greatest importance, scientifically and practically,
no impartial man will deny ; for, scientifically, it has given and can give the
most important, and often the only available, material for anthropology, be
cause it alone stands in sufficiently continuous intercourse with the several
peoples ; — practically, because it intelligently brings our culture and morals
within reach of these peoples ; and what could thus be done, and also what
could be done politically, it has distinctly shown — to take an example from
our own times — in the South Seas. It is a natural question whether a state
which has foreign possessions should not with all earnestness adopt the mission,
regulate it, and support it with national funds — of course in the spirit of modern
freedom, and otherwise than France has done in the Pacific, which has em
ployed it to enslave and deprave the natives."
Note 9, p. 65. — "From our own observation we are convinced that the
stations superintended by missionaries are the most successful," says the
report of the Commission. "Therefore we recommend with the greatest
urgency that all be brought under similar superintendence, and that the
Government be authorised to commit the management of them to missionaries
educated in Europe."
Note 10, p. 69.— In the Tenth Annual Report of the Basel Evangelical
Missionary Society, p. 106, ff., the missionary Bohner writes as follows :—
" Since I have been stationed in Abokobi, I have been much occupied with

362 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
the lands belonging to the station. From the manner in which the soil is
treated by the natives, it is certain that the forest is being gradually changed
into a barren waste, which will be a sad thing for the people. Besides, it
was evident to me that we must use every effort to increase the revenue
derived from the lands belonging to the mission, because they are the capital
of our station, which must in future help us to self-support. It occurred to
me in the latter half of last year that our Christians might be stimulated to
take a step in advance, by the twofold motive of maintaining the productive
ness of the land, and of increasing their own profit. Before I detail the steps
taken with this view, I must first describe to you the mode of land-cultivation
prevalent here, and then indicate what has been done by the missionaries in
order to a rational and proper cultivation of the land.
" The Gold Coast farmer knows nothing of plough, waggon, scythe, sickle,
manure, &c. The season for sowing (January) is drawing near. He goes with
his peculiar hedging-bill into the bush, seeks out where the land belongs to
him or his family, and heaps up some brushwood on the end of it lying next
the road. Thus every passer-by sees that this land is appropriated for the
next crop. If a farmer does not himself possess any land, he goes with a
bottle of rum to a land-owner (commonly the head of a family) and asks him
to assign to him some of his land, which is regularly done. Then he talks
with his acquaintances, or, if he is an old man, with his sons and younger
brothers ; a day is fixed on which all are to muster, in order to cut down the
bush from the assigned land for their friend, their father, or their brother.
All the small wood not more than an inch thick is cut down quite to the ground,
so that there are no stumps left ; but the thicker trees are cut over two feet
above the ground, so that the barefooted farmer may walk about in his field
without hurting his feet with splinters. After some fourteen days of sunshine,
the cutting of the bush is followed by the burning of the cut wood. But he
burns only the small wood ; the thick is allowed to lie, and serves as stakes
for the yam-plants, or as firewood. There now remains only the cleaning of
the soil, and the land is ready for the seed. There is no necessity for turning
it over. Welsh corn (?), or yams, are dibbled in, and the whole is left to
itself, until the corn begins to shoot, and the yam-tubers to swell. Then the
farmer comes with a small hoe, clears the ground of weeds, and inserts between
the corn-stalks short pieces of yam-haulm. Thus he provides his second
harvest. If he does not do this, he either plants the same land again with
corn in the same year, or he lets it lie till the next year, when he clears it of
grass and bush, and again plants corn or yams. But the second crop is con
siderably less than the first. Thus the land has done its duty for eight or ten
years ; for when the land has been treated after this fashion, it must remain
so long at rest, and must revert into a forest. Formerly this was universal ;
but'through the increase of population, and moreover through the people's
unskilful treatment of the land, of late years, especially on the mission-lands,
but little of the soil has been allowed to rest so long ; the consequence of
which has been that the grass has too much got the upper hand, and the forest
is almost destroyed. The circumstance that every one was allowed to culti
vate where he pleased wrought its own punishment, because in every well-
situated and fertile spot the forest never attained to any height. As to the
profit derived from the ground, it is very little for the negroes when it is not
cultivated by the proprietor himself. Besides the above-mentioned bottle of
rum, the proprietor only receives some of the produce at harvest time. Only,
when he has a plantation in his own hand, he requires his tenant now and
then to give him a little assistance in his work. The division of the land is
most peculiar. Very frequently the land belongs to a whole village ; more
rarely to a single family ; most rarely to a single person. It is therefore
necessary for one to rent land only when he comes as a stranger into a district,
or belongs to an impoverished family. But the land is ODly ceded for one
year.

NOTES. 363
" In the end of August, 1874, I assembled all our elders and land-overseers,
pointed out to them the improprieties which have been mentioned, and in
formed them that they must immediately be remedied. I said that it is
heathenish to live from hand to mouth, and leave only a desert for the future ;
and that they would never be independent unless by aid of the possession of
land ; that my proposal and that of Mr. Zimmermann was that the whole
land should be planted with oil-palms, plantains, aud bananas ; that this was
the right and the only means, not only to increase the revenue and the value
of the land threefold in eight or ten years, but also to maintain its former
fertility ; that this plan must now be carried out. I said that their objection
that ' palms bear no bread ' was well known to me, but that it was unfounded,
for the people of Krobo and Akuapen (two other Basel stations) had not only
suffered no privation through palm-planting, but rather were become rich.
Next day they brought me a favourable answer ; but they said that it was
necessary that the land should be divided among them, so that, when one
had cultivated the soil, another might not come and enjoy the profits ; also
that no one would be active in planting palms unless he knew definitely that
himself or his children should enjoy the fruits of them.
"Afterwards, on a Tuesday, which is almost always appropriated by the
people here to work in common, the boundary of the mission land was marked
out, the whole community assembled in the school-house, where I parcelled
out the land to them on paper. There had to be forty-four portions assigned.
This division was actually carried out in the course of September. But now
the people wished that, for security, I should arrange the matter with them
by writing. Accordingly, I sketched a form of lease, submitted it to our
general treasurer for approval, and secured from him instruction to conclude
the bargain with the people on the conditions contained in it. That has now
been done. The contract binds the tenant at every harvest to pay a fixed sum
to one of the missionaries and some of the elders for the mission-treasury, and
also to plant the land with palms, plantaiDS, and bananas. If he do this, then
in the event of his death, or of a change of residence with the missionary's
knowledge, the land shall pass to his heirs. But if he fail in his obligation,
the missionary has the right to deprive him of his portion of land, without
his having any claim for compensation for the trees already planted. Further,
it is stipulated that when the palms, &c. , to be planted begin to bear, their
fruit shall be taxed as other products are now. A tenant has no right to
fell palm-trees without the permission of the missionary. The duration of
the contract is definitely fixed at fifteen years, while it is expected to stand
so long as all the palms bear.
" I can now state with joy that already very many tenants have taken the
planting in hand. But it is still the begiuning. If the land is to be improved
and its rent increased in the manner stated, it is obviously necessary that the
missionary charged with it shall, at least for four or six years, attend care
fully to it, and shall spare no pains to make it succeed. This is the only way
to raise our community to independence."
Note 11, p. 83.— This was very clearly brought outin the last great famine
in China. We take an unexceptionable testimony to this effect from the
Chinese (heathen) newspaper Sinpao, which last year contained the follow
ing article : —
" To stand by the unfortunate and to help the wretched is a sure evidence
of the benevolent heart of a noble man. Still nobler it is to rescue those who
are visited with famine, and to have compassion on his neighbours, for that
is the philanthropic action of a humane man. In this Middle Kingdom of
ours, drought and dearth for several years have converted the provinces of
Schantung, Schansi, Honan, Schensi, and Tcthili into vast deserts. In Kwan-
tung and Tschili, besides, many dams have been broken by floods, and whole
harvests have been destroyed. This year again there has been too much rain

364 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
in Kwantung, so that the price of rice has risen, and the poorer people have
been obliged to emigrate. The missionaries of the religion of Jesus, who have
learned the state of matters by their own observation, and have been moved
by noble motives of compassion, have regarded this distress and famine as
their own, and have earnestly pleaded with the foreigners to contribute for
the alleviation of the famine. Thus beneficent gifts have been received from
England, Japan, and Singapore, and from the various foreigners living in
China, amounting to 200,000 taels, and these have been dispensed to the last
mite for the relief of the suffering. More than this, some missionaries have
themselves gone to Schantuug, Schansi, and Honan, to help the people. They
have neither been afraid of the soaking rains and the cutting winds, nor of
toil and sickness. They have saved the lives of great multitudes, and in
some cases have subjected themselves to such fatigues that they have died
in consequence. But they fear no danger, and do not shrink from
death ; and others are ready to carry forward their work and to tread in their
steps. " Further, in a conference at Shanghai, they have resolved that, on the
17th of June of the present year, all the missionaries in the several provinces
shall gather together the men and women of their faith, and, abstaining from
food, shall pray to the most high Lord of the heaven above, and make sup
plication for the life of the Chinese people. That is good ; and we take the
liberty to commend the reverence before the heavenly Powers, and the love
towards all men, which are so earnestly inculcated by the religion of Jesus.
As regards the Kin-the, or abstinence from food, it is an attempt to imitate
the Kien-shan or restriction of meals, which is practised by the Chinese. But
Ki-tao, that is prayers and entreaties for help, is an attempted imitation of
the invocations which, in China, are addressed to the heaven, and signifies
the doing of penance, in times of necessity, in order to draw down the com
passion of heaven. In China it is well known that the anger of heaven must
be reverentially feared ; and that good and evil fortune, reward and punish
ment, are in the hand of the supreme Lord of the heaven above ; and this it
is also which actuates all the missionaries of the Protestant Eaith, through
all the distress, as if it were their own, to exert themselves without distinc
tion of nation, to collect contributions and to relieve misery, and so often as
it is necessary ; because their only thought is, that the fault lies on them,
and that for every life which is not saved tbey are responsible ; and this they
carry so far that, with contempt of death, they take upon themselves labour
and hardships. Assuredly it is difficult for men to carry it so far ; and yet
the religion of Jesus furnishes numerous examples in proof of the depth and
power of the rectitude of sentiment which can be attained by its means. Let
us then thankfully admire the love and the large-hearted benevolence of the
missionaries, who have been able to present such a sacrifice of self and of love
with so great generosity. Let us also acknowledge the mysterious efficacy
and power of the doctrine of Jesus, of which we have such proofs. We take
public notice of it here, for the instruction of all men of noble thought in
China." Note 12, p. 86. — Thus even Delff, op. cit. p. 138 : " However paradoxical
it may sound in our century, which swarms with liberal forms of speech, and
with romantic tales of even freeborn men in chains, yet it is sure and certain
that the best means of civilizing these barbarous creatures is slavery — of
course, reasonable and humane." The credibility of such an assertion cannot
be admitted in view of the fact that, in the West Indies and the Southern
States of the North American Union, the slavery of a hundred years,
which, in part at least, was humane, did nothing for the civilization of the
negroes. Note 13, p. 101. — Buss, a representative of "free" Protestantism, who is

NOTES. 365
ashamed that hitherto the mission has been left in the hands of "pietism,"
and who calls upon those who share his sentiments to form a free-thinking
missionary society— which has not yet been done — makes this proposal in
earnest : to apportion the heathen world between the adherents of the old
and those of the new view of the world, so that the less cultivated or culture-
less peoples and races be committed to the existing mission, while the culture-
peoples and the educated classes shall fall to the lot of the free-thinking
mission which he recommends. Apart from the consideration that the poor
culture-peoples will probably have a long time to wait, the experiences which
have been afforded by the Brahma Somaj in India, and with the enlightened
Japanese, should make these gentlemen somewhat more moderate. For the
rest, we are very thankful to Mr. Buss for the honest acknowledgment of
the cultural success of the actual mission, at least among the barbarous
peoples. " Thousands have broken with their polytheistic traditions, call
on the one God of almightiness and love, have found enlightenment of con
science and deliverance from the power of sinful passions in faith on the
redemptive love-work of Christ, and through the example of the holy life of
Jesus, are moved to throw off their heathenish burdens, and are animated
to begin a new, worthy, moral life. It has been the part of the mission to
rescue innumerable men from. the most licentious rudeness, and in many
cases from a brutal state of barbarism, and completely to revolutionise the
morals of numerous tribes. ... It has been its part, directly and indirectly,
to co-operate for the suppression of cannibalism in the South Sea Islands and
elsewhere,* of the horrible murders among the West African negro races, the
sacrifice of children among the Khonds in India, the widow-burning of the
Hindus, and polygamy among various peoples. It has been its part to exert
an influence which must not be under-estimated upon the efforts of Christian
governments and societies for the abolition of slavery and the suppression of
the slave trade, and for improving the condition of the female sex and of
children. It has been its part, by the promotion of colonisation, by the
refinement and enriching of foreign literatures, by the introduction of print
ing, by countenancing handiwork and commercial intercourse, but especially
by the establishment of schools and hospitals of all sorts, to do a vast deal
for the civilization of the inferior races."
Note 14, p. 108. — In opposition to the modern Buddhist-pessimist philo
sophy, which has, in an incomprehensible way, found so many admirers
amoDg us, we call attention to the judgment of the accurate Barthelemy St.
Hilaire : " Buddhism is wrecked in India, its birthplace ; and in the countries
in which it has taken refuge, it has not been influential in improving the
morals of the people. Everywhere they have remained under the most
de«Tading despotism. It is to be feared that all our well-meaning and
liberal efforts strive in vain in opposition to those lamentable arrangements
which have in their favour the usage of centuries, the deep-rooted customs
of the people, their indifference, and their incurable superstition."
Note 15, p. no. — With this judgment of Lawrence, Eeshub Chandra Sen,
the well-known leader of the Brahma Soniaj, entirely agrees. Compare
also the following testimony of Lord Napier, Governor of Madras : " The
benefits afforded by the mission are threefold— in conversion, m civilization,
and in instruction. . . . With respect to civilization, it cannot be sufficiently
estimated that in this immensely extensive empire a number of pious and
disinterested Englishmen live and travel through the most neglected dis
tricts occupying a middle place between people and government, with equal
love to both, friends of the right, enemies of the wrong, impartial observers
of good and bad. If we conceive of all these institutions as suddenly
removed, what a blank would result ! The Government would lose its most

366 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
valuable helpers ; the poor would see themselves robbed of wise and power
ful friends," &c.
Note 16, p. 113. — Cremer : Biblico-Theological Dictionary of New Testament
Greek, preface : " We can, in fact," says Rothe (Dogmatics, p. 238) "speak
with good reason of a language of the Holy Ghost. For it lies in the Bible
plainly before our eyes, how the Divine Spirit, who is the agent of the
revelation, has formed for Himself a quite peculiar religious dialect out of
the speech of that people which forms its theatre, since He has formed the
elements of speech which He found, as well as the existing concepts, into an
aspect specially fitted for it. Most evidently the Greek of the New Testa
ment indicates this origin." Every new Bible translation affords new
material in proof of this.
Note 17, p. 135. — Compare the judgment of Sir Bartle Frere on the differ
ence of the education in the Government and the mission schools : " I
remember, a short time before I left Calcutta, hearing a distinguished man
speak of the advantages of the two educational systems. It was admitted
that the scholars of the Government schools had brought their studies, in
some scientific branches, to greater perfection than those young men who
attend the mission schools. But a gentleman who is at the head of an
important Government office stated that whenever he has had a writer or
other subordinate who was unusually conscientious in the discharge of his
duties, and more than others respectful in his deportment, he always found
that he was from Dr. Duff's school."
Note 18, p. 152. — Even Delff (op. cit. p. 186), to our great surprise, takes
the same position with respect to this matter with men like Von Hellwald.
*' In fact, these barbarians have, as in opposition to culture-peoples, no right
to exist. It is quite useless to start here with philanthropic ideals. Bar
barism must be assimilated, and if it will not consent, must be extirpated,
by culture, which has the right in itself, and the task assigned it, to spread
itself over the whole earth, in order to give room for pure life." No doubt,
he proceeds to assign limitations : "It is inconceivable that these peoples, at
all events in their entirety, can be won by friendly conference ; the most
natural and easiest way would be to take them under strong, fatherly
discipline, under a religiously and morally defined patriarchal power, and to
accustom them gradually to a better state of things by constraint, until it
should more and more become natural to them. Thus in most cases, the
second terrible alternative — that of extermination — would be prevented. "
Now, experience must here decide. The Romans, 1800 years ago, had
similar views regarding the Germans ; and Christianity, with its philan-
thropism, has put them to shame. Now also it shall celebrate the triumph
of humanity among the barbarians.
Note 19, p. 185. — Wurm, who by means of his solid History of the Indian
Religion, is well known as one well acquainted with Indian matters, gives in
the Allg. Miss. Zeitschrift (1878) the following account of caste, by the com
munication of which we believe that we shall render a service to the reader.
The word caste is derived from the Portuguese casta ; the corresponding
Sanskrit word, varna, means colour. After the system was fully developed,
the word jati (birth) was also used for it. It is questionable whether the
Aryans, at their entrance into India, had sharply-defined social distinctions.
The word aryan means the nobles, but it seems to be derived from the root
which means to plough, so that the cultivator in old times was held in higher
honour than he was afterwards.
The caste-system, of course, was not formed in a day. Probably the first
traces of it are connected with the division of professions, which civilization

NOTES. 367
brings with it. Amongst a people so religious as the Hindus are, the sages
knew how to win a great influence, and to monopolise it. The religious
ceremonies were always so complicated that not fewer than sixteen priests
were necessary for the great sacrifice Agnistoma, which lasted five days. The
word Brahman etymologically means prayer or holy-service. Those so called
formed a first-class, but at the time of the conquest of the country and the
subsequent wars they could not subsist without a warrior class, who in the
veda-songs are called Rajaniya, the kingly class, or otherwise Kschatrya,
the ruling class. Manu says: "A Kschatrya cannot thrive without a
Brahman, nor a Brahman without a Kschatrya. When the Brahman and
the Kschatrya co-operate, it goes well with them in this life and the future
life." The Vaisyas, the depressed, cultivated the land, and procured for
themselves a right to the soil which they had brought under tillage. Thus
were the three classes related to each other. They called themselves the
twice-born and wore the sacred thread. But the need of a servile class came
to be felt, and thus the pre-Aryan inhabitants of the country, the Sudras,
were received into tbe social system of the- Hindus. They might not
wear any sacred thread on their shoulder, and their happiness consisted only
in their subordination to the twice-born ; still they had great advantages as
compared with the casteless peoples who were not engrafted on the Hindu
stock. If the Indian caste-system consisted only in the distinction of these four
classes, there would be nothing in it offensive to other peoples. But in the
first place, a religious character has been impressed on it, such as is nowhere
else. The man of low caste not only bears the mark of servile indignity, but
is a polluted and polluting object for the higher castes, a sort of leper, whose
touch, breath, or shadow is defiling. There is no parallel to this among any
other people. According to the Indian view the castes are separate from the
beginning; the Brahmans have sprung from the mouth of Brahma, the
Kschatrya from his arms, the Vaisyas from his thighs, the Sudras from his
feet. According to Manu, the Brahmans are gods in human form. " A
Brahman, be he learned or unlearned, is apowerful divinity, as fire is apower-
ful divinity, whether it be consecrated or not." The Brahmans could threaten
terrible vengeance upon kings, when they made any attempt to depress them.
" Whoever only lays hold of a Brahman with the intention of killing him
shall be in hell for 100 years ; whoever actually kills him, for 1000 years."
The mutual severance of the three lower castes rendered a common rebellion
on their part against the Brahmans impossible. The proud Kschatryas
repeatedly attempted it in vain. Only by a complete overturn of the caste-
system in Buddhism a revolution was effected for a time.
A second point in which the Indian caste-system differs from the distinction
of ranks among all other peoples, which is sharply pointed out by Vaughan
[The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross), is that not only the four castes
existed and operated in old times, but a multitude of sub-divisions, which in
the same way are strictly separated from one another, so that at this day no
man can tell how many castes actually exist in India. They are all separate
from one another,— (1. ) With reference to food and its preparation. (2. ) With
reference to marriage. (3.) With reference to employments. A Brahman
must not eat in the presence of a man of lower caste, and if only the shadow
of such a man fall on his food while it is being cooked, or if the hem of his
varment touches the cooking pot, the food must be thrown away and the pot
broken But the minuter these prescriptions are, the more frequently they
must be transgressed. Further, sexual intercourse between people of different
castes could not be wholly prevented ; and the cousequence of this is, that
of the two middle castes no direct, unmixed offspring now exist, for even the
claims of the Rajputs to descent from the old Kschatryas are contested. Even
the Brahman caste is split into sections. But the multiplication of castes
has not weakened the whole system, but strengthened it.

368 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.'
"As regards the moral influence of caste upon the Hindu nation," says
Vaughan, " it is impossible to denounce the caste system too strongly. Its
tendency has been to eradicate human sympathies, to annihilate compassion,
to make the heart hard, harsh, and selfish. No one who has not lived in
India can understand to what an extent this hardening of the hearts of the
Indian people has gone. No people in the world have a stronger sense of
family ties than the Hindus. A friendly regard for the wider circle of kin
ship may be remarked. This goes so far as a respectful acknowledgment of
all the members of one's own caste. But anything like an active and general
thought of beneficence even towards his caste-brethren is not to be thought
of. Certainly, outside the caste, the weal or woe of his fellowmen makes no
impression on him. We have repeatedly observed along the great pilgrim-
routes illustrations of this sad truth. We have seen poor creatures lying on
the road seized with illness. Hundreds of their co-religionists passed and
took no more notice of them than they would of a dying dog. We have heard
the poor, parched sufferers, with folded hands and earnest voice, pray for a
drop of water to moisten their lips ; but all in vain. Thus, hundreds die un-
cared for, without sympathy, without help. Probably, before death has done
its work, the vultures and the jackals begin theirs, and so the roads which
lead to the holy places are lined with rows of white bones and bleached skulls.
Whence this more than brutal hardening ? What has dried up all the foun
tains of human sympathy ? It is caste. "
Moreover, caste has utterly perverted the moral conceptions. " A Brahman
who holds the Veda in his memory," says Manu, " is not culpable though he
should destroy the three worlds." So now, a Brahman may be known as a
paragon of viciousness, as a thief, liar, adulterer, murderer, but his holiness
as a Brahman is not thereby impaired ; he is still revered by his disciples,
and they drink the water in which his feet have been washed as something
holy ; but let the Brahman only accidentally eat forbidden food, or touch an
unclean object, and the curse of impurity immediately falls upon him. Fur
ther, let a Brahman who is branded with the black list of crimes just men
tioned, repent of his evil ways and become a meek and holy follower of Christ,
from the moment of his baptism till his death he is treated as a fallen and
dishonoured wretch ; and even the abandoned men who had reverenced him
in his pollution now shrink from his touch."
At the present day tens of thousands of Hindus have lost all faith in their
gods ; even caste they regard as only a piece of old superstition, which in
their hearts they despise. Only, their place in their caste is not thereby
prejudiced ; every one accords to them the honour which belongs to their
caste. Yea, they say, "I am at heart a Christian," and still they stand, in
relation to caste, on the same footing with the most pious and most orthodox
Hindus. But on his baptism a man is thrust out of caste ; the water of
baptism is universally regarded, at least in Northern India, as something
which destroys caste.

NOTES TO PART III.
Note i, p. 222. — Plath (Three New Mission-Questions ; p. 73, ff. ; World-
Commerce and the Church) says : " It is, before all things, a world-school, in
which the various nations of the earth are formed and educated to noble
aims. But should this ' fertilising commixture of acquired knowledge,' as it
flies from land to land, as might almost be said, on the telegraph-wires,
remain without effect on the condition of the people ? Is it not rather so,
when already a particular phase of world intercourse, as e.g., world-trade,
is exercising a salutary influence in its own way, that the full amount of all

NOTES. 369
its forces must be of the most comprehensive importance ? For is the world-
trade — to keep to the example which we have selected — a mere barter of the
goods, products, inventions, manufactures, fabrics, of particular countries
and regions? Is there not rather, with the cargoes and commodities, accom
plished also an interchange of the highest possessions of remote civilizations ?
How, when not only cargoes and commodities pass from people to people,
but all that one possesses is communicated to the others, the inventions, the
literatures, the general civilization ; in short, when by the sp'ace-controlling
powers of the age, almost the whole world is put in common possession and
enjoyment of almost all the gifts which are bestowed upon us ; can that be
of small effect ? No, the nearer man is drawn to man, the more closely, the
more effectually, does the world embrace him.
" On this ground now grows the genuine healthy cosmopolitism ; and
further, it is a natural consequence that among all peoples who have hitherto
been brought into contact with the world-commerce there has spread, in
ever-widening circles, a certain world-civilization and world-courtesy, a
certain world-decency and world-tact, as also a sort of knowledge of that
which is of more value than civilization, and courtesy, and decency, and
tact — a knowledge of the Christian faith. For not only does the world-
intercourse in some sort convince the non-Christian peoples of the insuffi
ciency and nothingness of their religions, and lead individuals either to seek
after something higher, or — which is more frequent— straightway into
Nihilism ; but as among us it is the result of general civilization that we
know, though only superficially and in their general features, the differences
betwixt Mohammedanism, Buddhism, &c, and our own religion, so the
position of an intelligent Mohammedan, Hindu, Chinese, and Japanese
necessitates that every one of these has at least a conception of the faith of
the Christians with whom commerce brings him into contact. . . In these
and similar ways, through the universal world-intercourse, a certain amount
of Christian truth, however little, is introduced as a leaven into even the
most degenerate religions and world-theories, and the morals of the people
concerned lose somewhat of their repulsiveness and inhumanity. It is
evident that it must not be overlooked to what a trifling extent such a super
ficial knowledge of the scantiest Christian elements, and such a feeble
amelioration of the forms of life, can ever work; yea how other forces
altogether are required in order to bring individuals, and ultimately whole
nations, into the Church. Only since the knowledge of the faith must pre
cede its acceptance, and a change of sentiment is necessary in order to con
version, even these smallest traces of beginnings are not to be despised."
Note 2, p. 244. —The convicts, by their scandalous behaviour, procured for
the island the nickname of " Demon 's-land " or "Devil's-land," a play on the
name "Van Diemen's Land," which chiefly induced the colonists to adopt
the name "Tasmania."
Note 3, p. 255.  "With reference to the introduction of labour into the
South Seas much injustice has been done to those who took part in it. It
has been compared to the Chinese coolie-trade, or has even been represented
as similar to the earlier African slave-trade, or brought into the category of
the horrible deeds of violence which were perpetrated in the South Seas by
ships under the Peruvian flag. There can be no doubt that at nrst when the
inhabitants of those islands which supplied the labourers had not a full under
standing of the conditions of the service into which they had entered, or were
to enter many mistakes and disappointments respecting their future position
occurred, and also small ( !) frauds ; but there were no such things as deeds
of violence and crimes, with the exception of a few individual cases ( ?), which
were well known. And those are to be put to the account of the individuals
2 A

370 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
employed, and not of the system itself. And it is remarkable that they were
perpetrated only ( ?) by ships which, like the men-hunters before-mentioned,
were engaging labourers for Queensland in Australia. The reason is obvious.
The employer in such a country, under a strong Government, where the
labourers after their arrival were certified to have been voluntarily engaged
by a Government inquiry, which was defective through false or defective
translation, or, indeed, through other causes, could afford to be indifferent
whether the engagement were really voluntary or not, since the Government
afforded him the means of holding his people in peace and order. But it is
absurd to suppose that comparatively few white men, as in Samoa and formerly
in Fiji, who have to defend their rights against the natives of these settlements,
should he able to keep in obedience hundreds and thousands of people, violently
torn from their homes, and, as is often asserted, badly treated. Even in respect
of the treatment of the labourers on the plantations, it is scarcely possible to
point to real cruelty, though no doubt there are instances of such. For the
most part these cases are referable either to a fatherly discipline of the mildest
sort, or to a means of deterring from crimes against the safety of the life of
others, to which the absence of competent magistrates compels them to.
resort." Consul Weber then examines the accusations that have been brought with
respect to the transport and the engagement of these labourers, and gives them
a decided denial, at least with reference to the German plantations. Accord
ing to his statements, the whole system is now fully known and understood
by the islanders, so that there is no longer any possibility of deception. " The
labourers remain, so to speak, in their own country, and the translation may
be most fitly compared to that of a workman in one province of a large Euro
pean state who hires himself for service in a more or less distant province of
the same state." The conditions are explained, and the contract is signed in
the presence of witnesses, generally a native mission teacher, when one is
available. Families generally go all together, &c. The islanders often seek
engagement from a love of travel, often in consequence of dearth prevailing
in the island, or because they are induced by quarrels, oppressions, wars."
"A change of home, with a dwelling as a labourer on a plantation, is not,
and cannot be, generally regarded as a misfortune, but in very many cases as
the opposite. With their wretched existence, often subject to despotism and
oppression, without hope of improvement, the paradise of the inhabitants of
most of these islands is a chimera." "Although it cannot be argued that
the planters introduce the labourers from purely humane and philanthropic
motives — while indeed many of them take all relative considerations into full
account — yet, on an impartial judgment, the fact cannot be denied that in
every case, even though unintentionally, they accomplish a mission of
civilization." The Papers relating to the South Sea Islands bear the following testimony
to the Hamburg House of Godefroy and Son : — " These gentlemen are
deservedly regarded as among the most intelligent merchants in Europe ; and
in no respect is this more conspicuous than in the wise regulations which they
have laid down for the management of their plantations in Samoa. The
Kingswell Islanders, on their arrival on the lands of the Messrs. G., present
a picture of the lowest stage of South Sea barbarism. After their arrival,
they are comfortably lodged, decently clothed, well fed, and trained to regular
and peaceful work. They come filthy, foul, and barbarous ; after six months
of plantation work, they are not like the same creatures ; and during the
currency of their contracts they make such progress that they are as unfit for
associating with their brutal brethren in their home, as they formerly were
for contact with the civilized world. The instructions of the Messrs. G. pro
vide that these people shall in no case be engaged by their agents without
their own consent, and that of their chiefs and their relatives. The overseers
are their countrymen, or foreigners who have lived long among them. They

NOTES. 371
work nine hours a day. The overseers are not allowed, under any circum
stances, to beat them. They are under the care of a regularly-trained Euro
pean doctor. Missionaries of the Protestant and Catholic confessions have
every facility to visit and instruct them. On Sundays they are not required
to do any work. They are not restricted in their marriage relations. It
would be well for planters in all respects if the system pursued by the
Messrs. G. were universally known and adopted."
Note 4, p. 268. — Church Missionary Intelligencer, 1879, p. 67. Note on the
article on "Government Colleges in India." However much we agree with
the contents of this article, we cannot but enter a most energetic protest
against the remark which is made near the beginning of it : "A people which
knows so many things, when it is left in ignorance of the Bible, as is the case
now in Germany, forms a terrible problem for statesmen and rulers." To
meet with such an exaggeration in so solid a publication as the Church Mis
sionary Intelligencer is so much the more painful to us, because it shows that
even ecclesiastically-sound circles in England are incapable of forming a fair
and right judgment on German matters. Despite the Csesar-murderers and
the social-democrats, the German people are not altogether left, till this day,
without knowledge of the Bible. We are just towards England ; noblesse
oblige; let England learn at least to be just towards us.
Note 5, p. 282. — Subsequently the Government made a still more brilliant
stroke of business. " Even if it should happen that the Government Com
missioners have given 5000 five-franc pieces, instead of 5000 dollars, that they
have paid in deteriorated bank-notes' of foreign states, instead of metallic
coins and Exchequer bills, and the Indians have refused to accept such pay
ment : they intimated that the Government does not pay in any other way ;
but if they would consent to a discount of 15 per cent. , they should have
hard cash."
Note 6, p. 282. — Report of the Commissioners on Indian Affairs for 1869,
p. 179. The Californian Indians were long ill-used, robbed of their natural
rights, and often cheated even out of their privileges conferred by the Govern
ment. Their domestic happiness was destroyed, they were driven from their
hunting and fishing grounds, &c. This excited the passions of the Indians,
and they became dangerous enemies of the white race.
Note 7, p. 288. — The strongest, it maybe said the most cynical, representa
tive of this view is Herr v. Hellwald in his Culture-History. There, for
example, he points to the dying-out of the emancipated negroes — which he
asserts — as "the most thorough and the most favourable of all solutions of
this question ; " and adds, " Even in this way the Union is once for all set
free of care for its 'black brethren,' culture thereby enjoys a triumph, which
is constantly bound up with the disappearance of a heterogeneous people-
element. "
Note 8, p. 293. — Individual exceptional cases have indeed occurred. There
have been pious slave-holders, who have been anxious for the religious in
struction of their slaves : people who either deceived themselves as to the
righteousness of slavery, in consequence of religious prejudices based upon
the Old Testament, or who accepted the actually existing institution, justi
fied as it was by public opinion, as an evil which it was not in their power to
remedy So far as we know, there was never but one proper missionary union
of slave-holders. It consisted of a number of slave-holding Boers in the Cape
Colony The first agents of the Rhenish Missionary Society entered into the

372 MISSIONS. AND CULTURE.
service of this union. But the friendship was not of long continuance. When
the missionaries set themselves earnestly to elevate the slaves materially,
intellectually, and morally, and their labours produced fruit, and when
emancipation was proclaimed by the British Government, then the friendship
was changed into hostility.
Note 9, p. 299. — The same author states in the Berlin Mission-Report, 1873,
p. 80 : " The two chief counsellors of the well-known Ghaika Chief Saudile,
Tyala and Soga by name, both heathens, waited on Mr. Brownlee, who was
then magistrate of King William's Town, to present a petition to the gover
nor, that he would prohibit or restrict the drinking-houses ; because the
Kaffirs, after they had lost tlieir property by drinking, would seize on that
of the whites. They wished to make him aware of the danger now, that he
might not afterwards hold them responsible for the consequences.
Note 10, p. 301. — The Report referred to became accessible to us only
when our work was in the press, so that we were able to make use of it only
occasionally, while correcting the proofs. We knew it before only from the
New Prussian Zeitung, of 15th June 1879, supplement. The passage quoted
there from the Bamberg Deputy, stands, we are sorry to say, word for word
in the Report. But we are happy to be able to affirm that the Deputy is not
justified in his assertion that the German Government treats the mission only
with humour. Happily, the passage complained of is the only one to which
this remark could justly be applied. In other respects — with the exception
of the tone of the materially just denunciation of the King of Apamama —
the Report speaks of the mission with ail the earnestness which is as much
appropriate to such a document, as it is suited to the importance of the work,
of which its statements contain an essential acknowledgment. For the rest,
we intend to publish a special article on the Report in the Allg. Miss. Zeits
chrift. It will appear in the September number, and to it we refer the
reader. Note n, p. 308. — On the mention of the magic-lantern we cannot but refer
to the reprehensible foolery which the English missionaries among the nature-
peoples often practise with this instrument, which seems to form an essential
part of their equipment. On account of the misuse of it, we wish they
would leave the magic-lantern at home. The instruction afforded by views,
which they sometimes impart by means of it, could be very well given by
ordinary pictures. The advantage is only an imaginary one. In the best
cases the magic-lantern only affords amusement, or gives occasion to pleasant
scenes by misunderstanding — in worse cases it brings the missionary into the
suspicion of being a conjuror. Examples are not far to seek.
Note 12, p. 309.— It is a fashion in certain circles bristling with "science,"
to look down contemptuously on the average missionary because he has not
a university education. As if at home all men were looked down upon who
had not gone through a university course ! While, without any doubt the
university course — which we hold in all honour — has neither the privilege
infallibly nor exclusively to produce practically qualified men, we cannot see
why the want of it should be discreditable to the missionary. In the mission-
service we do not require only men who have the qualifications of university
professors, while we rejoice that we have a considerable number of such, who
by their scientifically important doings enjoy a well-merited reputation even
among the scientific circles of Europe, India and China. Though a large
proportion of our missonaries have no university training — in America and
most of the English Free Churches they go from the same institutions in

NOTES. 373
which the home clergy are trained— their study of foreign languages and
peoples, their contact with the world-commerce, even their calling, in many
cases make up for the deficiency. The writer of this has become acquainted
with a whole host of missionaries of the hand-working classes, who had no
education but that of the ordinary seminary when they left their native
country, and he has been astonished at their intelligence when they have
returned home after some ten years' absence. We need many kinds of gifts
in the mission-service, because we have many tasks to perform, and we by
no means regard it as axiomatic that the scientifically trained missionaries
have always and everywhere filled in the most creditable way the places
assigned them, and have enjoyed the greatest respect and exercised the
deepest- reaching influence among the heathen.
Note, 13, p. 314. — The fact referred to probably rests also on other grounds.
To state, for example, a few : the merely outward form of conversion with
which Mohammedanism is satisfied ; the polygamy and the slave-trade which
it permits ; the indulgence which it exercises towards the continuance of
heathenish immoralities, and towards the gratification of all sinful inclina
tions of the natural man, &c. Or, as Rohlfs expresses it : " The doctrine of
the prophet imposes on the Africans no change in the manner of living ; "
and he adds, " The preachers of the prophet's doctrine in Africa are unpaid
and poor, while the Christian missionaries are surrounded with affluence ! "
Note 14, p. 317. — Hubbe-Schleiden, op. cit., p. 63, says, in vindication of
the missions, when their opponents would hold them responsible for the mis
use which their former pupils sometimes make of the education given them
in the mission institutions : " Besides, the influence of commerce, with the
far greater practical means which it has at its disposal, must fairly be held
to so far exceed the influence of the mission, that when improprieties occur
in any place along' with our civilization, on this prmciple commerce ought
rather to be held responsible for them."
Note 15, p. 318. — Warneck, Night and Morning in Sumatra, 2nd Edit :
(Barmen, 1872) p. 100. Certainly experiences of exactly the opposite char
acter have occurred. So Behrens the Hermannsburg missionary writes from
South Africa! "The people in a less degree take example by the teacher,
because he is a white man ; he is, so to speak, born with so many wants,
they cannot compare themselves with him ; he stands too high above them
for them even to try to imitate him in the outer life. But they soon take
example by one another. What the one has the other must have ; what the
one does the other also must soon do."
Note 16, p. 321.— I am reminded of a story which forms a fitting pendent
to this narrative, only that it makes still more demand on the risible muscles.
A Rhenish missionary, stationed in Borneo, told it of a Dayak ; but unfortu
nately I forget where it ia recorded, so that I can only, tell it imperfectly—
A heathen Dayak, filled with envy of the beautiful European clothes which,
at least in part, his Christian countrymen wore, came to the missionary
be^in"- for a suit of clothes. The poor man himself possessed little more
than what was on his back ; but he remembered that he had a dressing-gown,
which he did not require. In his good nature he presented this robe de
chambre to the beggar, who received it with the promise that he would come
to the preachiDg. Punctually next Sunday comes my Dayak. The mission
ary has just read his text and is going to begin the sermon. But what he
sees puts him so out of countenance that it ia only with an extreme effort

374 MISSIONS AND CULTURE.
that he can keep from laughing aloud. The Dayak had put on the dressing-
gown with his legs thrust into the sleeves, and the skirts thrown over his
shoulders, while for the rest, he wore his Adamic costume !
Such caricatures are found everywhere ; kings dress themselves in cast-off
military uniforms ; others use jackets for breeches, or strut with a waistcoat
turned upside down aa their only garment.
Note 17, p. 343.— On the Gaboon it is called pidgeon English (pidgeon
being a corruption of business). Hubbe-Schleiden, op. cit., p. 171 f., says :
"The author was acquainted with a negro who spoke and wrote English
fluently, spoke French, could make himself understood in Spanish and
Portuguese, and was master of several dialects of the neighbouring negro
tribes." He was brought up as a Protestant or Presbyterian, but had, by his
association with infidel Europeans, emancipated himself from this influence,
and was as much a free-thinker as great numbers are in Europe. But in the
bottom of his heart there lurked the most grievous superstition."
Note 18, p. 343. — The Wesleyan visitor of the West Indies, Rev. Dr.
Osborne, at this year's celebration, told the following suggestive anecdote
of negro vanity. "A letter was delivered at a farm-house with the address
' John Mathews, Esquire. ' The lady of the house declared that there was
no such person as John Mathews, Esq., there. Just then the black stable-
boy happened to pass, and said, ' Pardon, madam, the letter for me.' 'For
give me ! I did not know that you were au esquire.' ' Oh all gentlemen what
wears shoes and stockings are esquire here.' " Unfortunately some of the
Wesleyan collectors speculate upon this vanity, instead of resisting it. "A
short time ago a meeting was held in Jamaica, at which the minister read
the list of subscribers, and called out, 'Nelson Coffie, one dollar.' 'You
say Mister Nelson Coffie,' answered the person addressed, 'and me pay two
dollars.' ' Good ! give five dollars aud I will style you Nelson Coffie, Esq.'
' Massa, me give dat money.' "
Note 19, p. 352. — For this alliance so competent a witness as Stanley pleads.
On the Congo the missionary must follow the merchant ; in the larger
African kingdoms which are already under a fixed rule, such as Uganda, the
merchant must follow the missionary — so wrote the celebrated discoverer
before the publication of his two-volume book, Through the Dark Continent.
It is well known that it was at Stanley's direct instigation that the Church
Missionary Society undertook their work on the Victoria Nyanza, after the
traveller himself had made the first attempt to convert Mtesa. " Oh, that
the hour were come when a company of philanthropic capitalists were formed
to set free these fair lands, and that funds were provided that the mes
sengers of the Gospel might come and put an end to that murderous hate
with which man regards man in the wondrously beauteous lands by the
Victoria Lake."
Oberlander, who is but a very cold and reserved, and, through defective
knowledge, a prejudiced advocate of missions, writes in his book, Livingstone's
followers ; Africa travelled over from East to West by Stanley and Cameron :
' Stanley demands for the newly-won territory the activity of the merchant
and that of the missionary. Many readers will be surprised at this ; but the
English and the Americans think otherwise, and laugh at us German Liberals,
because we do not recognise the importance of the mission. In the war with
the Ashantis, at the Cape, in the formation of the Transvaal Republic, and
elsewhere, England has perceived that the success of her work among the
heathen becomes possible only by its being preceded by the quiet efforts of
the missionaries ; and the Americans, with their world-glance, know still

NOTES. 375
better than the English, that the heathen mission is a great international
power among the natives. Even in Germany there is a constantly increasing
understanding of the culture-historical importance of the mission. There is
scarcely any other department of work respecting which so indistinct and
erroneous suppositions prevail among a great portion of the German people,
as respecting the constantly extending action of Protestant missions. A
couple of hundred men in all lands of the earth are labouring in connection
with the German societies as pioneers of culture. How much ethnography,
geography, and philology are advanced by the labours of the missionaries is
gradually being acknowledged by specialists even in Germany. And this asser
tion is in no way inconsistent with the circumstance that we cannot altogether
sympathise with the efforts of such missionaries, who encounter the children
of nature with subtle dogmas of faith (!) We by no means extend our good
wishes to the fanatical propagators of a special form of confession (!), who
generally regard it as their highest task to anticipate their confessional
opponents, in order to draw over to their special form of faith the largest
possible number of apparently converted souls."

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