Chapter C: C. Abbot writes in the New York Sun (1)

Beasts and birds long ago became afraid of man, and afraid of
him in a way wholly different from their fear of other forms of
animal life. This demonstrates that they recognize a difference,
as when I can not approach a snipe that will permit a cow almost
to tread upon it. Fear being the sum of disastrous experiences,
the birds that soonest learned the lesson of prudence left
the most descendants. The fearless ones paid the price of
their foolhardiness and died out. Such conditions did not call
for anatomical changes, but mental ones, and this increased
mentality that led to the preservation of the species is so near
the border line of what Goldwin Smith calls self-improvement
that it can be looked upon only as its forerunner, as birds and
all beasts foreran the man who was to prove their arch enemy.

(2015)

=Mercenary Spirit, The=--See GOLD, TAINT OF.

MERCY, LIMITATION OF

Says the old hymn:

While the lamp holds out to burn,
The vilest sinner may return.

An old Saxon king had some serious trouble with his subjects:
they murmured against him and at last rose up in rebellion.
The king set out to subdue them, and soon the well-disciplined
troops won a decided victory over the tatterdemalion horde
opposing them. Having conquered, the king determined to show
mercy. He adopted the novel expedient of placing a candle in the
window of his castle and proclaiming that all should be pardoned
who returned “while the candle burns.” (Text.)

(2016)

=Merit=--See PRAISE, UNNECESSARY.

MERIT COUNTS

An instance of a work published not because of its merit, but
“from a cold and calculating publisher’s point of view of very
doubtful sale,” is McMaster’s “History of the United States.”

The manuscript of the first volume was sent to the house by the
author without introduction or comment of any kind. The author
was a young tutor in mathematics at Princeton, had published
nothing on any historical subject, and as far as any one knew
at Princeton, had made no special historical study. It appeared
that one very prominent New York house had declined to risk
the publication of the work, and the historical expert of the
house could not bring himself to recommend it as a reasonable
publishing venture. Finally, the senior member of the firm read
the manuscript himself, and decided to undertake the venture,
believing in its probable success. The author was written to,
he presented himself for the first time, being personally
unknown in the office, and arrangements for the publication of
this most popular and successful work were concluded within ten
minutes.--_Appleton’s Magazine._

(2017)

=Merit Recognized=--See INCONSPICUOUS WORKERS.

MERIT WINS

Dr. S. Parkes Cadman tells this story of the late Dudley Buck, the well-known musical composer:

He was offered a thousand dollars by the managers of the
Cincinnati Festival for a score which should embody solos,
choruses and the accompanying orchestration. He promptly refused
the offer, because it was not an open one to all competitors.
Thereupon the managers threw it open, and the result was that
Mr. Buck sent in “Marmion” and his setting of “The Golden
Legend” under a nom de plume, and, of course, its merits won the
prize.

(2018)

=Merriment Misplaced=--See DRUNKENNESS, THE TRAGEDY OF.

MESSAGE, A TIMELY

In the “Life of Lord Tennyson,” by his son, a story is told of
a New England clergyman who once wrote to Tennyson telling him
how, one Sabbath, he was strangely imprest to drop his sermon,
and recite “The Charge of the Light Brigade.” The congregation
were shocked and later dismissed the pastor. Subsequently, a
stranger called upon this clergyman, and told him how on that
particular Sunday he had wandered into his church and heard him
recite the famous poem; that he was in that charge; had fought
at Gettysburg; and felt he had done something, and ought to be a
man. Said the New England clergyman to the old England poet: “I
lost my pulpit, but I saved a soul.”

(2019)

MESSAGE, A WELCOME

It is related that one day, when the arctic explorer Nansen was
battling with the ice-floes in the Polar seas, a carrier-pigeon
tapped at the window of Mrs. Nansen’s home at Christiania.
Instantly the casement was opened, and the wife of the famous
arctic explorer in another moment covered the little messenger
with kisses and caresses. The carrier-pigeon had been away from
the cottage thirty long months, but it had not forgotten the way
home. It brought a note from Nansen stating that all was going
well with him and his expedition in the Polar regions. He had
fastened the message to the frail courier, and turned it loose
into the frigid air. It flew like an arrow over a thousand miles
of frozen waste, and then sped forward over another thousand
miles of ocean and plain and forests, and one morning entered
the window of the waiting mistress, and delivered the message
for which she had been waiting so anxiously. (Text.)

(2020)

=Messengers, Business=--See TIME-SAVERS.

=Meteorites=--See HEAVENLY VISITORS.

=Meteorological Changes and Crime=--See CRIME, EPIDEMICS OF.

METHOD IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION

Mrs. Wesley carried her principle of method and a time-table
into the realm of religion. She began surprizingly early. “The
children were early made to distinguish the Sabbath from other
days, and were soon taught to be still at family prayers, and
to ask a blessing immediately afterward, which they used to
do by signs, before they could kneel or speak!” The cells of
each infantile brain were diligently stored with passages of
Scripture, hymns, collects, etc. Prayer was woven into the
fabric of every day’s life. The daily lesson of each child was
set in a framework of hymns. Later, certain fixt hours were
assigned to each member of the household, during which the
mother talked with the particular child for whom that hour was
set aside.--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley and His Century.”

(2021)

=Method in Service=--See SERVICE, METHOD OF.

=Methods, Imperfect=--See GRAVITATION, LAW OF.

METHODS IN RELIGION

Francis Newman once tried to explain to Dr. Martineau the
difference between his own religious attitude and that of his
eminent brother, the cardinal. “It is a matter of faith,” he
said. “I have faith, and the cardinal has none. The cardinal
comes to a river, and believes that he can not possibly cross it
unless he takes a particular boat with a particular name painted
on it. But I believe that I can swim.” (Text.)--FRANCIS
GRIBBLE, _The Fortnightly Review_.

(2022)

=Mettle that Wins=--See LOADS, BALKING UNDER.

=Microbes=--See CLEANSING, DIFFICULTY OF.

MILITANT EVANGELISM

Robert Collyer told me the other day of a big-hearted,
big-fisted old clergyman in Yorkshire who was so determined to
convert the wild, wicked dwellers on the moors that when they
refused to come into church on Sunday, he would rush out of his
pulpit, spring into a crowd of cock-fighters outside the chapel,
knock some of them down with his brawny fist, collar them, drag
them in, and then administer gospel truths right and left to the
rascals.--JAMES T. FIELDS.

(2023)

MILITARISM

This is merely what eight years’ increase in army and navy has cost the American people:

Average annual cost of army and navy for the eight years
preceding the Spanish War (1890–1898), $51,500,000.

Average annual cost of army and navy for the eight years since
the Spanish War (1902–1910), $185,400,000.

Average yearly increase in the latter period as compared with
the former, $134,000,000, making a total increase in eight years
of $1,072,000,000, or 360 per cent.

This eight-year increase exceeds the national debt by
$158,000,000.

It exceeds the entire budget of the United States for 1910.

It is twice as much as the highest estimate of carrying out the
deep water-ways projects.

It is nearly three times the estimated cost of replanting the
56,000,000 acres of denuded forest land in the United States.

It is three times the estimated cost of the Panama Canal,
including purchase price from the French company.

It is three times the cost of carrying out the whole irrigation
program contemplated within a generation.

It is probably enough to banish tuberculosis from the United
States within a reasonable time, if efficiently used to arouse
and assist the people in their fight against this dread disease.
More than 160,000 are dying yearly from this cause.

It is $60 for every family in the United States.

It lays a yearly tax of 1¼ per cent on the total wages paid in
the United States, on the supposition that wages average $600 to
the family; and we pay it in the higher price of our goods.

Interest on this sum at 4 per cent would give an income of
$1,000 a year forever to 42,880 families--a city of 200,000.

The increase for 190–09 is only $13,000,000 less than all the
gifts to charities, libraries, educational institutions, and
other public causes in 1909, which reached the vast total of
$185,000,000.

The cost of a battleship would build a macadam road of approved
construction between the cities of Chicago and New York.

The Congressional Library at Washington, the finest library
building in the world, was built for little over half the cost
of a battleship, and is maintained for three-fourths the cost of
keeping her afloat.

Fifty manual training-schools could be built and equipped with
necessary tools and appliances for the cost of a battleship,
teaching the rudiments of a trade to 75,000 young people each
year.

The cost of a few battleships wisely spent in the fight
against tuberculosis in New York City, coupled with proper
legislation and cooperation of the people, would probably render
this disease as rare in a generation or two as is smallpox
to-day.--By courtesy of the Peace Society.

(2024)

See ARMIES OF THE WORLD, NAVAL POWERS AND ARMAMENTS; NAVIES OF THE
WORLD; WAR AND RACIAL FERTILITY.

Forty Y. M. C. A. buildings could be built and equipped
throughout for the cost of a battleship, each building
accommodating the young men in a city of 200,000 people.

One 26,000-ton battleship ($12,000,000) + 20 years’ upkeep at
$800,000 a year,--$28,000,000: Then the junk heap.

$28,000,000: 1,400 churches at $20,000 each, 7,000 farms at
$4,000 each, a college education for 14,000 men or women at $500
a year for four years.

For past wars and preparation for war, $423,000,000, or 70 per cent.

Left for other purposes, $181,000,000, or 30 per cent.

Which benefits a few trusts and contractors and gives temporary
and uneconomical employment, but which is rapidly impoverishing
the nations.

Ordinary income of the United States for 1908–09, $604,000,000.]

Our generation has not accepted Christ’s ideal of
non-resistance, gentleness and humility. We believe in
_Dreadnaughts_ and armed regiments. At our conferences in The
Hague and Mohonk we plead for peace; at our capitals we vote
uncounted millions for cannon and bombshells. Disclaiming
hypocrisy, we excuse ourselves by saying that the best way to
preserve peace is to prepare for war, when in our hearts we know
that a man who carries a concealed revolver in his pocket is a
thousand times more likely to slay any chance enemy than if he
had left his weapon at home or hurled it into the sea. We admire
and love the Quaker--but we want him to stay in Philadelphia;
the man we send to Washington must argue for us that a nation
needs a war about once in thirty years.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2025)

=Military Sagacity=--See RETREAT DISCOURAGED.

=Millennial Possibilities=--See FUTURE WELFARE.

=Mind=--See MASTERY.

MIND-ACTIVITY

Dr. R. S. Storrs points out the activity of the mind and its persistence under great limitations in these words:

A universal spasmodic disease masters the organs of locomotion,
so that the arm or the limb will remain in any posture,
however unnatural, in which it is placed. The senses are
usually entirely sealed, of no more avail than if they were
obliterated. And the continued pulsation, with the warmth
which this maintains in the system, are the only indications
that life remains. Yet there have been authentic instances in
which the mind, thus shrouded from sight, instead of being
destroyed, impaired, or even limited, in its central force,
has been stimulated to a more amazing activity, by being thus
crowded, as it were, into a corner of its realm; and has feared
and agonized, or has triumphed and exulted, with a vividness of
experience altogether unaccustomed.

(2026)

=Mind and Will Conquering Circumstances=--See PHYSICAL WEAKNESS
OVERCOME.

MIND-HEALING

The story is told of a woman who called on a physician for
nervous trouble. She was a woman whose ailments had worried
and excited her to such a degree that she was threatened with
nervous prostration. Said the doctor: “Madam, what you need is
to read your Bible more.” She promptly began to take offense at
the strange prescription. He told her he meant it. “Go home and
read your Bible an hour a day; then come back to me a month from
to-day.” She thought over the matter, recalled the fact that tho
she was a professing Christian she had been neglecting to read
her Bible, and so she decided to take his advice. At the end of
the month she came back to the office a well woman. She felt
like a different person. She needed no medicine. (Text.)

(2027)

MIND, THE HUMAN

In the yard stands the locomotive. It is a masterpiece of the
mechanic’s art. Burnished and lubricated journals fit in boxes
and connecting-rods are welded to connection. Valves, pistons
and wheels are all ready for the harmonious interplay which
makes this mass of metal a thing of power. The twin rails beckon
it to be on its way; the machine itself pants impatiently;
impulsively sobs the pop-valve. But the locomotive waits, must
wait for the driver’s will. Not stoutest boiler or greatest head
of steam can draw the train until the man reveals his mind to
the locomotive.--T. C. MCCLELLAND.

(2028)

MINIATURE WORK

I have to-day a paper at home, as long as half my hand, on which
was photographed the whole contents of a London newspaper. It
was put under a dove’s wing, and sent into Paris, where they
enlarged it, and read the news.--WENDELL PHILLIPS.

(2029)

=Minister, The Little=--See CHILD RELIGION.

MINISTRY, DIFFICULTIES OF THE

It is sometimes in order for the members of one profession to plume themselves at the expense of another. Especially does it seem to be the thought at times that the ministry is peculiarly a profession of ease. That there is a truer and deeper view, however, is seen in the following:

A barrister, accustomed to practise in criminal courts, made
sneering remarks concerning preachers. “If,” said he, “I were
to address a jury in the average way you clergymen do I should
never get a conviction.” The elderly clergyman to whom he spoke,
replied: “If you had to address the same jury 104 times a year,
and your object was not to get them to give a verdict against
some other person--which they might be willing to do--but to
induce them to convict themselves, I doubt if you would do any
better than we do.” Silence on the part of the barrister. (Text.)

(2030)

MINUTE, IMPORTANCE OF A

’Twas only a minute that would not stay,
But how many noticed its flight?
And yet for one it parted the way,
Betwixt life’s bloom and its blight.

It pointed the new-born baby’s breath,
First felt on the mother’s breast;
For another it sounded the summons of death
And a weary one gone to his rest.

At that moment two souls were together wed
Till death should call them apart;
Another to virtue bowed his head
And consecrated his heart.

Ah! big was the moment that flitted away,
And hardly one noticed its flight;
And hundreds of minutes make up the day,
And hundreds are lost in the night.

--BENJAMIN REYNOLDS BULKELEY, _New England Magazine_.

(2031)

MIRACLES

Whether the miracles of Jesus really happened or are merely
legendary I do not know, and, if I may say it without
irreverence, I do not care. They are not necessary to my
Christianity, which, to say the truth, can better do without
them. What is it to me, and to such as me, whether, in the
little village of Bethany, Jesus did or did not raise to life
one poor dead body, when I know that in the centuries since he
has raised to life millions of dead souls? And what, after all,
does it matter whether on the shores of the lake of Galilee on
a late afternoon nearly two thousand years ago he gave one meal
to five thousand persons by feeding them with a few loaves and
fishes, when I know that all the world over, every day, every
night, this very night, he is feeding countless millions of the
poor, the opprest and the broken-hearted, making them forget
their hunger and thirst and all the sufferings of their earthly
existence in the bread of the Spirit that is the bread of
life?--HALL CAINE, _Christian Commonwealth_.

(2032)

* * * * *

Some wealthy Africans, with whom Kruger was traveling in the
desert, found the food-hampers gone astray. “You are a great
believer in miracles, Oom Paul,” said one of them. “Why can’t
you arrange for heaven to send me victuals by the crows, as they
were sent by the ravens to Elijah.” “Because,” said Oom, dryly,
“Elijah was a prophet with a mission; you are a fool with an
appetite.”

(2033)

MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF

Whatever effect or lack of effect miracles have on modern minds, the following account shows that they are of first value to simple-minded natives. The writer is Sophie B. Titterington:

When the rumor flew around Aniwa that “Missi” (Dr. John G.
Paton), was trying to dig water out of the ground, the old
Christian chief tenderly labored with him. “Oh, Missi, your head
is going wrong. Don’t let our people hear you talking about
going down into the earth for rain, or they will never listen to
your word, or believe you again.”

But the island was greatly in need of good water, and Dr. Paton
dug away at the well, single-handed. It was hard, weary work.
He hired some of the natives with fish-hooks to get out three
pailfuls each, still doing most of the heavy work himself.
But when the well was twelve feet deep, one side of it caved
in. This gave the loving, troubled old chief another plea. He
represented that if Missi had been in the hole that night, he
would have been killed, and an English warship would have come
to find out what had happened to the white man. They would not
believe that Missi had gone into that hole of his own accord,
but would punish them for his supposed murder.

When he was thirty feet down the earth became damp. That evening
he said to the old chief with earnest solemnity, “I think that
Jehovah God will give us water to-morrow from that hole.”

“No, Missi,” the faithful old fellow sighed. “You will never get
rain coming up from the earth in Aniwa. We expect daily, if you
reach water, to see you drop into the sea where the sharks will
eat you!”

At daybreak. Dr. Paton went down and made a little hole in the
center of the bottom of his well. He says: “I trembled in every
limb when the water rushed up and began to fill the hole. Muddy
tho it was, I eagerly tasted it, and the little cup almost dropt
from my hand in sheer joy, and I fell upon my knees in that
muddy bottom to praise the Lord. It was water! It was living
water from Jehovah’s well!”

With superstitious fear the people gazed upon the jugful their
Missi carried up. The old chief shook it, touched it, tasted it.
“Rain! rain. Yes, it is rain!”

The back of heathenism was broken. A new order of things
began in Aniwa. Family prayers and reverence for the Sabbath
spontaneously grew up. The wonderful transformation which was
wrought in the Aniwans became household talk all over the
world. All this was hastened because the ambassador of Jehovah
God had done what none of the gods of the islanders could have
done--brought up rain from the ground! (Text.)

(2034)

=Mirror, The, as a Revealer=--See SELF-INSPECTION.

MISCALCULATION

What is said to be the largest plow in the world was made
some years ago at Bakersfield, Cal. This plow was the result
of the ingenuity of a ranch superintendent, who had authority
to make improvements, but not to introduce steam-plows. The
superintendent had grown very tired of preparing three thousand
acres of land for wheat with ordinary nine- or twelve-inch plows
drawn by two horses.

He argued that if two horses could pull a twelve-inch plow,
six horses could pull a plow thirty-six inches wide, and that
eight horses could pull a plow forty-eight inches wide. He made
the calculations carefully, and, being clever with his pencil,
made drawings also, and sent for blacksmiths and machinists to
construct a plow on his principle.

Some simple folk told him that his great plow would not work,
but they contented themselves with saying this dogmatically,
without giving any mathematical reason therefore. So the
superintendent went on with his plans.

The blacksmiths and machinists finished the plow in due time.
The share was made to cut a fifty-inch furrow; the top of it
reached five feet above the ground, to give room to throw the
earth. The beam was more than a foot thick; but the machine was
constructed to run between two great wheels, so that it could be
turned around easily; and on the axle between these wheels was
the seat for the man who was to drive the ten horses which were
hitched to it.

The plow was brought to the great field, the ten horses were
attached to it, the handles were raised, the driver mounted his
seat, and the team was started. But as soon as the share struck
well into the ground the horses stopt short. They were stuck
fast. And yet the plow had not gone too deeply into the earth.
But it was evident that they could not pull the plow. More
horses were brought out, but not until fifty were attached did
the plow move along.

Even then it required four men to hold the handles, in order to
keep the plow in the furrow. It was an economic failure.

Then the superintendent, through the intervention of some one
who was a better mathematician than he, learned that he should
have cubed the capacity of his twelve-inch plow every time he
doubled the width of it.--_Harper’s Weekly._

(2035)

MISER, A WORTHLESS

A certain John Hopkins, familiarly known in his day for his
rapacity as “Vulture Hopkins,” lived a worthless life but died
possest of a million and a half dollars, left so as not to be
inherited until after the second generation, so that, as he
said, “his heirs would be as long spending it as he had been in
getting it.” Pope preserved his memory in this couplet:

“When Hopkins dies a thousand lights attend
The wretch who, living, saved a candle’s end.”

Such a life is properly to be condemned, altho its results may be useful to a subsequent generation.

(2036)

=Miserliness=--See MAMMON-WORSHIP; SAVING DISAPPROVED.

MISERY AN EDUCATOR

How often I had traced the boy who had robbed the box-car
with unerring precision to the big, lawless business man who
controlled or directed a trust, debauched a legislature, bought
a senatorship or united with the gamblers and dive-keepers to
steal a public franchise. Why was there so much kindness and so
little justice? Why were men good to children, to churches and
universities, and still so unjust? And when the other fights
were won, the fights for the playgrounds, the detention home
school, the juvenile court and all it implies, the biggest fight
of all was yet ahead. But that little fight helped us to see the
necessity for the big fight. We were being educated through the
misery and misfortune of the children.--BEN B. LINDSEY,
_The Survey_.

(2037)

MISERY EXCITING SYMPATHY

The subjects which especially awakened the pencil of Thomas
Rowlandson were the denizens of the squalid quarters of London.
Muther says of him: “The cry of misery rising from the pavement
of great cities had been first heard by Rowlandson, and the
pages on which he drew the poor of London are a living dance of
death of the most ghastly veracity.” (Text.)

(2038)

=Misfortune=--See DESIRES INORDINATE.

=Misfortune, Meeting=--See NATURE, ENJOYMENT OF.

MISFORTUNE, SUPERIORITY TO

The Caucasian mountaineers have this proverb: “Heroism is
endurance for one moment more.” The fact is recognized that the
human spirit, with its dominating force, the will, may be and
ought to be superior to all bodily sensations and accidents of
environment. In a recent psychological story called “My Friend
Will,” Charles F. Lummis pays a striking tribute to the power
of the human mind over accident and chance, when he makes his
“friend Will” say: “I am bigger than anything that can happen
to me; all those things--sorrow, misfortune and suffering--are
outside my door. I’m in the house and I’ve got the key!” (Text.)

(2039)

=Misrepresentation Rebuked=--See HONESTY IN BUSINESS.

MISSION FRUIT

A young married woman, wife of a Mohammedan, was lying ill in
one of the mission hospitals in North India. While there she
was daily taught of the love and compassion of the Savior,
and she soon desired to know and serve Him. Her husband was
told of her wish and was exceedingly angry and had her removed
immediately from the hospital. He prohibited the mission ladies
from visiting her. But just before the conveyance came to take
her away she called the doctor and missionary to her and said:
“I can be taken away from you, but not from Christ, for I can
pray to Him even behind the purdah, but I want you to remember
my desire. You know Jesus well, I only know Him a little; when
you meet me at the judgment seat of heaven, just go to Him and
tell Him who I am and how anxious I was to publicly confess Him
on earth. Make it plain to Him, please.”

(2040)

* * * * *

There is an old Indian legend that a poor man threw a bud of
charity into Buddha’s bowl and it blossomed into a thousand
flowers. So we throw the bud of Christian truth into isolated
and scattered communities, into the far-off lands, and lo, it
bursts forth into a thousand fragrant blossoms and bears fruit
in every activity of human life.--J. A. HUNTLEY.

(2041)

* * * * *

The first fruits of the gospel on mission fields are growing and ripening by the river of the water of life, day by day. No more weighty proof of the success of missions can be found than the transformation of individual character and the every-day life.

One of the Chinese brethren is a ferryman, poor in money,
but rich in faith. One evening he ferried a passenger over
the river, who had a lot of things tied up in a cloth. After
throwing the cash for his fare into the bottom of the boat, the
man departed hurriedly. The Christian went to pick up the money,
and found a pair of gold bracelets, worth $400, which the man
had dropt. He tied up his boat and tried to find the man, but
he was lost in the crowd. The boatman went home much troubled.
According to Chinese law, he could keep them if unclaimed. After
prayer, he decided to go to the chapel. The preacher heard
the story. Said he: “Your passenger doubtless was a robber,
and these things have been stolen. I will go with you to the
mandarin, and we will give the bracelets up to him. A search
will be made, and the owner found.”

This was done, and the mandarin said: “Well, I have never seen
or heard anything like this. Your religion must be a true
religion, and your God a living God, thus to influence a poor
man to give up wealth for conscience’s sake.” (Text.)

(2042)

See TRANSFORMATION.

MISSION SURGERY

On many fields missionaries have found that ministry to the ills of the body has assisted in the conversion of souls. Thus in Formosa:

Dr. Mackay, a well-known medical missionary, has found it a help
to his work to minister to bodily ills. He extracted twenty-one
thousand teeth in twenty-one years, and thirty-nine thousand in
all, and has dispensed considerable medicine. Extracting teeth
is cheaper than dealing out medicine, for beyond the instrument
there is no outlay. The natives have lost all faith in their old
doctors.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of Missions.”

(2043)

=Mission Work=--See SERVICE WITH HARDSHIP.

MISSIONARIES, MEDICAL

Africa has 135,000,000 inhabitants and 75 medical missionaries.

India has 300,000,000 inhabitants and 200 medical missionaries.

China has 350,000,000 inhabitants and 241 medical missionaries.

Japan has 42,000,000 inhabitants and 15 medical missionaries.

Turkey has 22,000,000 inhabitants and 38 medical missionaries.

Persia has 9,000,000 inhabitants and 11 medical missionaries.

Burmah has 7,500,000 inhabitants and 9 medical missionaries.

India alone contains 66,300 lunatics, 153,000 deaf and dumb,
354,000 blind and 400,000 lepers.

All missionary hospitals (Protestant) in the world can
accommodate 100,000 in-patients and 2,500,000 outpatients
annually.

These facts point to the need of men and means in order that the world may be Christianized.

(2044)

See MEDICAL MISSIONS.

MISSIONARIES’ MISTAKES

Prof. Harlan P. Beach, in an address before the Fifth International convention of the Student Volunteer Movement for foreign missions on the subject “Efficiency is limited and the kingdom is retarded by violating reasonable standards of taste or propriety,” said:

In speaking on this subject, I can show its importance, perhaps,
by an incident which happened about twenty years ago near
Peking. One night I heard a loud knocking at the outer gate of
our compound. The gatekeeper went out and was astonished to
see a dust-laden, wobegone new missionary. He had arrived at
Tientsin, his station, about four days before. He found himself
in a new community, where he could not get his bearings, and
had come to our station to learn what to do from two of our
prominent missionaries. I was glad to meet the newcomer, but
I said, “Why did you arrive so late?” “Well,” he replied, “I
couldn’t help it.” I looked at his cart; he had three mules
attached to it tandem by a great tangle of ropes. He added: “The
trouble is, I had hardly gotten started from Tientsin when this
front mule, who is young, took a notion that he would desert the
beaten track. He left the roadway suddenly before the carter
could prevent it and made a dash straight for a china-shop.
There was a terrific crash. The ropes got caught between the
legs of the second mule and dragged him over into a great lot of
jars which went to pieces, and even the wheel-mule, hemmed in by
the vast timbers that do duty as shafts in China, yielding to
the shock, crashed into the china-shop.” It took a long time to
get that difficulty righted, and hence he was late.

This incident illustrates my subject in six respects: (1)
Missionaries, like those mules, make many breaks; (2) they
usually make them at the start; (3) the breaks are generally
due to ignorance, or to wilfulness; (4) the work of missions
is retarded greatly by these mistakes, just as my friend was
delayed until late that night; (5) mistakes of missionaries
involve their associates, as the action of this frisky front
mule brought the whole outfit into disrepute; (6) what is most
important of all, they bring loss to superiors. Those mules were
mere animals, but there was a carter there and also my friend,
who was anxious to hasten the coming of the kingdom that he
took the trip at great inconvenience for that very purpose. Tho
we missionaries are only rarely mules, we are all and always
servants of a great Master, and are retarding His cause and
bringing reproach upon His name and upon the Church of God, if
we are guilty of such breaches of etiquette as are suggested by
this parable.

(2045)

MISSIONARY, A, IN THE MAKING

At the age of ten, David Livingstone went to work in the cotton
factory as a piecer, and after some years was promoted to be a
spinner. The first half-crown he earned he gave to his mother.
With part of his first week’s wages he bought a Latin text-book
and studied that language with ardor in an evening class between
eight and ten. He had to be in the factory at six in the morning
and his work ended at eight at night. But by working at Latin
until midnight he mastered Vergil and Horace by the time he was
sixteen. He used to read in the factory by putting the book on
the spinning-jenny so that he could catch a sentence at a time
as he passed at his work. He was fond of botany and geology and
zoology, and when he could get out would scour the country for
specimens.--ROBERT E. SPEER, “Servants of the King.”

(2046)

MISSIONARY, A LITTLE

“I can not afford it,” said John Hale, the rich farmer, when
asked to give to the cause of missions.

Harry, his wide-awake grandson, was grieved and indignant.

“But the poor heathen,” he replied; “is it not too bad they can
not have churches and schoolhouses and books?”

“What do you know about the heathen?” exclaimed the old man
testily. “Do you wish me to give away my hard earnings? I tell
you, I can not afford it.”

But Harry was well posted in missionary intelligence, and day
after day puzzled his curly head with plans for extracting
money for the noble cause from his unwilling relative. At last,
seizing an opportunity when his grandfather was in a good humor
over the election news, he said: “Grandfather, if you do not
feel able to give money to the missionary board, will you give a
potato?”

“A potato?” ejaculated Mr. Hale, looking up from his paper.

“Yes, sir; and land enough to plant it in, and what it produces
for four years?”

“Oh, yes!” replied the unsuspecting grandparent, settling his
glasses on his calculating nose in such a way that showed he was
glad to escape on such cheap terms from the lad’s persecution.

Harry planted the potato, and it rewarded him the first year
by producing nine; these, the following season, became a peck;
the next, seven and a half bushels, and when the fourth harvest
came, lo, the potato had increased to seventy bushels. And,
when sold, the amount realized was put with a glad heart into
the treasury of the Lord. Even the aged farmer exclaimed: “Why,
I did not feel that donation in the least! And, Harry, I’ve
been thinking that if there were a little missionary like you
in every house, and each one got a potato, or something else
as productive, for the cause, there would be quite a large sum
gathered.”--_Friend for Boys and Girls._

(2047)

MISSIONARY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

When the American missionaries came to the Sandwich Islands,
they struck off the shackles from the whole race, breaking the
power of the kings and chiefs. They set the common man free,
elevated his wife to a position of equality with him, and gave a
piece of land to each to hold forever. They set up schools and
churches, and imbued the people with the spirit of the Christian
religion. If they had had the power to augment the capacities of
the people, they could have made them perfect; and they would
have done it, no doubt.

The missionaries taught the whole nation to read and write,
with facility, in the native tongue. I don’t suppose there is
to-day a single uneducated person above eight years of age
in the Sandwich Islands! It is the best educated country in
the world, I believe. That has been all done by the American
missionaries. And in a large degree it was paid for by the
American Sunday-school children with their pennies. I know that
I contributed.--SAMUEL L. CLEMENS.

(2048)

MISSIONARY ADAPTATION

In 1881 James Robertson left the pastorate to accept the newly
created post of superintendent of home missions for Manitoba and
the Northwest. He set off at once on his first missionary tour,
driving two thousand miles, at first through heat and dust and
rain and then through frosts and blizzards. He preached where
he could, and was not to be discouraged by any situation. Once,
coming to a settlement late on a Saturday evening, where the
largest building was the hotel and the largest room the bar, he
inquired of the hotel man:

“Is there any place where I can hold a service to-morrow?”
“Service?” “Yes, a preaching service.” “Preaching? Oh, yes, I’ll
get you one,” he replied with genial heartiness. Next day Mr.
Robertson came into the bar, which was crowded with men. “Well,
have you found a room for my service?” he inquired of his
genial host. “Here you are, boss, right here. Get in behind that
bar and here’s your crowd. Give it to ’em. God knows they need
it.”

Mr. Robertson caught the wink intended for the boys only. Behind
the bar were bottles and kegs and other implements of the trade;
before it men standing up for their drinks, chaffing, laughing,
swearing. The atmosphere could hardly be called congenial,
but the missionary was “on to his job,” as the boys afterward
admiringly said. He gave out a hymn. Some of the men took off
their hats and joined in the singing, one or two whistling the
accompaniment. As he was getting into his sermon one of the men,
evidently the smart one of the company, broke in:

“Say, boss,” he drawled, “I like yer nerve, but I don’t believe
yer talk.” “All right,” replied Mr. Robertson, “give me a
chance. When I get through you can ask any questions you like.
If I can I will answer them; if I can’t I’ll do my best.”

The reply appealed to the sense of fair play in the crowd. They
speedily shut up their companion and told the missionary to
“fire ahead,” which he did, and to such good purpose that when
he had finished there was no one ready to gibe or question.
After the service was closed, however, one of them observed
earnestly: “I believe every word you said, sir. I haven’t heard
anything like that since I was a kid, from my Sunday-school
teacher. I guess I gave her a pretty hard time. But look here,
can’t you send us a missionary for ourselves? We’ll chip in,
won’t we, boys?”--ROBERT E. SPEER, “Servants of the
King.”

(2049)

=Missionary Beginnings=--See ONE, WINNING.

MISSIONARY CALL

Friends were trying to dissuade one whose ancestors were not
three generations out of cannibalism from going as a missionary
to one of the savage islands of Polynesia. They recounted all
the hardships and dangers to be encountered. “Are there men
there?” asked the volunteer.

“Men? Yes; horrible cannibals, who will probably kill you and
eat you.”

“That settles it!” was the sublime rejoinder. “That settles it!
Wherever there are men, there missionaries are bound to go!”

(2050)

MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE

On October 15, 1819, in the Park Street Church, Boston, a
mission to the Hawaiian Islands was organized with the following
members: Messrs. Bingham and Thurston, ministers; Messrs.
Whitney and Ruddles, teachers; Thomas Holman, physician; Elisha
Loomis, printer; Daniel Chamberlain, farmer, together with their
wives, and three Hawaiian young men from the Cornwall Missionary
School. These seventeen went forth to erect a Christian
civilization upon pagan shores, for they represented the Church,
the common school, the printing-press, the medicine-chest, and
the implements of agriculture. They set sail from Boston October
23, 1819, and reached the Hawaiian coast March 31, 1820, after
somewhat more than five months.--PIERSON, “The Miracles
of Missions.”

(2051)

=Missionary Giving=--See CROWNING CHRIST.

=Missionary Good Sense=--See DIPLOMAT, A, AND MISSIONS.

MISSIONARY LITERATURE

There came into our office the other day a man who had only
recently closed a very successful missionary pastorate of
several years to become the minister of a large church which
was not so strongly missionary. He ignored that fact, however,
and began to employ his former methods, which included the
observance of the monthly concert of prayer for missions. He
made out his program, based on the missionary magazine of his
denomination, and as he met one after another of those whom
he had assigned to help him, he gave them their parts. One of
the prominent members of the church he called to his study and
said to him, “I want you to read such and such an article in
your magazine and give us the gist of it at the next missionary
meeting.” “My magazine,” replied the man. “I haven’t--I don’t
take any magazine with that article in it.” “What, don’t you
take the missionary magazine? Just look at it,” said he, laying
it out before him. “Oh, is that it? Never saw it before. How
much is it? Thirty-five cents? I guess if you are going to have
this concert business every month, I might as well subscribe
for it and have my own copy. Looks pretty good, too, doesn’t
it? Didn’t know missions could be drest up so well. Cover looks
like one of our regular magazines.” This pastor knows how to do
it. Other wise pastors will mention the best missionary books;
they will see that their people know of the latest missionary
literature.--F. P. HAGGARD, “Student Volunteer
Movement,” 1906.

(2052)

MISSIONARY MARTYRDOM

A convert from Islam took advantage of the Ameer’s visit to
Kandahar and crossed the frontier, unbidden and uninvited, to
preach Christianity in Afghanistan. He was arrested, taken
before the Ameer, and sent in chains to Kabul, but was murdered
before reaching there. He was named Abdul Karim, and was at
one time one of the workers at Bannu. Mrs. Pennell wrote that
when he was taken prisoner and refused to repeat the “Kalima,”
saying he was a Christian, he was taken to Kandahar. The
Ameer questioned him, and on his again refusing to repeat the
“Kalima,” and saying he had come to preach the gospel, he was
ordered to be flogged, put in chains, and to be taken to Kabul,
where he was to await the return of the Ameer, and unless he
changed his mind would get due punishment.

Heavily chained hand and foot, he set out with an escort for
Kabul; that at the villages he was spat upon, and the hairs of
his beard pulled out--and at length the poor, weary sufferer, at
a village before reaching Kabul, was murdered. (Text.)

(2053)

=Missionary Power=--See GOD IN MISSIONS.

MISSIONARY PRAYER

The late Joseph Cook is the author of this prayer in verse for the spread and triumph of God’s kingdom:

One field the wheeling world,
Vast furrows open lie;
Broadcast let seed be hurled
By us before we die.
Winds, east or west,
Let no tares fall;
Wide waft the best;
God winnow all.

Heaven hath a single sun,
All gates swing open wide;
All lands at last are one,
And seas no more divide.
In every zone,
Arise and shine;
Earth’s only throne,
Our God, be Thine.

On every desert rain,
Make green earth’s flintiest sands;
Above the land and main
Reveal Thy pierced hands.
Thy cross heaven wins;
Lift it on high;
And in his sins
Let no man die.

(2054)

=Missionary Preaching=--See TEXT, POWER OF A.

MISSIONARY RESULTS

Charles Darwin, the scientist, described the Terra Del Fuegans
as the most degraded specimens of humanity he had ever seen.
He considered them beyond the reach of civilization. The
missionaries carried the gospel to them, and Darwin, seeing the
change wrought, said with great frankness and willing publicity,
“Truly the missionary’s message is a magician’s wand.”

(2055)

* * * * *

Rev. Egerton R. Young, a missionary among the Indians of Canada, tells of an obdurate old man whose heart had been touched by the missionary whose ministrations had brought his child back to health:

He attended an open-air meeting standing at first a quarter of a
mile off. At the next meeting he drew a bit nearer, then nearer
still. Six weeks later he was among the circle kneeling at the
foot of the cross, making his confession. “Missionary,” he said,
“I was a fool, but now I have got the moss out of my ears, and
the sand out of my eyes, and I see clearly, and I hear all
right. I am so glad I came.”

Was it not of such scenes as these that the prophet was thinking
when he wrote, “The eyes of the blind shall be opened and the
ears of the deaf unstopt.” (Text.)

(2056)

See EVIL TURNED TO GOOD.

MISSIONARY SACRIFICE

San Quala was one of the first converts among the degraded
Karens. From the lowest state the gospel raised him, with a
rapidity that no civilization ever knew, to a noble Christian
manhood. His first impulse was to tell others of Jesus. He
helped to translate the Bible into the Karen tongue, for fifteen
years guided the missionaries through the jungles, and then
himself began to preach and to plant new churches. In one year
he had formed nine, with 741 converts; in less than three years
the nine had grown to thirty, with 2,000 converts. He did his
work without salary, and when the English Government offered him
a position, with large compensation, he at once declined, tho
his poverty was such as prevented him from taking his wife with
him in his missionary tours.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of
Missions.”

(2057)

See SACRIFICE FOR RELIGION.

=Missionary’s Gallant Action=--See COURAGE, CHRISTIAN.

=Missionary’s Liberation=--See INTERVENTION, DIVINE.

MISSIONARY TESTIMONY

Mr. Darwin was not regarded as a Christian, but he had the greatest respect for good in Christianity, and was candid enough to acknowledge it. This is the way in which he answered some shallow critics of foreign missionaries:

They forget, or will not remember, that human sacrifice and
the power of an idolatrous priesthood; a system of profligacy
unparalleled in any other part of the world; infanticide, a
consequence of that system; bloody wars where the conquerors
spared neither women nor children--that all these things
have been abolished, and that dishonesty, intemperance, and
licentiousness have been greatly reduced by the introduction
of Christianity. For a voyager to forget these things is a
base ingratitude; for should he chance to be at the point of
shipwreck on some unknown coast, he will most devoutly pray that
the lesson of the missionary may have extended thus far.

(2058)

* * * * *

F. A. McKenzie, the well-known foreign correspondent of the London _Mail_, says, in the London _Christian World_:

A stranger stopt me, one day. “I can not understand,” said he,
“why you, a newspaper man, should advocate missionary work; it
is not your business. Why do you meddle with it?”

“I do so because I am a Christian imperialist,” I replied. “The
white man’s civilization is the best the world has seen, and the
white man’s civilization is rooted in Christianity. I know that
every missionary is an active campaigner, not merely for a new
theology, but also for a new life, based on the foundation-stone
of our civilization--the cross. I want the white man’s ideas to
triumph not for the glory of the whites, but for the betterment
of woman-life and child-life throughout the world.”

(2059)

=Missionary Work=--See SONG, EFFECTIVE.

=Missionary Work Admired by Atheist=--See ATHEIST’S GIFT TO
MISSIONS.

MISSIONARY WORK AT HOME

Whitefield found himself in the presence of what seemed an
urgent and overwhelming call to preach. Here were the Kingswood
miners, a community ignorant, vicious, forgotten, who, beyond
all others, needed the care and teaching of the Christian
Church, and yet were left completely outside, not merely of its
agencies, but even of its very remembrance. When Whitefield
was setting out for America some wise and keen-sighted friend
said to him, “If you have a mind to convert Indians, there are
colliers enough in Kingswood.”--W. H. FITCHETT, “Wesley
and His Century.”

(2060)

MISSIONARY WORK, VALUE OF

Belle M. Brain tells the following in her book, “The Transformation of Hawaii”:

A visitor to the Hawaiian Islands a few years ago said to King
Kamehameha V: “Really now, don’t you think things are in a worse
condition than before the advent of the missionaries?”

“I leave you to judge,” answered the king. “Since you have come
into my presence you have broken the ancient law of _tabu_
in three ways. You walked into my presence instead of crawling,
you crossed my shadow, you are even now sitting before me. In
the old days any one of these things would have cost you your
life.”

(2061)

MISSIONARY ZEAL

If all Christians had the willing zeal of these poor South Sea islanders, the world would soon be converted to Christ:

On one occasion Mr. Williams explained the manner in which
English Christians raised money to send the gospel to the
heathen, and the natives of Raralonga exprest great regret at
not having money that they might help in the same good work
of causing the Word of God to grow. Mr. Williams replied: “If
you have no money, you have something that takes the place of
money; something to buy money with”; he then referred to the
pigs that he had brought to the island on his first visit, and
which had so increased that every family possest them; and he
suggested that, if every family in the island would set apart
a pig for causing the Word of God to grow, and, when the ships
came, would sell the pigs for money, a large offering might be
raised. The natives were delighted with the idea, and the next
morning the squeaking of the pigs, which were receiving the
“mark of the Lord” in their ears, was heard from one end of the
settlement to the other.--PIERSON, “The Miracles of
Missions.”

(2062)

See COURAGE, CHRISTIAN.

MISSIONS

Carlyle, in his life of Cromwell, says that he ranks the foreign
missionary and his convert with the greatest heroes in history.
It is in his story of Kapiolani. These Christian teachers in the
South Seas brought the queen to faith in God, and to the new
ideas of home, school, government and social progress. But the
people still worshiped the gods whose home was in the crater,
whose column of fire was on the sky. So the missionary and the
queen told the people that they would dare the native god. They
made their way to the foot of the mountain. The people shrieked,
wept, implored, but these two walked bravely on. They stood
on the edge of the crater, breathing the sulfurous gases. The
queen hurled stones into the abyss and shouted her threats and
denials. When they came down, in safety, superstition was dead.
Carlyle says that a Christian missionary slew a cult in that
hour, and that the event will always rank in history with Elijah
at Baal and the Christian convert who cut down the sacred oak
of Thor for Germany. But foreign missions have produced scores
of heroes and heroines like these. The history of missions is
a sky that is ablaze with light that will shine forever and
forever.--N. D. HILLIS.

(2063)

See ADVICE TO MISSIONARIES.

ATHEIST’S GIFT TO MISSIONS.

BARBARISM.

BIBLE FRUIT.

BIBLE, TESTIMONY TO.

CALLS AND CONVEYANCES IN THE EAST.

CATHOLIC FOREIGN MISSIONS.

CHILD RELIGION, CHANGES WROUGHT BY.

CHRISTIANITY, PRACTICAL PROOF OF.

CONFESSIONS.

CONVERSION.

CHRISTIAN HONESTY.

CRUEL GREED.

CRUELTY, CHINESE.

DEATH-BED FAITH.

DECEIT WITH GOD.

DEMONOLOGY.

DIPLOMAT, A, AND MISSIONS.

EMBELLISHMENT OF PREACHING.

ENLIGHTENMENT.

EXPECTORATING.

FAITH AND SUPPORT.

FALSE INFERENCE.

FIDELITY, CHRISTIAN.

FOLLOWING CHRIST.

FUNCTIONS AND GIFTS IN THE EAST.

GESTURES AND USE OF HANDS IN THE EAST.

HARVEST FROM EARLY SOWING.

HEATHEN RECEPTIVENESS.

HEATHENDOM.

HUSBAND AND WIFE, RELATIONS BETWEEN.

IGNORANCE.

IGNORANCE, PALLIATIONS OF.

IMPRESSION BY PRACTISE.

INADEQUACY OF NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS.

INDIA, MEDICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN.

INTELLIGENCE OUTDOING IGNORANCE.

INVESTMENT RETURN.

KNOWLEDGE COMPARATIVE.

LIVING THE GOSPEL.

MEDICAL MISSIONS.

MIRACLES, EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF.

PERSISTENCE IN MISSIONARIES.

PRAYER FOR COMMON NEEDS.

PROOF.

PROPRIETY.

PROPRIETY, OBSERVING THE RULES OF.

RAPPORT.

RELIGIONS CONTRASTED.

RELIGIOUS INFRACTIONS OF PROPRIETY.

RESCUE.

RESERVATION.

REWARD, THOUSANDFOLD.

SABBATH, OBSERVING THE.

SACRIFICE.

SHUT-IN MISSIONARY WORK.

SONG, EFFECTIVE.

SPEECH AND MISSIONARIES.

STATESMAN ON MISSIONS.

SURGERY IN KOREA.

TABOOED TOPICS IN THE EAST.

TESTIMONY INDISPUTABLE.

WAY, THE RIGHT.

MISSIONS A SUCCESS

_The Christian Century_ says there are yet a few intellectual
provincials that scoff at the missionary enterprise, but their
ignorance is so coming to shame them that their dolorous and
caustic voices are not often heard. No one but a moral agnostic,
a medieval race-hater, or a dogmatic religious quack could be
cynical about an enterprise that shows such amazing success as
does the missionary propaganda. Here are some figures that show
the growth of thirteen years:

1895. 1909.

Total amount given $13,470,318 $24,613,075
Given by native
churches 1,458,464 4,859,605
(Not included in above.)
Number of missionaries 11,033 21,834
Number of native
workers 49,566 92,272
Number of stations 18,545 43,934
Number of actual
church-members 1,030,776 2,097,963
Number of adherents 2,770,240 4,866,661
Number of accessions
to church in year 62,256 135,141
Number of schools 19,384 29,190
Number of pupils 860,287 1,413,995