THE WORKING TOGETHER

OF GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH IN THE EXTENSION OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.

BY THE REV. J. B. WHITING, M.A., Vicar of St. Luke's, Ramsgate.

I.

EADER, you are deeply interested in the work of the Church Missionary Society. Pity for the heathen, gratitude to your Saviour, loyalty to God your King, make you seek the conversion of lands. lying in sin and misery.

But you do not, you cannot feel so great interest in this work as God does. God's interest in it is infinite. "There is joy in the presence of the angels" when a prodigal returns-that is, God is glad, and makes His joy felt, when any sinner is rescued from the grasp of evil.

Do you realise this, Christian reader? Do you bear in mind that that great missionary work which moves you with loving energy to read, to pray, to toil, to collect, to make self-denying sacrifices, is a work very dear to God? If so, how calm you will be, how patient, how certain of ultimate success! God the Father loves the children whom He made.

"It is God, His love looks mighty,

But is mightier than it seems; 'Tis our Father, and His fondness Goes out far beyond our dreams."

God the Son loves the great wide world of sinners He came to save; and His love "knows neither measure nor end."

God the Holy Spirit is equally love. He undertook a most loving part in the scheme of Redemption. It is His office to take of the things of Christ, and to show them with saving efficacy to the souls of men.

But with God to love and to pity is to act. The blessed Holy Spirit, who, before man was made, brought order out of confusion, now moves over the wild wastes of human life with tender solicitude, and exercises His blessed offices of Advocate for God and Comforter of His Church.

This ever

The operations of infinite love and the methods in which God works are revealed in a very interesting way in the pages of the Bible. They are not proved as theories, but exhibited as facts. Beautiful examples are given of the ever-present agency of God in the extension of the Saviour's kingdom. present agency is manifested in a combined action of God the Holy Spirit and the Church of Christ. There is a reign of law in all the works of God, and no less in the great work of the salvation of the world. The evangelisation of the world forms no exception to the universal rule. God and man are found co-workers in every other department of work that is done under the sun. God does not bless the field on which the farmer has expended no thought and no labour. God makes the timber to grow, and man builds the ships. Even here God and man work together, for "he doeth the work in such sort as his God doth teach him" (Isa. xxviii. 26). It is God, moreover, who gives the workman strength and opportunity. But in the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom the agency is more closely combined. The Church labours in vain unless the Spirit works in her. The Spirit works not without the instrumentality of means.

The object of this series of papers will be to set forth in plain and simple manner this great truth, this blessed fact, that the Holy Ghost is a co-worker with the Holy Catholic Church. We propose to linger among the remarkable life portraits and the thrilling incidents of the Acts of the Apostles. We shall take the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch first, and, meanwhile, we ask the readers of the GLEANER to study that touching narrative.

ABROAD AND AT HOME.

THE NEW YEAR'S OUTLOOK.

NOTHER year, by the mercy of Him who is from everlasting to everlasting, is now opening before us. We are spared for fresh labours, if it be His will, in His most blessed service. Let us for a few moments look out upon the wide field to which He invites those of His servants who are members and friends of the Church Missionary Society, and see what they are doing to occupy it in His name.

Look at India. Our strength there is entirely overweighted by our work. The C.M.S. has a hundred missionaries in India. A goodly number, certainly; yet it is much as if, comparing the populations, two clergymen, instead of a thousand, had the spiritual charge of the people of London. We must not, indeed, forget other societies; yet if we reckon them all, the result is only equal to eight or ten clergymen for London. Of the sixty or seventy C.M.S. stations, twenty-three have only one missionary apiece, and two or three are without any at all. Meanwhile the work expands; no less than 1,650 adults and 3,620 children were baptized in India in the C.M.S. Missions alone, last year; and to maintain the stations, and the missionaries, and to help the Native Churches to maintain the 110 Native clergy, and the 2,000 Native lay teachers, and the 1,080 schools, the total grants asked for rise year by year.

Look at China. Here it is much worse. The twenty C.M.S. missionaries are to the population as if one-fifth part of a clergyman had the charge of London; or those of all societies as if one clergyman and a half had that charge. How can we be doing our duty to China when, as Mr. Moule says, during the thirty-six years of C.M.S. work there, only thirty-nine clergymen of the Church of England have gone out, and when the British Government in India derives more money from the Opium Trade in one year than has been contributed to the C.M.S. in the whole eighty-one years of its existence! And has not God encouraged us by the harvest He has given even to our feeble efforts? Think of Lo-Nguong, and Ang-Iong, and San-poh, and Great Valley.

Look at Japan. A few years ago there was nothing to look at-not a Native Church, not a Native Christian, not a solitary missionary. Now the Japanese newspapers openly discuss the possibilities of Christianity becoming the national religion. America has done its duty well by sending sixty or eighty missionaries. England is content with twelve or fourteen, of whom nine are from the C.M.S. Ought we not to take a more respectable share in the work?

Look at the Mohammedan regions of the East. No fields are more difficult than Turkey, Syria, Egypt, North Africa, Persia, Afghanistan, Central Asia. Some of them, indeed, are quite closed at present. Yet in Palestine the Church Missionary is sowing the seed; in Persia it is "gathering out the stones." Of the former Mission, Canon Tristram declares, from personal observation, that we are "saturating the whole country with Gospel truth"; and of the latter, Colonel Stewart tells us, also from personal observation, that the Moslems of Ispahan now for the first time understand what Christianity really is. Two years ago the Society was proposing to reduce the staff in Palestine, and even asking whether it was worth while to stay in Persia at all. Now, both Missions are to be reinforced; yet both need much more enlargement than can be granted them.

Look at Africa. The wonderful development of our Missions there in the last few years is a familiar story to the readers of the GLEANER. Yet after all, what are we doing? The vast

territories behind Sierra Leone are entirely without missionaries; the fruitful work in Yoruba, once so vigorously carried on, is now only just kept going; the upper waters of the Niger and Binue still await the messengers of the Cross; on the east side, where advance has been so remarkable, immense populations have never yet seen a white man, and there are actual invitations from those who have that still remain unheeded.

Look at North-West America. Some time ago we thought our work was pretty well done there. Ask the Bishops of Saskatchewan and Caledonia what they think of that! The former acknowledges the blessing God has vouchsafed: "I do not believe," he says, "that in all the wide world there has been so large a proportion of a heathen population converted to Christianity in so short a time as among our Indians." Yet he points to thousands of still untouched Red Men in the remoter districts; while Bishop Ridley, as the readers of the GLEANER know, spent last winter in teaching A B C to heathen Kitiksheans, for lack of a schoolmaster.

Such is the outlook abroad. What is the outlook at home? Certainly there are many things that call for thanksgiving.

First, the average ordinary income of the Society (not including special funds) is £40,000 a year more than it was ten years ago.

Secondly, in that period three deficiency funds have been raised, amounting together to £57,000; more than £30,000 has been given for East and Central Africa; £16,000 has been given in memory of Henry Venn and Henry Wright; nearly £60,000 has been put aside by one man (Mr. W. C. Jones) for the training and support of Native agents; £20,000 has been entrusted to the Society for Famine Relief; and within the last year and a-half, £17,000 has been given for extension.

Thirdly, more than half the counties of England have, within the last two years, been mapped out into convenient districts, each with at least one Honorary District Secretary; and of these unpaid representatives of the Society-who are quite independent of the locally-appointed Secretaries of Local Associations-there are now several hundred.

Fourthly, after four or five years of keeping back men ready to go forth, the Society is, at last, again appealing for men. That it should be able to do so is a crowning mercy indeed. Let us all now pray the Lord of the harvest, that He will "thrust forth" labourers into His harvest.

What a call, then, is there to us to go on working more heartily than ever in the support of this great cause! and what encouragement! If only all our friends would do what some do, the Society would soon be expanding in all directions. Take, for example, the four northern counties, and see how their contributions have grown in twenty years. Between 1860 and 1880, Northumberland has risen from £489 to £1,588; Durham, from £1,436 to £3,016; Cumberland, from £708 to £1,345; Westmoreland, from £327 to £1,060; together, from £2,960 to £7,009, or 136 per cent. If the whole country had done like that, the Society's income would now be just £300,000 a year! And that would be no more than it wants!

Or take more particular cases. Here is a well-to-do parish, which raised for several years about £120 a year, and then at one bound doubled the amount (which has not again gone back), simply because an energetic layman took up the cause and canvassed the subscription. Here is another parish, giving only annual sermons and a few subscriptions: a new vicar comes, and begins to give out missionary boxes: in the second year these boxes produce £147 9s. 4d. Here is a Sunday-school doing literally nothing: a visitor makes a suggestion or two: in the next year it raises £100, and keeps up at that figure.

But, says a kindly but timid reader, We are so poor; or, We have so much to do for our home work; or, We have a debt on our church; or, We want a new organ! Did any home objects ever suffer because a parish was full of missionary zeal? Never! The missionary cause is exactly like Elijah at Zarephath. Can the widow give him a morsel of bread? No: the last handful of meal is for her and her son, that they may eat it and die. But what says Elijah? "Make me thereof a little cake first, and after make for thee and for thy son." And she did; "and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days."

A SHINTO FESTIVAL AT OSAKA.

BY THE REV. G. H. POLE. WITNESSED here on Monday last (25th July, 1881) a sight the like of which I never saw before, and the many friends of the Church Missionary Society in England ought certainly to hear a little, at any rate, about it. So I will try to describe it as clearly and accurately as possible, and perhaps some hearts may be stirred, as mine was, in pity for the hundreds of thousands of heathen people in this great city. If so, I hope they will not forget to pray for us who are trying to lead them to the only true God, the Light of Life.

For some days previously the city had been working itself up into a state of excitement, by the incessant beating of drums and gongs in a peculiar way. It was dreadfully noisy and painfully monotonous, and I was beginning to complain bitterly to my teacher, who, however, comforted me by saying that it was nothing to what was coming on Monday! And he was quite right.

The next indication of approaching festivities was the erection of

booths and platforms on the sides of the river, the hanging out of large white and coloured lanterns, and the carrying through the streets on the shoulders of scores of coolies, all dressed alike, of a large kettledrum on long horizontal poles, with a great ornamental bolster in front and behind. Four, and in one case six, young lads were seated between the drum and the bolsters, each armed with two short thick drumsticks, with which they kept beating the drum in a most solemn yet ludicrous manner. They had curious red cloth head-dresses on, sticking up a foot or so above their heads and hanging down over their shoulders. They kept slowly bending down, all together, till their headdresses touched each other and their faces almost touched the drum. They would then

each give two gentle

Towards six o'clock the excitement commenced. Crowds of people began assembling on the bridges and banks of the river. Our Foreign Concession here, usually so quiet in an evening, was alive and bustling with men, women, and children of all classes. The river itself was alive with boats of all shapes and sizes, most of them gaily decorated with various shaped and coloured paper lanterns. At dusk I also went out on the river in my canoe.

For some distance up the river from the settlement iron baskets had been fixed on poles, stuck in the river on both sides, at regular intervals of about fifteen or twenty yards, and in these baskets wood fires were kept burning, which had a fine effect, lighting up all the river and neighbour

taps on the drum, after which they gave a tremendous "bang" and threw themselves, head-dresses and all, suddenly back against the bolsters, each holding one of his drum-sticks across his forehead all the time.

On Monday morning I saw that wooden platforms had been put up, at intervals, in the river, on which huge piles of wood were being erected for bonfires; and a great many boats were being loaded with similar piles. A thick layer of wetted sand was strewn on the platforms and boats on which the wood was laid, so as to prevent the timber of the boats, &c., from catching fire, and I noticed during the evening that men were kept constantly at work keeping the sand wet while the fire was burning.

Great paper lanterns, too, were hung up outside each house and on each side of the river. Red bunting and young bamboo shoots and other green stuff were displayed on the river banks, houses, and arches of the bridges on the route of the procession.

hood like so many huge torches. Occasionally a boat with its fiery burden would pass down the stream; and incessant drumming and gonging was kept up vigorously everywhere.

The people in the boats, as on shore, were all dressed in holiday attire. The children had on their bright dresses and scarfs. Many of the girls'faces were whitened, their lips reddened, and the pretty little artificial flowers and tinsel were sticking in their neatly dressed raven black hair. Every one was prepared for making a night of it. They had brought their food, and were, in many cases, partaking of it as we passed them. Some damsels were singing (!) or playing the samisen. We saw in one boat a table and some chairs, in foreign style, and the Occupants were comfortably eating their dinner and smoking, evidently quite at home.

I must mention a noteworthy circumstance. While all the houses, boats, bridges, streets, &c., showed signs of rejoicing and tokens of honour to the Kami (god) whose festival it was, the Seifu, or town hall-the great Government building, in foreign style with a grand dome, overlooking the river, and situated just at a place were most people were assembled-had not one single lantern on it, nor was there the slightest indication that it looked with any favour on the proceedings. I hear the Government

ignores all but the principal Shinto Divinity, Amateracu-no-mikoto, the Goddess of the Sun, from whom the Emperor is supposed to be descended. We went close up to one of the huge bonfires in order to see what was being done. Some men were adding fresh fuel to the flames; others were pouring water on the sand at the bottom and putting out any sparks or ashes which threatened to set light to the platform itself. A number of men and boys were posturing in grotesque attitudes round the fire, in the usual religious (Shinto) dance, turning round and round, throwing up their hands and kicking up their heels, with a peculiar jerk. They were nearly naked, having on only a sort of waistcoat and bathing drawers of a bright red colour. When any one got rather too warm he would jump off the platform into the water to cool himself.

About nine o'clock, not knowing what time the procession was to pass, I landed from my canoe and went home. On my way it was quite

refreshing to hear strains of Christian music coming from one of the houses. The Japanese girls of Miss Oxlad's school were singing very sweetly their hymn before going to bed-a marked contrast to the noisy row going on all around outside.

After reading a little and writing a letter, the noise outside seeming to increase, I went out in time to see the beginning of the procession. A monster bonfire came first and settled itself down just at a corner where the procession had to turn, and by its light we could see everything well. There was no moon, so we were entirely dependent for light on the fires and lanterns. Then came a number of boats, each with a small fire in front, hung with lanterns in very artistic manners, and occupied by people apparently of very various classes. On a good many there were fires, with naked men and boys posturing and jumping about in wild, barbarian style. In others, families were quietly sitting, singing or playing music. On all, drums and gongs were being beaten furiously.

Then there came a lull, and I thought it must surely now be all over (a little after eleven o'clock). So I returned home, disappointed and rather disgusted. Was this a religious festival? What was there religious about it? The people seemed out merely for amusement's sake. How any sensible people could come and sit out on a bridge, or on the river's bank, or in a boat, for four or five hours, merely to look at such ridiculous nonsense as I had seen, was past my comprehension. I made up my mind that those people must surely be right who said (like Miss Bird) that the Japanese had no real religious instincts, and that they were merely a gay, frivolous, pleasure-seeking nation who got up these "matsuri" (festivals) for the sake of amusement alone.

While, however, I was thus musing, I heard strains of a very different character. There came a solemn lull in the drum-beating and gong-ringing, and above them rose the sound of slow, sustained notes of music from the sacred flutes, or bagpipes, of the priests. A hush seemed to come over the crowds too, and I heard the noise of those frequent and regular claps of the hands which always accompany Japanese prayers.

I rushed out, as quickly as possible, to the river bank, and there saw a sight which I shall never forget. It was the conclusion of the procession: it was the sight these thousands of people had been so patiently and deliberately awaiting since six o'clock. I had gone away without seeing the one thing of importance.

There were three long boats, each lit up and ornamented with fires and lanterns. The first one was filled with priests dressed in blue garments, with the musical instruments. There were probably as many as thirty or forty of them. They kept up a soft, slow, subdued, solemn, sustained hum, for it can scarcely be called music, being for the most part on one note, though with occasional variation.

The second boat contained a number of priests dressed in gorgeous and quaint garments, with very fine banners, lanterns, and fans, surrounding a sacred ark, or shrine, called Mikoshi, said to contain the Gohei or emblem of a spirit (Kami). This little shrine, standing about 8 feet high, was a blaze of gold and colour, and with the dim light of the lanterns and torches, and the priestly accompaniments and music, produced a remarkably "religious" effect.

But it was far more affecting to me to notice how all the crowds around were awestruck with superstitious reverence-how suddenly this gay and frivolous multitude was transferred into a most solemn worshipping assembly. Each person around me (and the same seemed to be done everywhere) clapped hands together and bowed down head as this gilt box passed, and the look of real seriousness and devotion on the majority of their faces was quite a picture.

But you will like to know who this Kami is, who has the power to make such an impression and call forth such earnest devotion.

Well, he is no supreme or important divinity. He is only a celebrated saint. He is merely a human being, like ourselves, who, in his lifetime, never pretended to be anything more, but who, since his death, has been deified by later generations. He was "a polished courtier, the Beauclerc of his age"-a man of great learning and high scholarship. He had great influence at court in his day, but through the wicked intrigue

of his enemies he was banished to Kiushiu and there died of starvation in 903. The posthumous name by which he is now worshipped is Ten Man Gu, or TENJIN. He is regarded as the patron Kami of letters and

those masses. It may possibly have been only momentary and transient. It certainly was grossly superstitious. But, unquestionably, it was there. The Japanese are, most undoubtedly, therefore, susceptible of religious impressions; and if they can be guided and disciplined to use these emotions and instincts in the only way worthy of their employment, viz., in spiritual, rather than material, worship; and if they can be taught to exercise them towards the one object alone worthy of their venerationviz., the only true Kami-there is most certainly a most glorious prospect, with the Lord's blessing, for Christianity in Japan. Osaka, 28th July, 1881.

NEW YEAR'S THOUGHTS.

HE Old Year is passing away,

The future before is unknown,

But, through sunshine or cloud be my way,

I shall not have to tread it alone. On the verge of the New Year I stand, And I know not what trials may come, But my Father has hold of my hand,

And I know He will lead me safe home.

As I pass through the New Year's gateway
I lift my eyes above,

And in letters of light on its portals

I read that God is love.'

I know not how far I may travel,
Nor whence I must hence remove,
But the whole of the path shall be lighted
By the shining of God is love.'

"Out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."-Rev. v. 9. VIII.-Ganga Bai, a "Mother in Israel."

HE degraded condition of the Eastern woman has long been a subject of deep sorrow to such of their Western sisters as possess sufficient mind and heart to feel for any woes but their own. It has also long been plain to every reflecting mind that it is idle to expect even the nominal conversion of a nation, with full half the population unreached by the Gospel.

Many a devoted Zenana worker brings back tales which would be amusing, were they not pathetic, of the childish ignorance of the poor women amongst whom she labours-of their readiness to be diverted by trifles, and the difficulty she experiences in keeping their minds to any serious thought. At the same time she rarely fails to bear her testimony to their affectionate gratitude for pains bestowed upon them, and great anxiety to improve. It is not often (nor is it likely, say these same workers) that they meet with much force or decision of character amongst their grateful, affectionate pupils. Men do not gather grapes of

on commencing their studies, and even the children in the schools are taught to pray to him.

The spirit of this man, then, was the object of all this enthusiasm, excitement, and devotion. It is very sad to think that the religious emotions of the poor people here should be so stirred up and aroused in honour of one who has no true claim whatever on their worship. He may have been, and no doubt was, a benefactor to his country, but he has certainly no right to honours which belong only to God. He who is the True Wisdom is ignored, while the wisest of their own fellow-creatures and countrymen is put into His place!

Let no one say again, however, that the Japanese are incapable of any true religious emotions. I have no hesitation in saying that an exceedingly strong spirit of earnest devotion was plainly manifest, moving among

firmness in a woman who inherits all the evil consequences of centuries of oppression and neglect. Occasionally, however, a woman of great force and singleness of nature, a woman clearly fitted to rule and instruct, may be found amongst them. Such a woman was the subject of this paper.

Ganga was very early deprived of her mother, and deserted by her father. The latter quitted the country, leaving his helpless child (but then, to be sure, she was only a girl) in the hands of people who had no claim on her. Her circumstances must have called loudly for sympathy, since Mr. Appaji Bapuji