so in all these regions as in the cultured circles of America or England.

The men and women who represent the principal missionary boards in foreign fields to-day are the peers of the men and women in Christian lands from among whom they were selected; for character and power they deserve and command the respect of all who know them and their work. They are fit to stand by the side of those of those men whose deeds and achievements in sub-Apostolic days, and in the great missionary epochs of the Middle Ages have made their names immortal. Carey and Judson, Morrison and Livingstone, take rank with Irenæus and St. Patrick, with Augustine and Boniface. And those now on the field are doing the deeds and wielding the power of the fathers and pioneers. Their great life work is not a mistake; their labors are not in vain. Their contributions to the knowledge of their times, in geography, ethnology, philology, comparative religions, which have commanded wide admiration and have laid the learned world under a lasting obligation, a brief abstract of which fills a volume, although they are incidental and secondary to their main work, yet indicate the industry, the breadth of mind and scholarly attainments of these men, and entitle them to the highest respect. But their greatest deeds lie in another sphere. They are the leaders and inspiring life of a movement that outrivals the march of Roman conquests, the mighty growth of English power, and is slowly changing the face of the nations and the course of human history. And they are worthy of the sublime place and work to which they have been called.

Missionary methods vary according to the land and people where this work is prosecuted, and according to the stage of advancement in the work. In a sense everything was new and tentative at the opening of the century; but with the expansion of the field and the accumulation of experience, there has gradually been formed a general system of missionary operations in which all societies in America and Europe are substantially agreed. The first duty of the missionary, on arrival in the field, is to acquaint himself with the people, their language, their customs, their inherited faith, and their institutions. With this goes a careful study of the missionary work in progress, the stage which it has reached, the end it is to win. The leading duty of the mission

ary, after having established personal relations with the people and won their confidence, is to instruct them in the knowledge and faith of Jesus Christ. This is pre-eminently a work of teaching and persuasion, whether done in the public congrega. tion, or in the home, or in personal conversation. No sane missionary ever thinks of imposing a creed, or of forcibly overpowering the will of the individual or the community; and any instance of such methods would be condemned by the voice and practice of the whole body of missionaries in the foreign field. That is done which Paul and the other Apostles did when they preached in Jerusalem and Antioch, in Asia and in Macedonia; the gospel is held up and explained in its distinctive and glorious facts, till the mind is illumined, till the heart is moved, and the will is swayed to penitence and faith and love.

As soon as a company of believers is gathered, the Christian church is formed, and the new society is led forward as rapidly as possible in Christian knowledge and character, in self-direction and self-support, and in active co-operation with the missionary force in spreading the message and building the church. In order to aid and reinforce this evangelistic effort and also to train those natives who are to be leaders of their people in church and school and in all Christian activities, schools are opened under the personal instruction of the missionaries and picked youths gathered in them for the most careful training. The mission schools of all grades, from the kindergarten to the college and theological seminary, which flourish to-day in India and China, in Africa and Japan, as well as in Turkey, and in which nearly 700,000 pupils are gathered, are among the most striking and hopeful parts of the whole missionary enterprise. Graduates of these schools are already in the pastorate in every mission. field, and are associated with the missionaries as teachers in the higher schools and in important literary work. They include men of noble gifts and attainments, and form the nucleus of that body of native Christians upon whom in due time the entire Christian work in their several lands will devolve. The literary work of the missionaries is no less striking. Text books for the schools, newspapers for the churches, lesson helps for Sunday schools, the beginnings of a Christian literature, are included in this department of missionary labor. But its greatest service lies in giving the Scriptures to the nations. The Bible has been

translated fully or in part into at least 270 different languages or dialects by the missionaries of this century, and is circulated by millions of copies in Turkey, India, Burmah, China, Japan and Africa, so that the vast majority of earth's inhabitants can read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. This is a majestic achievement, contributing more toward the enlightenment and civilization of the world thau any other single human agency that can be named. What the Bible has done and is still doing for England and all English-speaking peoples, it is beginning to do for the hundreds of millions in the Oriental world. Commerce can point to no achievement that compares with this. Legislation and diplomacy never attempted and never dreamed of conferring such benefits on mankind.

In a word the method of missionary labor in our day proceeds in a simple, direct course through personal instruction and influence to the establishment of Christian churches and their associated agencies, under native leadership, in sufficient numbers and strength in due time to effect the Christianization of the life and thought and institutions of every land.

The success of foreign missions in our times abundantly attests the reasonableness of their aim, the efficiency of the missionary force, and the wisdom of their methods.

We must bear in mind that the era of modern missions scarcely spans a single century, and that a large part of the time and force devoted to them has necessarily been given to exploration, to the mastery of languages and other pioneer work, and to the gathering of the mission plant. This work, though it will ordinarily need to be done but once, is absolutely necessary at first, and constitutes a fundamental part of the whole enterprise. Much of it cannot be put into statistics, and it does not seem to signify when we are counting up results. The Christian conquest of the Roman Empire required nearly three centuries; the Christianization of Europe, after the Roman Empire of the West broke up, went on for more than five centuries. The problem of modern missions is far vaster than both those problems combined; and the success of the efforts thus far made can be justly measured only by bearing all these facts in mind. An impressive proof of the success already gained is found in the fact that within a single century from Carey's day missions have been planted in every great nation and island in all the unevan

gelizea world, and that true converts have been won in every place where the work is begun. There are native Christians in many provinces of China to-day as true and faithful, as selfdenying and devoted, as the men and women of Philippi, whom Paul addresses as "my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and my crown." African Christians at Uganda have sealed their faith with their blood; Hindus, Burmese, Japanese, South Sea Islanders, Moslems, Buddhists, Confucianists, Idolatersthere is scarcely a land or people where the message of the missionary has not taken effect. It has already been demonstrated that the gospel finds these peoples as certainly as it found the Greeks and Romans, the English and the Saxons. And this fact is prophetic of the final and universal success of this movement. If 50,000 true converts to Christ have already been won in China, the whole multitude of China's millions can be won. The lever that has lifted 1,000,000 souls out of the darkness of paganism into Christian life and civilization is strong enough to lift the whole world into the light of God. We may justly change our Saviour's words of prophecy to the sober terms of history, and say: "They are coming from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, and are sitting down in the kingdom of God."

The statistics of missions, though they can never express more than a part of the results that have been gained, still give ample evidence of an expanding and successful work. The number of Christian communicants in all heathen lands to-day exceeds one million souls, counting only the results of Protestant missions. This implies about four million adherents, men, women, and children already separated from the prevailing religious customs and habitually attending Christian worship and receiving Christian instruction. At the present rate of increase this number is doubling in less than ten years. It will require the continuation of the present course of things for only a few decades before the Christian communities will outnumber all others in these lands. But that is not all. No other faith is gaining in numbers like this; Buddhism, Confucianism, Mohammedanism are barely holding their own. The course of history and Providence favors this missionary enterprise, and makes against all other faiths with which it comes into contact; and the balance of power in many an unevangelized land is slowly shifting to the side of the gospel and its messengers.

Certain conspicuous examples of missionary success give clearness and point to this forecast. Seventy-five years since, the Sandwich Islands were the abode of pagans and barbarians, without a written language, places of dread or scorn to all the civilized world. To-day these islands have their recognized place among the Christian powers of the times, and are the abode of thrift and prosperity, with schools and churches, and the industries of a civilized land. And the transformation, little short of a miracle, is due to the labors and influence of the American missionaries, who, at the peril of their lives, went thither in 1819 and wrought with God for the regeneration of the kingdom. Defects are easily found in the present state of the islands, as they are in great Christian centers like London and New York ; but the Christianization of those islands by missionary effort is as real and glorious a fact as the Christianization of Rome or England in the ancient days.

Fifty years ago the Fiji Islands were full of cannibals and pagans, places of war and dread. To-day cannibalism and paganism are gone, and the Christian churches are thronged with devout worshippers. It was not commerce or colonization or natural development that wrought the change; it was the Christian missionary and the power of his message and life.

Madagascar is a glorious witness to the power of Christian missions, and to the vital power of the Christian faith. The Christian victory in Burmah, the swift growth of the Christian host among the Telugus in India and among the Japanese-these all speak one word, and smite to silence every tongue that attributes failure to missions or that would deem their support a needless and a fruitless waste. It is most significant to note that 280 missionary societies, substantially representing Protestant Christendom, more than two-thirds of which have been formed within the last three decades, are now at work in the foreign field. More than 3,000 of the most promising young men and women in the colleges and seminaries of America alone are to-day personally pledged to this work. The educated youth of a land are not wont to espouse a weak or failing cause. More than $5,000,000 are yearly devoted to this cause by American Christians alone, and theamount increases year by year. Intelligent and clear-headed men and women, like these, including among them some of the ablest business men of the day, are not wont to waste their resources