In brightest Asia

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Preface

IN May, 1890, the writer of these sketches was chosen Home Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union. Immediately thereafter, it was provided that, before entering upon official service at home, he should be permitted to make a tour of the mission-fields, especially in Asia. This was to be in no sense a deputation for official examination or the exercise of authority in the missions ; but simply an errand of friendly visitation, for the purpose of first-hand observation, inquiry and study respecting the nature, difficulties and promise of the work, the claims of which the writer was expected widely to advocate. This tour was begun in August, 1890, and completed in April, 1891. The countries traversed in order were, Japan, China, Malaysia, Burma, Assam and India, briefly touching Egypt, Palestine, Italy, France and England. About 200 of our own missionaries were visited. The stay in each country was necessarily short. Only certain representative stations in any of the countries could be reached. Some of the more important, including our old mission in Siam, were regretfully passed by altogether. These sketches were written mainly in the form of letters to the various home denominational papers, to family friends, and to the old home church.

These sketches were not intended to express judicial estimates on the relative importance of the various missions nor the quality of work done therein. They did not attempt to discuss theories of missions or mission policies. Their aim was rather to depict, in as graphic a way as possible, some of the characteristic phenomena attending mission life and work in the various countries, with the hope that readers at home would thus be quickened to think of missions more as a reality. The fact that many of our most devoted and skilful workers are not so much as named in these pages, while others are prominently spoken of, is by no means to be construed as indifference to the work of any ; much less as unfriendly discrimination against, or disparagement of it. The writer simply depicts portions of the work as he saw them. As to other portions, he is silent simply because he did not see them, or had not time, in the haste of travel, to write of them. Others in the past have spoken, and in the future will speak, of these works and the workers as they so well deserve.

What has been written was thrown off amid the hurry of travel, and in the heat of interest awakened on the spots. For the most part, the sketches here appear substantially as they were originally written. They claim to be only glimpses of parts of the work. Nevertheless, they are glimpses of fairly and widely representative parts.

The writer has chosen to entitle these sketches " In Brightest Asia," not because there is not much in Asia yet to be seen of exceeding darkness, but because the traveller among the missions of the Orient, if indeed he has eyes to see, will find that the track along which gospel missionaries have passed and wrought, is an illuminated one. The lights on the otherwise dark scenes of heathenism are all the brighter from the contrast. Moreover, this side of Asiatic life is emphasized conscientiously, for the reason that, in the belief of the writer, there is usually but little profit to be derived from dwelling long upon the dark side of anything. The chief incitements to evangelical work are derived from the positive hope of getting souls into the "new man," rather than from getting them out of the "old," — from brooding over men, in expectation of the second Adam to be formed in them, rather than from brooding about the ruin of the forlorn first Adam. So it is believed that with all we are hearing in our day, in mission literature and appeal, about "Darkest Africa," "Darkest England" and "Darkest India," — and they are not painted darker than they are, — it is time that the lights, also, on the deeply shadowed pictures should now be newly pointed out.

"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." In Japan, China and India the times are at hand of which the prophet wrote: "The people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up."

Boston, Nov. i6, 1891.

Table Of Contents

CHAPTER I'AGE

I. — To THE Field. — Severing Ties. — Denver. — Over Marshall Pass. — The Great

American Desert. — The Sierras. — A San Francisco Welcome ... 9

CHAPTER I. Jo tl?^ pi(?ld

ABITUATED for twenty-one years to the pastoral relation, it was no easy thing to sever the bond.

However, many lines of providential circumstance, wide concurrence of the judgments of the brethren, many promptings of the Spirit within, and strong fellowships with the missionaries on the field united to indicate duty ; so that at the last there could be no good ground for hesitation to surrender the charge of even such a church as the Central of Minneapolis for the new relation into which the writer had been called.

As for the church, for years it had been

growing into Christ-like magnanimity. Why,

then, should it not lend its pastor to the

Lord, and to the cause it loved? Both work

and worker are still theirs in a larger sense. The church has simply more heavily invested in

the supreme undertaking — the evangelization of the whole earth.

In pursuance, then, of the suggestion and provision made by certain large-minded friends, the writer of these sketches was despatched to the fields.

CENTRAL CHURCH, MINNEAPOLIS.

On a midsummer evening in August, 1890, in the new Social Rooms of the church above mentioned in Minneapolis, was held a farewell meeting with the departing pastor and a member of the church who was to accompany him as far as Japan. A large assemblage of friends was gathered. Graceful tributes in verse, song and address indicated the tender affection and mutual interest which had characterized past relations. On the morning following, the farewells in the family circle were said, and the world-round tour was begun.

Wednesday, August 13, found us e7i route for the Pacific coast, booked to sail by the " City lo In Brightest Asia.

of Peking," August 23, for Yokohama, Japan. The purpose is, if the Lord will, to visit in turn our stations in Japan, China, Burma, Assam and India; thence homeward via Bombay, Suez, Jerusalem, Beirut, Italy, France and England, in time for the next May anniversaries.

Two gifted and earnest missionaries under appointment to Japan, viz.. Miss Mead of Minnesota and Miss Blunt of Kansas City, journey with us. They have been missionaries of the iirst water in the home-land. They are proving themselves such all along the way, — on train, in hotel and steamer, — ever reaching out in tender offices in behalf of their Lord; harbinger this of good and effective work in Sendai and Shimonoseki, Japan. Rev. H. B. Waterman volunteers his companionship, at individual expense. Besides these, Brother Ernest Gordon, son of Dr. A.J. Gordon of Boston, is to join us at San Francisco.

On our arrival at Denver, we found that by kind arrangement of Dr. Tupper and others, the whole Sabbath at the First Church had been set apart to us. The ladies held a large meeting in the afternoon, at which our two missionaries tenderly rehearsed their mission call and conviction. Dr. H. A. Tupper, secretary of the Foreign Board of the Southern Convention, providentially present, pathetically and eloquently responded on behalf of the meeting. The writer preached in the morning, and in the evening addressed a large mass meeting on "Missions," speaking of their spirit, their fellowships, their fascinations and their extension. A generous share was

taken by the Denver brethren in the expense account of the secretary's tour.

Ou(?r /r\arsl?all pa55.

August 19.

This has been a day of experiences altogether siiigetieris. Starting from Salida at 7 a.m., the first stretch of the journey was the ascent of the mountains — the real Rockies.

Our train is divided into two sections, each section drawn by two engines, and we start on the ascent over Marshall Pass. In going about twenty miles, we rise 3,000 feet.

At first we are under the clouds ; then we are in the midst of them ;

GARDEN OF THE GODS.

71? the Field.

at length we rise above them, and see them rolling away along the sides of the ranges opposite us. Our way is tortuous and serpentine, round and round the lesser heights, up grades so steep that it reminds us of a toboggan slide. We dash through repeated snow sheds, and then emerging from the smoke and cinders, we rise into the purest and thinnest atmosphere. We grow giddy at the sensations of the vast altitude ; and from our perch on lofty ledges, the eye scans the vast stretches of the Rocky ranges, rolling, tumbling and Alp-like, soaring still above and beyond into the illimitable ether. We are favored all day with a glorious sunshine which floods everything with its own radiance, and softens and makes tender what otherwise would be an endless and tumultuous array of awfulness.

Marshall Pass is fairly Alpine, though to our surprise there is on none of the peaks at this time of the year much snow, though they rise to upwards of 14,000 feet in height.

At noon we reach the summit ; and midway between two lofty horns or peaks, — Mt. Ouray and Mt. Sniffel, — our train comes to a halt; and we all rush out to take in the view Pacificward, which stretches away for 100 miles or so westward.

MT. OURAY.

Jl^e Qri^ab /\/i\eri<;ai? Desert.

Leaving Gunnison, quite a flourishing town, ranges of hillocks on every side begin to show sandy, gravelly and indescribably barren. One. would think it never rained here. It is a fit region to be traversed with camels. The sun is lurid over it all ; the soil, red and ochre yellow ; the formations of rocks and mountains, weird, bald and awful. Not even will the sage brush or cactus grow in much of this region.

We are threading a great plain of desert through windings like a ram's horn. We pass for miles and miles between pillared cliffs and overhanging banks of reddish, and at times, yellow sandstone, and greenish, cnunbly shales, and both betimes shot through with a garnet-colored trap-rock or porphyritic limestone. Oh, so desolate and chaotic !

Now a sand storm comes down upon us like a simoom, enveloping our train completely. It

12 Li Brightest Asia.

sifts into our car, filling eyes, mouth and nostrils. The Soudan could not be a fl?nQer waste. It would seem the devil's country. Good old Father Raymond used to say: " The devU was a squatter from the beginning; he never owned an acre in God's earth." I think he might have claimed this region, with none to dispute the claim.

One thing has grown upon me all day ; viz., this : That the terms in which we often hear our big country described — and especially the statement that the populations which our great West is capable of sustaining will soon be myriads — are largely wild extravagance. Some say, for instance, that by the year 2000 we shall have 600,000,000 of people in the United States. The Great American Desert is still a stupendous fact, and will always be a vast chasm in the midst of the North American continent.

5l?e Sierras. August 21.

To-day we are mounting the Sierra Nevada passes, following the course of the Truckee River. How refreshing the green of such a valley after the long, dreary stretch of desert waste ! Lumbering camps begin to appear ; and now, in the glowing afternoon, as we pass over to the California side, we are amid the sometime famous gold diggings. Disused water flumes and ditches are seen in great frequency. Vast yellow surfaces on all the mountain-sides lie exposed where the hydraulic processes have washed down even the everlasting hills.

Our missionary sisters have meanwhile struck a mine of rarer wealth. A theatre troupe yesterday attached two coaches to our train. These sisters have found their way among the actresses,

and are laboring to dissuade them from the allurements of such a career, pointing them Christward.

In that deep, dark mine, like merchantmen, they seek for goodly pearls. God bless and reward their search .

Sai? prar^eijeo.

August 23.

We reached the city of the Golden Gate on Thursday night.

Good Dr. Hartwell, for seventeen years a missionary m

China, and

SAN FRANCISCO HARBOR.

now engaged in the best of missionary work in Chinatown, and Mr. Dorsey met us on arrival, and quartered us at the Occidental Hotel.

To the Field.

Next day delegations representing the ministers' meeting and the Women's Society of this coast, called upon us, proffering service of every kind, anticipatory of our sailing on the morrow. We were given a glimpse of heathenism at home, in a walk through Chinatown.

In the afternoon and evening special services of welcome and farewell were held in the First Church, Rev. J. O. A. Henry, pastor. Dr. Hartwell presided. Misses Blunt and Mead, in their own melting and spiritual way, addressed us as only outgoing missionaries can. The writer followed in a half-hour address on the conditions under which so high work can be happily and well undertaken. The meeting of old friends, such as Brothers Abbott, Rieman and others, added pathos to all. To-morrow at 1.30 o'clock we are to sail.

H

In Brightest Asia.

Chapter II

prom Oeeidept to Orient.

On Board the " City of Peking," August 23.

AUL in the gang plank ! " The moment has arrived when we are to say good-by to native land. Captain Cavarly is on deck — square-built, benevolent, though firm. We have some fifty saloon passengers, and numberless Chinese in the steerage. Some of them, alas ! being sent back to China for violation of the " Exclusion Act." We have about a dozen missionaries of various boards. A throng of San Francisco friends gather on the wharf. They have filled our staterooms with flowers and fruits. They wish us boti voyage, and sing farewell songs. Many an eye is moistened as our vessel swings out into the stream.

The song, "God be with you till we meet again," floats out over the widening breach. Whether that meeting will be on earth or only in heaven, God knows. So long as we can

recognize an outline of the dear forms who wave their handkerchiefs, we, too, stand and wave responsively. We round the point, pass through the " Golden Gate," send back by the pilot the hastily penned missives to dear ones far away, and our prow is set towards the Orient world.

Mid-Pacific, August 30.

Verily, this is " the wide, wide sea," so desolate, so little traversed, that since the second day out, when we met several coasting vessels and parted company with the Australian steamer which left the "Golden Gate" with us, we have not seen a sail nor even a porpoise. We shipped on the "City of Peking," and frequently have we felicitated

GOLDEN GATE. ' ^

From Occident to Orient.

ourselves on our providential choice. The vessel has been sixteen years in the service, and has made sixty-five trips between San Francisco and Hong Kong.

Captain John M. Cavarly is the able and vigilant commander. We have a good table and polite stewards, all Japanese and Chinese. One could ask for nothing better.

The crew are all Chinamen. No Cunarder could muster more expert seamen ; everything on deck and below is managed with such skill and quietness, that one would suppose the vessel ran itself. We have not heard a harsh command nor an oath indulged in, except by one or two vulgar passengers, since we came on board.

This is our second Sunday at sea. We are now nearly half-way across the Pacific. The weather has been fine — only one day of rain ; no fog, and as a rule daily sunshine. Instead of the cold of

the Atlantic, we have had no use O]

for heavy wraps. This morning we

had a religious service in the social hall. I preached on is life indeed." (i Tim. vi. 19.) [Rev. Ver.]

Captain Cavarly attended, and thanked me warmly for the sermon. We have found most people on board inclined to sneer at all missionaries and their undertakings. Some patience is called for, and it is important to exercise it under such circumstances. I think some were led this morning to see that there are higher ideas of life than those which some of our fellow-travellers represent — pleasure seekers, traders with oriental houses, and shippers of Chinese coolies. We hope for less sneering during the rest of the voyage. We had several Chinese and Japanese at service, and they were among our most attentive listeners. Two of these especially give evidence of being genuine Christians — Lo Jo, the Chinese boy, and Mr. Abe, the Japanese boy. The latter I found yesterday in the prow of the ship, flat down on his stomach, reading the Acts of the Apostles. His shipmates were gaming near by him. Both these boys have often joined us at evening worship. The former told us his experience one evening.

I am just finishing reading Carpenter's " Self-support in Bassein," a book full of information and wisdom on mission work, despite its severe criticisms. He gives high praise to .Mr. Beecher, and especially brings out the great worth and genius of E. L. Abbott, a man of whom I had previously known little, I am ashamed to say. The book has deepened m}- interest to

That they lay hold on the life which i6

In Brightest Asia.

see Burma. It has also led me to realize how very difficult is the task of a true foreign missionary. What nerve and grace and staying powers it requires !

I am impressed that much of our modern enthusiasm among the young people at home is superficial, and will require thorough chastening. Perhaps the sad taking-oil of those " Independents" to the Soudan has reference to this. Whole-hearted as was their devotion, this work is unquestionably the highest and therefore fraught with the greatest difficulties of any work on earth. Yesterday we crossed the i8oth parallel of longitude; so we are now in the Orient, and dropped out Tuesday from our calendar. We are ahead of you at last.

Wednesday Morning, September lo, 6 a.m.

We are just sailing up the bay, a few miles out from Yokohama. We are up early to see the sun rise on his own kingdom. There he comes, golden and regal, over yonder jagged and wonderfully picturesque line of mountains. The whole coast on either side is a mass of islands and promontories, peaked as the edge of a saw, serpentine, and everywhere appearing volcanic. A few trees stand like crests on the summits. Clouds of fog bank are rolling up from the interior bays and mountain valleys. Fishing-smacks lie in groups at intervals along the bay. It

Fro7n Occident to Orient.

FUJIYAMA.

seems refreshing, indeed, to see land again after seventeen days. These shores mark the outline of the province of Kadzusa. What tales they could tell if they could but speak of aboriginal life !

A shout goes up from our port side, and our missionary girls are running and exclaiming, " Oh, there is Fujiyama ! I have caught the first view of Fujiyama ! " — the sometimes snow-crowned, conical-shaped sacred mount, the Hermon of the empire, 12,000 feet high. It is sixty miles away, and not always seen by any means by incoming steamers. But from beginning to end we have been favored. The square-sailed, junklike boats of the country now appear with high-turned prow and stern. Our girls adopt the land at sight, and are elated and joyful, with song and dancing eyes. They have just come up from below, where they say they have been giving themselves up in fresh devotion to the redemption of this " Land of the Morning,", this Aurora of the Orient. Oh, that here the gospel indeed may ride Auroralike before the dawn of divine illumination for sublime but idolatry-stricken old Asia.

A coast town, with little, low, tiled roofs, now comes into view, just nestled under the loveliest hills, on one of which a large, square-built white lighthouse appears. But as Miss B. is suggesting, there is one sad lack : " No church spire rises from amid the village." Now we are passing a fishing-boat in which are three men who forgot to put on their clothes when they got up this morning. They look as if they could live in the water about as well as on land. We are now passing the little village of Uraga, at which Commodore Perry first landed when he was making his treaty with Japan. Now we are making fast to our steamer buoy, — there being no wharves, — and numberless boats of the half-naked natives, and several steam launches are approaching to take us off. Among the latter is one from the United States flag-ship " Omaha," which lies here ; and Lieutenant Murdock steps on board, whom I recognize from his resemblance to his father. Five minutes later, and three of our bright missionaries, Brothers Bearing, Harrington and Hamblen, approach with a steam launch to take us off. A few minutes suffice to get our baggage through the customs. Then we each take a jinrikisha, and off our men trot in a procession of us through the town and up the hill to the noble and picturesque " Bluff," embowered in trees, to Miss Britton's missionary boarding-house, where we soon find ourselves disposed in the most comfortable and homelike quarters. How strangely quaint and picturesque everything is, as if we had landed on a new planet !

A scene of bewildering natural loveliness spreads itself about on every side. We are perched on a romantic hillside terraced into the most charming gardens, sloping down to a serpentine strip

I«

In Brightest Asia.

of lowland on which fields of green growing rice are standing, with ditches running through and through them. Beyond that are other slopes rising gradually and in broken undulations, traversed by ravines for miles away. On these slopes are small farms and gardens, cultivated to the highest pitch conceivable. To the right and the left are the other European residences, each on its beautiful terrace, bewitching with vistas and copses and shaded nooks. Then such varieties of foliage, shrub and plant one who has not been here or in the tropics cannot imagine. It is all like enchanted ground.

A number of missionaries are here, including Dr. and Mrs. Ashmore, so we are by no means lonesome. All are in good health and spirits. There is some cholera, especially in the western parts, but wholly among the lower-class natives. It has not touched Europeans, and what there is, is under good control.

JAPANESE GARDEN.

In the Sunrise Kingdo

CHAPTER III. YoKotpama

rHIS is our oldest station. Here it was that Dr. Brown, Mr. Poate and others first began Baptist work. On the famous " Bluff," a bold spur of rock stretching for a mile or two along the southwest side of the city, and completely embowered in the foliage of a hundred varieties of trees, in the foreign concession, reside our missionaries amidst some hundreds of other foreigners. Mrs. Ashmore, nee Brown, has Here her home; so also have Mr. Bennett and Mr. C.

K. Harrington; and here we found Mr.

J. L. Bearing, our latest accession to the force in Yokohama. Four sisters are also here engaged in school work — Misses Converse, Rolman, Wilson and Church.

Our Theological Seminary is here, under the charge of Rev. A. A. Bennett, one of our oldest missionaries. He was in some sense the successor to Dr.

Nathan Brown, especially in educational lines. He is just now absent in America, and much

missed, especially by the writer, of whom he was a classmate in the seminary, and who would have been glad to meet Brother Bennett at home. Here, also, lives Kaukatza san, our senior

GIRLS SCHOOL, YOKOHAMA.

ordained native pastor, who assisted Dr. Brown through eleven years in translating the Scriptures. He has rendered help in the seminary, and is to-day our most valuable native preacher and interpreter. He was my companion for an entire week in my trip to the North, and won my heart completely.

The second day after arrival, I was invited over to the Ashmores', where I have been staying until to-day. Dr. Ashmore has poured out a flood of information and wisdom combined on all the mission problems, and we have had long and profitable talks. There is a vast amount of rainy, steamy weather, which keeps one in a constant vapor bath; but a change for cooler is expected at any time. They say it never fails to come about the middle of September.

Last Sunday I attended my first service in a native church, and heard a sermon from one of the native pastors. It was very touching to see the little congregation of about sixty persons engaging in the various parts of the service. Every head bowed during prayer, all saying the "Amen "at the close. All sang with much earnestness, giving absolute attention to the end; no looking about ; and as the minister concluded, the whole congregation bowed as if to say, " Thank you." At 4 o'clock came the Sunday school, and in the evening I went with Mr. Dearing to attend an evangelistic service just started at the house of his teacher.

A Japanese house is peculiar. The whole front opens, by means of sliding doors, to the street. As you go in, there is a space of say three feet wide stretching across the front on the ground. Here you are expected to remove your shoes before climbing up on the floor, two and one-half feet higher. This floor is not of boards, but is entirely overlaid with mats of rice straw, softly padded underneath, and each mat about three by six feet in size, which at night constitutes the mattress on which the family sleep. They are so clean that they must not be soiled, and so delicately made that the nails and heels of our boots would cut them out ; so we either sit in our stocking feet, or put on little straw sandals which they furnish us. The people all bend their lower limbs and feet back under them, and sit on them. They never have chairs, except in occasional instances for guests.

When you are seated, first, the woman of the house and then all the children crawl up to you and bow down to the very floor before you in a salutation. Of course on this occasion, I rose and bowed my lowest, and smiled my blandest. When the service began with singing, the house being open, a crowd gathered at once before the door, some of the people sitting on the side of the elevated floor within. Thus for half an hour a large number stood and listened to the gospel. The text was written on a long white scroll, in Chinese and Japanese characters, and hung on the wall beside and behind the preacher, which of itself was an impressive thing.

SoKio.

Here at the great capital numbering over 1,000,000 souls, we have three male missionaries and their wives ; viz. Brethren F. G. Harrington, G. W. Taft and J. C. Brand. Brother Fisher is about returning from America. These are all diligently working at the language, and.

In the Sunrise Kingdom. 21

through native assistants, coming into such evangelistic relation to the people at the several preaching-stations as they are able. Here also Miss Kidder and Miss Clagett are at work in the girls' school, one of the very brightest spots to be seen in our Japan work. Christian training is telling here ; and indirectly, men, as well as women, are being constantly reached and renewed by the gospel's power, as brought to them through the tact and indefatigable zeal of these consecrated women. They reminded us of Paul's frequent allusions to "those other women, helpers in the Lord." In the near neighborhood of this school, we saw the chief activities among the native churches. Here we partook with some of them of the Lord's Supper. Here we saw three generations of believers, including several preachers and Bible-women, in a single family. But Tokio is just now seething with political excitement. Here congregate the thousands of student youths of Japan, often but a synonym for conceited rowdies who, under the name of Soshii, seek to browbeat the government and intimidate the populace. The prejudice against foreigners runs very high. There is frequent violence used against them. Mission movements just now have to proceed on very cautious lines, and it is not to be wondered at that many of our workers feel depressed. We have had the cheering experience, together with Brother and Sister Brand, of examining four candidates, whom we received and baptized on the following Sunday evening. Their convictions proved surprisingly clear and their testimony emphatic.

Our Baptist workers are among the youngest really to begin operations on this field. They are diligently acquiring the language, familiarizing themselves with the habits of the people, providing mission-houses in which they can safely and suitably dwell, and opening preaching and teaching stations, where converts may be gathered and trained. We have attended several of the native services on the S.ibbath and week nights, and been touched by the close attention and reverence of the hearers, by the heartiness of the singing, and by the earnestness with which the native preachers have pressed home the claims of Christ. The frequent gatherings with the missionaries for special prayer and Scripture incitement to a more aggressive evangelism in which the Spirit's power may be expected and evinced have proved refreshing and inspiring to us all. It strikes us that generally in Japan, there has been far too much of reliance upon the outward visible tendencies of the Japanese to adopt Western civilization in the husk. The time of testing is at hand, and the church of God in Japan will be brought to its knees ; much of misdirection in method will be confessed, the Holy Spirit will be more mightily invoked, and divine influence will show its old-time reality and power.