Church History Part 11

His historical sketches are vigorous and lively.-_Zockler_ of Giessen and Greifswald has made important contributions to church history, exegesis, and dogmatics, and especially to the theory and history of natural theology. In 1886 he began the publication of a short biblical commentary contributed to by the most distinguished positive theologians, he himself editing the New Testament and Strack the Old Testament. It is to be in twelve vols., and is being translated into English.-_Von Oetingen_ of Dorpat has devoted himself to social problems and moral statistics.-_Frank_ of Erlangen has proved a powerful apologist for old Lutheranism, and in his "System of Christian Evidence" has introduced a new branch of theology, in which the subjective Christian cert.i.tude which the believer has with his faith is made the basis of the scientific exposition of the truth set forth in his "System of Christian Truth," a thoughtful and speculative treatise on doctrine, followed by "The System of Christian Morals" as the conclusion of his theological work.-Lutheran theology had also zealous representatives in several distinguished jurists: _Goschel_, president of the consistory of Magdeburg, who wrote against Strauss, sought to derive profound Christian teaching from Goethe and Dante, and wrote on the last things, and on man in respect of body, soul, and spirit; _Stahl_, A.D. 1802-1861, professor of law at Erlangen and Berlin, leader since A.D. 1849 of the high-church aristocratic reactionary party in the Prussian chamber, supported his views by reference to the Scripture doctrine of the divine origin of magisterial authority.

16. As zealous representatives of _Reformed Confessionalism_ who set aside the dogma of predestination and so show no antagonism to the union, may be named: _Heppe_, opponent of Vilmar in Marburg, who devoted much of his career as a historian to the undermining of Lutheranism, then wrought upon the histories of provincial churches, of Catholic mysticism and pietism, etc.; and _Ebrard_, A.D. 1818-1887, a brilliant believing theologian who combated rationalism and Catholicism, professor from A.D. 1847 of Reformed theology at Erlangen, known by his "Gospel History: a Compendium of Critical Investigations in Support of the Historical Church of the Four Gospels," his "Apologetics," in 3 vols., "Commentary on Hebrews," etc.

17. _The Free Protestant Theology._-This school originated in the left wing of Schleiermacher's following, and has as its literary organs, Hilgenfeld's _Zeitschrift_ and the _Jahrbucher fur prot. Theologie_.-The distinguished statesman, _Von Bunsen_, A.D. 1791-1860, amba.s.sador at Rome and afterwards at London, at first stood at the head of the revival of the church interests and life; but in his "Church of the Future," conceived a const.i.tutional idea on a democratic basis, for which he sought support in historical studies on the Ignatian age, etc., and the historical refutation of the orthodox Christology and trinitarianism. His elaborate work on "Egypt's Place in the World's History," full of arbitrary criticism, negative and positive, on the chronological and historical data of the Old Testament, seeks to show that, by restoring the Egyptian chronology, we for the first time make the Bible history fit into general history. "The Signs of the Times" comprise glowing philippics against the hierarchical pretensions of Papists and even more dangerous Lutherans, insists on Scripture being translated out of the Semitic into the j.a.phetic mode of speech, to which end he devoted his last great works, "G.o.d in History" and his "Bible Commentary," the latter finished after his death by Kamphausen and Holtzmann.-_Schenkel_, A.D. 1813-1885, professor at Heidelberg from A.D. 1851 till his resignation in A.D. 1884, from the right wing of the mediating school, through unionism and Melanchthonianism advanced to the standpoint of his "_Charakterbild Jesu_," which strips Christ of all supernatural features, yet proclaims him the redeemer of the world, and strives to save his resurrection as a historical and saving truth, and explains his appearances after the resurrection as "real manifestations of the personality living and glorified after death." In later years he sought to draw yet more closely to positive Christianity.

_Keim_ of Zurich and Giessen, A.D. 1825-1878, the ablest of all recent historians of the life of Jesus, and with all his radicalism preserving some conservative tendencies, is best known by his "Jesus of Nazareth," in six vols.-_Holtzmann_ of Heidelberg and Stra.s.sburg, pa.s.sed from the mediating school over to that of Tubingen, from which in important points he has now departed.-To the same rank belongs _Hausrath_ of Heidelberg, whose "History of the New Testament Times" is well known. Under the pseudonym of George Taylor he has composed several highly successful historical romances.-The organs of this school are Hilgenfeld's _Zeitschrift_, and since 1875 the Jena "_Jahrbucher fur protest.

Theologie_."

18. _In the Old Testament Department_ a liberal critical school has arisen which has reversed the old relation of "the law and the prophets,"

treating the origin of the law as post-exilian, and as in not coming at the beginning, but at the end of the Jewish history. _Reuss_, whose "History of the New Testament Books" marked an epoch in New Testament introduction, was the first who moved in this direction, in his lectures begun at Stra.s.sburg in A.D. 1834, the results of which are given us in his "History of the Theology of the Apostolic Age" and in his "History of the Canon." Meanwhile _Vatke_ of Berlin had, in A.D. 1835, undertaken to prove that the patriarchal religion was pure Semitic nature worship, and that the prophets were the first to raise it into a monotheistic Jehovism.

Little success attended his efforts. Greater results were obtained by Reuss' two pupils, _Graf_ in A.D. 1866, and _Kayser_ in A.D. 1874. The most brilliant exposition of this theory was given by _Julius Wellhausen_ of Greifswald, transferred in A.D. 1882 to the Philosophical Faculty of Halle, in his "History of Israel." In his "Prolegomena to History of Israel," and article "Israel" in "_Encyclopaedia Britannica_," he gives expression with clearness and force to his radical negative criticism, and develops a purely naturalist conception of the Old Testament. Professor Kuenen of Leyden transplanted these views to the Netherlands, and Robertson Smith has introduced them into Scotland and England, while in Germany they are taught by a number of the younger teachers, Stade in Giessen, Merx in Heidelberg, Smend in Basel, etc. And now at last in A.D.

1882 the venerable master of the school, _Edward Reuss_, has himself in his "_Geschichte d. h. Schr. d. A. Test._" given a brilliant and in many points modified exposition of these radical theories. The history of Israel, according to him, divides itself into the four successive periods of the heroes, of the prophets, of the priests, and of the scribes, characterized respectively by individualism, idealism, formalism, and traditionalism. Even before the close of prophetism the priestly influence began to a.s.sert itself, but it was only in the post-exilian period under the domination of the priests that the construction and codification of the law began to make impression on the Jewish people. So too in the age of the kings there existed a Levitical tradition about rites and worship, which traced back its first outlines to the time of Moses, though at this period there could have been no written official codex of any kind. In regard to Moses, we are to think not only of his person as historical, but also of his career as that of a man inspired by the divine spirit and recognised as such by his contemporaries and fellow-countrymen.-Also _Wellhausen_, who has. .h.i.therto concerned himself only with the critical introduction to the Old Testament books, not with their historical or theological interpretation, supplied this defect to some extent by his "Prolegomena to the History of Israel." He admits that much of the history of Israel related in the Old Testament is credible. He even goes so far as to allow that this history was a preparation and forerunner of Christianity, but without miracle and prophecy, and without any immediate interposition of G.o.d in the affairs of Israel.

19. Among the most distinguished free-thinking _dogmatists_ of recent times, _Biedermann_ of Zurich, A.D. 1819-1885, has occupied the most advanced position. His princ.i.p.al work, "_Christliche Dogmatik_," A.D.

1869, defined G.o.d and the origin of the world as the self-development of the Absolute Idea according to the Hegelian scheme, recognises in the person of Christ the first realization of the Christian principle of the divine sonship in a personal life, then proceeds with free exposition of the Scripture and church doctrines, and combats openly the doctrines of the church and through them also those of Scripture, as setting religion purely in the domain of the imagination.-_Lipsius_ of Leipzig, Kiel, and Jena, in his earliest treatise on the Pauline Doctrine of Justification in A.D. 1853, held the position of the mediating theology, but under the influence of Kant, Hegel, and Baur has been led to adopt the standpoint of the "Free Protestant" school. His history of gnosticism and his researches in early apocryphal literature are important contributions to our knowledge of primitive Christianity. His "_Lehrbuch d. ev. prot.

Dogmatik_," 1876, 2nd ed. 1879, on the basis of Kant and Schleiermacher, fixing the limits of science with the former, and maintaining with the latter the necessity of religious faith and life, not rejecting metaphysics generally, but only its speculations on G.o.d and divine things lying quite outside of human experience, seeks from the common faith of the Christian church of all ages, as it is expressed in the Scriptures and in the confessions, by the application of the freest subjective criticism of the letter of revelation, to secure a theory of the world in harmony with modern views.-_Pfleiderer_, Twesten's successor in Berlin, in his "Paulinism," "Influence of Paul on Development of Christianity" and "History of the Philosophy of Religion," occupies more the Hegelian speculative standpoint than that of Kantian criticism.

20. _Ritschl and his School._-_Ritschl_, 1822-1889, from A.D. 1846 in Bonn, from A.D. 1864 in Gottingen, on his withdrawal from the Tubingen party, applied himself to dogmatic studies and founded a school, the adherents of which, divided into right and left wings, have secured quite a number of academical appointments. After the completion of his great dogmatic work on "Justification and Reconciliation," Ritschl resumed his historical studies in a "History of Pietism," which he traces back through the persecuted anabaptists of the Reformation age to the Tertiaries of the Franciscan order and the mysticism of St. Bernard. He earnestly maintains his adherence to the confessions of the Lutheran church, and regards it as the task of his life to disentangle the pure Lutheran doctrine from the accretions of scholastic metaphysics. Even more decidedly than Schleiermacher, he banishes all philosophy from the domain of theology.

The grand significance of Kant's doctrine of knowledge, with its a.s.sertion of the incomprehensibility of all transcendent truth except the ethical postulates of G.o.d, freedom and immortality, as set forth in a more profound manner by Lotze, is indeed admitted, but only as a methodological basis of all religious inquiries, and with determined rejection of every material support from Kant's construction of religion within the limits of the pure reason. Ritschl rather p.r.o.nounces in favour of the formal principle of Protestantism, and declares distinctly that all religious truth must be drawn directly from Scripture, primarily from the New Testament as the witness of the early church uncorrupted by the Platonic-Aristotelian metaphysic, but also secondarily from the Old Testament as the record of the content of revelation made to the religious community of Israel. The truthfulness of the biblical, especially of the New Testament, system of truth, rests, however, not on any theory of inspiration, but on its being an authentic statement of the early church of the doctrine of Christ, inasmuch as to this witness the necessary degree of _fides humana_ belongs. Ritschl's Christology rests on the witness of Christ to himself in the synoptists, through which he proclaims himself the one prophet who in the divine purpose of grace for mankind has received perfect consecration, sent by G.o.d into the world to represent the founding of the kingdom of G.o.d on earth foreshadowed in the Old Testament revelation; but no attempt is made to explain how Christ became possessed of the secrets of the divine decree. To him, as the first and only begotten Son of G.o.d, standing in essential union with the Father, belongs the attribute of deity and the right of worship. But of an eternal preexistence of Christ we can speak only in so far as this is meant of the eternal gracious purpose of G.o.d to redeem the world through him by means of the complete unfolding of the kingdom of G.o.d in the fellowship of love.

Whatever goes beyond this in the fourth gospel, its Johannine authenticity not being otherwise contested, as well as in Paul's epistles and in the Epistle to the Hebrews, resulted from the necessity felt by their writers for a.s.signing a sufficient reason for the a.s.sumption of such incomparable glory on the part of Christ. As the archetype of humanity destined for the kingdom of G.o.d, Christ is the original object of the divine love, so that the love of G.o.d to the members of his kingdom comes to them only through him. And as the earthly founding, so also the heavenly completion, of the kingdom of G.o.d is a.s.signed to Christ, and hence after his resurrection all power was given to him, of the transcendent exercise of which, however, we can know nothing. The universality of human sin is admitted by Ritschl as a fact of experience, but he despairs of reaching any dogmatic statement as to the origin of sin through the temptation of a superhuman evil power.

But that sin is inherited and as original guilt is under the condemnation of G.o.d, is not taught or pre-supposed by the teaching either of Christ or of the apostles. Redemption (reconciliation and justification) consists in the forgiveness of sins, by which the guilt that estranges from G.o.d is removed and the sinner is restored into the fellowship of the kingdom of G.o.d. Forgiveness, however, is not given on condition of the vicarious penal sufferings of Christ, whose sufferings and death are of significance rather because his life and works were a complete fulfilment of his calling, and witnessed to as such by G.o.d's raising him from the dead.

Justification secures the reception of the penitent sinner into the fellowship of the kingdom of G.o.d, preached and perfectly developed by Christ, and the sonship enjoyed in its membership, prefigured in Christ himself, which contains in itself the desire as well as the capacity to do good works out of love to G.o.d.-The school of Ritschl is represented in Gottingen by its founder and by _Schultz_ and _Wendt_, in Marburg by _Herrmann_, in Bonn by _Bender_, in Giessen by _Gottschick_ and _Kattenbusch_, in Stra.s.sburg by _Lobstein_, in Basel by _Kaftan_, formerly of Berlin.(93)

21. Opponents and critics of the school of Ritschl, especially from the confessional Lutheran ranks, have appeared in considerable numbers.

Luthardt of Leipzig in A.D. 1878 opened the campaign against Ritschilianism, followed by Bestmann, charging it with undermining Christianity. The Hanoverian synod of A.D. 1882 decided by a large majority that the scientific results of theological science must be ruled by the confessions of the evangelical church. The chief theme at the following Hanoverian Pentecost Conference was the "Incarnation of the Son of G.o.d," the discussion being led by Professor Dieckhoff of Rostock, against whom no voice was raised in favour of the views of Ritschl. Not long after, Professor Fricke of Leipzig published a lecture given by him at the Meissen Conference, on the Present Relations of Metaphysics and Theology, followed by utterances of Kubel of Tubingen, Grau of Konigsberg, Kreibig and H. Schmidt at Berlin, all unfavourable to Ritschl's theology.-The main objections are, according to _Bestmann_: idolatry of Kant, depreciation of the religious factor in Christianity in favour of the ethical by laying out a moral foreground without providing a dogmatic background, reducing the objective fundamental truths of the confession into subjective ethical ideas, etc.; according to _Luthardt_: Ritschl's position that it does not matter so much what the facts of the Christian faith are in themselves, as what they mean for us, makes his whole dogmatic system hang in the air, if in Christianity we have to do not with what G.o.d, Christ, the resurrection are, but only what significance we attach to them, Christianity is stript of all importance, the significance of a thing must have its foundation in the thing itself, etc.; according to _Dieckhoff_: Ritschl on his accepting the divinity of Christ lays down the rule that the special content of what is meant by the term divinity must be transferable to the believer, and so for Ritschl, Christ is a mere man who in his person was the first to represent a relation to G.o.d which is destined for all men in like measure, etc.; according to _Fricke_: new Kantian scepticism with regard to ideals and transcendentals, reducing religious elements to moral, with Ritschl's removal of all metaphysical facts the chief verities of our Christian faith are taken away, at least in the scientific form in which we have them, _e.g._ the doctrine of the Trinity, our Christology, our theory of satisfaction, in place of which comes the Catholic _just.i.tia infusa_, etc.; according to _Munchmayer_: "the object of justification with Ritschl is not the individual but the community, it is no act of G.o.d upon the individual but an eternal purpose of G.o.d for the community, its effect on the individual is not objective divine forgiveness of guilt but a subjective act of incorporation of the individual into the redeemed community; Christ and his work are not the ground of justification, but only the means of revealing the eternal justifying will of G.o.d, and therefore finally a continuation of the historical work of Christ by means of his church takes the place of the personal intercession of the exalted Redeemer for the penitent sinner."

Kreibig and Schmidt express themselves in a similar manner.-Ritschl has not himself undertaken any reply, but his disciples have sought to remove what they regard as misunderstandings, and generally to vindicate the system of their master.

22. _Writers on Const.i.tutional Law and History._-The most distinguished writers on the const.i.tutional law of the church are Eichhorn and Dove of Gottingen, Jacobsen of Konigsberg, Wa.s.serschleben of Giessen, Richter and Hinschius of Berlin, Friedberg of Leipzig, who belong to the unionist party; while Bickell of Marburg, Mejer of Gottingen and Hanover, Von Scheuerl of Erlangen, and Sohm of Stra.s.sburg belong to the confessional Lutherans.-Of ecclesiastical historians (-- 5, 4, 5) the number is so great that we cannot even enumerate their names.-The "_Theologische Literaturzeitung_" of Schurer and Harnack is a liberal scientific journal, distinguished for its fair criticisms by writers whose names are given.

-- 183. Home Missions.

In regard to home mission work, the Protestant church long lagged behind the Catholic, which had wrought vigorously through its monkish orders.

England first entered with zeal into the field, especially dissenters and members of the low church party, and subsequently also the high church ritualistic party (-- 202, 1, 3), which now takes an active interest in this work. Germany, in view of the scanty means at the disposal of the pietists and the church party, made n.o.ble efforts. In other continental countries, but especially in North America, much was done for home missions. Soon the whole Protestant world began to organize benevolent and evangelistic inst.i.tutions. The laborious Wichern, in A.D. 1849, went through all Germany to arouse interest in home missions, and started a yearly congress on the subject in Wittenberg. Till his death in A.D. 1881, Wichern continued to direct this congress and further the interests which it represented.

1. _Inst.i.tutions._-The earliest charity school was that founded at Dusselthal by Count Recke-Volmarstein, in A.D. 1816, followed by Zeller's at Beuggen in A.D. 1820. One of the most famous of these inst.i.tutions was the _Rauhe Haus_ of Wichern, at Horn, near Hamburg, A.D. 1833.(94) Fliedner's Deaconess Inst.i.tut at Kaiserswerth is the pride of the evangelical church. It has now 190 branches, with 625 sisters, in the four continents. There are many independent inst.i.tutions modelled upon it in Germany, England, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Russia, and France. In A.D.

1881 there were in Germany 31, and in the cities of other lands 22, princ.i.p.al deaconess inst.i.tutions of this German order, with 4,751 sisters and 1,491 fields of labour outside of the inst.i.tution. The original inst.i.tute of Kaiserswerth comprises a hospital with 600 patients, a refuge for fallen women and liberated prisoners, an orphanage for girls, a seminary for governesses, and a home for female imbeciles.(95) Lohe founded the deaconess inst.i.tute of _Neuendettelsau_, on strict Lutheran principles, with hospital, girls' school, and asylum for imbecile children. In France a most successful inst.i.tution was founded by pastor Bost of Laforce, in A.D. 1848, for foundlings, imbeciles, and epileptics.

In England, George Muller, a poor German student of Halle, a pupil of Tholuck, beginning in A.D. 1832, founded at Bristol five richly endowed orphanages after the pattern of that of A. H. Francke, in which thousands of dest.i.tute street children have been educated, and for this and other purposes has spent nearly 1,000,000 without ever asking any one for a contribution, acting on the belief that "the G.o.d of Elijah still lives."

The London City Mission employs 600 missionaries. In New York, since A.D.

1855, about 60,000 street children have been placed, by the Society for Poor Children, in Christian families, and 21 Industrial schools are maintained with 10,000 scholars.-Tract Societies in London, Hamburg, Berlin, etc., send out millions of tracts for Christian instruction and awakening. The Society for North Germany successfully pursues a similar work; the Calw Publication Society circulates Christian text-books with woodcuts at a remarkably small price. In Berlin the Evangelical Book Society issues reprints of the older tracts on practical divinity.

Christian women, like the English Quakeress Elizabeth Fry, the n.o.ble Amalie Sieveking of Hamburg, Miss Florence Nightingale, the heroine of the Crimean war, and the brave Maria Simon of Dresden, who organized the female nursing corps of the wars of 1866, 1870, 1871, helped on the work of home missions in all lands, especially in the departments of tending the poor and the sick.

2. The _Order of St. John_, secularized in A.D. 1810, was reorganized by Frederick William IV. in A.D. 1852 into an a.s.sociation for the care of the sick and poor. Under a grand-master it has 350 members and 1,500 a.s.sociates. Its revenues are formed from entrance fees and annual contributions. It has thirty hospitals. In A.D. 1861 it founded a hospital for men in Beyrout during the persecution of Christians in Syria, and in A.D. 1868 gave aid during the famine that followed the typhus epidemic in East Prussia, and did n.o.ble service in the wars of A.D. 1864, 1866, and 1870.

3. _The Itinerant Preacher Gustav Werner in Wurttemberg._-Abandoning his charge in A.D. 1840, Werner began his itinerant labours, and during the year formed more than a hundred groups of adherents over all Wurttemberg.

His preaching was allegorical and eschatological, and avoided the doctrines of satisfaction and justification. On his repudiating the Augsburg Confession, the church boards refused to recognise him, and he went hither and thither preaching a Christian communism. In A.D. 1842 he bought a site in Reutlingen, built a house, and founded a school for eighty children. In order to develop his views of carrying on industrial arts on a Christian basis, he bought, in A.D. 1850, the paper factory at Reutlingen for 4,000, and subsequently transferred it to Dettingen on a larger scale, at an outlay of 20,000. By A.D. 1862 he had established no less than twenty-two branches, in which manufacturing was carried on, with inst.i.tutions of all kinds for education, pastoral work, rescuing the lost and raising the fallen. Each member lives and works for the whole; none receives wages; surplus income goes to increase the number and extent of the inst.i.tutions. Vast mult.i.tudes of sunken and dest.i.tute families have been by these means restored to respectable social positions and to a moral religious life.

4. _Bible Societies._-The Bible societies const.i.tute an independent branch of the home mission. Modern efforts to circulate Scripture began in England. As a necessary adjunct to missionary societies, the great British and Foreign Bible Society was founded in London in A.D. 1804, embracing all Protestant sects, excepting the Quakers. It circulates Bibles without note or comment. The Apocryphal controversy of A.D. 1825-1827 resulted in the society resolving not to print the Apocrypha in its issues. In consequence of this decision, fifty German societies, including the present society of Berlin, seceded. The New York a.s.sociation, founded in A.D. 1817, is in thorough accord with the London society. The Baden Missionary Society revived the discussion in A.D. 1852 by making it the subject of essay for a prize, which was won by the learned work of Keerl, who, along with the stricter Lutherans, condemned the Apocrypha. The other side was taken by Stier and Hengstenberg, and most of the consistories advised adherence to the old practice, as all misunderstanding was prevented by Luther's preface and the prohibition against using pa.s.sages from the Apocrypha as sermon texts.-Bible societies altogether have issued during the century 180,000,000 Bibles and New Testaments in 324 different languages.(96)

-- 184. Foreign Missions.

Protestant zeal for missions to the heathen has gone on advancing since the end of last century (-- 172, 5). Missionary societies increase from year to year. In A.D. 1883 there were seventy independent societies with innumerable branches, which contribute annually about 1,500,000, or five times as much as the Romish church, and maintain 2,000 mission stations, 2,940 European and American missionaries, and 1,000 ordained native pastors and 25,000 native teachers and a.s.sistants, having under their care 2,214,000 converts from heathenism. In missionary enterprise England holds the first place, next comes America, and then Germany. Among Protestant sects the Methodists and Baptists are most zealous in the cause of missions, and the Moravian Brethren have wrought most successfully in this department. The missions also did much to prepare the way for the suppression of the slave trade by the European powers in A.D. 1830, and the emanc.i.p.ation of all slaves in the British possessions in A.D. 1834, at a cost of 20,000,000. The n.o.ble English philanthropist, William Wilberforce, unweariedly laboured for these ends.-Also in England, Germany, Russia, and France new a.s.sociations were formed for missions to the Jews, and the work was carried on with admirable patience, though the visible results were very small.

1. _Missionary Societies._-The great American Missionary Society was founded at Boston in A.D. 1810, the English Wesleyan in A.D. 1814, the American Methodist in A.D. 1819, the American Episcopal in A.D. 1820, and the Society of Paris in A.D. 1824. The new German societies were on confessional lines: that of Basel in A.D. 1816, of Berlin in A.D. 1823, the Rhenish with the mission seminary at Barmen in A.D. 1829, the North German, on the basis of the Augsburg Confession, in A.D. 1836. The Dresden Society, which resumed the old Lutheran work in the East Indies (-- 167, 9), founded a seminary at Leipzig in A.D. 1849, in order to get the benefit of the university. Lutheran societies, mostly affiliated with that of Leipzig, were started in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Bavaria, Hanover, Mecklenburg, Hesse, and America. The Neuendettelsau Inst.i.tute wrought through the Iowa Synod among the North American Indians, and through the Immanuel Synod among the aborigines of Australia. The Hermannsburg Inst.i.tute under Harms prosecuted mission work with great zeal. In A.D. 1853, Harms sent out in his own mission ship eight missionaries and as many Christian colonists. It has been objected to this mission, that endeavours after social elevation and industrial training have driven to the background the main question of individual conversion.-The advanced liberal school in Switzerland and Germany sought in A.D. 1883 to start a mission on their own particular lines. They do not propose any opposition to existing agencies, and intend to make their first experiment among the civilized races of India and j.a.pan.

2. _Europe and America._-The Swedish mission in Lapland (-- 160, 7) was resumed in A.D. 1825 by Stockfleth. The Moravians carried on their work among the Eskimos in Greenland, which had now become a wholly Christian country, and also in Labrador, which was almost in the same condition. The chaplain of the Hudson Bay Company, J. West, founded a successful mission in that territory in A.D. 1822. Among the natives and negro slaves in the British possessions, the United States, and West Indies, Moravians, Methodists, Baptists, and Anglican Episcopalians patiently and successfully carried on the work. Among the natives and bush negroes, descendants of runaway slaves, in Guiana, the Moravians did a n.o.ble work.-Catholic South America remained closed against Protestant missions.

But the ardent zeal of Capt. Allen Gardiner led him to choose the inhospitable sh.o.r.es of Patagonia as a field of labour. He landed there in A.D. 1850 with five missionaries, but in the following year their corpses only were found. The work, however, was started anew in A.D. 1856, and prosecuted with success under the direction of an Anglican bishop.

3. _Africa._-The Moravians have laboured among the Hottentots, the Berlin missionaries among the wild Corannas, and the French Evangelical Society among the Bechuanas. Hahn of Livonia is the apostle of the Hereros. On the East Coast the London Missionary Society has wrought among the warlike Kaffirs, and other British societies are labouring in Natal among the Zulus. On the West Coast the English colony of Sierra Leone was founded for the settling and Christianizing of liberated slaves, and farther south is Liberia, a similar American colony; both in a flourishing condition, under the care of Methodists, Baptists, and Anglican Episcopalians. The Basel missionaries labour on the Gold Coast, Baptists in Old Calabar, and the American and North German Societies on the Gaboon River.-The London missionaries won Radama of Madagascar to Christianity in A.D. 1818, but his successor Ranavalona inst.i.tuted a b.l.o.o.d.y persecution of the Christians in A.D. 1835, during which David Jones, the apostle of the Malaga.s.sy, suffered martyrdom in A.D. 1843. In the island of Mauritius, where there is an Anglican bishop, many Malaga.s.sy Christians found refuge. After the queen's death in A.D. 1861, her Christian son Radama II. recalled the Christian exiles and the missionaries. He soon became the victim of a palace revolution. His wife and successor Rosaherina continued a heathen till her death in A.D. 1868, but put no obstacle in the way of the gospel.

But her cousin Ranavalona II. overthrew the idol worship, was baptized in A.D. 1869, and in the following year burned the national idols.

Protestantism now made rapid strides, till interrupted by French Jesuit intrigues, which have been favoured by the recent French occupation.

4. Livingstone and Stanley have made marvellous contributions to our geographical knowledge of _Central Africa_ and to Christian missions there. The Scottish missionary, David Livingstone, factory boy, afterwards physician and minister, wrought, A.D. 1840-1849, under the London Missionary Society in South Africa, and then entered on his life work of exploration in Central Africa. During his third exploring journey into the interior in A.D. 1865 as a British consul, he was not heard of for a whole year. H. M. Stanley, of the _New York Herald_, was sent in A.D. 1871, and found him in Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika. Livingstone died of dysentery on the southern bank of this lake in A.D. 1873. Still more important was Stanley's second journey, A.D. 1874-1877, which yielded the most brilliant scientific results, and was epoch-making in the history of African missions. He got the greatest potentate in those regions, King Mtesa of Uganda, who had been converted by the Arabs to Mohammedanism, to adopt Christianity and permit a Christian church to be built in his city.

Stanley's letters from Africa roused missionary fervour throughout England. The Church Missionary Society in A.D. 1877 set up a mission station in the capital, and put a steamer on the Victoria Nyanza. The church services were regularly attended, education and the work of civilization zealously prosecuted, Sunday labour and the slave trade prohibited, etc. French Jesuits entered in A.D. 1879, insinuating suspicions of the English missionaries into the ear of the king, and the machinations of the Arab slave-dealers made their position dangerous.

Missionaries arrived by way of Egypt with flattering recommendations from the English foreign secretary in the name of the queen. But the traders, by means of an Arabic translation of a letter purporting to be from the English consul at Zanzibar, cast suspicion on the doc.u.ment as a forgery, and represented its bearers as in the pay of the hostile Egyptians.

Mtesa's wrath knew no bounds, and only his favour for the missionary physician saved the mission and led him to send an emba.s.sy of three chiefs and two missionaries to England in June, A.D. 1879, to discover the actual truth. His anger meanwhile cooled, and the work of the mission was resumed. He was preparing to put an utter end to the national heathenism, when suddenly a report spread that the greatest of all the Lubaris or inferior deities, that of the Nyanza Lake, had become incarnate in an old woman, in order to heal the king and restore the ancient religion. The whole populace was in an uproar; Mtesa, under threat of deposition, restored heathenism, with human sacrifice, man stealing, and the slave trade. Then the Lubari excitement cooled down. Mtesa, moved by a dream, declared himself again a Mohammedan, and converted the Christian church into a mosque. The English missionaries, stripped of all means, starved, and subjected to all sorts of privations, did not flinch. At last, in January, A.D. 1881, the emba.s.sy, sent eighteen months before to England, reached home again, and, by the story of their reception, caused a revulsion of feeling in favour of the English mission, which again flourished under the protection of the king. But Mtesa died in 1884. His son and successor, Mw.a.n.ga, a suspicious, peevish young despot, addicted to all forms of vice, began again the most cruel persecution, of which Bishop Hannington, sent out from England, with fifty companions, were the victims. Only four escaped.

5. _Asia._-The most important mission field in Asia is _India_. The old Lutheran mission there had great difficulties to contend against: the system of caste distinctions, the proud self-sufficiency of the pantheistic Brahmans, the politico-commercial interests of the East India Company, etc. The Leipzig Society has sixteen stations among the Tamuls, and alongside are English, American, and German missionaries of every school. The Gossner Society works among the Kohls of Chota Nagpore, where a rival mission has been started by the puseyite bishop of Calcutta, Dr.

Milman, to which, in A.D. 1868, six of the twelve German missionaries and twelve of the thirty-six chapels were transferred. The Basel missionaries labour in Canara and Malabar. The military revolt in Northern India in A.D. 1857 interrupted missionary operations for two years; but the work was afterwards resumed with great vigour. The Christian benevolence shown during the famine of A.D. 1878, in which three millions perished, made a great impression in favour of the Protestant church. In the preceding years throughout all India only between 5,000 and 10,000 souls were annually added; but in A.D. 1878 the number of new converts rose to 100,000, and in A.D. 1879 there were 44,000.-The island of _Ceylon_ was, under Portuguese and Dutch, rule, in great part nominally Christianized; but when compulsion was removed under British rule, this sham profession was at an end. Mult.i.tudes fell back into heathenism, and in the first ten years of the British dominion 900 new idol temples were erected. From A.D.

1812 Baptist, Methodist, and Anglican missionaries have toiled with small appearance of fruit. In _Farther India_ the American missionaries have wrought since A.D. 1813. Judson and his heroic wife did n.o.ble work among the Karens and the Burmans. Also in Malacca, Singapore, and Siam the Protestant missions have had brilliant success. The work in Sumatra has been r.e.t.a.r.ded by the opposition of the Malays and deadly malarial fever.

The preaching of the gospel was eminently successful in _Java_, where since A.D. 1814 Baptist missionaries and agents of the London Society have wrought heroically. In Celebes the Dutch missionaries found twenty Christian congregations of old standing, greatly deteriorated for want of pastoral care, but still using the Heidelberg Catechism. At Banjerma.s.sin, in A.D. 1835 the Rhenish Society founded their first station in Borneo, and wrought not unsuccessfully among the heathen Dyaks. But in A.D. 1859 a rebellion of the Mohammedan residents led to the expulsion of the Dutch and the murder of all Christians. Only a few of the missionaries escaped martyrdom, and subsequently settled in Sumatra.

6. The work in _China_ began in A.D. 1807, when the London Missionary Society settled Morrison in Canton, where he began the study of the language and the translation of the Bible. Gutzlaff of Pomerania, in A.D.

1826, conceived the plan of evangelizing China through the Chinese converts, but, though he continued his efforts till his death in A.D.

1854, the scheme failed through the unworthiness of many of the professors. The war against the opium traffic, A.D. 1839-1842, opened five ports to the mission, and led to the transference of Hongkong to the English. The Chinese mission now made rapid strides; but the interior was still untouched. The conflict between the governor of Canton and the English, French, and Americans, and the chastis.e.m.e.nt administered to the Chinese in A.D. 1857, led the emperor, in A.D. 1858, to make a treaty with the three powers and also with Russia, by which the whole land was opened up for trade and missions, and full toleration granted to Christianity.

Popular hatred of strangers, and especially of missionaries, however, occasioned frequently b.l.o.o.d.y encounters, and in A.D. 1870 there was a furious outburst directed against the French missionaries. During a terrible famine in North China, in A.D. 1878, when more than five millions perished, the heroic and self-sacrificing conduct of the missionaries brought them into high favour. Throughout China there are now 320 organized Christian congregations with 50,000 adherents under 238 foreign missionaries.-After seclusion for three centuries, _j.a.pan_, about the same time as China, was opened by treaty to European and American commerce, notwithstanding the opposition of the old feudal n.o.bility, the so-called Daimios. In A.D. 1871 the mikado's government succeeded in overcoming completely the power of the daimios and setting aside the shiogun or military vizier, who had exercised supreme executive power. European customs were introduced, but the rigorous enactments against native converts to Christianity were still enforced. A cruel persecution of native Christians was carried on in A.D. 1867, but the Protestant missionaries continued to work unweariedly, preparing dictionaries and reading books. The Buddhist priests sought to get up a rival mission to send agents to America and Europe, whereas many of the leading newspapers expressed the opinion that j.a.pan must soon put Christianity in the place of Buddhism as the state religion.

7. _Polynesia and Australia._-The flourishing Protestant church of Tahiti, the largest and finest of the Society Islands (-- 172, 5), suffered from the appearance of two French Jesuits in A.D. 1836. When Queen Pomare compelled them to withdraw, the French government, resenting this as an indignity to their nation, sent a fleet to attack the defenceless people, proclaimed a French protectorate, and introduced not only Catholic missionaries, but European vices. Amid much persecution, however, the Protestants held their own. In December, 1880, Pomare V. resigned, and the Society Islands became a dependency of France.-In the south-east groups great opposition was shown, but in the north-west Christianity made rapid progress. The island of Raiatea was the centre of the South Sea missions.

There from A.D. 1819 John Williams, the apostle of the South Seas, wrought till he met a martyr's death in A.D. 1839. He went from place to place in a mission ship built by his own hands. The Harvey Group were Christianized in A.D. 1821, and the Navigator Group in A.D. 1830. The French took the Marquesas Islands in A.D. 1838, and introduced Catholic missionaries. The attempt to evangelize the New Hebrides led to the death of Williams and two of his companions. Missionaries of the London Society, A.D. 1797-1799, had failed in the Friendly Islands through the savage character of the natives, but in A.D. 1822 the Methodists made a successful start. The gospel was carried thence to Fiji, which is now under British rule. Both groups have become almost wholly Christianized. The _Sandwich Islands_ form a third mission centre, wrought by the American board. Kamehameha I.

gladly adopted the elements of Christian civilization, though rejecting Christianity: while his successor Kamehameha II. in A.D. 1829 abolished tabu and overthrew the idol temples. In A.D. 1851 Christianity was adopted as the national religion. The work was more difficult in _New Zealand_, where the Church Missionary Society, represented by Samuel Marsden, the apostle of New Zealand, began operations in A.D. 1814. For ten years the position of the missionaries was most hazardous; yet they held on, and the conversion of the most bloodthirsty of the chiefs did much to advance their cause. In New Guinea the London Society has been making steady progress. Among the stolid natives of the continent of New Holland, the so called Papuans, the labours of the Moravians since A.D. 1849 have not yielded much fruit. Since A.D. 1875 the German-Australian Immanuel Synod, supported by Neuendettelsau, has laboured for the conversion of the heathen in the inland districts.

8. _Missions to the Jews._-In A.D. 1809 the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews (-- 172, 5) was formed by a union of all denominations, but soon pa.s.sed into the hands of the Anglicans. By the circulation of the Scriptures and tracts, and by the sending out of missionaries, mostly Jewish converts, the work was persevered in amid many discouragements. In A.D. 1818 Poland was opened to its missionaries, and there some 600 Jews were baptized. The society carried on its operations also in Germany, Holland, France, and Turkey. The work in Poland was interrupted by the Crimean war, and was not resumed till A.D. 1875. In Bessarabia Faltin has laboured successfully among the Jews since A.D.

1860. He was joined in the work in A.D. 1867 by the converted Rabbi Gurland, who had studied theology at Halle and Berlin. In A.D. 1871 Gurland accepted a call to similar work in Courland and Lithuania, and since A.D. 1876 has been Lutheran pastor at Mitau. In A.D. 1841 the evangelical bishopric of St. James was founded in Jerusalem by the English and Prussian governments conjointly, presentations to be made alternately, but the ordination to be according to the Anglican rite. The first bishop was Alexander, a Jewish convert. He died in A.D. 1845 and was succeeded by the zealous missionary Gobat, elected by the Prussian government. He died in A.D. 1879 and was succeeded by Barclay, who died in A.D. 1881. It was now again Prussia's turn to make an appointment. The English demand to have Lutheran ministers ordained successively deacon, presbyter, and bishop had given offence, and so no new appointment has been made. In June 1886 the English-Prussian compact was formally cancelled and a proposal made to found an independent Prussian Evangelical bishopric.

9. _Missions among the Eastern Churches._-In A.D. 1815 the Church Missionary Society founded a missionary emporium in the island of Malta, as a tract depot for the evangelizing the East; and in A.D. 1846 the Malta Protestant College was erected for training native missionaries, teachers, physicians, etc., for work in the various oriental countries. In the Ionian islands, in Constantinople, and in Greece, British and American missionaries began operations in A.D. 1819 by erecting schools and circulating the scriptures. At first the orthodox clergy were favourable, but as the work progressed they became actively hostile, and only two mission schools in Syra and Athens were allowed to continue. In Syria the Americans made Beyrout their head quarters in A.D. 1824, but the work was interrupted by the Turco-Egyptian conflicts. Subsequently, however, it flourished more and more, and, before the Syrian ma.s.sacre of A.D. 1860 (-- 207, 2), there were nine prosperous stations in Syria. The founding of the Jerusalem bishopric in A.D. 1841, and the issuing of the Hatti-Humayun in A.D. 1856 (-- 207, 2), induced the Church Missionary Society to make more vigorous efforts which, however, were afterwards abandoned for want of success. Down to the outbreak of the persecution of Syrian Christians in A.D. 1860, this society had five flourishing stations. From A.D. 1831 the Americans had wrought zealously and successfully among the Armenians in Constantinople and neighbourhood, but in A.D. 1845 the Armenian patriarch excited a violent persecution which threatened the utter overthrow of the work. The British amba.s.sador, Sir Stratford de Redcliffe, however, insisted upon the Porte recognising the rights of the Protestant Armenians as an independent religious denomination, and since then the missions have prospered. Among the Nestorians in Turkey and Persia the Americans, with Dr. Grant at their head, began operations in A.D. 1834; but through Jesuit intrigues the suspicions of the Kurds and Turks were excited, and in A.D.

1843 and 1846 a war of extermination was waged against the mountain Nestorians, which annihilated the Protestant missions among them.

Operations, however, have been recommenced with encouraging success. Among the deeply degraded Copts in Egypt, and extending from them into Abyssinia, the Moravians had been working without any apparent result from A.D. 1752 to A.D. 1783. In A.D. 1826 the Church Missionary Society, under German missionaries trained at Basel (Gobat, Irenberg, Krapf, etc.), took up the work, till it was stopped by the government in A.D. 1837. In A.D.

1855 the Basel missionaries began again to work in Abyssinia with the approval of King Theodore. This state of things soon changed. Theodore's ambition was to conquer Egypt and overthrow Islam. But when in A.D. 1863 this scheme only called forth threats from London and Paris, he gave loose rein to his natural ferocity and put the English consul and the German missionaries in chains. By means of an armed expedition in A.D. 1868, England compelled the liberation of the prisoners, and Theodore put an end to his own life. After the withdrawal of the English the country was desolated by civil wars, and at the close of these troubles in A.D. 1878 the mission resumed its operations.

III. Catholicism in General.