222 The Penang M. E. Mission. chair. The large upper room was more than filled with the scholars and their friends, and many stood at the door throughout the proceedings. The principal, Mr. C. E. Copeland, referred in his report to the very satisfactory results obtained at the government inspection, which we noticed in a previous issue, and expressed a hope that at no distant date the boys of the Anglo-Chinese School may distinguish themselves also by obtaining scholarships both in England and America. The Honorable W. E. Maxwell expressed his regret that his excellency the governor was unable to be present on this occasion, and spoke in an encouraging and complimentary manner of the progress made in the school during the year. Mrs. Maxwell then presented the prizes, of which there was a long list, and the proceedings closed with the singing of the national anthem and three cheers for the queen." "After a four weeks' holiday the scholars of the Methodist girls' school are again in their place, and people passing along Middle Road once more hear the pleasant droning of childish voices in the Christian Institute. Unlike many children these girls do not like long holidays and are glad that lessons have begun. Teachers and pupils are alike glad to be at their posts again, and no doubt much earnest work will be done this year." "Sunday, January 15, gave us convincing proof of the loyalty of our Chinese brethren. It rained almost without intermission all day, yet at our evening service we had twenty-five brethren present, and at 3 P. M., although it was raining very hard, there was a congregation of seventeen. At 5 P. M., although it was not raining nearly so hard, there were only nine present at the English church, so that we think we are justified in pointing to this instance as a refutation of the oft-repeated statement that Chinese Christians are so only for reasons which affect their stomachs. On the same day at our Malay service in the Christian Institute, where the congregation now averages about thirty persons, there were nine present in spite of the rain. "Last month two of the Chinese brethren were arrested for preaching on the street. On this occasion no missionary was with them, and they had not been talking very long when a Malay policeman ordered them off, and almost immediately afterward arrested them. After being taken to the station and kicked and cuffed about, they were released by the European inspector in charge. This shows the animosity of the Mohammedan police with reference to our work. When a European is present they do not dare to interfere, but when the missionaries do not go they always give trouble. "Hitherto we have been unable to do anything among the Cantonese, but now that we have a Cantonese catechist and one of our missionaries can speak a little of that dialect, it is hoped that something more may be done for them. One day this month a visit was made to the part of town inhabited by these people, and we were quite well received and succeeded in selling many tracts. This is the more noticeable from the fact that many such visits were made before we were able to speak to them in their own tongue, and we met with nothing but rebuff." The Penang Methodist Episcopal Mission. BY REV. D. DAVIES MOORE. THE arrival of the C and G companies of the Lincolnshire Regiment has placed under our care more than twenty Wesleyan soldiers. The men are of a good type. One of them is a communicant, and a corporal has since come forward as a member on trial. I recently received three persons on probation and still have another to receive. We had the pleasure of a visit from Miss Black. more en route to Australia, in January. She visited our schools, and was so much interested in Penang Baba work among boys and girls that she nearly forgot her steamer, the Malwa having almost weighed anchor as we reached her side. We could see that Sister Blackmore was not going for her furlough any too soon, and trust and pray that at the end of her year of rest we may meet her at Penang, on the way to her successful work in Singapore, fully restored in strength for another term of work for the Master. Our girls' enterprise is receiving recognition from those in "high places." The resident and Mrs. Skinner are interested in it, and also give practical assistance to the work. The resident wrote to me a short time ago that this work deserved "the support of the community." The boys' school, under Mr. Balderston, at present needs a commodious building more than anything else. One of our boys, a Baba teacher in the boys' school, is about to proceed to Singapore to become a pupil-teacher in our school there. In heart and life we believe him to be a Christian, though he has not yet received sufficient Christian courage to be baptized. We hope, however, that he will request baptism at our hands before leaving us, for the sake of the salutary effect of such an example upon others. It is the old story-fear of offending and grieving mother and relatives. But we fully believe that the Holy Spirit is about to bring to the Babas a more heroic day. AT Penang there is a leper hospital under the care of the English Presbyterian Mission. Here those who show symptoms of disease are received and kept until the disease reaches a certain stage, at which time they are sent to Leper Island, which is in the vicinity of Penang. On the island are two hundred and thirty lepers, and a number of them while in the hospital in Penang received gladly the Gospel, and have carried it to their present miserable companions. CHURCHES AND MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. Faith and Census of Some American Churches. WE have received from the United States Census Office in Washington the following, prepared by H. K. Carroll, LL.D.: THE UNIVERSALISTS. The first regular preacher in America of the distinctive doctrines of Universalism was the Rev. John Murray, a disciple of James Relly, who had gathered a congregation of Universalists in London. As early as 1684, Joseph Gatchell, of Marblehead, Mass., was sentenced by the Suffolk County Court to have his "tongue drawn forth and pierced with a hot iron " for declaring that all men would be saved. The names of a number of ministers of different denominations are included in the list of those who held or published Universalist views before Murray arrived from England in 1770. Mr. Murray preached at various places, settling at Gloucester, Mass., in 1774, and in Boston in 1793. By him and a few others a number of Universalist churches were established. At the close of the eighteenth century there were about a score of Universalist ministers. The Rev. Hosea Ballou, whose name is honored as the father of Universalism in its present form, became prominent in the movement at the beginning of the present century. His views differed radically from those of Mr. Murray. In a "Treatise on Atonement," published in 1795, he denied the doctrine of the vicarious sacrifice, and insisted that punishment for the sins of mortality is confined to this life. If there were any punishment in the future life it would be, he contended, for sins committed in that life. Some years later he expressed the belief that there is no sin beyond the grave and consequently no punishment. Mr. Murray had held that Christ himself bore the punishment due the sins of mankind, and, therefore, there would be no further pun. ishment. Of the early Universalists, Murray had been a Methodist, Winchester and Ballou Baptists. There being quite a number of Universalists who held, contrary to the views of Mr. Ballou, to a limited future punishment, a division occurred in 1830, and an association was organized in the interests of the doctrine of restoration. This association existed for about eleven years and then became extinct, some of its preachers returning to the Universalist denomination, others becoming Unitarians. The Restorationists held that there would be a future retribution, but that God would, in his own time, "restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness." The symbol of the Universalist faith is the Winchester Profession of Belief," which was adopted in 1803 by the New England Convention, held in Winchester, N. H. It is as follows: ARTICLE 1. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest, and final destination of mankind. ART. 2. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness. ART. 3. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men. This profession of belief has remained unaltered since it was formulated. It is regarded as a sufficient general declaration of the fundamental doctrine of Universalists for the purpose of fellowship. A more particular knowledge of their general belief may be gathered from the utterances of leading Universalist writers. The Universalist system of government is a modified Presbyterianism. The parish manages its own financial and general interests, and calls or dismisses a pastor; but it "acknowledges allegiance both to the State and General Conventions and is bound to observe the laws they enact." No State Conventions can be formed "without a constituency of at least four parishes." Such conventions exercise authority in their own territory under rules and limitations prescribed by the General Convention. They are composed of all Universalist ministers in fellowship, and of lay delegates from the parishes. They meet every year. The General Convention, which is held in October annually, consists of clerical and lay delegates from each State Convention, in the proportion of one of the former to two of the latter. Every convention is entitled to send at least one clerical and two lay delegates. If it has fifty parishes and clergymen, it can send twice as many delegates, with an additional three for every additional twenty-five parishes and clergymen. The General Convention "exercises ecclesiastical authority throughout the United States and Canada. It is the court of final appeal in cases of dispute between State Conventions, and in all cases of discipline not provided for and settled by subordinate bodies," and has original jurisdiction in States and Territories where subordinate conventions have not been organized. The General Convention is an incorporated body and controls various denominational funds. Ministers are ordained by councils, consisting of ten ordained ministers and lay delegates from ten parishes, called by the parish desiring the ordination, with the consent of the convention (State) committee on fellowship, ordination, and discipline. There are also licentiates, both of the clerical and lay order. Among the usages of the Church is the observance of the second Sunday in June as "Children's Sunday." 224 Faith and Census of Some American Churches. The churches are decorated with flowers and children are baptized. Christmas and Easter are generally observed, and a Sunday in October is set apart for services in memory of members who have died during the year. The sacraments observed are baptism and the Lord's Supper. The mode of baptism is left to the choice of the applicant. There are forty State Conventions, besides those of Canada and Scotland, the oldest of which, that of New York, was organized in 1825. New York leads in the number of members, reporting 8,526; Massachusetts comes second, with 7,142; Ohio third, with 4,961; and Maine fourth, with 3,750. The total of members is 49,194, and the aggregate value of church property $8,054,333. The average value of the church edifices is $9,680, and the average seating capacity 294. SUMMARY BY STATES, ETC. that Christ, though the greatest of created beings, was not equal in nature and dignity to God. Unitarian organizations were formed in Poland and Hungary as early as the middle of the sixteenth century, and in the United States and England in the first quarter of the present century. King's Chapel, Boston, a Protestant Episcopal congregation, adopted in 1785 a liturgy so revised as to exclude all recognition of the Trinity, and ordained in 1787, as its pastor, on the refusal of the bishop of the diocese to do so, James Freeman, who was Unitarian in his views. Arian ideas began to influence ministers and laymen in the Congregational churches in New England at the beginning of the present century. In 1805 a Unitarian, Dr. Henry Ware, was elected to the divinity chair in Harvard University, and in 1819 a separate divinity school was organized in connection with the university with a Unitarian faculty. Those holding Arian views became generally known as Unitarians in 1815, which is usually given as the beginning of the Unitarian denomination in America. In 1819 a Unitarian congregation was formed in Baltimore. William Ellery Channing preached the installation sermon, in which he clearly defined the differences between Orthodox and Unitarian doctrines. Many Congregational churches in Eastern Massachusetts, including the oldest, that at Plymouth, the church founded by the Pilgrims in 1620, became Unitarian without changing their covenants or names. In the course of the controversy, 120 Congregational churches in New England, founded before the War of the Revolution, went over to the Unitarians. In 1830 there were, in all, 193 churches of the Unitarian faith; in 1865, 340. The present number is 421. The Unitarians acknowledge no binding creed. They contend for the fullest liberty in belief, and exclude no one from their fellowship for difference in doctrinal views. Unitarianism is declared to be not a fixed dogmatic statement, but a movement of ever-enlarging faith," welcoming "inquiry, progress, and diversity of individual thought in the unity of spiritual thought." In the denomination are included those who stand upon a simple basis of Theism, and are represented in the Western Unitarian Conference, for example, and those who accept the Messiahship of Jesus Christ. In general terms they believe in God as the All-in-All, "in eternal life as the great hope, in the inspiration of all truth, in man's great possibili. ties, and in the divineness of sanctified humanity." The Unitarian churches are Congregational in polity, each congregation being independent in the management of its own affairs. There are societies for the conduct of missionary work, such as the American Unitarian Association, organized in 1825, the Western Unitarian Conference, which attends to the general interests of the societies represented in it, and the Western Unitarian Association, whose object is to "diffuse the knowledge and promote the in Faith and Census of Some American Churches. terests of pure Christianity." There are also conferences, national and State and local. The National Conference, which is biennial, declares in its constitution its "allegiance to the Gospel of Jesus Christ," and its "desire to secure the largest unity of spirit and the widest practical cooperation" in the cause of Christian faith and work. It confines itself to recommending to existing Unitarian organizations "such undertakings and methods as it judges to be in the heart of the Unitarian denomination." It is composed of delegates from the churches and representatives of certain Unitarian organizations. The conference provides for a committee of fellowship, for the consideration of applications of persons not graduates of Unitarian schools to enter the Unitarian ministry. The 421 organizations report 424 edifices, valued at $10,335,100, and with an aggregate seating capacity of 165,090. Of the 67,749 communicants, or, more properly, members, as the Unitarian custom is to admit anyone to the communion, a little more than half are in Ma-sachusetts. New York has the second largest number, 4,470; California is third, with 3,819; and New Hampshire fourth with 3,252. The denomination has organizations in thirty-two States and the District of Columbia. In the Southern States it has scarcely half a dozen churches. The average value of its church edifices is very high, reaching $24,375; their average seating capac ity, 389. SUMMARY BY STATES, ETC. 225 THE SOCIAL BRETHREN CHURCH. This is a small body confined to five counties in Illinois and three in Arkansas. It was organized in 1867 by a number of persons who had become dissatisfied with certain teachings and practices in the denominations to which they belonged. They came chiefly from the Baptist and United Brethren organizations. The Social Brethren baptize by sprinkling, pouring, or immersion, as the applicant may prefer; but accept only true believers as proper candidates, rejecting infant baptism. They have a confession of faith consisting of ten articles. One of these pronounces against "political preaching," and another declares the right of all lay members to free speech and free suffrage in the Church. There are three annual associations, composed of ministers and delegates. Besides ordained ministers the Church has licensed ministers and licensed exhorters. There are 20 organizations with 11+ edifices, valued at $8,700, and 913 members. STATES. SUMMARY BY STATES. Number of organ izations. Church edifices. Arkansas. Illinois Total STATES. 179 60 320 278 110 603 And a fraction less than one fourth. THE EVANGELIST MISSIONARY CHURCH. This organization of Colored Methodists was formed in 1886 by ministers and members in Ohio who withdrew from the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church for various reasons. It has no creed but the Bible; but, according to its bishop, it inclines in belief to the doctrine that there is but one divine person, Jesus Christ, "in whom dwells all the Godhead bodily." It has eleven organizations in the States of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin, but reports less than one thousand members and has but little financial strength. Total....... YOUNG PEOPLE'S DEPARTMENT. Thoughts and Offerings for Others. I KNOW a lady in this land Who carries a Chinese fan in her hand; For her to admire and for her to enjoy? This lady has on her parlor floor One thought of love for those foreign homes To shield my lady from chilling draft My lady in gown of silk is arrayed; Will she think of the country whence it came? Exercise for Four Children. (The first two verses may be recited in concert, or separately, by two of the best speakers.) HERE are three little maids of the Mission Band- To be of some use in this great wide world, And feather d and frizzed, like the poor little birds; We mean to try, by our deeds and our words, To do all the good we possibly may, So we have lots of things to tell- (First Little Girl.) This is the way they dress in JapanLand of the bamboo and the fan Where the queer little children are begging to learn From the land of pagodas and elephants white, I'm a Hindu child, just now, (Enter Chinese Boy.) Here comes a boy from China, you see! In a race with the girls, for the good and the kind. For what can girls do, with their poor stumbling feet? But we mean in the future to give them fair play, (All recite together.) So we three little maids, and our brother "Chinee," Two Javanese Tales. BY REV. A. W. H. BORAM. THE Javanese have a great many very interesting stories which are told by parents to their children, in much the same way as English mothers delight their little ones with: "There was once upon a time," etc. I have translated and arranged some of these, and here give two of them: I. How the balloon came into use during the reign of Bro-wijoyo, the last king of Mojo-pait, and why the Chinese are more clever than the Javanese.-Bro-wijoyo was a mighty monarch. During his reign the fine arts flourished, old writings were collected and arranged, the history of former times was committed to writing, and poetry and art vied with each other |