wealth, in its warehouses and shops and secular greatness. No! He was too much of a prophet, of a mystic for that. This, I take it, was his salient, dominant trait, that he saw distinctly the infinite element in life; that this is a world of shadows flung by some Trans-Alpine beyond; that this materialism built up around us, is only the shell and husk of a higher truth, the hint of a deeper, unutterable and ultimate reality. It is a blessed arrangement by which God sends, now and then, such high-souled dreamers into this sensual world. They remind us that it is not merely a trough to feed out of, a lair to lie down in, but strictly speaking, prophetic of a splendid mystery towards which it drifts. And what shall I more say y? One had to know Dr. Darling in order fully to appraise him. They who have stood close to him during these years, who have shared his confidences and known his inmost thoughts are quite aware, as I am conscious, that there was that in him which eludes expression or portraiture, could only be felt and not uttered. I must therefore leave those of you who have known him to your own happy recollections. These will supply what is behind and lacking in my poor tribute to this high-minded Christian gentleman and beloved "companion in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ." He was a faithful servant in the house of God and having heard a voice saying unto him, “give account of thy stewardship," has done so without fear, and been promoted to a higher and more remunerative service. May God help us to follow those who through faith and patience have inherited the promises" and worthily to wear their mantles, who have been taken up.

THE PERSPECTIVE AND THE PROMISE OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS IN THE FAR EAST.

BY WM. ELLIOT GRIFFIS, D. D., L. H. D.

It has been said by a student of languages that one word includes all those of Europe. That word is Christianity. Vocabulary, structure, idiom vary, but all have the same world of ideas. All conceptions, of which language is the vehicle, take color and form from the one informing spiritthe spirit of the Christ. As the soul shapes the body before birth, so one can predict, in measure, the future embodiments of European thought, and of Asia, also, wherever the spirit breathes. The future developments of the Jesus religion on any continent will not be medieval in dress or figure, but they will conform to the mind of "Him, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." The young nations and commonwealths that spring up elsewhere on the earth, whatever be the climate or surroundings, will speak the same language of ideas, however their vocables and syntax differ.

In the eastern half of Asia, we discover a different world of ideas from that of our ancestors. One system of writing and one general cast of thought has, until recent years, wholly dominated human life. When we ask who first entered that world, explored, mapped, and gave sailing directions to navigators who were to come after, there is but one name to name. It is that of Robert Morrison, born at Morpeth, Northumberland, England, January, 1782, and educated at the Independent Academy of Hoxton. At Gosport, after his Latin, Greek and theology, he found a Chinaman, and began the study of Chinese. It is just about a century ago, that he decided to go to China. He left England in January, 1807, and in the United States received letters from President Monroe to American merchants at Canton, who helped him in his work. At once he began mastery and investigation of the walled empire of thought. He was the pathfinder into the world of Chinese ideas. Today, under a glass case at Hong Kong, his first grammar is reverently preserved as one

of the great first things of the world. His dictionary was the Open Sesame " to a succession of scholars.

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When Morrison died in August, 1834, Christian men, mostly merchants, gathered round his grave at Macao, resolved to perpetuate his name and work. They founded the "Morrison Education Society" to diffuse, among onefourth of the human family that true religion which is one day to pervade the whole earth." From paper resolutions and financial basis, the next step was to consecrated manhood and womanhood. Who would be willing to build themselves as living stones into the new China of hope? An American merchant, Mr. Olyphant, when at home, went to New Haven. On the 4th of October, 1838, Samuel Robbins Brown was offered the appointment. On the 16th, he and his bride sailed under the flag of twenty-six stars, on their voyage of one hundred and twenty-five days, to begin the first (Protestant) Christian school in China.* For ten years,

he labored as a successful Christian teacher, opening the intellect of Chinese lads to that world of thought and life of which Jesus is Lord, while turning the hearts of many to Him, as Saviour. Coming to America, having survived a wound by pirates, Dr. Brown brought with him to Monson, Mass., three Chinese students, one of whom was Dr. Wang, long the beloved physician of Canton (so lauded by Mr. E. H. Parker, who praises him as a typical fruit of Confucianism, not knowing his Christian history); and the other, Yung Wing, (graduate of Yale, still living at Hartford), who later was the means of having one hundred and twenty students sent by the Chinese government to New England. One of these six-score lads is now the Chinese envoy at Washington and many others are in positions of eminence and usefulness. When in China on his way homeward, in 1878, scores of Dr. Brown's former pupils were profuse in their gratitude to their old teacher. A silver tablet was

*See "Verbeck of Japan," and "A Maker of the New Orient, Samuel Robbins Brown, "N. Y., 1902.

presented to him, representing the drops of the shower on mountain heights, becoming rivulet, stream and broadbosomed river flowing to the sea. The gratitude of Orientals is a reality. Happy the man who can win it. Blessed the missionary who achieves a harder task-the respect and sympathy of foreigners, his own countrymen at the seaports.

But what was the Chinese world seventy years ago? China knew not, cared not for any of her own people beyond her borders. There was no patriotism among the people, no nationalism, but only race pride. Unsensitive and incurious was one section of the people to any other which was geographically distant. China knew nothing of, nor even suspected that there were nations equal to herself in intelligence. Surrounded as she was for ages by pupil or vassal nations, one need not wonder at Chinese conceit, arrogance and ignorance. The only knowledge of Deity was of the Confucian type, which reduces all unseen power to law and force; or of Buddhistic mould, which knows only cause and effect. It seemed to many occidental people, even to those who read the New Testament, an absurdity that China could ever be roused from her pride and lethargy to become sensitive, enquiring and human. As for any popular awakening to spiritual truth, any real hunger after God, any longing for Christian love, that seemed too remote a contingency to waste time on, even in thought.

"Yet Lord, thy church is praying yet."

Today, the rapidity of China's changing-to those who can discern it seems near the danger-point. To those who feel the movement of heart and spirit of Chinese Christianity, the dayspring and dawn are past, and the morning come. To those able to interpret, the Boxer movement, with all its trail of blood and fire, was a spasm of patriotism, an advance toward nationalism. We, who mourn nearly seven score martyrs of Europe and America, often forget the thirty thousand natives of the Middle Kingdom, who poured out their soul unto death-giving their lives for their Lord in Christian

confession.

Verily, there is a new China, the fruit of Chris

tian prayer and service.

What of Japan, that learned so easily from China the lesson of seclusion, and reared the forts which in the thirties fired on the American rescue ships that were bringing home her own waifs? Only those who saw them, know the horrors of feudal Japan; her atheism, her disease, her immorality, her poverty, cruelty, inhumanity, pariahs and beggars, absence of hospitals, government by the sword, anti-christian edicts, and inquisition. Today, when all the world praises Japanese surgery, medical skill, public hygiene, and obedience to the laws of nations and the rules of the Red Cross, it is well to remember that the first continuous dispensary and hospital for the Japanese people was opened by an American Christian missionary, Dr. James Curtis Hepburn, still living at East Orange, N. J. It is not wise to forget that the ideas of Christian civilization, the direct precepts of Jesus, the grand prin. ciples of the Bible were instilled in Japanese minds by an alumnus of Auburn Seminary, Guido F. Verbeck.

When Dr. S. R. Brown returned home from China, he settled first at Rome, N. Y., and then at Owasco Outlet near Auburn. When in 1859, the Harris Treaty opened Japan to American residence and trade, Dr. Brown was instructed to discover an

Americanized Dutchman." The Philip of experience was not long in finding Japan's Nathaniel, who was to see greater things than any of us then dreamed of. In the spirit of service, Verbeck went forth to toil, not despising the detail of winning the hearts of boys. At Nagasaki, he trained the lads who became the statesmen; who, in large measure, have made the Japan we admire. In the supreme moments of opportunity, in Tokio, he was alert to infuse grander ideas, and urge to their acceptance. Having won confidence, and ever in the guise of servant, never asking personal favors, but sinking self, he was the trusted adviser of princes and premiers. He was great in great things, because faithful in the little. Japan would never be the Japan of today, the hope of Asia, Christian