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ART. VII. CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT MISSIONS.*

WHATEVER may be thought of the character of Christians, and the success or failure of their efforts to carry forward their religion to the fulfilment of its predictions, there can be but one opinion of the magnitude of the work, or the vast amount of life and treasure devoted to its accomplishment. We are apt to mourn, if not to murmur, at the apathy of Christ's followers, their selfishness and sloth, their unfaithfulness to the Master and distance from the mark, the narrow limits of the kingdom and the exceeding slowness of its advance. And reason enough is there for sorrow and humiliation; imperfection, inconsistency, and wickedness enough is there within the kingdom itself, so called, within the very pale of the Church, in the hearts and lives of avowed disciples. Looking at the religion as it stands in its record and its Lord, looking at the commission given and the object proposed, the powers and means possessed, yet the little absolutely accomplished, the view is dark, the thought oppressive. We wonder not that those "of little faith" stumble, that those of no faith cavil, or that impatient believers look round for some new agencies, a new order of society, or a different administration of religion. It is easy, by fixing the mind on failure and evil alone, to work ourselves up to any degree of disappointment or despondency. But is this a Christian view? Is it reasonable, in consideration of our nature, the nature of the work, the providence of God, or the actual results already seen? Even if these results were far less distinct and beneficent than they

* 1. Oregon Missions, and Travels over the Rocky Mountains, in 1845, 46. By Father P. J. DE SMET, of the Society of Jesus. New York: Edward Dunigan. 1847. 12mo. pp. 408.

2. The United States Catholic Magazine, and Monthly Review. The official organ of the Most Rev. Archbishop of Baltimore, and the Right Rev. Bishop of Richmond; and published with the approbation of the Right Rev. Bishops of the United States. Edited by Rev. CHARLES I. WHite, D. D., Baltimore, and V. Rev. M. J. SPALDING, D. D., Louisville. 1847. 8vo.

3. A Residence of Twenty-one Years in the Sandwich Islands; or, the Civil, Religious, and Political History of those Islands. By HIRAM BINGHAM, A. M., Member of the American Oriental Society, and late Missionary of the American Board. Hartford and New York. 1847. 8vo. pp. 616.

4. Memoir of William G. Crocker, late Missionary in West Africa among the Bassas, including a History of the Bassa Mission. By R. B. MEDBERY, Newburyport, Ms. Boston. 1848. 18mo. pp. 300.

5. Memoir of Sarah B. Judson, Member of the American Mission to Burmah. By "FANNY FORESTER." New York. 1848. 18mo. pp. 250.

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are, and though it be said that they are not yet tested and by many are disputed, we would still maintain that the efforts themselves, the zeal, the liberality, the self-sacrifice, the unwearied and constantly extended enterprise, in the grand work of converting the world to Christ, are evidence of strong faith, and must bring a blessing to their authors, if to no others. Our attention is called to the subject now by the simultaneous appearance of many publications, Catholic and Protestant, touching every portion of the vast missionary field, and suggesting as well as answering many inquiries as to veritable facts and positive results. The works whose titles we have given make but a small part of those recently published of similar character. And not only works which treat directly and exclusively of missions, but books of travels, of scientific research, of general literature, biography, and fiction, have entered this province to a greater or less degree, and thrown light upon many of the most interesting points. Among these might be mentioned the five large volumes of the United States Exploring Expedition," and the lighter productions of Melville, to both of which we shall have occasion to refer. It is rather singular that the last named works," Typee" and "Omoo," whose character, as fact or fiction, has been a matter of question, are taken up by the Catholics as authority, and made the groundwork of a new attack upon Protestant missions. At the same time, the Catholics themselves are making new efforts, and sending out new publications and professions, with reference to the propagation of their faith in this country and abroad. Not attempting to go over the whole field, nor wishing to take sides in the controversy, we propose to give some idea of the facts of the case, as they stand in the publications themselves, and to refresh our own, possibly our readers', acquaintance with the extent and progress of the great missionary enterprise.

The history of modern missions, we suppose, may be confined within the last three hundred years. It was in the year 1534 that Loyola induced Xavier, with four others, to take the vows of poverty and chastity, resolving upon a pilgrimage to the holy sepulchre, and then the entire devotion of themselves to the conversion of infidels. When John III., of Portugal, a few years after, applied to Loyola for a missionary who should convert his subjects in India, Xavier was ordained for that great work. The zeal and success with which he devoted himself to the work for ten years, at Goa, VOL. XLIV. -4TH S. VOL. IX. NO. III.

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Malacca, Ceylon, Cochin, and Japan, baptizing, as Bourdaloue says, "a million of pagans," who are reported to have all remained faithful, and ending his life just as he was about to carry his faith into China, are well known. The miracles ascribed to him, we observe, are still maintained, even by as sober writers as Dr. Wiseman, who, in his volume of Lectures recently published, labors to show that the "Catholic Rule of Faith," for the conversion of the heathen, has always been sustained by the special favor of God, and the "Protestant Rule" as invariably proved to be false and futile. This singular assumption, put forth as a matter of fact as well as faith, we shall presently consider. In 1622, nearly a century after the mission of Xavier, the "Congregation of the Propaganda " was founded at Rome, by Gregory XV., followed by a similar "College for Chinese "at Naples. We are surprised to see the statement of Wiseman, — a statement not sustained by all writers, that the missionaries educated and sent out by the Propaganda do not amount to ten in a year. He insists, also, that the common opinion of the great wealth of this institution is wholly erroneous; pronouncing it poorer than many of the missionary societies in England, its annual income not reaching £30,000, out of which the expense of educating over a hundred individuals has to be defrayed, before any part is used for other purposes. Be this as it may, we find the followers of Loyola, those world-renowned missionaries, increasing in sixty years from ten members to ten thousand; and at the beginning of the last century, about the time of the first organized efforts by Protestants for sending the Gospel into "foreign parts,” the association of Jesuits numbered twenty thousand sworn adherents and devoted agents. And if devotion and discipline, if absolute subjection and prompt obedience to a system of rules religiously despotic, if unwearied toil and unshrinking self-sacrifice, if piety seemingly as devout and tried as any can be, with a policy which chose for its motto the Apostle's words, freely interpreted, Omnia omnibus, if these were all that is wanted for the furtherance of the Gospel throughout the earth, it would seem sure to be accomplished by the "Society of Jesus." Much was accomplished, and in nearly every part of the earth, civilized and savage. Though Xavier was permitted only to get a glimpse of the vast empire of China, which his soul burned to possess, his immediate successors, Ricci, Scholl, and others, soon passed the barrier,

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overcame all obstacles, and by their varied learning, ready tact, and untiring perseverance, advanced by degrees even to the high places of power, finding a disciple in the Empress herself, and in the Emperor an open patron. Nor in China only. Their missionaries and stations were soon found in Persia and Syria, in Egypt, Morocco, Mozambique, and Abyssinia; one of their order, in the last-named country, being actually made patriarch of the national church for a time, though soon deposed for his abuse of power, and driven away, with all his followers.

To this fact, the want of permanence in the Jesuit stations, and the early and total exclusion of the order from places where they seemed strongly established, we would direct attention. It is a remark of Kip, the writer of "Early Jesuit Missions in North America," noticed in this journal the last year, that "there is not a recorded instance of their permanency, or their spreading each generation wider and deeper, like our own missions in India.” If this be so, it is a more singular and instructive fact than the first power and rapid progress of these propagandists. In their power and progress we see no miracle or marvel. No form of religion can we conceive better calculated to strike the imagination and impress the senses, especially of the heathen devotee or the superstitious savage. Nor does this fact itself prove a corrupt faith or an unworthy motive. It results from a principle of our nature, and is seen in the educated as well as the ignorant. The power of the Romish faith is not to be ascribed to ignorance, in priest or populace. No faith has intrenched itself more in college and seminary of every grade. None has contributed more to the acquisition or preservation of learning. Not in the Dark Ages alone, but in the revival of letters and religion, the Catholics were always ready to use every advantage given them by a decline of interest or energy in Protestant education. To this, indeed, does Ranke ascribe the check of the Reformation, and its partial retrogression; a consideration to be well weighed by those who wonder at the alleged progress of Romanism at the present moment. pare the time and cost of an education for the Catholic priesthood now with the easy terms and meagre qualifications by which almost any one may enter the Protestant ministry, with the entire absence, indeed, and the continued disparagement, of education, in many classes of Protestants, and, what

* Christian Examiner for May, 1847, p. 360.

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is far worse, the diminished, rather than increased, importance attached to a learned ministry, by some who have encouraged and required it most. Compare the efforts now made by Catholics in the vast new domains of our own country, their institutions of learning, their large benefactions, and complete organization, with the almost total neglect of these among Christians who profess to rely most on reason, intelligence, and free inquiry. The fact is indisputable, that the Catholic Church of all periods has exceeded every other in its faithful education of the young; with the added distinction, and wise policy, of extending education to doctrines and morals, as well as mind. And this is one simple explanation of its success.

There are other explanations, some of which seem to us to account for success at first, and also for the want of permanence of which we have spoken. One of these is to be found in the nature and seal of conversion with the Catholic. It is nearly all comprised in baptism. Not only is this the regenerating ordinance, but it is one for which very little preparation is necessary. We now speak only of missions, and we take the accounts of the missionaries themselves. Here is a volume before us, the first named at the head of this article, giving the latest accounts of their missions on our own continent. It is a beautiful volume of more than four hundred pages, from the pen of one of the Society of Jesus, a man evidently of deep and disinterested piety, who, with a few fellow-laborers, devotes two years to the hard task of converting the wild tribes who roam over the vast Oregon territory. This territory, about seven hundred and fifty miles in length, and five hundred broad, his Holiness, Gregory XVI., as we are here told, "on the first of December, 1843, erected into an apostolic vicariate," afterwards divided into eight dioceses. There is something ludicrous, we cannot refrain from saying, in this idea of a man in Rome, called a pope, marking off, on a given day, an immense portion of the American continent as his spiritual property, and giving it in charge to his appointed ministers. And yet, however strange, such appropriation rises into moral grandeur and Christian glory, compared with the former mode of planting the standard of conquest upon the new territory, and subjecting its original occupants to servitude or the sword. Only offers of love and tidings of joy does Father De Smet bear to the aborigines. He finds