DR. F. B. MEYER'S MISSION.

To the Editor of

"THE CHINESE Recorder.' ""

DEAR SIR: My attention has been called to a paragraph appearing in the RECORDER to the effect that I am visiting China to promote Sunday School work. Please allow me space to say that my primary object is to represent the Keswick Convention at five of the great summer sanatoria in which I hope to hold meetings for the missionaries from all parts of China. As president of the World's

Sunday School Association I am deeply interested in Sunday School organisation, and shall use such opportunities as present themselves for furthering Christian work amongst children and young people in conjunction with my friend, Dr. Darroch, who will be accompanying me. As the Keswick Convention are paying my expenses, it seems only befitting that they should not be lost sight of in connection with my mission. Yours very sincerely, F. B. MEYER.

LONDON, February 20th.

THE WHEAT AMONG THE TARES. Studies of Buddhism in Japan. A collection of essays and lectures, giving an unsystematic exposition of certain missionary problems of the Far East, with a plea for more systematic research. By the Rev. A. Lloyd, M.A., Lecturer in the Imperial University, Naval Academy and Higher Commercial School, Tokyo; and formerly Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. London: MacMillan & Company. 1908. Price 3/6.

This book is a collection of essays upon the theme of Japanese Buddhism; the whole of the essays being linked together by the idea which the writer advances in a series of introductory sonnets, one of which is so expressive of his point of view that we cannot refrain from quoting it entire.

"The Sower sowed, and sowing went His Way. His seed, sound grains of Truth,

and on a soil

found for a new Christian apologetic and a new weapon of attack and defence. A good deal of misapprehension as to the intention of the writer is removed by a careful reading of the text. It is not fair to dismiss a book like this with the statement that the position of the author is non-Christian since he is attempting to dethrone Christ by bringing Him to the level of Sakyamuni or exalting Sakyamuni to the unique position of the historic Jesus. It is neither a true nor a worthy criticism. Influence and counter-influence as between the two faiths are recognized and expounded by Prof. Lloyd, but not to the derogation of the claim of our Divine Master.

was

Looking back over the field of religious history and studying especially the six centuries preceding Christ, the author draws special attention to, and definite deductions from, the great wave of religious experience which then arose and broke over all Asia. In South Western Asia this spiritual movement expressed in the prophets of the Captivity and almost contemporaneously in India in the life and teaching of Gautama, the Buddha. Again, the striking fact of a legend, persistently held by some Buddhist sects, of the return to earth of Buddha during the life time of As-vaghosha, that is, during the period of the life of Christ or His apostles, is emphasised by Mr. Lloyd.

The religious influence, then, which under Divine Providence opened the way for the coming of Christ and the development of spiritual Buddhism, were contemporary. Christianity and the Mahayana our author speaks of as historically parallel faiths. Morever under some influence or

influences scarcely discernible except in their effect, Buddhism proceeded on one side of its expansion to progress towards the idea of salvation and has come to accept a non-historic Buddha, who is regarded as a potential saviour; Amitabha, through whom is expressed the highest thought of spiritual Buddhism. Dealing with the conclusions which arise from this fact here is what Prof. Lloyd says:

"I would not wish it to be understood that I advocate a fusion of Christianity and the Mahayana into one. But I can see that, if what I have said be true, there may follow a gradual turning of Buddhism towards Christ in such a way that, without abating one jot of the great respect which all religious men should have for Sakyamuni, there shall be the further recognition of that higher reverence which we shall feel, and in conduct show, for Christ as the fulfiller of all that Sakyamuni taught and revealed, and which rightly belongs to Him as the only being of whom it can be said that He was proved to be the Son of God with power. . ."

In his essay upon Comparative Religion, Professor Lloyd states his conviction that through Confucius and Sakyamuni God the Holy Spirit spoke to India and to China. Not everything that they said was inspired, and the blind devotion of after ages has led to sad degeneracy. Still their teaching contains gems of truth which are needed for the crown of the Son of God.

be difficult to dissociate the idea of Amitabha from that held in Christian minds of the glorified Jesus. Hence he would urge how useful and necessary to say to such a Buddhist believer, 'Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare we unto you.' Your ideal is our actual, not a figment of devotion, but an historic person risen from the dead. He sees the building of a temple of religion going on around us which is waiting, and must wait completion, until the edifice is crowned by the acceptance of Jesus Christ, and by Him unified and made a fit dwelling for the Holy Spirit of God.

Very interesting is the tracing of the connection between Manichaeism and Buddhism. In attempting the proof of this connection, Mr. Lloyd draws upon the writings of the Greek Fathers and points out the fact that Manichaeans and Buddhists dwelt together in communities on the confines of India and China in the early Christian centuries. Archæological proof has been added recently to this statement by the discovery of remains which establish the fact that certain places of worship were at one time in the common possession of the Nestorians, Manichaeans, and Buddhists. Such a combination could not fail to promote eclecticism in religion. The development of spiritual Buddhism may have proceeded faster than is commonly conceived as possible, as the result of such intercourse.

The whole of Professor Lloyd's enquiry into the history of religious movements throughout Asia tends to show that the Far East and the Near East had more in common than has been generally supposed, and that

Buddhism has not been

In

left uninfluenced or unformed by the religious developments of South Western Asia. his concluding essay he appeals for a Catholic conception of Christian faith for the furtherance of the apostolic mission of the church in the Far East. He has a definite belief in the power of the Oriental to become a missionary of the Cross of Christ, and expresses his keen. admiration for the work which is being done in the preparation of Japanese clergy by the fathers connected with the Marianist community in Japan.

All who desire to come into contact with what is bound to become increasingly one of the most pressing problems of the Christian church in its missionary enterprise, namely, the attitude of the Christian propagandist to the faiths by which he is faced in the Far East, would do well to acquire and study this book of Mr. Lloyd's. It must be remembered, however, that the author is dealing with a condition of affairs which at the present time finds no parallel in China. There has been no revival of spiritual Buddhism, so far as we have seen or heard, in China either among the priests or the people at all comparable to the experience of Japan. "Change and decay in all around we see.' The heart of this people has waxed gross and cold. Were such a revival as is now in remarkable progress in the sister empire to become evident in the land of China, our immediate difficulties might be considerably increased, but the religious prospect would be tremendously brightened. The conception of the Christian faith as something which works essentially through salvation to fulfilment, and not to destruction, is

immensely strengthened by the evidence of its accomplishments and the statement of its contemporary problems as set forth by Mr. Lloyd.

W. N. B.

A Year's Progress, being Mr. F. S. Brockman's Report of the Y. M. C. A. work in China and Korea during 1908.

The past year has been one of gratifying progress. "The strengthening and developing of the work in the college associations, the completion of the new building at Seoul, the remarkable progress in the work for Chinese students in Tokyo, the opening up of work in their behalf in England and America, and the beginnings of Association effort in Peking, Chentu and Canton, are some of the more notable features of the

year's progress. "The Executive Committee of the General Committee is now wholly Chinese, showing the rapidity with which the Association is becoming indigenous.

The policy of the Association is not to open work anywhere where trained secretaries are not available. The educational classes, while in no sense rivalling the regular schools, are filling a special need, and to show how popular they are, 400 students in Shanghai alone attend the classes. The physical training branch has recently secured the services of an expert in the person of Dr. M. J. Exner, who will organize a school for the training of physical directors for outside points in China. "Tubercular tendencies have been discovered in over 50 per cent. of the applicants for entrance into the gymnasium classes!" "The experience of the year has deepened confidence in the belief that any honest

service rendered to men may have a religious value." In actually bringing men to Christ the most fruitful method has been the personal work with friends, of earnest Christian men. Perhaps the chief lesson of the year's work has been that the best aid to any man in finding his way the into the Christian life is personal friendship of some man who proves his friendship in helpful service.

A considerable body of literature for young men on Association work, Bible study, prayer, etc., is receiving regular additions. Associations exist in 60 different institutions in China, while student conferences have been held at various centres. The Y. M. C. A. still continues its work among the Chinese students in Tokyo, where the policy of strict entrance examinations has reduced the 10,000 to 5,000. The short course and incompetent men have disappeared. This renders the work of the Association easier and more encouraging. 218 are enrolled members, while some 40 have professed conversion. Again the secretary emphasizes personal personal work. He says:

individual "It has been found that no other method can be substituted for that of personal interviews. The men cannot be won in masses; it has been necessary to patiently overcome the scruples and remove the difficulties of each one of the young men individually."

There are 76 secretaries, foreign and native, in China, Korea, and Tokyo.

Canton Medical Missionary Society. Seventieth Annual Meeting and Report. 1908.

This flourishing Society now reports 108 beds in the women's

departments and 192 beds in the men's wards. The policy of the committee for the last two years is to increase the revenue from paying patients without lessening its work for the poor. 221,81 out-patients attended at the dispensary, while 2,129 were admitted into the wards. This is the largest in seventy years. The hospital receipts for the year 1908 were. $32,185.50. A foreign business manager now fills a long-felt want. The expense of the evangelistic work, long met by the American Presbyterian Board, will ere long be met by the hospital itself.

The medical college in connection with the hospital will shortly have a new dormitory to accommodate 70 students.

The

lithotomies, for which Dr. Kerr was famous, still continue a marked feature; there being 64 in 1908. A woman weighing 79 pounds was relieved of a tumour weighing 116 pounds. Another feature is the publication of medical works; a list of 18 being appended to the report. Dr. J. M. Swan is physician-in-chief.

Peru: Its Story, People and Religion. By Geraldine Guinness. London: Morgan & Scott, Ltd.

This is a book of stirring interest, specially dedicated to 'all those who feel an interest in Peru.'

The gifted authoress wields a graphic pen, and in addition to the information gathered in the course of her own travels she has a storehouse to draw upon, in the experiences of her aunt, who was one of the first missionaries to Cuzco. She calls this her first book.' We trust it may not be her last.

Belonging to a well-known and influential family, whose

missionary activities have extended to many lands, she might easily find among them materials for future volumes.

Illustrated with original views taken by her father, Dr. H. Gratton Guinness, this her first book is not merely instructive; it is highly attractive and ornamental.

W. A. P. M.

My Father's Business, a brief life of Agnes Gibson, C. I. M., by Marian H. Fishe, with preface by Rev. J. Stuart Holden, M.A. Is. 6d. nett. Pp. 8o. Illustrated.

Many who have heard of the wonderful woman's work in the Kwangsin river district of Kiangsi, which is under the superintendency of Mr. Archibald Orr Ewing, will be thankful for this beautifully written life of one of the principal workers in that district. The success of the workers there is often quoted as a great proof of the value of woman's work in China. This unvarnished tale of trials and triumphs will inspire many a reader with greater fervency in prayer, and we doubt not in some instances prayer will lead to volunteering for the field, in which such joys as this book describes are to be experienced.

C. I. M. Chekiang Conference Report. January, 1909.

This 38-page pamphlet records the proceedings of the first C. I. M. Chekiang Conference, at which 21 out of 76 missionaries were present at Taichow where it was held. The subject of training occupied a chief place in the discussions, and it was resolved to found a Bible Training Institute at Hangchow under the direction of Rev. W. J. Doherty.