Tix appointment of the Day of Intercession has naturally called public attention to the subject of Missions and a number of articles good, bad, and indifferent have been outpoured on the occasion. The statements made are nob remarkable for novelty; but, if we have nob new arguments, we have new language, and certain phases of the much vexed question appear perhaps more clearly from its present ventilation. The Pall Mall draws' attention to the communication of an East End Missionary, who sets forth "the way in which the heathen in most cases become acquainted with the religion of English-mon." The British Sailor is the most active and prominent exponent of Western ideas. "The colonist and the ship of war, if not the red uniform, succeed; and then comes the missionary with his message of 'Peace on earth, good will to men.' In many cases, as in India, Australia and New Zealand, the scarlet uniform does ' enliven the scene.' The incidents vary in particulars rather than in essentials. Coolie kidnapping and slavery present one aspect to the Fijis and tothe Chinese. Opium and successive conflicts bring innovations, and civil wars follow in natural sequence." The writer proceeds to argue that a religion which presents itself in such bad company is not likely to make much way; and that, further, the discussions amongst Christians are to be regarded as an evil and a stumbling block. It seems to us that this remark is not quite new; indeed we have impression that several observations deprecatory of divisions and strifes in the Church are to be met with in the works of one of the earliest and most successful missionaries. However, the writer in the Pall Mall makes the assertion with all the air of a discoverer publishing a new truth for the first time. But this is pardonable enough. It is satisfactory that the proposition enunciated with such emphasis happens to be true, for there can be no doubt that it would be very desirable if all Christian people differed Jess amongst themselves. Still, the pre sent state of affairs is not an unmitigated evil. Truth is many-sided, and so Jong as men have minds differently constituted, they will rebel against being forced to look one way. Miss Mar-tinean said, long ago, that it is vain to Jock for uniformity in religious opinion except when the human mind is in a state of stagnation; and though Mr. Gladstone was exceedingly indignant with the writer for daring to make "a melancholy and miserable and also untrue avowal," he has probably found by this time that she was right and he was wrong. There is much good sense, however, in the latter part of the article. We cannot doubt that "the dogmatic element in all religion comes with exasperating force when foreigners and outer barbarians are the teachers."
Sir Rutherford Alcock is not hikely to remain silent when there is an opportunity of speaking, and therefore we have along diatribe from him on the evils of Ultramontanism. He does not regard the hostility to missionaries as the result of the dissatisfaction of heathens with the quarrels of Christians, nor does he exactly echo the ery about the inevitable gunboat. The protectorate of Missions by France, and the establishment of an imperium in imperia are his bugbears. "The causes of missionary failures are political and not religious at all, in so far as either China or Japan are concerned." The Japanese and the Chinese object to the religion of the Cross when it is presented by a Roman Catholic Power, and when its tenets involve at any time rebellion against the national Government. It may strike an ordinary reader as singular that this eminently unpopular form of faith is shown by figures to be by far the most attractive, and that while Protestantism counts its converts by tens, Romanism counts them by thousands. But in this, as in every other respect,- China is a country of contradictions: the quasi-protection which the Romanist Missions afford their converts is an attraction to many. In strange contrast to our Into Representative at Peking, who throughout assumes that Missions have failed, appears the letter of Lord Lawrence who, speaking of India, expresses his surprise at the progress of Christianity amongst the people. For our own part, we shall be glad to get rid of the word "heathen," as a general term which sounds fitter for the days of the crusades than for this century; for we are assured that, when all religions are studied and compared and not incon-sider ately condemned, men will be found to have more common grounds of belief than are generally supposed.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.