have been rewarded with a fair measure of success. Not the least of the sacrifices was the death, through native violence, of John Coleridge Patteson, the courageous and earnest bishop of Melanesia.

The history of Christianity in Madagascar makes a notable chapter as being a record of fiery trial and great triumphs. The first Protestant evangelists sent out by the London Society reached the island in 1818. The King Radama was well-disposed; by his favor many schools were established, and Christianity rapidly advanced in the appreciation of the people. But under his successor, Queen Ranavalona (1828-1861) a reaction took place, Christianity was put under the ban, its adherents were treated with Neronian rigor, and had an opportunity to glorify their cause by a long roll of martyrs. The infatuated persecution failed utterly of its end; and the successor of Ranavalona, with better insight into the condition of affairs, granted toleration. Ramoma, who came to the throne in 1868 under the title of Ranavalona II. reigned as a Christian queen. By her command the royal idols were destroyed. Her successor being of like spirit, Protestant Christianity, though embarrassed in no small measure by French intervention, has continued to exert a powerful influence in Madagascar.

In 1890 the number of Protestant communicants in the mission field was in the neigborhood of three quarters of a million. This of course implies a much larger number who are more or less distinctly under Christian teaching and guidance. Considering their wide distribution, considering also the quickened intellectual

life and the rapid development of Christian literature which have followed in the path of Protestant heralds, and which promise increasing results in the future, we may well affirm that the missionary enterprise of Protestantism in the nineteenth century cannot easily be paralleled. Roman Catholics may indeed report a somewhat larger body of adherents in India and China. But their missions in these countries date back to the sixteenth century. In the rate of increase of converts during recent years, and in vitality and pervasiveness of influence, the missionary work of Protestantism has advanced beyond that of its rival.

The limits of our sketch have confined us to scanty outlines. Had we taken space for a more interior view of missionary enterprise, we should have made it evident that instances of heroic faith and fidelity, such as shed a halo over the early years of Christian history, have not been wanting in these latter days. Often has the Christian name been signally honored by the native convert as well as by the missionary.

A singular episode, not without its missionary bearing, occurred in connection with the Columbian exposition at Chicago in 1893. The "World's Parliament of Religions," as then convened, was in essence a great religious exhibition. It served in a measure to reflect the religious world, but evidently not with entire accuracy. The circumstances of the occasion naturally afforded a temptation for the element of advertisement to outrun that of unprejudiced, judicial description.

The temporary appearance on the same stage of representatives of different systems - Christian, Jewish,

Mohammedan, Buddhist, Brahmanical, Parsi, and Confucian was not a sufficiently vital means of interaction to effect any very profound or noticeable results within the limits of these systems. The meeting, however, may be credited with having enlarged somewhat, among Christian people, the area of intelligent interest in the ethnic religions. Possibly, also, as respects the relations of Christians to each other, it may have effected something in behalf of inter-denominational friendship.

A

CONCLUSION.

WELL-KNOWN writer has remarked recently on the descent which we are obliged to make when we turn from Christ to the Church. The remark is not ill-founded. A large part of Christian history manifestly has been far beneath the level of the Gospels.

The tenor of Christ's ministry was to sweep away barriers, and to apprise men of the open doors which stood before them. Every page of His discourse illustrates the immediateness of the divine. The burden of His message was God's ready welcome to repentant sinners, the nearness of the kingdom of heaven to all who have a heart to enter therein. Immediateness, nearness, accessibility of the divine, that is the illuminating feature of Christ's teaching.

It is not too much to say that large portions of ecclesiastical history present well-nigh the opposite of this. Great masses of Christian subjects have been placed under a system whose natural tendency has been to cancel all sense of the immediateness of the divine, by reason of the legal and sacerdotal elements which have been crowded into the foreground. In place of an open door being set before him, the seeker after God has been instructed to contemplate a series of closed doors, guarded each by a priestly custodian, and swinging open only as he deigns to speak the appointed for

mula.

Instead of the competency of simple heart instrumentality to press directly into the kingdom of heaven, dependence upon a complicated scheme of external magic has been inculcated. Instead of opening their minds to the sunlight of revelation, the faithful have been required to content themselves with such reflected rays as might come from the official understanding. As if one world did not provide a sufficient theatre for ecclesiastical machinery, an attachment has been laid on a second, and a scheme, thoroughly mundane in some of its constituents, has been worked out for the promotion of departed souls.

On the other hand, revolt against this overgrowth of legalism and sacerdotalism has not always been conducted with discretion. Zeal for the essential has precipitated a hasty dealing with that which may be useful though secondary. It has been overlooked that things which are justly counted intolerable, when they are understood to represent ceremonial magic and priestly assumption, may be allowed without scruple when understood to subserve simply an æsthetic or social end. Thus a greater degree of austerity and plainness has sometimes been given to public worship than is best suited to devotion, at least in a considerable proportion of minds; or losses have been incurred as respects effective union and co-operation.

It is no undue tribute to pessimism to recognize this shadowed side of Christian history. An honest account of the facts requires the recognition. It is fitting, however, to remind ourselves that this is by no means the whole scene. In a work like this no adequate narrative can be given of the blessings of Chris