should be raised. Whilst according to most of the African clergy and catechists every feeling of respect for their zeal and ability, we were led to the conclusion that the standard of possible selection has not been of the high character it ought to have been. The sources of supply have been very limited. Fourah Bay and Lagos have scarcely been able to meet the demand for their own pastorates, and it is scarcely surprising that they were unwilling to send their best men to the Niger. Still for this advanced post the best men are necessary, and it would have been better for the Churches in Sierra Leone and Lagos if they had, with a holy self-sacrifice, sent forward their noblest sons and daughters, as Paul and Barnabas and Silas were sent from Antioch to the post of danger and enterprise. A happy reflex blessing would have rested on them, like the blessing on England itself. We would therefore appeal for African volunteers for the Niger, men who will not sit down in Onitsha or Lokoja or Asaba, but make each of these places a basis for evangelization in all the districts around their several centres. But, after all, Sierra Leone and Lagos are not the best sources of supply for native agents for the Niger. In 1857 Bishop Crowther wisely remarked that the return of liberated slaves to their native lands was greatly to be desired, even if their education was not advanced. They would be recognized and welcomed by the people from among whom they were stolen. But, he shrewdly added, the time for that would soon pass away. The next generation would not know Joseph, and the grandchildren of the liberated slaves born and educated in the colony would not be natives of the Niger lands. The youthful missionary from Sierra Leone is no longer an Ibo or a Haussa. No one that saw the men whom we saw could imagine but that the height of civilization they had reached rendered it impossible for them to be other than foreigners among the savages from whose midst their grandfathers were stolen. The comers from Sierra Leone have to learn a new tongue in which they were not born. They have to acquire the language of their stations. They speak in a foreign tongue to their third or fourth cousins, and though many among them have succeeded to a great extent, yet even Bishop Crowther himself, in five or six of the languages, is compelled to use an interpreter, and often a pair of interpreters. I confess I had formed no idea of the vastness of the work which lies before us on the Niger, or of the deep spiritual necessity of these multitudes. We get so absorbed in looking at our stations and chapels and little bits of schools, we are so pleased with every single convert, that we forget to look beyond our cabins. I admit the grandeur of the thought to which the preacher led us last night. There is a magnificence in that infinite love which went after the one sheep that was lost. But survey these Niger lands; it is the one sheep that is in the fold, and the ninety-nine that are in the wilderness, and terrible is their misery. Take one illustration. We propose to place one of our cleverest African clergymen at Asaba. This is a most remarkable place; a fine hilly country stretches away to the back of Asaba. The town itself is situated on a gradual elevation. The road to the top from the water-side is thirty feet broad, and kept in good order. From this road, others branch right and left, under shady trees, to the private dwellings, each of which stands in its own park, and is surrounded by the huts of the slaves of the owner. Wealth and prosperity is the characteristic of the 400 nobles of Asaba. But how did they gain their rank? On admission to the order each one of these 400 nobles must offer a human sacrifice. Two human sacrifices must be made at the death of any of them; and the nobility of these families rests on the slaughter of 1200 human beings. Such are the tales of sorrow. Still let us look at the vastness of the field. All these places, Bonny, Brass, Asaba, Onitsha, Lokoja, Kippo Hill, are but solitary spots in widely different countries. Follow me for a moment up the Niger, starting from Bonny. Stretching away to the south-east, and round to the north, up to Onitsha, is the great Ibo country, as large as Spain. On the right bank another country extending westward to Benin, and lying along the river for 100 miles northward, with Brass and Nembe for its base. Then another dialect, extending some sixty miles north. Then we come to another language on the right bank, extending some 160 miles up to the Confluence. On the opposite bank is a fourth language, and people called Igara. Other peoples and languages follow, and no less than twelve distinct languages are necessary to carry us up from the mouth of the Niger to the point reached by Mr. Ashcroft, 800 miles from the Confluence. These are all barbarous heathen. Or come back to the Confluence, where the Quarra and Binue join to form the Niger. A mountainous region stretches northward behind Lokoja, expanding to the west and east, and ultimately bounded by the Sahara, inhabited by many millions of semi-civilized Mohammedans, sometimes found in farmed lands and highlands and valleys, sometimes concentrated in cities and towns of from 10,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. This great Mohammedan power sprang into existence at the close of the last century under a moullah known by the name of Danfodio, who became the centre round which flocked thousands of desperadoes, at whose head he marched and founded an empire which has its headquarters at Sokoto. This great Mohammedan power is no longer concentrated under the government of a single despot, but, although divided among various chiefs, still hangs together and acts with a force which is greatly feared on the southern banks of the Quarra and the Binue, and for many miles down the Niger. Stand for awhile at the ferry some 200 miles above Lokoja, at Bidda; see that stream of merchandise flowing from the north. Large caravans of about 3000 people, and upwards of 1000 head of cattle, horses, donkeys, mules, and bullocks were being taken across from Rabba to the opposite shore, towards Illorin. At the same time the returning caravans were crossing to Rabba for the interior with their beasts of burden. It was in vain to try to count either men or beasts. Forty-one large canoes were employed for two days in crossing; a concourse of people and an active scene. Lokoja, on a commanding hill, becomes thus a watchtower at the junction of three enormous rivers. There we propose to gather our strength. We hope Henry Johnson will be there to look up the Quarra, and an English clergyman of holy heart and British pluck to lead up the Binue. A man like Henry Johnson, a profound scholar and Christian gentleman, well acquainted with the Mohammedan controversy, able to speak Arabic, and with the great prestige in the eye of Mohammedans of having been to Jerusalem, may do signal service in preparing a Christian force of talented young natives in the new preparandi institution, and watching for opportunities which the providence of God may and will open in the appointed time for the introduction of the Gospel, the power of God unto salvation, for the fierce and bigoted Mohammedan as well as the idolatrous heathen; and, if he is not drawn away to Sierra Leone, as I hope he will not be, we will pray that the Holy Spirit of God may inspire him with a holy ardour and a wise and understanding heart. Side by side with Henry Johnson, and supported by his congenial and cultivated society, we propose to place at Lokoja, and connected with this policy of preparing to advance, the new English clergyman and Secretary of the Niger Mission, an English clergyman. This will be a change which to some may appear to detract from the more pleasing idea of a Mission wholly manned by natives of Africa. I can almost hear the sigh with which some of my Reverend Brethren see slipping away from their eloquent lips the pleasing idea, Africa by the Africans. No white men should join their Mission. Men from their own race should be the agents to proclaim the Gospel to their native countrymen. It does not seem to be the purpose of God that Africa should be evangelized by Europeans. But at Lokoja the Society has an excellent house high above the level of the river at the confluence, in a healthy position, and in a climate by no means the worst. The white man is already on the Niger. The Consul representing Her Majesty, the commander and boatswain of the gunboat, the merchant, the traveller, have found their way. The English merchant finds the Frenchman competing with him. The trade as it enlarges, and its lucrative character becomes known, attracts and will attract more and more people. And the taunt is already in the air" Your white men come to trade and to fight, but the Gospel is not worthy of the sacrifice," and that may be put into the black man's mouth. Some of these traders and officers are Christian men, but all are not ornaments of the Christian Ꮓ life. Further, we ourselves have been compelled by the necessity of the case to introduce the "Henry Venn." That steamer and its supplies must necessarily be under the care of Englishmen selected for their aptitude for business as well as for their piety. But that very position, so delicate and so difficult, of issuing supplies to, and checking the expenditure of, our native agents, involves many chances of misunderstanding. The presence, therefore, of a holy English clergyman will be welcomed by the native clergy and laity, will strengthen the hands of Bishop Crowther, without in the least degree interfering either with his work or that of the two Archdeacons, and will form a happy link of brotherly kindness between the white and black agents of the Society, and between all these and the traders and officers and travellers on the Niger. He will be able to relieve the Bishop of much anxious responsibility, and, whilst acting as the representative of the Committee and discharging the important functions of Secretary of the Mission, he will turn his face to the East, and, looking up the Binue, inaugurate and lead the assault for Christ in those magnificent countries and noble peoples on either bank of the river, until the flag of Christianity is planted on the shore of the vast inland sea, Lake Tchad. In those regions the Sierra Leone or Lagos Christian would be as totally a foreigner as himself, without the advantage and the safeguard of being an Englishman. We want a man of spiritual experience, a man of a wise and prudent disposition, with a large and loving heart of sympathy, who will be perfectly ready to acknowledge the episcopal office of Bishop Crowther, and render to all his Native brethren a cordial recognition as fellow-ministers in the Lord's vineyard-a man settled in the faith that the Gospel of pardon through the Blood of Atonement is the only way of salvation. I ask you to bear in mind that the Niger, the Quarra, and the Binue form a vast waterway of 6000 miles, and I ask you to consider what is the importance of the labours of a missionary faithfully carrying on his work in that part of the vast continent of Africa. The Bishop of Moosonee then moved the third resolution, which was supported by Canon Money in an able concluding address: That this meeting, while recognizing the necessity, under the circumstances, of the policy of retrenchment adopted by the Committee, desires emphatically to confirm the principle that the great work which the Lord has committed to the Society is one which, in its very nature, demands constant advance and extension, and consequent growth of expenditure; and in view of the many opportunities now set before the Society this meeting devoutly thanks God that not only has the year's expenditure been met by the year's income, but also a substantial commencement has been made of an Extension Fund, and would very humbly and earnestly pray that the Lord will pour out such a spirit of large-hearted liberality on His servants as shall enable the Committee speedily to employ every qualified agent, and to occupy in the name of the Lord every land to which His providence calls them. We wish we could have found space for the Bishop's remarks, which were telling and effective, furnishing a number of illustrations of missionary operations in the north-west of America such as have often been heard with delight in Exeter Hall. The resolution having been adopted, the benediction was pronounced by the Bishop of Ossory. The evening meeting, under the presidency of Bishop Ryan, was thronged to the fullest extent of the hall. It was addressed by the Bishop, by the Rev. J. R. Wolfe, the Rev. A. H. Lash, and the Rev. W. Boyd Carpenter. It was most successful throughout. Numbers of young men were present interested in the Society's operations. So closed, we believe with much blessing and profit, the Society's eightysecond anniversary. K. THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD. II. ANCESTRAL WORSHIP. BY THE REV. ARTHUR E. MOULE, B.D. But, IN the fourteenth chapter of the Apocryphal Book of Wisdom, verse 15, Ancestral Worship is directly charged with being the origin of idolatry. "For neither have idols existed from the beginning, neither shall they last for ever. For a father afflicted with untimely mourning when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now begins to honour him as a god, which was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him ceremonies and sacrifices. Thus, in process of time, an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law; and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of kings." nevertheless, though Ancestral Worship may be the origin of idolatry, I am convinced that Ancestral Worship, in its original, was far purer and more noble than we see it now in these days of its degeneracy and degradation. And these purer elements in the principle which underlies this most remarkable religious observance-namely, a tender respect for the men and the institutions of old, and a reverence for age-appear in all ages of God-fearing men. The Jews pre-eminently lived a life linked to the past. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, what names of sacred memories and undying lustre were these to Jewish thought; and how they live in the love and reverence of Gentile Christian hearts! And the principle betrays itself unexpectedly in a way which to hypercriticism may form an object for censure, in modern prose and verse. Have not our American friends their household god-the image or picture of the illustrious Washington, in the "lararium" of every drawing-room? Is not Westminster Abbey a place where reverence and patriotic pride rise sometimes near to the verge of ancestral idolatry? "That temple of silence and reconciliation," as Macaulay calls it, "where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried; the great Abbey which has during so many ages afforded a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies have been shattered by the contentions of the Great Hall." England's great Ancestral Temple! Does it differ, save in the outward symbols of incense and sacrifice, from the atmosphere of reverence and devotion which fills many a temple in idolatrous China? The good people of Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, have a yearly festival, at which they drink the health of King Athelstan, in grateful recognition of the munificence of that ancestral monarch in granting free lands to the town for ever. And in poetry this symptom appears very frequently. Thus Milton, in his "meed of melodious tears" for Lycidas, speaks as follows: "Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore In thy large recompense; and shalt be good And Lowell, to the spirit of Keats, says "Great soul, thou sittest with me in my room, We know, indeed, that there is truth in the poet's question, Or Flattery sooth the dull cold ear of Death?" Yet there lives and burns the yearning memory of the departed; the eager gaze into the darkness of " the moment after death— the imagination of some possible communion with those who are gone; and these feelings, if I mistake not, enter largely into the theory of Ancestral Worship. Only the Chinese are bolder, shall I not rather say more despairing, than we. They believe in the immortality of the soul, but they know nothing of the resurrection of the body; and their hope of communion is not in some future home, "where they go no more out," but in the fancy of periodic visits from ancestral spirits, holding a mysterious intercourse, and able to bless or curse. The Chinese do believe that flattery can sooth the dull, cold ear of death, and honour or dishonour, please or provoke the silent soul. Now the Chinese pay reverence to the spirits of their departed ancestors, to their manes in fact, which the Romans worshipped and propitiated under the title of lares. The lares differed from the penates in that the former were all of human origin, like the Chinese ancestor spirits, whilst the penates included some at least of the great deities, such as Vesta, though admitting also human-sprung deities. The lares were worshipped under the form of small waxen images clothed in the skin of a dog, and were placed round the hearth in the hall. The Chinese have pictures of their ancestors sometimes, but seldom images ; and images of Confucius are the exception in his temples. It is an odd coincidence that the manes (originally called lemures) were of two kinds, the lares or manes, and larvæ or maniæ, or the souls of the good and bad. The Chinese speak of every one having three wen and six pah (three lares and six larva), the wen being apparently the good part and the pah the bad, only all united in one individual. These three wen they dispose of thus after death: one follows the corpse to the tomb, and lives there (with occasional excursions, especially in the seventh month, to facilitate which in many brick tombs a single brick is taken out, or a threefold slit left open). The second wen attends upon the ancestral tablet; and the third goes to the shades below for judgment. The six pah are, say some, dissipated at death. It is a strange fact that in Europe during this nineteenth century the worship of lares was still to be found. "In Genoa almost every house has its lararium, or shrine for the household god, and the penates (or images of the god of wealth in China) are conspicuous in every shop." The culture of lares corresponded in a singular manner to that of the ancestral spirits in China, for they were in * Cf. Knight's Encyclopædia. |