United States, speaking from twenty-five years' experience of the East said that, as a government official, he had no objection to the type of missionary described by Judson, who went about his high calling in the spirit of one who was willing to take the lowest place, to be last of all and servant of all.

As to his policy he must not ask or expect the permission or protection of the Foreign Office or its agents. This is impossible from the nature of the case, and the past action of the Foreign Office in always refusing to give permission for missionaries to cross the Indian frontier is easily comprehensible. To give their sanction means that they must take up the wrongs of the missionary or his death by violence, if it occurs, and avenge him. Their own agent, the English officer, is absolutely tied up and restricted to an extraordinary degree as to what he is to do and effect, including an absolute non-interference with the religion of the peoples across the frontier. A medical missionary who did not fear to assume responsibility, and with the rare power to initiate his own course, if he went quietly forward asking no questions, would probably be surprised at the length of time for which the government would "turn the blind eye" towards him.

For all difficult situations either on or across the frontier, government sends specially selected officers. Whether it is to furnish the garrison at Kila Drosh or the political agency at Chitral, one condition that applies to all ranks from the private to the officer in command is that wives and families must be left behind. While for the last fifteen years there have been European officers, civil, political, and military, and garrisons of troops, located even two hundred miles beyond the Indian frontier, and there has been also a continuous flow of merchandize from India into the same regions, accompanied by traders who

buy and sell their wares, yet all this time the missionary has been successfully shut out.

The men for these trans-frontier posts must be fully qualified doctors, otherwise an occasion immediately arises for the authorities to object to their treating the sick because they do not hold a recognized medical diploma.

Secondly, they must not be accompanied by wives or families for that again justifies the government in interference on the ground that they cannot allow European women and children to be exposed to the dangers that lie across the frontier.

Third, they must have acquired some colloquial knowledge of the Pushtu language, and that means preparing themselves for at least a year at such a base as Peshawar or Quetta for the work that is before them.

Fourth, they must be able to commence their own work independent of the local authorities. For this reason they should mobilize their field hospital and dispensary at the base and carry it forward on mules with them to the field of labour. They ought also to have with them one or two native trained hospital assistants, Pathans if possible, who are to be found in the Punjab.

We may suppose two such medical missionaries with their native hospital assistants and their field hospital packed on mules starting off quietly in the month of May. What should their geographical objective be? If it is any part of Central Asia they could hardly find a more strategic point than Chitral. By what route should they go? It is not at all necessary to go by the Malakand and Dir route. They can start from Abbottabad and march by way of Chilas and Gilgit and Astor down to Chitral. There is a good bridle-path all the way, and by this route no escort is required, as it does not pass through hostile tribes but through territories suzerain to Kashmir.

Medical missionaries pushing beyond the frontier do so now with the great advantage of the reputation already gained for missionary medical skill by the splendid work of such men on the northwest frontier as Dr. Pennell at Bannu, Dr. Arthur Lankester at Peshawar, the Drs. Neve at Srinagar, etc., whose fame has travelled far into the unknown regions beyond.

The question naturally arises if such a medical mission reached Chitral and began its quiet work of ministering to the sick and suffering of that benighted Moslem people would the political agent take upon himself to transport it back to India? It would be most difficult to carry out such a deportation in the face of the public opinion that would be aroused in favour of such a ministry of mercy. It would be asked why, if British officers and administration have been so long resident in Chitral, must medical missions be forever excluded?

While British missions are in this manner frightened off and shut out of the Moslem lands of Central Asia, missionaries of other nations are entering these neglected fields. The Protestant Swedish mission at Kashgar and Yarkand have their staff of seventeen Swedish men and women in those two towns, and are being reinforced this winter by three more trained workers sent out from Stockholm. We see the Moravian mission at work at Leh, and there is a Belgian Roman Catholic mission at Kulja with Father Raemdock at the head of it who speaks both English and Chinese well. It may be also possible for the Danish medical mission to Mohammedan women at Hoti-murdan to get to Kabul. There have been several European lady doctors at Kabul in the service of the Emir. Mrs. Daly, a lady doctor, saved many lives there in the cholera epidemic of 1900. The Emir of Afghanistan has never objected to the wives of Europeans in his employ accompanying their husbands to Kabul and has invariably

treated them with kindness and consideration. There are many encouragements to support the belief that a medical mission to Mohammedan women directed by fully qualified lady doctors would find a welcome even in the city of Kabul. The Mohammedan does not take it seriously that women can be teachers of religion and it is foreign to their ideas about women fanatically to attack a woman because of her religion. The wonderful care of God for His missionary servants has been apparent now for many years on the frontiers of India, for while many government officers have been killed there by Moslem fanatics there is, it is believed, not an instance of a missionary being killed there.

"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever" (Dan. ii. 44).

XIII

ISLAM UNDER PAGAN RULE

REV. CHARLES R. WATSON, D. D., PHILADELPHIA

Τ

HE use of the word "pagan" in the subject under discussion is not altogether a happy one,

for it is intended that such governments as those of China and Japan should come within our survey, and the application of the adjective "pagan" to these countries is resented by many. Rather what is meant to be discussed is, The attitude towards Islam and Christianity of governments which are neither Moslem nor Christian. And even the revised phrasing of the subject involves us in difficulties, for the question may be fairly raised, Which are the Christian governments? Some will go so far as to say that there are no really Christian governments, but only Western governments; that these are only nominally Christian; and that the spirit, the policies and the agencies of the best of these are marked by so much that is contrary to the genius of Christianity that the right is forfeited to designate them as Christian.

Passing by these more superficial and technical difficulties, a very real difficulty occurs in trying to mark off distinctly the limits of this discussion. We are dealing here with governmental attitudes. In the West where the line of separation between religion and government, between Church and state, is drawn so sharply, the distinction may be maintained. But in the pagan world, especially the pagan world of Africa, governmental questions are usually religious questions and the relig ious attitude generally carries with it a governmental attitude.