and then some of his embittered oppo- sionaries, who built up congregations, nents would, by some word or action, that are prospering to this day. In the express their ill-feeling. Such treat- Apostolic Church the followers and serment would always cut him to the quick. vants of Christ made the conversion of During his last illness his life-long friend, the heathen and of the Jews their great Dr. J. W. Nevin, ministered to his aim and mission. With untiring energy spiritual wants. Few, if any understood they tried to carry the Gospel "into all his inner life and motives so well as he. the world." The Church then was inAnd at his request he officiated at his tensely aggressive. Not content by funeral. To the poor in Lancaster he simply caring for the religious wellleft a considerable bequest, the interest being and salvation of people and famiof which is annually distributed for lies already in the fold of Christ, the their benefit and relief. heralds and bearers of the cross pressed into the darkest and remotest countries; as it was then said, "to the ends of the earth." For centuries after the Apostolic age, great and good men, at the risk and sacrifice of their lives, bore the Gospel to heathen nations and tribesamong the Germans, Gauls, Normans, The earthly homes, families and graves of our Presidents have not always fared well. John Quincy Adams, earth." Adams, under date of July 4, 1831, wrote in his diary: "This day occurred the death of James Monroe, after six years of penury and distress." The dilapidated and neglected condition of Monticello, the Saxons, Irish, and many other benighted home and the grave of Thomas Jefferson, have become a by-word of the nation. Thorns and briers grow over the graves of some of the other Presidents. But for the indomitable efforts of a small number of benevolent ladies, assisted by the late Edward Everett, even the home and tomb of Washington would most likely be in ruins. Buchanan's remains are marked by a suitable monument on Woodward Hill cemetery. His home while living, and the place of his burial, are both cared for by his niece. Here he sleeps until the last trumpet shall sound, and the secrets and motives of all hearts shall be revealed and judged by the great unerring Master, who in all His judgments of his children blends justice and mercy with divine tenderness. Bartholomaus Ziegenbalg. BY THE EDITOR. During two hundred years past certain persons in the Protestant Churches of Europe endeavored to carry the Gospel among the heathen. Individual persons and congregations worked heroically for this cause, but it never received the general support of the Churches. Chief among these pioneers in foreign missions were the Dutch or Holland Reformed in their East India Colonies. Thither they sent many mis peoples. When the Kings and Emperors became Christian, the heathen were often driven into the Church by tribes and in a wholesale way. In short some kind of missionary efforts have always been carried on through the ages. Sometimes this was done by preaching and persuading, at others by force and cruel violence. Philip II., of Spain, claimed to perform a saintly missionary service when he crushed and tortured the Protestant Christians by the Inquisition, and the authors of the massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day put in an equally pious claim. The Reformers were eager to carry the Gospel into heathen lands. Luther was greatly troubled about the misery of "pagans and Turks," and asked God's people to pray for them, and send them missionaries. But their battles at home could ill afford to undertake new fields of conquests. In the middle of the sixteenth century the Reformed Church of Geneva sent foreign missionaries to Brazil. But they were soon driven from the country, and the effort failed. A few years later the King of Sweden founded a mission in Lapland. In the seventeenth century some of the German princes vainly attempted to awaken an interest in foreign missions. A certain Baron von Weis tried to form a "Jesus Verein" (a Jesus Association) in the interest of this This was the first attempt to form a Missionary Society of the modern stamp. cause. He was the first and only one who consented to enter the service under this association. He spent the remainder of his life as a missionary in Surinam. Here he offered himself a living sacrifice to the cause, and died in his field of labor. Two hundred years ago the Spirit of God began to strive in the hearts of Christians in different parts of the world. As none of the great missionary societies had then been formed, the necessary means were wanting. The few men who ventured into the dark places of heathenism were like Livingstone, adventurers and explorers in Christ's cause. They were not only pioneers in the foreign missionary field, but pathfinders and path-seekers. Such was Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg. He was born in Saxony, of pious parents, in 1683. His father seems to have dwelt much on the shortness and uncertainty of life. He had his coffin made during his lifetime. One day while lying sick his house was set on fire. His friends laid him in the coffin, as they thought, in a safe place. The coffin became his bed of death, for here he breathed his last. The mother soon followed him. She called her children around her dying bed, and pointed them to her old Bible lying on the table, every leaf of which had been bedewed with her tears. The sad and early loss of his parents made a lasting impression upon the orphaned boy, which gave a new direction to his future life. Deprived of his earthly parents, he now turned with all the ardor of his tender nature to our Father in Heaven. Often he would go out by himself in the fields, and kneel on the bare earth in prayer to God for guidance and wisdom. At school he became a studious and conscientious scholar; at the university a pious student. Sometimes the cutting ridicule of his fellow students on account of his godly habits was almost unendurable. One, and only one, pious student was there, and he stood by him. determination to become a herald of the cross forsook him. "Who is sufficient for these things," was the cry of his spirit. For nearly a year he suffered with gloomy feelings and spiritual despondency. This was succeeded by a clearer faith, and then by a serious illness. Now he must surely abandon his pious intentions. He must become a farmer, he thought, in order to nurse his impaired health. Yes, said his friends, but a spiritual farmer in the service of God's husbandry. And such he became; a sower of good seed, in a soil where none had sown before him. In 1705 Frederick IV. was King of Denmark. He was a very godly man as well as a good king. One day a widow, in deep mourning, asked for an audience. She came from the town of Trankebar, belonging to the Danish possessions in East India. The heathen people of the town had killed her husband and eldest son. Her sad story deeply moved the king's kindly heart. But no less was he moved with the low, degraded condition of his East India subjects, which her sufferings revealed. Ignorant of the Gospel, they were living in misery and squalor, and had none to care for their souls. His awakened conscience gave him no rest. He must send missionaries to his East India subjects to tell them the sweet story of the cross. At that time August Hermann Franke, at Halle, Germany, was extensively known for his great piety, wisdom and zeal in the cause of Christ. The good Danish king wrote to him for counsel. Whom should he send to India ? Franke promptly answered: Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, a young man nearly twenty-two years of age, who is about finishing his studies at the University of Halle. After a brief conflict the young student consented to go, and soon found a missionary companion in Henry Plutochau, from Mecklenburg. Such a work was then considered a much more serious matter than now. Very few people knew any thing about the condition of the heathen-world, and Then came another trial. His eyes fewer still had any real concern for it. were opened to his sinful condition by Many mocked the two young men as nature, as they had never been before. fools. A certain literary institution deThis and the general coldness and in-rided them as "fanatics and uncalled difference of the Church greatly de- apostles." pressed him. His former eagerness and The missionaries sailed for East India on November 29, 1705. After a very Only those who have this kind of work stormy voyage of seven months they can imagine what joy the first singing reached Trankebar. The ruler of the of Christian hymns by these poor betown and a number of wealthy mer- nighted people afforded Ziegenbalg. chants were nominal Christians. They On May 12, 1707, he baptized five poor excited suspicion, so that no one would slaves; they were his first converts. By rent the strangers a house. The popu- the end of the year thirty more gave lation was composed of a few Christians, themselves to Christ. A small church and many Mohammedans. Of the two was built, in which he held regular. the Christians opposed the missionaries services, and publicly instructed the the most. The dusky Tamuls befriended children. The two missionaries also them far more than the people of their taught the people in the surrounding own faith. Before he could speak their country. Among so-called Christians language they seemed to be favorably and among the black Tamul population impressed by his meek and mild spirit, the work of the Gospel found increasing no less than by his earnestness and zeal. How should Ziegenbalg learn the Tamul language? The people had no grammar, dictionary, nor any other helps to study it. He had to systematize the language he was to learn, arrange and classify the words, and invent the means of studying it. He paid a native teacher to keep his school at the missionaries' house. Here he sat on the bare ground among the Tamul children, to learn their alphabet by writing the letters or signs in the sand, as their custom was. Another native taught him by repeating to him, word after word, with its meaning. In this way he gathered a list of words, and after eight months he could speak the language sufficiently to begin his teaching and preaching. favor. Of course tribulations had to be expected. They were poorly supported from home. Only two hundred Thalers was promised them. Besides this they had no temporal support. Sometimes they had not a cent in hand. Still, in due time, help usually came from some quarter. Worse than poverty was the opposition and unchristian life of the nominal Christians in Trankebar; Government officials, merchants and sailors were given to drunkenness, debauchery and profanity. These brought contempt and disgrace upon the good cause among the heathen. The Danish Governor of the city was averse to the missionaries from the start. He persecuted them in every possible way. One day Ziegenbalg interceded with the Governor in behalf of a poor, oppressed widow. The wicked official, perhaps, at the instigation of some unchristian Europeans, made this a pretext for imprisoning the good man. He was kept in close confinement for four months. He was not even permitted to beguile his dreary hours by translating the New Testament. At length his meek, conciliatory spirit, and his cheerful, firm, unselfish adherence to the truth under such great trials, won the heart of his oppressor. Upon his release his affectionate disciples greeted him with tears of gratitude and joy. It is generally held that "daily prayer meetings" are of quite recent date, and that they are of American origin. Ziegenbalg, a German, began his Gospel work in Trankebar with a regular meeting of this kind in his own house one hundred and seventy-five years ago. Indeed two daily prayer meetings he held for a season. In this way he began his mission work. People of all classes ere long attended them. At first partly out of curiosity, later their hearts were touched by the Holy Spirit. Christians came for counsel; Mohammedans, and heatben of the lowest order, came to ask Amid a varied experience of joy and questions, to hear and learn. Two years sorrow, the two men of God extended after he first set sail from Europe, the their work. They travelled afoot from missionary began to teach the children village to village, the hand of God in his own house in the Tamul language. shielding them against the threatened He translated Luther's smaller Cate- harm of ungodly men. After eight chism, which he taught them to read years Ziegenbalg revisited Europe. He and learn, as well as hymns and prayers. hoped through personal explanations and preaching, to silence the opposition of the enemies of his cause, and gain more help and sympathy from friends. The king of Denmark received him cordially, and appointed him Provost of all the Danish missions in East India, an office which laid on him the superintendency of this whole field. He found .much encouragement in different quarters, among other blessings a godly wife, in a former pupil of his, who was in all respects an apt help meet for him. On his return to East India the former Governor had been called away, and an earnest Christian man appointed in his place. Thereafter the mission prospered. A school was founded, in which to educate teachers and missionaries. The year after his return he dedicated a large new church. In the midst of his usefulness he was taken sick with a disease which he had brought with him from Europe. Propped up in bed, amid great pain, he kept on translating the Bible into the Tamul language. This important work seemed to be one of the great burdens of his heart. If only he could place the blessed Word of God into the bands of his Tamuls, in their own language. poor His pious people prayed for him. Suddenly, putting his hand to his eyes, he exclaimed: Why how light it is. The sun seems to shine into my eyes. Jesus, meine Zuversicht." Sing: Scarcely had his friends, with moved hearts, sung this beautiful hymn of consolation, when this valiant soldier of Christ bowed his head and died, at the age of 35 years. It happened on February 23, 1719, less than fifteen years after he first sailed from Europe for his mission of love among the heathen. than that, she herself is now laboring as a missionary among the degraded heathen. For the sake of Christ and of perishing souls, she has forsaken the refined enjoyments and cultivated society of her royal home, to spend her life amid the privations of heathenism, that she might win souls to Christ. In our age of idolatrous self-seeking, and lust for pleasure, power and wealth, it is well and wise to hold up before our hearts lives like that of Ziegenbalg, pioneer missionary of East India, and of Eugenie, the Christian heroine of the royal house of Denmark. While her royal sisters of Europe are wasting their time and wealth in luxury and costly fashionable display, she in plain apparel and with marvellous self-forgetting tenderness, teaches heathen mothers and their children the sweet story of the King of kings, who came on His blessed mission of self-assumed sorrow, that he might redeem us from our sins and miseries forever. The Robins, They chose their nook, the bonnie birds, For a weary wait they had, Nor ever might cease from cares. All honor to the godly Danish king, for befriending this self-denying apostle of East India. It is not the only instance of royal favor from the rulers of Denmark to the cause and friends of King Jesus. This little kingdom, in the cold north country, has had many members of its royal families who were humble Christians, and delighted to work for Christ. Even at this time, the present king of Denmark, has a sister, the princess Eugenie, who has sold all For their task was done: and then one by one her jewelry and possessions, and laid the proceeds on the altar of Christ. More Till the counted weeks wore past. Who had watched and worked their day; The fledglings flew away. -All The Year Round. JULY 3. SUNDAY-SCHOOL LESSONS. Third Sunday after Trinity. 1881. KEY-NOTE: "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." LESSON XXVII. Israel in Egypt.-Exod. i. 1-14. 1. Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household with Jacob. 2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judab, 5. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already. 6. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. 7. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. 8. Now there arose up a new king over Égypt, which knew not Joseph. 9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10. Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 11. Therefore they did set over them taskmasters, to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. 13. And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor : 14. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigor. QUESTIONS. What is the name of this Sunday? What is the key-note? Whence is it taken? What is the subject of our lesson? Where is the lesson found? What does Exodus mean, and why is this book so called? When did the exodus take place? How long did the Israelites dwell in Egypt? VERSES 1-5. In what circumstances did the sons of Israel come into Egypt? Who is meant by Israel? How many sons had Jacob? What were their names? Can you tell the meaning of these names? Where were they born? How many mothers had they? What was the order of their birth? What is said to have been the number of Jacob's posterity at the time of the removal to Egypt? How long had Joseph been in Egypt when the rest of Jacob's family removed thither? VERSE 6. How old was Joseph when he died? How long had the children of Israel been settled in Egypt when Joseph died? Is it probable that the brothers of Joseph died about the same time? What does the expres sion that generation mean? About how long after the settlement in Egypt would all that generation have died? 7. About how much time is covered by this verse ? What is said of the children of Israel during this time? Was this rapid increase in accordance with God's promise? Gen. xlvi. 3. What was the condition of the children of Israel in Egypt during this time? VERS. 8-10. What does the term new king mean here? Why is it said that he knew not Joseph About what time did this change in the government take place? What did the king say to his people? Is it probable that the Israelites were at this time really more numerous than the Egyptians? Did his fear probably exaggerate their number? How does the king now propose to deal with the children of Israel? What does that mean? What reason does he give for this course? Were the children of Israel now in a state of enforced servitude? Were the Egyptians willing to lose their service? VERSE 11. What then did the Egyptians do? What are taskmasters? What was the object of these? What cities did they build for Pharaoh ? Where were these situated? 12. Did the system of oppression adopted by the Egyptians accomplish its object? What was the result? Was the king's plan then a wise one? Is it ever wise to do evil? Would not kindness have been a better policy? VERSES 13-14. How did the Egyptians now treat the children of Israel? To what kinds of service did they put them? By making their lives bitter, what prophecy did the Egyptians fulfill? Gen. xv. 13. To what end did this affliction serve? Can affliction and persecution destroy God's people? In what spirit then ought they to be borne ? 1. Hark, through the courts of heaven Voices of angels sound, "He that was dead now lives again, He that was lost is found!' 2. God of unfailing grace, Send down Thy Spirit now, Raise the dejected soul to hope, And make the lofty bow. |