which are helping the Christians of Hawaii to deal with these new problems.

There has not been shown any misapprehension of the possible reflex Christian influences on China and Japan through the evangelization of the immigrants from these lands. That being true, there is now renewed in a different form the old proposition to have the heathen sent to us for Christianization, and by the reflex influence thus to reach the people in their home land. Whether or not we did wisely in resisting the coming of the Chinese to our shores, it remains a fact that what seemed a providential door of access to them in our midst, instead of the more costly method of sending workers to their own land, was suddenly closed, but now in an indirect way has been reopened. In Hawaii we may work among the Japanese with no fear of a fickle nationalism stopping us with parliament action. In Luzon there will be no literati to oppose us. If, strategically, the geographical situation of the Philippines reduces the distance of China from three thousand to five hundred miles, why do not the changed social and diplomatic relations also become factors in our opportunity? Whatever we may or may not do for the Malays and Tagals, and for half-breeds of the Philippines, why not give a moment's thought to the new form of the old opportunity, which we so readily attributed to divine Providence, of sending the Chinese to school under our own flag?

THE GAURANGA REFORMERS OF INDIA.

MISSIONARIES have always to consider the forces to which they are opposed. In the case of the ancient religions these are pretty well comprehended. But the pressure of Christianity on these has become so great that the followers of those faiths are giving repeated evidence of realizing the acuteness of the conditions. It is the evervarying phases of these false faiths that we now have in mind. Thus the Calcutta Missionary Conference recently gave a long session to the consideration of the new Gauranga cult, the result of their analysis being that, like all other sections of Reformed Hinduism, it is really Krishnaism. There is something noticeable in the extent to which these corrupt heathen religions are obliged, in the presence of Christianity, to attempt to explain away the vice which has been popularized by their legendary literature. The story of the free-love of Krishna is familiar to all who are acquainted with the Bhagavat-Gita and others of the most popular religious books of the Hindus. But now the attempt is made by educated and so-called reformed Hindus to lift the whole into the plane of allegory “illustrative of the spiritual unification with God by love." Others try to cover its sensualism by asserting that it is intended to show that Krishna as God was above all carnality, though deep in love; but others insist that Krishna was a live paramour, not only in sentiment, but in gross action.

But those who attempt to explain the Krishna story as a spiritual allegory have trouble enough with his encouraging a civil war, his slaughter of his enemies, and the final destruction of his own race. The Krishnaites, moreover, rose to a subtlety that Western folk will scarcely comprehend, who defend the story of Krishna and Raddha as a true type of religious love, because the love of a husband for a wife or of a wife for a husband is based on self-interest, while that of a lover for her paramour is disinterested, since he may cast her off at any time. They cannot disguise the fact that the practical result of this story is to lower the common morality, and yet these reformed Hindus still attempt to lift the nation out of the cesspool of the vilest licentiousness by allegorizing the corrupt life of their national hero; and, marvel of marvels, they have a great following in this effort to renovate a worship which they know will not stand the light. The concession which is implied to the higher morality of Christianity is sometimes recognized, and we have an illustration of this in an instance of a Hindu preacher noted for his skill in antagonizing Christianity who is reported to have “burst into a rhapsody of India's future glory in terms that indicated that Christ would reign supreme in the land." But the missionary, none the less, has to face these ever-varying phases of the false faiths which the Christian religion meets.

It is noteworthy that these so-called reformers of Hinduism in their efforts to save their religion from the deadly attacks of Christianity should find themselves supported by some women from England and America. Mrs. Besant is not only proclaiming the Hindu religion, but is endeavoring to raise an enormous sum of money to found and endow a college at Benares in which Western sciences are to be taught along with Hinduism. One American lady preaches the merits of worshiping the murderous Kali, and still another woman, who calls herself a countess, preaches Buddhism in India. But, withal, educated Hindus have lost whatever faith they had in idols, and wince under the attacks of Christianity. Any attempt which may be made to metamorphose Hinduism will not save it. Internally, it is in a state of collapse; externally, it is preserved by the complex and powerful socialism called caste.

ALLEGED OUTRAGES IN THE CONGO STATE.

Ir has long been known that much of the Congo State administration has in some particulars been a burning shame to Christendom, and has needed a radical overhauling. The most flagrant crimes have been committed on the Upper Congo in the name of the government, and the worst forms of heathenish cruelties have been practiced by an armed force of cannibals, equipped with the regular army rifle and sent against an unarmed population to execute demands of the State which are affirmed to be in themselves absolutely indefensible.

Here are some twenty-five millions of popula

tion who are receiving an object lesson in murder, robbery, and slave raiding, in the name of a so-called Christian State, which puts into the shade the worst forms of cruelty in the heathen States of Africa or Asia.

There is said to be a vicious system of tribute imposed in rubber and ivory, which the people are certainly unwilling, and possibly unable, to pay; and the State keeps at Luluaburg a well-armed lot of tribute collectors, recruited from cannibal races, who are sent out to exact the specified tribute. When the people do not return the amount exacted they are punished by murder, by the burning of their villages, and by slave capture; in other cases many are deliberately maimed by the cutting off of their right hands. If this "inhumanity of man to man" is not stopped, and stopped at once, the cause of civilization will be permanently damaged, and the acceptance of Christianity by the people in this section of Africa will be indefinitely delayed.

An American missionary on the Upper Congo River, a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, who has lived on the Congo for ten years, recently transmitted to the British government through Reuter's agency statements which he is thought to be abundantly able to verify by actual witnesses, and which confirm the worst rumors hitherto circulated, but till now supposed to be founded on secondhand native stories. This missionary declares that since the mission was established at Luebo in 1892, on the Upper Kassai, they have been cognizant that the worst offenses were committed in the interior by the Zappo Zaps, a cruel people, known to be cannibals, from whom the government at Luluaburg has recruited its collectors of revenue. He says: "These barbarities are perpetrated on innocent and harmless people, whose only crime is that they happen to live in the border of the Congo Free State, are unarmed, and cannot successfully resist these hordes of plunderers who are armed and sent out by State authority."

This all assumes additional importance at a time when, within the so-called "spheres of influence," the Africans are to be impressed with the justice and humanity of Christian governments. So that, while it is not fair to decry a State for accidental miscarriage of justice, nor to deny them a hearing, any more than we would if they were individuals, it is in no local light that these measures should be reviewed. England has just dissolved the Royal Niger Company, and taken all Nigeria directly under the crown; Germany, France, and the rest hold seven ninths of Africa in their grip. It is of the utmost importance to the evangelization of Africa that even-handed justice shall prevail in these protectorates. Missionaries may not dictate to governments by whose leave they occupy fields of Christian toil; but they must speak out in the presence of giant abuse which is perpetrated by these governments, especially when the ultimate purpose of the governing power is designed to be benevolent, but flagrantly fails of being that in the incidents of its daily administration.

FOREIGN OUTLOOK.

SOME LEADERS OF THOUGHT.

Julius Boehmer. This scholar is a pastor and an adherent of the conservative wing of German theologians. But his conservatism springs from an intellectual conviction based on thorough study, not from an emotional prejudice in favor of beliefs long cherished. He has recently given to the world a study of the command of Christ in Matt. xxviii, 19, under the title of Das biblische “Im Namen” (The Biblical Expression, "In the Name of"), Giessen, J. Ricker, 1898. He inclines to the genuineness of the passage, though he does not give this feature of his work as much attention as we could desire. He devotes his chief energy to the attempt to discover the source and significance of the expression, "In the name of." He assumes what he does not prove, namely, that the phrase is simply transferred from the Hebrew. Hence he subjects the Old Testament to a rigid scrutiny to discover what the meaning of the Hebrew equivalent is; and he reaches the conclusion that in the Old Testament the phrase, "In the name of Jahweh," signifies, "In the fellowship," "In the possession," "In the association of the name of Jahweh." The "name of Jahweh," in the Old Testament, indicates the inner nature of Jahweh. The expression could be often replaced by the word "person" without change of meaning. At first the significance of the discussion is not apparent to the casual reader. But when it is considered that it is a part of the attempt to settle the question as to the origin of the religious ideas and terminology of the New Testament, and even of Christianity, the importance of the subject will be seen at a glance. The.ordinary conception of the relation of God to the Jews and of Judaism to Christianity renders it exceedingly difficult to disconnect any part of Christianity from the providential preparation for it among the Jews. The theory is that the Jews were God's peculiar people in such a sense as that no other nation had any of God's guidance religiously which could contribute to the Christian system. But this theory is not demonstrable either from the Old or the New Testament, nor from a comparison of Christianity with the religious thought, practice, and language of the GreekRoman world in the time of Christ and the apostles. And, after all, this is not a question to be settled by our preferences, but by an appeal to the facts. Did the Gentile world have any worthy religious ideas? If they did, they, as truly as the Jews, must have gotten them by divine revelation, or else revelation is unnecessary. Now, it has been proved by Professor Deissmann, of Heidelberg, that the phrase, "In the name of," was current among Greek-speaking peoples, and that it expressed a relation of adherence to another. In this case, at least, Greek custom furnished part of our Christian terminology.

Karl Dunkmann. The problem of the freedom or the bondage of the will still continues to engage thoughtful minds. Whether it will ever be settled to our entire satisfaction is doubtful. The vast majority of us believe in the freedom of the will because we feel ourselves free. But Dunkmann has not been able to satisfy himself so easily. In a recent book, entitled Das Problem der Freiheit in der gegenwartigen Philosophie und das Postulat der Theologie (The Problem of Freedom in Current Philosophy, and the Postulate of Theology), Halle, M. Niemeyer, 1899, he has not so much contributed to the solution as to the clear understanding of the difficulties of the problem. Undoubtedly one source of the difficulties just mentioned is the fact that we all approach the subject partly from the standpoint of philosophy and partly from that of theology. As Dunkmann says: "The philosopher sees no good reason for entering into the theological aspect of the subject, and the theologian is obliged to look at the philosophical aspect of it as but a preliminary question, for which he can find no suitable place either in dogmatics or in ethics. To this must be added that theology, on account of the varying aspects which the problem takes in the light of sin, grace, and providence, has felt no necessity for regarding the problem from all these standpoints combined, but has been content to look at it now from the standpoint of sin, now from that of grace, now from that of providence." Dunkmann holds that since the kernel of all philosophy is a view of life, and since theology also has its view of life, it is possible to frame a doctrine relative to human freedom which will satisfy both philosophy and theology. This may be a possibility; but it will become an actuality only when it is settled that we have a true theology and a true philosophy. Philosophy cannot admit the fact of freedom in any comprehensive sense while it is obliged to acknowledge the influence of heredity and environment; and theology, as long as it holds to the current theories of sin, grace, and providence, must equally deny all true freedom. The strange fact in connection with it all is that for all practical purposes philosophy and theology are compelled to suppose that man is free and responsible. Primarily the fact of our consciousness of freedom is mightier than any facts of heredity, environment, sin, grace, or providence. Every man is conscious in his own breast of a power to rise superior to all obstacles; and one can change the effects of heredity and environment. As to sin, grace, and providence, it is altogether possible that we have held hitherto to an erroneous conception of them. Philosophy and theology will unite in the assertion of human freedom, as soon as they determine to make largest use of none but the most evident and indubitable facts.

Friederich Loofs. This is not the first time that this writer's name has been mentioned in this department. He is rapidly rising into prominence in Germany and America as a constructive radical in biblical criticism. The term "constructive radical” is, perhaps, novel, but it is the proper