the struggle for existence is strenuous, although poverty is hardly more general than in Western lands. A recent Japanese newspaper has called attention to the fact that suicide has greatly increased of late, as high as ten thousand cases a year having been reported. The same authority traces this fact to the greater intensity of the struggle for life, in view of the increased cost of living connected with the introduction of Western civilization. It is reported that the poor are becoming more numerous throughout Japan than was the case under the old régime. In Persia there is much pitiful destitution, while in poor Turkey, as the result of the cruel policy of the present Sultan, there is a reign of agony and despair which appeals to the charities of the world. In Africa the same story of poverty has been written large in the history of savage tribes, with the dire miseries of famine recurring at frequent intervals. The poor people seem to have been swept off by the thousands and tens of thou- The horrors of African sands, in circumstances of suffering which cannot famine. be depicted. Even now there are the same everrecurring experiences in different sections of the vast continent, as in Bechuanaland and Swaziland at the present moment. The terrible famine in Bondei and Usagara has only just ceased from its ravages. "A party of eight hundred natives," writes the Rev. Godfrey Dale, under date of April 14, 1895, "had started for the coast to seek food and work, but every one perished on the road."1 In the Pacific Islands, the West Indies, Mexico, and South America there is much extreme and hopeless poverty. Consul-General), and are worth reproducing for the information of those who still wonder why it is that the opening of this long-closed country has produced such insignificant results. They are: first, want of native capital and the absence of substantial native merchants; second, the exactions of the officials and the burdens laid upon industry; and lastly, the lack of energy displayed by the producing and laboring classes, who feel that it is useless to produce more than is absolutely necessary for their daily wants, as any surplus they might acquire would be seized by the officials. When it is remembered that every officer in this country has to be bought, and that only members of the Nyang-ban, or patrician class, can hold any but the lowest posts, it is evident that no member of the trading class has even the inducement to amass money for buying himself an official position and so raising himself into the ranks of the aristocracy. Degrees of poverty, of course, exist, but it is doubtful whether any member of the trading class has a capital to his name which would meet the wants of the smallest shopkeeper at home, and it is a sine qua non with a Korean that he must receive an advance of money before he will undertake the execution of the most insignificant contract."- The Messenger (Shanghai), January, 1895, pp. 5, 6. 1 Central Africa, July, 1895, p. 107; The Church Missionary Intelligencer, April, 1895, pp. 276, 277. The result of our survey is only to confirm the saying of Christ, "Ye have the poor always with you," which is true of all lands, even those where wealth abounds and the best civilization which the world has yet known is found. The pertinence of placing this subject among the social evils of the non-Christian world arises from the severity and extent of the poverty which exists, the misery it causes, the social depression it produces, and the pathetic appeal it makes for the introduction of such remedies as Christianity and civilization can offer to alleviate the sorrows of the poor. An impersonal despot on an invincible throne. 10. THE TYRANNY OF CUSTOM.-Customs are conventional methods of living and acting according to established precedents, which have the power of habit and are generally recognized and observed throughout the community. These laws of life include social manners, political methods, economic habits, and religious observances. They exert their control not only in the sphere of practical living, but extend their influence to the realm of thought and feeling. They arise spontaneously, follow the leadings of instinct in their development, and become the accepted, cherished, often revered, rules and methods of social, civil, and religious habit. They control conduct with varying power. In some cases they rule with despotic sway; in others their demands may be somewhat relaxed. In all Oriental lands they exert a wide, exacting, and even fatalistic power. They wield the sceptre of arbitrary dominion over all life. They tyrannize with an imperious and resistless sway, and hold their supreme authority from one generation to another with undiminished rigor. They assume over the life and thought of the East a governing and proscriptive power which is most impressive in its mastery, so that they must be 1 "The authority of customs is found, in the first instance, in the feelings which they express and gratify. They are a spontaneous product of the feelings. They shortly, however, acquire an additional authority in the good order they establish, the interests they sustain, the calculable terms of action which they offer. They thus gather to themselves in a most imposing and imperious form all the motives and sentiments which unite men to one another. Any extensive dissolution of customs is a breaking down of the affinities by which men are bound to each other-is social chaos. "Customs are most potent with the ignorant. They in part take the place of those moral motives which bind together the more thoughtful. Men of the widest intelligence hold them in high consideration, but they do so because of the impossibility of supplying their place with the uncultivated. They act in the absence of higher motives. Boys are abjectly subject to the opinions and ways of their play reckoned with as a mighty, conservative, and determining force in all efforts to introduce social changes or religious reforms. They exercise a function which seems to combine constitutional, legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one comprehensive control of all phases of life and all points of contact between man and man, and even between man and the material universe around him, or the Supreme Power above him. The East has so learned this lesson of reverence for and obedience to customs that those which are evil and detrimental have just as firm a hold upon men as those which are good and useful. An established custom becomes, therefore, the open sesame of every otherwise closed door. It is the arbiter of dispute; it gives the word of command; it pronounces a verdict from which there is no appeal; it surmounts difficulty and it settles destiny; it deals kindly with all who submit to its decree, but it subdues and crushes all who venture to call in question its wisdom or defy its authority. The mysterious sway of custom. It is evident that a social force of such binding and decisive power may be of great benefit, or it may work untold injury. Unfortunately, in the non-Christian world custom is at many crucial points the greatest hindrance to social progress. It sanctions, establishes, and enforces that which is to the infinite injury of society, and has the power to oppose itself strenuously to all reform, and to stay the progress of all change for the better. The tyranny of custom is therefore a fact of immense social import. It weighs heavily against Christianity, against civilization, against all social reform and useful progress, and is usually bitterly hostile to the entrance of liberal views and enlightened methods, opposing with singular tenacity the establishment of more cleanly, refined, and in every respect sane standards of living. It is exceedingly difficult for those who are accustomed to Occidental independence of thought and action to realize the smiting and tyrannizing power of custom in the conservative, restricted social life of the East.1 mates. They secure no sufficient ground in reason from which to take up the labor of resistance. "Young men, journeymen, college students, show this disposition to submit to prevalent irrational customs. The governing sentiments of these little worlds rest on tradition. Their members oppose the unreasoned ways of the past to the better methods that are coming to prevail in the wider world which encloses them. Customs are thus the instinctive methods of restraint which overtake those otherwise ungov ernable-an anticipation of reason and an organic substitute for its deficiencies.”Bascom, "Social Theory," pp. 33, 34. 1 Sir Richard Burton once spent two months with the King of Dahomey, and in conversation with Mr. James Anthony Froude spoke in favorable terms of the king It is especially difficult to understand the irrepressible sway of customs in themselves narrowing, retarding, dehumanizing, and detrimental in their tendencies. The giant system of caste in India is an illustration. The customs of child marriage, of enforced widowhood, of sati, of ascetic barbarities, of degrading superstitions, of inane ceremonies, and of many other objectionable features of Indian life, are all of a kind. which one would think easy to overthrow when a better way was shown; but, on the contrary, the observance of the whole inflexible routine of custom is the very point of strenuous insistence. It is the breach, not the observance, of the custom which brings ignominy, sorrow, and social ostracism.1 So in the vast social organization of conservative China, from the state functions of the Emperor to the binding of the tender feet of some child victim, this dominance of customs is manifest. They cluster around birth, marriage, China's homage to established precedent. and death; they determine the downsitting and uprising of all China; they regulate the eating, drinking, and visiting; they dictate domestic, social, commercial, industrial, political, and religious manners and observances. A Chinese must even be ill according to custom, and when he sins he must at least avoid the crowning and unpardonable impertinence of presuming to sin in some unusual way. Finally, when he dies custom seizes him in its iron grip, and he goes to his ancestors with the conventional funeral ceremonies which have been the torment and sorrow of the living for centuries. It would be impossible and altogether unnecessary to undertake to review in detail the innumerable predilections and practices which hold as a benevolent and, on the whole, enlightened savage. Mr. Froude inquired why, if the king was so benevolent, did he not alter the customs. Burton looked at him in amazement and consternation, and said: "Alter the customs! Would you have the Archbishop of Canterbury alter the liturgy?" See Froude," English Seamen of the Sixteenth Century," p. 37. "The evils which afflict heathen society are found established in those very customs and habits which are like chains of iron fast bound round the bodies of those who have blindly followed them for centuries."-Miss Emily H. Payne (A. B. M. U.), Pegu, Burma. 1 'I am not without my apprehensions that many among you at the very sound of the word 'custom' will consider it sinful even to enquire if the change should take place. There are others, again, who, though in their hearts they agree to the measure, have not the courage even to say that it should be adopted, only because it is opposed to the customs of their country. Oh, what a miserable state of things is this! Custom is the supreme ruler in this country; custom is the supreme instructor; the rule of custom is the paramount rule; the precept of custom is the paramount sway in non-Christian society, to its detriment and degradation, since they have already occupied a large share of our attention in the present lecture. There are customs, to be sure, which are excellent and deserve to be perpetuated; but in many cases, usually where the tyranny is most exacting, they are a heritage of sorrow and misery, bringing with them burdens heavy to bear, and hindrances to progress difficult to overcome. What we are concerned to note just here is the tyrannical sway of their influence in society, their power to shut out the guiding light of truth and to stay the transforming entrance of a higher and nobler civilization. We shall have something to say elsewhere of missions as a power singularly effective in the gradual disintegration and final overthrow of the despotic authority of evil customs. Caste versus social distinctions. II. CASTE.-The social system known as caste, a word supposed to be derived from casta, the Portuguese term for race, is so prominent and important a feature of Hindu society that its consideration fixes our attention almost exclusively upon India. Social distinctions have existed more or less among all races. They are found in classic and medieval society, where they are the outcome either of family rank or political station, or are based upon the grade and character of occupation. Trade guilds were known in the Roman Empire, and also in medieval Europe.1 Such social distinctions, if based upon qualities which deserve recognition and respect, are inevitable, and do not necessarily involve injustice, extinguish brotherhood, or destroy the natural and friendly intercourse of man with man. The peculiarity of the precept. What a mighty influence is thine, O custom! Inexpressible in words! With what absolute sway dost thou rule over thy votaries! Thou hast trampled upon the Sastras, triumphed over virtue, and crushed the power of discriminating right from wrong and good from evil."-Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, in a pamphlet on "The Marriage of Hindu Widows." "The grand characteristic of Hindu society is just its despotic character; its customs and ordinances are so rigid and unbending that no freedom is allowed to the individual. On every side he is hedged in by regulations and prescriptions, so that he can only walk in the narrow rut which these lay down for him. As a necessary consequence, the grand characteristic of the individual Hindu is his want of individuality—his want of a sense of personal responsibility and capability for independent thought and action. The family, the community, the whole social organism, is so prominent, so exacting, so absolute, that the individual in comparison is nothing.” -Rev. William Stevenson (F. C. S.), formerly of Madras, India. 1 Inge, "Society in Rome under the Cæsars." See chapter on Grades of Society," pp. 119-175. |