the indictment would hold against society, considered in its totality, in more civilized lands, even those most fully under the influence of Christianity. In fact, a catalogue of social evils

evils in Christendom

not to be denied.

pertaining to Occidental nations might be made, The existence of serious which would prove a formidable rival to its less civilized contemporary, although in many vital respects it would be different.1 If we consider the immense advantages of the environment of Christendom, it becomes a pertinent and searching question whether Occidental races under similar historic conditions, without the inspiration of Christian ideals, would have done better than their less fortunate brethren. It must be acknowledged also that there is an opportunity for a sombre and dismal retort on the part of the less civilized races, based upon the treatment they have experienced at the hands of professedly Christian nations, or upon the personal dealings and conduct of the unworthy representatives of Christendom with whom they have come in contact.2 There is little comfort to the sufferers in the statement that the truer Christian sentiment and the higher moral standards of Christendom condemn and repudiate these evils as abhorrent and disgraceful; yet that this is the truth is a fact which has in it a deep consolatory significance to a believer in the religion of Christ, and gives an added impulse to the missionary enterprise as a debt of Christianity to offset treatment on the part of so-called Christian nations which was far from commendable.

Christian civilization must be tested by its active antagonism to moral evils.

There is little that gives reason for any tone of exultation in the consideration of this whole matter, yet there is one test in which Christian civilization can serenely rest. The ground not of boasting, but of hopefulness and gratitude in Christendom, is that the forces of resistance to evil are alert and vigorous. The standards of life and conduct are permanently elevated. The demands of public opinion are enforced by regnant principles. The prevailing temper and tone

1 The iniquities of Christendom are not to be disguised or palliated. The forces of evil seem to coöperate with the passions and weaknesses of humanity to produce a record of wrong-doing which is both humbling and appalling. The shadow seems to rest most darkly where the signs of material civilization are most imposing (cf. Wilberforce, "The Trinity of Evil"). The story of the half-breeds, in all their variety, scattered through both continents, from the wilds of Canada to Patagonia, involving as it does such flagrant iniquity, is a most discreditable reminder of the failure of civilization to wholly restrain barbaric instinct and license. Cf. Adam, "The Canadian Northwest: Its History and its Troubles," p. 227; The Andover Review, July, 1889, pp. 15–36, article on "The Half-Breed Indians of North America." * Warneck, "Modern Missions and Culture," pp. 239-306.

of society are in harmony with essential Christian ethics. The moral forces which represent law and order, peace and sobriety, justice and brotherhood, truth and honor, are in the ascendant, and working steadily towards a beneficent goal. The leaven of Christianity has permeated society, and is quickening it with a steadily expanding energy, and holds the balance of power in directing the educational machinery of civilization. In the non-Christian world almost the reverse is true. There is a totally different tone and temper in the public conscience. The trend is under the influence of other masters. The social status is marked by spiritual demoralization and ethical decadence. There is poverty of blood and paralysis of moral muscle. The heathen world now, as of old, is moribund. It is destitute in itself of recuperating power. It lacks the one vital force which can alone guarantee the moral hopefulness of social evolution. The Incarnation of the Son of God, and the practical stimulus of contact with that sublime fact and its spiritual corollaries, constitute the true secret of progress in the realm of higher social transformation.

The subject now in hand hardly admits of analysis; yet we have thought it best to make an attempt to present the facts in orderly sequence, with a crude and confessedly artificial nexus. The effort must be regarded as simply tentative, and with a view to our present convenience. We have, therefore, divided the social evils to be noted into groups, with somewhat random specifications under each group.

I. THE INDIVIDUAL GROUP

(Evils affecting primarily the individual, and secondarily society through the

1. INTEMPERANCE.

Intemperance in many nations-a comparative

survey.

individual)

A survey of the present state of the world with special reference to the drink habit reveals the lamentable fact that it prevails more or less in almost all sections of the earth. A still further scrutiny exhibits the startling truth that regions where it has been least known are the very places where the emissaries of Satan, drawing their supplies from within the precincts of Christendom, are most eager to thrust this vile and demoralizing traffic. There are large sections of the world, including vast populations, where only the milder and less dangerous forms of semi-intoxicants were in common use until the cruel greed of those human harpies, the traders in intoxicants, introduced the foreign forms of stronger alcoholic poisons. We must ac

knowledge that the drink habit seems to be one of the deplorable phenomena of civilization, and that a comparative survey of the use of intoxicants reveals the fact that in no countries is it so prevalent as in those of the European and the North and South American Continents.1 If we turn our attention to the broader outlook of the world, we find that wherever European civilization has established itself or has a controlling influence, just there this scourge of intemperance, like a malign contagion, has appeared and is spreading, and that, although native races usually have intoxicants of their own manufacture, yet the evil effects have everywhere been immensely increased by the introduction of foreign alcoholic drinks.

Turning our attention now exclusively to foreign mission fields, and including among them the countries where Roman Catholicism prevails, while exact comparative statistics are not to be found, yet the burden of evidence seems to indicate that none surpasses the South American Continent, Central America, and Mexico in the excessive use of intoxicants.2 Next perhaps would come India and Burma, where the British Government holds a gruesome monopoly of both the drink and opium traffics, and derives a revenue from both by auction sale of licenses and custom tax, which seems to blind its eyes to the moral evils of the sys

1 Official statistics with reference to the United States indicate that, in spite of all efforts at temperance reform, the consumption of intoxicants, including malt liquors, from 1875 to 1892, rose from eight to seventeen gallons per head. (See "Temperance in all Nations," vol. i., p. 446.) It had, therefore, more than doubled in that period. In Great Britain the status is even more appalling. The estimate of The London Standard is that " 2,500,000 go beyond the border line of sobriety every week in Great Britain." The estimate of "England's Glory and England's Shame" is 2,280,000. Upon the testimony of Sir Archibald Alison, when Sheriff of Glasgow, 30,000 went to bed intoxicated in that city every Saturday night. In London the number is placed at 70,000. According to the estimate of Dr. Norman Kerr, 150 die every day in Great Britain from the effects of strong drink, making a total of nearly 55,000 every year. By other careful statisticians the estimate is increased to 60,000. Similar statistics might be given for other European countries, notably Russia, Belgium, and Germany. All figures fail to represent the awful results of lunacy, disease, misery, and crime which accompany this loathsome revel in drink.

Cf. Lecky, "Democracy and Liberty," vol. ii., pp. 135-168, for a comprehensive sketch of the progress of temperance legislation and reform. Cf. also "Temperance in all Nations," vol. i.

2 Cf. Reports of American Consuls upon various countries, published in “Temperance in all Nations," Report of the World's Temperance Congress held at Chicago, June, 1893. The consensus of testimony from resident missionaries in Mexico, Central and South America points to intemperance as a fearful and abounding social curse.

tem, and to sear the official conscience as to any sense of responsibility for the rapid and fearful increase of the drinking habit. Next to India we must place some sections of Africa, where the same dismal story of foreign liquor introduction must be told. The West Coast, and to a less extent the East Coast, of the Continent are flooded with the white man's "fire-water." Millions of gallons enter every year, and the demoralizing custom of paying the wages of natives in liquor is becoming alarmingly prevalent.1 If we follow up the direct avenues of the Congo from the West Coast, and the inland waterways and caravan routes of the East Coast, we will find that the traffic is penetrating the recesses of the Continent.2 Commissioner Johnston estimates that at least thirty per cent. of those who die in Central Africa are the victims of alcohol.3 Pathetic instances of protest and appeal from native chiefs and even native communities are reported, which reveal the instinctive recogni

1 The Niger Coast Protectorate, according to consular reports presented to Parliament in August, 1895, shows an increase in two years of 225 per cent. in import duties on spirituous liquors. The quantity received into the country during the year ending July, 1892, was 1,350,751 gallons; March, 1893, 1,371,517; March, 1894, 2,609,158. Holland, Germany, and Britain are the largest importers. (See consular reports quoted in The Missionary Record, Edinburgh, October, 1895.) In Lagos upon market-days the products of the country are bartered for foreign goods, and, according to the testimony of a resident English missionary, "nineteen shillings out of every twenty are exchanged for gin and rum (Work and Workers, October, 1895, p. 414). In 1893 nearly 1,700,000 gallons of spirits entered Lagos. A powerful editorial on Spirits in Africa" in The Times, London, March 4, 1895, called forth a confirmatory letter from Bishop Tugwell of Western Equatorial Africa, referring to the extent of the evil, which was published in The Times, August 17, 1895 (republished in Liberia, Bulletin No. 7, November, 1895). Cf. statement of Sir George Goldie, Governor of Royal Niger Company, reported in The Sentinel, June, 1895, p. 80. Cf. also The Mail (reprint of The Times), August 23, 1895, speech of Sir Charles Dilke on the African Liquor Traffic, and Ibid., August 28, 1895, p. 6, and August 30, 1895, p. I. See furthermore The Church Missionary Intelligencer, December, 1895, pp. 914, 915. The liquor traffic on the Gold Coast is stated by Sir Charles Dilke to have amounted to 9,000,000 gallons in the last twelve years. The condition in the Congo State and other European protectorates

on the West Coast is substantially the same.

For a statement of the situation in South and East Africa and in India up to 1884, consult Gustafson, "The Foundation of Death," pp. 351-356. For an elaborate and comprehensive survey of the status of the drink habit and the progress of the cause of temperance throughout the world, consult "Temperance in all Nations," Report of the World's Temperance Congress held at Chicago, June, 1893 (New York, The National Temperance Society and Publication House, No. 58 Reade Street).

2 Baptist Missionary Magazine, September, 1892, p. 392; Report of Baptist Missionary Union, 1894, p. 351; The Missionary Herald, June, 1893, p. 238; Regions Beyond, April, 1893, p. 221.

3 Central Africa, December, 1894, p. 182.

tion on their part of the dangers of the habit.1 In Madagascar the native Government has taken strenuous action to prevent the extension of the trade in intoxicants, and has succeeded in greatly checking the advances of the evil, but how it will be now that French influence has obtained control is a matter of doubt. In Japan, Korea, and China, while intemperance is a social curse,-increasingly so in Japan,-yet it seems to be restrained to an extent which makes it far less of a national evil and a social danger than in the lands which we have passed in review. Of the Ainu of Northern Japan it is said, however, that they are "a nation of drunkards," and in the larger cities of Japan there is an increasing tendency to intoxication. In Korea also there are ominous signs of danger. In China, while drinking is sadly prevalent in the large cities, yet the nation as a whole sets an example of sobriety. The country is not as yet afflicted to any extent with the public saloon, and drinking is restricted to the home or to festive gatherings, and cannot be considered as by any means so demoralizing as the opium habit. Its extension is at present confined almost exclusively to the foreign ports. In Mohammedan lands the use of intoxicants is greatly on the increase. In the Turkish Empire, in Persia, and in North Africa, Mohammedans as well as the nominal Christian population seem to be yielding to the besetting temptation. The Koran, to be sure, prohibits wine, but the Moslem conscience by a species of exegetical legerdemain has interpreted the injunction as having no application to the concoctions of the modern still. In the Pacific Islands we have, with only one or two remarkable exceptions, the universal story of the introduction of foreign liquors and the prompt surrender of the native to the resistless enticement.

The result of our survey is that intemperance, largely through foreign

1 Bishop Tugwell recently presented to the "United Committee on the Native Races and the Liquor Traffic" three remarkable documents bearing the names of over twelve thousand inhabitants of his diocese on the West Coast, for the most part natives, Christian, Mohammedan, and heathen. The documents were in support of the following resolution, passed at meetings held in August and September, 1895, in Abeokuta and Lagos: "That this meeting, recognizing that the traffic in spirits-i.e., gin, rum, and other poisonous liquor-introduced into Western Equatorial Africa, as elsewhere in Africa, is working immense harm physically, morally, and spiritually amongst every section of its communities, and further recognizing that the time has come when a decisive blow should be dealt against the traffic, pledges itself to support every effort that may be made in Africa or Europe to suppress it." 2 "Intemperance is pronounced a vice by Chinese public opinion. Habitual drunkards are few, and the habit has not the hold it has in Western lands, owing, possibly, to the weak wine and the favorite habit of tea-drinking. In the ports, where foreigners introduce and use strong drink, the habits of the people are undergoing