King that gambling was inimical to the best interests of Siam and that the money that the government derived from it was obtained at a ruinous cost to character and legitimate industry. The King listened, and the result was the issuance of a royal decree, January, 1905, ordering the abolition of these gambling concessions by April, 1907. Another illustration occurred in Shanghai, China, where there are about 20,000 Chinese prostitutes. Distressed by their pitiful lot, Mrs. George F. Fitch opened a Rescue Home to which the slave girls could flee for refuge. The Home has attracted wide attention and it witnesses powerfully for Christ. A high official visited it one day with his wife, and as he noted the sweet ministries to the fallen, he marvelled and said to his wife, "Nobody but Christians would do this." Care should be taken, however, not to allow purely reform movements to take the place of the more direct and vital forms of missionary work. The missionary is preeminently a man who is working at the foundations of character and morals, and useful as he may be as a reformer, he will make a great mistake if he becomes a reformer only. It is apparent from all that has been said that the working out of so vast a movement as the missionary enterprise will require time. This is not a crusade whose object is to be attained by a magnificent spurt. Error and superstition are interwoven with the whole social and political fabric of the nonChristian world and they are not to be overturned in a day. "We are in the midst of habits and institutions from which our civilization is separated by a long interval of development, where progress upward must be a long, slow process, must proceed on native lines, and must be the effect of the example and prestige of higher standards rather than the result of ruder methods." Missionary effort, therefore, must be a work of undermining ' Benjamin Kidd. for a long period. In removing the Hell-Gate obstructions from New York Harbour, an army of workmen toiled for weary months in hidden tunnels, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were expended before anything could be seen on the surface. Indeed, there was no visible result whatever till that supreme moment when, in the presence of uncounted multitudes, the waters were tumultuously upheaved and with an awful roar the obstructions of ages were blown to fragments. Most great reconstructions of society have come slowly, and religious transformations have been no exception. Christianity was three hundred years in conquering Rome and even then the Roman world was far from complete conversion. The gospel has been operating on the peoples of northern Europe and their descendants for more than a thousand years, and no Christian feels that the work is done. It is to be hoped that other peoples will not take as much time as we took; but we cannot reasonably expect that a few decades will suffice. Moreover, we must count now on more strenuous opposition from the non-Christian religions. At first, they were contemptuously indifferent to the missionaries. But as the priests see more clearly what radical changes Christianity involves, that it is "turning the world upside down," contempt and indifference are giving place to alarm. The ethnic faiths are therefore setting themselves in battle array. It would be foolish to ignore their power, foolish to imagine that we are seeing the last of Buddhism in Japan and Siam, of Confucianism in China, of Brahmanism in India, and of Mohammedanism in Turkey. Heathenism will die hard. The world, the flesh and the devil are in Asia as well as in America, and fighting more fiercely. It is no holiday task to which we have set ourselves. It is a gigantic struggle in which there are against us "the principalities, the powers, the world rulers of this darkness." Need have we of patience, of determination, of " the strength of His might and the whole armour of God." The missionary must sternly face his task in the spirit of the man of whom Browning said: He 66 never turned his back, but marched breast-forward, Never doubted clouds would break; Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph; Sleep to wake." The issue is not doubtful, for "if God be for us, who can be against us." VII THE MISSIONARY'S FINANCIAL SUPPORT T HIS is a subject that interests both the student volunteer and the layman who supports him. There is the more reason for discussing it because it is very commonly misunderstood. The principle should be borne in mind at the outset that the missionary is not paid a salary at all, in the sense of compensation, but is simply given a support. Inquiry is made as to the cost of a reasonably comfortable living, and a sum is assigned that covers that cost. The amount varies in different fields, as the cost of living varies; but everywhere it is intended to make possible the same scale of support. The fact that salaries are higher in South America than in Africa does not mean that the missionaries in the former get more, but simply that the expense of living is greater. In accordance with this principle, a single man receives the lowest sum, because he alone is to be supported. A married man gets more, because two are to be supported instead of one. The birth of a child brings a small additional allowance, usually $100 a year, because it means an increased expenditure. Most of the boards make a flat rate for all the missionaries of a given region, paying the same amount to the new recruit as to the veteran. Others grade salaries according to length of service, paying a minimum amount for the first term, a little larger sum for the second term and a still larger one for the third. This plan is growing in favour, as it recognizes the fact that expenses increase with enlarging work and family; but no distinction is ever made on the ground of relative ability or responsibility. The most famous preacher, the president of a great university and the superintendent of the largest hospital receive precisely the same salary as the humblest member of the mission. Evangelists, educators and physicians are all paid the same salaries. Single men usually receive a little more than single women, not because they are considered as worth more, but because it costs them more to live, as they more often require separate establishments, while single women can usually live with some family or in a school. It will be seen that it is not possible to state any particular figure that would apply to all fields. Generally speaking, however, the average salary is about $550 for a single missionary and $1,100 for a married one. This is not designed to cover house accommodations, which are provided in addition. Most of the boards prefer to rent rather than to build, if suitable houses can be secured; otherwise, land is bought and a residence erected. It does not follow that the new missionary will find a residence waiting for him on his arrival. Funds for such purposes are hard to get and he may be called upon to make shift temporarily in anything that he can find, perhaps a few rooms in a school or a hastily adapted native house, until a permanent place can be secured. The scale of support is intended to be adequate to the needs of a Christian worker who is not extravagant in his tastes, and the promised sum is promptly paid. It covers, however, only reasonable needs, and while ministers in this country may look forward to an increase, sometimes to large figures, the most eminent foreign missionary can expect only modest support to the day of his death. Other foreigners in non-Christian lands are paid far more liberally than missionaries. It is as true now as when Macaulay wrote that "all English labour in India, from the labour of the governor-general and the commanderin-chief, down to that of a groom or a watch-maker, must be paid for at a higher rate than at home. No man will be banished, and banished to the Torrid Zone, for nothing. The rule holds good with respect to the legal profession. No English barrister will work fifteen thousand miles from all his friends, |