The Congo Atrocities.
The condition of affairs in the Congo Free State has reached a stage that is a disgrace to a civilised Government. The natives have been turned into rubber-collecting slaves. Every day the rubber is becoming more and more difficult to collect. The forests are becoming more and more depleted, and the brutal cruelties practised on the natives by a set of men whose one ambition is to make money is fast reducing the population. The Congo Free State was placed under the government of King Leopold of Belgium about twenty-two years ago, but he seems obdurate to the cry of the suffering natives. He has had his apologists, but in a very recently published book—Red Rubber—by Mr. Morel, a damaging indictment has been brought against him. Sir Harry Johnston, the well-known African traveller, opens the indictment with an introductory note. This writer says, “In the case of the Congo Free State there is only one conscience to appeal to, that of King Leopold, a conscience which seems indurated against evidence, against shame, against the terror of an immortality of bad renown.”
Boston’s Memoirs.
The British Weekly of 8th November has an interesting article by the Rev. Geo. D. Low, on the original MSS. of Boston’s famous Memoirs. The writer points out that the original MSS. had gone amissing but has now come into his possession, and that in the printed editions of the Memoirs there have been made many changes which are not for the better. Here are two interesting passages in the MSS. which are not found in the printed editions:—”Having spent what money I had, on Saturday last, the 15th instant, I had but three pence. It was a time of dearth and I gave of my three pence, thirty pennies to buy bread for the poor, and the halfpenny remained to the box at Eccles, where I was to preach on the Lord’s day. I durst not keep up that from the poor, and the Lord helped me to part with it freely.” Speaking of his ordination at Simprin he writes:—”I mind I came over the ridges above Simprin leaning on that fore-said word.” The “foresaid word” referred to was, “The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms.”
The Chinese in the Transvaal.
On November 15th, the House of Commons discussed the prevalence of unnatural vice amongst the Chinese on the Rand. The report of the Government Commissioner was of such a nature that the laws of decency forbade its publication. This is a serious enough matter for this country, and whatever may be said on the question of Chinese labour in the Transvaal, there can be only one opinion about this question by all lovers of national righteousness, and that is that this sink of iniquity be removed. Judging from the hue and cry during the election one would have thought by this time that there would not be a single Chinese to breathe the air of the Transvaal, but it seems to be one thing to give a promise to the multitude and another thing to carry it out when the weight of responsible government falls on the shoulders of the promisers. Needless to say, we refrain from supporting either political party in this matter, except so far as they follow out the claims of national righteousness, and national righteousness demands that the Government of this country see to it that such a condition of things as revealed in Mr. Buckmill’s report be brought to a speedy end.
Boys’ Brigades.
The Peace Society have sent us a small pamphlet entitled “Boys’ Brigades not a suitable Agency for the Christian Church.” It is a trenchant criticism of this modern system, and any one anxious to read the pamphlet can apply to the Secretary of the Peace Society, 47 New Broad Street, London, from whom it may be obtained. The writer truly says:—”In these days when the Church in the name of ‘sanctified ingenuity’ is seeking out many inventions, there is not a little danger of her going too far, and in her anxiety to adjust herself to the ‘spirit of the age’, she is apt to adopt methods which are unworthy of those who profess to have faith in God and in the all-sufficient power of His Holy Spirit.”
New Life of John Calvin.
To the interesting and instructive series “Heroes of the Reformation” published by Messrs. Putnam, there has been recently added, “John Calvin: The Organiser of Reformed Protestantism,” by Williston Walker. Professor Walker has given a popular account of the life and work of the greatest theologian of the Reformation period. Strange to say, we have no standard biography of this great man—many lives have been written, but none of them are of such outstanding merit as to be really worthy of the subject. It has been left for M. Doumergue of Montauban, in his “Jean Calvin: Les hommes et les choses de son temps” to produce what will be really the standard life of Calvin. This monumental work, which is to be finished in four volumes, is regarded by competent judges as a masterpiece in biographical literature. Unfortunately its high price, and publication in a foreign language, put it beyond the reach of many who would otherwise gladly read its pages.
Memorial to John Knox in St. Giles.
A memorial to John Knox was unveiled by Lord Balfour of Burleigh in St. Giles, on Wednesday, the 21st November. The monument takes the form of a bronze statue set in a decorative Gothic niche placed against the east wall of the Albany aisle of St. Giles Cathedral. The statue cost £1400 and was defrayed by subscriptions from Scotsmen from all parts of the world. Lord Balfour truly said in his speech, “What place in Scotland would not be appropriate to a memorial of John Knox? We might say of him as regards Scotland what was said of Sir Christopher Wren, in the words that are inscribed on his tomb in St. Paul’s, ‘Si monumentum quaeris, circumpiscite.’ For if you look around on Scotland you will see that Scotland, what it is to-day, is largely a memorial of the statemanship of John Knox.”
A well administered Rebuke.
It is reported, says the Watchword and Truth, that the University of Chicago (whose professoriate are notorious for their advanced views on Biblical questions) are contemplating the purchase of a number of the higher species of apes for the purpose of studying their language. The above periodical offers the following suggestion—”It would be well for them, when the Simian speech has been mastered, to take advantage of the fact, and learn something of the Simian (ape) religion also, for it might reasonably be expected to prove a great improvement upon the infidelity now handed out with a Christian label by that institution of more or less learning. ‘The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib,’ but these professors do not know; these receivers of money, of money begged from Christians, under the false pretence that it should be used for teaching the doctrines of the Christian Religion, do not consider. The stork in the Heaven knoweth her appointed time; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but these people know not the judgment of the Lord.”