These preliminary remarks are intended to prepare the reader for a final statement, namely, that the papers which follow were written with no thought of publication. They were simply a record of travel, set down each week, for the information of relatives and friends. I have been urged to give them a wider circulation by putting them into print. In doing this I have added some reflections which, for substance, were also written at intervals on my journey, and these, with sundry emendations and omissions, I have called my "Conclusions." I submit both "Observations" and "Conclusions" to the judgment of my readers, in hope that my "Tour of the Missions" may lead other and more competent observers to appreciate the wonderful attractions and the immeasurable needs of Oriental lands.

I cannot close this personal foreword without expressing to my former students and the many friends who so hospitably entertained us on our journey, my undying sense of their great kindness, and my hope that between the lines of my descriptions of what I saw they will discover my earnest desire to serve the cause of Christ and his truth, even though my impressions may at times result from my own short-sightedness and ignorance. Only what I have can I give.

Augustus H. Strong.

Rochester, August 3, 1917.

CONTENTS

I.A Week in Japan[1-11]
An ocean truly pacific brings us to a rainy Japan[3]
The novel and the picturesque mingle in our first views of Yokohama[3]
Visit to the palace of a Japanese millionaire[4]
A museum of Japanese art and a unique entertainment[4]
Our host, an orthodox Shinto and Buddhist[5]
Conference of missionaries and their native helpers[5]
The pastor of the Tokyo church invites us to his home[5]
Reception at the Women's College of Japan, and an address there[5]
A distinguished company of educators at dinner[6]
We give a dinner to Rochester men and their wives[7]
A good specimen of missionary hilarity and fellowship[7]
The temple of Kamakura and its great bronze Buddha[7]
The temple of Hachiman, the god of war[8]
Supplemented by the temple of Kwannon, the goddess of mercy[8]
Japan enriched by manufacture of munitions[8]
A native Christian church and pastor at Kanagawa[9]
Immorality, the curse of Japan, shows its need of Christianity[10]
Wonders of its Inland Sea, and great gifts of its people[10]
II.A Week-end in China[13-22]
Hongkong, wonderful for situation and for trade[15]
Swatow, and our arrival there[15]
Chinese customs, and English collection of them[16]
The mission compound of Swatow, one of our noblest[16]
Dr. William Ashmore, and his organizing work[17]
William Ashmore, his son, and his Bible translations[17]
A great Sunday service in a native New Testament church[18]
The far-reaching influence of this mission, manned by many Rochester graduates[18]
Our expedition to Chao-yang, to see the heart of China[18]
Triumphal entry into that city of three hundred thousand inhabitants[19]
Impressed by the vastness of its heathen population[20]
Mr. Groesbeck, the only minister to its needs[21]
An address to the students of his school[21]
A great procession conducts us to our steamer at Swatow[21]
Shall we be saved if we do not give the gospel to the heathen?[22]
III.Manila, Singapore, and Penang[23-32]
A Yellow Sea, and white garments[25]
American enterprise has transformed Manila[25]
Filipinos not yet ready for complete self-government[26]
Visit to Admiral Dewey's landing-place, and also to Fort McKinley[26]
The interdenominational theological seminary and its influence[26]
Printed and spoken English is superseding native dialects[27]
Singapore, one of the world's greatest ports of entry[27]
British propose to hold it, in spite of native unrest[27]
Heterogeneous population makes English the only language for its schools[28]
Germans stir up a conspiracy, but it is nipped in the bud[28]
British steamer to Penang, an old but safe method of conveyance[28]
Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Malay Confederated States[29]
Penang furnishes us with a great Chinese funeral[29]
Its immense preparation and cost show worship of ancestors[29]
Mourners in white, with bands of hired wailers[31]
Glorification of man, but no confession of sin or recognition of Christ[32]
IV.Three Weeks in Burma[33-46]
Burma, the land of pagodas[35]
The Shwe Dagon of Rangoon is the greatest of these[35]
Its immense extent and splendor[35]
The religion of Burma is Buddhism, a religion of "merit," so called[36]
Pagoda-building in Burma, coeval with cathedral-building in Europe[36]
The desolation in which many pagodas stand shows God's judgment on Buddhism[36]
Burma is consecrated by the work of Adoniram Judson, and his sufferings[37]
Our visit to Aungbinle, and prayer on the site of Judson's prison[37]
Met and entertained by missionaries, our former pupils[37]
Fruitful Burma and its Buddhism attracts famine-stricken India with its Hinduism[38]
Baptist missions in Burma antedate and excel both Romanist and Anglican[40]
Far outstripping these in the number and influence of converts[40]
The work of our collegiate and other schools is most encouraging[41]
The Baptist College at Rangoon and the theological seminaries at Insein[42]
The lieutenant governor invites us to meet Lord Chelmsford, viceroy of India, at afternoon-tea[44]
A royal reception, with great conglomerate of races[44]
A demonstration of loyalty to the British Crown[45]
The dinner of our Rochester men at the house of Rev. Mr. Singiser, including representatives of the Mission Press and the Baptist College[45]
Our final reception at Dr. D. W. A. Smith's, on Mrs. Smith's birthday[46]
V.Mandalay and Gauhati[47-56]
Mandalay, in Burma, the type of Buddhism; Gauhati, in Assam, the type of Hinduism[49]
Visits to Maulmain and Bassein, in Burma, preceded both these[49]
King Thebaw's palace, at Mandalay, a fortress built wholly of wood[50]
The Hill of Mandalay and its pagoda, four pagodas in one[50]
We ascend eight hundred steps by taking extemporized sedan-chairs[51]
Four successive platforms and four images of Buddha[51]
Waxwork figures at the top depict the vanity of life[52]
The Kuthodaw in the plain below seen from this height[52]
Four hundred and fifty pagodas in one, each with its Buddha and his law engraved on stone[52]
The descent from Mandalay Hill more hazardous than the ascent[53]
Buddhism compared with the religion of Christ[53]
Gauhati, the capital of Assam, has also its temple on a hill[54]
This temple illustrates Hinduism as Mandalay illustrates Buddhism[54]
Its immoral cult claims to have an immoral origin in the wife of the god Siva[54]
Its priestesses a source of corruption to the British college and the whole country[55]
Vain attempts to interpret Hindu myth and worship symbolically[55]
The need of Christian teaching as to sin and atonement[56]
VI.Calcutta, Darjeeling, and Benares[57-64]
Calcutta, the largest city of India, so named from Kali, goddess-wife of Siva, the Destroyer[59]
The temple of Kali, its priestesses and its worship, an infamous illustration of Hinduism[59]
The temple of the Jains represents Hinduism somewhat reformed[60]
The real glory of Calcutta is its relation to modern missions[60]
The work of William Carey, and his college and tomb at Serampore[60]
Our ride northward to Darjeeling, and our view of the Himalayas[61]
A temple of Tibetan Buddhists on our mount of observation[61]
Benares, the Mecca and Jerusalem of the Hindus[62]
A hotbed of superstition and devotion[62]
Its Golden Temple, its bathing ghats and burning ghats on the sacred Ganges[62]
Our voyage of inspection in the early morning[63]
Thousands bathing and drinking in the same muddy stream[63]
Smallpox and plague in western lands traced back to this putrid river[64]
Some of the temples have toppled over, being built on sand instead of rock[64]
VII.Lucknow, Agra, and Delhi[65-76]
On Mohammedan ground, and the scene of the great mutiny[67]
Elements of truth in the Moslem faith make missions more difficult[67]
The defense of Lucknow, one of, the most heroic and thrilling in history[67]
The only flag in the British Empire that never comes down at night[68]
English missions and education are guaranties of permanent British rule in India[69]
The Isabella Thoburn College, under Methodist control[69]
We see the "mango trick" under favorable circumstances[70]
Agra, and the Taj Mahal, a wonder of the world, seen both at sunrise and at sunset[70]
The Pearl Mosque and the Jasmine Tower, surrounded and protected by the Fort[71]
A flowering out of art, like that of cathedral-building in England[72]
Moslem architects "designed like Titans, and finished like jewelers"[72]
Delhi, the capital of India before the reign of Akbar[72]
The British respect ancient tradition by transferring their central government from Calcutta to Delhi[ 73]
The progress of India under British rule in the last fifty years[73]
Indian unrest due in part to English mistakes in educational policy[74]
The Friday prayer service in the great mosque of Delhi[75]
VIII. Jaipur, Mt. Abu, and Ahmedabad[77-87]
The native states of India distinguished from the presidencies and the provinces[79]
Their self-government a reward of loyalty in the mutiny[79]
The rajas influenced by Western thought[79]
Jaipur, the capital of a native state, called "The Pink City"[80]
"A rose-red city, half as old as Time"[81]
The maharaja's town-palace and astronomical observatory[81]
A visit to Amber, the original metropolis, and his summer residence[81]
An elephant ride up the hill while hanging over the precipice[82]
The road to Mt. Abu, a wonderful piece of engineering[84]
We reach Dilwarra, the greatest temple of the Jains[84]
Their reformed Buddhism recognizes Buddha as only one of many incarnations[85]
The temple is almost a miracle of art, and illustrates the genius of the East[85]
Ahmedabad, a uniquely prosperous manufacturing and commercial city[86]
Factories needed by India more than farms[86]
Missions need employment for converts, to save them from famine[86]
IX.Bombay, Kedgaon, and Madras[89-99]
Bombay, second in population in the Indian Empire[91]
Hindus outnumber Moslems and Parsees[91]
The Caves of Elephanta, excavated in honor of Siva, god of reproduction as well as of destruction[91]
His temple a cathedral, hewn inside of a mountain[92]
The lingam, or phallus, gigantic, carved out of stone, in the innermost shrine[93]
Its worship a deification of man's baser instincts[93]
The Towers of Silence represent Parseeism[93]
The dead are exposed in them to be devoured by vultures[93]
Construction of the towers and details of the process[93]
Compared with Christian burial in hope of resurrection[94]
Kedgaon, a happy contrast and relief[94]
The center of the work of Pundita Ramabai[94]
The story of her life a romantic and thrilling one[94]
The pitiable condition of child-widows in India touches her heart[95]
In time of famine she furnishes a refuge for two thousand four hundred of them[95]
The wonders of her plant, in schools, hospital, printing office, factory, and farm[96]
A great scholar of the Brahman caste, she is recognized as the most influential woman in India[96]
Madras, the third largest Indian city, gives us our first tropical heat[97]
A center of mission work for the Telugus and their tribal conversion[97]
New Year's Day reception at Lord Pentland's, the governor of the Madras Presidency[98]
Followed by a reception from the Rochester men, my former pupils[99]
X.The Telugu Mission[101-113]
Madras, next to Calcutta and Bombay in thrift and importance[103]
Baptists have done most for the Telugus, as Congregationalists most for the Tamils[103]
Statistics of our mission are most encouraging[103]
Self-government, self-support, self-propagation, require time[104]
Conference at the house of Doctor Ferguson brings together men from four separate fields[104]
The theological seminary at Ramapatnam, in charge of Doctor Heinrichs[105]
Our reception by teachers and students, and value of their work[105]
Ongole and the work of Doctor Baker, the successor of Doctor Clough[107]
Laying the corner-stone of gateway to the new hospital[107]
Country tour into the heart of Telugu-land, and open-air preaching to the natives[107]
Vellumpilly, where 2,222 were baptized, and Sunset Hill, where Doctor Jewett prayed[109]
Kavali, and the work of Mr. Bawden for a hereditary criminal class[110]
Industrial education side by side with moral and religious[110]
Nellore, our first permanent station in South India[111]
Its high school, under Rev. L. C. Smith; its hospital, and its nurses' training-school[112]
Mr. Rutherford, successor to Dr. David Downie, and Mr. Smith—all of them Rochester men[112]
XI.The Dravidian Temples[115-124]
The Dravidians are the aborigines of India[117]
The Aryan conquerors appropriated their gods, and Siva married Kali[117]
Massiveness and vastness characterize their temples, but also Oriental imagination and invention[118]
The temple at Tanjore, with its court eight hundred by four hundred feet[118]
Its multitude of chapels, each with its image in stone of the lingam, or phallus[119]
Its central image of a bull, the favorite animal of Siva[119]
Its tower, or gopura, is the grandest in India[119]
Its sculptures of gods and goddesses wonderfully realistic[119]
Its appurtenances tawdry, childish, and immoral[120]
Yet Tanjore was the home, and is the tomb, of Schwartz, the first English missionary to India[120]
The raja's library of Oriental manuscripts[121]
Madura, the center of Dravidian worship, one hundred miles farther south[121]
Temple built about two great shrines for the god Siva and his wife Minakshi[121]
Five great pyramidal towers and a court eight hundred and thirty by seven hundred and thirty feet[121]
The "Golden Lily Tank," and "The Hall of a Thousand Pillars"[122]
Dark alcoves and a festival night, the acme of Hindu religion[122]
The palace of Tirumala and his Teppa Kulam tank, one thousand feet on each side[123]
The noblest sight of Madura is its American Congregational Mission[123]
Under Dr. J. X. Miller, its schools and seminaries are revolutionizing southern India[124]
XII.Two Weeks in Ceylon[125-135]
Ceylon not a part of India, but a Crown Colony of Britain[127]
Colombo, a European city, and English the best means of communication[127]
Buddhism, crowded out of India, made its way southward[127]
A sacred tooth of Buddha is preserved at Kandy[127]
Wesleyan Methodist College and English Baptist College at Colombo[128]
The Ananda College, a theosophical institution, unfavorable to Christianity[128]
A refuge in Nurwara Eliya, six thousand two hundred feet above the sea[129]
Switzerland without its ruggedness, and terraces of tea-plants lining the approaches thither[129]
Forests of rubber make a sea of verdure[130]
The Missionary Rest-house at Kandy[131]
The famous Buddhist temple, and its evening worship[131]
Its library the only sign of intelligence[131]
Church of the English Baptists welcomes us[132]
The botanical gardens, wonderful for their variety of products[132]
Anurajahpura and its ruined pagoda, a solid conical mass of brick[133]
One thousand six hundred pillars of stone, the foundations of an ancient monastery[133]
Cremation of a Buddhist priest, and our reception by the high priest of the remaining temple[134]
XIII.Java and Buddhism[137-146]
Java, the jewel of the Dutch Crown, has thirty-five millions of people[139]
The "culture system" makes it immensely productive[139]
Mistakes of Holland in matters of government and education[140]
A back-bone of volcanic mountains furnishes unsurpassed railway views[140]
Endless fields of rice and sugar-cane on hillside and plain[141]
A passionate people reveal themselves in their music, their shadow-dances, their use of the Malay dagger[ 141]
The new policy of the Dutch government shown in the botanical gardens[142]
More scientific and practical than those of Ceylon, they minister to all the world[142]
Doctor Lovink, Dutch minister of agriculture, conducts us[143]
The temple of Boro Budor, restored after ruin, the greatest wonder of Java[143]
Five times as great as any English cathedral[143]
Sculptures in alto-relievo that would stretch three miles[144]
A picture-gallery of the life of Buddha[144]
Buddhism has no personal or living God, and no atonement for sin[145]
Boro Budor, slowly disintegrating, has no power to combat either Mohammedanism or Christianity[145]
XIV.The Renaissance in India[147-161]
This essay, a summary of the book of Professor Andrews, formerly of Delhi, now associated with Sir Rabindranath Tagore[ 149]
But with additions and conclusions of my own[149]
The Renaissance in Europe needed a Reformation to supplement it, and a similar renaissance in India requires a similar reformation[ 150]
History of religious systems in India begins with the Rig-Veda, and is followed by the Upanishads[152]
Hindu incarnations are not permanent, and the Trimurti is not the Christian Trinity[153]
The Krishna of the Puranas is a model of the worst forms of vice[154]
Deification of God's works fixes the distinctions of caste, and the degradation of woman[154]
Christianity is needed to unite the Hindu and the Moslem[155]
Signs of an approaching reformation in the weakening of class barriers and the spiritual interpretation of the old religions[156]
The Brahmo-Somaj and the Arya-Samaj aim to bring Hinduism back to the standards of the Vedas[ 158]
The Aligarh Movement among the Mohammedans, and the Aligarh College in Delhi[158]
Swami Vivekananda, and his denial that men are sinners[159]
The Theosophical Society and Mrs. Besant, a hindrance to missions[160]
Justice Renade, in his social reform movement, sees in Christianity the one faith which can unite all races and all religions in India[ 160]
In Christ alone India's renaissance can become a complete reformation[161]
XV.Missions and Scripture[163-178]
Some critics deny Jesus' authorship of the "Great Commission"[165]
We must examine "the historical method," so called[165]
As often employed, it is inductive but not deductive, horizontal but not vertical[166]
Deduction from God's existence normally insures acceptance of Christ[168]
Deduction from Christ's existence normally insures acceptance of Scripture[169]
Scripture is the voice and revelation of the eternal Christ[169]
The exclusively inductive process is not truly historical[170]
Both Paul and Peter gained their theology by deduction[171]
Since experience of sin and of Christ is knowledge, it is material for science[173]
The eternal Christ guarantees to us the unity of Scripture[174]
Also the sufficiency of Scripture[175]
Also the authority of Scripture[176]
The "historical method," as ordinarily employed, proceeds and ends without Christ[177]
It therefore treats Scripture as a man-made book, and denies its unity, sufficiency, and authority[177]
It sees in the Bible not an organism, pulsating with divine life, but only a congeries of earth-born fragments[ 177]
XVI.Scripture and Missions[179-198]
The "historical method" finds in Psalm 110 only human authorship[181]
And contradicts Christ himself by denying the reference in the psalm to him[182]
A document can have more than one author, shown in art as well as literature[183]
Predictions of Christ in the Old Testament convinced unbelieving Jews[184]
The "historical method" finds no prediction of Christ in Isaiah, and so contradicts John[184]
Effect of this method upon the interpretation of the New Testament[185]
It gives us no assurance of Christ's deity, and ignores Old Testament proofs that he is Prophet, Priest, and King[ 185]
Value of the "historical method" when not exclusively
inductive		[186]
Effect of this method, as often employed, upon systematic theology[187]
If Scripture has no unity, no systematic theology is possible[187]
Unitarian acknowledgment that its schools have no theology at all[189]
Effect of this method upon our theological seminaries to send out disseminators of doubts[189]
Effect of this method upon the churches of our denomination to destroy all reason for their existence[191]
Effect of this method upon missions to supersede evangelism by education and to lose all dynamic both abroad and at home[ 193]
This method was "made in Germany," and must be opposed as we oppose arbitrary force in government[195]
The remedy is a spiritual coming of Christ in the hearts of his people[197]
XVII.The Theology of Missions[199-212]
Is man's religious nature only a capacity for religion?[201]
The will is never passive, the candle is always burning[201]
Moslem and Hindu alike show both good and bad elements in their worship[201]
Here and there are seekers after God, and such are saved through Christ, though they have not yet heard his name[202]
First chapter of Romans gives us the best philosophy of heathenism[203]
Heathenism, the result of an abnormal and downward evolution[204]
The eternal Christ conducts an evolution of the wheat, side by side with Satan's evolution of the tares[204]
All the good in heathen systems is the work of Christ, and we may utilize their grains of truth[205]
Illustrated in Hindu incarnations and Moslem faith in God's unity and personality[205]
Christ alone is our Peace, and he alone can unite the warring elements of humanity[206]
A moral as well as a doctrinal theology is needed in heathendom[208]
But external reforms without regeneration can never bring in the kingdom of God[209]
The history of missions proves that heart must precede intellect, motive must accompany example[210]
The love of Christ who died for us is the only constraining power[210]
Only his deity and atonement furnish the dynamic of missions[211]
XVIII.Missions and Missionaries[213-223]
Missionary work results in a healthy growth of the worker[215]
The successful missionary must be an all-round man[215]
He secures a training beyond that of any university course[216]
That training is spiritual as well as intellectual[216]
It tends to make him doctrinally sound as to Christ's deity and atonement[217]
Or convinces him that he has no proper place on a mission field[218]
A valuable lesson for our societies and churches at home[218]
New Testament polity, as well as doctrine, is tested by missions[219]
Our mission churches are becoming models of self-support, self-government, and self-propagation[219]
The physical environment of the missionary needs to be cared for[219]
The large house, many servants, and an automobile, are great and almost necessary helps[220]
All these can be obtained cheaply, and should be provided[220]
Other denominations furnish better equipment than ours[220]
Yet the days of missionary hardship are well-nigh past[221]
Missionary trials are mainly social and spiritual; and there are enough of these[221]
But faithful work, in spite of hope deferred, will be rewarded at last[222]