tracts of the Unitarian Association, copies of The Christian Register, and
other periodicals have been scattered all over the world. Thousands of
sermons are distributed also from tables in church vestibules. Several
branches publish and exchange sermons, and a loan library has been
established to supplement this work.[4]
From the distribution of tracts and sermons has grown the formation of
"Sunday Circles" and "Groups" of Unitarians, carefully planned circuit
preaching, the employment of missionaries, and the building of chapels or
small churches. Two of these are already built; and the Alliance has
insured the support of their ministers for five years, and two others are
in the process of erection.
[Sidenote: Associate Alliances.]
The women on the Pacific coast have been compelled in a large measure to
organize their own work and to adopt their own methods, the distance being
too great for immediate co-operation with the other organizations. In this
work they have not only displayed energy and perseverance, but, says one
who knows intimately of their efforts, "they have shown executive ability
and power as organizers that have furnished an example to many
non-sectarian organizations of women, and have made the Unitarian women
conspicuous in all charitable and social activities."
The oldest society of Unitarian women on the Pacific coast was connected
with the First Church in San Francisco. In 1873 it was reorganized as the
Society for Christian Work. Its work has been mainly social and
philanthropic, contributing reading matter to penal institutions, money for
the care of the poor of the city, and aiding every new Unitarian church in
the State. The Channing Auxiliary combines the activities of the churches
in the vicinity of San Francisco with those in the city. Its objects are
"moral and religious culture, practical literary work, and co-operation
with the denominational and missionary agencies of the Unitarian faith."
From 1890 to 1899 this society spent over $6,000 in aid of denominational
enterprises, and it appropriates annually a large sum for Post-office
Mission work. While these two organizations represent San Francisco and its
neighborhood, the women up and down the coast have also been earnest
workers. In 1890 they felt the need of a closer bond of union, and
organized the Women's Unitarian Conference of the Pacific Coast. In 1894
this conference became a branch of the National Alliance, and has
co-operated cordially with it since that time.
The New York League of Unitarian Women has been active in forming Alliance
branches and new churches, as well as in affording aid to Meadville
students. The Chicago Associate Alliance, the Southern Associate Alliance,
and the Connecticut Valley Associate Alliance were organized in 1890. The
Worcester League of Unitarian Women began its existence in 1889, and was
reorganized in connection with the National Alliance in 1892.
[Sidenote: Alliance Methods.]
In thus coming into closer relations with each other and forming a national
organization, each local branch continues free in its own action, chooses
its own methods of carrying on its work, but keeps close knowledge of what
the Alliance as a whole is doing, that all interference with others and
overlapping of assistance may be avoided, and the greatest mutual benefit
may be secured. This method gives the utmost independence to the branches,
while preserving the element of personal interest in all financial
disbursements, and creates a strong bond of sympathy between those who give
and those who receive.
The first duty of each branch is to strengthen the church to which its
members belong; and the value of such an organized group of women, meeting
to exchange ideas and experiences on the most vital topics of human
interest, has been everywhere recognized. Each branch is expected to engage
in some form of religious study, not only for the improvement of the
members themselves, but to enable them to gain, and to give others, a
comprehensive knowledge of Unitarian beliefs. A study class committee
provides programmes for the use of the branches, arranges for the lending
and exchange of papers, and assists those who do not have access to books
of reference or are remote from the centres of Unitarian thought and
activity.
With this preparation the Alliance undertakes the higher service of joining
in the missionary activities of the denomination, supplementing as far as
possible the work of the American Unitarian Association. This includes
sending missionaries into new fields, aiding small and struggling churches,
helping to found new ones, supporting ministers at important points, and
and distributing religious literature among those who need light on
religious problems.
[1] Memorial History of Boston, IV. 353.
[2] See later chapters for account of admission of women to National
Conference, Unitarian Association, the ministry, Boston school board,
and various other lines of activity.
[3] Mary P.W. Smith, Miss Ellis's Mission.
[4] This library is in the Unitarian Building, 25 Beacon Street, Boston.
XIII.
MISSIONS TO INDIA AND JAPAN.
Foreign missions have never commanded a general interest on the part of
Unitarians. Their dislike of the proselyting spirit, their intense love of
liberty for others as well as for themselves, and the absence of sectarian
feeling have combined to make them, as a body, indifferent to the
propagation of their faith in other countries. They have done something,
however, to express their sympathy with those of kindred faith in foreign
lands.
In 1829 the younger Henry Ware visited England and Ireland as the foreign
secretary of the Unitarian Association; and at the annual meeting of 1831
he reported the results of his inquiries.[1] This was the beginning of
many interchanges of good fellowship with the Unitarians of Great Britain,
and also with those of Hungary, Transylvania, France, Germany, and other
European countries. During the first decade or two of the existence of the
Unitarian Association much interest was taken in the liberal movements in
Geneva; and the third annual report gave account of what was being done in
that city and in Calcutta, as well as in Transylvania and Great Britain.
Some years later, aid was promised to the Unitarians of Hungary in a time
of persecution; but they were dispossessed of their schools before help
reached them. In 1868 the Association founded Channing and Priestley
professorships in the theological school at Kolozsvár, and Mrs. Anna
Richmond furnished money for a permanent professorship in the same
institution. Soon after the renewed activity of 1865 an unsuccessful
attempt was made to establish an American Unitarian church in Paris; and
aid was given to the founding of an English liberal church in that city.
These are indications of the many interchanges of fellowship and
helpfulness between the Unitarians of this country and those of Europe.
[Sidenote: Society respecting the State of Religion in India.]
As early as 1824 began a movement to aid the native Unitarians of India,
partly the result of a lively interest in Rammohun Roy and the
republication in this country of his writings. On June 7, 1822, The
Christian Register gave an account of the adoption of Unitarianism by that
remarkable Hindoo leader; and it often recurred to the subject in later
years. In February of the next year it described the formation of a
Unitarian society in Calcutta, and the conversion to Unitarianism of a
Baptist missionary, Rev. William Adam, as a result of his attempt to
convert Rammohun Roy. There followed frequent reports of this movement, and
after a few months a letter from Mr. Adam was published. Even before this
there had appeared accounts of William Roberts, of Madras, a native Tamil,
who had been educated in England, and had there become a Unitarian. On his
return to his own country he had established small congregations in the
suburbs of Madras.
In 1823 a letter from Rev. William Adam was received in Boston, addressed
to Dr. Channing. It was put into the hands of the younger Henry Ware, who
wrote to Mr. Adam and Rammohun Roy, propounding to them a number of
questions in regard to the religious situation in India. In 1824 were
published in a volume the letter of Ware and the series of questions sent
by him to India, together with the replies of Rammohun Roy and William
Adam.[2] This book was one of much interest, and furnished the first
systematic account that had been given to the public of the reformatory
religious interest awakened at that time in India. In February, 1825, was
organized the Society for obtaining Information respecting the State of
Religion in India, "with a view to obtain and diffuse information and to
devise and recommend means for the promotion of Christianity in that part
of the world." The younger Henry Ware was made the president, and Dr.
Tuckerman the secretary. Already a fund had been collected to aid the
British Indian Unitarian Association of Calcutta in its missionary efforts,
especially in building a church and maintaining a minister.
During the year 1825 there was published at the office of The Christian
Register a pamphlet of sixty-three pages, written by a member of the
Information Society, being An Appeal to Liberal Christians for the Cause of
Christianity in India. In 1826 Dr. Tuckerman addressed A Letter on the
Principles of the Missionary Enterprise to the executive committee of the
Unitarian Association, in which he gave a noble exposition of the work of
foreign missions, especially with reference to the Indian field. This
letter and other writings of Tuckerman served to arouse much interest. The
Appeal urged what many Unitarians had large faith in,--the promulgation of
"just and rational views of our religion" "upon enlarged and liberal
principles, from which we may hope for the speedy establishment and the
wider extension there of the uncorrupted truth as it is in Jesus."
In 1826 the sum of $7,000 was secured for this work; and in the spring of
1827 a pledge was made to send yearly to Calcutta the sum of $600 for ten
years. These pledges were in connection with like efforts made by the
British and Foreign Unitarian Association. In 1839 Mr. Adam visited the
United States, and spoke at the annual meeting of the Unitarian
Association. Following this, he was for a few years professor of Oriental
literature in Harvard University.
[Sidenote: Dall's Work in India.]
In 1853 Rev. Charles T. Brooks, who was for many years the minister of the
church in Newport, visited India in search of health; and he was
commissioned by the Unitarian Association to make inquiries as to the
prospects for missionary labors in that country. In Madras he met William
Roberts, the younger son of the former Unitarian preacher there and visited
the several missions carried on by him. In Calcutta he found Unitarians,
but the work of Mr. Adam had left almost no results. The report of Mr.
Brooks was such that an effort was at once made to secure a missionary for
India.[3] In 1855 Rev. Charles H.A. Dall undertook this mission. He had
been a minister at large in St. Louis, Baltimore, and Portsmouth, and
settled over parishes in Needham and Toronto. Mr. Ball was given the widest
liberty of action in conducting his mission, as his instructions indicate:
"There you are to enter upon the work of a missionary; and whether by
preaching, in English or through an interpreter, or by school-teaching or
by writing for the press, or by visiting from house to house, or by
translating tracts, or by circulation of books, you are instructed, what we
know your heart will prompt you to do, to give yourself to a life of
usefulness as a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ."
On his arrival at Calcutta, Mr. Ball was in a prostrate condition, and had
to be carried ashore. After a time he rallied and began his work. He
gathered a small congregation about him, then began teaching; and his work
grew until he had four large and flourishing schools under his charge. In
these he gave special attention, to moral and religious training, and to
the industrial arts. In his school work he had the efficient aid of Miss
Chamberlain, and after her death of Mrs. Helen Tompkins. One of the native
teachers, Dwarkanath Singha, was of great service in securing the interest
of the natives, being at the head, for many years, of all the schools under
Mr. Dall's control. Mr. Dall founded the Calcutta School of Industrial Art,
the Useful Arts' School, Hindoo Girls' School, as well as a school for the
waifs of the streets. In these schools were 8,000 pupils, mostly Hindoos,
who were taught a practical religion,--the simple principles of the gospel.
In education Mr. Dall accomplished large results, not only by his schools,
but by talking and lecturing on the subject. His influence was especially
felt in the education of girls and in industrial training, in both of which
directions he was a pioneer. Only one of his schools is now in existence,
simply because the government took up the work he began, and gave it a
larger support than was possible on the part of any individual or any
society.
Mr. Dall wrote extensively for the leading journals of India, and in that
way he reached a larger number of persons throughout the country. This
brought him a large correspondence, and he frequently journeyed far to
visit individuals and congregations thus brought to his knowledge. For many
years he was one of the leading men of Calcutta. Few great public meetings
of any reformatory or educational kind were held without his having a
prominent part in them. He published great numbers of tracts and
lectures,[4] and translated the works of the leading Unitarians of
America and Great Britain into Hindostanee, Bengali, Tamil, Sanscrit, and
other native languages. His zeal in circulating liberal writings was great,
and met with a large reward. He distributed hundreds of copies of the
complete Works of Dr. Channing, and these brought many persons to the
acceptance of Unitarianism. When Rev. Jabez T. Sunderland was in India, in
1895-96, he found many traces of these volumes, even in remote parts of the
country. When he was in Madras, a very intelligent Hindoo walked one
hundred and fifty miles to procure of him a copy of Channing's biography to
replace a copy received from Mr. Dall, which, had been reread and loaned
until it was almost worn out.
A considerable part of Mr. Ball's influence was in connection with the
Brahmo-Somaj, in directing its religious, educational, and reformatory
work. He did not make many nominal Unitarians; but he had a very large
influence in shaping the life of India by his personal influence and by the
weight of his religious character. Everywhere he was greatly beloved. He
earned considerable sums as a reporter and author in aid of his mission,
and he lived in a most abstemious manner in order to devote as much money
as possible to his work.[5] In this devoted service he continued until
his death, which took place July 18, 1886.
[Sidenote: Recent Work in India.]
Since the death of Mr. Dall the aid given to India by American Unitarians
has been through the natives themselves. The work of Pundita, Ramabai has
received considerable assistance, as has also that of Mozoomdar. Early in
the year 1888, Rev. Brooke Herford, then minister of the Arlington Street
Church in Boston, received from India a letter addressed "To the chief
pastor of the Unitarian congregation at Boston." It proved to be from a
young lawyer or pleader in Banda, North-west Provinces, named Akbar Masih.
His father was an educated Mohammedan, who in early life had been converted
to Calvinistic Christianity, and had become a missionary. At the Calcutta
University the son had outgrown the faith he had been taught; and a volume
of Channing's Works, put in circulation by Mr. Dall, had given him the
mental and spiritual teaching he desired. Tracts and books were sent him,
and a correspondence followed. He read with great delight what he received,
and in a year or two he desired to become a missionary. Mr. Herford sent
him money, and he was employed to spend one-third of his time in the
missionary service of Unitarianism. When Mr. Herford removed to London, the
support of Akbar Masih was arranged for in England; and he has done a large
work in preaching, lecturing, holding conferences, and publishing tracts
and books.
Nearly in the same week in which Mr. Herford received his first letter from
Akbar Masih, Mr. Sunderland, in Ann Arbor, received one from Hajam Kissor
Singh, Jowai, Khasi Hills, Assam. He was a young man employed by the
government as a surveyor, was well educated, but belonged to one of the
primitive tribes that retain their aboriginal religion and customs to a
large extent. He had been taught orthodox Christianity, however; but it was
not satisfactory to him. A Brahmo friend loaned him a copy of Channing, and
furnished him with Mr. Dall's address. In the bundle of tracts sent him by
Mr. Dall was a copy of The Unitarian, which led him to write to its editor,
Mr. Sunderland. A correspondence followed, and the sending of many tracts
and books. Mr. Singh began to talk of his new views to others, who gathered
in his room on Sunday afternoons for religious inquiry and worship. Soon
there was a call for similar meetings in another village, and Mr. Singh
began to serve as a lay-preacher. A church was organized in Jowai, and then
a day school was opened. Tracts and books being necessary in order to carry
on the work successfully, Mr. Sunderland raised the necessary money,
printed them in Khasi at Ann Arbor, and forwarded them to Assam, thus
greatly facilitating the labors of Mr. Singh and his assistants. Also,
through the help of American Unitarians, Mr. Singh was able to secure the
aid of two paid helpers. When Mr. Sunderland visited the Khasi Hills, in
1895, as the agent of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, he
helped to ordain a regular pastor; and he found church buildings in five
villages, day-schools in four, and religious circles meeting in eight or
nine others. This mission is now being supported by the English Unitarians.
[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Japan.]
After the death of Mr. Dall it was not found desirable to continue his
educational work, and the missionary activities in India naturally came
under the jurisdiction of the British Unitarian Association. At the same
time, Japan offered an inviting field for missionary effort, and one not
hitherto occupied by Unitarians. In 1884 a movement began in that country,
looking to the introduction of a rational Christianity, the leader being
Yukichi Fukuzawa, a prominent statesman, head of the Keiogijiku University
and editor of the leading newspaper. In 1886 Fumio Yano, after a visit to
England, took up the same mission, and urged the adoption of Christianity
as a moral force in the life of the nation. The latter interpreted
Unitarianism as being the form of Christianity needed in Japan, and
strongly urged its acceptance. Other prominent men joined with these two in
commending a rational Christianity to their countrymen. Not long afterwards
the American Unitarian Association was asked to establish a mission in that
country. In 1887 Rev. Arthur M. Knapp was sent to Japan to investigate the
situation, and in the spring of 1889 he returned to report the results of
his inquiries. He had; been welcomed; by the leading men, such as the
Marquis Tokujawa and Kentaro Kaneko, who opened to him many avenues of
influence. He had written for the most important newspapers, had come into
personal contact with the leading men of all parties, had lectured; on many
occasions to highly educated audiences, and had opened a wide-reaching
correspondence.
On his return to Japan, in 1889, Mr. Knapp was prepared to begin systematic
work in behalf of rational Christianity. It was not his purpose, however,
to seek to establish Unitarianism there as the basis of a new Japanese
sect, but to diffuse it as a leaven for the moral and spiritual elevation
of the people of Japan. "The errand of Unitarianism in Japan," said Mr.
Knapp to the Japanese, "is based upon the familiar idea of the sympathy of
religions. With the conviction that we are the messengers of distinctive
and valuable truths which have not yet been emphasized, and that, in
return, there is much in your faith and life which to our harm we have not
emphasized, receive us not as theological propagandists, but as messengers
of the new gospel of human brotherhood in the religion of man."
With Mr. Knapp were associated Rev. Clay MacCauley as colleague, and also
Garrett Droppers, John H. Wigmore, and William Shields Liscomb, who were to
become, professors in the Keiogijiku, a leading university, situated in
Tokio, and to give such aid as they could to the Unitarian mission. With
these men was soon associated Rev. H.W. Hawkes, a young English minister,
who gave his services to this important work. There also accompanied the
American party Mr. Saichiro Kanda, who had become a Unitarian while
residing in San Francisco, and had attended the Meadville Theological
School. In the winter of 1890-91, Mr. Knapp returned to the United States,
and a little later Mr. Hawkes went back to England. In 1891 Rev. William I.
Lawrance joined the mission force; and he continued with it until 1894,
when a severe illness compelled his resignation. Professor Wigmore returned
to America in 1892 to accept a chair in the North-western University;
Professor Liscomb came home in 1893, dying soon after his return; while
Professor Droppers remained until the winter of 1898, when he became the
president of the University of South Dakota. In the beginning of 1900, Mr.
MacCauley, after having had direction of the mission for nine years,
returned to America; and it was left in control of the Japanese Unitarian
Association, the American Association continuing to give it generous
financial aid and counsel.
As already indicated, the purpose of the mission has not been Unitarian
propagandism as such. It has been that of religious enlightenment, the
bringing to the Japanese, in a catholic and humanitarian spirit, of the
body of religious truths and convictions known as Unitarianism, and then
permitting them to organize themselves after the manner of their own
national life. No churches were organized by the representatives of the
American Unitarian Association. Those that have come into existence have
been wholly at the initiative of the natives. Early in 1894 was erected, in
Tokio, Yuiitsukwan, or Unity Hall, with money furnished largely from the
United States. This building serves as the headquarters for Unitarian work,
including lectures and social and religious meetings. In 1896 was organized
the Japanese Unitarian Association for the work of diffusing Unitarian
principles throughout the country. The mission is organized into the three
departments of church extension, publication, and education. Of this
Association, Jitsunen Saji, formerly a prominent Buddhist lecturer and a
member at present of the city council of Tokyo, is the superintendent. The
secretary has been Saichiro Kanda, who has faithfully given his time to
this work since he returned to Japan with the mission party, in 1889. The
broad purposes of the Japanese Unitarian Association have been clearly
defined in its constitution: "We desire to act in accordance with God's
will, which we perceive by our inborn reason. We strive to follow the
guidance of noble religion, exact science and philosophy, and to discover
their truth. We believe it to be a natural law of the human mind to
investigate freely all phenomena of the universe. We aim to maintain the
peace of the world, and to promote the happiness of mankind. We endeavor to
assert our rights, and to fulfil our duties as Japanese citizens; and to
increase the prosperity of the country by all honorable means."