know, ages of darkness, dreary centuries, during the progress of which
the power of the church gradually waned, and, with respect to purely
spiritual activities, seemed to die away. The voice of exhortation
ceased to be heard. Christian song was hushed. Even prayer closed
its supplicating lips, and the church, overladen with corruption,
worldliness, and human ambition, passed into the thick darkness of
the long and disastrous eclipse of the Middle Ages. But amid the
widespread darkness enveloping the world, even the ages known as the
“Dark Ages” were not without their gleams of light. Among the Saracens
and in the lands of the Orient, always were to be found heroic men
and women toiling ceaselessly for the conversion of heathen nations
to the Christ. Later on, subsequent to the thirteenth century, and
especially during the centuries immediately following the discovery of
the New World, the desire for the Christianizing of the world flamed
into an all-absorbing passion. The tremendous labors of Xavier, of
Loyola, and their followers, in every quarter of the globe, have long
been the wonder and admiration of the world. Checked in Europe by the
rise of the great Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Church turned
its energies to the acquisition of spiritual power in other lands, and
with enormous success. Along the banks of the St. Lawrence, amid the
wilds of Canadian forests, far away on the shores of the Great Lakes,
thence southward to the Ohio, along the Mississippi, even to the Gulf;
in far Cathay, in Ceylon, in Japan, in China, in Africa,—everywhere
its missionaries could be found, heedless of hunger, of cold, of peril,
reckless even of life, if by any means, whether by life or by death,
they might “sprinkle many nations” and establish the holy emblem of the
Christian faith.
[Illustration: BAPTIST MISSION SCHOOL, JAPAN.]
Absorbed in the struggles going on in their own lands, Protestants made
but little effort for the extension of the gospel in foreign fields,
save the few but successful attempts made by the Moravians of Germany,
always the most zealous of all Protestant bodies in lines of missionary
service. What, however, was lacking in the way of missionary effort in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries has been more than made good
in the glorious nineteenth, the distinctive missionary century of the
Christian era. In the room of seven societies organized for world-wide
gospel evangelization at the end of the last century, there are now in
Europe and America between seventy and eighty organizations, employing
a force of nearly three thousand American and European missionaries,
and perhaps four times that number of native assistants. Full
$10,000,000 are annually raised among the Protestant bodies alone for
missionary service, while the great Roman Catholic Church prosecutes
its work with a zeal equally unflagging. A brief survey of the progress
of a hundred years of missionary effort will make it clear to all minds
that the day is not far distant when the declaration of the prophet,
“The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
even as the waters cover the sea,” shall have abundant and magnificent
realization.
At the beginning of this century, every island of the vast Pacific
was closed against the gospel. To-day, nearly every one is under
the influence, more or less extended, of Christian civilization.
India, from Cape Comorin to the Punjaub, from the Punjaub to the
Himalayas, from the Himalayas to Thibet,—at whose gates the gospel is
now knocking,—has been covered with a network of mission stations,
schools, colleges, and churches, closer by far in its interlacings than
that which at the close of the third century had spread itself over
the vast empire of the Cæsars. Of the Indian Archipelago, Sumatra,
Java, Borneo, the Celebes, New Guinea, not to mention smaller groups of
islands, are feeling the new life ever imparted by the advent of the
Cross. Japan, too, hungry for reform, and full of the stir of the age,
by granting entrance to the gospel, has within its borders already a
numerous Christian population with scores of evangelical congregations.
The same is true of the hermit nation, Corea. In the lands of Islam,
from Bagdad to the Balkans, from Egypt to Persia, and throughout all
Turkey, are to be found centres of missionary enterprise, the vast
influence of which is now being sensibly felt in the changing life of
those remarkable peoples. In Burmah, and recently in Siam, after years
of patient and apparently hopeless service, fields are everywhere
“white unto the harvest.” China, most populous of all heathen lands,
is open to missionary effort from Canton to Peking, from Shanghai
to Hon-Chow. Africa also, once, in its northern sections at least,
the home of the learning, the art, the science, the religion of the
world, awakening from the sleep of long and dreary centuries under the
influence of Christian civilization, again demands the attention of
the great nations of the world. Everywhere, east, west, north, south,
it is being invaded all along the line of Cecil Rhodes’ great railway,
stretching northward from Cape Town for three thousand miles, to meet
the twenty-six hundred pushing down from the north,—from Senegal to
Gaboon and from Gaboon to the Congo; on the shores of Tanganyika and
along the banks of the Zambesi shine the lights of the gospel, which,
wherever it has gone, has been the harbinger of a new and brighter
day. Within the mighty domains of our own continent, upon the immense
plains reaching from Labrador to the Pacific, upon the sterile coasts
of Alaska, in the land of the Montezumas, in Central America, in South
America, from Panama to Terra-del-Fuego, equally marvelous have been
the steady gains resulting from a Christianity the forces of which,
like the waters that enrich the continent, penetrate all the bays and
estuaries of human society and influence all classes and conditions
of men. Looking upon the transformations effected by the labors of a
single century of Christian effort, one may surely say, “The peoples
that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the
land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.”
Equally wonderful have been the vast contributions of the church in
America to the great causes of education, philanthropy, and reform,
particularly in the line of educational work. The service of the church
in the great cause of education has never yet been fully recognized.
Men forget, when charging the church with hostility to human progress,
to freedom of thought and action, that until within a period of
seventy years nearly everything accomplished for popular education was
carried out under the auspices of the churches rather than under the
direction of the state. Until 1825, the state had done next to nothing
even in the development of its common schools. In the great State
of Pennsylvania, the system had no existence until the year 1835.
Even to-day, among the four hundred and fifty institutions of higher
education in the various States, nearly all owe their foundation to
the energy and sacrifice of Christian men and women. The total gifts
of the churches to the cause of education, still existent in plant, in
grounds and buildings, or in the form of endowment funds, reach the
enormous aggregate of nearly $350,000,000, while the total of gifts to
institutions of learning, largely from Christian sources, aggregate
nearly $10,000,000 per year.
[Illustration: METHODIST EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL, PHILADELPHIA.]
The religious activity of the century is further manifested in the
enormous sums raised and expended for purposes of charity, reform, and
general philanthropy. It would require an octavo volume of four hundred
pages to catalogue the various benevolent and charitable organizations
in the city of New York alone. Add to that volume the hundreds more
which would be required to enumerate the additional thousands to be
found in Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston,—in fact in every city, town,
and hamlet from the Atlantic to the Pacific, nine tenths of which are
distinctively Christian,—and you have a faint idea, at least, of
the vastness of the spiritual forces at work in these closing years
of the century for the amelioration of human ill, the dispelling of
moral and spiritual darkness, and the ushering in of the era of peace
and good will, for the coming of which the church has so ceaselessly
prayed. What these philanthropies are we cannot in detail enumerate.
Classified, they are for the poor, for the laboring classes, for the
sick, for fallen women, for free schools, for the aged, for the blind,
the deaf, the insane, the impotent, the degraded, the outcast, for
sailors, for the protection of animals, for city evangelization, for
home missions, for foreign missions, for religious publications, for
the publishing of the Holy Scriptures, for peace, for Young Men’s
Associations, Young Women’s Associations, for every cause that appeals
to the sentiment of brotherhood so characteristic of the age. In
number they are legion. In origin, three fourths are the outgrowth of
that spirit of Christian love without which they could not have been
originated, and by which they are maintained and perpetuated. Those
who assert that within this century Christianity has done more for
humanity than in all the centuries preceding are doubtless correct. It
has made men kind, made them humane. It has penetrated prisons, and
with beneficent change. It has lifted the prisoner from damp and dreary
dungeons into commodious structures, the pride of city and State. So
far, indeed, have the reforms inspired by the gospel been carried, that
men are beginning to inquire whether the limit has not been reached
beyond which it may be dangerous to go.
Such are the general facts of the religious progress of a century in
the United States. Reviewing them, we can easily discern the vast
and commanding influence of religion—the Christian religion—upon
the character and fortunes of our people. Among the forces working
for the upbuilding of the Republic, religion stands preëminent, the
most powerful, the most pervasive, the most irresistible of them all.
A free church in a free state, all its edifices have been built by
private contribution, all its magnificent benefactions sustained by
voluntary offerings, induced in every instance by the principle of
Christian love. A corporation, it holds its vast properties for the
common good of all. A relief society, the scope of its sympathies
is as wide as the wants of man. A university, it does more for the
education of the masses than the public school system itself. An
employer of labor, it utilizes the brains and energies of the most
highly educated body of men to be found in the Republic’s broad domain.
An organized beneficence, it outwatches Argus with his hundred eyes,
outworks Briareus with his hundred arms. An asylum, it gathers within
its protecting arms the halt, the maimed, the wounded of life’s great
battle, comforting them in trouble, sustaining them in adversity,
while ceaselessly pointing them to Him “who taketh away the sins of
the world.” “Every corner-stone it lays,” as one has said, “it lays
for humanity; every temple it opens, it opens for the world; every
altar it establishes, it establishes for the salvation of men. Its
spires are fingers pointing heavenward; its ministers are messengers
of good tidings; its ambassadors, ambassadors of hope; its angels,
angels of mercy.” Under all our institutions rest the Bible and the
school-house,—Christianity and Education. Without them, the Republic
is impossible; with them, we have Republican America for a thousand
years.
GREAT GROWTH OF LIBRARIES
BY JAMES P. BOYD, A.M., L.B.
Libraries are as old as civilization. Nothing marks civilized progress
more distinctly than the collections of writings, whether on clay,
stone, wood, papyrus, or parchment, which went to make up the libraries
of ancient peoples. Such writings generally related to religion,
laws, and conquests, and found their abode, in the form of archives,
in capitals and temples. Recent explorations in Mesopotamia reveal
collections, or libraries, of books inscribed on clay tablets, many of
whose dates are beyond 650 B. C. These libraries seem to have found a
home for the most part in royal palaces, and to have contained works
abounding in instruction for the kings’ subjects. As unearthed and
their contents deciphered, they throw much valuable light upon the
remote history, as well as the arts, sciences, and literatures of
Babylonia and Assyria.
In ancient Egypt collections of hieroglyphic writings were made in
temples and in the tombs of kings from the earliest known dates. Some
hieroglyphics still extant bear date prior to 2000 B. C., and one
papyrus manuscript has been discovered whose supposed date is 1600
B. C. What were known as the sacred Books of Thoth—forty-two in
number—constituted the Egyptian encyclopædia of religion and science,
and became such a fruitful source of commentary and exposition, that by
the time of the Grecian conquest they had grown in number of volumes to
36,325.
Of the libraries of the Greeks we have little positive knowledge,
though it is abundantly asserted by late compilers that large
collections of books (writings) once existed in the various Grecian
cities. Pisistratus is said to have founded a library at Athens as
early as 537 B. C. Strabo says that Aristotle collected the first
known library in Greece, which he bequeathed to Theophrastus (B. C.
322), and which, by the vicissitude of war, finally found its way to
Rome. At Cnidus there is said to have existed a special collection of
works upon medicine. Xenophon speaks of the library of Euthydemus.
Euclid and Plato are mentioned as book collectors. But by far the most
renowned book collectors of the Greeks were the Ptolemies of Egypt, who
gathered from Hellenic, Hebrew, and Egyptian sources that wonderful
collection of volumes, or rolls, which became famous as the Alexandrine
Library. This was composed of two libraries, one estimated at 42,800
volumes, or rolls, connected with the Academy, the other estimated at
490,000 volumes, or rolls, deposited in the Serapeum. It is said that
these immense collections were regularly catalogued and kept under the
supervision of competent librarians, till consumed by the Saracens at
the time of their conquest of Egypt, A. D. 640.
The Romans at first paid little attention to literature. It is not
until the last century of the republic that we hear of a library at
Rome, and then it was not a native collection but a spoil of war. It
was captured from Perseus of Macedonia and brought to Rome in B. C.
167. So Sulla captured the library of Apellicon, at Athens, in B. C.
86, and brought it to Rome. Lucullus brought to Rome a rich store of
literature from his eastern conquests (B. C. 67). Wealthy men and
scholars now began to form libraries at Rome, some of which became
very large and valuable. It is here we first hear of the dedication
of libraries to the public,—a step which made Rome for a time the
resort of scholars from other nations, especially Greece. The most
famous of the many imperial libraries of Rome was that founded by
Ulpius Trajanus. It was called the Ulpian Library, and was at first
founded in the forum of Trajan, but afterwards removed to the baths of
Diocletian. In the fourth century there are said to have been as many
as twenty-eight public libraries in Rome. Great, indeed, must have been
their destruction under various vicissitudes, for when the Emperor
Constantine moved the Roman capital to Constantinople, and founded his
imperial library there, it numbered but a few thousand books. It was,
however, greatly enlarged after his death—some say to 100,000 volumes.
It was destroyed in A. D. 476, with the close of the Western Empire.
With the spread of Christianity there arose a new incentive to write
and collect books. The church required both a literature and libraries
as part of its organization. Pamphilus is said to have collected a
library of 30,000 volumes, chiefly religious, at Cæsarea (A. D. 309),
his object being to lend them out to readers. But as book-making and
collecting became narrowed to the church, general literature was
proscribed and libraries ceased to flourish, except as encouraged by
the monastic orders. Such libraries were necessarily small and of a
private character. Their books were manuscripts written or copied by
the priests, up to the date of the invention of printing. The libraries
of this class which grew in importance were those of the Swiss and
Irish monasteries, not omitting those in England, as at Canterbury and
York. The invasion of the Norsemen, in the ninth and tenth centuries,
was generally fatal to the monastic libraries on both sides of the
English channel.
In France, the library at Fulda seemed to retain its books and respect.
It was greatly enlarged by Charlemagne, who also founded a more
ostentatious one at Tours. With the revival of learning, and with the
hope of opening a wider field to secular literature, Charles VI., of
France, founded a royal library which numbered 1100 volumes by A. D.
1411. A similar library in England, that of the British crown, numbered
329 volumes at the time of Henry VIII. In contrast with these early
royal efforts stood that of Corvinus, king of Hungary, whose library
numbered 50,000 volumes, mostly manuscripts, in 1490. This imperial
collection was burned by the Turks in 1540. About this time the nucleus
of the modern Laurentian Library of Florence was formed.
In 1556, the Bibliothèque Nationale, or royal library of France, at
Paris, was endowed by the king with power to demand a copy of every
book printed in France. This power became the basis of the copyright
tax, now universally levied by civilized nations, and which has been
the means of greatly enriching all government libraries. In 1556 the
royal library of France could boast of but 2000 volumes. In 1789 it
contained 200,000 volumes, the largest number of any library then
existing. At the end of the nineteenth century it still retains
the distinction of being the most extensive library in the world,
containing approximately 3,000,000 volumes.
[Illustration: THE NEW LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D. C.]
In Italy the libraries, though venerable and very rich in rare
collections of manuscripts, are not noted for the number of books which
represent modern literature. The most noted library is the Biblioteca
Vaticana, or library of the Vatican. It traces a vague history back to
the fifth century, but its real foundation was in 1455. The number of
volumes and manuscripts on its shelves is approximately 300,000.
In Spain and Portugal are national libraries in their respective
capitals, Madrid and Lisbon. The national library of Spain contains
some 560,000 volumes and manuscripts, while that of Lisbon contains
over 200,000. Belgium and Holland are rich in libraries. The royal
library at Brussels contains over 400,000 volumes. In 1830 it was
made a part of the state archives and thrown open to the public. The
national library of Holland was established in 1798 by uniting the
library of the princes of Orange with the smaller libraries of the
defunct states. It thus became the library of the States-General,
but in 1815 it was converted into the present national library. It
has a very valuable collection of books, numbering over 400,000. One
of the best arranged and managed libraries in Europe is the Royal
Library at Copenhagen. It was thrown open to the public in 1793, and
has since been conducted under national auspices. Two copies of every
book published in the kingdom must be deposited in this library. Its
volumes have increased very rapidly during the nineteenth century, and
now number over 550,000. The Royal Library of Sweden is located at
Stockholm. It contains over 350,000 valuable volumes, and is admirably
arranged and conducted. The University Library at Upsala is also a very
valuable one, containing 300,000 volumes. There is also an excellent
library of over 100,000 volumes connected with the university at Lund.
The libraries of Norway, though not so large as those of Sweden,
are numerous, valuable, and well managed. The University Library at
Christiana contains over 330,000 volumes. In Russia, large and valuable
libraries are not numerous outside of the cities of St. Petersburg,
Moscow, and Warsaw. The Imperial Library at St. Petersburg ranks as the
richest in Europe, excepting the libraries of Paris and the British
Museum. It is open to the public, and contains approximately 1,200,000
volumes.
[Illustration: RIDGWAY BRANCH OF PHILADELPHIA LIBRARY.]
Germany, with her multiplicity of minor capitals, her love of books and
book-making, her numerous universities, excels every other European
country in the number, extent, and value of her libraries. The largest
is the Royal Library at Berlin, with approximately 1,000,000 volumes.
It was founded by the “Great Elector” Frederick William, and opened
as a public library in 1661. The Royal Library at Munich long rated
as the largest in Germany, with its 1,200,000 volumes, inclusive of
pamphlets, the latter numbering some 500,000. But it was thought to
be unfair to class so many small and inconsequential works as books,
so that the library at Berlin was given precedence. Still the Munich
library is particularly rich in incunabula and other treasures derived
from the monasteries, which were closed in 1803. The University library
at Munich is also very rich in similar treasures. It contains well
nigh 500,000 volumes. The other large libraries of Germany are the
University library at Leipsic, with over 500,000 volumes; the Royal
and City library at Augsburg, with 123,000; the Royal, at Bamberg,
with 300,000 volumes; the University at Bonn, with 220,000 volumes;
the Grand Ducal at Darmstadt, with 400,000 volumes; the Royal Public,
at Dresden, with 410,000 volumes; the University at Erlangen,
with 185,000 volumes; the City, at Frankfort, with 190,000 volumes;
the University at Freiburg, with 250,000 volumes; the University at
Giessen, with 160,000 volumes; the Ducal Public, at Gotha, with 210,000
volumes; the Royal University at Göttingen, with 490,000 volumes; the
City at Hamburg, with 510,000 volumes; the University at Heidelberg,
with 410,000 volumes; the University at Jena, with 200,000 volumes;
the University at Kiel, with 225,000 volumes; the University at
Rostock, with 310,000 volumes; the University at Strassburg, with over
700,000 volumes; the University at Tübingen, with 320,000 volumes;
the Grand Ducal at Weimar, with 230,000 volumes; the Brunswick Ducal,
at Wolfenbüttel, with over 300,000 volumes. Besides these there are
numerous others attached to various universities or publicly organized
which have 100,000 volumes each.
In Austria-Hungary, the largest library is that of the Imperial Public,
at Vienna. It was founded in 1440 by Emperor Frederick III., and
has ever since been munificently supported by the Austrian princes.
Few libraries in Europe contain more important collections or are
better organized and housed. Its volumes number 540,000. Admission
to its reading room is free, but the books are loaned out under
rigid restrictions. The University Library of Vienna was founded by
Maria Theresa, and has grown very rapidly, numbering nearly 500,000
volumes. In Vienna alone the number of libraries exceed one hundred,
many of them of considerable extent. The various university libraries
throughout Austria-Hungary are rich in volumes, particularly that at
Cracow, with over 306,000 volumes, and at Innsbruck, with 175,000
volumes. The National Library at Budapest, Hungary, and also the
University at the same place, have rich collections, numbering 465,000
and 212,000 volumes respectively.
In Switzerland libraries are very numerous and well conducted. The
largest is that at Basel. It is called the Public University Library,
and numbers 187,000 volumes. The next largest is the City Library, at
Zurich, with 135,000 volumes. The smaller libraries of Switzerland
exceed two thousand in number, and are, as a rule, rich in literary
treasures descended from the ancient monasteries.
[Illustration: THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF BOSTON.]