markedly deeper sensitiveness to suffering or oppression in any form. Such barbarities as those of the recent Armenian atrocities are thought little of among Asiatics. Through the Christian nations in Europe and America they send a thrill of horror, and the sympathy evoked for the sufferers shows itself in the practical form of active measures for preventing such atrocities for the future. We have, again, the case of one Christian nation spending millions of pounds to release slaves owned by its subjects. Sympathy is, of course, not unknown in Asiatic countries, and the devotion with which the natives of India provide for their old or infirm relations is worthy of all praise. But I think that every one who looks at an Asiatic nation, as a whole, and at a Christian nation, will agree that, in the latter, the sympathetic feelings are far more highly developed generally.
If, then, European nations have in the main derived so much benefit from the adoption of the Christian religion from one of the peoples of Asia, surely they are justified in trying to impart it to peoples of another part of the same continent. And they are not only justified in doing so, but it is human nature that they should. Christians cannot help feeling, when they are brought in contact with men of other religions, that they have a higher and truer idea of the Deity, and of their relations to the Deity—which is religion—than have the devotees of any other religion. They see that that portion of the human race which has embraced the Christian religion has progressed more than any other, and they naturally desire to impart to others those doctrines which they feel have done so much good to themselves. This is a natural and reasonable feeling, and is the mainspring of all missionary enterprise.
It is, however, in the method of imparting their own convictions to those who profess other religions, that some missionaries may be criticized. There are some whom we might call fanatical missionaries, who imagine that the Christian
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