faith which won such mighty victories during the first century following the death of Mohammed.

Abdul Hamid II, the recently deposed sultan of the Ottoman Empire and the boasted caliph of Islam, did much to give to Mohammedans over the world a sense of unity and solidarity. He sent envoys with costly presents to Moslems in remote regions and encouraged pilgrimages to Constantinople where all Moslem visitors were royally entertained and sent away convinced that the sultan of Turkey was none other than the shadow of God on earth, the real padishah, the successor of Mohammed.

His desposition in 1908 was a heavy blow to the spirit of pan-Islamism Hamid had fostered, but Moslems still clung to their claim of unity, which was generally accepted in the chancelleries of Europe. Multitudes sincerely believed that if the sultan of Turkey should call upon the 230,000,000 Moslems to rise against the enemies of Islam, in a holy war for the defense of their faith, that the response would be immediate and general.

When the war broke out there was wide-spread anxiety in England under whose rule in India and Egypt more than 80,000,000 Mohammedans dwelt. When Turkey entered the war as the ally of Germany and Austria, the nations of Europe breathlessly awaited the results. When in November, 1915, the Sheik ul Islam, the high priest of Islam, and the sultan of Turkey, officially and solemnly called upon the Moslems of the world to rise in their united strength, draw the sword, and offer their lives in a concerted attack upon the enemies of Islam, the results were awaited with suspense almost akin to terror. For the first time in history a universal holy war was officially proclaimed and the world awaited the shock of the impact of 50,000,000 fanatical Moslem men hurled in blind fury against the citadels of Christian civilization.

There was no shock, since there was no sympathetic response. Protests were made by many of the Moslems in Turkey, while the 80,000,000 under British rule proclaimed their unshaken loyalty, and from Persia, Morocco, Egypt, India,

Russia, Algeria, and other Moslem countries, Turkey was severely taken to task for forming an alliance with two Christian powers in a conflict with other Christian nations.

Islam as a united body and as a potential militant force was completely shattered. Mohammedans are fighting beside the English, French and Russians; Egyptian Moslem troops are beating back the Turks from the Suez Canal, while Turkish Moslems are in Austria attempting to repel the Russian invasion. The hope of resurrecting the dream of Moslem unity has vanished without a shadow of a chance for its return. Mohammedans are in despair especially since, as a last and final blow, the Arabs have arisen in open rebellion against Turkey, seizing the sacred places of Islam and repudiating the right to the office of caliph or of the sultan of Turkey.

Never since the days of Mohammed have his followers been so disheartened for themselves and their religion. Suddenly they are confronted with the fact that there is no ground for hope in a final triumph of their faith, no possibility of a Moslem theocracy. With the loss of their foundation principles upon which they have for centuries builded, they are thrown into consternation for their religion and are inquiring as to the content, claims, and promises of the religion of Jesus Christ.

Since the death of Mohammed, the church has never faced an opportunity like the present to carry to Mohammedans the comfort and the saving knowledge of Christ. Broken with disappointment and bowed down with sorrow and grief, they await the bearer of the message of forgiving love. The opportunity of the ages confronts the churches of America and Europe. The Mohammedans of Turkey, Persia, Syria, Arabia, Egypt, all North Africa, India, and in fact, wherever found, have lost much of their power and moral resistance, while their hearts have been made sad and tender by the sense of a disappointed hope and faith in a religion that has failed them. The door of approach to the Mohammedans is beginning to open. Will the church of Christ be ready to enter?

PROGRESS IN JAVA

It is often taken for granted that Mohammedanism is the impregnable rock against which Christian missionary effort hurls itself in vain. The best refutation of such a charge is the story of rapid Christian advance among the Moslems in the island of Java.

In the years 1908, 1909, and 1910, the Christian population of the island increased from 14,696 to 19,195. Of these only 700 or 800 are converts from among the Chinese, and the rest represent those who have come from Islam into the church of Jesus Christ. To the numbers given, we must add the followers of a native teacher in central Java to the number of perhaps 20,000 more. They are not related to the missionary societies but have abandoned Islam for a type of Christianity, which, while not pure, still has many of the elements of the gospel.

DR. SHEPARD OF AINTAB

A COMPANY of American travelers was crossing Asia Minor from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. As they approached the coast, they were detained by the gendarmes, who demanded to know the purpose of their journey. Their passports and letters of introduction proved of no avail. They were not allowed to proceed. Finally one of the company remarked that they were expecting to visit Dr. Shepard of Aintab. Immediately the hostile attitude of the gendarmes changed and they were all smiles. "Ah," they exclaimed, "so you are Shipperts," by which they meant members of Dr. Shepard's community. Surmising at once that here lay the solution of their dilemma, they ventured to reply in the affirmative, and were allowed to proceed. No incident could better indicate the wonderful influence of Dr. Shepard among the Moslems and Kurds of central Turkey. They had come to think of all the American Christians in the missionary community as "Shipperts," giving to them the name of the good doctor, very much as the early disciples at Antioch were named for Christ.

Dr. Fred D. Shepard for many years was at the head of a

large hospital at Aintab, where patients were received from far and near, and from which as a center the doctor used to tour for hundreds of miles in every direction on his errands of healing and spiritual help. Riding on his splendid Arab steed, he was a striking figure, well-known throughout central Turkey, almost worshipped by the Moslems, as well as by the Armenians and Syrians. It was in no small measure through his unconscious influence that Aintab was spared from the massacres of 1909. When an interior village was surrounded by the Turks and the population about to be massacred, Dr. Shepard rode all night over the mountains, and single-handed succeeded in warding off the calamity. No other person in Turkey could have produced such an effect.

Dr. Shepard was much sought after by Turkish beys, pashas, and other officials when sickness came to their homes, and often they made large gifts to the hospital as a sign of their gratitude. A man of iron nerve and courage, he was as simple as a child in his religious faith. The passion of his life was evangelism, and he never lost an opportunity to commend Jesus Christ as the Great Physician. It was his hope that in his later years he might be freed from medical care so as to devote all his time to evangelism among the Turks. His death was typical of his career. He contracted typhus fever from a Turkish patient and died December 18, 1915.

JAPAN

A NATION PROSPECTING FOR A RELIGION

WHEN that missionary veteran, Dr. J. D. Davis, was leaving America for his last period of service in Japan, he was asked by a friend to state the situation as he then saw it. He replied: "Have it clearly in mind that the issue in Japan to-day is no longer between Christianity and Buddhism, but between Christianity and nothing. Japan has already turned her back on Buddhism, and is now seeking for some new basis of faith." That statement was made about ten years ago and every

thing which has happened since in the Sunrise Kingdom has tended to confirm Dr. Davis's broad and striking generalization.

A few years ago the government made a religious census of the students in the Imperial University at Tokyo. Of the 5,000 students, eight reported themselves as Shintoists, fifty as Buddhists, sixty as Christians, 1,500 as atheists, and 3,000 as agnostics. There you have the situation in Japan in a nutshell. The educated classes, with rare exceptions, are either atheists or agnostics. Few care to confess themselves as adherents of any religion. Japan is a country prospecting for a religion.

Shintoism has practically become a patriotic cult and no longer should be classed as a religion. There are certain striking reform movements in Japanese Buddhism, and evidences of a wide-spread desire for better conditions, ethical and religious, on the part of many of the monks. One sign of this reform effort is the almost slavish aping of Christian ways and institutions. Buddhist Y. M. C. A.'s and Buddhist Sunday-schools are being formed, in which these effective agencies of the church are being adopted in order to revive interest in this waning faith. But the process of decadence has gone too far. The government itself has taken cognizance of the situation. The recent conference of religious leaders of all faiths, including the Christian, which was summoned by the government, is significant not only because of its recognition of Christianity, but also as indicative of a state of alarm on the part of governmental leaders. Japan may well be anxious over her future unless the Christian forces can speedily gather momentum. Never was it more clear than today that Christ is the only hope of this land. Japan claims to be leading the Orient today; but whither?

THE THREE-YEAR EVANGELISTIC CAMPAIGN THE Christian leaders of Japan, both missionary and native, realizing the critical character of the hour, have gotten together in a splendid effort to carry the gospel throughout the country by means of a three-year evangelistic campaign. This is a fine instance of cooperation on the missionary field for definite