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Title: Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society
Author: Various
Editor: The London Missionary Society
Release Date: November 20, 2005 [EBook #17115]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRUITS OF TOIL ***
Produced by Ron Swanson
[Frontispiece: TAHITI.]
Fruits of Toil
IN THE
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
ILLUSTRATED WITH MAPS AND SKETCHES
[Illustration: POINT VENUS LIGHTHOUSE, TAHITI.]
LONDON:
JOHN SNOW & CO., IVY LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1869.
"Sow in the morn thy seed,
At eve hold not thine hand;
To doubt and fear give thou no heed,
Broad-cast it o'er the land.
"Beside all waters sow;
The highway furrows stock;
Drop it where thorns and thistles grow;
Scatter it on the rock.
"Thou canst not toil in vain;
Cold, heat, and moist and dry,
Shall foster and mature the grain
For garners in the sky."
Fruits of Toil
IN THE
LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
When our fathers established this Society they were met by a
formidable array of difficulties of which we know nothing. Gathered
in fellowship when the infidel principles of the French Revolution
were doing deadly work, and soon involved in the national struggle
of the great war, they found little to encourage them in the outward
aspects of their position. Christian men were few; Christian
churches were small and scattered; money was scarce; Christian
benevolence was little understood. The wide world of Christian
effort opened to us was almost wholly closed against them. They could
enter the South Seas; though their islands were almost unknown. But
the West Indies were close shut. "If you preach to the slaves," said
the Governor of Demerara to a missionary, "I cannot let you stay
here." They were excluded from South Africa and from India. China
was sealed, and remained so for forty years. Passages were expensive;
voyages were full of discomfort; letters were few. They knew little
of the manners and systems of heathen nations; they knew less of their
literature; they knew nothing of their languages. Dictionaries,
literature, buildings, converts, everything had to be produced.
Their fields of labour were unprepared. Their message and their
aims were little understood.
In all these elements of usefulness we occupy at this hour a position
of usefulness, in marked contrast to that of our predecessors. With
a mighty advance in practical freedom, in intelligence and education,
in social comfort, in material resources, the entire religious life
of England has secured a solidity, an elevation, and a general
influence of the most marvellous kind. In the number and wealth of
our churches, in the character and position of the ministry, the
Society ought to find supporters immeasurably in advance of the few
but earnest friends of seventy years ago. Our missions have made
indescribable progress. Our agencies continue to grow more complete.
Churches have been gathered; the members of which are no longer
novices in Christian truth and Christian life. The time has come for
a native ministry; and a larger number appear on our lists than ever
before. And last, but not least, the full and faithful preaching of
the gospel, for which our missionary brethren have ever been
distinguished, and the employment of Christian education, have made
a marked impression upon heathenism; have broken its prestige, have
silenced its objections, and have prepared the way for future
victories, more triumphant in their grandeur than anything the
Society has yet seen.
But this advanced and noble position, which is the proof of success
in the past, and the guarantee and instrument of larger results in
days to come, is precisely that attainment and possession of our
Society, which the friends of the Society appear least to appreciate.
It seems to be thought that now, as ever, missionaries just preach
to the heathen and give away books; they teach a few boys and girls;
win a few souls; and send a few teachers into the districts around.
All that is true. But the high and solid work beyond it--all that
superior influence which the Society and its missionaries are
exercising, in Christianizing communities, in sanctifying all the
great elements of their public and social life, in destroying the
very roots of their heathenism, and in preparing the way for
enlightened, disciplined, independent churches, sound in faith and
full of life--all this has been little understood. Had it been duly
realised, it is incredible that the ministers and churches which
sustain the Society should quietly continue to give for its
maintenance the same narrow income which they gave to it thirty years
ago.
I.--RECENT DIFFICULTIES.
The result of this irrepressible growth, fostered by the kind
providence and loving care of the Master for whom the service has
been done, was for the Directors, in their management of the
Society's affairs, embarrassment, difficulty, and debt. That
embarrassment commenced with the year 1866, when the accounts were
closed with a balance of 7450 pounds against the Society, which was
paid from the legacy fund reserved for such a contingency. During
the entire year the Directors had the difficulty in view, and adopted
a series of measures to meet it. Special Meetings were held with the
London ministers and officers of churches, to lay before them the
growing needs of our Foreign Missions. Papers were published by the
Home Secretary, showing the growth of those missions, with the
increased claims they present for agency and help; and urging that
an addition of at least 10,000 pounds a year is needed to the
Society's permanent income. In the autumn Auxiliary meetings the
missionary Deputations were urged specially to make the facts known.
In February a solemn and impressive meeting for prayer was held by
a hundred and twenty of the London ministers and Directors.
But these measures did not at once remove the difficulty. In numerous
instances old friends of the Society, and churches which have ever
been its chief supporters, not only expressed hearty sympathy with
these efforts, but increased their contributions and rendered
substantial help. Various consultations ensued, and a Special
Committee was requested, to indicate the course which, in their calm
judgment, the Directors ought to take, to meet the difficulties of
their position.
Their Report pointed out various defects in the Society's system of
account, and in the audit of details in the expenditure which is
incurred abroad. It noted especially that since--on the system till
then in force--the initiative in that expenditure had been placed
to a large extent in the hands of the missionaries themselves, the
Board did not possess sufficient and effective control over its
growth and its specific application. And it recommended that, as in
some other Societies, a system of annual appropriations should be
adopted, by which the available income of each year might be made
to sustain existing schemes of usefulness, without bringing the
Society into debt. Further, the Committee recommended that, as the
expenditure had greatly increased in recent years, on the one hand,
in consultation with the missionaries, that expenditure should be
carefully revised; and, on the other, all available efforts should
be made to increase the Society's income. After full and earnest
consideration of this truly valuable Report, the Board adopted the
following RESOLUTIONS, which gave special satisfaction to the
Delegates and country Directors, and met with the marked approval
of all the Society's friends:--
"1. THAT, this Board approve the proceedings of the Special Finance
Committee, in securing the services of a competent Accountant to
examine the system on which the SOCIETY'S ACCOUNTS are kept, with
a view to the introduction of all practicable improvements; and in
instructing their own Accountant to give the details of the principal
Stations, and show the items on which the outlay has taken place.
"2. THAT, with a view to secure a more complete control over the
Society's funds, an ANNUAL ESTIMATE be desired in advance from every
Station and Treasurer abroad, as well as from the Home Secretary,
of all the expenses anticipated for the coming year; that the Board
may sanction, for that year only, such amount as its probable income
may enable it to meet; and THAT all payments be strictly forbidden
unless that definite sanction has been first accorded.
"3. THAT the ACCOUNTS be kept, at home and abroad, on a COMMON SYSTEM;
and that each of the Foreign Committees in the Mission House be
requested to appoint a small AUDIT BOARD, whose duty it shall be to
audit the accounts of the Stations under its charge, and to see that
the expenditure is strictly confined to the sums which the Board have
sanctioned.
"4. THAT all the efforts already carried on for some time to increase
the knowledge, the interest, the contributions, and the prayers of
the Society's friends throughout the country, be continued, and,
where practicable, increased.
"5. THAT the Board regard with the most serious concern the rapid
increase in the expenditure of the various Missions; and, desiring
to see that expenditure not only placed under firm control, but
applied in all respects in the wisest way, they instruct all their
Committees most carefully to REVISE THE ENTIRE EXPENDITURE under
their superintendence, and, in accordance with the Resolution passed
on May 6th, specially to keep in view a judicious reduction of that
expenditure in the case of prosperous churches in districts largely
Christianized."
II.--REVISION OF THE MISSIONS ABROAD.
In considering the state of the Society's finances, the Special
Committee recommended, in strong terms, not only that some reduction
should be made in the expenditure, but that the character of that
expenditure should be carefully examined. They recommended that the
Board should take full advantage of the opportunity furnished by the
present crisis, for placing the entire system of payments in their
Foreign Missions upon the soundest footing, and for determining the
principles by which those payments shall be regulated. The Directors
accepted these suggestions, and since then the three Foreign
Committees, into which the London Board is divided, have devoted much
attention to the system of their Foreign Missions.
In the case of each of the Missions examined, they carefully laid
down the principles applicable to the condition of the Native
churches; the forms of missionary labour among the heathen; the
number and work of the Society's missionaries; the number and labours
of Native agents engaged in purely mission work; and the state of
education. The present scale and details of expenditure were
examined; and then, to every element of the system an APPROPRIATION
for the year was made of that amount of money which, in the judgment
of the Directors, the Society could justly spare from the funds which
they have at their command. A Schedule of these allowances in every
group of Missions was next drawn out, exhibiting the sums available
for the expenditure of the year, and was forwarded to the Mission
concerned. And finally, a special DESPATCH which accompanied the
Warrants, was written to the members of every Mission, in order to
explain in the fullest manner the views of the Directors respecting
that Mission, and the form which, in their judgment, the aid of the
Society should for the future assume. Again, while the Society enjoys
the services of a large number of able, conscientious, and spiritual
men, as devoted as ever their predecessors were to missionary work,
it was seen to be essential to their fullest efficiency, that they
should be brought into closer union with each other abroad, and with
the system of the Society at home; that the personal comfort of the
mission families should be more fully secured under the changed
circumstances of modern days; and that the experience of each field
of labour should be so wrought into the general system as to prove
a helper to all the rest.
The result of the system to the Society's finances has been economy,
compactness, and strength. While in several cases the personal
income of the missionaries has been increased, yet, by limiting the
amount of the Native agency to be employed in evangelistic work; by
reducing the help hitherto granted to the Native Christians for their
incidental expenditure; and by enforcing economy in all minor
matters at home as well as abroad; the Board have been able to bring
down the total expenditure of the Society to a point much nearer the
range of the Society's ordinary income than it has for several years
past. They have provided, however, only for the necessities of their
present operations. They need a larger income still, if the friends
of the Society would wish them to undertake that extension of their
Missions into new fields which the world needs, for which the
missionaries earnestly plead, and which they themselves are most
anxious to secure. The effect of the system on certain of the Native
churches has been a most healthy one. As hoped for, it is beginning
to stimulate them to manliness, and to a more earnest consecration,
not only of their means, but of their personal service to the
Saviour's work.
III.--THE SOCIETY'S PRESENT OPERATIONS.
The revision now described has furnished materials for exhibiting,
in a more complete form than usual, the present agencies of the
Society, and some of the results with which its labours have been
blessed. In a few of the older Missions of the Society, the duty of
instructing the heathen has been almost complete; the population are
nominally Christian, and in most of these communities there is a
strong nucleus of spiritual life in a valuable body of Church members.
This is the case in Polynesia, in the West Indies, and in many
stations in South Africa. Around many strong churches in Madagascar,
in India, and in China, the sphere of heathenism is still very large.
Several stations in those Missions--well planted for the influence
required of them--may now be occupied by the Native minister instead
of the English missionary. The number of chief stations in all the
Missions is 130.
The NATIVE CHURCHES of the Society are 150 in number. They contain
35,400 members: in a community of nominal Christians, young and old,
amounting to 191,700 persons. Of these, nearly 13,000 are in
Polynesia; nearly 5,000 in the West Indies; over 5,000 in South
Africa; and 3,400 in India. The converts under the Society's care
speak altogether twenty-six languages.
The general scope of the Society's efforts, so far as figures can
show it, is set forth in the following Table:--
GENERAL SUMMARY.
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
| |English | Native | Native | Church | Native |
| MISSIONS. |Mission-| Ordained| Preach- | Mem- | Adher- |
| |aries. | Pastors.| ers. | bers. | ents. |
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
|1. CHINA | 21 | 4 | 40 | 1265 | 2367 |
| | | | | | |
|2. NORTH INDIA | 18 | 6 | 20 | 284 | 1374 |
| | | | | | |
|3. SOUTH INDIA | 22 | 11 | 65 | 882 | 3408 |
| | | | | | |
|4. TRAVANCORE | 8 | 11 | 190 | 2228 | 32,362 |
| | | | | | |
| (MADAGASCAR | 12 | 20 | 532 | 7066 | 37,112 |
|5.( AND | | | | | |
| (MAURITIUS | 1 | ... | ... | ... | ... |
| | | | | | |
|6. SOUTH AFRICA | 33 | 1 | 30 | 5866 | 31,197 |
| | | | | | |
|7. WEST INDIES | 13 | 2 | 14 | 4972 | 14,240 |
| | | | | | |
|8. POLYNESIA | 28 | 26 | 249 | 12,924 | 69,738 |
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
| TOTALS | 156 | 81 | 1140 | 35,487 | 191,798 |
+----------------+--------+---------+---------+--------+---------+
+----------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| | SCHOOLS. |
| +-----------------------+-----------------------+
| | BOYS. | GIRLS. |
| +-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
| MISSIONS. |Sch- |Schol-| Fees. |Sch- |Schol-| Fees. |
| |00ls.| ars. |pnd. s. d.|ools.| ars. |pnd. s. d.|
+----------------+-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
|1. CHINA | 16 | 354| 0 13 6| 7 | 103| 26 0 0|
| | | | | | | |
|2. NORTH INDIA | 15 | 2076|1036 3 1| 16 | 375| 12 10 0|
| | | | | | | |
|3. SOUTH INDIA | 47 | 2858| 706 2 10| 31 | 1494| 9 2 8|
| | | | | | | |
|4. TRAVANCORE | 180 | 6646| ... ... | 30 | 1595| ... ... |
| | | Boys and Girls. | | | |
| (MADAGASCAR | 28 | 1735| 9 7 6| ... | ...| ... ... |
|5.( AND | | | | | | |
| (MAURITIUS | ... | ... | ... ... | ... | ...| ... ... |
| | | | | | | |
|6. SOUTH AFRICA | 39 | 1332| 32 10 11| 25 | 1473| 19 2 0|
| | | | | | | |
|7. WEST INDIES | 35 | 2040| 317 0 10| 35 | 1691| 269 11 1|
| | | | | | | |
|8. POLYNESIA | 229 | 6715| ... ... | 212 | 6695| ... ... |
+----------------+-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
| TOTALS | 589 |23,756|2101 18 8| 356 |13,426| 336 5 9|
+----------------+-----+------+----------+-----+------+----------+
+----------------+----------------+
| | LOCAL |
| | CONTRIBUTIONS, |
| MISSIONS. | &c. |
| | pound. s. d. |
+----------------+----------------+
|1. CHINA | 374 1 4 |
| | |
|2. NORTH INDIA | 1435 14 9 |
| | | pound. s. d.
|3. SOUTH INDIA | 1793 13 6 | *From English Friends
| | | 4,200 0 0
|4. TRAVANCORE | 1220 0 0 | From Native Converts
| | | 11,647 2 3
| (MADAGASCAR | 479 17 7 | ------------
|5.( AND | | 15,847 2 3
| (MAURITIUS | ... ... |
| | | Fees--Boys
|6. SOUTH AFRICA | 2125 3 10 | 2,101 18 8
| | | Fees--Girls
|7. WEST INDIES | 4730 16 8 | 336 5 9
| | | ------------
|8. POLYNESIA | 3687 14 7 | 2,438 4 5
+----------------+----------------+ ------------
| TOTALS | 15,847 2 3* | 18,285 6 8
+----------------+----------------+
IV.--THE SOCIETY'S MISSIONARIES.
But Statistical Tables cannot show the real character of the
Society's work, or the breadth of influence which that work has
attained. The hundred and fifty-six English missionaries of the
Society in foreign lands constitute the central force and stimulus
of a wider agency, numbering twelve hundred persons, gathered among
people once heathen, now Christian; an agency adopting the same aims,
ruled by the same Christian spirit, and fulfilling the same Divine
command. This body of true and devoted men were never rendering to
the Society a nobler service than at the present time; and were never
more worthy of our highest esteem. It is, therefore, with indignation
and regret that Christian men have seen the recent attacks made on
the whole missionary body, and the contemptuous terms in which their
labours have been described. Looking away from all that is temporary
and special, and contemplating that which springs from their
ordinary duties, the Directors would never forget what a noble
position missionaries occupy, and how truly great, from its very
nature, their work is. They have gone forth from home and country
as ambassadors of God, to preach His message of forgiveness; to bring
the Saviour in His human life to those who have never understood Him;
to save the perishing, and bind them as with golden chains to the
feet of God. They are battling with error, and breaking up the iron
systems of priestcraft, inhumanity, and wrong, which have enslaved
men for ages, and have shut off from them the light and love of their
Heavenly Father. They are staying the progress of crime; they lay
the hand of law on the slaveholder; they appeal to the drunkard; they
clear out the dens of vice; and to the hopeless and despairing they
open up long vistas of light and gladness, which terminate only in
Heaven. Everywhere they are preaching with power. Their Divine
message is quickening the dead conscience of nations: it is
converting the wicked, and saving souls from death; it is lifting
women from the dust; it is purifying family life; it is putting trade
under rules of honesty, and teaching humanity where cruelty was the
universal rule. Its principles are going down to the very roots of
national life; it is substituting law for force; and is moulding
young communities for a higher life in all their people, a closer
union to their fellow-men, because they are gaining a holier and
truer union with God.
[Illustration: MR. VIVIAN'S HOUSE, RAIATEA.]
They are doing this among great varieties of place and people; amid
many forms of outer life; amid many grades of human comfort and human
resources. Some labour among the most glorious manifestations of
creative might; others upon scorched and barren plains; others in
the busy life of cities; others in lonely isles. In labours abundant,
in perils oft, by example, by preaching, by prayers, everywhere they
seek to approve themselves unto God, and serve their generation
according to His will. Politicians may lecture them: men of science
may undervalue them. Time-serving editors may pour on them their
scorn; they may be called enthusiasts, or be socially despised; but
steadfast in duty, unmoved by reproach or praise, they will reply:
"Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober,
it is for your cause." Our "meat is to do the will of Him that sent
us, and to finish His work."
[Illustration: BENGALI GIRLS' SCHOOL, CALCUTTA.]
[Illustration: CAPTAIN COOK'S TREE, TAHITI.]
It is impossible for any Report to describe in detail, and with full
justice, the varied labours in which these brethren are engaged. Like
ministers at home, our Missionaries preach the Gospel; instruct,
govern, and build up churches; watch over the young, and stir up their
people's zeal. But they do a great deal more. Placed in many cases
in simple states of society, on a low level of education and social
connection, as well as of religion; in states of society saturated
with heathen vices and heathen beliefs, our missionaries have not
only to Christianize individual souls, but to Christianize
literature, to Christianize public law, to form a healthy public
opinion, to sanctify public taste. Forms of agency, therefore,
unneeded at home, are required on every hand; varied in character,
at times expensive, all carefully adapted to the case with which they
deal. And it is in the employment, the adaptation of these means to
their appointed ends, that missionaries specially prove themselves
"wise to win souls."
[Illustration: INSTITUTION AT MALUA, SAMOA.]
Thus it is that not only on the Sabbath but through the week, not
only in the pulpit but in the school, the market, the private house,
in a boat, under a spreading tree, our brethren expound and enforce
that Gospel which shall sanctify and govern the hearts of many
nations. Thus it is in the cities of China and India, in the villages
of Africa, among the swamps of Guiana, beneath the palm groves of
Samoa, they seek to be instant in season and out of season. Some are
pastors of churches, others preach almost entirely to the heathen.
Some are training students in seminaries. Some superintend a range
of simple schools; others, in Indian cities, give large time and
effort to the important Institutions taught in the English and Native
languages. A few are revising translations of the Bible; others are
preparing commentaries, school-books, and other Christian
literature. All have to share in building; and, besides the Medical
missionaries, a great number constantly give medicine to the sick.
Here we see Dr. TURNER, in the admirable seminary at Malua, training
the Native Teachers; Mr. EDKINS and Mr. MUIRHEAD penetrate the
Mongolian desert, to inquire into the place and prospects of a
Mission among the Tartar tribes; while Mr. JOHN, after completing
the new Hospital, is isolated within a vast sea, the overflowings
of the mighty Yangtze, which has drowned half the streets of Hankow.
We see Mr. ASHTON and Mr. JOHNSON, Mr. COLES and Mr. BLAKE, Mr. HALL
and Mr. RICE, surrounded by the hundreds of their students and
scholars, diligent in daily English studies. We see the TRAVANCORE
brethren in the midst of their many agents; advising pastors,
instructing catechists, reading evangelists' journals, examining
candidates, and auditing accounts; while, in their midst, Dr. LOWE
and his seven students administer to their crowd of patients in the
hospital that medicine which shall relieve their pain. Dr. MATHER
re-edits the Hindustani Scriptures. The brothers STRONACH,
fellow-labourers indeed in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ;
still watch over the prosperous churches of Amoy, which they were
honoured to found. In the midst of barbarism, Mr. MOFFAT carefully
revises that Sichuana Bible of which he was the first translator.
In the midst of civilization, after reading the proofs of the Chinese
New Testament, Dr. LEGGE, consulting his learned pundits, dives deep
into the ancient Chinese classics, and strives, by an erudite
commentary, to make plain the early history of China. While Mr. LAWES,
who describes himself as the "poet laureate" of Savage Island, after
completing the New Testament, prepares the first Christian hymn book,
for the use of the converts he has brought to Christ. Mr. THOMPSON,
visiting the Missions in Cape Colony, drives with hard toil across
the fiery dust of the Karroo desert; Mr. JANSEN and Mr. MUNRO, in
their long canoe, traverse the gorgeous and silent forests of Guiana,
to visit the little Mission among the Indians below the rapids of
the Berbice. Mr. MURRAY, opportunely arriving in a screw steamer,
prevents war among the Christians of Manua; Mr. CHALMERS, voluntary
leader of the band of converts who keep the _John Williams_ afloat,
sticks by the vessel to the last, and, with his brave wife, refuses
to quit the ship till she is anchored safe in Sydney harbor. While
Mr. PHILIP, pastor and schoolmaster, doctor and lawyer, engineer and
magistrate, of the flourishing Hottentot Christians of Hankey, when
overturned in a ravine on a visit to his out-station, preaches to
his people with a broken arm, rather than deprive them of that bread
of heaven which they had come many miles to hear. Who would not
rejoice and thank God for such men? Of the ninety Protestant
Missionaries labouring in China, the five who stand first in public
estimation for character, scholarship, and zeal are missionaries of
this Society. Among the five hundred missionaries of India, not a
few of our brethren occupy a high and honoured place; while in all
other of the older Missions the men who with fidelity and zeal have
steadily maintained their posts for twenty-five and thirty years are
numerous, and are all held in honour. A just consideration of toil
like this will show that never in the Society's history had the
Directors greater reason to thank God for the grace bestowed upon
their missionaries, or stronger ground for holding them in esteem
as workmen not needing to be ashamed.
[Illustration: NAGERCOIL SEMINARY.]
[Illustration: SCHOOL-HOUSE, CUDDAPAH.]
V.--MISSIONARY STUDENTS.
While discussing, amongst other matters, the expense of the
Society's Seminary at Highgate, the Special Committee suggested an
inquiry into the question of the training of the missionary students
generally. It was felt by them that the advanced position attained
by our Missions in all parts of the world, gives to the missionary
brethren, as a body, very great opportunities of usefulness. A large
number of them are called to be superintendents of several churches
and many native agents, to be counsellors of native pastors and
missionaries, and tutors in theological seminaries. All the brethren
in India and China may hold intercourse with Native scholars and
priests, and have to defend truth and assail error by argument,
spreading over a wide range of thought and knowledge. Several of them
have charge of educational institutions of a high order, and are
associated with Native ministers who are themselves men of superior
education and position.
It is an injustice to our missionary brethren themselves to place
them in such positions of weight and influence without giving them
the opportunity of acquiring a complete fitness for the important
duties which those positions involve. It is an injustice to the
Society that the training of its missionaries should be incomplete.
And it is an injustice to the Missions generally, should they be
placed in the hands of men who are unable, from defective education,
rightly to comprehend their claims, and to fulfil the important
duties which the charge of them now involves. In addition to
considerations such as these, the Directors observed that for some
years past their missionary students had been trained in a variety
of ways; a few being educated in the ordinary colleges, and the
remainder in private Institutions, adopted by the Board, at Bedford
and Weston-super-Mare. Aided by a valuable memorandum from the Rev.
J.S. Wardlaw, which went fully into the entire question, the
Directors, after careful consideration, arranged it on the basis of
the following RESOLUTIONS; which have given the students, the
missionaries abroad, and the friends of the Society great
satisfaction:--
"1. THAT, considering the high position of usefulness now attained
by the Society's Missions, and the great importance of the work
carried on in the present day, it has become increasingly desirable
that the Society's missionary students should all enjoy, as far as
practicable, the advantages of a sound and complete College
education.
"2. THAT, as any plan for the formation of a separate Missionary
Institution, and of affiliating it with any existing College, is
found to be impracticable; and as existing colleges have shown
themselves so ready and anxious on favourable terms to welcome the
Society's students among theirs, it is desirable that our students
should be placed in those Institutions in various parts of the
country.
"3. THAT, in the judgment of the Directors, a preparatory class may
be maintained for the few students who need it.
"4. THAT; for several important reasons, the Directors deem it most
desirable to maintain the system by which the Society's students
receive a final year of missionary training under the Rev. J.S.
WARDLAW, M.A."
The Directors regard it as a matter for great thankfulness, and as
a token of continued approval of their work, that they have recently
received, as they did in 1867, a large number of offers from young
men to enter upon the Society's service. The applicants have
presented a great diversity of natural gifts, attainments, and
position: some of them are already studying for the ministry in our
Theological Colleges. The Directors have during the year accepted
no less than eighteen. Amongst them are two of the missionaries' sons.
The total number of missionary students in the Society is now
forty-two. On the first of May, 1869, they stood thus:--
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------+
|On Probation.|1st Year.|2nd Year.|3rd Year.|4th Year.|5th Year.|Total.|
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------+
| 6 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 42 |
+-------------+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------+------+
VI.--NATIVE PASTORS AND MISSIONARIES.
The increase of our Church Members, and the enlargement of their
spiritual life, have from time to time placed at the disposal of the
Society an increasing number of Christian helpers for the local
service of our various Missions. No exact account of them was taken
for several years. But from the complete returns recently gathered,
it appears that at the present time they are more than twelve hundred
in number.
The Christian Assistants not engaged in schools are divided into
several classes. Some are READERS, who go from house to house, and
explain the Word to families or individuals. Others are preachers
of greater or less education, and are more or less trusted, either
to work alone, or in company with more experienced brethren. In India
and China, these brethren are usually termed CATECHISTS, though in
the South Seas the missionaries have retained the title of NATIVE
TEACHERS. One class among them, of higher character and education,
in whom great trust is reposed, are termed in India EVANGELISTS.
These brethren frequently occupy stations by themselves, or are
immediate and trusted assistants of the missionaries. Several of the
excellent preachers in China belong to this rank; as also others in
the South Sea Islands and in Madagascar.
It has from the first been a settled rule with the Society's
missionaries that catechists and preachers should be men of known
and proved piety; and that all candidates for theological classes
shall be members of the church. The Directors believe that it is
largely owing to the observance of this sound rule that the Missions
have received a great blessing from above, and have been built up
on a solid basis. It is the effect of this blessing, and a result
of the development of the churches, that a steady improvement has
taken place in the general character and fitness of Native Agents.
And not the least benefit is that at length it is giving rise to the
long-desired class of NATIVE ORDAINED PASTORS.
In 1865 our lists showed twenty such Pastors and Missionaries, not
reckoning the Tahitian or Madagascar brethren; and of the twenty,
fourteen were in India. During the last three years fifteen have been
added in India, and one has died. In the Leeward Islands several of
the Tahaa students have been ordained as pastors in Tahiti and the
out-stations; the Directors have recommended the ordination of
others, as TAUGA, the Evangelist in charge of the churches in Manua;
ELIKANA, the Evangelist of the Lagoon Islands; and ISAIA, the
well-known Evangelist of Rarotonga; and five have been ordained in
Samoa. In Madagascar a practical Native pastorate grew up in the days
of persecution, which was judiciously fostered by Mr. Ellis and his
associates, and was placed by them in a most healthy position. Of
the five hundred preachers placed over the churches, some twenty may
be reckoned of that high standing and independence of management
accorded to the other brethren in the ordained lists. The Directors
rejoice that, through the wise foresight of Mr. Ellis, the Madagascar
pastors receive no support from the Society; they are almost wholly
sustained either by their own labour or by the Native Churches. In
Travancore, three of the pastors ordained last year have become
entirely free of all help from the Society. The Board desire that
in all cases the same independence of support from English funds
shall be steadily aimed at, though for a time it may be necessary
to guarantee a certain salary, and to supplement such portion as the
native members give, by an annual grant from the Society's funds.
In all the Society's missions the number of these pastors is about
eighty. It is desirable that all our native agency shall be of the
best kind, and shall be trained in the most efficient way.
[Illustration: ANDRIAMBELO.]
VII.--THE NATIVE CHURCHES.
The high and useful position attained by the Society is further
illustrated by the character and importance of the Native Churches.
These are our actual converts, the most striking, the most patent,
if not the most real among the fruits of our past labours. These
churches are unevenly distributed, but the explanation is easy. As
a rule, they are largest in fields of labour which have been longest
cultivated, and where converts are easily won. They appear,
therefore, in inverse ratio to time and difficulty. To the native
races of Polynesia, desolated by wars, torn in pieces by faction and
strife, Christianity came as the healer and peace-maker, and was
welcomed as soon as understood. To the native races of South Africa,
and to the people of the West Indies, to the weak who had been crushed
and enslaved by the strong, it came with loving smiles as deliverer
and friend. By the devil-worshipper of Travancore, ignorant,
degraded, friendless, afraid of malignant spirits, it was welcomed
for its kindness. To the caste-ridden people of the great cities and
towns, to the sudra of South India, to the Brahmins everywhere, it
came as an enemy, destroying their social life, breaking up the bonds
of Hindooism, smiting the gods, putting down the priesthood,
destroying the vested interest, and drying up the wealth produced
by centuries. Who can wonder that to the learned, the powerful, the
bigoted, it was "foolishness;" while to the despised and poor,
accepted in a child-like spirit, it became the power of God unto
salvation? As a rule, the converts, who were easy to win, have been
hard to raise; and in ordinary Christian life some of the most zealous,
the most consistent, the most liberal, the most missionary, have been
found among the few converts, drawn by hard struggles and heavy
penalties, from the caste population of our Indian towns. It is from
such came nearly all our first ordained Native Ministers.
[Illustration: THE GOD BEATER.]
But, whether easily or hardly won, we rejoice in the fact that at
this hour the three hundred Churches gathered through the ministry
of this Society contain thirty-five thousand members; and that round
them, looking to them for instruction, and influenced by their
example, lives a population of not less than one hundred and ninety
thousand souls, who have given up all idolatry, and call Christianity
their religion.
* * * * *
The GENERAL CHARACTER of these church members, their attainments in
knowledge, the amount of their moral strength, the enlightenment of
conscience, their peculiar deficiencies, are topics frequently
dwelt upon in missionaries' letters, and find a conspicuous place
in the annual reports. Who can doubt that, should occasion arise,
the converts of MADAGASCAR would still emulate the fidelity of the
brethren who gave themselves to clanging fetters and the fiery flame
rather than deny Christ? When bitterly persecuted by bigoted priests,
the Christians of UEA still possess their souls in patience, and with
their chapels burnt, their plantations desolated, and their
companions beaten, they hold on to the truth as it is in Jesus, and
refuse to bow the knee to the Baal of Rome. In the Calcutta Mission
last year, as heretofore, converts have been found to bear reproach
and shame for Christ rather than be numbered among idolaters. Still
do the tried Christians of POKLO show how grace reigns in China.
The great Christian virtues, the fruits of the Spirit, are developed
in these churches as in the older realms of Christendom. In them
enlightened conscience makes war with sin; Christian love casts out
fear; the eye of faith sees heaven in a dying hour. Scarcely a report
is written that does not illustrate these excellencies. We must not
undervalue what here we have gained. It is not only that so many
individual souls have been saved. We have rescued them from
heathenism, from false religion, from the advocacy of error, from
the practice of error, from open, unchecked vice and crime. We have
drawn them from the world's disorders and cruelty, from wrong and
misery. In the great warfare with vice, they have changed sides, and
are now valiant for the truth. We have drawn not only them but their
children; we have drawn them, not as isolated individuals, but as
families, as neighbours, as fellow citizens, as nations. We have
drawn into the church, for man's happiness, and the Lord's glory,
all the influences of their private, social, and public life. We have
won their intelligence, their moral life, their literature, their
material resources, their public law. Henceforth heathenism has lost
them, and Christ has placed His sanctifying hand on all they have
and all they are. These Christians are all His; their children His,
and generations as they succeed each other shall be more completely
His, to give Him all the glory of their growing love, and add their
contribution of immortal souls to His Millennial reign.
"For to His triumph soon,
He shall descend, who rules above,
And the pure language of His love
All tongues of men shall tune."
Our earliest mission in Polynesia is constantly offering evidence
of the power of the Gospel. The Rev. J. King of Savaii, gives the
following striking illustration:--
"PENIAMINA (Benjamin), was one of the first converts in Samoa, and
for thirty years he has maintained an unblemished character. A short
time ago I took down from his own lips the story of his life, or I
might rather say of his two lives; so great a contrast does the latter
half of his life present to the former. The one is the life of the
ignorant and corrupt Pagan, the other that of the humble follower
and devoted disciple of the Lord Jesus. All who know Peniamina would
concur in this testimony that he is one of the brightest gems that
has been won for Christ in Samoa. His praise is in all the churches.
As a pastor he has done good service. For a number of years he has
had the oversight of one of our churches in the out-stations, and
so beloved was he by his people, that when, through age, his eyesight
failed, and he could no longer read the Scriptures in public, they
begged that he would still preach to them, and asked that a young
man might be appointed to read the Scriptures for him. This he did
for some time, until he became so infirm, that he was compelled to
resign. But when he proposed to return to his native village, that
he might die amongst his kindred, according to the invariable custom
in Samoa, his people begged that he would not leave them; and that,
as he had devoted so much of his strength to their good, they might
be allowed to 'nurse' him in his old age, and to have the honour of
burying him in their own village. But the national custom prevailed
over their entreaties. A few days after he had taken farewell of his
Church, he called on me, and gave me a few steel pens, the remainder
of some I had given him for writing his sermons. As he gave them to
me, he said, 'I have finished my work: I shall write no more sermons;
and that nothing may be wasted that is useful in the work of God,
let these pens be given to a younger man, who is still able to write
sermons.' This incident is characteristic of the man, and will
illustrate his simple uprightness, and his concern for the work of
God. He is now very infirm, but strong in faith; he is calmly waiting
to be summoned to his reward."
Much more might be written on this topic, and these illustrations
of Christian experience might easily be multiplied. Our native
churches give proof in every direction of the soundness of the
teaching from which they have sprung, and of the Divine blessing by
which it has been followed. They differ greatly in the outer form
of their life from English churches: they differ scarcely less from
one another. They differ in their knowledge, in the character of
their excellencies, in the form of their defects. They differ in
their experience of the truth, as they have had a varied history.
But one heart and one mind are found within them all. It is the Bible
which touches their feelings most deeply, which quickens their
conscience, which inspires their richest joys. Everywhere the tribes,
once heathen and hard-hearted, now Christianized, care for the
orphan, show kindness and courtesy to women, and watch over the aged
and the sick. Everywhere they lead a pure life, they cultivate and
practise mutual kindness, they are brought under public law. These
things are not novelties in Christianity; but their daily recurrence
in all our Missions is the best testimony we can offer to the reality
of our work. They are seen in all our Churches; they are written on
every page of our reports. The heathen natives of Travancore and of
the Lagoon Islands, far distant from one another, get drunk with
toddy: their Christian fellow-countrymen of the same class in both
places abstain from it. Touched by the gospel, the negroes of Jamaica
came in hundreds to be married: the Bechuanas on the Vaal river have
done the same. Our new converts in the plains of Shantung try to
evangelize their stalwart neighbours. The same efforts of love are
put forth by the new Christians among the hills of Fokien. Our South
Sea Converts observe the Sabbath better than Englishmen. When
accompanying the Queen down to the sea-coast, our Church members held
Sabbath camp-meetings in the forests and jungles of Madagascar.
Would that the English churches realized more completely what they
are! Follow them in their daily life. Look at them on the Sabbath-day.
There, where once all seasons were alike, they gather on the first
day of the week in the house of prayer. From China eastward, round
to Lifu westward, in twenty-six languages, these Christian converts
gather for holy worship. In the broad streets of Peking; among the
green hills of Amoy; amid the tall roofs of Antananarivo, and the
well-watered gardens of Hankey; among the deep ferns of Raiatea and
in the cotton-fields of Samoa; in Calcutta and Benares, within the
shadows of the wealthy temples of Kali and Mahadeo; or where the
creamy surf in curling waves throws up the garnet sands of
Travancore,--each Sabbath-day rises the hymn of praise, the earnest
prayer; each month they break the bread and drink the cup in memory
of Him whom, not having seen, they love; in whom, though now they
see Him not, yet believing, they rejoice with joy unspeakable, and
full of glory; receiving the end of their faith, even the salvation
of their SOULS.
"Knowest thou the value of a soul immortal?
Behold the midnight glory, worlds on worlds!
Amazing pomp! Redouble the amaze.
Ten thousand add, and twice ten thousand more;
Then weigh the whole. ONE SOUL outweighs them all."
VIII.--THE SOUTH SEA MISSION.
[Illustration: Map of Western Polynesia, New Caledonia, Loyalty Is.
&c.]
[Illustration: Map of Samoa or Navigators Islands]
The SOUTH SEA MISSION lies deep in the affection of the Society's
friends. Seventy years have passed since the first missionaries were
landed by the _Duff_ on the Island of TAHITI. After long trial of
patience, amid a most depraved and corrupt people, heathenism gave
way, the gospel triumphed, and the Society Islands became Christian.
In 1823 RAROTONGA was discovered, and the Hervey Islands, now
containing one of the brightest groups of our Christian churches,
were evangelized. In 1830, SAMOA received that gospel which has
sanctified the gentle habits of its people, and produced in them a
zeal in the extension of the church which none of their neighbours
have excelled. In 1840 and onward, the efforts to evangelize the dark
races of the NEW HEBRIDES were commenced and partly frustrated. In
1848, the LOYALTY GROUP received teachers, and in spite of priestly
intolerance, have since been largely christianized.
[Illustration: QUEEN POMARE'S PALACE, TAHITI.]
When TAHITI first fell under the French Protectorate, fears were
entertained respecting the stability of its people. By God's
blessing on the means of grace, they seem at the present time to be
more spiritual and more firm in their attachment to the truth than
ever. Several young pastors, trained in our Tahaa Institution, have
been warmly welcomed among them, and their numbers are larger than
for some years past:--
"The statistics of the year, as far as we can obtain them for Tahiti
and Moorea, are as follow:--
Population ... ... ... ... ... ... ... over 9000
Members of Protestant Churches ... ... ... ... 2800
Children in Protestant Schools ... ... ... ... 1260
Roman Catholic Congregation, Members and Scholars,
Natives ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 700
"Hence we see the Roman Catholics cannot yet number in their schools,
congregations, and churches altogether, in Tahiti and Moorea, more
than one twelfth of the Native population as theirs. The other
eleven-twelfths are nominally Protestant. Without reckoning the
schools and congregations of the Protestants, the Church members
alone of the Native Protestant Church are about four times as many
as all the Roman Catholics in their schools, congregations, and
churches together."
[Illustration: RAROTONGA.]
In the Hervey Islands, in the midst of their desolation, the churches
of RAROTONGA insisted on holding their usual Anniversary, and gave
a larger contribution to the Society than in the year before. The
SAMOAN MISSION continues to enjoy prosperity and peace; the Seminary
at Malua flourishes; an extraordinary demand exists for the
Scriptures, which every Christian seems resolved to make his own;
the influence of the missionary diminishes the risk of social war;
and the liberality of the churches still abounds. SAVAGE ISLAND,
becoming more closely allied to the civilised world, through the
influence of its beautiful cotton, begins to encounter the greater
temptations to which a community of simple manners is by that contact
exposed; and the first drunkard has been seen upon her shores. As
truly as a pious lad on entering London life needs the daily support
of a mother's counsel and a mother's prayers; so do these young
communities, exposed to the vices and temptations of stronger
nations, demand the help, the sympathy, and the prayers of the
English churches from which their piety springs. In the LAGOON
ISLANDS and in the LOYALTY GROUP the Word of Christ is winning many
dark hearts; but in the latter the fanatic hatred of Romish priests
continues to the stricken Christians of UEA that system of oppressive
persecution against which they appealed long ago.
Of the SAMOAN MISSION a most pleasing account has recently been given
by a writer in _Blackwood's Magazine_, which fully sustains the
reports of its prosperity given by the missionaries:--
"We have said that the London Missionary Society has the spiritual
care of the Samoan Islands. The first missionaries were established
there about thirty years ago, but the group had been frequently
visited by them previously to that date. With what zeal and
devotedness these excellent men have laboured needs not here to be
enlarged upon; and with respect to the success that has attended
their labours, it is sufficient to say that all heathen and barbarous
practices have been abolished, Christianity is firmly established,
life and property are as secure as in England--nay, more so, as theft
is almost unknown--the morals of the people have been greatly
improved, a general system of education prevails, and the Bible is
admirably translated and in the hands of every member of the
community. The difficulties which the missionaries in Samoa had to
contend with were certainly far less than in many other islands in
these seas. Here were no bloodthirsty, ferocious cannibals, but a
mild and gentle race, well disposed towards strangers, with no
elaborate system of idolatry to overthrow; so that the Mission was
established without difficulty, and the progress was rapid and
continued. So apt and intelligent are this people, that Samoa very
soon became a centre of missionary enterprise, sending forth trained
Native Teachers to other islands, of whom we shall presently have
occasion to speak.
"A short account of the mode in which the Mission work in Polynesia
is carried on will be interesting, not only by reason of the success
that has almost invariably attended it in the islands in which
missionaries are located, but also on account of the widely-spread
influence exercised throughout the South Seas by the agency of the
Native Teachers."
Special mention has frequently been made of the great liberality of
the SAMOAN churches. The Rev. GEORGE PRATT thus describes the
energetic effort made last year to increase it:--
"In May I paid a visit to Mr. Drummond's district. Very much pleased
I was to see the very great improvement amongst his people. At the
May Meeting they made a great effort, and challenged Samoa to beat
them. I accepted the challenge, reminding them how formerly our
people beat theirs in a game of chance just when they made sure of
victory. The report of this speech preceded me, and created a
_furore_ among my people. They determined to beat; the merchants
raised the price of money fifty per cent.; the merchants refused
money, or ran short; all in vain; every difficulty was surmounted;
and when a most iniquitous discount for bills is deducted, there will
still be hard on to 700 pounds for the London Missionary Society."
The Rev. A.W. MURRAY informs the Directors that the contributions
so gathered have been the largest of all. They have amounted to the
extraordinary sum of 2,236 pounds 18 shillings:--
"Our contributions for the present year are not quite complete yet.
What remains will be inconsiderable. The full amount will appear in
my annual statement of accounts. What has come to hand from the
different stations, including our own, amounts to the unprecedented
sum of _Two thousand, two hundred, and thirty-six pounds, eighteen
shillings_. May I add a word of caution with reference to the amount
raised by our people this year. It will be wise, I think, for all
of us to say very little about it, inasmuch as the present year will
certainly be an exceptional one."
[Illustration: MISSION HOUSE, MANGAIA.]
Nor are others of our Polynesian Converts behindhand. The Native
Churches in Mangaia have also given generous gifts, of which the Rev.
W.W. GILL speaks thus:--
"This sum (217 pounds 7 shillings O pence) is considerably the
largest contribution ever made by Mangaia to the funds of our
Society; the reason is, that I have this year obtained a better price
for the arrowroot. I feel deeply thankful that our people have
steadily persevered in their offerings to God, notwithstanding the
accumulated misfortunes produced by three hurricanes in two years,
and their consequent poverty."
When it became clear from the letters received from the islands that
the MISSIONARY SHIP was really lost, the Directors without delay
devoted their attention to the question of securing a new one.
Several important facts were clearly shown in the statements laid
before them. Some six or eight small vessels are now running
regularly between the chief groups of islands and Sydney: a few
vessels also pass irregularly between the islands themselves, and
can at times be chartered, or be employed to carry goods. So far,
therefore, as mere goods are concerned, there is no great difficulty
in supplying about twenty out of the twenty-seven missionaries of
the Society who are labouring in the South Seas. But, besides
supplying stores to their missionaries, the Society is carrying on
most important evangelistic work in several small and isolated
groups; as the Pearl Islands, the Penrhyns, the Ellice and Lagoon
Islands, and in detached islands of the larger groups. These isolated
spots require to be visited regularly, for the protection of the
people, the encouragement of the teachers, and for the supply of new
men, medicines, and books. The vessels that may be hired are not
always available. They are often far from suitable to the work; they
are very deficient in that amount of comfort which on public duty
the missionary brethren ought to enjoy. Not seldom they wish to go
where the missionary finds no work; to stay at some places when his
work is finished; and to leave others when the work requires him to
remain. Besides, evangelistic work is growing on our hands; the
native churches are strong; labourers are abundant; the groups lying
to the north and west are more open than ever; and the Directors are
called upon to look fairly in the face a large extension of the South
Sea Mission among three hundred islands, containing millions of
people who are heathen still. All the objects desired through the
entire range of the Society's interests and the Society's work, can
with ease be secured by a vessel of our own, commanded by a truly
missionary captain, officers, and crew.
With considerations like these before them, the Directors were
unanimous in resolving that another MISSIONARY SHIP should be
provided without delay. They had clear evidence that the ship should
be smaller than the last. They were urged also on every hand to keep
the ship between the islands and Sydney, and to recall her to England
only at long intervals. Accordingly, another vessel, the third
bearing the name of the _John Williams_, has been launched, fitted
out and despatched to the Islands. Amid the busy work of the past
two years, no single matter has occupied a larger share of the
Directors' attention and care than the building and equipment of this
vessel. She is a beautiful barque of 186 tons register; she went to
sea well equipped in every respect, and specially provided with
certain fittings that will conduce to the comfort of the missionaries
and their families. The Directors placed on board an excellent
library, a large Atlas of the best maps, illustrative of the South
Seas and the Australian colonies; also a quadrant and barometer for
general use; and it only remained to supply the library with a set
of the different Polynesian Scriptures.
"Heaven speed the canvas gallantly unfurled,
To furnish and accommodate a world.
Soft airs and gentle heavings of the wave
Attend the ship whose errand is to save,
Which flies, obedient to her Lord's commands,
A herald of God's love to pagan lands."
[Illustration: THE "JOHN WILLIAMS."]
Rare in the world are those scenes of enchanting beauty, which the
islands of Polynesia so frequently display. Yet nowhere did
heathenism descend to deeper degradation; nowhere did it develop
blacker vices and commit more hellish crimes. Incessant war,
merciless cruelty, infanticide, indescribable vice, in many places
cannibalism, made the strong races a ceaseless terror to each other
and to the world outside them. Over millions of their brethren such
heathenism and wickedness hold the same sway still. In all but
Western Polynesia, the Gospel has swept this heathenism away. The
four great Societies which have sent their brethren forth as
messengers of mercy, have gathered into Christ's fold 300,000 people,
of whom 50,000 are members of the Church. They have together expended
on the process less than 1,200,000 pounds, a sum which now-a-days
will only make a London railway, or furnish the Navy with six
ironclads. Yet how wonderful the fruit of their toil! "The wolf
dwells with the lamb; the leopard lies down with the kid." The
destruction of life has been stayed. Beautiful as were these lands
by nature, culture has rendered them more lovely still. Everywhere
the white chapel and school have taken the place of the heathen marai.
The trim cottage, which Christianity gave them, peeps everywhere
from its nook of leaves. Land and people are Christian now. The
victories of peace have taken the place of war. Resources have
multiplied: wealth has begun to accumulate. Books, knowledge, order
and law, rule these communities. Large churches have been gathered;
schools flourish; good men and good women are numerous. Not a few
have offered themselves as missionaries to heathen islands; and in
zeal, self-sacrifice, and patient service have equalled the earnest
men of other climes.
[Illustration: HOUSE OF THE REV. JOHN WILLIAMS, RAIATEA.]
All over the southern groups of Polynesia, this is the work which
missionaries have been doing. This is the influence which they have
exercised, and these are the fruits of their devoted toil. It is not
merely Admiral FITZROY, and Captain ERSKINE, and Admiral WILKES, who
testify to the reality of such results; but to these Christian
islands, where sailors were once afraid to land, hundreds of whalers
run gladly every year to get the refreshment which their hard toil
renders so grateful. From icebergs and boundless seas, and heavy
gales of wind; from the exciting chase, the capture, the boiling down
of their huge prey; and from all the filthy, weary work of whaling
life, they now run north to New Zealand and Samoa, to Tahiti and
Rarotonga; not only to refit their vessels and to replace their
broken gear, but to buy fresh meat and vegetables and coffee; to get
medicine for their sick; to revel in oranges, plantains and
water-melons; to feast the eye on green mountains and cultured
valleys; to walk among white cottages and flower gardens and groves
of palms; to attend Sabbath services, and be reminded of their
Christian training and their Christian homes. Where have unaided men,
however wise, produced a moral change like this? With us the GOSPEL
alone has done it, and to GOD we give all the praise.
IX.--SOUTH AFRICA.
In the course of their revision, the Directors found that the SOUTH
AFRICA Mission needed at their hands an unusual amount of attention
and care. Owing to peculiar circumstances, it had been to a
considerable extent lost sight of for several years. At the outset
of the inquiry, several questions of vital importance presented
themselves for settlement. While the mission numbered on its staff
thirty-five European missionaries, no less than twenty-one of these
brethren were labouring in the christianized portions of the colony;
where the native population has grown thinner rather than more
numerous; and where the ministers and missionaries of other
Societies have considerably increased. Only fourteen of the
Society's missionaries were labouring in the heathen territories,
in Kafirland and among the Bechuana tribes.
The six mission estates, termed INSTITUTIONS, which for a series of
years proved a valuable refuge to the Hottentot labourers, and
trained them in habits of industry, have changed their character,
with the improved position of public opinion and public law. They
have long since accomplished their special work; and socially, in
recent years, some of them have been doing evil rather than good.
Again, the close relation subsisting between several of the
missionaries and the Native Churches of which they were pastors, has
operated much to the disadvantage of these brethren during the years
of drought; and the system required readjustment without delay. The
incomes of all the missionaries, especially of those within the Cape
Colony, were insufficient, and the education of the young was in
general very imperfectly provided for.
After careful consideration of the whole case, the Directors found
themselves able to meet the numerous difficulties which it presented,
and to shape out a system of management which may duly provide for
these missions in the future, on definite and healthy principles.
A series of RESOLUTIONS was passed by the Board, embodying that
system; and these were conveyed to the brethren in the mission, with
a DESPATCH which contained a full explanation of their views.
In considering the future of the Mission, the Directors remember that
many christian agencies have been set at work in the Colony, in
addition to their own, since they took up the cause of the Native
tribes, and successfully fought the battle of their freedom. Some
of these agencies have given especial attention to the European
Congregations, to which the Society has never devoted its
substantial strength; but amongst them the Natives also, especially
in the eastern parts of the colony, have found pastors and friends.
The time has therefore come to shift the Society's labours more
decidedly to those districts of South Africa which are still occupied
by heathen tribes, and which have but few instructors. In the western
parts of the colony our churches are few. In the neighbourhood of
PORT ELIZABETH there is a cluster of important stations, which have
exercised great influence for good over the Native races, and have
brought many of their people into the Church Of Christ.
In KAFIRLAND, in districts within the English dominion, the Society
has five stations, in most of which there is fair access to a
population still heathen. In each a Christian Church has been
gathered; the members are nine hundred in number, and the
congregations contain nearly four thousand persons. Four English
missionaries have charge of these missions, and a Native Pastor, the
Rev. A. Van Rooyen. These missions, however, are surrounded by the
agencies of other Missionary Societies; and they have not that full
scope for development which is desirable, and which they possessed
in earlier years. It is among the Bechuana missions, that enlargement
is most practicable.
For twenty years the Mission Station at the KURUMAN, with its
immediate neighbours, stood forth, the last of the border
lighthouses on the shore of that wild sea of savage life and savage
wars, which stretched northward without a break to the unpeopled
Sahara. Then for nine years Livingstone maintained a station beyond
it among the Bakwains. In 1859, in two bands, our brethren entered
the wilderness, to found new Missions among the Makololo and the
Matebele. Strange disasters broke up the first. The second was
established successfully at INYATI, and has grown in strength and
influence. Two others have since been fixed at intermediate stations
between the Kuruman and Inyati: and thus a chain of Missions, at
intervals of three hundred miles, has been carried onwards into the
centre of savage heathendom, and to the neighbourhood of the Victoria
Falls. Amid powerful difficulties our brethren have not laboured in
vain. They have had to contend with inveterate prejudices; they have
been preaching lofty truths to minds which, in religion, are on the
level of childhood, yet, in wickedness, have the experience of age.
Still they have held on. In perils of journeys; in perils of sickness;
in perils of the wilderness; in abundant labours; in privations; in
loneliness; they have lived on, if by any means they may save some.
The death of MOSELEKATSE is no common event among the South African
tribes. His career has had a terrible effect upon their numbers,
their position and their history. Leader of a tribe of Zulu Kafirs,
about 1816 he was driven from his own country by the anger of Chaka,
the savage head of the nation, and began to carve out an inheritance
for himself in new lands. Brave, bold, and shrewd, he knew how to
grasp opportunities, to make use of the right men, to reward fidelity
generously, and summarily to stamp out opposition. Throughout life
he had a wonderful influence over both nobles and people. His army
was disciplined; and its courage was stimulated by stirring songs.
In the little court-yard of this African lion, the yells of battle,
the cries of the wounded, the shouts of victory were imitated, and
the stories of brave deeds were told by rude minstrels, as
effectively as, in old days, in Scandinavian halls. His rule was
despotic in the extreme; its barbarities were unparalleled. His
warriors were rewarded by slaves and plunder, and their warlike
expeditions have been incessant to the last. Bursting upon the
Bahurutse tribes beyond the Zulu territory, myriads of lives were
flung away. The tribes were crushed, destroyed, and scattered. The
remnant fell upon their neighbours; or fled into the desert; or
escaped, like the Makololo, to a new land. For twenty years the
country was a sea of war, in which Mantatees and Bergenaars,
Barolongs and Bangwaketse, Bakwains and Matebele, were flung upon
one another, until the storm spent itself, and but a remnant was left.
Often did the Matebele themselves suffer terribly. Often did the
stratagems of Scythians and Libyans in ancient days reappear in this
modern warfare. The refugees decoyed their terrible enemies into the
desert, and left them to die miserably of thirst. Driven to the
northward by fear of Dingaan, in the Makololo and their brave chief,
Sebituane, the Matebele found their match. But on the weaker tribes,
to the banks of the Zambesi, they have waged incessant and successful
war.
What a mighty need is there of the Gospel here! In no field of the
Society's efforts is that need so strikingly manifest. The incessant
wars, the shocking inhumanity, the indescribable vices, the
universal degradation, all attest the depth of sin and misery in
which millions of our race pass their lives. Acuteness, bravery,
manliness are not wanting; right and wrong are not unacknowledged;
the future world is not unknown. Even tenderness is not unfelt; the
sorrows of children could touch Moselekatse's heart to its very core.
But how appalling their ignorance, their misery, their SIN! Is it
true that they are responsible--that "they are without excuse"? Is
it true that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men"; that "neither thieves, nor
covetous, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom
of God"; that "the fearful, the abominable, murderers, sorcerers,
idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the second death"?
How loud the call upon us to save them; to waken them from their sleep
of evil, and proclaim with tenderness and power, "Behold the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world"! For all this wrong
and all this misery the Gospel is a perfect remedy, and we have only
to apply it fully. To enlighten these degraded souls by knowledge;
to humanize their hardness; to save women and children; to deliver
all from sin; to bring them upward to the Father whom they have
forgotten, by opening to them His divine compassion in the Lord
Jesus; to make life worth living for, because it is the portal of
a heavenly life for ever: this has been the purpose and this the work
of our faithful brethren for fifty years. Other men have gone there
with very different aims. When once the missionary had made it safe,
the trader followed with his muskets and powder, his exciting
firewater; with his brilliant beads, his gorgeous chintzes, his
convenient cutlery; he followed with sugar, and coffee, and tea,
which he was willing to exchange for karosses and deer-horns, and
cattle; for teeth and tusks of ivory. Aids to civilization such
things might prove; but standing alone how could they elevate, when
powder fed the wars; when the drink prostrated chief and people; and
even Englishmen encouraged the sale of slaves.
True civilization springs from pure religion. Where grace touches
the heart of a man, it quickens all his powers.
"The transformation of apostate man
From fool to wise, from earthly to divine,
Is work for Him that made him."
Among a barbarous people the gospel effects changes in one generation
which ages without its grace have failed to secure. "In coming back
to the station on the Kuruman," says Livingstone, "from the tribes
in the interior, I always felt that I had come back to civilization."
It is the Gospel which has made the Kuruman; and what it is, other
stations are already beginning to be. Apart from its christian church
and christian community; apart from the many who have lived a holy
life and died in the Lord; apart from the well studied translation
of the Bible to which Mr. Moffat has given the strength of his
life,--all over the northern territory the tribes which have heard
the Gospel are waking up to new, strange thought; conscience is
struggling upward into power; and life is taking for them a new form,
and is exhibiting a higher purpose. Peace is desired more than ever;
towns and settlements are becoming seats of constant industry;
waggons are purchased by chiefs and people; cottages and gardens
multiply. When Sechele and five thousand of his people hold a meeting
to pray for rain, and gather again to offer thanks for the blessing
bestowed, the influence of the rain-maker must be on the decline.
And when the Matebele hope that the successor of Moselekatse,
wandering in other districts, will have learned the religion of the
gospel, and rule gently according to its precepts, surely the time
for their deliverance is nigh at hand.
X.--MADAGASCAR.
[Illustration: MAP OF THE COUNTRY 20 MILES AROUND ANTANANARIVO,
MADAGASCAR.]
The MADAGASCAR MISSION is peculiarly dear to the friends of the
London Missionary Society; and not to them only, but to all the
supporters of Foreign Missions. It is the child of their affection;
the object of their most tender compassion, their yearnings, and
their prayers. Its long trial of suffering, the grace given to its
scattered members, their patience, their fidelity, have drawn to its
churches the love, the confidence, the reverence of all christian
hearts. Its history is a very simple one. Founded in 1818, it was
between 1820 and the death of Radama in 1828, that the Mission Schools,
the printing press, and instruction in the industrial arts, laid deep
the foundation of that education and enlightenment which have so
greatly benefited the population at large. And it was during those
brief years the seeds were sown of that true spiritual life and
christian principle which produced a native christian church, and
enabled it, nourished by Divine grace, to bear the bitter persecution
of twenty-six years. No fiercer resolve to maintain an old national
idolatry has been witnessed in modern days, than that from which this
persecution sprang. It was steadfast, uncompromising, and
unrelenting. Maintained throughout the lifetime of the persecutors,
it was especially bitter and violent on three occasions. _a_. In July,
1837, when the profession of christianity was forbidden, when all
christian worship was stopped, and all books were ordered to be given
up, our first martyr, a true christian woman, RASALAMA, was speared.
RAFARALAHY followed her, a year after. In 1840 nine were speared;
many hundreds were made slaves; two hundred at least became fugitives.
In 1842 the persecution extended to VONIZONGO, and, of five brethren
who suffered, two were executed, and three were poisoned. By this
time seventeen had lost their lives: and both christian and heathen
had learned the great lesson, that a true faith in Christ enables
its followers without fear to meet all penalties for conscience' sake,
and even with gladness to lay down life itself. _b_. The second great
trial, intended to be more severe, fell on the scattered church with
the year 1849. Nineteen confessors were seized, but they answered
their persecutors bravely, and looked on death without fear.
Fourteen were thrown over the lofty precipice; the four nobles sang
hymns amid the burning flames, while the bright rainbow arched the
heavens and inspired them with more than mortal joy. Nineteen hundred
of their faithful companions were fined; a hundred were flogged; many
others were enslaved, and made "to serve with rigour" in public works,
in felling timber and hewing stone. But still was it true of these
"children of Israel," "the more they oppressed them, the more they
multiplied and grew." _c_. The third persecution was more bitter and
resolute still. In July, 1857, when mutiny and massacre were at their
height in Upper India, fourteen were stoned to death at FIADANA,
followed by seven others; and sixty-six were loaded with heavy chains.
The church was still more scattered; but many of the leading brethren
were securely hidden, and "had their lives given them as a prey."
In 1861 the church obtained its long-lost liberty, and was permitted
again to profess its belief in open day. Rich in faith, steadfast
in principle, it only needed a wider range of Scripture knowledge
and some little guidance in its public affairs. Singularly free from
the admixture of foreign elements in its constitution, it had pastors
and teachers; the brethren were accustomed to edify one another, and
were zealous for the spread of the truth among their fellow-countrymen.
The progress of the churches during the last eight years has been
sound as well as rapid. Conviction has ripened where the good seed
was sown; thousands have become members; many thousands more have
joined our congregations; numerous churches have been organized both
in the capital and in the country round. The members of the churches
have been true missionaries where they have gone; and thus many, whom
public duty or private interest had led far away from home, have been
the means of planting churches in the district of Vonizongo, and even
in the distant town of Fianarantsoa.
If the measure of our suffering be the measure of our greatness, we
cannot wonder that this martyr church is strong in faith, giving
glory to God. Hence all the quiet but solid strength of their present
prosperity. Hence the great but not too rapid increase, in their
numbers. Hence it is that, though persecution left them poor, they
have built nearly a hundred village chapels; that their search into
the Word of God is deep, continuous, and unwearied; that their
congregations are crowded; that, at a missionary prayer meeting held
early in the day, sixteen hundred persons gather together; and that,
when a volunteer preacher finds it inconvenient every Sabbath to
visit a distant village, his brethren invite him permanently to
reside there, and offer to pay him a sufficient income till that
village shall be christianized.
[Illustration: AMBATONAKANGA CHURCH, MADAGASCAR.]
How shall we forget their grateful rejoicings when the first stone
church in memory of their martyrs was set apart for worship! By the
entire christian population, and even by many heathen, it was felt
to be a truly festive day. From early dawn they began to gather around
the edifice, eager to secure a place on an occasion so memorable.
You see the little parties of christian villagers making their way
across the western plain; coming in from the southward, where many
churches lie; or from the north, where, in the sacred village of
Ambohimanga, the man who should have been chief guardian of its
heathenism, is now the teacher of its christian church. Streaming
along the public roads of the city, the many processions, headed by
their singers, mount to the noble platform of rock on which the Church
of AMBATONAKANGA stands. The building will hold eleven hundred
people, but over four thousand have gathered around it: the doors
are opened at eight; sixteen hundred manage to squeeze in, and the
remainder wait in patience for five hours more, to get their turn
in the afternoon service. Attended by a procession, duly marshalled
with music, high officers of the government bear from the Queen a
condescending message of congratulation and encouragement. And then
the native pastor opens the service. He is one of the earliest
Christians in the island; a man of great ability, of noble,
long-tried character. He was a convert in the old chapel that stood
on that very ground. For years he was hunted for his life; but the
Lord kept him. His noble wife, a true martyr, died in chains; but,
hid in hollow walls, in holes of the rock, in solitary huts and
cowhouses, he marvellously escaped. And when at last, like the rest
of the "slain" church, after long silence, he walked once more
through "the streets of the city," his "enemies beheld him" in wonder.
There he stands in the face of day, honoured and known, the native
pastor of that church, and the appointed tutor of the Queen's adopted
children.
When the late Queen took her journey to the sea, large numbers of
christians attended the camp on official duty, and, by faithfully
observing the Sabbath and holding meetings for worship, afforded
numerous opportunities to their heathen companions of hearing the
gospel preached and of listening to christian prayers. The
impression produced was deep and widespread. When the camp returned
to the capital, hundreds of new faces were seen in the churches, and
the congregations increased so greatly, that chapel building and
enlargement were necessitated on a very extensive scale.
With the reign of her youngest sister, the new Queen, all hesitation
on the part of the Government respecting christianity seemed to pass
away. The leaders had doubted whether it did not necessarily involve
the introduction of purely foreign elements into the general
government of the island. But reassured by the steadfast loyalty of
the Protestant missionaries, who have adhered strictly to their
position as religious teachers, and whose prudent, sober conduct in
difficult circumstances the Directors consider deserving of high
praise, the nobles, believing that christianity had proved itself
a great public blessing, began to accept it heartily for themselves.
Kind messages were sent from the Queen to the missionaries on her
accession; with assurances of public protection for all their
converts. The diviners and idol keepers, who had been so influential
in the palace, were dismissed to country villages. Numerous members
of noble families joined the several congregations in the city, and
many of the highest rank were baptized. The congregations both in
town and country grew larger and larger, and it was most difficult
to find them room. Next a law was passed, putting a stop to all
official work on the Sabbath-day: and was followed by another law,
which directed that Sunday markets should be held on some other
convenient day. After full consideration, the Council repealed the
ancient law, which forbade the erection of stone buildings within
the capital, and had sanctioned only palaces, houses and walls of
wood. Such a step may appear to be a trifle. It may seem to be a matter
merely of economy, safety, and convenience, whether a people shall
build in wood or earth or stone. But the repeal meant more than this.
It was a veritable Reform Bill: it swept away old traditions,
conservative customs, and those rules and motives of the past which
were the buttresses of idolatry, and which had hitherto hindered all
public progress. It was a sign that this young nation had entered
on a new career of life and thought and happiness.
[Illustration: MADAGASCAR--GATHERING OF THE PEOPLE FOR THE MAKING
OF LAWS.]
On the day of the coronation three hundred thousand people gathered
to meet their sovereign. Preceded by a hundred ladies, and by her
Ministers and Council, the Queen was borne to the assembly in simple
state. The old scarlet banners, which were the emblems of the idols'
presence, were wanting in the procession. Around the canopy that
shaded her throne, were written the words of the angels which
welcomed the Redeemer into the world. In front and to her right stood
the table which bore her crown. On another table to the left, was
the Bible presented to her predecessor by the British and Foreign
Bible Society. Her royal speech contained many elevated sentiments:
but it specially announced to all her people liberty of conscience
in regard to christianity of the fullest kind. "This is my word to
you, O ye under heaven, in regard to the praying: it is not enforced:
it is not hindered: for God made you."
For several weeks in a quiet way worship was maintained, and the Bible
read in the palace on the Sabbath-day: the native ministers were
invited to conduct the service. In the country districts gratifying
advance has been made. Village chapels have increased in number. In
the sacred city of Ambohimanga which foreigners may not enter, two
churches have been gathered outside the walls: and on one occasion
one of the missionary brethren addressed a vast congregation in the
open market near. In Vonizongo the churches have increased. Far away
to the south of the capital, the visits of our brethren to the
BETSILEO awoke new life among the converts; and, among the forests
of Tanala, the noble princess Ittovana, one of the ablest among the
able nobles of the island, has declared herself a Christian.
The most conspicuous manifestation of the sympathy of the Queen and
her leading nobles with this advance of religious opinion appeared
in November last, on the opening of the second of the Memorial
Churches, the church at AMBOHIPOTSY. Thirty years ago, in March, 1836,
on a Sunday morning, the little prison of the capital at
Ambatonakanga was opened, and a young woman was led forth to be put
to death. She was just thirty, fair to look upon, and of gentle
manners; and her face was lit with that bright radiance which springs
from the conviction that God and heaven are very near. She walked
forth with firm step; she was surrounded by the guards; and though
going to die, she began to sing in a joyous tone the hymns that she
had loved. Followed by a crowd, of which some hooted and some were
lost in wonder, she passed through the city, towards the dreary ditch
at the south end of the long ridge on which the capital is built.
The scene before her and on either side was one of unusual beauty.
East, west, and south, the broad green plain of Imerina stretched
to the distant horizon, presenting to the eye bright gleams of lakes
and watercourses, of fertile fields and wooded hills; amongst which
nestled the rich villages, and the flocks and herds were feeding in
peace. She saw it not. She saw not the smiling land, the taunting
crowd, the cruel executioner: she saw only the face of her Lord.
Descending the hill, she knelt to pray; and so praying she was speared.
No common honour descended upon her that day: she was the first martyr
of Christ's church in the island of Madagascar. "Strange is it," said
the executioner, "there is a charm about these people; they do not
fear to die."
Thirty-two years have passed away. Again the crowds gather at the
"White Village," and another woman comes down to pray, the object
of attraction to all eyes. But this is the QUEEN of Madagascar. On
the white ridge which overhangs the ditch where RASALAMA died, stands
a handsome church, with its lofty spire, which has been erected to
her memory, and will bear her name upon its walls. The church is
crowded with christian worshippers, and vast numbers are compelled
to remain outside. The Queen, not a persecutor, but a friend, comes
to join her people in dedicating the church to Christian worship;
and, in special sympathy with the occasion, offers her Bible for
pulpit use. The Prime Minister, whose predecessor had assigned
christians to death, now urges his countrymen, in stirring words,
to believe in CHRIST, because He is the Saviour of the world. To all
who are present, ruler and subjects, the occasion is one of unfeigned
joy. Once more the Queen and her christian subjects met before the
year closed. On Christmas Day the palace court was crowded by
converts wishing to present their congratulations, and, at the
Queen's request, they sang some of their hymns and offered prayer.
The Report of the Mission speaks of 20,000 hearers added to the
congregations during last year; and returns the converts at 37,000
persons, including 7,000 members.
Now we hear, on the very eve of this May anniversary, that the QUEEN
herself has been baptized. Humbly and simply, like one of her
subjects, she has sought instruction from her Native Pastors; has
told the story of the growth of her convictions; and has not been
afraid to confess her faith.
All this the Directors of the Society have observed with deepest
thankfulness; and they know that many have sympathized with this
feeling, and have joined them in recognizing these wondrous answers
to prayer. But they feel that heavy responsibilities still rest upon
them as christian men; and that continued care and grace are needed
from the Spirit of God to keep these young churches from surrounding
perils. They have a very definite work before them, and definite
principle to guide them in the doing of it. The third Memorial Church
is being completed, and plans have been adopted for the fourth. They
are strengthening the country mission among the Betsileo tribes;
increased agencies are now at work in general education; and plans
have been suggested for the training of a Native ministry. A reprint
of the Malagasy Testament has been undertaken by the Bible Society;
the general operations of the press are being enlarged; and they are
anxious to strengthen the Medical Mission. The missionary brethren
are watching with wise and jealous care over the purity, the
discipline, and the spiritual independence of the Native churches;
and a UNION of those churches for mutual aid has been inaugurated
during the year.
With numerous Romanist priests and sisters in the capital, the
Protestant ministers, English and Native, are firm in their
adherence to the Bible alone as the appointed instructor and guide
of their people. And it is because the preaching of vital truth has
been so blessed, that the Directors are anxious to prevent the
introduction of all minor controversies. Therefore they cannot but
consider that, in the absence of any number of converts in the
Episcopal missions, the appointment of a Bishop of the Church of
England to Madagascar, promoted by one of those missions, is
undesirable; that it is calculated to introduce confusion among
young converts; to hinder their spiritual progress; and to do them
vital and lasting injury. They have therefore very earnestly pressed
upon the proposers of the scheme that it shall be reconsidered; and
they trust that, as a result of friendly conference, it may be
altogether laid aside.
XI.--MISSIONS IN INDIA.
In India two hundred millions of people are placed under the indirect
jurisdiction or the direct rule of the Queen of England. The empire
is divided into many great provinces, in which are spoken ten
principal languages. All along the great rivers are scattered great
cities, surrounded by hundreds of large towns, and thousands of
populous villages. Many of them are centres of a trade growing
greater every year, and many are also headquarters of Mohammedanism
and of Hindoo idolatry. The endowments and vested interests of
idolatry are of enormous value; the Brahmin families may be counted
by millions; the Hindoo religious books were commenced 1200 years
B.C., and the system itself goes back a thousand years farther still.
Such a system is a formidable antagonist and the barriers it raises
against change are very strong. Yet even Hindooism, so powerful, so
rich, so ancient, is giving way at every point. In the external life
of the Empire, a just government, providing for every one of its
subjects complete security of person and property, and giving them
perfect religious liberty, is adapting its public laws and forms of
administration more fully to the circumstances of the time; and is
introducing the natives more numerously to those posts of duty and
of usefulness for which they become fitted. The order and peace of
the country, encouraging production and trade, have raised the wages
of labour, and given the peasant a command of comfort which he never
knew before. Englishmen have done many wrong things in India, for
which they have been justly chastised. But a new spirit has entered
into the public government of the Empire, and during the last seven
years, a degree of improvement and a solid advance have taken place,
in the course of legislation and in the material wealth of the empire,
of which none, except men who have seen it, have any idea. Three
Universities, whose annual examinations in the English and native
languages draw hundreds of native students, stand at the summit of
a sound system of education which is spreading more widely every
year.
[Illustration: BANGALORE INSTITUTION.]
In the direct religious teaching of the people, nearly six hundred
missionaries from Europe and America, sustained by twenty-two
Missionary Societies, have planted stations in the most populous and
influential cities. Joined by two hundred ordained Native Ministers
and two thousand Native Preachers, they carry on a system of
christian agency which costs the important sum of 300,000 pounds
sterling a year. Many calumnies have been uttered respecting
missionaries, and their work, by men who have professed to visit the
cities where they labour, and saw nothing of its results. But these
are more than answered by the striking fact that, of the money
annually expended on these Missions no less than 50,000 pounds are
contributed by the English residents in India, who live among the
missions and see them with their own eyes.
And what is the result? We can point to 50,000 adult communicants,
to congregations of 250,000 people, and to our two hundred native
clergy, as fruits of grace and proofs of blessing from above. But
one of the greatest fruits of all missionary labour in India in the
past and in the present is to be found in the mighty change already
produced in the knowledge and convictions of the people at large.
Everywhere the Hindoos are learning that an idol is nothing, and that
bathing in the Ganges cannot cleanse away sin. Everywhere they are
getting to know that to us there is one God, even the Father, and
one Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of all nations. A native scholar,
speaking of his own religion, has said of it, "Hindooism is sick unto
death: I am persuaded it must fall."
A crowd once asked a Berlin missionary, "Sir, why does not the
Government abolish Juggernaut, and save us from the penalties of
outcasts if we profess Christianity?" While the new school of
educated men, calling themselves Theists, in myriads are seeking for
a better way, without encountering the same great penalties. A
glorious future is indicated by these "signs of the heaven," which
seem to me to prove that in a great Empire in which public opinion
is compact and firm, a vast change in preparation for the future may
be produced while churches and converts are comparatively few. Like
Israel of old in presence of Moab, in the darkness of night we have
been digging ditches by Divine command; but when His day of grace
shall dawn and the morning sacrifice be offered, He shall fill them
in abundance with His Spirit's streams, and the whole Empire be
revived.
Shall the children of the world, in these matters, be wise in their
generation, and the children of light not go and do likewise? It is
the universal conviction of residents in India that it is a wise
course not to denationalize its inhabitants, but to keep them a
distinct people; merely introducing into their dress and style of
living those improvements which are demanded by health or by
propriety. To make them Europeans is almost certain to do them
irreparable injury. Adaptation is the law of life. Europeans,
wherever they go, adapt their houses, their dress, their habits, and
their food to the climate under which they live. However strong may
be the belief of Englishmen in the excellence of our constitutional
government, yet in all our colonies and dependencies the form adopted
is one suitable to the knowledge, the power, the training, the degree
of self-government attained by the people of that particular place.
In no case do the English rulers force upon a dependency a system
of government unsuitable to it, however excellent that system may
in itself be.
[Illustration: TEMPLES OF SIVA.]
So ought missionaries and Missionary Societies to act in building
up native churches in foreign lands. Nowhere ought we to import and
force upon them those systems of church government which amongst
ourselves have been largely shaped out by political struggles, by
numerous controversies, by local experience, and by the far reaching
thoughts of a few great minds. In most cases we are ourselves
outgrowing them. In striking instances these systems in Europe are
found in certain of their elements to trammel and to cramp the life,
the energy, the lofty aspirations of spiritual minds. And among the
great problems now before us for the edification and extension of
our modern churches, are not all thoughtful men anxious to see how
in every case they may be made more elastic, more perfectly adapted
in their organization, as well as in their plans of benevolence, to
the demands of the present day; and specially how they may be so
widened as to draw into the church in largest degree the piety, the
experience, the zeal of the lay members of which our churches are
chiefly composed?
[Illustration: MRS. CORBOLD'S GIRLS' SCHOOL, MADRAS.]
Why should we put upon the neck of our young disciples a yoke which
we and our fathers have not been able to bear? We must teach them
some system, and missionaries of different churches will naturally,
as well as from conscientious principles, teach their own. But let
us teach the systems in their essential elements; let us teach those
elements which have stood the test of time, and are found suitable
to the spiritual power, the self-management, the general resources,
the christian civilization of the churches which we are asked to
guide. We may well separate the theory and the principles of our
different churches from the churches themselves as shaped out by
history and by the conditions and the course of our own national life.
Then will their real worth and excellence be more truly manifested,
to the honour of God and the edification of His children. Let us not
only open our alabaster box, let us also be willing to break it, if
only the perfume of the Divine ointment may fill the house of God,
and cheer and refresh the weary souls within its walls.
The most prominent feature in the INDIA Mission of this Society has
been the ORDINATION of Evangelists to the work of the ministry;
either as Pastors of Churches, as missionaries to the heathen, or
assistants to the missionaries. English education continues to
extend its influence. The INSTITUTIONS in Calcutta, Madras, and
Bangalore, are fuller than ever, and very efficient. The school fees
in India during 1868 amounted to 940 pounds. The attitude of the
educated classes towards christianity has wonderfully changed, and
the impression it is making on them is very strong. In the same great
cities Female education now occupies a larger place than ever in the
labours of the Mission. In two of the missions of South India, seven
among the well-trained evangelists of those missions have been
ordained as pastors or missionaries during the past two years, and
eleven others have been proposed for the same responsibilities. The
number in Travancore still stands at eleven, and in North India at
six. The total number of Native ordained pastors and missionaries
in the Indian Missions of this Society is twenty-eight, of whom
fifteen are pastors of churches, and thirteen are employed as
missionaries. It will probably ere long amount to forty.
[Illustration: TEMPLE OF SIVA.]
The TRAVANCORE Mission has now been established more than sixty years.
The settled agencies, which have shaped it into its present form,
have been at work just half a century. And none who contrast the
present state of the province with what it was when the mission began,
can fail to mark the wonderful progress which it has made during these
sixty years, in every element of true prosperity. The province has
enjoyed an increasing degree of security and order under its native
rulers, and has made special advance under its present enlightened
RAJA and his able minister Sir T. Madhava Rao. While slavery and
serfdom have been abolished, the intensity of Brahminical bigotry
has been diminished, and a very large measure of religious freedom
has been secured for the varied classes of the population. Sound
knowledge and freedom of thought on the most important subjects
prevail to an extent utterly unknown at the commencement of the
present century. At the same time, the direct work of the mission
has met with the most encouraging success. In the seven districts
of the mission, recently reduced to six, the great number of native
churches, the large congregations, the number of scholars, the order
and general purity of christian society, and the liberality with
which the agencies of the gospel are supported, exhibit that success
in a striking manner. The crowning proofs of blessing and prosperity
are seen in the congregations prepared for complete self-support;
in their great liberality; in the large band of well-educated Native
preachers and teachers; in newly appointed elders; and in excellent
and tried native pastors. In these latter points the Travancore
mission has begun to take rank with some of the most advanced missions
of all Societies, and to approach the position of rural churches in
Great Britain itself.
XII.--CHINA.
[Illustration: MAP OF PEKING AND MONGOLIA.]
In the Empire of China the London Missionary Society occupies seven
principal stations and employs twenty-one English missionaries. By
their efforts several churches have been founded, which have been
blessed with true prosperity. No cases of earnest personal effort
have been more striking in their character and results than those
which have occurred among the prosperous churches of AMOY. Last year
the Directors published, in the usual way, detailed information from
the Rev. JOHN STRONACH, of the opening of new stations at BO-PIEN
and TIO-CHHU, and showed from Mr. Stronach's journal the hearty
reception which he met with on his visit to these villages in the
interior of the province. In the REPORT of the Amoy mission further
particulars were given, which indicated the progress of the movement,
and the healthy manner in which it has been carried on. The Directors
trust that from the outset these earnest Christians will understand
that it is their privilege and their duty to sustain for themselves
the ordinances of that faith which they have now received:--
"On the 2nd of December, Mr. JOHN STRONACH visited a large village
still further distant, called San-io, and had, in the spacious public
school-room, a numerous and attentive audience for two hours. But
the chief interest was displayed in the village of Tang-soa, distant
from Bo-pien about twelve miles, the native place of the zealous,
but as yet unbaptized convert, whose earnest efforts to instruct his
numerous neighbours I referred to in my recent letter. In Tang-soa
his efforts among his relatives have been so successful that many
of the villagers not only gave up the school-room for us to give
addresses in, but, after listening to them with an interest
altogether new in that part of the country, begged me to gratify their
desires for regular instruction in Christianity by establishing
services every Sunday. I asked what proof they could give of the
sincerity of their desire, and fifteen replied by bringing in the
evening all the idols they owned, and in the presence of about forty
of their fellow villagers, placing them on the table and then
decapitating them, breaking them in sundry pieces, trampling them
frequently under their feet, and otherwise ignominiously treating
them, to the great delight of the numerous boys who were present and
who joined gleefully in the sport; and we were at once offered the
village school-room as another chapel, with the hope of eventually
being put in possession of the idol temple. One of the deacons at
Bo-pien, who has often attended the examinations for the first
literary degree, has been engaged as an assistant preacher. At
Tio-chhu, the new station referred to in my last letter, I had the
pleasure, on the 8th December, of baptizing four additional converts,
making twelve in all."
The Report further observes with respect to the general character
of the churches in Amoy:--
"While lamenting the falls of some, we rejoice in the salvation of
many. In the region of BO-PIEN there has been a decided awakening;
not the least interesting feature of which is, that it was commenced
by the preaching of an individual who belonged to a church the fewness
of whose members has often been cause of regret; thus showing us that
the Gospel, though producing apparently little impression in one
place, may be productive of the highest results in another; and that,
though a church may not increase in numbers, it yet may increase in
the usefulness of its members.
"It is with unfeigned joy that we observe among our church members
many whose endeavour to overcome their evil habits and customs, whose
love for the Scriptures, habits of prayer, patient forbearance of
injuries, and general Christian behaviour, convince us that their
piety is such as the great Head of the Church will greatly approve."
The city of HANKOW, far up the river Yangtse, in the centre of CHINA,
has often been spoken of in the Society's periodicals as one of the
most wonderful mission stations in the world. The Society's work
commenced in HANKOW in 1861. It has steadily prospered from the first.
But during the past two years the Church has received unusual
blessings; has doubled its numbers, and has received several
remarkable accessions from the heathen. The Rev. G. JOHN thus
describes these results:--
"Profound gratitude to Almighty God for His presence and aid should
be the predominant sentiment of our hearts. The numerical accession
which the church has received this year is considerably in excess
of that of any previous year. In 1862, ten adults were baptized; in
1863, twelve; in 1864, thirteen; in 1865, eleven; in 1866,
twenty-two; in 1867, FIFTY-ONE have been added to our number. Thus,
whilst year by year the work has been steadily though slowly
advancing, this year its progress has been rapid and signal. But it
is not in the mere number that we rejoice. We rejoice in these
fifty-one converts principally on account of their general character,
their various stations in life, and the circumstances in which, and
the means by which they have been brought into the fold of Christ.
In these respects they are to us a source of much consolation and
encouragement.
"One interesting fact connected with these fifty-one members is,
that thirteen of them are women, and that eleven of the thirteen are
the wives of converts. The conversion of the female population of
China is a subject which must weigh heavily and constantly on the
heart of every earnest missionary. The obstacles are many and
formidable. Both by preaching and private conversation, for nearly
six years, I have been labouring to impress on the minds of the
converts the duty and importance of bringing their wives under the
direct influence of the Gospel. They would maintain that the custom
of the country was against it. To attend chapel and join the men in
public worship, would bring not only the wife, but the whole family
into contempt, and so on.
"Last, year there were evident signs of a movement in the right
direction; and this year the result has exceeded my most sanguine
expectations. Nineteen women have already been received into the
church, several are now coming in, and we have every reason to hope
that most of the wives of the converts who reside in and around Hankow
will be identified with us before the end of next year. There are
now several whole families in the church, and it is getting to be
generally understood that it is the solemn duty of the Christian
member of a family to make the salvation of every member of that
family a matter of deep personal concern."
[Illustration: GOLDEN ISLAND, ON THE YANG-TSE RIVER, CHINA.]
The great value of Hankow as a mission station, and the variety of
persons which it brings into contact with the Gospel, are strikingly
illustrated by Mr. JOHN:--
"There is one more interesting fact connected with these fifty-one
members, namely, that they represent SEVERAL DIFFERENT PROVINCES,
and various ranks and grades of society. Only on Sunday week I
baptized six men, who represent five distinct provinces. Of the 108
members still in communion, about seventy reside in and around the
cities of Hankow, Wu-Chang, and Han-Yang. The rest are scattered over
the country, and, we trust, are spreading abroad the knowledge of
the truth. These facts tend to impress on our minds the importance
of Hankow as a Mission station; and they prove an observation which
I made in a former communication to be correct--namely, that the
whole Empire may be influenced more or less from this grand centre.
"But these men not only represent different Provinces and Districts
of the Empire; they represent also different grades of society. Some
of them are scholars, and others are tradesmen; some are artizans,
and others are peasants; some are poor, but none (with one exception)
are helpless. We have in the church at present one who has obtained
his M.A. degree, eight who have obtained their B.A. degree, and a
large number of ordinary scholars who have passed their
matriculation examination. Among those who were admitted on Sunday
week, there were a scholar, a merchant, and a barber. It was
interesting to see representatives of the highest and lowest grades
of Chinese society meet before the same font on Sunday; and then,
on the following Wednesday, at the Christmas feast, occupying
adjoining seats. Both are filling stations in life in which they may
exercise a beneficial influence on many around them."
XIII.--THE WEST INDIA MISSION.
[Illustration: A MAP OF PART OF BRITISH GUIANA.]
From the ample information recently furnished by the missionaries
to the Directors, we learn that these two colonies of the British
Crown contain together a population of Negro extraction amounting
to half a million individuals; viz.: BRITISH GUIANA, 100,000;
JAMAICA, 400,000. Besides these there are Indian Coolies, 28,800 in
number, of whom GUIANA has 25,000. That province also contains 7,000
Indians, while Jamaica has its thousands of heathen Maroons. The
ruling population of whites is 13,816 in Jamaica, and 2,000 in Guiana,
or about 16,000 in all. This native population of half a million,
just equal in number to the population of the single city of Calcutta
or Canton, spread over an occupied territory of twelve thousand
square miles, and situated only four thousand miles from England,
enjoys the services of three hundred professed ministers of the
Gospel; of whom a hundred and forty are supplied by Missionary
Societies not connected with the established churches and supported
by voluntary funds. The bulk of the population is nominally Christian,
and has been for some years as well instructed in Christianity as
an equal number of persons in the country parts of England. And
doubtless it has been thus christianized the more fully because of
the large supply of religious teachers furnished by the different
sections of the Church of Christ.
It is evident that the converts in Jamaica occupy a much higher
position of physical and social comfort than those in GUIANA, and
that the latter are not so well off as they were five-and-twenty years
ago. While wages have fallen and prices have increased, it is evident
that the moral influence of the 25,000 Coolies from India, with all
their heathen vices, on the 100,000 Creoles has been exceedingly
injurious. In neither colony has there been that thorough spiritual
growth, that self-control, that self-reliance among the christian
converts generally, which their best friends hoped for and thought
they were able to find. This cannot be deemed unnatural, when it is
considered that only thirty years have passed since the Act of
Emancipation, and that ages of training will be needed before the
moral taint of slavery is purified away.
[Illustration: RIDGEMOUNT, JAMAICA.]
The Directors therefore feel that it would be in every way a mistake
to throw these young and imperfect churches at once upon their own
resources. They have also not seriously entertained the suggestion
made to commend them to the care of some other evangelical
denomination seeking the same end as ourselves. Nevertheless the
Board cannot think it right or wise to continue the present system
unchanged. If unable completely to run alone, our churches are too
large, the members too numerous, and their resources too great to
justify any continuance of that complete dependence upon the Society
which has prevailed with them hitherto. The Board desire to see the
churches strong in themselves, managing completely their own affairs,
providing the ministry by which they shall be instructed, and engaged
heartily in missionary efforts for the conversion of their heathen
neighbours. This is the end which, they trust, will henceforth be
distinctly kept in view, and which should be sought by every means
which practical experience finds suitable to promote it.
They have resolved, therefore, to adopt the following
measures:--First, they limit the staff of English missionaries to
the number of men (thirteen) now left in the field. They desire that
steady efforts shall be made to place all the churches under the
pastoral charge of suitable Native ministers. They desire that all
the local and incidental expenses of the mission shall be entirely
defrayed by the Native Churches. Lastly, they will limit their grants
from England to the allowance of the English missionaries.
XIV.--INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.
1.--RECEIPTS.
1. CONTRIBUTIONS FOR GENERAL PURPOSES--
a. Subscriptions, Donations, and pound. s. d.
Collections 56,685 2 11
b. Dividends 584 4 9
c. Australian Auxiliaries and Foreign
Societies 3,191 6 10
d. Legacies 10,875 13 7
e. Fund for Widows and Orphans and
Retired Missionaries 4,500 15 0
f. Mission Stations, English and Native
Contributions, raised and
appropriated 19,414 16 4
g. Ditto, additional from the South
Seas, unappropriated 1,070 19 5
------------ 96,322 18 10
2. CONTRIBUTIONS FOR SPECIAL OBJECTS--
a. For the Extension of Missions in China 552 12 10
b. For the Extension of Missions in India 371 5 4
c. For Madagascar Mission 1,521 7 11
d. For Memorial Churches 1,267 17 0
e. For Training Native Agents, other
than in India 1,000 0 0
f. For Missionary Ship 253 19 0
g. For Expenditure of 1867 and 1868 79 7 8
------------ 5,046 9 9
------------
Total Income 101,369 8 7
3. Balance in hand, May, 1868 1,062 8 4
4. Funded Property, Tasmania Bond, paid off 500 0 0
5. Value of Stock transferred from Ship
Account 2,432 0 0
6. Rev. Dr. Tidman's Testimonial Fund 3,483 18 11
----------- 7,478 7 3
------------
108,847 15 10
============
2.--EXPENDITURE.
1. FOREIGN EXPENDITURE.
a. China Mission: allowances of the English
Missionaries; Rents; Repairs; Sick Leave;
Expenses of Itinerancies; Native Agency;
Education, and the Press (as detailed in the
last Annual Report) 10,103 7 3
b. India Missions: Bengal and North India; the
Madras Presidency; and Travancore 35,386 13 11
c. Madagascar Mission 6,686 4 4
d. South Africa Mission 9,872 1 6
e. West India Mission 9,225 10 9
f. Mission in the South Seas 13,454 19 2
g. Education of Missionary Students 2,109 10 1
h. Retired Missionaries; Widows and Orphans 3,398 8 0
------------
TOTAL FOREIGN EXPENDITURE 90,236 15 3
2. HOME EXPENDITURE.
a. Expenses of Administration 1,913 16 10
b. Expenses in Raising Funds 3,477 12 4
c. Periodical Literature 1,539 1 1
d. General Home Expenses 794 19 8
-----------
TOTAL HOME EXPENDITURE 7,725 9 11
------------
Total expended in 1868 97,962 5 2
3. Investments 9,017 0 0
4. Balance in hand, May 1, 1869 1,868 10 8
------------
108,847 15 10
=============
This statement shows that the greater ordinary income secured during
the past year is needed every year, to maintain the Society at its
present strength. Even with revised establishments working at a
reduced cost, the Directors still require 75,000 pounds a-year to
meet the various items of general expenditure for which they have
directly to provide. But that is precisely the amount which the
revived interest and the earnest exertions of deputations and
collectors have brought into their hands; and no margin is left at
their command to cover any extraordinary expense which may arise.
Nowhere, therefore, may our friends relax their efforts or diminish
their recent gifts. Givers, collectors, ministers who plead, are
still invited to uphold the hands of the Society, and to urge its
claims. And if we look to extension, that extension which comes
naturally to a prosperous field: still more to that extension for
which the field untouched cries mightily day by day: how shall this
enlargement of our operations be secured but by still augmented
resources, by still higher consecration, still greater liberality,
and more earnest prayer?
The SOCIETY DESERVES such help from our Churches; its history, its
sphere of usefulness, the spirit in which it is managed, the rich
prosperity which the Lord has granted to its labours, all appeal in
its name. THE FIELD DESERVES AND NEEDS IT. How little has been
accomplished of the holy purpose which Missions have in view.
Compared with the millions unevangelized, the converts gained are
numerically nothing. Indeed, the sphere of our labour has continued
ever to grow wider, and every answer of God's providence to the
Church's gifts and prayers and self-denial has been to extend its
power to be useful and give it much more to do.
And does not the LORD CLAIM from us this larger service? He has shown
the need of the heathen world more clearly, and made the argument
for instructing it unanswerable.
We have prospects for the future to which the gains of the past are
poor. With our skilled agencies, all shaped by experience, with plans
well-tried, with our versions and our literatures in every tongue,
with China opened widely in answer to prayer, with India deeply moved,
with Africa free, with Polynesia raised and civilized, with
Madagascar purified by fire--what tokens have we of manifest
blessing, of approval, and of divine help! The old systems have
fallen, or are paralysed, or are trembling with fear; and the young
life of the world is drawing towards freedom and truth. Our results
are incomplete; they are but an earnest of successes yet to be
gathered; and the full reward will be reaped more truly as the years
go by. But how noble that reward will be!
A pleasant custom prevails in India which will illustrate our
position. At all the military stations of the Empire, the troops are
summoned to parade in the early morning by the firing of a gun. The
night may still be dark; the restless sleeper may fancy it will yet
be long. But suddenly amid the stillness loud and clear booms out
the morning gun. The stars are still shining, and the landscape is
wrapped in gloom. But THE DAWN IS NEAR; and soon every eye is open,
every foot astir, and the busy, waking life of men again begins. The
fleecy clouds that hang on the eastern horizon grow ruddy with gold;
and the arrowy light shoots its bright rays athwart the clear blue
sky. The dust and foulness which the night has hidden stand revealed.
But in the forests and hills the pulses of nature beat fresh and full;
the leopard and the tiger slink away; the gay flowers open; the birds
flit to and fro, and with woodland music welcome the rising day. In
the city all forms of life quicken into active exercise. The trader
sits ready on his stall; the judge is on the bench; the physician
allays pain; the mother tends her child. The claims of human duty
come again into full force; benevolence is active; suffering and
disappointment, forgotten in sleep, press with new weight on weary
hearts. What a mighty change one hour has made!
Long has the night of heathenism and of wickedness ruled over the
world. "Darkness has covered the earth, and gross darkness the
people." But the gun has fired and "THE MORNING COMETH." The nations
once wrapped in gloom are waking to life and truth. Divine light is
quickening all the pulses of human thought; the heart beats more
warmly; the eye looks upward, and the great world is drawing nearer
to its Father. The Gentiles are coming to the light, and kings to
the brightness of His rising. And when at length the Sun of
Righteousness shall rise in power, His new creation, "with verdure
clad, with beauty, vigour, grace adorned," shall give Him loving
welcome; and He shall shine, to set no more, on "the new heavens and
new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."
APPENDIX.
Extension of our Missions.
One valuable result has followed the recent revision of the Society's
missions, which was scarcely expected when that revision began. The
Directors already find themselves able to contemplate an extension
of our missions into new localities long crying out for aid. They
are moving in the following direction:--
For several years past the SOUTH SEA MISSION has taken up but a small
quantity of new ground. Small groups like the Ellice group, the
Lagoon Islands, and the Tuamotus, with a few hundred people, have
been instructed. But since Niue and the Loyalty group were
evangelised, nearly twenty years ago, not a single large island has
been occupied. Meanwhile the Theological Institutions have been
training native students in considerable numbers, and many are now
ready for evangelistic work. The Directors therefore are anxious to
commence such work in new localities without delay; and they have
arranged that, during her next year's voyage, the _John Williams_
shall visit the large islands of the northern New Hebrides, together
with the Kingsmill and other groups, in order to establish new
missions among the thousands of heathen which they contain. The
Directors hope that not less than thirty competent and devoted native
evangelists will go forth on this expedition. In due time English
missionaries will follow: and three of our valued brethren on the
spot have already volunteered for the service. In Eastern Polynesia
the brethren in Tahiti and the Leeward Islands will complete on
system the efforts which they have recently commenced in the Tuamotu
or Pearl Islands. For this desired extension funds have been already
provided or offered by two of the Society's warm friends.
The Mission towards CENTRAL AFRICA suggested by Mr. Moffat and Dr.
Livingstone, was zealously commenced eleven years ago. Successfully
established, notwithstanding many disasters, it has continued to
hold its ground. When their revision commenced, the Directors
proposed at once to strengthen this important mission. Several new
stations have been named by the missionaries which the Directors hope
in due time to occupy. During the last two years three new
missionaries have been added to the former staff of labourers, and
two others will join them next summer. The missionaries north of the
Orange River will then be thirteen in number, of whom nine will be
engaged in direct missionary work. This increase, required by our
duty to the tribes waiting on our instructions, is entirely dependent
upon the Society's general funds.
Many years ago the MONGOLIAN MISSION, which had been carried on by
our honoured brethren, Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass, near the
Siberian edge of the Tartar deserts and among the Buriat Mongols,
was broken up by the Russian Government, and our brethren were
withdrawn. The Directors have not forgotten that mission, nor lost
their interest in the Mongol tribes. Recent enquiries have shown that
the effort may be renewed with excellent prospects, on the China side
of Mongolia, and that the city of Peking will form a suitable base
of operations. Among their present missionary students the Directors
believe that they have found a suitable man; and he will proceed in
the spring to Peking to take up his new position. The funds necessary
at the outset have already been provided in the generous gift of Mrs.
Swan.
Generally in INDIA and CHINA the Directors have been enlarging their
operations by the completion and filling in of existing agencies.
New chapels at Tientsin; a chapel and dwelling house in Wu-chang;
two houses in Canton; a school and dwelling in Almorah; a house at
the newly-founded station of Ranee Khet; a new High School in
Benares; a medical missionary in Singrowli; an additional house in
Calcutta; additional missionaries in South India and Travancore; all
have been asked for: and the greatness of the requirements bears
testimony to the importance of the sphere and of the opportunities
which are open to the Society in these Eastern Empires. Several of
the buildings have already been provided or have been sanctioned:
others are under consideration. But any solid extension of these two
great missions must for the present be deferred.
The needs of MADAGASCAR cannot be overlooked. The call of God's
providence and grace is so clear that the Directors have not
hesitated to arrange for a decided increase of the English staff.
Five ordained missionaries will proceed to the Island early in the
coming summer; and one, if not two, medical missionaries. The
Betsileo province has long waited for help, and it is proposed to
place, if possible, four ordained missionaries and one medical man
amongst its important and populous towns. The mere sending of these
brethren will cost a sum of 1,500 pounds; their maintenance will
require 2,000 pounds a-year. The Directors however cannot hesitate
to offer this aid to the churches and people among whom the Spirit
of God is so powerfully at work: and they do it in the faith that
the Lord to whose call they listen will prompt his people to provide
the means by which the brethren shall be sustained. They have had
great difficulty in finding suitable medical missionaries, and they
ask their friends to make it a matter of earnest prayer that the
Spirit of God will touch the hearts of the right men to offer their
service to His cause.
The Directors adopt these moderate measures for the extension of the
Society's usefulness in hope. From every quarter they continue to
receive gratifying proofs of the increased interest taken in their
work. The attendance at the autumn gatherings of country auxiliaries
has been large, and the spirit that has been displayed was generous
and earnest. At Birmingham and Bristol; at Hastings and Halifax; at
York and Leeds this spirit was specially manifest: the Bristol
meetings, always warm and earnest, were this year enthusiastic. And
everywhere the missionary brethren testify to the kindly manner in
which they are received and heard.
God is giving us the means of usefulness. He is also bringing a steady
supply of suitable men. But the fields are "white unto the harvest,"
and we must pray the Lord of the harvest to send more labourers to
reap in his name. To extend our work larger means are required; and
the friends of the Society will see that all additions to the present
income will be available for the extension so desirable. Never were
the exhortation and prediction more applicable: "Enlarge the place
of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine
habitations; SPARE NOT, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy
stakes." "And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their
offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them,
THAT THEY ARE THE SEED WHICH THE LORD HATH BLESSED."
BLOMFIELD STREET, FINSBURY.
_November, 1869_.
YATES AND ALEXANDER, PRINTERS, SYMONDS INN, CHANCERY LANE.
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