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 Heroes of the mission fieldj 
 
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HEROES 
 
 MISSION FIELD. 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REV. 
 
 W. PAKENHAM ivALSH, D.D , 
 
 BISHOP OF OSSORY, 
 
 Author of " The Moabite Stone," etc. 
 
 HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 
 
 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 MDCCCLXXIX. 
 
HazeH, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury. 
 
^;W^;%V:^iV^Aj( 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 My object in writing the following papers 
 (which were prepared by request, for the 
 members of the Church Homiletical Society, 
 and published in the Clergyman s Magazine) , 
 was to exhibit not only for the benefit of 
 clergymen, but of laymen also, a broad and 
 connected view of missionary effort from 
 the earliest ages of the Christian Church 
 down to the close of the last century. A 
 very prevalent idea seems to exist that 
 after the first two or three centuries had 
 passed by, there was a total or nearly total 
 cessation of missionary work until a period 
 very little removed from our own time. 
 The sketches here presented will help to 
 remove such a false impression, and to 
 show that in all ages there have been some 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 efforts made for the extension of the gospel, 
 varying indeed in value with the amount 
 of light and spirituality possessed by those 
 who made them, but contributing, even in 
 the darkest days, to the welfare of the 
 world and the salvation of men. 
 
 My plan has been to select prominent 
 and typical characters, around whom the 
 missionary efforts of their own or afte* 
 ages seemed to revolve, and by whom 
 such efforts were either initiated or sus- 
 tained. 
 
 If it be not pretentious to say so, my 
 aim has been to exhibit the progress of 
 the Christian Church from a missionary 
 stand-point, and to show how the various 
 nations and peoples of Christendom received 
 their knowledge of the Christian faith. By 
 grouping the circumstances connected with 
 its diffusion around central characters, one 
 was enabled to do more justice to those 
 individuals who have been selected from the 
 illustrious roll of Missionary Heroes, and 
 at the same time to throw something of 
 the interest which attaches to individual life 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 over the wider ranges of ecclesiastical 
 history. 
 
 The writer makes no pretence to origi- 
 nality of thought or to freshness of historic 
 discovery. The facts which he has gathered 
 into so small a compass are culled from 
 the pages of ancient and modern writers ; 
 and he can only claim the credit of having 
 brought them together in a connected, and 
 he trusts, instructive, form. The works of 
 Eusebius, Bede, Neander, Merivale, Macclear, 
 and many others who have written the lives of 
 individual missionaries, or sketched the pro- 
 gress of the Church at large, have been ran- 
 sacked, and their information appropriated ; 
 and if I have not in every instance quoted 
 my authority, or acknowleged my obliga- 
 tions, it was only because the character 
 of my work did not render it necessary, 
 and the space at my command did not 
 render it possible. Most of the sketches 
 were written amidst the pressure of new 
 and onerous duties, and I am only too 
 conscious that they necessarily bear upon 
 them the marks of haste and imperfection. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 To some who may read these pages, the 
 very names of some of my Missionary 
 Heroes will be strange. If so, I rejoice in 
 giving a wider fame to men who deserve 
 to be better known. Other names, however, 
 will be missed which seem equally deserv- 
 ing of high memorial ; but it must be 
 remembered that this is not a history of 
 all Missionary Heroes, but a selection of 
 the most typical amongst them, and of those, 
 moreover, who were sundered far from each 
 other not only by time, but by distinctive 
 peculiarities of work, and position, and 
 character. It will be seen, moreover, that 
 one or two names have been introduced 
 which some might think had better have 
 been omitted, but in my judgment they 
 were necessary to the completion of my plan. 
 
 I have not ventured into the records of 
 the present century, because in them the 
 names of Missionary Heroes are so abundant 
 and so distinguished that it would be im- 
 possible to make suitable selections, and 
 it would be better to relegate all mention 
 of them to a separate volume. Besides, my 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 desisrn was attained when I had once 
 linked the story of apostolic missions to 
 those of our own times, and the history of 
 the latter is so much better known than 
 that of preceding ages that it did not 
 stand in the same need of an interpreter. 
 
 If a perusal of these pages serve not 
 only to diffuse missionary information, but 
 to excite a missionary spirit, and to enlist 
 or increase the sympathies of a larger 
 number in the cause of Christian Missions, 
 my highest ambition in the matter shall 
 have been attained ; and if one and another 
 be led through the example of those " Heroes 
 of the Mission Field " to devote their own 
 lives to the same glorious enterprise, my 
 most fervent prayers concerning this humble 
 effort shall have been answered. 
 
 The Palace, Kilkenny. 
 
 Dectmber 1878. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Apostolic and Early Missions : The First Three 
 
 Centuries i 
 
 II. St. Martin of Tours, a.d. 374-397 ; Ulphilas, 
 
 Apostle of the Goths, a.d. 341-388 - - 25 
 
 III. St. Patrick (a.d. 432-493) and his followers - 45 
 
 IV. St. Augustine in England, a.d. 596-605 ; St. 
 
 Boniface in Germany, a.d. 716-755 - - 67 
 V. Anschar, the Apostle of the North, a.d. 826-865 87 
 VI. Adalbert, Missionary and Martyr amongst the 
 
 Sclavonians, a.d. 983-997 .... 107 
 VII. Otto, the Apostle of Pomerania, a.d. 1124-1139 125 
 VIII. Raymund Lull, Philosopher, Missionary, Mar- 
 tyr, A.D. I29I-I315 145 
 
 IX. Francis Xavier, Missionary to the Indies and 
 
 Japan, a.d. 1541-1552 163 
 
 X. Eliot, the Apostle of the Red Indians, a.d. 
 
 1646- 1690 187 
 
 XI. Hans Egede, the Apostle of Greenland, a.d. 
 
 1721-1758 209 
 
 XII. Christian Frederic Schwartz, a.d. 1750- 1798 - 229 
 
iitC. JAN 1882 \ 
 
 theologig^ll/ 
 
 I. 
 
 APOSTOLIC AND EARLY MISSIONS: 
 THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 A MAP of the world, when looked upon with 
 reference to the planting and spread of 
 Christianity, is suggestive of far-reaching 
 thoughts. It presents to the mind most 
 varied and important questions ; not only 
 arraying before us the great missionary 
 enterprises of our own day, but carrying 
 us back in thought to ages long gone by, 
 as well as onward to future scenes which, 
 according to the unfailing word of prophecy, 
 are sure to come. Here and there, as we 
 review the past, we call up the history of 
 mighty men who went forth amid the 
 world's darkness to carry the torch of truth 
 into its dark places — some of them men of 
 
 I 
 
2 HEROES OF 
 
 clearer, and some of them men of lesser 
 light— some of them holding forth the Word 
 of Life in all its divine simplicity — some of 
 them doing their work with erring though 
 earnest hands, unconscious to themselves 
 how much they dimmed the very light 
 which they meant to spread ; but still, 
 each and all of them contributing in their 
 time and place to " prepare the way of 
 the Lord." 
 
 It is our purpose in this series of papers 
 to sketch the lives and labours of some of 
 these missionary heroes, selecting those 
 who were typical characters, and endeavour- 
 ing to trace in their work and history the 
 various influences for good or for evil which 
 from time to time have been at work in 
 the extension of the Church of Christ. We 
 shall endeavour, as far as possible, to follow 
 a chronological order, so that the series of 
 lives may fairly represent the continuous 
 history of missionary enterprise from the 
 earliest ages dovv^n to the present time. It 
 will not be possible, in such an attempt, to 
 do more than present a general outline of 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 3 
 
 the great subject; but it may lead some of 
 our readers to enter into the investig-ation 
 of it more fully for themselves ; whilst to 
 those who have not time for deeper study, 
 it may supply such general information as 
 may be available for their own satisfaction, 
 and also aid them in bringing before others 
 the missionary subject. 
 
 The Acts of the Apostles may bs looked 
 upon as the first missionary record of the 
 Christian Church, and although it is mainly 
 taken up with the labours of one man — 
 the great apostle of the Gentiles, who stands 
 pre-eminent even amongst apostolic mission- 
 aries — yet it shows us how widely the gospel 
 of Christ had spread even in the apostolic 
 age. Into all the countries bordering upon 
 the Mediterranean the heralds of the cross 
 had carried the glad tidings of redemption. 
 We read of Christians in Rome even be- 
 fore St. Paul visited the imperial city. We 
 read of his intention to visit Spain, and we 
 know how, through his labours, the Church 
 was planted in the great cities of Greece 
 and Asia Minor. 
 
4 HEROES OF 
 
 We have no very definite or reliable in- 
 formation with regard to the labours of 
 the other apostles. Various Churches in 
 Europe, Asia, and Africa, some with more, 
 some with less show of reason, claim one 
 or another of "the twelve" as their found- 
 ers. For example, from a statement in an 
 epistle of Clemens Romanus, St. Paul has 
 been claimed as the apostle of Britain ; 
 St. Thomas has been claimed as the founder 
 of the Church in India; St. Bartholomew 
 is said by Eusebius to have preached in 
 Arabia ; St. Matthew is reported to have 
 carried the gospel to Ethiopia ; and the 
 Church of Alexandria has some show of 
 authority for tracing her history to the 
 labours of St. Mark. 
 
 But whatever may have been the special 
 fields of labour occupied by these great 
 ambassadors of the cross, there can be no 
 doubt that, in obedience to its Master's 
 divine command, the early Church went 
 forth to " preach the gospel to every crea- 
 ture." And we must remember that it 
 was not merely by apostolic heralds, and 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 5 
 
 by those duly ordained by them, that the 
 gospel was thus spread abroad. In the life 
 and enthusiasm of their first love, Christians 
 of all ranks and countries spread abroad in 
 their own neighbourhoods the knowledge 
 of the blessed truth which had come home 
 with power to their own souls. In this view 
 of the case every Christian was a missionary. 
 He could not be otherwise ; for the sepa- 
 ration in life and worship from the sur- 
 rounding paganism which the adoption of 
 Christianity necessarily involved, rendered 
 them manifest at once to all around them; 
 whilst their own intense convictions and 
 fervent zeal made them thoroughly ready 
 and willing to unfold, to all who in- 
 quired of them, the great facts and 
 doctrines upon which their whole conduct 
 was based. 
 
 It was this, far more than any special 
 organization in the Church, ( though we can 
 see evidences of this latter very early and 
 very clearly,) which led to that wide diflusion 
 of Christianity in the first centuries after 
 Christ, which is so fully admitted by pagan, 
 
HEROES OF 
 
 as well as claimed by Christian authors. 
 And as we look upon the history of the 
 Church in later times, and even in our 
 own day, we cannot but confess how much 
 missionary labour has been crippled and 
 retarded by the absence of that evangelizing 
 spirit which distinguished the early followers 
 of Christ; nay, how much it has been 
 hindered and subverted by the inconsistent 
 and unholy conduct of His professed dis- 
 ciples. What a power in the world British 
 Christianity might be, if those who repre- 
 sent it in all parts of the earth were only 
 true in life and conduct to the name 
 they bear ! 
 
 The early apologists for Christianity were 
 able to appeal to the altered and holy lives 
 of its professors as undeniable evidences of 
 its truth and power. Heathens, as they 
 looked upon the mutual regard of these 
 early disciples, were forced to exclaim, "See 
 how these Christians love one another!" 
 and, better still, in times of plague, and 
 war, and peril, these very heathens experi- 
 enced such kindness and assistance at the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 7 
 
 hands of Christians, as gave the strongest 
 practical recommendation to the new and 
 wondrous faith. 
 
 In accounting for the progress of Chris- 
 tianity in that early age, we cannot leave 
 out of sight the miraculous aids which were 
 vouchsafed to it. The power of miracles — 
 notably that of healing, and, above all, the 
 Pentecostal gift of tongues — gave an in- 
 fluence, and supplied an instrumentality for 
 the spread of the gospel, the strength and 
 value of which can scarcely be estimated by 
 us ; and it is probable that these powers, 
 communicated, as we know they were, by 
 the apostles to their immediate successors, 
 survived, at least in many instances, to a 
 much later period than is commonly sup- 
 posed. 
 
 Even those things which seemed to hinder, 
 " tended rather in those early days to ' the 
 furtherance' of the gospel." The refusal 
 of the early Christians to join in acts of 
 idolatry and superstition soon stirred up 
 against them the injustice and intolerance 
 of their neighbours, and eventually brought 
 
t HEROES OF 
 
 down upon them the fierce and continued 
 hostility of the Roman government. During 
 those ten long and terrible persecutions, 
 which were intended to crush them out of 
 existence, not only did their faith increase, 
 but their numbers multiplied. Their con- 
 stancy and self-sacrifice not only wrung 
 pity and admiration from their enemies, 
 but helped to plant in many a heart, hither- 
 to opposed, a faith and love for the great 
 truths which they adorned and maintained. 
 Their growing numbers invited persecution ; 
 but still, persecution only caused them to 
 increase. 
 
 Pliny, in his famous epistle, written within 
 fourscore years of the death of Christ, de- 
 clares that he found the temples of the 
 gods almost deserted; the sacrifices and 
 solemnities neglected, and the sellers of 
 victims complaining that there were no 
 purchasers. He informs us that the number 
 of Christians in his own province (Bithynia) 
 was very great; that "the contagion of the 
 superstition," as he terms it, had reached 
 even to the villages and hamlets ; that 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 9 
 
 persons of all ages and both sexes, yea, 
 even Roman citizens, had embraced it ; and 
 that unless something was done to check 
 it, the national religion would soon be at 
 an end. And so the whole machinery of 
 the empire was put in force to abolish 
 the new creed. But all in vain ; the Church 
 came out victorious from the ordeal. The 
 Emperor Galerius, himself the author of 
 the most terrible of these persecutions, was 
 forced to confess that the power of con- 
 viction was not to be overcome by fire 
 and sword, and he issued an edict that 
 "for the future no Christian should be 
 punished or disturbed on account of his 
 religion ; since it had been made evident, 
 by the experience of so long a period, 
 that they could in no way be persuaded 
 to desist from their own wilful deter- 
 mination." 
 
 This decree of Galerius was subse- 
 quently confirmed by Maximian, and at 
 length the conversion of Constantine com- 
 pletely changed the aspect of affairs as 
 regarded Christianity and its relations to 
 
lo HEROES OF 
 
 the empire, and raised it from being a 
 proscribed and hated creed into a place of 
 imperial honour and magnificence. It is 
 more than doubtful whether this change, 
 welcome and merciful though it was to the 
 troubled and persecuted Church, ministered 
 to a purer and better condition of spiritual 
 life. That it told in many respects dis- 
 advantageously upon missionary effort is 
 palpable on the page of history. It left 
 room for insincerity and hypocrisy in many 
 who embraced the faith, and it became the 
 occasion, as we shall see in the course of 
 these papers, for the use of means and 
 motives in the spreading that faith which 
 were altogether unworthy both of it and of 
 its professors. 
 
 But at present we are concerned with the 
 three centuries which preceded this time 
 of marked deterioration, and shall glance 
 first at the progress which the gospel had 
 made in that period, and then at a few 
 instances which will exemplify the nature 
 of its progress. 
 
 Justin Martyr, who flourished in the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. \\ 
 
 second century, says, " There exists not a 
 people, whether Greek, or barbarian, or 
 any other race of men, by whatsoever ap- 
 pellation or manners they may be dis- 
 tinguished, however ignorant of arts or 
 agriculture, whether they dwell under tents, 
 or wander about in covered waggons, 
 among whom prayers are not offered up 
 in the name of a crucified Jesus to the 
 Father of all things." 
 
 Gibbon treats this as a " splendid ex- 
 aggeration," but still he is forced to 
 admit that a twentieth part of the sub- 
 jects of the Roman Empire *' had enlisted 
 themselves under the banner of the cross 
 before the important conversion of Con- 
 stantine " ; and he adds that the picture 
 which represents the Christian Church as 
 only recruited at that time from the low- 
 est and most ignorant, is drawn by *' the 
 pencil of an enemy," and is contradicted 
 by facts. We are not concerned to ques- 
 tion Gibbon's calculation as to numbers. 
 If the great and manifold hindrances 
 to the spread of the gospel in that age 
 
12 HEROES OF 
 
 be duly considered, it is surely no small 
 evidence of success that a twentieth part 
 of the whole Roman Empire should have 
 been won to Christ in so brief a time. 
 But it would be easy to show that his 
 estimate is far too low. Some have even 
 gone so far as to fix it at one-fifth of the 
 entire community, and it is probable that 
 in some districts the Christians were in an 
 absolute majority. Tertullian, who wrote 
 his apology at the close of the second or 
 the beginning of the third century, gives 
 a bold challenge to the pro-consul of Asia, 
 and assures him that if he persists in 
 his cruel intentions, " he must decimate 
 Carthage, and that he will find among the 
 guilty many persons of his own rank, se- 
 nators and matrons of noblest extraction, 
 and the friends or relations of his most 
 intimate friends." Maximian, in one of 
 the edicts already alluded to, speaking of 
 his own district, says that " almost all " 
 had abandoned the worship of their an- 
 cestors for the new faith. 
 
 It was the wisdom of the early mission- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 13 
 
 aries to seize on the chief centres of popu- 
 lation. " There is the strongest reason to 
 believe that before the reign of Diocletian 
 and Constantine, the faith of Christ had 
 been preached in all the great cities of 
 the empire" (Gibbon, cxv.) Tacitus tells 
 us of the vast multitude {iiigens miLltitiLdo) 
 to be found at Rome even in the days of 
 Nero ; and as there was a constant stream 
 of travel, both for war and commerce, 
 between the imperial city and more distant 
 regions, we can well understand how surely 
 and how rapidly Christianity would spread 
 from that place alone. In like manner we 
 gather from various sources how Christian 
 schools grew up at Alexandria, and it is 
 easy to imagine how, from that seat of 
 learning and civilization, the gospel would 
 spread through Egypt and Arabia, and 
 over northern Africa, so that we meet 
 with a council of sixty-six bishops at 
 Carthage so early as a.d. 262 ; and 
 similar influences were at work in other 
 cities. 
 
 So far with regard to the progress and 
 
14 HEROES OF 
 
 extent of missionary enterprise. Now let 
 us turn to a few exemplars. Partly from 
 the absence of full and authentic records 
 belonging to that age, and partly because 
 missionary enterprise was then the normal 
 work of the many, and not the peculiar 
 inheritance of the few, there are not many 
 names standing out with special distinct- 
 ness on the missionary roll. Yet we meet 
 in the New Testament with allusions to 
 Andronicus, Crescens, Aristarchus, Trophi- 
 mus, Silvanus, and Marcus, as famous 
 amongst a large and devoted brotherhood ; 
 and coming farther down the stream of 
 time, we read of the missionary labours of 
 Irenseus and Pothinus in Gaul, and of 
 Pantsenus in India. Of the Gallic mission- 
 aries we shall speak in our next chapter; 
 of Pantsenus we give here the few par- 
 ticulars that are preserved. 
 
 He seems, according to Eusebius, to have 
 been sent forth by Demetrius, Bishop of 
 Alexandria, about a.d. i88, in consequence 
 of a request made to him for a missionary 
 by the Indians. It is somewhat doubtful 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 15 
 
 who these people were, for the Greek and 
 Latin writers speak of various nations — 
 Parthians, Medes, Persians, Arabians, and 
 Ethiopians — under that title. Jerome re- 
 presents Pantsenus as sent to instruct the 
 Brahmins, but it is more probable that the 
 Ethiopians or Arabians, who lay near to 
 Egypt, and were therefore likely to apply 
 to Demetrius for a teacher, were the Indians 
 intended. They seem, moreover, to have 
 had some knowledge of Christianity, and 
 to have had the Gospel of St. Matthew 
 among them. Pantsenus seems to have 
 been a man of great culture and ability, 
 and to have combined the unusual offices 
 of philosopher and missionary. He was a 
 convert from the doctrines of the Stoics, 
 and it was a remarkable thing to hear 
 such a man delivering public lectures on 
 Christianity in the schools of Alexandria. 
 He won into the ranks of his pupils such 
 men as Clement, who was afterwards distin- 
 guished by the name of *'The Alexandrian." 
 Clement's conversion had taken place early 
 in life; but having travelled over various 
 
i6 HEROES OF 
 
 countries in search of wisdom, he placed 
 himself with entire satisfaction under the 
 instruction of Pantsenus, and succeeded him 
 as a teacher. From him also he probably 
 imbibed that missionary spirit which exhibits 
 itself in his celebrated " Exhortation to the 
 Heathen," and the pupil celebrates his 
 master as superior to all his contemporaries. 
 It was such a man, famous besides, as 
 Jerome tells us, for his commentaries upon 
 the Scripture, and for his oral teaching to 
 the Church, that went forth at this early 
 period to proclaim Christ to the heathen, 
 and it proves that the early Church was 
 willing to give her best and ablest sons to 
 this interesting work. 
 
 Exile and banishment were the common 
 lot of Christians in these early days, but 
 they only led to the propagation of the 
 faith. Of this we have a remarkable illus- 
 tration in the case of Cyprian. He was 
 banished to Curubis, a place about fifty 
 miles from Carthage, and a deacon named 
 Pontius, who afterwards wrote his life, was 
 allowed to accompany him. There, for 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. i7 
 
 more than a twelvemonth, he preached 
 the gospel to the large congregations 
 which were attracted to his place of exile, 
 and thus made known the name of Christ 
 to multitudes who till then were ignorant 
 of it. 
 
 In a similar way Dionysius, Bishop of 
 Alexandria, when banished by ^milianus, 
 the prefect of Egypt, because he would not 
 do homage to the gods, found missionary 
 employment at Kephro, a remote district 
 of Libya, to which the gospel had not 
 yet penetrated. He himself gives us the 
 following account of it: "Also in Kephro 
 itself the Lord opened the door to the 
 Word. The first seed of the gospel was 
 scattered by us there; and as if God had 
 led us on that account to them in our 
 banishment after we had fulfilled this call, 
 He brought us away from that place." 
 
 Nor was it Christian bishops and Chris- 
 tian clergy only who thus made known the 
 word of truth amongst the heathen. Chris- 
 tians of all ranks took part in this glorious 
 work. Diocletian's persecution drove many 
 
 2 
 
1 8 HEROES OF 
 
 of them out of Egypt, Libya, and Syria, 
 and they took refuge amongst the barbarian 
 tribes, and evangelized them. Those who 
 were condemned to work in the mines 
 throughout the empire (and this was a 
 common sentence) carried the blessed 
 message of salvation with them, and again 
 and again we read of their labours and 
 success. As it happened in the persecu- 
 tion that arose about Stephen, *' they that 
 were scattered abroad went everywhere 
 preaching the word." 
 
 War and the captivities that followed 
 led to like results. In a remarkable book, 
 " De Vocatione Gentium," written in the 
 early part of the fifth century, referring 
 to scenes and times under our consideration, 
 we meet the following striking passage : 
 " The very weapons by which the world 
 is upturned serve to promote the ends of 
 Christian grace. Many sons of the Church, 
 who had been taken captive by the enemy, 
 made their masters the servants of the 
 gospel of Christ, and were teachers of the 
 faith to those whose slaves, by the fortunes 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 19 
 
 of war, they had become. But other bar- 
 barians, who aided the Romans in war, 
 learned among our people what they could 
 not have learned at their own homes, and 
 returned to their native land, carrying with 
 them the instruction they had received in 
 Christianity." (Neander, iii. 147.) 
 
 The conversion of the Iberians, a race 
 bordering on the Caucasus, presents a nota- 
 ble illustration of this missionary agency, 
 and brings to light a humble but success- 
 ful labourer. Rufinus heard the story of 
 the cross from the lips of an Iberian chief- 
 tain, and Moses of Chorene preserves the 
 name of Nunia as that of the Christian 
 female who was the honoured instrument 
 in the work. She had been carried off as 
 a captive, and had been made a slave. 
 Her devotional life attracted attention and 
 won respect from those around her ; and so 
 it happened that when, after the custom 
 of the tribe, a sick child had been conveyed 
 from house to house, in the hope that some 
 one might prescribe a cure, it was brought 
 at length to the Christian woman, who 
 
20 HEROES OF 
 
 said she knew of no remedy ; but that 
 Christ, her God, could help, even where 
 human help was unavailing. She prayed 
 for the child, and it recovered. The queen 
 fell sick ; the fame of the cure reached 
 her ears, and she sent for the Christian 
 slave. Not wishing to be considered a 
 worker of miracles, Nunia declined the 
 call. The queen was conveyed to her ; 
 the captive prayed, and the queen recovered. 
 On hearing the circumstances, the king was 
 about to send a present, but his wife in- 
 formed him that the Christian woman 
 despised all earthly goods, and that what 
 she looked forward to as her reward was 
 that the people would join her in worship- 
 ping the true God. It made little impression 
 on him at the time, but afterwards, in an 
 hour of peril, he recalled the story, and 
 addressed a vow to the God of the Chris- 
 tians, to the effect that if He delivered 
 him he would devote himself to His service. 
 That vow he kept, placing himself under 
 Nunia's teaching ; afterwards, in conjunction 
 with his queen, instructing his own subjects ; 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 21 
 
 and finally obtaining teachers for the full 
 establishment of Christianity in his land. 
 - There was yet another way in which war 
 lent its helping hand to early missionary 
 effort. From a very early period, as we 
 can gather both from the Gospels and the 
 Acts of the Apostles, there were devout 
 men in the Roman army. Some there 
 were, even in those early times, who came 
 to view military life as inconsistent with 
 their Christian duty, but that this was not 
 general is plain from the story of the 
 Thundering Legion, under the Emperor 
 Marcus Aurelius. The story runs, that 
 when the army was hemmed in by the 
 barbarians, and in most imminent danger, 
 this legion, composed of Christians, knelt 
 down in prayer, and obtained deliverance 
 for the imperial forces from the perils that 
 surrounded them. Whether the story be 
 true or false, its circulation amongst the 
 Christians of that age shows that their 
 presence in the army, and that, too, in 
 considerable numbers, was an undeniable 
 fact. And with the Roman eagles flying 
 
22 HEROES OF 
 
 over the world, and Christian soldiers 
 following them, it is easy to understand how 
 an effective missionary work would be 
 accomplished through their instrumentality. 
 It is calculated than in Britain alone there 
 were no fewer than 64,000 soldiers in a.d. 
 65 ; and this alone would account for the 
 early spread of Christianity in these islands. 
 The Christian soldiers of the empire were 
 just the men to confess their faith and to 
 make it known to others. Indeed, ecclesi- 
 astical history informs us that as it was in 
 the army Christians were more especially 
 liable to be noted by their enemies, so it 
 was in the army the first attempts were 
 made upon their fidelity and constancy; 
 and innumerable were the examples given 
 by those heroic men that they were not to 
 be corrupted from the faith of Christ. The 
 story of the Theban Legion, a.d. 286, 
 must have some foundation in fact. Twice, 
 it is said, they were decimated by Maximian, 
 because they would not march against 
 their fellow-Christians in Gaul. But even 
 this cruelty could not shake the firmness 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 23 
 
 of the survivors. In the name of his com- 
 rades, Maurice, their leader, declared to the 
 Emperor, that, whilst ready to obey him 
 in all things consistent with duty, they 
 would rather die than violate their duty 
 to God. The Emperor ordered his troops 
 to close round the devoted band, where- 
 upon the Christians laid down their arms 
 and submitted peacefully to martyrdom. 
 This is but a single instance, and there 
 are details connected with it which are pro- 
 bably fabulous, but the reign of Diocletian 
 furnishes copious and authentic records of 
 military martyrs and confessors, and the 
 records prove that these men had the mind 
 and the mettle which would necessarily 
 make them missionaries wherever their 
 lot was cast. Soldiers who refused to 
 wear a wreath of laurel at idolatrous 
 ceremonies, and braved persecution and 
 death rather than desert their principles, 
 were just the men to propagate their con- 
 victions, and thus to swell that illustrious 
 band of nameless but immortal missionaries 
 who adorned the first ages of Christianity. 
 
II. 
 
 ST. MARTIN OF TOURS, 
 
 A.D. 374—397; 
 
 ULPHILAS, APOSTLE OF THE GOTHS, 
 
 We have seen how widely and rapidly 
 the Christian religion had spread through- 
 out the Roman Empire before the days 
 of Constantine. We now turn to the age 
 that immediately succeeded, aud select a 
 few examples of the missionary spirit and 
 labours by which it was distinguished. It 
 was to be expected that the conversion of 
 the emperor, and the consequent establish- 
 ment of Christianity, would give a fresh 
 impetus to missionary labour, and there 
 is little doubt that they had this effect, 
 especially at first, though it is to be 
 feared that they introduced elements of 
 a more worldly kind, which, by degrees, 
 
26 HEROES OF 
 
 told unfavourably upon the spread of gos- 
 pel truth. Long indeed before the days 
 of Constantine, deteriorating' influences had 
 sprung up within the Church. Asceticism 
 on the one side, and a philosophising spirit 
 on the other, had begun to overlay the 
 simplicity and spirituality which marked 
 the earlier heralds of the cross ; and to 
 these was added, under the new regime, a 
 growing love of worldly honour, and a re- 
 liance upon human power ; still, in despite 
 of these hindrances, and sometimes even 
 in conjunction with them, a way was made 
 for the wider diffusion of " the story of 
 peace." Let us take two memorable in- 
 stances, one from the history of the 
 Franks, and the other from the history of 
 the Goths. 
 
 Gaul had v^xy early received the know- 
 ledge of the gospel, but whether from 
 apostolic lips, or from the labours of their 
 immediate successors, it is impossible to 
 determine. Some make St. Paul, and others 
 his fellow- labourer Crescens, to be the 
 founder of the Gallic Church ; but it seems 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 27 
 
 certain that before Pothinus and his com- 
 panions planted themselves in the country, 
 towards the middle of the second century, 
 the gospel had been preached in France. 
 How firmly it took root there, may be 
 gathered from the memorable martyrdoms 
 which took place at Lyons and Vienna in 
 the reign of Marcus Aurelius, and the 
 noble confessions which the Gallic Chris- 
 tians then made in spite of torture and of 
 death. Pothinus, their missionary bishop, 
 laid down his life for Christ, at the age 
 of ninety, and was succeeded in his 
 bishopric, if not in his matyrdom, by 
 Irenseus, the famous pupil of the illus- 
 trious Polycarp. 
 
 But whilst Christian churches had thus 
 been founded in Gaul, the great mass of 
 the population remained heathen until 
 Martin, Bishop of Tours, appeared on the 
 scene as a missionary, about a.d. 374. 
 His life, written by Sulpicius Severus, bears 
 upon it that love of the marvellous which 
 disfigures so many records of these early 
 times ; but sufficient remains, after all 
 
28 HEROES OF 
 
 allowances, to show that he was a remark- 
 able man, who combined in himself the 
 character of soldier, hermit, saint, and 
 bishop, and in his own rough way con- 
 tributed in no small degree to the spread 
 of Christianity throughout a vast region. 
 
 St. Martin was born in Panonia, and 
 brought up at Pavia. Early in life he 
 embraced Christianity, notwithstanding the 
 violent opposition of his parents ; and then 
 betook himself to a military life. This he 
 afterwards renounced in order that he 
 might give himself up entirely to the 
 service of God. He placed himself under 
 the tuition of Hilary of Poitiers, and was 
 soon distinguished by his opposition to the 
 Arians, from whom he suffered much per- 
 secution. 
 
 Having lived for some time as a monk, 
 in the island of Gallinaria, he contracted that 
 admiration for the ascetic spirit, which, as 
 we have said, had already grown out of 
 mistaken views about the Christian life. 
 It was he who introduced monasticism into 
 Gaul, and established the first religious 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 29 
 
 houses at Poitiers and Tours. At first, in- 
 deed, industrial occupations were linked to 
 monastic institutions, and in some instances 
 the disturbed character of the aee and 
 countries where Christian missionaries la- 
 boured obliged them to live together, for 
 self-defence, in secluded communities ; but 
 the underlying evil soon developed itself. 
 St. Martin regarded manual work as a hind- 
 rance to devotion, and would allow nothing 
 of the kind amongst his followers, except 
 indeed the transcription of books by the 
 younger brethren. But he found full oc- 
 cupation for their time and energies in 
 combating the idolatry and superstition 
 which reigned around them. Had he con- 
 fined himself and his followers to the 
 simple preaching of the gospel, and the 
 powers of divine persuasion, it had been 
 well ; but carnal weapons of warfare began 
 to be used, if not against the pagans 
 themselves, at least against their idolatries 
 and superstitions. At the head of what 
 may be described as an army of monks, 
 he marched throughout his extensive dio- 
 
30 HEROES OF 
 
 cese, destroying the idols, the temples, and 
 the consecrated groves of the heathens, 
 thus instilling into the minds of the popu- 
 lation a fear, rather than a love, of the 
 God of the Christians, who enabled them 
 to inflict such fearful outrages upon all 
 which the pagans had hitherto held sacred. 
 We must, however, do this warlike mission- 
 ary the credit of saying, that whilst he 
 demolished the idols of paganism he pro- 
 claimed to their deluded worshippers the 
 knowledge of the living and true God, and 
 the way of salvation through the blood of 
 Jesus Christ. Nor was he altogether un- 
 successful. Christianity, at least in its out- 
 ward form, was widely diffused amongst 
 the Franks, and many were led to a 
 spiritual apprehension of its claims. When 
 he died, two thousand disciples followed 
 him to the grave ; the men of Tours and 
 Poitiers contended as to which of them 
 should have the honour of his sepulture ; 
 and the rumours and reports of miracles 
 wrought afterwards at his shrine prove at 
 least the estimation in which he was held. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 31 
 
 But he was, amongst the missionaries, 
 what Elijah would have been amongst the 
 apostles of the Lamb ; and had he lived 
 in their day he would doubtless have 
 brought down upon him, but in severer 
 terms, the rebuke of the Master — " Ye 
 know not what manner of spirit ye are 
 of." He himself was probably free from 
 the spirit of persecution and worldliness 
 which afterwards developed itself, but there 
 can be little doubt that his conduct en- 
 gendered it in others who came after him. 
 His biographer tells with admiration, that 
 when he was at the court of Maximus he 
 allowed the empress to wait upon him, 
 and that when the emperor passed the cup 
 to him, expecting to receive it back from 
 the bishop, Martin passed it to his own 
 chaplain, as being higher in honour than any 
 earthly king. The story may not be true, but 
 the narration of it shows how this spirit was 
 growing up amongst the ecclesiastics of the 
 time ; and certainly the whole bearing and 
 conduct of this martial missionary was calcu- 
 lated to foster it in his followers and admirers. 
 
32 HEROES OF 
 
 What St. Martin did through a burning, 
 but mistaken, zeal for truth, was soon at- 
 tempted from less laudable motives by 
 Christian princes, and led to violent re- 
 actions on the part of the exasperated 
 heathen, and in some instances to severe 
 reprisals against those who bore the Chris- 
 tian name. Iconoclasm became a fury ; 
 and, despite the eloquent remonstrances of 
 Chrysostom and others, the pathway of 
 Christianity was lighted by the conflagra- 
 tions of heathen temples and the wild ex- 
 cesses of the injuring and the injured. 
 
 St. Martin died in the year 397 a.d., 
 aged 81. Within a century after his death 
 Christianity had become the royal religion 
 of the Salian Franks. King Clovis (mainly 
 through the instrumentality of his wife, 
 Clotilda) became a Christian. Arianism 
 was at this time triumphant, and Clovis 
 seems to have been impressed with the 
 idea (one to which the previous history of 
 Christianity in Gaul might naturally lead 
 him) that he should propagate his ortho- 
 doxy by the sword. " And for the first 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 33 
 
 time, " says Dean Milman, *' the diffusion 
 of belief in the nature of the Godhead be- 
 came the avowed pretext for the invasion 
 of a neighbouring territory." Forthwith 
 there was a religious war to determine 
 the claims of the rival creeds. Burgundy 
 ran red with blood, and the plains of 
 Vougle witnessed the utter defeat of the 
 Arians. But the spirit and principles thus 
 unhappily developed in France led to the 
 degeneracy of the Church and the de- 
 cadence of missionary effort. The masses 
 of the heathen within her pale, and the 
 barbarian races on her borders, remained 
 unevangelized, and so it came to pass that 
 the further spread of the gospel both in 
 France and amongst the Germanic tribes 
 was reserved, as we shall see hereafter, for 
 missionaries belonging to our more fa- 
 voured isles. 
 
 We now turn to a different race, and 
 to the labours amongst them of a very 
 different man. The Goths had already 
 begun to make their presence felt by 
 their incursions into the southern parts of 
 
 3 
 
34 - HEROES OF 
 
 the Roman empire. Some of them inha- 
 bited Msesia and Thrace, and from thence 
 invaded Cappadocia and the neighbouring- 
 provinces. In some of these wild forays 
 they had carried off some Christian priests 
 into captivity ; and these, by their labours 
 and devotedness, won many of their con- 
 querors from their savage nature-worship, 
 and still more savage barbarism, to the 
 religion and obedience of Christ. These in 
 their turn invited other Christian teachers 
 to come and settle amongst them, and so 
 in a short time numerous churches were 
 founded ; and when the Council of Nice 
 was held (a.d. 325) they were represented 
 there by a Gothic bishop named Theophilus, 
 who subscribed its decrees. 
 
 Ulfilas (born about a.d. 318) was the 
 immediate successor and pupil of Theo- 
 philus ; and although his name (Vulfila, 
 or Ulfilas, a wolf) would indicate a Teutonic 
 origin, he is said to have been descended 
 from the Cappadocian captives. To this 
 man belongs the high distinction of being 
 called, and deservedly so, "the Apostle of 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 35 
 
 the Goths." He won the love and con- 
 fidence of the people by rendering them 
 important services on several occasions in 
 their negotiations with the Roman emperors ; 
 and for these services he was well fitted by 
 his relationship with both nations. 
 
 It was while he was upon one of these 
 missions to Constantinople that Constantine 
 caused him to be consecrated bishop, by 
 his own chaplain, Eusebius of Nicomedia. 
 On his return to the Goths he applied him- 
 self most devotedly to missionary work. 
 The emperor having assigned to his flock 
 a district of country south of the Danube, 
 he crossed that river, and settled there 
 amongst his people. The Goths were at 
 this time in a barbarous state as regarded 
 learning. If they had previously possessed 
 an alphabet, they had lost it in the course 
 of their migrations, and only retained the 
 knowledge of the Runic characters. These, 
 however, were only symbolical, and were, 
 moreover, so identified with their idolatry 
 that Ulfilas set about inventing an alphabet. 
 His letters, five-and-twenty in number, and 
 
36 HEROES OF 
 
 all capitals, were for the most part derived 
 from the Greek and Latin alphabets ; but 
 some he had to invent, in order to express 
 sounds which were altogether unknown in 
 the languages of Greece or Rome. 
 
 His next and most important step was 
 to give the Goths a translation of the Bible 
 in their own tongue, and it is here that 
 his chief glory as a missionary lies. He 
 was one of the first, if not the very first, 
 to set the example of giving the barbarians 
 the Word of God in their own language. 
 In speaking of this part of his work Pro- 
 fessor Max Miiller has well said, " Ulphilas 
 must have been a man of extraordinary 
 power to conceive for the first time the 
 idea of translating the Bible into the vulgar 
 language of his people. At this time there 
 existed in Europe but two languages which 
 a Christian bishop would have thought 
 himself justified in employing — Greek and 
 Latin. All other tongues were considered 
 barbarous. It required a prophetic sight,, 
 and a faith in the destinies of those half- 
 savage tribes, and a conviction also of the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. jy 
 
 effeteness of the Roman and Byzantine 
 empires, before a bishop could have brought 
 himself to translate the Bible into the 
 vulgar dialect of his barbarous country- 
 men." 
 
 In this respect he presents a striking 
 contrast to St. Martin of Tours, who relied 
 more upon power than upon persuasion ; 
 and it is remarkable that the work thus 
 initiated by the Gothic missionary was 
 more permanent than that of his Gallic 
 cotemporary. It is said, however, that he 
 kept back the four books of Kings from 
 the Goths, under an apprehension that the 
 stones of war and battle therein contained 
 would be too congenial to their ferocious 
 natures, and stir them up to similar deeds 
 of daring. He laid, however, a good and 
 broad foundation for his work ; and whilst 
 the great bulk of the Gothic nation were 
 involved in fierce conflicts with the Romans, 
 and were spreading themselves gradually 
 over Gaul and Spain, Ulfilas continued his 
 quiet labours, and ministered to his country- 
 men upon the slopes of Mount Hsemus. 
 
38 HEROES OF 
 
 A considerable part of the Gospels, with 
 fragments from other portions of the ver- 
 sion made by this early missionary, are 
 still extant, and throw considerable light 
 upon the ancient language of northern 
 Europe. 
 
 His example with respect to Bible transla- 
 tions was soon followed in other lands. One 
 instance may be mentioned. Gregorys "the 
 Illuminator," as he has been designated, 
 introduced the Gospel into Armenia, and 
 made a convert of the king, Tiridates III. 
 Armenia thus became the first country 
 which adopted Christianity as the national 
 religion. But a nobler work was done in 
 the fifth century for that country, when 
 Miesrob, who had been royal secretary, 
 gave an alphabet and a Bible in their own 
 tongue to his countrymen, and thus did 
 for Armenia what Ulfilas had done for the 
 Goths ; and Neander informs us that this 
 preserved Christianity amongst the people 
 •' even while the country was subjected to 
 such dynasties as were devoted to the 
 Zorastrian or to the Mahommedan religion, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 39 
 
 and sought to supplant Christianity." It 
 reminds us how by like means in our own 
 day the knowledge and love of Christ were 
 preserved in Madagascar during the enforced 
 absence of the missionaries and the violent 
 persecutions of a relentless queen. 
 
 Ulfilas, however, appears to have been 
 much more of a practical than of a theo- 
 logical missionary, and not to have under- 
 stood or concerned himself much with the 
 intricacies of those deep controversies which 
 at that time agitated the Church of Christ, 
 It is probably in this way we are to account 
 for his not only countenancing Arianism, 
 but, if we are to believe the historians, 
 being the means of introducing it amongst 
 the Goths. He is known to have signed 
 the rather compromising creed of Rimini, 
 but still to have kept up his connection 
 with the orthodox party until the reign of 
 Valens. In the reign of that emperor the 
 Huns had invaded the territory of the 
 Visigoths, and the latter, being in danger 
 of losing their possessions, sent Ulfilas, with 
 other ambassadors, to the court of Valens, 
 
40 HEROES OF 
 
 to obtain a new settlement. The emperor 
 consented to give up to them certain lands 
 in Msesia, but with the harsh conditions 
 that they should surrender their arms before 
 crossing the Danube, and give up their 
 children to be educated in different pro- 
 vinces of Asia. It is thought that Valens, 
 who was an Arian, pressed the last-named 
 condition through a desire to introduce 
 Arianism amongst the Goths ; and it is 
 said that Ulfilas was persuaded by the 
 emperor and Eudoxius, the dominant Arian 
 bishop at his court, into the belief that 
 the differences between the two parties were 
 unimportant, and that agreement in reli- 
 gious doctrine would render union between 
 them and the Romans more secure. 
 
 However this may be, certain it is that 
 after Arianism had been cast out of the 
 Church, and had ceased to exercise the 
 skill and dialectics of the learned, it gained 
 new power and importance by becoming 
 the creed of the vast and barbarous hordes 
 which swooped down upon the decaying 
 empire, and became the source of new 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 41 
 
 life to southern Europe. We have testi- 
 mony, too, that, notwithstanding their 
 errors, these Gothic Christians displayed 
 in their Hves the power of the gospel of 
 Christ. Even Athanasius himself bears 
 witness to the change wrought in them 
 by the power of God. The historian 
 Socrates (iv. ^iZ) recognizes amongst them, 
 although they were Arians, the genuine 
 spirit of martyrdom, and says that " al- 
 though they erred through their simplicity, 
 yet they despised the earthly life for the 
 sake of the faith of Christ." Chrysostom 
 in after years took a deep interest in the 
 Goths, and had a Church set apart at 
 Constantinople for their worship, in which 
 the Gothic Bible was read, and Gothic 
 sermons preached to them by their own 
 clergymen. In a famous discourse, which 
 he himself preached on one of these occa- 
 sions, he holds up to the admiration of the 
 refined Byzantines, who looked down upon 
 these Goths as barbarians, the transforming 
 power of Christianity as exemplified in 
 those whom they thus despised: "Thus," 
 
42 HEROES OF 
 
 he says, "have you witnessed to-day the 
 most savage race of men standing to- 
 gether with the lambs of the Church — one 
 pasture, one fold for all, one table set before 
 all." 
 
 The work of Ulfilas had told effectually 
 upon his people ; whilst the Bible-loving, 
 Bible-searching spirit engendered by his 
 translation of the Scriptures gave security 
 to his work. We find Jerome (himself a 
 great translator of the Bible), whilst residing 
 at Bethlehem, receiving inquiries from two 
 Goths about several discrepancies which 
 they had observed between the vulgar 
 Latin and the Alexandrian versions of the 
 Psalms ; and he commences his reply to 
 them in these remarkable words : " Who 
 would have believed that the barbarian 
 tongue of the Goths would inquire respect- 
 ing the pure sense of the Hebrew original 
 — and that whilst the Greeks were sleeping, 
 or rather disputing with each other, Ger- 
 many itself would be investigating the 
 Divine Word?" Do not these words call 
 up before us the picture of Germany at the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 43 
 
 Reformation period, and the influence of 
 Luther's Bible in the native tongue ? 
 
 Ulfilas died at Constantinople in a.d. 388, 
 whilst mediating with Theodosius on behalf 
 of his Arian subjects.. To him belongs 
 the credit in that early age of employing 
 literature and civilization as the handmaids 
 of religion, and of giving the Bible to his 
 countrymen in their native tongue. 
 
III. 
 
 ST. PATRICK (A.D. 432—465) AND HIS 
 FOLLOWERS. 
 
 We now turn from the continent of Europe 
 to an island which, though it lay far out 
 of the reach of commerce and civilization, 
 was destined to exercise an extraordinary 
 and wide-spread influence upon missionary 
 labour. How, or when, Ireland first received 
 the light of the Gospel cannot be distinctly 
 ascertained. That it did so at a very early 
 period seems placed beyond a doubt by 
 the testimony of Tertullian and Chrysostom. 
 The former, writing about a.d. 200, asserts 
 that "even those parts of the British isles 
 which were unapproached by the Romans 
 were yet subject to Christ;" the latter, 
 about A..D. 390, says, " Although thou 
 didst go unto the ocean and those British 
 isles. . . . thou shouldest hear all men every- 
 
46 HEROES OF 
 
 where discoursing matter out of the Scrip- 
 ture." St. Patrick himself, who on account 
 of his great exertions in spreading the truth 
 has well been called "the Apostle of Ire- 
 land," evidently admits, in his celebrated 
 *' Confession to the Irish people," that a 
 Christian community existed in the country 
 before he visited it. Still, to him may be 
 attributed the full evangelization of the 
 land, and, as a consequence, the foundation 
 of those Christian seminaries which his 
 followers planted at lona and Landisfarne, 
 and from which, during several succeeding 
 centuries, a stream of missionaries issued 
 forth to evangelize other lands. 
 
 Bishop Wordsworth, in his famous West- 
 minster sermons on the Irish Church, has 
 shown how at the very time that Germany 
 and Northern Europe were sunk in hea- 
 thenism, Ireland was not only rejoicing in 
 the light of truth, but diffusing it through- 
 out those benighted regions. Nay, more, 
 he proves that it was by her instrumentality 
 a considerable part of England and Scot- 
 land were converted to the Christian faith. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 47 
 
 "Truth," he says, "requires us to declare 
 that St. Austin from Italy ought not to be 
 called the Apostle of England, much less 
 of Scotland ; but that title ought to' be 
 given to St. Columba and his followers 
 from the Irish school of lona." We shall 
 therefore go back to the days and labours 
 of St. Patrick, and then briefly sketch the 
 labours and efforts of some of his suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 St. Patrick, who was born about a.d. 372, 
 speaks of Benaven in Tabernia as his birth- 
 place ; but it is uncertain whether this was 
 Boulogne in France or Kilpatrick in Scot- 
 land. His father, Calpurnius, was a deacon, 
 and his grandfather, Potitus, a priest; his 
 own name originally was Succath, but he 
 afterwards, according to a prevalent custom 
 in those days, took a Latin name — that of 
 Patricias. We have the great advantage 
 of possessing a sketch of his life written by 
 himself — the "Confession" already alluded 
 to. It is free from those extravagant 
 statements which abound in the hagiology 
 of after ages, and gives us a very clear 
 
48 HEROES OF 
 
 idea both of his religious views, missionary 
 spirit, and extensive labours. 
 
 At the early age of sixteen he was 
 carried captive into Ireland ; and thus the 
 land which was to be the scene of his 
 future ministry became the birthplace of 
 his spiritual life. " There," he says, " the 
 Lord opened my heart to a sense of my 
 unbelief, and taught me to remember my 
 sin, and to be converted to the Lord with 
 all my heart." Six years of painful dis- 
 cipline were passed, as he tended the sheep 
 of his heathen master; but "this," he 
 adds, *' was for my good, because by these 
 means I was reformed by the Lord, and 
 He hath fitted me for being at this day, 
 what was once far enough from me, that 
 I should concern myself or take trouble 
 for the salvation of others, when I used not 
 to think even of my own." 
 
 Having escaped from his captivity, he 
 seems to have been taken captive a second 
 time ; but finally returning to his parents, 
 he resolved to prepare himself for missionary 
 work amongst the people whose spiritual 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 49 
 
 darkness had awakened his deep compas- 
 sion. It appears, moreover, that he had 
 a remarkable dream which greatly in- 
 fluenced his future course. He thought 
 that he saw in this dream a man bringing 
 him a letter from Ireland, and that he heard 
 a voice saying to him, "We beseech thee, 
 holy youth, come and dwell amongst us." 
 He experienced no little opposition from 
 his parents, who were unwilling to give 
 up their long-lost son, or to permit him 
 to return to the scene of his privations ; 
 "But," he says, " by the guidance of God 
 I in nowise consented, nor gave in to them ; 
 yet not I, but the grace of God which pre- 
 vailed in me, and I resisted them all, in 
 order to come and preach the gospel to 
 the people of Ireland." His motives are 
 simply and beautifully set forth in another 
 passage of his Confession, where he writes, 
 " I declare solemnly in truth, and with re- 
 joicing before God and His holy angels, that 
 I never had any occasion, except the gospel 
 and its promises, for ever returning to that 
 people from whom I had made my escape." 
 
 4 
 
50 HEROES OF 
 
 As far as can be ascertained from other 
 sources, he appears to have studied sacred 
 literature under St. Martin of Tours, whose 
 missionary labours were described in our 
 last chapter, and by whom, probably, he 
 was ordained ; and then he seems to have 
 studied under Germanus at Auxerre, and 
 also in the monastery of Lerins, in the 
 South of France. Thus equipped for his 
 great work, he returned to Ireland about 
 A.D. 432, and commenced his arduous 
 labours. 
 
 There is no evidence that he received 
 his commission from Rome ; indeed, all 
 the evidence goes the other way, as has 
 been clearly shown by Dr. Todd in his 
 valuable work on " The Life of St. Patrick." 
 A missionary named Palladius had pre- 
 ceded him to Ireland, a.d. 431, and was 
 sent by Pope Celestine, but he had no 
 success, and at once returned. Prosper, 
 the secretary of Celestine, who records the 
 unsuccessful mission of Palladius, makes no 
 mention whatever of St. Patrick, and it is 
 remarkable that Bede also, who was strongly 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 51 
 
 attached to the Roman see, and would be 
 glad to record anything that redounded to 
 its credit, though he mentions Palladius, 
 omits all reference to St. Patrick. The 
 church wliich was established in Ireland by 
 this eminent missionary long maintained 
 its independence, and was distinct both in 
 doctrine and discipline from the Latin 
 Church. It is remarkable, too, that in 
 most of those points in which it differed 
 from the Roman, it agreed with the Eastern 
 Church, and that it claimed its descent, 
 through the Church of Gaul, from the 
 Evangelist St. John. We cannot enter 
 further into this interesting question of 
 Irish independence, except to mention, as 
 an illustration, that when the English 
 Church at the synod of Whitby (a.d. 664) 
 adopted the Roman mode of keeping Easter, 
 St. Colman, Bishop of Landisfarne, resigned 
 his bishopric, and retired with his followers 
 to Ireland, rather than adopt the Roman 
 use. 
 
 Many of the questions which were raised 
 by the see of Rome in its dealings with 
 
52 HEROES OF 
 
 Other churches at that time were (like this 
 concerning Easter) of comparative unim- 
 portance ; but they were disastrous in their 
 consequences, when decided in the interests 
 of the Papal chair ; for they gave occasion 
 for advancing its claims, and of crushing 
 out those who opposed them. England, 
 after some resistance on the part of the 
 ancient British Church, early succumbed 
 to this foreign influence ; but for many 
 centuries after St. Patrick the Church of 
 Ireland maintained its independence, and 
 did not finally lose it until the invasion of 
 Henry 11. ; when the enactments of the 
 synod of Cashel (1172) reduced it to con- 
 formity with the Church in England, which 
 had then become entirely Romanized. 
 
 But to return to St. Patrick. His know- 
 ledge of the language and customs of the 
 people had fitted him to prosecute his 
 work with the greater readiness ; and al- 
 though he met with great opposition at first, 
 both from the heathen priests and princes, 
 and frequently was in peril of his life, he 
 eventually succeeded in establishing Chris- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 53 
 
 tianlty upon a firm basis throughout the 
 land. To him Ireland owes the Primacy 
 of Armagh and her ancient episcopate. To 
 him, and to his life-long labour of three- 
 and-thirty years, she owes the kindling of 
 that light of the knowledge of Christ 
 throughout the island, which, amidst many 
 rude changes, has never since been extin- 
 guished. 
 
 One memorable scene from his life 
 deserves a special record. He and his 
 companions had arrived on an Easter Eve 
 at Tarah, the chief seat of monarchy. The 
 king and a vast concourse had assembled 
 to celebrate one of their heathen festivals. 
 It appears to have been connected with 
 the ancient fire-worship ; and a law existed 
 that on this particular evening no fire should 
 be lighted until a blaze from the royal hill 
 of Tarah gave the signal. The missionary 
 band, probably not aware of the existence 
 of this law, lighted their evening fire, and 
 the astonished Magi represented to the 
 king that unless this fire was at once ex- 
 tinguished it would overcome all their 
 
54 HEROES OB 
 
 fires. How little they knew what depth 
 of meaning lay in their angry prediction ! 
 The king was soon face to face with the 
 unprotected missionary, and we may con- 
 clude that St. Patrick's conduct was both 
 wise and conciliatory; for, instead of venge- 
 ance and expulsion, he received permission 
 to preach the next day before the royal as- 
 sembly; and that memorable Easter-day, 
 if it did not lead to the conversion of the 
 king, ultimately led to the conversion of 
 some of his family, and to a wide and effec- 
 tual opening for the spread of the Gospel 
 throughout his dominions. It was upon 
 this occasion that St. Patrick composed the 
 famous hymn which has been called his 
 *' Breast-plate." It is such an expression 
 of earnest faith and prayer, and gives besides 
 such an insight into the purity of his views, 
 that we have appended to this paper a 
 poetical translation, by James Clarence 
 Mangan, which has the great merit of 
 being very literal, and at the same time 
 gives a good idea of the beauty of the 
 original. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 55 
 
 This great missionary possessed a won- 
 derful power of attracting to him the noble 
 and the young. As an illustration of this 
 we may mention the case of Benignus. St. 
 Patrick had visited the house of a great 
 chieftain, and there preached the Gospel, 
 and won the household to the faith. The 
 young heir of the family was so impressed 
 by the words and manner of the missionary, 
 that he could not be separated from him, 
 notwithstanding all the entreaties of his 
 kindred. He devoted himself to the service 
 of God, accompanied St. Patrick through 
 all the dangers and sufferings of his mis- 
 sionary career, and finally succeeded him 
 in the primacy of the Church. In a similar 
 way he is said to have won the heart of 
 one of the native bards, who thenceforth 
 ceased to celebrate the praises of the idol 
 gods, and employed his talents in com- 
 posing hymns in honour of the Redeemer. 
 It is worth noting that St. Patrick largely 
 availed himself of sacred song in carrying 
 on his missionary labours. For thirty-three 
 years did this indefatigable missionary toil 
 
'56 HEROES OF 
 
 in his Master's service ; and when he was 
 laid to rest on March 17th, a.d, 465, he 
 had deservedly gained for himself the title 
 of "the Apostle of Ireland." Not only 
 had he won vast multitudes to the faith of 
 Christ during his lifetime, but he had taken 
 pains that the truth of the Gospel should 
 be continued amongst them after his death, 
 and that it should be spread from them 
 to neighbouring countries. It was for this 
 end he established those missionary schools 
 and colleges for training young men both 
 in secular and sacred culture, which after- 
 wards became so eminent, that, as Bede 
 informs us, " many of the nobility and 
 middle classes too of the English people 
 left their native isle and retired to Ireland, 
 either for the purpose of studying the 
 Word of God, or else to observe a stricter 
 life." (H. E. iii. 27.) Nor was it from 
 England only that scholars flocked to this 
 distant island, which had won for itself 
 the title of ** Insula sanctorum; " there is 
 abundant evidence that from the Continent 
 also scholars flocked to this " University 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 57 
 
 of the West," attracted at once by the 
 fame of its piety and of its learning. 
 
 But its chief glory consisted in its mis- 
 sionary character. We have already quoted 
 Bishop Wordsworth's acknowledgments as 
 to the missionary work it performed for 
 England and Scotland. This was accom- 
 plished chiefly through the schools of lona 
 and Landisfarne. The former was founded 
 by Columba, or as he is more commonly 
 called, Columbkille (" the dove of the 
 Churches"). He was born amidst the 
 wilds of Donegal, but was of royal lineage. 
 After much labour and some distractions 
 in his native land he settled in lona about 
 A.D. 563, and founded there the famous 
 school from which Aidan, Finan, Colman, 
 and other famous men went forth to evange- 
 lize the greater part of the Saxon heptarchy. 
 Columba himself laboured on for thirty- 
 four years in his adopted home, and from 
 thence carried the story of the cross to 
 the remotest isles of the Orkneys and the 
 Hebrides. Wherever men could be gathered 
 together, he preached the Gospel to them ; 
 
S8 HEROES OF 
 
 and wherever converts were won to Christ, 
 he left some of his followers to minister 
 to their religious wants. lona became a 
 kind of spiritual light-house amidst sur- 
 rounding darkness ; it shed its beams of 
 culture and religion far and wide, and in 
 a higher sense than any earthly Pharos, 
 realized its blessed purpose — " to give light 
 and to save life." It was no marvel that 
 Aidan, king of the British Scots, went 
 thither to be crowned, a.d. 547, or that 
 Columba was selected to perform the 
 ceremony. No wonder that Dr. Johnson 
 confessed himself overcome by a new en- 
 thusiasm when he visited the ruins of this 
 sacred shrine towards the close of the 
 eighteenth century. Landisfarne, which 
 afterwards became so famous as a mis- 
 sionary centre, was an offshoot from lona, 
 and owed its foundation to one of the 
 most famous of its pupils — Aidan, " the 
 Apostle of Northumbria." It was from 
 these seats of learning and religion that 
 the light which had been almost quenched 
 by surrounding idolatry was kindled once 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 59 
 
 more, Illuminating Picts and Scots and 
 Saxons in those dark and troubled ages 
 which followed the mission of St. Augustine 
 to England. 
 
 But the successors of St. Patrick did not 
 confine their missionary labours to the British 
 Isles. They went forth in such numbers to 
 the Continent, that they are compared by 
 contemporary historians to " swarms of 
 bees; " and to this day the records of their 
 successes are to be found in France, 
 Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. 
 In these different countries they founded 
 religious houses, which in their turn became 
 new centres of light and evangelization ; and 
 it is remarkable that their zeal and inde- 
 pendence ultimately provoked the opposition 
 of the Latin Church, and led to the 
 extinction of these establishments. It is 
 said that the last of them that survived was 
 Erfurth, memorable as the place from which, 
 in after-days, Luther came forth to give new 
 life to the Christianity of Europe. It was a 
 usual custom with these ancient missionaries 
 to select twelve companions for their work 
 
6o HEROES OF 
 
 (doubtless not only for mutual help and 
 society, but with a special reference to the 
 number of the twelve apostles), and then to 
 employ them to build up the churches which 
 it was their privilege to have planted 
 amongst the heathen. It was thus that 
 Columbanus went forth with twelve com- 
 panions to Burgundy, and afterwards placed 
 one of them, St. Gall, in Switzerland, where 
 to this day a canton is named after him as 
 its illustrious missionary. It is to this same 
 Columbanus that Italy owes the conversion 
 of Lombardy, and it was he who planted the 
 standard of the cross at Pavia, Tarentum, 
 and Bobio amongst the Roman Apen- 
 nines. 
 
 At Wartzburg, to this day, is pointed out 
 in their great cathedral the tomb of Kilian, 
 the apostle of Franconia, who, after preach- 
 ing the blessed Gospel, laid down his life, 
 like another Baptist, for rebuking the vices 
 of the mighty of the earth. At Salzburg 
 you may see the church founded by 
 Virgilius, the Irish bishop, who with his 
 missionary companions went thither in the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 6l 
 
 eighth century, and became the apostle of 
 Carinthia. Fridolin, known from the extent 
 of his labours as " the Traveller," lies buried 
 in the Abbey of Sekingen, where he ended 
 those noble efforts, by which he won so 
 many of the savage Alemanni to the faith of 
 Christ. Batavia, Friesland, and Westphalia 
 are full of the fame of Willibroard, who 
 received his missionary education in Ireland 
 from the followers of St. Patrick. The 
 libraries of Milan preserve to this day the 
 copies of Holy Scripture which belonged 
 to those early evangelists, and which bear 
 witness to their love of Scripture study by 
 the numerous interlineations and comments 
 which they exhibit in the Irish tongue. 
 Even amidst the frost-bound valleys of 
 Iceland relics and records of these labourers 
 have come to light, which prove that neither 
 distance nor difficulty could quench their 
 missionary zeal. 
 
 Surely men like these deserve no mean 
 places amongst the heroes of the mission 
 field. The life of any one of them would 
 furnish an interesting theme ; but we must 
 
62 HEROES OF 
 
 be content with this brief and rapid survey 
 of their important and self-denying achieve- 
 ments. 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S HYMN. 
 
 TRANSLATED BY J. C. MANGAN. 
 
 At Tarah to-day, in this awful hour, 
 
 I call on the Holy Trinity ! 
 Glory to Him who reigneth in power. 
 The God of the elements — Father, and Son, 
 And Paraclete Spirit — which Three are the One, 
 
 The ever-existing Divinity ! 
 
 At Tarah to-day I call on the LORD, 
 On Christ, the Omnipotent Word, 
 Who came to redeem from Death and Sin 
 Our fallen race ; 
 And I put and I place 
 The virtue that lieth and liveth in 
 His Incarnation lowly. 
 His Baptism pure and holy, 
 His life of toil, and tears, and affliction, 
 His dolorous Death, His Crucifixion, 
 His Burial, sacred and sad and lone, 
 
 His Resurrection to life again, 
 His Glorious Ascension to Heaven's high throne. 
 And, lastly, His future dread 
 And terrible Coming to judge all men — 
 Both the Living and Dead ! . . . . 
 
 At Tarah to-day I put and I place 
 The virtue that dwells in the seraphim's love, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 63 
 
 And the virtue and grace 
 
 That are in the obedience 
 
 And unshaken allegiance 
 Of all the archangels and angels above, 
 And in the hope of the Resurrection 
 To everlasting reward and election ! 
 
 And in the prayer of the fathers of old, 
 And in the truths the prophets foretold, 
 And in the apostles' manifold preachings, 
 And in the confessors' faith and teachings, 
 And in the purity ever dwelling 
 Within the immaculate Virgin's breast, * 
 And in the actions bright and excelling 
 Of all good men, the just and the blest. 
 
 At Tarah to-day, in this fatal hour, 
 I place all Heaven with its power, 
 
 And the Sun with its brightness. 
 
 And the Snow with its whiteness, 
 And Fire with all the strength it hath. 
 And Lightning with its rapid wrath, 
 And the Winds with their swiftness along their path, 
 
 And the Sea with its deepness. 
 
 And the Rocks with their steepness, 
 And the Earth with its starkness, — 
 All these I place. 
 
 By God's almighty help and grace, 
 Between myself and the Powers of Darkness. 
 
 * This is unquestionably a mistranslation of the original, 
 viz. : — 
 
 " In castitate sandartcm Virginum.^' 
 
 " In the purity of Holy Virgins."— J. H. Todd. 
 
64 HEROES OF 
 
 At Tarah to-day 
 
 May God be my stay ! 
 May the strength of God now nerve me ! 
 May the power of God preserve me I 
 May God the Ahnighty be near me ! 
 May God the Almighty espy me ! 
 May God the Almighty hear me ! 
 May God give me eloquent speech ! 
 May the arm of God protect me ! 
 May the wisdom of God direct me ! 
 May God give me power to teach and to preach 
 May the shield of God defend me ! 
 
 May the host of God attend me, 
 And ward me 
 And guard me 
 Against the wiles of demons and devils, 
 Against the temptations of vices and evils, 
 Against the bad passions and wrathful will 
 
 Of the reckless mind and the wicked heart, 
 Against every man who designs me ill, 
 
 Whether leagued with others, or plotting apart. 
 
 In this hour of hours 
 I place all those powers 
 Between myself and ever)- foe 
 Who threatens my body and soul 
 
 With danger or dole. 
 To protect me against the evils which flow 
 
 From lying soothsayers' incantations, 
 From the gloomy laws of the Gentile nations, 
 From heresy's hateful innovations, 
 
 From idolatry's rites and invocations, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 65 
 
 Be those my defenders, 
 
 My guards against every ban — 
 And spell of smiths and Druids and women ; 
 
 In fine against every knowledge that renders 
 The light Heaven sends us dim in 
 
 The spirit and soul of man ! 
 
 May Christ, I pray, 
 Protect me to-day 
 Against poison and fire, 
 Against drowning and wounding — 
 That so, in His grace abounding, 
 I may earn the preacher's hire ! 
 
 Christ, as a light, 
 
 Illumine and guide me ! 
 Christ, as a shield, o'ershadow and cover me ! 
 Christ be under me ! Christ be over me ! 
 
 Christ be beside me 
 
 On left hand and right ! 
 Christ be before me, behind me, about me 1 
 Christ this day be within and without me ! 
 
 Christ, the lowly and meek, 
 
 Christ, the AU-Powerful, be 
 In the heart of each to whom I speak. 
 In the mouth of each who speaks to me ! 
 
 In all who draw near me. 
 
 Or see me or hear me ! 
 
 At Tarah to-day, in this awful hour, 
 
 I call on the Holy Trinity ! 
 Glory to Him who reigneth in power, 
 
66 HEROES OF THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 The God of the elements — Father, and Son, 
 And Paraclete Spirit — which Three are the One, 
 The ever-existing Divinity. 
 
 Salvation dwells with the Lord, 
 With Christ the Omnipotent Word, 
 From generation to generation — 
 Grant us, O Lord, Thy grace and salvation. 
 
IV. 
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE IN ENGLAND, 
 
 A.D. 596 — 605 
 
 ST. BON/FACE IN GERMANY, 
 
 A.D. 716—753. 
 
 Having seen how the wave of missionary 
 effort rolling southward from lona and 
 Landisfarne spread over a great portion of 
 the Saxon Heptarchy, and flowed onward 
 to the Continent, we have now to notice 
 another missionary movement, which, 
 taking its rise in Rome thirty years later 
 than that of Columba in lona, met and 
 crossed this earlier effort both in England 
 and abroad. This movement naturally 
 links itself to the names of Augustine in 
 England and Boniface in Germany, and 
 some notice of the one is necessary in order 
 to introduce the other. 
 
 It is well known that Gregory the Great, 
 
68 HEROES OF 
 
 before his elevation to the see of Rome, had 
 himself resolved to become a missionary, 
 and England was the field selected for his 
 labours. The sight of three Yorkshire boys, 
 with their fair complexions and flaxen hair, 
 exposed for sale in the slave-market at 
 Rome, excited the curiosity and touched the 
 sympathy of the Benedictine monk. Learn- 
 ing that they were Angles, or English, he 
 uttered those memorable words, in which 
 pity, piety, and a playful fancy were com- 
 bined : " Non Angli, sed angeli forent si 
 essent Christiani." He went direct from 
 the market-place to the Bishop of Rome, 
 opened to him the wishes of his heart, and 
 obtained his sanction for the missionary 
 work to which he had so promptly 
 devoted himself. 
 
 So much was Gregory beloved in Rome, 
 that the greatest opposition was made to his 
 departure, and he had to escape from his 
 convent secretly, with a small band of his 
 companions. He had already travelled for 
 three days on the great northern road that 
 leads out of the Flaminian Gate, when 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 69- 
 
 messengers on jaded horses, bathed in 
 sweat, overtook him with the news that the 
 mob had attacked the Pope in St. Peter's, 
 demanding the instant recall of the mission- 
 ary, and that they had come by authority of 
 the Pope to require his instant return. 
 
 Years rolled by, and Gregory had become 
 Bishop of Rome, but he had never forgotten 
 the Angles, and patiently waited his oppor- 
 tunity. At length it came. Ethelbert, King 
 of Kent, who was also lord of all the kings 
 south of the Humber, had married Bertha, 
 a Christian Prankish princess, who, in the 
 little Church of St. Martin, outside Canter- 
 bury, maintained for herself and her com- 
 panions the worship of the Christian's God. 
 Gregory, determining not to lose such an 
 advantage, sought out Augustine, the prior 
 of his old convent of St. Andrew, on the 
 Coelian Hill, and despatched him with 
 forty companions to the shores of England, 
 A.D. 596. 
 
 We cannot give Augustine an exalted 
 place amongst missionary heroes. Dis- 
 couraged by the reports which he heard on 
 
70 HEROES OF 
 
 the way concerning- the savage Saxons, he 
 went back to Rome, and sought release 
 from his arduous enterprise. But he had to 
 deal with a nobler spirit than his own ; 
 Gregory would hear of no excuses, and sent 
 him forth once more to the work which had 
 been assigned him. We need not here re- 
 count minutely the well-known story of his 
 mission ; — how Ethelbert with characteristic 
 candour and caution received the messengers 
 of the new faith, and eventually embraced 
 it ; how upon Whitsun-Day, June 2nd, 
 A.D. 597, he was baptized in the presence of 
 his wife and his people ; how upon the next 
 Christmas Day upwards of ten thousand of 
 his subjects were baptized in the waters 
 of the Swale ; how Canterbury, Rochester, 
 and London became the seats of important 
 bishoprics, and the first of these the throne 
 of the English primacy. 
 
 There can be no doubt that in some 
 respects Augustine's mission was a success, 
 as in others it was a failure ; and it certainly 
 exercised for many centuries a most im- 
 portant influence both for good and for 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 71 
 
 evil Upon the character of English Chris- 
 tianity. His compromises with heathenism 
 paved the way for many superstitions ; and 
 in the next generation his work stood in 
 need of revival. His arrogance alienated 
 the Old British Church, which was unwilling 
 to bow its neck to the foreign jurisdiction, 
 now for the first time beginning to put 
 forward its unfounded claims. So long as 
 their distinct spheres of labour did not bring 
 them into collision, the conflict between the 
 two parties was not vital : but when their 
 successes touched and over-lapped each 
 other — the one travelling southward and the 
 other northward — it became a crucial 
 question whether Celtic or Latin Christianity 
 was to be supreme in England. *' The 
 British and Irish missionaries," writes 
 Neander, " certainly surpassed Boniface in 
 freedom of spirit and purity of Christian 
 knowledge ; but Rome, by its superior 
 organization, triumphed in the end, and 
 though it introduced new and unscrip- 
 tural elements into the Church, it helped, 
 at the same time, to consolidate its out- 
 
72 HEROES OF 
 
 ward framework against the assaults of 
 Pag-anism." 
 
 This conflict, however, led to a renewal 
 of missionary effort upon the Continent. 
 The Celtic missionaries, finding no further 
 place at home, crossed the seas, and found 
 abundant employment in those distant fields 
 which had been already opened to them 
 by their predecessors. Thither, too, the 
 Roman missionaries from England, with a 
 zeal that seemed contagious, began to 
 flock, and the same energies and the 
 same conflicts that had been witnessed at 
 home soon manifested themselves abroad. 
 
 Amidst these efforts and conflicts the 
 name of Boniface stands pre-eminent. He 
 has won for himself the illustrious titles 
 of "the Apostle of Germany" and "the 
 Father of German civilization." His origi- 
 nal name was Winfrid ; he belonged to 
 a family of distinction, and was born at 
 Kirton, in Devonshire, about the year a.d. 
 680. He was destined by his parents for 
 a secular profession ; but a visit paid by 
 some of the clergy to his father's house, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. jj 
 
 for the purpose (according* to a good old 
 English custom) of instructing the family 
 in religious truth, fired the heart of the 
 youth with a desire for the monastic life. 
 His father was at first much opposed to 
 the project ; but, influenced partly by a 
 reverse of fortune, and partly by a danger- 
 ous illness, he acceded to the boy's solicita- 
 tions, and placed him under Abbot Wolfard 
 at Exeter, and eventually at Nuteschelle, 
 in Hampshire, where he received his clerical 
 education. 
 
 He was early distinguished by his deep 
 acquaintance with the Word of God, and 
 by his skill in preaching-. He was pos- 
 sessed moreover of such tact and prudence, 
 and was of so practical a turn of mind, 
 that he was frequently employed by the 
 community to which he belonged in diffi- 
 cult negotiations, and was even favoured 
 with the confidence of his king. It seemed 
 as if honour and distinction awaited the 
 young ecclesiastic in his native land. But 
 loftier aspirations had taken hold of him, 
 and the mantle of the missionary, rather 
 
74 HEROES OF 
 
 than the mitre of the prelate, became the 
 one object of his desire. 
 
 It happened in this way. Willibrord, a 
 Northumbrian, who had been educated in 
 Ireland, had gone with twelve missionary- 
 companions to Friesland. His efforts there 
 had been fiercely opposed by a powerful 
 heathen prince named Radbod ; but the 
 tales of heroic endurance and patient faith 
 on the part of the devoted band, which 
 from time to time reached the Anglo-Saxon 
 monasteries, stirred many a heart to its 
 profoundest depths, and amongst the rest 
 that of the youthful Boniface. He com- 
 municated to his superior his ardent desire 
 to go to the aid of the missionary party 
 in Frisia. The abbot tried to dissuade 
 him from the dangerous enterprise ; but 
 in vain. With three of the community 
 whom he had inspired with his own mis- 
 sionary zeal he sailed for Friesland. The 
 time of his arrival, however, was unpropi- 
 tious. Radbod was engaged in war with 
 Charles Martel ; a fierce persecution against 
 the Christians had ensued; and Boniface 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 75 
 
 was reluctantly obliged to return to his 
 cloister. 
 
 It was the winter of a.d. 716; and soon 
 after his return the abbot, Winberct, died. 
 The brethern unanimously wished him to 
 take the vacant place ; but his missionary 
 ardour revived; he declined the proffered 
 honour, and was soon on his way to Rome 
 to obtain the sanction of the Pope for a 
 repetition of his arduous enterprise. The 
 following spring he was crossing the Alps 
 with a commission from Gregory II. to 
 preach the Gospel in Germany; and when 
 the summer approached, he commenced 
 his labours in Thuringia. The death 
 of Radbod and the victories of Charles 
 Martel had opened a door for the wider 
 preaching of the Gospel in Friesland, and 
 for three years Boniface associated himself 
 with Bishop Willibrord at Utrecht, and 
 gained successes which surpassed their 
 expectations. Christian churches rose on 
 every side ; heathen temples were de- 
 stroyed; a vast multitude became ''obedient 
 to the faith." 
 
76 HEROES OF 
 
 And now honour and distinction came 
 to tempt him in a new form. Willibrord, 
 advanced in age, was anxious that Boniface 
 should succeed him in the bishopric ; but 
 the ardent missionary, feeling himself im- 
 pelled by an inward call, and strengthened 
 in his resolutions by a remarkable dream, 
 declined the honour, and plunged into the 
 forests of Hesse. Here, amidst dangers 
 and hardships, with wars resounding 
 amongst the bordering Saxon tribes, and 
 with the scantiest of supplies for himself 
 and his companions, he pursued his labours, 
 founded his first religious establishment, 
 baptized two native princes, and, with their 
 protection and his own thorough knowledge 
 of the native tongue, gained his way to 
 the people's hearts, and won multitudes 
 to the faith of Christ. 
 
 It was just at this point that the 
 future character of German Christianity 
 was to be determined. Was it to take a 
 free Christian development, such as previous 
 missionaries had designed fot it, or was it to 
 be brought more thoroughly under the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 77 
 
 influence of Rome ? Boniface was sum- 
 moned to the imperial city, and desired by 
 Gregory to make confession of his faith. 
 So long- accustomed to speak in German, 
 that he could not express himself satis- 
 factorily in Latin, he asked leave to present 
 it in writing. The pontiff eventually ex- 
 pressed himself satisfied ; and, in considera- 
 tion of his labours, consecrated him, on St. 
 Andrew's Day, a.d. 723, a regionary bishop. 
 He bound him, however, by an oath, not 
 only to general obedience, but to have no 
 fellowship or connection with those who did 
 not thoroughly hold with the Church of 
 Rome ; but, on the contrary, to hinder them 
 in every possible way. This was an 
 obligation which was evidently directed 
 against the Celtic missionaries, who from 
 the outset had shown much independence ; 
 and it was destined to bear fruit, not only 
 in such contests as he carried on against 
 Clement and Virgilius, who were his 
 superiors in learning and catholicity of 
 spirit, but also in the final subjection of the 
 German Church to the authority of Rome. 
 
78 HEROES OF 
 
 Much, however, as we regret the issue of 
 that conflict, which postponed the religious 
 freedom of Germany for eight hundred 
 years, it is but just to Boniface to say that 
 neither his allegiance to Rome nor his 
 attachment to the Pope prevented him from 
 fearlessly exposing various superstitions and 
 unworthy practices, which seem to have had 
 the sanction of those in power ; and it must 
 be also borne in mind that Romish Chris- 
 tianity in that day, though far from pure, 
 had not as yet crystallized into its sub- 
 sequent corruptions. 
 
 Boniface, having become the legate of 
 Rome, was assiduous in carrying out her 
 plans, and successful in establishing her 
 authority. He went to lengths for this 
 purpose, especially in his political relations 
 with Pepin Heristal, which it is impossible 
 to justify ; but he displayed little of that 
 arrogance which marred the work of Augus- 
 tine in England ; and when we turn to the 
 fifteen sermons of his which have been 
 preserved, we find that he was very far from 
 recommending a merely superficial form of 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 79 
 
 Christianity, or countenancing- that com- 
 pliance with heathen customs which led to 
 so much subsequent superstition. It is 
 remarkable, too, that in that wonder-loving 
 and wonder-manufacturing age Boniface had 
 no ambition to be considered a worker of 
 miracles ; nor have his own disciples been 
 able to record any other acts of power con- 
 cerning him than those which belong to the 
 triumphs of the Gospel over the hearts and 
 consciences of men. 
 
 As an illustration of his boldness and 
 success, we may notice his conduct at 
 Geismar, in Upper Hesse. There stood 
 there a gigantic and venerable oak, sacred 
 to Thor, the god of thunder. It had been 
 regarded from age to age with superstitious 
 awe and veneration by the people, and 
 beneath its gloomy shade their m.ost solemn 
 rites had for centuries been performed. In 
 vain had Boniface declared against idolatry ; 
 the presence of that sacred tree counter- 
 acted, in the minds of his hearers, every 
 impression that he made, and even drew 
 back some of his neophytes into heathenism. 
 
So HEROES OF 
 
 He determined to strike a blow at this 
 superstition, and destroy one sensuous 
 impression by another. With axe in hand, 
 and accompanied by his clergy, he ad- 
 vanced, in presence of the multitude, 
 towards the object of their awe and worship. 
 The pagans looked on with mingled feelings 
 of wonder, rage, and terror, expecting every 
 moment that the sacrilegious assailants 
 would be struck dead by the avenging deity, 
 and the controversy between the old faith 
 and the new settled for ever in their favour. 
 But as the stalwart missionary plied his axe, 
 it was apparent that Thor could not protect 
 his own. A crashing was soon heard in the 
 topmost boughs ; the helpless idol thundered 
 to the ground, and lay rent and broken by 
 its fall. Their faith in the dreaded deity 
 had fallen with it ; and, as on a like 
 occasion long before, a cry resounded 
 from the multitude — " The Lord, He is 
 God." In order to make the impression last- 
 ing, Boniface gave directions that the timber 
 should be used in constructing an oratory, 
 wherein that true God might be worshipped. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 8i 
 
 We cannot follow the labours which, in 
 conjunction with Wunibald and Willibald, 
 he carried on in Thuringia, Hesse, and 
 Franconia ; nor have we time to trace the 
 eventful steps which led to his being ap- 
 pointed archbishop of Mentz, and his dis- 
 ciple, Eoban, bishop of Utrecht. 
 
 He was now growing old — the threescore 
 years and ten were almost fulfilled. He 
 had planted the Christian Church amongst 
 a hundred thousand Germans. He had 
 founded nurseries of learning and civiliza- 
 tion at Fulda and other places in the 
 Teutonic forests. He had consolidated the 
 scattered work of two centuries, and given 
 bishops and provincial synods for the future 
 government of the Church. He had kept 
 up communications with England, and in- 
 duced lay and clerical helpers to come from 
 his native land to aid him in his work. He 
 had placed devoted labourers in the re- 
 motest districts of the vast wilderness, and 
 cheered them by his exhortations and ex- 
 ample. And now he asks, and obtains 
 leave, to appoint a successor, or rather a 
 
 6 
 
82 HEREOS OF 
 
 representative, and to retire to his beloved 
 Fulda, that there he might pray for a 
 blessing on his labours, and close his days 
 in peace. 
 
 But once again the missionary fire blazed 
 up in the old man's bosom. He must visit 
 Friesland yet again, to revive the work 
 (which, since the death of Willibrord, had 
 been suffered to decay), and to redeem it 
 from remaining paganism. He was now 
 seventy and five years old, and from that 
 missionary journey he felt that he never 
 would return. He gave his last solemn 
 charge to his successor. Bishop Lull ; and 
 then directed that in the book-chest, which 
 he invariably took with him on his journeys, 
 there should be placed the famous treatise 
 of St. Ambrose on *' The Advantage of 
 Death," and along with it a shroud, in 
 which his body was to be carried back to 
 Fulda. With a retinue of about fifty clergy 
 and laymen he sailed down the Rhine, was 
 joined by Eoban at Utrecht, and then pro- 
 ceeded towards the eastern part of Frisia. 
 
 By many the missionaries were received 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 83 
 
 with joy ; multitudes were baptized, and 
 having received further instruction, were 
 directed to meet Boniface upon the eve 
 of Whitsuntide, in order to receive the rite 
 of confirmation. The Whitsun morning 
 dawned — it was the 5th of June, a.d. 
 755, — and on the banks of the Buda, not 
 far from Dockingen, he went forth to meet 
 his children in the faith. But the clash 
 of arms and the shouts of an angry multi- 
 tude soon told that the heathen were at 
 hand. Maddened by the success of the 
 missionaries, they had resolved to dedicate 
 this day to slaughter, and to take venge- 
 ance on behalf of their gods. Some of the 
 Archbishop's retinue advised resistance, and 
 would have defended him with their lives ; 
 but he stepped forward and commanded 
 them to forbear, and to await with patience 
 the crown of martyrdom. *' The long-ex- 
 pected day," said he, ** has come, and the 
 time of our departure is at hand. Strengthen 
 yourselves in the Lord, and he will redeem 
 your souls. Fear not them that can kill 
 the body ; but cast the anchor of your 
 
84 HEROES OF 
 
 hope on God, who will soon give you an 
 everlasting reward, and admission to His 
 heavenly kingdom." 
 
 It is said that he himself, as the pagans 
 rushed upon him, took a volume of the 
 Gospels, and placing it beneath his head 
 for a pillow, calmly awaited the fatal blow 
 which was to number him with those who 
 sleep in the Lord. Eoban and many of 
 his companions that day shared with him 
 that blessed sleep ; and for many a year 
 might be seen, in his beloved home at 
 Fulda, the shroud which he had carried 
 with him to the^ scene of his first baffled 
 labours, and "The Advantage of Death," 
 which had been sprinkled with his victori- 
 ous martyr-blood. 
 
 His spirit, indeed, lived after him in 
 many of his disciples, who, like Gregory of 
 Utrecht and Sturm of Fulda, carried on 
 the peaceful work which he had loved ; but 
 sterner and less Christian characters were 
 soon permitted to appear upon the scene, 
 and terribly was the death of Boniface 
 avenged. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 85 
 
 It was only after many a blood}^ baptism, 
 on many a fierce battle-field, at the hands 
 of the resistless Charlemagne, that the 
 ferocious Saxons were subdued. And after 
 thirty years of bitter strife, during which 
 carnal rather than spiritual weapons were 
 freely used, the Saxons were brought, at 
 least nominally, within the pale of Chris- 
 tendom. 
 
V. 
 
 ANSCHAR, THE APOSTLE OF THE NORTH. 
 
 A.D. 826—863. 
 
 About a century had passed away since 
 Boniface began his missionary labours in 
 Germany. The wild tribes of Goths, Huns, 
 and Saxons, who had risen on the ruins of 
 the old Roman empire, had been brought to 
 a considerable extent under the humaniz- 
 ing influences of the Gospel. The victories 
 of Charlemagne had spread some degree 
 of civilization over Central Europe, and 
 secured a foothold for Christianity amongst 
 the fierce barbarians. But a new tide of 
 invasion had to be encountered when the 
 wild pirates of the North began to pour 
 down, in the ninth century, upon the 
 shores of France, Germany, and England. 
 Issuing from the dark pine-forests and 
 gloomy fiords of Scandinavia, these terrible 
 
SS HEROES OF 
 
 marauders swept the seas, invaded every 
 coast, and fought their way into the very 
 heart of the empire. The degenerate suc- 
 cessors of Charlemagne beheld their fairest 
 and strongest towns pillaged, burnt, and 
 destroyed, and saw the banners of these 
 hardy Norsemen planted in their noblest 
 provinces. 
 
 It was at such a time that the gentle 
 Anschar was raised up by God to carry 
 the Gospel into the ice-bound regions of 
 the North, and to introduce its sanctifying 
 and civilizing influences to the hearts and 
 homes of these fierce invaders. In most 
 respects he was the very opposite of Boni- 
 face. Equal to him in energy and deter- 
 mination, he far exceeded him in spirituality 
 and love. " In Boniface," says Neander, 
 " there was a resemblance to the Apostle 
 Peter ; in Anschar, to the Apostle John. 
 In Boniface there was more of ardent, 
 impetuous power ; in Anschar, more of 
 quiet, but active love." The former was 
 more fitted to produce immediate and visible 
 results ; the latter to nurse and cherish 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 89 
 
 those faint beginnings which would ulti- 
 mately ripen into abiding greatness The 
 Lord of the harvest had work for each of 
 them to do, and doubtless chose and fitted 
 His instruments with reference to that work; 
 and certainly in the case of Anschar He 
 gave a signal illustration to the world of 
 the mighty power of love. 
 
 We must glance for a moment at the 
 savage worship which distinguished these 
 hardy Scandinavians. It seems probable 
 that the early Teutonic belief recognized 
 a Supreme Being — Odin, or Wotan — the 
 Creator and Ruler of all, without parts or 
 passions, and who could only be worshipped 
 amidst the awful solitudes of the dark forest 
 or consecrated grove. But this belief was 
 soon lost amidst the darkness and mate- 
 rialism of hero-worship and nature-worship. 
 A complicated system of debasing mythology 
 sprang up. Thor, " the Thunderer," and 
 Tyr, " the god of battle," and Freyer, " the 
 god of harvest," amongst countless other 
 deities, demanded homage ; and to these 
 were appended a race of cruel fiends and 
 
90 HEROES OF 
 
 mighty giants, as Loke, *' the backbiter of 
 the gods," Fenris, ** the Wolf-god," and 
 Hela, "the Death-god," with numerous 
 others, who must be appeased by bloody 
 victims, and even by human sacrifices. In 
 times of great calamity the kings them- 
 selves had to lay down their lives, and well- 
 attested instances are given of monarchs 
 killing their own offspring to avert the wrath 
 or win the favour of the dreaded Odin. 
 Such was the creed of these fierce bar- 
 barians, as it is preserved to us in their 
 sacred Eddas and Sagas, which tell us, 
 moreover, of their coveted paradise — the 
 great Walhalla, with its bloody wars, its 
 riotous revelry, and sensual indulgences — 
 meet counterpart beyond the grave of those 
 scenes of strife and horrid orgies in which 
 they gloried here on earth. 
 
 The first mission to these dark and daunt- 
 less pagans was organized in the year a.d. 
 826. It was a mission to Denmark ; and 
 some account of the introduction of the 
 Gospel to that country will be the more 
 interesting, if we bear in mind that a king 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 91 
 
 of Denmark (Frederick IV.) was the first 
 king in modern times who originated and 
 supported missions to the heathen in con- 
 nection with the Reformed Faith. Harold 
 Klak, king of Jutland, and his queen, had 
 been on a visit to Louis le Debonnaire. It 
 is said that they went for aid in adversity, 
 and received it on condition of embracing 
 Christianity. At all events, they were 
 baptized in the great cathedral of Mayence. 
 The Emperor was anxious to send back 
 with his ally a zealous preacher of the 
 Gospel, who might confirm the royal con- 
 verts in their faith, and spread the know- 
 ledge of Christianity throughout Denmark. 
 But at that time it was no easy matter to 
 secure the services of a missionary. The 
 reports which, from time to time, had 
 reached the continental churches concern- 
 ing the sanguinary practices of the Norse- 
 men, and the visible proofs which they 
 had on all sides of their appalling ferocity, 
 were enough to deter the boldest heart 
 from venturing amongst them. At length 
 Wala, who was the abbot of Corbie, in- 
 
92 BE ROES OF 
 
 formed the emperor that he knew a man 
 of such heroic faith and earnest zeal, that 
 he only longed for the opportunity of under- 
 taking such an arduous task, and of laying 
 down his life, if necessary, in the cause of 
 Christ. 
 
 This man was Anschar ; and we must now 
 go back a little in his history to see how 
 God was preparing him for this great 
 occasion. He was born not far from Corbie, 
 in A.D. 80 1, and received, as many a noble 
 spirit has done before and since, his first 
 religious impressions from a pious mother. 
 He lost her when he was only five years old ; 
 and though for a time, amidst the com- 
 panionship of rude schoolboys, he forgot 
 her early teaching, yet it came back to him 
 in a remarkable way. He beheld her in 
 a dream, surrounded by bright and happy 
 spirits, and was warned that if he wished to 
 join her in heaven, he must forsake sin, and 
 devote himself to Christ. This made a deep 
 impression on the child, and, young as he 
 was, he resolved to dedicate himself to a 
 religious life. For this purpose, according 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 93 
 
 to the custom of those mediaeval times, he 
 went into the neighbouring monastery. 
 
 While he was there, then only thirteen 
 years of age, news reached the community 
 that the mighty Charlemagne was dead. It 
 was an event to make even the most 
 thoughtless thoughtful, and Anschar's pious 
 spirit was deeply moved within him. He 
 had seen the emperor in all the pomp of 
 power and blaze of victory, and now the 
 mighty conqueror lay subdued by death. 
 He doubtless heard of the impressive way in 
 which that crowned corpse was buried in 
 the wondrous tomb which he had prepared 
 for himself at Aix-la-Chapelle. "There," 
 says Palgrave, in a well-known passage, 
 *' they reverently deposited the embalmed 
 corpse, surrounded by ghastly magnificence, 
 sitting erect on his curule chair, clad in his 
 silken robes, ponderous with broidery, 
 pearls, and orfray ; the imperial diadem on 
 his head, his closed eyelids covered, liis face 
 swathed in the death-clothes, girt with his 
 baldrick, the ivory horn slung in his scarf, 
 his good sword ' Joyeuse ' by his side, the 
 
94 HEROES OF 
 
 Gospel-book open on his lap, musk and 
 amber and sweet spices poured around, and 
 his golden shield and golden sceptre 
 pendent before him." All this was in- 
 tended to impress men with the majesty of 
 Charlemagne, but its effect on Anschar was 
 to show him the vanity of human life, and 
 fill him with more earnest resolves to live 
 for immortality. 
 
 His ardent spirit was now visited with 
 other dreams and visions. He saw, as it 
 were, the glories of another world ; he ex- 
 perienced the aspirations of a higher life ; 
 he felt himself summoned to the special 
 service of his Divine Master ; he thought he 
 would be privileged to wear the crown of 
 martyrdom. One of his dreams bears so 
 directly upon the work of grace in his own 
 soul, that it deserves to be recorded. He 
 thought he saw the Saviour in His glory, as 
 John saw Him at Patmos, and he threw 
 himself at His feet "as dead." With 
 loving look and gentle voice he heard his 
 Saviour say, " Confess thy sins, that thou 
 mayest be justified." Anschar answered, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 95 
 
 "Lord, why need I to do this? nothing is 
 hidden from Thee." The Lord replied, 
 ** I indeed know all things ; but it is My will 
 that men should confess their sins to Me, 
 and that they may receive forgiveness." 
 Thereupon Anschar knelt down and poured 
 out his sins and prayers before Christ. 
 *' Fear not," were the blessed words that 
 followed ; "I am He that blotteth out thy 
 transgressions." The vision vanished ; but 
 Anschar awoke in the happy confidence 
 that the Lord Jesus had forgiven his sins 
 for His own name's sake; and in the power 
 of that confidence he lived and laboured 
 for Him all his life long. 
 
 But it was not only, nor indeed chiefly, by 
 dreams and visions of the night that the 
 future missionary was prepared for his work. 
 He became a deep and earnest student of 
 the Word of God, and in the retirement of 
 a neighbouring vineyard spent much of his 
 time in prayer and meditation. As he ad- 
 vanced to manhood his talents became 
 manifest, and at the age of twenty-five he 
 was placed in charge of a foundation called 
 
96 HEROES OF 
 
 New Corbie, on the banks of the Weser, 
 and here, in labouring- and preaching 
 amongst the surrounding poor, he gained 
 much practical experience. 
 
 It was at this period of his life, on the 
 recommendation of Wala, that he was sent 
 for by the emperor, and requested to under- 
 take the mission to Denmark. He at once 
 assented, but it was under the deepest sense 
 of his own unworthiness, and in entire re- 
 liance upon Divine aid. When his brethren 
 at Corbie heard that he was about to resig-n 
 all his hopes and prospects, and go forth to 
 preach to the savage heathen of Scandi- 
 navia, they used all their arguments and 
 entreaties, and when these failed, their 
 ridicule, also, in order to deter him. But 
 his was a heart of dauntless bravery and 
 steadfast faith. Autbert, the steward of the 
 monastery, a man of noble birth and noble 
 spirit, was struck with admiration. When 
 all hung back, and no one could be found 
 to accompany the missionary, he asked 
 Anschar whether he still kept to his resolu- 
 tion, and received this reply : " When I was 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 97 
 
 asked whether 1 would go for God's name 
 among the heathen, to publish the Gospel, 
 I could not venture to decline such a call. 
 Yes, with all my powers I wish to go hence, 
 and no man can make me waver in this 
 resolution." *' Then," replied Autbert, *' I 
 cannot find it in my heart to let you go 
 alone : I will go with you ! " 
 
 Harold Klak himself was not disposed to 
 give much encouragement to the mission- 
 aries ; but it so happened that in the voyage 
 to Jutland he sailed in the same ship with 
 Anschar, and before they reached their 
 destination the zealous missionary had won 
 the king's respect, and awakened in his 
 heart an interest in his proceedings. His 
 first work was to found a school in Schles- 
 wig, in which he might train Danish youths 
 for the ministry. It is memorable as having 
 been the first Christian institution on these 
 barbarian shores, and Anschar soon filled it 
 with boys received or purchased from the 
 savage population. For two years he and 
 his companion preached throughout Jutland 
 and Cimbria. They had much opposition 
 
 7 
 
98 HEROES OF 
 
 to encounter, and not being able to obtain 
 a servant, had to perform the most menial 
 offices themselves. Still they went on zea- 
 lously, and not altogether unsuccessfully, in 
 their work ; but at the end of that period 
 disappointment and disaster came : Autbert 
 sickened, returned home, and died ; rebellion 
 broke out; Harold was expelled from his king- 
 dom, and Anschar was unwillingly obliged to 
 retire from his first field of labour. 
 
 But his zeal was not quenched, and just 
 at this juncture a new sphere was provi- 
 dentially opened to him. The king of 
 Sweden had sent ambassadors to the court 
 of Louis on a political mission in a.d. 829. 
 In the course of their visit they informed the 
 king that some knowledge of Christianity 
 had been brought to their country by means 
 of Christian captives who had been carried 
 thither by Swedish pirates, and that, as a 
 consequence, many of the people were 
 anxious to have Christian teachers. Once 
 more Anschar was summoned to the palace ; 
 once more he accepted an arduous duty ; 
 and soon, in company with a friend n amed 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 99 
 
 Witmar, he set sail for Sweden. They were 
 attacked by pirates, plundered of every- 
 thing- they possessed, amongst other things 
 less valuable, of several volumes of the Holy 
 Scripture which they had collected for the 
 use of the mission. They reached the shore 
 with nothing but their lives ; but when 
 Anschar's companions proposed to return, 
 he nobly replied, " What may happen to me 
 is in the hands of God ; but I have made up 
 my mind not to return until I discover 
 whether it is God's will that the Gospel 
 shall be published in this land." 
 
 Destitute and half dead, they reached 
 Sigunta, the ancient capital, and were 
 graciously received by the king, who gave 
 them permission to preach to his subjects. 
 Already the nucleus of a Christian Church 
 existed amongst the poor captives, who had 
 been so long deprived of the means of 
 grace ; and with their aid and the blessing 
 of God the work of evangelization went on. 
 It was not long before Herigar, the king's 
 counsellor, embraced the faith, and threw 
 his influence into the scale. 
 
icxj HEROES OF 
 
 Returning to the court of Louis with a 
 letter from the Swedish king, Anschar was 
 made archbishop of Hamburgh, which was 
 to be henceforth the centre for the northern 
 missions. It was thought needful in those 
 times to obtain papal sanction for such 
 arrangement, so Anschar visited Rome to 
 receive this sanction, and then returned to 
 Hamburgh. Here he laid himself out 
 to consolidate and extend his work, re- 
 deeming from slavery a number of Danish 
 youths, and educating them for the work 
 of the ministry. Meantime the Swedish 
 mission had been entrusted to Bishop 
 Gauzbert, who was at first most favourably 
 received ; but the pagans, alarmed at the 
 spread of Christianity, rose in rebellion, and 
 expelled him from the land, murdering his 
 nephew, and devastating the newly-planted 
 church. Meantime sorrows and disasters 
 thickened around Anschar. The Norsemen 
 poured down on Hamburgh, sacked the 
 town, and reduced the church to ashes, so 
 that he had to go forth as a wanderer 
 through his diocese, depending upon 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. loi 
 
 Strangers for the very food he ate, and 
 saddened most of all by the news of what 
 had befallen his beloved Swedish mission. 
 Yet, amidst all this, he never lost faith 
 in God. It is said that as he gazed upon 
 the desolation wrought at Hamburgh, he 
 calmly exclaimed, " The Lord gave, and the 
 Lord hath taken away; and blessed be the 
 name of the Lord." Words which had been 
 spoken to him from a deathbed, by Arch- 
 bishop Ebbo, who had been his fellow-helper 
 in the work, came now with comfort to his 
 soul : *' Be assured, brother, that what we 
 have striven to accomplish for the glory of 
 Christ, will yet, by God's help, bring forth 
 fruit. For it is my firm belief, nay, I know 
 of a surety, that though the work we have 
 undertaken among these nations is for a 
 time subject to obstacles and difficulties on 
 account of our sins ; yet it will not be lost 
 or perish altogether, but will, by God's 
 grace, thrive and prosper, until the name o 
 the Lord is made known to the uttermost 
 ends of the earth." 
 
 Such faith and patience were sure to be 
 
102 HEROES OF 
 
 rewarded. Horick, the king of Denmark, 
 had taken an active part in the incursions 
 which had destroyed Hamburgh. But 
 Anschar knew the power of prayer and the 
 might of love. He never ceased to pray for 
 those v*^ho had caused such desolation ; and 
 strange to say, he was chosen by the 
 emperor to go as an ambassador to Horick, 
 and so won the confidence and respect of this 
 fierce king, that he was permitted to revive 
 the mission in Denmark, to erect a church 
 at Schleswig, and to scatter the word of life 
 widely throughout the kingdom. Perse- 
 cution, indeed, broke out a second time, and 
 the work seemed crushed ; but again, 
 through God's mercy, light shone upon the 
 darkness ; Anschar was recalled, and the 
 progress of the gospel was more rapid than 
 before. 
 
 But Anschar' s large heart was not 
 satisfied ; he longed to revive the Swedish 
 mission also, and tried to persuade Gauzbert 
 to revisit it. But Gauzbert was afraid ; and 
 our missionary hero, having applied to one 
 and another to undertake the work, and 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 103 
 
 finding none that would make the venture, 
 resolved to go himself. What influence he 
 had gained over his old enemy, Horick, may 
 be gathered from the letter which he ob- 
 tained from that monarch to Olaf, the 
 Swedish king : in it he states that " he had 
 never in his life seen so good a man, or so 
 trustworthy, and that for this reason he had 
 allowed him to do what he wished respecting 
 Christianity in his own land, and hoped 
 King Olaf would do the same, for he cer- 
 tainly aimed at nothing but what was good 
 and right." Such a testimony reminds one 
 of a missionary in later times, when Hyder 
 Ali, in the midst of a vindictive war with 
 the Carnatic, sent orders to his officers — 
 '' Permit the venerable Father Schwartz to 
 pass unmolested, and show him respect and 
 kindness, for he is a holy man, and means no 
 harm to my government." 
 
 On his arrival in Sweden, Anschar found 
 the pagans in arms against the new religion. 
 His companions pronounced it madness to 
 proceed, and urged him to use the presents 
 (which he had brought for the king) to save 
 
I04 HEROES OF 
 
 his life from the ferocious multitude. He 
 replied, " I will give nothing- to redeem my 
 life ; and if the Lord so wills it, I am ready 
 to suffer tortures and even death here for 
 His name's sake." 
 
 Nothing is more remarkable in the life of 
 Anschar, who, unlike many missionaries of 
 his time, was unsupported by earthly power, 
 than the providential way in which outward 
 circumstances were often made to tell in his 
 favour on the minds of the pagans. Two 
 instances of this occurred upon his second 
 visit to Sweden. Olaf proposed that the 
 question of his admission or expulsion 
 should be determined by the " sacred lots." 
 The assembly met ; the lots were cast, and 
 they were favourable. Then an aged chief- 
 tain rose and said, *' Hear me, O king and 
 people ! The God whom we are invited to 
 worship is not unknown to us, nor the aid 
 He can render to those who put their trust 
 in Him. Many of us have proved this by 
 our experience at sea, and in other manifold 
 perplexities. We see our own gods failing 
 us, and unable to help us in time of danger. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 105 
 
 Listen then to my counsel, O king- and 
 people, and let us not reject what is so 
 plainly for our advantage." 
 
 Thus the worship of the true God 
 gradually supplanted that of Odin ; and 
 though the conflict between heathenism 
 and Christianity continued long, and was 
 not finally concluded until the reign of 
 Canute, yet in due time the patience 
 and faith of Anschar brought forth abun- 
 dant fruit. For four-and-thirty years he 
 laboured amongst the fierce Norsemen, 
 seeking in every way their spiritual and 
 temporal good, and winning his way to 
 their hearts by the power of gentle- 
 ness and truth. Those who at one time 
 had opposed and rejected him, came 
 at last to look upon him as almost divine, 
 and expected miracles at his hands ; but 
 he himself disowned such an ambiguous 
 distinction, and said, "One miracle I 
 would ask the Lord to grant me, and 
 that is, by His grace to make me a holy 
 man." 
 
 One of his last acts was to check the 
 
io6 HEROES OF THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 slave trade. He sternly reproved the 
 chiefs who were engaged in this nefarious 
 traffic, induced them to set their captives 
 free, and ransomed others from their 
 cruel bondage. He died at last of a 
 painful malady, on February 3rd, a.d. 
 865. One thought troubled him for a 
 time on his dying bed — " Why had he 
 not been permitted to win the martyr's 
 crown ? " It was a vain regret, especially 
 for one whose life had been one longf 
 martyrdom ; but it soon gave way to 
 the fulness of God's own peace. He 
 spent his last few days in calmly arrang- 
 ing the concerns of his missionary stations; 
 and then, with his eyes fixed on heaven, 
 he entered into rest — these words linger- 
 ing on his lips, — " Have mercy upon me, 
 O God, according to Thy loving kind- 
 ness." " God be merciful to me a sinner." 
 " Father, into Thy hands I commend my 
 spirit." 
 
VI. 
 
 ADALBERT, MISSIONARY AND MARTYR 
 AMONGST THE SOLA VONIANS. 
 
 A.D. 083—997. 
 
 Now that we have traced the successes of 
 gospel truth amid the Celtic and Teutonic 
 races, let us turn our attention to its pro- 
 gress amongst the Sclavonic tribes. These 
 tribes, embracing the wild populations that 
 spread over Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and 
 Prussia, were distinguished at first by their 
 quiet pastoral habits ; but owing to oppres- 
 sion at the hands of Teutons and Turks, 
 and the bitterness engendered thereby, 
 they became as fierce as any of the other 
 races which had poured down upon the 
 Roman empire. 
 
 Their religion appears to have been 
 characterized by a dual system of benignant 
 and malevolent deities, the former being 
 
io8 HEROES OF 
 
 worshipped by gladsome rites of song, 
 dance, and festive offering, whilst the latter 
 were approached with terror and dismay, 
 and were appeased by bloody offerings 
 and even by human sacrifices. In no part 
 of the Sclavonic territories did these dark 
 superstitions take a more awful form than 
 in the regions of Prussia and Livonia. A 
 terrible trinity, known as Percunos, the god 
 of thunder, Potrimpos, the god of harvest, 
 and Picullos, the god of the infernal regions, 
 shared with countless inferior deities the 
 awful homage of the Sclavs. Polygamy 
 existed ; slavery in its darkest forms pre- 
 vailed ; even wives were slaves, who on the 
 death of their husbands either ascended the 
 funeral pyre or destroyed themselves in some 
 other way. In this and many other parti- 
 culars the religious rites of the Sclavonians 
 very closely resembled those of the Hindoos, 
 and it is remarkable that the languages of 
 both peoples have a strong affinity. Infan- 
 ticide, especially of female children, was 
 common; the sick, the aged, the deformed 
 were put out of the way ; and not only were 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 109 
 
 the horses, hounds, and armour burnt along 
 with the corpse of their late master, but 
 many of his slaves, both male and female, 
 shared the same dismal fate. 
 
 Such were the Sclavonic tribes, and they 
 were amongst the last in Europe to hear and 
 receive the gospel of peace. It was a dark 
 age when it reached them, and the 
 missionary spirit had almost died out of 
 the Church. The monastic orders, whatever 
 had been their earlier energy and zeal, had 
 sunk down into worldliness and sensuality. 
 The Arabian imposture was making progress. 
 The Saracens had won the Turks to embrace 
 the delusion, and the Turks had rewarded 
 the Saracens by conquering their spiritual 
 teachers, and by laying the foundation of 
 their own empire. The tenth century has 
 been described as "an age barren of all 
 goodness, a leaden age, abounding in all 
 wickedness ; a dark age, remarkable above 
 all others for the scarcity of writers and men 
 of learning." It was no marvel that such a 
 period should be deficient in real evange- 
 listic enterprise. '* Only when the Church 
 
no HEROES OF 
 
 is rich internally," says N.eander, "in the 
 gifts of the Spirit, will the Divine life flow- 
 over outwardly, and the water of life, while 
 it fructifies the heathen world, will flow back 
 with a blessing to the districts from which it 
 issued : but where the spiritual life is wanting, 
 no salutary influence can go forth on those 
 who are without the pale of the Church. If 
 the salt hath lost his savour, wherewith 
 shall it be salted ? " 
 
 It was at a time such as this that Adalbert 
 was raised up to be a solitary but faithful 
 witness for Christ amongst the most un- 
 promising of mankind. A foundation for 
 the Christian Church had indeed been laid 
 in Russia amongst the eastern vSclavs about 
 the time that he carried forth the gospel to 
 the western Sclavs of Prussia ; but the 
 movements were distinct, not only as to 
 their origin, but as to their entire character. 
 It may be well to preface the story of 
 Adalbert's work by a brief reference to 
 the origin of a nation and a church which, 
 as Archbishop Trench has observed, "are 
 fresh and young, and only now beginning to 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. in 
 
 play their part in the world's story;" for 
 *' with Russia and the fortunes of Russia the 
 future of the Eastern Church is manifestly 
 bound up," and that this " future is a re- 
 markable one it is impossible to doubt." 
 
 The Russian kingdom arose under Ruric, 
 a Verangian chief, in a.d. 862. In a.d. 955, 
 Olga, a Russian princess, visited Constan- 
 tinople, and there embraced Christianity, 
 taking the baptismal name of Helena. She 
 tried to influence her ferocious son 
 Swiatoslav to follow her example, but in 
 vain. He died in battle, and as his son 
 Vladimir seemed more likely to be a docile 
 pupil, missionaries came from all quarters 
 in the hope of making an eminent proselyte. 
 Mahommedans from the Volga, Jews from 
 amongst the Chazars of the Crimea, Chris- 
 tian theologians from Germany, ecclesiastics 
 from Greece, all flocked around the barbaric 
 king. He deferred his decision until he had 
 despatched an embassy to their respective 
 countries, and received its reports. Their 
 accounts were most unfavourable about all 
 the places which they had visited, with the 
 
112 HEROES OF 
 
 one exception of Constantinople ; but con- 
 cerning the Byzantine capital and its re- 
 ligion, they were lavish in their praise. 
 They described the attractive ceremonies, 
 the thrilling music, the pompous processions, 
 the gorgeous ritual which they had witnessed 
 beneath the dome of St. Sophia, and declared 
 that if God had His dwelling amongst men, 
 it must be there. 
 
 The nobles of the court were impressed 
 by the narrative, and said to Vladimir, " If 
 the religion of the Greeks had not been 
 good, your grandmother Olga, who was the 
 wisest of women, would not have embraced 
 it." The king, already impressed by the 
 descriptions he had heard, was still further 
 influenced by this appeal ; but what seems 
 eventually to have decided him was, that 
 having sought the hand of Anna, the 
 Emperor's sister, in marriage, he found he 
 could only gain her by accepting Chris- 
 tianity. Under these mingled and by no 
 means exalted motives he was baptized 
 A.D. 988. Forthwith he ordered the huge 
 idol of Peroun to be dragged from its temple, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 113 
 
 scourged by his horsemen, and cast into the 
 Dneiper. His next step was to issue a royal 
 proclamation commanding all his subjects, 
 on pain of his displeasure, to be baptized. 
 The morrow witnessed a strange scene at 
 Kieff. The inhabitants, rich and poor, with 
 their wives and children, flocked to the river, 
 and standing up to their necks in its waters, 
 whilst the priests read the service from its 
 banks, were baptized in the name of the 
 Trinity, whole companies receiving together 
 the same baptismal name. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that, " before the 
 overwhelming catastrophe of the fifteenth 
 century, a nation destined to have an 
 immense share in moulding the future 
 history of the world had received from 
 Constantinople the seeds of the Christian 
 faith, not indeed of that faith in all its 
 primitive purity, for none can give better 
 than what they possess themselves ; but 
 what it had, the Greek Church had freely 
 given ; " * and there, to use the expressive 
 words of Dean Stanley, " silently and almost 
 * Archbishop Trench. 
 
 8 
 
114 HEROES OF 
 
 unconsciously she bore into the world her 
 mig-htiest offspring." 
 
 One noble work, however, had been 
 already achieved for the Sclavonic tribes, 
 which did something- to counteract the 
 evil of these political conversions, and to 
 bring light and peace to many a dark 
 and burdened heart. This was the transla- 
 tion of the Holy Scriptures into the native 
 tongue by two brothers, Cyril and Metho- 
 dius, the sons of a Greek nobleman of 
 Thessalonica. They had been sent, to- 
 wards the close of the ninth century, by 
 the Greek emperor, into Moravia, where 
 the people, Sclavonic by race and Christian 
 by profession, were, in reality, heathen. 
 Their first work was to compose a Scla- 
 vonic alphabet, and then to translate the 
 four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, 
 and the Psalms into the language of the 
 people. It was a work in which they met 
 with considerable opposition, especially 
 from German ecclesiastics, but it triumphed 
 in the end over all opposition, and proved 
 a source of blessing to multitudes. In 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 115 
 
 such veneration was this version held, that 
 for ten centuries it continued to be used 
 in the Greek Church. It was only so late 
 as the sixteenth century that portions of 
 the Bible were translated into modern Russ, 
 after the old Sclavonic tongue had been for 
 centuries like a foreign dialect. 
 
 But we turn now from the wholesale 
 and dubious conversions amongst the Scla- 
 vonians of Russia, to the more arduous 
 though less dazzling labours of Adalbert 
 amongst their western kindred. He was 
 born in Prague, a.d. 956, and was de- 
 scended from a respectable family. Having 
 received his education at Magdeburgh, 
 he returned to Bohemia, and was chosen 
 bishop of his native city in the year 983. 
 
 The flock over which he was called to 
 preside were intractable, and may be said 
 to have been only half-christianized and 
 half-civilized. They combined the super- 
 stitions of their ancient heathenism with 
 the tenets of their Christian faith, and 
 virtually lived a pagan life. Adalbert 
 was not deficient in zeal, but he evidently 
 
n6 HEROES OF 
 
 lacked the patience and moderation which 
 such circumstances required. Thwarted, 
 opposed, and disappointed, he again and 
 again forsook his post, and sought in 
 monastic retirement ease for his vexed and 
 righteous soul. Now we find him visiting 
 the famous anchorite, Nilus, in his distant 
 Italian cell, and then returning to his re- 
 fractory people at Prague. Again we find 
 him resigning a post in which his want 
 of tact made him almost as much disliked 
 as his German nationality. Once more 
 we find him returning, under a sense of 
 duty, but evidently with reluctance, to 
 Bohemia, only to be expelled again by 
 his rude Sclavonian flock. 
 
 This third expulsion proved to be the 
 real commencement of his brief but me- 
 morable missionary life. He found a tem- 
 porary home in Hungary under Prince 
 Geisa, who, induced by the influence of 
 his wife, had consented to receive Christian 
 baptism. Neither the prince nor his wife, 
 however, appear to have displayed much of 
 the Christian character, and Adalbert does 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 117 
 
 not seem to have made much impression 
 on them by his teachings. But his labour 
 was not in vain in the Lord. They had 
 a son named Stephen, upon whom the 
 missionary's exhortations and example left 
 a permanent effect. This youth became 
 afterwards the first king of Hungary, and 
 it was mainly owing to his influence that 
 Christianity was established in that king- 
 dom. Indeed, it is remarkable that neither 
 here nor elsewhere was Adalbert permitted 
 to see much fruit of his own exertions; 
 but he cast his bread upon the waters, 
 and it was found "after many days." 
 
 In all probability, it was his want of ap- 
 parent success in Hungary that led him 
 to Prussia — a region to which no mission- 
 aries had as yet directed their steps, and 
 it was, moreover, sunk in the deepest and 
 most appalling heathenism. He sought 
 and obtained from Boleslad I., Duke of 
 Poland, the use of a small ship and a 
 guard of thirty soldiers, and with these 
 soon reached Dantzic, then a border town 
 on the confines of Poland and Prussia. 
 
ii8 HEROES OF 
 
 This was In a.d. 997, the last year of his 
 troubled life. Fortunately no opposition 
 was made to his landing, and he began 
 at once to preach the gospel to the rude 
 barbarians. For the first time in his 
 life he obtained a ready auditory, and not 
 a few listened to the word of life, and em- 
 braced his message. 
 
 Encouraged by this success, he deter- 
 mined to visit the opposite shore ; but being 
 anxious on his arrival to preclude all sus- 
 picion from the minds of the heathen, and to 
 cast himself wholly upon the protection of 
 the Lord his God, he sent back the vessel 
 and his guard, retaining with him only a 
 fellow-labourer named Benedict, and a 
 pupil called Gaudentius. On reaching the 
 curious lagoon called the '* Frische Haff," 
 or Fresh Sea, he and his companions pro- 
 ceeded in a little boat to an island at the 
 mouth of the river Pregel. Here, however, 
 they were assailed by the barbarous inhabi- 
 tants, who fell on them with clubs. Adal- 
 bert, who, according to an old missionary 
 custom, appears to have been singing at 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 119 
 
 the time, had his psalter knocked out of his 
 hand, and was stunned with a heavy blow 
 from an oar, which felled him senseless to 
 the ground. His first words on recovering 
 were, " I thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou 
 hast counted me worthy of one blow for the 
 sake of my crucified Redeemer." 
 
 Leaving this inhospitable shore, they 
 succeeded, with great difficulty, in making 
 their way to Samland, on the opposite side 
 of the Pregel. Here they were met by one of 
 the chiefs, who brought them to his village, 
 and having gathered all the inhabitants 
 together, demanded of the strangers who 
 they were, and what was the object of their 
 visit. Adalbert, in gentle tones, explained 
 who and what he was, and then added, " It 
 is on account of your salvation I have come 
 hither, that you may forsake your gods, 
 which can neither hear, nor speak, nor see. 
 I am come to tell you of the one living and 
 true God, your Creator, for there is no God 
 beside Him ; that so, believing in His name, 
 ye may receive eternal life, and be made 
 partakers hereafter of His eternal bliss." 
 
I20 HEROES Oh 
 
 But his hearers were filled with wrath. 
 Gnashing their teeth and flourishing their 
 clubs, they exclaimed, " These are the 
 men who make our crops to fail and our 
 herds to die ! Let them depart instantly 
 from our land, or they shall meet death for 
 their delay. They may think themselves 
 fortunate that they have come so far unhurt. 
 We only know of one law and one manner 
 of life, and they who serve another unknown 
 God must leave the land, or be beheaded 
 the next day." Forthwith the missionaries 
 were put into a boat, and compelled to leave 
 the coast. Adalbert was inclined to linger 
 in the country, even at the risk of life. He 
 thought that by adopting the dress of the 
 barbarians, and working at some handicraft, 
 he might in time dispel the prejudices of the 
 savage population. But a different issue 
 was at hand. 
 
 Having tarried a few days at the place to 
 which they sailed, Gaudentius in the night- 
 time told his master of a dream which had 
 just been sent to him: *' I saw," said he, 
 *' in my dream a golden cup upon the altar, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 121 
 
 and it was half filled with wine. No one 
 was near, and I wished to drink of it ; but 
 One drew near, and said that this could not 
 be, for that it was not for me, or any other 
 man, to drink of that cup ; and that it was 
 reserved for my bishop, for his spiritual 
 refreshment on another day." Adalbert, 
 who, in common with many good men of 
 former times, made the mistake of courting 
 martyrdom, considered this dream an in- 
 timation that he was to wear the martyr's 
 crown, and said to his pupil, " May God 
 bless this vision ; but we may not trust a 
 dream which may only deceive." When 
 daylight dawned, they pursued their way 
 through the forests, and as they went made 
 the woods resound with psalms. At noon 
 they halted, and partook together of the 
 Lord's Supper. Having refreshed them- 
 selves for the journey, they were about to 
 proceed on their way; but Adalbert felt 
 weary, and having repeated a verse of 
 Scripture and sung a psalm, he composed 
 himself to sleep. His companions, ex- 
 hausted with their fatigues, soon followed 
 
122 HEROES OF 
 
 his example. But that sleep had a terrible 
 awakening ! 
 
 They were startled therefrom by the yells 
 of a band of savages, some of whom bound 
 them as prisoners, whilst others demanded 
 their instant death. Adalbert, with mar- 
 vellous calmness, addressed his two com- 
 panions, and said, *' My brethren, be not 
 troubled ! We know that we suffer this for 
 the name of our dear Lord, whose might 
 is above all might, whose beauty is above 
 all beauty, and whose grace is inexpressible. 
 What can be more blessed than to lay down 
 life for Him ? " The words had scarce es- 
 caped his lips, when a pagan priest rushed 
 upon him from the infuriated crowd, and 
 with a lance transfixed him through the 
 breast. Others followed, and plunged their 
 spears into his fallen body. Adalbert 
 raised his eyes to heaven, and with a prayer 
 for himself, and another for his murderers, 
 he died, like the first martyr, calling upon 
 God. 
 
 Thus perished the first missionary to 
 Prussia, on the 23rd of April, a.d. 997. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 123 
 
 His work seemed to be frustrated, and his 
 short life to have been almost spent in vain. 
 But who can doubt that his work was with 
 his God, and that his life, thoug^h nearly- 
 fruitless in the eyes of men, and seemingly 
 unsuccessful as compared with that of others 
 who had employed more earthly means for 
 spreading the gospel, was not in vain ? 
 Other missionaries followed in his steps, and 
 other martyrs laid down their lives amongst 
 the Sclavonic tribes. Well had it been for 
 the fierce Sclavonians had they listened to 
 those gentle teachers, and accepted the 
 message of loving mercy at their hands. 
 With sorrow and shame we turn to the story 
 of their subsequent subjugation ; for with 
 regard to many of them, it was rather a 
 work of extermination than of evangelization 
 which we have to record. We look down 
 through the two dark centuries that followed, 
 and see the " Order of Teutonic Knights " 
 and the " Brethren of the Sword" carrying 
 the spirit of a fierce and sanguinary crusade 
 into the heart of Europe, and coercing its 
 remaining- heathenism to embrace the re- 
 
124 HEROES OF THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 ligion of the Cross. Alas ! for the days 
 when, by the authority of Christian bishops, 
 and in the name of the Christian religion, 
 and of its Divine Founder, such deeds were 
 perpetrated for the propagation of the Faith, 
 and such retaliations provoked as make our 
 ears to tingle, and the very blood to run 
 cold within our veins ! 
 
 It is in contrast with such means as these, 
 as well as in contradistinction to the spirit 
 and temper of his own dark times, that the 
 name of Adalbert stands out upon the page 
 of history as a faithful missionary ; not indeed 
 without faults and failings, for he was a man 
 of like passions with ourselves, but with a 
 heart that burned with love to Christ, and 
 melted with pity for his fellow-men. Even 
 if he had never been enrolled amongst "the 
 noble army of martyrs," he would have 
 deserved a place amongst the heroes of the 
 mission field. 
 
125 
 
 VII. 
 
 OTTO, THE APOSTLE OF POMERANIA. 
 
 A.D 1 1 24— 1 1 39. 
 
 More than a hundred years had passed 
 away since Adalbert had preached the 
 Gospel and laid down his life as a martyr 
 amongst the Sclavonic tribes of Prussia. 
 Little had been done in the meantime for 
 the real extension of Christ's kingdom. 
 Nestorian missionaries indeed had been 
 propagating their doctrines with consider- 
 able success in the wilds of Tartary, and 
 the Greek Church had been putting forth 
 some of its energies towards the East ; 
 but in Europe the eleventh century was 
 not favourable to missionary effort. The 
 Church of Christ had become militant; 
 but it was so in the worst and most carnal 
 sense of the word. Fanaticism had suc- 
 ceeded to Christian zeal ; and violence and 
 
126 HEROES OF 
 
 coercion had taken the place of mild per- 
 suasion and faithful testimony. Princely 
 authority and priestly power had usurped 
 the place of holy lives, and so it came to 
 pass that whilst the borders of the visible 
 Church were extended, the spiritual king- 
 dom of Christ made little progress. 
 
 Towards the close of the century, how- 
 ever, there was a partial revival of religion. 
 The stir of the crusades which awoke 
 Europe from its stagnation seems to have 
 been accompanied by a shaking amongst 
 the "dry bones" of Christendom. As a 
 result of this we meet with a renewal of 
 missionary effort ; not marked indeed by its 
 ancient purity and power, but still exhibit- 
 ing, amidst manifold errors and deficiencies, 
 somewhat of its ancient zeal and self- 
 devotedness. And so the twelfth century 
 presents us with a few names which ought 
 not to be forgotten when we are taking 
 account of the heroes of the mission field. 
 Amongst them we may name the scholarly 
 and pious Vicelin, who toiled amidst so 
 much discouragement amongst the savage 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 127 
 
 Wends, and his patient pupil, Meinhard of 
 Yxhull, who founded the first Christian 
 Church amongst the fierce Livonians ; and 
 more especially the indefatigable Otto, who 
 shines forth amidst the darkness of his age 
 as a self-renouncing and devoted missionary 
 of the cross. 
 
 We select the latter as a typical character, 
 not only on account of his personal cha- 
 racter and energy, but because his life and 
 labours bring us into contact with the more 
 prominent surroundings of the period in 
 which he lived, and enable us to understand 
 the influences for good and for evil which 
 were at work around him in that almost 
 forgotten time. Moreover, as his efforts 
 were chiefly directed towards the evange- 
 lization of the Sclavonic tribes, a sketch of 
 his life will form a suitable sequel to the 
 story of Adalbert, their first and martyr 
 missionary. 
 
 The Sclavs who dwelt in Pomerania had 
 hitherto been unimpressed, and indeed we 
 may add unvisited, by the Christian mis- 
 sionary. Their own dark religion and its 
 
128 HEROES OF 
 
 numerous and well-ordered hierarchy pre- 
 sented serious obstacles to the entrance of 
 the truth. In every town and village their 
 priesthood exercised an all but resistless 
 power, before which even the authority of 
 the secular rulers had often to give way. 
 Their superstitions had culminated into an 
 organized and complex system which seemed 
 impervious to assault. The little they had 
 seen of Christianity was enough to make 
 them hate it with all their heart ; for when 
 Boleslav III., Duke of Poland, had sub- 
 jugated Pomerania, and carried away thou- 
 sands of its people into captivity, he had, 
 after the manner of those times, forced 
 them, at the point of the sword, to renounce 
 their Idols, and to receive Christian baptism. 
 The first attempt at instructing them in 
 Christianity was made by a zealous but not 
 very prudent Spaniard of the name of 
 Bernard. He presented himself at the 
 Court of Poland, and asked permission to 
 preach to the Pomeranians. Although "the 
 mendicant orders" had not yet sprung into 
 existence, the spirit which gave rise to them 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 129 
 
 had begun to show itself. The luxury and 
 wealth of the existing orders had produced 
 a reaction in the minds of the thoughtful, 
 and it took the form of an extreme but 
 decided protest, when poverty and mendi- 
 cancy were voluntarily adopted as adjuncts 
 of the Christian life. The Spanish mission- 
 ary, accordingly, accompanied by his chap- 
 lain and interpreter, appeared before the 
 gate of Julin in the garb of a beggar, with 
 bare feet and tattered dress. He doubtless 
 thought that such an illustration of self- 
 denial would make a favourable impression 
 upon the Pomeranians. But he altogether 
 forgot that they were heathens, and that 
 whatever impressions such a garb might 
 make upon men who looked upon self-denial 
 as an element of Christian truth, it was 
 not calculated to produce any favourable 
 results in the case of the heathen, and 
 especially of those who were accustomed 
 to the splendid habiliments of their own 
 exalted hierarchy. 
 
 "The people," says Mr. Maclear, "re- 
 garded the missionary with profound 
 
 9 
 
I30 HEROES OF 
 
 disdain. When he asserted that he had 
 come as a messenger from God, they asked 
 how it was possible to believe that the great 
 Lord of the world, glorious in power, and 
 rich in all resources, would send as His 
 messenger a man in such despicable garb, 
 without even shoes to his feet." They 
 taunted him moreover with pretending to 
 a divine mission, when in reality (as they 
 asserted) he only wanted to obtain relief for 
 his destitution ; and added that if the God 
 he served was anxious for their conversion, 
 He would have sent an ambassador more 
 worthy of Himself and of them. 
 
 Bernard, with a zeal that displayed at 
 once his sincerity and his fanaticism, offered 
 to put the reality of his mission to an un- 
 authorized test. He proposed that they 
 should set fire to a ruined house, and that he 
 would leap into the flames : if he came forth 
 from them unscathed, they should acknow- 
 ledge his authority, and embrace the faith 
 which he proclaimed. The Pomeranians, 
 thinking that the enthusiast was mad, urged 
 him to leave the place ; but instead of doing 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 131 
 
 this, he wildly struck down one of their 
 cherished idols. A riot immediately ensued; 
 he was hurried on board a ship, and told 
 that as he was so anxious to preach he 
 might exercise his vocation in speaking- to 
 the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the 
 air. So ended the first and abortive mis- 
 sion to the Pomeranians. 
 
 It was fortunate that on his return 
 Bernard met with a man who had as 
 much zeal as himself, but far more wisdom 
 and Christian light. This man was Otto, a 
 Suabian of noble family, who had been 
 chaplain to the Duke Wratislav, and now 
 filled an exalted position as Bishop of 
 Bamberg. He heard from the Spanish 
 monk the story of his adventure, and was 
 ultimately led, partly by the monk's solici- 
 tations, and partly by those of Boleslav, to 
 undertake the mission himself. Determined, 
 however, to avoid the mistakes of his pre- 
 decessor, and to adapt his proceedings to 
 the character of the race whom he was about 
 to evangelize, he set out in company with 
 his chaplain Ulric, and seven other clergy- 
 
132 HEROES OF 
 
 men, all supplied not only with suitable 
 raiment for themselves, but with such costly 
 presents for the Pomeranian princes as would 
 make it plain that he did not come in order 
 to obtain anything at their hands. 
 
 It was on the 25th April, 1124, that the 
 mission party, with a retinue of waggons, a 
 guard of soldiers, and envoys from the duke, 
 set out upon their journey. Their way led 
 through hitherto untrodden forests and 
 quaking morasses ; and it was after con- 
 siderable risk and difficulty that they found 
 themselves, at the end of six days' tedious 
 marching, upon the confines of Pomerania. 
 Here they were met by an armed band of 
 savages, whose loud voices and flashing 
 knives caused them no little alarm ; but it 
 was soon discovered that their chief was 
 friendly, and that his followers were not set 
 on mischief. Passing on towards Pyritz, 
 through a region depopulated by war, the 
 few peasants whom they met on the way 
 were alarmed by the military aspect of the 
 mission party, and flung themselves at the 
 bishop's feet, declaring their willingness to 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 133 
 
 obey his wishes. And here the low stan- 
 dard of missionary work in that dark age 
 becomes apparent ; they were baptized upon 
 the spot, with little inquiry and less in- 
 struction ! 
 
 They reached Pyritz in the evening, and 
 as the inhabitants were celebrating a hea- 
 then festival, Otto delayed his entrance into 
 the town until morning. The envoys of 
 Boleslav preceded them. And now we come 
 to the curious admixture of the temporal 
 and the spiritual which characterized these 
 mediaeval missions. The envoys reminded 
 the inhabitants that one of the conditions 
 of peace between them and their Sovereign 
 was that they should embrace Christianity ; 
 and then they informed them that a legate 
 of noble birth was at hand to instruct them 
 — no mendicant like Bernard, but a rich 
 and powerful bishop of their monarch's 
 court, and that they had better not incur 
 the duke's displeasure by declining to 
 receive the teacher whom he had so gra- 
 ciously sent to them. 
 
 Otto entered in his episcopal robes, with 
 
134 HEROES OF 
 
 his imposing retinue of soldiers and eccle- 
 siastics ; and at first the people of Pyritz 
 naturally enough thought that they were 
 deceived, and that an invading army in- 
 stead of a missionary band had appeared in 
 their midst. Otto, however, soon reassured 
 them. Standing upon an eminence, he thus 
 addressed them : " Ye men of Pyritz, the 
 blessing of the Lord be upon you. We 
 return you many thanks for having refreshed 
 our hearts by your hearty and loving 
 reception. Doubtless you have already 
 heard the object of our coming, but it will 
 not be amiss to remind you again. For the 
 sake of your salvation, your happiness, 
 your joy, we have come a long and weary 
 way. And assuredly ye will be happy and 
 blessed if ye be willing to listen to our 
 words, and to acknowledge the Lord your 
 Creator, and to serve and worship Him 
 only." 
 
 Three weeks were spent at Pyritz in 
 preaching to the heathen, and instructing 
 them in the nature of the Christian religion. 
 It is said that seven thousand persons re- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 135 
 
 celved the rite of baptism, and we cannot 
 but hope that, notwithstanding the strange 
 admixture of methods with which it had 
 been introduced, the Gospel proved to 
 many "the power of God unto salvation." 
 From Pyritz they proceeded to Cammin, 
 where, during forty days of preaching, 
 many others were baptized ; and then the 
 mission party turned their faces to the town 
 of Julin, from which Bernard had been so 
 recently and ignominiously expelled. Here 
 they met with the most determined opposi- 
 tion, and barely escaped with their lives. 
 It was evident that earthly pomp and gran- 
 deur had as little power to convert the 
 heathen as the most abject poverty and 
 squalor. After much negotiation between 
 the envoys and the populace, it was agreed 
 to abide by the decision of Stettin, which 
 was the wealthiest and most important of 
 the Pomeranian towns. 
 
 The people of Stettin, however, received 
 the missionaries with indifference, if not 
 with scorn. "What have we to do with 
 you?" was the universal cry. "We will 
 
136 HEROES OF 
 
 not put away our national customs, and we 
 are well content with our present religion. 
 Are there not thieves and robbers among 
 you Christians ? . . . Keep your own faith 
 for yourselves, and intermeddle not with 
 us." How frequently since that day has 
 the progress of the Gospel been impeded 
 by the inconsistent lives of its professors ! 
 But Bishop Otto was a good man. If he 
 could not win the Pomeranians by argument 
 or entreaty, he could at least set before 
 them the charm of a Christian life. He 
 spent several months in Stettin, and ex- 
 hibited to the astonished heathen such a 
 life of virtue and benevolence as they had 
 never even imagined. He relieved the poor; 
 he visited the sick ; he redeemed the cap- 
 tives, and restored them to their friends. 
 His whole conduct was calculated to silence 
 the taunts of enemies, and to win a favour- 
 able hearing for the word of life. 
 
 During his stay in Stettin, an event oc- 
 curred which, in the providence of God, 
 made a deep impression upon the people. 
 Two young men, sons of opulent parents, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 137 
 
 had heard Otto preach, and visited him in 
 private in order to obtain further instruction 
 at his hands. Their visits were often re- 
 peated (for Otto had a wondrous power 
 of attracting the young), and at length they 
 declared their wish to receive Christian 
 baptism. Without the knowledge of their 
 parents they were admitted into the Church. 
 The news of their conversion soon spread 
 abroad, and the mother sent word to the 
 bishop that she was coming to claim her 
 sons. Otto, knowing her influence in the 
 city, resolved to receive her in the open 
 air. He was surrounded by his clergy ; the 
 young neophytes, still arrayed, according 
 to the custom, in their white baptismal 
 robes, were seated at his feet. A great 
 concourse had gathered to see the strange 
 sight, and to support the mother in making 
 her claim for her apostate sons. As she 
 approached the bishop, the young men rose 
 to meet her, and, overpowered by her feel- 
 ings, the mother sank prostrate and weeping 
 to the ground. All present supposed that 
 she was overwhelmed with grief at their 
 
138 HEROES OF 
 
 defection from the ancient faith ; but what 
 was their surprise when, on being raised 
 from the earth, and having regained her 
 composure, she exclaimed, " I bless Thee, 
 Lord Jesus Christ, Thou source of all hope 
 and consolation, that I behold my sons 
 consecrated in Thine own sacrament, and 
 enlightened by Thine own truth." Then 
 turning to her sons, and embracing them, 
 she added, " Thou knowest, my Lord Jesus 
 Christ, that I have never ceased for many 
 years to pray for them, and to beseech 
 Thee to do for them what Thou hast done 
 for me." 
 
 She then told her history : how, many 
 years before, she had been taken captive, 
 and carried to another land ; how there 
 she had heard the Gospel of salvation, and 
 embraced it ; how on her return she had 
 been kept back by fear from the open pro- 
 fession of it ; and now, by the visit of Otto 
 and the conversion of her sons, she had 
 been led to this avowal of her faith in 
 Christ. Then she blessed God for His 
 mercy in sending the missionaries to Stettin, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 139 
 
 and addressing Otto, she said, " If you only 
 stay here, you will gain a large church for 
 the Lord ; only be not wearied in waiting 
 long, and take my case as an encourage- 
 ment in your work." 
 
 A profound impression was made by this 
 event, and whilst it was at its height a 
 message arrived from Boleslav, saying that 
 he was astonished at the manner in which 
 the people had behaved to the legate ; that 
 only for the intercession of Otto he would 
 have punished them severely ; but that if 
 they would now listen to his instructions, 
 he would remit a portion of their tribute, 
 and guarantee a lasting peace. 
 
 These influences combined in their several 
 degrees to secure an acceptance for the 
 Gospel amongst the men of Stettin ; but in 
 order to test their sincerity Otto proposed 
 that they should destroy their idol temples ; 
 or, if they feared to do it themselves, that 
 he and his party should be allowed to do it 
 for them. To this latter alternative they 
 consented, and as temple after temple fell, 
 and idol after idol was destroyed, the 
 
I40 HEROES OF 
 
 multitude exclaimed, " What power can 
 these gods possess, who cannot even defend 
 themselves? " Thousands of willing hands 
 were soon aiding in the work of demolition ; 
 and before the year had closed a Christian 
 church was erected in the market-place of 
 the city. 
 
 Julin followed the example of Stettin ; 
 Colberg, Belgrade, and other towns heard 
 the word of life, and multitudes renounced 
 idolatry. Otto, amidst much that was 
 unreal and unsatisfactory, had planted some 
 precious seed, and even reaped a harvest, 
 amongst the most superstitious of the 
 Sclavonic races. He returned to his diocese 
 in 1125, but after a year went back to the 
 scene of his missionary labour. It is no 
 uncommon thing in missionary work to 
 witness a violent reaction on the part of 
 the heathen after much success has been 
 achieved. We have seen this in our own 
 day in Madagascar and New Zealand. It 
 was such a reaction in Pomerania that 
 summoned Otto back ; but in this journey 
 he took a different route, and planted the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 141 
 
 Standard of the cross in Wolgast, Giitzkow, 
 Usedom, and other important towns. Ar- 
 rived at length at the scene of his former 
 labours, he had to encounter perils and 
 difficulties innumerable. His life was con- 
 stantly in danger, but fearlessly and lovingly 
 he devoted himself to his mission, and after 
 earnest and anxious endeavours he beheld 
 a revival of his work, and left it established 
 upon a firmer foundation for the time to 
 come. 
 
 We can trace a decided advance in his 
 own Christian life and in his mode of pro- 
 ceeding. He had learned to place more 
 value upon the spiritual power of Chris- 
 tianity than upon its externals, and had 
 seen how dangerous it was to encourage 
 any admixture of paganism and Gospel 
 truth. At Giitzkow the people offered him 
 costly presents if he would spare a magni- 
 ficent idol temple, of which they were very 
 proud. "Would you," replied he, "sow 
 wheat over thorns ? I trow not. As you 
 therefore first root out the thistles from 
 your field, and then sow your seed, so must 
 
T42 HEROES OF 
 
 I take away all that belongs to Idolatry from 
 your midst, in order that you may bring 
 forth fruit unto eternal life." The result 
 was that they destroyed the temple with 
 their own hands. He built them a hand- 
 some church in its stead ; but on the day 
 of its consecration he directed their attention 
 from the outward to the inward, and warned 
 them against placing Christianity in mere 
 externals. He pointed out the necessity 
 for change of heart, and, as a consequence, 
 devotedness of life ; then turning to Mislav, 
 the governor, he said, " You, my beloved 
 son, are a true house of God, but you must 
 consecrate yourself to Him entirely ; and in 
 order to this, you must release your slaves 
 and debtors." It was " an hard saying," 
 and Mislav felt it to be so; but the per- 
 suasions of the missionary prevailed, and 
 the governor at length replied, ** Behold, in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus, I give to all 
 their freedom, that according to your word 
 this consecration may be completed in me 
 to-day." The example of this noble deed 
 told powerfully upon his countrymen. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 143 
 
 One place, however, resisted all Otto's 
 efforts. This was the Isle of Rugen, which 
 has been well described as " the Mona of 
 the Baltic." It had been for centuries the 
 source and centre of Sclavonic superstitions ; 
 it had now become the last stronghold of 
 fanaticism and idolatry. Otto determined, 
 at the hazard of his life, to visit it, and 
 would have carried out his heroic intention 
 if the Christian chiefs of Pomerania had not 
 prevented him. They would not hear of 
 such a valuable life being sacrificed. Some 
 of his followers, inspired by his devotion, 
 endeavoured to reach the place, but were 
 driven back by furious tempests, and it was 
 not until thirty years later (a.d. 1168) that 
 this last fortress of Paganism in Europe fell, 
 and its huge four-headed idol, Swantevit, 
 which had been a terror for centuries, was 
 hewn in pieces and committed to the 
 flames. 
 
 In 1 128 Otto returned to Bamberg, and 
 spent the rest of his life in superintending 
 the affairs of his diocese. But he was not 
 unmindful of the churches which he had 
 
144 HEROES OF THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 founded, nor of the converts whom he had 
 won. He kept up a loving intercourse 
 with them to the end of his life, and one 
 of his last acts evinced his unfailing 
 interest in their welfare. Having heard 
 that some Pomeranian Christians had been 
 taken captives by the heathen, he bought 
 a quantity of valuable goods at Halle, 
 and sent them to Pomerania, with instruc- 
 tions that part of them should be distributed 
 amongst the chieftains, in order to secure 
 their kindly offices, and part expended in 
 paying for the ransom of the Christian cap- 
 tives. He died in a.d. 1139, leaving behind 
 him, in a dark and ferocious age, substantial 
 proofs of his success as a Christian mission- 
 ary ; affording a memorable illustration that 
 truth and love can win their way where 
 voluntary poverty and studied magnificence 
 have failed to secure an entrance ; and that 
 consistency and charity are more influential 
 than either the rags of the mendicant or the 
 robes of the prelate. 
 
VIII. 
 
 RAYMUND LULL, PHILOSOPHER, MISSIONARY, 
 MARTYR. 
 
 A.D. 1291 — 1315. 
 
 ** For two centuries the name of Raymund 
 Lull was the best known, and perhaps the 
 most influential, in Europe, but how few 
 know anything about him now ! " So writes 
 one of our historians, and probably the greater 
 number of those who read this brief sketch 
 of his life and labours may have never heard 
 of him before. Still he was a great man, 
 and withal a missionary hero ; all the 
 greater, and all the more heroic, because 
 he lived in the darkest of what may with 
 justice be called the dark ages. His life 
 and character were singular ; — first a liber- 
 tine, and then a saint ; looked upon alter- 
 nately as a fanatic and a philosopher ; now 
 dreaded as a heretic, and then reverenced 
 
 10 
 
146 HEROES OF 
 
 as a devotee ; poet and linguist, missionary 
 and martyr, he was altogether the most 
 remarkable man that stands out from the 
 dark background of the thirteenth and 
 fourteenth centuries. 
 
 His evangelistic labours moreover were 
 mainly directed towards two classes, who 
 had been long overlooked in the missionary 
 efforts of the Church, namely, the Moslems 
 and the Jews. It is true that the preach- 
 ing friars, who started into existence in 
 the early part of the thirteenth century, 
 had renounced the idea of solitary life in 
 the monasteries, and gone forth amongst 
 the masses : and to Saracens, Moors, and 
 Hebrews, as well as to heathens and pro- 
 fessing Christians, they had carried such 
 a gospel as they knew ; but the labours of 
 Raymund Lull were of a purer and more 
 systematic kind ; and though he caught 
 some portion of his zeal from the example 
 of the mendicant orders, he far outshone 
 them in the clearness of his teaching and 
 the far-sightedness of his arrangements. 
 
 He was born a.d. 1236, at Palma, in the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 147 
 
 island of Majorca, and like several of the 
 missionaries whom we have already de- 
 scribed, was of noble birth. At an early 
 age he was introduced at court, and was 
 advanced to the rank of seneschal. Up to 
 his thirtieth year he lived a life of gaiety 
 and dissipation. Gifted, courted, impas- 
 sioned, he spent his time between the 
 culture of the muses, the frivolities of gay 
 companions, and the indulgence of sensual 
 passions. In after-life he wrote a work on 
 *' The Contemplation of God," and in it he 
 laments this period of his worse than wasted 
 life. "I see, O Lord," he writes, "that 
 the trees every year bring forth flowers and 
 fruits by which men are refreshed and 
 nourished, but it is not so with me, a sinner. 
 For thirty years I have borne no fruit in 
 the world ; yea, rather, I have injured my 
 neighbours and friends. If therefore the 
 tree which is destitute of reason brings 
 forth more fruit than I have done, I must 
 be deeply ashamed, and acknowledge my 
 great guilt." 
 
 Such was the man whom Divine grace 
 
148 HEROES OF 
 
 selected to be a herald of salvation ! He 
 was sitting- one day upon his couch, and 
 composing a poem upon the joys of guilty 
 love, when suddenly he seemed to behold 
 the person of the Redeemer hanging upon 
 the cross. So deep was the impression, 
 that he could compose no more. He en- 
 deavoured to return to his love-song again 
 and again, but every time the impression 
 rose up more vividly before him, and he 
 cast aside his guilty theme under the deep 
 conviction that Christ was calling him to 
 purer and nobler work. But then the 
 thought flashed across his mind, '* How can 
 I, who am so impure, enter upon a holier 
 life? " Night after night he lay awake in 
 doubt and despair, and then the thought 
 arose within him, " Christ is meek and 
 merciful, and He invites all to come unto 
 Him, and has promised that He will in no 
 wise cast them out." This was the turning- 
 point of his life : he embraced the preferred 
 mercy, and resolved to dedicate himself 
 henceforth to the service of the Lord. 
 His thoughts turned to the Saracens, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 149 
 
 as being most in need of the Gospel of 
 Christ. His father had served in the wars 
 against them. He knew full well how the 
 chivalry of Europe had failed to subjugate 
 them. He had seen how the spirit of the 
 Crusades had reacted upon the Church, and 
 stirred up a kind of ecclesiastical militia to 
 propagate the faith by the force of arms 
 instead of by the power of love. He knew 
 full well how the " Knights of the Sword" 
 had brought dishonour upon Christianity by 
 their cruelties and coercions. *' I see many 
 knights," he says, "crossing the sea to the 
 Holy Land, and they imagine that they 
 shall conquer it by force of arms, but at 
 last they are all driven away without ac- 
 complishing their object ; hence it appears 
 to me that the Holy Land can be won in 
 no other way than as Thou, O Lord Christ, 
 and Thy Apostles won it — by love, by 
 prayer, by shedding of tears and blood." 
 And again, " The Holy Sepulchre and the 
 Holy Land can be won back far more 
 effectually by proclaiming the word of 
 truth than by force of arms." 
 
I50 HEROES OF 
 
 It occurred to him that he should write 
 a book in order to prove the truth of Chris- 
 tianity; but then a difficulty presented 
 itself: Of what use would such a volume be 
 to the Saracens, who understood no lan- 
 guage but Arabic ? It was in pondering 
 over this difficulty that he conceived the 
 idea of applying to the pope and the princes 
 of Christendom to found institutions for 
 teaching foreign languages, that so the 
 Gospel might be spread more widely 
 through the world. He felt that linguistic 
 study should be made subservient to the 
 work of God ; and amidst many dis- 
 couragements and disappointments in high 
 places, he never ceased to push his project, 
 until, at the Council of Vienne, a.d. 131 i, 
 he obtained a degree that professorships of 
 oriental languages should be founded in the 
 universities of Paris, Oxford, and Salamanca, 
 and in all cities where the papal court was 
 held. He had already prevailed on the 
 king of the Balearic Islands to found a 
 monastery in Majorca, where thirteen stu- 
 dents were to be instructed in Arabic, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 151 
 
 and trained in the Mahommedan contro- 
 versy. 
 
 He had resolved to dedicate his own 
 personal exertions to missionary labour; but 
 for a time old habits regained their ascend- 
 ancy, and all higher aspirations seemed 
 to be quenched within him. It was at this 
 crisis of his life that he heard a sermon 
 on " renunciation of the world." It was 
 preached by a Franciscan bishop, who told 
 the thrilling story of the founder of his order, 
 and how the gay soldier of fortune, brought 
 down to the gates of the grave, had learned 
 to see the things of time in the light of 
 eternity, and to become the '* Spouse of 
 Poverty" and the servant of the cross. 
 This sermon rekindled his missionary 
 ardour. He sold his property, made pro- 
 vision for his wife and children, and left his 
 home, with the intention of never returning 
 to it again. 
 
 Soon afterwards we find him engaged in 
 the study of Arabic. He bought a Saracen 
 slave to teach him the language, and oc • 
 cupied himself for years in the acquisition 
 
152 HEROES OF 
 
 of it. He then applied himself to construct 
 a system of philosophy which might super- 
 sede the dialectics of the schoolmen, and 
 harmonize the domains of science and 
 theology. This conception he embodied in 
 his "Ars Generalis," or, as it was long 
 called, after its author, "The Lullian Art." 
 He spent nine years in preparing it and 
 lecturing on it. It was subtle, mystical, 
 acute, and, in view of our modern philosophy, 
 both useless and extravagant ; but it was the 
 product of a deep thinker, who had an en- 
 thusiastic hope of discovering a system of 
 argumentation which would convince all 
 men of the truth of the Christian faith. 
 
 Successive visits to Rome convinced him 
 that he need not look for much aid or 
 countenance in that quarter for his mission- 
 ary projects ; so he resolved to start upon 
 the enterprise himself, and selected the 
 Moslem population of Northern Africa as 
 his field of labour. Repairing to Genoa in 
 A.D. 1287, he engaged a passage to that 
 dark continent, which in our own day has 
 become once more the scene of so much 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 153 
 
 Christian effort. Great expectations were 
 awakened among the Genoese by such an 
 enterprise, undertaken by a man whose 
 strange history and increasing fame had 
 attracted universal attention. The ship 
 was in the harbour; Lull's books were on 
 board ; everything was ready for the voyage ; 
 but, alas for poor human nature ! his ima- 
 gination conjured up all the terrors which 
 might await him amongst the infidels ; his 
 heart quailed before the prospect, and he 
 let the ship sail without him. 
 
 Scarcely was the vessel outside the har- 
 bour when he was visited with the keenest 
 remorse for the scandal which he had 
 brought upon religion, and the recreant 
 faithlessness which he had displayed towards 
 his plighted vows. A dreadful fever was 
 the result of this mental conflict ; but whilst 
 in this agitated and prostrate state he heard 
 of another ship which was just starting for 
 Tunis, and he insisted upon being put on 
 board. His friends, seeing that he was 
 more dead than alive, and dreading the 
 consequences of a voyage while he was in 
 
154 HEROES OF 
 
 such a condition, brought him back ; but he 
 got no rest for his mind, and no alleviation 
 for his illness. Another ship was about to 
 sail, and no entreaties could now detain 
 him. He insisted upon being placed on 
 board, and no sooner had the ship weighed 
 anchor than he began to revive. He felt 
 he was now in the path of duty, and with 
 returning peace of mind his bodily health 
 came back. Like another Jonah, he had 
 fled from God, but like him had been 
 brought back to his forsaken work. 
 
 Arrived in Tunis, Raymund invited the 
 Mahommedan literati to a public conference, 
 and explained to them that he wished to 
 institute a comparison between their religion 
 and his own ; and that if he found that they 
 had stronger reasons on their side than he 
 had on his, he would embrace the Moslem 
 faith. The Mahommedan doctors flocked 
 around him in great numbers, feeling sure 
 of an easy victory ; but after refuting their 
 arguments in favour of their creed, he 
 proceeded to show (and it was a favourite 
 theme of his) that the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 155 
 
 and the incarnation of the Son of God, were 
 the only means of harmonizing the Divine 
 attributes. From this he went on to show 
 the conformity of Christianity to the dic- 
 tates of reason, and then pressed home 
 upon his hearers the acceptance of the 
 Gospel message. He was, par excellence^ 
 "the philosophic missionary." 
 
 His argument must have been weighty, 
 though not convincing; for one of the 
 learned Saracens informed the king that 
 their faith was in danger through Raymund's 
 preaching, and succeeded in having him 
 cast into prison and condemned to death. 
 Another doctor, however, less prejudiced, 
 espoused his cause, and declared that a man 
 of such intellectual ability and heroic zeal as 
 Lull should be honoured for his endeavours 
 to spread the religion which he believed to 
 be true, and that if any Mussulman had done 
 so amongst the Christians he would have 
 deserved the highest praise. This saved 
 our missionary from death, but not from 
 banishment. He was put on board the 
 vessel in which he had arrived, and informed 
 
156 HEROES OF 
 
 that if ever he visited Tunis again he should 
 be stoned to death. He contrived, however, 
 secretly to get on board another vessel, and 
 lingered for three months in the harbour, 
 with the hope of obtaining access to the 
 city. During this period he commenced 
 another of those philosophical treatises 
 which made his name so famous in the 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
 
 We next find him at Naples, delivering 
 lectures on his favourite system of phi- 
 losophy. Then we find him again in 
 Majorca, endeavouring to win the Saracens 
 and Jews to the faith of Christ ; then we 
 follow him to the island of Cyprus, where he 
 preached the Gospel ; then we track him to 
 Armenia, where he exerted himself to bring 
 back various schismatics of the Eastern 
 Church to orthodox doctrine ; and all this 
 labour and all these journeys he undertook 
 with only one companion of his toil — unaided 
 by the rich, unpatronised and unprotected 
 by the great. Having spent ten years in 
 varied labours and various climes, he 
 returned to Europe, composed several im- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 157 
 
 portant treatises, and lectured with applause 
 in the Universities of France and Italy. 
 
 But Africa and the Saracens had pos- 
 session of his heart. In a.d. 1307 he was 
 once more beyond the Mediterranean, and 
 preaching to the people of Buggia in the 
 Arabic tongue, which was now as familiar 
 to him as his own. Openly and publicly 
 he proclaimed to them that the religion 
 of Christ was true, and that of their prophet 
 false. Many a hand was lifted up to stone 
 him ; but a mufti hurried him away, and 
 asked him how he could be so infatuated 
 as to expose his life to such certain peril. 
 He replied, *' Death has no terrors for a 
 sincere servant of Christ, who is endeavour- 
 ing to bring souls to the knowledge of the 
 truth." Imprisonment, however, was his 
 lot. For a year and a half he lay in a 
 dark dungeon at Buggia, and meantime 
 honours, riches, wives were offered to him 
 if he would renounce his faith. To all 
 such proffers he replied, " I also will pro- 
 mise you wealth, and honour, and ever- 
 lasting life, if you will renounce your false 
 
158 HEROES OF 
 
 prophet, and believe in the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 At length he was banished from the 
 country, and was shipwrecked not far from 
 Pisa. Many of his fellow- passengers were 
 drowned, and he himself escaped with the 
 loss of all his books and property. He was 
 now an old man, and had won many an 
 admirer on account of his labours, his 
 learning, and his zeal. One might think 
 that seventy winters had chilled the mis- 
 sionary ardour in his breast ; but he reviews 
 the past with cheerfulness, and looks to the 
 future with undaunted hope. ** Once," he 
 writes, " I was rich ; I had a wife and chil- 
 dren ; I led a worldly life. All these I cheer- 
 fully resigned for the sake of promoting 
 the common good, and diffusing abroad the 
 holy faith. I learned Arabic ; I have gone 
 abroad several times to preach the Gospel 
 to the Saracens ; I have, for the sake of 
 the faith, been cast into prison ; I have 
 been scourged ; I have laboured during 
 forty-five years to win over the shepherds 
 of the Church and the princes of Europe 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 159 
 
 to the common good of Christendom. Now 
 I am old and poor ; but still I am intent 
 on the same object, and I will persevere 
 in it until death, if the Lord permit." 
 
 Such language reminds one of the great 
 Apostle of the Gentiles, and we cannot 
 doubt that, as the love of Christ constrained 
 St. Paul, so it constrained this grand old 
 man. Hear how he writes : " As the 
 needle by nature turns to the north when 
 it is touched by the magnet, so it is fitting 
 that Thy servant should turn to Thee, since 
 out of love to him Thou hast endured such 
 pains and sufferings." And again: *' I 
 have sought Thee on the crucifix, and my 
 bodily eyes could not find Thee there. I 
 have sought Thee with the eyes of my 
 soul, and as soon as I found Thee my 
 heart grew warm with the glow of Thy 
 love, and my eyes began to shed tears, 
 and my mouth to praise Thee." It was 
 no wonder that one who knew such love 
 as this should desire to spend and be spent 
 for the Master's sake; and so he says, 
 *' Men are wont to die, O Lord, of old age, 
 
i6o HEROES OF 
 
 because their natural warmth fails, and 
 because there is excess of cold. Thus, if 
 it be Thy will, Thy servant would not die. 
 He would rather die in the glow of love, 
 even as Thou wert wilhng to die for him." 
 
 And the Lord granted him that which he 
 desired. He crossed over to Africa once 
 more, on the 14th of August, 13 14, and 
 landed again at Buggia. He was now 
 nearly eighty years of age, but " his eye was 
 not dim, nor his natural force abated." 
 Here he laboured secretly and quietly for a 
 time amongst the little flock which he had 
 gathered for Christ during his former visit, 
 confirming their faith, and building them 
 up in the knowledge of God. But his thirst 
 for martyrdom was too strong to be re- 
 pressed. It was the weakness of a great 
 mind. He stood forth publicly once more, 
 and declared to the astonished Saracens 
 that he was the man whom they had 
 banished from their shores. He exhorted 
 them to renounce their errors, and predicted 
 the judgments of the Almighty if they 
 persisted in their unbelief. 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. i6l 
 
 The Saracens fell upon him in fury. He 
 was drag-g-ed out of the city, and by the 
 king's command was stoned to death. One 
 account says that some merchants from 
 Majorca obtained permission to remove his 
 corpse, and that they found some sparks 
 of life in him, which soon expired. The 
 other account informs us that they removed 
 the martyr's body from its stony coverlet, 
 and carried it back to his native land. So 
 died Raymund Lull on the 30th of June, 
 13 15. He deserves to be had in remem- 
 brance as one of those *' of whom the world 
 was not worthy." He stood almost alone 
 as a shining light in an age of surpassing 
 darkness. He realized with wonderful fore 
 cast some of the great necessities of the 
 missionary enterprise, and more especially 
 of linguistic culture. He consecrated his 
 science and himself to the service of re- 
 ligion. He was the pioneer in far distant 
 times of the Moffats and Livingstones and 
 Krapfs, who in our own day have lived 
 and died for Africa. He was one of the 
 first to direct the attention of the Church 
 
 II 
 
i62 HEROES OF THE MISSION FIELD. 
 
 of Christ to the long-neglected claims of 
 the Moslem and the Jew; and now, when 
 his philosophy is forgotten, and his dia- 
 lectics are replaced by nobler and clearer 
 systems of knowledge and instruction, we 
 turn with admiration to the fervour of his 
 love and the vigour of his faith. 
 
IX. 
 
 FRANCIS XAVIER, MISSIONARY TO THE 
 INDIES AND JAPAN 
 
 A.D. 1541—1552. 
 
 The Reformation of the sixteenth century 
 inaugurated a new era of missionary enter- 
 prise. It was scarcely to be expected that 
 the reformed churches, struggUng for liberty 
 and even for existence at home, could enter 
 at once upon the foreign field. The history 
 of their missions is of a somewhat later date, 
 and will come under consideration here- 
 after; but the Church of Rome seemed 
 determined to make up, if possible, for her 
 losses in Europe by attempting new con- 
 quests in the East ; and to this end she 
 employed the new and powerful order of 
 the Jesuits, which had sprung into exist- 
 ence amidst the conflicts of these times. 
 However we may disapprove of the cha- 
 
1 64 HEROES OF 
 
 racter and conduct of these missions, it is 
 impossible to leave them out of account in 
 such a work as the present ; and for 
 the same reasons that lead us to notice 
 them we cannot refrain from sketching the 
 history of by far the most remarkable man 
 who was concerned in this movement ; we 
 mean Francis Xavier, commonly called by 
 Romish writers, " the Apostle of the 
 Indies." 
 
 In placing- him amongst the ** Heroes of 
 the Mission Field," we neither endorse his 
 peculiar religious dogmas nor give our ap- 
 probation to all his methods for propagat- 
 ing them. As will be seen in the sequel, 
 there was much in both which must be 
 strongly condemned ; but at the same time 
 we cannot withhold our admiration, not only 
 of his zeal, energy, and self-devotion, but, 
 notwithstanding all his darkness and defects, 
 his undeniable love to the great Master 
 Whom he endeavoured to honour and to 
 serve. Moreover we must distinguish be- 
 tween the man as he really was and those 
 exaggerated and absurd portraits of him 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 165 
 
 which have been drawn by credulous and 
 superstitious hands. Perhaps there is no 
 missionary who has left us such ample 
 materials as he has done, in his own letters, 
 for drawing up a history both of his cha- 
 racter and work ; and one cannot imagine 
 a greater contrast than "Xavier" as de- 
 scribed by his own pen and "Xavier" as 
 portrayed in the legendary histories which 
 in after years pretended to set forth his 
 claims. As a late writer has well said, 
 *' in the sober realities of his history there 
 is enough to entitle him to a high rank in 
 the roll of self-devoted philanthropists. But 
 his eulogists claim for him the title of a 
 Christian hero upon grounds which are 
 untenable." 
 
 We need not dwell upon the miraculous 
 powers, some of them most puerile and 
 absurd, which have been attributed to him. 
 It would be easy to show, if this were the 
 place to do it, that these claims cannot be 
 sustained upon rational grounds, and are con- 
 tradicted by the accredited statements which 
 have come to us from under his own hand. 
 
1 66 HEROES OF 
 
 For example, the more than pentecostal gift 
 of tongues, by which it is said that he not 
 only spake in languages which he had never 
 learned, but so spake that people of different 
 tongues all understood him at one and the 
 same moment, is flatly contradicted by his 
 own repeated confession, that one of his 
 great difficulties consisted in his ignorance 
 of the languages of the people amongst 
 whom he went, and his dependence upon 
 native interpreters who were liable to mis- 
 take his meaning. 
 
 But we turn from fictions to the broad 
 facts which can be relied upon concerning 
 this remarkable man. He was born in the 
 ancestral castle of Xaviere, upon the Spanish 
 slopes of the Pyrenees, on the 7th of April, 
 1506, and like many of the missionaries 
 whose histories we have already sketched, 
 he belonged both by paternal and maternal 
 descent to ancient and honourable families. 
 All his elder brothers were trained to the 
 profession of arms ; but Francis, the 
 youngest of a large family, showed an 
 early love of study, mingled with that love 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 167 
 
 of adventure and romance which were to be 
 ultimately devoted to higher ends. At 
 seventeen he was sent to the University of 
 Paris, where he became a distinguished 
 student, and a still more distinguished pro- 
 fessor of philosophy. His lecture-room was 
 crowded by the elite of Parisian society ; his 
 eloquence, his beauty, and his learning 
 attracted people from all quarters, and men 
 bowed down before the inspiration of his 
 genius as if in the presence of something 
 almost divine. 
 
 It was at this time that he became ac- 
 quainted with a man who was destined to 
 exercise a magic spell, not only upon him, 
 but upon many others — namely, Ignatius 
 Loyola, the future general of the order of 
 the Jesuits. It is remarkable that at first 
 Xavier disliked Ignatius, and treated him 
 with disdain. There is reason to believe 
 that at this period of his life Xavier had 
 come into contact with the opinions of the 
 Reformers, and was not altogether unin- 
 fluenced by them ; but eventually his whole 
 nature came under the enchantment of his 
 
i68 HEROES OF 
 
 new acquaintance, and to the end of his life 
 he never ceased to express the most un- 
 bounded admiration and respect for him. 
 Indeed, Xavier was one of the memorable 
 *' seven" who in the crypt of St. Denis, at 
 Montmarte, took the Vow of Dedication 
 which g-ave rise to the famous " Society of 
 Jesus;" and the whole of his missionary 
 life was inspired by the ardour of his 
 devotion to that community and its extra- 
 ordinary founder. 
 
 It was to Palestine that Xavier and his 
 companions first turned their eyes as a field 
 of labour ; but circumstances arose which 
 directed their steps to the farther East. 
 While he was staying with Ignatius at Rome 
 and organizing- the band of labourers who 
 were to go forth for new conquests on Its 
 behalf, an application was made to the 
 Pope by John III. of Portugal for some able 
 and devoted missionaries to preach in his 
 Indian dominions. The result of the appli- 
 cation was that Xavier and another of the 
 order were selected for the enterprise, and 
 within a few days they were on the road to 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 169 
 
 Lisbon, in company with the ambassador. 
 It is said that on the way thither he passed 
 close by the castle of Xaviere, and that 
 though pressed by the ambassador to visit 
 it and to see his aged mother, Xavier de- 
 clined to do so. If the story be true, it 
 shows to what mistaken lengths the vow 
 of self-sacrifice was already leading the 
 young neophyte ; but at the same time it 
 manifests the entire determination with 
 which he devoted himself to his work. 
 
 After being detained about a year in 
 Lisbon, the missionary and his party sailed 
 in April, 1541, in company with the king's 
 new viceroy, with a fleet of six splendid 
 ships, and loaded with every honour and 
 dignity that royal or ecclesiastical power 
 could confer upon them. Indeed, this over- 
 shadowing by human authority, and a con- 
 sequent reliance upon it, proved to be the 
 weak points in Xavier's mission. He was 
 devoid of personal vanity, but he was too 
 prone to lean upon an arm of flesh, and too 
 little upon the power of divine truth ; and, 
 as we shall see in the sequel, this often 
 
I70 HEROES OF 
 
 proved a snare to him, and a real hindrance 
 to his work. 
 
 Arrived in Goa, he soon found that his 
 romantic dreams were to be rudely dissi- 
 pated by the ungodly conduct of the 
 Portuguese settlers, both clerical and lay. 
 How could the heathen be evangelized 
 while the representatives of Christianity 
 in their midst were a disgrace to the very 
 name they bore ? For five months he de- 
 voted himself to the work of reformation. 
 His days were spent in preaching, in cate- 
 chizing the young, in visiting the hospitals. 
 His zeal and piety were something new, 
 and he seems to have won admiration and 
 respect, and, what was far better, to have 
 accomplished a manifest improvement in 
 the conduct and morals of the community. 
 
 But his heart yearned after work of a 
 more directly missionary kind, and he 
 looked around upon the vast expanse of 
 heathendom about him to see where he 
 should commence. But here at the outset 
 he was hampered by political connections. 
 The viceroy had a favourite project : it 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 171 
 
 was to Christianize or rather to re-Chris- 
 tianize the pearl-fishers of the Comorin 
 coast, and, still more, to secure the mono- 
 poly of the pearl fishery for his royal master. 
 These fishermen had been won, at least 
 nominally, to the Christian faith by the 
 previous labour of Michael Vas, but they 
 possessed little of Christianity except the 
 name. This mention of a previous labourer 
 in India reminds us that there were many 
 such before the days of Xavier, and that 
 consequently he cannot in any exact sense 
 be considered as the apostle of that country. 
 And so Francis Xavier started for his first 
 field of missionary labour. We have his 
 own account of his work. He began by 
 translating the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Ten Commandments, and the Ave 
 Maria into the vernacular, and committing 
 them to memory. Then, with bell in hand, 
 he went forth through the villages, and 
 summoned large congregations, attracting 
 children especially by his kind words and 
 gentle looks. To these he recited the 
 translations, and after each article of the 
 
172 HEROES OF 
 
 creed he asked them whether they believed. 
 On their assent, he gave a short exhortation 
 and then and there baptized them. With 
 such a facile system, we do not wonder to 
 hear him say, "It often happens to me 
 that my hands fail through the fatigue of 
 baptizing, for I have baptized a whole 
 village in a single day ; and often by repeat- 
 ing so frequently the creed and other things, 
 my voice and strength have failed me." 
 How little his catechumens understood 
 may be gathered from a letter of Xavier 
 to his friend Mansilla, in which he says 
 that they had mistranslated the first word 
 of the creed, and that instead of the word 
 " I believe " {credo)^ they had been using 
 the expression " I will " {void). 
 
 Xavier's custom of baptizing infants 
 whose parents were still heathen (a custom 
 always reprobated by the early Church) 
 was another example of the way in which 
 both then and since the statistics of Romish 
 missions have been swelled. Xavier boasts 
 that he baptized more than a thousand 
 infants within twelve months, and speaks 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 173 
 
 of them as gone up to heaven to be his 
 intercessors ! But he soon tired of this 
 kind of work, and longed to convert kings 
 and princes. He was attracted to the 
 kingdom of Travancore, where he hoped 
 to gain its powerful sovereign, and so 
 ensure great successes amongst his sub- 
 jects. 
 
 If we are to take a passage in one of his 
 letters as authentic, he made 10,000 con- 
 verts in this kingdom within a single 
 month ; but there is strong reason to be- 
 lieve that the passage is not genuine ; and 
 even if it were, the mode of making them, 
 as described already {jeci christianos), must 
 be taken into account. They were made 
 by means of an unknown language, and 
 by the unreliable help of a native interpreter, 
 and with the smallest possible amount of 
 instruction. How little value Xavier him- 
 self finally set upon the results of such 
 labours may be gathered from his own 
 statement — " If you will, in imagination, 
 search through India, you will find that 
 few reach heaven, either of whites or blacks. 
 
174 HEROES OF 
 
 except those who depart this life under 
 fourteen years of age, with their baptismal 
 innocence still upon them." The Abbe 
 Dubois has given us a like melancholy 
 picture of the transitory effects produced 
 by Xavier's mission in India. Indeed, 
 he does not hesitate to say of Xavier, 
 that "being entirely disheartened by the 
 invincible obstacles he everywhere met in 
 his apostolic career, and by the apparent 
 impossibility of making real converts, he 
 left the country in disgust." 
 
 It is important to bear all this in mind 
 when estimating the results achieved by 
 Xavier. They are not the kind of results 
 which would satisfy us in any case, nor could 
 we expect more permanent ones from the 
 teaching which led to them ; but all this 
 need not hinder us from admiring the energy 
 and self-denial with which he pursued his 
 labours, or the generous, noble, and loving 
 disposition which he so undeniably dis- 
 played. In these respects we may repeat 
 what a Protestant historian (Baldeus) has 
 said in his "History of the Indies" — "Oh 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 175 
 
 that It had pleased God that, being what you 
 were, you had been, or might have been, 
 one of us ! " 
 
 Xavier quitted India after three years of 
 labour, but with a feeling akin to mortifi- 
 cation and despair. The king of Jaffna- 
 patam had made cruel ravages upon the 
 Christians of Ceylon, and Xavier had en- 
 deavoured to coerce him by the power of 
 the sword of Portugal ; but this reliance 
 upon the " arm of flesh " proved unavailing, 
 and the missionary turned his eyes to Ma- 
 cassar and the islands of the Indian Archi- 
 pelago, from which he had heard exciting 
 news, and where he hoped to win great 
 successes. He sailed for Macassar in 1545, 
 and soon arrived at Malacca. Here, as in 
 other places, he took up his residence in the 
 hospital, and spent his time in doing good 
 both amongst the sick and in the city; but 
 with an inconstancy which seemed peculiar 
 to him, he abandoned his project of going 
 to Macassar, and started for Amboyna, the 
 Moluccas and Mauricise, all of which he 
 visited in turn, and in each of which he 
 
176 HEROES OF 
 
 laboured, sometimes at the risk of life, often 
 amidst the want of all things, and always 
 with a spirit of self-sacrifice and earnest 
 devotion. His mission in these regions 
 lasted from 1545 to 1548. 
 
 His letters to Europe at this period are 
 filled with the most ecstatic accounts of his 
 labours and sensations, and yet at the very 
 same period he writes to his fellow-labourers 
 in tones of depression and disappointment. 
 We are not to conclude from this that 
 Xavier was double-tongued or deceitful. He 
 was a man of very emotional character and 
 quick transitions of feeling. His letters to 
 his friends reflect the sorrow and pain which 
 sprang up in his daily work ; whilst his more 
 elaborate reports, written at lengthened 
 intervals, give the more trustful confidence 
 of his personal faith in God. But he lacked 
 that confidence in the power of the Gospel, 
 and indeed that spiritual knowledge of it, 
 which would have made him "steadfast and 
 immovable." Nothing more fully evinces 
 this sad defect in Xavier's views of divine 
 truth than his proposal to the king of 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 177 
 
 Portugal, that in future the work of missions 
 should be confided to the civil authorities ! 
 He gravely tells the king, in a letter dated 
 20th January, 1548, that this is the only 
 remedy against the failure of missions, and 
 counsels the king to hold the viceroys and 
 governors personally responsible for the 
 success of the missions in their different 
 districts, and to " punish the governor of any 
 town or province in which few neophytes are 
 added to our holy Church," and he pro- 
 poses that this punishment should extend 
 to *' close imprisonment for many years, 
 and that all his goods and possessions 
 shall be sold and devoted to works of 
 charity! " 
 
 We do not marvel after this that India 
 and the Spice Islands were forsaken. And 
 now Japan presented a new and attractive 
 field to the enterprising but disappointed 
 missionary. The providence of God had 
 brought a native of that country, named 
 Anger, into contact with Xavier. The mis- 
 sionary appears to have been blessed to 
 him ; and Anger, who at his baptism took 
 
 12 
 
178 HEROES OF 
 
 the name of " Paul of the holy faith," soon 
 interested his instructor in the spiritual 
 wants of his countrymen. Xavier's name 
 will ever be honourably associated with the 
 introduction of Christianity into Japan ; and 
 if his followers in that mission had been 
 actuated in all respects by the same spirit 
 which influenced him, we probably would 
 never have read of the terrible outburst of 
 persecution which a century afterwards 
 destroyed so many valuable lives (they are 
 reckoned at 37,000), and shut up the 
 country until our own times against the 
 re-admission of Christian missionaries. It 
 was in 1549 that he and his companions 
 sailed in a Chinese junk to the port of Can- 
 goxima. His ignorance of the language 
 operated as a serious hindrance to his work ; 
 but still he seems to have gained a hearing 
 for Christianity, and to have won consider- 
 able numbers of the Japanese to the 
 reception of it. There is something heroic 
 in the simple story of his privations and 
 difficulties, as, in the depth of winter, thinly 
 clad and barefoot, he made his two months' 
 
 \ 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 179 
 
 journey to the capital, Meaco, through 
 snow-drifts and mountain torrents. 
 
 But the old diplomatic attractions once 
 more came into play. The king of Bungo, 
 who had given a very favourable reception 
 to Xavier, though unwilling to become a 
 Christian, was anxious to establish com- 
 mercial relations with Portugal. The mis- 
 sionary, always too anxious to fall back 
 upon royal support, soon arranged to leave 
 Japan, in company with a native ambassador 
 and two Japanese Christians, in order to 
 carry out these political arrangements. 
 Thus closed his two and a half years' 
 mission in that interesting land. He be- 
 queathed it to others ; but it is lamentable 
 to tell how, after existing for ninety years, 
 the mission was extinguished in blood, and 
 how by a terrible Nemesis it was brought 
 to an end by political power — the very 
 power upon which Xavier and his followers 
 had so constantly relied. Intercepted letters 
 informed the Emperor that the teachers of 
 the new religion intended to raise sedition 
 against him^ A terrible persecution ensued, 
 
t8o heroes of 
 
 in which thousands endured death rather 
 than renounce their Christianity ; and above 
 the vast grave in which the Japanese martyrs 
 were interred, these awful words were 
 written : "So long- as the sun shall warm 
 the earth, let no Christians be so bold as 
 to come to Japan, and let all know that the 
 king of Spain himself, or the Christian's God, 
 or the great God of all, if he violate this 
 command, shall pay the forfeit with his head." 
 It was while Xavier was in Japan that 
 he conceived the idea of opening a mission 
 to China. Many circumstances led him in 
 this direction : his own restlessness and 
 romance of spirit ; the high esteem in which 
 the Chinese were held by the people of 
 Japan ; and the hope that if the former 
 could be won, the latter would soon follow; 
 and moreover there was then the report 
 (fully verified in our own day) that there 
 were Jews in the interior of China ; this 
 report recalled Xavier' s early dreams about 
 Palestine, and led him to imagine that a 
 way might be opened to him. from the 
 Celestial Empire to Jerusalem itself 
 
THE MISSION FIE ID. i8l 
 
 In a letter from Goa, April loth, 1552, 
 he thus announces his intentions to the 
 king of Portugal : "I go from hence in 
 five days to Malacca, with a brother of our 
 society, James Pereira, an envoy to the 
 king of China. We carry with us many 
 precious gifts to the king, which Pereira 
 has bought, partly by royal funds and 
 partly by his own. We carry also a precious 
 gift such as I doubt whether ever any king 
 sent to a king within the memory of man 
 — namely, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which, 
 if the king of China knows its value, he 
 will place far above all his treasures, how- 
 ever great." These were noble words, but 
 the project was destined to end in disap- 
 pointment. Arrived at Malacca, Xavier 
 proposed a "legation" to China, hoping 
 by that means to secure admission to a 
 land which it would be otherwise death to 
 enter. He found, however, that the new 
 governor was adverse to his enterprise, and 
 with a strange admixture of the pontifical 
 legate and the devoted missionary, he forth- 
 with assigned the governor to excommuni- 
 
1 82 HEROES OF 
 
 cation in the severest language, and resolved 
 to start alone upon the perilous expedition. 
 He took shipping in the Santa C^'iiz^ and 
 was soon off the coast of China, accom- 
 panied only by a native interpreter and a 
 young Indian. 
 
 There is something very sublime in the 
 last days of the earnest but baffled mis- 
 sionary, as he stands upon the barren island 
 of Sancian, and looks in vain for admission 
 through the closed doors of the Celestial 
 Empire. Again and again he was heard 
 to exclaim, " O rock, rock, when wilt thou 
 open? " He tried by means of vast bribes 
 (it was a very questionable effort) to induce 
 some of the Chinese, at the risk of their 
 lives, to smuggle him on shore, but the 
 attempt ended in failure. Then fever seized 
 him as he lay in his rude hut, constructed 
 of stakes and branches, upon the sandy 
 beach, and ever and anon, amid his rav- 
 ings, his heart gave utterance to his faith : 
 " Deus meus et omnia." He was only 
 forty-six ; his hair was white, not with age, 
 but with constant toil and suffering; his 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 183 
 
 noble face was hectic with the flush of 
 fever; his long thin hands were emaciated 
 by disease. And there, far away from 
 companionship and sympathy, after ten such 
 years of toil and labour as few men have 
 ever endured, he breathed out his life on 
 the 2nd of December, 1552, in these memo- 
 rable words, " In te, Domine, speravi ; non 
 confunda, Inseternum." 
 
 Rome has beatified and canonized Francis 
 Xavier, and she has done so upon grounds 
 which will not bear investigation ; she has 
 surrounded his memory with legends and 
 extravagances which in no way add to his 
 true honour ; and she has claimed for him 
 powers and successes which are repudiated 
 by his own pen. But he was nevertheless 
 the noblest and most gifted of her mission- 
 aries. He had his faults and failings ; but 
 he never defiled himself by frauds and 
 falsehoods, like those which marked the 
 conduct of so many of his successors in 
 India, and which grew at length to such 
 a pitch of enormity that they called forth 
 papal condemnation. We can do justice 
 
1 84 HEROES OF 
 
 to his integrity and zeal, whilst conscious 
 of his spiritual errors and defective teach- 
 ing; and we can applaud and recommend 
 his earnestness and devotedness, whilst 
 guarding ourselves and others against those 
 earthly confidences which hindered and 
 marred his work. 
 
 Perhaps no higher testimony can be borne 
 to his character than that reflected from 
 his personal piety, as manifested in the 
 words of his own beautiful hymn : — 
 
 O Deus ! ego amo te, 
 
 Nee amo te, ut salves me, 
 
 Aut quia non amantes te 
 
 vEterno punis igne. 
 
 Tu, tu, mi Jesu, totum me 
 
 Amplexus es in cruce : 
 
 Tulisti clavos, lanceam, 
 
 Multamque ignominiam, 
 
 Innumeros dolores, 
 
 Sudores et angores, 
 
 Ac mortem, et hasc propter me, 
 
 Ac pro me peccatore : 
 
 Cui igitur non amem te, 
 
 O Jesu, amantissime ? 
 
 Non ut in caelo salves me, 
 
 Aut ne aeternum damnes me, 
 
 Nee prccmii illius spe, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 185 
 
 Sed sicut tu amasti me ; 
 Sic amo et amabo te, 
 Solum quia Rex meus es, 
 Et solum quia Deus es. 
 
 The following translation of it will be 
 acceptable to English readers : — 
 
 My God, I love Thee, not because 
 
 I hope for heav'n thereby ; 
 Nor yet that they who love Thee not 
 
 Must burn eternally. 
 Thou, O my Jesus, Thou didst me 
 
 Upon the cross embrace ; 
 For me didst bear the nails and spear, 
 
 And manifold disgrace ; 
 And griefs and torments numberless. 
 
 And sweat of agony : 
 Even death itself ; and all for one 
 
 Who was Thine enemy. 
 Then why, O blessed Jesu Christ, 
 
 Should I not love Thee well ? 
 Not for the sake of winning heav'n. 
 
 Or of escaping hell : 
 Not with the hope of gaining aught, 
 
 Nor seeking a reward ; 
 But as Thyself hast lov'd me, 
 
 O ever-loving Lord , 
 E'en so I love Thee, and will love, 
 
 And in Thy praise will sing ; 
 Because Thou art my Lord, and God, 
 
 And my Eternal King ! 
 
X. 
 
 ELIOT, THE APOSTLE OF THE RED 
 INDIANS. 
 
 A.D 1646— 1690. 
 
 We now enter upon the era of Protestant 
 missions. The Reformed Churches had 
 found it difficult at the outset of their new 
 career to attend to missionary work amongst 
 the heathen. They were not, however, en- 
 tirely forgetful of this sacred duty. In 
 1555, a few years after the death of Xavier, 
 a mission had been organized by Calvin 
 and the Church of Geneva, which sent out 
 fourteen missionaries to Brazil, in company 
 with an expedition which had been set on 
 foot by the famous Admiral Coligni. This 
 expedition failed in consequence of the 
 treachery and apostasy of a knight of Malta, 
 to whose charge it had been entrusted ; the 
 greater part of the colonists had to return 
 
i88 HEROES OF 
 
 home, and the rest were barbarously mur- 
 dered by the Portug-uese. In 1559a mission 
 was undertaken to Lapland, under the royal 
 sanction of Gustavus Vasa, King of Sweden, 
 and was perpetuated by those who came 
 after with no small success. The remainder, 
 however, of the sixteenth century was not 
 fruitful in missionary enterprise, and we 
 arrive at the middle of the seventeenth 
 century before we come to any distin- 
 guished name upon the illustrious roll of 
 modern missionaries. 
 It is here that we meet with the name 
 of John Eliot, who, although declining for 
 himself the modest title of *' Evangelist of 
 the Indians," has won by very general con- 
 sent the higher title of their "Apostle." 
 He was in every sense a remarkable man, 
 and may be taken as a typical character 
 amongst the Heroes of the Mission Field. 
 His mission took its rise out of the 
 strange and in many respects deplorable 
 events which drove the "Pilgrim Fathers" 
 out of England, and led them to seek for 
 liberty and toleration on the shores of 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 189 
 
 America. The colony had been founded 
 about twelve years before Eliot went out to 
 his exiled countrymen as spiritual instructor; 
 and he was acting for some years in that 
 capacity before it came into his heart to 
 devote himself to the heathen tribes who 
 were round about him. 
 
 He was born in 1604, and brought up by 
 pious parents, of whom he spoke in after 
 life with reverence and gratitude. He re- 
 ceived a university education at Cambridge, 
 where he distinguished himself in theology 
 and classics, and it is probable that he 
 entered into holy orders ; but it does not 
 appear that he exercised any clerical func- 
 tions in England. It would rather seem as 
 if he had early imbibed the opinions of the 
 Nonconformists of his day, for we find him 
 assisting in the school of one Thomas 
 Hooker, who from conscientious motives 
 had retired from the ministry of the Church 
 of England, and settled at Little Baddow, 
 near Chelmsford. But it is to the credit 
 of John Eliot that he did not carry any 
 narrow or bitter spirit into his life-long 
 
igo HEROES OF 
 
 work, but discharged it with a broad and 
 Christian charity, and successfully resisted 
 his co-religionists in their opposition to 
 infant baptism and other ordinances of the 
 Church from which he had been unhappily 
 severed. 
 
 The earlier relations of the colonists with 
 the Indian tribes were marked by consider- 
 able fairness and integrity ; and the desire 
 expressed in their foundation charter — that 
 they should keep in view the conversion of 
 the natives to the Christian faith — had not 
 been altogether lost sight of; but nothing 
 was done upon a definite or extensive scale 
 until Eliot took it in hand. He had been 
 fifteen years labouring amongst his fellow- 
 emigrants at the village of Roxbury (now 
 a suburb of the great city of Boston) when 
 in 1646 he entered upon his arduous work 
 amongst the Red Indians. For some years 
 previously his sympathies had gone forth 
 towards a race which, amidst all their de- 
 gradation and superstition, have possessed 
 so many noble and admirable qualities, 
 that they have been designated " the born 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 191 
 
 gentlemen of mankind." In addition to 
 this, he had persuaded himself that they 
 were a portion of the lost tribes of Israel ; 
 and to a man holding the peculiar views 
 which distinguished the Pilgrim Fathers, 
 who made the Jewish Commonwealth the 
 model of their own State Government, this 
 persuasion would supply a class of motives 
 most sacred and influential. 
 
 His chief difficulty lay in the languages 
 which he had to conquer. It has been 
 well said of Eliot that he had " the gift 
 of tongues;" but not in the sense in which 
 it was vouchsafed to the Apostles, or in 
 which, as we have seen, it has been attri- 
 buted to Xavier. He possessed a mar- 
 vellous power of mastering a foreign 
 tongue, and he had to deal with languages 
 so difficult, that, to use the words of the 
 historian, " they must have been growing 
 since Babel." What do our readers think of 
 
 " Kummogokdonattoottammoctiteaongannunnonash," 
 
 which was the nearest correlative to " cate- 
 chism" ? or how do they estimate the labour 
 
192 HEROES OF 
 
 which had to reduce to writing a language 
 containing such polysyllabic words — a lan- 
 guage for which there was no alphabet, 
 grammar, or vocabulary ; and one more- 
 over which contained no equivalents for 
 the fundamental ideas which it was the 
 main object of the Christian missionary 
 to set forth? 
 
 ** I found out," says Eliot, " a pregnant- 
 witted man, who pretty well understood 
 our language : him I made my interpreter. 
 By his help I translated the Commandments, 
 the Lord's Prayer, and many texts of Scrip- 
 ture ; also I compiled both exhortations 
 and prayers by his help. I diligently 
 marked the difference of their grammar 
 from ours ; and when I found the way of 
 them, I would pursue a word, a noun, a 
 verb, through all variations I could think 
 of." Such is the simple unostentatious 
 way in which this great missionary records 
 what must have been a gigantic labour. 
 
 It was on the 28th of October, 1646, that 
 he made his first use of this laborious ac- 
 quisition. He met the Indians, by appoint- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 193 
 
 ment, some five miles from Roxbury, 
 and was introduced to them by Waban, 
 an influential man amongst his tribe, who 
 led Eliot to the wigwam where the natives 
 were assembled in large numbers. After 
 a brief prayer, in which he sought help 
 from heaven, he preached for a quarter 
 of an hour upon Ezekiel's " vision of dry 
 bones," and the breath of God quickening 
 them. His hearers were greatly touched 
 by what they heard ; and Waban, whose 
 name, by a curious coincidence, was 
 ''breath" or "wind," was specially at- 
 tracted, and afterwards became a most 
 useful helper to the missionary. After 
 preaching, Eliot always encouraged his 
 hearers to ask questions, and then did his 
 best to answer them. Amongst the ques- 
 tions put to him he records the follow- 
 ing: — "How can Indians come to know 
 God?" "Can God understand prayer 
 in the Indian tongue?" "Were English- 
 men ever as ignorant of Jesus Christ as 
 the Indians?" "Whether it were not 
 too late for them to repent and seek after 
 
 13 
 
194 HEROES OF 
 
 God ? " These questions indicate how fully 
 the Indians were taking in the truths which 
 they were being taught, and Eliot's mode 
 of thus dealing with his hearers contrasts 
 favourably with the rash and rapid manner 
 in which converts were instructed and ad- 
 mitted to baptism by Xavier and other 
 missionaries. 
 
 Eliot held successive meetings of this 
 kind with the natives ; and such was his 
 success, that the powows, or medicine-men, 
 took the alarm, and did their best to hinder 
 the labour of the missionary. It was at this 
 juncture Waban espoused their cause, and 
 repeated to his countrymen the lessons he 
 had learned from the white man. About 
 the same time another Indian, named 
 Wampas, brought his son and other chil- 
 dren to be instructed in the Christian re- 
 ligion, and this example was soon followed 
 by other natives, so that Eliot found his 
 hands full, and had to devote himself to 
 the twofold work of education and of 
 preaching. 
 
 He soon found that, owing to the roving 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 195 
 
 habits of the Indians, little could be effec- 
 tually done for their civilization ; so he 
 resolved upon gathering them into settled 
 communities, and began by building a town 
 where they might learn the simple arts 
 of life, and receive constant instruction 
 for themselves and their children. This 
 town was called Nonanetum (or gladness)^ 
 and it soon became the centre of Christian 
 influence. Polygamy was discontinued ; 
 agriculture was introduced ; the wild habits 
 of former times were exchanged for the 
 decencies of civilized life ; one Christian 
 village after another rose in the wilderness, 
 and in one instance, that of " Concord," 
 the movement originated with the Indians 
 themselves. The experience gathered from 
 various quarters has shown that, in the 
 commencement of a mission, such a mode 
 of procedure is often not only desirable, but 
 necessary; and that at the same time this 
 system of pupilage should be gradually re- 
 laxed, and the converts accustomed to the 
 exercise of that manly Christianity which 
 can encounter the shocks and conflicts of 
 
196 HEROES OF 
 
 the world in which it has to live, and which 
 it is intended to influence and transform. 
 Eliot's use of the system was both necessary 
 and successful. 
 
 In 1674 there were no fewer than seven 
 towns of praying Indians, with their " seven 
 churches," and a population of about eleven 
 hundred souls. The Lord's-day was piously 
 observed, and large congregations assem- 
 bled at the sound of a drum to praise 
 and worship the true God. Some of the 
 influential Sachems (or chiefs) joined the 
 movement, and one of them, named Papas- 
 saconnoway, and his sons, gave great help 
 to the missionary. The speech of one chief 
 is worth recording. He said : "I have all 
 my days been paddling in an old canoe, 
 and now you exhort me to leave my old 
 canoe, which I have been hitherto unwilling 
 to do ; but now I yield myself to your 
 advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do 
 engage myself to pray henceforth to God 
 alone." But other chiefs violently opposed 
 the missionary, and he was sometimes in 
 peril of his life at their hands. By this 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 197 
 
 time Eliot had obtained the valuable help 
 of such men as Cotton and Mayhew from 
 England. He had also secured the aid of 
 pious mechanics and labourers to instruct 
 the natives; but his work and theirs had 
 often to be carried on amidst much diffi- 
 culty and hardship. Speaking of one of 
 his itinerations, he says, " I have not been 
 dry night nor day from the third day of 
 the week unto the sixth, but so travelled, 
 and at night pulled off my boots, wrung 
 my stockings, and on with them again, and 
 so continue. But God steps in and helps. 
 
 1 have considered the word of God in 
 
 2 Tim. ii. 3 : ' Endure hardship as a good 
 soldier of Jesus Christ.' " 
 
 Eliot was distinguished by great per- 
 severance, unfailing cheerfulness, and good 
 common sense ; but that which made him 
 mighty was his spirit of love and his spirit 
 of prayer. Even the New Englanders were 
 not free from quarrels, but the gentleness 
 of the good missionary acted like magic, 
 and often dissipated their contentions. 
 "He was ready," as his biographer quaintly 
 
198 HEROES OF 
 
 expresses it, " to ring a loud curfew-bell 
 whenever he saw the fire of animosity." 
 And he carried this spirit into his dealings 
 with the heathen, and won them to Christ 
 by the power of love. As for prayer, it was 
 the very breath which he breathed. He 
 set apart whole days for prayer when any 
 special work was to be done, and he never 
 undertook the most ordinary duty without 
 asking the Divine blessing. "Let us pray," 
 was his usual salutation when entering the 
 house of any of his friends, and his invari- 
 able address when about to leave it. 
 ''Pray, pray, pray! " these were the earnest 
 words which mingled with his last utter- 
 ances upon a dying bed. 
 
 He carried a kind of divine simplicity 
 about him. Careful about the wants of 
 others, he seldom attended to his own. His 
 wife once asked him, " Whose were those 
 cattle that stood before his door?" But 
 the good man's mind was taken up with 
 Indian alphabets and vocabularies, and he 
 did not know that they belonged to himself! 
 His salary upon one occasion was tied up in 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 199 
 
 a handkerchief; and the treasurer, knowing 
 EHot's disposition, put as many knots upon 
 it as he could. On his way home he called 
 upon a poor widow, and found her destitute. 
 He tried to undo the knots, but finding them 
 more troublesome than he anticipated, he 
 handed the whole to his astonished parish- 
 ioner, saying, "Here, take it; I believe 
 the Lord intends that you should get it 
 all ! " 
 
 The sagacity of Eliot was proved in the 
 measures which he took to render his work 
 abiding. Not content with laborious itine- 
 rations in which he followed the Indians 
 to their hunting-grounds, and sought them 
 out at their various fishing-stations, he 
 established schools for the education of 
 their children and a college for the train- 
 ing of a native ministry. Roxbury, in pro- 
 portion to its size, sent out more scholars 
 from its school, founded by Eliot, than any 
 community in New England ; and the 
 famous college of Harvard owes not a 
 little of its fame to the labours of this de- 
 voted missionary. His zeal and energy 
 
200 HEROES OF 
 
 soon bore fruit in other parts of the new 
 colonies, so much so that in 1687 Eliot 
 tells us of four-and-twenty Indian preachers, 
 besides four English ministers, who could 
 address the people in their native tongue. 
 He himself had five sons, all of whom he 
 devoted to the work of the ministry. Two 
 of them died young, two others were dis- 
 tinguished as evangelists, and the youngest 
 assisted him in his declining years, but was 
 called to his reward before his father. On 
 being asked how he could bear up under 
 the loss of so many of his children, Eliot 
 replied, " It was my desire that they 
 should have served God on earth ; but if 
 God chose rather that they should serve 
 Him in heaven, I have nothing to object 
 to it. His will be done." 
 
 He translated several important volumes 
 into the Indian tongue ; but his great work 
 was the Mohegan version of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures. In 1 66 1 he had finished his transla- 
 tion of the New Testament, and, with the 
 aid of the Corporation for Propagating the 
 Gospel in New England (then lately revived 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 201 
 
 under the presidency of the famous Robert 
 Boyle), he printed fifteen hundred copies 
 under the title of '* Wusku Wuttustamentum 
 Nut Lordumun Jesus Christ Nuppoquohwus- 
 suaeneumun." It may be observed, in re- 
 cording this strange title, that he anticipated 
 and settled for himself the lengthened con- 
 troversy which has since arisen amongst 
 missionaries as to the proper equivalents 
 for such words as Lord, Christ, God, etc. 
 Eliot preferred to use words which were 
 new to the heathen, rather than run the 
 risk of adopting expressions of theirs which 
 were contaminated by their false systems 
 of belief, and might therefore convey wrong 
 impressions when used in connection with 
 Christian truth. Three years afterwards he 
 completed the translation of the Old Testa- 
 ment, and it is said that the whole of his 
 MS. was written with a single pen ! It was 
 the first Bible ever printed in America, and 
 although in its day it did its blessed work, 
 it is a sad reflection that it is now only fit 
 for a museum, and that there is not an 
 individual alive that can understand a word 
 
202 HEROES OF 
 
 of it. The encroachments of the colonists, 
 and their injustice to the natives, led to an 
 internecine strife, in which the white man 
 vied in ferocity with the red man whom he 
 had oppressed, and in the issue gave him the 
 unhappy distinction of having extinguished 
 as well as wronged the original possessor 
 of the soil. 
 
 Even before Eliot's death this terrible 
 conflict had cast its coming shadow upon 
 his work. Philip, chief of the Paukun- 
 nawkuts, and son of the Sachem who had 
 received the pilgrims so kindly upon their 
 first landing from the Mayflower, took up 
 arms in 1675, in defence of his tribe, and after 
 a bitter and sanguinary contest was killed 
 in battle. Many of the converts espoused 
 the cause of the English, while the majority, 
 as was natural, sided with their own country- 
 men, and thus exposed Eliot to undeserved 
 obloquy at the hands of the settlers, and to 
 suspicion from some of his own converts. 
 When peace was at last restored, he found 
 that utter desolation reigned in some of his 
 once happy settlements, and that many of 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 203 
 
 the inhabitants in the others were either 
 slain or dispersed. But though " cast down " 
 he was not "destroyed." At the age of 
 seventy-two he went forth once more upon 
 his labour of faith and love, to revive his 
 work from amidst the overthrow ; and his 
 devotedness was rewarded with success. In 
 1680 he says, " Our praying Indians on the 
 islands and on the mainland amount to 
 some thousands," In 1686 he speaks of 
 six churches of baptized natives in New 
 England, besides eighteen assemblies of 
 catechumens. 
 
 He was now more than eighty years of 
 age, and was fast drawing near to his end. 
 His fifty years of failing strength hindered 
 him from engaging in active work; but 
 like a grand old sentinel he still kept 
 watch and ward over the Church of God, 
 and did what he could to promote his 
 Saviour's glory. He did not resign his 
 pastoral charge at Roxbury until two years 
 before his death, and one of his last minis- 
 terial acts was to gather into his own house 
 some of the poor negroes who had been 
 
204 HEROES OF 
 
 brought as slaves into the colony, and there 
 to instruct them in the knowledge of the 
 Redeemer. Thus did this noble missionary 
 close his days. The lamp which had burned 
 so brightly for more than half a century was 
 dim, but its light was not extinguished. 
 " I have lost everything," said he, when 
 some one inquired after his health ; " my 
 understanding leaves me ; my memory fails 
 me ; my utterance fails ; but I thank God 
 my charity holds out still. I find that rather 
 grows than fails." He was eighty-six when, 
 on the 20th May, 1690, he entered into rest. 
 His last utterances were these : " Welcome 
 joy ! " " Lord, only let Thy work amongst 
 the Indians live after my decease ! " 
 " Come, Lord, come ! " 
 
 His prayer was heard, and his work lived 
 after him ; for God raised up faithful men to 
 finish it. Five generations of the Mayhews 
 laboured one after the other in that fruitful 
 field ; Hiacoomes, a native evangelist, and 
 his equally devoted son, were distinguished 
 for their successful labours ; and although 
 the tribes for whom they toiled and prayed 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 205 
 
 have ceased to be, it Is some consolation 
 to reflect that ere they melted away like 
 snow before the advance of the white 
 man, they were visited by the Gospel 
 missionary, and reclaimed from savage- 
 dom and superstition. 
 
 It was the example and success of Eliot 
 that directed public attention to the neg- 
 lected tribes of the Red Indians. Devoted 
 missionaries have followed in his track. 
 David Brainerd went to Albany in 1742, 
 and died at the early age of thirty, after a 
 brief life of patient hardship and enthusi- 
 astic zeal, during which he achieved great 
 success. The Moravians, ever active and 
 dovoted in missionary enterprise, have had 
 their converts and their martyrs amongst 
 the wilds and prairies of the red man ; and 
 in later years the churches of England and 
 of America have sent some of their noblest 
 sons to the hunting grounds of the far 
 West, and farther North, and raised up 
 Christian communities in their remotest 
 bounds. A better spirit, though with some 
 sad exceptions, has of late years marked 
 
2o6 HEROES OF 
 
 the intercourse of the whites with the 
 Indian races. The waste and extinction 
 which were so often the result of oppres- 
 sion and injustice have in some instances 
 been checked, and it is said that in the 
 case of the Mohawks, they have been 
 replaced by progress and increase. 
 
 But ever foremost in the history of this 
 blessed work must stand the disting-uished 
 name of Eliot, " the Apostle of the Red 
 Indians," who, in a half-awakened age, 
 arose to the great duty of missionary enter- 
 prise, and who, amidst surroundings which 
 might have made him severe and narrow- 
 minded, exhibited a most loving and catholic 
 spirit. His character was distinguished by 
 a sublime simplicity and cheerful persever- 
 ance. Baxter, who was no bad judge of 
 character, says of him in one of his letters, 
 " There was no man on earth whom I 
 honoured above him." It would be difficult 
 to say whether his physical or his mental 
 labours were the more arduous. His wis- 
 dom and sagacity marked out the paths 
 and methods in which modern missions have 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 207 
 
 found it best to tread ; and his temper and 
 spirit have furnished a model which after 
 ages will do well to imitate, but which they 
 can scarcely hope to excel. The words 
 which he inscribed at the end of his own 
 Indian grammar afford the clue to his suc- 
 cess, and may well furnish a motto to every 
 Christian worker : — 
 
 *' Prayers and pains, through faith 
 IN Jesus Christ, will do anything." 
 
XL 
 
 HANS EGEDE, THE APOSTLE OF GREENLAND. 
 
 A.D. I72I — 1758. 
 
 There was one portion of the world to 
 which, for centuries, no missionary footsteps 
 had been turned, but which was now to be- 
 come the scene of a new and most heroic 
 Christian enterprise. Greenland had been 
 colonized soon after its discovery in the 
 tenth- century by the Norwegians, and for 
 some time the colonists kept up communi- 
 cation with home, and both enjoyed and 
 diffused the light of the Gospel in their 
 distant settlements. But terrible vicissi- 
 tudes befell them : the black death decimated 
 their ranks ; the savage Esquimaux assailed 
 the remnant that survived, and soon all 
 intercourse ceased between them and their 
 native country. It was believed that what 
 was called "the Western Colony" had en- 
 
2IO HEROES OF 
 
 tirely perished, but a lingering hope re- 
 mained that some of " the Eastern Colony " 
 might still survive. For centuries, however, 
 the eastern coast had been rendered inac- 
 cessible by ice, and every thought of 
 reaching it seemed to have been abandoned, 
 when, towards the beginning of the eigh- 
 teenth century, Hans Egede conceived the 
 twofold design of discovering the lost 
 colonies, and of preaching the Gospel of 
 Christ to the heathen Greenlanders. 
 
 He was by birth a Norwegian, and re- 
 ceived his education at Copenhagen. In 
 1707, at the early age of twenty-one, he 
 was ordained a pastor of Vaagen in northern 
 Norway, and soon afterwards married Ger- 
 trude Rask, a noble-minded woman, who was 
 destined to exercise a wonderful influence 
 on him, and upon the mission to which his 
 life was subsequently devoted. 
 
 He had not been long married when some 
 records concerning the ancient colonists of 
 Greenland fell into his hands, and as he 
 read them his mind was fired to search 
 out their descendants, if any such remained, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 211 
 
 and restore to them the light of Christianity, 
 which he feared by this time must have 
 perished from their midst. Side by side 
 with this purpose grew up the more practi- 
 cal, and, as it eventually proved, the more 
 effectual desire of preaching to the natives. 
 It soon became an enthusiasm that carried 
 his whole soul before it ; but like many 
 another grand design, it had to encounter 
 obstacles of every kind, which only served 
 to swell the flood they endeavoured to arrest. 
 Argument, ridicule, slander, were all tried 
 against him in turn. He wrote to the 
 Bishops of Bergen and Trondhjem, explain- 
 ing his project, but received only a cold 
 reply. It struck him that his project came 
 with a bad grace, inasmuch as he did not 
 volunteer to go upon the service, and there- 
 fore he offered himself for the work ; but 
 he honestly informs us that as it was war- 
 time, and money was difficult to be had, 
 he thought it probable that his offer would 
 not be accepted. The reply of one of these 
 bishops was rather peculiar. He said that 
 " there was no doubt that Greenland was 
 
212 HEROES OF 
 
 part of America, and could not be far from 
 Cuba, where there was plenty of gold, and 
 that doubtless those who went there would 
 bring home vast riches." 
 
 Egede had proceeded thus far without 
 even acquainting his wife with his intentions, 
 and when at last she became aware of them, 
 she joined with all his friends in steadfastly 
 opposing them, and continued her deter- 
 mined opposition for six long years. Some 
 local difficulties however arose ; a misun- 
 derstanding with a neighbouring clergyman 
 led to what Egede graphically describes as 
 *' fishing in troubled waters; " the husband 
 and wife betook themselves to united prayer 
 for Divine guidance, and the result was 
 that she became more enthusiastic than 
 her partner, and from that day onward was 
 the good angel of his missionary life. 
 
 He removed with his family to Copen- 
 hagen, in the hope of inducing the king 
 of Denmark and the merchants of that city 
 to undertake a mission, partly commercial, 
 partly evangelistic, to the shores of Green- 
 land. But everything seemed to baffle his 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 213 
 
 endeavours. Reports had reached the 
 capital that a ship had been wrecked on 
 the inhospitable coast, and that the crew 
 had been killed and eaten by the cannibal 
 inhabitants. War moreover had brought 
 its terrors and distress upon the nation, 
 and men were unwilling or unable to supply 
 the means for what was considered by most 
 a romantic and hazardous experiment. 
 
 Thirteen tedious years were spent by 
 Hans Egede in all kinds of fruitless appeals 
 and negotiations, but his unwavering faith 
 still sustained him. At length Frederick IV., 
 who was personally favourable to missions, 
 was induced to sanction the enterprise. Six 
 thousand rix-dollars were raised by the 
 solicitations of the missionary, and three 
 hundred were his own personal gift. The 
 king allowed Hans Egede three hundred 
 dollars a year, and appointed him leader of 
 the expedition, and head of the new colony 
 which was to establish a Danish trade 
 with the Greenlanders. 
 
 In May 1721, with his wife and four 
 children, and about forty other persons, he 
 
214 HEROES OF 
 
 sailed from Bergen in the Hope, and after 
 a dang-erous and almost disastrous voyage, 
 they reached their distant destination. 
 The dreams which had been awakened in 
 many of their minds by the very name of 
 Greenland were soon dissipated. " They 
 found no Green-land, but endless hummocks 
 of ice, which they coasted for weary days, 
 and in imminent danger of shipwreck, until 
 they landed at a small bay, and began to 
 build on what they called " Hope's 
 Island." 
 
 Nor was the reception which they met 
 at the hands of the natives a whit more 
 encouraging. As soon as they perceived 
 that the strangers intended to remain, they 
 used every endeavour to induce or force 
 them to depart. Some of them feared that 
 it was a mission of retaliation, to avenge 
 past injuries inflicted on seamen who had 
 touched upon their coasts. The angekoks, 
 who were the magicians and priests of the 
 country, tried every method of intimidation 
 and resistance. The besotted natives lis- 
 tened with the most provoking apathy to the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 215 
 
 missionary's appeals, or else avoided his 
 presence altogether. Pilfering and dis- 
 honesty of every sort were added to the 
 general difficulties which had to be en- 
 countered. A new and difficult language 
 had to be first conquered and then chris- 
 tianized ; for it lacked the necessary words 
 in which to express the simplest elements 
 of religious truth. 
 
 For two years Hans Egede had to labour 
 all alone, but he devoted himself to his work 
 with heroic patience. He visited the filthy 
 huts of the Greenlanders in order to win 
 their confidence and acquire their language. 
 He took native youths into his own house, 
 and induced them to learn, by offering the 
 tempting reward of a fish-hook for every 
 letter that was acquired. He soon obtained 
 sufficient knowledge of the language to 
 enable him to translate into it several 
 portions of the Holy Scriptures, as well as 
 the creed and some prayers and hymns. 
 With the help of his son he made rough 
 sketches of Scripture scenes, and then en- 
 deavoured to explain them. He followed 
 
2i6 HEROES OF 
 
 the people in their hunting and fishing 
 expeditions, and tried in every way to 
 influence them for good. But still neither 
 the mission nor the colony made progress. 
 The colonists became discontented, and 
 resolved to return, and Hans Egede's own 
 heart began at times to fail. It was at 
 this crisis that his noble wife became his 
 truest helper. She never lost her hope in 
 God, or her confidence in the mission, and 
 her prayers and her resolution were his 
 best encouragements. Just as the last rays 
 of hope seemed dying out, two vessels 
 arrived from Denmark, not only bringing 
 provisions for the colony, but bearing the 
 welcome news that the trade would be 
 sustained, and that the king would sup- 
 port the mission. 
 
 For a time things looked brighter. Some 
 additional missionaries came to Egede's as- 
 sistance, and the colony was reinforced by 
 new immigrants. Preparations were made 
 for erecting a fort and garrison for their 
 protection, and externally the colony seemed 
 to thrive. But still little or no impression 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 217 
 
 was made upon the heathen. The mission- 
 aries were scoffed at and insulted by 
 their hearers, who seemed to take a plea- 
 sure in turning them and their message 
 into ridicule, and to possess a peculiar 
 aptitude for rough-and-ready satire. Their 
 angekoks, they said, had been in heaven, 
 and had seen no Son of God, nor had they 
 observed that the firmament was out of re- 
 pair, or that the world was in any danger 
 of ever coming to an end. Let them have 
 but good food, and they wanted nothing 
 else. If they required a heaven, they had 
 one of their own in the depths of the ocean, 
 where dwelt Torngarnsuk and his mother; 
 where there was perpetual summer, and 
 fishes, and reindeer, and their beloved seals, 
 all to be caught without any toil, and even 
 to be found in a great kettle, boiling 
 alive ! 
 
 All this was most discouraging, and yet 
 we can see in it an element of gracious 
 discipline. The one fault of Hans Egede's 
 character was that, like Francis Xavier, he 
 was at first too much inclined to lean on 
 
21 8 HEROES OF 
 
 human help. He had resorted moreover for 
 this very reason to threats and severities 
 in dealing with his most provoking hearers, 
 and even went the length of inflicting 
 corporal punishment upon some of his 
 more violent opponents. He was to learn 
 that it was not by means of this kind, nor 
 by the royal power which he threatened to 
 invoke for their chastisement, that his rude 
 hearers were to be won, or the gentle reign 
 of Jesus Christ established amongst them. 
 Christian VI. had now ascended the throne 
 of Denmark, and deeming that the com- 
 mercial speculation of the mission was a 
 bad one, withdrew his kingly aid, and issued 
 a mandate that the colonists should return 
 home. Hans Egede might remain if he 
 chose, and provisions for one year were 
 assigned to him, but with the distinct 
 understanding that no further aid could or 
 would be granted. This was another crisis, 
 not only in his life, but in the history of the 
 undertaking. None of the colonists were 
 willing to remain with him, and he must 
 now decide whether he should remain alone 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 219 
 
 Upon that desolate and icebound shore, or 
 abandon the great enterprise of his life. 
 To his eternal honour, and still more to 
 that of his heroic wife, who sustained him 
 in his decision, he chose the former alter- 
 native, and in doing so became the father 
 and founder of the Greenland mission. 
 
 It was ultimately arranged that ten sailors 
 might remain with him, but his missionary 
 colleagues and all the colonists returned 
 home. The king subsequently relented so 
 far as to send a vessel in the following year, 
 with some supplies ; but unfortunately that 
 vessel had on board a native boy who had 
 gone to Copenhagen with the returning co- 
 lonists, and who now brought back with him 
 the dreadful scourge of the smallpox, which 
 was a disease hitherto unknown in Green- 
 land. It spread rapidly and fatally through 
 the country ; whole villages were depopu- 
 lated ; the natives in terror and despair 
 stabbed themselves to death, or plunged 
 into the sea to put a speedy end to their 
 sufferings. For forty leagues north and 
 south the devastation spread, until some 
 
220 HEROES OF 
 
 thousands had perished beneath the new 
 and fearful plague. Worst of all, the Green- 
 landers laid the blame of the visitation upon 
 the helpless missionary, and all hope of 
 gaining a hearing for the Gospel amongst 
 them seemed to be at an end. 
 
 But out of apparent evil sprang real good. 
 Hans Egede and the two Moravian mission- 
 aries, who had by this time come to his 
 assistance, gave practical proof in this 
 dreadful emergency of what Christianity 
 really was. They tended the sick ; they 
 took them into their own homes ; they 
 waited on them and nursed them day and 
 night, at the constant risk of their own 
 lives. It was a new thing amongst the 
 savages of Greenland, and stood in striking 
 contrast to the selfishness of their own re- 
 latives and friends, who had deserted them 
 in the hour of danger. "Thou hast done 
 for us," they exclaimed to the missionary, 
 *' what our own people would not do ; for 
 thou hast fed us when we had nothing to 
 eat ; thou hast buried our dead, who else 
 would have been consumed by the dogs, 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 221 
 
 foxes, and ravens ; thou hast also instructed 
 us in the knowledge of God, and hast told 
 us of a better life ! " 
 
 We have spoken of the Moravians and 
 their timely help. As the mission which 
 Hans Egede so nobly commenced was 
 carried to its ultimate success by means of 
 their labour, it is only fair to take some 
 additional notice here of their great and 
 unprecedented work. Count Zinzendorf had 
 given a home in Lusatia to the remnant 
 of the persecuted followers of Huss and 
 Jerome of Prague. Scarcely had these 
 exiles found a resting-place, than they re- 
 solved on missionary enterprise amongst 
 the heathen. The Count, who had cast in 
 his lot with the exiles whom he had shel- 
 tered, w^as attending the coronation of Chris- 
 tian VI., at Copenhagen, when he saw 
 two Greenlanders who had been baptized 
 by Egede, and he learned with regret that 
 the new monarch had resolved on abandon- 
 ing the mission to Greenland. About the 
 same time a negro from St. Thomas's had 
 told the Count's domestics about the suffer- 
 
222 HEROES OF 
 
 ings of the slaves in the West Indies, and 
 of their earnest desire to be instructed in 
 the Christian religion. The story of the 
 Greenland mission was recited by the Count 
 to the congregation of Moravians at Herrn- 
 hut, and the story of the unfortunate slaves 
 was told to them in simple but touching 
 language by the poor negro. Within a 
 year the first missionary labourers were 
 preaching both in Greenland and the West 
 Indies, and in ten years these humble but 
 illustrious exiles had established missions in 
 South America, Surinam, Lapland, Tartary, 
 Algiers, Guinea, the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and amongst the Red Indian tribes. Their 
 success has been commensurate with their 
 2eal. " Numbering only about 10,000 in 
 Europe, it is calculated that they have 
 already sent out 2,000 agents ; that one in 
 every forty of their community is a mission- 
 ary to the heathen ; and that there are 
 some 57,000 in pagan lands who have been 
 converted by their instrumentality, or are 
 receiving instruction at their hands." No 
 Christian community has had a monopoly 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 223 
 
 in the work of missions, but the jVIoravian 
 brethren must be allowed to stand supreme 
 in this noble and blessed work. 
 
 Cowper has immortalized them in his 
 glorious lines : — 
 
 . . . . " See Germany send forth 
 Her sons to pour it on the farthest North ; 
 Fired with a zeal pecuHar, they defy 
 The rage and rigor of a polar sky, 
 And plant successfully sweet Sharon's rose 
 On icy plains, and in eternal snows ! " 
 
 It was from this self-sacrificing body of 
 men that Hans Egede in a.d. 1732 received 
 his devoted assistants. Some idea of their 
 spirit and devotedness may be formed from 
 the answers which they gave Count Pless 
 when he questioned them at Copenhagen 
 concerning their projected voyage to Green- 
 land. " How do you intend," he said, "to 
 get a livelihood ? " "By the labour of our 
 hands, and by God's blessing," was the 
 reply. " We mean," they added, " to build 
 a house, and cultivate the land." "But 
 there is no wood to build a house with," 
 said the Count. " Then we shall dig a 
 
224 HEROES OF 
 
 hole in the earth," they answered, " and 
 lodge there." Nor was this boasting vain. 
 Their subsequent labours and hardships, all 
 cheerfully endured, showed how thoroughly 
 the missionary spirit had possessed them. 
 It is told, amongst other incidents of their 
 life, that for want of a tent they had fre- 
 quently to lay themselves down in a hole 
 in the snow ; and when that was stopped 
 up by more driven snow, they were obliged 
 to rise and warm themselves by running. 
 It is further recorded of them, that they 
 trained themselves to eat seals' flesh ; and 
 that when they prepared their scanty stock 
 of oatmeal with train oil, it was a luxury 
 compared to the tallow candles which they 
 had been long obliged to use for the same 
 purpose. 
 
 They came to Greenland in good time ; 
 for Hans Egede's health, after thirteen years 
 of unexampled toil, was failing fast, and 
 the great sorrow of his life was at hand. 
 His wife, who had been the companion of 
 his labours and the strengthener of his faith, 
 who had so strongly opposed his first mis- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 225 
 
 sionary ardour, and then encouraged it 
 with a zeal and determination which far 
 outstripped and surpassed that opposition, 
 was taken from him, and he himself was 
 smitten down by a painful and troublesome 
 disease; and now he must resign his labours, 
 and carry back her hallowed dust to his 
 native land, and bequeath his work and 
 hers to other hands. In 1736 he sailed 
 for Copenhagen, after preaching on a re- 
 markable text: *' I said, I have spent my 
 strength for nought and in vain ; yet surely 
 my judgment is with the Lord, and my 
 work with my God" (Isa. xlix. 4). Nothing 
 could more exactly describe the work of 
 Egede. To the eyes of man it appeared 
 a failure, but in the sight of God it was a 
 success. He laboured, and some would say 
 it was in vain, but his work was with his 
 God, and in due time the results of it were 
 seen. It mattered little that he himself was 
 not permitted to witness these results. It 
 was not for fame, nor even for success, that 
 he had laboured, but for the honour and 
 glory of his Lord ; and he was not disap- 
 
 15 
 
226 HEROES OF 
 
 pointed. Immediately after his last sermon 
 he baptized a Greenland boy ; it was the 
 first baptism which the Moravians had 
 witnessed in Greenland, but it was the 
 pledge of many more which they were 
 privileged to behold, and it was the first- 
 fruits of a noble harvest which they were 
 permitted to reap. The people who once 
 regarded letters as magic soon learned to 
 read and write. Those who scoffed at the 
 missionary soon began to accept his mes- 
 sage. The angekoks vanished before the 
 advance of truth, and the cruelties of 
 heathenism gave way to the charities of 
 Christian life. A more unpropitious field 
 for labour cannot possibly be imagined, 
 and yet few more successful ones have 
 rewarded the toil of the Christian hus- 
 bandman. 
 
 Hans Egede, though he had to quit the 
 scene of his labours, still aided the mission- 
 ary enterprise. He prevailed on the king 
 to found a missionary seminary at Copen- 
 hagen, where young men might be taught 
 the language of the Greenlanders, and he 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 227 
 
 himself became the chief instructor in it. 
 His son was induced by his father's ex- 
 ample and persuasions to adopt the mission- 
 ary life, and to devote himself to the care 
 of the infant Church in Greenland, of which 
 he became eventually the bishop. The 
 aged missionary himself retired after some 
 years to the island of Falster, where he 
 died at the age of seventy-three, respected 
 and beloved, and leaving behind him a 
 name as illustrious for faith and patience 
 as for devotedness and zeal. 
 
XII. 
 
 CHRISTIAN FREDERIC SCHWARTZ. 
 
 A.D. 1750 — 1798. 
 
 The missionary hero whose life we are 
 about to sketch was a link between the 
 missions of the past and those of our own 
 time, and therefore a review of his labours 
 will be a suitable sequel and close to the 
 series of papers which have been already 
 presented. He was pre-eminently a typical 
 man, and both his own character and that 
 of his work have rendered him one of the 
 most remarkable personages in the history 
 of missions. He lacked indeed the fire and 
 fervour of some who went before him, and 
 could not boast of the scholarship and ac- 
 complishments of some who came after him ; 
 but he far excelled them in all the sober 
 excellences and wise qualifications of a great 
 and master mind. To the genius of a 
 
230 HEROES OF 
 
 Statesman he united the unworldliness of an 
 apostle, and to the firmness of a ruler he 
 added the tenderness of a spiritual father. 
 Whilst he lived he was loved and honoured, 
 and when he died he was almost worshipped 
 by those who had come under the charm of 
 his life. 
 
 Christian Frederic Schwartz was a man 
 of whom any church or country might be 
 proud ; but in reality he can be claimed by 
 several. He was by birth a German, by 
 ordination a Danish clergyman, and by long- 
 connection with " The Christian Knowledge 
 Society " a labourer for the Church of 
 England. This triple connection consorted 
 well with the many-sidedness of his cha- 
 racter, and furnished, as we shall see, 
 abundant opportunities and aids to his 
 far-reaching usefulness. 
 
 Providence was evidently preparing him 
 from an early age for the grand future that 
 lay before him, and the influences were 
 manifold and strong which had already 
 shaped his course before he himself was 
 aware of it. On her dying bed, his pious 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 231 
 
 mother dedicated him to God, and solemnly 
 charged her husband and her pastor to bring 
 him up under the remembrance of that 
 dedication, and to train him for the Christian 
 ministry, if he showed any aptitude and 
 desire for it. His father inured him from 
 his earliest years to those habits of self- 
 denial and simplicity which were afterwards 
 of such value to him in his devoted and life- 
 long labours. Brought alternately under the 
 awakening and the chilling influences of 
 different teachers, his mind passed through 
 various phases of religious experience ; 
 but he was preserved from open sin, and 
 cultivated, though in a spasmodic way, the 
 better impressions of his earlier years. 
 
 He had been removed, in 1742, when 
 sixteen years of age, from his native town 
 of Sonnenburg, where he had acquired some 
 knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, to 
 a higher school at Custrin, in order to 
 prepare for the University, and it was here 
 that he was brought under the influences 
 which more directly governed his future life. 
 One of the syndics of Custrin had been 
 
232 HEROES OF 
 
 educated at Halle, and Schwartz was 
 brought into familiar intercourse with his 
 daug-her. There was no romance or senti- 
 ment in their friendship ; but she lovingly 
 set herself to influence the young student 
 for good, and by God's blessing persuaded 
 him to surrender himself fully to the service 
 of his Redeemer. Amongst the books 
 which she put in his hand was the history 
 of the famous Orphan House, founded by 
 Francke at Halle, and the perusal of it 
 inspired him with the desire of completing 
 his studies in that place. Accordingly, in 
 1746, he went to Halle, where the next two 
 or three years of his life were happily and 
 diligently spent, and where he met the 
 indefatigable missionary Schultze, who had 
 spent twenty years in India, and was then 
 engaged in bringing out an edition of the 
 Tamil Bible. Schultze soon perceived the 
 early promise of the young student's cha- 
 racter, and persuaded him to learn Tamil 
 and aid him in his work. It was under 
 these influences and during this occupa- 
 tion that his mind was drawn to the 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 233 
 
 missionary enterprise. The Danish College 
 of Missions had requested Francke to select 
 suitable men for their mission at Tran- 
 quebar, and both he and Schultze concurred 
 in the belief that young Schwartz was 
 eminently fitted for such work. When they 
 proposed it to him, he resolved to seek his 
 father's consent, and if he obtained it to 
 go out to India. 
 
 Returning to Sonnenburg, he laid the 
 matter before his father. Christian was his 
 eldest son, and regarded as the future stay 
 of the family ; every earthly consideration 
 seemed to tell against his son's proposal, 
 but he determined to give it a prayerful con- 
 sideration. Three days were spent by him 
 in his solitary chamber, where, no doubt, 
 amidst his parental yearnings, the memories 
 of his wife's last wishes recurred with full 
 force to his mind ; and when at length he 
 came forth to announce his decision, he 
 laid his hand upon the head of the boy 
 who had been his joy and pride, gave him 
 his parting blessing, and charged him to 
 forget " his own country and his father's 
 
234 HEROES OF 
 
 house," and to go forth in the name of 
 the Lord to win many souls to Christ. 
 
 Young Schwartz, with that self-abnegation 
 which was to be his pre-eminent characteris- 
 tic, resigned his share in his patrimony to 
 his brothers and sisters, refused tempting 
 offers which were now made to him in the 
 ministry at home, was ordained with two 
 others by the Danish bishop at Copenhagen 
 on the 17th of September, 1749, and after 
 bidding a long and last adieu to all his 
 friends, sailed for India in the following 
 November. He visited England on his 
 way, and was detained for some months, 
 during which he made the acquaintance of 
 the King's German chaplain, Mr. Zeigen- 
 hagen, and was introduced to the Society 
 foi" Promoting Christian Knowledge, with 
 which in after days he was to be so inti- 
 mately associated. 
 
 Schwartz and his companions improved 
 their opportunities on ship-board for their 
 own good and that of their fellow- voyagers, 
 and arrived at Tranquebar on the 8th of 
 October, 1750. The state of things in 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 235 
 
 India was dark enough ; the trading" com- 
 panies who had established themselves at 
 various points were only careful about their 
 business, and did not regard the spiritual 
 welfare of the natives. There were twenty 
 English regiments in Hindoostan, but not 
 a single chaplain. We need scarcely add 
 that the idea of an episcopate for India had 
 not been even conceived ; the lives of the 
 Europeans were vile to a degree that can 
 scarcely now be understood, and formed the 
 most formidable barrier to the spread of 
 Christianity amongst the natives. Two 
 things, however, were favourable. The 
 policy which took its rise in the renewal 
 of the East India Company's charter of 
 1793, and which eventually caused Schwartz 
 much trouble, had not been initiated, and 
 there was as yet no complicity on the part 
 of the British Government with the idola- 
 trous practices of the heathen. Moreover 
 the Danish authorities lent their counte- 
 nance and aid to missionary endeavours, and 
 frequent letters passed between the royal 
 family at Copenhagen and the faithful 
 
236 HEROES OF 
 
 men who were proclaiming the Gospel in 
 India. 
 
 Schwartz set himself with determined 
 energy to conquer the language, and to 
 make himself master of the intricate mytho- 
 logy of the natives. Such was his success 
 in the former pursuit, that within four 
 months after his arrival he preached in 
 Tamil, and was soon able to catechize the 
 children in the same tongue. Indeed, full 
 justice has never been done to the mar- 
 vellous linguistic acquirements of our mis- 
 sionary. He conquered English (which he 
 spoke and wrote like an Englishman) in 
 order to preach and minister to our troops. 
 He made himself master of Persian, and 
 that gave him a ready introduction to the 
 courts of Mahommedan princes. He had 
 such command of Hindoostanee, that for 
 this as well as other reasons he was selected 
 by the British Government for most difficult 
 embassies. He early learned the Indo- 
 Portuguese, in order to be useful to the 
 mixed race who were descended from Por- 
 tuguese and Hindoos. Many of these were 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. zyj 
 
 Romanists, and to them Schwartz pointed 
 out "how widely the Romish Church has 
 deviated from the pure doctrine of the 
 Gospel." 
 
 It was a characteristic of Schwartz, that 
 whatever he did he did it thoroughly. Even 
 his sermons for the natives were most care- 
 fully prepared. His hours from morning to 
 night were appropriated to different duties, 
 and he had the peculiar faculty of making 
 others work as well as himself. Whilst at 
 Tranquebar, it was his custom to go 
 on foot, with one or more companions, 
 through the native villages, preaching and 
 conversing with the people, and reasoning 
 with priests and worshippers, even in their 
 own pagodas. He had considerable suc- 
 cess ; village after village embraced the 
 truth ; idols were deserted, and hymns of 
 praise to the true God replaced the profane 
 and licentious songs of the heathen temples. 
 But Schwartz saw that the real difficulty 
 was in men's hearts. "If," says he, "idola- 
 try were only an error of the ufiderstanding, 
 the greater number of the heathen would 
 
238 HEROES OF 
 
 already have renounced it. It Is because 
 it is a work of the flesh that they hold to 
 it." He was eminently useful in quicken- 
 ing other missions into new life, and his 
 visit to Ceylon was accompanied by most 
 valuable results. 
 
 He had been labouring for sixteen years 
 in India, however, before his most important 
 work began. It was in 1766 that he came 
 into connection with the Christian Know- 
 ledge Society, and from that day forward 
 his sphere of labour lay chiefly in Tri- 
 chinopoly and Tanjore. He was now forty 
 years of age, and though simple in his 
 habits, was no ascetic, and his conversation 
 upon secular as well as on sacred subjects 
 was confessedly charming. We have the 
 advantage of possessing a most graphic 
 description of his person, and from an eye- 
 witness : " His garb, which was pretty well 
 worn, seemed foreign and old-fashioned, but 
 in every other respect his appearance was 
 the reverse of all that could be called forbid- 
 ding or morose. Figure to yourself a stout^ 
 well-made man, somewhat above the middle 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 239 
 
 height, erect in carriage and address, with 
 a complexion rather dark, though healthy, 
 black curled hair, and a manly, engaging 
 countenance expressive of unaffected can- 
 dour, ingenuousness, and benevolence, and 
 you will have an idea of what Mr. Schwartz 
 appeared to be at first sight. At Trichi- 
 nopoly he had much to do with narrow 
 means. His whole income was te^i pagodas 
 per 7noni/i, or about ^48 a year. He ob- 
 tained of the commanding officer, who per- 
 haps was ordered to furnish him with 
 quarters, a room in an old Gentoo building 
 which was just large enough to hold his 
 bed and himself, and in which few men 
 could stand upright. With this apartment 
 he was contented. A dish of rice and 
 vegetables dressed after the manner of the 
 natives was what he could always cheer- 
 fully sit down to, and a piece of dimity, 
 dyed black, and other materials of the 
 same homely sort, sufficed him for an 
 annual supply of clothing. Thus easily 
 provided as to temporalities, his only care 
 was to do the work of an evangelist." 
 
240 HEROES OF 
 
 Schwartz' work was quiet — indeed, almost 
 plodding ; but it was earnest, persevering, 
 and prayerful. To a shrewd judgment he 
 added a loving charity, and a ready tact 
 that accommodated itself, but without com- 
 promise of principle, to every variety of 
 circumstance. He could faithfully reprove 
 kings and princes for their vices, and yet 
 win and retain their esteem. He could 
 fearlessly expose the follies of Hinduism 
 and Mahommedanism, and yet obtain a 
 respectful hearing for the message of salva- 
 tion. He could and did devote himself to 
 the reclamation of professing Christians, 
 aud still keep steadily in view the grand 
 object of his life in the evangelization of 
 the heathen. And so converts were made, 
 and congregations were gathered, and 
 churches erected, and schools established, 
 ann orphanages founded, until the wilder- 
 ness around him began to *' blossom as 
 the rose." 
 
 He had too much sagacity to be imposed 
 on by pretenders, and yet too much love 
 for souls to repel any inquirers concerning 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 241 
 
 whom there was the slightest ground of 
 hope. To use his own expression, he met 
 such cases with a *' kind severity." His 
 influence over his own flocks was un- 
 bounded. He was their patriarch as well 
 as their pastor. " Will you go to the royal 
 court, or be punished by me ? " was the 
 alternative proposed to offenders. *' O 
 padre, you punish me!" was the invariable 
 reply. *' Give him twenty strokes," said 
 the padre, and it was done. And yet this 
 was the man who could listen like a father, 
 and sympathise like a brother, wherever 
 there was human sorrow or deep anxiety 
 of soul. Firm, humorous, sympathizing, he 
 had smiles for the happy and tears for the 
 sad. 
 
 It has been well said that "his known 
 probity and truthfulness won him the con- 
 fidence of three most dissimilar parties — 
 a suspicious tyrant, an oppressed people, 
 and the military and diplomatic directors 
 of the British Empire in the East." 
 
 " Do not send to me," said Hyder Ali, 
 *' any of your agents, for I do not trust 
 
 16 
 
242 HEROES OF 
 
 their words or treaties ; but if you wish me 
 to listen to your proposals, send to me 
 the missionary of whose character I have 
 heard so much from every one : him I will 
 trust and receive. Send me the Christian! " 
 Amidst the wars of the Carnatic he was 
 allowed to pass from camp to camp with- 
 out molestation ; the vindictive Nabob 
 himself issuing this order, '' Permit the 
 venerable Father Schwartz to pass un- 
 hindered, and show him respect and kind- 
 ness; for he is a holy man, and means no 
 harm to my government." 
 
 When famine was mowing down its thou- 
 sands in Tanjore, and the people refused 
 to bring in provisions to the rapacious 
 officers who had so often plundered and 
 deceived them, the rajah exclaimed, " We 
 all, you and I, have lost our credit ; let us 
 try whether the inhabitants will trust Mr. 
 Schwartz." He sent a carte blanche to the 
 missionary, empowering him to make any 
 arrangements he thought proper. Within 
 two days a thousand oxen were placed at 
 his disposal, and eighty thousand mea- 
 
THE MISSION FIELD, 243 
 
 sures of rice brought in to the starving 
 garrison. 
 
 When the Collaries, a caste of thieves, 
 had revolted against the oppression of 
 Tuljajee's government, the influence of 
 Schwartz brought back seven thousand 
 of them to their allegiance in a single day, 
 and when he exhorted them to industry and 
 labour, they replied, " You have shown us 
 kindness, and you will never have reason 
 to repent it. We will work night and day 
 to show our regard for you;" and they 
 kept their word. 
 
 Amongst our soldiers his influence was 
 unbounded. To use the language of his 
 biographer, " he could persuade whole 
 garrisons." The officers of the 48th 
 Regiment declared that corporal punish- 
 ment had ceased amongst their men from 
 the time that they came under his religious 
 instruction. Again and again he was em- 
 ployed by the authorities upon the most 
 difficult and delicate embassies to native 
 princes, and these he undertook from no 
 motive of personal advantage or ambition, 
 
244 HEROES OF 
 
 but, as he himself declared, " to preserve 
 the blessings of peace," and "to announce 
 the gospel of God my Saviour in many 
 parts where it had not been known before." 
 And so it came to pass that, as before, 
 amidst the hovels around Trichinopoly, so 
 now amidst the marble halls of Seringa- 
 patam and the gorgeous palaces of Tanjore 
 this more than statesman served his country, 
 and proclaimed to kings and princes the 
 story of redeeming love. " Happy indeed 
 would it be for India," wrote the British 
 resident at Tanjore, " happy for the 
 Company, and for the Rajah himself, if 
 Schwartz possessed the whole authority, 
 and were invested with power to execute 
 all the measures which his wisdom and 
 benevolence would suggest." 
 
 As to his disinterestedness, it was beyond 
 suspicion, and he took care to make it so. 
 An officer, to whom he had been spiritually 
 useful, left him a legacy ; Schwartz declined 
 it. A native minister of state tendered him 
 a valuable present ; he accepted a nosegay 
 in its place. Hyder Ali sent him three 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 245 
 
 hundred rupees to defray the expenses of 
 his mission to his court ; the missionary, 
 finding that it would be a breach of etiquette 
 to send it back, handed it over to his own 
 government. He had ministered to the sick 
 and dying during the siege of Madura, 
 and a sum of two hundred and forty pounds 
 was allotted to him as his well-deserved 
 portion of the Nabob's gift to the British 
 troops ; he appropriated the gift to the 
 support of his schools and orphanage. 
 When the Madras authorities, without any 
 solicitation, awarded him a hundred pounds 
 a year as chaplain to the forces, he devoted 
 one half of it to the use of his native con- 
 gregations ; and whenever he went on 
 a political mission for the Government, he 
 systematically refused to accept a farthing 
 beyond his travelling expenses. " Let the 
 cause of Christ be my heir," was one of his 
 last utterances upon his dying bed. 
 
 Bishop Heber, who went out to India 
 rather prejudiced against the character of 
 Schwartz, as if he had been too much of a 
 political agent, has left the following re- 
 
246 HEROES OF 
 
 markable testimony as the result of a most 
 careful investigation : — '* He was one of the 
 most active and fearless, as he was one of 
 the most successful, missionaries who have 
 appeared since the days of the Apostles. 
 To say that he was disinterested in regard 
 of money is nothing ; he was perfectly 
 careless of power, and renown never seemed 
 to affect him, even so far as to induce an 
 outward show of humility. His temper was 
 perfectly simple, open, and cheerful, and in 
 his political negotiations (employments 
 which he never sought, but which fell in his 
 way) he never pretended to impartiality ; 
 but acted as the avowed, though certainly 
 the successful and judicious, agent of the 
 orphan prince committed to his care." 
 
 This mention of the orphan prince, 
 Sarfojee, reminds us of the wondrous in- 
 fluence which Schwartz exercised over 
 Tuljajee, the Rajah of Tanjore, who used 
 to call him his "own padre." On his 
 deathbed the rajah committed his adopted 
 child to the missionary's care, saying, 
 "This is not my son, but yours; into 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 247 
 
 your hands I deliver him." It is well known 
 how faithfully, fearlessly, and lovingly he 
 fulfilled that trust, standing for years, not 
 only between the boy and his heathen op- 
 pressors, but between him and the unjust 
 decision of the British authorities. Schwartz 
 did not live to see it, but his energy and 
 his remonstrances were the means of 
 restoring Sarfojee to his rightful throne. 
 His letters to the young prince are models 
 of wisdom, tenderness, and statesmanship ; 
 and though, like his predecessors, Sarfojee 
 was only "almost persuaded" to be a 
 Christian, he never ceased to revere his 
 teacher's character, and to further, long 
 after his decease, all the objects which 
 he had at heart. On the stone which 
 covers the ashes of the venerable mission- 
 ary are written the following lines by his 
 admiring pupil — the first ever written in 
 English by a Hindoo prince : — 
 
 " Firm wast thou, humble and wise, 
 Honest, pure, free from disguise ; 
 Father of orphans, the widow's support. 
 Comfort in sorrow of every sort : 
 
248 HEROES OF 
 
 To the benighted, dispenser of light, 
 Doing and pointing to that which is right. 
 Blessing to princes, to people, to me. 
 May I, my father, be worthy of thee, 
 Wisheth and prayeth thy Sarabojee." 
 
 The prince caused a splendid monument, 
 by Flaxman, to be erected to the memory 
 of his benefactor. It represents the death- 
 bed scene in which the young prince and 
 the administration of his kingdom were 
 committed to Schwartz. The East India 
 Company placed another, by Bacon, to 
 the honour of this missionary hero, " whose 
 life," as the inscription truly records, "was 
 one continued effort to imitate the example 
 of his blessed Master." He died in the 
 seventy- second year of his age, after fifty 
 years of unceasing labour, with the sacred, 
 songs of his fatherland upon his lips, and 
 the peace of God abiding in his heart. 
 The heathens paid divine honours to his 
 memory and made offerings at his shrine. 
 Between six and seven thousand converts 
 rewarded his labours, not to speak of 
 those whom his companions won over to 
 
THE MISSION FIELD. 249 
 
 the truth. His memory is still revered 
 by Christians, Hindoos, and Mahommedans. 
 He laid broad and deep the foundations 
 of the Christian Church in India ; was 
 the first to organize the commencement 
 of a native ministry for Hindustan, and 
 left it as his dying- testimony, that the 
 work of the missionary is " the most 
 
 HONOURABLE AND BLESSED SERVICE IN 
 WHICH ANY HUMAN BEING CAN BE EMPLOYED 
 IN THIS WORLD." 
 
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