» LIBRARV OF THK University OF California. OIKX OK ** Received k-^^^^X^, . iSgl^ Accession hi 0. ^Oo'o^ . Class No. ■^yss] m ^^3 ^K 1^^^ •fj Digitized by the Internet Arcliive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/essayonprevailinOOcustPich -^^ sy^sd EVANGELIZATION OF THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD. /' PUBLICATIONS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. ETON ADDRESSES TO KING WILLIAM IV. 1840. HAILEYBURY-OBSERVER CONTRIBUTIONS. 1840-1842. CALCUTTA-REVIEW CONTRIBUTIONS. 1845-1885. MANUALS FOR GUIDANCE OF NATIVE OFFICIALS IN THE URDU-LANGUAGE. 1855 to 1859. PANJAB REVENUE-MANUAL. 1865. REVENUE-LAW OF NORTH-WEST PROVINCES OF INDIA. 1867. LAND-REVENUE-PROCEDURE FOR NORTHERN INDIA. 1870. MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE EAST INDIES. 1878. MODERN LANGUAGES OF AFRICA. 1883. MODERN LANGUAGES OF OCEANIA. 1887. MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASIAN-GROUP. 1887. LANGUAGES OF THE TURKI BRANCH OF THE URAL-ALTAIC FAMILY. 1889. LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Series I. 1880. LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Series II. 1887. LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Series III. 1891. PICTURES OF INDIAN LIFE. 1881. THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SHRINES OF LOURDES, SARAGOSSA, LORETTO, Etc. 1885 and 1892. POEMS OF MANY YEARS AND PLACES. 1887. THE SORROWS OF AN ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE. 1889. NOTES ON MISSIONARY SUBJECTS. 1889. BIBLE-LANGUAGES. 1890. CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON, OR THE VARIOUS FORMS OF RELIGIOUS ERROR. 1890. BIBLE-TRANSLATIONS. 1890. AFRICA REDIVIVA, OR MISSIONARY OCCUPATION OF AFRICA. 1891. ADDRESSES ON BIBLE DIFFUSION. 1892. In the Press. THE GOSPEL-MESSAGE. FEATURES, WHICH APPEAR IN ALL THE RELIGIONS OF THE WORLD BEFORE ANNO DOMINI. ESSAY ON THE PREVAILING METHODS EVANGELIZATION OF THE NON - CHRISTIAN WORLD BY ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D., «/ AN OBSERVER IN THE FIELD, A MEMBER OF COMMITTEES, AN ALL-ROUND READER OF MISSIONARY-LITERATURE IN FIVE EUROPEAN LANGUAGES, AND ONE, WHOSE HEART, AND INTELLECT, HAVE BEEN DEVOTED TO THE SUBJECT FOR FIFTY YEARS, INDEPENDENT OF CHURCH, DENOMINATION, OR NATIONALITY, *• Sunt bona, sunt qucBdam mediocria, sunt mala plural ■' Ei/ Tu5 oTreipeiv (l) o /xev eireae irapa Trjv oSop, Kai KareTraTtjOrj, " (2) erepoi/ KmeTreaeu ctti ttjj^ Trerpav, " (3) ^'^^pov eTreaev eV fieaiv rtou uKavOwVy *' (4) erepov eTreaev eh r^v r^rjv irjv d<^a6rjv.^' Luke, viii, 5-8. Arcis divinoe super muros humjlis speculator coeli proesagia prospicit, et fideliter denuntiat." LONDON : LUZAC & Co., 46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET, Publishers to the India Of^e,,^ - - ^^ ~^l>a ''' "tririVBRSiTT] ^iipoiii^ c s- irf0 HERTFORD PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. ^^ . PRESENTED BY THE AUTHOR J J-ni vfir« 1ty of nalifnrnifl WITH THE EARNEST DESIRE, THAT THE COUNSEL AND CRITICISM OFFERED MAY BE ACCEPTED IN THE SPIRIT, IN WHICH IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN, OF LONG, EARNEST, AND SINGLE-MINDED DEVOTION TO THE GREAT SUBJECT. ^/<^ OF •mE"^>^ 'tJHflVERSIT TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MISSIONARY-CONFERENCE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, ASSEMBLED IN LONDON, MAY, 1894, THIS ESSAY IS DEDICATED, CONTENTS, PAGE Prefatory Remarks . . . . . . . . . , . . . . . . I Good Methods lo ?Part e. Methods not Recommended .. .. 15 I. Secular . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 II. Spiritual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Part HE Bad Methods .. .. 42 I. Arm of the Flesh 43 1. Interference of Civil, Military, or Diplomatic, Power . . 43 2. Receiving Endowments from Taxes levied from non- Christians . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 3. Intolerance of other Religions, or other forms of the same Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 4. Destruction (or Appropriation) of Buildings belonging to another Religion . . .... . . . . . . 68 5. Making a Mission a handle for Political Schemes . . . . Jo II. Modes of Conversion . . . . . . 72 1. Tribal, not Individual, Conversion 72 2. Purchase, and Baptism, of Slaves bought from the Slave- dealer 73 3. Securing Conversion by offer of Material Advantages . . 74 4. Omitting Bible-Teaching in the Vernacular . . . . 74 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE III. Difficulties attending Conversion 76 1. Degradation, or Imperfect Teaching, of the Gospel . . 76 2. Pagan Notions of Nominal Converts . . . . . . 79 3. Imposing New Conditions precedent to Baptism . . . . 80 4. Relapse of Converts into their Old, or adoption of a New, Religion 84 5. Low Culture, and Extreme Intellectual Denseness, of Converts 87 6. Questions connected with the Matrimony of Converts . . 89 7. Credulousness of any new Story . . . . . . . . 92 8. Injurious Influence of Western Education on certain Classes : Is Education a Necessary Part of Evan- gelization, or Civilization ? . . . . . . . . 93 9. Evils arising from raising the Material Status of Converts 96 10. Objections to little Barracks for Converts 99 11. Dwelling too strongly on the Sins of non-Christian World 100 12. Asserting, that Missionaries have Material Help from God 105 13. Treating with Contempt the Parental Rights of non- Christians 109 14. Necessity of Union of Denominations into one National Church Ill 15. Certainty of Opposition from Old, and New, Forms of Religion 117 IV. The Missionary- Home-Agency . . 124 1. The Board of Missions . . 124 2. The Association . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 (fl). Its Relation to the Church and Public . . . . 125 {b). Its Relation to the Mission-Field 135 3. The Deputation 141 4. The Financial Department 147 5. The Publications 159 6. Sensationalism 167 V. The Mission in the Field 170 1. The very small Mission without resources 171 2. The Solitary Mission-Station 172 3. The Self-supporting Mission.. ., .. .. ..174 4. {a). The Native Agents 181 {b). Independent Native Church .. .. .. ..186 5. The Unpaid Agent 191 CONTENTS. IX PAGE VI. The Missionary- Agent 193 1. The Untrained Agent. . .. .. .. .. .. 195 2. Not gifted with the Grace of Winning Souls . , . . 201 3. Failing to Master the Vernacular Language . . . . 202 4. Losing Heart, and Desponding . . . . . . . . 203 5. Quarrelsome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 6. Puffed up with undue Praise . . . . . . . . . . 206 7. Meddler and Busybody ; " Allotrio-Episcopos " . . .. 208 8. Marrying Early . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 9. Arrogant to the Natives . . . . . . . . . . 222 10. Devoid of all Sympathy, and Love, and Justice, to the Natives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227 11. Disloyal to the Home-Committee .. .. .. .. 234 12. Defying Laws and Customs of the Country . . . . 235 13. Tilting against Legal Native Customs 241 14. Throwing up his Vocation for his own Private Con- venience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243 15. Holding Secular Offices, or Honours . . . . . . 248 16. Living in Society of Secular White Men, and Keeping away from Touch of the People . . . . . . 25 1 17. Offending against intra-Mission Comity, whether Protes- tant, or Romish . . . . . . . . . . . . 252 18. Ridiculing and Speaking 111 of non- Christian Religions .. 260 19. Immoral .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 271 20. Importing Western Ideas . . . . 272 21. Undertaking Work not Belonging to his Duty . . . . 275 22. Introducing New Fads, such as Total Abstinence, etc. . . 276 23. Insulting, or Making Use of, non-Christian Places of Worship . . . . . . . . . . . , . . 276 24. Preaching to Prisoners in Public Gaols 278 25. Taking up New Work to Neglect of Old . . . , . . 278 Concluding Remarks 280 'Appendices 287 I. Plea for the Poor non-Christian World 287 II. Five Signs of a True Missionary . . . . . . . . . . 291 III. Suggestions for Emendation of Missionary-Methods . . . . 292 Alphabetical Index of Parts, Chapters, and Sections 295 ERRATA. PAGE. LINE FROM TOP. READ. lO I course for cause. 149 2 prayers for pages. 173 2 has for have. 216 40 occupations for occupation. 271 14 failure for failures. 276 17 liquors for liqueurs. 283 22 neo-Zoroastrianismyorneo-Zoroastrian. 283 31 clings for cling. PREFATORY REMARKS. I commence with quotations from esteemed authors : *' He is the truest friend of any institution, who calmly but '* fearlessly points out its defects and its aberrations from the ** way of truth. The ostrich-policy of shutting one's eyes to " patent facts may answer for a time, but in the end it is " disastrous. * Open rebuke is better than secret love,' when " rebuke is needed. The only essential qualification is, that " the rebuke or protest be uttered in a brotherly and Christian " spirit." •* When the current of popular opinion seems to be running " very strongly in one direction, many are tempted to follow " the easy course of swimming with the stream. This may be " pleasant and profitable, but it cannot be right. There are " times, when even those, who most dislike controversy, may feel •* it a duty to speak if, as in the present instance, they are not " invited to do so. If a cause seems to them to be a true one, " it is mere pusillanimity to let the love of personal ease prevail, ** and to suffer it to be lost by acquiescence and default." Some are content to swim with the tide, and never oppose abuses: In my youth I knew Clergymen, who held three or four livings, and Deaneries as well : they used to say that it would last their time : some have the misfortune to see further ahead, and to be about ten years in advance of their colleagues. Erasmus was one of these: "Bona verba quaeso" is the motto of the compiler of a Missionary-Report : it is, in fact, of the same genus as an election-placard : Euphemism supplies the place of historical completeness, or intelligent criticism, for such might give offence to some supporter, or wound the feelings of the relatives of the individual Missionary, whose conduct is dis- approved of. It is complacently observed in some Reports, that in such matters the men and women actually engaged are the most competent judges of their own policy and proceedings. I took ( 2 ) the trouble to make an analysis of the Reports of the six great Societies in 1889-90 and subsequent years. No one, who had read these Reports, would agree in the above opinion, for the men and women in the Field of the same Mission do not agree with each other. Those, who overlook a game of chess with a knowledge of the rules of the game, are better judges of the policy and skill of the players than those who actually play. No class, and no individuals, have such a narrow view of human affairs as the Missionary. The difference of language, which he has acquired in his youth, binds him for ever to one Field, one set of opinions, one environment of experiences and ideas. How wonderfully improved would be the Chinese Missionary, if he could take a term of three years in Africa ! How small would seem the Opium-burden, which presses so heavily upon him, when replaced by Cannibalism, Witchcraft, Slave-trade, Murder, and entire Nudity of both sexes. In my old age, as I sit musing in my Library, reflecting on God's gracious deaHngs with me during the last half-century, I recall this one of His greatest blessings, that there passes across the mirror of my memory a long procession of spiritual heroes, a stately band, of many of whom I have grasped the hand, while their thoughts and their utterances ring still in my ears : they have been of all denominations of Christ's Church from Rome to Moscow, from Canterbury to Geneva : and each one of them seems to look at me, as he passes by, recalling some opinion given not without profit, some nail driven well down by the Grace of God into the tablets of my Spiritual Life. My main, my single, desire in these pages is to point out whatever appears to me entirely wrong, or defective, in the Methods in vogue, and suggest some improvement. It is extremely difficult to write on such matters without giving offence. I have endeavoured to guard against this by mostly making general statements. Baxter in his Preface to the ** Reformed Pastor" writes: "I have excepted those, who are not guilty, and therefore hope that I have injured none." Like all things human every department of Mission-work is susceptible from year to year of improvement. No Mission has obtained any degree of perfection, however well satisfied the middle-aged Missionary may feel : the moral machinery of the world is always advancing. I have read and annotated the Annual Reports of a certain number of Societies for a great many years : I think that I know one from the other without reference to the title-page : I am obliged to admit, that the art of writing such Reports has not been acquired yet : the style and execution of all leaves much to be desired. I read them, as it were, medicinally, and a great deal goes against my intellectual stomach. I am obliged ( 3 ) to ask : Is the writer dealing with actual facts ? If so, why does he write in such a non-natural way, and interlard the remarks with so many quotations from Holy Writ, and such sensational emotional padding ? Is the Report merely a pious dream like the '* Pilgrim's Progress ?" However, I shall come to this subject in Chap. IV. of Bad Methods. I have for many years helped to rule vast Provinces in British India with Millions of inhabitants, and made Annual Reports on Judicial and Revenue matters to the Government : what profit could there have been, if Reports had been made of a non-real type with such sensational para- graphs ? I conclude, that these Reports are fashioned to catch the taste of a peculiar emotional class : in some quarters a hit against the Church of Rome, the Ritualist, or the Opium-Trade are essential ingredients calculated to draw subscriptions, or perhaps the absence of such remarks would injure the Society financially. Since the idea suggested itself to me of compiling this volume, I have carefully gone over a vast number of Pamphlets, Newspaper-cuttings, and Missionary Memoranda, which I had accumulated during the last fifteen years. Sermons of a chance Irish Bishop, called to preach an Annual Sermon entirely devoid of first-hand knowledge, the usual arguments being trotted out : Essays by the single-Mission-Enthusiast, who tries to bring all the multiform phenomena of the Kingdom of Christ into his own narrow lens: Books by one-sided devotees, who take a partial and partizan view, who denounce all the feeling after God, if haply they could find Him, evidenced by the poor heathen, of which Paul speaks so tenderly at Athens ; who describe British India, or China, as the Kingdom of Satan, oblivious of the morals of the Cities of London and Paris. Such books do infinite mischief. We know too well by the example of British India, that the population of that Empire actually increases at the rate of three Millions annually, the vast majority of whom are non- Christians, while the whole Christian fold, Syrian, Romish, and Protestant, do not reach much beyond two Millions and three- quarters. The usual arguments brought in the public Press against the present system, or absence of system, is that (i) the Missionary associations are divided among themselves, and abuse each other to the natives of the Region ; (2) they require comforts, and luxuries, and furloughs, and pensions, and wish to live like secular men ; (3) they wildly attack the whole Mahometan and Hindu system instead of those parts, which are vulnerable : in their ignorance they knock their heads against that substratum of Divine and Eternal Truth, which lies at the foundation of all systems of adoration of the Divinity by poor weak, ignorant, sinful man ; (4) they dwell too much upon the miracles of the ( 4 ) Gospel-Epoch, while they have not that power themselves ; (5) instead of adopting the example of Paul and dwelling on the essentials they at once go into details, and thus perplex their hearers. These are not my arguments, but I take notice of them as uttered. Dean Stanley in one of his sermons in the Abbey on Christian Missions in 1873 remarks on "the necessity of a '* vigilant endeavour to repress the exaggeration, to denounce ** the fallacies and inaccuracies, which infect even the best " attempts of narrow and fallible, though good and faithful, " servants of the Lord." Bishop Westcott remarks "that it is a part, and a painful part, " of the work of the wise to control and correct the folly of the '* good." In no departments of good work is this more evident than in the work of Evangelization. Sometimes in a Report there comes a sentence or two, which go straight to the heart: I quote from a Church Missionary Society Report : " It is in such circumstances as the foregoing, that we need " the prayers of the people of Christ at home. I often think, " that Missionaries get a great deal of false sympathy. I could " write pages of so-called Missionary hardships — mouldy bread, " lack of provisions when on tour, difficulties in travelling, etc. : " these things are nothing for Christ's sake, and only add a ** charm to Missionary life. We need the prayers of the people ** at home for the Native Christians themselves, in order that " they may lead pure and holy lives. They need greatly the *' Holy Spirit's power to sanctify them ; and also the moral " character and fibre of real soldiers of Christ, in order that they " may not hinder those, who would come into the Kingdom of " God." " There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there " are differences of administrations, but the same Lord, and there " are diversities of operations, but it is the same God, which ** worketh all in all." — I Cor. xii, 4-6. I am led to reflect upon the phenomena, presented by a survey of the Missions of the World. It is so strange to find men convinced, that their own system is not only the right one, and the best (the best for them no doubt), bu/ the only one, and yet there is an extraordinary, a startling, diversity of practice. In some Associations the Missionary is petted, spoilt, encouraged to early matrimony, involving wanton expenditure of sacred funds ; in others I find celibate Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods with the germs of great evils of a contrary tendency. In other quarters I find the Missionary, wife, and little children, turned off in a strange country, in a tropical climate, to support themselves by labour, such as teaching languages, keeping a store, digging ( s ) yams and potatoes, or, as an American paper bluntly puts it : ** Root, Hog, or die," and they do die, and, when an additional baby is born, it is counted as an additional Missionary. Another strange variety is the Knight-errant, without even a knowledge of the language, starting alone on a camel, or horse, to deliver God's message through an interpreter, himself a heathen, and then passing on. The great Associations have large resources, collected at a heavy percentage by an elaborate organization : they spend money freely, and send out men freely, often unsancti- fied, and untested men, and sometimes gross failures. Sometimes Missionaries are tied to a shibboleth of dogma, and a confession of Church-Government ; at other times there is an amalgam of dogma, and a free-hand of Church-Government. Some allow their agents fixed subsistence-allowances, and subsidiary provision for Rent, Locomotion, Disablement, and Children. Others make a boast, that they do not, that the Missionary must make his own private resources go as far as possible, and that he will get a fractional portion of the income of the Society, varying each year, and nothing of any kind to fall back upon. Dr. G. Smith in his ''Conversion of India" quotes from an open letter from the Missionary Society in S. India the following words : " Since the Spirit of God still abides in the Church, it is not " shut up by a mere imitation of Methods used in bygone days " by good men. God is with us now, as He inspired our fathers : *' He places us in new and untried conditions, that we may " learn new lessons, and apply new Methods. There is no " finality, or rigidity, in the Methods now adopted." I entirely agree with this noble sentiment, but, when an untried Missionary band descend from Colorado, U.S., on the West Coast of Africa, or China, I ask them to make use of sanctified common-sense, sweet reasonableness, and collected experience. What is my qualification for putting pen to paper ? Just fifty years ago, in the Spring of 1844, Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta, taught me my lesson in Missions : I had received /^8o as a prize for proficiency in some language, and I wanted to invest it, and the Bishop showed me how to do it to advantage by distributing it among Missions : it was the best investment that I ever made, for from the subject of Evangelization I have had joy, interest, and occupation, for half a century: in the Indian Field for a quarter of a century, inspection of Missions in Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, N. Africa, in the Committees of many Societies in London, on the platform, in the Press, making the acquaintance of scores of good men, not necessarily wise men, as things of this world go. I have had access to the periodicals and literature of all Missions, English or Foreign, Protestant or Romish, in the four modern languages of Europe, ( 6 ) to which must be added for the Church of Rome, Latin. Besides all this I had the advantage of having been a Ruler of Millions for many years, and living alone among, and loving, my people, speaking their language as my own : 1 knew all about their customs and languages, and religious beliefs, and sympa- thized with the latter, as their expression of their belief in their Creator : all the stories of Missionaries about the multiplicity of gods among the Hindus is mere nonsense picked up : their number of real divinities is limited : as for the Mahometan it goes without saying, that he is a stern monotheist. I became aware of the tranquil happy life in the scattered Indian villages. My first district was a conquest made in the campaign, in which I had taken part in 1845-46, and my first duty was to tell my people, who had never seen a white man before, that I should not allow any burning of widows, killing of daughters, and burying alive of lepers : as to Caste, and Child-Marriage, and the re-marriage of the widows, whom we had saved from the funeral-pile, that was left to the people themselves : they were an ancient and civilized people at a time, when the Britons and the Anglo-Saxons were barbarians: the population has increased by so many Millions during the last half century, that child- marriage, and the non-marriage of widows, does not seem to have had a prejudicial effect on the number of births. Up to this day I am totally opposed to the proselytizing of members of the Romish, Greek, Asiatic, or African, Christian Churches : and till ten years ago I took no interest in the conver- sion of the Jews : "they have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them." I have twice traversed, at the interval of a quarter of a century, the length and breadth of Palestine from Dan to Beersheba, and during my last tour in 1885 it was brought home to me, that the conversion of the whole non-Christian world would be as nothing, if God's chosen people still remained outside the fold : so on my return I joined the London-Jews Society, spoke for it at the Annual Meeting in Exeter Hall, and have since visited every one of the Mission-Fields except that in Persia : I thus have tried to complete my knowledge of this solemn subject : and the question is brought home to me, why after the lapse of eighteen centuries only a fraction of the world has been brought to Christ, and I repeat in defiance of all the folly uttered by enthusiasts, that the great mass of non-Christians is numerically larger at the close of this century than it was at the commencement, and that in addition to the old dead Book- Religions, which date before the Christian era, and the great Religion of Islam, which has come into existence in modern times long after the Christian era, there is now a new birth of Religious conceptions, inculcating the highest morality, free from gross idolatry, not enslaved to Priesthoods, with a certain ( 7 ) amount of spirituality in their essence, which are a hundredfold more dangerous enemies than the old moribund forms of worship. There is room for great humiliation in the Christian Churches. Where is boasting ? it is excluded : there is not one single self- supporting Christian Native Church in any one of the four non- Christian Divisions of the World, free and independent of the spiritual domination of the alien European and American. The fallen Churches of Asia and Africa were not very spiritual, but still in spite of persecution and oppression they have kept their candlestick lighted, and depend for aid on no foreign Power, while in the event of the strong political Power of Europe and America being withdrawn the great majority of the new embryo Churches would be swept away, as has happened to the Church of Rome in S. America and W. Africa. My Essay is ostensibly on ** Methods," but I have been constrained to include certain features, which would be more accurately classed as ''Environments" than "Methods;" but it is necessary, that attention should be drawn to these, for owing to the euphemistic, emotional, and semi-poetical, style, adopted in the Reports and periodical literature, the harsh phenomena, which surround the work of the Missionary, are obscured from sight : it is my desire, that the work should be understood as it is: my quotations are numerous and from Missionary-Reports. At present, if anyone really desired t o know what the prospects of the warfare were, he would never gain it from the one-sided Reports, and Publications, of different Societies, and the authors of some of the volumes on the general subject are so sanguine, so full of worship of their particular Missionary-hero, they burn so much incense to their own Society, they are so unwilling, or fearful, to state the failures, the difficulties, the gross errors, that they are like the prophets, who deceived the Kings of Israel and Judah. I have tried to do my duty as a free-lance, a careful student, and one abso- lutely devoted for a lifetime to the one great subject of Evan- gelization. Far be it from me to say, that because the number of non- Christians is now greater than it was before Missions commenced, that Missions are failures : nothing of the kind : for my own belief is, that the Truth of the great cause is evidenced by the large degree of success vouchsafed in spite of the very imperfect, and often very injudicious. Methods, adopted by a succession of men, all of whom have been good, but few only have been wise. I have seen the tree grow in British India, and the Turkish Empire, under my own eyes : If the Lord had not been on our side, the event would have been different. Besides, I am entirely opposed to the counting up of converts made, and the numbering of baptisms : we have done our duty, if we sow the seed in well- ( 8 ) prepared ground : it is from the Lord that comes the increase. I think that I heard last year at an Annual Meeting of a Society, that they had not baptized one soul, and being a brotherhood and sisterhood, had not the false comfort of reporting, that they had baptized their own children : in fact their font was dry. It is such a pity, that in all treatises a certain number of stock-names of Statesmen, or Military, and Civil, Officials, are paraded, without stating that some have been dead thirty or fifty years, that their experience was limited to one Field only, and possibly to one Mission, and that their remarks were made in the course of an Exeter-Hall-Speech, or some occasion, when all criticism, however friendly, was out of question : if quotations are to be made, let them be from the utterances of qualified persons in the Missionary Conferences, or carefully composed Essays prepared for print and criticism by others. Even the Church Missionary Society, which is very emotional, very conservative, and rarely looks outside the door of its own Committee-room, seems in the appended quotation to feel a shaking of its dead bones, and to hear a sound of a going in the trees, and it expresses itself in the sweet Doric dialect of the Society with a copious use of the Divine Name, and semi- poetical gushing phraseology : ** God has owned old Methods of work. Destroy them not, " for there is a blessing in them. In the light of accumulated •* experience, and under the influence of new environments, the " old Methods have been, and will be, improved. God forbid ** that they should be abandoned. " The call has come for new Methods and fresh experiments. '* That call can neither be lightly disregarded, nor lightly ** obeyed. The Committee is not frightened by the outcry ** against new departures. Rather they thank God, that the " increased interest at home, and the growth of opportunities *• abroad, necessitate new departures. But all such new " departures must be jealously safeguarded by rigid adherence ** to the old principles, which from its foundation have been the *• glory and strength of the Society. •* In view of the rapidly rising tide of intelligent, self-conse- " crating, interest at home, and in view of the marvellous " opening out of the Field abroad, the Committee is deter- '* mined, God helping them, to be found ready, first for the ** consolidation and strengthening of existing work, then for ** further expansion, as God shall provide duly qualified workers. ** With the Master's commission, * Go ye into all the world, " and preach the Gospel to every creature,' ringing in their " ears, the Committee would say, * God forbid that we should *• surrender the high privilege of holding ourselves in readiness " to utilize to the utmost all the evangelical and evangelistic ( 9 ) " fervour and zeal, which God the Holy Spirit is awakening in *' the Church of England I ' *' The constitution of the Society anticipated boundless " development in the demands made upon her. There is no ** necessity to limit that development. Methods must be '* adopted to cope with the growing, worldwide demands, " which in God's mercy are being made, and the laws of the ** Society permit of this being done. The Committee have had " under consideration various schemes for easing the admitted " strain ; and are satisfied that the advance made is as rapid as " is consistent with that due deliberation, which alone can " secure continuity of principle in administration ; and, above ** all, continuity of those great evangelical and spiritual prin- ** ciples, which permeate the whole work of the Society. For " themselves, their prayerful aim will be, in dependence on the " Spirit of God, to have the control so regulated and the pro- ** cedure so ordered that, whatever the demand be, they may *' be enabled to respond efficiently and promptly." No all-round student of Missions could doubt from what quarter these words emanated : a copious use of pretty phrases, and expressed readiness to let in a breeze of the outside air into their Council Chamber : a Vox clamantis, et promittentis, et PR^TEREA NIHIL. ( 10 ) Part E GOOD METHODS. There are of cause various modifications of these great Methods, which must rest with the discretion of the agents : the population of the world is not on a dead level of culture : some recommend preaching for a few days, after the manner of Jonah at Niniveh, the first Missionary to the Gentiles, and then passing on to Regions beyond. I doubt. I quote an extract from another point of view : "To what ex- ** tent should we use means ? This is a point that has exercised ** many. It seems to us, that God intends us to use every means " we can, provided the means are right and worthy of God. It " is on this point that we are sometimes misunderstood. We " gladly use every means we know of to make known the Gospel ** at home and abroad, and to obtain money and men to carry " on the work, provided the means are not only right but worthy " of God, but we decline to use means, that do not seem to us " well pleasing to the Lord. Probably all Christians would " agree that no means should be used that are immoral, but so *' great is the pressure in every good work, that there is a strong " temptation to condescend to agencies that are unworthy." Here again is a diversity of opinion : I have known a Missionary refuse contributions, or aid, from a man not living up to his idea of a godly life. Did even the Pharisees prevent the Publican from casting his mite into the Treasury ? Slow was the process, like that of a moving glacier, but there never was a period, when the movement entirely stopped : God's wheels grind slowly: even in the Evangelization of the World it is not the Method of God to give immediate results: let modern Missionaries take that fact to their comfort, and their guidance. To men in the nineteenth century, dwelling in the midst of material civilization, the voice crying from the wilderness may have no effect : in his health and strength man scarcely thinks enough of the blessings of life : but to the sufferer on the sick bed, the dweller in the lone garret, the man bereaved of all his loved ones, the one, who cries aloud for his daily bread, to such a one in that terrible period, the story of the banks of Jordan, the happy land, the prospect of a future state, which cannot be worse than the present, the reunion with friends, the escape ( 11 ) from the power of the tyrant, the enemy, the oppressor, had a reality, especially when preached by earnest men, who believed their message, and who talked about the undying worm, and the tortures of hell, as if they had had personal experience : all this touched the heart both of the first class, who had lost all confi- dence in their discredited divinities, and the second class, which was fresh and receptive of new doctrines, which perhaps they thought might he true; at least they were comforting. In describing Xavier's work a Romish writer writes, and truly writes, that the first good Method of Evangelization was, that the Missionary should be a sample of a life of self-denial, morti- fication of the flesh, humility, combined with love of God, and zeal for the salvation of souls : whenever Missionary work has succeeded, is successful, or will ever succeed, it is only by such a Method as that of Xavier, which was also that of Columbanus, Boniface, Aidan, and all who were animated by their spirit and desired their reward. A kind of comfortable dilettante life to be given up, when the wife is sick, is worth nothing. Let me first notice the Apostolic Methods: they require no comment. I. Preaching in the Vernacular, whether in the streets of the City, by the Hillside, on the banks of Rivers and Lakes, whether by parties of men, or of women, itinerating from village to village. IL Teaching the way of Salvation in private visits, in journeys, in walks, in small assemblies collected together, or in larger gatherings. in. Healing the sick, if not by the miracles described in the New Testament, at least by the miracles of Science, and loving care, and tender nursing. Such Missionaries receive no remuneration, and go great distances : what more perfect Charity can there be than the Hospital } I now pass to post-Apostolic Methods : I. Reading and distributing portions of the Scriptures in the Vernacular to those, who are able to read. II. Visiting Hospitals, and talking to, or praying with, the Patients : visiting the women's apartments in great houses, and talking with them, reading the Scriptures, and praying with them. III. Visiting Leper-Asylums, where such exist, or similar Institutions for unhappy outcasts. IV. Founding and maintaining Orphanages for the reception of children abandoned in season of Famine, released from Slavery, or made over by the State to the Missionaries. ( 12 ) V. Founding and maintaining purely elementary schools for religious teaching. VI. Reading and distributing Christian literature of a light and attractive character in the Vernacular. VII. Training-Colleges to provide Native Pastors, Evangelists, and Teachers, and for such purposes providing Boarding houses, or Hostels, for their entertainment. In the process of converting Europe the Monastery played an important and holy part : the institution had not then been abused : as time went on a bad name attached to it. It was at once an asylum, a hospital, and a religious school. Agricultural, and Industrial, occupations were superintended: the lives of the Missionaries were simple, devout, and devoted. Celibacy was of course the rule. The Church-services, however ritualistic, did something to elevate the character of the ignorant heathen : bad customs, loose morality, were shamed out of existence : lessons of self-denial, self-restraint, and gentleness, were thus given : intercession for mercy was made to rude Chieftains, and often with success : conciliation was effected between litigants : blood- shed protested against : an asylum offered to the victims of per- secution. The new doctrines appeared in the outward form of a group of self-denying, patient, benevolent, altruistic brethren : it would appear ridiculous now, but it was a great instrument of good then. The corporate life of Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods represent this factor now. We should not allow a prejudice, arising from our knowledge of the abuse of the system, when maintained after the necessity had passed, to blind our eyes to the wonderful service rendered by it. Social life in Europe has changed, but the condition of affairs in Africa now is much the same, as it was then in Europe in the sixth or seventh century. It is all very well to talk of a Missionary's home with his wife, and six children, as a beautiful object-lesson of Christianity to the Natives ; they cannot see it in that romantic light, nor could I, though I have visited scores of Missionaries in their homes. Altruism is the object of Missions : egoism is the very essence of family-life. I unhesitatingly pronounce Brotherhoods and Sister- hoods to be a good Method. It requires Faith, Patience, deep-rooted Kindliness to argue with an inquirer. There was a book published forty years ago called " Dwij," in which a late Missionary at Bandras describes the death-struggle, which he had with a young Brahmin, finally converting him. I, knew both the combatants, and remember the combat : it caused serious reflection in my mind at the time, and up to the present hour: he bought his Faith at a great price : I had the blessing of being born in the Faith. The new conception of the Female-Evangelist promises to be one of the most blessed, and fruitful of blessings. I described ( 13 ) their appearance among the villagers ten years ago, and I can add nothing: ** To the village-women the appearance of a *' Female Evangelist must be as it were the vision of an Angel ** from Heaven : to their untutored eyes she appears taller in " stature, fairer in face, sweeter in speech than anything mortal ** they had ever dreamed of before : bold and fearless without " immodesty : pure in word and action yet with features un- ** veiled : wise yet condescending to the ignorant and little " children : prudent and self-restrained, yet still a woman loving *' and tender : such as they never appeared before to poor ** village-women, even in their dreams, until suddenly their eyes, ** their ears, and their hearts, seem to realize faintly and con- " fusedly the Beauty of Holiness, when they begin to hold ** converse, only too brief, with their sweet and loving visitor, " who, smitten with the wondrous desire to save souls, has come ** across the sea from some unknown country to comfort and " help them. Short as is her stay, she has, as it were with a " magic wand, let loose a new fountain of hopes, of fears and ** desires : she has told them perhaps in faltering accents of " Righteousness, and Judgment, of Sin, Repentance, and Pardon " through the blessed merits of a Saviour. This day has Salva- ** tion come to this Indian village." This is a good Method. Among good Methods must be included a proper rule with regard to the return to Europe of Missionaries located in unhealthy regions, such as Equatorial Africa, and tropical countries generally. A living Missionary can do much, but a dead Missionary, or one with his health hopelessly shattered, can do nothing. The Civil Government as regards its own servants has laid down rules sufficient for health. In Africa three years is the very outside for a residence without a break. As it is, the deaths in the field are appalling: Furlough after ten years in India, China, and Japan, is amply sufficient, unless a Doctor's certificate orders an earlier return. It is false economy to throw away, or lose the services of, a trained and capable man. The very presence of a Missionary, man or woman, is the symptom of a good Method. The Merchant from the West cannot be quoted as a sample of character. It is a surprise to an African to have a white man in their midst, who, if he chose, could ill-use them, carry off their wife and children and sell them as slaves, and yet does not do so : the wages, whether in cash or kind, paid regularly, cause a new sensation among people used to do forced labour: the kind word uttered, and assistance rendered in case of sickness, surprises them still more: Character does not go for much in old civilized countries, like India, China, and Japan, yet the people are led to reflect upon the wonderful phenomenon, that there are men and women living among them for a score or more years, not to rule the ( 14 ) land like the officials, not to make money like the merchant, but to do acts of kindness, speak words of gentleness, encourage morality, and talk about God, and a Future State : I quote a letter from the Minister of the United States at Pekin, dated 1886: •*I am not particularly pro-Missionary: these men and women ** are simply citizens to me, as Minister : but as a man I cannot " but admire and respect them. I can tell the real from the '* false. These men and women are honest, pious, sincere, " industrious, and trained for their work by much arduous study : ** outside any religious question these people are doing a great " work of civilizing, educating, and taking care of helpless '* thousands. They are the forerunner of higher Methods, and " higher morality. I do not address myself to Churches ; but, as " a man of the world, talking to someone like himself, I think, •• that it is difficult to say too much good of Missionary-work in *• China from even the standpoint of the Sceptic." This also is a good Method. ( 15 ) Part e. METHODS NOT RECOMMENDED. Between the good Methods, and the bad, there are a certain number, which have come under my consideration, and which I cannot recommend, though unquestionably they are practised by good men : the question is one of expediency. I have divided them into two categories, I. Secular, II. Spiritual, and append a detached list of them, and now proceed to describe each, with my reasons for not recommending. CAP. I. Secular. I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ID Industrial Farms, Trades, Manufactures, Fisheries. Giving Western names to Natives of Africa, Asia, Oceania, and America. Giving Western Agents higher rates of emolument than Natives, except so far as life and health require. Interference with Slaveholders, and giving asylum to runaway Slaves. Adopting dress of Natives. Sensational and emotional proceedings. Intrusive Begging, Beehives, Bazaars, Old-World Fairs, Lotteries, etc. Preaching in Streets under circumstances calculated to entail a breach of the peace. Forbidding Converts to marry non-Christians. High-class Secular Education. II. Spiritual. I 3 4 Baptism of Polygamists. Challenging, or accepting, public discussion on Doctrine. Substituting other elements in the Communion for Bread and Wine. Interfering with the ancient organization of the Asiatic and African Churches. ( 16 ) I. SECULAR. I. Industrial Farms : Trades : Manufactures: Fisheries. No one can doubt the benevolence of those, who undertake such enterprises ; but I think most probably the spirituality of the manager must be driven out of him, and in these days of the fight of Capital against Labour, and the competition of Trade, it must needs be, that occasionally the Courts of Law, Civil or Criminal, must be appealed to, and my long experience of Courts of Law in British India makes me feel, that the white Missionary would cut a very sorry figure in such contentions : he at least cannot lie, or suborn witnesses, or practise the tricks of the Court, and it is difficult to say, whether he would be more alienated from his converts, if he came out of the Court triumphant, or defeated. The whole thing is so thoroughly contrary to Apostolic practice, and post-Apostolic experience. The duty of the Missionary is to preach the Gospel, and nothing else, except what helps the preaching of the Gospel. His converts, and his Church, may be poor and uncivilized ; that is not his affair: the poor have the Gospel preached to them : that is his sole duty. A great deal can be done incidentally by advice, and example, but all my experience of the last half century goes against any attempt in the least degree to ask a spiritual man to do secular duties, or to yoke secular and religious men in the same fellowship. I am entirely in favour of the Lay Evangelist, the Female Evangelist, the Medical Evangelist, wherever Gospel-preaching is the substan- tive work, but, when it is proposed to have a pious Industrial Superintendent, or an Evangelical tile-manufacturer, or a Low- Church breeder of cattle, or raiser of turnips, I draw my line, and fall back on the great Commission, Matt, xxviii, 19, 20, and sternly reject all external adjuncts. Let not our agents exchange their blessed names of Preacher, Teacher, Friend for those of Farmer, Trader, Employer : the latter may make more money ; the former will save more souls, and that is the sole object of Christian Missions. The Missionary may not see the reward of his Soul in his lifetime, but his name will be mentioned with gratitude by generations still to be born, as the man, who opened the way of Salvation to them, who roused them from the long dark sleep of centuries, and perhaps had the blessed honour of dying in their midst. Augustine did not teach our Anglo-Saxon forefathers the art of building ships, or ( 17 ) starting manufactories, or breeding oxen, but he did something better : he brought to a Nation, that was heathen, the knowledge of a Saviour. Captain Lugard, in his book on "The Rise of our East African Empire," writes so strongly in favour of Industrial Missions, that it may be well to reproduce here the views held upon the subject by Missionaries of undoubted experience. Bishop Steere says : " The main defect of travellers' talk about " Missions is, that they can only tell what they saw. Now there " are two very distinct systems of Mission-working. One is to '• take the natives into tutelage, and make them live and move " by order, and work when and as they are bidden. This ** system, well worked, produces fine plantations, good culti- *' vation, well-kept houses, and a most respectful demeanour. " The other system aims at giving the Native independence " and force of character. It leaves him free to cultivate and ** build and live as he pleases, subject only to instruction, and a " moderate amount of Church discipline. The strong point of ** this system lies in its development of a really native home- " grown Christianity, with a principle of self-improvement, which ** works slowly and from within. '* It is morally certain, that nine travellers out of ten will *' report better of Missions on the former plan, and therefore *' say that they are more successful than any others. I doubt " the fact." And Archdeacon Alan Gibson, who is Bishop Coadjutor-elect of Capetown, in a most interesting article on "The Gospel of Labour," in the Kaffrarian Diocesan Quarterly for January 1894, sums up as follows : ** It seems to me, that in the matter of manual labour the " Missionary must not take European countries for his guidance, " but must shape his course by the Bible, and by Christian " common-sense. A certain amount of manual labour is, of *• course, necessary, and is practised. The Christians build ** their churches and schools, cultivate crops sufficient for their " own support, and the payment of Church-dues, school-fees, " and Government hut-tax ; and, with the constant enlargement *' and improvement of kraals, have plenty to occupy them. " Where they do so little as to neglect any of these Scriptural " injunctions, there the Missionary plainly has a duty; lest the " younger generation should grow up despising manual labour, '* it would most likely be well to have some alteration in the " day-schools, which, however, probably only Government could •* carry out ; and more attention should be paid to the decent " housing of the family. ** In all these points the Church has a distinct mission ; but " when the Missionary is told absolutely, that his primary duty is ( 18 ) " to teach the native to work, he may well call to mind the old " saying, ' Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines.' " I quote the opinion of my valued friend, the Rev. W. Gray, himself many years a Missionary, and many years one of the Secretaries of the Church Missionary Society : *' I dislike the system to which you refer : Our work as " Missionaries, is to lead men to Christ : it is no business of ** ours to draw them away from the innocent secular callings, in *' which Christianity found them, and to find new employment ** for them : there is no need to organize Industrial or Mercantile ** Systems. The Church Missionary Society is often appealed to " by Missionaries in India to help them in setting on foot some ** system for providing employment for converts. They are not " encouraged. Lately a Corresponding-Committee encouraged ** the idea of going to Government to get a special Christian " Regiment established : it was at once discouraged by the " Committee : why should Native Christians be thus segre- ** gated ? I oppose to the utmost of my power any attempt ** to introduce anything like the Basle-system into the Church '* Missionary Society's Indian or African Missions. We have ** hard enough work already to dispossess the minds of the ** converts of the idea, that they are conferring on Missionaries ** a great compliment, and benefit, by becoming Christians. *' The Basle-system must help to foster this idea, and it does not " tend to foster the spirit of independence and self-help. " I Corinthians, vii, 24, gives no uncertain advice : * Let every " man abide in the calling, in which he was called.' " In 1890 certain friends of the Church Missionary Society at Keswick moved that Society to take steps in the direction of Industrial Missions. A Sub-Committee was appointed to con- sider the subject, and after a full inquiry submitted a most interesting and instructive Report to the General Committee, with the following recommendations : I. That no trading or industrial Mission should be carried on by the side of, and in close connection with, Mis- sionary work. II. That Missionaries in uncivilized Regions should have some industrial training. III. That industrial training should not form a factor of edu- cational work in a// the Missions, still that there were certain places where it might be. IV. That simple industrial training should form part of the teaching in Africa. V. That the circumstances of Frere-Town in E. Africa are so exceptional, that there an Industrial Training Establishment should be maintained in full efficiency. ( 19 ) Bishop Smythies recorded his opinion, that "he regarded with " suspicion all industrial work undertaken by Missionaries unless ** kept in strict subordination to Missionary ends, as tending to " lower the standard of spiritual life, and to turn Missionaries '* into traders and planters." The Rev. B. La Trobe of the Moravian Mission informed the Sub-Committee of the Church Missionary Society, that the industrial trading in Labrador and Greenland was carried on by a Society in connection with the Missionary-Society, but separate from it, the losses when they occurred being borne by the Mission, and the profits used exclusively for Mission purposes. On the whole, although industrial work would attract and benefit converts, and was absolutely necessary for the civilization of savage races, he thought his Committee would be glad to do without it. It appeared, however, that the objection arose specially from the trading operations necessarily involved. They feel, that trading and business principles ought to be taught, and that, although the expres- sions Church heart and Store heart were sometimes used, the contact with the Natives in business matters helped de- cidedly to get at their hearts, and gave opportunities for Gospel- teaching. The Reports of Mission-work for Labrador have quite a flavour of Train-Oil and Deep-sea-Fishery. It is excusable, because the work lies amidst the lowest grade of the human race, and the Mission depends for its existence on its Industry. The Rev. W. S. Price, who has had much experience in in- dustrial training work at Nasik and at Frere-Town, was of opinion, that there should be no industrial training except in orphanages and other special institutions. In a unique country like U-Ganda he would found no training institutions, but merely give the lads sufficient instruction to start them in work. I now quote the opinion of my esteemed friend Dr. Thompson of the American Board of Foreign Missions in a letter to me asking my opinion in 1890 : "A distinction exists between manual labour (i) as an inci- " dental thing, and (2) as the leading feature of a school. In *' most Missions to the young instruction is given in useful in- " dustries, yet only as an adjunct, the leading notion being to ** raise up competent native helpers in pure Mission-work. On ** the other hand Industrial Schools contemplate remunerative ** secular occupation, and the training of labourers, who will be *' able to support themselves by handicraft, and enrich the com- " munity. In such schools mental training, and religious edu- " cation, are subordinated. Secular Industry is the distinctive " feature : and manual skill, which is remunerative, is the object " in view." ( 20 ) Such Industrial Schools are valuable, when conducted by the Civil Government, or by private philanthropy, but I doubt, whether they have a legitimate claim upon Missionary-Resources, and whether they can possibly be included in the sphere of Gospel-promulgation. 1 had no hesitation in my reply, that Industrial Schools were neither apostolic, nor expedient, when conducted by Missionaries. The_spintuala^^t_of^IiSMon^^ ^Jlien5j^^£lii^oyments of human life; his vocation is to lead ^^iTHn'to the Kingdom of God, not to make neo-Christians fat and comfortable in this world. Paul did indeed work with his own hands, so as not to be a charge to his converts : he had not a wealthy constituency behind him to supply his needed wants. Experience tells us, that it is better for the work to free the Missionary from vulgar cares, so that he may have more leisure and strength for his sacred duties : but this does not mean that he should start tile-works, or weaving establishments, or carpenter's shops, although our Lord Himself deigned to live, as the son of a Carpenter. Nor should his time be occupied in superintending Fisheries, although Peter and John were fishermen. To this extent there has been a social revolu- tion in the world. The man of God would find his spirituality fairly squeezed out of him by contact with hard worldly business: which, quite commendable for secular laymen, is not suitable for those, whom the Holy Spirit has selected out of their con- temporaries to carry the Gospel. It is not canny to hear of a Missionary shootipg elephants on the Kongo, and making a pile of money by sale of tusks, or breeding ostriches, rearing cattle or sheep, raising turnips, oats, or cereals. Capital has to be advanced and risked ; books have to be kept, profits to be accounted for, losses written off: accumulated wealth by a small Christian community might be a temptation to plunder: The only safe course for a Missionary to take is to live from hand to mouth, and to have nothing to offer the barbarian tribes, which might tempt them to plunder. In the camp, which maintains the opposing views, I find the honoured and respected names of the Bishop of Sierra Leone, the Free Church of Scotland, the German Mission of Basle, the Missionaries of the Church of Rome ; I proceed to quote from their reports. I am not maintaining, that a Missionary should not be a handy man, able to build his own house, thatch his own roof: I quote ChrySOStom, Dec. Soc. Lib. iv, § 4. " kcll Sec rov fieWovra rrju ** 7r/)05 Travra^ avaSe^eaOai /u.a'x^rjVf ra? cnravriDV Libevai re^ua^ ' kuI " TOi/ avTov ro^oTTjv elvai, Kai a(f)evS6vi