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LABRADOR^ 
 
 Stixri/brdJs Oeo^'^ S€tnl>^, londoTh. 
 
J^ote0 on iCTfe^ionarj g)u6iect0* 
 
 (I.) OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 (II.) LANGUAGE ILLUSTRATED BY BIBLE-TRANSLATION. 
 
 Part M. 
 
 THE GREAT PROBLEMS OUTSIDE THE ORBIT OF PURE EVANGELISTIC 
 WORK, BUT WHICH THE MISSIONARY HAS TO FACE. 
 
 Part ffi. 
 
 RELATION OF MISSIONARIES TO THE OUTER WORLD. 
 
 Part W. 
 
 MISSIONARY ADDRESSES, PICTURES, AND NOTICES. 
 
 ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D., 
 
 LATE MEMBER OF H.M. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, MEMBER OF COMMITTEES OF BRITISH AND 
 
 FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, AND CHURCH MISSIONARY yOCIETY, MEMBER OF TRANSLATION 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 INCORPORATED MEMBER OF SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL, AND HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
 
 MefyoKtj y aXrjOeta ical V7repia')(vei. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1889. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I PUT forth in a collective volume the Four Parts of my Notes 
 on Missionary Subjects; but each Part is complete in itself, 
 and as each treats upon a special portion of the subject, may 
 be acceptable in that form to persons, who do not require the 
 whole work. There is a full Index to each Part. 
 
 These Notes come from the pen of a sincere, and experienced, 
 friend. Their object is to lay down first, principles, point out 
 serious errors of practice, denounce what is positively wrong, 
 and suggest what appears to be the better way. 
 
 Free from any bias of Nationality, Denomination, or shade 
 of Religious thought, the Author is entirely fearless of criticism, 
 and welcomes all honest differences of opinion. If the errors 
 described can be proved never to have existed, so much the 
 better. If a better way can be indicated, it is well. If a bad 
 policy is abandoned, it is a subject of congratulation. The 
 human side of Mission-work is peculiarly human. In secular 
 administration the strong hand of the Governor at once puts 
 a stop to the extravagancies of a subordinate. But the powers 
 of a Bishop are constitutionally limited. The authority of a 
 
( iv ) 
 
 Committee, based on a democratic electorate, is singularly- 
 weak. The credit of the great cause of Missions is exposed 
 to obloquy, or is misunderstood, on account of the folly, or 
 weakness, of the weakest section of supporters, or of the least 
 wise agent in the Field. 
 
 My book was not published for profit, and the large free 
 distribution prevents even the expense of printing being 
 recouped ; but I have received my reward in letters from 
 young and old, laymen and ordained men, British and 
 foreigners, not agreeing in everything (for that were impossible), 
 but telling me, that my labour had not been in vain, that I 
 had those who sympathized with me, though personally unknown 
 to me ; and some young men have told me, that they had been 
 helped in their decision to go forth by my words : and this 
 alone is an exceeding great reward. 
 
 Some of the Essays have been reprinted in American 
 Missionary Journals, in the China Inland Evangelization of the 
 World, and, as a separate pamphlet, by the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel ; some have been translated into 
 German, have been reviewed and quoted in periodicals, secular 
 and religious. One Society has taken fifty copies of the first 
 Essay of Part I., but the whole ought to be taken together ; the 
 plums of praise must not be picked out, and be unduly dwelt 
 on ; the sharp condemnations, and notice of sad failures, must 
 not be separated from the context. We have no reason to be 
 surprised at such failures. What St. Paul says of the Church 
 of Corinth in its first decade ought to prepare us. My last 
 words were : 
 
C V ) 
 
 " It cannot now be said, that we must travel onward, as if in 
 a mist, and that, as nobody criticized, there was no error." 
 
 Unpalatable truths are unpleasant to all corporate bodies, 
 whether Religious, or Secular, when they have got out of 
 the right groove. All I ask is, that the advice of a tried 
 friend may be impartially considered. Already the Conference 
 of one great Mission Field has met to discuss my Essay XI. 
 of Part IV., the most trenchant of all, reprinted in an Indian 
 Missionary Periodical, and my last word on a subject, which 
 has exercised my thoughts and pen for the last forty years. 
 The convener of that Conference, an entire stranger, has 
 expressed to me by letter the value, which the Conference 
 placed upon it. They did not admit all the facts; they did, 
 not agree in all the conclusions, but they recognized the 
 thoroughly friendly spirit of my criticisms, and declared, that in 
 that part of the Field the tide was setting " in the direction of 
 " common sense and economy," that they thoroughly welcomed 
 criticisms from a man like myself, who knew the country (India) 
 and the conditions of life there. He concludes; " We inherit 
 " some foolish traditions, which it is rather hard to break 
 " through, but we are learning to do it, and such words as 
 " yours are distinctly a help. We recognize the true ring of 
 " Missionary sympathy, even when we think that you are not 
 " perfectly just." 
 
 The condemnation of Anti-Opium-Trade zealots ; of officials 
 unable to free themselves (though often desirous, and personally 
 clean-handed) from the toils of a system, which consumes 
 unprofitably an unduly large proportion of the sacred funds. 
 
( vi ) 
 
 collected under the influence of prayer to convert the heathen ; 
 of good easy men, who know nothing of the development and 
 Phenomena of this Great Power all over the world, and treat a 
 Mission-Comaittee as a kind of Clerical Club ; weigh little in 
 the minds of those, who see nothing before them, day and 
 night, but the necessity of the extension of the Lord's Kingdom 
 as speedily as possible: who will call a "spade a spade," 
 whether the offender be called a Missionary or an official 
 of the Government of British India. This independence of 
 opinion and utterance comes from a life-training in a School, 
 where the good, material and spiritual, of the oppressed, and 
 so-called inferior, races of the world, has been the one great 
 object, to which talents, time, and thought, have been devoted. 
 
 A friend in Committee told me, that he had read every line 
 of this book, and could wish for me no better memorial of a 
 life's work, when I was called away. So let it be. 
 
 Studying the lives of Carey and Martyn, Judson and John 
 Williams, Steere and Patteson, and the Moravian Brotherhood, 
 I try to place before the Missionaries of the rising generation 
 the law of 
 
 SElf-a6negatf0n anb Stlf-consEcratton. 
 
 19 Feb. 1889. 
 
 P.S. — In Central Africa, the organ of the Universities 
 Mission, for November, 1888, appear the following words: 
 
 " There is very much that is most valuable to all, who have 
 "the progress of the Kingdom of God at heart, and these 
 
( vii ) 
 
 " pamphlets should certainly find a place on the Mission shelf 
 " of every Parish Priest's Library." 
 
 The Editor of the Missionary Review of the World has 
 written me a letter, which has just reached me from New 
 York, U.S. : 
 
 "Allow me to express my great appreciation of your con- 
 " tributions to the Missionary literature of the day. I have 
 " repeatedly reproduced your thoughts in the Missionary Review 
 " of the World. While not agreeing with all your views, I yet 
 " find them so fresh, so original, and independent, and so 
 " forcibly and fearlessly expressed, as greatly to charm and 
 " impress me." 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 "The Missions of the Roman Church" will appear as 
 a separate volume. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 Aborigines Society, I. 37. 
 Abstract words, II. 69, 86. 
 Africa, I. 27. 
 
 African languages, II. 77. 
 All Souls' College, I. 31. 
 Alphabets, II, 6z. 
 Alternative readings, II. loi. 
 American, I. xv. 
 American languages, II. 79. 
 Anecdotes, II. 91. 
 Apocrypha, II. 52, 55. 100. 
 Appeal for funds, I. 19. 
 Arm of the flesh, I. lo. 
 Arrogance, I. 20. 
 Asiatic languages, II. 73. 
 
 Baptism — ^the word — II. 52. 
 
 Do. of dying heathen, I. 9. 
 
 Do. instantaneous, I. g. 
 
 Do. Secret, I. 9. 
 Ba-Suto, I. 37, 38. 
 Bible does its own work, II. 55. 
 Bible-House, II. 8z, 90, 104. 
 Bible-women, II. 103, 105. 
 Bishop, I. 18. 
 Black net, I. 40. 
 Buddha, I. 18. 
 Caesar, things of, I. xiii. 10. 
 Cardinal, I. xii. 
 Carey, I. 34. 
 Caste, I. 28, 33. 
 Charles, Mr., II. 51. 
 China, I. 11, 30, 31, 33, 46. 
 Christian Liberty, I. 42. 
 
 Do. Spirit, I. 37. 
 Clerical Work, I. 43. 
 College, I. 18. 
 Colporteur, II. 105. 
 
 Comity of Societies, II. 100. 
 Commerce, I. 1 1 . 
 Committee, duties of, I. 2, 6, 
 
 13. '4. 15. 19 ; II. 102. 
 Common Standard, II. 89. 
 Comparative Philology, II. 88. 
 Criticism, I. xvi. 
 Customs, Innocent, I. 9, 11. 
 
 Delegates to Committee, 1. 14. 
 Denominations, I. 8, 37. 
 Depot, II. loi. 
 Desertion of Duty, I. 34, 35. 
 Dialects, II. 61, 83. 
 Dictionaries, II. 85. 
 Directors, I. 13. 
 Dissensions, Church, I. xvi. 
 Distribution, II. 8?., 93. 
 Divine name, II. 67. 
 Division of work, II. 97. 
 Door open, I. 19. 
 
 Education, I. 7, 47. 
 Egoism, I. 30. 
 End of the World, I. 8. 
 Endowments, I. xv. 
 Errors exploded, II. 84. 
 Eskimo, I. 42 ; II. 91. 
 European languages, II. 72. 
 
 Faith, want of, I. 7. 
 Family cares, I. 36. 
 Fire-arms, I. 10, 41. 
 France, French, I. 12, 38. 
 Free lances, I. 24. 
 Funds, I. 19, 32. 
 
 German, I. 21. 
 
X 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Home-Missions, I. xiv. 
 Honorific phrases, II. 65. 
 
 Italy, attitude of, II. 52. 
 Immorality, I. 28. 
 Imprimatur of Bishops, II. loi. 
 India, I. 2, 27, 40. 
 Inspectors, I. 15. 
 Interpreter, I. 25. 
 
 Judson, I. 21. 
 
 Languages preserved by Bible, 
 
 II. 84. 
 Lavigerie, I. 16. 
 Law-abiding, I. 40. 
 Liquor, I. 9, 34. 
 Literature, I. 23. 
 Liturgical Versions, II. 69. 
 Loan-words, II. 64 
 Local Committees, I. 15. . 
 Localization of Bible phrases, 
 
 II. 70. 
 
 Mahometan law, I, 9. 
 Magisterial Powers, I. 1 1 . 
 Marriage, I. 26. 
 Melanesia, I. 89. 
 Missions Catholiques, I. 21. 
 Missions, kinds of, I. i. 
 Missionary work, I. 3. 
 Missionaries, character of, I. 
 
 I. XV. 42, 46. 
 Missionaries, diife^rent kinds of, 
 
 I. 23. 
 Mode of preaching, I. 29. 
 Morocco, I. 39. 
 
 Narrowmindedness, I. 20, 33 ; 
 
 IL 66. 
 Natives, I. 33. 
 Native Agents, I. 17, 41. 
 Natives, hatred of, I. 28. 
 Niggardness, I. xiv. 
 Non-Christian Religion, II. 89. 
 
 Note or comment forbidden, 
 IL 101. 
 
 Oceania, I. 87. 
 Oceanic languages, II. 81. 
 One-man translations, II. 60. 
 Oriental Churches, I. 1 8. 
 
 Parents, duty of, I. xiv. 
 
 Patois, II. 64, 87. 
 
 Patriot, I. II. 
 
 Patteson, Bishop, I. 89. 
 
 Physical force, I. 40. 
 
 Pioneer, I. i, 3, 4- 
 
 Platform, I. 20. . 
 
 Plymouth Brethren, I. 8. 
 
 Polynesia, I. 35- 
 
 Prayer, I. 16, 20. 
 
 Progress cannot be stopped, 
 
 IL 87. 
 Proof of unity of mankind, II. 
 
 88. 
 
 Quarrels, I. S, 31, 47. 
 
 Races, native, I. xiii. 
 Redemption of Slaves, I. 13. 
 Remuneration, I. 24. 
 Renegades, I. 18. 
 
 Savage, I. i. 28. 
 Secretaries, I. 6, 13. 
 Self-consecration, I. 34. 
 Septuagint, II. 50. 
 Shaftesbury, Earl of, I. 30. 
 Slave-labour, I. 13. 
 Spelling of names, II. 96. 
 Society for Promoting Christian 
 
 Knowledge, II. 53. 
 Stanley, I. 26. 
 Steward, good, I. 25. 
 Stock-phrases, I. 36. 
 
 Thompson, Dr. A. C, I. xi. 
 Toleration, I. xiii, xiv ; I. 29. 
 Trade, I. 24, 39, 42. 
 Translation, Rules of, II. 63. 
 
Translators, II. 56, 65, 84.. 
 Trinal Number, II. 61. 
 Truth, I. 29, 
 
 Unity of Church. 
 Unpopular, I. 35. 
 
 Venn, Rev. H., II. i, 6, 31. 
 Victoria Nyanza, I. 3. 
 
 INDEX, xi 
 
 Vulgate, II. so, 55, gb. 
 
 Whole Bible, II. 102. 
 
 Wife, I. 27, 34. 
 
 Withdrawal from Protestant 
 
 Countries, II. 100. 
 Women's work for Bible, II. 85. 
 Words indestructible, II. 57. 
 Work inexhaustible, II. 71. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Aboriginal Tribes and Drink, 
 '37. '57. '58. ■ 
 
 African Drink Traffic, 123. 
 
 African Polygamy, 5, jo, 18, 19. 
 
 African Slaves in Madagascar 
 set free, 27. 
 
 Alcock, Sir R., on Opium Trade, 
 99. 
 
 Annual Average of Drink con- 
 sumed, 161. 
 
 Anti-Opium Trade Society, 1 1 3, 
 117. 
 
 Bible wisely excluded from 
 Non-Christian Schools, 179. 
 Bower, opinion on Caste, 86. 
 British Soldier and Drink, 150. 
 BritishTraderand Liquors, 163. 
 Buddhist Literature, 1 34. 
 
 Caste, 67. 
 
 Caste guaranteed by British 
 
 law, 91. 
 Caste in Great Britain, 8 1 . 
 Caste in United States, 81. 
 Caste not religious, 74. 
 Castes, number of, 71. 
 Census, latest, 71, 80. ■ 
 Chefu Convention ratified, no. 
 Chinese contamination, 94. 
 Chinese Emigrants, 104. 
 Chinese home-grown Opium, 
 
 III. 
 
 Christian Education Society, 
 
 182. 
 Christian Polygamy, 11. 
 Christian Slave holding, 38, 
 
 44. 4S- 
 Chumars or Helots, 73. 
 Commensality, 84. 
 Commission of Education did 
 
 no good, 1 86. 
 Congress of Missions, 117. 
 Culture of Opium, 107. 
 
 Education by Missionaries, 165. 
 
 Education in European king- 
 doms, 167. 
 
 Education in Turkey, 168. 
 
 Education in United States, 
 168. 
 
 Education in British Colonies 
 and India, 169. 
 
 Education of the Masses, 172. 
 
 Educational Charter in India, 
 169. , 
 
 Exclusion of Missionaries jus- 
 tified by their cpnduct^ xii. 
 
 Excise laws of India, 143. 
 
 Export of .Opium, 107. 
 
 Farrar, Archdeacon, 125. 
 Force not the base of Opium 
 
 Trade, 109, 112. 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, 31, 43. 
 
xu 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Gladstone, Mr., on Opium 
 
 Trade, loi. 
 Gordon, General, 42, 52. 
 Grants in aid not worth price 
 
 to Missions, 176. 
 Greek writers and Drink, 136. 
 Greek Monogamy, 7. 
 
 Hebrew Polygamy, 6. 
 Hebrew Slavery, 37. 
 Hebrewwriters and Drink, 137. 
 Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, 
 53. 6i- 
 
 Indian Government, character 
 
 of, 116, 175, 
 Indian Polygamy, 3, 20. 
 Indian Slavery, 26, 43. 
 Intermarriage, 84. 
 Islam, 49. 
 
 Khalifate, 68. 
 Khutbah, 57. 
 Kruman never slaves, 43. 
 
 Lavigerie on Slave Trade, 35. 
 Letter on Slavery to African 
 
 Churches, 47. 
 Livingstone, 41, 42. 
 Liquor Traffic, 121. 
 
 Opium sold in India, 105. 
 Opium Trade, 93. 
 Oriental Churches, 16. 
 Outstill, definition of, log. 
 
 Pan-Anglican Synod, i. 
 
 TlapaKXyTos, 59. 
 
 Pawning, 36. 
 Polyandry, 2. 
 Polygamy defined, 2. 
 Poppy cultivation, 93. 
 Prince's Hall Meetings, 125. 
 
 Rajendra Lai Mitra, 131. 
 Redemption of Slaves, 33. 
 
 Religious beliefs undermined, 
 
 '75- 
 
 Religious neutrality in Educa- 
 tion, 170. 
 
 Religions, Non-Christian, have 
 no moral guarantee, 178. 
 
 Roman Cardinal, 97. 
 
 Roman Catholic view of Caste, 
 87. 
 
 Roman Catholic purchase of 
 slaves, 32, 39. 
 
 Roman Monogamy, 7. 
 
 Runaway slaves, 40. 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, on Opium- 
 Trade, lOI. 
 Samuel Smith, M.P., 126. 
 Sanskrit literature and Drink, 
 
 133- 
 
 Sargent, Bishop, on Caste, 88. 
 
 Sawyer, Mr., on Polygamy, 11, 
 20. 
 
 Secular Instruction, 1 66. 
 
 Sale of men by themselves, 41. 
 
 Selwyn, Bishop, on Polygamy, 
 16. 
 
 Shepstone, Sir Theo., on Poly- 
 gamy, 3. 
 
 Sikhs and Drink, 141. 
 
 Slaves possessing slaves, 40. 
 
 State-College, 176. 
 
 Tanganyika, Murder of Priests, 
 33- 
 
 Temperance Association, 121. 
 
 Thomson, Joseph, 61. 
 
 Timothy, Epistle to, on Poly- 
 gamy, 8. 
 
 Wade, Sir Th., Opium Trade, 
 
 105. 
 Waller, Horace, Drink Traffic, 
 
 129. 
 Wife, status to be defined, 18. 
 Widow of brother, claim to, 19. 
 
 Zulu Marriages, 4, 5. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 PART III. 
 
 Abbe de Baize, 30. 
 
 Abstention from Politics, 10. 
 
 African Sovereigns, sympathy 
 for, 56. 
 
 Agencies at work, number of, 2 3 . 
 
 Algeria, Mosques built and 
 secularized, 78. 
 
 American Board Foreign Mis- 
 sions, II, 42. 
 
 Arabs, good behaviour of, 55. 
 
 Ba-Suto Mission, 32, 41. 
 Bible-Translation, 5. 
 Biographies, Missionary, 81. 
 Board of Missions, 13. 
 British India, Religious liberty, 
 
 73- 
 British Interests, 67. 
 Brahmin girl kidnapped by 
 
 Missionaries, 74. 
 
 Calcutta, Bishop of, scheme, 25. 
 Canterbury, Archbishop of, 
 
 speech, 24. 
 Casalis, Missionary, decorated, 
 
 32. 
 
 Charges, false, made by Mis- 
 sionaries, 39. 
 China, Religious liberty, 71. 
 China, French Missionaries, 
 
 34, 44, 4S, 46, 47- 
 Christian Native Colonies, 58. 
 Church, definition of, 16. 
 Church Missionary Society, 18. 
 Church to be Chinese, not 
 
 Anglican, 48. 
 Conversion accompanied by 
 
 sorrow, 76. 
 
 Defensive Warfare, 59. 
 
 Education, toleration in, 77. 
 Enlistment of armed men, 61. 
 Errors to be avoided, 27. 
 
 Fanatical Association of Mis- 
 sionaries, 35. 
 
 Foreign Office not to be ap- 
 pealed to, 45, 47. 
 
 Gaols, nopreachingallowed, 77. 
 Geography, aid of Missionaries, 
 
 2. 
 Geology, aid of Missionaries, 3. 
 German Colonies, 33,34,41,55. 
 Gordon, General, 68, 78. 
 Gospel and Sword, 57. 
 
 Hongo, 56, 58. 
 
 Human life to be respected, 28. 
 
 Japan, Religious liberty, 72. 
 
 Idolaters not to be derided, 79. 
 Illustrated Catholic Missions, 
 
 SI- 
 
 Indian Government, principles 
 of, 89. 
 
 Judicial Courts not to be in- 
 terfered with, 51, 80. 
 
 Judicial Powers, Missionaries 
 not to hold, 27, 31, 58. 
 
 Kentucky, Bishop of, 17, 21. 
 
 Lavigerie, Cardinal, 17, 32, 34. 
 Lay Committee, 20, 21. 
 Lay Patronage, 2 1 . 
 Library of Missionary, 81. 
 Livingstone, 64. 
 
 Madagascar, 33. 
 Maine, Sir H., opinion of, 78. 
 Missions and Science, i. 
 Missions Catholiques, 54. 
 Missionary, true type and duty 
 
 of, xii. I, 49, 51, 64, 80. 
 Missionaries, foolish conduct 
 
 of, 38. 
 
XIV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Missionary literature, 8. 
 Missionary philanthropy, 9. 
 Moabite Stone, 4. 
 
 Narrowmindedness, x. 83. 
 
 Nestorian Monument, Sin- 
 ganfu, 4. 
 
 Neutrality, benevolent, ex- 
 pected, 39. 
 
 Newton, John, ix. 51, 52. 
 
 No beating of Natives by 
 Missionaries, 27, 30, 31. 
 
 No Man's land, 60. 
 
 Note book of Missionary, 84. 
 
 Nyassa lake, 60. 
 
 Oceania, sad story of cruelty, 
 67. 
 
 Paraguay, 57. 
 
 Periodicals, Missionary, 22, 85. 
 
 Persecution, good for a Church, 
 
 48. 
 Philology, aid of Missionaries, 
 
 4- 
 Physical force, 66. 
 Political aggrandizement, 3 1 . 
 Ponap6, glorious Fourth of 
 
 July. 34- 
 Portugal, claims to Africa, 43. 
 Propagation of Gospel Society, 
 
 18. 
 Public Officer, duty of, 79. 
 Punishments, Native, 60. 
 
 Relation of Missionaries to 
 European and Asiatic States, 
 
 37- 
 Relation of Missionaries to 
 
 Barbarian Sovereigns, 53. 
 
 Religions, false, to be avoided, 
 
 Rent-Agitation by Mission- 
 aries, 40. 
 Right to Religious freedom, 78. 
 Rome, Missions of, xi. 52, 54. 
 Russia, 70. 
 
 Salisbury, Lord, reply to 
 Deputation, 61, 64. 
 
 Selection of Missionary Agents, 
 22. 
 
 Shooting at Natives by Mis- 
 sionaries, 29. 
 
 Slave-dealers, 58. 
 
 Sphere of influence, 61, 63, 65. 
 
 Stanley, Henry, 55. 
 
 Temples appropriated by Mis- 
 sionaries, 75. 
 Thomson, Joseph, 29. 
 Toleration, true, 49, 69, 74. 
 Trades, honest, 60, 
 Turkey, 49, 50, 70, 7.. 
 
 U-Ganda, 54. 55. 57. ^6. 
 
 Zamb^si,freedom of navigation, 
 
 43, 60. 
 Zulu plunderers, 58. 
 
 PART 
 
 Agricultural Mission, 109. 
 American Mission, 4. 
 Aries, Martyrs of, 7. 
 Arm of the Flesh, 52. 
 Arms of precision, 65. 
 Association, organized, io6. 
 Australia, 1 1 . 
 
 Baptism of Children, 69. 
 Baptist Society, 3. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Beauty of Holiness, 64. 
 Bible-Translation, 12. 
 Bible-woman, 61. 
 Boasting should be excluded, 
 117. 
 
 Celibacy, features of, no. 
 Christian Native Church in 
 
 India, 67. 
 Christian Soldier, 75, 79. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 XV 
 
 Christian Nations, duty to India, 
 
 80. 
 Christian things in a Christian 
 
 way, 81. 
 Christ the only Motive and 
 
 Power, 92. 
 Christian Faith, Power of, 99. 
 China Inland Mission, 1 1 1 . 
 Church, definition of, 107. 
 Church Missionary Society, 94, 
 
 97- 
 Civilized Heathen Nations, 57. 
 
 Civilization must be Christian, 
 
 23. 103- 
 Comparative Religion, 36. 
 Committee Rooms, 26. 
 Complicated organization, io6, 
 
 US- 
 Consanguinity of Faith, 37. 
 Convert, sufferings of, 79. 
 Crowther, Bishop, 4, 95. 
 
 Darwin, 4, 95. 
 Day labourers, all of us, 59. 
 Deaths necessary, 5, 58, 56. 
 Denouncing a great Commerce, 
 
 117. 
 Deputations, 115, 116. 
 Diversities of administrations, 
 
 105. 
 Divinely imposed Duty of 
 
 Evangelization, 91. 
 Duty is always safest course, 
 
 114. 
 Duty of Christian, 30, 93, 96. 
 Dying words, 5, 58, 66. 
 
 Early Missionaries in the same 
 grade of Society as their 
 converts, 113. 
 
 East London Institute, 1 1 1 . 
 
 Early type of modern Mis- 
 sionaries, 114. 
 
 Edwardes, Herbert, 75, 76. 
 
 Exeter Hall, a poem, 87. 
 
 Extravagance of some Mis- 
 sionary Societies, 106, log, 
 1 10, 1 12. 
 
 Faith-Missions, 106, 107, 108. 
 
 Family cares, 51. 
 
 Female Evangelist, 61, 64. 
 
 Free lances, 107. 
 
 Free Methodist Mission, iii. 
 
 Frere, Sir Bartle, no. 
 
 Gardiner, Allen, 39, 40, 41. 
 
 German Missions, 4. 
 
 God's great lesson in his work, 
 
 60. 
 Gospel, Universal, 93. 
 Grandeur of human character, 
 
 lOI. 
 
 Gratuitous home-service, 1 1 3. 
 
 Hannington, Bishop, 7. 
 Heathendom dying around, 21, 
 
 35- 
 
 Heathens not devoid of good- 
 ness, 96. 
 
 Hero Missionary, 39, 48, 49, 
 100. 
 
 Hireling, 108. 
 
 Homes for Missionary children, 
 1 12. 
 
 Idols not to be exposed to 
 
 derision, 117. 
 India a field for Woman's 
 
 Work, 62. 
 
 Jingo-expeditions not to be 
 recommended by Mission- 
 aries, 1 17. 
 
 Johnston, Vice-Consul, 95. 
 
 Kindness of Natives, 53. 
 Krapf, Dr., 3. 
 
 Lavigerie, Cardinal, 2. 
 
 Lawrence, Lord, 80. 
 
 Layman, duty as regards Mis- 
 sions, 59. 
 
 Life-service required, 52. 
 
 Livingstone, 2, 97. 
 
 Love, sole Motive and Power, 
 29, 93- 
 
XVI 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 McCall, s. 
 
 Marriages, early, of Mission- 
 aries, 17, 50, 109, no. 
 
 Medical Work, 107. 
 
 Melanesia, 1 1. 
 
 Methods of Evangelization, 48, 
 105. 
 
 Mikronesia, 11, 12. 
 
 Missionary Heroes in Africa, i. 
 
 Missionary Society, definition 
 of, 106. 
 
 Missions, weak side of, 96. 
 
 Missionary, his duty, 28, 30, 33, 
 72. 
 
 Moral lapses of Missionaries, 
 1 10. 
 
 Moravian brotherhood, 12. 
 
 Morrison, 101. 
 
 Native Teacher, 9, 13, 14, 15, 
 
 16, 21, 22, 1 15. 
 Nazareth, service at, 73. 
 Negro Christians, 94. 
 New Guinea, 19, 20. 
 North Africa Mission, 1 1 1 . 
 
 Obituary notice of a young 
 
 lady, 83. 
 Oceania, a sealed garden, 10. 
 Office expenses waste Sacred 
 
 funds, 113. 
 One more for Christ, 8. 
 Oriental Congress at Vienna, 
 
 Paid Agents, loS^ 114. 
 Patteson, Bishop, 17, 19, 39, 
 
 4^. 43. 97> '"o. lo^- 
 
 Pinkerton on American Mis- 
 sionary, 6. 
 
 Prayer, 21. 
 
 Preachers at Anniversaries, 18. 
 
 Pride and arrogance to be 
 resisted, 1 14. 
 
 Principle of Panjdb Adminis- 
 tration, 76. 
 
 Polynesia, 9, 1 1. 
 
 Publication Work, 107. 
 
 Raja, Heathen, 70. 
 Religion of Religions, 55. 
 Religions, Non-Christian, 34, 
 
 54- 
 Religious proclivity of all 
 
 Heathens, 35, 3b. 
 Risen Saviour, His parting 
 
 command, 37. 
 Riviere, Jesuit Priest, 8. 
 Root, Hog, or Die, 105, 112. 
 
 Salt mine of the Panjdb, 60. 
 Sargent, Bishop, 97. 
 Satellite Association, 107. 
 Science, aid of Missionary, 31. 
 Self-Sacrifice and Consecration, 
 
 56, 57, 112, 114. 
 Self-Support, 108, 109. 
 Selwyn, Bishop, 17, 18. 
 Sermon in Native Church, 7 1 . 
 Shadow of the Cross, 34. 
 Sisterhoods, 106. 
 Slaves, care of released, 99. 
 Steere, Bishop, 97, in. 
 Success not the object but 
 
 Service, 59. 
 Sweet superfluity of women, 65. 
 
 Taylor, Bishop William, 107. 
 Thatching houses, 103. 
 Training Work, 107. 
 Training of Women necessary, 
 
 64. 
 Truth, adamantine, 36. 
 Tucker, Miss, 63. 
 
 Uncivilized Heathen Nations, 
 
 58. 
 Universities' Mission, no, 11 1. 
 Up, Women, and at them, 65. 
 
 Venn, Mr., 78. 
 
 Williams, John, 39, 44, 45, 46. 
 Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta, 26. 
 Woman's Work, 61, 107. 
 Work sent to make the man, 43. 
 
 Youth of Great Britain, 25, loi. 
 
Jlote0 on Mimomx^ ^uhjttts. 
 
 part E. 
 
 I. OBSERVATIONS and REFLECTIONS 
 ON MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 II. LANGUAGE ILLUSTRATED BY 
 BIBLE TRANSLATION. 
 
 ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D, 
 
 LATE MEMBER OF H.M- INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, MEMBER OF COMMITTEES OF BRITISH AND 
 
 FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY AND CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, MEMBER OF TRANSLATION 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SOCIETY FOR. PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 INCORPORATED MEMBER OF SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL, AND HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1888. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE WHOLE WORK. 
 
 Part I. (i) Observations and Reflections on Mis- 
 sionary Societies. 2nd Edition. 
 
 (2) Language illustrated by Bible -Transla- 
 tion, znd Edition. 
 
 Part II. The Great Problems outside the Orbit of 
 pure Evangelistic Work, but which 
 THE Missionary has to face. 
 
 Part III. Relation of Missionaries to the Outer World. 
 
 Part IV. Missionary Addresses, Pictures, and Notices. 
 
 Part V. The Missions of the Romish Church. 
 
 {In preparation^ 
 
 Each Part will be sold separately, but a certain number of 
 copies of the whole work will be bound up in a collective 
 volume. 
 
TO MY HONOURED FRIEND, 
 
 5®r. a. CC, in;fi[0ntp0on, of Boston, ®C,S., 
 
 AT WHOSE SUGGESTION THIS WORK WAS COMMENCED, 
 
 AND TO WHOM I AM INDEBTED FOR THE 
 
 GREAT HONOUR OF BEING NOMINATED AN HONORARY MEMBER 
 
 OF THE 
 
 AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS, 
 THIS SECOND AND ENLARGED EDITION IS 
 
 WzOicatz'O. 
 August 22, 1888. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I RECEIVED a kind invitation to be present at the Seventy- 
 fifth Anniversary of the American Board of Commissioners for 
 Foreign Missions at Boston, U.S., in October, 1885, and I 
 considered it a high honour, and was anxious to accept the 
 cordial bidding of my friend. Dr. A. C. Thompson, to be his 
 guest ; but as time drew near, and I considered my other 
 engagements, and the claims on my time, I felt obliged to send 
 an excuse. I had already that year traversed nine thousand 
 miles during a tour of twelve weeks in Egypt, Palestine, and 
 Syria, which is more than my annual allowance of time and 
 distance, and next year, 188 5, I had to brace myself for further 
 tours, in Asia and Africa, so I fear, that I shall nevpr be 
 fortunate enough to cross the Atlantic, and see in their own 
 homes the good American citizens, whom I love and honour so 
 much, as friends, and as benefactors of Asiatic and African 
 peoples. 
 
 With them, however, in this gathering in heart and soul, and 
 devoted for more than forty years to the same cause, that of 
 publishing the Gospel of Christ to the Heathen, I ventured to 
 draw up a paper for submission on certain points and principles 
 of Missionary Policy, which seem deserving of notice. Dr. 
 Thompson suggested this to me in his letter dated May 22; 
 1885. I cannot expect, that all will agree with me, but I can 
 speak out, as an impartial observer, one who is not a Missionary, 
 but who has lived all his life among Missionaries of all de- 
 nominations, and nationalities, one who reads the Reports of 
 the Roman Catholics, as well as of the Protestants, one who 
 has visited all the celebrated shrines of the Romish Church, 
 
( xii ) 
 
 and held friendly intercourse with Cardinal and Priest, and is 
 not afraid to have Jesuits as friends, and who finds his way 
 during his travels into the Schools, and Orphanages, of the 
 Nuns, as well as of the Women's Boards. 
 
 On Church-Government, and Dogmatic Theology, I do not 
 touch, but I am not afraid to state, that I am ex animo a 
 member of the Evangelical Branch of the Episcopal Church of 
 England, and yet that fact does not prevent me sitting upon 
 the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible-Society, which 
 embraces all the Evangelical Churches, and at the same time 
 taking part in the deliberations of the Society for the Propagation 
 of the Gospel, as an incorporated Member for many years. I 
 delight to be present at the Annual Meetings of every Missionary 
 Society to the Heathen in Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania, 
 and to mark the Phenomena of the work, and the idiosyncrasies 
 of the workers. Mission-work is gradually becoming a Science ; 
 laws of international comity, and links of inter-Mission brother- 
 hood, are being framed. Annexation on the noblest and grandest 
 scale for spiritual and benevolent purposes is being carried out. 
 A territorial division of all vacant regions is being made. 
 Throughout all my writings it is my desire, that my love for 
 Christ, and for Christ's people of all sorts and conditions, should 
 unmistakeably appear. Though an open antagonist of the errors 
 of the Church of Rome, I have received the thanks of a Cardinal 
 for standing up for the rights of the poor Roman Catholic paupers 
 of London against the narrow views of Protestant Boards and 
 Vestries. 
 
 My remarks were admitted to be very severe, and yet from 
 Missionary Societies, and from Missionaries in the Field, I received 
 constant demand for copies, as my book was not published for 
 sale. One Society proposed to reprint it, but I considered it 
 best to reserve to myself the privilege to issue a corrected and 
 enlarged edition. 
 
 I have had some experience in the Field, and the Committee- 
 Room. No ordained Missionary can exceed me in devotion to 
 the object, and yet I look at each problem from the point of 
 view of a Statesman, an Administrator of Oriental Provinces, 
 and an out-and-out friend and champion of the Heathen, and 
 Mahometan, People. No plausible theory has any chance with 
 
( x'ii ) 
 
 me. I am sternly practical. It is not what we desire, or what 
 ought to be done, but what can, under the laws of Human 
 Justice and Divine Toleration, be done. Non quod volumus, 
 sed quod possumus. What trouble would be saved, if enthu- 
 siasts would understand this 1 Empty resolutions, passed in Exeter 
 Hall, by a packed, irresponsible, body, brought together, " not to 
 discuss, but denounce," have no more value than the waggings 
 of a dog's tail. The example of the life of a true, honest, 
 earnest, blameless man, and his calmly recorded opinion, or his 
 advice conveyed in the proper quarter, in a proper manner, 
 has a potent effect upon men in power, and leads to action. 
 
 I fearlessly point out the errors, and shortcomings of Mis- 
 sionary Societies, and Agents, and unscrupulously sweep away 
 the fogs on the brain of good men, who have never looked 
 on both sides of the shield, and the mistaken views of young 
 men, entirely unversed in the conduct of mundane affairs, and 
 who cannot see the difference between the Things of Caesar, 
 and the Things of God. The Acts of the Apostles tell us, 
 how men acted under the peculiar circumstances of the Roman 
 Empire. Though the circumstances of the nineteenth century, 
 as regards human affairs, are totally different, the same principles 
 apply. 
 
 I stand up for the native races against Governments, against 
 the white man, against Missionaries, and indignantly reject 
 the idea, that any white man has a right to lord it over the 
 black man, whether he comes as a Governor, a Traveller, 
 a Merchant, an Emigrant, or a Missionary. I am obliged 
 to speak plainly upon this subject. The Albocracy of the age 
 is terribly heartless. 
 
 It distresses me to hear, as I heard a few months ago, 
 from the lips of a man, who had spent six months in India, 
 preaching through an interpreter, that the people of India 
 in their heathen state were all liars and false witnesses, and 
 that directly they became Christians, they spoke the truth. 
 It distresses me to hear National Customs, not only not 
 criminal, but actually legalized under British Law, and profit- 
 able, and which could not be abandoned without great evils, 
 denounced by those, who do not understand them. 
 
 If, on the one hand, the grandeur of the enterprize to con- 
 
( xiv ) 
 
 vert the World, overpowers the intellect, and makes us proud 
 of our generation, yet nothing can be more humiliating than 
 the close examination of the inner working of the great move- 
 ment. No proof, that the matter is from God, and that His 
 Holy Spirit is guiding us, can be produced, stronger than 
 the story of the manifold instances of weakness, unwisdom, 
 arrogance, and want of sympathy with the poor heathen, 
 contempt of the great laws of Tolerance, and human kind- 
 ness, absence of self-control, and self-sacrifice, which so 
 often manifest themselves in the poor creatures, privileged to 
 be agents of His will, whether in Committee, or in the Field. 
 Still the work advances ! 
 
 Last come the words "Culpable Niggardness." He has 
 given us all, all that we possess in this World, all that we 
 hope for in the next. Shall we not give Him something ? 
 Do we value the privileges, which we possess, if we do not 
 assist those, who strive to extend them to others. The free 
 Anglo-Saxon on both sides of the Atlantic is not content to 
 enjoy Freedom, but wishes to impart it to others. The 
 Christian wishes the message of Salvation to be conveyed to 
 the whole world. On the Clock of History the Hour for 
 Missions has sounded. I write with a profound conviction, 
 that the Church, the Family, and the Individual, if they do 
 not place the Duty of conquering new kingdoms to the Lord 
 in the first line of their obligations, abdicate their position. 
 Those, who are most liberal to Home-requirements, are not 
 less forward in aiding Foreign Missions. 
 
 Nor is it money only that the Lord requires. What shall 
 be said of those, who withhold personal service, if the message 
 has come to them ; if the Lord has unmistakeably called them ; 
 if He has given them talents, and leisure, and opportunities ? 
 What shall be said of parents, who withhold their children, 
 who are willing to go, and who have no field of usefulness 
 at home ? Where that exists, and they have a vocation in 
 the Home-Missions, among the poor and suffering of their 
 own people, it is mere idle will-worship, and desire of change, 
 that tempts them to new and not better things. But, where 
 they are sitting at home with folded hands, doing nothing, 
 crushed by the conventionalities of home-family-life, eating. 
 
( XV ) 
 
 drinking, and sleeping, Parents! Parents! if the Lord calls 
 them, let them go. Early Death, tedious disease, some other 
 kind of misfortune, will come upon you, as a punishment for 
 robbing the Master of His own. What happened to the 
 servant, who wrapped his talent in a napkin ? 
 
 The Missionary appears to me to be the highest type 
 of human excellence in the Nineteenth Century, and his 
 profession to be the noblest. He has the enterprize of the 
 Merchant, without the narrow desire of gain, the dauntless- 
 ness of the Soldier, without the necessity of shedding blood, 
 the zeal of the Geographical Explorer, but for a higher 
 motive than Science. Now, if there is anything greater than 
 a British Missionary, it is an American. My words may be read 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, and I write them deliberately: 
 if my convictions were the other way, I should not hesitate 
 to express them. 
 
 I have come in contact with both any time during the last 
 forty years : it seems to me, that the American Churches send out 
 their best men, and that Great Britain keeps her best at home. 
 We hear of British Colonial Bishops giving up Missionary 
 duties to take Dioceses in Great Britain, but no instance of the 
 reverse process has been 'recorded.. We hear of Missionaries 
 giving up their blessed labours to retire in middle life to a 
 comfortable British Home, but rarely of the beneficed Clergy- 
 man flinging up his Home-advantages, and comforts, to go out 
 and live and die among the Heathen, and yet Paul, and Xavier, 
 and scores of others in times past, have done so ; and, until this 
 is done, the Missionary spirit of Great Britain has not reached 
 its high-water mark : the cares of this world, and the deceitful- 
 ness of riches, have choked the good seed. It is the rich 
 endowments of the Church of England, that draw so much of 
 our ability and our energy into Cathedral-enclosures, or comfort- 
 able Rectories, where all the acquired learning. Missionary 
 fervour, and God-given intellect, is allowed to rust, and become 
 like the talent put away in the napkin. The rich provision, made 
 by our forefathers for the Church, Established by Act of Parlia- 
 ment, has proved the Capua of many a Soldier of Christ, who 
 might have been a Missionary, but fell to the lower status of a 
 Dean, or Prebend, or well-fed Rector. 
 
( xvi ) 
 
 Above all things, let us do our best, that the historical dissensions 
 of the Christian Church in Europe should not be repeated in 
 Asia, Africa, and Oceania. This is one of the great blights of 
 Modern Missions, and one of the occasions to blaspheme given 
 to the Infidel, the Indiiferent, and the Papist. Can any one 
 read such Biographies, as those of Steere and Saker, Judson and 
 Ragland, Hannington and Carey, Duif and Williams, Patteson, 
 and Krapf, without feeling, that after all, it is the same Spirit, 
 appearing in different human forms ? A certain amount of 
 rivalry is required. A great uniform self-satisfied National 
 Church would probably have done nothing. The astute Church 
 of Rome entrusts the work to twelve great Congregations, in- 
 dependent of each other, and of Provincial Episcopal control, 
 and not loving each other very particularly. Men require to be 
 provoked to good works, and something more. 
 
 The words of a late Bishop, one of the ablest conductors of 
 Missionary enterprizes, are given in his Life : " We shall have 
 " the benefit of independent and intelligent criticism, a thing 
 " which Missions generally are very much in need of." 
 
 2S August, 1888. 
 
jl^otes on S^issiomx^ ^nhittts. 
 
 pact I. 
 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS and REFLECTIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 CHAP. r. MISSIONS, AND THE GOVERNING BODIES. 
 
 CHAP. II. MISSIONARIES, AND THE FIELD. 
 
 SECOND AND ENLARGED EDITION. 
 
 Yi.6Xku>v avdpunrwv I'Sev aaTea, Kal voov ir^vu). 
 
 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of administrations , 
 but the same Lord. — i. Cor. xii. 4, 5. 
 
WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE EAST INDIES. 1878. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF AFRICA. 1883. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF THE CAUCASUS. 1886. 
 
 MODERN LANGUAGES OF OCEANIA. 1887. 
 
 LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. First Series. 
 1880. 
 
 LINGUISTIC AND ORIENTAL ESSAYS. Second Series. 
 1887. 
 
 SKETCHES OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE. 1881. 
 
 THE SHRINES OF LOURDES, SARAGOSSA, LORETTO, 
 AND JERUSALEM. 1885. 
 
 Trubner & Co., Ludgate Bill, London, E.C. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Missions, and the Governing Bodies. 
 
 T. Different Kinds 
 
 II. Pioneer Missions 
 
 III. Solitary Missions .... 4 
 
 IV. Small Societies 5 
 
 V. Unduly large Societies 6 
 
 VI. Opening new and neglecting old Missions 6 
 
 VII. Religious Education only 7 
 
 VIII. Not beyond the social status of the converts 7 
 
 IX. Unexpensive Buildings 7 
 
 X. Self-supporting Native Church 8 
 
 XI. Some organization necessary 8 
 
 XII. Forbearance to Schismatics 8 
 
 XIII. Intoxicating liquors 9 
 
 XIV. Baptisms in public 9 
 
 XV. No State Church, or Secular arm 10 
 
 XVI. No meddling in Politics, or attacking the Customs of the 
 
 People 10 
 
 XVII. Missions not to be a pretence for Political interference 1 1 
 
 XVIII. No Purchase of Slave-children, or use of Slave-labour 12 
 
 XIX. Home-organization 13 
 
 XX. Local Committees 15 
 
 XXI. Mission Fields to be marked off 16 
 
 XXII. Comity of Missions 17 
 
 XXIII. Civilization not ths object of Missions 17 
 
 XXIV. No proselyting of Christian Churches 18 
 
 XXV. No arming of Native Converts 18 
 
 XXVI. No permanent endowments to be made 18 
 
 XXVII. The Society not to be set above Christ i8 
 
 XXVIII. No scoffing at Heathen idols 18 
 
 XXIX. Income of Society to be carefully guarded .... 19 
 
 XXX. Proper views as to Income and Expenditure 19 
 
 XXXI. Missionary Periodicals 19 
 
 XXXII. Pulpit and Platform Addresses 20 
 
 XXXIII. Sensational Gatherings 20 
 
 XXXIV. Dangers of European Annexations 21 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Missionaries, and the Field. 
 
 I. Different kinds 23 
 
 II. Necessity of a Chief Pastor 23 
 
 III. Unpaid Agents 24 
 
( X ) 
 
 PAGE 
 
 IV. Social Status ^4 
 
 V. Language ^S 
 
 VI. Provision for maintenance ^5 
 
 VII. Obedience of Missionary to Parent-Committee 27 
 
 VIII. Loyalty of Missionary to Parent-Committee 27 
 
 IX. High Standard of Morality 28 
 
 X. Gentleness in their dealings with the people 29 
 
 XI. Respect to Religious prejudices 29 
 
 XII. Boasting excluded 3° 
 
 XIII. Use of Native Dress 3' 
 
 XIV. Care of Health 3^ 
 
 XV. Living among the people 32 
 
 XVI. Position of Native Agents 32 
 
 XVII. Narrowness of vision 32 
 
 XVIII. Abstention from other work 33 
 
 XIX. Continuance at their post 34 
 
 XX. No undue care for results — ■ 3S 
 
 XXI. Unpopularity of Missionaries and Missions 35 
 
 XXIL Reports of other Societies 3^ 
 
 XXIII. The Missionary's own Reports _ 3^ 
 
 XXIV. He should not promote War among tribes 37 
 
 XXV. He should not teach his flock European differences 37 
 
 XXVI. He should not take up fads and and crazes 38 
 
 XXVII. He should not seek Secular Honours 38 
 
 XXVIII. He should not resist the Police-Authorities 38 
 
 XXIX. He should seek his own Self-effacement 38 
 
 XXX. He should not open a refuge to runaway Slaves 39 
 
 XXXI. He should support authority of Native Chief 39 
 
 XXXII. He should have kindly intercourse with his people 39 
 
 XXXIII. How far is Education desirable as an agency? 40 
 
 XXXIV. He should never use physical force 40 
 
 XXXV. Transit-duties and Taxation 40 
 
 XXXVI. Creation of Christian life in a community -.. 41 
 
 XXXVII. The right of a Father over his child 41 
 
 XXXVIII. The three qualifications of a Missionary 42 
 
 XXXIX. Abstention from Commerce and Agriculture 42 
 
 XL. Needful attributes of a Missionary 42 
 
 XLI. No abuse of Sacred books of the Non-Christian 42 
 
 XLII. Abstention from public Secular office 43 
 
 XLIII. No exaggerated statements of wickedness of the Heathen 43 
 
 XLIV. Pride of Race to be eradicated » 43 
 
 XLV. Necessity for Native Teachers 44 
 
 XLVI. No amalgamation of European and Native Churches 44 
 
 XLVII. Elements of the Lord's Supper 45 
 
 XLVIII. No separate Christian Villages 45 
 
 XLIX. No change of political status of converts 46 
 
 L. A Bishop's advice to his subordinates 46 
 
 LI. The indirect effect of Education 46 
 
 LII. A Missionary should not take lessons in Musquetry 47 
 
 LIII. A Missionary should be at peace with his colleagues 47 
 
 LIV. All Missionaries have not the great Grace of converting souls 48 
 
I. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON 
 MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 Chapter I. — Missions, and the Governing Bodies. 
 
 I. They are of different kinds. From this sketch all attempts 
 at proselyting Christians of one denomination, and all provisions 
 for the spiritual wants of true Christians, are rigidly excluded. 
 My thoughts are restricted to the non-Christian world. In some 
 very few Missions, as regards the life and health of the Mis- 
 sionary, there is no cause for anxiety from the climate, or the 
 absence of civilization of the people, or the want of ordinary 
 limited comforts of civilized life. In British India he has the 
 civilization, but the climate is against him, but there is a strong 
 and just Christian Government, with entire Toleration, and liberty 
 of Conscience. In China, Japan, and Turkey he has less to 
 suffer from climate ; but the vagaries of an Asiatic Government, 
 and the inconvenience of an Oriental Civilization, have to be 
 contended against. A Mission to Africa, Oceania, and North 
 America, is the hardest problem, that has to be solved, requiring 
 the greatest amount of devotion, and rich in the greatest bless- 
 ings. In the scale of sacrifice let this never be forgotten. 
 
 II. Distinct from all other Missions is the Pioneer-Mission, 
 and the most misunderstood. The Missionary is indeed neither 
 a Geographer, nor an Explorer, nor a Hunter, nor a Colonizer, 
 nor a speculator in Commerce and Agriculture, but he must 
 take cognizance of such things. His very existence sometimes 
 depends upon his capacity in one or other of these accomplish- 
 ments. 
 
 In reading the life of a servant of God now at rest, to whom 
 was given the exceeding great privilege of founding a Christian 
 Mission in Africa, and translating the whole of the Bible into a 
 previously unknown language for the use of the tribe, amidst 
 which his Mission was founded, we are surprised to find, that 
 unjust assertions were made by his colleagues, though in good 
 faith and Christian love, that his work was not spiritual, that he 
 thought too much of the material aspect of the Mission, and too 
 little of the Souls of the People given to him. 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 The subject is one, which demands our serious attention. We 
 must think it out, as it stands at our doors. None but those, 
 who throw themselves into Mission-work, and devour Mission- 
 Reports, are aware, that a Committee of a Missionary Society has 
 to discharge the duty of a Quarter-Master-General, the Head of 
 a great Commissariat, a Board of Architects, Shipbuilders, and 
 Engineers, a Board of Finance, a Council of Education, a Com- 
 mittee of Geographical Explory, a Superintendent of a Transla- 
 ing, and Publishing firm, as well as other secular duties. 
 
 There are some among us, before whose unpractical vision 
 floats the idea, the romantically blessed idea, of two and two 
 being sent out without scrip, or change of raiment, without 
 provision for roof-tree, or sustenance, to be fed by the ravens, 
 and grow like the lilies of the field. There are others, perhaps 
 young ardent spirits, preparing for the fight, who dream of the 
 Preacher of the Gospel under the branches of the wide-spreading 
 tree, addressing a meek, and gentle, and willing, auditory of 
 Savages, born again as little, children, only too ready to hear, 
 and wondering, why the Word of life had been kept from them so 
 many hundred years. One dear man, now at rest, thought, that 
 he was serving God by riding on a Camel from tribe to tribe in 
 South Africa, and addressing the people through an interpreter. 
 
 Is it so .'' Let us consider the environment of the Missionary, 
 who breaks ground in a new field, ignorant of the language, and 
 -the customs, thrown into a country, where there are no habita- 
 tions, no ordinary supplies of his usual food, not even the 
 rudimentary conditions of decent life in its lowest form, and 
 no constituted authority. 
 
 I have myself been the first and only Englishman in a newly- 
 conquered Region, where the people flocked in to look at the 
 white man. I have had to make the best of a native house, and 
 such food as the country supplied, or I could bring with me from 
 more civilized places. I had with me the prestige of power and 
 authority, not visible indeed, but felt by all, who knew of the 
 Military Cantonments, not so far off. Thus in a tropical climate 
 I can in a small way realize the diflBculty of the Missionary. But 
 Africa, and Oceania, are not like India. The people are in culture, 
 and the arts of civilized life, much further below the Indian, 
 than the Indian is below the European : the climate of Africa is 
 a hundredfold more deadly: the prestige of power is totally 
 absent : the soil does not supply the means of civilized life, while 
 India is as a garden in fertility, and agricultural wealth. I bring 
 out these points clearly, that the problem may be understood, 
 and that the principle, which I now proceed to lay down, may 
 not be contemptuously rejected, but fairly thought out. Spiritual 
 men need not act like fools. It is this : 
 
 That the first period of a Christian Mission in Africa, and Oceania, must 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 necessarily deal much more with material matters than spiritual: that the 
 teaching of the people must be indirect by doing Cliristian things in a Christian 
 way, rather than by direct teaching and preaching. 
 
 The length of that period must depend upon circumstances : it 
 should not in the absence of any great calamity exceed ten years: 
 it may possibly be much shorter. The Parent-Committee must 
 be patient, tolerant of errors, and sympathizing with failures. 
 
 Take such a Mission-enterprize as that of Equatorial Africa, 
 commenced by the Church Missionary Society in 1878. In 
 defiance of all rules of strategy, and forgetful of the wisdom of 
 keeping open communications with the base of operations, the 
 first party of Missionaries made direct for Victoria Nyanza ; a 
 certain portion of their number reached it, occupied a post at 
 the capital Rubdga, and have held it contin.uously to this day. 
 In the interval stations have been opened, connecting this 
 advanced post with the base of Zanzibar. The work of the last 
 ten years has been mainly material, rather than spiritual: the 
 real work is hardly yet commenced. We must tarry the Lord's 
 leisure. 
 
 Some take a romantic view of such an enterprize : they are 
 neither able, nor willing, to think of the details : their simple 
 souls cannot take in a conception of the great gulf fixed between 
 them and their Missionary. Some prudent Statesmen, and 
 Consuls, look upon the enterprize with a kindly eye, for the sake 
 of its civilizing, rather than evangelizing, results, but quite realize 
 the enormous difficulties of the operation. Those, who study 
 Missionary Chronicles, and know Missionary- work, are convinced, 
 that the material requirements of the Mission must be considered 
 in the first decade to make good, continuous, and lasting Evan- 
 gelical work possible in the second, or even third. 
 
 The ministration of the district- visitors in a crowded European, 
 or North American, town, who go from house to house, with 
 kindly words, and material assistance to pressing wants, is not 
 strictly spiritual work, any more than the work of secular 
 Education in the night-school is spiritual, but such operations 
 are necessary concomitants, or even conditions precedent, of 
 spiritual work. I quote an extract from a Report on South 
 Africa : 
 
 Thus another year has been spent in pioneering. There has heen much toil, 
 much anxiety, much suffering, and apparently little result. Yet, the lack of 
 result is only apparent, not real. The labourers have been honestly, and with 
 all their hearts, preparing the way of the Lord. The Society has cause to 
 be proud of the truly heroic and faithful band, who represent it in Central 
 Africa. Every letter gives evidence of the spirit of true Christian devotion, 
 which inspires them to labour, to suffer, and to wait. Riveting metal-plates, 
 managing a boat on the stormy waters of the lake, collecting words for 
 vocabularies of the native tongues, dialing justly with the people, enduring much 
 hardship in long journeys, telling the heathen chiefs in simplest terms the story 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 of Creation, of man's fall, and of Christ's redemption, instructing a few 
 unwilling scholars in the first mysteries of spelling, it has all been evidently 
 work for the Master, and His Spirit has been with them. Such life, such work, 
 are not in vain. They are making a road for the future ; they are levellmg the 
 mountains, and filling the valleys preparatory to the revelation of the Lord. It 
 is hard work, apparently endless work. 
 
 There is not yet a single avowed convert, nor is there even a regular 
 congregation in connection with either of the stations. Moreover, the people 
 are so entirely given up to the business of fighting and plunder, the power of 
 the chiefs is so absolute, and distrust of each other, and gross superstition, have 
 so terrible an influence, that, humanly speaking, it seems hopeless to expect a 
 change. Again and again men seem to become interested, and begin to learn 
 the truths of Christianity ; but, as soon as this has been observed, suddenly some 
 mysterious influence seem? to be exerted on the hopeful ones, and they at once, 
 and without explanation, withdraw from all intercourse with the Missionaries. 
 Youths come to school, and seem to be making some progress in learning to 
 read, the Missionaries begin to hope, that they are coming under favourable 
 influences, then the annual war fever sweeps over the country, and at once the 
 most docile and hopeful scholar seems transformed, all the passions of the savage 
 man are stirred, and he goes off eager to join his elders in what is regarded as 
 the only pursuit worthy of men. Only one signal manifestation of the Grace 
 of God arresting the attention and bringing conviction to the heart of the chief, 
 or some of the leading men of the country, and through their conversion 
 impressing the whole of the people ; or some signal judgment of God, by which 
 the warlike instincts of the nation shall be rebuked, and their power for 
 mischief shall be broken, is likely to effect any change in the present condition 
 of things. 
 
 This Missionary spoke the feelings of many. 
 
 A Missionary from the Kongo writes, that it is difficult to give 
 an accurate idea of his work ; as he had everything to do, or 
 to personally superintend, while it was being done : building, 
 gardening, fencing, road-making, cooking, washing, doctoring, 
 teaching, preaching : all demands his care in turn. 
 
 A Missionary from West Africa writes, that, strange as it may 
 seem, it is an important part of Mission-work to teach the 
 people how to farm, how to build and live in houses, how to 
 cook food, how to make and wear clothing, how to take care of 
 their bodies as well as their souls. 
 
 Livingstone remarks that : 
 
 The end of the Geographical feat is the commencement of the Christian 
 enterprize. 
 
 The duty of the Committee is to watch this state of things 
 lovingly and sympathetically, and not to allow it to last too long; 
 as new Missionaries go out to relieve veterans worn out, to 
 remind them, that they are entering on the labours of others, and 
 must think of spiritual things. 
 
 III. The next matter is the objection to solitary and single- 
 handed Missions. Our Lord sent out his disciples two and two. 
 The Roman Catholic Church makes it a rule absolute, that no 
 agent ordained or lay should be alone. There is comfort and 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 support in fellowship, and there is the check imposed by the 
 presence of a Brother against the first temptations to Sin. We 
 should try to paint to ourselves the Missionary left many months 
 quite alone. I have known it as a public oificer, and in my youth 
 I enjoyed it, while ruling a people, whom I loved, with all the 
 surroundings of Anglo-Indian comfort, in a climate, which during 
 the winter season is magnificent : but during the hot season I 
 dwelt in houses in the midst of my fellow-men. But the Mis- 
 sionary is often in the deadliest climate, in the'most rudimentary 
 kind of habitation, without medical advice, without a friend 
 to sustain his failing spirit. Some holy men have made their 
 solitary moan, and no one, but their God, has known how they 
 died. It does sometimes happen, and within my knowledge, that 
 a particular Missionary is of such a disposition, that he cannot 
 get on with his colleagues, and has to be consigned to an isolated 
 spot : such instances of infirmity should be the exception : the 
 Missionary, who has failed to convert himself, will scarcely be 
 an efficient agent to convert others. Better is he, that ruleth his 
 spirit, than he who taketh a city. Therefore I repeat : withdraw 
 the Missionary for a time, rather than leave him alone : it is bad 
 for him spiritually, morally and physically. Some have been 
 tempted by solitude and fallen. 
 
 IV. There is an objection to small Societies, and the smaller 
 they are, the greater the objection. The non-Christian world 
 must be conquered by great battalions, not by Knights-Errant, 
 and romantic and ill-considered attempts, made by mis-directed 
 enthusiasm. I have known too many of such mushrooms. They 
 fade away or die with their founders. Consider then the waste 
 of time and money, the vacillation, the delay from want of funds 
 and men, the nullity of effect. Many such may be found on the 
 conspectus of Missions, published in London, June, 1888, but 
 my remarks are to be colourless. A wise governing Committee, 
 an Agency for collecting funds, and preparing agents, are neces- 
 sary. Such Skirmishers do mischief, and impede the progress 
 of the great Army, and sometimes cause scandals. I make this 
 remark with knowledge. In the case of a small Society the 
 charges for the Home-Office necessarily have an unduly large 
 average. I do nqt wish to despise the day of small things, but 
 that day has passed by, and greater progress will be made by 
 strengthening existing Societies. I know of one Society, whose 
 efiSciency has been diminished by parasitical growths, or extra- 
 neous grafts, which have become suckers, rather than feeders, 
 of the Parent-Society. A Society, which is to continue and to 
 flourish, must be rooted in a Church, or a Denomination, or a 
 Branch of a Church, and must not depend on the life and energy 
 of an individual, a family, or a private body of friends. If it has 
 no root, it will fade away and perish, as many have done, and the. 
 
( 6 ), 
 
 poor converts will be left as a prey to the Roman Catholic Priests 
 But the Church is not necessarily in its corporate capacity the 
 best machinery for managing Foreign Missions : quite the con- 
 trary. I have developed this subject in Part III. Essay II. Mr. 
 Venn describes the Church Missionary Society, as a Church Society 
 within the Church, without a Royal Charter, in subordination to 
 Church-authority, but based on voluntary action, ready to sacrifice 
 a great deal to maintain Church-order, but not the saving of 
 souls. ' 
 
 V. On the other hand, there is an objection to unduly large 
 Societies. There is too often a vaunting spirit, and a desire 
 to go on : the Books of Joshua and Judges are freely quoted, 
 forgetting that these remarks applied only to the commencement 
 of the occupation of Palestine, and, as a fact, that occupation 
 never was complete. When Secretaries are multiplied, one of two 
 things will happen, either the work of the Society will be sub- 
 divided, and a difference of practice may possibly arise, or in the 
 strain for each Secretary, and Member of the Committee, to 
 inform himself of the whole, the work will be scamped ; there 
 will be a continuous unhappy struggle to keep abreast of the 
 work, with no time for quiet counsel, or interchange of views. 
 By dividing the Committee into Groups, greater despatch and 
 more accurate control is secured. No secular work could be carried 
 on successfully under such conditions, as are presented by an 
 ever-changing Committee, a sitting that lasts nine or ten hours, 
 during part of which time there is a crowd, and during the later 
 hours one or two Members, retained only by force, or a sense of 
 duty, and the paper of Agenda hurried through. There are 
 practical dangers in an Executive Committee being too large, as 
 proved in the late scandals in the London Board of Works. 
 Details must be settled by a small selected body. 
 
 VI. Still more objectionable is that fatal desire, that seizes 
 some Societies, to be always taking up new work, and neglect- 
 ing and starving the old work. It amounts to folly and madness. 
 In each Mission-Field there is a natural healthy internal growth, 
 at once the evidence, and forerunner, of success, requiring annu- 
 ally an increase of expenditure. It is, as if the Father of a 
 Family, instead of providing for the annually increasing legiti- 
 mate wants of his own children, should waywardly adopt new 
 children, and nourish these at the cost of starving his elder family. 
 A new scheme sounds fair enough : some one is always found 
 ready to pay the expense for three or five years, but after that 
 time the Society has to provide, or the result of the whole outlay 
 is lost. The Scriptural advice of counting the cost, before a 
 tower is commenced, the dictates of common sense, the example 
 of secular administration, the warning voice of the more prudent 
 members of the Committee, are all set aside by the restless 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 fervour of some enthusiasts for new work, somebody who happens 
 to have a relation, or an interest, in some particular field. The 
 charge of want of Faith is cast into the teeth of those who object, 
 forgetting, that we are told to use our talents to the utmost, but 
 not beyond our talents. The same principles, which guide the 
 private life of individual Christian men, should guide the opera- 
 tions of collective Christians. 
 
 VII. There is great objection to the prosecution of Educa- 
 tion, which has not a strictly Missionary object. It is not the 
 duty of Missionary Societies to give a cheap Secular Education 
 to the natives of any country. School-teaching is a lawful 
 expenditure of Missionary Funds, only when its sole object is 
 conversion of Souls. It may be, that in some countries Educa- 
 tion is the only method available ; still, if it cannot be conducted 
 on strictly Christian principles, it should not be undertaken. 
 The School must be opened, and closed, with prayer, and the 
 Bible be taught without any reserve, or limitation. No 
 conscience-clauses should be tolerated in a Mission-School. If 
 State-Grants are saddled with such conditions, they should be 
 refused. Heathen teachers should not be employed, and, if the 
 Missionary thinks, that he can only secure such success in 
 secular studies, as will warrant a State-Grant, by sacrifice of 
 religious instruction, he should give up the Grant. Unless the 
 scholars attend the Prayers, and religious teaching, they should 
 not be admitted. There is a tendency in some quarters to 
 devote Missionary Funds to Higher Education : this error 
 should be guarded against. The object of Missions is Spiritual, 
 not Intellectual, to make Christians, not Scholars, or citizens 
 (see Part II. Essay VII.). 
 
 VIII. There is also great objection to any form of Education, 
 or Training of Boys or Girls, which alters per se their social 
 status. It is no kindness, and no help to Conversion, to turn 
 out scholars, who have been elevated above the social position 
 of their relatives, and lost their means of existence. The same 
 principle applies to the education of the labourer's child in 
 England, but with double force in Asia, Africa, Oceania and 
 America. What is to become of the nicely-educated, elegantly- 
 trained, girls, whom I have seen in orphanages, and schools, 
 fashioned into young gentlewomen, with a future surrounded 
 with disappointments and perils ? Soberer and wiser views, on 
 the part of the Superintendent would restrict the education to 
 what is suitable to the position of life, in which God has placed 
 them, and make them fit to be wives of good men, who are not 
 possessed of high culture or large resources, but to whom a 
 pious, and moderately instructed, companion will be a great 
 blessing. 
 
 IX. An objection of the same kind must be recorded against 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 the erection of Buildings, whether places of worship, residence, 
 education, or healing, on too expensive a scale : who will_ be 
 able to repair them, or rebuild them, as when in course of time 
 they fall into decay ? What false kindness, what want of judg- 
 ment, what ostentation, there is in this ! It is falling into the 
 manifest error of the Church of Rome, and an extreme party of 
 Protestants, who in a village of poor natives delight to fit up a 
 temple, decorated with finery, worked by the hands of devout 
 ladies, forgetting that God dwelleth not in temples made by 
 hands. The building should be solid, decent, suited to the 
 climate, and the degree of culture of the worshippers : it should 
 be as good as, or better than, any house occupied by a Christian 
 in the village or town, but should not attempt to rival the 
 Mahometan Mosque, or Hindu Temple, in architectural decora- 
 tion. The Church of Christ consists not of walls and roofs, but 
 of the Souls of the worshippers. 
 
 X. This leads on to the necessity of every Native community 
 being taught, and compelled from the very first, to be self- 
 supporting, providing for its Pastor, Church-expenses, and the 
 education of children. No material inducement should be held 
 out to a catechumen to accept the new religion. I read, that in 
 one Mission no Church is organized, unless the community have 
 a man ready to be Pastor, and unless they are ready to support 
 him. This principle ought to be universally accepted, and nd 
 permanent progress can be anticipated, if it be neglected. 
 
 XL This last remark presupposes some kind of organization, 
 differing according to the idiosyncrasy of the Church, which sent 
 out the Mission. However much denominationalists may be 
 quite sure in their own minds, that their own system is the 
 best, and the only one, the wide observer of human affairs can 
 read their remarks with a smile. There are many forms of 
 organization, possessing each their special weakness, and 
 compensating advantages, and no arrangements of the men of 
 this generation will prevent future generations altering and re- 
 fashioning the human frame, or introducing an entirely new one. 
 May God in his mercy grant, that they will not re-fashion the 
 doctrines, re-interpret the Scriptures, or assert new Revelations 1 
 
 XH. This leads to remarks on the necessity of great ten- 
 derness to those, who differ in doctrine, or in practice. It is 
 astonishing to read remarks, made by Presbyterians against 
 Plymouthites, as bitter and unjustifiable as those, that were made 
 in the last century by Episcopalians against Presbyterians. The 
 greatest wisdom, and most Christian forbearance, are necessary 
 in su'ch cases. In South India a large number of Christian 
 Churches fell into the delusion, that the world was coming to an 
 end on a certain day. When all reasoning failed, the prudent 
 Missionary adopted the policy of waiting, and, when the day 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 passed by, and all things went on as before, the humbled 
 enthusiasts returned to their Pastor, and admitted their errors. 
 Undue severity even in case of moral offences is to be deprecated, 
 bearing in mind the low standard of the environment of the 
 Neo-Christians, and the examples, supplied in the Old Testament, 
 of nearly universal moral lapses, and laxness of conduct. What 
 will become of the man put out of the Church for either cause } 
 It entails not only the loss of the soul of an individual, but of a 
 family, and of children yet unborn. 
 
 XIII. Desirable as it may be to encourage total abstinence 
 from intoxicating liquors (and the precepts, though not the 
 universal practice, of the Hindu and Mahometan Religions are, 
 in such matters, on the side of the Christian Missionary), odious 
 as is the custom of Slavery and Slave-dealing, it may be doubtful, 
 whether either Scripture, or expediency, justify an absolute 
 prohibition. The gate of admission into the Christian Church 
 should not be made narrower than our Lord made it. We must 
 not be accommodating, on the one hand, to sins or vices, but 
 we must not, on the other hand, proscribe innocent customs. 
 In Central India the women were forbidden to wear flowers in 
 their hair : in South India men were forbidden to wear tufts of 
 hair. Caste is foolishly denounced instead of being fashioned 
 into a means of moral control (see Part II. Essay IV.). Care 
 must be taken not to lay too heavy burdens on a nascent 
 Christianity, which is not imposed on the Church at home. 
 Precept and Example will go a great way. It may be generally 
 stated, that the highest Standard of Faith and Morality should 
 be laid down, but an equitable and merciful indulgence should 
 be shown to backsliders. 
 
 XIV. I next come on the astounding fact, that in one Mission 
 at least baptisms are performed in secret, and the Neo-Christian 
 has not the grace or strength to confess his Saviour before the 
 world. If I had not heard this practice justified by a Missionary, 
 I should not have believed it. Other experienced Missionaries 
 have refused to perform such baptisms. Death may be the 
 written punishment of Conversion in Mahometan countries, but 
 no Sovereign would dare to carry it into execution (see Part 
 III. Essay VI.). At any rate, the duty of the Christian is 
 obvious, not to deny his Lord. The practice of instantaneous 
 baptism without any previous training seems to be very dangerous', 
 I have heard of it in India thirty years ago, and lately the practice 
 has been brought prominently forward. I can only call attention 
 to it. The practice of baptizing dying children of heathen parents, 
 of sprinkling dying patients in hospitals, appears worthy of 
 condemnation, as converting the Sacrament into a mere magical 
 formula : and yet it is recorded of a late Bishop, that he did so, 
 and justified it. 
 
( lO ) 
 
 XV. I here beg to record my solemn protest against the 
 establishment of anything, approaching to the appearance of a 
 State-Church by Missionaries in any part of the world. How- 
 ever advantageous this may appear in the outset, it is sure to 
 bring a Nemesis with it. The fickle Native Potentate may 
 change his views, or die, and be succeeded by a new King, who 
 knew not Joseph. Extreme difficulties will arise with other 
 Missions of a different Denomination. Besides, the spirituality 
 of the Missionaries, and the liberality of the Congregations, is 
 impaired by such contact. Still more objectionable is the 
 interference of a European, or American, power in defence 
 of Missions. This has been the bane of the Roman Catholic 
 system everywhere. I mistrust a Missionary, who talks about 
 Treaty-rights in Turkey or China. Missions exist in Central 
 Africa, where each Missionary carries his life in his hand, and is 
 beyond the protection of Consuls and Gunboats. It is distressing 
 to read of the Foreign Office being asked to move the 
 representatives of Turkey or China to interfere with the decisions 
 of the Criminal and Civil Courts. No independent State would 
 tolerate it : no Anglo-Indian Judge through the length and 
 breadth of British India would listen for a moment to any sugges- 
 tion of the Executive Government of British India, or to the 
 representative of a Foreign Power, in a case pending before him. I 
 should not have hesitated to fine for contempt of Court any in- 
 dividual, be he who he may, who ventured to threaten me, or bribe 
 me. And yet in Turkey the Missionary does not hesitate to use all 
 influences to interfere with the Judicial Authorities, alleging 
 that they are bad. They knew that they were so, when they 
 commenced their operations, but they are l3etter than analogous 
 institutions in Africa. Gunboat- Christianity is odious (see 
 Part III. Essays IV. and V.). Missionaries should be very 
 chary of claiming the protection of their own Government. St. 
 Paul did not get much profit by appealing to Caesar : it must be 
 a bond-fide subject, that claims protection; the device of sending 
 subjects of the Shah of Persia to India to obtain a fictitious 
 naturalization, and sending them back to Persia, as British 
 subjects, is to be condemned. A Missionary, who would solicit 
 his own country to protect him, or avenge him, or exact 
 compensation for alleged loss, is much to be condemned. He 
 asked no permission to go there, he would have resented, or 
 evaded, any attempt to prevent his going there. If he cannot 
 maintain his position, he must quit the country. Any other 
 policy would, as stated by a Member in the House of Commons, 
 convert Missionaries into filibusters. 
 
 XVI. On the other hand, the Missionary should not meddle 
 in the Politics of the Country, in which he is located : he seldom 
 is able to appreciate the value of the forces, which are in 
 
( II ) 
 
 antagonism. His kingdom is not of this world. It is monstrous, 
 when a Missionary usurps the power of a Magistrate, or a Chief, 
 and tries offenders, and sentences them to corporal punishment, 
 imprisonment, or even Death. Within the last ten years this 
 has happened in Africa. In a Patriarchal way he may act as 
 umpire to remove difficulties, or prevent bloodshed : in case of 
 moral oflFences among his converts he may enforce Church 
 penalties, but he should carefully abstain from personal violence, 
 and personal restraint. It may be a question, whether he is 
 justified in using lethal weapons, or fire-arms, in resisting an 
 invading band : the terrible necessity may sometimes be forced 
 upon him to do so in defence of life, and female honour ; but I 
 know of no case, where matters have come to this pass in 
 modern times. As to the spoiling of goods by the tyranny of 
 officials, or petty Chiefs, or the inroads of freebooters, he must 
 take it joyfully. As to avenging the death of a fellow-labourer, 
 or follower, he must not thiiik of it. In many parts of Asia, 
 Africa, and Oceania, he carries his life in his hands, and, if he is 
 not content to do so, he had better leave the field, and go home: 
 he clearly is not the man for such a Mission (see Part III. 
 Essay v.). 
 
 Then, again, he must not set himself up as a Reformer, or 
 a Patriot, or a friend of oppressed people against their lawful 
 Rulers. Temperate remonstrance can do much, and his very 
 presence is a safeguard to the, people : but, if a Missionary so 
 conducts himself in the territory of an independent Chief, how 
 can we wonder, that the Chief forbids his entry into his kingdom, 
 or ejects him beyond his frontier ? (see Part III. Essay IV.). Still 
 more objectionable is his interference with the customs of the 
 people, such as are not obviously contrary to Law, Human and 
 Divine, or his denouncing particular branches of Commerce. 
 The Parent-Society should forbid all such extravagances, and 
 insist upon their Agents rendering unto Caesar the things that 
 are Cassar's, and fixing their thoughts upon the things of God. 
 Missions are now extending everywhere, and are susceptible of 
 infinite expansion, and, if they are to succeed, they must keep 
 clear of worldly contamination. The Jesuits made themselves 
 last century Priests and Kings, and were exterminated, and 
 detested. I quote the following remarks with regard to China : 
 
 In regard to the Missionary question, the Yam^n's views are sound and 
 sensible. It recognizes the fact, that by the treaties Missionaries are to be 
 allowed to teach, and they and their converts are guaranteed protection. But 
 it will not submit to Missionaries arrogating to themselves an official status and 
 transacting business which ought properly to be dealt with by the Chinese local 
 authorities, nor tolerate their converts making Christianity a cloak to protect 
 them from the consequences of breaking the laws of China. 
 
 (See Part III. Essays III. IV. V.) 
 XVII. Nothing can.be more reprehensible, or wicked, than 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 making Missions a handle for political enterprize. This is the 
 openly avowed, and persistent, practice of the French people for 
 nearly half a century, and so entirely is it a part of their con- 
 ception, that they impute the same motives to British and 
 American Missionary Societies, who have not the remotest 
 tendency in that direction. It is remarkable that, though in 
 France the Religious Societies are placed under a ban by the 
 Republic, and French Priests are actually expelled from Algeria, 
 yet in all parts of Asia, Africa, and Oceania, the Republican 
 Government makes use of the Missionaries for the purpose of 
 advancing interests, and notably large grants were niade to 
 Cardinal Lavigerie on account of his political services in 
 Tunisia. The French Roman Catholic Missionaries everywhere 
 identify the Christian Religion with France. In the Missionary 
 periodical published weekly at Lyons, called the Missions 
 Catholiques, so persistently was it imputed to the Governments 
 in Great Britain and the United States, that they made use of 
 the Missionaries of their respective countries to advance their 
 political interests, that in 1882 I addressed the Editor the letter, 
 of which a copy is attached to this paper, but it had no effect, 
 and the generosity of Roman Catholics is still encouraged by 
 impressing upon them, that their contributions will not only 
 assist the spread of the Romish Religion, but check the progress 
 of the Protestant political influences of Great Britain, and the 
 United States of North America. The account of the French 
 Roman Catholic Missions to Oceania lately published is one 
 long tirade against British Protestants, and appeals to French 
 Naval officers to help them with the Arm of the Flesh. As soon 
 as the Priests got a footing in Wallis Island, they persuaded 
 some of the Chiefs to place themselves under the protection of 
 France, and urged them to exclude British heretics (see Part 
 III. Essay III.). 
 
 XVIII. There is another practice, which Missionary Societies 
 should not tolerate. I have seen notices of its existence in 
 Missions on both sides of the Atlantic. I allude to the purchase 
 of Negro Boys and Girls by Missionaries in Africa for the best 
 and holiest purposes, and yet the practice has in it the germs 
 of much evil. As long as there is a demand for children, the 
 kidnappers and slave-dealers will find it worth their while to 
 continue the trade. It matters not to them, whether the little 
 girl is to find her way into the Harem, or into the Mission-School ; 
 it is a question of so many dollars as purchase-money : it is not 
 likely, that Parents would sell their own children, or tribesmen 
 children of their own tribe. The children must be stolen, and 
 then sold. The Roman Catholics make this part of their system, 
 and glory in it. On Lake Tanganyika the Priests had purchased 
 children : the relatives came to claim them, and on refusal 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 killed the Priests, and it served them right ; they call it 
 " Redemption," but it is really " Slave-purchasing," of an 
 insidious character, and it would stain the character of a 
 Protes1;ant Mission, that such a practice could be allowed. 
 Redemption is a term properly applied to the recovery of a wife, 
 a child, or a tribesman, who had been kidnapped, but not to the 
 deliberate purchase by strangers of slaves, who had been kid- 
 napped for the purpose of being sold. The Missionary Societies 
 should never tolerate the use of Slave-labour by their agents, 
 European or Native, as is the unique practice of the Missionaries 
 in Madagascar (see Part II. Essay II.). 
 
 XIX. The next point to be noticed, as regards Missionary 
 Societies, is the organization of the Governing Body. A large, 
 influential and able Committee of Management is decidedly the 
 best machinery, as it never dies, and is composed of such a 
 diversity of experiences and talents, as leads to good govern- 
 ment. If there exist in any community men of wealth, and 
 capacity, able and willing to be the unpaid Secretaries and 
 mouthpieces of the Committee, nothing better can be imagined. 
 It is a noble use of means and talents. As so much Secular work 
 is done gratuitously. Spiritual work should find men ready to 
 give gratuitous service. But oftentimes the material for an 
 efiBcient Committee is wanting, and still oftener is it necessary 
 to secure the services of efficient Secretaries by providing a 
 Salary. Two courses are then open to the Constituency, which 
 furnishes the funds. They can entrust the executive power of 
 the Mission to able, high-minded, and pious men, and constitute 
 them " Paid Directors," responsible only to the Constituency, 
 or they can appoint the' same type of men to be " Paid 
 Secretaries," to carry out the decision of the governing Com- 
 mittee. Both these methods have their peculiar advantages, and 
 counterbalancing disadvantages. Under a Directorship there is 
 a more defined policy, a more efiicient control, a great economy 
 of time ; but death and decay of faculties, and the human 
 infirmities of overbearingness and egoism, have to be reckoned 
 upon. A Committee, on the other hand, never dies, and there is 
 jio room for the two faults above quoted in a free republic, 
 where all are equal : on the other hand, there is waste of time in 
 profitless discussion, vacillation of purpose, laxity of control, and 
 sometimes the Secretaries attempt, and succeed in their attempt, 
 to wield the power of the Director, without the responsibility, 
 and this has none of the advantages, and all the demerits, of 
 both systems. A large discretion of disposing business of a 
 purely formal kind should be left to the Secretary in charge of 
 a particular branch of business, reporting the same at the next 
 Committee, but not to the Secretaries collectively, who cannot 
 ,be recognized as a Cabinet of Secretaries of State. Let me say 
 
( H ) 
 
 a word of commendation of Missionary Society-Committees. I 
 have been for more than forty years a witness, and a studier, of 
 the conduct of human affairs, but I never realized such purity 
 of motive, such simplicity of conduct, and on the whole such 
 practical wisdom, as is found in such a body. There is always 
 a feeling of tenderness, almost too sentimental, on the part of a 
 Committee towards their Missionaries : on the other hand, the 
 wild complaints, and often unreasonable requests, of the Mis- 
 sionary, which would distress a Director, roll up like the waves 
 of the Atlantic against the impersonal Committee, and go off in 
 noise. The Missionary would no doubt prefer leaving the 
 direction of his affairs in the hands of a Committee rather than 
 be at the mercy of a Director. Committees ought to consist 
 both of ordained and lay members, and their duties should be 
 divided : the control of the finance should be left exclusively to 
 the lay members, while the selection of candidates for employ- 
 ment should be reserved to the ordained members. Neither 
 members of Committee, nor Secretary, should take to heart 
 the fact, that their proposal is not accepted by a majority. 
 Their doing so indicates great arrogance, or weakness of 
 character: the very object of a Committee is to get the opinion 
 of many, not of one. It is not just, that the entire control 
 of a great National Society should be vested in the residents 
 of the Capital city. The members of the Society, resident 
 in the country, should be represented by delegates, elected 
 periodically, for certain areas, or jurisdictions : it is better 
 to have the objections of our friends before a decision 
 is arrived at, than their remonstrances after the decision. 
 The Members of the Committee receive no fee or profit, 
 but they bring home to themselves an exceeding great 
 reward : they never enter the Committee-Room without the 
 feeling of gratitude, that they are allowed to serve their Master 
 in this way, and they never leave it also without a feeling of 
 renewed blessing: by attending there they make sweet friend- 
 ships, profitable to their souls : the work becomes the joy of 
 their lives. Within the four walls they feel, that the Divine 
 Presence, invoked by Prayer, calms, consoles, and sanctifies, 
 their spirits : it is well for them to be there : the Banker, 
 Lawyer, and Merchant, in full business, for the time forgets the 
 duties of his life, and rises to a higher life. Retired Soldiers, 
 and Statesmen, are gladdened in their hearts to think, that in 
 return for the preservation of their lives in perils and sickness, 
 they can still do something for their Lord, who has led them 
 marvellously from youth to old age, and even to the verge of 
 the grave : on the walls of the Committee-Room hang the 
 portraits of those, who have gone before ; and each of them, 
 while fearlessly expressing his opinion, and doing his duty, 
 
( IS ) 
 
 cheerfully looks forward to the time, when the chairs will be 
 occupied by a younger generation, differing perhaps in some 
 things, but resembling their predecessors in their love for 
 their Work, and their Saviour, whose message they have 
 striven to convey to a dying world. 
 
 XX. Still more difficult is the relationship of the Parent- 
 Committee to the Local Conference, Committee, or Council, 
 and those who compose it. In some Missionary Societies 
 the Parent-Committee exercises a despotic, and often in- 
 judicious, rule : , on the other hand, I have met Missionaries in 
 the Field, who stated that they allowed the Parent-Committee 
 no power of interference. Their duty, according to my in- 
 formant, was to supply Money and Men, and leave everything 
 else to those, who, being out in the Field, knew best. Thus, in 
 some cases the Bishop in his Diocese, the Presbytery, or the 
 Mission-Conference, settle everything, and, if attempts were 
 made to draw the reins tight, would break away into separate 
 organizations. No doubt there is the greatest safety in the 
 middle course : those, who hold the Purse-strings, sooner or 
 later, must have the control. But a wise policy suggests great 
 liberty to the local bodies within certain rules. The necessity 
 of preparing an annual budget of expenditure will always 
 remind the Local Committee of their helplessness in a death- 
 struggle, unless they have a strong home party behind them. I 
 cannot think it wise in the Parent-Committee to depute a 
 Secretary, or Inspector, to visit the Missions. It creates often 
 a bad feeling. If particular information of affairs in any Field 
 is required, it is better to send for one of the brethren, 
 as a delegate from the Local Committee. For some critical 
 emergency it may be necessary, and justifiable, but not other- 
 wise. The Missionaries are able and honourable men, and 
 require no such Inspection, or Visitation, from one, who has no 
 local experience. In secular matters, for instance the Civil 
 Government of British India, the high officials, who manage the 
 Districts, or Provinces, would not tolerate the personal Inspec- 
 tion of their work by a Secretary from the India Office, or even 
 from the Viceroy. The Committee, as representatives of the 
 Society, should appoint and remove its own Missionaries, 
 at its own will and pleasure : it should keep its Missionaries 
 under control, a sympathetic, indulgent, loving control : it 
 should allow of no interference either from the Bishops in 
 the Provinces, or the Mission-Board at home (see Part III. 
 Essay II.). The Parent-Committee should strive to maintain 
 towards their Agents, ordained or lay, male, or female, the 
 closest, tenderest, and most sympathetic relations, being as a 
 Parent to them ; placing the most favourable construction upon 
 all, that they do ; sustaining them, when cast down and afflicted, 
 
( i6 ) 
 
 yet not afraid to admonish and censure, when the case requires. 
 The Parent-Committee should be determined to have its orders 
 obeyed not for their own self-will's sake, but for the Lord's work 
 committed to their charge. If each Missionary, or cluster of Mission- 
 aries, is to have his own way on great principles, let the Parent- 
 Committee be dissolved, and a Banker appointed to send out 
 the money to the Field: there is no middle course. A deceased 
 Bishop, of High Church views, and a loving, wise, and expe- 
 rienced, man, has left us in his Life the following remarks : 
 
 Above all let us have sympathy, and let the Missionary feel, that he is treated 
 as an equal by the Committee, and the Secretaries : let us copy the Church 
 Missionary Society in its personal devoutness, and spiritual sympathy. 
 
 I thank you, dear Bishop, for those words ! They strike the 
 true note. The Missionary is more than the equal of the Parent- 
 Committee ; he is the joy, the pride, the hope, and the consolation, 
 of those, who send him out, who indeed are abashed, when they 
 read of human and moral failures, and filled with holy joy, when 
 they read of Divine blessings, whether evidenced in outward 
 success, or holy deaths, and trials suffered patiently. When 
 Cardinal Lavigerie sends out his Missionaries to Africa, they are 
 assembled for valediction in his Cathedral, and the Cardinal, and 
 the Bishops, and all the Clergy, old and young, kneel down, and 
 kiss the feet of the young Missionary, symbolizing the Scripture- 
 text: 
 
 How beautiful are the feet of them, that preach the Gospel of peace, and 
 bring glad tidings of good things ! 
 
 Protestant Committees indulge in no such extravagances, but 
 their spirit is correctly represented by such outward symbols. 
 Be it recollected, that the Lay Committee, though not clothed 
 in ecclesiastical costume, consists of Spiritual men in the 
 highest sense : the manner of conducting business makes such 
 a powerful impression on the heart, that the same man, when he 
 takes his place on the Council of a Scientific Society, the Bench 
 of Magistrates, the Board of Guardians of the Poor, or the Com- 
 mittee of the Hospital, feels that something is wanting, when 
 business is commenced without prayer for guidance : for he 
 wishes to be taught of the Spirit in all things, and in every 
 .relation of life, and his heart goes up to God for help and direc- 
 tion. Such is the lesson, which he has acquired, and made his 
 own, after contact with holy men in the Lay Committee-Room 
 of a Missionary Society. 
 
 XXL Let me now notice the relation of one Missionary 
 Society to another of the same or different Denominations. 
 The non-Christian world is, and will long remain, large enough 
 for the efforts of all the Churches : but by the Comity of 
 Protestant Missions, except in the case of exceedingly large 
 .cities, which are worlds in themselves, intrusion into the Field, 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 occupied by another Society, is condemned, and should be 
 avoided. It is true, that the ordained and superior agents of all 
 Denominations would meet in entire harmony, but the Native 
 agents, the congregations, and the adherents, would find ground 
 for rivalry, detraction, and animosity. Seceders, or parties 
 expelled from one fold, would try to be admitted into the other, 
 and thus bad feelings, and grievances, real or imaginary, would 
 be generated. It is wrong in the members of one denomination 
 saying in an off-hand way, that the World is their Parish. It is 
 neither wise, nor courteous, nor Christian-like, nor conducive to 
 the success of the Work, to intrude into the Mission-Field 
 of a Sister-Society. A Missionary should be very careful in 
 admitting into his flock seceders from the flock of another 
 denomination, and still more careful in employing Native 
 agents, who have been discharged from, or have closed their 
 connection with other bodies. When a native has been 
 ordained, as a Minister, in one denomination, it appears 
 extremely undesirable to confer orders upon him in another, 
 without the fullest knowledge, and, if possible, consent of his 
 previous friends. A Mission-Field should be compact, and the 
 Stations should support each other. The Committee should not 
 allow their Agents in the Field to settle this matter: it is one 
 of high policy. The front and the flanks should not be un- 
 reasonably, or dangerously, extended in deference to caprice, 
 or false sentiment. Supervision is of the utmost importance, 
 mutual support, and friendly intercourse. 
 
 XXII. It is very injudicious of a new Society to crowd into a 
 Region like Japan, already fully occupied by other Societies, just 
 for the sake of the honour and glory of having a man, or a small 
 Mission, in a great Field. It would be well, if, in a town with a 
 population under 15,000, only one denomination should settle ; 
 but such occupation should be bond, fide, not that of a dog in the 
 manger. If Missionary Societies really care for the non-Christian 
 world, they will sink their own home-differences as out of place 
 in the presence of Paganism and Mahometanism. There is reason 
 to anticipate the entire disappearance of denominationalism in 
 Native Churches, as each National Church has the prescriptive 
 right to choose its own form. It would be amusing, were the 
 matter not so serious, to read the strictures of one denomination 
 on the practice of the other : their remarks are no doubt meant 
 for an inner circle of narrow-minded friends, who see no path of 
 Salvation save their own, but being in print, they are read with 
 a sigh, or a smile, by all. 
 
 XXIII. Civilization is the incidental, not the primary, object of 
 a Mission. It is wrong to expect, that civilization must precede 
 evangelization : it may accompany it. Christianity can adapt 
 itself to every phase, and epoch, of Human Culture. Civilization 
 
 PART I. 2 
 
( i8 ) 
 
 may possibly choke the good seed, and retard Gospel-teaching:. 
 The Missionary should place before his eyes as the model, which 
 he aims at, not the British, or New England, village, with all its 
 surroundings of European culture, but the villages of Palestine, 
 such as they were, when our Lord passed through them. 
 Nothing is so bad as to turn a Negro into a Pseudo-Englishman. 
 What has a particular stage of Human Culture to do with the 
 Everlasting Gospel } 
 
 XXIV. It is very undesirable, that a Missionary Society, which 
 collects its funds to convert the non-Christian world, should 
 allow its agents to waste their time in proselyting the members 
 of the Oriental Churches, on the ground, that their form of 
 Christianity is dead or imperfect. It is sufficient, that members 
 of those Churches should be permitted to attend the Schools, 
 and Churches, of the Mission, if they are so inclined, but no 
 effort should be made to entice them, retain them, or, with rare 
 exceptions, to employ them. The appearance of a renegade 
 Priest from his own Church is not calculated to advance the 
 character of the Protestant Mission, and it is probable, that a 
 man, who had been false to one Church, would be false to 
 another : the eternal law of doing unto others, as you would wish 
 men to do unto you, should govern the action of Missionaries, as 
 well as ordinary men. Loud would be the complaints, if the 
 Roman Catholics decoyed away a promising Protestant Minister, 
 and turned him into a Priest. 
 
 XXV. As the Roman Catholic organs have openly announced 
 the policy of arming African converts, to resist their lawful 
 Sovereigns, and everybody else, whom they choose to oppose, 
 it is as well to state, that such a line of conduct is totally opposed 
 to the principles, upon which Protestant Missions are conducted, 
 and must end in grievous trouble (see Part III. Essay V.). 
 
 XXVI. It is exceedingly unadvisable on the part of a Mission- 
 ary Society to make a permanent endowment to a College, or 
 Bishop, unless the entire control of the former, and the selection 
 of the latter, is reserved to the Committee : and even then it 
 had better be avoided. 
 
 XXVII. Beware of setting up your own Society in the place 
 of Christ, and doing worship, and sacrifice, to your own net, and 
 bringing incense to your own drag: if the Lord's work is accom- 
 plished, what matter by whom it is done ! If the Lord's work 
 can only be accomplished by the death of a Missionary, and 
 the destruction of a Society, be it so : it was a means to an end : 
 let that end be accomplished ! 
 
 XXVIII. It is a low taste to exhibit the idols of the Pagan, 
 and the Statues of Buddha, to the scoflfings of uneducated men, 
 and the laughter of children : we do not so treat the remains of 
 the beautiful ideals of Greek and Roman worship : but both the 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 one and other teach us, how man in his unconverted state feels 
 after God, and of the danger of committing- spiritual beliefs to 
 material forms. When a new irruption of Goths destroys London, 
 and St. Paul's, the Reredos will be destroyed, but the Gospel 
 Truth will survive all earthly changes (see Part III. Essay VI.). 
 
 XXIX. The income of the Society should be jealously guarded 
 against 
 
 1. Undue tenderness to favourites. 
 
 2. Waste. 
 
 3. Muddling. 
 
 4. The evils of delay in rendition of accounts. 
 
 It is no derogation to a good minister of Spiritual things to 
 be a good steward of things necessary for maintenance of life, 
 efficiency, and good order. It is shocking to read of defalcations 
 of money on the death of the Secretary of a Religious Society. 
 Professional auditors should always be employed, not three old 
 gentlemen without experience. The Committee should retain 
 unfettered control of every shilling in its coffers, and not allow 
 its supporters to force its hands by conditional contributions : 
 it may accept distinct Trusts for approved purposes. Every 
 shilling collected by its agents, whether at Home, or in the Field, 
 should be brought to book, and spent with due economy. 
 
 XXX. When the Lord assigns to a Society a certain income, 
 it is because, that it is all, that He deems, that the Society can 
 properly spend. He speaks by years of Drought, as well as years 
 of Plenty, by Seasons of Abundance, as well as by Seasons of 
 Retrenchment. Both are blessings in disguise. He is often 
 quoted as sending "open doors," but, unless He sends the 
 means also, the message is not clear, and, when he sends "a 
 closed door," the Committee should accept it, without appealing 
 to the Arm of the Flesh (see Part III. Essay V.). He sent 
 ravens to Elijah, but He also filled their beaks with food to feed 
 the Prophet. The cruze of oil did not fail, but the supply was 
 limited to the legitimate expenditure of the widow, not to 
 encourage her to increased outlay beyond her actual wants. He 
 expects us to serve Him to the utmost of our Talents, whatever 
 He may have lent to us, but not beyond our Talents. It is. 
 unwisdom, as well as a want of appreciation of the teaching 
 of events, to be sending out repeated special appeals for funds, 
 and calling for fresh supplies, instead of making the most 
 economical possible use of funds already supplied. Sums 
 collected in pennies are often heedlessly wasted. Those, who 
 support Missions, have a right to insist upon the most rigid 
 economy. It is not, because a Society is large and rich, that it 
 should waste its resources. 
 
 XXXI. The Publications of Missionary Societies are conducted 
 on both sides of the Atlantic with remarkable ability. They 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 consist no longer of goodie-goodie stories, or dry facts, but 
 kaleidoscopic pictures of the manners, and customs, the material, 
 and Spiritual, thoughts of all the non-Christian Nations in the 
 world. Such a disclosure of the mysteries of Human Life was 
 never made before ; but these Publications should be made self- 
 supporting, and could be made so. The narrow-mindedness of 
 the different Sections of the religious world should be corrected 
 by each Society devoting two pages of every issue to Notes of 
 the Wide Field, as well as their own Little Vineyard. Many 
 good souls believe, that their petty denomination is the only one, 
 that has' Missions at all, for, as they naively remark, they never- 
 heard of any other; but God is glorified by the work of all His 
 children, and more especially the Missionaries of each denomina- 
 tion should be informed up to date of the work of their dear 
 brethren scattered over the world. What a poor conception 
 they must have of the Communion of the Saints, when they 
 shut their eyes to every ray of light, but the one, which comes 
 through their particular lens 1 
 
 XXXn. Great restraint should be maintained on the Platform, 
 and in the Pulpit, not ohly not to say what is not true, but to 
 abstain from uttering sheer nonsense. There may be said to 
 be three objects : 
 
 1. To stimulate. 
 
 2. To inform. 
 
 3. To take counsel. 
 
 But in no possible case to talk twaddle, repeat common-place 
 expressions, or air Quixotic notions. And how culpable are 
 those, who encourage their relations, or friends in a country 
 town, to pass frothy resolutions calling for expeditions, and 
 annexations, and Protectorates, and " Jingo " generally ! Is the 
 Gospel of Christ to be preached by such methods .'' We are a 
 great, strong, self-asserting, arrogant Nation ; let us restrict those 
 national qualities to our Commercial and Political transactions, 
 and conduct our Mission-work, as simple Christians : we can 
 expect no blessings on Gospel-teaching, when in close contact 
 with Calico-bales, and Rifles, not to say tons of Liquor, cases of 
 firearms, and barrels of gunpowder. 
 
 XXXHL Too much time and money should not be wasted in 
 sensational gatherings under domes of Cathedrals, or in great 
 Assembly-Halls, listening to Visions, and Rhetorical figures, of 
 excited Preachers, or still more excited Platform-orators. Such 
 vain demonstrations will soon develope into processions, and 
 other eccentricities, for the passion, or rage, is advancing year by 
 year. The work of conducting Missions is a very serious one, 
 and the words " Ora et labora" seem to cover the whole ground : 
 this was the method, adopted by the founders of our great Societies: 
 it is not, that they had less piety, or love for prayer, but they 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 wore it less on their sleeve : it was well said by an old friend of 
 Missions, that : 
 
 If the walls of some Committee-Rooms could speak, they would tell, how 
 discussions were often stopped, while the Committee knelt down and prayed over 
 difftculties that were perplexing them. All their deliberations were conducted 
 in a spirit of weighty and dependent prayer. 
 
 This spreading out the letter full of anxiety before the Lord, and 
 praying over it in the room, where His work was being carried 
 on, was something very different from the issue of thousands of 
 tickets, and the setting in motion of hundreds of vehicles, and 
 the bringing together crowds of women and men, who would 
 have been more profitably employed working in their own homes, 
 or worshipping in their own Churches. 
 
 XXXIV. Let me add one more solemn warning. I have been 
 employed from my youth in affairs of State, annexations, con- 
 quests, war, and administration. I know whatit is : the untravelled 
 gentleman of the Committee-Room, and the City-Minister, 
 do not. Let no sane man be anxious for Spheres of British 
 or German Influence, for British or German Protectorates, for 
 British or German Annexations (see Part III. Essay V.). Let 
 them reflect upon the amount of liquor imported under these 
 precious arrangements : let them read what happened to the 
 tribes of the Kameruns, a short time after their annexation to 
 German Rule, and the expulsion of the British Baptists : the 
 bombardment of Native villages, the burning down of Native 
 houses, and killing of Native women and children. Let them 
 think, how much the Barmese must value the blessings of 
 British Annexation, when I read in the Times of July 30, 
 i888, the following proclamation: 
 
 The Chief Commissioner concluded by threatening severe consequences to all, 
 who persisted in disloyal and disorderly courses, saying : You will be hung 
 or sent to prison across the seas, your land and your property will be seized 
 and given to others, and your wives and children will have to beg their 
 bread. This is your last opportunity of saving yourselves. Turn now, and 
 give assistance to the Government. 
 
 The Karen tribes are alluded to as being in rebellion against 
 the unwarrantable invasion by European strangers of their 
 country. Do these surroundings promise a happy field for the 
 work of the quiet Missionary ? Would Adoniram Judson have 
 done what he and his colleagues did in times past in such 
 environments } 
 
 APPENDIX. Paragraph XVII. 
 
 Cher et tr^s Rev:6rend Monsieur, — Ily alongtemps queje m'occupe, 
 et m'interesse a la lecture de votre bon hebdomadaire les Missions Catholiques, 
 et je suis profondement touche de la liberalite de vos croyants, de la grandeur 
 de vos'recits, et du devodment des apStres de I'Eglise Romaine. Je desire vous 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 amener k une sainte rivalite par rapport aux contributions Anglaises au service 
 des Missions. C'est dans le mois de Mai que nous tenons nos reunions chaque 
 ann^e, et que nous publions nos rapports annuels. L'Angleterre donne non- 
 seulement de I'argent, qui ne compte pour rien aux yeux de Dieu, mais elle 
 donne des ames devouees, des intelligences superieures, et imprime une vigueur 
 pratique a la grande oeuvre. Elle croit que le bon Dieu n'a pas donne k la race 
 Anglo-Saxonne une extension si prodigieuse sur la terre, seulement pour le 
 commerce, la colonisation, ou la gloire mondaine, mais pour qu'elle soit 
 I'ambassadrice speciale de Dieu, aux Paiens et aux Mahometans. Permettez 
 moi avec toute humilite de corriger une espece de malentendu, qui quelquefois 
 me frappe dans les interessants rapports des apotres Fran9ais. I. Les gouverne- 
 ments Anglais, et Americains, ne se m^lent jamais dans I'oeuvre de la propagation 
 de la Foi, et vous pouvez etre sflr, que ni gouverneur de province, ni ambas- 
 sadeur, ni consul, n'a la permission de lever la main, ou d'ouvrir la bouche, 
 pour, ou contre, une denomination chretienne, quelle qu'elle soit. II existe 
 dans le syst^me gouvernemental des deux puissances Anglo-Saxonnes en Europe, 
 et dans I'Amerique du Nord, un principe, c'est que la liberte religieuse consiste 
 non-seulement a donner un libre cours aux predicateurs de toute religion dans 
 chaque pays, mais a s'abstenir, comme Gallio dans le temps de l'Ap8tre Saint 
 Paul, de se meler aux affaires des Missionnaires, soit par force, par intrigue, ou 
 par influence morale ou physique, "Magna est Veritas et prasvalebit," mais le 
 temps, la maniere, et 1' occasion viennent de Dieu. II. Dans les Provinces 
 sujettes a la Couronne de la Reine, et dans les colonies du peuple Anglais, il 
 existe une irapartialite absolue devant la loi, et une tolerance complete devant 
 Dieu et devant les horames. J'ai occupe dans les Indes OrientaJes, pendant 
 ■vingt-cinq ans, un poste eleve, et je suis a m^me d'af&rmer I'exactitude de mes 
 paroles, et les Missions Catholiques donnent quelquefois, comme par hazard, des 
 preuves eclatantes de la simple et male loyaute des serviteuts de I'Etat. Bien que 
 protestants de cceur, nous nous rappelons, que notre raison d'etre n'existe que 
 dans une tolerance bienveillante, et sympathique aux Missionnaires de I'Eglise 
 de Rome. Quoique toutes les Congregations Anglicaines soient nationales, et 
 que dans toutes nos operations nous ayons un isolement insulaire, qui quelque- 
 fois est extravagant, nos efforts a evangeliser la terre n'ont aucun rapport avec 
 notre position politique. Les Missionaires franpais dans leurs rapports parlent 
 toujours de la France, de I'influence Franyaise et de ses droits ; on dirait que 
 I'Eglise de Rome est I'heritage direct de la France, ce qui n'est pas, car I'Eglise 
 de Rome est universelle. Dans les comptes-rendus Anglais, vous ne trouvez 
 pas de telles expressions, parce que nous savons, que le Royaume de Jesus n'est 
 pas de ce monde, et que nous esperons qu'apres la chute de 1' Angleterre I'Eglise 
 Chretienne restera debout, dans les endroits ou nous I'avons placee, comme un 
 temoignage de ce que dans une epoque de materialisme et d'infidelite, le coeur 
 de I'Angleterre fut fixe sur la religion. Nous croyons dans I'avenir, ce sera 
 notre plus grande gloire d'avoir repandu laverite chretienne par toute la terre et 
 d'avoir introduit une copie de la Sainte Ecriture dans le dialecte connu de 
 chaque nation civilisee, et de chaque tribu barbare. Je veux aussi, Cher Monsieur, 
 vous rappeler qu'a cette epoque un certain tribut de respect est du au Pouvoir 
 Anglais, qui seul en Europe, offre a tons une hospitalite bienveillante, une pro- 
 tection illimitee, une liberte enti^re d'actions et de paroles, liberty, quenul autre 
 des grands Pouvoirs Europeens ne veut couceder, et que la France meme, bien 
 que republicaine, a refusee a ses propres enfants. Agreez, ie vous prie, Cher 
 Monsieur, avec tous mes respects, I'expression de mon sincere devouement. — 
 Robert Cust, 64, St. George's Square, Londres, 15 Aoiit, 1882.— A Monsieur 
 Le Redacteur des Missions Catholiques, Lyon, France. 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 OBSERVATIONS AND REFLECTIONS ON 
 MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 
 
 Chapter II. — Missionaries and the Field. 
 
 I. I NOW turn from the subject of Missionary Societies to that 
 of the Missionaries': they are of various kinds. 
 
 A. Male. 
 
 B. Female. 
 And again (i) Ordained. 
 
 (2) Lay. 
 
 (3) Educational. 
 
 (4) Medical. 
 
 (5) Native. 
 
 So much has been written on the subject of the Female Mis- 
 sionary, the Educational Missionary, and the Medical Missionary, 
 that I have nothing to add or bring together : their status has 
 been considered, and, except so far as my remarks apply to 
 all Missionaries, I shall not notice them. There remains the 
 Ordained, and Lay Missionary, and the Native. 
 
 II. My first suggestion is, that over every Mission some kind 
 of Head-Pastor is absolutely necessary : the time has passed for 
 placing the old and tried agent on the same level with the 
 inexperienced youth ; the gifted man, and the man of power, 
 on the same level with the ordinary hewer of wood. All 
 experience shows, that in each Mission there must be some 
 kind of organization, some defined plan of operations, a certain 
 grouping in centres, and detachment at outposts, a certain 
 combination of different qualifications, a certain diversity of 
 ministrations, and, unless there is a ruling spirit, and a govern- 
 ing wheel, the end must be, and in reality is, loss of power, or 
 confusion. The leader need not necessarily be the oldest, but 
 the ablest, one who has had the peculiar Grace of Rule conferred 
 upon him. We find it in things secular, and, we know, that it 
 has not been wanting in things religious. 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 III. I confess, that I feel objections to some unpaid agents, 
 those free lances, who do just what they like, go where they like, 
 and make the fact of their warring at their own charges an excuse 
 for conducting the war on their own method, and flinging it up at 
 their own fancy. I would insist on all agents being on the same 
 footing as regards discipline : if any one has abundance, he can 
 find plenty of opportunity of advancing the Mission-work by his 
 bounty, but he must not arrogate to himself a status, differing 
 from that of his fellows, because he has a few hundreds of Pounds 
 at his disposal. In some Missionary Societies we hear of the 
 boast, that their agents receive no sort of remuneration : if this 
 implies, that they war at their own charges, the objections stated 
 above apply to. the system : but generally the point is different. 
 In some Missions all the Missionaries in each Station dwell 
 together, as in a College, and the necessity of a separate estab- 
 lishment for each does not arise : allowances are made for their 
 clothes, if wanted. Now, where subsistence money is provided, 
 the amount is calculated on the necessity of a bare subsistence 
 only, and such decent comforts, as will preserve the Missionary's 
 health, and calm of mind. It is difficult to see the difference. 
 Besides, the real question is, Has the man the Missionary Spirit ? 
 If he has, it matters not, how he is maintained, whether by a 
 common, or a separate, fund. If he has no private resources, 
 he must be supported in some way or other. It is impossible at 
 this period, that he should maintain his life by a trade, as St. 
 Paul did, though he did not enforce this practice on others. 
 And, if the Apostle in his great humility did indeed lend himself 
 to the making of tents, that he might not be burdensome to 
 those, who entertained him, as he had no subsistence-allowance 
 from a great Society, he did not burnish arms to please the 
 Roman Praetor, or weave garments for the Corinthian women. 
 If report is true, some Christian Missionaries have condescended 
 to strange forms of manual labour, and been flippantly described, 
 as useful artizans. And in Mission-life there must be a great 
 scattering of the Agents : perhaps two or three will be grouped 
 together, and they must be sustained, and it seems far better, 
 that they should have fixed subsistence-allowances, paid from 
 the Common Fund : if they are wealthy, they can throw their 
 gifts into that fund. They should abstain from mixing up their 
 personal expenditure with the accounts of the Society, and should 
 make no promiscuous drawings on the General Fund. 
 
 IV. The great object of the Society should be to secure men 
 of the same social status, and the same stamp of Education, as 
 the Clergy at home. The profession of the Missionary is the 
 noblest and the holiest, the most courageous, and the most 
 blessed : but by becoming Missionaries they should not divest 
 themselves of the feelings and duties of their class : they should 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 not allow themselves from zeal or carelessness, or contempt of 
 worldly wisdom, to do what honest gentlemen would shun to do, 
 e.g. spend money, which is not at their disposal to spend, or 
 upon purposes, to which the money is not allocated, let their 
 accounts get into confusion, and set a bad example to their 
 flock. This has occurred. A good steward is faithful in little 
 things. 
 
 V. The difficulty of mastering the language is always to be 
 reckoned with, and this, in fact, fixes the Field of each Mis- 
 sionary for life. It has amused me to hear from a Missionary 
 confidentially, that the language, which he has acquired, is the 
 most difficult of all languages. This assertion is sometimes 
 made with regard to the great literary language of Arabic, 
 sometimes with regard to the multiform, yet highly cultivated, 
 Chinese, and sometimes with regard to the wholly illiterate and 
 uncultured languages of Africa. As no living man has tried to 
 master all three, the degree of difficulty may be hard to determine ; 
 but it may be laid down, that in one year with ordinary applica- 
 tion any language can be acquired : and, unless it be acquired, 
 the Missionary is a dumb dog : the idea of preaching the Gospel 
 through an interpreter, or in a mongrel Coast- Patois, such as 
 the low class of traders use, is revolting. It is impossible for me 
 to acquiesce in the practice of teaching in Schools, and Colleges 
 in any other than the Vernacular of the Students. The policy 
 of throwing upon the Students the burden of acquiring a new 
 language, which the Professors avoid, is questionable. I 
 mistrust those Societies, in which the agents are not compelled 
 to acquire the Vernaculars ; any departure from this absolute 
 rule is not to the permanent advantage of the Mission. No 
 Secular Government would tolerate any breach of this Rule in 
 its servants, if it cared for the weal of the people. It is a mere 
 burlesque of a Mission, where this step is not taken. A man or 
 woman can care but little for the Souls of the Heathen, when he 
 will not trouble himself to understand their words, and let them 
 understand his. All Missionaries go out young, and the greater 
 portion have that Educational training, which implies the study 
 of one or more foreign languages. I think poorly of the 
 man, who shirks this obvious duty. It shows a want of self- 
 consecration. I heard the other day a Bishop, who did not 
 choose to acquire the Vernacular, dilate on the advantage of 
 speaking through an Interpreter, and the English Clergy, who 
 went out on a winter's tour to India, talk in the same way : they 
 were satisfied, but how about the people ? There is an old 
 story of a fox, which had lost its tail, abusing tails generally, 
 and recommending other foxes to cut theirs ofif. 
 
 VI. The Society should treat its Missionaries, as a wise 
 Government treats its soldiers in a foreign campaign, and some- 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 thing more. In these days of heroic Missions care should be 
 taken to alleviate the danger, and the risk, and the hardship, 
 and the suffering, by every human appliance of Art and Science. 
 Nothing is so useless as a sick Missionary: nothing so sad as 
 a dead one, if his precious life could have been preserved by 
 human forethought. It is false economy, it is wickedness, not 
 to make provision, which will anticipate sufferings. There is 
 much sense in Henry Stanley's remarks, the comments on which 
 in a religious periodical I quote : 
 
 We trust the Committee will give due attention to the suggestions of Mr. 
 Stanley, and warn, and instruct the young men they send out to temper zeal 
 with discretion, and to work prudently, that they may live to work for many 
 years. Missionaries are commissioned to evangelize the world, and to do this 
 they must live. We think a Missionary in his grave is worth more than Mr. 
 Stanley apparently imagined ; but he is unquestionably worth much more to 
 the world alive than dead, and. therefore, we trust that all possible care will be 
 taken to preserve the precious lives of the young brethren. 
 
 The question of subsistence-allowances, pensions, provision 
 for children and widows, should be approached in a wise and 
 fatherly spirit. The Missionary agent should be freed from 
 worldly anxiety: he does not desire profit, or savings, like a 
 worldling, but he must be made to feel, that those, whom he 
 loves, will be provided for: he is ready to undergo peril by land 
 and by sea, to suffer hardship like a good soldier, but he should 
 not be cut off from proper sustenance of every kind. Many 
 have sunk under rude trials, which might have been avoided, or 
 have had to fly for their lives. The Parent-Committee is to 
 blame, when any precaution is neglected. Those, who take out 
 a large party of men, women, and children, into a foreign 
 countiy and deadly climate, without a certain provision of 
 money, and reasonable comforts, are to be heavily condemned. 
 It is mere waste of time to discuss the comparative advantage of 
 the Roman Catholic, and Protestant, systems, and to answer the 
 sneers on the great expense of widows and children, which our 
 system obviates. I am not one, who does not admit the great 
 devotion of the Roman Catholic celibates, both male and female ; 
 and the great simplicity and economy, as well as purity, of their 
 lives. The answer is sufficient, that the Protestant Church will 
 not allow any restriction on natural liberty not based on Scripture. 
 Still, early marriages are to be deprecated. The young public 
 servant in India does not marry directly he lands in the country, 
 and yet lives a holy life : he waits until he has learnt his duty, 
 and mastered the language by living among the people. Why 
 should not young Missionaries exert the same measure of 
 self-denial } An engagement to marry, made before even the 
 Missionary is accepted, throws ^ doubt upon his motives. It 
 shows an absence of self-consecratfon. In Africa the Missionary 
 must return home at short and stated periods, as the best chance 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 of preserving his life : in India, China, and other places this is 
 not necessary, but he should return after more than ten years : 
 these intervals should be utilized by the Missionary to perfect 
 his knowledge on particular subjects. Health may compel 
 earlier return, but the health of a Missionary's wife or child 
 should never be allowed to be a reason for his leaving his post. 
 The servants of the State habitually send home their wives and 
 children under suitable escort, and widows in bad health are 
 constantly coming home : the Committee should sternly resist 
 the tendency of men to place the health of their wives above their 
 sacred duties. Our Lord and St. Paul have spoken clearly on 
 this subject. That a Missionary should resign his high office, 
 because his wife is unable to go back with him, is a lamentable 
 instance of the decay of fibre in the Missionaries of modern 
 times. How many Governors, and Generals, go out alone to 
 serve an Earthly Sovereign ? Is the Soldier of Christ not to 
 endure hardship ? 
 
 On the other hand, the sending out of young women to Africa, 
 merely to die, is a cruelty, which cannot be too severely 
 condemned. How many young wives lie buried in Africa, 
 valuable lives needlessly thrown away I The African Mission is 
 a Campaign, and Soldiers do not take their wives on a Campaign.. 
 I have steadily, but fruitlessly, resisted this weakness for many 
 years, and have seen a succession of young wives pass from the 
 Committee-Room into African graves. The really offensive 
 suggestion, that a Missionary in Africa must be married, should 
 not be entertained. Those, who have made moral lapses, have 
 all been widowers, or married men. We must look this matter 
 firmly in the face, and the example of Missions in Africa, where 
 all the agents are single, should be followed, except in those 
 stations, where a Christian community requires the care of a 
 Woman Missionary. I have letters from a Missionary in the Field, 
 supporting my views, and stating distinctly, that, until a Mission 
 has attained a certain stage of advance, the presence of married 
 women is a decided drawback to the Lord's work. I earnestly 
 hope, that Committees will give this subject careful consideration. 
 
 VII. In return for the care taken of him, the Missionary 
 should render obedience, not the slavish obedience of the Jesuit 
 Priest, but the ready, and self-forgetting submission of the 
 Christian Soldier. In Secular Matters, when an order is received 
 by a subordinate officer, he can temperately remonstrate, but 
 if the order is confirmed, he renders instant and complete 
 obedience. What a contrast is found in the conduct of some 
 self-willed and egotistic individuals, who forget the cause of 
 their work in Self, who forget to practise the precepts of the 
 Gospel, which they preach 1 
 
 VIII. Still more reprehensible is the conduct of those 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 Missionaries, who are misguided enough to rebel against those 
 who sent them out, and to turn the resources, which were 
 entrusted to them, against the Parent-Committee. Several 
 cases have lately occurred, of a character, which a Merchant, a 
 public official, or a secular servant, could never have done, and 
 which nevertheless a Christian ordained Missionary justifies 
 himself in doing. If his views upon some theological point 
 undergo a change, his duty is clear, to resign his connection 
 with the Society, with whose principles he is no longer in 
 accord. Instead of that, I have known cases, where the 
 Missionary threw off his allegiance, claimed the souls of the 
 Converts as his own private property, and, in defiance of all 
 honour, all Christian duty, attempted to found a rival Mission, 
 and carry on a work in antagonism to the Parent-Committee, 
 which selected him, equipped him, supported him, and to whom 
 he promised obedience. In the case of a tribe of considerable 
 numbers, and a low state of culture, bloodshed might be the 
 consequence. These are no imaginary or trifling cases. They 
 have occurred in Asia and America. 
 
 IX. It goes, as it were, without saying, that the Missionary 
 should profess, and, as far as his weak human nature permits 
 ,him, act up to the very highest possible standard of Morality in 
 everything and to everybody. The lamentable failures of the 
 most ordinary and vulgar laws of Morality, that have occurred 
 lately, is appalling. In some Missions he has to live among 
 people of a very low culture: he has to address men and women 
 partially, if not entirely, naked, and yet they are not Savages : 
 they have an unwritten Code of Morality, though an imperfect 
 one. A Missionary, who had been seven years among the races 
 of the Kongo, remarked to me, that he had never met a Savage : 
 they were capable of appreciating the exercise of the great 
 cardinal virtues, and of being influenced by the sincere, unselfish, 
 pure, strong, and yet gentle, character of their white teacher. It 
 is shocking to hear and read of the tone of the Missionaries as 
 regards their native brethren in some Missions in Africa : some 
 of them seem to loathe and hate the Natives ; and yet the Son 
 of God did not disdain to take upon Himself the form of a servant 
 for the purpose of saving mankind: how then can the Missionary 
 disdain to speak, feel, and live, as the people of the country, to 
 whom he is sent, if by so doing he can save them ? Take the 
 extreme case of the distance between the European and the 
 Negro : how little, how absolutely nothing it appears, when 
 contrasted with the distance betwixt our Lord and His disciples ! 
 Love can never be generated, if such intimacy be not formed, 
 if there is evidenced by the Missionary the most unjustifiable 
 Pride, and Caste, and Contempt. Even in secular matters the 
 value of a Public Officer amidst a subject People is estimated by 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 the degree, to which he is loved and respected by them, and 
 that love and respect is only purchased by Intimacy and 
 Sympathy. 
 
 X. Still more reprehensible is the practice of the Missionary 
 insulting the religious convictions of his audience. How- 
 different is the tone adopted by St. Paul in his address on 
 Mars' Hill at Athens 1 I rejoice to say, that this error is 
 diminishing, and in some Fields it never existed. Hear the 
 repentant words of an old Missionary, a true servant of God : 
 
 It was inwardly manifest to me, that for some time past I have attacked the 
 heathen customs and superstitions of the Wa-Nilca too fiercely, the sight of 
 the abominations moving me to indignation, and a feeling, that I ought to preach 
 more the love of the Redeemer for his sheep, lost, or gone astray or taken 
 captive by Satan. I must show more compassion, and my words must be 
 more filled with pity. It is not the gifts, nor the works, nor the words, nor 
 the prayers, that convert, but the Lord Jesus only. 
 
 I myself forty years ago heard an American Missionary 
 in an Indian Bazaar telling his audience, that their God was 
 Cowdung : he meant it as an insult : as a fact they saw no 
 offence in it, as the Cow, and all connected with it, is sacred 
 to them. Still worse were the recorded expressions of a Scotch 
 Missionary to his audience, that Christianity was the perfection 
 of Wisdom, and was accepted as such by the wisest and best in 
 Europe, and that therefore every other Religion must be false, 
 a deception, and a sham. Would such arguments convince 
 either the learned, or the ignorant, the thoughtful or the 
 thoughtless ? Is it not more calculated to provoke antagonism, 
 or even excite tumult ? Hear the evidence of another old 
 Missionary in India : 
 
 I confess that in the beginning of my work I thought, that the exhibition of 
 Gospel-truths was sufficient to make an impression on the native mind, and 
 hence, whenever anything like Hindu doctrine was brought before us in 
 conversation with the natives, through an ill-directed zeal I was peremptory 
 in condemning the whole without discrimination : this was an error : by such 
 zeal we do, I am persuaded, more harm than good. Asiatics will not be 
 prepared to receive the truth from any one, who haughtily and peremptorily 
 cries down everything in their books, and so long as we show, that we are 
 ignorant of their literature, they mistrust the correctness of our doctrine. 
 
 Besides, in all religions there is a substratum of Truth : why 
 knock your head against adamantine Truth ? Go back with them 
 to the basis of their convictions, until common ground is reached. 
 Few will deny the existence of God, the immortality of the Soul, 
 and the future Judgment : all will admit, that Sin exists in the 
 world : bring these truths home, and show them the better way. 
 
 XI. More dangerous even in its consequences is the erection 
 of Chapels or Schools in unsuitable places, close to the Temple 
 of the Heathen, or the Mosque of the Mahometan. We boast 
 of our Tolerance in London, but would an English mob tolerate 
 the erection of a Mosque, and the daily Calling to Prayer from 
 
■( 30 ) 
 
 a Minaret, under the shadow of Westminster Abbey ? In the 
 whole length of British India the Missionaries have been sin- 
 gularly discreet, and have their reward in well-earned popularity. 
 I once had to order the demolition of a Chapel, built by an 
 ill-judging Missionary actually on the edge of a Sacred Tank, 
 which was a grave outrage to the peaceful inhabitants of a 
 large town. Still worse was the proceeding of a Missionary 
 in China, who established himself upon a hill, which was held 
 in sanctity by the people, and made a grievance, when compelled 
 to do unto others what he desired that men should do unto him. 
 The Roman Catholic Missionaries keep the French Minister 
 at Pekin in constant hot water with the authorities by their 
 constant appeals to Treaty-Rights. We have heard old, ex- 
 perienced Missionaries rejoice that during their whole career 
 they had never appealed to the Magistrate, or invoked the Arm 
 Of the Flesh (see Part III. Essay IV.). 
 
 XII. The Missionary should abstain from frothy declamation, 
 and Egoism. Where is boasting } it is excluded : yet that such 
 are the failings of inferior Missionaries, there is no doubt. Hear 
 what that aged and experienced Christian Lord Shaftesbury 
 said at a public meeting in my hearing a few years ago : 
 
 I notice, that the reports of the Missionary Societies show a great deal more 
 sense than they used to do. They are not so full of magnificent declamation, 
 or great promises. They state things more accurately, telling their obstacles 
 and difficulties, and they are beginning to come round to this great truth, and 
 the sooner it is known the better, that certainly Missionary Societies are not 
 the great instruments, by which God will convert this world. This is reserved 
 for One higher. It is because Missionary Societies had held out such pro- 
 digious expectations, and made such large promises, that the infidels can turn 
 upon us and say, " After all you have said, what have you done ? " If we had 
 told them, that our mission was to carry the Gospel to every creature and 
 spread it over the face of the earth, leaving the issue to God, we should have 
 stood a better chance in argument with infidels and gainsayers. I know 
 Missionary Societies don't like to be told this, and, when to-night I said at 
 a Meeting, that we must look chiefly for the grand final consummation of 
 the Second Advent, it was not denied, but was not well received. It will be 
 asked of your Society, What can it do ? Well, if it depended on your 
 intellectual and physical strength, very little could be done; but you must 
 remember, that you are engaged in raising up a native agency, and, if you 
 establish the nucleus of that, it is impossiljle to predict the issue. Our duty 
 is perfectly clear. We are to do our best and leave the issue with God. He 
 will superintend such a work as this, and carry it to a right issue. Our duty 
 is to sow the knowledge of Christ, and do everything we can, so that, when 
 the people of India become an adult nation capable of governing themselves, 
 or desiring to do it, or taking it into their own hands, whether we desire it or 
 not, we may prepare for that day by sowing broadcast the Word of God. When- 
 ever we shall retire from India, do not let it be said, that we have left only in 
 India the traces of Western vice and oppression, but let it be known, that we 
 have sown the seed 'of Gospel-truth and done all we can to fix that in the 
 hearts of the people, without which no nation can subsist in peace and honour ; 
 and in sowing the seed of the Gospel, be sure of this, that we have sown the 
 seed of political morality and domestic virtue. 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 Hear also what another aged Christian, with a still more 
 intimate knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of men, remarked at a 
 dismissal of Missionaries of his own Society : 
 
 Mr. Venn was so infirm (1872) that he could not stand up, but he read 
 an address to the Missionaries : he renjarlced, that Selfishness and Self-seeking 
 were the bane of Missionary life and work. My work, my catechists, my 
 teachers, my converts, my pupils, was a language that always pained him. 
 One of his hearers, an old Missionary, now at rest, adds that he could not 
 acquit himself of the charge. Yes, it is the tyrant Self that must decrease, 
 before Christ can increase. 
 
 I can confirm the truth of Mr. Venn's complaint from my 
 own experience. Whence come wars and fightings among 
 you .? Come they not from Self? In all my experience I 
 never knew men so opinionated, so thoroughly perverse, and 
 unreasonable, so harsh in their judgment of others, and so 
 wilfully disobedient to orders as some Missionaries. I speak, as 
 a Public Officer who have had to obey, and thus learnt how to 
 command. In India I have known the Magistrate having 
 to interfere to prevent a breach of the peace betwixt two 
 Missionaries quarrelling about their dwelling-house : I have 
 found Members of the same Mission, all noble and God-fearing 
 men, living in total estrangement, with no possible hope of 
 reconciliation. I can point out Stations with only two Mis- 
 sionaries, unable to live together, and as hostile as dogs and 
 cats. Public servants of the State do not act like this, and are 
 spiritual men made of baser clay ? Under the Statue of King 
 Henry V. of England at All Souls' College, Oxford, is inscribed : 
 " Conqueror of his Enemies, and of Himself." Under the 
 picture of each Missionary let those blessed words be recorded : 
 " Converter of the Heathen, and of Himself." 
 
 XIII. I read, that in China some Protestant Missionaries, 
 following the example of the Roman Catholics, adopt the 
 native garb, and maintain, that the influence of so doing was 
 beneficial. I cannot believe it. No Protestant Missionary 
 in India has ever done so : it is not suggested, that a Mis- 
 sionary in Africa, and his wife, should dispense with garments 
 altogether, according to the custom of the country, or in cold 
 Northern climates adopt the costume of the Eskimo. Surely it is 
 better, that each Nation should adhere to its own habits, its own 
 dress, its own nomenclature, its own manner of food, its own 
 peculiar culture. The Missionary should abstain from introducing 
 among his flock the personal and local names of his distant country. 
 Why not allow the people to use the same names as their non- 
 Christian ancestors. St. Paul has set us this example. Tryph6na, 
 and Tryph6sa are not very spiritual names, and yet they were 
 retained. Then the introduction of Bethel, and Bethesda, and 
 such like local names, is open to great objection. Some of our 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 great Hindu converts, Krishna Mohun Bdnerji, Gopi Chand, 
 and Ram Chand, retained their Heathen names, though actually 
 names of their false Gods. Equally objectionable is the practice 
 of urging them to change their costumes, their mode of life, 
 and thus inclosing in an ephemeral, worldly, perishable, husk 
 the eternal, unchangeable, spiritual, kernel of the Gospel. On 
 the other hand, the employment of Native music, and other 
 unobjectionable Native arts, is to be recommended. 
 
 XIV. The Missionary should care for the health of himself, 
 and his family. It has cost much to bring him to his post. 
 Disease and death have already too many opportunities : let him 
 not by rash exposure multiply those risks. St. Paul shows a 
 tender care for the health of Timothy. Even in things secular 
 prudence is advisable. Prudence enabled me, and many others, 
 to pass a quarter of a Century in uninterrupted health in India, 
 and return to our native land stronger than our contemporaries, 
 who had never left England. The Missionary has consecrated 
 life and faculties to his Master ; let him take care of the poor 
 Vi'eak earthly tabernacle, not for its own sake, for it is worthless, 
 but as the necessary adjunct to the Spirit, which he has con- 
 secrated. The care, which the Parent-Committee takes of its 
 Missionary, is nullified, if he himself, by false confidence or 
 carelessness, does not take care of himself, and his wife. 
 
 XV. Let the Missionary shun the worldly and fashionable life 
 of his countrymen : he will find it impossible to maintain the 
 double position. If he cares for the Natives, as he ought to care, 
 he must live for them, and among them. He cannot, and he 
 ought not to drag them up : he must condescend to men of their 
 estate, leading a simple holy life in their midst. The residence 
 of the Missionary, and his way of life, should be simple : his 
 profession is a serious one, and his family should not surround 
 themselves with the luxuries of secular life. In the Missionary 
 Conference at Lahore in 1862, 1 was amazed at the manifestation 
 of the seeds of bitterness already sowed betwixt the Missionary, 
 and his Converts, and this is one of the trials of the future. It 
 is vain to suppose, that the man of European culture can ever be 
 brought to the level of the Natives of Asia, Africa, or Oceania : 
 there is the abyss of centuries betwixt them : but the difference 
 need not be accentuated. 
 
 XVI. The Native ordained Evangelist and Pastor will, under 
 any form of Church organization, claim to be on an equality 
 with the Missionary ; but there must always be one exception, 
 and the control of the expenditure of the funds, supplied by the 
 Parent-Committee, must be reserved to the Missionary only; 
 while the Native Church has control over its own funds. 
 
 XVII. And let the Missionary eschew narrowness of mind : 
 let him be liberal in every word and deed, except in what affects 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 his most Holy Faith : in that let him be strictly conservative. 
 Hear what one writing from China writes in the leading English 
 Daily with regard to Missionaries in China. 
 
 The narrowness of many of the Missionaries has evolved a further specific 
 obstacle to their success, in that it has led them to denounce what they designate 
 as the worship of ancestors as idolatry, thus doing despite to a pious and 
 ennobling sentiment. Surely nothing could be more ill-judged or less 
 Christianlike than to affront the conscience of a whole people in this manner. 
 Similar measures meted out to the English people would let loose the 
 iconoclast in St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey. 
 
 And with regard to India, why do Missionaries run a tilt, and 
 a very hopeless tilt indeed, against that peculiar custom in India, 
 known as Caste ? It exists all over the world, in Great Britain, 
 and in North America. The Missionary himself would shudder 
 at the idea of his daughter marrying the Native Pastor, or of his 
 being compelled with his wife and family to eat his meals with 
 the men of less clean habits in the Native village : he would 
 say, with justice, that his origin, his habits, his culture, are 
 different : but the population of India is made up of an infiriite 
 number of races, and tribes, which never have fused together, 
 and they shun intermarriage and commensality. Let everything 
 else which is called Caste, be swept away : one caste does not 
 ordinarily pretend, that it is better than another, bu£ different, and, 
 the lower the Caste is, the more particular are the Caste-rules. 
 The Civil Government in its Schools, its Railroads, its Ferries, 
 its Courts of Justice, refuses to recognize Caste : let the 
 Missionary draw the same line, and insist, that in the School, 
 and Chapel, and at the Lord's Table, there is no Caste, but not 
 attempt Love-Feasts and Social gatherings, and forcibly unite in 
 marriages converts of diifefent Castes. We should not tolerate 
 such action by a Minister in any British, or American, Church. 
 Each class of the community lives its social life apart. The 
 Missionary by the necessity of the Vernacular is tied for the 
 whole of his life to one narrow Field : he picks out what he con- 
 siders to be the great obstacle to his progress, and denounces 
 it, without considering that the progress of Missions in other 
 Regions, where that particular obstacle does not exist, is not 
 more encouraging (see Part II. Essay IV.). 
 
 XVIII. Another caution is required. The majority of Mis- 
 sionaries are men of ordinary talent and acquirements, though 
 of unblemished character, and of great self-consecration : but 
 amidst their number in all denominations rise up from time to 
 time, men who are giants, whose talents are of the highest 
 calibre. These men throw a lustre in the eyes of the world over 
 their profession, but are not necessarily better Missionaries. If 
 their talents are linguistic, they cannot exert them too freely, or 
 too abundantly, in the work of translations of the Scriptures, and 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 composing of Educational and Devotional works ; but, if their 
 talents are those of the Man of Science, they should remember, 
 that they were not sent forth at the expense of Churches, and 
 Families, to be Geographers, or Explorers, or Botanists, or Zoolo- 
 gists, or Conchologists, or Geologists, or to establish Plantations, 
 or Manufactures, or Trade, or to plant Cocoa-nut trees, or 
 breed Ostriches, but to preach the Gospel of Christ, and they 
 should maintain a holy restraint upon themselves, folding up 
 their particular talents, perhaps with a sigh, in a napkin, rather 
 than permit them to hamper the work for which they were called 
 and chosen. The idea of a self-supporting Mission is a dream. 
 It distresses me to read in Stanley's " Kongo " of a Missionary, 
 who had shot twenty-five elephants, and made great profit by the 
 sale of the tusks. Still more distressed was I, when I came upon 
 French Missionaries in Algeria distilling intoxicating liqueurs 
 (see Part III. Essay I.). 
 
 XIX. The Missionary in these days should ponder well over 
 the last verse of the ninth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel. Here 
 again the Roman Catholic Missionary presents a bright example, 
 and magnificent examples are supplied in the annals of every 
 Protestant Mission. It is a life-work, which the Missionary 
 undertakes, and he should not be always running home. When 
 tempted to leave India, Carey remarked : 
 
 I account this my own country, and have not the least inclination to leave it. 
 
 And he never did. What an undignified position the returned 
 Missionary occupies in his own country, talked of as the 
 " returned empty ! " The contrast of those brave men, who 
 hold on beyond their strength, comes out more strongly, when 
 the faces of others are seen so often in England. It was not so 
 formerly, but with the facility of communication has come a 
 laxity of control, and an infirmity of will. Of course a medical 
 certificate has to be complied with, as lives must not be sacrificed ; 
 but I allude to other cases. Hear what a Bishop, who died at 
 his post, says : 
 
 It was a very nice question of conscience, how far a man who leaves his 
 post, because his wife is ill, can suppose himself one of those, who are expected 
 to leave everything for Christ. 
 
 And again : 
 
 An ordained man is bound to give practical proof, that he does reckon his 
 calling something higher than a comfortable home and easy-going quiet. I 
 should be ashamed to read our Lord's words about forsaking homes and so 
 forth, if I had refused, when I had a clear opportunity, to do the thing, which 
 He recommended. 
 
 It is all very well to say in an off-hand way, that Mission-work 
 among the Heathen of Great Britain is not essentially different 
 from work among the Heathen of Asia and Africa. Yes, Friend, 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 but the climate, and the degree of self-consecration, and the 
 exile, and the accommodation, and the character of the un- 
 civilized races, are essentially different. It is all very well for 
 young men, after taking deacons' orders, to try two or three 
 years at their mon charges, and, if they find themselves unequal 
 to the burden, they can with honour retire from a service, to 
 which they had never consecrated themselves, because they 
 have never been a charge to the Churches, and have shown a 
 desire to serve God in a way, for which experience has proved 
 that they were not suitable. But the Missionary, who has been 
 educated at the cost of a Society, who has been supported 
 by the alms of a Church, who has openly consecrated himself 
 to a particular Mission, acquired the language, and proved his 
 efficiency, such a man is distinctly " looking back, after putting 
 his hand to the plough " : such a man is forgetting his first love : 
 such a man is not giving up everything for Christ. To sink 
 to worldly examples : a volunteer soldier might have gone out to 
 the Crimea to try his capacity, and, failing, might have returned 
 home: but one of the Queen's soldiers must have gone, stayed,; 
 fought, and died.: it would have been no use for him to say, that 
 soldiers', work at Dublin, or Windsor, or Aldershot, is the same' 
 as soldiers' work in the Crimea : if he had done so, every post 
 would have brought him a cover enclosing a white feather.; 
 Shall the Soldier of Christ fall below the high standard of the, 
 Soldiers of the Queen .'' This is one of the notable instances 
 of the want of fibre in the modern Missionary. 
 
 XX. Missionaries should not be down-hearted, if their labours 
 are not crowned by immediate visible success. Nothing is more 
 remarkable in Missionary Annals than the uncertainty of results., 
 " I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase." We 
 read in the biographies of Missionaries, how in some cases a. 
 harvest suddenly sprung up, and then all faded away : in other, 
 cases no harvest at all appeared in the lifetime of the laborious 
 founder, but soon after his departure, there has come a change, 
 and his successor has entered into his labours. To few has it 
 been conceded to do what is recorded, on the tombstone of a 
 Missionary in one of the Islands of Polynesia : 
 
 When he came there were no Christians : when he left there were no 
 Heathen. 
 
 After all, if he has preached the Gospel faithfully, as far as he is 
 concerned, his work is done. 
 
 XXI. Missionaries should ask themselves, why Missionaries, 
 and Missions, are so exceedingly unpopular among their own 
 countrymen, sojourners in different parts of the world, and in 
 their own native lands. Yet it is so undoubtedly. And it is not 
 the irreligious and unbelievers, that speak ill of them, but persons 
 who are given to benevolence, but have a deep-rooted aversion 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 to Religious Missions. There are certain individuals, families, 
 and classes, who enthusiastically support Missions, but the great 
 majority ignore the work, the men, and their publications. I 
 remark this Phenomenon with regret, but I do remark it, and see 
 clearly the cause (see Part II. Essay V.). 
 
 XXII. I remarked above, that Missionaries are narrow in 
 vision. Cannot they correct this by reading systematically the 
 Periodicals and Reports of other Societies, of other Denomi- 
 nations, and cannot the Parent-Committee supply them ? Each 
 Society should publish Biographical notices of esteemed deceased 
 Missionaries, and collective narratives of each Mission, so that 
 the traditions of the past may be maintained. The Missionary 
 will then find that the difficulties, which press on him in some 
 remote corner of the world, have been disposed of elsewhere : 
 he will find methods, and machinery at work, which will admir- 
 ably meet his wants, but of which he had never heard : he will 
 gather wisdom from the failures of others, as well as his own. 
 The Lawyer, the Statesman, the Merchant, in their secular 
 avocations, do this with advantage. The human side of Mission 
 work is an Art and a Science, and is progressive from age to age. 
 The Grace of God upon the imperfect labours of his Servants 
 is unchanged. Not only the most excellent materials, but the 
 highest professional skill of the period, were consecrated to the 
 erection of the Temple of Jerusalem (see Part III. Essay VII.). 
 
 XXIII. The Missionary should take pains with his Annual 
 Report : he should abstain from Scripture-quotations, and stock- 
 phrases of piety, which are expressions of common form, and 
 neither calculated to instruct, inform, or edify. I read Mis- 
 sionary Reports by the yard, or the furlong, and such conven- 
 tional expressions pall very much on the taste, and most readers 
 skip them. Sometimes there is a most indecorous, and unjustifi- 
 able, familiarity with the plans of Almighty God. I have some- 
 times remonstrated against the vain repetition of the Divine 
 Name in every page, but have been told, that the supporters of 
 the Society expect it : they should be taught better things : the 
 compiler of the Report should try to elevate the taste of his 
 readers, and not lower himself to their vulgar level. The allusion 
 to birth or death of children of the Missionaries is really quite 
 unnecessary. I sometimes seem to detectj^n a good report the 
 marks of a second hand, which has inserted pious tags, or hits 
 against the Roman Catholic, or a tilt against Caste, or the Opium 
 Trade, as if some one on a perusal of the draft had said, 
 
 " Mrs. , or Dr. , who are good supporters, lay great stress 
 
 on such remarks to flavour the Report." Many Reports, however, 
 contain no such blemishes, or conventionalities, and yet from the 
 first to the last line breathe a holy and devoted spirit. The Bible 
 is not textually quoted, but the whole Report is, as it were, steeped 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 in the very essence of the Scriptures. If my subordinates in secular 
 employ had garnished their report, with weak platitudes, and 
 quotations, I should have checked them by the remark, that I 
 knew them better than they did. The Parent-Committee can say 
 the same, as it has to read them from year to year. Sensational 
 stories of death-bed scenes are not wanted : a narrative of the 
 consistent walk of a redeemed community is more acceptable. 
 A thoughtful and earnest labourer can so bring his joys and 
 sorrows, his successes and failures, his hopes and his fears, 
 before his friends at home, in a humble and subdued tone, as 
 will secure their love and esteem. Above all, let there be no 
 abuse of the Powers that be, no railing against men in authority, 
 no sneers at Missionaries of other denominations. Such phrases 
 do not speak well for the Christian spirit of the writer. He can 
 state his facts truthfully, and leave it to the Parent-Committee to 
 form a judgment on those facts. Stereotyped abuse of the Roman 
 Catholic Missionaries should be specially avoided. Any case of 
 illegal aggression should be the subject of a separate letter. The 
 Missionary sometimes forgets, how completely the weakness of 
 his own character is evidenced, and exposed, by his own letters. 
 
 XXIV. It would seem incredible, that Missionaries should be 
 charged with the heinous crime of promoting wars among 
 Native Tribes, but I adduce the following resolution of the 
 Aborigines Society as proof : 
 
 This Society, while rejoicing in the early termination of the Zulu war, and 
 expressing an earnest hope, that Cetywayo may yetbe dealt with in a just and 
 magnanimous spirit, desires to call the serious attention of the Missionary 
 Societies to the support, which many of their representatives in South Africa 
 have given to this wicked and unnecessary war, apparently under the impression, 
 that the cause of Missions will be promoted by the invasion and conquest of 
 the Zulu territory. This Society believes, that no idea could be more immoral 
 in itself, or more calculated to prove fatal to Missionary enterprise in South 
 Africa, and it therefore considers, that the time has come, when it is imperative 
 that the Missionary Societies should impress upon their Agents the duty of 
 giving no countenance to a course of action so opposed to the principles, upon 
 which those Societies are based, as well as to the traditional practice of British 
 Missionaries, who have laboured among uncivilized races. 
 
 The French Protestant Missionaries openly admit, that they 
 encouraged the Ba-Siito in South Africa to fight against the 
 British (see Part III. Essay V.). It would seem, as if the 
 Missionary Societies on. Lake Nyassa regarded with com- 
 placency the idea of a British invasion of that Region, which 
 would necessarily be accompanied by slaughter of the people, 
 whom they wish to convert (see Part III. Essay V.). 
 
 XXV. The Missionary should refrain from teaching his con- 
 verts the details of National, or Denominational, differences, 
 which have defaced the History of Europe. How ridiculous it 
 sounds, that the inhabitants of Islands in Oceania should be 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 encouraged to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, 
 or the Fourth of July (see Part III. Essay III.)- 
 
 XXVI. The Missionary is sent out to preach the Gospel, and 
 he will find that to do that properly will require all his time, 
 strength, and ability. He should not meddle with matters, lying 
 out of the orbit of his chosen and blessed duty. St. Paul is his 
 great example. At Corinth, or at Rome, he saw " Nothing but 
 Christ crucified." Missionaries should not take up fads, and 
 give way to crazes, and join crusades against the evils of this 
 wicked world. Many practices, which seem strange to them, 
 have the sanction of centuries, such as child-marriages, and will 
 only be abandoned under the gradual enlightenment of Christian 
 education (see Part III. Essay VI.). 
 
 XXVII. How thoroughly the French Missionary is imbued 
 with the idea of being a Frenchman first, and a Christian after- 
 wards, is evidenced by the fact, that in December, 1885, M 
 Casalis, a Missionary of the French Missions Evangeliques, in 
 Ba-Stito-land, was decorated with the order of the Legion of 
 Honour because : 
 
 II a contribue par ses Missions au developpement de I'influence franfaise 
 dans I'Afrique Australe. Titres exceptionelles. 
 
 The Periodical states, that a considerable population in the heart 
 of a British Colony only pronounce the name of France to bless 
 it, as it is synonymous with Goodness, Justice and Charity (see 
 Part III. Essay IV.). 
 
 XXVIII. Missionaries must not think, that they have a right 
 to turn their residences into asylums against the Police of the 
 Country, in which they reside, and to write protests against the 
 proceedings of the Government against their own subjects, or 
 express their opinion as to the justice of the procedure, or the 
 innocence of the accused. Let them only reflect, how such con- 
 duct on their part would be. laughed at, or perhaps fined, in 
 British India (see Part III. Essay IV.). 
 
 XXIX. The European Missionary should from the beginning 
 work with the steady policy of effacing himself, at as early a 
 date as possible, and placing the Native Ministry in power. All 
 buildings should be erected with that view ; the European should 
 act the part of a temporary visitor, with no intention of staying, 
 or being a burden to his flock, or his Church at Home. He 
 must not keep his flock in helpless pupilage, and treat them as 
 mere children. They are wiser than him in many things. At 
 any rate they represent the public feeling of their own people. 
 They must be reminded from the first, that they are responsible. 
 It may be a trial to an orderly mind to see work less well done 
 according to red tape, or rubrics ; yet one, who loves the object, 
 will look over the defects of the work in the present generation, 
 in the anticipation of perfection in the next. Remember that 
 
-( 39 ) 
 
 the Syrian Church in India, the Koptic in Egypt, the Armenian, 
 Syrian, Nestorian, and Greek in West Asia, have managed on a 
 purely native basis to outlive oppression, in spite of ignorance. 
 
 XXX. A Mission-Station should not be allowed to be a city of 
 refuge to runaway slaves ; it is dangerous, and is wrong. St. 
 Paul did not do so. Until the Civil Power abolishes the status 
 of slavery, the Church can only look on in sorrow. I give 
 instances of the inconvenience : 
 
 Reported that a catechist had lately been in trouble through assisting a man, 
 who had escaped from a creditor. The man was recaptured, and told the 
 authorities what had been done to help him, so the catechist was fined £ 3 2s. dd. , 
 which he hoped would be repaid to him by the Committee. The F.C. felt 
 unable to do this, but the various members subscribed £2 ^s., and decided to 
 ask friends for the balance. 
 
 A catechist was cliarged with helping two slaves of an influential chief to 
 escape, and he demanded restitution. The matter at one time loolced serious, 
 but appears now to be settled. Such cases show the continued need of caution. 
 
 And again : 
 
 I asked Bishop Patteson of Melanesia to consider, what was the sight to a 
 Christian man, of slaves driven off with a yoke on their necks, and whether it 
 did not justify armed interposition. He replied, upholding the principle, that 
 the shepherd is shepherd of the cruel and erring, as well as of the oppressed, 
 and ought not to interfere. 
 
 I found in Morocco last year, that an agent for the conversion 
 of the Jews chose to interfere as regards the sale of slaves, for- 
 bidding husband and wife to be sold separately : this, no doubt, 
 was a right suggestion, but what business had he to give it 1 
 It might have cost him his life, and placed the Diplomatic 
 Representative of his country in great difficulties. He received 
 a caution at my suggestion to keep to his own work. 
 
 XXXI. The Missionary should try to make the Native Chiefs 
 exercise a rightful authority, and only give them advice. Traders 
 charge the Missionary with usurpation of power, and meddling 
 with politics, and trade; those complain most, who want to take 
 advantage of Native ignorance. On the other hand, the Mis- 
 sionary should steadily refuse to constitute himself a Chieftain, 
 or arrogate power and authority (see Part II. Essay III.). 
 
 XXXII. It is really essential, that a Missionary should move 
 about among the people. A rolling stone is said to gather no 
 moss, but a stone, that never moves, is apt to be choked with 
 moss. Nor, on the other hand, should he itinerate too widely, but 
 return year by year to old acquaintances. Human kindness is 
 a key, that opens every door, however firmly it may seem to be 
 closed against us. In the early days of a Mission, before the 
 language is learnt, very little dependence can be placed on oral 
 teaching, but power and influence is obtained by a consistent 
 Christian life. Something in the manner, and voice, and general 
 bearing, has a magic effect upon unsophisticated races, and 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 the constant exhibition of the Christian virtues of gentleness, 
 patience, pity, purity, can never be without its charm. The 
 Missionary should set the example of a steady and willing 
 obedience to the law of the land : he assumes an awful and ; 
 dangerous responsibility, when he encourages people, over whom 
 he has influence, to resist the Powers that be, forgetting the 
 advice of St. Paul to the Romans, who dwelt under the rule of / 
 the Emperor Nero. 
 
 XXXIII. The subject of Education as a Missionary agency, 
 requires serious reflection with reference to the circumstances 
 of each Field. It is the " hiding of power," that has done so 
 much in primitive Missions for the Spiritual Kingdom. It may 
 be a question, whether High Schools, and Colleges, excellent 
 in themselves, are proper Apostolic methods, and proper objects 
 for money collected to preach the Gospel. I do not like to see 
 the Message of Salvation sandwiched between Moral Philosophy 
 and Physics : if the Schools are intended to train evangelizing 
 agents, or to educate the children of Christian converts up to 
 the level of reading the Bible, and no further, call them so. Know- 
 ledge is Power, and it cannot be right with Mission-collections 
 to elevate the converts to a status in life above that of their 
 friends. The fear is, lest in the midst of all the Educational 
 tendencies, the direct preaching of the Gospel should fall out of 
 fashion. AH other matters are ancillary. In British India the 
 Missionary might leave Education to the State, and care for the 
 Education of his converts, and training colleges and schools. 
 What has the Missionary to do with Higher Education } Is he 
 qualified any more than an ordinary Minister in Great Britain, 
 to superintend an Educational establishment higher than a. 
 Sunday School } (see Part II. Essay VII.). 
 
 XXXIV. Hear the voice of a late Viceroy of India : 
 
 Nothing in my opinion could be more entirely alien to the feelings of Henry 
 Venn, who of all men I ever knew was the most interested in Missionary work, 
 and the wisest conductor of Missionary operations, than that Missionaries of any 
 kind should be betrayed into using physical force to control the Natives of the 
 country, to which they are sent. Missionaries must be prepared, if they go to 
 foreign countries, to carry their lives in their hands. They have lost their lives 
 on former occasions, and it is needless to say, that a man in that position, taking 
 the Message of God to the Natives of Africa, is bound, to lose his life rather 
 than use physical force. 
 
 (See Part III. Essays III. IV. V.) 
 
 XXXV. While on the one hand Missionaries should not refuse 
 to give presents in lieu of transit-duty, and reasonable taxation 
 to the Sovereign, or Chief of the country, they should resist all 
 exactions, and rather leave the country, if the demands are 
 unreasonable : they should have about them as little property as 
 possible, so as not to excite cupidity : under no possible circum- 
 stances should a Missionary make presents of lethal weapons of 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 any kind, ammunition, or intoxicating liquors or drugs : he should 
 not have such things with him to give. It is scarcely credible, 
 but it is recorded as a fact, that Missionaries have presented 
 firearms to Natives. They should be prohibited from doing so, 
 either in their private capacity, or their public position as agents 
 of the Society (see Part III. Essay IV.). 
 
 XXXVI. After all, the formation of Christian communities, and 
 the creation of Christian life, is the object of Missions. I inclose 
 this quotation as a warning and an encouragement : 
 
 In estimating the advance, which has been made in developing a higher type 
 of Christian life, I fully recognize the difficulty of obtaining reliable data for 
 observation, and I do not forget hovf misleading it often is, to apply a time- 
 standard in calculating the growth of moral perceptions and spiritual instincts. 
 The Natives have been nominal Christians for more than fifty years. The time 
 has been long enough to effect a great change, but let our demands be reason- 
 able. It is unreasonable to expect from a people, who had sunk so low, a type 
 of exceptional holiness, or to complain, because they are not paragons of virtue, 
 and superior to the grosser forms of vice. I have no hesitation in saying, that 
 a very great change has been wrought, and a change as great, as I have any 
 right to expect. I have met and addressed large assemblies of Native Christians. 
 I have met in conference more than two hundred native pastors. I have 
 attended meetings at the college, where more than one hundred students were 
 present. I have had quiet talks with individuals. I have talked with Mis- 
 sionaries and foreigners about the converts, and unhesitatingly I affirm, that 
 a great and unmistakably Christian work has been accomplished. Native 
 Christians have not yet conquered their characteristic national and social weak- 
 nesses, but the force of new Christian principles is felt, and the Divine truths 
 of the Gospel are transforming, by a sure process, the character of the people. 
 It is possible, to throw over Paganism a Christian dress without changing the 
 old pagan heart or eradicating the pagan nature. I am persuaded that more 
 than this has been done. The pagan nature has, in many cases, been brought 
 into subjection to the mind of Christ, and the subjection has advanced as rapidly 
 as the circumstances surrounding these people would permit. I place no limit 
 on the power of the Spirit of God, but I do not forget, that the effect of 
 human environment is still seen in those, who are manifestly the subjects of the 
 Spirit's power. 
 
 One hindrance to the spiritual advancement of the people is to be found 
 in the influence of a certain class of foreigners, who have settled in the 
 islands. I gladly recognize the fact, that there are creditable exceptions ; but 
 my report would not be complete, if I did not refer to the foreign element as 
 being in too many cases a distinct obstacle to the Christian life of the Native 
 churches. 
 
 We must not expect to find angels, but we may hope not to 
 find surface-Christians or downright hypocrites, or dull formalists, 
 or, as may be said of the Romish converts, the same men using 
 different fetishes, and repeating different, but still unintelligible, 
 formulae. 
 
 XXXVII. Hear the words of an Indian statesman, a true 
 friend of Missions, from whose published works I extract the 
 following : let Missionaries lay it to their hearts (see Part III. 
 Essay VI.) : 
 
 The natural right of a Hindu parent to direct the religious education of his 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 child, while under years of discretion, is as sacred, as thai of the Christian 
 Parent. It cannot be interfered with by the State without a breach of the first 
 principles of Christian Liberty, to which weourselves should appeal, were we the 
 subject party. The spirit of Christian Equity enjoins us to do unto others as we 
 would that we should be done by. 
 
 XXXVIII. Hear the advice of a dead Missionary, one of the 
 Saints of God, from whose life I extract it : 
 
 1. Of all qualifications for Mission work, CHARITY is most excellent. 
 
 2. Of all methods, the only safe and sure one is to purge the heart of Vain- 
 glory, Worldliness, and Selfishness. 
 
 3. Of all plans to insure success, the most certain is Christ's own, and 
 becoming a corn of wheat falling into the ground, and dying. 
 
 The last is in the hands of God, but as to the first two, I can 
 only add, Oh ! that ye were wise, that ye understood this ! 
 
 XXXIX. It is not wise for a Missionary to engage in Com- 
 merce, or Manufactures, or Agriculture : it takes the spirituality 
 out of him. Some of the continental Missions fall to the level 
 of pious traders : this is something different from Evangelists : 
 the Moravians practise it, but it provides the only means of 
 subsistence of themselves and their people. The introduction 
 of workshops, and industrial schools, is very dangerous. The 
 introduction of new habits, new kinds of food, and clothing, not 
 suited to the climate, and habits, is dangerous. Nature has 
 adapted the food to the particular animals : the Eskimo, un- 
 necessarily fed on coffee, cannot work as they did on a diet of 
 train oil. 
 
 XL. I picked up somewhere the needful attributes of a 
 Missionary : few will attain all : 
 
 1. He must count the cost, before he begins to build. 
 
 2. He must be a man of sanctified common sense. 
 
 3. An unworldly spirit, and unselfish aim. 
 
 4. Thoroughly intent on his work. 
 
 5. A man of Peace, with the Spirit of Peace in his house, 
 heart, speech, and environment. 
 
 6. Simple habits and contented spirit. 
 
 7. Personal holiness. 
 
 8. Inexhaustible patience. 
 
 9. Unshakeable faith. 
 
 I o. Full of prayer, and a reader of the Bible in prayer. 
 
 11. Dauntless, but quiet: courageous in deeds, rather than 
 in words. 
 
 12. A sound judgment, a chastened spirit, a man of soft 
 answer, but truthful. 
 
 13. Loyal to his Church, his Society, and his God. 
 
 XLI. The ignorant Missionary allows himself to heap 
 unlimited abuse on the sacred books of other Religions, of which 
 he knows nothing: this is injudicious: the hearers know well 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 enough, that he is ignorant. The learned Missionary should 
 avoid the opposite error : he should render all due praise to the 
 noble sentiments, and conceptions of the non-Christian Philo- 
 sopher, but never for one moment concede, that he is inspired, or 
 divine, or that his words are good for Salvation of men hereafter, 
 though good for morals, and often elevating. None of them rise 
 higher than Socrates. And he should be cautious in selecting 
 passages of unequal value, and thoroughly bad in morals, from 
 their Sacred Books : the scoffer might retort in a manner, painful 
 to a Christian, by misquoting the Bible. 
 
 XLII. Missionaries should decline to undertake any duty, that 
 is not included in the words " carrying the Gospel to the non- 
 Christian world " : the office of Magistrate, Vice-Consul, 
 Member of Local Board, or anything connected with the Civil 
 or Criminal administration of the State, should be refused, if, 
 offered. It is a snare. A Missionary writes in an Annual 
 Report as follows, from a great City in Upper India : 
 
 I am terribly deep in Municipal Committee-matters. I am going in especially 
 for the conservancy of the City and the Water-supply. 
 
 Imagine St. Paul looking after the drains of Corinth, or the 
 water-supply of Ephesus 1 These kinds of employment must 
 destroy spirituality, if it ever existed. So also a Missionary 
 should decline to take permanent clerical duty among Europeans, 
 which interferes with his proper work. This will not exclude 
 occasional services in the Church, and visits to the sick, when 
 called upon : but under no circumstances should he take any 
 emolument. Payments, made by the State, should go to the 
 Mission-Treasury. 
 
 XLIII. Judging from the exaggerated statements in some 
 reports, the religious world at home often thinks, that the non- 
 Christian world is living in the practice of shameless and 
 abominable sins : this is not the case. Live with the people in 
 the villages of India, and you will find rude and patriarchal 
 virtues, and evidence of great nobility of character, and kindly 
 disposition, dutiful conduct of parents to children, purity of 
 home circles, loving meeting of relatives, neighbourly friendships, 
 and gentle manners. It is the act of a partizan, not of a faithful 
 Chronicler, to be so severe on the Heathen and Mahometan, 
 and overlook the sad failings of an European population, and 
 the avowed vices of nominal Christians. God has not left 
 Himself without a witness, in that He does good, and gives 
 them rain from Heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts 
 with food and gladness. Missionaries should abstain from 
 sweeping assertions, and excessive statements : it is enough, that 
 they are not Christians, and must be made so. 
 
 XLIV. There is no reason to suppose, that St. Paul and his 
 companions lorded it over the Heathen : quite the contrary. The 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 humble Evangelists of the time of Augustine, and Columba, and 
 Boniface, did not do so. The Nestorians, and Moravians, did 
 not do so. Why should the Anglo-Saxon Missionary of this 
 Century assert such an intolerable superiority over those, whom 
 he goes to convert ? The holiest Missionary is the humblest : 
 he works through others, not thinking of self, his own station in 
 his native country, his acquired knowledge, his natural ability, 
 his station in his Church, but of the Lord's work. He cries : 
 
 Let the work be done, even if I am driven out, effaced, overlooked, 
 despised. 
 
 That pride of race, which prompts a white man to regard 
 coloured people as inferior to himself, is strongly ingrained in 
 most men's minds, and must be wholly eradicated by the Grace 
 of God, before he will ever win the hearts and souls of the 
 Heathen. Nothing is more depressing in the Reports of 
 Missionary Societies than this feature. Every Missionary would 
 be better for a copy of Thomas k Kempis' " Imitation of Christ," 
 as his constant companion. And let the Parent-Committee 
 avoid being puffed up, as if they had done something wonderful, 
 as if their counsels had secured the measure of success, which 
 had come to them from the Lord only. Above all, let care be 
 taken never to talk of a man, as a Hero, when living, or a Saint, 
 when dead : he did his best : others will do the same : his place 
 will soon be filled up : the ranks of the Lord's Army are always 
 full. Many men are spoilt by inordinate flattery. 
 
 XLV. The necessity of Native Teachers is admitted by all, 
 but has not been recognized by all, as much as it ought to be. 
 The black net to catch souls must be let down, but held in its 
 place by white corks. Hear what Missionaries, who do employ 
 Teachers with marvellous success, write : 
 
 The necessity for careful European supervision becomes the more urgent, as 
 the number of Natives, who become teachers, increases. It is a wonderful 
 evidence of the hold, which the Gospel takes on the natures of these people, 
 that, at so early a period in the history of the Mission, so many are found 
 willing to be trained, and fit to be trained, as Evangelists to their fellow- 
 countrymen. The rapid progress of the Gospel is assured, if this responsive 
 spirit continues to be manifested. At the same time, it must be borne in mind 
 that at present, they are at best but young converts to Christianity. Though 
 their knowledge of the truths of the Gospel, after a course of training at one of 
 the Mission Institutions, may be such as amply to qualify them for the duties of 
 teachers, strength of principle, and that fine Christian spirit which can discern 
 and maintain the right course in times of temptation and difficulty, cannot be 
 acquired with equal facility. To leave such men to stand entirely alone for 
 any length of time among their own Heathen countrymen, without the moral 
 support, stimulus, and counsel afforded by frequent visits from a European 
 superintendent, would not be wise or kind. 
 
 (See Part IV. Address II.) 
 XLVI. Whatever Anglican Bishops, who live years in the 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 country without learning to speak the language, may think, the 
 fusion of the permanent indigenous Eurasian, and Native 
 populations into one Church with the European birds of passage, 
 is not likely to take place. The Native Churches, as they 
 gradually become independent, will take their own line, and will 
 be influenced by Provincial and Linguistic considerations, and 
 the European element, of whatever denomination, will remain 
 alien and, if the British are driven out of India, will cease to 
 exist, while by God's blessing the Native Churches will abide 
 for ever. 
 
 XLVII. The serious question must arise, how a Native Church 
 is to provide itself with the elements for the Lord's Supper in 
 countries, where neither the vine, nor corn, which were the 
 staples of life in Palestine, are forthcoming. The inward and 
 spiritual Grace should be the object of consideration, and it is 
 distressing to read of the Native Pastor buying a bottle of wine 
 at a low European store, especially when it is desirable to keep 
 the people free from the use of liquors, specially European 
 liquors. One Missionary Society has decided as follows. The 
 question of foreign bread and wine being used at the Lord's 
 Supper was discussed, and, feeling the tendency of the Natives 
 to regard the Sacrament with superstitious feelings, and the 
 desirability of keeping it as simple and primitive as possible, and 
 also of using elements, that might be ea'sily procured, by the. 
 Natives, we determined to use the bread and wine of the country, 
 viz. the beautiful yams, and the cocoa-nut milk, which is more 
 Scriptural than water, coloured with a little wine, and bread made 
 from the dregs of the Missionary's cask : the object is, that the 
 Natives should find the elements within their own reach for 
 the sustentation of Christianity. 
 
 XLVIII. The Christian village has its dangers : such was the 
 commencement of Monachism : the thought was a good and pure 
 one of isolating those, who wished to serve God, from the evil 
 around them, and so to preserve their integrity : but the whole 
 history of the Church shows, that it was a mistake, and has 
 worked evil to the converts, evil to the Foreign Missions, 
 and evil to the Heathen. The isolation was so much Christian 
 power lost to the work of evangelization ; nor was the individual 
 benefited by being sheltered from the rude struggle, and tempta- 
 tion and persecution : their example was lost to the Heathen, 
 their leaven to the lump, and their own faith became less strong, 
 because not nerved to the test. All who have seen the Christian 
 barracks springing up round the Mission-house, must admit this : 
 let the converts live amidst the Heathen and Mahometans, among 
 them, not of them : not changed in external habits, but changed 
 internally. They should not be denationalized by false kindness : 
 the living water of the Gospel is able to strengthen the fibre, 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 and develope into beauty any form of civilization, with which 
 it comes into contact : above all, let the danger be avoided of 
 accustoming races of lower culture to the luxuries and wants 
 of a highly civilized life. " Where is the sugar ? " This question, 
 made by a Native convert, is suggestive. The British Missionary 
 on the march had produced the cocoa, and milk, for the evening- 
 meal, and was content: the native youth, a few years ago a 
 redeemed slave, and before that a naked Negro, glad to get any- 
 thing, or go without anything, pampered by contact with a higher 
 civilization, asked querulously for a condiment to sweeten his cup. 
 XLIX. With regard to the status of Native converts, whose 
 political situation is no way changed by their change of religion, 
 let me quote the words of a Chinese Missionary : 
 
 It is true that all British subjects resident in China are required to obtain an 
 annual certificate of registry at a Consulate by payment of a fee to Her Majesty 
 of five dollars each, or one dollar each for artizans and labourers. But no 
 Native Christian vphatever is eligible for such registry, nor would the British 
 Government on any pretext vfhatever admit the claim of a Native Christian to be 
 regarded as otherwise than a subject of the Chinese Empire. 
 
 In cases of actual persecution the British Minister has on certain occasions 
 interposed, basing his remonstrances, not on the ex-territoriality of the victims 
 of persecution, but on the Treaty-stipulations with regard to liberty of conscience. 
 The same remark applies to the American representative. 
 
 With regard to the French and Russian Ministers, I cannot speak with 
 certainty ; but my impression is, that although they are possibly more ready to 
 intervene on behalf of converts than are the British and American Ambassadors, 
 they make no pretence to exert anything but a benevolent influence in favour of 
 Toleration, relying upon Treaty-stipulations. 
 
 (See Part III. Essay V.) 
 L. Hear the advice of a Missionary Bishop to his subordinates : 
 
 Avoid all reasonable ground of offience. Be not proud, and self-reliant, but 
 be ready to suffer wrong rather than exact your extreme rights. Follow, as 
 far as you can, the customs of the place and people. Quarrel with no one, 
 however much provoked. Treat no one with contempt. Never use violence, 
 or hard language. Seek to do, as Christ would have done in your place. Try 
 to understand the thoughts and difBculties of the people you live amongst. Put 
 your message into such words, and deliver it in such a manner, as will be most 
 acceptable and intelligent. 
 
 Do not grow weary in well-doing. God is with you. Though you may see 
 no result, your labour is not in vain. If you are in danger from war or 
 tumult, do not be in a hurry to escape ; if your people stay, it will be best for 
 you to stay with them. Even in the extremes! danger God can save you. If 
 you are in danger on account of your Religion, do not shrink from meeting it : 
 look upon it as a special honour: in any case, whether from disease or violence, 
 do not fear Death, for what men call Death is really the gate of peace and joy 
 to all true Christians. 
 
 LI. Let the Missionary reflect, that the Education, rather than 
 Instruction, given in a Mission-school, however humble, cannot 
 be without effect: the very employment in building a wall, 
 straight by line, in being paid a day's wage, in being kindly 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 spoken to, in nol being kicked or abused : this is a good day's 
 Education. The sightof a cart, a wheelbarrow, and draught-cattle, 
 elevates the Africa:n's idea, and differentiates him from a beast 
 of burden, which he deemed himself to be before. No boy or 
 girl can have passed months and years in a Christian School 
 without a conscience, or heart-voice, being evoked : they are 
 gradually enlightened, their dormant faculties evoked: new 
 habits formed, and a certain amount of decency of speech and 
 conduct is cultivated : that Pudor, and Reverentia, which every 
 Schoolboy feels to each other, and his teacher. It is impossible 
 for a boy or girl to forget their training at the most impressible 
 period of their lives, and return to their old sensations of being 
 like an oyster on a rock, or a reptile in a hole. This is not 
 Christianity in its dogmatic sense, for Heathen and Mahometan 
 share it, but it is the first dawn in the mind of a young Barbarian 
 of Order, Duty, Emulation, Desire of Praise, Honest Pride, 
 Personal Dignity, and love and devotion to the Teacher, who has 
 worked this marvellous change, and this leads on to Christ. 
 
 LII. I read with astonishment in the life of a Missionary, 
 that before he started he took instructions in musquetry, which 
 enabled him to show his men how to clean guns, and put locks 
 together ; and of another Missionary, that he discharged his gun 
 into a crowd, sending no doubt one or two with lead in their 
 bodies to their homes, or their death. Such statements should 
 not be published, and such acts should not be done. 
 
 LIII. The following is a Bishop's advice : 
 
 Each Missionary should pray for mutual love and concord among themselves, 
 that they may learn to think more of the graces and virtues of their fellow- 
 workers, than of their defects : that they may never intrude their own opinions 
 and practices into the works of another : that they be very slow to take offence, 
 and always answer unkindliness, and injustice, by special kindliness, and un- 
 usual acts of self-denial and sulf-forgetfulness, that they may all be helpful one 
 to another, and with or without them God may be glorified. 
 
 Laymen in Committee look with astonishment on the quarrels, 
 and the consequence of quarrels, of ordained Missionaries. 
 Every one in official life knows, how often he is yoked with an 
 uncongenial fellow-labourer, and yet he gets on by mutual con- 
 cession, and the Government, which he serves, would not think 
 well of him, if he complained. As to asking, that a colleague 
 might be removed, so as to make oneself more comfortable, I 
 never heard of such a thing: when this state of affairs inci- 
 dentally transpires, a move is often made so as to oil the 
 working of the official machine : but Missionaries selfishly ask 
 for men to he removed, regardless of the deep injury done to the 
 man removed, the serious expense to the Parent-Society, the 
 injury to the work of the Mission, and the entire discredit, 
 which must attach ever after to the judgment of the applicant. 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 LIV. A Missionary need not be cast down, if he finds, that 
 the great Grace of power to help forward the conversion of 
 individual souls has not been given to him : or rather that 
 he thinks, that it has not been so in the way expected by 
 himself: great Missionaries have been aware of this gift being 
 denied to them, and 
 
 Humbly admitted, that they thought that they had not the power of bringing 
 souls one after another to Christ, of showing them their sins, of breaking down 
 the barriers, that gird the heart against all religious influences, and of creating 
 in them a sense of their true need. 
 
 Perhaps they may have failed in words, but the attracting and 
 converting light shone out of their deeds, the expression of their 
 countenance, the vision of their lives : there are diversities of 
 gifts, but the same spirit. Of the Missionary who uttered the 
 above holy and humble opinion of himself, the natives of the 
 country, among whom he laboured, had formed another estimate, 
 and described him as the man, who prayed for the African, and tried 
 in every way to do them good : of another Missionary his people 
 still speak tenderly, as the man who, after Christ's example, died 
 for us, black fellows I With this remark my Notes end. 
 
 May the Lord bless them to the hearts of the readers 1 
 
j^otesf on flpt00icinarp ^ub|ect0» 
 
 pact I. 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 
 LANGUAGE ILLUSTRATED BY 
 BIBLE TRANSLATION. 
 
 CHAP. I. ORIGIN, OBJECT, AND METHODS OF THE SOCIETIES. 
 
 CHAP. II. DESCRIPTION OF THE LANGUAGES. CHAP. III. 
 
 RESULTS AND SUGGESTIONS. APPENDIX. A. TABLE OF 
 
 LANGUAGES. B. MAP OF THE WORLD. 
 
 SECOND AND ENLARGED EDITION. 
 
 The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. — Ephesians vi. 17. 
 
 The Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. — i Peter i. 23. 
 
 And I saw another Angel fly in the midst of Heaven, having the Everlasting 
 Gospel to preach unto them that 'dwell upon the Earth, and to every 
 Nation, and Kindred, and Tongue, and People. — Revelation xiv. 6. 
 
TO MY DEAR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES 
 
 COMMITTEE OF THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY, 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR, 
 
 WIIO HAS ONLY ONE GREATER DELIGHT THAN THE STUDY 
 
 OF LANGUAGE, AND THAT DELIGHT IS THE STUDY OF 
 
 THE LAW OF THE LORD, 
 
 AND IN THESE PAGES BOTH STUDIES AND BOTH DELIGHTS 
 
 ARE UNITED. 
 
 London, July, 1886, 
 AND July, 1888. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The favourable reception, with which my first Edition has been 
 received, has induced me to revise and enlarge the work. The 
 object is, to interest people in the Work of Bible-Societies. 
 The Annual Reports are too full of business-details, and pre- 
 suppose a great knowledge of previous Reports, and no one 
 Report treats the whole subject : of course, criticism, and 
 suggestions, would be out of place in the official Statement of 
 a year's work of a Society, and both are required. I have 
 treated the subject as a whole, without reference to particular 
 Societies, and I particularly repeat to Bible-Societies the 
 warning, which I have impressed on Missionary-Societies : 
 " Beware of setting up your own Society in the place of Christ, 
 " and doing worship and sacrifice to your own net, and bringing 
 " incense to your own drag." 
 
 And let reality be given to the Report, and Catalogue of 
 Languages, by careful attention to Geography, and Linguistic 
 Knowledge : it is clear from some of the early Reports, that the 
 Compilers threw together names, and places, which they knew 
 nothing about, and had never taken the trouble to place the facts, 
 brought to their notice by their different Agents, often very in- 
 experienced men, into the crucible of accurate Science : why 
 should a Language be still called Karass-Turki, because the 
 translators were Scotch Missionaries, who, years ago, dwelt at 
 that obscure town ? 
 
 Consider then the Orthography of the names : no one 
 principle of transliteration was adopted, and even now there 
 remains much to be desired, though many changes suggested by 
 me have gradually, year by year, been adopted by the British 
 
C viii ) 
 
 and Foreign Bible-Society. By the extraordinary practice of 
 fastening on Anglo-Saxon suffixes to the names of Islands in the 
 South Seas, or tribes in Africa, the real name often became 
 thoroughly disguised. There cannot be a more universal rule, 
 than that no suffix or prefix should be attached to a foreign name, 
 unless that suffix be according to the grammatical rules of that 
 particular laixguage : thus, BangAli, Kashmiri, are correct, but 
 what of Java-nese, Japan-ese, Assam-ese, Tibet-an, Korea-n } 
 Then, again, some writers persist in prefixing a Ki, or a Chi, or 
 a Ba, or a Wa, to some South African languages, though they 
 allow Zulu, and Yao, and Bondei, to go unencumbered. 
 
 Confessedly a great deal more has to be done even to ascertain 
 what work remains to be done. Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte 
 has cleared up the mutual relations of the Finn Branch of the 
 Ural-Altaic Family : it is to be hoped, that the Russian scholars 
 of the University of Kazdn on the Volga will clear up the 
 difficulties of the Turki Branch, as, in fact, the whole of that 
 Family, with the exception of the Osmdnli, and the variety 
 spoken at Yarkand in Chinese Tartary, has passed under Russian 
 domination. I am myself proceeding this Autumn to Kazdn and 
 Orenberg, to make local inquiries, and consult experts on the 
 spot. It is a remarkable incidental advantage of Bible- 
 translation, that it places beyond doubt what the language of 
 a particular tribe is, as they would not buy books, which they 
 could not understand. 
 
 Eastbournk, August 24, 1888. 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 LANGUAGE, AS ILLUSTRATED BY 
 BIBLE-TRANSLATION. 
 
 Chapter I. — Origin, Object, and Methods of the 
 Societies. 
 
 A DAINTY little volume is on my table, called " The Gospel in 
 Many Tongues," published by the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society, London, 1888. It exhibits one verse of the New 
 Testament in two hundred and sixty-seven Languages, or 
 special Written-Characters. This is no ingenious tour deforce to 
 exhibit the intelligence or industry of one or more scholars : the 
 verse selected is part of a portion of the Holy Scriptures, or of 
 the whole, which has been published at the expense of certain 
 Religious Associations for actual use by Christian Churches, 
 scattered all over the world. I purpose in the following pages 
 to show, how the study of Language has been advanced to an 
 extraordinary degree by the impetus given by Religion to the 
 translation of one Book. The phenomenon is perfectly unique, 
 and is the more remarkable, as the number of translations goes 
 on increasing every year, a score or more being always on the 
 anvil. No book has ever been multiplied to this extent, as the 
 issue of these translations counts by hundreds of thousands, and 
 even millions. The published accounts show that, although the 
 book is sold below cost price, an income of more than one 
 hundred thousand pounds is annually received from the sale. 
 The books, that approach nearest in circulation and number of 
 translations, are the Pilgrim's Progress, the Imitation of Jesus 
 Christ, by Thomas k Kempis, and the Book of Common Prayer, 
 which derive their whole attraction from the Bible, as they follow 
 it both in letter and spirit. 
 
 I propose to treat the subject chiefly from the scientific, 
 intellectual, and secular, point of view, and it is a very interesting 
 
( so ) 
 
 one, illustrating, how much Science is advanced by the Religious 
 Instinct of a Nation ; for, although Language alone is alluded 
 to in this Essay, still it could be shown, that other branches of 
 Science, such as Geography, Ethnology, and even Commerce, 
 have been advanced by the same impulse. 
 
 In the beginning of the present century the Bible was available 
 in about thirty Languages ; first in order were the two original 
 Books, and next to them came the Greek of the Septuagint, 
 which was honoured by being textually quoted by inspired 
 writers, and those quotations thus have the force and sanction 
 of inspiration, and the early translations into Syriac, Koptic, 
 Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, and Latin. As time went on, 
 translations came into existence in all the chief languages of 
 Europe, a few in the adjacent Provinces of Asia and Africa, and 
 fewer still in the countries beyond, and so it would have remained, 
 had it not been, that a wave of Missionary Spirit at the begin- 
 ning of this century passed over some of the Protestant Nations, 
 making them feel, that it was their duty to evangelize the Heathen, 
 and the Mahometan. This at once provoked the establishment 
 of special agencies to supply the Word of God in the vulgar 
 tongue of every Nation and Tribe, which was brought under the 
 new influence. This is one of the essential differences betwixt 
 a Protestant and Roman Catholic Church : the former desires to 
 place the Word of God in the cheapest possible form in the 
 hands of every man, woman, or child, who can read, or com- 
 prehend words read by another : the latter has been known to 
 spend large sums to prevent the possibility of the Word of God 
 reaching the masses, and would destroy with ignominy every copy, 
 on which it could lay hold. This assertion is based on the facts 
 ascertained in every country, where the Roman Catholic Priest- 
 hood still retains influence. The Greek, the Armenian, and the 
 other Ancient Churches, have no objection to the distribution of 
 the Scriptures ; the Heathen receive them with alacrity, and the 
 Mahometan with respect. 
 
 Of the thirty versions available, it cannot be stated, that any 
 one of them, with the exception of course of the Inspired Hebrew 
 text of the Old Testament and the Inspired Greek text of the 
 New Testament, and the Septuagint, were final. Of the remain- 
 der several have been left high and dry by the retreat of the 
 linguistic tide, and are Literary curiosities, being obsolete, such 
 as the Moeso-Gothic of Ulfilas, and the Anglo-Saxon of Bede : 
 several have crystallized into a liturgical medium of vocables, 
 incomprehensible to the vulgar, such as the Latin, the Old- 
 Slavonic, and the Koptic : several have been replaced by entirely 
 new versions, made from the original Hebrew and Greek, 
 whereas the superseded versions had been made from the 
 Septuagint, or the Vulgate. Other versions have been under- 
 
( SI ) 
 
 going constant revision, the best proof of which is, that the 
 English, German, Spanish, and French, versions are undergoing 
 the process at this moment, and no finality seems near at hand. 
 
 But even, supposing that the Versions had been finally settled, 
 or were, like the Hebrew and Greek, immutable, the cost of a 
 copy was such, as to place its possession out of the power of the, 
 poor. The Family-Bible of those days meant the only copy in 
 the house, or of the village, or the town. The idea of every 
 individual child possessing a portion of the Bible, and carrying 
 it about upon his or her person, was not conceivable. Nor were 
 there any arrangements for distributing the precious book even 
 in Protestant countries like Great Britain, and how much less in 
 Roman Catholic countries ! As to distribution in Heathen or 
 Mahometan countries, it seemed to pious and good men a dream 
 of Utopia. 
 
 It was under such circumstances, with such an environment, 
 that the idea of a Bible-Society came into existence, for the 
 purpose of multiplying correct versions, publishing them cheaply 
 in enormous numbers, and distributing them at something below 
 cost price in towns, villages, houses, huts, in encampments, tents, 
 and caravanserais, laden on ships, boats, camels, waggons, or 
 packs, all over the Globe. As was to be expected, the hand of 
 God worked through the weakest and humblest of His creatures 
 to start the colossal movement, that was destined to shake the 
 world. The story of the little Welsh girl, Mary Jones, is given 
 in a volume of its own. The result was, that Mr. Charles, a 
 Welsh Minister, proceeded to London, and in an assembly of 
 friends suggested the establishment of an Association to supply 
 Welsh Bibles : but, when the subject was discussed, it occurred 
 to them : " If for Wales, why not also for Great Britain and the 
 World ?" In those days people had the strength of their 
 convictions, and the British and Foreign Bible Society was 
 established in January, 1804. From its loins have sprung every 
 other Society, that exclusively sells Bibles. 
 
 The founders invoked the aid of Christians of every denomina- 
 tion and every country: there was limit neither to their enter- 
 prize, nor their charity. One of their first Committees was for 
 the purpose of conveying the Bible to the then unknown 
 kingdom of China : as a fact their first published translation 
 was for the use of the Mohawk in North America. The divine 
 afflatus spread like wildfire over Europe, and North America : the 
 idea, the principle, the constitution, of the Society met the 
 approbation of all, and in a few years the Parent-Society, 
 endowed with ample resources, stood in the centre of a great 
 Bible-system, which encompassed, as with a network, nearly the 
 whole Globe. Emperors, and Queens, were the Nursing Fathers 
 and Nursing Mothers. Heads of great Churches, who agreed 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 in nothing else, welcomed this new ally. Popes, and Cardinals, 
 and Metropolitans, blessed the Society by their Anathemas and 
 Pastorals, advertising and attesting the value of the Book, the 
 contents of which they feared. As the followers of the new 
 Sect were first called Christians at Antioch, so in Roman 
 Catholic publications the term " Soci6t6 Biblique " is apphed 
 to all Protestant Missionary Societies, as a term of reproach, 
 though really the title of the highest honour. The practice of 
 course differs in diiferent countries at different times. In Great 
 Britain an educated Roman Catholic will assure you, that he is 
 at liberty to read the Bible, and does do so. In France large 
 editions have been sold under the authority of the Bishops. In 
 Austria and Spain the ignorant Priests encourage an ignorant 
 and unlettered people to destroy the Bible. As Education 
 advances, and Civil Liberty, the power of the Priest, which is 
 based on Ignorance and Tyranny, is diminished. Italy is in a 
 transition-state. It has Civil Liberty, but is only just emerging 
 from ignorance. I quote the following : 
 
 The attitude of the Italian priesthood towards the propagation of vernacular 
 editions of the Bible is entirely intelligible. To accuse them of desiring in 
 these days to withhold Scriptural knowledge from the people would be a 
 calumny. They are anxious, that Italians of all classes should learn the truths 
 the Bible contains. But they greatly prefer, that the people should imbibe 
 them at second hand through their pastors' hands. In the form and order, and 
 with the interpretation they append, the priests sincerely believe, that Biblical 
 truth keeps all its intrinsic value without the danger of radical perversion. 
 From the purest as well as selfish motives they seek to tetain the direct custody 
 of the muniments of the faith. Their rulers have long ceased to forbid dog- 
 matically the reading of the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue, if they ever 
 authoritatively prohibited it. The hierarchy probably could offer proofs that, 
 with their full sanction, many obedient sons and daughters of the Church 
 openly possess, and use Italian versions. With all this it cannot be doubted, 
 and they would hardly deny, that their influence is employed against the 
 common circulation of the Bible, aud for the check of its study by the laity, 
 unless under the immediate and constant guidance of a priest. Their inclina- 
 tion in this way could not have continued to exert itself effectually, if national 
 education had not been miserably neglected. The Italian masses, if they had 
 read at all, could not have been excluded, as virtually they have been, from 
 acquaintance with the book, on which the religion they still profess rests. 
 
 Differences arose both inside and outside of the new Society, 
 but they only worked to the expansion of the Agencies : this 
 was a business, in which Rivalry was welcomed in the form of 
 Sister- Societies, and affiliated Associations. God overruled all 
 the differences about the publication of the Apocrypha, the use 
 of the Vulgate Versions, and the employment of the word 
 " Baptism," to His own greater glory. The Churches on the 
 Continent seemed to be waiting the arrival of the emissaries of 
 the Bible Society, ready to form themselves into new groups, and 
 take up the work. The destitution of the Christian Church then 
 became apparent. Many persons advanced in life had never 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 seen the Bible. Large Editions in some of the languages of 
 Europe were sold off in a few days : in the first excitement the 
 Roman Catholic Priests bought as freely as Protestants, and 
 aided the circulation. Men seemed to spring up, as it were, pre- 
 destined for the work, to travel over Europe, and form new 
 Associations, and arrange for new translations. Dr. Pinkerton 
 had been expelled from a Mission in a quiet corner of Russia. 
 Messrs. Henderson and Patterson could not find a door open to 
 them in India. The policy of the Governments of Russia and 
 India, which set those three great men free to do the marvellous 
 work, which they accomplished, was overruled to the Glory of 
 God. Scholars in Universities discovered pld Manuscripts in 
 Libraries, men of business and enterprize came forward made 
 for the work : ample funds, wise and sober management of the 
 Parent-Committee, earnest and intelligent co-operation on the 
 part of the Local Associations, were the features, which marked 
 the first fifty years. In 1853, 3-t its Jubilee, the Society stood 
 surrounded by 8000 associations, and since then it has gone on 
 conquering and to conquer. 
 
 The following separate organizations now exist, but they all 
 sprang from the same seed-plot. 
 
 I. British and Foreign Bible Society, London. 
 II. National Bible Society of Scotland, Edinburgh. 
 
 III. American Bible Society, New York. 
 
 IV. Baptist Bible-Translation Society, London. 
 V. Netherlands Bible Society, Amsterdam. 
 
 These are of the first class in the extent and importance of 
 their past and present operations, and to them must be added 
 the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, which came 
 into existence more than a century earlier, but never threw its 
 energies fully and solely into Bible work, and has no agency for 
 foreign distribution, which is one of the essential features of the 
 true Bible Society. In the second rank of Associations, occupied 
 chiefly in home-work, are nearly sixty minor Associations in 
 Europe and North America : they have more the character of 
 Bible-Clubs, to supply their own Churches, than Missionary 
 Bible-Societies. 
 
 In reading the Annals of the great Society, and in considering 
 the vain opposition once offered by ill-advised Sovereigns, and 
 misguided Priests, the first two verses of the second Psalm come 
 spontaneously to our recollection. India once excluded the 
 Bible, and we must pardon the cautious Statesmanship of that 
 early period, when the East India Company hardly realized the 
 grand Empire, which had fallen under its rule, and had not 
 learnt the Art of Rule : the Bible is now distributed in that 
 country in annual thousands in more than a dozen languages. 
 Russia has varied her policy, but on the whole has been a 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 steady friend. France is so saturated with Bibles, that the 
 Roman Catholic Bishops petitioned the Pope to allow them to 
 publish their own Edition in French, and their translation is a 
 good one, but high-priced ; but has been since placed on the Index 
 by a retrograde policy in the Vatican. The Priests have been 
 constrained to follow the same policy in the Arabic-speaking 
 countries, and their Arabic Edition published at Beirut is an 
 excellent one. While Pope Pius IX. was expelled from Rome 
 in 1848, an Edition of the Bible in Italian was published in the 
 Eternal City, the unsold copies of which His Holiness burnt on 
 his return the following year ; but he lived to see depots of the 
 Bible Society opened under his windows in the Vatican, and 
 under the shadow of the Propaganda, and Colporteurs hawking 
 the Scriptures in every town in Italy. In 1888 a popular edition 
 of the Bible in Italian, with notes and illustrations, is published 
 in halfpenny numbers by a well-known Liberal Journal at Milan. 
 In Africa and Oceania Savages and Cannibals have found them- 
 selves in a few years transformed into translators, type-setters, 
 proof-readers, and Sunday School-teachers. By the marvellous 
 influence of this one Book, barbarous tribes have passed in one 
 generation through the curriculum, which it took Europe 
 centuries to traverse ; they have found ready-made for them, 
 the outcome of the slow growth of ages, the Alphabet, the Pen, 
 the Printing Press, the material for letters and books, and the 
 School. Minerva has appeared to them at once fully armed. 
 
 Science is the object of this paper, and to that I try to restrict 
 myself, but with difficulty, as I feel carried away by the grandeur 
 of my subject. Incidental notice must be made, with a feeling 
 of thanksgiving, of the many dying beds, which have been 
 comforted, the many inmates of prisons and hospitals, who have 
 been blessed, the many sinners, who have been converted ; for 
 the Bible is a sharp two-edged sword, able to do its own work 
 without the aid of man's interpretation, and there are innumer- 
 able instances, that it has done so. 
 
 I give some instances : 
 
 A native Missionary, connected with the Calcutta Mission, recently paid a 
 visit to Joynagar, a town distant about sixteen miles. While there he found 
 a band of young men, who were in the habit of meeting together to study the 
 Bible. They number about a dozen, and assemble regularly every Sunday to 
 worship God, and to read the Scriptures, and that in a most public manner in 
 the sight of their Heathen neighbours, a mark of unusual moral courage. 
 When the Missionary reached Joynagar, some of these young men came to 
 him, begging him to come and preach to them, which he did with evident 
 delight. No sooner was one sermon finished than they asked him for another. 
 The leader of the movement was a candidate for baptism in Calcutta some 
 three years ago, and what he then learned has sunk into his heart, and' 
 prompted him to read God's Word himself, and also to try and induce others 
 to do the same. 
 
 A Merchant on his travels put up in a village, and at parting gave the 
 
'( ss ) 
 
 villagers some clothes, of which he had no need : in the pockets there was a 
 single Gospel, and some tracts : they were read : the Spirit of the Lord worked 
 through them with such force, that the readers were converted, and got rid of 
 their idols. The truth of this wonderful case was carefully investigated, and is 
 recorded by Sir Bartle Frere in a volume on Indian Missions. 
 
 When the work of editing old translations, and preparing 
 new ones, was commenced in earnest, linguistic secrets were 
 revealed, of which our fathers never dreamt. In their easy- 
 going way they imagined, that the people of China all spoke one 
 language, and the people of India another, and that Arabic was 
 intelligible over the best part of Africa. As to the people of 
 Oceania and America, they hardly gave them credit for the 
 power of emitting articulate sounds, fondly believing, that they 
 transacted their affairs by the help of symbols, whistles, clicks, 
 grunts, and gestures. In Europe they little knew of the tangled 
 network of mutually unintelligible dialects, of sister-languages, 
 of different written characters, misapplied in a strange way, 
 such as the Turkish written in Greek characters, and Slavonic 
 languages in Roman characters : they knew nothing of such 
 composite jargons as Judaeo-German, and Judaeo-Spanish ; of the 
 three dialects of the Basque, of the dialects of the Engadine, 
 of the triple variety of the Lapp language : as to the hundreds 
 of languages in Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania, they had 
 not the least conception, nor would they probably ever have had 
 any but for the necessity imposed upon the Christian to present 
 the Word of God to every Nation under the Sun in their vulgar 
 tongue." No one, who has carefully region by region surveyed 
 the different Continents, and gauged the existing knowledge, 
 however imperfect, of the forms of speech used by the human 
 race, can hesitate, if he has the feeling of gratitude existing in 
 his nature, to render cordial thanks to those great Protestant 
 Religious Societies, which have produced the translations, and 
 the Bible-Societies, which have published them. 
 
 The basis of the translation was fixed on the Hebrew text for 
 the Old Testament, and the Greek text for the New, and the 
 translations were restricted to the well-known " Textus Receptus " 
 in both cases. This excluded the Apocrypha, the Septuagint, 
 and the Vulgate. By the Holy Scriptures, which were the subject- 
 matter of the Society's operations, was meant the Inspired Word 
 of God, which could not be asserted with regard to the Apocrypha. 
 The Septuagint, though honoured by being textually quoted in 
 the New Testament, differs materially in many respects from the 
 Hebrew Text, which latter was necessarily preferred to the ex- 
 clusion of the former. By parity of reason there was no place 
 for the Vulgate. No doubt many early translators, being ignorant 
 of Hebrew and Greek, made their translations from Vernaculars 
 in existence ; but these have been, or will be, superseded in the 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 course of Revision. As regards the New Testament, since the 
 publication of the Text followed by the late Company of Revisers, 
 a certain latitude as to the use of either that, or the Textus 
 Receptus, has beeh permitted. Had permission been given, or 
 the licence been tolerated, of the translator going behind the 
 Received Texts, and forming his own basis of translation, the 
 wildest confusion would have followed. 
 
 Who were the translators } No University, no State-Depart- 
 ment, no Learned Society, could have supplied men, willing to 
 conduct such operations, or capable of doing so. It was not 
 abstract knowledge heaped up in the study, that was requisite, 
 but the gift of conversing with, and understanding the people : 
 it was not a city of Europe or North America, in which such 
 work could be done, but the Mission-Stations in the midst of 
 half-converted Natives : it was not earthly honour, or high 
 remuneration, that would tempt capable men to dwell in noxious 
 climates, often far from the civilized comforts of the age, but 
 the wondrous desire to save Souls, the entire consecration of 
 talents, health, and life, to the spiritual welfare of their fellow- 
 creatures : the work, when done, was not to be crowned with a 
 Volney-Prize, or stared at as something wonderful in a public 
 Library ; but it was to be submitted at once to the test of daily 
 use in the school and Mission-Chapel. It would be exposed to 
 the criticism of European colleagues, and Native Pastors, and 
 Catechists, who read it and quoted it, and explained it every day 
 of their life. It might therefore be rugged, be unpolished, but 
 it must be intelligible, and real. In many cases it was setup 
 and printed, and the sheets stitched together, by members of the 
 very flock, for whose use it was made : and no wonder, that they 
 loved it, and prized it, as their own, and in many cases rejoiced 
 to send to the Parent-Society the whole cost of the production. 
 Some of the best translations are entirely indigenous productions, 
 just as in a village in India the Cotton is grown in the fields, the 
 pods are picked by the women, then cleaned, then spun, then 
 woven, then made up into garments to be worn by the men, 
 women, and children. Of all the great Manufacturing wonders, 
 of which Great Britain is proud, perhaps none is more soul- 
 uplifting than that of the translation, and printing, of the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 The translators were with the fewest exceptions the Missionaries 
 of the Protestant Societies of Europe, and North America, and 
 herein hes an additional confirmation of the necessity of a Bible- 
 Society being the representative of United Christendom. Well- 
 meaning, but imperfectly instructed. Members of the Established 
 Church of England, claiming to themselves an authority, which 
 it is difficult to reconcile with common sense, and impossible to 
 reconcile with history, murmured at the idea of such a union ; 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 but the Practice has approved the Principle. How should we 
 have compassed the round world, if we had restricted ourselves 
 to one denomination, or one coterie of scholars ? It required 
 the united effort of every Protestant, and every scholar, and every 
 Society, to do what has been done ; and it must be admitted, that 
 those, who scruple to join and support the Society, do not hesitate 
 to make use of good translations, without inquiring too closely 
 by whose unauthorized learning and devotion they were made. 
 " Factum valet, quod fieri non debet." It is natural, that 
 Christians should prefer the denomination, to which they con- 
 scientiously belong, but the Unity of Christ's Church on Earth 
 is an essential feature of our common Faith, and pity must be 
 felt for those, who place the Shibboleth of their own particular 
 fold above the interest of the whole flock. 
 
 I now come face to face with the languages themselves, the 
 forms of speech, the sentences made up of words, by which man 
 communicates with his fellow-man : these forms of speech may 
 be separate languages, possibly sister-languages, coming from 
 the same common stock, like Italian and Spanish from Latin, or 
 dialects of the same language, like the Venetian and Neapolitan 
 dialects of Italian, differentiated from each other in phonetics, 
 in word-store, and in structure. The subject is a most fascinating 
 one : there is but one more subject more charming than the 
 study of Language, and that is the study of the Bible, and here 
 both are combined. 
 
 Some scholars have studied the literature of one particular 
 Epoch, such as the classical periods of a language, and turned 
 their attention to the subject-matter of that literature, and the 
 style of the authors : other scholars have looked over these 
 points altogether, and studied the sentences, the words, and the 
 letters, viz. the materials, and not the result of the combination 
 of those materials : it is, as if a tourist in Italy were to consider 
 the pebbles, of which a tesselated pavement was composed, and 
 hot the pattern of the mosaic. Upon closer reflection such 
 scholars will be found to be on the most interesting track. The 
 words of a language, the way in which they are compounded, or 
 modified, the order in which they are grouped, the friction, 
 which they have undergone, the shades of variation of meaning, 
 which they have acquired by the contact of the genius of the, 
 men, using them as vehicles of thought, present phenomena 
 unequalled in intricacy and wonder. Some words seem to 
 be indestructible: the three letters k, t, b meant the idea of 
 " writing," when Moses brought the tables of stone from Mount 
 Sinai, and they mean the same thing now over a great part of 
 Asia ; the three letters b, r, k meant " blessing " at the time of 
 the Exodus, and mean the same thing still. The necessity of a 
 bilingual interpreter soon forced itself upon the notice of natives 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 and tribes, who held intercourse with their neighbours, and, 
 when the forward step was taken of inventing Ideographs, 
 Syllabaries, and Alphabets, for the record of past facts, and 
 the written communication of current facts, the necessity of 
 translations of esteemed works became obvious. 
 
 We know, how before Christ the Hebrew Books were by order 
 of Ptolemy, King of Egypt, translated into Greek. Our Lord 
 on the Cross quoted from the Psalms in an Aramaic version : it 
 may be assumed, that, when He read from the Book of Isaiah 
 in the Synagogue at Nazareth, He used an Aramaic version, as 
 the Hebrew had ceased to be a Vernacular, and the Synagogue- 
 roll was a translation. When the Christian Religion spread, the 
 difficulty of tongues was soon felt. The Eastern Church was 
 never jealous of the translation of the Scriptures into the Ver- 
 nacular, and the same impulse, that led Jerome to reside at 
 Bethlehem, and translate the Bible into the great Vernacular of 
 the Roman world, had three centuries previously led to the 
 Koptic, the Syriac, the Armenian, and the Ethiopic versions : 
 this example was freely followed by other nations : when Rome 
 fell into unscriptural errors, she sealed up the book, which 
 would expose those errors : still, insensibly, she permitted the 
 existence of a French translation by De Sacy, a Spanish by 
 Scio, a Portuguese by Figuerido, an Italian by Martini, a 
 German by Van Ess. When the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society commenced their operations on the principle, that the 
 Bible should be conveyed to every Land, that the Gospel should 
 be brought to the door of every Nation, and Kindred, and 
 Language and Tongue, the Committee had to grapple with an 
 untold variety of circumstances. It was easy to multiply copies 
 of the English Bible, and the supply of books to the other resi- 
 dents of these Islands, the Welsh, the Gaelic, the Manx, the 
 Erse, and the French for the Channel Islands, required no 
 great effort ; but when great, distant, and comparatively little- 
 known countries had to be dealt with, startling problems had 
 to be solved, such as had never been dealt with at any period of 
 the world's history. The scholarship of the great scholars of 
 the period was soon exhausted. Not as yet had Bopp raised 
 the study of Language to the rank of a Science, not as yet had 
 a Geographical solution been applied to the great problem : 
 
 Given the surface of the Globe, and the approximate number of the inhabi- 
 tants thereof, to find out what languages are spoken, and to reduce those 
 languages to writing, and to translate the Scriptures into them, so as to be 
 understood by the women and the children, the old and the ignorant, as well as 
 by the young enterprizing men of business. 
 
 If the Committee in its first quarter of a Century had realized the 
 immensity of the problem, they would have shrunk from the 
 endeavour ; but it was concealed from their eyes, and it is only, 
 
( S9 ) 
 
 as their successors have plodded on, that it has become manifest, 
 how magnificent is the spectacle of from two to three thousand 
 mutually unintelligible forms of speech being at this moment 
 used in the world. 
 
 The lives of languages are as uncertain and precarious, as the lives 
 of men: they have fallen, and will continue to fall, like the leaves 
 of a tree. It is one continual struggle for life between the strong 
 and the weak. How many languages has the English devoured, 
 and how many more in its lordly progress over Continent and 
 Island it will still devour ! While the Edition of the translation 
 of the Bible into the Ndma dialect of the Hottentot language 
 was passing through the Press, a warning came to the Com- 
 mittee to stay their hand, as the Dutch language by the force of 
 its own superior vitality was treading out the ancestral language 
 of a tribe passing into the lower levels of civilization. Emperors 
 and Popes blindly try to stamp out politically obnoxious lan- 
 guages in Europe, but their efforts are vain. The vehicle of human 
 thought obeys a law of its own, and defies the ukase of a Sovereign, 
 the Bull of a Pope, or the Act of a Parliament. Of most of the 
 languages, which came under the hand of the translator, there 
 were no Grammars, or Dictionaries, or Texts : the words had to 
 be calught alive out of the mouths of unsympathetic Savages, who 
 could not conceive, "what the Missionary was after in trying to 
 find out the meaning of words, the cause of alterations of syllables, 
 and the construction of sentences. It must be remembered also, 
 that these good and earnest men were with very rare excep- 
 tions anything but scholars: they knew small Latin and less 
 Greek, and indeed nothing but their Mother-tongue : it was 
 therefore in a new arena, that they had to fight, and they were 
 not furnished with the experience and acumen of the trained 
 comparative scholar, whose very instinct leads him to understand 
 the manifold variations of the human intellect, and its struggles to 
 clothe its meaning in vocalic symbols. Some of these good men 
 allowed themselves to indulge in platitudes, which raise a smile, 
 for each complacently considered, that he had the most eccentric 
 and unmanageable language to cope with, being himself utterly 
 ignorant of any other. Some went so far as to describe their 
 languages, as possessing no Grammatical Rules, forgetting, that 
 Grammar is but the Photograph of the method actually in exis- 
 tence, and it could not be pretended, that words left the mouth 
 of any tribe at haphazard. Some maintained, that the languages 
 of barbarians and savages were necessarily so simple, that their 
 word-store was inadequate to express the ordinary ideas of their 
 daily life, and that the early Missionaries, as it were, created the 
 language : we may puff away such oft-repeated fallacies : the 
 logic of the brain of the Savage moves as freely, as that of the 
 educated man, and the majority of Savages are born orators. 
 
C 60 ) 
 
 Nor are their languages necessarily simple or incomplete : this 
 may be said of the Hebrew, which had the advantage of very 
 early culture, and being committed to written record very early, 
 was stunted in its growth : but in three languages in different 
 parts of the world we find phenomena of a very different character. 
 The Sontdl language in Central India is described as being 
 highly complicated, yet strictly logical, possessing five voices, 
 five moods, twenty-three tenses, three numbers, and four cases. 
 The great Bintu languages of South Africa, South of the Equator, 
 are described by all, who have studied them, as rich, abounding, 
 in expressions, which exhibit most delicate shades of thought, 
 regular, exact, and precise, and sufficing from their own word- 
 store, if the rules of their own marvellous structure are worked 
 out, to translate the whole Bible without the necessity of a 
 single loan-word. What shall be said of the Turki language of 
 Northern Asia, before it became diluted and poisoned with Arian 
 and Semitic admixtures ? Its accumulating and self-contained 
 power was such, that each word could develope into many 
 hundred possible forms. 
 
 And the translation, when made, was not destined to be placed 
 on the shelf of a library, or to be used by a few select scholars, 
 or even by the larger and more sharply critical circle of students, 
 such as those, who study the Scriptures in the Hebrew and the 
 Greek. But these translations at once passed into the hands of 
 the Native Catechist and the Native Sunday School-teacher, and 
 the Bible-women, and the old crones, who loved to spell out 
 their Bible. One Missionary records the process : 
 
 As fast as the Bible was translated, my wife taught it to the women and girls : 
 she taught them first to read it, and then to commit it to memory, and left the 
 Spirit of God to apply it to their hearts and consciences (translated "heart- 
 voices ") in His own time and way. The Bible was the basis of their religion, 
 and of their civilization, and the fruit appeared in due time. 
 
 More than that, the flow of new Missionaries is continuous, and 
 the order of men's minds strangely varies, there being a general 
 preference even among consecrated men to their own opinion on 
 matters of literary taste, or translationary accuracy. We see thus, 
 that the work of the translator, the man who broke up the virgin 
 soil, the prentice-hand, that tried to do his best, had a heavy 
 ordeal to go through. Besides being an honest man, loving his 
 work, he became his own severest critic. A one-man translation is, 
 and must always be, looked upon with suspicion. 
 
 No one man, however well qualified for the task, ought to be 
 entrusted with the entire responsibility of translating the Word 
 of God into a foreign language ; it should therefore be a stand- 
 ing rule, that after the translator has done his work, he should 
 submit his MS. to a Committee of not less than three of his 
 brethren, European and Native, appointed for the purpose at a 
 
( 6i ) 
 
 general meeting. The translator should be one of the Com- 
 mittee, but the Committee should be responsible for the transla- 
 tion, every word being compared with the original, and the 
 renderings settled, as the united voice of the Committee decided. 
 The time seems to me to have come, when all the translations of 
 the less well-known languages should be submitted to the inde- 
 pendent criticism of scholars selected for the purpose : many 
 circumstances have led me to fear, that serious errors of judg- 
 ment have been committed, and an artificial language introduced. 
 
 Other eccentric mistakes may have been made, ex.gr. "Let 
 Us make man in our own Image." In the Hebrew and Greek the 
 Plural number is used : some commentators imagine, that the 
 Trinity is alluded to : but this hardly justified a translator in a 
 language, provided with four numbers, singular, plural, dual and 
 trinal, to use the last, and take credit for his skill in the rendering, 
 "Let Us three make man." This is interpretation, not translation. 
 
 Then again the Holy Spirit in the Revelation of St. John 
 speaking through one, who knew the Greek language, conde- 
 scends to illustrate the all-comprehensiveness of the Saviour by 
 saying, " I am Alpha and Omega." No doubt it is a great 
 difficulty, and the Hindustani version "Main Alfa aur Omaga" 
 reads awkwardly, but no doubt is as intelligible to a Peasant in 
 India, as the Greek words are to a Peasant in Great Britain, yet 
 this hardly justifies the version in an African language using a 
 Roman Alphabet, " I am A and Z." 
 
 There may be more than one denomination of Christian 
 Missions working in the same Language-Field, quite ready to 
 make use of the same version, when once it is settled, but 
 naturally desirous to have a word in the matter. Many distinct 
 views may be taken of the duty of a translator : some prefer 
 literal, even servile, following of the Greek, or Hebrew, text, 
 which, owing to the difference of the languages, may lead to 
 inconveniences : others may incline to a paraphrase, which may 
 prove dangerous, as implying interpretation. The tastes of some 
 may incline to a stilted, and classical, book-style : others may err 
 on the side of too vulgar a Vernacular, falling below the dignity 
 of the subject. Add to this the nice points as to the meaning 
 of certain terms in the original, and difficulties of exegesis, 
 difficulties of finding correct renderings of the great land-mark's 
 of Theology,- such as Faith, Justification, Repentance, etc. It 
 requires a long familiarity with the original text, and a deep 
 penetration into its spirit, to beableto sort out, build up, create, 
 or coin, suitable renderings. 
 
 All these difficulties crop up out of the subject-matter, but 
 there are additional causes of heart-burning. Within the region 
 there may be a cluster of sister-dialects of one common language, 
 but none having such a pre-eminence as to justify its being made 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 the Standard. At the time of the Peloponnesian War would the 
 Spartans with their Doric, or the lonians with their Ionic, have 
 submitted to be taught, and preached to, in Attic ? The 
 translator naturally takes to the dialect of the particular tribe, 
 among whom he has dwelt, and from whose lips he has picked 
 up his knowledge. Within twenty miles of his station dwells 
 another tribe, speaking a markedly distinct dialect, and among 
 them has settled a Mission of another Denomination, and 
 another Nationality, say German or French. Here commences 
 the battle of dialects. The Bible-Society, with reason, strives to 
 safeguard the Bible from the peril of a double voice, i-n rival and 
 discordant translations, and objects to encourage in any way the 
 publication of two versions in closely allied dialects of the same 
 language, and strives to compose the difficulty, which is 
 aggravated often by a feature still more serious. In countries, 
 such as India, there is a multiplicity of magnificent alphabets, 
 adapted with precision to the sounds of their languages. Strange 
 to say, the translator, who is new to his work, invites sympathy 
 to himself by dilating on the fact, that he has to use a foreign 
 alphabet. With greater reason the translator, who has to deal 
 with a language, never previously subjected to the discipline of 
 an alphabet, may dwell upon the real difficulty of differentiating 
 the sounds accurately, and recording them precisely. It is 
 generally accepted, that, when no alphabet exists, some form or 
 other of the Roman alphabet should be adopted : not the 
 imperfect and inadequate machine, which is applied to the 
 English language, where one symbol, without the help of 
 diacritical marks, is made to represent several distinct vowel- 
 sounds, but an improved, enlarged, and scientific, Roman 
 alphabet. Here commences the battle of the alphabets. No 
 French, or German, Missionary appears to be able to transliterate 
 in the same manner, as an Englishman. Systems have been 
 propounded by competent scholars, but have never found general, 
 fearless, and universal, acceptance. In Africa there are two or 
 three systems slightly diff"ering: in Ashanti-Land two versions of 
 of a portion of the Scriptures have been published by the 
 Society : the dialectical variation of the Fanti, and Akwdpem, is 
 slight, but the diff"erence of the transliterating method is so great, 
 that none, but a practised student, could read both. In North 
 America some of the translators with greater hardihood have 
 gone back, as it were, many Centuries on the path of Civilization, 
 and adopted a brand-new Syllabary, thus cutting off their flocks 
 entirely from the possible contact of European literature. In 
 South America a Missionary has adopted a system, which no one 
 understands but himself; for the inventor, whose name it bears, 
 disavows it on account of the radical changes made in the 
 course of its use by the Missionary. The proofs of the sheets 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 printed in London have to be sent to Tierra del Fuego to be 
 corrected, occupying six months of wasted time. 
 
 A Committee of Revision, formed of representative men, is 
 the method adopted by the Bible-Societies to bring discordant 
 elements into some kind of harmony : the process is slow, and. 
 costly, but sure, and lasting, and leading on to finality in some 
 dim and remote future. 
 
 The following rules were agreed upon for the guidance of one 
 Translation Committee, and are given as a sample : 
 
 " I. The object is to make a translation, not a paraphrase, or 
 explanation. 
 
 2. The translation is to be as literal, as the language will allow. 
 
 3. The translation is intended for popular use, and therefore 
 should be as simple as possible, yet not vulgar. 
 
 4. Ambiguity in the original is to be retained, where practic- 
 able. 
 
 5. Peculiar Biblical phraseology to be retained, where practic- 
 able. 
 
 6. Important words, and their cognates, to be translated as 
 uniformly as practicable. 
 
 7. Questions of principle to be referred to the Parent-Com- 
 mittee. 
 
 8. The existing version, published in 1880, is to be taken as the 
 basis of the new translation in respect of the general meaning of 
 the original ; but reference may be made to the Authorized and 
 Revised English versions, and those members of the Committee, 
 who are acquainted with Greek, should be consulted in regard to 
 the meaning of the original in doubtful cases. 
 
 9. The European members of the Committee are entitled to 
 express their opinion, whether in regard to the meaning of the 
 original, or the Vernacular rendering, but they are not entitled to 
 a vote on questions, that merely involve a question of language. 
 
 10. The Secretary shall first draft the version of each chapter. 
 This shall be printed, and a copy with wide margin sent to each 
 member of the Committee, who will make such corrections as 
 seem to him desirable, and return it within a week to the Editor. 
 He will consider the corrections thus made within the week, 
 adopt such of them, as he approves of, and send a copy thus 
 corrected to each member. The members shall then meet and 
 decide all questions by a majority of votes." 
 
 And, when the Manuscript is ready, every ingenuity of Art and 
 Science is utilized to multiply copies, and perpetuate Editions. 
 The sizes of the sheets, and of the types, and the number of the 
 copies, and the character of the binding, the quality of paper, 
 and the price to be charged, are all subjects, involving reflection, 
 a sound judgment, a multiplicity of opinions, and an abundance 
 of resources. Sometimes. Photography is made use of. 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 And the wonderful God-made vehicle of language is always 
 found adequate, though in a multiform and various manner, to 
 convey the meaning of God's Word correctly. The Divine 
 Word is itself so marvellously enshrined in human vocables, it is 
 so human in its outward form, that it lends itself readily to new 
 renderings: the pure gold is easily cast in the new linguistic 
 mint. This cannot be said of any other book. Sometimes the 
 translator has turned too readily to the use of loan-words from 
 dead or living languages, and has thus defiled the pure fount of 
 the Native Vernacular : it is much to be regretted, and in my 
 opinion implies the absence of study of the resources of that 
 language : the particular words wanted did not exist, because 
 the idea had not existed, and the word was not wanted. Fifty 
 years ago nobody required such words as " Railway, Station, 
 Telegram," etc. : with the necessity came the word, which has 
 been evolved from the undeveloped Word-Store of the language. 
 The fault lies with the translator, not the language. 
 
 A translation of the Bible is generally the nucleus of an 
 indigenous literature, and from that date the grammatical 
 structure of the language becomes fixed, and a certain amount 
 of permanence is guaranteed to its existence. There is therefore 
 a great objection to translations in a Jargon, a Patois, a Coast- 
 language, or Pigeon-language, which occupy a position lower 
 down in the linguistic scale than a dialect, representing either 
 the Business-form of words used by ignorant traders, landing on 
 the Coast, and dealing with still more ignorant tribes, or some- 
 times the linguistic medium of the village and family, who have 
 conserved a domestic idiom, although using the ordinary 
 Vernacular out of doors. The idea of a Pigeon-English trans- 
 lation in China would be odious, or a trader's jargon on the 
 African coast ; but there are circumstances, under which a re- 
 laxation of a good rule must be made. We have already alluded 
 to the special translations made for the Hebrew Nomads, who 
 still dwell in Europe, as it were in tents, and use a dialect with 
 their own word-store veneered upon an Arian structure. Another 
 cause of relaxation has been the necessity of Creole translations, 
 and West Indian varieties. The American Negroes have been 
 the victims of circumstances : of their own languages they have 
 lost all trace, and have adopted weak and corrupted forms of 
 European languages. Souls must be saved, at any sacrifice of 
 linguistic purity. The words seem to our ears ridiculous, but, 
 if they become the vehicle of true prayer, and of sound teaching, 
 the Holy Spirit will doubtless work through such a medium to 
 as rich a blessing, as would be called down by a similar use of 
 the most polished language. The Word of God must be brought 
 to the level of being understood by the humblest man, woman, 
 and child, and will not suffer from the apparent degradation. 
 
( 65 ) 
 
 On the one hand, proud literary languages, which delight in 
 honorific phrases, and a phraseology of deference, such as the 
 languages of Java, the Osmanli Turki, or the Bangdli, must be 
 levelled down to the grand simplicity of the Hebrew and Greek, 
 and the comprehension of the unlettered poor : while, on the 
 other hand, poor, unsettled, uncultivated, undeveloped forms 
 of mixed words must be levelled up to the dignity of being the 
 vehicle of God's Message to Man, and the golden censer, in 
 which prayer is offered to the Most High. 
 
 Let us consider the dignity of the ofiSce of a-translator : he is 
 not indeed composing a new Bible, but making an old one com- 
 prehensible for the first time to a new people : and the work 
 must be done by consecrated persons, begun, continued and 
 ended in prayer, often under great physical and local difficulties, 
 and far from references to critical helps, and books of reference, 
 but in touch of the people, for whose benefit the Holy Spirit is 
 guiding the faithful and humble-minded translator. It is the 
 first book in many languages, and often the only book, and 
 always the best book. As the wonderful story is spelt out in 
 new combinations of syllables and letters, or hesitatingly pro- 
 nounced in new sequences of strange, but still euphonious, 
 sounds, and, as the divine conception of Sin, Faith, Pardon and 
 Peace, impresses itself on the consciences and intellects of 
 untutored, yet sympathetic, savages, how the heart of the trans- 
 lator is gladdened, how his eye is brightened to think, that in 
 the course of ages to him it has been reserved to be the first 
 interpreter of Revelation to tribes, so long lying out of the way 
 of the Gospel ! On the tomb of more than one venerable scholar 
 the Inscription could have been recorded, that he translated the 
 whole Bible into a language previously unknown. Universities, 
 slowly wise, and meanly just, have lately conferred Scholastic 
 honours on both European and Negro translators, as some slight 
 return for such great services both to Religion and Science ; I 
 am glad to record, that to the Negro race this honour has been 
 conceded to be forward in this great work. Archdeacon Henry 
 Johnson on the Upper Niger, though a pure Negro, is an accom- 
 plished scholar, and a courteous gentleman : he is exhausting 
 worlds of linguistic Science, already partially discovered, and 
 discovering entirely new forms of speech, and clothing the 
 Gospel in this new material. 
 
 It is a great marvel to sit in the Library of the Bible-House, 
 and follow the fine lines of the spider's web, which stretch out 
 to every part of the world, and to touch with respect and awe the 
 specimen-copies of versions, printed in words, which no one in 
 Europe can understand, by the agency of native presses in far- 
 distant regions, which Caesar never knew, but which have been 
 revealed to our generation. How narrow seems the Region 
 
( 66 ) 
 
 alluded to in Acts ii. s, under the sounding expression of ^u>v vjro 
 Tov ohpavou, or " every nation under Heaven," compared with 
 that infinitely wider region, in which man can now hear and read 
 the mighty works of God, each in his own language ! Just as a 
 new Planet rolls itself into the orbit of human sight, so new 
 languages of new tribes spring annually out of the Great Un- 
 known into the arena of Knowledge, exhibiting new forms of 
 Grammatical texture, new word-stores cast in unknown moulds, 
 and calling out to the Servants of Christ, whether the Yellow 
 Mongol, or the black Negro, or the red American, or the white 
 Caucasian, to come over and make use of them, and ennoble them, 
 and perpetuate them by committing to them the Oracles of God. 
 And beyond those,' which are partially known or dimly revealed, 
 the vast empty space on the latest maps warns us of the existence 
 of a great terra incognita, and unrevealed Millions. We are, as it 
 were, standing on the sea-shore, and listening to the confused noise 
 of the waves, or upon a high tower, listening to the murmurs 
 of the unseen crowd below, that float up to our hearing. There 
 are secrets reserved for the twentieth Century to reveal, and the 
 Catalogue of Versions, which we now fondly look on with satis- 
 faction, will be alluded to with a pitying smile, as the puny effort 
 of a generation honest, yet not over-wise, well-intentioned, but 
 not very capable. Time is on the side of the Bible-Societies, 
 which so far resemble the Persian irrigating wheel with a never- 
 ending chain, pouring out a continuous stream of fertilizing 
 water. Fifty years hence, if Great Britain lasts so long (and 
 even then the American Bible .Society will survive, and the 
 Australasian Associations will be independent), we shall know 
 something : and, until we have the Bible in every language 
 spoken under the Sun, it is quite premature to discuss the origin 
 and object of Human Speech, for it appears to me^ that the 
 Gift of Speech was only made to us for the purpose of convey- 
 ing God's Message, not to Churches, and Priests, but to the 
 individual man for the well-being of his Soul. 
 
 But in the work of translation, other difiBculties arise than 
 those of the Language. No class of men are so narrow in their 
 vision as Missionaries, except Scholars, and the Scholar- 
 Missionary, or rather the One-Language unscholarly Missionary, 
 is a most opinionated, untractable, individual. He raises up an 
 isolated pinnacle of his own judgment, and can see with only 
 one eye, and that perhaps a distorted eye. He is aware of his 
 great value, but is not aware, that the more profound the scholar 
 becomes, the more humility he acquires, and the more accurate 
 is his instinct of seeing beyond the mere pages into the 
 consequences of certain expressions. It has been justly 
 remarked, that men have become slaves of their words, instead 
 of maintaining an authority over their vehicle of ideas. In 
 
( ^7 ) 
 
 China, the Divine name has been and is the cause of a long and 
 endless quarrel. The inspired writers of the New Testament 
 laid hold of certain ordinary Greek words, and gave them by 
 their holy touch a new significance. It may be possible, that 
 the Chinese have no term appropriate to the Lord of the 
 Universe, and Creator of Mankind : unquestionably the people 
 of India, Persia, and Arabia, are well supplied. The question 
 in China lies principally between "Shin" and " Shang-Ti." 
 To meet the difficulty of two wholly irreconcileable schools, 
 whole Editions have been published, leaving a blank, wherever 
 the Divine name occurs, so that it may be filled up by hand, at 
 the pleasure of the Missionary. A similar difficulty has arisen 
 in the Zulu language of South Africa: unquestionably a foreign 
 name should never be introduced. When the Teutons were 
 converted, the word "God" was used, not "Deus," or "9e'o9." In 
 India for many years a storm has raged on the mode of trans- 
 literating the holy name of Jesus. In Mahometan countries the 
 tradition has been handed down of the word " Isa," and such 
 is the term used in Arabic, Turkish, and Persian translations ; 
 but many of the Indian translators will have the word " Yisu," 
 and it is possible, that gradually in the minds of an ignorant 
 people there will exist separate individualities to correspond 
 with the two separate names. The use of the word " Baptism " 
 has rent from the Society a considerable number of adherents, 
 and led to the foundation of the Baptist Bible Society using a 
 Vernacular term meaning " Immersion." It must be remembered, 
 that one of the organic rules of the Society is, that the translation 
 is to be without note or comment. Clearly so to translate a 
 neutral word, as to give it an interpretation, which is not 
 admitted by a majority of Protestant Christians, would be to 
 depart from that rule. 
 
 Another controversy has lately arisen as to the transliterating, 
 or translation, of the great name of the God of Israel, " Jehovah." 
 The Jews veiled it under the term Adonai, and the unpronounced 
 tetragrammata have the vowel-pointing of Adonai. The Septua- 
 gint and our Blessed Lord, and his Apostles, use the translated 
 word Kvpios, the Latin Church " Dominus," the German " Herr," 
 the Arab and Turkish Churclies " Rab," and the people of 
 Northern India "Khudiwand." Only in certain special passages, 
 where there is an obvious necessity, in all the versions except 
 the Hindustdni, is the term Jehovah used. The translators of 
 the Old Testament in Persian and Pastu seek to introduce a 
 change, for in both languages a term analogous to Adonai has 
 been used by the earlier translators. There is an objection to 
 a one-man version, because in such matters an arbitrary man 
 listens to no reason : if a Revision-Committee arrives at a certain 
 conclusion, supported by a majority of the Missionaries of the 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 Region, the Parent-Committee would accept their ruling: but, 
 where there is only one man, and not one of wide experience, 
 the Parent-Committee is bound to be firm to its own opinion, 
 and, if the translator is so ill-judging as not to yield, he should 
 be relieved of his task of translation : it is no justification to a 
 Society, that it permitted an error, because such and such a one 
 desired it. The problem is not a simple one, as some would 
 fancy. One Missionary writes, that he had been in continued 
 prayer on the subject, and had arrived at a conviction, the same as 
 preceded his devotions. Another connects the Afghans with the 
 Ten Tribes, and gives that as a reason. Now the Old Testament 
 Company of Revisers were not convinced, or at least had not 
 the strength of their conviction, to introduce the sacred Name 
 into the Revised Version of the Old Testament. The New 
 Testament Company could not do so, as the inspired Greek 
 Text forbade them to depart from the strict duty of translators. 
 So in the event of a transliteration of the sacred Name being 
 adopted for the Old Testament, the Mahometans (and it is by 
 them alone of the non-Christian world that the Book will be 
 used) will notice with surprise three readings of the name of the 
 " Creator " in the Old Testament, EI or Elohim, Al Shaddai, 
 and Yahvah, two separate ones in the New Testament, Kvpioi, 
 v-flaToi, and will remark with complacency, that Mahomet went 
 back to the primeval form " Allah," and that alone. 
 
 The question does not rest with theologians, or Bible-Students 
 in Great Britain : the only judges are those, who are familiar 
 with the details of translation into non-Christian languages. 
 For that purpose I must divide the Non-Christian w.orld into 
 two categories : the first is that vast Region of Western and 
 Central Asia, and North Africa, over which the Mahometan 
 Religion and Culture, and the Arabic language, spread: the 
 second category is the rest of the world. Now, as regards the 
 second category, I do not admit, that any translators were 
 justified in departing from the example of our Lord, and His 
 Apostles, of the Septuagint-Translation, and St. Jerome, of the 
 translators of the Syriac, Koptic, Ethiopic, and Armenian 
 versions ; but I accept facts, and no inconvenience will arise. 
 But, as regards the languages of the Mahometan Region, I would 
 steadfastly follow the example of the great Arabic and Turki 
 versions, the latter in its five-fold varieties. The Persian and 
 Pastu languages are spoken exclusively by a IMahometan 
 population, accustomed to Arabic prayers, invocations, and 
 salutations. Both languages, though of Arian structure, are 
 poisoned by Semitic loans not only of words, but of phrases, 
 and inflections. The same may be said of the Urdu, or 
 Hindustani, of North India: it is an Arian language, deeply 
 affected by Persian and Arabic loans : with the exception of the 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 Bal6chi, which is as yet untouched, the problem ends here, and 
 no future translator will be vexed on this subject. 
 
 If, however, the arguments for adopting a transliteration in 
 Persian and Pastu prevail, and to prevail they must be over- 
 powering arguments, a vista of unknown difficulties is .opened 
 out. With what consistency can the Bible- Society distribute 
 another copy of the translation of the Old Testament in Arabic, 
 Armenian in two varieties, Kurd, Tdrki in five varieties, and Mongol 
 in three varieties ? The Arabic translation is the property of the 
 American Presbyterian Mission, and it may be unhesitatingly 
 stated, that, they will allow no change. The Azerbijdni Turki 
 belongs equally to the American and British Bible-Societies : 
 no change would be possible. As regards the Osmdnli 'lurki 
 the field is chiefly occupied by American Congregationalists, 
 and not a single British Missionary, so they must be arbiters 
 of their own practice. 
 
 Oh ! the difference between the great, and the humble, scholar, 
 and the over-confident, self-satisfied, unscientific, stringer of 
 sentences ! 
 
 The late Bishop Steere is admitted to have been a most 
 successful translator of the Old and New Testament in the 
 Swahili language : it is true, that he had not studied Hebrew, 
 and took no Arabic with him to the African Coast, but still he 
 succeeded : what, however, was his own opinion of his own work ? 
 
 He expressed his agreeable surprise, when a lesson was read from the 
 Philippians, to 6nd, that it seemed almost intelligible, but he attributed this to 
 the way, in which the reader read it : he used to say, that he only published 
 his translations, lest others, not so well equipped, should translate and publish : 
 he never ranked his own translations highly, and he thought his Swahili unidio- 
 matic, and, if he thought, that Missionaries in learning to speak and write 
 Swahili, would rely on his translations, he could wish them all to be burnt. 
 All that he could do was to write the language with grammatical correctness, 
 but the genius of the language must not be sought in any of his translations. 
 
 Perhaps in such terms Jerome, and Luther, spoke depreciat- 
 ingly of the works of their own brain and hand : but Posterity 
 did not agree with them in this particular, and their works will 
 live for ever : unless I am mistaken, the good Bishop's life- 
 work will not soon be superseded. 
 
 Then comes the difficulty of abstract words : there is no doubt, 
 that the capacity of the language could provide the words, if the 
 nature of the idea could be brought home to the unreflecting 
 savage. He sees matters in the concrete, rather than the 
 abstract, and does not moralize. The word Love is an abstract 
 word, and the idea of pure and holy Love, such as is conveyed 
 in the feeling of man to his Maker, and God to his creatures, is 
 unknown to races in a low state of culture. The translator haS' 
 to feel his way to a suitable phrase, and in one instance a painful 
 mistake was made in the rendering of the sentence " God is 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 Love." The writers of the New Testament must have been 
 greatly exercised in their choice of suitable words from the 
 current Greek phraseology of the day, such words as ar^d^n-ri, maTis, 
 ■Trpamri^, 7a7reivo<ppoavv7i, in addressing heathens, who knew no 
 love but lust, who were total unbelievers, who were fierce to 
 resent insults, and considered lowliness of heart as cowardice in 
 disguise. Then it requires a nice knowledge of a language to 
 avoid vulgar or slang phrases : it will occur to any one, how 
 distressing it would be to find slang phrases interwoven with the 
 story of our Lord. But another difficulty arises: the Bible, 
 though a Divine Message, is essentially a human book, localized 
 to a region in a temperate zone, and the writers drew their 
 illustrations from the scenes around them, the Fauna and Flora 
 of the Country, the food, the clothing, the habitations, and the 
 manners, and customs. The Natives of Europe are similarly 
 situated, and have been able to understand the purport, and 
 make allowance for the slight differences. With regard to the 
 Japanese it was remarked that : 
 
 Simplicity of style and freedom from Chinese and foreign terms had been 
 carefully maintained. The main difficulty was in finding satisfactory equivalents 
 for some names of animals, birds, insects, trees, flowers, and precious stones ; 
 the Hebrew weights, measures, etc., were simply transliterated into Japanese, 
 as in every other version. 
 
 But what do the Greenlanders, and the Eskimo, and the Poly- 
 nesians, and Melanesians, and the Equatorial Africans, know about 
 bread and wine, -about fig-trees and sheep.? Their ideas about 
 clothing the body, and habitations, differ in toto. The customs of 
 Child-murder, Cannibalism, and Human Sacrifices, as well as the 
 habit of both sexes going about stark naked, imply a state of 
 mind differing widely from that of the Jews and Syrians. In 
 some congregations in the South Sea Islands the Yams and the 
 Cocoa-nut milk take the place of bread and wine in the 
 celebration of the Euchal-ist. Among the Greenlanders the 
 Moravians are stated to have used a strong analogy, and 
 described our Lord as the " little seal " of God, as the con- 
 ception of a sheep and lamb was unknown, and the seal was to 
 them what the sheep had been to the Syrians. 
 
 I have said enough to show the extreme difficulties of the 
 translator, and that they have succeeded proves the guidance of 
 the Holy Spirit to human agents, who, following humbly the 
 steps of the Prophets and Evangelists, placed Divine Truth in 
 the earthen vessels of poor, perishable, changeable, insufficient, 
 vocables, the distorted reflections of untutored, variable, and 
 capricious thought. 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 Chapter II. — Description of the Languages. 
 
 Let me now glance at the languages of the different Regions of 
 the World, and consider what has been done, and what remains 
 to be done. Before any finality can be arrived at, we must Know 
 the name of every language, and every leading dialect of that 
 language : the exact position of the language-field : the number 
 of people using it. Such statistics have not yet been collected. 
 The difficulty is to secure one accurate nomenclature, and guard 
 against double entries. The exploration of the world is not 
 completed yet. Our linguistic knowledge is not yet up to the 
 mark. Ingenious people copy down names, and put them into 
 Alphabetic order, and print them, but, as the names have not 
 been tested by the Geographer, or the Linguist, the lists are 
 worthless. It was truly remarked some years ago, by a deceased 
 Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society : 
 
 We may well dispel the fear, expressed by some, that Bible-work is 
 approaching its end. If we regard merely the progress of Scripture-transla- 
 tion, we may see how immensely remote is the end of our labours. Allowing 
 that something has been effected, we ought to ask ourselves such questions as 
 these : I. What proportion does this number bear to the total of languages 
 spoken in the world ? 2. In how many of the three hundred and thirty is a 
 mere fragment of the Bible rendered ? and 3 . How many versions are as yet 
 only tentative and rudimentary, holding the ground only until something much 
 more worthy takes their place ? Even great versions are likely, in time, to be 
 superseded, and if so, what changes may not the future see in many of the 
 minor versions, upon which little or no scholarship has as yet been expended ? 
 Besides which, unless we are to accept the labours of the scholars of this 
 generation as final, who shall say, that our children's children may not possess 
 better materials than we possess for determining the words used by the Evangelists 
 and Apostles ? and we may be sure that, whatever advantage textual criticism 
 may give to them, they will feel it their duty to communicate to their fellow-men 
 in all lands, and every tongue. 
 
 I. Europe. 
 
 The languages of this Continent occupy most of the thoughts 
 of men, but they are not in themselves the most interesting, nor 
 do they represent much linguistic variety. The great Arian, or 
 Indo-European, procession Westwards from their primeval home 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 commenced at some remote period of antiquity, and four 
 Branches of that Family, feeling their way North of the Caspian 
 Sea, crossed the River Volga into Europe, presumably in the 
 following order. The Kelt led the way, and was pushed on by 
 his following brethren to the Atlantic, and, as a matter of fact, a 
 great many have been pushed across the Atlantic. Five separate 
 languages survive, and all are represented by translations of the 
 whole Bible: Welsh, Gaelic, Erse and Manx, within the British 
 Islands, and Breton in France. Behind them came the Teuton 
 Branch, represented bythe following languages: English, German, 
 Dutch, Flemish, Fries, Danish, Swedish, Norse, Icelandic, in 
 all of which the entire Bible has been published, except the 
 Fries, which seems to be falling to the rank of a District-Patois, 
 and is represented by one Gospel, to the printing of which 
 I objected, as it appeared to be more a literary curiosity than 
 a vehicle of Gospel-truth. Some dialects of these languages 
 are represented by translations : for instance, the English 
 by Surinam-Negro, the Danish by Creole-Negro: one Gospel 
 exists in the Icelandic dialect of Faro Island: the New 
 Testament and Psalms in Judso-German. Behind the Teuton 
 came the Lithuanic Branch, containing the Lithuanian with the 
 Samogitian dialect, and the Lett, and for their use the whole 
 Bible has been provided. Behind them came the Sldv Branch, 
 represented by the old Slavonic, a liturgical language, the Russ, 
 Pole, Wend, Czeck, Slovdk, Slovdn, Ruth6n, Serb, with the 
 dialect of Carniola, and Bulgdr. In some of these the entire 
 Bible has been prepared : in the remainder only portions : but 
 several dialects are also represented. Two dialects of the 
 Wend are used in Prussia, and another dialect in Hungary. 
 We here enter regions, where the Greek Church uses one form 
 of written character, and the Romish another ; but the Bible- 
 Society supplies both, so as in any way to secure readers. 
 
 But one potent Branch of the Arian Family penetrated into 
 Europe by a route South of the Caspian Sea, passed through 
 Asia Minor, and, occupying the shores of the Mediterranean, 
 established a proud predominance in Art, Arms, and Religion, 
 which has never been surpassed : this is the Greco-Latin Branch, 
 which has left an enduring mark on the whole world never to be 
 effaced. Two dead languages represent this Branch in the first 
 line, both classical, and both liturgical. The whole Bible exists 
 in both : the Old Testament has been translated into Greek, and 
 the New Testament, in the inspired original Greek, so far lives, 
 that in Chapels and Schools the ancient language is used ; but 
 the modern dialect, called Romaic, is represented by the whole 
 Bible ; and a version of a portion is in the Roman character for 
 the use of Greek Roman Catholics. The Greek Priests say, that 
 the only language fit to convey divine things is Greek. The 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 Latin language died, but, like a Phcenix, gave birth in dying 
 to a grand Family of languages, the Italian, the Spanish, the 
 Portuguese, the French, the Romanian of the Danube, the 
 Romansch of Switzerland : with the exception of the last, they 
 are all represented by the whole Bible : and there are dialects, 
 such as that of Vaudois, the Provengal, and Mauritius-Creole 
 of the French : the Catalan, Judaeo-Spanish, Cura^oa-Negro 
 of the Spanish : the Indo-Portuguese of the Portuguese : the 
 Piedmont of the Italian. A dialect of the Romanian is spoken 
 by the settlers of that race in Macedonia : of the Romansch 
 there are three varieties of the Engadine and Oberland in 
 Switzerland. 
 
 But in Europe there exist other languages besides the Family 
 of the Arian. In the Pyrenees the Basque Mountaineers still 
 speak the ancient language of the Cantabrians, and the Bible- 
 Society has supplied them with portions of the Holy Scriptures 
 in the French, Spanish, and Guipuscoa dialects of that interesting 
 and unique language. In the Turkish Province of Albania an 
 isolated language has survived, and copies of the New Testament 
 have been supplied in both the Gheg or Northern, and the Tosk 
 or Southern dialect : here again the written character is a 
 difficulty, political in this case, and not religious, for the former 
 is printed in the Roman, and the latter in the Greek character, 
 and an attempt has now been made to form a National Alphabet 
 to supersede both. To this must be added the Gitano or Gypsy. 
 There remain in Europe the languages of the Ural-Altaic 
 Family. First in order is the Finn Branch, containing Magyar 
 of Hungary ; Finn ; Lapp in three dialects, according to the 
 kingdom, in which they are situated, Norwegian, Swedish, and 
 Russian ; Esthon in the two dialects of Dorpat and Reval ; 
 LivonorLiv; Karel; SirjinorZir; Perm; Mordwin; Cheremissi 
 in two dialects ; and Wotyak. The entire Bible, or portions, have 
 been supplied to these populations. 
 
 Next comes the Tlirki Branch, containing Chuvish, Kazdn, 
 Nogdi in two dialects, and Kirghiz in the Kazak dialect. 
 Portions of the Scriptures have been supplied to all. I reserve 
 the Osmdnli Turki, though the language of authority in Turkey 
 in Europe, for the catalogue of Asiatic Languages, where it is 
 the Vernacular. 
 
 2. Asia. 
 
 I have divided this Continent into nine language-Fields, for 
 purposes of convenience of description rather than according to 
 laws of Science. 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 I. Semitic. 
 II. Ural-Altaic. 
 
 III. Caucasus. 
 
 IV. Arian. 
 
 V. Non-Arian of India. 
 VI. Indo-China. 
 VII. Malaysia. 
 IX. Extreme Orient. 
 
 In the Semitic Field the Bible Societies supply the whole 
 Bible in Arabic : a portion is supplied in Hebrew character for 
 the use of Jews, and in Syriac characters for the use of the 
 Syrian Church ; the entire Bible is also supplied in Syriac in its 
 ancient dialect, being liturgical, and portions in the modern 
 dialect, spoken in Urumiah in Persia. A translation of the New 
 Testament into Hebrew has been made by Dr. Delitzsch : two 
 other translations exist, and are preferred by some. 
 
 Of the Ural-Altaic Family there are five Branches : I. Finn ; 
 II. Turki; III. Mongol; IV. Tungus ; V. Samoy6d : the last 
 is not represented by any translation. 
 
 In the Finn Branch, a portion of which I have already 
 noticed in Europe, I find Ostyak and Wogul in Russia : in each 
 of these there has been prepared a single Gospel. 
 
 In the great Turki Branch, which extends across Asia from 
 the Chinese Frontier to the Balkan Mountains, and from the 
 Arctic Circle to the Caspian, I find five varieties of the Turki 
 Language represented, the Osminli, the Trans-Caucasian or 
 Azerbijani, the Trans-Caspian or Jaghatai, spoken by the Tekke 
 of Merv, the Kirghiz in the Kara dialect, the Kumik, and the 
 Uzbek or Sdrt, spoken at Khiva. The New Testament, or single 
 books of the Old and New Testament, are supplied in the less- 
 known languages, but the whole Bible in the Osmdnli Turki, 
 with an edition in the Greek character for the benefit of Greek 
 Christians, who use the Osminli language, but conserve their 
 own character, and another edition for the Armenians, who use 
 the Osminli language, but conserve the Armenian character. 
 With the exception of the Osmanli, all these tribes are Russian 
 subjects. 
 
 The Mongol Branch is represented by the entire Bible in the 
 Mongol literary dialect, and the New Testament both in the 
 Mdnchu, and Mongol, characters, to suit different classes of 
 readers : one or two Gospels are supplied in the three varieties 
 of the colloquial, the Northern, or Buriat, in Russia, the 
 Southern, or Kalkhas, in China, the Western, or Kalmuk, in Russia. 
 
 The Tungus Branch is represented by the Mdnchu in China. 
 
 In the Caucasus Field we find one language only, the Georgian, 
 with the same version in the Ecclesiastical written character, and 
 also in the ordinary character. Much has still to be done to 
 
■ ( 75 ) 
 
 bring the Bible to the wild races secluded in these mountain- 
 fastnesses. 
 
 In the Field of the Irdn Branch of the Arian Family, which 
 occupies the centre of Asia, we find the Persian, the Armenian, 
 the Kurd, the Oss^t in the Caucasus Mountains, the Pastu of 
 Afghanistan, and the Baluchi. The whole Bible is supplied in the 
 first two : in the latter of the two are three distinct dialects, 
 the Ancient, which is liturgical : the Modern dialect in the form 
 spoken in Asia Minor in Turkey, and a distinct ruder dialect in 
 the Russian Province of Trans-Caucasia. In the other languages 
 of this Branch portions only are supplied, but the whole Bible 
 will gradually be completed in the Pastti and Baluchi, which are 
 extensively spoken on the frontier of British India. The four 
 Gospels are supplied in Persian in Hebrew character for the use 
 of the Jews. 
 
 In the Field of the Indie Branch of the Arian Family I 
 find an unequalled wealth of languages, and of Bible- Work. By 
 the Grace of God we have been enabled to give of our best to 
 the people of India. The whole Bible is published in the dead 
 and liturgical language of Sanskrit, and the living languages of 
 the Panjibi in the Gurmukhi character, the Hindi, and its 
 magnificent dialect Hindustani, or Urdu, which is the lingua 
 franca of India, in Bangdli, Asdmi, Mdghadi, Uriya, Mardthi, 
 Gujarati, and Sinhdli of Ceylon. Half a century ago a great 
 number of tentative translations were made in dialects of 
 Hindi, but being of no practical importance, they are omitted, 
 as being obsolete : on the other hand, portions of the Scripture 
 are available in Kashmiri, Mult^ni, Sindhi, Nepali, and in Pali, 
 the dead and liturgical language of the Buddhists. We find 
 translations in dialects of the Mahometans of Bangali, the 
 Katchi of Sindhi. the K6nkani of Mardthi, the Ddkhani, Marwdri, 
 and Pahdri of Hindi, the Dogri, and Chambdli of Panjabi, the 
 Parsi of Gujarati. Some versions are in the Roman character : 
 some in the peculiar variety of the Indian character belonging 
 to the language. 
 
 In Southern and Central India I find the same phenomena in 
 the Field of the Non-Arians of India. There are four Sub- 
 divisions. Of the Dravidian Subdivision there are four lordly 
 languages, the Tamil, Telugii, Karndta, Malayalim, and the 
 whole Bible is supplied in all four. In the minor languages 
 of the Tulu, the Badaga, the Gond with its dialect the Koi, the 
 Rajmahdli, there are more or less considerable portions in 
 various characters according to the requirements. Of the second 
 Non-Arian Subdivision, the Kolarian, I find the Psalms, Four 
 Gospels, and the Acts, in the Roman character in the Manddri 
 or Kol, and the Sontal. In the third Non-Arian Subdivision, 
 the Tibeto-Barman, I find the Lepcha of Sikhim, the Manipur, 
 
( ;6 ) 
 
 the languages of Tibet, and Barma, the Kar^n in three dialects. 
 In all these languages large portions are available, each in the 
 character understood by the people. In the fourth and last 
 Non-Arian Subdivision one isolated Language, the Khdsi, 
 possesses the New Testament and the Pentateuch. 
 
 Passing Eastward of British India, I enter the Indo-Chinese 
 Field, with two Subdivisions, each represented by translations : 
 the Tai by the language of Siam, and the languages of Laos, and 
 of the Shan : the Mon-Anam by the Mon, spoken in Pegu, within 
 the Province of British Barma. I now turn South and enter the 
 Indian Archipelago, or Malaysia, Field. The Region of Malaysia 
 must be distinguished sharply from that of Oceania, though they 
 are often blended together : they have scant philological, and 
 no political, connection, and only a slight and partial ethnical 
 affinity. Malaysia is unquestionably in Asia: Oceania is a 
 separate part of the world. The important language of Malay 
 is spoken as a lingua franca over the region, and specially in 
 the Peninsula of Malacca, and the great Island of Sumdtra. 
 There exists a translation of the whole Bible in Malay in the 
 Roman character, and another in the Arabic : portions are 
 translated in the Sourabdya or " low Malay " Dialect. In the 
 Island of Java portions are published in the language, called that 
 of Java, and also in that of Sunda. A translation is published 
 in the language of the adjacent Island of Bali, and one Gospel 
 in the separate language of the little Island of Nias. In the 
 interior of the Island of Sumatra there are tribes, who have 
 conserved their own language, the Batta, and portions of the 
 Scriptures are supplied to them in two dialects in their peculiar 
 character. The Dyak of Borneo in two dialects, and the Macassar 
 and Bugi tribe of Celebes, and the Alfuor, have not been forgotten, 
 and the whole or portions of the New Testament have been 
 supplied. For the inhabitants of the Sangir Islands a version 
 of the Psalms, and New Testament, has been published, and 
 a translation in one of the languages of the Philippines, the 
 Pangasma ; thence doubling back to the Bay of Bangdl, in the 
 Islands of Nicobdr I find the Gospel of St. Mark in preparation, 
 and the Lord's Prayer in the Bojingijida language of the Anda- 
 mans, actually published by a private individual. To this Field 
 belongs the translation in one of the languages spoken by the 
 aborigines in the Island of Formosa, in China. 
 
 The supply of Bibles to the great Kingdom of China might 
 well require a separate Bible-Society, for in addition to the great 
 Delegates version, or Wen Li, of the whole Bible, which is in 
 the Classical or Book language of China, and of no use to 
 the uneducated masses, but, owing to the character, in which it 
 is written, intelligible to the educated speakers of all the different 
 colloquial forms of speech of China, I find portions both in 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 the Northern and Southern Mandarin, or official language, and 
 in the colloquial vernaculars of Shanghai, Ningpo, Kinhwa, 
 Canton, Hakka, Fuh-Chau, Amoy, Chau-Chau, and Hainan, 
 sometimes in ideographs adapted phonetically, and sometimes 
 in the Roman character. The actual colloquials were quite a 
 novelty, as the Chinese scholar never dreamt of writing a book, 
 or even a letter, in the colloquial or patois of a place : hardly a 
 specimen existed before the colloquial versions of the New 
 Testament appeared. Thus in China, as in Great Britain and 
 in India, and in Africa, America, and Oceania, the appearance of 
 the Bible has settled, and strengthened, and fixed in print, the 
 oral Vernacular of the people. It will be long before the united 
 force of the Bible-Societies will be able to make any solid 
 impression on the vast and inert mass, and the people of China 
 will go on absorbing vast supplies of the Scriptures for many 
 generations. Beyond China is the Field of the Extreme Orient, 
 and the whole Bible is ready in the language of Japan, and 
 portions in the languages of the Ldchri, the Aleutian Islands, 
 and the Kor6a, each in their peculiar written character. A 
 translation of a Gospel in Aino is prepared. This ends the 
 story of Asia. It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in 
 our eyes. 
 
 3. Africa. 
 
 In the Dark Continent ever since the days of Aristotle there 
 has been found 
 
 AIEI Tl KAINON 
 
 always something new, something strange, something un- 
 expected, and unique. Pyramids and Obelisks, Snow-capped 
 Mountains on the Equator, and Imperial Rivers; in one part 
 of the Continent the language is so diverse, that near neighbours 
 cannot understand each other ; in another part one great Family 
 of more than a hundred congeners, marvellous in symmetry, and 
 capable of expressing from their own word-store every shade of 
 human thought. In that Continent we find populations cheer- 
 fully flourishing under oppression, which would have extinguished 
 any other ; boundless prairies, unlimited capabilities ; thousands 
 of miles of water-way; Cannibalism, Human Sacrifices, deadly 
 sorcery, grotesque customs, and abominable crimes. Last 
 century Europeans were content to play the part of man- 
 stealers, and traflSckers in black ivory: in this century the 
 scramble for Africa itself has commenced, the most shameful 
 spoliation, and heartless conspiracy to destroy the souls and 
 bodies of millions by the boundless import of spirituous liquors, 
 
( ;8 ) 
 
 arms, and gunpowder. It is well indeed, that the Religious 
 world, of every Protestant sect and denomination, has striven 
 to supply the only antidote, the Bible, and give the African a 
 chance of Education, Civilization, and Salvation, physically as 
 well as spiritually. 
 
 The Bible-Societies have not been found wanting. Of the 
 Semitic Family of languages, Editions of the Ancient Ethiopic, 
 and the Modern Vernaculars of Amhdra and Tigr6 have been 
 suppHed to the people of Abyssinia. Of the Hamitic Group, the 
 Bible has been published in whole or in part in the dead and 
 liturgical language of the Koptic, and progress is being made 
 in translations for the benefit of the Kabiil of Algeria, and the 
 Shilha of Morocco in the Riff dialect. For the Hamitic tribes 
 of Abyssinia portions have been published in the language of 
 the Bilin, alias Bogos, and the dialect of Agau, spoken by the 
 Faldsha Jews, who occupy the anomalous position of not being 
 Semites either in blood or in speech. For Galla-land, that com- 
 paratively unknown Region South of Abyssinia, portions of the 
 Old Testament and the New Testament are ready in three 
 dialects. Of the Nuba-Fulah Group, the Gospel of St. Mark, 
 in the Fadidja dialect of the Nuba, prepared by Professor 
 Lepsius, has been published in the Arabic and Roman character, 
 and a translation of a Gospel in the Futa-Toro dialect of the 
 Fulah is in MS. 
 
 For the Negro Group, in the long belt of country from the Nile 
 to the Atlantic, North of the Equator, the following translations 
 have been put into circulation at the different Missionary Stations, 
 being read in the Chapels, and taught in the Sunday-Schools : 
 the Wolof in Senegambia, the Susu on the River Gambia, the 
 Mande, Temne, Bullom and Mende South of that River, and 
 round the Colony of Sierra Leone : the Grebo in Liberia, the 
 Ashanti in two dialects, the Akwdpem and Fanti, the Akrd or 
 Gd, the Ew6 in two dialects, the Anlo and Dahdmi, alias Popo, 
 on the Gold Coast, the Ydriba in YAriba-land, the Ibo, Igara, 
 Igbira, and Nup6 in the Basin of the Niger, the Hausa in Central 
 Africa, and the Efik on the Old Kalabar River. Some of these 
 languages are spoken by Millions : translations in other languages 
 are in preparation : printing presses are at work in several of the 
 Missions, and it is a struggle for life betwixt the Bible and the Gin- 
 bottle, the devoted Missionary and the unscrupulous trader j 
 while the European Governments, whether Protestant or Roman 
 Catholic, look on with perfect indifference, and cold impartiality, 
 making no attempts to control crime in their nominal Pro- 
 tectorates, or Spheres of Influence, which are mere " Dog in the 
 manger " arrangements. 
 
 South of the Equator is the great Bdntu Family of languages, 
 with translations of the Holy Scriptures, in whole or in part, 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 in the Dualla and the Isubu of the Kameruns, the Ediya of the 
 Island of Fernando Po, the Benga, the Kele, and the Pongwe of 
 the River Gabun, the Kongo, T6k6 and Nkundu of the Kongo 
 Basin, the Umbundu of Benguella, and Kimbundu of Angola, in 
 the Portuguese West African Colony, the Her§ro of Damara-land, 
 the Chudna, P6di, and Suto of the tribes South of the River Vaal, 
 the Siga, alias Tonga, of Inhambdne, the Xosa of Kafraria, the 
 Zulu of Zulu-land, the Gwamba of the Transvaal, the Nyanja, 
 Ngoni, and Tonga of Lake Nyassa, the Yao and the Makua of 
 the region behind the Portuguese Colony of Mozambik, the 
 Kaguru of U-Sagdra, the Swahili, the lingua franca of Eastern 
 Equatorial Africa, the Bondei, the Nyikd. of Mombdsa, the 
 Kamba, the Gogo, the Ganda of Victoria Nyanza on the Equator, 
 and the Giihha on Lake Tanganyika. Many of the languages 
 are spoken by hundreds of thousands, strong, symmetrical and 
 melodious, a marvel to the Philologist. Some of these transla- 
 tions are only in progress, or being used in Manuscript, or in the 
 rough proofs of the Mission Press. In a few years the number 
 will be greatly increased. 
 
 In the Hottentot-Bushman Group only one translation has 
 been prepared, in the Ndma of Namiqua-land, and the com- 
 pletion of that was arrested by the assertion of some, disputed 
 by others, that the Native language was being superseded by a 
 dialect of Dutch. However, it has lately been determined, that 
 the whole translation should be printed. The objection to 
 printing a translation in the Cape-dialect of Dutch has not yet 
 been got over. 
 
 The entire Bible has been published in the Malagdsi, the 
 ruling language of Madagascar ; it belongs to the Malayan 
 Family of Asiatic languages. 
 
 In Africa lies the greatest hope of expansion in the Future . 
 in the present state of our knowledge no limit can be fixed. It 
 must be expected, that some great languages will swallow up the 
 smaller and weaker : and the ravages of the Slave-Trade result, 
 not only in the depopulation of districts, but the extinction 
 of languages. The Missionaries sometimes unwisely try to 
 force upon a tribe, which has a good Vernacular of its own, the 
 use of one, which he himself understands. 
 
 4. America. 
 
 America represents a new and distinct world of languages, 
 not like the languages of Africa, strong and vigorous, and likely 
 to last for ever, but poor, shrinking and decaying. The languages 
 of Europe, such as the English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, 
 have brought an influence to bear, which these weak languages, 
 
( 8o ) 
 
 and diminishing populations, will be unable to resist. In the 
 Arctic Regions is the Eskimo, extending from the Pacific to the 
 Atlantic, and to Greenland : the entire Bible has been published 
 in one dialect, and the greater part in two other dialects. On 
 the Pacific translations have been lately made by the Missionaries 
 in the language of the Shimshi Indians of Metlakatla, and Kwa- 
 gutl of Vancouver's Island, the Nishkah of the River Naas, and 
 Hydah of Queen Charlotte's Island. I come next to the great 
 Athabaska Family. Five languages are represented, the Tinne, 
 Chipewan, Slav6, the language of the Indians of the River 
 Beaver, Tukudh, alias Loucheux Indian, beyond Fort Simpson, 
 in the Province of Alaska, and the Blackfoot of Saskatchewan. 
 Proceeding Southward I come among the different branches of 
 the Algonquin Family, and there are translations of parts, or of 
 the whole, of the Bible in the Cree language in two Dialects, the 
 Ojibwa, the Mikmak of Nova Scotia, with its dialect Abenaqui : 
 the Maliseet of New Brunswick, the Delaware, and Ney Perces. 
 Of the Iroquois Family, the Bible-Society has prepared a portion 
 of the Scriptures for the Iroquois proper, the Mohawk and the 
 Seneka. Considerable portions are also available to the Dak6ta, 
 or Sioux Indians. Of the Floridian or Appalaquian Indians of 
 the Southern States an opportunity of studying the Word of God 
 in their own Vernacular has been supplied to the Choctaw, the 
 Ch6roki, and the Musk6ki, or Creek Indians. 
 
 Passing down into Central and Southern America, there is but 
 a scanty show, as the influence of the Roman Catholic Priests 
 has choked the Gospel. In the Maya of Yukatan, there are two 
 Gospels, and one Gospel in the Aztek of Mexico ; one Gospel 
 exists in MS. of the language of the Moskito Indians. In South 
 Guiana there exist translations of portions in the Karib, Akkaway, 
 and Araw^k: one Gospel represents the Quichua Language in 
 Peru, and Aimard in Bolivia. A Gospel is preparing in the 
 Guard,ni of Paraguay, a language said to be the Vernacular of half 
 a million, but this is disputed by others. Far to the South, not 
 far from the Antarctic Circle, is the Lone Star-Mission of the 
 Bishop of the Falkland Islands, and the Gospels and the Acts 
 have been gladly supplied from London to Tierra del Fuego 
 for the tribe of the Yahgdn. Thus, from the Arctic to the 
 Antarctic Circle something, though not sufficient, has been done 
 to publish the Word of God. and it is worthy of note, that in 
 that vast extent of country there is reason to believe, from the 
 obvious coincidences of the Grammatical structure of the 
 languages, in spite of the difference of the Word-store, that we 
 are dealing with one Branch of the Human Family. 
 
( 8i ) 
 
 5. Oceania. 
 
 The World is generally considered to consist of four Con- 
 tinents, but lying outside them in the bosom of the Pacific are 
 fairy regions, secluded gardens of the Ocean, where Day never 
 shuts her eye : regions, which were dreamt of by the Poet Horace : 
 
 Nos manet Oceanus circutnvagus : Arva beata, 
 Petamus arva, divites et Insulas. 
 
 In later days Tennyson has described them in a few wondrous 
 lines : 
 
 there to wander far away 
 On from island unto island at the gateways of the Day, 
 Larger constellations burning, mellow moons, and happy skies, 
 Breadth of tropic shade, and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise : 
 Never comes the trader, never floats an European flag, 
 Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag : 
 Droops the heavy-blossomed bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree. 
 Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea. 
 
 These regions have been marked by frightful crimes. 
 Cannibalism, Human Sacrifice, Sorcery, and by the murders of 
 Cook and La Perouse, the explorers, and John Williams, Gordon, 
 and Patteson, the Missionaries. Yet God did not leave for ever 
 these lands without a witness, and at the close of last century 
 Missionaries found their way to Tahiti from England : later on 
 Hawaii and Mikronesia were occupied by an American Mission : 
 soon after New Zealand was evangelized from England, as well 
 as Samoa, Fiji, the Loyalty Islands, the New Hebrides, Banks' 
 Islands, Santa Cruz, Solomon Islands, and New Guinea. Never 
 since the days of Pentecost had there been so plentiful an out- 
 pouring of the Spirit, for God chose men from the humblest to be 
 his Messengers, and the Divine method of sending out Native 
 Teachers two and two to Evangelize their own countrymen was 
 adopted with wonderful success by all Protestant Denominations. 
 Those, who have travelled in tropical climates, know, how at 
 night the ship leaves behind it a long and broad brilliant furrow 
 of light, marking for many leagues the course, which has been 
 taken. Such is the light left behind in their annual visits by the 
 Missionary Ships, the John Williams, the Wesley, the Southern 
 Cross, and the Dayspring, the memories of unselfish acts of 
 kindness, devotion to the best interests of the islanders, and the 
 desire to elevate them, and protect them from their own 'cruel 
 customs, and from the cruel trader and man-stealer. Among 
 the earliest efforts has been the translation of the Bible in the 
 languages of these Islands, and the versions thus published came 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 upon the scholars of Europe with all the freshness of a new 
 Revelation. There are four Regions : I. Polynesia, in which, 
 including Hawaii North of the Equator, and New Zealand far 
 to the South, all the languages belong to one Family ;_ II. 
 Melanesia, including New Guinea, where there was a multiplicity 
 of totally distinct languages ; III. Mikronesia, where only a few 
 languages have been investigated ; IV. Australia, where the 
 aborigines seem to have been neglected, and a scanty instruction 
 conveyed in English, though still there are many Native 
 Languages. In the first region we have translations of the 
 Holy Scriptures in the languages of Tahiti, Rarotonga, the 
 Marquesas, Hawaii, Samoa, Nine, Tonga, and Maori. In the 
 second Region we find Fiji, R6tuma, Mare or Neng6ne, Lifu, 
 Uvea, Aneityum, Tanna, Nguna, Mai, Futuna, Erromanga, Aniwa, 
 Fate, Mota, Arag, Oba, Maewo, Espirito Santo, Wano : Florida, 
 Isabel, Murray Island, South Cape, Saibai, Mdfor, Motu, 
 New Britain, and Duke of York's Island. In some the portions 
 translated are very small, but they are the first efforts. Of the 
 third or Mikronesian Group there are five languages represented, 
 Kusaie in Strong Island, Ebon in Marshall Islands, the language 
 of the Gilbert Islands, Ponape, and the Mortlock Islands. Of 
 the foHrth, or Australian Region, there is but one representative, 
 the Narrinyeri, and so entirely out of circulation, that I cannot 
 get a copy. In Tasmania all the aborigines have been killed 
 down, and, alas ! left no portion of the Scriptures as their 
 Epitaph, and Memento. 
 
 With this entry closes the detail of the great work of the 
 great Bible-Societies. Laus Deo ! 
 
 As already stated, it is no easy matter to prepare the MS. of the 
 original translation, orof the revised translation, ready forthePress: 
 then arises the question as to the form of written character, which 
 ought to be used, the type, the paper, the size of the type and 
 of the paper, the place of printing, the alternative readings, the 
 marginal references, the use of Capital letters for such words, as 
 the Divine Name, the Maps, the Title-Page, the Binding, and 
 lastly the Price. When all these points have been settled, then 
 comes the great problem of Distribution. This feature distin- 
 guishes the proceedings of the Bible-Societies from that of any 
 other Publishing, or Wholesale Firm, in any time Past or Present. 
 It does not condescend to advertise, but it sends its wares to every 
 part of the world, consigned to its Agent or local Committee, 
 whose task it is to distribute from town to town, and village to 
 village, and man to man. The System grew up so simply, and 
 on such well-understood lines, that it appears simple, though it 
 is in reality a most complicated machinery. Enter the Ware- 
 houses of the great Bible-House in Queen Victoria Street 
 
( S3 ) 
 
 in London, or the Bible-House in Astor Place, New York, U.S., 
 and you will find cases ready packed, and directed to every 
 portion of the world. Infinite as are the directions, to which 
 the wares are sent, manifold as are the forms, which those wares 
 assume, it is the same Pearl of great price, which the merchant- 
 man, who sought such wares, found at last, and went and sold 
 all that he had and bought it ; it is the same leaven, which 
 a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole 
 was leavened : it is the same good seed, which a man sowed in 
 his field. At the other end of the world, and in every great City 
 of the world, there are Auxiliary Societies, and Agents, and 
 Depots, and Colporteurs, and Bible-Evangelists, and Bible- 
 Women, who receive these precious wares, and convey them, at 
 the risk of life, health, and comfort, from town to town, from 
 village to village, from house to house, and from room to room 
 in crowded family-mansions. Listeners are assembled on the 
 lone hill-side, or in the crowded street, and family circles gather 
 together apart from the public gaze : thus amidst the din of 
 the market, amidst the braying of the soldier's trumpet, in the 
 recesses of the secret harem, in the public classes of the school, 
 in the great gatherings together of thousands for the worship 
 of false Gods, or the obedience to false Prophets ; in front of the 
 Propaganda, and St. Peter's, at Rome : under the Dome of the 
 Greek Cathedral at Moscow : at the door of the tomb of our 
 Lord at Jerusalem, and the place of His birth at Bethlehem : on 
 the steps of the great Hindu bathing-places on the Ganges at 
 Bandras : under the shadow of the gigantic statues of Buddha 
 in Ceylon, and Barma ; in the Joss-house in China ; in the 
 Courts of the Jama Masjid at Dehli ; in the inclosures, set apart 
 for Human sacrifice to hideous Idols in the Islands of Polynesia: 
 in sight of many a Heathen, or Mahometan, shrine; many a 
 sealed Roman Catholic Convent ; the old old Story is read out 
 to each man in his own tongue, how God made and rules the 
 world, how Jesus lived and died for all, how the Holy Spirit 
 still watches over His elect ! 
 
 From the earliest period of the History of Man we find indica- 
 tions of the difference of forms of speech : what was the real 
 meaning of the Confusion of Tongues at the time of the Tower 
 of Babel I cannot say : what was the precise nature of the 
 Pentecostal effusion of the gift of Tongues is equally uncertain : 
 at any rate, the detail of the languages spoken and understood 
 on that memorable occasion, enables us to perceive, that they 
 belonged to a region, to which the expression "H oiKovfievrj only 
 applies, as a figure of speech. We gather the fact of a differentia- 
 tion of dialect in the anecdote, connected with the pronunciation 
 of the word "Shibboleth," mentioned in the Book of Judges; 
 and later on, we find, that the Assyrians, who besieged Jerusalem, 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 used a language distinct from, though kindred to, the language 
 of the Jews. We find the use of the Chaldee creeping into 
 the Book of Daniel. The words, uttered by our Lord on the 
 Cross, tell us, that the Hebrew had given way to an Aramaic 
 language, and Greek had become the dominant language at the 
 Christian era, and most fortunately so, for St. Paul's arguments 
 could not have been so precisely stated in any Semitic 
 form of speech. In the Revelation we find the Almighty 
 condescending to illustrate his All-comprehensiveness by a 
 comparison with the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. 
 As some measure of the increase of our knowledge of the Science 
 of Language during this century, I may state, that men no longer 
 with our forefathers believe, that Hebrew was the Mother-tongue 
 of Human speech, and the language of Paradise. On the other 
 hand, the work of the Bible-Societies has convinced all of the 
 absurdity of the opinion, expressed in 1778 by an Orientalist, 
 that no translation of the Bible could possibly be made into the 
 language of China, because the nature of the language would 
 not allow of any translation being made. It is difficult to bring 
 back the mind to the standpoint, whence such an opinion could 
 have been entertained. 
 
 Many languages would never have been reduced to writing, 
 would never have been known to later ages, would have been 
 trodden down under the triumphant footfall of some more 
 powerful language, leaving no track on the sands of time, but 
 for the Bible, which has kept many a flickering form of speech 
 alive by lending it a spiritual light of its own, and has given an 
 immortality to others : there are languages in North America, in 
 which the Bible was translated by early Missionaries, but the 
 whole tribe has become extinct, or has adopted English, and 
 still that language lives enshrined in the Words of the Gospel, 
 comprehensible to students, though no longer living on the lips 
 of men. Of all the languages, in which Xerxes, King of Persia, 
 issued his letters, to each Province in its own language, only 
 those two have survived, and are still heard and understood after 
 the lapse of twenty- four Centuries, Hebrew and Greek, to which 
 were committed the oracles of God. No language has ever 
 perished from the reservoir of human knowledge, which has been 
 the vehicle of conveying divine knowledge, for being honoured 
 by being so selected it has become Immortal. 
 
 What feeling has kept the translator, in spite of sickness and 
 privation, to his post ? Some opere in medio have died, and their 
 hands stiff'ened on their Manuscript : the story of the last 
 moments of the Venerable Bede is but the type of many other 
 ends : they felt, that all their gifts to Him belonged, and to Him 
 they consecrated their expanding, mature, and failing, powers. 
 Other men may have been greater poets, greater orators, and a 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 translator has intellectually but a limited orbit : he is but a torch, 
 handing on the divine flame, but to be the medium of handing 
 on such a flame is the greatest of honours and privileges. One 
 great translator remarked, that he could almost wish, that all 
 the Lord's people were translators, that they might see with 
 their own eyes the very words, and style, in which God expressed 
 His thoughts to Man. I quote the remarks of one loved and 
 revered translator still spared to us : 
 
 To me it is of pathetic interest to recollect, that I went in July, 185 1, with 
 the first complete edition of the Scriptures, issued by the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society. I have long been the sole surviving Missionary of that date. I 
 witnessed the joy of the book's first reception, and the gradual transformation 
 of character, which its blessed influence brought about. And now it has fallen 
 to me to revise that same Bible for a standard-edition. Too high praise cannot 
 be given to the original translators, for the faithful way, in which their work was 
 done, and for the marvellous grip they possessed of the language at that time 
 untainted by outside influences. The Spirit of God evidently rested upon these 
 good men. My edition is essentially a return to theirs. Foreign words have 
 given place to native equivalents, rendering the book more intelligible. The 
 aim has been to make this version as popular and useful as the old authorized 
 version has long been to English-speaking people. 
 
 It is also a subject of fervent rejoicing, that Women have not 
 been behindhand in this work of love ; in every part of the 
 world I find, that this high Grace has been conceded to our 
 sisters of " labouring in the Gospel," and thus " inscribing their 
 own names in the Book of Life." It has come under my know- 
 ledge, and it gladdens my heart to record it, that the Bible-Societies 
 have instances of the sweet yoke-fellowship of the Son and the 
 widowed Mother, the Father and the Daughter, the Husband 
 and the Wife, in this most precious consecration of intellectual 
 capacity united with Spiritual devotion. Single ladies, and 
 widow ladies, have not been slack in seeking a blessing, by being 
 zealous in this service, and at their death they leave behind 
 something more precious than the garments, which Dorcas left 
 behind to her weeping friends, inasmuch as they have helped 
 to clothe the Word of Life in a new vesture of words and 
 sentences, which will never wax old, nor require change, nor 
 perish, but will be fresh, and profitable to generations still to be 
 born. 
 
 Nor must I forget to record the services of those, who pre- 
 pare the way for the translator by compiling Dictionaries and 
 Grammars of previously unknown languages. I may allude to 
 Mr. Holman Bentley, who a few years ago published his 
 Monumental Dictionary and Grammar of the Kongo language. 
 In the middle of his labour he was temporarily afflicted with 
 loss of eyesight, but he was able to continue his labours by the 
 help of his wife, who developed a great aptitude for such work. 
 In the Preface I wrote as follows, having taken continuous 
 interest in his great enterprize : 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 For it is for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of the Lord, that this' 
 great worli has been commenced, continued, and completed. It is a solid 
 brick in the great edifice of the Evangelization of Africa. How can they 
 hear, unless they are spoken to? How can they be spoken to, unless the 
 Missionary masters the vulg5.r tongue of the people, to whom he is sent? Mr. 
 Bentley consecrated his great talents to this noble work in the hope, that it would 
 enable his colleagues, and those who come after him, to spread the Gospel of 
 Christ. This was his main object, and for this purpose only, the funds of a 
 Missionary Society can be properly devoted to the expense of such publications. 
 
 But the scholars of Europe and North America would indeed be dead to all 
 ■ feeling, did they not feel gratitude to Missionaries, who have revealed to them 
 new worlds, and helped them to enter in, and admire the beauties of hitherto 
 sealed gardens. The Kongo language takes its place by the side of the Swahlli, 
 the Zulii, and the Pongwe, as one of the typical languages of the Bantu family. 
 Differing from each other in many particulars, they still have such inefifaceable 
 affinities as indicate their common stock. The mechanism of one often explains 
 misunderstood anomalies in the others. Mr. Bentley has been able to get to 
 the bottom of many knotty points, which will, no doubt, throw a reflected light 
 on unexplained features in lister-languages, of which the study is only now 
 commencing. A Dictionary and a Grammar are but means to an end, and 
 that end, from the point of view of all, who love their Lord, is the translation 
 of the Holy Scriptures, and the circulation and faithful preaching of the Ever- 
 lasting Gospel. All human knowledge, all intellectual talents, are vain and 
 profitless, unless, directly or indirectly, they lead on to the salvation of souls, 
 and I heartily congratulate Mr. Bentley, that he has been permitted to render a 
 service to the great cause, which will be lasting, and pave the way to services, 
 whether performed by himself or others, which will be still more endurable, 
 still more acceptable, and still more blessed. 
 
 The translator has not only to grapple with new word-stores, 
 and new grammatical forms, but with new idioms, a strange 
 unlettered logic of ideas, and a new mode of collocating words, 
 so as to represent the ideas, as they rise in the mind. All men 
 do not ratiocinate in the same way. Place a sentence in the 
 lingua franca of India by the side of a sentence in English, and 
 it will be perceived, that the ideas rise in the mind in a reversed 
 order, and 3-et so plastic is the mind, when trained, that many 
 among us speak both languages without an effort. Each Family 
 of languages seems to have a soul of its own: its genius at some 
 remote period leapt out of darkness, and became fixed for ever. 
 The Chinaiman may use English words, but he uses them after his 
 own method. When he learns an Arian language, he passes out 
 of the orbit of his native conceptions, and accepts a new method 
 of ratiocination. 
 
 It takes some degree of culture to arrive at abstract words : a 
 Savage knows, what it is to be brave, but he has no word for 
 valour: he cannot realize what is spiritual guidance, but he 
 can grasp the conception of a pillar of light, or a corporeal 
 Angel : he knows not the meaning of temptation, but he can 
 conceive the idea of a tempter in human, and generally feniale, 
 forin. The translator has not only to translate Greek and 
 Hebrew words, but he has to communicate the very notion of 
 
(; 87 ) 
 
 Pardon, Self-restraint, Forgiveness, and herein lies the Prayer- 
 relying diflBculty of the translator. While new words are being 
 coined to represent new conceptions, old words are being happily 
 choked out, such as Sorcerer, and Medicine-man, whose name 
 and office are soon clean forgotten. It*vould be an interesting 
 study to follow out the introduction of words, or their decay, 
 from the influence of the Missionary, or the Trader; the first 
 two English words in the New Hebrides were Missionary and 
 Tobacco, soon to be followed by the wholesome terms of Bible, 
 Chapel, and School, and the unhappy antitheses of Gin, Rum, 
 Firearms, and Gunpowder. 
 
 What a study it is to mark the Patois growing up to the level 
 of the authorized Vernacular ! The Romans in their day may 
 have laughed at the patois of the Gaul, the Iberian, the Dacian, 
 and the Italian, but they grew, and grew, till they strangled their 
 mother. A speaker of English must not judge harshly the young 
 hybrids, which are coming into existence in every part of the 
 non-European world, the issue of a European linguistic Father 
 and an African, Asiatic, American, or Oceanic, Mother: already 
 specimens are being collected and arranged. Some will strike 
 root, and be the Vernaculars of the future. Once let the Bible be 
 translated into them, and their future is secure. Some languages 
 seem to fall short of the due stock of expressions of thought : some 
 seem to be supplied far beyond what is necessary. A South 
 African chief, understanding that an interpreter had expressed 
 his inability to translate an English letter, owing to the poverty 
 of the Vernacular, proudly offered to render it in .three distinct 
 versions without using the same word more than once. Some 
 languages reduce words to one syllable ; others include the 
 whole of a long sentence in one inseparable word. Some 
 languages are melodious, abounding in open vowels ; others are 
 debased by sounds worthy of brute beasts. 
 
 It is beyond the power of a Caesar, or a Pope, to arrest the 
 magnificent progress of the Bible over the world : they might 
 as well try to stop the Sun in mid-heaven. This unequalled 
 book will roll on in its majesty, until earthly tongues cease, and 
 Language has had its day. Once impressed with the value of 
 this book, no nation will part with it. Witness the story of 
 Madagascar and Tahiti. In the former Island the persecution 
 of a Heathen Monarch was of no avail against a race, which 
 buried Bibles in secret places : in the latter Island the French 
 Roman Catholic Priests have found all their endeavours in vain 
 to extirpate the Tahiti Bible. The Kings of the Earth may 
 rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, but holy men have 
 gone to the stake with a copy of the Bible tied round their 
 neck, as their insignia of nobility. In many Southern Islands 
 the arrival of the printed volume from Great Britain was hailed 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 with rejoicing, and, ere the ship had touched the shore, large 
 editions had been sold off to eager thousands, who crowded 
 with their arrowroot, and other articles of raw produce, to make 
 their purchases. The Islands of Samoa were occupied at the 
 close of last century by tribes so fierce, that they devoured part 
 of the crew of the French Navigator, La Perouse. A few years 
 ago they transmitted gratefully the last instalment of the cost of 
 the whole Volume translated into their language. Such leaves 
 have been indeed to the healing of the nations. There is also 
 a strange and subtle advantage in placing in the hands of such 
 a variety of the human race, one book, and such a book ; so 
 deep a book, and yet so simple : so human, and yet so divine : 
 so localized, and yet so world-embracing. It at once proves 
 beyond doubt, that all Mankind are common brotherhood, 
 because all are found to be influenced by the same talismanic 
 power: and yet the book enables the observer to gain an in- 
 tellectual parallax of the problem of Life. He sees what the 
 South Sea Islanders, the Arctic Eskimo, the Antarctic Pata- 
 gonian, the Equatorial African, think of this Law of Present 
 Life, this Hope of a Future Life, when newly presented to them. 
 Whatever the blazie minds of the so-called superior races may 
 think in their blind pride, the unsophisticated minds of the 
 children of Nature accept willingly, and do homage to what is 
 to them a pure, simple, new, and abiding. Revelation of Right 
 and Wrong, of Sin, Punishment, and Pardon. 
 
 Where else can the comparative Philologist have such an 
 opportunity oficomparing Language with Language, differentiated 
 by a long isolation of centuries, separated by a vast diapason of 
 space, and yet the same grand and simple story flows on, flows 
 on, in a distinct environment of words and sentences, in an 
 entirely antagonistic ordering of logical conceptions .? If the 
 scholar grapples with one family of translations, he will see the 
 old synthetic system of the elder days of the Arian, and Semitic, 
 races gradually relaxing, dissipating, melting into the analytic 
 method. He will note the progress of the pure gold, all from 
 one mine, becoming gradually admixed with the alloy of baser 
 metal, and yet gaining strength, flexibility, and harmony: the 
 grand sonorous polysyllables of a compounding Language by an 
 unconscious decay losing their meaning, till words become so 
 abraded, curtailed, and beheaded, that they become mere symbols, 
 or counters. A linguistic mould, which in the outset consisted 
 of carefully arranged melodious homophones, has degenerated 
 gradually into an inartistic conglomerate of almost Algebraic 
 symbols, by which nevertheless the underlying logic of the mind 
 is completely and accurately conveyed. 
 
 The effect upon the Nations of the world will be strange, when 
 this one book becomes a Classic, and instrument of Education 
 
( 89 ) 
 
 everywhere : there will then be for the first time a common 
 standard of comparison of Right and Wrong, one long Meridian 
 of Light, piercing with a golden ray every dark corner of Theism, 
 Polytheism, Agnosticism, or Atheism, dispersing the fogs of the 
 intellect, cutting through as with a sharp sword the sophistries 
 of the Elder, as of the Later, World. The Bible does not shun 
 the light, does not fear the critic, evinces no tremor under the 
 scalpel of the dissector. The other sacred books of the world 
 are designedly shrouded in darkness, placed away in arks of 
 shittim-wood, folded up in silk and precious cloths, shrouded up 
 in the death-sheet of a dead language ; if read aloud, disguised 
 in unintelligible sing-song chaunts. The Roman Catholics, if 
 they had had their way three centuries ago, would have reduced 
 our Blessed Book to the same vile conditions, but it is too late 
 now. The mighty Spirit has escaped from the vessel of brass, 
 and not even the Seal of Solomon will force it back to its narrow 
 prison, or restrain it. No one, who has studied the sacred books 
 of the elder Non-Christian Religions, can fail to speak with 
 reverence of those grand feelers after God, if haply they could 
 find Him, those sobbings of the poor human heart in its hopeless 
 search for the great Parent of all, those wonderful introspections 
 of the secret of Human life, " What am I } whence am I } 
 whither do I go ? " those attempts to take Heaven by violence, 
 or fraud, by heaping Pelion upon Ossa, and accumulating Works 
 upon Works, though all inquiry ends in a hopeless wail of the 
 soul, that cannot find comfort. If any still trust in them for 
 guidance in this world, or a sure hope in a future life, why do 
 they not translate them into the great Vernaculars of the World, 
 and distribute them broadcast among every Nation under the sun } 
 
 Did it ever enter into the head of a sincere Jew to translate 
 the Old Testament for the benefit of the Gentiles, although it 
 had been done for his own peculiar people, who had forgotten 
 the language, spoken by their forefathers, before they went into 
 Captivity in Babylon, since which date it ceased to be the language 
 of common life } Has anybody ever remarked a follower of 
 Confucius, Zoroaster, or Mahomet, taking pains to translate into 
 the Vernacular, comment, compare texts, and then publish, and 
 take measures to bring to others the knowledge attained .'' Can a 
 man value Knowledge, and not desire to impart } These sacred 
 books are full of precept as well as ritual. Can we point out 
 any one, who has tried to live up to the level of his book, whose 
 prayers were not empty sing-song repetitions } Can any one tell 
 us of a conversion wrought by such a book } I have lived 
 among people, who loved their sacred books, but the object of 
 their love was a dead thing, a mummy, a dear departed, and not 
 a living friend. 
 
 Bible- Societies work neither for the profit of an individual, nor 
 
( 90 ) 
 
 of a Church: they interfere with no right of private judgment: 
 they venture on no note or comment, no alternative readings, but 
 those founded on Philological grounds : they lay the revealed 
 Word before all, the believer, or the unbeliever. Thus, through 
 their agency, the whole human family has the privilege afforded 
 to them of a personal intercourse with Christ, and the Holy 
 Spirit. Such Societies show, that Christianity is not hostile to 
 Science, as they conduct their proceedings on the lines of the 
 highest, soundest, and most unflinching. Scholarship : they cast 
 down the gauntlet at the feet of the profoundest linguistic 
 scholar, and bid him examine with the closest microscrope the 
 translations, which they circulate : if errors occur, and they do 
 occur, they are errors of good faith, and are corrected. Each 
 age of the Past received as much of the Divine Revelation as it 
 was able to understand. To us the whole Book is laid open, 
 and we find one golden thread twining through the whole story 
 from Genesis to Revelation. We find in it the Uou o-™ ; of the 
 Mathematician, the spot outside the world, on which the lever 
 can be rested, that will move the world, when the Holy Spirit 
 gives the power, and that same power will be given against the 
 Scepticism and Infidelity of Civilization, as it was against the 
 superstitions of the Savage. 
 
 The Word of the Lord will be abiding, when walls of Chapels 
 and Churches, even the most spiritual, crumble to the ground, 
 when Shibboleths are forgotten, and all stand before Christ face 
 to face, and handle Him, and see. The largeness of the scope 
 of Bible-Societies is such, that they confound all human state ; 
 they care for the poor as well as for the rich, for the stranger as 
 warmly as for the fellow-countryman, for the Heathen as earnestly 
 as for the Christian. Nobody, who enters the great Bible-House 
 in London, can say, that he has no interest in its welfare, and 
 can himself not find some blessing from its operations. When 
 the Queen of Sheba visited Solomon, and saw all the glory of 
 the House of the Lord, her heart sank within her ; and she 
 admitted, that the reality far surpassed all that she had heard. 
 No one can form a conception of the wealth of languages, and 
 the magnificence of the work, until he has made a pilgrimage to 
 the Bible-House, and seen it with his eyes. A Cardinal of the 
 Roman Catholic Church lately visited it, for the purpose of buying 
 a copy of the New Testament in a foreign language, and he was 
 with due respect taken up to view all the treasures of the House, 
 which had been built for the Word of God, and, as he left the 
 door, he remarked, " The Holy Spirit is being poured out upon 
 us : that is the secret of it." MefydX^rj ij aXi^eeia kuI virepiaxvei. 
 
( 91 ) 
 
 Chapter III. — Results and Suggestions. 
 
 Having traced the origin, the nature of the work, and wide spread 
 of the operations, I now proceed to allude to results, and to 
 make suggestions. 
 
 The written Word inserts itself into holes and caverns, whither 
 the human voice cannot reach, and abides, and fructifies, upon 
 ■the barren hard rock, like the seed dropped by the passing bird, 
 which silently, without the aid of man, developes into a great tree. 
 All Churches, who agree in nothing else, agree in this, that the 
 Word is precious: it is the axis, round which Christian Faith 
 and Practice turn at different distances, and with varying rapidity. 
 In countries, where for thousands of years the voice of Public 
 and Private Duty has been silent, it is heard for the first time, 
 when a portion of the Bible is being read. For a long time 
 the Moravian Missionaries worked among the Eskimo without 
 any result : they occupied their otherwise useless hours in transla- 
 tion : the time came at last. God chooses his own season : a 
 Missionary was copying a Gospel, and four Eskimo drew near to 
 watch him : at their request he read a portion, which chanced 
 to be the account of the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. 
 As he read on, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon them, as manifestly 
 as upon Cornelius and his companions. Some of them laid their 
 hands on their mouths, which is their manner of expressing 
 wonder : one man called out in a loud and anxious tone, 
 
 How is that ? Tell me that again,, for I would also be saved. 
 
 This man proved the first of a long succession of converts. 
 
 In this last case the Sun had never risen to these poor savages. 
 Let me glance at a case, where the light had intentionally by 
 evil men been obscured. I read how in the South of Europe a 
 little Protestant child was taken to a public hospital to die. In 
 her last moments she gave her little Testament, the only thing 
 that she possessed, to the Nun, who had nursed her. Between 
 the leaves of that little book the Spirit of the Lord was lying hid. 
 The keeper of the Bible-depot remarked with surprise, that he 
 sold during the next few days several copies to female figures, 
 who crept in after dark. That day Salvation had come within 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 the walls of that Convent : no doubt the books were soon dis- 
 covered, and in the parlour of the Lady-Abbess, and the 
 presence of the Priest-Confessor, and weeping women, there 
 ascended the tiny smoke of a sacrifice of burning paper, the 
 unaccepted offering of Cain, who slew his brother ; but certain 
 precious promises had been too deeply printed in the memory 
 and the heart to be effaced, and had been in Faith appropriated 
 by these humble Saints ; for whom some day a door, by Grace, 
 may be found ajar, which will be closed against Pharisee and 
 Cardinal, who in the day of their opportunity would not enter 
 in themselves, and shut the door on others. 
 
 Let us glance at the other extreme, and raise up in our 
 imaginations an assembly on the other side of the Atlantic, of 
 those, who once had known and had abandoned God. They 
 are gold-diggers, and are taking their midday-rest. A new 
 digger from the old country had just joined them, and with him 
 a motherless lad. In their rough sport they had searched the 
 boy's pockets, and found a little Testament, the gift of the boy's 
 dead Mother : out of mere wantonness, one of them begins in a 
 scoflflng way to read out aloud, but his fingers, and eyes, were 
 guided by a power greater than his own, for first he read, how 
 Jesus came walking on the sea, and then the story of the good 
 Samaritan. The laughing and oaths had ceased, and all were 
 listening, when the wind blew the leaves over, and the reader 
 found himself reading solemnly the awful tale of the Crucifixion ; 
 a tale well remembered, though forgotten, old, but still new : as 
 he came to the last words of the penitent thief, and our Lord's 
 reply, the book fell from his hands to the ground amidst an 
 awe-struck silence, only broken by sobs. God has his chosen 
 ones in every assembly of his children ; he has his corner in 
 every human heart. A hoarse voice came up from the rear : 
 
 Will no one pray ? Can no fellow remember a prayer ? 
 
 The echo of far-off English Sunday-Schools, the warning throb 
 of their own death-struggle, perhaps not far distant, stirred into 
 life those dead hearts : the fool may have said in his heart, that 
 there was no God, but these men were not fools, and knew 
 better, that God was near unto them. The call was for some 
 one to pray, but words are not forthcoming, unless the Spirit 
 supplies them. As the lad crouched forward to recover his lost 
 Testament, he was caught up by strong arms, and ordered to 
 pray. As his childish treble went up to the clear sky, repeating 
 the little prayer, which he had often said at his dead mother's 
 knees, hats were off, and knees were bowed, and a deep calm 
 fell over the assembly, while this innoceht child became the 
 mouth-piece of these rough emigrants. Not as yet had he learnt 
 to be ashamed of his innocence : not as yet had his lips been 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 defiled with oaths and obscenities ; and his little prayer rose up 
 to heaven above the tall pines, and who can say how many 
 brands may be saved from the burning by the chance contact of 
 one little Testament ? 
 
 Such stories as the above repeat themselves in diiferent terms 
 from book to book, and from platform to platform : they are not 
 supported by eye-witnesses, and rest upon hearsay : they are but 
 a few out of hundreds, and, if not true, they give evidence of a 
 great truth, that, so long as the human heart beats, and the 
 Divine book comes into contact with it, the electric spark will 
 display itself. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and we hear 
 the sound, but cannot tell whence it comes, or whither it goeth. 
 
 It is, because it is found by experience to be suited to every 
 state of man, because it is intelligible to the mind in the lowest 
 stages of culture, and yet not unworthy of the highest intellect ; 
 because it is both wise and tender, full of judgment, full of 
 pardon ; so deep, that no plummet can reach the bottom ; yet 
 so transparent, that the eye of faith can pierce through it: so 
 consolatory, yet so outspoken in condemnation of what is 
 wrong ; such a feast to those, who are in good health, such a 
 medicine to the sick, such a balm to the weary one ; so full of 
 high hope for the young : so full of chastened resignation for the 
 aged : so full of parting comforts to the Soul about to return to 
 its Creator : for these reasons the Bible-Societies consider it 
 their bounden duty to spare no pains, to grudge no expenditure, 
 to place it in the hands of every one, the sailor, the emigrant, 
 the soldier, the fisherman, the miner, the shepherd. Each public 
 event, each local distress, each private calamity, seem a call to 
 them to press onward. In the Report for 1885 I read of a 
 woman, who remarked, that she had often heard of the Bible, 
 but had never seen it till that day ; of the Railway- Policeman, 
 who, on buying a copy for the first time, took off his hat, and 
 saluted it, " Long have I desired to possess a copy, and now 
 I have one." " Still there was room," whispered the humble 
 dying man, thanking the reader for the comfort conveyed in the 
 words, that there might still be room for him. " That blessed 
 letter M," said the Countess of Huntingdon, as they read to her, 
 that not Many mighty, not Many noble are called. In Dr. 
 Stern, the Abyssinian Missionary's Memoirs, I read how, writh- 
 ing under wounds inflicted by King Theodore, he was comforted 
 by thinking of the words. 
 
 Neither shall there be any more pain. 
 
 And throughout all the agonizing days, and agonizing nights of 
 those long four years of captivity, the Bible with its promises 
 was the solace and the joy of his despondent heart. 
 The last Journal of Bishop Hannington, so marvellously 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 preserved to us, tells us, how that faithful Christian, in the miser- 
 able outward circumstances of his last days, was still sustained by 
 the daily reading of, and meditation on, the Psalms of David. 
 
 Impressed with these convictions, I have long been anxious 
 to find out, and bring 'to book, the extent of Bible- Work, which 
 has yet to be done, in order to place the Holy Scriptures at 
 the disposal of every Nation and Tribe in the world in their 
 own proper language or dialect, for it is clearly our duty to 
 aim at nothing short of this : but it is necessary previously to 
 discover 
 
 A. How many languages, and dialects, mutually unintelligible, 
 are spoken at this time (1888). 
 
 B. In how many languages, or dialects, translations have been 
 made. 
 
 An answer to the first question is being slowly worked out. I 
 am gradually completing a survey of our existing knowledge, 
 proceeding on a Geographical Method. This must stand over, 
 but the materials are accumulating, though it nay not be my lot 
 to sum up the total. 
 
 An answer to the second question is the subject of this 
 discussion. It is not so simple as it may seem. For my purpose 
 it is sufficient, that any portion of the Holy Scriptures has 
 been translated, printed, and put into circulation, or brought 
 into use. For where a portion has been disposed of, it is merely 
 a question of time, capacity, and money, to dispose of the 
 remainder, should it be found necessary. On the other hand, 
 all translations of small portions made by Scholars and Gram- 
 marians, merely as linguistic texts, are omitted ; they may be 
 interesting, but they are not Bible-work in the sense understood 
 by me: they are however numerous, and show how the work 
 may be advanced. 
 
 A great many agencies have been at work, and there are 
 several Tables or Lists of considerable repute, but none of them 
 are complete, none of them are scientifically arranged, so as to 
 form a correct basis for my inquiry. 
 
 I state them as follows : 
 
 A. Historical Table of Languages and Dialects, in which the 
 
 translation, printing, or distribution of the Scriptures has 
 been at any time promoted by the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society. This forms partof the Annual Report, 1888. 
 
 B. Specimens of Languages and Dialects, in which the British 
 
 and Foreign Bible Society has printed or circulated the 
 Scriptures. Enlarged Edition, 1888. 
 
 C. Table showing the New Version^ of the Holy Scriptures made 
 
 by Bible Societies during the present Century, by the Rev. 
 C. E. B. Reed. Appendix to the Report on Conference 
 of Foreign Missions. Mildmay, 1879. 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 D. Annual Report of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 
 
 ledge, 1888. 
 
 E. List of the Languages, into which the Scriptures have been 
 
 translated in "The Bible of Every Land," j86o. 
 
 F. Historical Table of Languages and Dialects in which the 
 
 translations, printing, and distribution of the Scriptures 
 has been at any time promoted by the British and Foreign, 
 and other, Bible Societies. This forms a part of the Annual 
 Report of the American Bible Society, 1888. 
 
 G. List of Translations of the Holy Scriptures into the Languages 
 
 of Heathen and Mahometan Nations, 1850. Burns's His- 
 tory of Missions, vol. iii. p. 493. Appendix, 3rd edition. 
 
 Much information is to be obtained from other Reports : none 
 are accurate, complete, or up to date; in some, confusion is caused 
 by introduction of details not required for my purpose : they are 
 faulty in their arrangement, and inconsistent in their orthography. 
 Most of them have grown gradually on no one system. 
 
 Let me iirst note the points, which I wish to exclude. I am 
 dealing with Language alone : so I exclude all notice of editions ; 
 dates ; Written Characters ; name of translator ; obsolete or 
 useless versions ; plurality of translations, for the fact of one 
 translation existing is sufficient ; names of portions translated, 
 as the fact of any portion being translated is sufficient. 
 
 On the other hand, I require to know : every language or 
 dialect, in which work has been done of a practical character ; 
 the exact province or country, in which, or the tribe, by which, it 
 is used ; to what Family or Group it belongs ; whether it is a 
 language, or a dialect, or a patois ; , by what Bible-Society, or 
 Missionary Society, it was translated, if it is a new version of 
 this Century. I require accurate orthography, and the exclusion 
 of all vagueness of terminology, and uncertainty of Geography, 
 as each language should have a Geographical name, which 
 explains itself. 
 
 I arrive at a total of three hundred and thirty-seven languages, 
 dialects, and patois, which are represented by some portion- of 
 the Scriptures translated for Evangelistic purposes. In making 
 up my list I exclude the following, which appear in the Catalogues 
 of Bible Societies : 
 
 A. Duplicate versions, prepared in different written characters^ 
 to suit the reading powers of a particular population. Now this 
 is the same substance appearing in a different form. Again, 
 Editions for the Blind are merely mechanical contrivances, and 
 the publication of Dyglott Editions should be left to the trade. 
 
 B. Obsolete versions, whether originally made upon imperfect 
 knowledge, or made for races, which have died out, or changed 
 their Vernacular, or which have been entirely superseded by later, 
 and more perfect translations. 
 
( 96 ) 
 
 C. Literary "tours de force," like those of H.I.H. Prince 
 L.-L. Bonaparte, which, however, have a value, as pointing the 
 way, though many have only a linguistic interest. 
 
 On the other hand, by the kindness of Missionaries, and the 
 close perusal of Missionary Reports of every part of the World, 
 I have been able to cull wild flowers from hitherto sealed 
 gardens, and get, as it were, a forecast of work, that will be 
 known to all in ten years' time. Many a busy brain, many an 
 industrious pen, many a consecrated intellect, is at work, 
 gathering up honey to store in the Bible-Bee-Hive, to provide 
 sweet and nourishing food for old and young in generations yet 
 to be born. I have used a large liberty in such additions, one 
 Psalm, the Lord's Prayer, or a few chapters, are an earnest of 
 blessings to come; they are the first drops of a fructifying 
 shower, perhaps the first effort of a prentice-hand, which will 
 hereafter do the work of a cunning workman in the building of 
 the Temple of the Lord. 
 
 The object of my fourth column is not to adjudicate betwixt 
 rival claims. I wish to enable scholars. Religious or Secular, to 
 know, where they are to apply for copies. I take no cognizance 
 of Rival Versions. My object is to state, that such and such 
 language has received the honour of being the vehicle of God's 
 Word. 
 
 It is clear, that Bible-Societies are not justified in preparing, 
 and supplying, dead and liturgical versions : at the beginning of 
 their work they may have been glad to do so, but they should 
 remove now to a separate list the names of Latin, Old Slavonic, 
 Old Syriac, Koptic, Ethiopic, Old Armenian, and Ecclesiastical 
 Georgian. They do not represent the Vernaculars : they only 
 subserve to an empty and faulty ritual, totally unintelligible to 
 the people, and "not likely to save souls: there is no guarantee, 
 that some of them are faithful translations. On the other hand, 
 I would resist any attempt to withdraw from circulation the 
 translations of the Latin Vulgate into the French, Italian, 
 Spanish, Portuguese and German Languages. Many will pur- 
 chase these, who will purchase no other translations : perhaps 
 hereafter some acceptable revised translation may supersede 
 them. We owe our Reformation to the study of the Vulgate, 
 and it is sheer nonsense to condemn a version, which converted 
 Luther and Calvin. 
 
 In spelling the names of languages of the Arian and Semitic 
 Family there is no difficulty ; they have, in course of Centuries, 
 adopted Arian suffixes, such as " Persian " or " Arabic," but it is 
 inconsistent and wrong to alter at random and by mere chance 
 the termination of non-Arian names : we allow Zulu, Hindustani, 
 Hakka, Bijgi, Cree, Galla and Maori, to remain unaltered : why 
 then add an Arian suffix to the languages in Polynesia, or 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 Malaysia, or North America ? On the other hand, the well- 
 known Bantu prefix of names in South Africa should be always 
 removed, and Swahili be written, not Ki-Swahili, Suto not 
 Se-Suto. 
 
 The table for each of the Five Divisions of the World is 
 separate: additions should be inserted in their proper places. 
 No doubt the bulk of the work in future years will consist in 
 revision, the publication of new editions, and the translation of 
 the untranslated portions of the Scriptures, which are repre- 
 sented in the lists possibly by a single Book, or a few Books. 
 It is comforting to think, that we have disposed, more or less 
 finally, of the sixteen great languages of the World, viz. English, 
 French, German, Italian, Russ, Spanish, Portuguese, and Greek, 
 in Europe : Arabic, Osmanli Ttirki, Persian, Hindi, Bangdli, 
 Malay, and Chinese Mandarin in Asia: Swahili in Africa: each 
 one of these languages is spoken by a population exceeding ten 
 Millions, some spoken by eighty Millions. Great progress has 
 been made in the languages of second rank of numerical im- 
 portance : we may anticipate, that in the struggle for linguistic 
 life hundreds of unsettled languages and dialects will be 
 swallowed up, trodden down, and extinguished, by their 
 powerful neighbours, before their turn comes for us to attend 
 to them. 
 
 It is wrong, and inexpedient, either from Ecclesiastical, or 
 Political, motives, to force a language on a people. France, 
 Germany and Russia are always following this baneful policy, 
 but with doubtful success. Great Britain has never done so. 
 How should we like to have our Sunday-Schools taught in 
 French, and to have every ray of religious light pass through a 
 foreign medium 1 Let us be firm in the principle, that every 
 man, woman, and child, has a divine and human congenital right 
 to have the Promises of Jesus conveyed to them in the very 
 language, in which they order their households, manage their 
 afikirs, and speak to each other. It can and will be done, if we 
 go on in the way, in which we have begun. 
 
 I close with certain suggestions for the more efficient carrying 
 out of the work, viewing the matter as I habitually do, not in the 
 interest of this Society, or that, but in the interest of Bible-Work 
 all over the world, by whomsoever done. It is such a great and 
 serious error, to place the interests ofa Society above the interests 
 of the Work, for which the Society is formed. And yet it is the 
 common weakness of Secretaries, and of good men, who have 
 one Committee only. So long as the work is done, and done 
 well, let the Society, and the Individual, perish, and the Kingdom 
 of God be advanced. 
 
 At page S3 I enumerated the five great Missionary Bible- 
 Societies, as distinguished from the smaller Societies, which 
 
 ' PART I. 7 
 
( 98 ) 
 
 I ventured with every feeling of respect to call Bible-Clubs. 
 It is to be hoped, that the almost impalpable wall of division, that 
 segregates, rather than separates, the Baptist Bible-Translation 
 Society from the British and Foreign Bible-Society, will in 
 course of time crumble away, and, since love, and mutual esteem, 
 and free interchange of translations, have ever existed, the two 
 portions of the same original body may be reunited. This would 
 leave four great Missionary Bible-Societies. There exist indeed 
 in England two other Bible-Societies, one deserving of the highest 
 commendation, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 
 but Bible-work is only a part of its work. And the other Associa- 
 tion is only deserving of pity and oblivion. 
 
 But since the union and strengthening of the great German 
 Empire, the Parent of Protestantism, the possibility of the Union 
 into one great German Missionary Bible-Society of all the small 
 Bible-Clubs, which exist in that country, is looked forward to. 
 How imperfectly those small Associations grasp the idea of their 
 high office is proved by the fact, that in one Association the sale 
 of Bibles to Roman Catholics is forbidden, and in another the 
 sale of translations in any other European language except 
 German seems to be difficult. Germany has now advanced to 
 the position of a great Colonial Power : let it remember its duty, 
 as well as its opportunities. Its Missionary Societies have long 
 been among the foremost and best in every part of the world, 
 except Oceania. The time has come for a great German Bible- 
 Society ; then there will be five great Missionary Associations to 
 supply the world with copies of the Word of God. 
 
 These Societies should form themselves into an alliance, and, 
 while they maintain entire individual autonomy, settle certain 
 fixed principles. They should divide the world Geographically 
 among themselves, and, following the example of the great Mis- 
 sionary Societies, not overlap each other. It is a waste of time 
 and resources to have three Societies at work in the compara- 
 tively unimportant Islands of Japan, while China is so imperfectly 
 supplied, and many parts of the world, notably South America, 
 are starving. The first and most obvious duty of a Bible- 
 Society is that of supplying its own Missionary Societies with 
 Bibles : why should not the National Society of Scotland, the 
 Netherlands Bible-Society, and the great German Bible-Society, 
 which I have summoned to appear, do this work ? Why should 
 in Europe Colporteurs from different Societies work in the same 
 region, crossing each other, and treading in each other's steps ? 
 
 The American Society has withdrawn from Greece, and the 
 British and Foreign Bible-Society has withdrawn from Cuba. 
 This is a step in the right direction. But a much larger measure 
 of division of Empire is required, so as to economize the avail- 
 able resources, and the end will only be obtained, when those, 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 who rule, recognize as paramount, not the supposed' rights of a 
 Society, but the claims of the non-Christian -world. I speak boldly, 
 because in this matter all are in fault. If delegates from the 
 Societies met with a Map of the World before them, a scheme 
 would soon be worked out, which would satisfy all requirements. 
 I had hoped, that the meeting of so many delegates of Missionary 
 Societies this year in London for the International Missionary 
 Congress might prove an opportunity for advancing this measure. 
 Delegates of the American Bible-Society, and of the National 
 Bible-Society of Scotland, did indeed meet delegates of the 
 British and Foreign Bible-Society, and discussed in a most 
 friendly spirit many subjects, and no doubt this is a step in 
 advance. A few days previously I placed in the hands of these 
 delegates, and other friends, a letter, a copy of which is appended, 
 urging a large and comprehensive measure : but the subject was 
 avoided: when delegations meet, they have no instructions: when 
 they are in their own Committees, they have no opportunity to 
 confer : it is a misfortune always to see five years ahead beyond 
 one's colleagues : some measure of this kind must sooner or 
 later be adopted : but men's minds are not yet ripe. Secretaries 
 like in their Reports to be able to talk of their work in this 
 country, or that country, though the work in those countries 
 is ridiculously insignificant, and wasteful : it is another instance 
 of a love for the Society exceeding love for the work of the Lord. 
 I quote the words of a deceased Secretary, which seem to 
 approach very close to my idea : 
 
 But as to the occupation of territory, it may be possible for us to carry our 
 agreement furtlier than hitherto. It is very pleasant to feel, that there is no 
 corner of the world, into which our work does not reach, that the sun never sets 
 upon our colporteurs, and that there is no such manual of universal geography 
 as the report of a Bible-Society ; but we shall do well to consider, whether others 
 may not be able in some Fields to do the necessary work without our help, 
 setting us free for other fields, which as yet we have scarcely touched. 
 
 In addition to the questions of editions, and prices, on which 
 consultation might well be held, the important question of the 
 modes of translating, or transliterating, the Divine Name, should 
 be settled, before the danger of mischief spreads further. Future 
 generations may be hopelessly separated in rival and even hostile 
 Churches by the use of different names for the same Hebrew or 
 Greek word. 
 
 Each Society should supply itself with copies of the transla- 
 tions, made by the other Societies, and not restrict the use of its 
 shelves to its own translations. This is a very narrow view of 
 Bible-work. I have repeatedly been unable to supply myself, 
 or a friend passing through London to some distant part of the 
 world, with a copy of a particular translation, and have received 
 the reply, that I must apply to New York, or Edinburgh, or 
 Amsterdam, or even to Sydney, Batavia, and the Sandwich 
 
( loo ) 
 
 Islands. This should not be. If a book is published in a 
 distant Colony, copies should be sent to the Parent-Society in, 
 sufficient number to supply the Sister-Societies. At any rate the 
 lists given in my Appendix indicate what languages have been 
 translated and published by Bible-Societies. It would be an act 
 of courtesy and kindness, if Missionary Societies would forward 
 to all Bible-Societies copies of translations, which they print 
 in their Mission-Presses. We must work solidly shoulder to 
 shoulder. 
 
 The policy of withdrawal from Protestant Countries should 
 be firmly acted upon. The Bible is the glory of a Protestant 
 Country. How then can Germany, the Protestant Cantons 
 of Switzerland, Holland, Denmark, Norway, and Finland, 
 condescend to receive a supply of cheap Bibles, supplied to 
 them by Great Britain, and North America 1 We require all 
 our resources for the Roman Catholic, the Mahometan, and the 
 Heathen. Reasonable notice should iDe given, and the agencies 
 be withdrawn. This must be done in concert by all the 
 Societies, because it is a great principle, on which the duty of 
 supplying Bibles is based. 
 
 I'hen again some relaxation is required of the Rules with 
 regard to the Apocrypha. It is distinctly understood, that the 
 American, Scottish, and British and Foreign Societies restrict 
 themselves to the Inspired Word of God, but it cannot be 
 necessary to forbid the granting of pecuniary aid to a Foreign 
 Society, which has not unlimited resources, because it 
 circulates the Apocrypha, such aid being applied only to the 
 Books of the Old and New Testament. For instance, aid can- 
 not be given now to the Bible-Societies of Norway to print the 
 Inspired Word in the Lapp Language, because those Societies 
 circulate the Apocrypha in Norwegian. This is unreasonable, 
 and injurious to the Lord's work. 
 
 It would be very difficult, if desirable, to prove or enforce a 
 legal copyright in a translation of the Bible : but a moral right 
 should be admitted by courtesy for (say) forty years: after 
 which period the translation belongs to the public, and can be 
 freely used. Within the period the comity of Societies suggests, 
 that the owner of the translation should have a control over it, 
 and that the supply of copies, and the licence to change certain 
 specific words, such as to substitute "baptism" for "immersion," 
 and vice versd, should rest with the owner. A compact of this 
 kind exists between the British Societies. Any attempt after the 
 lapse of forty years to forbid the use of, or the alteration of 
 terms, is as futile, as it is injudicious. 
 
 It is a convenience, and an economy, to have one Depot, and 
 Colporteur, and Staff for the Bible-Society, and the Tract-Society ; 
 but in Roman Catholic countries there is this drawback, that in. 
 
( lOI ) 
 
 the event of a Priest, or a sincere Roman Catholic, entering the 
 Depot to purchase a Bible, he would have his feelings shocked 
 by taking up books of the Tract-Society, exposing (no doubt 
 with truth) the errors of Rome. The Bible requires no such 
 collateral aid, and it is desirable, that it should be the only book 
 sold. Of course, there is no objection of this kind in Mahometan, 
 and Heathen, countries. 
 
 I am totally opposed to the practice of prefixing to certain 
 versions of the French and German Scriptures copies of the 
 Imprimatur of Roman Catholic Bishops of a former generation. 
 We all know, that no Bishop would under any circumstances 
 give an Imprimatur now ; therefore in practice it is deceitful : 
 but it is derogatory to the dignity of the Bible, that it should be 
 supposed to require the human recommendation of Pope or Caesar, 
 of Bishop or Governor. 
 
 The Bible is always, and alwa)'s will be, up to the high-level 
 mark of Human Knowledge. Commentators are not so. Their 
 views vary from generation to generation, from denomination to 
 denomination, from Church to Church, from one social class to 
 another. They presume the existence of certain knowledge in 
 their readers, to which they appeal, and often with mere half- 
 knowledge they attempt to illustrate the full Divine Knowledge, 
 which they are quite unable to comprehend. The Word and 
 the Work of the great Creator must be in harmony, though we 
 cannot always, through the weakness of our intelligence, reconcile 
 them. Wisely therefore the Bible-Societies forbid all note and 
 comment, not so much out of respect to the difference of 
 denominations, of which their body is composed, as to the 
 Divine Book itself. I remark with regret a process of whittling 
 away this fundamental Rule. In alternative readings, based on 
 philological grounds solely, there is no danger, but in marginal 
 references, and Chapter-headings, there is danger. In a Roman 
 Catholic version of Genesis the passage of the Serpent bruising 
 the heel of the Woman, is illustrated by a marginal reference to 
 the Woman in the Apocalypse. A deceased Secretary expresses 
 himself as follows, and I cannot agree with him : 
 
 It may, however, be asked, whether this deepening of the channel would be 
 consistent with the simple aim of Bible-Societies, which is to circulate the 
 Scriptures without note or comment. Now it should not be forgotten, that this 
 rule about note or comment has never been interpreted in the strictness and 
 bondage of the letter. It has not been taken to exclude chapter-headings, for 
 example, and marginal references ; nay, maps, alternative readings, prefatory 
 notes giving the authority of the text chosen, and occasionally, in foreign 
 tongues, glossaries of technical Hebrew and Greek words have been allowed, 
 on the ground, that they were not notes in the sense intended by the framers of 
 the rule, but only assistant translations, and statements of fact, which made 
 clearer the words of Holy Writ. 
 
 The very substitution of a capital letter for an ordinary letter 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 in this critical age has a covert meaning. A certain living Privy 
 Councillor, well known in Literature, in his books always spells 
 the Divine name with a little g, as a token of his disbelief in 
 Him. The fool of modern days is of the same kind as his 
 prototype in the time of David- 
 
 Another question requires serious reflection. I discussed 
 with a certain Bishop, a well-known friend of the Society, the 
 expediency of limiting the translation of the Old Testament for 
 the use of tribes in a low state of culture to certain selected 
 Books, not so much for the purpose of economy, as not to 
 confuse the mind of the reader. He quite agreed with me, but 
 who shall define the books to be omitted, at least for the first 
 generation } I placed the same subject before one of our oldest 
 and soundest translators, and Missionaries, and he replied as 
 follows : 
 
 I believe in the educational value of the entire Bible. Parts that to us are 
 of little interest are most attractive to savages, for the first time listening to 
 Bible teaching. I never cared for the genealogies of the Bible until my own 
 converts put me to shame by showing an almost perfect acquaintance with such 
 matters. The man with the longest pedigree in the island is the most respected. 
 But of course, the great thing is to give the Natives all the New Testament, 
 the book of Psalms, the book of Proverbs, Job, and the first and second books 
 of Moses, Isaiah, and Daniel. The stories in Judges have a marvellous power 
 of fascination for brave savages. It comes to this, then, I would give them 
 the entire Bible if possible. If that cannot be, leave out as little as possible. 
 
 The Committee of a Bible-Society is, like other Missionary 
 Societies, , an assembly of prayerful men, and all meetings 
 commence with Prayer: the business is conducted in accor-' 
 dance with the precepts of the Book, which it circulates: there 
 is something elevating and sanctifying in the work, and each 
 Member of the Committee, and each employee of the Society, 
 feels, that it is well for him to be there. It is there, that we 
 find sanctified Science, and consecrated talents, and pens. 
 While carnal men are fighting about annexation, or commerce, 
 all over the world, nothing but the direct blessing of the 
 Almighty would enable poor, weak, peaceful, men, devoid of 
 wealth, power, and influence, to carry through this gigantic 
 work : the idea of it would never have suggested itself to any 
 one, but an Anglo-Saxon Protestant, and with that race alone 
 rests the proud privilege, and peculiar blessing, of sending out 
 the Word of 'God to every part of the world. And what a 
 deep insight this familiar handling of the Word gives us into 
 the Revealed Truth ? Could any other Book stand such micro- 
 scopic introspection into every sentence, and sometimes every 
 word .? Hours have been spent this very year, and not unprofit" 
 ably, by earnest, busy, serious, men as to how one word of only 
 four letters— the great Tetragrammata— should be rendered. 
 For myself I can only express the exceeding honour, joy and 
 
( 103 ) 
 
 profit, which I have derived during the last ten years from the 
 Bible-House. Many great and noble men visit it, and letters 
 of thanks come to us from the ends of the earth. It is a great 
 blessing to be always giving, and seeking nothing but thanks in 
 return. 
 
 The simplicity of object, and the good faith in practice, of the 
 British and Foreign Bible-Society, has done much during thei 
 last twenty years to draw together Christians of different views, 
 and this may be pronounced to be a great incidental blessing. 
 Blessed are the Peacemakers, and the Bible is the great Peace- 
 maker. One of our most learned Bishops has, for many years, 
 presided at our first meeting for business in May, and told us of 
 the progress of the work in the two great Translation-Companies 
 at Westminster, and still presides to give us the benefit of his 
 experience, and counsel. The Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, under the gentle influences of the time, is no longer 
 estranged from us, but helps us in the distribution of the Bible 
 through Bible-Women, and receives from us a grant for that 
 purpose. I remember the time, when the Bible-Society was 
 mentioned in certain circles, as a kind of illicit connection for a 
 Churchman to enter into : if in my boldness I mentioned its 
 name, a Church dignitary would reprove me, and say : 
 
 You mean the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
 
 My reply was : 
 
 I mean what I say, the British and Foreign Bible Society. I know and 
 value the S.P.C.K., and am a member of the Translation-Committee of that 
 Society, but my remarks apply to the Bible-Society. 
 
 All such narrowness of vision has disappeared. Among all 
 the Missionaries in the Field, none has been more valued at the 
 Bible-House than Bishop Steere of Equatorial Africa, and I 
 rejoice to find in the Memoirs of that large-hearted man (1888) 
 the following remarks : 
 
 The Bishop had long learnt that, which so many Churchmen still fail to 
 perceive, how without the generous aid of the Bible- Society, it would be utterly 
 impossible for the Church to carry on her Mission-work efficiently : and there 
 was no place, where he was so gladly welcomed, ox felt himself more at home, 
 than in his visits to the Bible-House. 
 
 When he accepted the post of Vice-President, an honour which 
 is only bestowed on Bishops, who are friends of the Society, he 
 modestly remarked : 
 
 That he had long wished to do what he could for the cause of the Society : 
 that the obligation was all on one side, and that was his : that he felt, that his 
 work must be all unsound, without a Vernacular Bible, and that the Society had 
 made this possible to him. 
 
 The obligation was not so entirely on the Bishop's side. The 
 Society had long looked upon the East Coast of Africa, and the 
 
( 104 ) 
 
 Equatorial region, with a feeling of despair. A wise Providence 
 selected Bishop Steere for his office at Zanzibar, and all has 
 become light, for the Swahfli translation is becoming the proto- 
 type, and the model, for all other translations in the kindred 
 languages of that vast region. 
 
 The Members of the International Congress of Missionaries, 
 the Members of the Pan-Presbyterian Synod, and the Members 
 of the Pan-Anglican Synod at Lambeth, were all welcomed at the 
 Bible-House, and in the ordinary meetings it is sometimes 
 Pastor Chiniqui from Canada, or Count Campello from Italy, or 
 a Negro Bishop or Archdeacon from the Niger, or an earnest 
 friend on our auxiliary Committee in Australia, or some one, who 
 has done something in some portion of the world for the Bible, 
 that is heartily welcomed, and to none greater honour is shown, 
 and greater love felt, than to the aged translators : what indeed 
 could the Society do, if men of their stamp, their genius, their 
 devotion, had not been forthcoming } 
 
 From the Committee-Room, the transition is easy to the 
 Platform : the Bible-Society has, above all Societies, this 
 exquisite advantage, that its meetings bring together good, 
 and worthy men, otherwise separated, and unite them for the 
 highest purpose : hear the words of one speaker : 
 
 It was impossible not to be struck with the tone of nearly all that was said, 
 a tone, that could have been heard and loved and caught and retained in days 
 of deep spiritual appreciation, viz. that to have come to God in His Word, to 
 have heard His voice there, to have recognized in it the clear, distinct message 
 of the invisible God, guaranteeing to every penitent, faithful listener an act of 
 Divine pardon, an assurance of Divine love, a place in God's family, a home 
 in God's eternal kingdom, was a fact, that could not but make the difficulties 
 that had been referred to so frankly and discussed so candidly, appear in their 
 true light ; by comparison small ; by spiritual estimation mean ; petty by practical 
 result ; by their effect upon men's minds poor and miserable. There is 
 no doubt, that in the Bible-Society's work two principal blessings are 
 poured out upon men. There is, even when both are recognized as principal 
 blessings, still a distinction between them. Some work and gain one blessing ; 
 some work and gain them both. Some give to the work of spreading the 
 Word of God a place in their hearts altogether alone. To them "the two 
 only absolute and luminously self-evident truths," God and their own souls, 
 are found corroborated by authority immutable in the words of the Word of 
 God. To that oracle they listen, in that temple they worship, to that summons 
 they yield, upon that assurance they rest, as upon the arm of God Himself. To 
 believe it is life, to spread it is charity, to proclaim it is bare loyalty to Christ. 
 
 And again, in the great Metropolitan Cathedral : 
 
 Rather because she saw how hot the battles raged with ignorance and 
 infidelity, and how, down all the line, if victory were to come, there must be 
 implements of war ready for every hand ; and just because she felt the great 
 need for supplies, without joining herself to anyone squadron of that great host 
 of God, she stepped back from the fighting ranks, and left the actual hand-to- 
 hand encounter with the foe, that she might look to the whole host's supply, 
 that she might open out an armoury for God ; that she might find for all the 
 brave fighting bands of Christendom, under whatever garb or ensign they might 
 
 '^z^ -^aj 
 
( los ) 
 
 serve, and in whatever land they brought God's war, the one bright unmatched 
 blade, with which they could go forth, " the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
 Word of God." 
 
 Round the Colporteur, and the Bible-woman, a great literature 
 of anecdotes is springing up. Not disobedient to the heavenly- 
 vision, these good people, poor in circumstances, rich in faith, 
 do their work, a work, for which they seem to have been specially 
 ordained. I have seen and conversed with many of them in 
 different and far-distant countries, from the Caspian to the 
 Atlantic, and wondered, if these good fellows had not been 
 Colporteurs, for what other possible purpose they were born: 
 their very existence is a living witness of the power of the Spirit. 
 I know of no other book, for the sale of which a man or woman 
 would risk their lives, or run the chance of being beaten. We 
 must not moan over the destruction of books by the malignity 
 of the Priests : to our eyes there is a great waste of human life, 
 where so many are born, and so few do anything to justify their 
 birth : but, if one man in a hundred does something, let the 
 other ninety-nine perish. The Colporteur should take heed not 
 to speak of his Society, or his Depot, or his Sect, or his Church, 
 but stand forth as a Messenger of Christ : he injures the cause 
 by intruding the names of Societies, of Countries, or Denomina- 
 tions. In the midst of all his troubles, all his labours, all his 
 privations, he has sweet moments, when he watches the effect of 
 his words, carried by the power of the Spirit right into the 
 hearts of a simple audience. As he reads of the Crucifixion, 
 and the Resurrection, the words leap from the mouths of his 
 hearers : " Can this be true } Read that again. I have often 
 dreamt of such things vaguely : now I realize them." Yes 1 
 true as the Sun in mid-heaven, certain as the revolution of the 
 Moon and the Planets, and the return of Spring and Summer : 
 believed in by Millions : the link, that unites all the children of 
 men ! 
 
 In my annual tours (free-will offerings to the great cause), I have 
 seen these things, heard these things, touched the hands of these 
 good men, and watched them trudging along the streets, with 
 their bag of Bibles on their shoulder, and one copy open in their 
 hands. Everypart of Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa (save 
 Tripoli tana), has been visited : one year I was in Norway discussing 
 the Lapp translation, the next year on the Cataracts of the Nile, 
 listening to men speaking in the language of the Nubians : then on 
 the shores of the Caspian Sea, or the Sea of Galilee, or down in 
 the Sahara of Algeria, or at Cape Spartel in Morocco. Much 
 as I have travelled, I have never got beyond the influence of the 
 Bible-Societies : as I stood on a steamer on the Caspian, thinking 
 that I had done something, I was humbled by the appearance 
 of a Colporteur, who, with his life in his hand, and his bag of 
 
( io6 ) 
 
 Bibles on his back, had worked his way to Bokhara, sold his 
 books, and got safe back again. I am now starting to Orenberg 
 on the confines of Europe and Asia, to inform myself more 
 satisfactorily of the particular languages, spoken in those mysteri- 
 ous regions, with a view to future translations. 
 
 We may sometimes bring the message too late, and only have 
 time to read passages over the graves of the last of an expiring 
 race. John Eliot in 1666 translated a portion of the Bible into 
 the language of the Algonquin of North America, one of which 
 was the Mohican : the whole Bible was translated in 1685 in one 
 of these languages : all are obsolete. The Lord has gathered 
 into His fold all, who used those forms of speech, but, being 
 enshrined in the Word of God, that speech will live for ever. 
 The same sad phenomenon is expected in the Islands of Oceania. 
 Native tribes cannot co-exist with European civilization : many 
 tribes are year by year dwindling, and will soon pass away. From 
 the New Hebrides, the Loyalty Islands, and Polynesia, we receive 
 the same sad intelligence, the same Banshee-cry, that the end is 
 at hand. Translations, that have been made, will soon be placed 
 on the shelf, as literary curiosities. No human efforts can 
 control this march of events, or arrest this evil, if indeed it is an 
 evil. The matter is in God's hand, who does all things well. 
 We have many cases, where the Nation has outlived its original 
 language : here we have the reverse, where the language outlives 
 the Nation. Still the words of John of Gaunt stand good: 
 
 We will not be the dregs of all, seeing that other Nations have the Law of 
 God, which is the law of our Faith, written in their own language. 
 
 Such is our duty, our maxim, and our practice. 
 
 "The Earth shall be full of the Knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover 
 the Sea." 
 
 jFtni's. 
 
( I07 ) 
 
 APPENDIX (p. 99). 
 
 May ^xsf, 1888. 
 Dear Friends, 
 
 I seize the occasion of representative members of the Scotch 
 and American Bible-Societies being in London, to press upon 
 them, the expediency of considering with the Committee of the 
 British and Foreign Bible-Society, some principles for dividing 
 territorially the great works of "Translation" and "Distribu- 
 tion," so as not to waste power, produce friction, and cause 
 unnecessary expenditure of our joint resources. 
 
 The three great Societies are the above named. The Bible- 
 Society of Holland, a Protestant Country, should be encouraged 
 to provide for its own people, and the Dutch Colonies, from 
 which other Societies should absolutely and at once withdraw. 
 
 Pending the constitution of a German Bible-Society for its 
 Roman Catholic Home-work, its Colonies, and Missions, the 
 three great Societies must do the work for them, but under a 
 solemn protest, that the German Protestant Churches are failing 
 in the discharge of their obvious duty. 
 
 The smaller Societies, such as the Trinitarian, and Baptist 
 Bible-Society, need not be alluded to. 
 
 The Missionary Societies of all Nations have certain principles 
 of Inter-Mission Comity, which are fairly adhered to : they do 
 not, except in the case of large cities, intrude' into areas already 
 occupied, and they unite in sending delegates, when required, to 
 conduct translations and revisions of the Scriptures. 
 
 The position of Bible -Societies is diiferent, and it appears to 
 me expedient, that certain principles of Inter-Society Comity 
 should be agreed upon. I proceed to make suggestions. 
 
 A. Translating Work and Printing. 
 
 I. There is no manner of good in two or more Societies 
 undertaking this work in common. It is obvious, that the 
 Missionaries of all Denominations and Nations will supply the 
 translators, and it is far better that the expenditure should be 
 supplied by one Society, and the version belong to that Society, 
 which will of course allow its Sister- Societies to supply them- 
 selves with copies, or even with duplicate plates, under 
 conditions to be laid down by Rule III. 
 
( 108 ) 
 
 II. It is a subject of much regret, and of hindrance to the 
 Lord's work, when two distinct versions are made of the same 
 language in different dialects and characters. In a very great 
 language, like Mandarin-Chinese, this may be inevitable ; but in 
 the case of the Ashdnti and Fdnti it is inexcusable. The Bible- 
 Societies should decline to be guided by one Missionary, or one 
 Denomination of Missionaries, and act upon understood 
 principles, after consulting, if necessary, with Sister-Bible- 
 Societies. 
 
 III. Rules for supply of copies, or plates, must be laid down 
 at certain rates. 
 
 IV. There can exist no legal copyright in a version of the 
 Bible ; but a moral copyright should be recognized by the Sister- 
 Societies for a term of forty years, after which date the version 
 must be deemed common property, whether it belonged to a 
 Bible-Society or a Missionary-Society. " The Word of God is 
 not bound." 
 
 V. No reprint of such a version, without the leave of the 
 Society, which owns the version, should be made within the 
 term of forty years, and it follows, that within that period any 
 alteration of terms, such as the rendering of the word jiaTnlafia, 
 should be made only with special permission. The Societies 
 should bear in mind, not their own prejudices, or rights, but the 
 wants of the Native Churches. The Holy Spirit is quite 
 powerful enough to protect its own inspired utterances without 
 our poor assistance. 
 
 B. Distribution. 
 
 I. The maintenance of an expensive agency of two or more 
 Societies in one country to carry on the same work is deeply 
 to be deplored ; it is a sheer waste of resources, which might 
 better be employed elsewhere, where there is no agency, or by 
 the subdivision of an agency, which is too large for the territory 
 assigned to it. 
 
 II. The remedy is, that the Managers of each Society should 
 consider their position before God, and their duty towards the 
 non-Christian world, and be ready to sacrifice prejudices, or 
 predilections, for the furtherance of God's work. 
 
 III. As a Geographer, Linguist, and Ethnologist, and caring 
 more for the Bible than any particular Society, I make the 
 following suggestions : 
 
 A. Will the American Bible-Society take over the whole of 
 America, North and South, with the exception of the 
 British Colonies, and Tierra del Fuego, where there is a 
 small British Mission, working under difficulties } 
 
( log ) 
 
 B. Will the American Bible-Society withdraw entirely from 
 
 Europe, with the exception of Turkey in Europe ? If the 
 same Spanish or Portuguese translations are acceptable 
 on both sides of the Atlantic, they can be freely used, but 
 each Society should act independently within its own 
 region. 
 
 C. Will the National Society of Scotland take over Spain and 
 
 Portugal, and withdraw from the rest of Europe ? 
 
 D. Will the National Society of Scotland undertake to supply 
 
 the Presbyterian Missions in the New Hebrides and South 
 Africa ? 
 
 E. Will the British and Foreign Bible-Society withdraw (say) 
 
 within a term of five years, from every Protestant Kingdom 
 of Europe, and the Protestant portions of mixed kingdoms, 
 like Germany, leaving it to the Protestant Churches in 
 thosfe countries to supply their own flocks, but maintain- 
 ing its agencies to supply Roman Catholics in Germany, 
 until the German Bible-Society is ready ? 
 
 F. Will the British and Foreign Bible-Society withdraw from 
 
 Constantinople, and every Province of Turkey, where the 
 Osmanli Turki, and the Western dialect of Armenian, are 
 spoken ? 
 
 G. Will the three Societies agree, that one out of their 
 
 number should withdraw from Japan, and open a fourth 
 agency in Central China ? Will they also agree, that a 
 fifth agency should be opened in China, by one of the 
 three Societies, and that that kingdom be divided 
 territorially, and the five agencies be assigned to one or 
 other of the three Societies, with reference to the pre- 
 ponderance of Missionary Societies of their own 
 Nationality in each subdivision ? 
 I remark with regret symptoms of jealousy, rivalry, and mis- 
 understanding, where no such feelings ought to exist ; we are 
 all engaged in the same blessed work, and there should be no 
 overlapping of areas ; it was an initial error to open three 
 agencies in the petty kingdom of Japan, with a population of 
 thirty millions, and not more than two languages. In the Pro- 
 vince of Bangal in British India there is a population of sixty 
 millions, with a great many languages ; while the wealth and 
 intellectual culture of Bangdl far exceed that of Japan, and yet 
 it is only a portion of the area of a single Auxiliary Society of 
 the British and Foreign Bible-Society. China is inadequately 
 supplied, while Japan is unduly supplied. 
 
 The British and Foreign Bible-Society should withdraw from 
 the Dutch Colonies, and throw its strength into the remainder 
 of the Malay Archipelago under British, Spanish, and Portuguese 
 influence, or independent. 
 
( "0 ) 
 
 These are only suggestions : others may cover the same ground, 
 but be more acceptable. We should try to look ten years ahead. 
 I anticipate great trouble, unless there is an entente cordiale between 
 the Bible-Societies. Sooner or later they must come to some 
 form of territorial division. The number of Agencies must be 
 increased, and the number of Depots and Colporteurs indefinitely 
 extended. We make the boast of what we have done, but we 
 take no account of what we have left undone. In the Translation 
 Department vast sums will be required to revise existing Trans- 
 lations of the whole Bible, complete Translations, only partially 
 undertaken and not pressed on with vigour, and make entirely 
 new Translations of languages, which have not yet been touched. 
 To get at tribes and regions beyond tfie limits of regularly 
 organized States, or within the limits of jealous Governments, 
 like Russia and China, we must have a superior class of European 
 Colporteurs. There are still millions in the interibr of Asia, 
 Africa, and South America, who have never heard of the existence 
 of the Bible. There are Christian populations coming into 
 existence, which will have to be supplied, in every part of the 
 world. This of itself will be a very expensive and laborious task, 
 requiring systematic and continuous attention. 
 
 It is clear, that an epoch of trouble may be expected in Africa, 
 and it is possible, that other regions may be shut oflf from European 
 contact, as Abyssinia, and the Egyptian Suddn, now are. We 
 must distribute the Bible, while we have the opportunity. We 
 are certain of the unceasing hostility of the French Roman 
 Catholics. Much larger grants are required for the Bible-Women 
 in Oriental countries, where the women live a life of seclusion. 
 All the Societies should take up this blessed work. In the event 
 of the great Continental Powers determining on rigidly excluding 
 from their territories and colonies every foreign Missionary (and 
 it is very probable that they will do so), it will be on the Bible- 
 Societies alone, that these populations will depend for their 
 Gospel-teaching. This makes it more important, that one Society, 
 and one alone, should work in each of the great Continental 
 kingdoms, as the resident agent will be well known, and trusted 
 by the authorities to keep his own proper duties, and conform to 
 the laws of the Empire. 
 
 I make these remarks as a private individual, without consulting 
 any one at all. I have been a great traveller, observer, and 
 organizer, and I see defects, which may escape the observation 
 of those, who have not studied the circumstances of the whole 
 world. It is my heart's desire to see the Bible brought to the 
 door of every nation and tribe in their own vulgar tongue, as 
 understood by the women and children. 
 
B, F. B. S.=By Faith Be Saved, 
 
 TABLE OF BIBLE-WORK IN EVERY 
 PART OF THE WORLD UP TO 
 
 1888. 
 
 Ilo'XXdt /lev Qvrjjoi^ r^Xuiaaai, /J,ia8' cuOavaro'iaiv. 
 
 "Their sound has gone out unto all Nations, and their words to the end of 
 the V^ox\.A."—Fialms. 
 
ABSTRACT. 
 
 I. Europe 79 
 
 II. Asia Ill 
 
 III. Africa 66 
 
 IV. America 38 
 
 V. Oceania 43 
 
 Grand Total 337 
 
 ABBREVIATIONS. 
 
 O.V. Old Version. 
 
 S.P.C.K. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 
 
 B.F.B.S. British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 A.B.S. American Bible Society. 
 
 N. B. S.S. National Bible Society of Scotland. 
 
 B.T.S. Bible Translation Society (Baptist). 
 
 R.B.S. Russian Bible Society. 
 
 Ba.B.S. Basle Bible Society. 
 
 N.B.S. Netherlands Bible Society. 
 
 Br.B.S. Bremen Bible Society. 
 
 C.B.S. Coire Bible Society. 
 
 D.B.S. Danish Bible Society. 
 
 No.B.S. Norwegian Bible Society. 
 
 P.B.S. Prussian Bible Society. 
 
 B.M.S. Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 M.M.S. Moravian Missionary Society. 
 
 C.M.S. Church Missionary Society. 
 
 L.M.S. London Missionary Society. 
 
 A.B.M.S. American Baptist Missionary Society. 
 
 A.B.F.M. American Board of Foreign Missions. 
 
 A.P.M.S. American Presbyterian Missionary Society. 
 
 M.M. Melanesian Mission. 
 
 U.M. Universities Mission. 
 
 W.M.S. Wesleyan Missionary Society. 
 
 B.B.T.S. Barma Bible and Tract Society. 
 
 U.M.S. United Methodist Society. 
 
 F. C.S. M. Free Church of Scotland Mission. 
 
 C.P.M. Canada Presbyterian Mission. 
 
 N.S.E.W.C. Northern, Southern, Eastern, Western, Central. 
 
 R. River. 
 
 I. Island. 
 
 Prov. Province. 
 
 MS. Manuscript. 
 
 L. Lake. 
 
( us 
 
 TABLE OF LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS. 
 
 L EUROPE. 
 
 A. ARIAN FAMILY (5 Branches). 
 
 (In Europe.) 
 
 (I) KELT BRANCH. 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 Region. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation, 
 
 Welsh 
 
 ... 
 
 Wales 
 
 o.v. 
 
 Gaelic 
 
 • •■• 
 
 Scotland 
 
 o.v. 
 
 Erse 
 
 ■ ■• 
 
 Ireland 
 
 o.v. 
 
 Manx 
 
 ■ •• 
 
 Isle of Man 
 
 o.v. 
 
 Breton 
 
 ... 
 
 Brittany, France 
 
 B.F.B.S, 
 
 
 (2) TEUTON BRANCH. 
 
 
 English 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 Great Britain 
 
 O.V. 
 
 
 2 Surinam-Negro 
 
 Guiana, S. America B.F.B.S. 
 
 German 
 
 I Standard 
 
 Germany 
 
 O.V. 
 
 
 2 Judaso-German 
 
 do. 
 
 B.B.F.S. 
 
 Dutch 
 
 Standard 
 
 Holland 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Flemish 
 
 >■• 
 
 Belgium 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Fries 
 
 ■ ■ • 
 
 Holland 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Danish 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 Denmark 
 
 O.V. 
 
 
 2 Creole-Negro 
 
 Danish W. Indies 
 
 D.B.S. 
 
 Swedish 
 
 ■•■ 
 
 Sweden, Finland 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Norse 
 
 ... 
 
 Norway 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Icelandic 
 
 I Standard 
 
 Iceland 
 
 O.V., 
 D.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 Faro 
 
 Faro Island 
 
 D.B.S. 
 
( n6 ) 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Lithuanian 
 Lett 
 
 (3) LITHUANIC BRANCH. 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Samogitian 
 
 Region. 
 
 Lithuania 
 
 do. 
 Livonia, Courland 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 O.V.,P.B.S. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Old Slavonic 
 Russ 
 Pole 
 Wend 
 
 Czech 
 
 Slovak 
 
 Slov6n 
 
 Ruthin 
 
 Serb 
 
 Eulgdr 
 
 (4) SLAV BRANCH. 
 
 Dead, Liturgical O.V. 
 
 Russia O.V. 
 
 Poland O.V. 
 
 1 Upper Lusatia, Germany P.B.S. 
 
 2 Lower do. do. P.B.S. 
 
 3 Hungarian Hungary B.F.B.S. 
 
 Bohemia O.V. 
 
 N.W. Hungary B.F.B.S. 
 
 S. Austria B.F.B.S. 
 
 Little Russia B.F.B.S. 
 
 1 Standard Servia _ B.F.B.S. 
 
 2 Carniola Carinthia, Carniola, O.V. 
 
 Styria 
 
 Bulgaria B.F.B.S. 
 
 (S) GRECO-LATIN BRANCH. 
 
 Greek 
 
 Latin 
 Italian 
 
 Spanish 
 
 Portuguese 
 
 French 
 
 1 Classical 
 
 2 Romaic 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Piedmont 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Catalan 
 
 3 Judseo-Spanish 
 
 4 CuraQoa-Negro 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Indo-Portu- 
 
 guese 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Vaudois 
 
 3 Provencal 
 
 4 Mauritius- 
 
 Creole 
 
 Greece, Greek B.F.B.S. 
 
 Church 
 
 Greece B.F.B.S. 
 
 Dead, Liturgical O.V. 
 
 Italy O.V. 
 
 Piedmont B.F.B.S. 
 
 Spain, S. America O.V. 
 
 Catalonia, Spain B.F.B.S. 
 
 For Spanish Jews B.F.B.S. 
 
 I. of Cura^oa, W. N.B.S. 
 
 Indies 
 Portugal, S. America O.V. 
 
 I. of Ceylon B.F.B.S. 
 
 France, Canada O.V. 
 
 Piedmont, Italy B.F.B.S. 
 Provence, S. France B.F.B.S. 
 
 I. of Mauritius B.F.B.S. 
 
(; 117 ) 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Romanian 
 Romansch 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 Standard 
 
 Macedonian 
 
 Upper 
 
 Lower 
 Oberland 
 
 Region. Source of 
 
 1 ranslation. 
 
 Romania B.F.B.S. 
 
 Macedonia, Turkey B.F.B.S. 
 
 Engadiney Switzer- O.V. 
 
 land 
 
 do. do. C.B.S. 
 
 do. do. C.B.S. 
 
 B. ISOLATED LANGUAGES. 
 
 Basque 
 
 Albanian 
 Gitdno 
 
 1 French 
 
 2 Spanish 
 
 3 Guipuscoa, 
 
 1 Gheg 
 
 2 Tosk 
 
 France, Pyrenees B.F.B.S. 
 Spain.Prov.of Biscay B.F.B.S. 
 Spain, Prov. of B.F.B.S. 
 
 Guipuscoa 
 N. Albania B.F.B.S. 
 
 S. do. B.F.B.S. 
 
 For Spanish Gipsies B.F.B.S. 
 
 C. URAL-ALTAIC FAMILY (2 Branches). 
 
 
 
 (In Europe.) 
 
 
 
 (I) 
 
 FINN BRANCH. 
 
 
 Magyar 
 
 
 Hungary 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Finn 
 
 
 Finland ■ 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Lapp 
 
 1 Norse 
 
 Norway 
 
 ( No.B.S., 
 { B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 Swedish 
 
 Sweden 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 3 Russ 
 
 Lapland 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Esthon 
 
 I ' Dorpat 
 
 N. Livonia, Russia B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Reval 
 
 . Esthonia, do. 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Livon (Liv) 
 
 
 W. Courland do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Kardl . 
 
 
 . Prov. of Tver do. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
 Sirjin (Zir) 
 
 
 Prov. of Vo- 
 logda do. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
 Perm 
 
 
 Prov. of Perm do. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
 Mordwin 
 
 
 Prov. of Nijni- 
 Novogorod do. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
 Cheremissi 
 
 
 R. Volga • do. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
 Wotyak 
 
 
 Prov. of Wiakta, 
 Orenberg, do. 
 
 R.B.S. 
 
( Ii8 ). 
 
 (2) TURKI BRANCH. 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Chuvdsji 
 
 Kazdij 
 
 Nogdj 
 
 Kirghiz 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 1 Eastern 
 
 2 Western 
 I Kazdk 
 
 _, . Source of 
 
 Region. Translation. 
 
 Prov. of Nijni- R.B.S. 
 
 Novogorod, Russia 
 Prov. of Kazin, do. B.F.B.S. 
 Cis-Caucasia, do. B.F.B.S. 
 ForJews.Crimea do. O.V. 
 Astrakhan, do. R.B.S. 
 
 Arabic 
 
 Syriac 
 Hebrew 
 
 II. ASIA. 
 
 A. SEMITIC FAMILY. 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Maltese 
 
 Ancient 
 Modern 
 
 New Testament 
 
 Arabia, Syria, 
 
 N. Africa 
 Malta 
 
 Dead, Liturgical 
 Ur6miah, Persia 
 For Jews 
 
 ( B.F.B.S., 
 i A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 ( S.P.C.K. 
 
 O.V. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B. URAL-ALTAIC FAMILY (4 Branches). 
 
 (In Asia.) 
 (I) FINN BRANCH {continued). 
 
 Ostyak. 
 Wogul 
 
 Osmdnli 
 Kirghiz 
 
 Prov. of Tobolsk, B.F.B.S. 
 
 Tomsk, Russia 
 W. Siberia, do. B.F.B.S. 
 
 (2) TURKI BRANCH {continued). 
 2 Kara 
 
 Trans-Cauca- 
 sian (Azer- 
 bijdni) 
 
 Trans-Cas- 
 pian (Jaghatai) ' 
 
 Khiva (Uz- 
 bek Sart) 
 
 AsiaMinor,Turkey (B.F.B.S., 
 
 (A.B.S. 
 Siberia, Turkestan, B.F.B.S. 
 
 Russia 
 Trans-Caucasia, ( B.F.B.S., 
 
 do. A.B.S. 
 
 Trans-Caspia, do. B.F.B.S. 
 Khanate of Khiva B.F.B.S. 
 
( "9 ) 
 
 (3) MONGOL BRANCH. 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Mongol 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 1 Literary 
 
 2 N. (Buriat) 
 
 3 S. (Kalkhas) 
 
 4 W. (Kalmuk) 
 
 Region. 
 
 Mongolia 
 
 Russian Mongolia 
 
 Chinese Mongolia 
 
 W. Mongolia, Russia B.F.B.S. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Minchu 
 
 (4) TUNGUS BRANCH. 
 
 Manchuria, China B.F.B.S. 
 
 Georgian 
 
 C. CAUCASUS GROUP. 
 Georgia, Russia 
 
 O.V. 
 
 D. ARIAN FAMILY (2 Branches). 
 
 (In Asia.) 
 
 (I) IRAN BRANCH. 
 
 Persian 
 Armenian 
 
 Standard 
 I Ancient 
 z W. 
 
 
 3 E. (Ararat) 
 
 Kurd 
 
 ... 
 
 Oss6t 
 Pastii 
 
 ... 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 O.V. 
 
 B.S., 
 
 S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 ( b.'f.'i 
 |a.b.s 
 
 Baluchi 
 
 Persia 
 
 Dead, Liturgical 
 
 Asia Minor, 
 
 Turkey 
 Trans-Caucasia, 
 
 Russia 
 Kurdistan,Turkey, f B.F.B.S., 
 
 Persia \A.B.S. 
 
 Caucasus, Russia R.B.S. 
 Afghanistan, India ( B.F.B.S., 
 
 (b.m.s. 
 
 BaWchistan, India B.F.B.S. 
 
 Sanskrit 
 Hindi 
 
 N. India 
 
 (2) INDIC BRANCH. 
 
 Dead, Liturgical India 
 
 1 Standard N. In 
 
 2 Hindustani 
 (Urdu) 
 
 3 Ddkhani 
 
 4 Marwdri 
 
 5 Pahdri 
 
 do. 
 S. India 
 C. India 
 Kumaon, N. Ind; 
 
 [la 
 
 B.T.S. 
 ( B.F.B.S., 
 
 {b.m.s. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 A.B.S. 
 
( 120 ) 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 Region. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation, 
 
 Panjdbi 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 N. India 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Dogri 
 
 Jamu Hills, Panjib B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 3 Chambdli 
 
 Kangra Hills, do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Multani 
 
 • •■ 
 
 S. Panjdb 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Maghadi 
 
 ■ ■■ 
 
 Behdr, Bangil 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Bangali 
 
 I Standard 
 
 Bangdl 
 
 B.T.S. 
 
 
 2 Mahometan 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Asdmi 
 
 ... 
 
 Assam 
 
 B.T.S. 
 
 Uriya 
 
 ■ ■■ 
 
 Orissa, Bangal 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Marathi 
 
 I Standard 
 
 W. India 
 
 ( A.B.S., 
 ( B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 K6nkani 
 
 do. 
 
 Gujarati 
 
 I Standard 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Pdrsi 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Sinhali 
 
 
 I. of Ceylon 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Kashmiri 
 
 ■ •> 
 
 Kashmir 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Sindhi 
 
 I Standard 
 
 Sindh 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Katchi 
 
 Katch, W. India 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Nepdli 
 
 •■> 
 
 Nepdl 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Pali 
 
 ... 
 
 Dead, Liturgical 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Tamil 
 
 E. NON-ARIAN (4 Subdivisions), 
 (i) DRA VIDIAN FAMILY. 
 
 S. India 
 
 Telug6 
 
 , 
 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 Karnita 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 Malayilim 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 Tulu 
 
 
 
 
 do. 
 
 Bddaga 
 
 
 
 ■ ■* 
 
 do. 
 
 Gond 
 
 I 
 
 Standard 
 
 C. India 
 
 
 2 
 
 Koi 
 
 
 do. 
 
 Rajmahdli 
 
 
 
 ... 
 
 Rajmahd 
 
 (Pahdri, 
 
 Malto, 
 
 
 
 Maler) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 (2) KOLARIAN GROl 
 
 Sontdl 
 
 
 
 • •• 
 
 C. India 
 
 Manddri (Kol) 
 
 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 D.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 Ba.B.S. 
 
 Ba.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
( 121 ) 
 (3). TIBETO-BARMAN GROUP. 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 T, • Source of 
 Region. Translation, 
 
 Lepcha 
 
 ■ ■• 
 
 
 Sikhim, N. India B.T.S. 
 
 Garo 
 
 • •• 
 
 
 Assam B.T.S., 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 Tibet 
 
 >■■ 
 
 
 Tibet B.F.B.S. 
 
 Manipur 
 
 *■• 
 
 
 Maniptir, N. India B.F.B.S. 
 
 Barma 
 
 • •• 
 
 
 Barma A.B.M.S. 
 
 Karen 
 
 I Bghai 
 
 
 do. A.B.M.S. 
 
 
 2 Sgau 
 
 
 do. A.B.M.S. 
 
 
 3 Pwo 
 
 
 do. A.B.M.S. 
 
 
 
 (4) 
 
 KHASI. 
 
 Khasi 
 
 ••• 
 
 
 N. India B.F.B.S. 
 
 F. INDO-CHINA (2 Subdivisions.) 
 
 (i) TAI FAMILY. 
 
 Siam 
 Laos 
 
 Shan 
 
 
 Siam 
 do. 
 
 Shan States 
 (2) MON-ANAM FAMILY. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 (MS., 
 
 |a.b.m.s, 
 
 B.B.T.S. 
 
 Pegu (] 
 
 Mon) 
 
 Barma 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 G. MALAYSIA. 
 
 Malay 
 
 I Standard 
 
 I. of Sumatra 
 
 ( B.F.B.S., 
 { N.B.S.S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 ? Surabaya (Low) Malacca 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Java 
 
 • •• 
 
 I. of Java 
 
 ( N.B.S., 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 Sunda 
 
 • ■■ 
 
 do. 
 
 N.B.S. 
 
 Bali 
 
 ■ •• 
 
 I. of Bali 
 
 N.B.S. 
 
 Nias 
 
 ... 
 
 I. of Nias 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Batta 
 
 I Toba 
 
 I. of Sumatra 
 
 N.B.S., 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 Mandailung 
 
 do. . 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Macassar 
 
 '•■a 
 
 I. of Celebes 
 
 N.B.S. 
 
 Bugi 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 .N.B.S. 
 
( 122 ) 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 Alfuor 
 Dyak 
 
 Pangasina 
 
 Sangfr 
 Nicobar 
 
 Bojingijida 
 Formosa 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 1 Standard 
 
 2 Sea 
 
 Region. 
 
 C. India 
 I. of Borneo 
 
 do. 
 I. of Luzon 
 
 (Philippines) 
 I. of Sangir 
 I. of Nicobdr, Bay 
 
 of Bangdl 
 Andaman I., do. 
 I.of Formosa,China C.P.M. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 N.B.S. 
 N.B.S. 
 S.P.C.K. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 MS. 
 
 Private 
 
 H. CHINA. 
 
 Literary 
 
 Mandarin 
 
 Shanghai 
 
 Ningpo 
 
 Kinhwa 
 
 Fuhchau 
 
 Amoy 
 
 Chau-chau 
 
 Canton 
 
 Hakka 
 Hainan 
 
 1 N. 
 
 2 S. 
 
 Book language 
 
 Official, N. Prov. 
 
 do. 
 
 Shanghai 
 
 Ningpo 
 
 Chekiang. 
 
 Fuh-kien 
 
 Amoy 
 
 Swatow, Prov. of 
 
 Canton 
 Canton 
 
 Hongkong 
 I. of Hainan 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 B.M.S., 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 A.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Japdn 
 
 Korea 
 Llichu 
 
 Aino 
 Aliout 
 (Aleutian) 
 
 L EXTREME ORIENT. 
 I. of Japan 
 
 Kor6a 
 
 I. of Luchii 
 
 I. of Japan 
 Aleutian I. 
 
 A.B.S., 
 
 B.F.B.S., 
 
 N.B.S.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 S.P.C.K., 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Moscow. 
 
( 123 ) 
 
 III. AFRICA. 
 
 
 A. SEMITIC FAMILY. 
 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 Region. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 Ethiopic (Gi 
 
 iz) 
 
 Dead, Liturgical 
 
 o.v. 
 
 Amhdra 
 
 ... 
 
 Abyssinia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Tigr6 
 
 ... 
 
 Abyssinia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 B. HAMltiC GROUP. 
 
 
 Koptic 
 
 • •• 
 
 Egypt 
 
 O.V. 
 
 Kabiil 
 
 ... 
 
 Algeria 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Shilha 
 
 I Riff 
 
 Morocco 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Bilin (Bogos) 
 
 Abyssinia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Agau 
 
 I Falasha 
 
 Abyssinia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Gklla. 
 
 I Shoa 
 
 Galla-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Ittu 
 
 Galla-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 3 Bararetta 
 
 Galla-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 C. NUBA-FULAH GROUR 
 
 
 Nuba 
 
 I Fadidja 
 
 Nubia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Fulah 
 
 1 Futa-Toro 
 
 Senegambia 
 
 MS.,C.M.S, 
 
 
 D. NEGRO GROUR 
 
 
 Wolof 
 
 
 Senegambia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Mande 
 
 ... 
 
 Mandingo-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Susu 
 
 ... 
 
 R. Pongas 
 
 S.RC.K. 
 
 Temne 
 
 .■ ■ 
 
 Near Sierra Leone 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Bullom 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Mende 
 
 ■ ■ ■ 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Grebo 
 
 ... 
 
 Liberia 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Ashdnti 
 
 I Akwdp6m 
 
 Ashdnti-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Fanti 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Akri (Gd) 
 
 ■ •• 
 
 R. Volta 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Ew6 
 
 I Anlo 
 
 Dah6mi-land 
 
 ( B.F.B.S., 
 ( Br.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 
 2 Popo 
 
 do. .. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
( 124 ) 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Ydriba 
 
 Ibo 
 
 Igdra 
 
 Igbira 
 
 Nup6, 
 
 Hausa 
 
 Effk 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 Region. 
 
 YAriba-land 
 R. Niger 
 
 do. 
 
 do. 
 R. Quarra 
 N. of R. Quarra 
 Old Kalabar R. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 C.M.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 N.B.S.S. 
 
 E. BANTU FAMILY. 
 
 Dualla 
 
 Isubu 
 
 Ediya 
 
 Pongwe 
 
 Benga 
 
 Kele 
 
 Kongo 
 
 Nkundu 
 
 Tek6 
 
 Kimbundu 
 Umbundu 
 
 Her6ro 
 
 Chuana 
 
 Pedi 
 
 Suto 
 
 Siga (Tonga) 
 
 Xosa (Kafir) 
 
 Ziilii 
 
 Gwamba 
 
 Yao 
 
 Makiia 
 
 Nyanja 
 
 Ngoni 
 
 Tonga 
 KagSru 
 Swahfli 
 Bondei 
 
 Kamerun 
 
 B.T.S. 
 
 do. 
 
 B.T.S. 
 
 I. of Fernando Po 
 
 • B.M.S., 
 
 
 MS. 
 
 R. Gabtin 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 R. Kongo 
 
 B.M.S. 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.M.S., 
 
 
 MS. 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.M.S., 
 
 
 MS. 
 
 Prov. of Angdla 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Bailundo 
 
 A.B.F.M., 
 
 
 MS. 
 
 Damara-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Be-Chuana-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Transvaal 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Ba-Suto-land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Inhambdne 
 
 A.B.F.M. 
 
 Kafir-land 
 
 ( B.F.B.S., 
 B.B.S. 
 
 
 Ziim-land 
 
 j A.B.S., 
 
 
 ( B.B.S. 
 
 Transvaal 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 W. of Mozambik 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Makua-Iand 
 
 U.M. MS. 
 
 L. Nyassa 
 
 N.B.S.S. 
 
 do. 
 
 F.C.S.M., 
 
 
 MS. 
 
 do. 
 
 F.C.S.M. 
 
 U-Sagdra 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 E. Equat. Africa 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Kamba 
 Gogo 
 Nyika 
 Ganda 
 
 Guhha 
 
 ( 
 
 I2S ) 
 
 
 Name of Dialect. 
 
 Region. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation, 
 
 ■ •• 
 
 E. Equat. Africa. 
 
 MS. 
 
 ... 
 
 U-Gogo 
 
 MS. 
 
 ■ ■■ 
 
 Mombdsa 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 ... 
 
 U- Ganda, L. 
 Victoria 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 .•• 
 
 U-G6hha, L. 
 
 L.M.S., 
 
 
 Tanganyika 
 
 MS. 
 
 Khoikhoi 
 
 Malagdsi 
 
 F. HOTTENTOT GROUP. 
 
 Ndma Namdqua-land B.F.B.S. 
 
 G. MALAYAN. 
 
 I. of Madagascar B.F.B.S. 
 
 IV. AMERICA. 
 
 A. NORTH (3 Subdivisions). 
 (I) ARCTIC COAST. 
 
 Eskimo 
 
 I Greenlani 
 
 i 
 
 Extreme N. 
 
 D.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Labrador 
 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 3 Hudson's 
 
 Bay 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Tukudh 
 
 ... 
 
 
 Yiikon, Prov. of 
 Alaska 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 (2) 
 
 PACIFIC COAST. 
 
 
 Shimshi 
 
 ... 
 
 
 Metlakatla 
 
 C.M.S. 
 
 Nishkah 
 
 * •■ 
 
 
 Naas R. 
 
 C.M.S. 
 
 Kwagutl 
 
 • •■ 
 
 
 Vancouver I. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Hydah 
 
 ... 
 
 
 Queen Charlotte I 
 
 . C.M.S. 
 
 
 (3) CENTRAL PROVINCES. 
 
 
 Tinne 
 
 • ■■ 
 
 
 Hudson's Bay 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Slav6 
 
 ... 
 
 
 Mackenzie R. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Chipewan 
 
 •Z* 
 
 
 Churchill, Atha- 
 baska 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Beaver 
 
 . •• 
 
 
 R. Beaver 
 
 (B.F.B.S., 
 \ S.RC.K. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cree 
 
 I Eastern 
 
 
 Hudson's Bay 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 
 2 Western 
 
 
 Rupert's Land 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Blackfoot 
 
 .•• 
 
 
 Saskatchewan 
 
 C.M.S.,MS, 
 
( 126 
 
 Name of 
 Language. 
 
 Name of Dialect. Region. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 Ojibwa 
 
 ... 
 
 W. of L. Superioi 
 
 ■ ( A.B.S., 
 
 S.P.C.K., 
 ( B.F.B.S. 
 
 Mikmak i 
 
 Standard 
 
 Nova Scotia 
 
 ( B.F.B.S., 
 1 A.B.S. 
 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 Abenaqui 
 
 do. 
 
 Montreal 
 
 Maliseet 
 
 •*. 
 
 New Brunswick 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Delaware 
 
 *•• 
 
 Delaware 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Ney Perces 
 
 • • 
 
 Idaho 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Iroquois 
 
 ... 
 
 L. Eric, Ontario 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Mohawk 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Seneka 
 
 *■• 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Sioux (Dak6ta) 
 
 *•■ 
 
 W. of Mississippi 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Choctau 
 
 ... 
 
 S. States of U.S. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Chdroki 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Musk6ki 
 
 ■ •• 
 
 do. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 (Creek) 
 
 
 
 
 
 B. 
 
 SOUTH. 
 
 
 Aztek 
 
 ... 
 
 Mexico 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Maya 
 
 ■■■ 
 
 Yukatan 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Moskfto 
 
 ... 
 
 Moskito Coast 
 
 M.M.S. 
 
 Karib 
 
 ••• 
 
 Dutch Guiana 
 
 Edinburgh 
 
 Akkaway 
 
 ... 
 
 do. 
 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 Arawik 
 
 ■■■ 
 
 do. 
 
 ( A.B.S., 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 
 
 
 Quichiia 
 
 ... 
 
 Peru 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Aimard 
 
 >■■ 
 
 Bolivia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Guardni 
 
 . .. 
 
 Paraguay 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Yahgdn 
 
 ... 
 
 Tierra del Fuego 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 V. OCEANIA. 
 
 Tahiti 
 
 Rarotonga 
 
 Marquesas 
 
 Hawaii 
 
 Samoa 
 
 Niue 
 
 Tonga 
 
 Maori 
 
 A. POLYNESIA. 
 
 Society I. B.F.B.S. 
 
 Hervey's I. B.F.B.S. 
 
 Marquesas I. A.B.S. 
 
 Sandwich I. A.B.S. 
 
 Navigator's I. B.F.B.S. 
 
 Savage I. B.F.B.S. 
 
 Friendly I. B.F.B.S. 
 I. of Ne^ Zealand B.F.B.S. 
 
( 127 ) 
 
 B. MELANESIA. 
 
 Wu4. Name of Dialect. 
 
 Region. 
 
 Source of 
 Translation. 
 
 Fiji 
 
 ..• 
 
 Fiji I. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 R6tuina 
 
 ■•• 
 
 R6tuma I. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Mar6 (Neng6ne) 
 
 '■■ 
 
 Loyalty I. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Lifu 
 
 ••■ 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Uvea 
 
 ■ a* 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Aneityliin 
 
 *■■ 
 
 New Hebrides 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Futuna 
 
 • «• 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Aniwa 
 
 • ■• 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Tanna 
 
 *•• 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Erromanga 
 
 ■ ■• 
 
 do. 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
 Fat6 
 
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 Nguna 
 
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 Mai 
 
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 Api (Baki) 
 
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 Mota 
 
 aaa 
 
 Bank's I. 
 
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 Arag 
 
 aa. 
 
 Pentecost I., 
 (Whitsuntide) 
 
 MS., M.M. 
 
 Oba 
 
 • •• 
 
 Leper I. 
 
 MS., M.M, 
 
 Maewo 
 
 • •• 
 
 Aurora I. 
 
 MS., M.M, 
 
 Espirito Santo 
 
 • •• 
 
 New Hebrides 
 
 F.C.S.M. 
 
 Wano 
 
 • •• 
 
 San Christoval I. 
 
 MS., M.M, 
 
 Florida 
 
 • •■ 
 
 Solomon I. 
 
 S.P.C.K. 
 
 Isabel 
 
 ■ • ■ 
 
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 S.P.C.K. 
 
 Murray I. 
 
 ■ •• 
 
 Torres Straits 
 
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 Saibai 
 
 ■ •■ 
 
 do. 
 
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 S. Cape 
 
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 British New Guinea B.F.B.S. 
 
 Motu 
 
 • •• 
 
 do. 
 
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 Mafor 
 
 aaa 
 
 Dutch New Guinea 
 
 L N.B.S. 
 
 New Britain 
 
 .a. 
 
 Bismark 
 Archipelago 
 
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 Duke of York's I. 
 
 aaa 
 
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 W.M.S. 
 
 
 C. MIKRONESIAa 
 
 
 Gilbert I. 
 
 ... 
 
 Gilbert I. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Mortlock I. 
 
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 Mortlock I. 
 
 A.B.S. 
 
 Ebon 
 
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 Marshall I. 
 
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 Kusaie 
 
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 Marshall L 
 
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 Ponape 
 
 ... 
 
 Caroline I. . 
 
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 Narrinydri 
 
 D. AUSTRALIA. 
 
 South Australia 
 
 B.F.B.S. 
 
HERTFORD : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND EONS. 
 
Jlote0 on Mimomv^ g)ub)ecte. 
 
 jaaW E£ 
 
 ESSAYS ON THE GREAT PROBLEMS OUTSIDE 
 
 THE ORBIT OF PURE EVANGELISTIC WORK, 
 
 BUT WHICH THE MISSIONARY 
 
 HAS TO FACE. 
 
 I. POLYGAMY AND POLYANDRY. II. SLAVERY. III. ISLAM. IV. CASTE. 
 
 • V. CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY AND MANUFACTURE OF 
 
 OPIUM IN BRITISH INDIA. VI. LIQUOR TRAFFIC IN BRITISH 
 
 INDIA. VII. EDUCATION. 
 
 ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D., 
 
 LATE MEMBER OF H.M. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, MEMBER OF COMMITl-EES OF BRITISH AND 
 
 FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY AND CHURCH MISSIONARY yOCIETY, MEMBER OF TRANSLATION 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 INCORPORATED MEMBER OF SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL, AND HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1888. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
HERTFORD : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 
TO ALL THE DEAR 
 
 CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, WHO ATTENDED 
 
 THE INTERNATIONAL MISSIONARY CONFERENCE 
 
 IN EXETER HALL, JUNE, 1888, 
 
 Ci&ege Pases 
 
 ARE DEDICATED 
 
 BY ONE, WHO HAS STUDIED THESE GREAT SUBJECTS 
 
 FOR A LONG PERIOD OF YEARS, 
 
 FROM MANY POINTS OF VIEW, IN MANY 
 
 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES AND LANGUAGES, AND 
 
 SUBMITS HIS OPINIONS 
 
 WITH ALL THE HUMILITY OF ONE, WHO 
 
 ONLY LIVES TO LEARN. 
 
PREFACE TO PART II. 
 
 In putting forth these Essays, I feel the responsibility : 
 the Christian Statesman and Administrator of a non- 
 Christian country takes a wider, and more sympathetic, 
 view of human affairs, than the Missionary. He fears 
 God none the less, because he respects the ~ rights and 
 feelings of a non-Christian population more. He is more 
 tolerant of bad customs, and moral weaknesses, but quite 
 as severe upon crimes. He does not like to hear the 
 population of British India or China described as the 
 Kingdom of Satan : of course it means nothing, and such 
 phrases are only the conventional tags of a Missionary 
 periodical, required to suit the taste of a particular class of 
 not very highly educated readers and subscribers at home. 
 It is wrong, however, to use such phrases, because Christ 
 looked dowri from the Cross upon the poor Heathen, and 
 died for them also, though for eighteen hundred long 
 years no Prophet or Evangelist has ever come to tell 
 them of His exceeding precious Promises. That was not 
 
( X ) 
 
 their fault, but ours. We had the Gospel, but failed in 
 our duty to convey it to the Regions Beyond. 
 
 The lessons taught me by my Master, John Lawrence, 
 that Christian men should do Christian things in a Christian 
 way, has been confirmed by a careful survey of the state of 
 all the Races in Asia, Africa, and Oceania, as portrayed 
 in the Reports of Missionaries, Travellers, and Officials. I 
 cannot fail to mark the extreme goodness of the human 
 race, when there is a chance given for that goodness to 
 develope itself, and I recognize as incontestable, that the 
 heart of man turns to God, as the sunflower turns to the 
 Sun, if but one ray of His ineffable light reach it. I com- 
 pare the proclivities, the frightful crimes, the filthy sins, 
 of the inhabitants of one country with another, when left 
 outside the Gospel-influences. My heart sinks within me, 
 when I read of human flesh sold in the shambles in towns 
 within the circuit of the Missionary : of a man poisoning 
 his own mother on suspicion of witchcraft ; of a chief with 
 his harem filled with his own daughters ; and the opium- 
 pipe, of which so much is said, seems as nothing in the 
 scale of Morality, when contrasted with such things. 
 
 Civilization brings with it a number of concomitant evils. 
 The individual character of the Non-Christian must be 
 fortified to resist them : it is the legitimate work of the 
 Missionary to work a change in Man's heart, and he 
 loses the proper conception of his office, when he brings 
 railing accusations against Governments, and speaks evil 
 of dignities. Such a line of policy only injures a good 
 cause, alienates friends, and makes the enemy to scoff" 
 at his ridiculous unwisdom, and unreasonable arguments. 
 St. Paul must have had much to vex his soul, but he 
 
( xi ) 
 
 knew nothing but Christ and Him crucified, and asked 
 for no human assistance. He took it to the Lord 
 in prayer. 
 
 With my conclusions about Polygamy and Slavery, there 
 is room for a difference of opinion : they are the result of 
 long, wide, and deep reflection. With my third Essay 
 upon Islim all, who have personal knowledge of Maho- 
 metans, will agree. On the subject of Caste, and the 
 Cultivation of the Poppy, I can hope for little sympathy 
 with the present generation of Missionaries. A radical 
 misconception with regard to the latter has obtained a 
 deep root, based upon the exaggerated platform-abuse, 
 and an imperfect comprehension of a very difficult 
 problem. I think that the next generation will judge 
 more calmly. At any rate, there is not the remotest 
 chance of the Government of India making any change 
 in its policy. As to Caste, the Missionary, if he is 
 opposed to it, should set the example of allowing his 
 daughter to marry the Native Pastor, and admitting all 
 classes of Natives to his table. Until he does this, the 
 Caste of the White Man will remain but an additional 
 item in the long Catalogue of Indian Castes. As regards 
 the Liquor-Traffic, I am at one with the Missionaries in 
 recognizing the evil, but differing no doubt in the method 
 of counteracting it. I seek what is possible : those, who 
 have never had the conduct of human affairs, dream of 
 what Statesmen know to be impossible. Many will no 
 doubt agree with my remarks about Education, and those, 
 who do not, will perhaps better understand the problems 
 after they have reflected upon them. The occupation of 
 British India by Russia, and the expulsion of the British, 
 
( xii ) 
 
 would teach the Missionary certain hard lessons, upon 
 which they will do well to make timely reflection. King 
 Log may have his faults, but what of King Stork ? Some 
 of the younger members of our Societies may live to see 
 every Missionary turned out of China, and India, no longer 
 British. Loud will then be their complaints of Intolerance. 
 
 O fortunati, sua si bona ndrint ! 
 
 I read with astonishment the following words, uttered 
 on June 20, 1888, in Exeter Hall, by an ordained 
 American Missionary, and applauded by an assembly 
 of British and American Missionaries : " For what has 
 " been done in India, the British deserved, far more than 
 " the Turks for their atrocities in Bulgaria, to be turned 
 " out bag and baggage." The Resolution, thus supported, 
 was put to the Meeting by the Chairman, a highly-paid 
 official of the British State, and Cousin, bearing the same 
 name, of the Viceroy of India, under whose orders the 
 alleged atrocities were committed. After this, we can 
 scarcely wonder at the policy of Austria, Russia, and 
 France, as regards Protestant Missionaries, of total ex- 
 clusion ! I deplore it, but cease to be surprised. Germany 
 will soon follow the example. 
 
 July i, i888. 
 
I. 
 
 POLYGAMY IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 
 
 A LETTER was read from the Bishop of Zululand in the Upper 
 House of Convocation during the summer of 1886, requesting 
 guidance on the question of baptizing persons living in Polygamy. 
 It was determined that communications should be made to those 
 Churches of the Anglican Communion, in which questions 
 relating to Polygamy had been found of pressing importance, 
 and that the ancient ecclesiastical law relating to the subject 
 should be ascertained. At the annual meeting of the S.P. G., 
 the Primate again alluded to the subject, and notified, that it 
 would be discussed in the Pan-Anglican Synod, which would 
 D.V. meet in 1888 at Lambeth. 
 
 It may be deemed not inexpedient to recall what has been 
 written on the subject, and to consider it as God-fearing men, 
 and yet not afraid to look firmly in the face the facts recorded 
 in past history, and the circumstances of the days in which we 
 ■live. We should show that we are neither slaves to precedents, 
 nor desirous of needless change, nor contemptuous of Holy Writ, 
 wisely and widely interpreted. 
 
 In the Table of Literature on the subject, which I place at 
 the close of this paper, ancient memories will be awakened, and 
 the opinions of men now at rest will be cited. There is still 
 room for discussion, when we find that a quarter of a century 
 ago Archbishop Whately, Bishop Colenso, Bishop Cotton, Bishop 
 Milman were on one side, and Bishop Cotterell, Bishop Daniel 
 Wilson, and Mr. Henry Venn were on the other. Different 
 missionaries have acted, and made utterances in different 
 manners. Such of the laity, as have spoken, have as a rule 
 upheld the sanctity of contracts made bond fide, the contract of 
 ■the union of the sexes, which is the most sacred, if not alwaj's 
 the most holy, of contracts, and repudiated the idea of a 
 Polygamist purchasing admission into the Church of Christ at 
 the expense of the comfort, the rights, the respectability, and 
 possibly the morals, of his wives. We read in the " Report of 
 the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Panjdb Church Council" 
 (p. 59), that both Bishop Milman and Robinson, of Calcutta, 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 sanctioned the baptism of Polygamists : we may well hold our 
 breath here; and we read how in South Africa Polygamists 
 were allowed to select one wife and enter the Church, and that 
 the others were sometimes allowed to live not far from him, 
 sometimes allowed to depart, sometimes married off to others : 
 we may well feel a feeling of shame here, for these poor women 
 had souls to be saved also. 
 
 What is Polygamy ? Its real meaning is the status of a man, 
 who has a plurality of wives, and of a woman, who has a plurality 
 of husbands. The legal test of the word "husband " and " wife " 
 is, that the civil law recognises the status and the rights flowing 
 therefrom, and that the children are legitimate. We have both 
 Polygyny and Polyandry in India, thoroughly recognised in the 
 courts of law. Be it remembered, that we guaranteed to the 
 people of India toleration of their religion, and their own laws, 
 as regards marriage and inheritance, and no wise ruler would 
 venture to meddle with them. And here I at once lay down 
 another principle : whatever theologians or short-sighted mis- 
 sionaries may say. Polygamy is not a crime. The rulers of India 
 put down with a high hand atrocious crime. When we annexed 
 the Panjab in 1 846, 1 was with Lord Lawrence, and we summoned 
 the landowners, and told them, that they must not burn their 
 widows, or kill their daughters, or bury alive their lepers. We 
 knew very well, that the greater part were idolaters, and all of 
 them possible Polygynists, and some Polyandrists ; but that 
 was no affair of ours. Polygyny and Polyandry may be highly 
 objectionable, but their position ranges with profligacy, intoxica- 
 tion, gambling, and other habits condemned by the moralist, 
 yet extensively practised in Christian countries. 
 
 According to Sir W. ^unter, Polyandry is found in the Hima- 
 layan valleys and in Travancore, at each end of India ; one 
 woman has several husbands, generally brothers. In the great 
 heroic poem, the " Mahabhdrata," the heroine, Draupadi, marries 
 five brothers and lives happily. So entirely is Polyandry a feature 
 of the custom of some tribes in Central India, that General 
 Dalton mentions, that, at the request of a father, he directed 
 search to be made for a runaway daughter, who was brought 
 in by the police with her two lovers, with whom she had 
 eloped. In the Panjdb, among the Jdt families, too poor to 
 bear the expense of the marriage of all the males, the wife of 
 the eldest son has to accept his brothers as joint husbands. 
 One tribe is mentioned by the Mahometan writers in 1008 a.d. 
 as practising Polyandry. In South India the custom has a 
 different and more primitive development, for the sister's son 
 always succeeds to a man's property; and according to Sir W. 
 Hunter, the women of certain tribes live promiscuously without 
 the form of marriage. The successor to the throne is restricted 
 
( 3 ■) 
 
 to the issue of a certain number of princesses, who are kept like 
 queen-bees. Polygyny is lawful throughout India, both to Hindu 
 and Mahometan, but the practice is quite the exception, as it is 
 expensive. Moreover, India is under a rule of law, and has 
 been so for centuries. A marriage is only lawful with certain 
 persons, and must be ratified in a certain way and at a con- 
 siderable expense. This causes a great restriction of the privilege, 
 and, as a fact, none but the rich avail themselves of it. Very 
 good feeling is often shown. A rich banker came to see me, 
 and told me of his sorrow, that he had no son to perform the 
 funeral rites over him. I suggested to him a second wife, but 
 he would not hear of anything, which would vex his wife. On 
 one occasion I heard in my office, that my head man of business 
 had had two babiesborn at the same time from diflferent mothers ; 
 when alone, I asked him about it, as it appeared to me to be 
 disreputable, and he said, that it was not his fault, that his 
 parents had married him to his two wives ; that they were both 
 good women, and he had no power to cast either off. I remember 
 a young Rajput noble marrying the two daughters of a Rajput 
 neighbour, who added a niece as well to the bargain. The 
 Mahdraja Dulip Singh, so well known in England, is the issue 
 of a polygamous father, who left a great many widows,. Shir 
 Ali, the unfortunate ruler of Afghanistan in the last war, was the 
 issue of a polygamous connection. I remember the Mahiraja 
 of Pateila, a Polygamist, in his desire to have a son, ordering a 
 wife to be looked for of his own caste, who belonged to a family, 
 where the women always had large families, and his plan suc- 
 ceeded. Nothing is more mistaken than to suppose that sen- 
 suality, in India at least, has anything to do with the matter. 
 We read how the high-priest Jehoiada gave King Joash two 
 wives, when he was quite a child. As a rule, the bridegroom 
 has never seen the bride before the marriage. The marriage 
 vow is preserved faithfully by the woman at least, and by a very 
 great majority of the men. We quite know that Monogamy 
 does not piit a stop to gross sensuality. My object is to show, 
 that it is raising a false issue to exaggerate the foulness of 
 Polygamy. It exists, respected by the law ; but, if left alone, 
 will gradually die out under the iniluence of enlightenment, 
 education, and general softening of manners. 
 
 Leaving India, let us consider Polygamy in South Africa. 
 Sir Theophilus Shepstone, Hon. Secretary for Native Affairs 
 in Natal, on March z6th, 1861, expressed the following opinions 
 at Pietermaritzburg : 
 
 I. Native law recognizes every woman as a wife, whose 
 position as such has been consented to by the two families 
 concerned, and when such consent has been ratified or carried 
 out by a formal marriage ceremony. 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 TI. For a marriage to be valid, there must be a consideration 
 on botli sides, the two families being the contracting parties, 
 and this must be measured by the rank and condition of these 
 families. 
 
 III. The suitor must make over cattle to the amount settled, 
 and the girl on her marriage must be accompanied by cattle and 
 ornaments, as may be due to her rank. In some cases she 
 brings nearly as much as her husband has paid. 
 
 IV. The marriage ceremonies differ with different tribes'; 
 but the essence of it is friendship betwixt the families, promise 
 to protect and cherish wife, on part of husband ; promise of 
 obedience and good behaviour on part of wife; and a further 
 recognition of the new relations with each other, which can 
 always be pleaded in any subsequent dispute. 
 
 V. The cattle are taken beforehand to the girl's family, but 
 the girl can refuse them, and does often refuse them, and send 
 them back ; and the meaning pf this is known. 
 
 VI. Her friends may press and threaten her ; but a girl, if 
 determined, is sure of victory. In case of personal violence 
 the British magistrate would interfere and protect her, and 
 maintain her right of free choice, and punish violence. 
 
 VII. In every stage of the proceedings before and after 
 marriage will be found the exact counterparts and analogies of 
 the higher form of marriage elsewhere, but in their native form 
 peculiar to the state of culture. 
 
 VIII. The wife is not a slave, or sold as such. The parent 
 of the girl never loses his right to protect his child. The cattle 
 given at the marriage is a guarantee for their good treatment. 
 
 IX. She has, of course, to work, and help to maintain her 
 family. If idle, she is punished. But public opinion has the 
 same effect among women here as elsewhere. 
 
 X. A widow may continue with her children, or leave them 
 and marry again. The husband's heirs may claim something, 
 but they cannot control her free action. 
 
 XI. If she runs away from her husband, and her friends 
 refuse to give her up, the matter comes before the magistrate, 
 who settles it as best he can. 
 
 . XII. When separation takes place before children are born, 
 it often happens that all property is mutually restored. Such 
 cases often come before the magistrate, who, if cruelty and 
 oppression of the woman be proved, would not order the cattle 
 to be given back to the husband. 
 
 Sir Theophilus admits the evil of Polygamy, but gross 
 exaggeration of that evil will not help the matter. There are 
 many evils also in monogamic marriages. He states distinctly, 
 that in any case of oppression by father of his daughter, or ' 
 husband of his wife, the magistrate will interfere. 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 He considers, that it is wrong to teach a heathen, as a duty 
 enjoined by Christ's religion, that he must injure others to benefit 
 himself, that he must commit an unlawful act, involving op- 
 pression and injustice, and a reckless sacrifice of the interests 
 of others, to further his own. These women are wives 
 according to their law, or custom having force of law; and 
 their consciences, and their self-respect, should not be destroyed 
 by inducing them to believe, that they are something less, in 
 fact, dishonoured prostitutes ; their children should not be 
 bastardized, who by the law are legitimate, and have rights 
 as such. These women are admitted to be faithful wives, 
 because they consider themselves wives. Why subvert this 
 notion and, in fact, encourage licentiousness .'' A wife at 
 present has within her reach full means of protection, because 
 she has the legal rights of a wife to plead. If deprived of these, 
 her moral sense and her legal rights disappear. It may be 
 expedient to legislate so as to discourage and extinguish 
 Polygamy eventually, but any other course is neither politic 
 nor just. 
 
 In India the wives are all equal ; but we gather from Sir 
 T. Shepstone, that one Zulu wife ranks above another. But it 
 rarely happens, that the first wife, according to date, enjoys 
 the highest rank; nor does the issue of the first wife succeed 
 as of right to a chieftainship : this point is of importance, as 
 will appear below. In South Africa no system of concubinage 
 is recognized, nor in India : this fact must also be borne in 
 mind. In South Africa, as in India among Hindus, a man 
 cannot marry any female, with whom he is in the remotest 
 degree connected in blood. In South Africa the suitor has seen 
 the girl, who is. apparently an adult, and has a veto on the 
 arrangement ; in India the bride is generally a child, and has 
 no voice in the matter. In India, with the Hindu female, 
 divorce or re-marriage as a widow is impossible. With the 
 Mahometan there is no difficulty, as the woman can even 
 divorce her husband, and can, as a widow, re-marry. Change 
 of religion from the Hindu and Mahometan point of view 
 dissolves the contract of marriage ; but a Christian does not 
 obtain his liberty to re-marry in that way. 
 
 But there is a third class of circumstances, which presents 
 itself. In British India the " law of the person " is enforced by 
 British Courts. In the colonies of Natal and the Cape, law, 
 to a certain extent, prevails, but of a rougher character ; but on 
 the West Coast of Africa there exists no law, or custom having 
 the force of law, and there is no Executive to enforce it, if it 
 did exist. Polygamy' is made more odious by the existence of 
 slavery and the slave-trade ; and it is obvious, that sensuality 
 is the motive here, and that, in fact, marriage scarcely exists. 
 
( 6 ■) 
 
 The connection of the Arab, and the negro chief, with the 
 women of his harem is simply that of wholesale concubinage. 
 If the phenomena presented are more distressing, they are 
 simpler. The male convert in such cases can be dealt with 
 very summarily, as a reformed profligate ; the poor women have 
 no conjugal duties to render, but have to be rescued, as best 
 may be, from a life of infamy. 
 
 Beyond India and Africa there are other regions, where 
 Polygamy prevails, but it is in these two countries, that the 
 opposing forces of Polygamy and Christianity come into 
 collision. 
 
 The environment of the chosen people at Hebron and 
 Shechem, in Egypt, and in Canaan, was so totally different, that 
 it is difficult to imagine anything more unreasonable, than to 
 seek for analogies there, wherewith to solve this problem of the 
 nineteenth century in India and Africa. If Polygamy prevailed 
 in the Old Testament times, it was obviously of a totally 
 different character from the secluded Indian zanina, the Zulu 
 kraal, and the Ydriba harem. In the first case the woman does 
 nothing, absolutely nothing; in the last two she works like a 
 day labourer, and helps to support herself, her children, and 
 her husband, or master, by daily toil. The wives of the Hebrew 
 Polygamist appeared in public, were admitted to the place of 
 worship, were treated with honour and deference ; and in the 
 case of Hannah and Bathsheba, an eighth wife, their issue was 
 the recipient of the highest honour from the Almighty. There 
 were harlots in those days, and there were concubines ; but 
 these were wives, and the priests did not think them unworthy 
 of their notice. They had even a higher status than is con- 
 ceded by law to the wives of the Indian and African Poly- 
 gamist ; and in some cases, though not all, in the case of the 
 mother of Solomon certainly, Polygamy was the result of 
 sensuality, and yet went unpunished under a system of govern- 
 ment controlled by a powerful priesthood, and stimulated and 
 awed by inspired prophets, who were never wearied in describ- 
 ing the sins and backslidings of the nation (Ezekiel iii. i8), but 
 never spake one word against this great domestic weakness. 
 I mention these facts to justify the British Government of India 
 and South Africa in the policy of forbearance, which they have 
 adopted towards Polygamy, as in past years they did to Slavery, 
 until in India the latter died out of itself, and this will be the 
 fate of Polygamy also. 
 
 Great stress should be laid upon a consideration of the state 
 of the World, as described by Classic Authors, at the time of the 
 appearance of our Lord. The Greek culture had dominated 
 Western Asia, and North Africa, and was perpetuated by their 
 successors, the Romans. Can we doubt that the heroes of the 
 
( 1 ) 
 
 Iliad and the OdySsee, Priam, Hector, Menelaus, Ulysses, 
 Agamemnon were Monogamists, not always faithful husbands, but 
 iiever with two wives lawfully married at the same time ? The 
 Gods, and Goddesses, the creatures of the Greek conception, 
 were Monogamists. There is nothing in the Iliad or Odyssee 
 to suggest Polygamy : to the reader of the great Hindu Epics, 
 the Rdmdyana and Mahdbhdrata, Polygamy is the one feature, 
 which cannot be overlooked. Palestine, Syria and Egypt had 
 been thoroughly Hellenized before the advent of our Lord (see 
 Maccabees ii. 4, 10), and the four bad customs, which had pre- 
 vailed in the elder world; and which are still found to prevail 
 in Heathen countries in a low cultufe, had disappeared. How 
 could St. Paul have written verse 3 1 of the fifth chapter of the 
 Ephesians, if the having a plurality of lawful consorts had been 
 a possible conception for the Apostle's mind .'' He knew very 
 clearly what a harlot was, but an alternative wife did not 
 suggest itself. The same conviction arises from a perusal 
 of verse 2, chapter vii. first of Corinthians, that St. Paul, a 
 Greek scholar, a Roman citizen, and a Hebrew Pharisee, knew 
 nothing about Polygamy any more than of Anthropophagy, and 
 Human Sacrifices. 
 
 My own view is that of Michaelis (Law of Moses iii. 5), that 
 subsequent to the Babylonish Captivity, Polygamy did not exist. 
 I challenge any one to produce an instance of the practice, or 
 a passage inferring the practice, in the Apocrypha or any Greek 
 or Roman Author ; the only instance on record is that of Herod 
 the Great, mentioned by Josephus. The unlimited power of 
 divorce, and no doubt profligacy, had taken its place. The 
 world had advanced. Successive Polygamy had taken the place 
 of concurrent Polygamy in the Western world. In Greece and 
 Rome Polygamy was unknown. We only read of one wife of 
 Pilate. Esther is the last Hebrew maiden on record, who fell 
 so low as to be one of the many concubines of a sensual tyrant, 
 a heathen, to whom her law forbade her to be married. Her 
 contemporary, the Roman Virginia, preferred death to shame. 
 If it be conceded, that Polygamy had ceased to exist many 
 centuries before the time of our Lord and His Apostles, we are 
 spared much useless discussion about inapplicable texts, which 
 could not be meant to cover circumstances, which never existed. 
 In the elder world cannibalism, human sacrifices, witchcraft and 
 Polygamy had existed, but as far as regards the nations dwell- 
 ing within the area of the Roman Empire, they had died out. 
 There is an abundance of abominable crime alluded to by St. 
 Paul, but it was beyond his experience and imagination, that a 
 man should err in these particulars. It seems impossible, that 
 he should have overlooked them in the first chapter of the 
 Epistle to the Romans, had they existed. 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 I have perused a bundle of letters from Bishops and Missionaries 
 in India, which have arrived at the Church Missionary Society 
 this year in answer to the query : they represent the outcome of 
 solitary minds, which had never discussed the subject in any 
 Indian Conference, and were void of all African and Oceanic 
 experiences : some would baptize a Polygamist oflF-hand, some 
 would make him put away his extra wives (though a wife in 
 India is a reality, not a mere concubine) : some would exclude 
 him from the Lord's Supper, and others from Church-office.. 
 The well-known verses of I Timothy iii. 2, 12, are freely quoted, 
 but I Timothy v. 9 is never quoted : and yet, if it is a just 
 inference from the first passages, that a Bishop and a Deacon 
 must be restricted to Monogamy, while their flock might be 
 Polygamists, it follows that it may with equal force be inferred, 
 that, if widows admitted into the number were to be wives of one 
 husband, the rest of the sex might at discretion be Polyandrous. 
 We may just as well argue, that Polyandry existed among the 
 Samaritans at the time of our Lord. Clearly the woman of 
 Samaria at Jacob's well had five husbands, and, as Dean Alford 
 remarks, they were certainly lawful husbands : we are not told 
 whether they were simultaneous husbands, or successive under 
 the operation of Death or of Divorce : but our Lord adds : 
 " he whom thou now hast is not thy husband," showing that the 
 wretched woman had fallen from so-called legal un chastity to 
 something worse, the position of a harlot, and she admits the 
 truth. " He told me all things that ever I did." Of neither 
 custom is there a scintilla of evidence. There are three other 
 alternative explanations : ( i ) the Bishop, Deacon, and widow, 
 must not have suifered bereavement and had two partners in 
 succession in lawful matrimony, (2) they must not have availed 
 themselves of the lax rules of divorce, and made new alliances, 
 while their former partner was living, (3) they must not be, like 
 Roman Priests, celibates. The morals of the Corinthian Church 
 were evidently very low, and St. Paul speaks out his mind on 
 the duties of the married state very explicitly : he could not 
 have passed over Polygamy without notice, if it had existed. 
 
 Since these days the uttermost ends of the world have been 
 reached, and we find traces of these four giants in America, 
 Africa, Asia, and Oceania. We find nearly all the crimes de- 
 scribed by the Apostle, and these in addition. Civilization may 
 have trodden down the three former in China, Japan, and India, 
 but the fourth remains. Elsewhere all are rampant. This leads 
 to another reflection. We cannot conceal from ourselves, that 
 all mankind is not on the same level of culture and privileges 
 and responsibilities. Europe and European colonies are far 
 ahead of Asia, Asia is ahead of Africa, and Africa of America 
 and Oceania. It is idle to apply the same methods of govern-- 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 ment, to require the same standard of mbrals, to enforce the 
 same discipline, upon tribes just emerging from savagery, in 
 the lowest rounds of culture, left out in the cold for long 
 centuries, never visited by prophet or evangelist, never elevated 
 by certain hopes of a future heaven, never awed by certain 
 prospects of everlasting damnation. And yet some missionaries 
 would try to introduce per saltum ordinances and standards, 
 which they could scarcely be able to enforce in the British 
 Islands, into the African kraal or the Indian village. Let them 
 set before their flock the highest, the very highest, standard, 
 but be merciful in the application of it for the first or second 
 generations. 
 
 All other sins and offences against the law of God and human 
 nature seem to come to an end with the committal and the 
 punishment, the repentance and the pardon. In Oceania we 
 have excellent Christians, who once were cannibals. The 
 sorcerer-priest, the official murderer of the human sacrifice, has 
 been admitted as a communicant ; the profligate, the drunkard, 
 the adulterer, the atheist, the blasphemer, the persecutor of 
 martyred Christians, all find that there is pardon ; but the curse 
 of the unhappy Polygamist is, by the nature of the case, a con-- 
 tinning one ; he cannot get rid of it until his own death, or that 
 of all but one of his unhappy wives. And yet Polygamy, though 
 it clearly existed, is not condemned in the Decalogue. The 
 few words, " Thou shalt have but one wife," would have settled 
 the matter absolutely and for ever. To our nineteenth-century 
 ideas the sin of theft, which is condemned in the Decalogue, is 
 as nothing compared to that of Polygamy. As time went on, 
 and the thoughts of men widened with the progress of the suns, 
 no prophet denounced this canker-worm of domestic, purity, 
 causing rivalry among women occupying the same house, hatred 
 among the children of the same father. The misfortunes of the 
 lives of David and Solomon could be so clearly traced to Poly- 
 gamy, that the conscience of the nation would have accepted 
 the prohibition, as indeed it did after the Captivity. It cannot 
 be said, as regards Israel, as it can truly be said with regard to 
 the people of India, that the position of the ruling power was 
 so delicate and precarious, that it dared not run the risk of 
 intruding into family customs, for Ezra and Nehemiah plainly 
 compelled the people to put away their alien wives. A Word 
 from Moses and Joshua would have nipped Polygamy in the 
 bud ; and David's conduct would have been as unjustifiable in 
 taking eight wives one thousand years before the Christian era, 
 as Herod's was in taking nine wives at the time of the birth 
 of our Lord. On the contrary, special favour attached itself 
 to Rachel, Hannah, and Bathsheba, and their issue, Joseph, 
 Samuel, and Solomon, all begotten by polygamous fathers. The 
 
(, lo .) 
 
 missionary must, therefore, maintain some restraint upon 
 himself in his wholesale abuse of Polygamy, or cease to read 
 the Old Testament to his congregation. I have it on the 
 authority of one distinguished traveller, that a woman in West 
 Africa would disdain to marry a man, who had only one wife. 
 I have it on the authority of a missionary, that after becoming 
 pregnant the wife withdraws herself absolutely from the society 
 of her husband for three years, that she may suckle her offspring. 
 Everything assumes a weird and awful form in Africa. A well- 
 known traveller a few years ago tells us of a chief, who, ' in 
 addition to his well stocked harem, claimed a right to every 
 woman in his kingdom on whom his fancy fell ; and among 
 the number of his harem were his sisters, his stepmothers, his 
 cousins, his aunts, and his own children. The Polygamy of 
 India, which excludes every one within the limits of consan- 
 guinity and affinity, and limits the number to four at the same 
 time, all of the same Caste as the husband, seems quite a decent 
 and orderly custom, compared to the frightful excesses of the 
 Africans in regions, which have not yet come under European law. 
 I have no wish to fortify myself by the opinions of others. As 
 stated above, I regard all the cases quoted in the Old Testament 
 as inapplicable to Christianity in the nineteenth century, and 
 the pages of the New Testament as silent ; but the words, 
 " Male and female created He them," " In the beginning it 
 was not so," seem to govern the whole matter, and to forbid 
 imperatively the admission of Polygamy in any form into the 
 Christian Church. To this may be added the words from our 
 Lord's lips in the inspired Greek version, "They twain shall 
 be one flesh," and in Genesis, " I will make him an helpmeet for 
 him ;" and one of Adam's ribs was taken, emphatically " one 
 only." The equality of members of the two sexes, that are born, 
 is beyond doubt: the superior fecundity of a monogamous 
 population is a fact capable of proof. Canon Westcott's words, 
 in his " Social Aspects of Christianity," should be reflected upon 
 with regard to those words of our Lord, "the twain shall 
 " become one flesh." " Marriage is the divine pattern and 
 " ground of human communities, the original sacrament of com- 
 " pleted manhood." How can this be, if a Polygamist is 
 admitted to the Church ? Marriage is a type of the union 
 of the Redeemer with the Church. How can that be brought 
 home, if seated in the Church is a tolerated Polygamist with his 
 miscellaneous contemporary offspring, differentiated like cattle 
 by the name of their sire and dam } If once Polygamists are 
 admitted into the Church, even for the lifetime of existing Poly- 
 gamists, a new lease of life will be given to the institution. 
 The Native Churches are rapidly becoming independent, and it 
 may please some lax Christians to assert a right for a Church 
 
( II ) 
 
 to be polygamous. Nor is this fear without foundation, as is 
 evidenced by the letter of a Native Pastor at Abeokuta in Yariba- 
 land, West Africa, 1883 : 
 
 The Polygamists had gained ground, and had trodden down the com- 
 municant members of the community : I have since begun to effect separation 
 between the two. The Polygamists dislike this, and complain against me 
 bitterly, that I virtually separate them from my congregation, because they 
 are sinners. They would persecute the communicants, whenever they have 
 an opportunity. They used to be members of my local Church Committee, 
 so as to be consulted before anything is done by me in the Church, and what- 
 ever they do not sanction they would not have me to do. What makes it 
 worse is that they are the more enlightened of the congregation. The young 
 Polygamists have a company, which meets once a month for feasting, and on ' 
 this occasion Monogamy is a subject of scandal and reproach. Some young 
 male communicants had joln'ed them before I came to this station ; up till now 
 I have not been able to disconnect them, although they do not seem to join 
 them in heart and mind. 
 
 At the Diocesan Conference at LagOs, 1887, the Rev. J. 
 Buckley Wood, a Missionary of great experience, spoke as 
 follows : 
 
 Another difficulty in the way of Church progress is the multiplication of 
 women by some Christians. There are some, who are dead to the heinousness 
 of the sin, in which they live, whilst there are others, who are far from being at 
 ease in their sin, and who would (so they say, and I am inclined to believe 
 them) -leave it, if they could see how. That there are great difficulties, which 
 cannot be mentioned particularly, in the way of sucTi, is a fact. These persons 
 attend divine service regularly, their every-day life, except as to the sin in 
 question, is above the average ; they use their influence on the side of right, 
 they are ready to subscribe to good objects. Such form a stumbling-block in 
 the Church. People, seeing their general conduct, are drawn to think less of 
 the one deadly sin, and the result is, that the protest of the consciences of the 
 really godly memliers is apt to be lessened, and there is something like a 
 compromise made with this sin. 
 
 At the Diocesan Conference at Sierra Leone, in 1888, Mr. 
 T. J. Sawyer, a most respectable coloured citizen, openly 
 claimed for the Heathen and Mahometan the right of having 
 a plurality of wives, and the drift of his argument was such, as to 
 justify the opinion, entertained by a member of the Conference, 
 that by implication he asserted the right for the members of 
 Christian Churches, not only if the ties had been formed 
 previous to baptism, hut if contracted after baptism. 
 
 We have clearly arrived at the place of the parting of the 
 ways, and must put down our foot now, or be carried away by 
 the stream. 
 
 But in avoiding Scylla, do not let us run into Charybdis. The 
 King of Kongo professed lately to the missionaries at San 
 Salvador, tha:t he was in great trouble about his wives, and 
 anxious to know what he should do. The missionaries made 
 the prudent reply, that they could not advise him to put them 
 away, as this could only be productive of greater evils. This is the 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 ■whole gist of the matter : let us think it out upon the facti 
 recorded, and not on the opinions on those- facts. 
 
 Some missionaries would receive the Polygamist on the 
 condition of his retaining one wife only : but which wife ? the 
 one, who was the first married to him, perhaps old, childless; 
 neglected, and a hopeless heathen ; or the mother of the largest 
 number of his children, or the one to whoni his fancy turns, 
 or the one who is ready to become a Christian, or the chief 
 wife, where there is a certain gradation of rank among them ? 
 In the event of the chosen wife dying, must he choose another 
 from his reserve-wives, or from an entirely new connection ? 
 We enter here into a succession of hopeless dilemmas, to which 
 no satisfactory solution can be found. Some bolder spirits 
 would suggest, that all the previous marriages were worthless, 
 and the new Christian should, like a snake, come out of his old 
 skin and abandon all, " wife, children, for His sake," and be 
 united by Christian matrimony to a Christian woman. I should 
 not have ventured to have suggested such a shocking device, 
 if I had not read of it as proposed. But natural affection may 
 be too strong for him, and a missionary from Be-Chudna-land 
 writes, that in ten years he never had a case of a Polygamist being 
 converted, but he had known one instance of a man putting 
 away a second wife, and becoming a Catechumen ; but she 
 came back to him, and he received her, and left the faith. We 
 read in Helps' Spanish Conquest of America, that it was settled 
 in a Roman Catholic Synod, that the Polygamist husband might 
 choose the wife, whom he liked best to be his partner in baptism: 
 the reason given was, that he could not know who was his first 
 wife, but he knew very well the one, whom he wished to have. 
 The Priests did not care for the poor rejected Squaws. 
 , I give an instance of the offhand way, in which a young 
 clergyman, who would have been only a curate in England,' 
 disposes of the persons, morals, honour and rights of the poOr 
 wives of his baptized converts. 
 
 An interesting ceremony took place here last Sunday, the marriage by 
 joining of hands in the presence of the Christians, of three of our brethren. 
 We strongly insist, that every one, who is called a brother, shall bring the 
 woman, whom he has chosen as his wife, that they may make a solemn public 
 compact. Of course. we hope to encourage Christian men only to marry 
 Christian women ; but as the case stands most of the converts have had wives, 
 some three or four, befoi-e their conversion. We then insist that one be chosen 
 out and that the rest be given full liberty, if they think well, to seek other 
 hnsbandf. We have been deeply thankful, that the Native Christians have 
 seen the propriety of this, and have not put difficulties in our way. 
 
 A lay Missionary at a Station in North America arrogated 
 the power of divorce and redistribution of wives among his 
 converts, thus causing a confusion in one of the fundamental 
 bases of Society, and indicating the necessity of the Heads 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 of the Church speaking very distinctly on such subjects. It is 
 hardly necessary to say that he has been got rid of. 
 
 But we must lift up this subject to a higher level. The 
 missionary sometimes argues, that the African woman is a mere 
 beast of burden and a slave, and at another time an object of 
 sensual lust. She can scarcely be both at the same time. It is 
 sometimes urged, that she is not a wife at all, but only a 
 concubine. The Be-Chudna missionary above quoted goes so 
 far as to say, that the women, who were put away, would not 
 consider themselves injured, and that it was quite a common 
 thing for a woman to have been united to five or six men in 
 succession. Such a state of things could not happen in India, 
 and, if the last statement be true, the reply is, that the man with 
 such connections is not a Polygamist any more than any profligate 
 European deserves that name. But such is not the case ever 
 in India, and only exceptionally in Africa. We must treat these 
 women as wives and mothers of legitimate children, and as 
 faithful wives. It scarcely seems consistent with the tenets of 
 our holy religion to try and save the soul of a man at the 
 expense of the feelings, and morals, and comforts, and rights 
 of his rejected, or perhaps worn-out, wives. They in honour 
 gave dll, that hard fortune had endowed them with, their person 
 and their youth, to this man, called him husband, bore to him 
 children, who inherit his tribal position, his name, and such 
 portions of his goods as fall to them. It is a prodigious breach 
 of faith to make a clean sweep, or partial sweep, of all his 
 responsibilities : if they are old and childless, it is a bad be- 
 ginning of a higher life, that they should be cast out for no 
 offence of their own, deprived of all, solace and protection ; if 
 they are young, it is terrible to read such words as these from 
 the pen of a living Bishop, " She will easily get another husband 
 from her father's home." It would have been better to dis- 
 continue the use of the words "husband and wife" altogether, 
 and talk of the Africans in the same terms, as a cattle breeder 
 or shepherd talks of the brute beasts in his charge. We all 
 know what an illicit connection Is, and what a natural child is 
 in Europe and in India : if by a process of inquiry it is found, 
 that any or all of these women were the divorced wives of other 
 men, or were unfaithful wives, or within the lawful limitations 
 of kindred and affinity, or actually married to some other man, 
 let their names be struck off the list of his wives ; perhaps some 
 of them may run away, or disappear, or die, or it may be proved, 
 that they were the wives of his brother, or the servants of the 
 house, and thus by a judicial process it may come out that, the 
 man is a Monogamist, or a bachelor, after all. But, if we are to 
 trust Sir Theophilus Shepstone, and the common report of the 
 country, these women are wives in South Africa, and. they most 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 assuredly are so in India. Whether Hindu or Mahometan, or 
 Pagan, let the missionaries recollect, that they contracted to each 
 other in good faith, and that no wrong ought to be done to the 
 wives, for all have a claim on their husband, not only for mainten- 
 ance and protection, but what St. Paul describes (as rendered in the 
 Revised Version) as " her due." If condemned to live apart; 
 they may wax wanton, and be tempted ; and it is their husband 
 then, who causes them to commit adultery, by casting them off. 
 Forbidding then on the one hand the admission of the 
 Polygamist into the Church by Baptism, and resisting to the 
 utmost on the other hand any attempt to get rid of the burden 
 of Polygamy at the expense of his wives and children, what 
 course do I recommend for the present necessity 1 I take the 
 following narrative from Central Africa, the organ of the 
 Universities Mission, March, 1886, p. 42 : 
 
 On the last Sunday of 1885 Matola, a powerful chief, was solemnly admitted 
 by Bishop Smithies to the rank of Catechumen. He knelt down in the full 
 congregation, and received a cross, as a token of his admission. One stumbling- 
 block he has in his way before he can be admitted to Baptism : he had in 
 former years become a Polygamist, and it can only be hoped, that God will 
 open a way for him without injury to those who have borne him children, to 
 come out of the state, which the law of the Church in all ages seems to have 
 determined to be a barrier to admission to the Christian Covenant. 
 
 This seems to be the happy via media, if extended to the 
 wives, whose wombs have been barren. The man must accept, 
 as his cross, the status, which his own conduct has induced. He ' 
 is not excluded from Christian teaching, or Christian worship ; 
 but it is distinctly understood by the Church, that such as he 
 cannot be admitted to either of the Sacraments. His children 
 come at once under tuition and baptism ; and for his wives the 
 door is also open, to such as prove that she being a virgin or 
 widow of a deceased husband honestly and in good faith became 
 the wife of one man, and truly not in any way excluded from 
 Christian privileges, living after the manner of Rachel and 
 Hannah. 
 
 Such is the opinion which I have arrived at : 
 
 1. Polygamist men are not to be admitted to Baptism, but 
 their wives may be. 
 
 2. Polyandrists, men and women, are totally excluded ; here 
 both men and women are sinning, for the woman in cohabiting 
 with her husband's brother during his lifetime commits incest. 
 
 3. No man should be encouraged to put away his lawful wives; 
 he should be reminded, that his union with them is for the term 
 of their natural lives. 
 
 4. Polygamists may be admitted as Catechumens. 
 I now add some opinions of others : 
 
 In the fifth Report of the Annual Meeting of Native Church 
 
C 15 ) 
 
 Council of the Panjdb a letter was read from the Rev. T. P; 
 Hughes, C.M.S. Missionary at Peshdwar, in which this passage 
 occurs : 
 
 In the case of polygamous marriages, the blessings of the Church could 
 hardly be expected ; but both the late (Metropolitan) Bishop Milman, and the 
 Bishop of the Lahore Diocese (Bishop French), have sanctioned the baptism of 
 Polygamists. 
 
 In 1834 the Conference of Missionaries of various denomina- 
 tions in Calcutta, -including those of the Baptist, the London, 
 the Church Missionary Society, the Church of Scotland, and the 
 American Presbyterian Board, after having had the whole subject 
 frequently under discussion, and after much and serious delibera-- 
 tion, unanimously agreed on the following propositions, though 
 there had been previously much diversity of sentiment among 
 them on various points ; 
 
 I. It is in accordance with the spirit of the Bible and the practice of the 
 Protestant Church to consider the State as the proper fountain of legislation in 
 all civil questions affecting Marriage and Divorce. 
 
 II. The Bible being the true standard of morals, ought to be consulted in 
 everything which it contains on the subjects of Marriage and Divorce, and 
 nothing determined evidently contrary to its general principles. 
 
 V. If a convert before becoming a Christian has married more wives than 
 one, in accordance with the practice of Jewish and primitive Christian Churches, 
 he shall be permitted to keep all ; but such a person is not eligible to any office in 
 the Church. In no other cases is Polygamy to be tolerated amongst Christians, 
 
 There were twenty or more who adopted the propositions without any 
 exemption. — Calcutta Christian Observer, vol. iv. p. 22. 
 
 The Calcutta missionaries a few years afterwards reviewed 
 these propositions, and established them in a form more 
 specifically applicable to India. With regard to Polygamy, 
 the deliverance which they gave was even more decided than 
 in the original propositions : 
 
 The meeting were unanimously of opinion, that, although Polygamy is one of 
 the greatest evils, and is never to be tolerated in a Christian community, when 
 it can be regulated by the law of the Gospel, yet in the case of Polygamy 
 antecedently to conversion, the husband is bound to retain and provide for all 
 his wives, as such, unless they choose to take advantage of their own law. This 
 last clause refers to the renunciation of Hinduism and Mahometanism by either 
 of the married parties being regarded by both Hindus and Mahometans as 
 entailing, divorce. — Calcutta Christian Observer, vol. xi. p. 401. 
 
 A writer in the Calcutta Christian Observer, vol. iv. pp. 91, 
 371, 400, commenting upon the resolutions of the missionaries, 
 remarks : " The missionaries are of opinion, that the very 
 " allowances which God, through Moses, made for the Jews in 
 " their infant state as a people, is by parity of reason to be 
 " made now for Polygamists, who from heathens become 
 " Christians." I have already alluded above to the fact, that 
 nations are at diiferent levels of progress, and this argument 
 may fairly be urged in favour of the Africans, the South Sea 
 Islanders, and North American Indians, but scarcely in favour 
 
( i6 ) 
 
 of the Hindus, who are not in an infant state, but the heirs of 
 an old and advanced civilization, and still less in favour of 
 Mahometans, many of whose ancestors were Christians, and 
 therefore Monogamists, and who appeal as their authority not 
 to time-honoured custom, but the comparatively modern law of 
 Mahomet. I protest against the assertion, that Polygamy was 
 was ever sanctioned in any primitive Christian church. Let us 
 have the proofs. 
 
 It may be true that owing to the contact of weak Christians 
 with the Persian, Teuton, Arabian, and African Idolaters in the 
 early centuries after Christ, terrible errors of dogma and practice 
 crept into the Church, and the custom of Polygamy may have 
 made some way ; but it was sternly resisted by the authorities of 
 the Church, and by the grace of God has survived in none ; 
 for, however much the Oriental Churches may have fallen, still 
 at this day, in the midst of Mahometan Polygamists, though on 
 the same level of culture, they are Monogamists. But it is suflScient 
 for my argument, that in the Church, as left by St. Paul, it did 
 not exist as a fact, and its possibility was not contemplated. 
 Bishop Milman's opinion referred to was as follows : 
 The very exceptional case of married life among natives of India justified him 
 in allowing a man, lawfully married to more than one wife, to be baptized and 
 retain his wives, and give them their conjugal due. He must not marry another, 
 or, if one die, take another in her place ; he must not hold any ecclesiastical 
 office. — Mission Life, 1880, p. 227. 
 
 Bishop Douglas, of Bombay, decided against the baptism of 
 Hindus with two wives, unless he put one away. The present 
 Bishop of Bombay rather leans to the baptism of such a man 
 without that requirement. Similar leanings are ascribed to the 
 Bishop of Colombo. 
 
 It was stated that Bishop Caldwell would baptize a Polygamist 
 in articulo mortis ("Mission Life," 1880, p. 185). The Bishop 
 of Melanesia (Selwyn) seemed to think, that the putting away of 
 the supernumerary wives should be the rule, but he had difficulty 
 in facing it. The late Primate of New Zealand (Selwyn the 
 elder) was of the same opinion. We read in his "Life" the 
 following: "Are you thinking of becoming a Christian?" said 
 the Bishop to a native chief. " Yes," said the chief. I saw the 
 Bishop hold up two fingers, and then bend one down. The 
 chief nodded assent. The Bishop meant, that the chief must get 
 rid of one of his wives. I do not find that he indicated which 
 wife should be unjustly deprived of her home, and the society 
 of her husband. 
 
 There is a dark side, as illustrated by the following anecdote, 
 given in the Island Voyage of the Melanesian Mission in 1885 : 
 
 In the Island of Florida, of the Solomon Gi-oup, a man was held back from 
 baptism, as having two wives : one died, and he was baptized, and his surviving 
 wife placed under instruction,: it seemed sad that the poor dead wife by living 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 liad kept back her husband, and her fellow-wife, from baptism, and had died 
 unbaptized. Bishop Pattison felt the difficulty, but the argument against 
 baptizing a Polygamist was too weighty ; but there seemed no reason for 
 keeping back the poor wives from baptism, as they were not Polygamists. 
 
 The missionaries of the Basle Society in Switzerland would 
 receive Polygamists in case of extreme necessity, as, when a man 
 had children by both his wives, and all parties agreed in the 
 impossibility of separation ; yet there is not one Polygamist 
 in any of their missionary congregations in the West Coast of 
 Africa. The Missionaries of this Society recognize a heathen 
 marriage as a binding one, and declare that a Christian cannot 
 put away his wife, though a heathen. 
 
 The Wesleyan missionaries positively refuse all Polygamists, 
 recognizing only a Christian marriage, that is to say, one per- 
 formed in a Christian Church. If a heathen become a Christian, 
 he may keep (or rather marry) his heathen wife, or he may send 
 her away, if she remarries a heathen. They direct their converts 
 to dismiss all their wives, and marry a Christian : in fact, under 
 this rule, if a man wishes to get rid of his wives, he has only to 
 become a Christian. 
 
 The Moravian missionaries had to deal with negro slaves in 
 America. Their original rules were: (i) They would not oblige 
 a man who, previous to his conversion, had taken more than 
 one wife to put the others away without their consent ; (2) they 
 would not appoint such a one to be helper in the congregation ; 
 (3) they would allow no Christian to take more than one wife, 
 and he is bound to her for life. In 1880 they modified these 
 rules, and their present rule is, that in general an applicant for 
 baptism is to dismiss all his wives but one, but that, when this 
 may lead to greater sin, an exception may be made under the 
 authority of the District Mission Conference. 
 
 I wrote to my friend Dr. Schrader, of the Rhenish Missionary 
 Society, at Barmen, in Germany, to ask for a statemeiit of their 
 present practice, and in his reply, July, 1886, he says: 
 
 We do not think it right, nor indicated by any clear word of God, that 
 any one, who has taken two or more legal wives, as a heathen, should be 
 compelled to dismiss them all except one, before he can be admitted to 
 baptism. It seems to me to be a bad beginning of his Christian life to break 
 legal promises, which he has given formerly. Of course every Polygamist must 
 be told, that this state of affairs is not in accordance with the Gospel, and, as 
 soon as there is an opportunity to get rid of it in a legal way, he ought to do 
 it ; but I do not know if it is advisable to postpone baptism until that can 
 be done. 
 
 The great difficulty, which has been felt several times, is this, that very often 
 in churches, where Polygamists have been admitted, persons, who for special 
 reasons wish to take a second wife, cannot easily understand, why something, 
 that is allowed to others, should be denied them. But to avoid this, all persons 
 entering the Church should be clearly made to understand, that they will never 
 be allowed to take a second wife, as long as the first is still living, and the 
 Polygamist can hold no church office. We have had amongst our missionaries 
 
 PART II. 2 
 
( i8 ) 
 
 a few who have protested against this liberal praxis, as it is called ; but after 
 much renewed discussion (for instance in our Borneo Mission lately) we have 
 always come back upon this one opinion, which has been in use in the Rhenish 
 Mission for a long time. 
 
 This Society labours in the Indian Colonies of Holland and 
 Borneo, as well as in South Africa. 
 
 With regard to Africa, let me quote the opinion of Mr. 
 Buckley Wood, an experienced missionary of the C.M.S. in 
 Yariba-land, in Western Africa: "No one who knows Africa 
 " and Polygamy in Africa can ever doubt, that the C.M.S. is 
 " perfectly right in not for an hour allowing such an abominable 
 " custom to exist. The Diocesan Conference, convened by 
 " the Bishop, in Lagos, in April 1888, and to which several lay 
 " delegates from our Abeokfita Church were invited, was regarded 
 " by our people with much interest. After the return of the 
 " delegates from Lagos a meeting was called, and was largely 
 " attended, to which they gave an account of what had taken 
 " place at the Conference. The sounder portion of our people 
 " were greatly pleased on learning, that the feeling at the Con- 
 " ference had been so decidedly in favour of going forward on 
 " the old lines, and of giving no recognized place in the Church 
 " to Polygamy in any form. This feeling was not shared by 
 " all. Some of those, who have become entangled in the sin 
 " of keeping a plurality of women, would have welcomed some 
 " relaxation of the rules, that have hitherto been followed." 
 
 Thus we have the direct contrary practice in force in different 
 portions of the mission-field. 
 
 I have already stated that the status of "wife" should be 
 defined, and in each case ascertained ; and that the concubine, 
 the wife of another man, the divorced wife, the slave-girl, the 
 person within the limits of blood or affinity, cannot be deemed 
 wives, and that the man is in such cases a profligate, but not 
 a Polygamist. It seems so simple ; but I read in a missionary 
 periodical, June, 1886, the following: 
 
 A convert proved the sincerity of his faith by making quite a sacrifice. An 
 uncle died leaving two wives ; these, according to native custom, fell by law of 
 inheritance to the nephew. He was betrothed to another girl, whom he has 
 since married. He was told that if he continued to commit Polygamy, he could 
 not be admitted to the Church ; to put away his two wives, his aunts by 
 marriage, was a great sacrifice ; but this convert was not long in deciding, and 
 the two wives were put away. 
 
 Can anything reflect more on the common sense of a 
 missionary than this ? Can he not see that, under no law, 
 human or divine, could it have been right for a man to take as 
 his wife the widow of the brother of his father or his mother ? 
 It is rank incest. Every Hindu and Mahometan would protest 
 against such a thing. The wife of an uncle is to a man as his 
 own mother. They were not wives, and the man was not a Poly- 
 gamist, but guilty of incest. 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 There will be no difficulty in asking each candidate for Baptism 
 to give the history of his family, and the circumstances, under 
 which he began to cohabit with each female : there will be the 
 slave-girl, the chance concubine, the divorced wife of some one 
 else, the runaway wife of some one else, the female relations, 
 whom he has inherited, the captive (like poor Hecuba, and 
 Andromachd), and perhaps the real wife, or possibly the real 
 wives : it is too true, that many real wives in Africa did not 
 always enter marriage in a state of virginity, and this is a fact 
 to be weighed : we are opening out a question not of human but 
 of Divine Law, and the virgin-spouse may in the sight of God 
 be the only lawful wife, and in the sight of man the one, which 
 deserves the most consideration. 
 
 We must remember that to live with two women after the way 
 of the flesh is a sin : it is too late in the history of the Christian 
 Church to argue about this. How can the Preacher from the 
 Pulpit inveigh against this and cognate sins, if under his eyes 
 sits a baptized Polygamist with a wife on each side of him, and 
 a third on the opposite seat, with babies in their arms of nearly 
 the same age .'' As mentioned above, such events cause a laugh 
 even among Hindus, but something like a blush of shame or a 
 tear among Christians. If we return to Old Testament practice, 
 how can we reject the prayer of the barren wife, good soul 1 
 who wishes to see offspring begotten by her husband from her 
 maidservant, that, like Rachel, she may also have children on 
 her knees by her : how can we resist the practice of the law of 
 levirate marriage 1 
 
 This is no allusion to an obsolete practice. I have as a judge 
 in the Panjdb decided scores of cases turning upon this right, 
 claimed by the male, resisted by the female, for the sake of the 
 property of the deceased, not the person of his widow. If we' 
 allow Polygyny, how can we resist Polyandry .? They hang 
 upon the same thread. 
 
 One other event is linked with this season, the attendance at Holy Com-: 
 munion of one who had for many months absented herself, viz. Rachel, a 
 Christian from Giriama. She had run away from her country about June, 
 1 886, rather than marry her brother-in-law, who was a heathen, on the death 
 of her husband. She has since come regularly, and I doubt not found help 
 and strength thereby. — Mombdsa, i888. 
 
 There are many things here to hinder the progress of our work, but amongst 
 them all there is not one, that gives rise to half the difficulties, that in one way 
 or another originate from Polygamy. There are many of these who, though 
 they have renounced heathenism, cannot be baptized because of their addicted- 
 ness to Polygamy and other sensual habits. I might have perhaps reported 
 larger results, had we to contend against simple idolatry. Because there are 
 many, whose confidence in idolatry has been shaken, but who yet stick to 
 it because they cannot rise up to the high and holy living which Christianity 
 demands. Ondo idolatry is consorted on one hand to Polygamy and Polyandry, 
 and on the other hand to the revolting custom of human sacrifices.— ^w. C, 
 Phillips, Native Pastor of Ondo, W. Africa. 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 I have decided cases turning upon this latter custom, and 
 found the women with a plurality of husbands quite as jealous 
 as to the suspicious conduct of one of her husbands, as the man 
 with a plurality of wives is as to the conduct of his wives. 
 
 Finally we must think not of the sufferings, or the deprivations, 
 of a single individual, but of the Holiness of the Church of 
 Christ. No one can read the paper read by Mr. Sawyer, a pure 
 Negro, at the Diocesan Conference at Sierra Leone, this very 
 year, 1888, without being satisfied, that the African Church would 
 willingly tolerate Polygamy, if they were free from European 
 influences. His paper is most timely, as it discloses the 
 thoughts of a respectable African Christian gentleman, that 
 Monogamy cannot be enforced anywhere without the aid of 
 human law, that the precepts of Morality, the common law of 
 Europe since the time of Homer, the words of our Lord, 
 " Mal-e and Female created He them," go for nothing : and 
 finally that the hope of raising a woman to a place of honour 
 by the side of her husband, as the sole partner of his joys and 
 sorrows, the sole mother of his children, is vain. 
 
 These lines are written by one, who knows Polygamy, having 
 lived many years amidst a polygamous people, and become familiar 
 with the domestic history of Nations where that practice has 
 prevailed. In an analysis of the magnificent Sanskrit Epic 
 Poem, " The Ramdyana," I wrote as follows thirty-five years ago : 
 " All was joy and exultation, when a dire calamity fell on the 
 " head of the King, and the people, and the faultless hero. It 
 " was the curse of that hated Polygamy, that licensed concu- 
 " binage, that chartered libertinism, which is still tolerated in 
 " the Indian Empire, that brought on the catastrophe. When 
 " shall we cease to talk about the ladies of the ZanAna, the 
 " wives of the Rdja, in allusion to the poor victims of family 
 " custom, who are still immured in palaces } When shall we learn 
 " to call things by their right names, and at least not countenance 
 " the abuse ? It was the curse, which has toppled dynasties, and 
 " ruined families, from the day that Abraham banished Ishmael 
 " to clear the prospects of Isaac, from the day that the feasting 
 " of Adonijah at En-rogel, beneath Mount Moriah, was inter- 
 " rupted by the cries of ' God save King Solomon ! ' from the 
 " valley of Gihon under the heights of Mount Zion. The old 
 " King had three consorts : to the eldest was born Rama, the 
 " hero of the story : to the second, a young and beautiful woman, 
 " was born Bharata, his unwilling and yet fatal rival " (Linguistic 
 and Oriental Essays, 1880, p. 75). 
 
 A great responsibility falls upon the Episcopal Synod assembled 
 at Lambeth this year 1888. If the Bishops yield to a pretended 
 present necessity, it will be like the letting out of a stream, which 
 cannot be controlled. The late revelations at Sierra Leone, 
 to which the Bishop of Sierra Leone can in person testify, 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 show clearly, that it is not the baptism of an occasional Poly- 
 gamist, which is sought for, but the toleration of Polygamy in 
 the Christian Church. No line can be drawn. The converts 
 are not necessarily old men, whose family arrangements are 
 complete, but young men with a possible plurality of young 
 wives, and for twenty years the scandal would be manifested of 
 children being brought to the baptismal Font, born by different 
 women to the same father. What will be the feeling of other 
 young men in the congregation, who have been unhappy in 
 their marriages, but a desire to share the privileges of their 
 contemporary ? Moreover, if the cohabitation of a man with two 
 women is wrong, hopelessly wrong, fundamentally wrong, and 
 contrary to Christian morals, how can the accident of such a 
 practice having commenced before such a date satisfy the Christian 
 moralist } Consideration for the poor innocent woman forbids 
 the cruel policy of putting her away and driving her into sin : 
 consideration for the Church of Christ forbids the admission of 
 a man encumbered with such ties to be admitted to Baptism on 
 account of the bad example which would be set to others ? As 
 to the man's own Salvation, we can leave it without anxiety to 
 the unfailing and unlimited mercies of our Saviour and his 
 Saviour. The whole hope of the purity of Oriental Churches 
 depends upon the elevation of women to their proper dignity, 
 purity, and respect from the other sex. It matters not, whether 
 a woman is of noble origin, and respectable parentage, or 
 sprung of infamous parents and a slave : to the Christian man 
 she is surrounded with the halo of being a " woman." In no 
 Christian country is corporal punishment inflicted by law upon 
 a woman, however much she may deserve it. The sight of a 
 woman being struck or ill-used justifies any man to interfere in 
 her behalf against her parent, against her husband. The rela- 
 tions, which she fills towards men of daughter, sister, wife and 
 mother are so delicate, that they should be guarded from any 
 possible contamination, confusion, weakening, or pollution. To 
 render it possible that any woman, herself a Christian, should 
 share the bed of a Christian man with others of her own sex, 
 would be a disgrace to any Church, and a sure herald of the 
 decadence of that Church. 
 
 At the time of the introduction of a new Religion into a race 
 or tribe, the mode, in which the mystery of the union of the two 
 sexes is dealt with, is the highest test of the Religious evolution. 
 Marriage is at once the gratification of a legitimate and holy 
 wish, the machinery of a holy life, and the divinely ordained 
 method of perpetuating a holy people. Whatever may be the 
 practice of worldlings, the Church must regard it with the 
 profoundest anxiety, as the laxer the marriage tie, the lower the 
 form of Religion developed. 
 
 The Churchman, 1886 (with additions, 1888). 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 Literature on the Subject of Polygamy in Connection with 
 Christian Churches. 
 
 1. Dr. Colenso, Bishop of Natal, Remarks on Proper Treatment of Cases of 
 
 Polygamy. Pamphlet. Pietermaritzburg, 1855. 
 
 2. Reply to the same Remarks by an American MiiJsionary (Louis Grout, of 
 
 the American Board of Foreign Missions). Pamphlet. Pietermaritz- 
 burg, 1855. 
 
 3. Dr. Colenso's Reply to an American Missionary. Pamphlet. Pieter- 
 
 maritzburg, 1856. 
 
 4. An Answer to Bishop Colenso's Letter on the Polygamy Question, by an 
 
 American Missionary (H. A. Wilder). Pietermaritzburg, 1856. 
 
 5. Apology for the Toleration of Polygamy in Converts from Heathenism, by 
 
 a Protestant Dissenter. 1856. 
 
 6. Bishop Colenso's Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the Polygamy 
 
 Question. Pietermaritzburg, March I, 1861. 
 
 7. Review of Bishop Colenso's Remarks. Durban, 1855. 
 
 8. Letter of Canon Callaway. Pamphlet. Durban, 1862. 
 
 9. Pamphlet by the Rev. W. H. Fowle, 1856. 
 
 10. Polygamy among Candidates for Baptism, by Bishop Cotterill, of Grahams- 
 
 town, 1 86 1. 
 
 11. Minute by Bishop Cotterill at Conference of Bishops in Capetown, 1861. 
 
 Colonial Church Chronicle, p. 309. i86i. 
 
 12. Two Sermons by H. Callaway. Pietermaritzburg, 1866. 
 
 13. Government Regulations. Pietermaritzburg, 1869. 
 
 14. Minute by Rev. Henry Venn, Secretary to Church Missionary Society. 
 
 Pamphlet. London, Jan. 1857. 
 
 15. Reportof Lahore Missionary Conference, 1862-63. Published at Lodiana, 
 
 North India, 1863. An assembly of Clergy, Missionaries, and State 
 Officials. 
 
 16. Minute of Views of Bishop Daniel Wilson, of Calcutta, drawn from his 
 
 "Life," vol. i. p. 363. Appendix to above. 
 
 17. Conference of Missionaries held by Bishop of Bombay. Mission Life, 
 
 p. 185, 1880. 
 
 iS. Letter of Dr. Smythies, Bishop of Equatorial Africa, pp. 79, 89. Central 
 Africa, June i, 1886. 
 
 19. Polygamy in the Himalaya. Dr. Stulpnagel. InAiasi Evangelical Review, 
 
 Oct. 1877. 
 
 20. Polygamy in Relation to Christian Baptism, by Professor Cheyne 
 
 Oxford. Mission Life, 1880, p. 145. 
 
 21. Missionary in Be-Chudna-land. Mission Life. 
 
 22. Life of Bishop Selwyn, of New Zealand. 
 
 23. Brown's History of Missions, vol. iii. pp. 365, 558. 
 
 24. Calcutta Christian Observer, vol. iv. pp. 91, 371, 400. 
 
 25. Letters to the Primate, by Douglas, Bishop of Zululand, on the Subject of 
 
 Polygamj', 1886. 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 26. Paper on Polygamy, by Bishop of Grahamstown, 1883. 
 
 27. Paper read at Wakefield Church Congress, 1886, by the Lord Bishop of 
 
 Exeter. 
 
 28. Polygamy in connection with Christian Missions, by Professor Stokes. The 
 
 Churchman, 1886. 
 
 29. Paper read by I. H. Willoughby, Esq., at the Diosesan Conference, 
 
 Lagos, 1887. 
 
 30. Paper read by T. J. Sawyer, Esq., at Diocesan Conference, Sierra Leone, 
 
 1888. 
 
 31. Indian Evangelical Review, April, 1886, Rev. J. J. Lucas. 
 
 32. The Proper Mode of dealing with Cases of Polygamy in Candidates for 
 
 Baptism, by Dean Green, of Marltzhurg, South Africa. English Church 
 Union, 1888. 
 
 33. Reports of Deputation of Church Missionary Society to Sierra Leone and 
 
 Yoruba-land, i888. 
 
 34. Bishop of Melanesia's Letter to the Lambeth Conference, 1888. 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 SLAVERY IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 
 A. — British Protestant Missions in Madagascar. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice a few years ago remarked in the House 
 of Lords, that there was a subject, in which even a Judge might 
 be forgiven, if he spoke with warmth. That subject was Slavery. 
 My devotion to Missions is only exceeded by my abhorrence of 
 Slavery, and when the name of a Missionary is mixed up with 
 that of Slavery, I feel in a dilemma, and I wish to discuss this 
 subject with more than judicial coldness. A Missionary is 
 obliged to tolerate Slavery, and he is obliged to tolerate many 
 other evil customs, such as Polygamy, divorce, exaggerated 
 Caste, drunkenness, and profligacy ; but he should cut off his 
 right hand rather than directly or indirectly countenance it. 
 There are many fancy grievances, and many ephemeral Societies 
 are started to paint the evil, which they denounce, in exaggerated 
 colours, and suggest remedies, which would often be worse than 
 the disease. On the question of Slavery, however, no two men 
 can be found, righteous or unrighteous, who will defend the 
 status, and there is no true Briton, who in this Nineteenth 
 Century would not lend his aid to any measure, which might 
 sweep from the world the abominable practice of involuntary 
 labour. 
 
 We are too apt to imagine, that Slavery in Asia and Africa is 
 of the same character as the Slavery of the Planters in North 
 America, and the West Indian Islands. Such is not the case. 
 In Mahometan countries the slave is often treated as a member 
 of the family, and some slaves possess slaves. Still a large 
 percentage of the women have to submit to involuntary con- 
 cubinage with their owners, and a certain percentage of the 
 males are turned into eunuchs to serve as guards to their polluted 
 sisters. The lash, and the poison, the private sale, and the 
 auction mart are always possibilities. The right of husband, 
 the right of parent, education, religion, power of locomotion, 
 of amassing a competence for old age, are, as regards the 
 
 PART II. 3 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 slave portion of a population, suspended, whilst, as regards the 
 free portion, honourable labour cannot exist, where everything 
 menial is done by a slave. No true social state can be founded 
 on Slavery, and no real Christianity. 
 
 In British India forty years ago Slavery existed in its mildest 
 form, and it was not deemed prudent, considering the vast 
 population of that country, and the small number of the British, 
 to abolish it in so many words. But a law was passed, that the 
 so-called slave possessed the same rights in a court of justice, 
 civil and criminal, as the freeman. The lash and the prison 
 ceased thus to be operative, and the bad custom has gently 
 died out. But it did most unmistakably exist. I have often had 
 petitions filed in my court by women, fugitives from the house 
 of some rich man, praying for leave to go where they wished ; 
 and in spite of the angry protests of their owner, the brief order 
 has been endorsed on the petition, " that the parties are at 
 " liberty to do as they liked." 
 
 Now supposing some energetic young magistrate had con- 
 ceived the idea of a training college in any district of British 
 India, and had sent up his plans of buildings providing for a 
 room for each student, and a room above for his slave, I can 
 answer as to the nature of the reply, which he would have 
 received from any commissioner or any governor. I know the 
 order, that I should have endorsed myself on such an appli- 
 cation, and I think that my great master, John Lawrence, would 
 have done the same only in stronger language : " Send back the 
 " scheme, and remind the writer, that he is a Gentleman and a 
 " Christian, and that any more proposals of this kind will lead 
 " to his removal from a post of which he is unworthy." If it 
 had transpired that the public officer had slaves among his 
 domestics, knowing that they were such, knowing that a portion 
 of the wages paid by him to his attendant went to the slave- 
 owner, it would have been intimated to him, very unmistakably, ' 
 that such things must not be, that he must rather submit to the 
 inconvenience of a bad cook than have a slave cook, in a word, 
 that the servants of the Queen-Empress must not, directly or 
 indirectly, countenance Slavery, though out of wise far-seeing 
 policy they tolerated it for one generation. 
 
 And yet the Missionaries of the Church of England in Mada- 
 gascar find it right to act in the manner, in which I have only, 
 by a stretch of fancy, imagined a civil officer of Government 
 acting, for I feel sure that no civil or military officer would ever 
 have so done. Let me quote the words used in the Mission Field 
 of 1878, pp. 580, 581 : 
 
 The most important and hopeful step is the opening of s. College to educate 
 native Catechists and Clergy. The students are all married ; each has a 
 house, consisting of sitting-room, bed-room, and kitchen, witli an uptairs room 
 for his slaves. 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 It has transpired, and has not been denied, that the domestics 
 of the Missionary and the Mission are slaves, receiving indeed 
 adequate wages, and, no doubt, leading comfortable and happy 
 lives, yet still paying over a portion of their wages to their 
 slave-owner, who had the power to chastise them, imprison 
 them, sell them by private contract, and break up the relation 
 of husband and wife, parent and child. In such a home, as that 
 of the Missionary, the female slave, and the wife of the slave, 
 would enjoy an honoured status ; but that, which a Missionary 
 allows himself to do, a layman, and a bad layman, can do also, 
 and without the purity and self-restraint of a Missionary house- 
 hold. We make no charges against the European residents of 
 the island, but somehow or other mixed races do come into 
 existence, and the history of the Southern States of the great 
 American Republic is before us, as a beacon and a warning, 
 that the status of Slavery is incompatible with a moral and 
 religious life. 
 
 These students are to be trained to be Catechists and Pastors. 
 It is amazing to read that the stoutest champions of Slavery in 
 the island are the Native Pastors themselves of the Noncon- 
 formist Churches. British Missionaries of all denominations 
 have everywhere steadily denounced the practice, but have not 
 found themselves strong enough to pass that order in Mada- 
 gascar, which their brethren in Asia and Africa have passed, 
 that no ofiSce-holder of the Church should hold or employ slaves. 
 A grotesque feature is disclosed in the fact, that some of the 
 Pastors are slaves themselves, and that a portion of their 
 stipend, collected under the influence of prayer, in their 
 churches and chapels, finds its way through the funnel of these 
 consecrated Pastors to the accursed stores of the slave-owners. 
 For these slaves are the sweepings in of raided villages, the 
 captives made in unjustifiable wars, in which the men were all 
 killed, and the women and children made slaves, the purchases 
 made by private sale in the weekly slave market at the capital of 
 the kingdom, for the public market has only been interdicted 
 within the last five or six years. 
 
 It is of no use arguing, that the Government of the island 
 cannot abolish the practice, or render it innocuous, by giving 
 full power to redeem slaves, or enact a similar law as the one 
 enacted in British India, which will lead to the same results. 
 Under pressure from the British Government the Queen of 
 Madagascar has prohibited the import of slaves from Africa, set 
 free by a stroke of the pen, without compensation, one hundred 
 and fifty thousand^ imported Africans, forbade the export of 
 
 ' Admiral Gore Jones says in his Report, published in a Parliamentary 
 Paper, 1883, that the Queen had liberated one hundred and fifty thousand 
 Mozambiques at an enormous loss to herself and the principal slave-owners. 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 Malagdsi slaves to other islands, and prohibited the weekly slave 
 market. This shows, that the Queen is an arbitrary sovereign, 
 who can deal at pleasure with the property of her subjects. 
 Great sympathy has been felt with the Queen of Madagascar in 
 the peril, in which she stands in face of the Government of 
 France, and much of this sympathy has arisen, because it is 
 credibly believed, that the real object of the French is to secure 
 slaves from Madagascar for their own colonies; but the sympathy 
 in question will greatly diminish, when it transpires, that so 
 locally deep-rooted is the system, so necessary a feature is it of 
 domestic, and even of Missionary life, that a Church of England 
 Missionary constructs a college, presumably as a permanent 
 institution, with rooms for slaves. There is no euphemism to 
 cover the objectionable phrase, and there is no half-feeling 
 possible as to the religious public of England objecting to have 
 "Missions" and "Slavery" brought into such juxtaposition. 
 It is said that at Rome you should do as at Rome, and in Mada- 
 gascar as at Madagascar, and thus male and female slaves 
 become part of the daily life of a theological student. 
 
 I will not stop to argue with those, who would drag the wisest 
 and most tender-hearted of men, St. Paul, into this controversy. 
 The heart of Great Britain and of the great American Republic 
 have beaten in unison, and it is a settled rule, that in no state of 
 society, or culture, or political government, is Slavery to be 
 countenanced by any one of the great Anglo-Saxon Race. A 
 short time ago I received a letter from a Missionary Society 
 in the United States, expressing astonishment at the state of 
 things in Madagascar. It was Slavery, that brought on the 
 terrible civil war in North America, and it would seem as if the 
 French Invasion were so timed as to bring matters to an issue. 
 In Tunisia the Bey had a few years before the French Invasion 
 abolished Slavery, following the example of Algferia, and setting 
 the example to Egypt. 
 
 How does it happen that in Madagascar alone of all the 
 Mission Fields in Asia and Africa is it found necessary to 
 countenance slavery 1 Surely Bishop Steere, at Zanzibar, found 
 
 These Mozambiques are members of the very tribes, Yao, Makua, and Niassa, 
 among whom the Universities Mission and tlie Scotch Missions labour. Surely 
 out of so many thousands a sufficiency of freedmen could be found to supply 
 domestics in the families and colleges of Missionaries, and the class from whom 
 the servants of the Mission on the continent are drawn are good enough for the 
 Missionaries of the island. The Native Malagasi Pastor can hold slaves, but 
 no subject of the Queen of England, in any part of the world, can purchase a 
 slave without being liable to an indictment for felony in the Courts of London. 
 The Missionaries in the Island of the Mauritius do not employ slave-labour. 
 It is true that the law of England forbids it there, but it has always been 
 understood that in moral questions the Missionary obeys a Higher Law than 
 that of the Civil Government. 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 circumstances very analogous, and yet, from the first, he and 
 his colleagues have set their face against it. How do the 
 Missionaries at Masdsi and Magila provide themselves with 
 domestics ? And how do the students of the Training College 
 at Zanzibar do without the upstairs room for the slaves ? How 
 do the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society manage 
 at Mombdsa on the East Coast, at Sierra Leone, Lagos, and on 
 the Niger, on the West Coast, in regions, where the very air is 
 impregnated with Slavery, where the Mission agents are them- 
 selves redeemed slaves, or the offspring of redeemed slaves ? 
 Among the founders of that Society were Wilberforce and 
 Thornton, and the Committee has steadily opposed any com- 
 promise, any departure from the simple rule, that no office- 
 holder must countenance Slavery. It is not the business of a' 
 Missionary to start a crusade against Slavery, but he should say, 
 "As to my home and family, we will not be contaminated by 
 " Slavery." Great inconvenience is no doubt felt, and life might 
 be made easier by sitting looser to principle, and it is not 
 pretended, that the rule referred to is not sometimes broken. 
 I read of a negro pastor in the Yariba country, for instance, 
 who, to save his dying wife, bought a slave-girl to act as wet- 
 nurse to his baby, educated her, converted her, set her free, and 
 had her married, and then humbly apologised for having so far 
 broken the rules of the Society in an exceptional case, to the 
 manifest advantage of the slave. So if one or two slaves had 
 found their way to the Training College at Madagascar, been 
 redeemed, and converted, there would be nothing to object to ; 
 but in this case there is a permanence given to the institution, 
 and a determined standing up for the practice in a building 
 permanently dedicated to the Church of England. 
 
 I read that in the Brazils the manufacturing companies are 
 urged not to employ slaves, whose wages are paid to the slave- 
 owner. Are the ordained Ministers of our Church to occupy a 
 lower moral position than a manufacturing company ? The 
 Missionary, in my opinion, is the jewel and glory of the Nine- 
 teenth Century. He is the honest, unselfish, simple-minded 
 man, who is found in every part of the world, generally in the 
 darkest, as a witness of the Truth, and a living protest against 
 the abominable customs of the heathen. I write this advisedly, 
 for I have lived a quarter of a century in the midst of the heathen, 
 and have learnt to love the heathen people and conciliate their 
 love ; yet I have always recognized their failings, and the blessing 
 conferred on a heathen country by the Missionary, simply because 
 he adopts the highest standard of morality, the highest possible, 
 and most chivalrous standard, which keeps up to the mark the 
 well-intentioned but feeble Christian laymen, and impresses the 
 heathen around. The pastor from the pulpit denounces Polygamy, 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 Divorce, and Slavery, as bad customs ; but how can he do so with 
 any consistency, if he returns to a polygamous household to eat 
 a dinner cooked by slaves ? The Madagascar code of laws 
 tolerates a// these customs: why does the Missionary find strength 
 to put his foot down against the first two, and weakly yield to 
 the third, which is, in fact, the cause of the other two ? Where 
 there are female slaves, there will be concubinage. Polygamy, 
 and divorce, the last to an extent frightful to contemplate. 
 
 In Madagascar-Slavery there is a peculiar feature, unknown in 
 ancient Rome, unknown in modern America. Not only are the 
 so-called servile and inferior races made slaves, but also the 
 ruling race of the Hova. If anything could be imagined as 
 worse than a Briton possessing a negro slave, it would be his 
 possessing a British one. We may anticipate servile wars, 
 assassination, and a total disruption of society, if it be true, that 
 the number of slaves exceeds the number of freedmen, and if, 
 as the Missionaries say, the moral force is already waking. A 
 foreign invasion will bring matters to an end, and the slaves will 
 achieve their freedom in the midst of confusion arising from a 
 subversion of the existing constitution. 
 
 The Foreign Office is fully informed of the state of affairs, 
 and of the relation, which British subjects, the Missionaries, 
 bear to Slavery, within their churches, their colleges, and their 
 homes. Moreover, the French Government is fully aware also, 
 and, if we object to their unjust and iniquitous invasion of 
 Madagascar, on the ground of their alleged intention of supply- 
 ing their colonies with slave-labour, they may fairly retort, that 
 the English Missionary employs slaves, on the plea of necessity, 
 treats them kindly, and pays them full wages, and the French 
 planter intends to do the same, and give them the opportunity 
 of becoming good Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholic 
 Missionary is always logical and consistent ; he goes a step 
 further, and purchases slave boys and girls, who are kidnapped 
 from their parents, with a view of forming so-called orphanages 
 all over Africa. 
 
 Mr. Peill, a Missionary fresh from Madagascar, in a lecture 
 delivered in 1883 at the Society of Arts, tells us that cases of 
 cruel oppression to slaves are not uncommon ; the slaves are at 
 the mercy of their masters, and have no recognized rights. In 
 1 88 1 a law was passed, that slaves may no longer be traded in 
 as merchandise, but if a man wants a slave for his own, male 
 or female, he may buy and the master may sell, but the trans- 
 action must be between the two parties, and not through slave- 
 dealers, and must be duly registered. The young child must not 
 be sold away from its mother, but there is no protection thrown 
 round the young girl of maturer age. In a late number of a 
 Missionary journal a story is told of a girl, who was mistress in a 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 Missionary school, being sold by her mistress, possibly a Christian, 
 to an Arab to be his concubine, and who was only saved from 
 this disgraceful career by flight, concealment, and then a large 
 sum collected in England to redeem her. Mrs. Peill, in her 
 letter to the Anti-Slavery Reporter, makes the important ad- 
 mission, that slaves and non-slaves are often employed together 
 as fellow-servants in a European family, receive the same wages, 
 and are treated in the same way, and we have no doubt a kind 
 way, and with such equality, that the outside observer would not 
 be able to say whether they were slaves or not. This convincingly 
 shows, that free labour is available, that the plea of necessity 
 cannot be advanced, and that the scandal may cease at once, if 
 the Missionary so decide. This good lady makes the further 
 admission, that the slave-owner derives benefit from the educated 
 faculties of his slave in the Missionary household. It is shocking 
 to think of the lad, who rises to the position of teacher and 
 pastor in a Mission paying more and more on each rise in the 
 world to his owner, and, if married to a Christian girl, begetting 
 children to the profit of the same possibly Christian owner, 
 possibly a native Pastor himself. 
 
 The suffering of the African slave in America or the Mid 
 Passage has ceased ; but only those, who have for years read 
 every book relating to Africa, and who have, as it were, Africa 
 on the brain, can realize the abomination of the custom as 
 it still exists in Africa itself. We may laugh at the account 
 given by the Missionaries of the little children of the better 
 classes in Madagascar going to Church with a little slave behind 
 them carrying their Bible and hymn-book. The Pastors can 
 have small influence on their flocks, when such marks of pride 
 and Caste are tolerated. One Quaker Missionary had the grace 
 vouchsafed to him to denounce the practice of Slavery in an 
 assembly of the different Native Churches in Madagascar, and a 
 vote of censure was passed upon him by the other Missionaries. He, 
 however, published his address in England, with the text, " Touch 
 not the unclean thing." 
 
 If a vigorous attempt be made, the end is near in Madagascar. 
 Let the Queen only agree to the following rules urged upon her 
 by the British Nonconformist Missionaries, who have striven 
 nobly to mitigate the evil : 
 
 I. A Registration of redeemed slaves. 
 
 II. A Fixation of a reasonable price for a slave, which must 
 be accepted, if tendered. 
 
 When the subject was discussed on my motion at a meeting 
 of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a Statesman, 
 who has studied the whole subject. Sir Bartle Frere, told the 
 meeting, that some day the Missionaries would thank the mover 
 of the motion for calling attention to this blemish ; for it is a sore 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 blemish in a rising Church. Regard the matter from whatever 
 point of view you like, Madagascar is the only Mission of the 
 Church of England in any part of the world that countenances 
 slavery, and has slaves on its premises, other than those who 
 come for educational, medical, or spiritual advantages, which 
 the Church of England extends to all, whether Bond or Free. 
 
 Taking the lowest level the Missionary should recollect, that 
 the Spanish Priest, though he cannot put a stop to the cruel 
 custom of Bull-Baiting, never is present on such occasions. A 
 right-minded English Clergyman cannot put a stop to the evils 
 of an English Race-Course, but, if he has any respect for his 
 cloth, he never is seen at a Race. The Missionary cannot stop 
 Slavery, but he and his office-holders should keep clear of the 
 contamination. 
 
 Mission-Life, 1883. 
 
 B. — The French Roman Catholics in Africa. 
 
 One of the great curses of Slavery and the Slave Trade is 
 that it dislocates the labour market, and leaves, even when 
 abolished, a trail of evil consequences and fallacies ; and it is 
 necessary from time to time to appeal to first principles, and 
 expose weak and evil practices into which good men fall. 
 
 The evils arising from an ill-regulated traffic in Cooleys, or 
 Free Labourers, have often been exposed. The movement 
 of ignorant labourers is always a dangerous process. Even 
 in British India the supply of labourers from the districts of 
 Bengal, where there is a surfeit, to Assam, where there is a demand, 
 is not accomplished without risk. The export of Cooleys from 
 India beyond the seas is a most complicated operation. The 
 planter in his selfishness calls out for labour, and cares not by 
 how great a sacrifice of human life his wants are supplied. 
 Too often the Cooley becomes little better off" than a slave. 
 The great Island of Madagascar is now destined to be exposed 
 to ruin and loss of life, with a view of supplying labour to 
 French planters. The Latin races never can be persuaded 
 to look upon involuntary labour of subject races with the 
 aversion, with which the Anglo-Saxon regards it. 
 
 The French Roman Catholic Missionary openly conducts his 
 Missionary operations under the Black Flag, and it is well that 
 this should be thoroughly understood. I will not quote any 
 other authority but their own recognized Reporter, the Missions 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 Calholiques, and I select the volumes of 1 88 1-2 to show that 
 the practice is not an old and abandoned one, but one actually 
 in force : 
 
 AbeokiJta, Western Africa, Feb. 1881. 
 Qu'il nous serait facile de racheter des esclaves, si nous avons des ressources. 
 Apr^s chaque expedition guerrier il suffrait de se rendre sur quelqu'une des 
 grandes places ou sont exposees des families entieres de captifs. 
 
 Embomma, on the Congo, Nov. 1880. 
 
 ^ Le Rachat des enfants devenant de jour en jour ici plus difficile, je resolus 
 d'aller voir, si dans le haut de Congo, il ne presentait pas plus de facllite. 
 
 Landana, on the West Coast, Oct. 1880. 
 
 II profile en mime temps de ce voyage pour renouer et activer I'ceuvre si 
 importante du Rachat des enfants, car Helas ! au Congo comme partout ailleurs 
 cette oeuvre devient de plus en plus difficile. 
 
 A cette epoque la Mission elevait environ cent enfants dont les uns avaient 
 ete confles par les chefs de I'interieur, et les autres avaient ete rachetis. 
 
 At the close of the year i88i three French Missionaries lost 
 their lives on the Eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in the 
 country of U-Rundi, in consequence of their complicity in the 
 purchase of, and forcible retention of, purchased slaves ; for 
 the Wa-Bikiri, having solicited in vain the return of children 
 kidnapped from them, in some way or other recovered the 
 person of one of them. The French Priests threatened the use 
 of force to retake their slave, but were anticipated by an attack 
 of the Natives, who made a sudden onslaught upon and killed 
 the French Missionaries, one of whom had arms in his hands. 
 It is obvious that children must belong to some one. No tribe, 
 however savage, will sell its own offspring. The slaves sold 
 must be the booty of war, or the result of kidnapping. 
 
 Undeterred by this catastrophe, the French Roman Catholic 
 Missionaries recommenced their purchases on a larger scale, 
 and at Tabora, in U-Nya-Nwembe, on the high road from 
 Zanzibar to both Lake Victoria and Tanganyika : 
 
 Quand nous exposames a lui (the brother of the Arab Governor of U-Nya- 
 Nwembe) notre intention de racheter des enfants esclaves pour en faire des 
 hommes libres et leur apprendre a bien vivre, il nous dit : " Bien. Des enfans 
 vous en trouverez ici beaucoup. Vous venez pour les enfans ; c'est bou. Je 
 suis votre homme." 
 
 The pious priest then remarks : 
 
 O Providence de dieu, qui daignez employer a votre causes les vices memes 
 de vos ennemies ! Puissiez vous tirer de I'avarice de ce vieux fils de Mahomet 
 la deliverance et le salut de beaucoup d'Smes autour de nous ! 
 
 Deja nous avons commence a former notre petite famille negre, en rachetant 
 plusieurs enfants, que I'oh promenait dans la ville comme des animaux en vente. 
 Nous aurons frequemment I'occasion d'en racheter d'autres sans sorter de chez 
 nuus : ce sera la petite peche a rhame9on en attendant que I'autorisation de 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 Said Bargache soit arrivee de Zanzibar. Mors nous pourrons faire la grande 
 peche en haute mer; peche que n'aura d'autres limites que celles de nos 
 resources. 150 ou 200 francs suffisent pour le rachat et I'entretien d'un enfant 
 pendant une annee. Avec 15,000 ou 20,000 francs nous pourrait fonder ici un 
 orphelinat d'une Centaine de beaux Negrillons. 
 
 The Arabs, themselves not very scrupulous, held back from 
 taking part . in this tremendous scheme, and begged leave 
 to apply to the Sultan, their Master, at Zanzibar. The Priest 
 wrote oflf to M. Ledoux, the Consul of France, begging of him 
 to use his influence in the aid of this slave-purchasing enterprise. 
 Publicity may possibly have checked this detestable enterprise, 
 and it has been reported to the British Foreign Office. That 
 on the peaceful high road from the Sea to the Equatorial Lakes, 
 there should be established a House of Kidnapped Children, 
 purchased by a European, appears to be a public misfortune. 
 
 In Tanganyika the French Roman Catholic Missionaries, in 
 spite of the warning received by the slaughter of three of their 
 body, report, September 25th, ]88i, another advance along the 
 dangerous and shameful path. 
 
 Nous avons vu deja mourir plusieurs de ces enfants au Masanje. Aussi 
 avons nous du racheter Ae& jeunes filles esclaves. Ce moyen offre de nombreuses 
 difiicultes, comme vous le comprenez facilement vous metnes. 
 
 If the kidnapping of boys was not enough to rouse a tribe to 
 wrath against the white strangers, surely the kidnapping of girls 
 will do so. The problem is a tremendous one, but at Zanzibar 
 we read : 
 
 A I'hopital est annexee une ecole pour les petites Negresses, que Ton rachite, 
 ou qu'on enleve aux marchands des esclaves. 
 
 Such is the practice of the French Roman Catholic Missionaries 
 in the East and West of Equatorial Africa. They cannot see, 
 that the words, rachat and redemption, were applicable, when 
 sums were sent to Barbary to rescue French and Spanish 
 sailors, who had been captured by the Corsairs : that it would be 
 perfectly legitimate to a native of the countiy to purchase his 
 own freedom, or redeem from slavery members of his family or 
 his friends. The wholesale purchase of male and female children 
 encourages kidnapping, raids, and tribal wars, and perpetuates 
 a state of aflFairs, which we would gladly see entirely changed. 
 An orphanage, filled with children ravished from their parents, 
 is only so in name. 
 
 Now if the benevolent Missionary can do this with impunity, 
 and start a school, and a factory, and industrial operations, and 
 distil liqueurs, as the Monks do in Algeria, why should not the 
 benevolent planter do the same } If he is not allowed to do so, 
 he will be undersold in his business by his Missionary rival, 
 who conducts the adjoining factory. If children, male and 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 female, may be purchased, why not lads and lasses, and adults 
 generally ? The male children, when they come to the age of 
 puberty in the Missionary schools, will want wives, and the 
 Priest must ask his friends the Arab slave-dealers to send in a 
 supply of marriageable Negresses. When neighbouring tribes 
 demand in a voice of anger the restitution of their ravished 
 children, what reply is to be given to them ? The transaction 
 becomes more horrible, when the Arab is found to be the 
 go-between, and the panderer to the Missionary lust to get 
 possession of Negro bodies for the sake of their souls. How 
 the Mahometan must scoff at the Christian for his inconsistency ! 
 
 When the Roman Catholic Mission temporarily quitted 
 Rubdga, the capital of King Mtesa, on Lake Victoria, they 
 took with them several boat-loads of Negro boys, whom they 
 had purchased, and who were their property. In the pages of 
 the Missions Catholiques of Lyons, appear each week notices of 
 subscriptions made in France for the purpose of purchasing 
 children, and the name, which the pious donor attaches to the 
 gift as the name designed for the purchased child, is generally 
 that of a little girl, showing that the perilous policy of purchasing 
 female slaves is persisted in. To the Arab slave-dealer it matters 
 not, whether a little girl is supplied to a harem or a Mission- 
 school ; or a little boy sold to be converted into a eunuch or 
 into an acolyte. It is a matter of so much money. And, when 
 these children grow up to maturity, they will abscond, and there 
 will be claims for restitution. It is fortunate that a Protestant 
 power like Germany has appeared on the scene of East Africa, 
 which is not likely to tolerate the purchase of slaves for any 
 purpose in its jurisdiction. 
 
 Cardinal Lavigerie, in his late address to Pope Leo XIII. at 
 Rome, May, 1888, took credit for buying slaves in Equatorial 
 Africa in the name of the Church, and saving them from Slavery, 
 and the Pope in reply begged him to buy, or redeem, as 
 many as he could : so it must be considered as part of the 
 authorized method of Romish Missions ; and indeed, in the life 
 of Friar John de Monte Corvino, the Romish Missionary in 
 China in 1298 A.D., he mentions in a letter, which has come 
 down to us, that he bought one hundred and fifty boys of from 
 seven to thirteen years of age, and these he taught Latin and 
 Greek, to copy Manuscripts, and chant the Services of the 
 Church. It is clear that the Romish system of evangelization 
 is built upon slave-purchasing, whenever they find it possible. 
 
 It is a comfort to think that every Protestant Missionary 
 Society in Africa is free from even the imputation of this blot. 
 The Missionaries of the Universities' Mission to East Africa 
 write, that they have difficulty in providing for the children who 
 flock to their schools. The alleged difficulty of getting children 
 
.( 36 ) 
 
 to come to the Mission schools is a mere snare ; if regular- 
 attendance at school of little Negroes, who know not what time 
 is, is to be secured by their purchase, their bondage, their in- 
 carceration, their personal chastisement, we say boldly that we 
 had rather let them remain free heathens than become Slave- 
 Christians repeating their " Ave-Maria." 
 
 Another form of snare, which tempts the Missionary to swerve 
 from the high beaten road, is the institution called " pawning." 
 It was explained at a Missionary Board to mean this. A heathen 
 family spend a large sum on the funeral of their head : the 
 money is borrowed from a money-lender on the security of the 
 mortgage to him of the involuntary services of one member of 
 the family. A younger son is made over, pawned, pledged, to 
 become the slave for life of the money-lender. It was suggested 
 by an amiable Missionary, on whose health, countenance and 
 judgment, a long residence in Africa had had a deleterious 
 effect, that the Christian should adopt a modified form of this 
 practice, that the pawning should be registered, an account kept 
 of the capital and interest, and a power of redemption reserved. 
 It is scarcely necessary to say, that a great Missionary Society, 
 among the founders of which was Wilberforce, could have 
 nothing to do directly or indirectly, openly or in disguise, now 
 "or in future, with any practice, which implied the dominion of 
 one man over the person of another, and the right of one man 
 to use the involuntary labour of another. The power of a 
 Missionary Society is limited, but it can prohibit its office- 
 holders absolutely from contact with such transactions, can 
 admonish and affectionately urge its adherents to abstain from 
 them, and can stand forth before the heathen a living protest, 
 that the purchase of slaves, the employment of slaves, the 
 mortgaging of the labour of one man to another, is an abomina- 
 tion before God and man. 
 
 It is necessary to speak out clearly, and call upon Missionary 
 Societies to take heed, lest mud stick to the skirts of their 
 clothing. Now that Africa is so thoroughly thrown open, and 
 associations, religious and secular, are springing up like mush- 
 rooms, care must be taken, lest the enemy should sow tares. All 
 that we can do is to publish to the Christian world a bond fide 
 and authentic account of every such transaction, and thus bring 
 it to the notice of the Attorney-General, who is empowered 
 to prosecute the purchaser, if a British subject, in the High 
 Court of Justice ; for it is distinctly an offence against the Act 
 of George IV. and punishable as a felony in any Court of Her 
 Majesty, without reference to the venue of the transaction. 
 
 Mission-Life, 1886. 
 
C 37 ) 
 
 C. — Independent Native Congregations in Yariba-Land. 
 
 Slavery, or Involuntary Labour, is one of the disgraces of the 
 human race, and yet it is one of the oldest of institutions, and 
 one, which is only entirely eradicated by the influences of the 
 Christian religion upon modern civilization, which is itself the 
 outcome of Christian influences, however much Atheists and 
 Anti-Christs may think or say to the contrary. It is true, as will 
 be shown below, that there are some races which will not submit 
 to Slavery, preferring death, just as there are some races of 
 men and beasts, and birds, which cannot be tamed, and prefer 
 extinction ; but the domination of stronger over weaker races 
 has been the law of human life, whether developing into Slavery, 
 Helotry, or Serfage. The subject to be discussed is : ' 
 
 I. With whom alone rests the power of suppressing this 
 
 abomination. 
 
 II. How is it to be done with the least disturbance of the 
 
 social system. 
 We dare not say that Slavery is inconsistent in itself with 
 Christian life without ignoring the direct teaching of the Old 
 and New Testament. Smarting with the sense of the bondage 
 in Egypt, Moses in the twenty- second chapter of his third book 
 of the Law, verse 1 1, repeating words spoken to him by Jehovah 
 Himself, writes : 
 
 If the priest buy any soul with his money, he shall eat of the holy things ; 
 but the hired servant sliall not eat of it. 
 
 And again in the twenty-fifth chapter, verse 44 : 
 
 Of them (the heathen) ye shall buy bondmen and bondmaids. 
 
 And again verse 46 : 
 
 Ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you to inherit as 
 a possession : they shall be your bondmen for ever. 
 
 Down the whole of the chequered history of the chosen people 
 to the date of the Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon, the status 
 is recognized by the religious law of the nation. The dis- 
 tinction betwixt houXo'i and jt.iaduni]t, the slave and the hired 
 labourer, is very marked, and St. Paul is not ashamed to call 
 himself " the slave of Christ," and to write, that he has been 
 " bought with a price." In writing about Polygamy in the previous 
 essay, I argued that that institution had died out under the in- 
 fluence of Greek civilization, for no one can read Homer and the 
 story of Hector and Andromache, Ulysses and Penelope, and all 
 the immortal legends of the great Grseco-Latin races, even their 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 mythology, without recognizing that Monogamy, accompanied 
 by Concubinage and Divorce, were deeply engrained in the 
 common law of the people. In no passage of the New Testa- 
 ment is Polygamy even hinted at, while the existence of Slavery 
 is obvious in the history of the period. We cannot, therefore, 
 brush it aside, and say that God's written law forbids it. St. Paul, 
 when he enumerated in the first chapter of the Romans all 
 the frightful iniquities of the Gentiles, makes no allusion to 
 Polygamy, because it did not exist, or to Slavery, because he did 
 not with his knowledge of the Old Testament recognize it as 
 a sin, though no doubt a status deeply to be deplored. St. Paul 
 was a wise man, neither an enthusiast, nor a fanatic : he incul- 
 cated obedience to a tyrant like Nero, and founded no Total 
 Abstinence, or Abolitionist Societies ; he forbade no meats or 
 drinks, and laid down no laws of celibacy. 
 
 Nor does the history of modern time since the introduction 
 of Christianity help us. It is only within the memory of the 
 living generations, that Slavery has ceased to be tolerated by 
 any Christian nation, or Christian State ; its cloven foot still 
 presses the soil of Europe in Turkey ; Europeans and Americans 
 are reported to hold slaves in countries where that institution 
 still flourishes. Even in countries like Egypt under the temporary 
 protectorate of Great Britain, it still exists. In countries like 
 the Transvaal Republic, if the name is not pronounced, the 
 essence of the evil exists. It appears to be taking a new life 
 in the shape of "Men Stealing" in the South Seas by the 
 British Colonists in Queensland and Fiji, and of "fictitious 
 service-contracts " according to the practice of the French planter 
 in the Kom6ro Islands, and the Reunion. 
 
 More than this, the skirts of the garments of the- Ministers 
 of the Episcopal Church of England, and the Congregational 
 Church of England, and (Heaven help the mark !) the Society 
 of Friends, are not free from this unhappy stain. In Mission- 
 Life, 1883, I published the whole story. 
 
 It transpired that the domestics of the ordained missionary 
 were slaves, being hired from a slave-owner, who had the power 
 to chastise them, and separate husband from wife, and parent 
 from child. It transpired also that the native pastors of all 
 denominations were the stoutest champions of this evil in- 
 stitution. I, and the late Sir Bartle Frere, in 1882 (it was 
 almost his last appearance in public), tried to persuade the 
 S.P.C.K. to withhold a grant to this college, but in vain. I 
 tried in vain (August 14, 1883) to persuade the S.P.G. to forbid 
 the practice in its missions. I was met by the argument of the 
 Epistle of St. Paul to Philemon. Soon after came the French 
 invasion of Madagascar, and it was hoped that the Hova natives, 
 struggling for their own liberty, would give freedom to their 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 slaves : but it is not the case. Mr. Cousins, of the London- 
 Missionary Society, appeared in 1887 in the Committee of the 
 Bible Society, and I asked him categorically in an assembly 
 composed of men of every Protestant denomination, whether 
 the scandal still continued, and he replied that it did. One 
 member of the Society of Friends, Mr. Joseph Sewell, had the 
 hardihood in a pamphlet published in London, ,1876 (Elliot 
 Stock, Paternoster Row), to denounce the custojn, but he stood 
 alone. I fear much that even to this day ordained ministers of 
 the Church of England give their countenance to Slavery, in 
 their own families. I shall be glad to be contradicted. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Missionaries go a step further. In Mission- 
 Life, 1 886, I showed, by quotations from the printed reports 
 of the African missionaries, published in the Missions 
 Catholiques, how they deliberately purchased children, boys 
 and girls; how sums- were subscribed by devout children in 
 France to purchase a little boy, to be named " Pierre," or a little 
 girl, to be named " Marie." They call it " Redemption." I 
 know what redemption of a slave means by the sums collected 
 to rescue poor Christians from the Barbary pirates ; I can, 
 imagine now an African paying a sum to redeem his wife, or 
 brother, or relative. I read in the third Book of Moses, 
 chapter twenty-five, verse 48 : 
 
 After that he have been sold, he may be redeemed again : one of his 
 brethren may redeem him. 
 
 But the word " redeem" cannot apply to the deliberate purchase 
 by a Frenchman of an African child. Livingstone tells us in his 
 " Missionary Travels," p. 92 : 
 
 I have never known an instance in Africa of a parent selling his own offspring. 
 The children are first kidnapped, and then sold to the priests. 
 
 ' In the Missions Catholiques, 1883, p. 54, I read: 
 
 A I'hopital de Zanzibar est annexee une &ole pour les petites negresses, que 
 Ton rachete, ou que Ton enleve des marchands des esclaves. 
 
 And again, 1880, p. 220: 
 Les esclaves achetes a bas prix. 
 
 I think that I can say safely, that no Protestant missionary of 
 any Society would lend himself to such transactions. But there 
 is a tendency to error on the other side. A missionary can have 
 no right to convert his station into a refuge for runaway slaves, or 
 to preach abolitionist doctrines. This practice has been expressly 
 forbidden to the missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. 
 I regret to read in the report of the Anti-Slavery Society (of 
 the Committee of which I am a member) a letter by a youpg 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 Missionary of very slight experience and extreme abolitionist; 
 views, which cannot but be very injurious to the quiet and 
 peaceful work of the evangelist. St. Paul's example is distinctly 
 opposed to such conduct. It must indeed be a painful sight 
 to a missionary to witness the horror of the Slave trade, and 
 of Slavery, and to be unable to protect runaway slaves ; but 
 a little reflection will convince him, that it is not his duty to 
 interfere, and that he has not the lawful authority or requisite 
 power to do it efficiently, and that he is forbidden by those, who 
 send him out, to interfere, and that the Consuls of Her Majesty 
 are as unable as himself, and are as peremptorily forbidden as 
 himself, to meddle in matters beyond their jurisdiction. 
 
 I now proceed to notice the good side of Slavery in certain 
 social conditions of the human race. The great dictionary of 
 the Latin language tells us that the word " Servus " is thus 
 derived. " Servus dictus a servanda, quia Imperatores captives 
 " vendere, et per hoc servare, nee occidere solent." 
 
 A chief in Central Africa (Valdez, vol. ii. p. 201) remarked that it was 
 customary for him to sell as slaves those who commit murder or robbery, or 
 other crimes, and that, if slavery were put a stop to, what could he do with 
 them, but put them to death? Another chief {ibid. vol. ii. p. 177) remarked, 
 that he was sorry that the Portuguese were not inclined to countenance the 
 slave trade, as he thought it better to sell than to put them to death. 
 
 Another writer (Monteiro, vol. ii. p. 20), while expressing 
 himself strongly against slavery, remarks that 
 
 Despite the declamations of sensitive minds, as long as the barbarity of 
 Africa remains, the barter of slaves will always be considered by philanthropists, 
 as the only palliation to the ferocity of the laws that govern these nations. 
 
 It has occurred to some minds, that the premature abolition 
 of slavery by force may lead to the merciless slaughter of 
 prisoners, or cannibalism ; the captives, being useless as an 
 article of trade, must be got rid of. A New Guinea chief, 
 hearing of the vast slaughter in the Franco-German campaign, 
 remarked that the conquerors must have had an abundant supply 
 of meat with so many bodies. On being informed, that they 
 were not used for that purpose, his reply was, " Why kill them 
 " then } They would be valuable if sold." 
 
 We know how in India there were formerly slave-markets, 
 and history tells us how slaves, like Joseph, have received the 
 highest offices of the State ; but Africa is full of surprises, and 
 I read (Wilson, " West Africa," p. lyg) how slaves, who con- 
 ducted themselves well, became themselves owners of slaves. The 
 writer knew several cases, where slaves owned a larger number 
 of bondmen than their own masters. 
 
 Livingstone ("Zambesi," p. 49) tells a most extraordinary 
 story : 
 
 A man, who was a pilot, told me, that he had voluntarily sold himself into 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 slavery ; he was all alone in the world and sold himself to a kind master. He 
 got three thirty-yard pieces of cotton for himself, and immediately bought 
 a man, woman, and child for two of the pieces, and had one left. He after- 
 Wards bought more slaves, and had at last enough to make up a large caravan 
 with his own slaves. 
 
 In the third book of Moses, chap. xxv. verse 47, I read : 
 
 If thy brother wax poor, and sell himself unto the stranger or sojourner by 
 thee. 
 
 One thing is clear, that Slavery was deemed only a misfortune, 
 and that the holding of a slave was a privilege of wealth ; and 
 it is only in later ages, and more enlightened communities, that 
 it has been discovered to be a frightful moral delinquency, to 
 be gradually stamped out. 
 
 For it leads to frightful evils, and has a dark side. Slaves 
 were slaughtered to share the graves of their masters, they 
 were tortured, cruelly chastised, starved, buried alive, carved 
 into eunuchs, polluted into concubines ; all the social relations 
 violated, wives torn away from their husbands, children from 
 their parents : the status was frightful among the heathen, still 
 more frightful among the Mahometans, and most frightful 
 among the Christians in America. Livingstone remarks (" Last 
 Journals," vol. i. p. 9) : 
 
 The lot of the slave does not improve with the, general progress of civilization. 
 While no great disparity of rank exists, his energies are little tasked ; but when 
 society advances, the slave's lot grows harder ; the distance betwixt master and 
 slave increases, as the lust of gain is developed ; hence one can have no hope 
 for improvement in a slave's condition, unless the master returns to or remains 
 in barbarism. 
 
 This shows, that the very existence of Slavery is incompatible 
 with civilization, and therefore with Christianity. 
 
 Livingstone foresaw that the improvement of Africa by the 
 introduction of agricultural plantations will make the lot of the 
 poor slave worse ; but it is a comfort to reflect that escape 
 is always possible in Africa. Already the rumour of plantations 
 in Eastern Equatorial Africa is talked of by German speculators ; 
 and it is even asserted, that a black man was only created to 
 work, and must be made to work, and that the Missionaries 
 should have industrial schools to teach them how to work. 
 The French "Engag^e" system is merely Slavery in disguise, 
 and by treachery ; the practice of the planters in Queensland 
 and Fiji to employ men to kidnap labourers, is Slavery by 
 violence. 
 
 One of the saddest consequences of Slavery is, that it hardens 
 the heart of the slave-owner, and the slave-holding community. 
 They forget that the body of man is in the image of God, 
 and may possibly become the temple of the Holy Ghost. 
 They talk of it as black ivory or cattle ; they treat the slave 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 not as a fellow-creature but a beast. Livingstone remarked 
 ("Zambesi," p. 103): 
 
 That custom has made the heart of a certain Spanish priest so callous, that 
 he coldly told a poor man, that his kidnapped daughter could not be restored 
 to him. 
 
 Consul Macleod of Mozambik in East Africa, in his book, 
 i860, vol. i. p. 276, mentions the peculiar aggravation of the 
 form of Slavery tolerated in those territories, which are claimed 
 now by Portugal, as being within her sphere of influence : 
 
 To keep the slave in subjection every opportunity is taken to destroy all 
 natural affection. The son is made to flog the mother : the brother the sister : 
 the father has to flog his own daughter and his wife. Women are made to flog, 
 and under circumstances too revolting to be told : if two parties fall in love 
 with each other, they are made to flog each other. 
 
 It is this callous state of mind, which leads some of our own 
 nation to quote Scripture in support of Slavery. In past ages I 
 read how Roman ladies used to flog their female slaves with iron 
 whips. Travellers to Rome are shown the small tank on the 
 Palatine Hill, full of fish, into which slaves of the Emperors 
 were thrown as a punishment. I read how slaves were left to 
 die on the march, or be devoured by wild beasts, or were killed 
 by the slave-owner in a moment of anger. Unfortunately the 
 African has got the idea in his head of property being possible 
 in a man. A chief offered Livingstone a slave to look after his 
 goats, but was unwilling to give him a goat. I read how a 
 man sold his young and good-looking wife, because she was 
 unfaithful ; this inspired all the other wives with fear. I must 
 remark that King Mtesa, the friend of Christian Missions, sent 
 his favourite wife to be killed. Colonel Grant saw her following 
 the executioner to the place of execution ; so perhaps it is 
 better to be a slave than killed. 
 
 So frightfully complicated is the subject, that I ask the 
 thorough-going abolitionist, how he is going to dispose of the 
 slaves, to whom he gives liberty. Mr. Felkin, in his " U-Ganda," 
 (vol. ii. p. 299), tells us how the Mudir of Kordofdn took credit 
 for depriving a Greek Christian merchant of all the slaves, 
 which he was conveying to the Nile, and ordered the boys to 
 be turned into soldiers, and the women to he then and there married, 
 as the only way of disposing of them. We read in the Letters 
 of General Gordon, by Dr. Hill, that he distributed the female 
 slaves, whom he released, among his Egyptian soldiery as wives 
 on the march. The poor creatures were already wives and 
 mothers torn from their homes. The release seems worse than 
 the captivity. 
 
 It is a comfort to think that even in Africa some races are 
 made of stuff that will not bend to Slavery. Livingstone tells 
 us (" Zambesi," p. 597) : 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 That no Kruman or Zulu, or in fact any of the Kafir tribes, can be con- 
 verted into slaves. Neither in Kafir-land nor Be-Chuana-land has Slavery ever 
 existed. And it is false that Slavery is only looked upon by the African as an 
 ordinary incident of life. 
 
 Livingstone, in his "Last Journals" (vol. ii. p. 19), tells us 
 
 How he saw relatives bring three goats to redeem a sick boy who was 
 emaciated. The boy shed tears, when he saw his grandmother, and his father 
 shed tears also, when the goats were rejected. " So I returned, and considered 
 " all the oppression, that was done under the sun, and behold the tears of the 
 " oppressed, and they had no comforter" (Eccl. iv. i). 
 
 Beltrame, a Roman Catholic Missionary in the Galla country 
 (" Senaar and Shan Galla," vol. ii. p. 131), tells us 
 . That a poor woman came down from the hills to claim justice for the murder 
 of her husband, and the Turkish ruler ordered her at once to be sold as a slave. 
 
 He was an officer of the Khedive. A Missionary, on the 
 authority of Sir John Kirk, reported, in iSyg, how the Abb6 
 de Baize, a French scientific traveller, who died soon after, sold 
 two women into captivity, who had joined his camp for the sake 
 of the protection of a European. 
 
 I have given some of these cases (always quoting my autho- 
 rity) that those, who attempt to rush into the subject and issue 
 general orders of a vague kind, may reflect upon the vastness 
 of the problem, and may not suppose, that I minimise the evil 
 or am indifferent to it. 
 
 I now inquire how the evil is to be dealt with in a country, 
 where the governors are Christians, or where the slave-owners 
 are (nominally) Christian. Let us consider what was done in 
 British India. Sir Bartle Frere, in an article in the Fortnightly 
 Review, described how during his period of service the institution 
 of Slavery, which had been the common law of British India, 
 died away, and is now extinct. I was myself witness of the 
 proceeding. In 1843 a law was passed of a very few clauses. 
 By one any offence was equally an offence, where the sufferer 
 was alleged to be a slave ; by the other every right was equally 
 a right, where the person claiming it was alleged to be a slave. 
 Under the first provision incarceration or assault became 
 punishable by a magistrate ; by the second a so-called slave could 
 always demand his freedom, and it was granted. In the course 
 of a generation the domestic institution has died out. Had the 
 abolitionists had their way, and a proclamation been issued ab- 
 olishing Slavery under penalties, the streets would have been filled 
 with aged and starving slaves turned out of their owners' homes, 
 and there would have been a commotion all over India. When it is 
 asserted, that Mahometanism cannot exist without Slavery, and 
 that it would create a religious war to abolish the institution in 
 Turkey, it is replied, that in British India there are fifty million 
 Mahometans, and not one possesses a slave. In Tunisia the Bey 
 abolished Slavery, and in Algeria the French stamped it out. 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 A warning voice has come from the Niger: some of the neo- 
 Christian congregations, such as Bonny, consist chiefly of Slaves : 
 to spread among them prematurely abolitionist doctrines, before 
 the Civil law of the country has abolished the status, is to bring on 
 a servile war, a terrible loss of life and outrages on the part of 
 the slave- owner, and slaves. The self-willed abolitionist-fanatic, 
 who has but one idea, cares nought for this. Christian States- 
 men await the opportunity to do permanent good : the Church 
 should use moral weapons only, following the example of St. 
 Paul. 
 
 But how should a Missionary Society act when it is represented 
 that members of the Church founded by the Society held slaves ? 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury stated in the House of Lords on 
 April 12, 1883, and stated correctly, that in 1879 the Church 
 Missionary Society laid down a rule, that any of the agents of 
 the Society who held slaves should ipso facto cease to be such 
 agents, and this rule was enforced. I have above stated how I 
 failed to induce the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel 
 to pass the same rule for their Mission in Madagascar. The 
 question has now arisen whether Missionary Societies ought not 
 to go further, and adopt the policy of the extreme Abolitionist 
 Party, " Fiat justitia, ruat caelum." 
 
 In a newspaper published on the West Coast of Africa 
 appeared the following lines in 1883 : 
 
 Was this another instance of slave-holding practices by Sierra Leone men, 
 therefore British subjects, professing Christianity? We fear it was, because we 
 have too much reason to know that not a few Sierra Leone men, educated in 
 mission schools, do not hesitate, when in heathen trading towns, to buy and 
 hold slaves. 
 
 Now, if these men were British subjects, we may safely leave 
 the matter to the Attorney-General of the Colony, as it is a 
 felony for a British subject to sell or buy slaves anywhere, and 
 punishable in the High Court of Justice in London. 
 
 In a letter written by " a native " to the Lagos Times, dated 
 April 9, 1883, I find the following startling information as to 
 the existence of slave-holding, slave-buying, slave-breeding, 
 and ill-usage by members of the native Churches in independent 
 Yariba-land, both Episcopal and Wesleyan, and there is good 
 reason to know, that the assertions are true : 
 
 This evil thing did not exist in the Yariba Church in the very early days of 
 the missions planted in the country ; it seems to have been then tabooed, and 
 faithful native Christian teachers assisted them to hold their people up to it. 
 But after a time and with the acquisition of money, a desire was conceived by 
 members to own, as of old in heathenism, property in their fellow-man, and 
 gradually obeyed until it has become a general practice from which only the 
 want of money to make purchases keeps converts. Liberated African Christians 
 from Sierra Leone and elsewhere shared in the desire and practice. To the 
 credit of the members of the Wesleyan Church at Abeokiita it is to be said, that 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 they were the last of the Christians there to adopt the practice. An influential 
 party in their community, led by an able native agent, for a long time stood 
 bravely and firmly against its introduction, till overborne by the weight and 
 persistence of the opposition they encountered, when a concession was made to 
 members of the Church to buy slaves, but not to sell them. But, as was said then 
 by one of those who had stood against it, the concession to buy was equal to a 
 concession to sell. He also remarked that this would prove, as it has proved, 
 the ruin of Christianity in the country. Eventually, those who were opposed to the 
 introduction of the practice, fell into it themselves, with those who were originally 
 in favour of it ; and now there, as in other parts of the Yariba Mission, in places 
 not under British rule, slave-holding is a general practice ; an exception is not 
 known. Christians buy slaves, breed slaves, sell slaves, own fellow-believers 
 as slaves, and sometimes sell baptized fellow-Christians, their slaves, to heathens 
 and Mahometans, a thing that may not be found in Mahometanism ; separate 
 slave children from slave parents for the market ; are often harder upon their 
 slaves than heathen slave-owners are, heathens themselves being witnesses ; are 
 sometimes most unwilling to allow their slaves to buy their freedom, even though 
 they be Christians like themselves, and these may, if they be women, have been 
 made concubines or secondary wives of and have borne their masters children ; 
 and would place most exorbitant prices upon them, where heathens would be 
 content with an almost nominal sum ; would often demand from their slaves, 
 even from poor women working for the support of themselves and their children, 
 the payment annually of four or five bags of cowries, which value from about 
 forty to fifty shillings, as interest on purchase money, where a heathen master is 
 content to have only one bag ; are most unwilling to part with the system and have 
 persecuted for it and been found ready and willing to invite the aid of heathens 
 to the work of persecution. There is a mania everywhere in the Christian 
 community for slave acquisition, which had seized pastors, catechists, and other 
 agents also. A man's importance is measured by the number of slaves he 
 possesses. And as amongst heathens, so among professed Christians, Slavery 
 feeds Polygamy, and Christians may be found, to whom much respect is con- 
 ceded by the Church, whose harems are more numerous than those of many a 
 heathen on account of the larger number of wives. Slavery in the Churches 
 has destroyed the brotherhood of Christians, since it prevents an equality of 
 standing in the Church ; and this in a community where class distinction should 
 not be known 1 The cruelty of some Christian slave-owners, even of women, 
 has been known to end in the lives of their slaves. Is this Christianity? Is 
 this the Christianity that we look forward to for the conversion of Africa from 
 heathenism ? And where, beyond British territory, is it higher or better ? 
 
 Now the question which arises, and which I submit for con- 
 sideration, is, What can a Missionary Society do to check such 
 evils ? The state of things described is not within British 
 territory, and therefore the State cannot interfere. A Lay 
 Committee of a Society cannot interfere with the ecclesiastical 
 discipline of a native Church: thatistheprerogativeofthe Bishop. 
 Nor could, under any circumstances, conditions be attached to 
 baptism, which are not supported by the authority of the New 
 Testament. Polygamists may be refused baptism, because they 
 are notoriously living in a sin against the words of our Lord, 
 '•' Male and female created He them," and the universal custom 
 of the Church from the earliest ages ; but Slavery has never been 
 placed under the ban of Christianity. In some Churches total 
 abstinence from spirituous liquors has been made the condition 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 of Church membership. Against all such narrowing of the 
 great invitation, " Repent and be baptized," I must protest. 
 
 All that a Society can do is to address a letter to these 
 Churches, reminding them of the great example set to them 
 by the British nation, to whom they owe the suppression of the 
 foreign Slave trade and their knowledge of the Gospel, and 
 exhorting them to adopt the four following principles : 
 
 I. Never to sell or buy a slave. 
 
 II. If their circumstances permit them, at once to free their 
 slaves. 
 
 III. If their circumstances do not permit them, they are urged 
 to treat their slaves as brothers, never to raise the hand against 
 them, and respect the chastity of the female slaves. 
 
 IV. Let all children born henceforth be born free. Let them 
 do this for Christ's sake, who bought them. 
 
 It appears to me that anything beyond this will stultify itself. 
 The conscience of individuals should be appealed to ; the 
 pastors should enforce the Christian duty from the pulpit. We 
 must recollect, that the West African Church is a weak native 
 Church in the midst of a strong heathendom : it would be 
 tantamount to breaking up the Church to excommunicate 
 all slave-holders. And this was not the way, in which St. Paul 
 dealt with the early Church. He was very gentle with their 
 errors and backslidings. These Churches are independent; 
 support their own pastors ; hold their own synods, and are not 
 to be dictated to by foreigners, however well intentioned. If 
 they transferred their slaves to their heathen relations by real or 
 fictitious contracts, it is not clear what would be the gain to the 
 slaves. They might go through the form of manumission, and 
 the slaves might next day be seized by the heathen chiefs and 
 appropriated. The problem is one difficult to solve. 
 
 The Churchman, 1887 (with additions, 1888). 
 
 Suggested Letter from a Missionary Society to the Individual 
 Members of the African Churches. 
 
 Dear Brother in Christ. — We approach you individually in a spirit of 
 Christian love upon u subject which lies very near our hearts. We claim no 
 authority, but vi^ ask you to suffer the word of exhortation. In all humility 
 we remind you, that to our nation you owe your freedom from the terrible 
 cruelty of the Foreign Slave Trade, that to British Government you owe your 
 independence and your prosperity, and more than all things, to Missionary 
 Societies you owe your knowledge of Christ, which surpasses in value all other 
 possessions. If any one had a claim upon you, it is the Society, which has 
 been, as it were, a Nursing Mother to your Infant Church. 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 Nor do we blame you for the past ; if you have erred, it is in ignorance, 
 and from the proneness to particular errors, to which your nation is exposed. 
 We allude to Slavery and Polygamy. 
 
 The first principle of our common religions, of yours and of ours, is the 
 Brotherhood of Mankind, and their descent from one Man and one Woman, 
 both created in the image of God. Can it be right therefore to hold your 
 brother of the same race, colour, and language, in bondage, to sell and buy him 
 like the beasts that have no soul, and perish, to abuse your powers by ill -usage of 
 the men, and unlawful intercourse with the women ? In the day of Judgment 
 what answer will you have to give, for you were indeed your brother's keeper ? 
 Can you be said in any way to have known Christ, when you do such things ? 
 Can you kneel at the Lord's table, when you have such grievous sins unrepented 
 of, and unabandoned ? 
 
 In the spirit of love we exhort thee, as a dear and beloved brother : 
 
 I. Never to sell or buy a slave. 
 
 II. If your circumstances permit you, at once set free your slaves. Do it 
 for the love of the Lord who bought you, and He will repay you. For your 
 sakes he assumed the form of a servant, and died for you. He set you free 
 from the bondage of sin. 
 
 III. If your circumstances are such, that you are unable to do so, treat your 
 slave as a brother ; lift not your hand against him ; use no threatenings ; 
 respect the chastity of your female slaves, and be to them as a father, and the 
 Lord will reward you according to the measure of your good will. 
 
 IV. Let all children born of your slaves be free. Remember that children 
 are an heritage of the Lord. It is He that fashioned and formed them in the 
 womb, and gave them the blessing of life in this world, and hope of eternal 
 life in the next ! Can you as a Christian withhold from these little ones the 
 blessing of liberty ? Let the thought of your own children soften your heart ! 
 
 For your own soul's sake let your bondsmen be set free, for remember, that 
 it was the Lord your God who through the agency of the British nation brought 
 you and your family and your nation out of the house of bondage. Take heed 
 lest you abuse the kindness of the Lord, and worse things come upon you. 
 
 The second principle of the new Christian life, which is, indeed, equal to the 
 first, is the equality of woman to man, the sharer of the same covenant, the 
 inheritor of the same blessings, subject to the same infirmities, and through the 
 blood of Christ, who died for all, the humble claimant for the same Salvation. 
 And can a Christian man, who has indeed accepted Christ, and understood his 
 precious promises, convert the woman, who was created to be the honoured 
 companion, adviser, and the sustainer of man, into a mere object for debased 
 sensual passions? We have the words of our blessed Lord: "Male and 
 female created He them." "They twain shall be one flesh." It was of a 
 woman, without the agency of Man, that our Lord himself was born, being 
 conceived by the Holy Spirit. Women were His holy companions in His earthly 
 Pilgrimage, the last at the Cross and the first at the Sepulchre. No nation 
 has ever risen to power and greatness, where women have been undervalued. 
 Over the great Kingdom, which protects your nation, there reigns in the love 
 of her subjects a woman. 
 
 We beseech you, brother, in the name of the Lord who bought you, be 
 content with one wife, and free yourself from the deadly sin of Polygamy, in 
 whatever form it appears among you. We only ask you to do what we do 
 ourselves. 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 ISLAM. 
 
 A. 
 
 If the reader expects to find in this review a blind and whole- 
 sale abuse of Mahomet and his doctrines, and an uncritical 
 disregard of the great fact, that one hundred and seventy-five 
 millions at this moment adhere to this persuasion, he is mis- 
 taken. The subject is a very solemn one, and should be treated 
 with solemnity. The writer has lived a quarter of a century in 
 intimate acquaintance with Mahometans. The servants, who 
 cooked his dinner, and waited at his table ; the coachman, who 
 drove his carriage ; the horsemen, who were his companions in 
 his rides ; many of the clerks and officials, who engrossed his 
 orders and transacted his business ; the judges of first instance, 
 who presided in the Civil Courts ; the Collectors of the State- 
 Revenue ; and the superintendents of the police-stations were, 
 in a very large number, followers of Islam, intermixed with an 
 equal number of Hindus ; and yet they were upright, trust- 
 worthy, and esteemed, full of affectionate interest, and entirely 
 devoid of fanaticism. The Mahometan nobleman, or prince, 
 is a born gentleman, stately in his bearing, courteous in his 
 expressions, and yet dignified and reserved. 
 
 The great leading error, disfigurement, and misfortune of a 
 Mahometan is simply this, that he is not a Christian, He has no 
 idols to get rid of; no abominable customs, such as widow- 
 burning, female infanticide, human sacrifices, or cannibalism, to 
 be trodden down ; his laws, his ceremonies, his customs, are 
 reduced to writing, and in these latter days are printed. He is 
 not ashamed of his past history, for his creed has filled a large 
 page in the world's chronicles, overrunning large portions of 
 Asia, Europe, and Africa, If the political influence of that 
 creed is now on the wane, the propagandist power is ^y no 
 means diminished. We must consider the phenomena of its 
 existence with judicial calmness. It cannot be supposed, that 
 such a mighty factor in the world's history came into play 
 without the special sanction of the Almighty. The promulgation 
 
 PART II. 5 
 
C so ) 
 
 of the doctrines of Mahomet is one of the greatest landmarks in 
 history. Human sacrifices, idolatry, and sorcery fell before the 
 approach of Islam ; for there is found in its texts an expression 
 of an everlasting truth, a rude shadow of the great spiritual fact, 
 and beginning of all facts, " the infinite nature of Duty" ; that 
 man's actions never die, or end at all ; that man in his little life 
 reaches up to heaven or down to hell, and in his brief span holds 
 an eternity fearfully and wonderfully shrouded from his sight 
 and conception. The doctrine promulgated was so simple, that 
 it could be understood at once, never forgotten, and never dis- 
 proved ; so consonant to reason, unassisted by revelation, that 
 it seemed an axiom ; so comprehensive that it reached every 
 human state, and embraced all. the kindreds and races of man- 
 kind. "There is no God but one God." Simple as was the 
 Conception, none of the earlier religions, fashioned by human 
 intellect, had arrived at it. There were no longer to be temples, 
 altars, or sacrifices, or anthropomorphic conceptions, but a God 
 incapable of sin and defilement, merciful, pitying ; King of the 
 day of judgment ; one that heareth prayers, and will forgive, so 
 long as the sun rises from the east ; a God not peculiar to any 
 nation or language, not the God of the hill-country, or the 
 plain country, of the Hebrew, the Egyptian, the Assyrian, the 
 Hittite, the Moabite, the Greek, or the Roman, but the God of 
 all, alone, omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. 
 
 Much, if not all, of this grand conception had been borrowed 
 from the Jews and the Christians, but it had been purged 
 from the follies and degradations, with which it had been over- 
 laid in the sixth century after Christ, and it had never been so 
 distinctly enforced, nor so extensively and endurably promulgated 
 in such gleaming phraseology. It was, indeed, an indignant 
 protest against the degradation, to which the Syrian, the 
 Nestorian, the Greek, and the Koptic Churches had fallen in 
 their insane discussions about Homoousion and Homoioousion, 
 and the awful mysteries of the Trinity, and the Divine Person of 
 Our Saviour. Until these latter days, when the germs of pure 
 and healthy Christian belief are planted in every part of the 
 world, where soil can be found ready to receive them, it had 
 been given to no propagandist religion to find such immediate 
 and vast expansion. It not only trod out the decaying and 
 corrupted Christianities, but it passed beyond the bounds of 
 the Roman Empire, the Euphrates, into regions, to which- the 
 Christian religion had never reached,. and extinguished for ever 
 the ancient ritual of the Fire-worshipper, and pushed on beyond 
 the Indus, to hold its own against the great Brahmanical legends 
 of India. The Arab merchant carried it backward and forward, 
 and still to this day carries it, over the deserts of Africa, giving 
 it to black races as the first germs of civilization; the Malay 
 
( SI ) 
 
 pirate carried it to the cannibals and head-hunters of the Indian 
 Archipelago, telling them of the natural equality of man before 
 God, the abolition of priestcraft, and the certainty of a day 
 of judgment, and everlasting happiness or torment. These 
 doctrines may have lost their youthful vitality, but not their truth. 
 Over vast regions they have propagated themselves, and are still 
 propagating, by the force of their own superiority, for there is 
 nothing in the simple formula to stagger reason, or make large 
 demands on intelligence and faith. A neo-Mahometan does 
 not undergo a conversion in the sense of the Christian Protestant 
 Church, but merely a social transformation. 
 
 But much of the Paganism, which it, tried to supersede, clung 
 to its skirts ; being but a human conception, it had not the 
 power to sound the depths of the human heart. And the 
 heathen, when he accepts Islam, is not a changed man, a 
 converted man, born again, but the same man with a new 
 formula, and a new creed ; and a new law of commission 
 and omission, but the same unrenewed heart. Then it was 
 essentially an Oriental conception ; it was crystallized into a 
 civil and criminal code, which may have suited the Arab or the 
 Oriental neighbours of the Arab, but was not susceptible of 
 expansion to meet otlier wants, and other intellectual and social 
 environments, of which its human framer in ;his limited know- 
 ledge had no conception. Herein is the Divine marvel of the 
 Christian conception, fashioned, indeed, in an Oriental model, 
 but capable of being adapted to every possible circumstance and 
 state of culture of the human race. Thus it has happened, that 
 Slavery and Polygamy are rightly or wrongly deemed to be part 
 and parcel of the Mahometan faith, though among the fifty 
 millions of Mahometans in India Slavery is absolutely extinct, • 
 and Polygamy on the wane. Thus also customs such as cir- 
 cumcision, abstention from certain foods, formal prayer in a 
 language totally unintelligible to the worshipper, prolonged 
 fastings, and lengthy pilgrimages, have survived into an age, 
 which has outgrown such ceremonious observances, which laughs 
 at so large a husk round so small a kernel of doctrine, not likely 
 to survive under the scorching heat of public opinion, and 
 the unsympathetic contact of a nineteenth-century Occidental 
 civilization. 
 
 Still the very existence of Mahometanism unreformed seems 
 incompatible with Occidental ideas. I read in the pages of the 
 Times that the Sultan of Turkey presented the Grand Wazir 
 jwith /'looo to defray the expenses of the ceremony of circum- 
 cision of his children, as a mark of Imperial favour, f wonder, 
 whether any other Sovereign in Europe, or any Prime Minister 
 of an European State, read this without a -smile. The Times 
 jecords also, that the Ex-Khedive Ismail was honoured at the 
 
C 52 ) 
 
 ceremony of the Selamlik with an invitation to take part in 
 prayer with His Majesty, a marked favour and attention on the 
 part of his Sovereign. General Gordon of Khartum repaired 
 a Mahometan Mosque, and had a great ceremonial on the 
 re-opening : in a letter to his sister, published by Dr. Birkbeck 
 Hill, he remarks, " This was a great coup : to me it appears 
 " that the Mahometan worships God as well as I do, and is 
 " acceptable, if sincere, as any Christian." Further on I read 
 that he paid for the expenses attending the circumcision of a 
 boy: it is not stated what the boy was: I trust that he was 
 a Negro and not a Kopt. Such anecdotes as these produce ^ 
 an unpleasant sensation, and engender a doubt, whether 
 Mahometanism is really a Religion, and not a mere Political 
 Cultus. While I am writing, my eye falls upon the pages 
 of the Times, which reports that when the first train ran from 
 Belgrade to Salonica, at the Turkish frontiers, where the 
 trains were changed, some Mahometans were in attendance, 
 who slaughtered three sheep as a sacrifice. This foolish rite 
 having been accomplished, the passengers got into the Turkish 
 train and steamed oif. Nothing can justify this. The Mahometan 
 Religion was promulgated at a period in the history of the 
 World, when the ancient practice of the sacrifice of animals had 
 become obsolete : in all probability the forefathers of these 
 Mahometan sacrificers had been Greek Christians, as there is 
 little Arab or Turkish blood in Europe. I have lived a quarter 
 of a century in happy intimacy with Hindu and Mahometan, 
 but no such anachronous absurdity would have happened in 
 British India. I am in full sympathy with men of other race, 
 language, religion, and state of culture, but I cannot but 
 condemn the acts recorded above. 
 
 It would be a bad time for the Christian Missionaries, if any 
 large section of a Mahometan nation were to wake up to the 
 fact, that men's minds grow wider with the progress of the suns, 
 and were to add Monogamy to their existing dogma, though by 
 no means universal practice, of total abstinence from all spirituous 
 liquors, were to substitute a careful study in the vernacular of the 
 really grand and beautiful portions of the Koran for the vain 
 repetition of incomprehensible Arabic formulae ; were to add 
 purity of morals to their existing purity of dogma, and to live 
 the lives of decent Asiatics, adding a hatred of Slavery to 
 their present hatred of idolatry and worship of images, whether 
 by Pagan or Roman Catholic ; if to this they add a careful study 
 of the Old and New Testaments, which are in fact and in theory as 
 sacred to them as to us, though they are totally ignorant of them, 
 and still failed to be converted, and, setting their faces like flint 
 against Christian -interpretations of the Bible, were themselves 
 to send out missionaries of a Reformed Islam, they would indeed 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 become a factor in the mission-field of a most formidable 
 import. We may congratulate ourselves that they are as we 
 find them. Many a Hindu is better than the religion, which 
 he nominally professes, and his religion is incompatible with 
 education and civilization. But every Mahometan is far worse 
 than the religion, which he nominally professes ; he never really 
 understands it, for it is never taught in its integrity. If un- 
 educated, he knows nothing beyond the dogma, the rite of 
 circumcision, the daily prayers, and the annual fastings ; if he 
 is educated, he is either a debauchee, breaking the very laws of 
 the faith which he professes, or he is notorious for his fierce 
 prejudices, his intolerant notions, his entire deficiency of philo- 
 sophical and historical acumen, and is despicable as an antagonist. 
 The Mahometans in Turkey or Persia will talk wildly about the 
 impossibility of a follower of Islam submitting to any law but 
 that of the Koran and its accompanying traditions ; but we in 
 India know that fifty millions live very happily under Anglo- 
 Indian codes of law without a particle of Mahometan law, 
 except what relates to marriage and inheritance, and that a 
 very large section of converted Hindus, or Neo-Mahometans, 
 reject even that fragment, and prefer to retain the Hindu laws 
 in these particulars. 
 
 Comparing the Hindu and Mahometan peasantry, the Hindu 
 Pandit, and Mahometan Moulavi, the Hindu Rdja and Mahometan 
 Nawab, with each other, I do not think that the latter have truer 
 notions of the Godhead, or purer notions of morality, than the 
 former. If modern Hinduism has degenerated, so also has 
 modern Mahometanism. 
 
 The book before us is one of great importance; the very 
 best authorities admit, that it is an accurate representation of 
 Mahometan doctrine and practice, and a most complete one. 
 It errs on the side of exceeding rather than falling short of the 
 requirements of the case, and there is a want of relative pro- 
 portion of the length of some of the notices to the importance 
 of the thing noticed ; and the book would have been handier, 
 if it had been of less bulk, and more available to students in 
 being cheaper. Still it is a noble and important work, but it is 
 the work of an able and experienced Protestant missionary, whose 
 knowledge of living Mahometans, as distinguished from know- 
 ledge acquired from books, is confined to the Afghans of 
 Peshdwar, thorough rufiians, and totally uneducated. The vision 
 ,of a Missionary, in itself of necessity narrow, by the require- 
 ments of his holy calling, is, in this case, further contracted by 
 the limited contact with the professors of the religion which he 
 describes. 
 
 He states in his preface that his "intention is to give, in a 
 tabulated form, a concise account of the doctrines, rites, cere- 
 
C 54 ) 
 
 monies, and customs, together with the technical and theological 
 terms, of the Mahometan religion." I must admit that his 
 task has been fully accomplished, and that no Missionary would 
 be justified in entering upon the Mahometan field of labour 
 who has not studied this volume. It cannot be too thoroughly 
 understood that the epoch for the Missionary, pious yet ignorant, 
 self-consecrated but untrained, is past. The brave savage does 
 not inquire into the strength of his antagonist, but the skilful 
 general takes no forward step, until he has obtained every possibl& 
 information of the enemy's strength, resources and tactics. It 
 is fair to state that the author's statements are remarkably sober, 
 fair, and impartial. 
 
 His method of treating the subject appears to be very judicious. 
 A dictionary is not pleasant for continuous reading, and is by its 
 alphabetical necessity disjointed ; yet for any /ro re nata reference, 
 commend me to a dictionary. We all know what time is lost 
 hunting through tables of contents, or running the eye down 
 an unscientific index. Having selected his topics, the author 
 usually begins his notice by a quotation from the Koran, supple^ 
 menting it by quotations from the traditions and esteemed 
 Mahometan commentators ; to this he has added quotations 
 from European scholars. Now this is very conscientious and 
 exhaustive treatment. A kind of doubt must, however, seize 
 the mind of the reader, whether the author is acquainted with 
 the Arabic language beyond spelling out the Koran, and whether 
 he is acquainted with any of the European languages ; for the 
 subject of Mahometanism has been so elaborately discussed by 
 French, German, and other Continental scholars, none of whom 
 he quotes. 
 
 This opens out another question. Mahometanism extends 
 from the Western Provinces of China, right through the Con- 
 tinent of Asia, as far north as Kazan on the Volga, to the 
 Mediterranean and Black Sea, over some portion . of Europe, 
 over a considerable portion of Africa, as far as the Straits of 
 Gibraltar eastwards, and southwards as far as Zanzibar on the 
 East Coast, and the Basin of the Niger on the West. The 
 author's personal knowledge of the practice of Mahometans is 
 restricted to a small Province in Afghanistan across the Indus, 
 and to the people of the Panjab. The area is enormous, but the 
 circumstances are extraordinarily different of portions of these 
 religionists. There are millions under the rule of Great Britain, 
 France, Holland, and Russia, strong Christian Governments, 
 which know how to make themselves obeyed. There are millions 
 under the rule of the Sultan of Turkey, the Khedive of Egypt, 
 the Shah of Persia, Mahometan sovereigns, yet still exercising 
 a reality of substantial rule. There are millions under barbarous 
 systems of government, such as the Chinese Local Governors in 
 
( ss ) 
 
 Chinese Tartary and the Province of Sechuen, the Amir of 
 Afghanistan, the Amir of Khiva and Bokhara, the Sultan of 
 Morocco, the Sultan of Zanzibar, and the Imam of Muscat ; 
 and there are millions without any semblance of Government 
 at all, such as the inhabitants of the islands of the Indian Archi- 
 pelago, the nomads of Arabia, and of the great African Sudin, 
 vs^hich extends from the Nile to the Niger, and beyond to the 
 Atlantic. There is great diversity in their practice and their 
 tenets. The Indian and African would naturally be deemed 
 very bad Mahometans from the contact of the corruption of 
 their Pagan neighbours ; the Egyptians are notoriously bad 
 Mahometans, theMalays are only skin-deep converts. 
 
 The author, in his preface, hopes that the book will be useful 
 (i) to the Government official called to administer justice to a 
 Mahometan people ; (2) to the Christian Missionary engaged in 
 a controversy with Mahometan scholars; (3) to the student of 
 comparative religions ; (4) to all who care to know the leading 
 principles of thought of 175 millions of the human family, who 
 have adopted the tenets of Mahomet. 
 
 To the fourth class a consecutive treatise would have been 
 more agreeable. It is difficult to conceive any one, who, had not 
 some direct duty to, or relation with, Mahometans deliberately 
 reading a dictionary such as this. The third class would 
 certainly consult the original documents, which are readily and 
 amply available. The second and the first class will furnish 
 the readers of this book. There are Christian Missionaries at 
 this moment in Turkey, Egypt, Algiers, Morocco, at Zanzibar 
 and on the Niger, in Persia, Afghanistan, and India; and they 
 will have to use caution in reading this book, or they may be 
 misled. Much of it is applicable to Mahometanism in its early 
 period, but totally inapplicable now. Some of the precepts of 
 the Koran are about of as much practical valjie as the Book 
 of Leviticus. The convert accepts circumcision, repeats the 
 Fatihah, abjures swine-flesh, and indulges in Polygamy up to 
 four, and that is pretty well all that he knows of his new faith. 
 Even the Maulawi themselves are found to be grossly and 
 ridiculously ignorant. The Missionary, who has mastered the 
 Koran, either in its original or a translation, and who studies 
 Mr. Hughes' book, will be as much above the level of the 
 knowledge of the people among whom he dwells, as one of 
 the Old Testament Revision Company would be among the 
 nominal Christians of towns in England. 
 
 There remains the first class, the Government official. This 
 can apply only to the official in British India. The wildest 
 enthusiast can hardly imagine a Mahometan Kadi, or Wall, or 
 Kaimmakdm, or the petty local tyrants of Morocco, Persia, and 
 Afghanistan, or.the. Sheikhs of the independent nomads, or the 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 Prench pr^fet or juge, or the Russian military commandant, 
 studying Mr. Hughes' book. But the official in British India 
 is just the very person, to whom the book would be useless; 
 at least such is the opinion of one, who was judge and magistrate 
 over Mahometans for more than twenty years. The Code of 
 Positive Criminal Law and Procedure, and the Code of Civil 
 Procedure, have made a clean sweep of Mahometan laws, and, as 
 already stated, with the exception of the two reserved subjects 
 of marriage and inheritance, civil decisions follow the prece- 
 dents either of English or Roman law. When I consider the 
 topics of Slavery, eunuchs, evidence, oaths, and land, they are 
 only of antiquarian interest, as the Mahometans of India have no 
 special law, or position on these subjects. Nor would the article 
 as to the position of women in Arabia have any possible bearings 
 on the circumstances of women in India, which are so totally 
 different. 
 
 Two long articles have been introduced into the book from 
 the pens of two distinct authors, which it would have been 
 better to have omitted, as they have added to the bulk of a work 
 with which they have nothing in common. One is an essay on 
 Arabic writing, by Dr. Steingass, an interesting subject no 
 doubt, but not in the least connected with the Mahometan 
 tenets and customs. As a fact it existed in Arabia before the 
 time of Mahomet, and is by rules of strict induction derived 
 from the old Phenician alphabet, of which the earliest monu- 
 ment is found in the Moabite Stone. This character is used by 
 all the literary classes of Hindus in Northern India, and by the 
 Christians in Syria and Egypt. It is by no means a sacred 
 alphabet, nor is it one restricted to religious uses. Still more 
 unnecessary and improper was the introduction of a long article 
 on Sikhism, by Mr. Pincott. The Sikhs are only Hindu 
 sectarians, and it might as well be said, that a Baptist was not 
 a Christian as that a Sikh was not a Hindu. It has no practical 
 value at all, and has not even the merit of being a correct repre- 
 sentation of existing facts. The Sikhs hated the Mahometans 
 with a deadly hate, and, while they were in power in the Panjdb, 
 desecrated their sacred buildings, confiscated their religious 
 grants, and oppressed them in every possible way. Whatever 
 fusion Nanak may have dreamt of, disappeared when Guru Govind 
 commenced his career of vengeance upon his Mahometan op- 
 pressors, whose dominion in India he helped to annihilate. 
 
 The articles upon Jesus Christ, the Jews, Jerusalem, the 
 Koran, Tradition, Mahomet, and Mahometanism, are of per- 
 manent value. So also are the notices of Scripture personages, 
 such as Moses, Joseph, and others, from the Mahometan point 
 of view. The account of the great festivals, the Id-ul-Azhd, 
 Id-ul-Fitr, and the Muharram, is satisfactory. There is nothing. 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 in the Koran to connect the first-named festival with Ishmael', 
 but it is held by Mahometans to have been instituted in com- 
 memoration of Abraham's willingness to offer up his son as a 
 sacrifice, and the son thus offered was Ishmael, not Isaac. 
 The writer of this paper once ventured to remark to an excellent 
 and worthy native judge, that Abraham was ready to offer up 
 Isaac, NOT Ishmael. With a kind and pitying smile he 
 corrected me, remarking that a Mahometan only could know 
 the truth of what Abraham, who was himself a Mahometan, did. 
 An entire absence of historical and geographical knowledge is 
 an important factor in an inflexible faith in a false religion. 
 
 No one, who has travelled in India and Turkey, can have 
 failed to remark how totally diflferent the mosques of the. two 
 countries are. The mosque of Sultan Suliman at Constanti- 
 nople has no resemblance whatever to the Jama Masjid of Dehli, 
 and still less to the famous mosque of Cordova in Spain. 
 Mr. Hughes, in his article on Masjid, " the place of prostration 
 in prayer," points out the necessary feature of a mosque, the 
 Mihrdb, which indicates the direction of Mekka, and therefore 
 the direction pointed in Cordova is precisely the reverse of the 
 one pointed at Dehli, and the Mimbah, or pulpit, from which 
 the Khutbah, or Friday oration, is recited. In the Court there 
 are conveniences for water for purposes of ceremonial ablution. 
 The Imam leads the devotions, the Muazzin calls to prayers 
 from the lofty gallery of a Minaret ; there is great dignity and 
 solemnity and lifting up of heart in the whole ceremony. The 
 writer of this notice has stood by the side of the Muazzin in an 
 oasis of the great Sahara, and in the centre of crowded cities 
 such as Constantinople, Damascus, Cairo, Bandras, and Dehli, 
 as he sounded out over the houses far below, above the city's 
 din, the cry that " God is great, and that there is no God but 
 " one God. Come to salvation." The long rows of kneeling 
 figures in the interior is an imposing sight. The worshippers 
 are terribly in earnest, and the object of their worship is the 
 Supreme Creator of the Universe, and the prayers, which are 
 uttered in Arabic, though utterly unintelligible to the person 
 praying, convey the noblest form of adoration clothed in the 
 most majestic and sonorous phraseology. 
 
 Two more articles deserve notice, as they touch upon the 
 relation of the religion of the Mahometans to the Civil Governor. 
 From the Mimbah in the Masjid the Khutbah, or Friday oration, 
 is delivered. Tradition hands down that Mahomet used fre- 
 quently to deliver a Khutbah, fresh and new, and not the studied 
 and formal oration which has now become the practice. It is 
 the old story. In the beginning there were men gifted with the 
 power of speech, and they spoke the living thoughts, that coined 
 themselves into golden words, as they rose from the heart to the 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 lips. A generation fdllowed, less spiritual and less vfvid, \vh6 
 read their own written sermons. To them succeeded a genera- 
 tion still more lazy and stolid, who read the stereotyped words 
 of others, but not necessarily the same formula. Mr. Hughes 
 gives two or three selected Khutbah, and if only the hearers 
 could understand them, they would be profitable for instruction 
 and reproof ; but it is doubtful, -whether they are intelligible in 
 countries, where Arabic is still the vernacular in a somewhat 
 modernized dialect and pronunciation, and are totally useless in 
 other countries. Besides, the great sin of ritual accompanies 
 them, in that they are chanted in non-natural and sing-song 
 tones, and the best Khdtib was he who whined and intoned the 
 best. The Prophet himself, with an astuteness which marks 
 ■that superior intellect which he no doubt possessed, has left on 
 record that " the length of a man's prayer and the shortness 
 /' of his sermons are the signs of a man's common-sense." 
 
 According to the best traditions, the name of the reigning 
 Khalifah ought to be recited in the Khutbah, and this gives an 
 interest to the article on that word. As the Pope of Rome and 
 the Lama of Tibet, so also the Khalifah claims to be vicegerent 
 of God by spiritual succession ; but the question arises, " Who 
 is the Khalifah } " The lineal descendants of the Prophet and 
 the line of the Koreish were soon exhausted, and the fact that 
 in Mahometan countries the name of the Sultan, or Amir, 
 or Shah, is substituted for the Khalifah, has a deep significance. 
 In British India the expression "Ruler of the Age" has been 
 substituted by loyal Mahometans. The claims put forth by the 
 Sultan of Turkey to the spiritual headship of Islam, beyond his 
 own dominions, is shadowy in the extreme, and may be puflfed 
 away. The Sultan is by the male line a Turk from the regions 
 north of the Oxus ; by the female line he is a Circassian of the 
 regions of the Caucasus. His ancestor, Bajazet, was defeated at 
 the battle of Ang6ra, and carried captive in an iron cage by 
 Timur the Lame, the ancestor of the great dynasty of the Great 
 Mogul of Delhi, which came to an end only in the year 1857 in 
 the furnace of the Indian mutinies. The mighty monarchs, who 
 ruled over India, would have laughed at the idea of any Imam 
 in the Masjids of their kingdoms praying for anybody but 
 themselves. Mr. Hughes sets out the absurdity of the claim of 
 the Sultan of Turkey very clearly and very accurately. The 
 assumption of the title by any one not of the Arab Koreish tribe 
 is undoubtedly illegal and heretical, and is a, mere gasconade of 
 the irrepressible Turk. 
 
 One incidental advantage of the publication of such books as 
 this, and the valuable works of Sir W. Muir, and the German 
 and French authors, is that the attention of the champions of the 
 Christian faith should be called to the phenomena presented by 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 this great Antichrist. It is not judicious to paint Mahometariism 
 and its followers with colours that are not true. They are by 
 precept, though not by universal practice, total abstainers, and 
 so far on a higher platform than the average Christians. Poly- 
 gamy is the exception. The present Sultan of Turkey and the 
 Khedive of Egypt present an example of monogamy iii high 
 places. Slavery was the disgrace of Christians in the time of 
 many of us still alive, and it will die out in Mahometan countries 
 before the present generation has passed away. Toleration of 
 other religions was ever the rule of Islam, whatever may be said 
 to the contrary, as is evidenced by the existence of the fallen 
 Churches in Western Asia, and North Africa, and by the great 
 Hindu nation in India. The present century will possibly see 
 the extinction of the last Mahometan independent kingdom ; 
 ■at any rate their claws have been cut, and they supply good 
 subjects, and excellent public servants, and respectable members 
 of society in India. The important point is that just as Paganism, 
 and Nature worship, and the Brahmanical religion, and the 
 Buddhist, must arid do fade away under the scorching light of 
 education and contact with other nations, Mahometanism, on the 
 contrary, becomes stronger and more refined. It has nothing 
 to fear in its essentials from science ; it never claimed miracles ; 
 it appeals to a book, the most wonderful uninspired literary 
 monograph, that the world ever saw, and the everlasting truths 
 .which, intermixed with much irrelevant and incoherent matter, 
 that book contains. As the Christian writers, inspired by God, 
 drew freely upon the contents of the Jewish books, so Mahomet 
 ■was audacious enough to pervert both Christian and Jewish 
 books to his own false purposes, giving a new colour and in- 
 terpretation to the composite amalgam. A "Comforter" was 
 promised (John xiv. i6) under the term irapaickqTO^. The 
 Mahometan would read 7rapaK\vTo<t, which being interpreted is 
 -" Mahomet," " the one that is praised." The names of Abraham, 
 the Friend of God ; Moses, the Word of God ; Jesus, the Spirit 
 <jod, are coupled with terms of deep respect with the name of 
 Mahomet, the Prophet of God. In Isaiah xxi. 7, the Prophet 
 sees in his vision "a troop of asses and of camels." The 
 Mahometan interprets this as a prediction of Jesus, who came 
 riding on an ass, and Mahomet on a camel. The name of our 
 Lord is never uttered or written without expressions of respect. 
 Once purged of the dross of ignorance and spiritual deadness, 
 and set free from the defilement of Paganism, which clings to 
 the skirt of its clothing, refined by such men as the Wahdbi 
 revivalists, who, as Mr. Hughes justly says in his article on that 
 subject, are the Protestants of Islam, it will stand out as the 
 religion of a pure and elevated Monptheism, with a code of the 
 -Strictest morality,- not ignoring but overshadowing the tenets 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 and books of the Jews and the Christians ; and in the next 
 generation men of the stamp of Sayyid Ahmad, of Aligarh, will 
 be sent out as Missionaries of Islam all over the world. It is 
 -well, therefore, that the leaders of the Christian world should 
 understand with what a power they may have to cope in the 
 twentieth century, one more dangerous than Agnosticism, 
 Atheism, and Indifferentism, because it simulates the truth, and 
 is severely Propagandist. 
 
 The good Mahometan so many times a day prostrates himself, 
 and coldly and proudly bandies words with his Creator, with a 
 perfect belief of a future state. He feels no sense of his own 
 sinfulness, or any need of a mediator, because, as far as he 
 understands the law of his Prophet, he has fulfilled it. He has 
 abstained from liquor and swine's flesh; he has not violated 
 the sanctity of his neighbour's family ; he has repeated the pre- 
 scribed prayers and kept the prescribed fasts ; he has cursed the 
 infidels and idolaters, and is satisfied. In India he is on excellent 
 terms with the Hindu idolater, and in Turkey on equally good 
 terms with the Jews and the Christian idolaters, for he justly 
 considers that the worship of images and pictures in the Roman 
 and Greek Churches is in fact the elSioKoXaTpeia which is for- 
 bidden by the Torah, and the Anjil, and the Koran ; by Moses, 
 Jesus, and Mahomet. It might be thought by sincere Christians, 
 that such a bending or broken staff of faith and hope would fail 
 him miserably at the last moment of his life, but it is not so. 
 He goes to his death with an assurance of Paradise, whether 
 that death is peaceful or violent, for he is quite sure of his 
 inheritance, having taken his Prophet at his word. Innumerable 
 instances have occurred of this grand and dignified submission 
 to fate. The disgraced Pasha accepts the bow-string without a 
 murmur ; the mutinous soldier proudly looks his last unquailing 
 look as he stands under the gallows ; the Cadi, detected by his 
 Sovereign in the practice of the very vices which he was com- 
 missioned to prevent in others, and condemned to death, made 
 no palliation, and asked for no mercy, but told the bystanders to 
 throw open the shutters and tell him from what quarter of the 
 heaven the sun was rising, and bowing his head to the sabre, he 
 said, " The Prophet has said that so long as the sun rises from 
 " the east, so long God will have mercy on His creatures." It is 
 the same in ordinary private life. The writer of this notice 
 one day missed in his audience-chamber a much-respected 
 Mahometan ofiicial, wise and gentle, well-informed and faithful. 
 At evening his son came, and reported the death of his father ; 
 and described simply how, when he felt his end near (and it 
 came suddenly), he asked to have a copy of the Koran placed in 
 his hands, and then, covering his head with a sheet, he calmly 
 awaited the coming of the angel of death, Azrail. Now, if all 
 
( 6i ) 
 
 Mahometans were of this type, their conversion would be im^ 
 possible. Under any circumstances, the progress must be slow, 
 and so it has proved. Whole islands of degraded Nature- 
 worshippers may be gathered in, while one Mahometan is being 
 converted. The study of the sacred books of the Book-Religions 
 of the world, which are now revealed to us, may convince us 
 how serious the task is that lies before us, but none the less is it 
 our duty to grapple with it. Poor weak men must sow the seed ; 
 it is the Lord alone that gives the increase. We accept His great 
 commission. We believe in His promise that accompanied it. 
 
 A Dictionary of Islam. A Cyclopaedia of the Doctrines, Rites, Customs, 
 and Theological Terms of the iVIahometan Religion, By Thomas Patrick 
 Hughes, B,D. (1885).— Review, Record, 1886. 
 
 B. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Thomson, the African traveller, wrote an article 
 in a Monthly Periodical, in 1886, on Mahometanism in Africa. 
 The gist of it is that to Islam is to be attributed the transforma- 
 tion of savage tribes into semi-civilized Nations, and that there 
 is something terribly wrong in our method of teaching Christianity 
 in Africa. According to him a good Mahometan is better than 
 a skin-deep Christian, and Mahometanism is good enough for 
 the Negro brain to assimilate. He is so well known as a brave, 
 gentle, and sympathetic leader of explorations into Equatorial 
 Africa, although a very young man, that I regret that he should 
 have erected such a wide theory on such narrow premises, and 
 expressed an opinion on one of the gravest subjects of human 
 interest with such little experience. About the evils of the 
 Liquor Traffic, and the importation into Africa of firearms, and 
 gunpowder, which cling to the skirts of Christianity, I can 
 express as deep a condemnation as he does ; but I must remind 
 him, that such things are no more essential parts of the Christian 
 Faith than Polygamy and Slavery are of the Mahometan Dogma. 
 It is true, that the Mahometan doctrines of the Unity of the , 
 Godhead, the certainty of the Day of Judgment, the Equality 
 of all men before God, and the great law of Duty, are truths, 
 which the Mahometan Religion presents to the Pagan world in 
 their simplest form ; but these truths were avowedly borrowed by 
 Mahomet from the Bible. And on the other hand, if Mr. Thomson 
 in his last journey up the Niger had fallen into the company 
 of Bishop Samuel Crowther, Archdeacon Crowther, Archdeacon 
 Johnson of Luk6ja, or the Rev. James Johnston, Pastor of a 
 Native Church in Lagos, all pure Negroes, he would have learnt 
 from their lips, that Repentance, Faith, Justification by the 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 merits of a Saviour, Sanctification by the Holy Spirit, leading 
 to the birth of a new man and a consistent walk in life, are 
 truths quite as blessed, quite as simple, quite as intelligible to 
 the meanest intellect, with the additional advantage of trans- 
 forming the whole nature of the believer, as evidenced by the 
 character and life of the four Negro clergymen, whose names I 
 have quoted. 
 
 Mr. Thomson dilates with all the zest of a new discoverer on 
 the phenomena of Oriental life, so familiar to all, who have, 
 spent their lives in India: the call of the Muazzin to prayer, 
 from the minaret, and the stereotyped prostrations, repetitions 
 and ablutions of the Faithful, delight him :. he even alludes to 
 the Mahometan schoofs for teaching the Koran with praise, and 
 notices with satisfaction; that some students from the Region 
 which he visited, had found their way to that great Entrepot 
 of Ignorance, the Mosque of El Azhar at Cairo, which the 
 writer of these lines has lately, visited. He does not mention, 
 that these calls to prayer, these prayers, and that Sacred Book, 
 are in a language totally unintelligible to the people, and even 
 the leaders of the Congregation, who intoned them, and that 
 these schools positively teach nothing worth knowing, because 
 the teachers know nothing. This is no idle assertion, as the 
 nature of the teaching in the Mahometan Schools of India 
 amidst a proud, wealthy and powerful population has been 
 tested, and compared to them the Fulah States of Central 
 Africa, visited by Mr. Thomson, are mere savages. The 
 Vernacular of these tribes, Hausa, Surhai, and Fulah, are beautiful 
 forms of speech ; but all prayer, praise and instruction is restricted 
 to Arabic, as totally unknown to the Negro worshipper as 
 Latin to the English Sunday Scholar. I need scarcely add, 
 that the Christian prayer, praise, and instruction are in the 
 Vernacular known to the men, women and children of the tribe, 
 who are able to hear the story of the wonderful work of God, 
 and the great Plan of Salvation, each in his own vulgar tongue; 
 in a form and manner calculated to arouse the Conscience, or as 
 they call it " Heart- voice," which has slumbered so long, and 
 which under Mahometan teaching is never awakened, for it is 
 not part of the Mahometan conception to convince a man of 
 Sin, and lead him to repentance. 
 
 Mr. Thomson's experience of men and countries is very 
 limited. Had he visited India, Ceylon, China, and Japan, he 
 would have been aware, how little any Religion at all, even 
 Christianity, has to do with human culture. The history of the 
 Greek and Roman races, before the Christian era, taught to 
 him at school, should have taught him this. The sight of the 
 grand cities, the noble monuments, the mighty empires, built 
 up by Idolaters, and, maintained in splendour for centuries. 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 would have enlightened him, and he would have learnt another 
 lesson, that the great monotheistic Mahometan Dogma palpably 
 injured, relaxed, and even destroyed this civilization, and that 
 Christianity has often done the same. Had he conducted his 
 first expeditions among the Nation of Oceania, who sit in the 
 lowest steps of human culture, and then found his way to Eastern 
 Central Africa, South of the Equator, the great Bantu race, 
 amidst whom he travelled so happily and successfully, he would 
 have remarked the gradual rise and improvement in the strata 
 of barbarous, miscalled savage, races, arising from causes 
 independent of any supernatural conceptions, which we call 
 " Religion." When in his last expedition he penetrated inta 
 Western Central Africa North of the Equator, he found himself 
 unexpectedly in the midst of the great Negro race in its finest 
 type and development, dwelling in towns and villages, cultivating 
 the soil, grouped into powerful States, able to protect themselves 
 from the Slave-dealer, and the Liquor Traffic, ruled over by 
 Chiefs of a race superior to their own^ the Fulah, with a veneer 
 of Mahometan culture and dogma. Mr. Thomson too hastily 
 attributes this prosperity, and advancement, to Mahometanism. 
 If ever he had visited Rajputana, or South India, or China or 
 Japan, he would witness a much higher development of culture 
 without the possible insinuation of Mahometan influence. The 
 Negro race is susceptible of the highest culture, if it only has 
 the chance of developing it. It had that chance in the Oriental 
 phase in the Kingdoms of Sokoto and Gando,' which Mr. 
 Thomson visited. It is still having it in the Occidental phase in 
 Sierra Leone, Lagos, and other portions of the West Coast of 
 Africa. It never had a chance in the Egyptian Suddn, although 
 that unhappy region had plenty of opportunities of acquiring 
 Mahometan dogma, and Egyptian culture, from the Pasha and his 
 rabble troops, from the Arab nomads of the great desert, grand 
 specimens of humanity, from the Mahdi and his holy Dervishes, 
 and that pink of Mahometan Chivalry, the Slave-dealer, who will 
 pray five times a day, keep all the fasts, be a model Mahometan, 
 and yet sack villages, ravish women, kill infants, and carry 
 helpless Negroes into captivity, and sell them as slaves. 
 
 The Christian Religion properly taught has a divine power to 
 reach and change the heart. The Mahometan dogma rests on 
 the surface, and shows itself by the mode of tying the turban, 
 trimming the moustache or whisker, the ordinary salutations of 
 Society, the particular things not to be eaten, the mode of killing 
 animals for food, the language and form of prayer, the modes of 
 genuflexion, and nothing more. He that is filthy is still filthy : 
 he that is licentious is still licentious : he that is not held 
 back by his own sense of human pity from committing murder, 
 or violent crime, will not be held back ^y the tenets of Islam.^ 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 The heart is not changed, nor pretended to be changed. A- 
 Pagan by becoming a Mahometan recedes from rather than 
 approaches the possibility of being a Christian. I freely 
 recognize, that the dogma of Mahometanism has been in many 
 countries a factor for the abolition of abominable customs, 
 because Mahometanism is the outcome of the culture of mankind 
 in a civilized country in the sixth century of the Christian era, 
 and operated upon races far behind the great Arian and Semitic 
 Families, who were the advance-guard of Civilization. I freely 
 admit that, when contrasted with the conceptions of such back- 
 ward races, it represents a great advance of the Religious con- 
 ception, because it is based upon the Bible. The word " Islam " 
 itself is a grand and beautiful idea. But there I draw my line. 
 In its hatred for idolatry the Mahometan Religion deserves 
 our gratitude, and respect, as a protest against the lamentable 
 errors of the fallen Christian Churches of Western Asia, Northern 
 Africa, the Greek, and the Roman. I can go no further, 
 and but for the respect, which I bear for Mr. Thomson's 
 character, as a blameless leader of African expeditions, I 
 should scarcely have troubled myself to reply to statements 
 so palpably wrong. His errors must be imputed to the novelty 
 of the phenomena presented to his notice, and to his imperfect 
 study of the people, as he was innocent of any language but his 
 own : not to any perverse desire to dishonour the Religion, which 
 he professes, or to give occasion to the enemy to blaspheme. 
 The Record, Dec 24, 1886. 
 
 C. 
 
 The Mahometans of British India according to the last 
 Census amount to fifty Millions, and their number is increasing 
 by the peaceful absorption of Non- Arian Pagans. Of the whole 
 number not much less than half are found in the Proviiice of 
 Bangal, who are ' lax Mahometans, nominally converted. In, 
 the Panjdb are ten Millions, some of whom are of the stock of 
 the original invaders, but in the time of the Great Moguls 
 many great tribes were, by force or bribes, converted, and are 
 Mahometans without giving up their proud Caste-title of Rajput, 
 and preserving their own Hindu customs, having the force 
 of law with regard to Marriage and Inheritance. One of the 
 Chieftains of a great Rajpiit clan is a Mahometan, and rules 
 without prejudice over his Hindu clansmen. Many of the Indian 
 Mahometans would be considered very lax professors of their 
 faith, for they sacrifice to local Deities, and let their wives 
 sacrifice to Sltala, the Goddess of Small-pox : they keep a Hindu 
 family-priest, are very remiss in their prayers, not one word of 
 which they understand, and totally neglect their fasts : to some 
 
( 6s ) 
 
 extent Hindus and Mahometans go to the same shrines : in two 
 districts I discovered that they intermarried. There is a great deal 
 of opportunity for a Wahibi Reformer, but it is as well for the 
 peace of the British Empire, that they should be as we find 
 them. They are quite as much observers of Caste-Rules as the 
 Hindus, and it is with a feeling of surprise, that the Englishman 
 finds himself allowed to eat and drink with a Mahometan in 
 Kashmir, as he is in Western Asia, and North Africa. One thing 
 is obvious. Under the scorching light of Education, and the 
 electric contact with other nations. Buddhism, Hinduism, Fire- 
 worship, Nature-worship wither away, and become despised : 
 but this is not the case with the Mahometan : he has nothing to 
 be ashamed of in his tenets, if he can once understand them, 
 and of his Koran, if he can read it in the original, or a Trans- 
 lation, and act up to it. He may yet be a powerful factor in 
 the History of India, and a fierce antagonist to the spread of 
 Christianity. — Essays on Races, and Religions, and Languages of 
 India, Linguistic and Oriental Essays, i8ii7. Second Series, p. 68. 
 
 D. 
 
 I had twenty-five years experience of the Mahometans of 
 Northern India, being in their midst, employing them as my 
 servants, public and private, transacting public business with 
 them, and enjoying their society, as well as valuing their friend- 
 ship. I have since travelled in Turkey, Trans-Caucasia, Syria, 
 Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco, observing the Mohametan 
 population with a critical eye, and I am at a loss to know why 
 they have been described by some in such black colours. My 
 acquaintance with the inhabitants of the entire littoral of the 
 Mediterranean Sea enables me to state, that the lower classes of 
 the South and North Coasts, as regards the religious conception, 
 and religious practice, are very much at a par : the one prostrates 
 himself in a Mosque, and repeats unintelligible words to the 
 great Creator in Arabic, the other prostrates himself before a 
 hideous idol of the Virgin Mary, or a local Saint, and repeats 
 unintelligible words in Latin or Greek. Their sobriety and 
 chastity are very much at a par. The ignorance of the ordinary 
 Oriental Christian, the Spaniard, Italian, and Greek may be 
 equalled, but scarcely surpassed by the Mahometans of Egypt, 
 Syria, and Algeria. 
 
 At any rate our duty is clear to carry the Gospel in the very 
 best way, that opportunity offers, to every nation under the sun, 
 and to leave the result to God. It is a matter of Duty, not of 
 Choice. Woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel ! 
 
 The Record, Dec. 30, 1887 (with additions, 1888). 
 
 PART II. 6 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 IV. 
 
 CASTE. 
 A. — Caste in the World. 
 
 I CONSIDER myself fortunate in having the opportunity to bring 
 this subject forward in an assembly presided over by you. Sir 
 Arthur Hobhouse, for the following reasons. Those who, like 
 myself, have spent their lives in India, have the reputation of 
 being prejudiced in favour of the people ; those who stay at 
 home, sometimes from incorrect reports, conceive a feeling 
 against them. You, Sir, who had the privilege of taking mature 
 English experience to India, and of bringing back Indian 
 experience to England, are able to hold the scales fairly betwixt 
 those, who know the people too well, and those, who do not 
 know them personally at all. 
 
 The subject of Caste is one of considerable importance. 
 There exists unquestionably a social institution in British India, 
 which is found nowhere else in such compact rigidity : it lays 
 claim to considerable antiquity, and is a social phenomenon, 
 which cannot be overlooked: it is proposed to examine the 
 features of this institution. 
 
 It is of no practical advantage to discuss the origin of Caste. 
 Of one thing there is no doubt, that it is not alluded to in the 
 Rig-Veda, as a social feature of the early Arian population. 
 The Post-Vedic Laws of Manu lay great stress upon Caste, but 
 it is not clear, when these laws were compiled, by whose 
 authority, and in what part of India. The idea has been 
 hazarded, that they were compiled at a comparatively late date, 
 with a view of upholding Caste against the levelling tenets of 
 the Buddhists. At any rate, they have no more binding force 
 upon the people of India generally than the Book of Leviticus 
 has upon Europe. We shall see further on that eighty-six per 
 cent, of the population of British India does not belong to 
 either of the Priest, Warrior, or Merchant Castes of the Books 
 of Manu, but are members of the Sudra Caste, or of a mixed 
 Caste, or absolutely without any Caste properly so called. The 
 subdivision of a nation into Priest, Warrior, and Merchant 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 classes, with a fourth for the common herd, is not unusual in 
 Oriental nations. It is notorious that the difficulty, where it 
 exists at all, is found among the lower Castes, the great majority 
 of whom cannot be included under any pretence in the lowest 
 of the Castes of Manu, and this ought to be convincing, that 
 the question is not one practically of religion, but of deep- 
 rooted social custom and tribal etiquette, among a people, who 
 really have no religious conception in the sense, in which that 
 word is known by Christian and Mahometan. The Sanskrit term 
 for Caste is "Varna," or " colour," , clearly alluding to ethnical 
 features. The ordinary term is "Jati," or "birth," an elastic 
 expression, like the "good family" of England. The people 
 themselves call it " Bhaibundi," or " brotherhood," as the 
 essence of the matter lies in the fact, that it is a close link 
 uniting sections of the community by unwritten laws of their 
 own devising. 
 
 Caste has certainly a good side, and its sudden destruction, or 
 collapse, would entail considerable evils by the complete dis- 
 organization of society, which would ensue. I would ask the 
 question, whether those provinces of South-Eastern Asia, where 
 Caste does not prevail, such as Afghanistan, Barma, Ceylon, the 
 Settlement of the Straits of Malacca, and Hong Kong, are 
 more easily governed ; whether the people are more moral, or 
 advancing more steadily in the paths of civilization and educa- 
 tion, than the people of British India, who are absurdly described, 
 as enslaved by Caste } One of the most time-honoured maxims 
 in the science of government is that famous phrase " Divide et 
 impera," and in Caste we have ready-made fissures in the com- 
 munity, which render the institution of secret societies, so 
 common and so dangerous among the Chinese and Malays, 
 almost impossible in India. 
 
 The striking features of Caste maybe described as (i) matri- 
 monial ; (2) reUgious, or rather quasi-religious ; (3) social. 
 We must consider each separately. 
 
 The rules of Caste are of course theoretically bad in prevent- 
 ing the free intermarriage of tribe with tribe, just as it was bad 
 in Rebecca not wishing her son Jacob to marry one of the 
 daughters of Heth ; as it was bad in Nehemiah compelling 
 the Jews, after the return from the captivity, to put away 
 their wives of the country ; as it would be bad in a quiet 
 British family shuddering at the idea of one of their younger 
 members forming an alliance with a Negress, a Gipsy, a Chinese, 
 or a Malay. Many speak of the vast country of India, as if it 
 were occupied by people of one race, one religion, one rank 
 in life, instead of being the habitat of infinite varieties of 
 the human race. Moreover, ever since the world began, and 
 as long as it lasts, there will be a restriction, based upon 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 unwritten and most capricious law, upon promiscuous alliances in 
 marriage, and the fault of the natives of India is, that it has been 
 made so rigid. The better class of Mahometans are, however, 
 in this respect quite as strict, and among native converts to 
 Christianity of undoubted excellence we find, that this difficulty 
 cannot be got over, and that a man of good family will seek for 
 a wife among people of his own Caste, and no equitable person 
 could find fault with him for doing so. 
 
 Caste is thoroughly bad, and worthy of all condemnation, 
 if it encourages the notion, that all mankind are not equal in 
 the face of God and of their fellow-creatures, just as it was bad 
 in the Greeks looking upon all the world as barbarians ; as it 
 was bad in the Jew asserting a superiority over the rest of man- 
 kind ; as it is bad in the Anglo-Saxon asserting a superiority 
 over the uncivilized weaker races and the aboriginal tribes, with 
 whom he comes into contact. But the question may fairly be 
 stated, does Caste do so ? Individual fatuous Brahmins may in 
 their shrine, or their seclusion, say so or think so ; but we are 
 deahng with the millions, and I lay down broadly, that the 
 members of the thousand respectable Castes, which make up 
 the population of India, do not assert, that their particular 
 Caste is something better than, or superior to, the Caste of 
 another, but that it is different from that of another, and they 
 would object to eat or intermarry with the members of a Caste 
 notoriously superior just as much as with a Caste notoriously 
 inferior, or even with particular subdivisions of their own Caste, 
 separated from them by some imperceptible shade of difference. 
 
 Caste may lastly be called bad in placing restriction upon 
 promiscuous commensality, and thus limiting the form of 
 hospitality and good-fellowship, which is common in Europe, 
 just as it was bad in the Egyptians considering it an abomina- 
 tion to eat with the Hebrews, and in the Hebrews a thousand 
 years later objecting to eat with the Gentiles. I could quote 
 numerous other cases of tribes and classes refusing to eat 
 together from notions of ceremonial purity both in ancient and 
 modern times. The habits of Oriental life must be considered : 
 insensibly certain kinds of food are objected to by one class 
 and indulged in by others. Some classes are exceedingly nice 
 and clean ; others are very much the contrary. The hand is the 
 only instrument used in feeding : the state, in which that hand 
 is kept, is therefore a consideration. Besides, we know as a 
 fact in Europe, that one of the main tests of the division of the 
 social strata is that of taking food together or separately. 
 It would be repulsive in the extreme to be compelled to eat and 
 drink with those, whose vocations are nauseous, and habits 
 uncleanly, or whose tastes in the choice and mode of pre- 
 paration of food differed materially. As the social ladder is 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 mounted, there arises an assimilation in culture and personal 
 niceties, yet still by an unwritten law the table of persons is 
 kept separate, who are intimate in other relations of life. We 
 find, therefore, the groundwork of a common law of humanity 
 even in the exaggerated law of Caste with regard to the modes 
 of eating. It is an error, however, to suppose that any restric- 
 tion is thereby placed upon hospitality. I have myself accepted 
 the hospitality of the highest Castes of Hindus, and dined by 
 the side of the host, who excused himself courteously of par- 
 taking of the food for reasons, which I quite understood ; and 
 I have, on the other hand, entertained scores, both Hindu and 
 Mahometan, by entrusting to others the details of the banquet, 
 and this is the practice of good-fellowship all over India. The 
 Mahometan in Turkey shares the food of the Christian, but it 
 does not follow, that he is on that account more intimate with 
 Europeans than his fellow-religionist in India is with the Hindu 
 and Christian, whose food he would not touch. 
 
 I have dwelt upon these features of Caste to show, that it is 
 one of the Old World customs, which has unluckily survived in 
 India in a hard and crystallized form to the present day, while 
 other nations under the influence of progress have toned it 
 down, or abandoned it altogether. Among such customs may 
 be reckoned domestic Slavery of the gentle and patriarchal type, 
 child marriage. Polygamy, restriction on re-marriage of widows, 
 belief in magic and divination, cremation of the dead, painting 
 or seaming of the features and limbs, swathing of the feet, 
 circumcision, and even blood feuds and duelling. It is difficult 
 for Europeans in the nineteenth century to understand, how any 
 one of such customs can be defended in theory, far less 
 practised by intelligent and educated men ; and yet no wise 
 ruler of an Oriental people would venture, except in an indirect 
 and cautious way, to interfere with such customs, which must 
 rather be left to the slow but certain discipline of intellectual, 
 moral, and religious progress. As regards abominable customs, 
 offending against laws Human and Divine, such as human 
 sacrifices, burying alive of lepers, female infanticide, traffic in 
 slaves, mutilation of the human body, and threats of immolation, 
 the Government of India has not been wanting in measures of 
 stern repression. 
 
 When I said above, that Caste is not noticed as existing in 
 Vedic periods, I did not forget the famous stanza in the Rig- 
 Veda, of which such liberal use is made by the antagonists 
 of the custom. It runs thus : 
 
 The Brahmin is his mouth ; the Kshatriya was made his arms ; 
 What the Vaisya was that was his hips ; from his feet sprung the Sudra. 
 Now it is worthy of remark, that this stanza is not written in 
 Vedic or Archaic Sanskrit, but in the modern form of that 
 
( 71 ) 
 
 language. What should we think of lines of Ciceronian Latin 
 found in the Laws of the Ten Tables ? Again, the word " sudra " 
 is of unknown origin, and not grammatically connected with 
 any Vedic word. " But even if the lines be genuine, they imply 
 nothing beyond what is expressed in other countries in poetic 
 diction ; in other words, that the Priest is the mouthpiece, the 
 Warrior the arm of defence, the Merchant the sinew, and the 
 Working Man the groundwork, of the body politic. 
 
 In this argument, however, I set aside the Hindu Scriptures, 
 as having no direct relation to the issue, and turn to the reports of 
 the last official Census of British India, as I have to deal with 
 Caste, not as it was three thousand years ago, but as it is now, 
 after seven hundred years of Mahometan, and one hundred of 
 Christian domination. 
 
 The striking results are that there are : Brahmin, ten millions ; 
 Kshatriya, five millions ; other Castes, one hundred and five 
 millions ; without recorded Caste, ten millions ; Mahometan, 
 fifty millions ; Non-Arian, eighteen millions ; making a total of 
 one hundred and ninety-eight millions. 
 
 Now, taking the Province under the Lieutenant-Governor of 
 Bangdl as a fair sample for analysis, I find out of a total of 
 sixty-four millions, sixty-nine specified Castes, although the 
 number of separate tribes and Castes is calculated at little less 
 than one thousand ; and if the minor subdivisions, such as gotra, 
 sept, and clan, are taken into consideration, the number will 
 swell to many thousands. There are four superior and three 
 intermediate Castes, and then come the following : trading, 
 pastoral, preparers of cooked food, agricultural, general servants, 
 artizans, weavers, labourers, sellers of fish and vegetables, boat- 
 men and fishermen, dancers, musicians, and beggars. In the 
 North-west Provinces there are two hundred and ninety-one 
 specified Castes ; in Oudh, seventy-seven ; in the Panjdb, nine- 
 teen ; in the Central Provinces, forty-eight ; in Bombay, one 
 hundred and' forty ; in Madras, seventeen. Clearly the takers of 
 the Census have not followed out the same principle of enumer- 
 ation, and upon the data thus supplied it is not possible to 
 arrive at an accurate detail of the Castes of British India, but it 
 is evident, that their number far exceeds what was contemplated 
 by the ancient men, who codified the Laws of Manu. 
 
 It must not be supposed for a moment, that the members of 
 any Caste are restricted to any one particular trade, profession, 
 or calling. This is one of the greatest of the inaccuracies, into 
 which writers on this subject have fallen, and the assertion, that 
 the institution of Caste confines a man and his family for ever 
 to the grade, in which he is bom, prevents his rising to a higher 
 class of society, whatever may be his character and merits, will 
 not stand the test of inquiry. The history of the.Mardtha and 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 Sikh nations tells the story of the upheaving of the lower Castes ; 
 and what is there in the present social state of British India to 
 prevent a duly qualified man rising to the highest walks of life 
 without reference to his origin or Caste ? Successful adventurers 
 are known to improve their Castes as they get richer. Fictitious 
 Castes are a device as common as fictitious pedigrees. The ten 
 millions of Brahmins have no doubt been recruited from several 
 inferior Castes and from the issue of mixed marriages, for their 
 ranks contain specimens of the most opposite physical types. 
 If any one supposes that Brahmins, as a general rule, are engaged 
 in priestly duties, or that any proportion of them lay claim to 
 any arrogant superiority over their fellows, he is greatly mistaken. 
 A gentleman is always a gentleman, and the long hereditary 
 culture of the Brahmins has told upon their appearance and 
 manners. Their ranks supply many of the ablest public servants 
 of the State, though by no means a majority of the official 
 ranks, and they are themselves subdivided into so many numerous 
 tribes, that a kingdom, composed solely of the ten million 
 Brahmins, would still be indelibly streaked by Caste, for there 
 are as many subdivisions of Brahmins as there are great Castes 
 of Hindus, and as completely separated in the matters of 
 matrimony, commensality, and social intercourse. The Gour 
 Brahmins would shudder at the possibility of any communion, 
 beyond that of general acquaintance, with the Kashmiri Brahmins, 
 who represent the ablest class in Upper India, but are eaters of 
 flesh (excepting beef) and drinkers of spirits, which are abomi- 
 nation to the Gour Brahmins. The Sdraswat Brahmins, who 
 abound in the Panjdb, eat and drink with the Khatri Caste, and 
 are employed in servile duties. Nor have the Brahmins even the 
 monopoly of priestly duties or of sanctity ; at many shrines other 
 Castes officiate. With the great Sikh nation the Khatri Caste 
 has quite superseded the Brahmin. In the Anglo-Indian army 
 there is an abundance of Brahmin soldiers under the orders 
 of low-Caste men and of Mahometans. Brahmins are always 
 sought after by Hindus as cooks, a useful but not honourable 
 or sacred position. 
 
 The Kshatriya Caste, if existing at all, is represented by 
 the Rajpdt and Khatri. In considering the Rajputs, the new 
 anomaly presents itself, that thousands of these have become 
 Mahometans, but still claim to be Rajputs, keep up their own 
 family customs and law of inheritance, attend the weddings of 
 their own Hindu tribal brethren, have their particular bard and 
 family priest. No intermarriage and actual commensality is 
 possible ; but still it is a wonderful instance of the elasticity of 
 the Caste system, when the breakers of Caste have power and 
 numbers on their side. The Rdja of one of the Mountain 
 Rajput States in the Himalaya is a Mahometan Rajput, ruling 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 over his Hindu brethren. Rajputs take every kind of service 
 requiring fidelity or strength ; but the arm has to wield the pen 
 as well as the sword, and at a period probably subsequent to 
 the Laws of Manu the art of writing was imported from the 
 West into India, and a powerful group of Castes, uncontem- 
 plated in the original division of mankind, came into existence, 
 viz. the " men of the pen," or the Writer-Castes, who are not 
 likely to be overlooked or crushed in any part of the world. 
 They are known by different names in many parts of India, such 
 as the Khatri, the Kdyat, the Parbhu, but it must not be supposed 
 that these classes monopolize the right of using the pen. It 
 would be impossible to follow in detail the other hundreds of 
 Castes, but, imperfect as confessedly our knowledge is as to the 
 ramification of Castes, we can see clearly, that religion is the 
 smallest factor in the system. For the sake of exhausting the 
 subject, it may be stated, that Caste has arisen from the operation 
 of three causes : (i) religious or quasi-religious, (z) professional, 
 (3) ethnical. We can hardly suppose that any person would 
 argue, that the origin of any of the Castes, bearing obvious 
 trade and professional names, was religious, as such are clearly 
 hereditary guilds. Still less could it be urged, that the Caste 
 of dancing-girls, jugglers, musicians, beggars, thieves, and other 
 baser occupations, had the sanction of religion ; and yet the great 
 mass of the population is divided into such kinds of Caste, and 
 so entirely do the people mix up the questions of Caste and 
 profession, that a watchman is generally spoken of by the Caste 
 to which he belongs, as the men of that Caste are all watchmen, 
 and the great backbone of the population of the Panjib is 
 described indiscriminately as "Jaty." which is their Caste, or 
 Zemindar, which is their calling, as agriculturists. 
 
 Those, who have not studied the mode, in which the motley 
 population of India has been built up, hardly appreciate at its 
 full value the effect of the ethnical fissures in the lower strata. 
 The Chamdrs of the North-west Provinces amount to three 
 millions and a half, scattered in every part of the Province, 
 employed in hereditary servile duties, or in trades of an offensive 
 character, allowing themselves the licence of eating carrion or 
 the flesh of unclean animals, worshipping other gods than those 
 of the Hindus, who avoid even their touch. In every village, 
 moreover, there is a Helot class, engaged in servile duties as 
 watchmen, sweepers, scavengers, removers of the dead, contact 
 with whom is shunned, as that of the Cagots in the South of 
 France, where the same feeling has survived the European 
 culture of many centuries. It is clear, that the Shandrs of South 
 India are ethnically distinct from the rest of the population. 
 There is no question, that all such races or tribes are of non- 
 Arian origin, which have not accepted the thin veneer of Hindu 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 culture, and are therefore hated and shunned as out of the pale 
 of Hindu society, and at the same time not strong enough, like 
 the Mahometan and Christian, to establish a rival and inde-, 
 pendent social organization of their own. It is an absurdity to 
 quote the famous Vedic " J"oot and Mouth" stanza, or the Laws 
 of Manu, with regard to such classes, as those Laws bear no 
 relation to any, who are not Arian in origin, or who" have not 
 introduced themselves into the Arian system. The Shandrs 
 worship devils, have peculiar customs, and it is no matter of 
 surprise, that the real Hindu of Arian origin, and those of the 
 non-Arian, who have advanced to a certain extent up the ladder 
 of Arian culture, look upon them with abhorrence, and that the 
 antipathetic feeling of a superior race operates here as strongly 
 as it does on the part of the Anglo-Saxon in America against 
 the Negro. Men must be more than men, if in one generation 
 such antipathies could be softened down. The lower the Caste, 
 to which the Semi-Hindu has climbed, the greater the jealousy 
 felt towards those outside the line. Among the very low classes 
 in India this feeling must show itself by such outward signs as 
 shunning contact, intermarriage and commensality, as their life 
 is spent in the streets and marketplace, without the sanctity and 
 privacy of a home, by which the richer classes keep out the 
 unclean and the common herd. 
 
 Under a native Hindu rule it is more than probable, that the 
 yoke of Caste pressed very heavily on the lower classes, hut the 
 sting is very much taken out under Mahometan and Christian 
 rule. Moreover, I call attention to the following remarkable 
 facts, as indicating that a Caste feeling is, as it were, part pf the 
 common law of the Indiaa people. All the Hindu sectai-ians, 
 who have disturbed the peace of the Brahmanical system in a 
 long succession for several centuries, have, like the Protestant 
 Missionaries, selected the Brahmins as the object of their idle 
 abuse, and attempted the destruction of Caste under the alleged 
 vaunt of the equality of mankind. Slowly and surely Caste has 
 forced itself back again. Buddhism, which was based upon the 
 abolition of Caste, was fairly driven out of India. The more 
 plastic Jiin accepted Caste and a transitional position. In Ceylon 
 the Buddhists even exhibit traces of Caste, The Sikhs of the 
 Panjdb, after a long tilt against Caste, have relaxed their rules 
 and relapsed into Caste. A band of celibate ascetics, or vagrant 
 beggars, may shake off Caste, but no body of religionists has 
 ever settled down in India to decent family life without throwing 
 round a fence of Caste more or less rigid. The non-Arian races 
 of the Hills, as they settle down to be agriculturists and adopt 
 a^ semi-Hinduism, of their own free will assert their claimjo a 
 Caste ; and, wonder of wonders ! the Mahometan, who in Turkey, 
 Arabia, Egypt, and Afghanistan, marries any one, on whom'his 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 fancy falls, and eats and drinks with the European, in India is 
 particular as to commensality, and, if he is a member of a 
 respectable tribe, is very restricted in the choice of a wife. The 
 Census-report shows, that Caste is almost as prevalent among 
 them as among Hindus, for the descendants of the conquering 
 races, who immigrated from Western Asia, the Arab, the Persian, 
 the Mogul, the Turk, and the Pathdn, generally marry each 
 among his own kith and kin. The Mahometan Rajput and other 
 of the good Hindu Castes, who became Mahometan in the time 
 ' of the Empire, keep close to their tribal rules, which differ from 
 Caste only in name. The lower Mahometans, converts from the 
 non-Arian races, are in practice less rigid ; but even among 
 them increase of wealth is sometimes accompanied by a fictitious 
 improvement of Caste-designation. The successful corn-factor 
 has been known in a time of dearth to have sprung from the 
 ranks of the Shaikh, or New Mahometan, to that of Sayyid, or 
 descendant of the Prophet, and the self-asserting pride of a 
 Sayyid is only equalled by that of a Brahmin. 
 
 I proceed now to show, how the strong and impartial Govern- 
 ment of British India has acted with a view of disarming and 
 controlling the bad and exaggerated features of Caste. In the 
 State-Schools and Hospitals the difference of Caste is totally 
 ignored. All, who enter there, are known as scholars and 
 patients. In the railway-trains the community is reduced to 
 the common denomination of passengers. We have heard of 
 Anglo-Saxon colonies, where black and white will not mix on 
 such occasions. In the Courts of Justice, civil and criminal, 
 all subjects of the Queen are absolutely equal in theory and 
 practice. A Brahmin murderer would be hanged at Bandras 
 without benefit of clergy, and the rights of the lowest Chamdr 
 would be vindicated. In the State-Prisons all are associated 
 together ; but a prisoner of good Caste is selected as cook, as 
 it would be obviously unjust to enhance the penalty fixed by law 
 for a particular offence by adding a feature, which would affect 
 some prejudicially, but not all. It is insisted, that the wells of a 
 village are available to all, and an attempt to exclude native 
 Christian converts was distinctly put a stop to. Any attempt to 
 exclude men of lower Caste from the use of the streets, or to 
 prevent males and females from wearing such dress as they 
 chose, would not be tolerated for an instant. The service of 
 State, civil and military, is open to all, and men of the highest 
 Caste are constantly subordinated to men of lower, according to 
 their position in the service. On the other hand, any positive 
 injury caused by one person to another, entailing injury to Caste, 
 is the ground of an action for Tort ; thus a valuable property is 
 recognized as existing. Moreover, the native Laws of Marriage 
 and Inheritance are accepted by the Civil Courts, and con- 
 
( ;6 ) 
 
 sequently the issue of a marriage, contracted contrary to the 
 rules of Caste, is declared illegitimate. 
 
 How has society dealt with Caste ? I can only give an opinion 
 based upon experience acquired in a solitary life among the 
 people of Upper India, where Caste is at its highest pressure, 
 for weeks and months together, without any European companion. 
 I never found Caste an obstacle to social intercourse, nor did 
 the subject ever press itself forward, and yet the population of 
 the villages and towns visited each day differed considerably. 
 Few villages were absolutely without Mahometans, none without ' 
 men of the lowest Caste, and in the thronging of an Indian 
 crowd there must be indiscriminate contact. In my establish- 
 ment there were Brahmins, with whom I transacted ordinary 
 business, Rajputs, who carried my messages, Khatri and Kayat, 
 who engrossed my orders. Mahometan and Hindu sat upon 
 the floor working side by side ; and, if the half-Caste Christian 
 sat at a table to write English letters, it was only because the 
 method of English correspondence requires this distinction. 
 My own tent was daily thronged by men of all Castes and position 
 in life, and my visits to the male apartments of the notables was 
 considered an honour, and yet of all outcastes the European is the 
 worst, as he asserts his right to eat both beef and pork. Thus 
 professors of different religions mingle in social life without any 
 unpleasant friction : each man respects his neighbour ; he has 
 no wish, indeed, to intermarry with the family of his neighbour, 
 or share the cup and platter of his neighbour, but he does not 
 consider himself in the least superior or inferior. 
 
 In one sense, and one sense only. Caste may be said to be 
 religious. All that remains to the non-Mahometan population of 
 India, the religious idea and instinct, has centuries ago shrunk 
 into the notion of Caste, just as in Europe in the Middle Ages 
 all that to many men remained of religion was a keen sense of 
 personal honour. Now both Caste and Honour restrain a man's 
 actions from what is contrary to the rules of the brotherhood, 
 and is dishonourable, and often from crime, in a way, in which 
 nothing else will restrain them, and in that sense Caste and 
 Honour may be said to be religious sanctions, but in no other ; 
 and no wise legislator would venture to do aught to weaken such 
 sanctions, the existence of which mark a certain progress in 
 civilization. 
 
 I cannot see that Caste is an evil of the kind and degree, which 
 it is imagined to be. In an exaggerated and self-asserting form 
 it would certainly be an evil under a Hindu system of Government 
 of the stiff and intolerant form of modern religious creeds ; but 
 tolerance has ever been of the essence of the Hindu system, 
 and in British India the claws of Caste have been cut by a 
 strong and impartial Government, and the social pressure of 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 a population, made up of various elements which would not 
 submit to oppression. I submit, that in Europe classes lie in 
 strata horizontally, and that in India the separation is by vertical 
 fissures. I have known men of good Caste and social position 
 as gentlemen, who were not ashamed to have in their families 
 near relations in the grade of menial or cook. Now such a state 
 of affairs would be impossible in Europe, and marks the 
 enormous divergence of social customs. 
 
 Viewing the matter, therefore, from the point of view of a 
 statesman, a moralist, an advocate for civil and religious liberty, 
 education, and progress, I can see nothing in the National 
 custom of Caste, that requires any interference from the Legis- 
 lature. I recognize the existence in different nations of an 
 infinite variety of family customs, habits and tendencies, and, 
 where they are prejudicial to the better interests of the human 
 race, the work of amelioration may be left to time, education, 
 intercourse with other nations, and general intellectual progress. 
 
 Lecture at the National Indian Association, London, 1879. 
 
 B. — Caste in the Christian Church. 
 
 There exists an ancient Custom in British India among the 
 whole of the Arian and a portion of the Dravidian population, 
 known by the name of Caste in English, Jati in the Vernacular, 
 and Varna in the sacred languages. This Custom does not 
 extend to British Barma, or to the Buddhist portion of Ceylon 
 to an appreciable extent, nor is it rigorously adopted by the 
 non-Arian Races of India, the Dravidian, Kolarian, and Tibeto- 
 Barman Races, which have remained uninfluenced by the 
 Brahmanical Religion. On the other hand, those Hindus, who 
 have adopted the Mahometan Faith, and the vast number of 
 non-Arians, who have attached themselves to the lower strata 
 of the great Brahmanical Polity, and, strange to say, the 
 descendants of the Afghan, Tartar, Persian, and Arab immi- 
 grants, who during the last eight hundred years have floated 
 into India upon each Mahometan wave of invasion, have sensibly, 
 and unmistakably, adopted the Custom, as a mark of respecta- 
 bility, and though they talk only of Tribes, and not of Castes, 
 yet are under the same yoke, as regards Matrimony and 
 Commensality. 
 
 In a Lecture which I read in 1879 before the National Indian 
 Association, I discussed the nature of this Custom, and the 
 infinite variety of its primary and secondary divisions. I showed 
 how the claws of a Custom, which might possibly be intolerant, 
 had been cut by the long domination of the Mahometan, and 
 
( 7S ) 
 
 the uncompromising system of the British Administration, based 
 on absolute equality of man with man in the Courts of Criminal 
 and Civil Justice, the Public Service, the Railways, the Schools, 
 and Hospitals. I pointed out how mistaken was the idea, that 
 a man was in any way compelled to follow the profession of his 
 Father, or was in any way debarred from his rights as a Free 
 Agent. My conclusion was, that there was nothing in this 
 ancient Custom, as limited by British practice rather than Law, 
 that prevented any of Her Majesty's subjects discharging his 
 duty to the State ; that the Custom was so far guaranteed by the 
 State, that an action lay in the Civil Courts for Tort on the 
 ground of wilful breach of Caste, and that the issue of children 
 born of Hindu unions, entered into contrary to the rules of 
 Caste, were illegitimate, and did not inherit. The Custom there- 
 fore did not deserve the wholesale abuse showered down upon 
 it by certain persons. I reprinted in 1881 my Lecture in my 
 " Pictures of Indian Life," and I believe that my sentiments 
 on this subject are shared by all Statesmen, who are acquainted 
 with, and interested in, the People of India. On this subject 
 therefore I, and many other ardent supporters of Missions, are 
 at direct issue with a great body of Missionaries. I believe 
 them to be thoroughly mistaken. 
 
 In the course of discussion, which ensued after my Lecture had 
 been read, a gentleman of great experience in India, formerly 
 an Editor of one of the best English Newspapers, remarked, 
 that I had not touched upon the relation of Caste to the 
 Christian Church. My reply, was, that the National Indian 
 Association was not the proper arena for such a discussion. I 
 had already brought it prominently forward in a Missionary 
 Society, with which I am more particularly connected, and now 
 I proceed to ventilate the subject in the pages of a Religious 
 Periodical. 
 
 I honour the Christian Missionaries, who devote their talents, 
 and their lives, to the benefit of Asiatic, African and Oceanic 
 races. But it must needs be, that they go out early in life, and 
 the necessity of the language ties them to one field. Their 
 views thus become narrowed to their own environment. The 
 Missionary from China writes and speaks, as if the world could 
 be converted, but for the sale of opium and the hostile action 
 of the Chinese educated classes. The Missionary from India 
 is overpowered by the opposition caused by Caste and Secular 
 Education. The Missionary in Africa tells sad stories of human 
 sacrifice, witchcraft, cannibalism, and Polygamy. And so on 
 in the other fields. The Missionary in China or Barma does not 
 feel any sensible advantage from the absence of Caste. The 
 Missionary in Africa looks rather longingly for Secular Edu- 
 cation, and repression of monstrous crimes. The experienced 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 and enlightened Missionary in each field is generally silent on 
 such topics, for he feels, that it is the same depravity of the 
 human heart, which opposes him in a different development in 
 different parts of the world. 
 
 In that portion of the so-called Kingdom of Satan, which is 
 known to Geographers as British India, I have spent a quarter 
 of a century, and loved the people very dearly, because I became 
 aware of their excellences by familiar contact. No doubt the 
 scum of the Bazaar of a great town is no more a fair representa- 
 tion of a great nation, than the roughs of London are of the 
 British people. The strong and impartial British Government 
 has paved the way for the Missionary by putting down, with a 
 high hand, all abominable customs, which are contrary to laws 
 Human and Divine, such as human sacrifices, burning of 
 widows, burying of lepers alive, female infanticide, traflSc in 
 slaves, mutilation of the body, and so forth. An enlightened 
 Government of the Nineteenth Century does not interfere with 
 morals, and leaves drunkenness, profligacy, and the use of bad 
 language, to be counteracted by the moral and religious in- 
 fluences of the people, and by their spiritual guides, restricting 
 itself to the punishment of offences, scheduled in the Criminal 
 Code. But besides these things in Oriental Countries, there 
 exists a group of customs, objectionable per se, yet not such as 
 to warrant the interference of an enlightened Ruler. These 
 are domestic Slavery of the gentle and patriarchal type, child 
 marriage. Polygamy, cremation of the dead, painting or searing 
 of the face and limbs, circumcision and Caste. These are Old- 
 World customs. We hear of them in the infancy of other 
 nations, who have outgrown them ; but unluckily customs in 
 India survive in a hard and crystallized form, and the people are 
 very conservative. I can quite imagine an enthusiastic young 
 Missionary being shocked at any, or all, of these customs, and 
 wondering, why they are not at once suppressed. But those, 
 who have had experience in ruling Oriental Nations, know, that 
 the attempt to do so would fail, might cause the loss of Empire, 
 would certainly entail loss of life in rebellion, and , do more 
 harm than good. The work of amelioration must be left to 
 time, education, intercourse with other nations, and general 
 intellectual progress. 
 
 So speaks the Statesman. But the Evangelist seeks to gather 
 into his nascent Church souls to be saved, and he appeals to a 
 higher than human Law. He admits, that offences against morals 
 occur quite as much among Christians as among Heathen, and 
 must be left to the discipline of the Church, and the influence 
 of the Pastor, for they are recurring evils, from which none are 
 safe until death. But he at once puts his foot down upon some 
 of the Old- World customs, above described, and insists that 
 
( 80 ) 
 
 Polygamy, cremation of the dead, circumcision, Caste-marks on 
 the face, must cease, as a condition precedent to Baptism. He 
 declares the right of the widow to re-marry, and, if any remnant 
 of domestic Slavery remained, he would denounce it, and do his 
 best to get rid of it. But if he be wise (and Missionaries do 
 not always possess the wisdom of this world), he will analyze the 
 ancient custom of Caste, and make the abandonment of certain 
 portions an essential, reserve certain portions for pastoral ad- 
 monition, and leave other portions alone, for the simple reason, 
 that to oppose them is to war against the common feeling of 
 Human Nature : 
 
 Naturam expelles furcS, tamen usque recurret. 
 
 In analyzing the Census of British India, I find that the great 
 Indian Nation is made up of most conflicting elements as regards 
 Race, Religion, Language and State of Culture. Under the 
 pressure of a strong foreign Government, a certain amount of 
 fusion has taken place, and this process is slowly advancing 
 year by year. But the Nation has never yet learnt to forget, 
 that it is only an amalgam of very discordant materials, which 
 discordancy is intensified by segregation from the rest of the 
 world, religious dogma, fashioned in the interest of a dominant 
 class, and the universal practice of what is known in Europe 
 as Trade-Unions, and ancestral occupations and possessions. 
 Insensibly rigid rules have surrounded Marriage and Commen- 
 sality ; this leads on to the feeling, that one stratum, or rather 
 vertical slice of society, is different from another, and the whole 
 culminates in pride, overbearing conduct, and, if opportunity 
 offered, social ostracizing. But if an educated man of an 
 ordinary Caste is asked, he will at once admit, that his Caste is 
 not superior to, but only different from, that of his neighbour. 
 
 For a moment let me turn aside from India, and, looking round 
 us, let me consider the phenomenon of Caste, as developed from 
 ethnical and social causes, in the United States, a land of strict 
 equality of man with man, as regards the Negro ; as regards the 
 Bantu tribes in the Cape Colony ; and in Great Britain. 
 
 Sir George Campbell made a tour in the United States in 
 1878, and carefully considered the relation of the antagonist 
 races to each other. His conclusions are that : 
 
 The separation of the two castes is becoming more pronounced than ever ; 
 that since the admission of the Blacks to political equality, the movement 
 has been rather against social equality than otherwise ; that there are entirely 
 separate Black churches ; that the difficulty about public conveyance had 
 been got over, and all travel together, which is a great step in advance ;■ 
 that, as is the case with the Hindu, no Intermarriage or Commensality is 
 possible ; that there is universal separation in the public schools, at the wish 
 of the Blacks, though good feeling and good temper are exhibited in daily 
 relations ; that half-castes, even when quite fair in complexion, go to the Black 
 
( 8i ) 
 
 .schools ; that the Caste system must be accepted as a fact ; that the most pro- 
 nounced philo-negro in the States would recoil from the idea of intermarriage, 
 which is positively prohibited by law in most of the States ; that Christianity might 
 effect much to bring the races together, but not for the present. 
 
 I quote his concluding words : 
 
 To one accustomed to see great communities in India, where varieties of 
 Caste do not interfere with union in a common social system ; where, on the 
 contrary. Caste but represents a variety of occupations and functions in the 
 same system, the existence of two Castes in America does not seem to present 
 an insuperable obstacle to well-being. In India all the Castes live very well 
 together, and support one another, by each contributing their functions to the 
 village existence. It is hard, then, that in the United States two Castes cannot 
 co-exist, supposing that means of amalgamating them are not found. 
 
 In South Africa I have an unexceptional witness in Mr. 
 Anthony Trollope. At the great Lovedale Missionary Institution 
 of the Free Church of Scotland, the boys and girls, black and 
 white, are described as intermixed. But the European boys 
 would not come to the school, if compelled to eat with the 
 Kafirs. Any idea of intermarriage with the two races would not 
 be thought of. 
 
 Lastly, in Great Britain, where all are of the Anglo-Saxon or 
 kindred races, and no differences exist of Customs, or Colour, 
 can we truthfully say, that there are not restrictions upon Inter- 
 marriage and Commensality, which have the essence, though not 
 the name of Caste } The law, indeed, does not hold the penalty 
 of illegitimacy over unequal marriages, but would the most 
 devoted servant of God, lay or clerical, in a better class of life, 
 relish the marriage of his son or daughter to the pious pew- 
 opener .? Or would he admit to his table the upright, though 
 unsavoury, scavenger } Has any of our European Missionaries 
 as yet admitted a native of India to the honour of being his 
 son-in-law } Is it not the fact, that the white Missionary forms 
 a Caste with superior position and superior emoluments to the 
 native and half-caste 1 And I do not deny that it is right, that 
 it should be so. The Englishman landed in India considers 
 himself, however low in the strata of English society, to be 
 superior to the highest Indian. But to the eye of the Ethnologist 
 the position of the superior native Caste is as much removed 
 above the lower (and they feel it as much to be so), as the 
 Englishman, rightly or wrongly, thinks himself above the Indian 
 referred to. Even in Africa we find traces of Caste among 
 some, if not among all tribes. In fact, self-respect and dawning 
 civilization first evidence themselves in tribes becoming par- 
 ticular about Marriage and Commensality. I do not for one 
 moment deny, that the custom is developed in India in a more 
 rigid and unpleasant form than elsewhere. But what I do 
 maintain is, that it is but a tree grown up to an extravagant 
 height and bulk from the same germ, which is found, more or 
 less, in every community of men. 
 
 PART II. 7 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 In the Mission Field I read the remarks of Sir Frederick 
 Goldsmid : 
 
 It is easy to say to a Native of India that Caste is not ackriowleged in Europe, 
 but the natives would see that the very fact, that it is not aclcnowledged makes 
 the shapeless sentiment so difficult to deal with, that it becomes a barrier of 
 actual separation. We have Castes in Europe, and Castes totally opposed to 
 the spirit of Christianity, as regards colour, birth, education, wealth, and fashion. 
 
 To myself, with all my recollections of valued friends left 
 behind me in India, whose features and voices live in my memory, 
 and some of whose portraits still decorate my walls, it is matter 
 of no small surprise to hear these good easy people, amiable 
 and ignorant, tolerant and affectionate, described in a Missionary 
 periodical, March, 1879, as practising 
 
 A custom fraught with destruction to their souls, utterly divorced from 
 morality, a custom which eats out human sympathy, annihilates fellow-feeling, 
 renders the heart cruel and callous, and dams up the stream of affection. 
 
 I can scarcely believe, that my Brahmin and Khatri friends, 
 who still send me letters, though they can never hope for 
 any advantage at my hands, and tell me about their children 
 and our mutual friends. Christian, Mahometan, and Hindu, 
 without distinction of race or religion, are 
 
 Slaves of a system which tends, more than anything else the Devil has 
 invented, to destroy the feelings of general benevolence, and make three-fourths 
 of mankind the hopeless slaves of the other ; that it was an invention of the 
 author of evil, the father of lies, by which he enthralls millions of souls ; that 
 it is Satan's masterpiece, Satan's chief institution, the monster evil of India, 
 obstructive to all efforts for the improvement of the temporal condition of the 
 people, as well as a soul-destroying influence. 
 
 It is sad to read such a foolish tirade as this, for the spirit of 
 it is foreign to the precepts of Christ. It may be called tall 
 talk, and indeed foolish talk ; or it may only be a flowery, 
 oratorical way of implying, that the writer disapproved of Caste. 
 And, no doubt, with a tabula rasa, Caste, as well as many other 
 time-honoured customs, might be dispensed with. But we 
 have to deal with a Nation as we find it, and it is idle to say, 
 that the Indians with Caste are not as prosperous, as advanced 
 in Culture, Arts, and Sciences, as benevolent, law-abiding, 
 temperate, moral, and, in their own way, as religious as the 
 Chinese, with whom Caste has never prevailed. Nor do we find 
 in Ceylon,. Barma, China, and Japan, though the people are 
 entirely free from this snare of Satan, that the Gospel makes 
 greater progress on account of its absence. In truth, people, 
 who are free from Caste, or opium-eating, or cannibalism, are 
 still far from God,' and the educated classes of China, the 
 Brahmins of India, and the Medicine-men of Africa, are but 
 the Pharisees of the Scriptures, or the good old Conservatives 
 of modern time, who stand on their old ways, and, right or 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 wrong, will not listen to new doctrines. A learned and devoted 
 Bishop has wisely remarked, that the 
 
 Christian Church has no commission to bring all Nations to any other 
 uniformity than that of the Faith. She must leave National habits and customs 
 (not amounting to deliberate sins, or crimes by law) alone. The Spirit of 
 Jesus will, in its own good time, by the influence of Preaching, Teaching, and 
 Example, work out the special type of Culture, Civilization, and Social Habit, 
 which is good, or at least possible, under the political and physical circum- 
 stances of the country. 
 
 The evils of Caste have been intensified to the Christian 
 Missionary by the policy adopted of working from the lower 
 strata of Society up to the higher. Unquestionably the souls of 
 the meanest have the same value as those of the highest, and 
 the Gospel was specially meant for the poor. St. Paul, however, 
 clearly addressed the better classes. St. Augustine went to the 
 King, and the Church of England was not based upon the 
 scavengers, and lowest herdsmen of the Nation. The Pagans 
 were the last to become Christians. However, we must grapple 
 with the phenomenon as it exists, viz. a Church, consisting' 
 mainly of non-Arians, members of the lowest ranks of Society, 
 of inferior Castes, so low that the Sudra Caste, which in general 
 estimation is the lowest round of the ladder, becomes, by the 
 discovery of lower outcaste depths, one of dignity. It must be 
 remembered, that in India, as elsewhere, the lower the Caste, the 
 more particular and precise are the rules to protect it. These 
 converts have had no sacrifice of social status to make when 
 they accepted their new Paith. But the fact of their numbers, 
 and the defilement of their old and present occupations, still 
 sticking to their skirts, presents a frightful stumbling-block to 
 the man of Education, of Position, and of Social Estimation, 
 who is moved by the Holy Spirit to become a Christian. Let 
 any reader of these pages faithfully apply such circumstances to 
 himself, and to his family circle, and judge. 
 
 The Church of Christ is, however, a new Society, one with 
 the highest morality, the grandest aspirations, and the most 
 precious promises. Men upon entering such a Society, and 
 becoming inheritors of such promises, must be prepared to 
 make sacrifices. The unclean must be no longer unclean; the 
 opium-smoker must no longer debase himself; the cannibal 
 must no longer indulge his abominable appetite ; the bloody 
 man must no longer take away life ; the proud man must admit, 
 ex animo, that all before God are equal ; that the worship of God 
 is common to all without distinction of person ; that Christ 
 died for all ; that the Ministers of God and Teachers of His 
 Truth are to be listened to and respected without reference to 
 .their origin. These are essential conditions precedent, and may 
 thus be formularized : 
 ■ I. Frank admission of the equality of all men before God. 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 II. No separation of Churches or of Seats in Churches 
 except for the sexes. 
 
 III. Partaking of the same Bread and Wine from the same 
 Cup and Platter, at the same time without distinction. 
 
 IV. Social intercourse with ordained Ministers and Office- 
 holders of the Church, in the Homes, the School, and Church. 
 
 V. Abandonment of Circumcision, Caste-marks, Notions 
 of ceremonial defilement, and belief in Witchcraft, Sooth- 
 saying, or Spirits. 
 
 VI. No separation of high and low Castes in Burial-grounds. 
 It is unnecessary to allude to savage and inhuman customs, as 
 
 the Laws of Anglo-India have stamped them out. For Ofiice- 
 holders of the Church, both Lay and Ordained, a fuller and 
 more thorough compliance with the spirit of the above must be 
 insisted upon, as the condition of office. 
 
 But outside such conditions are two important factors of 
 Human Society, Commensalitv and Intermarriage. The 
 founders of the Indian Church have no authority to lay upon 
 that Church a greater burden than is imposed upon the English 
 Church. Let us consider these subjects calmly but firmly. The 
 Laws of Anglo-India have guaranteed the Customs, having the 
 force of Law, with regard to Marriage and Inheritance. The 
 Convert, however, must at once surrender his legal right to 
 Polygamy. No right of divorce can survive his change of 
 Religion, for these practices are absolutely forbidden by the 
 words of our Lord, " Male and Female created He them." But 
 the Missionary must pause, ere he ventures upon the gross 
 tyranny of insisting upon his converts associating and eating 
 together, except by spontaneous action, and avoid the still more 
 violent infringement of natural Equity in enforced Inter- 
 marriages Such conduct might involve the Missionary in a 
 Criminal Prosecution, or an action for Civil damages. 
 
 There are notorious instances of excellent Christians, of good 
 social position and Caste, who, when they had occasion to be 
 married, went long distances at considerable expense to find a 
 Christian wife of their own Caste and station in life, instead of 
 helping themselves, as many Missionaries would suggest, from the 
 senior class of the Mission Girls' School, consisting of low-Caste, 
 though excellent, and educated young women. 
 
 Some of the Protestant Missionaries are as unreasonable in 
 denouncing Caste in the Christian Church as the Roman 
 Catholics are in denouncing Freemasonry. I cannot say that I 
 think highly of either institution. But the roots of both lie 
 deep in the soil, and both have a side of goodness. It is vain 
 to run counter to the deep currents of human opinion, and 
 institutions, such as these, will last as long as the world lasts.' 
 It scarcely lies in the mouths of those Societies, who plead for the 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 independence of the Native Churches, both at present and in 
 future, to interfere with their Social Customs, and attempt to 
 bind the Indian congregations with ropes of tow, which will be 
 snapped at once. The Native Christians already show signs of 
 desiring for themselves a Church modified to some extent in its 
 forms and ceremonies so as to suit Oriental notions. And a 
 modified form of Caste, limited to Rules of Intermarriage and 
 Commensality, will, we may depend upon it, ever be found a 
 feature in any such Native Indian Church. 
 
 The merits and the good points of the character of the Indian 
 people are without number. They are very docile ; though not 
 entirely free from the curse of drink, yet not habitual drunkards, 
 and quite amenable to reason in such matters ; Polygamy, 
 where it does exist (and it is exceptional), is very different from 
 the Polygamy of Africa ; and, if intoxicating drugs are indulged 
 in, the cases are rare ; assassination, secret societies, and blood 
 feuds are unknown. It is doubly unwise of the Missionary in 
 these conditions to tilt against a brick wall, and to step aside 
 from his obvious duties of preaching the Gospel. As to Mission- 
 ary Boarding Schools, or any other similar Institutions of a 
 benevolent character, such conditions can be imposed as seem 
 proper to the benefactors, and it would be ludicrous to allow 
 the least atom of Caste to be maintained in such Institutions. 
 The State would not tolerate it in the Ferries, the Railway- 
 Carriage, the School, or the Hospital. 
 
 Let us recollect that the " Kingdom of God " is not meat, or 
 drink, or marriage ; that things much worse than Caste exist 
 in the English Church after centuries of Christianity ; that the 
 practical man considers what is possible and equitable, not what 
 is abstractedly desirable, as if he had to deal with an Utopia ; 
 and, finally, that a word can be said in favour of Caste ; for 
 the feeling of Caste in England makes a gentleman polite, a 
 tradesman honest, a soldier brave, and a woman circumspect 
 in her conduct. 
 
 I now proceed to quote upon this important question some 
 opinions of men whose judgments are worth recording. 
 
 Sir H. Maine, in his " Village Communities," writes : 
 
 Caste is merely a name for trade and occupation, and the sole tangible effect 
 of the Brahmanical tlieory is, that it creates a religious sanction for what is 
 really a primitive and natural distribution of classes. 
 
 Bishop Daniel Wilson, after recapitulating, very much as given 
 in my six Rules, the matters of Church Order, which he must 
 insist upon, in supercession of Caste prejudices, closes thus : 
 
 I do not interfere with your national customs, or with matters of dress and 
 food ; but old heathenish customs must be relinquished. 
 
 Bishop Gell, of Madras (1868), writes on the importance of 
 
 Exchanging the distinctions of Caste for those of rank, education, and the like. 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 This object must be obtained, not by coercive measures, but by persuasion, 
 and the power of the truth of Christ, working upon the prejudiced heart ; and 
 by the use of every opportunity for making advances without irritating. 
 
 In the official organ of the Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel (December, 1877) we find the following passage with 
 regard to a high-Caste convert : 
 
 I took pains to advise him not to break his caste, but to eat, drink, dress as here- 
 tofore, and live among his people, only abstaining from everything idolatrous. 
 
 Upon inquiry I received a reply from the late Mr. Bullock, 
 the Secretary, that in his private opinion the Missionary had 
 taken the right course, and that the Missionaries of the S.P.G. 
 ' generally would do as he did. 
 
 A most striking testimony on the subject is that of the Rev. 
 Dr. H. Bower, of Madras, in the Indian Evangelical Review for 
 1 876. He had read a paper, in the February of that year, before 
 the Madras Diocesan Church Conference. It was a vigorous, 
 downright exposure of the dark side of Caste ; but suddenly the 
 note is changed ; like the Prophet, he began to curse and 
 ended in blessing : 
 
 I wrote an essay on Caste twenty years ago ; I was young, inexperienced, 
 and enthusiastic ; since then, as I grow old, and see more of men and of the 
 world, I am disposed to be more charitable, and lenient to all, who have 
 scruples on this intricate subject. In order to form a just estimate of the trials 
 of a high-Caste Convert, we must put ourselves in his place, and view things 
 from his standpoint. All Castes, high and low, who embrace Christianity, 
 have peculiar difficulties to encounter. Caste, as ' class prejudices,' seems to 
 be inherent in fallen human nature. They are felt in Europe, in America, and 
 all the world over, as well as in India. Their power pervades all minds : it in 
 some measure influences the State, the Church, Benevolent Societies, Religious 
 Communities, and even pious individuals. It showed itself in the prejudices of 
 Peter. Providence has made a difference between one man and another with 
 regard to birth, wealth, learning, and position. These distinctions cannot be 
 ignored, however much they may be regulated, or mitigated, or improved. 
 Are we justified in demanding of converts more than Repentance and Faith, 
 which was all that the Apostles demanded ? Capricious dictation and rigorous 
 law will do no good. Charity and Liberty are more important than Uniformity. 
 We must allow converts to retain their simple and innocent usages and customs, 
 while we strike at the root of immoral and idolatrous practices ; we must be 
 careful not to disgust them with trivial matters. 
 
 A native clergyman at the same Conference remarked as follows 
 in favour of the lenient treatment advocated by Dr. Bower : 
 
 A Caste-Christian may not answer the beau ideal of Christian perfection, but, 
 so long as he is a Christian, he comes under Christian influences, and gradually 
 accepting in its Christian sense the brotherhood of Man, he may less and less 
 attach any importance to Caste. In dealing too rigorously with Caste, the 
 Missionary demands on the part of the convert the exhibition of the highest 
 virtue, and most self-denying Christian graces, and makes no allowance for 
 prejudices deeply rooted by immemorial custom. 
 
 Another Missionary thought that 
 
 Caste should be recognized as an evil, and all moral means used tO uproot it, 
 while refraining from severe measures. 
 
( 87 ) 
 Another remarked that : 
 
 If native opinion were moulded, Caste would die out like Slavery from the 
 Early Church. 
 
 I do not place much value upon the opinion of a Roman 
 Catholic Missionary as such, but I accept common sense from 
 whatever quarter it comes. In the Missions Caiholiques of 1880 
 I read : 
 
 Le seul point essentiel des Castes c'est le mariage : les gens d'une caste ne 
 contractent pas d'alliance avec ceux d'une autre. Les Castes ^tant des distinctions 
 purement sociales le pr8tre Catholique ne gSne en rien la liberte naturelle de ses 
 ouailles." 
 
 The Lutheran Church has openly declared for the maintenance 
 
 of Caste, so there is always that refuge open to the neo-Christian. 
 
 The following practical testimony is given by a Madras Minister: 
 
 The longer I work among the people, the more am I convinced, that, until 
 we get a staff of workmen from the high-Castes, our work in that direction will 
 be unsuccessful. A high-Caste catechist may work with perfect impunity among 
 the low-Castes ; but a low-Caste man can never cross the threshold of a high- 
 Caste man. I know the common cant, that the Gospel can level all Caste 
 obstacles, social and religious, and that no Caste distinctions should be 
 countenanced. This springs from mistaken zeal and downright ignorance. 
 Many Missionaries are not so prudent as they ought to be, while they them- 
 selves are, perhaps, as high-Caste socially as the high-Caste Indian himself. I 
 know of no Missionary, who would be willing to sit down in a low-Caste house, 
 and take his meals with the inmates, or let them sit down with him at his own 
 table. This is a social distinction. There is no moral or religious principle 
 involved in it, nor does the low-Caste consider such implied. 
 
 As a commentary to this, I may remark, that in the first 
 Report of the Native Panjdb Council in the North of India it 
 is mentioned, that the Missionary agents had to simulate to be 
 high-Caste, though they were not so, with a view of getting an 
 access and a hearing. How often in England is it stated, that 
 it is important for an ordained clergyman to be a gentleman .'' 
 Now this is Caste of the rankest kind, since in the eyes of the 
 Lord nothing is common nor unclean ; and the word ' gentleman ' 
 is not found in the Bible. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Hickey, a retired Missionary, remarks with 
 truth, that 
 
 Caste is more ethnological than superstitious; the lowest day labourer will 
 not take the food cooked by one of another Caste, much less would he marry 
 with such. The design is to keep the clanships distinct. Education will have 
 greater influence in this matter than rigorous Church discipline. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Adamson remarks, that 
 
 In dealing with our weaker brethren in the faith some little respect should 
 be shown for national ideas. He considers that the scheme of the annual dinner, 
 or Love-feast, is next door to compelling converts to adopt a European style 
 of dress, 
 
 And so indeed it is. 
 The whole question turns upon Christian liberty in doing, or 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 abstaining from doing, what is not contrary to the law of the 
 Bible, and the law of the land. The Missionary, who compels 
 his Christians to partake of a Love- feast, or who forcibly 
 arranges marriages contrary to the wishes of their families, 
 is doing an action contrary to the law of love, to natural equity, 
 and which will affect him most, when these communities grow 
 strong enough to set aside both the letter and the spirit of 
 whatever laws may be framed for their government. Much is 
 said in these days about the paramount importance of the 
 independence of the Native Church. With the Native Council 
 of that Church will eventually rest the decision of such matters 
 as these. In past years Pastors and Church office-holders ma.y 
 have been dismissed for not obeying orders about Caste : this 
 can no longer be done except by the Native Council. For the 
 first generation, at least, we may fully expect that a separation, 
 analogous to that of Jew and Gentile, will exist. After this, and 
 gradually, under the influence of example, advice, and, above 
 all, God's grace, such will, no doubt, in the end disappear. 
 In the mean time, why should the Missionary put a stumbling- 
 block in the way of the infant Church, and place upon his 
 converts a burden with regard to Commensality and Inter- 
 marriage, which he himself would not touch with, his little 
 finger.? Would he give his daughter in marriage to a Native 
 Pastor, or sit down to dinner with a Sweeper } 
 
 The present policy of some Missions practically closes the 
 door of the Church against the better classes, and opens it 
 only to the very refuse of society. Colonel Sleeman, a skilled 
 observer, remarked that what chiefly prevented the spread of 
 Christianity was the dread of exclusion from Caste, and the 
 convert's utter hopelessness of ever finding any respectable 
 circle of society in his new sphere. Other observers have 
 remarked, that the unhappy convert is not admitted to the 
 English Caste, which is the strongest and most arrogant and 
 exclusive Caste in India, and of which the Mahometans, in 
 spite of themselves, share the feelings. 
 
 Bishop Sargent very pertinently observed in 1871 : 
 So long as all sit together in the Church, partake of the same cup in the 
 Lord's Supper, admit the administrations of men considered originally of lower 
 Caste, and abstain from all heathen rites and ceremonies, what other overt acts 
 are there that we can legitimately insist on? Now the above is the extent to 
 which our rural congregations in the mass go. Have we power to insist upon 
 this promiscuous eating in a social manner as a sine qud non ? It seems to me 
 that the only power left us in dealing with this matter is example and 
 persuasion. In my mind, to whatever means I have recourse, I see that Love 
 must be the spring, or the result will be disappointment. 
 
 We may be thankful, that there is a Christian Bishop such as 
 the man who wrote this, and who had lived years among the 
 people. The Love, that is required to subdue this evil, would 
 
( 89 ) 
 
 prevent the uttering of such exaggerations, and the penning of 
 such abuse, as disfigure the periodicals of Evangelical Societies 
 on this subject, and which are a scandal to the Christian Church, 
 and reflect upon the judgment of those, who penned them. 
 
 In the Christian settlement of Kishnagar in Bangdl a great 
 trouble broke out a few years ago, and three well-known and 
 esteemed native Christians were sent from Calcutta to visit the 
 Christians, and report. They were Bangdli, and knew what 
 they were about. They were of opinion, that the more the 
 removal of the Caste distinction was insisted upon at the present 
 moment, the less likelihood there was of success, and that the 
 best solution of the difficulty was to let matters alone ; to treat 
 the people kindly, and so win their affections as gradually to 
 dispel their prejudices by some Christian teaching. A European 
 Missionary did not hesitate to express his opinion, that no one 
 would like to be compelled to eat and associate with people 
 given to filthy habits, and that the angry feeling of the people 
 in this case was caused by the exhibition of an overbearing 
 spirit on the part of the Missionary. 
 
 Of course scores of quotations could be given in the opposite 
 sense to the preceding ones. It often happens, with regard to 
 the writers, that they faithfully repeat the same cuckoo note, and 
 " quod non intelligunt damnant." The writers are either good 
 men of the exalted type, who dream of a Christian Utopia 
 " of faultless men, born again to a new life ; " or they are 
 ignorant men, knowing neither the people, nor their language, 
 and certainly imbued with no love towards them. No doubt 
 there is a difficulty in getting a suitable wife for a young Neo- 
 Christian of an isolated Caste, and it is not well for the Indian 
 convert to remain unmarried. These are the difficulties of all 
 nascent communities. Again, the re-marriage of young widows 
 is a measure of the greatest importance. St. Paul felt it to be 
 so in his time. There is little sentiment in such unions in India, 
 though they may claim an average amount of happiness and 
 fidelity. Protestant Missionaries in these matters are un- 
 consciously following the example of all the Hindu Sectarian 
 Reformers, who, century after century, have attacked Caste, but 
 without success. Such movements were the result of the up- 
 heaving of the lower classes against the Priesthood, and against 
 the oppression of the upper classes generally, and in all cases 
 the vernacular languages were made use of to influence the 
 people. It may be added, that the educated atheistical classes 
 of modern India are fighting against Caste, in the interest of 
 unrestricted eating, and promiscuous marriage, and are not 
 desirable allies for the Missionary. 
 
 There is too great a tendency on the part of Missionaries to 
 treat the people as children. Babes they are, indeed, in Christ ; 
 
( 90 ) 
 
 but a robust and vital Church must be composed of hardy and 
 independent members. The late General Dalton remarks, that 
 Christianity is oflfered, even to Non-Arian races, in the least 
 alluring form. The Kole are fond of ornaments, and the women 
 like to wear natural flowers in their hair. The Missionaries 
 require, as a mortification of the flesh, that they shall wear no 
 decoration. The General expresses his hope, that the necessity 
 for such rigid austerity may cease, and that the girls may be 
 allowed the harmless and pleasing custom of wearing flowers in 
 their hair: The wish may also be expressed that the Brahmin, 
 who is gentle in birth and by culture, may not, on becoming a 
 Christian, be compelled to associate with, and pressed even to 
 marry amongst, those who form, socially, the dregs of his nation. 
 
 While, on the one hand, the State guarantees the rights of the 
 people of India to their immemorial customs, on the other hand, 
 when individuals or families have deliberately abandoned Caste, 
 or tribal designations, and accepted the new denomination of 
 " Christian," the conduct of the Courts of Justice, and the Re- 
 corders of the Census, in persisting in the use of the abandoned 
 description, in spite of a protest, is open to serious objection, 
 and would not be maintained for an instant, if proper remon- 
 strance were made to Government. The Madras Government 
 approved, that Native Christians should be recorded as such, 
 irrespective of their former Castes. 
 
 There is, then, a portion of this Indian custom of Caste, which 
 is protected by the Law of the land, and there is another portion, 
 which has the sanction of what the natives are pleased to call 
 " Dharma," or Religion. The question for the prudent Christian 
 is to decide, whether the Social portion, so deeply entwined with 
 the feelings of the people, cannot be dissociated from the 
 objectionable Religious portion, and be accepted, or at any rate 
 tolerated, in a Christian Church. The Legislature of British 
 India has by statute declared, and declared justly, that no person 
 shall forfeit any rights, which he would otherwise have enjoyed, 
 by becoming a Christian. The Hindu and Mahometan popula- 
 tion have acquiesced in this Law, imposed upon them by an 
 alien Government, and which they would never have enacted 
 themselves, though, in truth, it has been practically the Common 
 Law of India for many centuries. The convert thus passes into 
 the new community with such property, as he is entitled to by 
 inheritance, and the Law allows no disqualification or disability 
 of any kind to operate against him. In what other country, 
 except England and the United States, does such liberty prevail } 
 Let the Christian Church, on her side, allow these converts to 
 retain their social customs, until such shall, under the influence 
 of education and higher civilization, lose their present rigid and 
 exaggerated forms, and assume the elasticity, which is enjoyed 
 
C 91 ) 
 
 in European countries. Upon a review of the entire subject, I 
 am forced to the following conclusions : 
 
 I. Whatever the Missionary Society in England, or the 
 Missionary Agent in India, may wish to advise, the Native 
 Church, which will, sooner or later, be independent, will do 
 what ' it likes in the matter. The Civil Power in India will 
 support it in the exercise of rights guaranteed to all subjects. 
 Public opinion is, and ever will be, strongly in its favour, and 
 against the extreme section of the Missionaries. No Reformed 
 Church will ever be supported in the enforcement of arbitrary 
 regulations, restricting the lawful liberty of citizens ; nor will 
 harsh ecclesiastical discipline be tolerated, or be possible, in a 
 country full of rival Churches. 
 
 II. One of the greatest obstacles to Conversion is the entire 
 destitution of all social respectability, which accompanies the 
 acceptance of Christianity. Some remarkable men, like Ram 
 Chandra of Dehli, Nehemiah Goreh of Ban^ras, Krishna Mohun 
 Banerji of Calcutta, have been practically incorporated into 
 English Society, and have found a new status, to which their 
 great talents, their high culture, as well as their earnest faith, 
 entitled them. But the respectable member of the middle class, 
 with small talents and less education, but whose soul is as dear, 
 to God and the Church, as that of his exalted brethren above 
 alluded to, loses his companions, his social ties, his credit, and 
 all that makes up the charm of life, and finds no new community, 
 with which he can associate. It is a fearful thing, to contem- 
 plate the position of such a man. Great will be his reward 
 hereafter, for he has given up all for his Master's sake, and taken 
 his Saviour at His word. But the flesh is proverbially weak. 
 In India the Martyr, in the old sense, is unknown, but compara- 
 tively few will have strength to be Confessors, unless their way 
 is smoothed in 'all things lawful, and their entrance into the 
 Church is barred by no unnecessary stumbling-blocks laid upon 
 its threshold. 
 
 The best way of putting down Caste is to preacli a full Gospel. 
 ; The man, who is bovn of the Spirit,-will not walk after the flesh, but after the 
 Spirit. He will not use his liljerty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love 
 serve his brother, and bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long- 
 suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. — Gal. vi. 13. 
 
 God made all of one blood. 
 
 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, bond nor free, male nor female. 
 
 In the 14th chapter of Romans, St. Paul gives us specimens of the difficulties, 
 which arose between Jews and Gentiles, the former naturally desiring to bind 
 the Gentiles to their own customs, such as days of fasting, circumcision, the 
 distinction of meats, etc., and in this chapter I think we may find a principle 
 to guide. " Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to judge his 
 doubtful thoughts." Paul treated the scruples of others with tenderness and 
 indulgence. He circumcised Timotheus, Acts xvi. 2, because of the Jews. 
 Again he shaved his head and purified himself with four others, paying his own 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 and their expenses, to satisfy Jewish prejudice, Acts xxi. 21 and 24. At 
 Antioch he blamed Peter for not eating with the Gentiles, Gal. ii. 11 — 18. 
 
 The above remarks were made by a friend, and I gladly accept 
 the views as my own. 
 
 I would not for one moment be supposed to suggest any con- 
 cession of Christian doctrine and practice, or any amalgam of 
 Hinduism and Christianity ; but I would remind all, who are 
 interested in the spread of Christ's Kingdom, that the Church in 
 India may be as much built on Christ as our own, and yet have 
 very different external developments. It may be free from many 
 of the weaknesses, which disgrace our own, and may be exposed 
 to others, which we have never suffered from. I am deliberately 
 of opinion, from a long and intimate knowledge of the great 
 races of Northern India, that to struggling converts trying to 
 pass into the Christian fold through the mazes of an Oriental 
 civilization, an Oriental morality, and Oriental weakness of 
 character, it is desirable, that the boon should be conceded of 
 being allowed to marry only within certain families, if they 
 wish to be so restricted, and to eat and drink only with certain 
 people, except at the Lord's Table. It is amazing to think, that 
 Christian ministers should place on such weak backs a burden, 
 ■which strong Christians, such as may be found in an old 
 Christian country like this, would not allow their ministers to 
 suggest to them from the pulpit. The whole mistake arises 
 from our forgetting, that the people of India are men of like 
 passions to ourselves, neither worse nor better. The Mis- 
 sionary will find it as much as he can do to wean them from 
 Idolatry, keep them from Immorality, and protect them from 
 Infidelity. And the permanency of his work will depend upon 
 his remembering this. The English domination may pass 
 away like a dream in the course of another generation, and only 
 be remembered as a somewhat important incident in the long 
 history of Indian civilization. But Institutions, built up on the 
 Great Truths of Scripture, upon the solid foundations of Natural 
 Equity, will stand unshaken amidst the ruin of empires, and 
 wield no lessened power, when the mightiest thrones have 
 fallen. 
 
 Mission Life, 188; (with additions, 1888). 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 V. 
 
 THE CULTIVATION OF THE POPPY, AND 
 MANUFACTURE OF OPIUM. 
 
 Are the People of British India to be Sacrificed to 
 THE Chinese ? 
 
 " Audi Alteram Partem." 
 
 In the midst of loud declamation and plenteous abuse, the Anti- 
 Opium agitators neglect to grapple in a practical manner with 
 the subject, or suggest any feasible remedy for the alleged evil. 
 It is natural, that this should be so, for, not understanding the 
 formidable complications of the disease, how can they prescribe 
 for the patient ? The problem is a solemn one. If the agitators 
 urge, that China is not to be sacrificed to the financial wants of 
 India, the whole body of Anglo-Indians rise, as one man, to 
 maintain, that British India shall not be sacrificed to the moral 
 weakness of China. Great Britain has no direct interest in the 
 matter : every rupee of the vast sums spent in the culture of the 
 poppy, and the manufacture of the drug, is supplied by natives 
 of British India, or Anglo-Indians, transacting business in India. 
 Let me clear away sundry topics, which only cloud the discus- 
 sion, and divert the mind from the real issue, which is, "What 
 shall be done ? " 
 
 I. The war of 1841-42 may, or may not, have been connected 
 with opium in its origin (which is doubtful), or have been wicked, 
 (which is also doubtful) ; but, whatever it was, it is an accom- 
 plished fact and a matter of history. 
 
 II. The war of 1857 arose entirely from the capture of a small 
 vessel, and had nothing to do with opium. Be it recollected, 
 that Parliament was dissolved, and the matter was laid before 
 the cou'ntry, and the war was the direct result of the votes of the 
 electors of Great Britain and Ireland. The people had the 
 matter before them, and decided upon it. British India was not 
 consulted. 
 
 III. Peace was made, and certain ports were thrown open 
 to all merchandize, opium, at the request of the Chinese, being 
 
( 94 ) 
 
 admitted to the Free Ports subject to a fixed Customs-Duty. 
 Beyond those Treaty-ports China is absolutely master of the 
 situation, and nothing can pass out of those ports without an 
 arbitrary transit-duty, which can at discretion be made prohibi- 
 tory. I have ascertained this fact from the most competent 
 authorities, and, if there were any treaty, compelling^ China to 
 admit opium beyond the Treaty-ports, I should join in the 
 petition to have the treaty repealed. It is very true that, if the 
 Chinese were to forbid the passage of opium out of the Treaty- 
 ports, smuggling would be resorted to along two thousand miles 
 of coast by men of every nationality ; but Great Britain, if it 
 attempted to exclude French brandy, would run the same risk, 
 and the Navy of the United States was not able to exclude the 
 blockade-runners during the cotton famine. 
 
 IV. The injurious effect of over-indulgence in opium-smoking 
 is admitted. But every nation has its prevailing vice, which 
 must be attacked by moral arguments, not by the Arm of the 
 Flesh. An English Bishop rightly said, that it would be better 
 for men to be drunkards than slaves. The people of Great 
 Britain extract twenty-eight millions annually from the in- 
 temperate habits of a portion of the community. There are 
 •worse things in China, a far greater moral coritamination than 
 opium-smoking. Why do the citizens of the United States, and 
 the Colonists of Australia and British Columbia, who admit all 
 nationalities to their territory, exclude the Chinese ? Because 
 they bring with them a contamination worse than opium-smoking. 
 They occupy among races the position of the Bug among insects. 
 
 V. If the habit of opium-smoking is so destructive of body 
 and mind, as the agitators say, it would tell upon the population. 
 China, however, is like a full bowl, overflowing into every land, 
 Australia, New Zealand, the Indian Archipelago, South Africa, 
 and America. Other vices bring with them sterility, poverty, 
 and national weakness. China is a power of unwieldy but 
 gigantic strength : it has recovered all its lost ground on its 
 North-West frontier, holds its own against European Powers, 
 and there are no signs of decay in its arts, manufactures, or 
 national development. 
 
 VI. If unhappy Ireland had a culture, a manufacture, and an 
 article of export, which enabled the tenant to live in comfort, 
 the landlord to receive his rent without fail, the State to levy an 
 excise of many millions on the export ; if the population were 
 indebted to this culture for social and undemoralized happiness 
 and content, would the Parliament of Ireland consent to destroy 
 this culture, and arrest this manufacture, because the inhabi- 
 tants of the Fiji Islands, or South America, were so uncontrolled 
 in their appetites, and so abandoned in their proclivities, as to 
 destroy themselves with over-libations of Irish whisky .-' Yet 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 such is the state of many millions in British India, to whom the 
 culture of the poppy is as the wand of Fortunatus. Landlord 
 and tenant welcome the arrival of the Opium-Factory Agent, 
 who pays upwards of a million in advance without interest, under 
 contract, for delivery of the poppy juice, thus protecting the 
 cultivator from the exactions of the village banker, and enabling- 
 him to pay his rent to his landlord, and enabling the landlord to 
 pay his land-tax to the State. 
 
 VII. If British India were a constitutional Colony (and one 
 excellent result of this agitation will be, that independent con- 
 stitutional powers will be conceded to it for self-protection from 
 selfish Englishmen), would it be expected, that the Colonial 
 Parliament would throw to the winds a revenue of many millions, 
 because irresponsible men in Great Britain take up one side of 
 a question, and, forgetting the drunkenness of their own country, 
 and the frightful injuries inflicted upon Africa byBritish commerce 
 in arms and liquors, sympathize with the debased Chinese opium- 
 smoker, and its debased and mercenary rulers, who fill their 
 despatches with moral saws, and tolerate ineffable abomination's } 
 
 VIII. " Begin at home" is a maxim, which applies both to 
 the British agitator and the Chinese Government. China will 
 soon become, if it is not already, the largest opium-producer in 
 the world, and some even think, that ere long it will export 
 opium. Of one fact, however, there can be no doubt, that 
 travellers in remote regions find the poppy-cultivation and the 
 opium-pipe among tribes never visited by Europeans, or accessible 
 to the Indian drug. It is not clear, that opium-smoking ever 
 has prevailed outside China : in British India, with the excep- 
 tion of British Barma, which is outside of India proper, and in 
 the Indo-Chinese Peninsula, it is totally unknown. 
 
 IX. With our streets at home inundated with intoxicating 
 liquors, with our manufacturers sending out annually arms, 
 ammunition, and rum, to every part of unhappy Africa, so as to 
 enable the aborigines, who have survived down to the nineteenth 
 century, and have outlived the foreign slave-trade, to destroy 
 themselves by internecine war and a liquor, of which they 
 were ignorant before the arrival of the white man : with human 
 sacrifices and cannibalism still practised in marts to which our 
 traders resort : with many forms of frightful cruelty and horrible 
 crime rampant in countries to which we have access, are we to 
 throw away the Empire of India in the vain and fanciful idea of 
 keeping back a heathen Chinaman from his pipe, while we have 
 failed to hold back a Christian Englishman from his pot } 
 
 X. It is notorious, that the surplus-income of British India 
 over the absolute necessities of the State is supplied by the 
 wonderful and heaven-sent windfall of the opium-revenue, and 
 out of this surplus fund the Bishops with their Chaplains, and 
 
( 96 ) 
 
 the grants-in-aid to the Missionary Societies from the Education 
 Department, have for many years been paid. If then this source 
 of revenue be so tainted, as the Anti-Opium agitators would 
 have us believe : if it be an accursed thing, like the price of 
 blood, the wage of the prostitute, the cost of a brother's soul, 
 and the incense offered to Mammon, how is it that these 
 Societies, so outwardly blessed by the Almighty, can accept a 
 part of the spoils and mingle it with the pure offerings of 
 Missionary love and thanksgiving ? It is their duty before God 
 and Men to reject the contamination. The Missionary Societies 
 know very well from what source the surplus-income of British 
 India comes, and yet they do not hesitate to take their share. 
 
 XL Amidst the agitators there are two camps ; the platform- 
 orators, and the prudent Secretary of the Anti Opium Society, 
 who must sometimes start at the utterances of the extreme 
 members of his own party. We have heard the cultivation of 
 the Poppy likened to the Slave-trade. What does this mean } No 
 doubt the Slave-trade was a curse to the country which despatched 
 the slaves, and a heavier curse to the countrywhich received the 
 slaves ; but the sympathy of the world was with the slave himself, 
 a man of like passions to ourselves, and with an immortal soul. 
 But the cultivation of the Poppy is one of the choicest and 
 richest blessings to the country which exports it, blest at every 
 stage of the transaction, and to every one concerned in it : 
 to the country which receives it, it has neither brought depopu- 
 lation, nor poverty, nor sterility, nor weakness, though to a large 
 number (about two millions out of a population of four hundred 
 millions) of the debauched members of that nation it has 
 supplied an opiate, more carefully prepared and of greater 
 intrinsic excellence than the culture and manufacture of his own 
 country can produce, or at least has as yet produced, for, in the 
 ports of Mongolia the Chinese indigenous opium has driven out 
 the Indian alien drug. We can scarcely suppose that any 
 sympathy is felt with the fate of the opium-ball : so the analogy 
 with the Slave-trade falls to the ground. 
 
 XII. The agitators sometimes urge, that it is an Indian, some- 
 times a British question; but I never heard any one urge 
 seriously, that sevenpence in the pound should be added to the 
 British Income-tax to make up for the loss of Revenue to British 
 India, and that compensation should be given to the landlords 
 and tenants and chiefs of Central India for the terrible loss 
 caused to them by the abandonment of a profitable culture. 
 Yet, if we have the strength of our convictions, we should rise 
 to the dignity of paying the forfeit of our own misconduct. 
 Sydriey Smith gives an anecdote of the Bishops on one occasion 
 feeding the starving populace with the dinners of the Deans and 
 Canons, while they kept their own. When Slavery was abolished, 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 the twenty millions of compensation were paid by Great Britain, 
 and not by the West India Islands. An extremely moral 
 sensitiveness should not be sordid, and attempt to make a 
 scape-goat of another country, to satisfy its own scruples, not 
 shared by the people of India. A much larger sum (perhaps 
 five-fold) than twenty millions would be required to supply the 
 compensation to the agricultural interests wantonly injured 
 by the Exeter Hall moralists. Nor would the Chinese be any 
 the better for this Quixotic insanity. 
 
 XI I I. Another line of argument, brought forward in Exeter Hall, 
 is, that the suppression of the Manufacture would cause British 
 India no loss at all. It is stated, with charming simplicity, that the 
 area of culturable soil, now occupied by the poppy, would be at 
 once transferred to cereals, which would be equally profitable 
 and be a safeguard against famine. How little do such advo- 
 cates know of the infinite trouble taken, during the last thirty 
 years, to introduce into British India other and more profitable 
 products than cereals ? How little does he reflect, that a glut of 
 cereals is the ruin of a country, unless the means of export are 
 at a very high stage of development, which requires capital .? 
 Besides, land under poppy-culture pays its land-tax to the State, 
 and the rent to the landowner ; and it will have to do the same 
 if under garden-crops or sugar-cane : but over and above the 
 land-revenue and rent, the opium pays an export duty of many 
 millions to the State, and who could place an export-duty 
 on any other crop } There would, therefore, be a dead loss to 
 the State, but the landlord and tenant, in losing the poppy- 
 culture, would lose their enhanced profit upon a profitable 
 culture with a certain demand, and in the provinces under the 
 Bangal Monopoly, they would lose the opium-advances, which 
 fall annually in a shower of silver over the fortunate districts 
 suitable for the cultivation of the poppy. 
 
 XIV. Herod and Pilate are reported to have become friends 
 on the occasion of the condemnation of an innocent prisoner. 
 This reflection rises in the mind, when we read of a Roman 
 Cardinal and the Evangelical Clergy of England joined in a 
 strange alliance. In the Papal Bull of 1882, the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society is described as the eldest daughter of 
 Satan, and all Protestant Missionaries as propagators of lies, and 
 yet the evidence, which has convinced the Cardinal, is supplied 
 by these Missionaries. On the other hand, the Evangelical 
 Clergy have over and over again denounced the Pope as the 
 Father of Lies, and yet on this extremely complicated question 
 of morality and politics, they appear on the platform, and 
 exchange compliments with the Cardinal. The astute Cardinal 
 would keep the Monopoly, which we Anglo-Indians are longing 
 to get rid of, until he can find an opportunity to cut down the 
 culture, manufacture, and trade, root and branch. Others would 
 
( 98 ) 
 
 get rid of the Monopoly as a glaring offence, and leave to time 
 and public opinion to correct the greater evil, which is in- 
 extricably entwined with the great principles of liberty, freedom 
 of culture, freedom of trade, and freedom of export. Still the 
 independent observer cannot but look on the sudden alliance 
 between parties otherwise so opposed in a matter, the whole 
 gist of which is mixed up with the efforts of Protestant Missions, 
 as inauspicious and suspicious. Over and over again it is 
 asserted, that the Manufacture of opium in Bangd.1 is the chief 
 obstacle of Protestant Missions, and the Missionary Societies 
 take it up as such, without going into the truth of the assertion. 
 Such being the case, the Cardinal was a strange ally : " Non 
 tali auxilio." I remark that there was the same inauspicious 
 conjunction of orators to attack the Surgeons on the platform 
 of the Anti-Vivisection Society. 
 
 " National Sin " is the cuckoo-cry of the party. Each day His 
 Eminence the Cardinal, the great champion of the Anti-Opium 
 party, kneels in his Oratory and prays, that the Lord would 
 remove from Great Britain the great National Sin of Protestantism. 
 The High Church party pray daily, that the Lord would remove 
 the National Sin of the schism of the Nonconformist Churches 
 of Great Britain, who presume to preach the Gospel without 
 the Divine Commission of the Apostolic succession. I have 
 heard the Reredos of St. Paul's Cathedral called a "National 
 Sin." In many quarters it is called a "National Sin" not to 
 allow Home Rule and unrestrained confiscation of property in 
 Ireland. We must discount the meaning of these much-abused 
 words at the value placed upon the general intelligence, experi- 
 ence, and judicial calmness of persons, who use it. 
 
 I would not willingly say an unkind word against any mission- 
 ary. I am a Member of the Committee of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society and the Church Missionary Society, and 
 take an active interest in every attempt to evangelize India and 
 China, assisting the work by addresses on platforms, by my 
 writings, my subscriptions, and the devotion of the best part 
 of my time to Committee work. Their motives are pure and 
 above suspicion: their hostility to the Culture and Manufacture 
 of the Poppy-juice in India is inspired by respectable but 
 mistaken feelings, roused by ignorance, or misconception 
 of the real state of the case. The plummet-line of their 
 investigations does not reach the bottom. They do not appear 
 to advantage in this controversy, as going out of their proper 
 sphere, and displaying a narrowness of vision. Some of 
 them are indeed great men, of whom the world may be 
 proud, but the majority are men of self devotion and probity; 
 but no Government would deem it wise to rule an Empire on 
 their advice, or according to their notions. 
 
 In China there are six hundred Missionaries, and they represent 
 
( 99- )• 
 
 thirty-eight different Societies, of different Nationalities and 
 Denominations. The people of China know very well, that there 
 is a great difference between a Frenchman, a German, an Ameri- 
 can and a Briton, and they know that British India belongs solely 
 to Great Britain, and that from British India comes the opium, 
 which they so much prefer to their home-grown opium, just as 
 the British Native prefers the claret and brandy of France to 
 his own gin and beer. Now I read the weekly organ of the 
 Roman Catholics,, and I do not find, that the French Priest in 
 China attacks the Opium-importer as the obstacle to his work, 
 but rather the Protestant Missionary, as the great propagandist 
 of deadly error. The American and German Missionary can, 
 in no sense, be said to be partakers of the so-called " National 
 Sin " of the British people (though it is to be feared that many 
 Germans and Americans are engaged in the export trade of 
 Opium from Calcutta to China), and I cannot find, that the 
 Chinese people receive them more gladly, or that their conver- 
 sions are more numerous. 
 
 In Missionary phraseology the great kingdoms of India and 
 China, with their population of seven hundred millions, are con- 
 ventionally described as the kingdom of Satan : those of us, who 
 have lived a quarter of a century in the midst of the people of 
 India, know how untrue that description is of them, and it may 
 be assumed to be equally untrue of the Chinese. The kingdom 
 of Satan, if it were localized, would probably be found in 
 some European capital. They fix on some particular evil, which 
 strikes their eye, and attribute to that evil their want of success 
 in their field, forgetting that in other fields, where that particular 
 evil does not exist, want of progress is complained of also. 
 For instance. Caste is denounced in India, Opium in China, 
 Cannibalism and Slavery in Africa, and Polygamy and idolatry 
 everywhere. As a rule, owing to the necessity of acquiring the 
 vernacular language, the transfer of a Missionary from one field 
 to another is not possible : so a Chinese Missionary lives and 
 dies with the conviction, that, if he could get rid of his bugbear 
 opium, his way would be clear. Nor are those, who chronicle 
 the works of Missionaries in Europe, wiser; for I read in a, 
 pamphlet by a simple-hearted German writer, that he would 
 recommend the British Government, at once to throw up and 
 abandon the millions obtained from India from the export of 
 opium, and trust to God to supply the deficit. I write with all 
 reverence, that empires are not built up and maintained on such 
 principles. It is a pulpit-utterance, and not the counsel of a ruler. 
 
 Nor do the Missionaries recollect the famous words of Prince 
 Kung : 
 Take away from us your Missionaries and your Opium. 
 
 Sir Rutherford Alcock, has publicly stated, that the enmity felt 
 
( Joo ) 
 
 by the Chinese to the importation of foreign opium sinks into 
 nothing, and will not bear comparison with the hatred, felt and 
 openly expressed for Missionaries of all denominations and their 
 doctrines, and it has been a constant trouble to the Ministers of 
 the French, British and American Governments. In 1884 at 
 Fuh Chou placards were stuck up against the Missionaries. I 
 do not justify the Chinese rulers or people, but I state facts, and 
 it is reasonable to believe, that, if China recovered its indepen- 
 dence, it would sweep away all treaties, and get rid of both 
 subjects of annoyance. The Missionaries have, in China and 
 elsewhere, directly and indirectly, done infinite good, and it 
 would be wiser and better, if they would not meddle in politics, 
 leaving to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar, and devoting 
 themselves to the things of God. And I can truly say, that 
 throughout the length and breadth of India, with extremely rare 
 exceptions, such has been the practice of Missionaries of every 
 denomination. Unhappily in China the Missionaries have taken 
 up political agitation, with very little advantage or credit. Could 
 these excellent men, whom I love even in their weaknesses, have 
 a term of five years in Africa, how gladly, on their return to 
 China, they would accept the Chinaman with his pipe, and try 
 and win him by moral influences and the public press, could 
 they be rid of the savage and the cannibal, the sorcerer and the 
 executioner, whose presence weighs down the spirit of the 
 Missionary on the Victoria Nyanza and the Niger. 
 
 The agitation has been re-echoed by a certain class in Great 
 Britain. So long as the principle of repressing the use of 
 intoxicating liquors and drugs is not adopted by the State for the 
 people of Great Britain, it seems mere mockery and hypocrisy 
 on the part of Britons to apply it arbitrarily to a nation not 
 under their control. The Chinese, who are the consumers, and 
 the Indians, who are the producers, must laugh at the hypocrisy 
 of a nation, of which drunkenness is the notorious blot, and 
 urge it to begin its moral reform at home. In one of the reports 
 of the Society I read, that the Chinese Government desire to stop 
 opium-smoking among their own soldiers, and they are quite 
 right to do so ; but it is shocking to think, that for the first 
 offence the punishment is slitting, or excision, of the upper lip, 
 and the second offence is visited with decapitation. In all our 
 wars we have refused to accept as allies tribes, who scalped their 
 prisoners. The Anti-Opium Society does not hesitate to ally 
 itself with the rulers of China, who openly avow such barbarous 
 laws, though we may hope that they are not acted upon. 
 
 I was reading a short time ago the Report of the Anti-Vacci- 
 nation Society, and but for the title, it might have been supposed 
 to have been the Report of the Anti-Opium Society : there 
 were the same speeches at public meetings, the same complacent 
 
 
( loi ) 
 
 self-assertion, a general abuse of all Governments, who were 
 fools, or knaves, or both, and a disposal of a most intricate and 
 difiBcult question in an off-hand manner. The Reports of the 
 Anti-Vivisection Society are moulded in the same mould. Many 
 of the discussions of the Anti-Opium Society have the character 
 of a College Debating Society, for the Society is spoken of as 
 " the English nation," and one individual, writing from Calcutta, 
 vouches for the opinion of the Hindu people ; another corre- 
 spondent, who had never left Hong-Kong, undertakes to express 
 the opinion of the Chinese people. About twelve men seem 
 to do all the speaking, for their names appear at all the meet- 
 ings, and the same arguments are used with variations of 
 inaccuracy, reiteration of abuse, and strange inconsistency. 
 Can a tree at the same time bring forth good and bad fruit } 
 Can the long succession of Indian Viceroys and Governors, 
 whose praise is in the lips of all parties, whose Biographies are 
 sold by thousands of copies, all have been deceived, or were 
 they purposely blind and base in this one particular ? Most of 
 the speakers on this subject are of third and fourth rate calibre, 
 and ■ some really good speakers, when they handle the opium 
 pipe, fall short of their usual excellence, as if out of their depth, 
 or uncertain of the drift of their policy: occasionally, really 
 great men have stepped down into the arena. Lord Salisbury 
 and Mr. Gladstone were at one on this issue : the former states- 
 man remarked, in a somewhat bantering tone, that the deputation 
 
 Raised a very large question, when they asked them to interfere in any way 
 to discourage the action of private enterprise in supplying a drug, which the 
 Chinese preferred to take. He could not hold out any hope that any legislation 
 in that direction was probable. If he were to assign a time, when such 
 legislation might be undertaken, he should say it would be subsequent to the 
 time, when a Bill was passed preventing the sale of spirits in England. 
 
 But Mr. Gladstone, in 1880, raised the question above its 
 usual level, and touched a higher chord : he said : 
 
 Do not let it be supposed, that I am treating this subject with indifference. 
 The charge is that this subject has been approached from a very low ]evel of 
 morality (hear, hear). Let us see, then, whether we cannot escape from this 
 low level of morality, and resort to the high level of morality which is re- 
 commended. If we are told, that we must abolish this traffic, then the charge 
 has no meaning at all, unless we assume the obligation on the part of the 
 people of England. Either we are to assume the obligation on the part of the 
 people of England, or content ourselves at the present moment with giving a 
 promise that something will be done in the future. It would be a very high 
 level of morality indeed, in one point of view, if we were prepared on behalf of 
 our constituents to put 31/. or 4^. on the income-tax, and assume the payment 
 of these seven millions. That would be taking our stand on a high level of 
 morality. But that is no part of the debate. That is not proposed ; therefore 
 that is not the level of the morality. It must be some other level of morahty, 
 and let us see what it is. 
 
 And how injudicious, and impolitic, and indeed un-Christian, 
 
( 102 ) 
 
 has been the mode of agitation adopted. Hard words and gross 
 insults have been heaped upon a body of men, who for a long 
 series of years have watched over the interests of the great 
 Indian people. No close Corporation, no City Guild, no Com- 
 pany of Merchants, has been fattened by the Poppy-cultivation. 
 It is notorious, that the Government of India is renewed every 
 five years by both the great parties of the State, and a long line 
 of illustrious statesmen, and an army of less distinguished but 
 no less honest and single-minded servants of the State, both 
 Civil and Military, have made India their study and delight. 
 Some, like Lord Elgin, have brought Chinese experience to 
 India; others, like Lord Napier of Magdala, have served in both 
 countries. There has been a Government at home independent 
 of the Government of India, and yet there has been an absolute 
 uniformity of opinion on this great question, shared by every 
 one of the servants of the Queen, who had studied the subject. 
 Nor have the distinguished representatives of England in China 
 arrived at a contrary opinion. I have myself taken the oppor- 
 tunity of personally consulting members of the China Diplomatic 
 Body on their return to England, and I have received always 
 the same reply. To show the length to which this abuse has 
 gone, I mention that in my presence a Member of Parliament, 
 at a great public meeting, asserted that the " gold coin, called 
 a Sovereign, was large enough to hide the name of God," as if 
 any of the distinguished champions of the policy pursued by the 
 Government of India for the last forty years had the remotest 
 pecuniary interest in the matter. They were not slave-holders 
 fighting to retain their slaves, or monopolists struggling to retain 
 their monopoly, or rack-renting landlords to maintain their right 
 of eviction, but persons totally uninterested in the issue, but 
 convinced, that an attempt was being made to force a policy 
 contrary to the rights and interests of the people of India. 
 
 Let me consider the matter from the Chinese side of the 
 question. I am not careful to defend the use of the drug, or to 
 assert that opium-smoking is innocuous. So much I can say 
 from knowledge. I lived a great many years among the Sikhs 
 of the Panjdb, who habitually swallowed opium-pills, and a finer, 
 manlier, more prolific race cannot be found. In China Millions 
 I find at page 32, 1879, that Opium was plentiful in Yunan, and 
 yet the people had a well to-do appearance and good houses, 
 notwithstanding that the narcotic, home-grown, could be pur- 
 chased for a trifle. Mr. Cooper remarks, that it would be death 
 to a large portion of the population suddenly to stop the supply, 
 and that the Chinese Government, in wishing to stop the Indian 
 opium, were acting, as they generally do, without any idea of 
 the welfare of the people. I read in the Friend of China, 1883, 
 page 221, that the elders of a village begged that the cultivation 
 
( I03 ) 
 
 of the poppy might be stopped in theii: village, remarking- that 
 about one per cent, would smoke Indian opium, while twenty 
 per cent, smoked home-grown opium. The greatest anti-opium 
 agitator is obliged to admit, that jio reliance could be placed 
 upon edicts from Pekin, as they meant nothing, and were only 
 bland expressions of Confucian morality. Moreover, they are 
 known to mean nothing, and subordinates in high office smoked 
 opium, and collected excise on imported opium, and took bribes 
 to permit home-grown opium : attempts to stop cultivation, or 
 destroy cultivation, notoriously failed. It transpires, that the 
 Chinese themselves, while their Rulers were denouncing the 
 trade of the Europeans, were exporting opium from Yunan to 
 Barma. There seems little doubt, that the amount of home- 
 grown opium far exceeded the imported opium, and the real 
 objection of the Chinese Government was to the annual drain 
 of silver from China, as the balance of trade was against themi, 
 It is notorious, that the Chinese Government levy an excise upon 
 home-grown opium exceeding one million, and levy a differential 
 duty on land cultivated with the poppy. 
 
 But of all things the idea is to be deprecated of making 
 China a corpus vile, upon which benevolent enthusiasts desire to 
 inaugurate a policy, which they are totally unable to enforce at 
 home. One authority reports that opium-smoking is a pleasure, 
 which it is quite possible to enjoy in moderation, and take in 
 the same way as the Scotchman takes his whisky ; and a 
 Chinaman stupefied by opium is a much less terrible person 
 than a Scotchman excited by whisky. Setting aside, however, 
 such considerations, there is no doubt, that the violent extirpa- 
 tion of opium-smoking in China is as impossible as that of gin- 
 drinking in Great Britain. When men are persuaded that the 
 practice is undesirable, the fashion will die out ; but attempts 
 to compel them before they are so convinced can only lead 
 to aggravation of the ills complained of. XVhy should an 
 enlightened Government, such as the British, recommend the 
 tottering dynasty of the Chinese Empire to interfere with the 
 private habits of the people 1 This would be dangerous even in 
 England, where the people are educated and enlightened. We 
 should never attempt such a crusade in India. Mr. Herbert 
 Spencer, in his late work, "Man versus the State," shows that we 
 are advancing too far in that direction in England, and over- 
 governing, and therefore mis-governing. The Sikh Government, 
 which preceded us in the Panjdb, forbade the use of tobacco, or 
 the slaughter of kine, but tolerated the burning of widows^ 
 the killing of female infants, and the burying alive of lepers. 
 Mahometan rulers forbid liquor- shops, while they tolerate 
 Polygamy, and punish an abandonment of the Mahometan 
 religion by death. In the Papal States change of religion 
 
( I04 ) 
 
 and matrimony to a large proportion of the people were 
 forbidden, but there was no objection to State Lotteries, 
 licentious lives, and liquor-shops. Leave the people in their 
 pleasures and their private habits alone, so long as they refrain 
 from breaches of the peace, and appropriation of the property 
 of others. Leave it to moral pressure, and education, and 
 general advancement, to control, diminish, and eventually 
 eradicate the particular moral weaknesses, from which no one 
 nation is free, though they differ in character and degree. It is 
 very easy to make a treaty, forbidding the importation of opium 
 into Japan, because the people are not addicted to the drug. It 
 is still easier for the Government of the United States to make 
 a treaty forbidding the export of opium from North America, 
 considering, that no opium is grown in the length and breadth 
 of the United States : whether American citizens abstain from 
 the trade in the Chinese seas is very doubtful. So random 
 are the assertions, that it is a relief to find, that no one has yet 
 charged the Indian Government with introducing the cultivation 
 of the poppy into Western China, vid Thibet and Barma, from 
 pure motives of mischief, to complete the proofs that the 
 Government consisted of men who were both knaves and fools. 
 The import of opium from Persia is comparatively insignificant. 
 Borneo opium up to this time is only a possibility. On the 
 Zambdsi, in East Africa, the Portuguese have commenced the- 
 cultivation, and send the opium to India. One of the chief 
 resources of the Dutch Government in the Indian Archipelago 
 is opium : it is sold to the Chinese, and forms one-tenth of the 
 revenue of the colony. Here is a National Sin in the embryo 
 stage. 
 
 It must be recollected, that the Chinese Empire is sending 
 colonists literally all over the world, and they take their pipe 
 with them, and it is asserted, that they recommend with success 
 the custom to the inhabitants of the country where they settle. 
 This fact does not bear on the subject of importation of Indian 
 opium into China, and is only mentioned by the Anti-Opium 
 Society by way of aggravation. There are, however, colonies 
 of Chinese in Singaptir, the Malay States, the Islands of 
 Sumatra and Java, the French Settlements of Saigon, and the 
 Kingdom of Siam, as well as in Peru and California. They all 
 smoke opium, and are beyond the influence of the Chinese 
 Government, but they intercept a portion of the Indian opium 
 shipped for the China seas. The Chinese at Singapur are 
 robust, hearty and energetic beyond other Eastern races, and 
 yet beyond doubt they are all smokers. Is it expected, that 
 in Australia, Hong-Kong and Singapiir, British Colonies, the 
 crime of smoking opium is to be punished in the Courts of 
 Law? It is whispered that the practice has commenced in 
 
( los ) 
 
 London, and is extensive in the United States of North 
 America. 
 
 There is little doubt that the Chinese Government has been 
 false throughout. In spite of the high moral seasoning which 
 distinguishes their arguments, the real taste of their flesh is 
 sometimes discovered. The Grand Secretary, argued to Sir 
 T. Wade, that the fair thing would be for the Indian Govern- 
 ment to divide the enormous profits on the export of opium 
 with China, share and share alike. He declined to give up his 
 revenue on home-grown opium. In fact, he showed himself 
 to be a ruler of men, and not a member of an irresponsible 
 voluntary association. The Mandarins and the Governors of 
 Provinces smoke themselves, and make a profit upon the drug. 
 The real solution of the difliculty will be to deal with home- 
 raised and foreign opium upon an equitable adjustment of excise, 
 transit-duty, and customs. 
 
 Let me consider the matter from the Indian point of view. 
 I took the opportunity of stating, some years ago, at a meeting 
 of the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, that the 
 Government of India had nailed its flag to the mast, and that I 
 rejoiced, that it had done so. The Viceroy in Council has 
 recorded his opinion, that the sudden loss on the excise would 
 cause insolvency : this is stated in language not capable of 
 misapprehension: other sources of revenue are not available, 
 and reduction of expenditure is impossible. The abolition of 
 the export duty would confer a very doubtful benefit on the 
 Chinese, but it would do incalculable harm to the millions of 
 India. Perhaps this is overstated, as empires and nations have 
 survived heavier losses. I was very sorry to hear, that an attempt 
 had ■ been made to widen the cultivation in the North- West 
 Provinces, but it proved to be an utter failure. The cultivators 
 stated, that they had been badly used in old days, that they did 
 not now understand the cultivation, and had other crops which 
 paid as well, and they wanted no change. The improvement of 
 communication enabled more bulky produce, such as sugar-cane 
 and potatoes, to be carried to distant markets, and the poppy is 
 driven to inferior lands. It is satisfactory to know that the area 
 of 500,000 acres, now occupied by the poppy, will not be 
 enlarged. 
 
 It appears, that not more than ^200,000 is realized from 
 opium sold in India at the different Collectorates. India 
 abounds in stimulants and narcotics, and opium is only one of 
 man}'. The Arian nations seem to prefer to swallow the drug, 
 the Non-Arian to smoke it. I have often as Collector superin- 
 tended the sale of the opium to the local retailers : if a prisoner 
 were found to be addicted to opium, he had to be supplied with 
 daily decreasing doses, so as to wean him of the habit without 
 
( 106 ) 
 
 endangering his life : only once I came upon two imen from the 
 Himalaya (whence also much opium is imported into India) 
 who were hopelessly addicted to the practice, and were 
 miserable objects. In the early days of our rule in the 
 Panjib, where the cultivation has never been restricted, post, 
 a decoction o£ opium, was sold openly in the shops licensed 
 for the purpose. In Western India a decoction of opium is 
 sold publicly in the cities, and called Kusumba. The Anti- 
 Opium Society will scarcely find proofs, that with such vast 
 stores of opium available in British India, we have attempted 
 to raise revenue by encouraging our subjects to indulge vicious 
 habits. We have raised the largest possible revenue out of the 
 smallest possible supply, but this subject will be discussed in the 
 following Essay. 
 
 There is not the least probability of the present policy being 
 abandoned or modified, but it is as well to consider what is 
 possible or the contrary. We might abandon the export duty, 
 and set the Indian opium as free as indigo and grain. The 
 consequences would be an enormous increase of the exported 
 article, an excessive fall of the price of the drug in China, and 
 such a defalcation in the Indian revenue as would cause insolvency 
 for the time at least. If an attempt were made to impose other 
 taxes, we may imagine the indignation of the people of India: 
 the mass of the population is very poor: the salt tax ought 
 to be reduced : to impose further burdens merely to gratify 
 a mpral whim of a small portion of the British people, who had 
 taken up an extreme view of the subject, would be a cruel 
 injustice, and arouse a keen sense of wrong wilfully and widely 
 inflicted, and would go far to justify a Rebellion. 
 
 We might abolish the Monopoly, and disconnect the State 
 with the manufacture and sale of the drug. To some tender 
 and uninstructed consciences 'the very existence of this 
 Monopoly aggravates the evil, and, as a rule, all Monopolies 
 are wrong, and I am in favour of tWe abolition at all risks; 
 but if the State withdrew, its place would at once be occupied 
 by a Company, and very serious considerations would arise. 
 So inexplicable are the reasons which guide good men in 
 their actions, that it is possible, that some of the loudest 
 denouncers of the National Sin, as the Manufacture is called, 
 might be found among the shareholders of this new Company. 
 On the death of an advanced total abstainer a few years ago, 
 he was found to have shares in a hotel, which held a liquor 
 licence, and his family could not see the inconsistency. But the 
 abolition of the Monopoly cannot Be looked upon only from the 
 financial point of view, but as a measure affecting the well- 
 being of the people of India. A great Company, seeking only 
 a good dividend, would flood the country with opium, with great 
 
( I07 ) 
 
 injury to the people. It is true, that no Monopoly exists in the 
 West of India, whence nearly half the export duty is collected, 
 but the poppy cultivation is entirely within the territory of Native 
 States, whose system differs entirely from our own. It is obvious, 
 that a State-Monopoly is the severest of all fiscal restraints, 
 and those, who really desire the export to be reduced, should not 
 seek to destroy the Monopoly, however scandalized they may be » 
 by its existence. 
 
 We might forbid the export, in the same way as the Govern- 
 ment of Italy forbids the export of works of art, but it would be 
 impossible to prevent smuggling with a seaboardof two thousand 
 miles. The people of India would resent the, to them, unintel- 
 ligible policy of interference with a profitable trade, contrary to all 
 the well-established principles of political economy. The cost of 
 the preventive force would be very heavy, and the interference 
 with other trades very annoying. In fact, such a measure 
 scarcely comes within practical politics, and we should have the 
 Native Chiefs of Central India to deal with : they derive a large 
 revenue from the cultivation of the Poppy : the prohibition of 
 export would entirely destroy this, and they would demand 
 compensation, and so would the Landholders of Bangal. 
 Who would satisfy these lawful demands arising from incon- 
 siderate legislation } 
 
 That we should prohibit the culture of the poppy within 
 British India is a thing that is not possible. It would be a 
 policy unworthy of an enlightened Government, and would 
 be incapable of execution. It is true, that we can restrict the 
 culture to certain regions which are most suitable to the crop. 
 I have had considerable experience in the North of India 
 from the river Karamnasa to the river Indus, and consider it 
 impossible to forbid absolutely any culture. Moreover, the 
 regions, where the poppy grows, are the recruiting grounds of 
 the Native Army, and they would have a word to say in this 
 matter. If the culture were prohibited in British India, and 
 allowed to continue in the Native States, the production there 
 would be stimulated : the attempt to prohibit the culture in 
 the independent Native States of Rajputdna and Central India 
 would either be illusory, or, if enforced, lead to very serious 
 consequences, and peril to the very existence of our Empire in 
 India. 
 
 And at the same tirne that India was thus exposing herself 
 to perils, and expenditure in the maintenance of repressive 
 establishments, in a fight against Nature, equity and common 
 sense, the Chinaman would be smoking his pipe with opium 
 supplied by his own country, or other opium-growing countries, 
 not such good opium perhaps, but much cheaper, and in much 
 larger quantities ; and it is not obvious that, if the Anti-Opium 
 
( io8 ) 
 
 Society had any definite ideas of its objects, it will have gained 
 anything, for all the sad pictures of the debased and ruined 
 Chinaman would be as true, or as deficient in truth, as ever, 
 and the Missionary would be met with the same harrowing 
 scenes, and would realize that it is not that which goeth into 
 a man defileth a man, but his own fallen and corrupt nature. 
 
 We must recollect, that there is now a powerful Free Press 
 in every part of India and in every language, and the Press 
 would have a word to say on such an insane policy : and there 
 is a power of Public Meetings, and the wild nonsense spoken by 
 Young India is only equalled by the utterances of our Anti-Opium 
 platform in Great Britain : but the latter is as harmless as the 
 lashing of a dog's tail : the former may lead to Rebellion, Mutiny, 
 Blood-shedding, and loss of Empire. I do not think, that the 
 Government of India would entertain such a policy for a 
 moment, but I wish the Anti-Opium Society to understand the 
 ultimate consequences, to which their ideas would lead. 
 
 I intimated this summer to a friend, who, like myself, is a 
 Member of a Committee of a Missionary Society, that I intended 
 to write a paper defending the Indian policy in this matter. His 
 remark was, that I should be soundly abused for so doing. I 
 am quite prepared for the contingency. Sir Rutherford Alcock 
 felt himself compelled to stand forward and enlighten the public 
 mind, and mercenary motives were at once attributed to him in 
 connection with the New Borneo Company. It is the old story. 
 When a man has a bad case in a court of law, his only resource 
 is to abuse the attorney of the opposite party. I admit, that 
 those who oppose the Indian policy are actuated by the highest 
 and purest motives : having myself no interests whatever except 
 the promotion of Missionary enterprize, I claim the same ad- 
 mission in my own favour, nor do I rush into the controversy 
 hurriedly, as I have had it under consideration for more than ten 
 years, waiting for some further denouement of the Chefu Conven- 
 tion, which appeared to have disappeared. Let it be clearly 
 understood, that under no circumstances would the Government 
 of British India admit into its Treasury income, of which the 
 sources are tainted, such as the produce of lotteries, a tax on Hindu 
 pilgrimages, offerings to idol-temples, the price of slaves, the 
 earnings of slave-labour, the profits of immoral establishments, 
 whether gambling, as at Monaco, or brothels, as in some 
 European States, any more than it would accept the hire of the 
 assassin, or the premium pudoris of the unfortunate classes, who 
 infest the great cities. The line of demarcation of lawful, and 
 unlawful, income is quite clear. The kindly fruits of the earth, 
 blessed by the hand of the Creator, are intended to be gathered. 
 In the case of the poppy they are thrice blessed, supplying 
 comfort to the cultivator, rent to the land-owner, land-revenue 
 
( 109 ) 
 
 to the State, and over and above, a magnificent export-duty. 
 If foolish men make a bad use of the exports, after they have 
 left the shores of India, that is no concern of the people of 
 India, and the so-called Government of India is but the Trustee 
 of the great people committed by Providence to its charge. 
 Neither in morals, nor by the law of nations, can a legitimate 
 commerce be impugned. If fanciful and romantic objections 
 were admitted, the Quakers would object to villainous saltpetre, 
 as being the component of gunpowder. The total abstainer 
 would object to the Palm Tree, hemp, sugar, and rice, whence 
 intoxicating liquor is distilled. It is mere hypocrisy in a nation, 
 which exports rum, gin, and gunpowder in such enormous 
 quantities from British ports to Africa, and which, among many 
 noble qualities, is noted for the drunkenness of a portion of its 
 people, to feel such a tenderness for the besotted Chinese. It 
 would be much easier for those, who think with me, to sail with 
 the wind, and throw overboard the interests of the people of 
 India. Sir Wilfred Lawson is the only consistent antagonist, 
 for he would go to the root of the matter, and place opium and 
 alcohol in the same category, adding a plea for mercy in favour 
 of opium, as the opium-smoker is not a wife-beater, a ruthless 
 murderer, a breaker of the peace, and a public nuisance. 
 
 It may be distinctly asserted, that the opium trade is not based 
 upon force : the Chinese are quite strong enough to exclude it, 
 if they chose, and their being ready to resist the French on a 
 much less important grievance, proves that they could do so, 
 and they know, as every one knows, that Great Britain would 
 never attempt to force the drug into China by war. But, when 
 force is so vigorously denounced, have the leaders of the 
 movement reflected upon the meaning of the term, which they 
 so often use ? By force of character and of arms. Great Britain 
 has raised herself to her present lofty position : by force she 
 vanquished the Spaniards, the French, and the Russians, subdued 
 vast kingdoms in Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania, and brought 
 under subjection a large portion of the world. Our Indian 
 Empire is based upon force : our prestige throughout the world 
 is based on our potential, or stored, force. I have been pelted 
 by little boys in the towns of Turkey, and have walked alone at 
 piy ease, and respected, in the great cities of India : this was 
 owing to the force stored up in our cantonments. It was not 
 the outcome of treaties, but of conquest. I have accompanied 
 deputations of Missionary Societies to the Foreign Office, to 
 solicit Justice, or Protection : what enables Great Britain to act, 
 while Switzerland and Sweden submit in silence, but Force ? 
 
 Some years ago I described to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian 
 Liberator, our system in British India : he remarked, that we were 
 no better than the Austrians after all ; and this has often led me to 
 
( no ) 
 
 reflect upon our inconsistent position, for in Europe, we are the 
 champions of every State, which seeks for political liberty, and 
 in Asia we are ourselves despots. The only reply is, that we 
 are there, and it is not practical to leave India : but, while we 
 are there, we are bound to stand up for the people of India, and 
 be their champion against the Manchester manufacturers; 
 against the sentimental philanthropist; against our own country- 
 men, who come to fill their pockets and go home again : we are 
 bound to protect the Indian in the enjoyment of his laws, customs, 
 lands, and civil rights : if we cannot give him political liberty, 
 he shall have everything short of it : if he cannot have a 
 Constitution like the colonies of Great Britain, he has a strong 
 phalanx of men, who have known India from their youth, and 
 loved the people, and are ready to resist any attempt to oppress 
 them, deprive them of equality in the courts of Law, or of free 
 trade, and free commerce. If the Chinese do not like the 
 products of India, they can let them alone. The Indian ports 
 are open to every possible product of Chinese industry. If the 
 Chinese prefer their home-grown opium, be it so, and India 
 will seek other markets, and develope other industries ; but it 
 will do so by its own spontaneous action, and not under the 
 threats of benevolent enthusiasts in a distant country. 
 
 However dark the colours may be, with which the Cultivation of 
 the Poppy is painted, it is there, and, if the Government of British 
 India abolished its Monopoly, and remitted the export-duty, and 
 set the cultivation of the poppy free, the trade would not be 
 diminished, but would be enormously expanded. It is said of 
 King Henry V., that he intended, if he had conquered France, 
 to destroy all the vines with a view of arresting drunkenness. 
 The late Mahdrdja of Patedla allowed no distilleries and dancing- 
 girls within his territory ; but the extent of his administrative 
 capacity may be measured by the fact, that I tried in vain, in 
 a personal interview, to persuade him to allow me to open a 
 post-office in his dominions. It is, however, beyond the power 
 of Viceroys, or Parliaments, or even Philanthropic Associations, 
 to fight against Nature, and exclude from culture and commerce 
 one of the richest gifts of the earth. By restricting the culture 
 to certain tracts (of which the soil is most suitable to its cultiva- 
 tion), we can create a Monopoly, and restrain the culture beyond 
 certain limits ; but as to forbidding it altogether in the central 
 poppy region in our own territory, it is impossible, and, if it 
 were possible, it would be a difficult and costly operation to war 
 against Nature and freedom of culture under the influence of a 
 mere fancy. Still less feasible would any attempt be to arrest 
 the culture in the territory of the independent Chiefs of Central 
 India. It is possible that if prices fell, the culture would be 
 given up in outlying districts, and other staples would prove 
 
( "I ) 
 
 more profitable ; but this matter would be settled by the cultivator 
 himself, and not by the State. 
 
 The people of China will soon have unlimited supplies of 
 home-grown opium. The action of the Anti-Opium Society 
 has helped to open the eyes of the Chinese authorities to the 
 policy of this counter-action, which will arrest the export of 
 silver, and still supply the much-coveted drug. British India will 
 suffer for the time, but it is not clearwhat the morals of the Chinese 
 will gain. The Chinese Government now thoroughly under- 
 stand that no force will be used to introduce the Indian drug, 
 and they are anxious to share the vast revenue by imposing a 
 transit-duty. If a few millions make use of the Indian-imported 
 opium, which does not penetrate far into the country, scores of 
 millions will learn to smoke the home-grown opium manufactured 
 in their midst. When the Indian export trade has, under the 
 inexorable laws of Supply and Demand, shrunk into nothing, 
 it is not obvious whether the Anti-Opium Society will congratu- 
 late themselves upon the extinction of the so-called National 
 Sin, or feel like engineers hoist with their own petard, when 
 they contemplate the enormous increase of opium-smokers in 
 China. 
 
 In the mean time the march of events seems likely to 
 extinguish the Opium trade and the Anti-Opium Society in one 
 common ruin. I quote the last accounts : 
 
 There cannot be any doubt, but that the foreign drug will be driven, slowly 
 perhaps, but steadily, by native competition, from the China marliet. The 
 records of the foreign Customs, and the Consular service, the testimony of 
 travellers and Missionaries, supply evidence on this point which cannot be 
 doubted. The three northern Ports, in one year, show a loss amounting to 27, 
 per cent, of their total imports. The native drug has so much improved, that 
 it is there driving the foreign article from the market, even though the foreign 
 prices had been reduced from 9 to 24 per cent, from those of the previous year. 
 Sechuan opium is fast supplanting the foreign on the Yangtze, the distribution 
 being largely carried on through boatmen and foot travellers, who tell no tales. 
 In Formosa and South China generally, though the decline of the opium 
 imported through the Customs is marked, the consumption is said not to be 
 largely on the decrease, owing presumably to contraband supplies, nor does the 
 native article as yet interfere largely with the foreign drug. The reason for this 
 is simple. The opium of Yunan and Sechuan cannot yet compete with the 
 Indian opium, adulterated, as sold at the ports of Formosa, Amoy, Swatow, 
 Pakhoi or Hoihow, where it is delivered, principally by means of junks from 
 Singapiir and Hong-Kong, mainly, of course, the latter place. It resolves 
 itself into a simple question of cost of carriage. 
 
 Among the reasons assigned for this decrease are the action of the Chinese 
 authorities towards discouraging the practice, and the depressed condition of 
 trade. The latter is undoubtedly a great factor in the case, but I have no 
 faith in the former. That the authorities are taking any serious steps towards 
 the suppression of the drug is not to be credited, least of all by any one who 
 has travelled in Interior China. Like the Abbe Hue, from personal experience 
 gained in Chinese travel, I can say : " Pendant notre long voyage en Chine, 
 nous n'avons pas rencontre un seul tribunal oupn ne fumat I'opium ouvertement 
 
( 112 ) 
 
 et impunement." It is found, in tlie opium provinces, growing under the walls 
 of nearly every court-house. All travellers are agreed in this, that Yunan and 
 Sechuan opium is rapidly increasing in quantity and improving in quality. It 
 is fast forcing its way to the seaboard ; being already brought there and shipped 
 along the coast, although as yet in small quantities. The poppy is spreading 
 over other provinces, and as the value of the crop is double that of wheat, it is fast 
 replacing that dry-weather crop. The use of the Indian drug, since the improve- 
 ment of the native article, is becoming, slowly but surely, a luxury only for the 
 more affluent trader or ofRcial. Perfected still more, fashion will give its impri- 
 matur to the native article, and then the foreign drug will be doomed. 
 
 The owner of a mine finds, that the ore is exhausted, and 
 he has nothing to blame himself for : he has done his work 
 scientifically, but the gift of Nature is exhausted. So will it be 
 with British India. It made good use of the advantages, which 
 fertility of soil, industry, and commerce supplied, and when one 
 of them fail, there is nothing for it but to let the export-duty 
 die out, and strive to face the financial difficulty. This is some- 
 thing very different from abandoning without cause an abundant 
 source of revenue. But this decay of resources will be a work 
 of time, and the Cultivation of the Poppy, with its shower of silver 
 upon India, will, though perceptibly diminishing, scarcely dis- 
 appear in this generation. The Missionaries in China will restrict 
 themselves to their proper duty of preaching the Gospel, sadder 
 at the spectacle of the awful increase of opium-smoking, perhaps 
 wiser in having learnt, that it is idle to fight against Nature, 
 free-trade, and the liberty of each man to control his own 
 actions in things not forbidden by the laws of civilized nations. 
 The Government of British India will have to restrict its many 
 plans of usefulness. The Anti-Opium Society will cease its exer- 
 tions, unless, under the guidance of more thorough and earnest 
 leaders, it turns its attention to gin, rum, and French brandy, 
 exported to West Africa or consumed in Great Britain. 
 
 My own feeling has ever been in favour of getting rid, at as 
 early a date as possible, and at some sacrifice of revenue, of the 
 Monopoly, because a Monopoly in itself is wrong, and in this 
 case a scandal to some minds, and it seemed feasible to arrive 
 at the same results on the East side of India, which have 
 spontaneously arisen on the West side ; but I am assured by 
 experts, that the abolition of the Monopoly would be prejudicial 
 to the best interests of the people of India, and that is with me the 
 paramount consideration. I have already stated that, if I were 
 satisfied that opium were introduced by force into the Provinces 
 of China outside the Treaty-ports, I should join the opposite 
 party. Five years ago I called, with another member of the 
 Committee of the Church Missionary Society, by appointment, 
 on the late Sir Harry Parkes, then Envoy and Minister Plenipo- 
 tentiary at Japan, and satisfied myself that this allegation was 
 not true. A short time ago a Missionary from China told the 
 
( "3 ) 
 
 Committee of the Church Missionary Society, that the Chinese 
 Government systematically neglected the provisions of the 
 Treaty as regards religious liberty. I made him repeat those 
 words, and then asked him, why then it was alleged that they 
 were afraid to do the same with regard to opium ? His reply 
 was that the Chinese were afraid of the merchants, but not of 
 the Missionaries. But I read in the Times (October 23, 1884) : 
 
 That for the last nine or ten years the Chinese Government has been allowed 
 to encroach on treaty rights, and has levied vpith impunity heavy transit-duties, 
 which have virtually nullified the treaty-advantages, and proved disastrous to 
 the sale of Manchester goods in the interior. 
 
 This is the statement of a Hankow merchant. In the face of 
 such statements, and the fact, that the Chinese Government 
 is not afraid to go to war for ancient and shadowy rights over 
 Tonkin with the French Government, how can we believe the 
 Chinese Government is not able to raise the transit-duties upon 
 opium to such an extent as to raise the price and restrict the 
 sale } Is China not strong enough to put down smuggling, if 
 the attempt were made } 
 
 Nor can I, after calm reflection on the whole case, during the 
 last fifteen years, acquit the Anti-Opium Society of being the 
 cause of the miserable end of the contest, which will have 
 injured the people of British India by the destruction of a profit- 
 able industry and export, and has yet multiplied the vice of opium- 
 smoking in China beyond any previous calculation. What was 
 their object.? Did they desire to arrest the vice in China, or only 
 to free the British Nation from the imputation of pandering to 
 that vice } If we desired to wean the British public of their taste 
 for alcoholic drink, we should scarcely commence a crusade 
 against cultivators of the Vine, and the French Government. 
 The line, which the Anti-Opium Society adopted, of indis- 
 criminate . abuse had two effects : it stiffened and hardened the 
 views of the Government of India. The statesmen who were, 
 or had been. Viceroys, and meritorious public servants, who 
 were or had been Governors and high officials, felt injured by 
 the gross insinuations which they felt they did not deserve : 
 they at least understood the nature of the problem, but upon 
 the Committee of the Anti-Opium Society there was not one 
 Anglo-Indian of experience, nor was it likely that there would 
 be one : a general feeling of resentment at, and contempt for, the 
 movement was felt in Anglo-Indian circles, both in British India 
 and Great Britain. But their proceedings had another effect, not 
 contemplated, but equally real. The eyes of the Chinese rulers 
 were opened to the exceeding value of the product, and to the 
 firmness with which the Indian Government held to it. They 
 saw also how feeble were the efforts of the Anti-Opium Society, 
 whose motive was not the welfare of the Chinese, but the alleged; 
 
 PART 11, 9 
 
( 114 ) 
 
 discredit attaching to the British name. Opium cultivation was 
 found to be as acceptable to the Chinese landowners, the local 
 Governors and the State, as it proved to be in India. It was 
 not clear what results the Anti-Opium Society desired: it is 
 clear what they have obtained. 
 
 The above remarks were written in London in October, 1884, 
 despatched to Calcutta, and appeared in the pages of the 
 Calcutta Review on the ist of January, 1885. I had no idea that 
 negociations were going on, and that the Chefu Convention 
 would so soon be ratified. Yet such has been the case. On 
 my return from a prolonged tour to the Cataracts in Egypt, 
 where I was, when Khartum fell, and Gordon was killed, and a 
 tour through Palestine to Damascus, I find the death-blow to 
 the argument of force being applied to the Chinese Govern- 
 ment has been struck, and in the Paper (China, No. 5, 1885) 
 presented to the Houses of Parliament, August, 1885, Marquis 
 Tseng appears as a very sensible negociator, representing a 
 very sensible and enlightened Government at Pekin. They have 
 entirely, entered into the Commonwealth of Nations, and 
 thoroughly appreciate the valuable addition to the Imperial 
 Revenues by an additional squeeze of the Indian opium, which 
 pays the Customs-duty for permission to enter the Treaty-port, 
 and a heavy Transit-duty for permission to leave it : when sold 
 in retail, it may again be taxed, in the form of an Excise, but 
 upon equitable principles with regard to the Native-grown Drug. 
 The arrangement now sanctioned is proposed by the Chinese 
 Government: there are no Confucian platitudes, no high moral 
 sentiments, but an unmistakeable desire to secure the Imperial 
 Treasury, as distinguished from the Provincial Chests, as large 
 an income as possible, collected in advance at the Treaty-port. 
 Moreover, the information is volunteered, that the new arrange- 
 ment will harmonize with existing Institutions in China. The 
 matter has stood over for seven years, and, as if by an irony of 
 Fate, the final arrangements were conducted by the Liberal 
 Ministry of Mr. Gladstone, and brought to all but a formal 
 conclusion, but the finishing touch has been given by a Con- 
 servative Ministry under the signature of Lord Salisbury. So 
 both the great parties of the State agree in this sound and 
 profitable settlement of the controversy. 
 
 It may be asked then : why add to the controversial literature ? 
 let the dead dog lie. We shall probably hear little' more of the 
 Anti-Opium Society. They have discharged their Secretary, 
 and are content with the occasional use of a small room. It is 
 to be hoped, that moral influences will be brought to bear to 
 stay the plague of opium-smoking among the Chinese People, 
 
( US ) 
 
 and that the great European, Australian, and North American 
 peoples will resist the contagion. Shame on them, if they do not I 
 
 But the mischief does not end here. Great Britain has many 
 sins to answer for, both in past and present time. She has used 
 the strength of a giant as a giant, invading weaker countries, 
 and then abandoning them ; but for the manufacture of opium 
 Great Britain is not to blame, unless the new principle ■ is 
 to be laid down, that no Christian Nation is to be allowed to 
 export Gunpowder, Arms, Alcoholic Drinks, and Intoxicating 
 Drugs, and no commercial treaties are to be made with weaker 
 Asiatic and African and Oceanic Nations. To make such 
 without a degree of pressure, which in the case of European 
 Nations would be intolerable, is impossible. Britons, by 
 unwarrantably vilifying their own country, and in this case 
 unjustly, only give foreign nations the opportunity of echoing it. 
 We read with astonishment such expressions as the following: 
 
 The most outrageous and unpardonable national crime of any age. 
 
 These unjustifiable expressions are quoted and amplified by 
 such excellent and respectable Religious organs as the Missionary 
 Review of Princeton, U.S.A., and are believed by thousands of 
 over-confident and uninstructed readers. Such expressions as 
 these follow, indicating gross ignorance : 
 
 The perversion of many hundred thousand acres of the best land in India 
 from food crops to crops of this poison is the main cause of the frequent famines 
 in that country. The thousands of Hindus, who grow the poppies and make 
 the opium, are greatly demoralized thereby, many of them becoming eaters or 
 smokers of the baneful stuff, and the opium vice is spreading in almost all parts 
 of India. In Barma and Arracan opium was given away at first, then sold at 
 a cheap rate, and the price raised when the habit was established. England 
 on a vast scale is ruining her own subjects as well as the Chinese. 
 
 Surely this is something |more than ignorance, and amounts to 
 Suggestio Falsi. It is notorious, that India suffers from a glut 
 of Cereals, and exports grain to England. It is equally notorious,' 
 that the amount of opium sold in India is extremely limited, 
 and that the population of the opium-growing districts are 
 peculiarly free from the use of the drug. It would not be easy 
 to find an o^imxa- smoker in British India west of the Brdhmaplitra 
 River, except the Chinese immigrants. As to the alleged policy 
 adopted in Barma, it is simply ridiculous. 
 
 What will be thought of the following extract from a communi- 
 cation by a Chinese Missionary to his credulous friends : 
 
 The thing which remains for us to do now is to give the people the Gospel 
 of the Lord Jesus ; meanwhile to use every effort to induce our Government to 
 abolish the trade as far as India is concerned. We must wipe our hands of 
 this dirty trade, though we cannot wipe out the past ; the harvest has been sown. 
 The Chinese regard it as a direct act of plotting the nation's destruction, equally 
 as much as the conduct of a man, who is guilty of administering poison to 
 another for some evil advantage. ■ 
 
( Ii6 ) 
 
 I was talking with two men yesterday upon the subject of opium. One was 
 a young fellow, who is now using medicine to break off the habit. As we were 
 talking of its effects, he stamped his foot, exclaiming, " Alas ! alas ! from 
 where did it first come ? " I answered, "From India; but," I added, "no 
 one has forced you to grow it, neither forced you to eat it. There is no foreign 
 drug to be bought here ; it is all your own production.'' Nevertheless the 
 fact remained that Englishmen introduced it, or at least introduced the practice 
 of habitual smoking ; before that, it was scarcely known, if known at all. 
 
 The British nation are undoubtedly the sowers of this dreadful seed ; it has 
 yielded an abundant harvest of death and ruination in China. So prevalent is 
 the habit here, that the bulk of the people do not rise before ten or eleven 
 o'clock in the forenoon, and no business is commenced in the commercial 
 houses until nearly raid-day. 
 
 A distinct reply is required, and an indignant denial, and an 
 appeal to patent facts. We shall next hear that the British 
 introduced the use of intoxicating liquors among the tribes in 
 the valley of the Kongo : fortunately Henry Stanley, an American 
 citizen, in his great work, published in 1885, mentions incident- 
 ally, that these tribes were wholly given to the use of intoxicating 
 liquors of their own manufacture, before they saw a white face. 
 
 If any one had a dear friend, exposed to unjust obloquy, 
 affecting his whole moral character, would he, if he had the 
 facts at his command, maintain silence .? If any one were 
 deliberately, and without foundation, to attack the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society and Church Missionary Society, to which 
 I have devoted the remainder of my life, should I not draw the 
 sword in their justification 1 and can I be silent, when such 
 things are said against my countrymen, against the two great 
 parties. Liberal and Conservative, which govern the country, 
 and do not spare the failings of each other, and are equally 
 jealous of the National good name : when such frightful crimes 
 are imputed to the Government of British India, with regard to 
 which I quote a few lines from a Leader in the Times, which 
 appeared only a few days ago (August 11, 1885), and which 
 expresses my deliberate sentiments after a prolonged study of 
 the system of administration of European, Asiatic, and African 
 Nations : 
 
 On the whole, we are convinced, such an inquiry will be useful, mainly, 
 because it will show that there never was a Government, be its faults what 
 they may, more efficient for good, more progressive and enlightened, and more 
 consistently inspired by the highest and purest motives, pursued with indefatig- 
 able zeal and absolute self-devotion, than that of the English rulers of India. 
 
 This pamphlet is written for an American, as well as an 
 English public. 
 London, August i8, 1885 (with additions, 1888). 
 
 The July number of the Friend of China supplies a report of 
 the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Suppression of the 
 
( "7 ) 
 
 Opium Trade on June 8th, 1887, and a Breakfast Meeting to 
 discuss the policy for the future on May loth, 1887. The tone 
 of both meetings was highly to be commended. The object of 
 all Missionary Societies is to improve the lives of the Heathen, 
 so as to get them to be better citizens in this world, and heirs 
 of salvation in the next. All abominable customs, whether 
 partaking of the character of crime forbidden by human law, 
 or vices condemned by Christian morals, are objects of aversion 
 to all who seek the welfare of Heathen people. It is in the 
 method to meet, correct, and get rid of these vices, upon which 
 sincere and earnest men differ. The Association has determined 
 to follow the advice of the Rev. Dr. Dudgeon, an esteemed Mis- 
 sionary, and have recourse to moral suasion of the Chinese 
 people, similar to the action of the total abstinence societies, 
 which have worked such wonders amidst the British people. 
 The scheme is to appoint a qualified agent of the Society in 
 China, to act in unison with the Missionaries, and give his whole 
 attention to the matter ; to superintend the work ; to collect 
 information,; to establish agencies; to employ Native helpers; 
 to publish sheets and tracts ; to hold meetings and give lectures ; 
 to establish opium refuges ; to form abstinence societies ; to 
 memorialize Native officials ; to conduct a periodical journal 
 in the vernacular, and to use all lawful means to rouse the 
 people to a sense of the ruinous nature of the vice of opium- 
 smoking. If such a policy be followed, there will be a rich 
 blessing, for it is consistent with reason, experience, the practice 
 of the home Churches, and the teaching of the Bible. 
 
 London, Au^st, 1887. 
 
 The great Congress of Missionaries in London, in June, 1888, 
 was disfigured by an attempt to disturb the peace of those, who 
 follow the example of St. Paul, and seek only the extension of 
 Christ's Gospel, by the introduction of this nearly moribund 
 craze. I was sorry to read, that some of our dear American 
 friends attended this meeting, thus interfering in the domestic 
 affairs of a great friendly nation, whose hospitality they were 
 enjoying. The Meeting was not part of the Congress : it was 
 expressly excluded from the Programme after a lengthy discus- 
 sion before the Executive Council, and took place after the 
 Valedictory Meeting, and the dismissal of the Congress. Our 
 friends did not attend as delegates of Missionary Societies, but 
 as private American citizens, interfering in the affairs of the 
 great British Nation. I was invited, but did not attend ; but, 
 if it had been attempted to pass a vote of censure on the 
 President of the United States, for declining to agree to the 
 Treaty for restraining the Traffic of Liquor in the South Seas, I 
 
( "8 ) 
 
 should have attended, to protest agaitist a miscellaneous assembly 
 of the British people passing a censure on the Government of 
 a friendly Nation, whether right or wrong. 
 
 None of the distinguished Noblemen, and Gentlemen, who 
 had presided at the authorized meetings of the Congress, took 
 the chair on this occasion : it was occupied by a permanent 
 Civil Servant of a Public Office, who was not unwilling to put 
 Resolutions, condemning the Government of India, at the head 
 of which was his illustrious cousin, the Earl of DufFerin. Had 
 those Resolutions condemned either the people of Ireland, his- 
 native land, or the Government of that Island, a question would 
 have been promptly asked in the House of Commons, why 
 a public servant with an annual salary of £-2.000 should be 
 permitted to put to a Meeting votes of censure on one of the 
 great Departments of the State. British India is a corpus vile, 
 upon which any brave orator can flesh his weapon, for the India 
 Office, secure in its- own strength, never returns the blow, but 
 looks on with a smile of scorn. On this occasion something 
 more than usual has to be recorded, for an American citizen on 
 the platform of Exeter Hall was allowed to state, without being 
 called to order by the Chair, even without cries of " Shame ! " 
 from the audience, that, " for what had been done in India, the 
 " British deserved far more than the Turks for their atrocities in 
 " Bulgaria, to be turned out bag and baggage." Opium seems 
 to stupefy the sentiments of Patriotism in the hearers, and 
 Decency in the speakers. 
 
 The cause of Missionary Societies is as unpopular with the 
 higher, richer, and influential, classes in Great Britain, as with 
 the great democracy : it is diflScult to secure the attendance at 
 a Meeting of a Member of either House of Parliament. This 
 unpopularity is caused by the folly of this small section, always 
 bringing forward their local and peculiar grievances, which have 
 no direct bearing on the Evangelization of the World. No one 
 distinguished in Art, Arms, Literature, Politics, or Theology, 
 joins their ranks. Even quiet, undemonstrative, but still sincere. 
 Christians feel shy of joining assemblies, which abandon their 
 holy duty of conveying the Gospel to dying souls, to discuss, and 
 pass resolutions on the subject of the Cultivation of the Poppy 
 and Manufacture of Opium, the export of Rum and Gin, and the 
 Immorality of the British Soldier. Sensible people can see no pos- 
 sible connection between such subjects and the dutyimposed upon 
 us all by the parting words of the Risen Saviour. If Missionary 
 Societies desire to constitute themselves Censors and Judges of 
 the Morals of the British people, the Champions of all that think 
 themselves injured, and the Denouncers of everything, which 
 they do not understand, they are going beyond their province, 
 and trespassing on the duties of secular Societies. St. Paul was 
 
( "9 ) 
 
 determined to know nothing among the Corinthians, save Jesus 
 Christ and Him crucified, and yet we know what Corinth and 
 the Corinthians were. St. Paul tells us, that not many wise 
 were called, and I feel that it is indeed true, when I listen to the 
 speeches of good, loving and lovable Christians, who are no more 
 able to appreciate the principles, upon which Great Britain has 
 built and sustained her Empire, than that humble saint of God, 
 who wrote the Pilgrim's Progress. The reports tell us how an 
 American citizen from the Far West, and a German from West- 
 phalia, undertook to explain to a mixed assembly of men and 
 women, what was the duty of the British Parliament, and the 
 foolish assembly stamped and applauded. It is indeed a sad 
 reflection, how much discredit is brought upon the cause of Christ 
 by the weakness of some few of His devoted servants, who love 
 well, but not wisely. We are sinking to the level of the Salvation 
 Army, its extravagance and impotence. 
 
 June, 1888. 
 
( I2[ ) 
 
 VI. 
 
 THE LIQUOR-TRAFFIC IN BRITISH INDIA. 
 Has the British Government Done its Duty ? 
 
 Me^tiXi^ Tj akrjOeia, Kal inrepia'x,v£i. 
 
 "Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd ? " And he said, 
 " I do well to be angry even unto death." Such were the words 
 of the prophet Jonah, 800 B.C. : it is well even in this age of 
 hasty judgment, and rash words, to be angry, when statements 
 are made by public men in public places, which are wholly 
 unwarrantable, and the Government of a great Dependency, the 
 greatest that History ever knew, is held up to scorn for having 
 initiated, and continued for more than a Century, a policy of 
 the damnable nature of deliberately destroying the morals of 
 two hundred Millions, placed in their charge, and at their mercy, 
 for the sake of realizing a paltry Revenue. As one of the chief 
 speakers put it : 
 
 The wants of the Indian Exchequer are so urgent, and it is so easy to bring 
 in Revenue from the increased sale of drink, that the temptation is irresistible 
 to go on licensing more drink-shops. 
 
 There is no getting out of the difficulty : the charge is not 
 made on this occasion against the British people, the great 
 shipping and commercial and manufacturing interests of Gre^t 
 Britain, but against the Government of India. 
 
 How did it come about ? For more than twenty-five years 
 there has existed in England an association called the " Church 
 of England Temperance Society," which by its numerous 
 branches has done an infinity of good to the people of this 
 island, who are notoriously a thirsty race, and, in addition to 
 many excellent qualities, which have placed them in the front 
 rank of Nations past and present, do not possess, and never 
 have possessed," the great grace of Temperance. Total Absti- 
 nence is the miserable and desperate remedy of the dipso- 
 maniac, the weak hearted, and coward, while Temperance in all 
 things lawful is the glory of the Christian Man, using the good 
 gifts of his Creator, as they were intended to be used. Happy 
 are those, who from their youth up, not under the influence of 
 
 PAKT II. 10 
 
( 122 ) 
 
 a pledge, or a command, or a craze, have of their own free will 
 and inclination learnt to dispense with the use of stimulants and 
 tobacco : but this grace is not given to all, although the number 
 is annually increasing. The above-mentioned Association de- 
 termined in 1886 to make a new departure, and to carry the war 
 all over the world. A letter was addressed to the Primate of 
 England by the Chairman of the Society, enunciating this new 
 policy, and stating with regard to British India that : 
 
 A nation of abstainers was gradually becoming a nation of drunkards : that 
 drunlcenness had disappeared, but was reintroduced by the British: that 
 nothing was done to check the evil by legislative measures : that nearly every 
 village had its liquor-shop, and the natives believed, that they were conferring a 
 favour on the Government by buying the liquor. 
 
 We are not told in the Pamphlet, to whom we are indebted 
 for the last sentiment, but it looks, as if the writer had had a 
 rise taken out of him by some astute Bdbu from a Presidency 
 College, who had acquired bad habits ; but Archdeacon Farrar 
 is credited with the following dictum, which no doubt drew 
 down rounds of discriminating and temperate applause : 
 We have girdled the world with a zone of drink. 
 
 The selection of authorities in the appendix to the Pamphlet 
 contains no single name, which carries any authority whatever :. 
 one person suggests, that total abstinence should be a condition 
 precedent to Baptism, for which there is no warrant in Holy 
 Scripture : another person translates " sharib " as " shame 
 water" : this rendering may deceive excited hearers in a public 
 meeting, but will not hold water in Asia, and has no warrant 
 in the Dictionary. Another person cannot see any other 
 explanation for the increase of income, than the encourage- 
 ment by the State of the sale, forgetting that a higher rate of 
 taxation, only limited by the margin of profit of the smuggler, 
 would have the same result. A great increase in the amount 
 of Police fines in the Metropolitan area in a given period would 
 imply, not that the Magistrates had encouraged intemperance, 
 and wife-beating, but had punished it by heavier fines. The 
 late King of Oudh is credited with the merit of not making 
 a revenue out of the sale of spirits : it is true, for he allowed 
 distilleries to be worked without any check whatsoever ! This 
 would hardly seem a wise policy either in India or Westminster. 
 Another person states, and no doubt correctly, that the educated 
 classes betake themselves to imported liquors, and infers, that 
 the Government is entirely responsible for this state of things. 
 Has that person considered, whether in a country, of which 
 Free Trade is the glory, any import can be excluded without 
 raising difficult complications with British and Foreign Pro- 
 ducers ? The same person remarks, that the heathen regard 
 the use of intoxicating liquors as a sign of a Christian. 1 shall 
 
( 123 ) 
 
 show below, that this person must have imperfectly studied the 
 literature of India to arrive at such a conclusion. Nanda Lai 
 Ghose, a Barrister, undertakes to state, that the Demon of Drink 
 was introduced by a Christian Government. I must refer him 
 to a closer study of the esteemed writings of his own country- 
 men. Another person states (as the result of six months' tour 
 in India) that the natives, if left to themselves, would not 
 have licensed shops for the sale of the vile alcoholic compounds, 
 which come from Europe. No doubt, that, if the State -control 
 and tax were removed, there would be an unlimited amount of 
 unlicensed shops. And, with all deference to the same person's 
 opinion, formed in the Railway-train, or the Hotel, or Rest- 
 houses, and unassisted by the least knowledge of the Vernacular, 
 I do not think, that in matters of morality the Government of 
 India falls behind the Ethical Code of the people, as un- 
 questionably the slaughter of kine was prohibited, while the 
 slaughter of widows, female children,- aged relations, and lepers, 
 was considered to be a religious duty, and the practice has been 
 only abandoned, or checked, under the pressure of severe 
 penalties, without any assistance from the moral consciousness 
 of the Nation. During the Mutinies the Emperor Napoleon III. 
 received a petition from India, praying for assistance to drive 
 out the British, who had forbidden their time-honoured customs, 
 among which these were enumerated ! 
 
 But another movement had been made, with less sound of 
 the trumpet, perhaps with more soberness of statement, by 
 Missionary Societies, to stem, if possible, the stream of liquor, 
 which was flowing from European ports into the Rivers of West 
 Africa. In December, 1884, while the Berlin Conference was 
 sitting to arrange the affairs of the Dominion of the Kongo, at 
 my suggestion a Deputation of the Church Missionary Society 
 was received by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
 to lay before him the state of the case, and urge the introduction 
 into the Treaty of some clause, restricting by a system of Excise 
 the importation of European liquor into the Basin of the Niger. 
 The Bishop of Sierra Leone made an impressive speech, and I 
 was permitted to follow him, and I ventured to remark, that the 
 Missionaries were not seeking their own personal interests, but 
 those of the people, who could not speak for themselves, and 
 that they did not ask for impossibilities, such as the absolute 
 prohibition of the import of spirits, but only for the regulation 
 by means of Excise, and licences of Liquor-Shops. Great credit 
 should be given to the representatives of Great Britain and of 
 the United States, for their gallant attempt to introduce a clause, 
 but it was necessary to make a compromise with Germany and 
 France, and the clause was abandoned. In October, 1885, the 
 German Missionaries, assembled at Bremen in North Germany, 
 
( 124 ) 
 
 brought to notice the lamentable consequences to the people of 
 Africa of the uncontrolled import of spirituous liquors, chiefly 
 from Hamburg, and Dr. Zahn, the Director of the North German 
 Missionary Society, published a powerful German pamphlet on 
 the subject, and was good enough to make communications to 
 me, which enabled me on the 20th January, i886, to bring 
 before an assembly of representatives of all the great Missionary 
 Societies at the Wesleyan Mission House, Bishopsgate Street, 
 the following resolutions : 
 
 A. That the Protestant Missionary Societies of Great Britain and Ireland 
 should send a Deputation to the Foreign Office to point out the ruin, which 
 threatens the Negro populations of West Africa generally, and of the Basin of 
 the Niger in particular, by the unrestricted importation of spirituous liquors 
 from Northern Europe, and to inform the Foreign Secretary, that the German 
 and Germnn Swiss Missionary Societies, assembled at Bremen, last October, 
 have brought the subject before the notice of the Imperial Government at 
 Berlin with the same object, admitting frankly that the town of Hamburg is 
 one of the greatest offenders in this matter. 
 
 B. The Deputation should impress upon Her Majesty's Government, that 
 the present state of affairs will not only prevent the development of legitimate 
 trade in the Manufactures and Products of Europe, but will destroy, physically 
 as well as morally, the population of a country, rescued from the Slave Trade 
 by the expenditure of British lives and resources. 
 
 C. The remedies, suggested as feasible, in which the German Societies 
 agree, are 
 
 (I.) The imposition of a substantial Import-duty, fixed at a scale just low 
 enough as not to make smuggling profitable. 
 
 (II.) The introduction of a system of Licences, by which the sale would be 
 restricted to certain shops, maintained by responsible parties. A substantial 
 Fee to be levied for each licence. 
 
 (III.) The forbidding of any British person, or British Company, remunerat- 
 ing labour, or bartering for native produce, in spirituous liquors. 
 
 (IV.) The discontinuance on the part of the British Authorities of making 
 presents of cases and bottles of spirits to Natives, or offering, or receiving, 
 entertainment in spirits on the occasion of public ceremonies. 
 
 The Revenue collected from the Import-Duty and Licence-Fee will suffice 
 to maintain ample Government Establishments for the purpose of enforcing the 
 Regulation of Customs and Excise now proposed. 
 
 D. The leading secular organs of Public Opinion should be invited to bring 
 home to the public conscience the lamentable consequence of the neglect of 
 remedial measures before the evil exceeds the possibility of control and remedy. 
 A promising market, both of Export of Native Produce, and the Import of 
 European Manufactures, will be destroyed by the short-sightedness of the first 
 generation of Merchants, who would literally kill the goose to get at the 
 goideri eggs : this point of view concerns the Manufacturer and Merchant ; but 
 the Missionary Societies have their thoughts ever solely fixed upon the awful 
 crime of ruining Millions of a race in a low state of culture, and unable to 
 protect themselves, by the introduction of Rum, Gin, and Alcohol, of the very 
 existence of which the Negroes never heard before, and -with which they could not 
 supply themselves, except by the Agency of European Merchants. 
 
 It was agreed, after discussion, that the subject should be 
 referred to a Committee delegated by each Society, who should 
 confer, and make a collective Report to their several Committees, 
 
( I2S ) 
 
 and that final action should then be taken. This eventuated in 
 an able and comprehensive Pamphlet, entitled "Trafficking in 
 Liquor with the Natives of Africa," from the pen of the Rev. 
 Horace Waller, so well known as the conipanion of Livingstone, 
 stating the whole case, and published in the beginning of the 
 year 1887. I have alluded to these proceedings in detail, as no 
 doubt those, who disagree with me in my argument, defending 
 the Government of India against the unjust aspersions thrown 
 upon it, may be tempted to cry out, that I am a kind of 
 Philistine, and one who cares little for the welfare of native 
 races : on the contrary, it is the leading object of my life, and 
 I was up in arms for the people of West Africa long before the 
 Church of England Temperance Society unfortunately lent an 
 ear to the exaggerations and downright falsehoods, which have 
 for the present arrested its useful and benevolent career. 
 
 On the 30th of March of the year 1887 a Meeting was held in 
 Prince's Hall, Piccadilly, of all persons interested in this great 
 subject, " The Demoralization of Native Races by the Drink 
 Traffic." The Bishop of London was in the Chair. The 
 practical object of the Meeting was to appoint a Committee to 
 collect information, and I among others was requested to attend, 
 and to allow my name to be placed on the General Committee, 
 to which I gladly assented, believing, in the innocence of my 
 heart, that the term " Native Races " was meant to include those 
 unfortunate races of Africa, and Oceania, which, being under 
 no settled form of Government able to protect them, were at the 
 mercy of the unprincipled European importers of European 
 spirituous liquors, as described in Mr. Horace Waller's pamphlet. 
 
 The Bishop of London made an admirable opening address, 
 carrying every one with him. He was followed by Archdeacon 
 Farrar, who proposed the first Resolution, and astonished many 
 of his hearers (and among them most particularly myself) by 
 stating, that his portion of the task related to British India. 
 Now India is a great dependency of the British Crown, with a 
 Constitution of its own, a Budget of its own, owing nothing to 
 Grfeat Britain, and paying no tribute to Great Britain, governed 
 under a system of law by able and high-minded men, sent out 
 from time to time by both of the great parties of the State, 
 who are assisted in the subordinate administration, political, 
 fiscal, and judicial, by the great Civil Service of India, which is 
 elected by competition from the youth of each year, restrained 
 by Covenants, controlled by Rules, guaranteed by Law, and 
 upheld in the high and steadfast path of Honour and Duty by 
 feelings of Self-respect, and the consciousness of integrity never 
 questioned, and purity of motive, upon which no shadow during 
 this century had ever been cast. In a book which I published 
 in 1887, "Linguistic and Oriental Essays," when reviewing the 
 
( 126 ) 
 
 miserable state of Egypt, I contrasted with it the state of affairs 
 in British India, remarking : 
 
 That the British official, wherever he goes, carries with him in his office-box 
 the dignity of a gentleman and a Christian : under no circumstances, or in any 
 place, and in any environment, would he condescend to do or say what is false 
 and mean : he would shrink from what is cruel and treacherous : he would 
 proudly turn away from what is wanton or sordid. 
 
 And yet Archdeacon Farrar, with knowledge, or without 
 knowledge (it matters not which), that the administration of 
 British India is entirely in the hands of the Covenanted Civil 
 Service, with the exception of the post of Viceroy, and the 
 Governors of Bombay and Madras, in strong, slow, and 
 measured words, dared to say, 
 
 " OTe famli Intita gober, anti left ft trunfeen." 
 
 As the Head Master of a great public school, he could not 
 resist a quotation, 
 
 pudet hsec opprobria nobis 
 Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse repelli. 
 
 The indignation, which several members of the Indian Services 
 felt, with myself, when we listened to this speech, can scarcely 
 be described : the feeling was to interrupt the meeting by loud 
 protests, but the kind and wise address of the Bishop of London 
 held me back, for to disturb the meeting would be to vex him : 
 my chief desire was to get away from a Hall, where such things 
 were uttered and applauded. 
 
 He was followed by Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., who, freed 
 from the restraint of the presence of Under-Secretaries of State 
 for India, and ex-Governors of Bengal and Bombay, who had 
 to a certain degree kept him in order in the House of Commons, 
 mounted his hobby, and in order that full justice may be done 
 to his eloquence and accuracy of statement, I quote his remarks 
 from the Report in the Jiock Newspaper : 
 
 During his recent visit to India he found a complete unanimity of opinion as 
 to the rapid increase of intemperance. The natives imitate Englishmen in 
 dnnkmg with disastrous effects, for they have not the same power of self-control, 
 and their constitution is not so strong. Before tie English were in India tlu 
 sale of strong drink was unknown. By religion and custom the teople of India 
 were total abstainers. 
 
 Mr. Smith is reported to have produced a profound impression 
 by his calm and clear statements. He gave some items from a 
 letter, which he had received from an English missionary, 
 which created a painful impression. 
 
 No one would say, or think, that the Government desires to foster the vice 
 ot drunkenness in its Indian subjects. 
 
 Whereupon Mr. Smith remarked, amid cheers, "That is a 
 
( 127 ) 
 
 charitable slatemenl," and continuing the reading of the 
 missionary's letter, said : 
 
 But Government wants money, and the Board of Revenue has found out that 
 one way to get it is to encourage the drink-trade, and to put facilities before 
 the people generally to take to the habit of drinking, in order to push on the 
 trade, and get in a larger revenue, so that really the Indian Government is 
 guilty of the crime of pushing a trade for fiscal objects, which is fast spreading 
 the terrible evil of drinking and drunkenness throughout the country. 
 
 The speaker went on to describe how this had been effected 
 by the "out-still" system: 
 
 Formerly certain central distillers were alone permitted. Instead of this, 
 under the new system, native distillers were at liberty to open their own stills,- 
 and manufacture as much as they liked, and what they pleased, by paying a 
 monthly rent to the Government for permission to manufacture and sell. This 
 brought the liquor down from about two shillings or so a bottle to about 
 twopence, and the stills multiplied a hundred-fold. The consequence was 
 there was a regular rush for the drink from all classes, the very beggars and 
 boys and women taking to it. There are two facts of importance which should 
 not be lost sight of in native drinking. First, natives have no idea of modera- 
 tion in the use of strong drinks. They try to get drunk, and therefore they" 
 imbibe by the bottle, not by the glass. Moreover, while many Europeans 
 reform and give up the drink, the native goes on to the bitter end. Once a 
 Native becomes a hard drinker, he seldom or never can give it up, for want of 
 moral courage. The Revenue in India is chronically short. The mass of 
 people are poor beyond any standard of poverty known at home. We hold 
 India by prestige, but in the long run, we shall only hold India by the 
 prestige of righteousness. 
 
 He thought, that the greatest kindness an audience can do 
 to the Government of India, is to elevate their standard of 
 righteousness, a sentiment which elicited warm approval. Mr. 
 Smith quoted the testimony of a native doctor to the effect, that 
 90 per cent, is the proportion of deaths from drink, and, making 
 every allowance for Orientalism, the statement is terribly ap- 
 palling. 
 
 I quite admit, that the throne of the Empress of India is 
 founded on Righteousness, and that the British Nation is only 
 permitted to rule over that great country on the condition, "that 
 their Rule should be righteous; but Truth is usually coupled 
 with Righteousness, and here it appeared to be entirely 
 dissociated. A French downright hater of Great Britain would 
 have carefully collected his facts and marshalled his authorities. 
 A Member of the British Parliament seemed under no such 
 necessity. A line of Juvenal came to my recollection : 
 Quid Romee faciam ? mentiri nescio. 
 
 I left the Hall, feeling, with many others, that the Liquor 
 Merchants had effected a great triumph. Truth was the only 
 weapon, with which we could meet them : with carefully 
 collected facts, and tested statistics, the Committee of the 
 Missionary Societies had prepared for a direct attack on the 
 common enemy, the Merchants of Great Britain, Germany^ 
 
( 128 ) 
 
 France, and America. Some of the Missionary Societies of 
 the last-mentioned Country had expressed to me their entire 
 concurrence in the attempt that was to be made. By the 
 speeches of the Archdeacon, and Mr. Samuel Smith, the whole 
 character of the struggle was altered : the attack was now upon 
 the constitutional Government of British India, or rather on 
 the Covenanted servants of that Government : it was a charge 
 of a character worse than that made by Cicero upon Verres, 
 inasmuch as the plunder of Provinces from personal greed is a 
 less heinous offence than the systematic poisoning of the bodies 
 and souls of a great and historic Nation for the miserable object 
 or adding a few Lakhs of Rupees to the Revenue of the State. 
 Moreover, if the speakers only understood their brief, they must 
 have felt that the line of Juvenal applied to them : 
 Dant veniam corvis : vexat censura columbam. 
 
 The British Merchant, who brought the Brandy and Whisky 
 and Gin and choice wines in such abundance to India, the 
 British Planters of the Mauritius, who flooded Bombay with Rum, 
 were the real offenders, if any tangible offence existed. With 
 singular inconsistency, after Sir Charles Warren and the Negro 
 Pastor, James Johnson, had pleaded earnestly and truly for 
 Africa, after Mr. Caine, M.P., had made a speech about Egypt, 
 which had no bearing upon the subject, after Mr. Horace Waller 
 had vainly striven to bring back the Meeting to the region of 
 common sense and calm judgment, the following Resolutions 
 were passed, which bear no relation whatever to the false and 
 libellous statements of the chief speakers, and which clearly 
 indicate, that this attack upon the Government of India was not 
 contemplated by the Director and Secretaries of the Church of 
 England Temperance Society, for no one can hesitate for a 
 moment in giving their hearty consent to these Resolutions : 
 
 1. That the traffic in strong drink, as now carried on by merchants belonging 
 to Christian nations in India, Africa, and most of the colonies and depen- 
 dencies of the British Empire, has become the source of wholesale demoralization 
 and ruin to the native races, and is proving a. fatal stumbling-block to the 
 progress of the Gospel among them. 
 
 2. That in the interests of Christianity and humanity the facts bearing on the 
 traffic and its results should be made more generally known to the people of 
 Ehgland and other countries, with a view to the formation of a sound public 
 opinion, and eventually to the passing of legislative enactments for the 
 repression of such traffic. 
 
 3. That for this purpose a Committee be formed, to include, besides 
 members of the Executive of the Church of England Temperance Society, 
 representatives of the leading Missionary and Temperance Societies. 
 
 But the mischief did not end with the Meeting. No one 
 would have troubled themselves with the platform speeches of a 
 travelling Member of Parliament, the creature of the hour: we 
 have known the genus in India for the last forty years, the man 
 
( 129 ) 
 
 who asks questions, makes copious notes, and looks, as if he 
 could see through a millstone. King Solomon remarks, that 
 there were three things, which were too wonderful for him, and 
 four which he knew not : but in modern time there is a fifth, 
 which is beyond the comprehension of the most wise, it is the 
 way, in which the travelling Member of Parliament is gulled, and 
 the plausibility, with which he tries on his return to England to 
 gull others. He meets an intelligent-looking man in the Railway 
 carriage, or passes a night at the house of the most crotchety 
 man of the Station, and he stuffs his travelling bag with crude 
 undigested facts, and then gives it out on a Manchester or 
 Liverpool platform with the air of a Prophet, who has just come 
 down from the Mountain, forgetting that the Science of Rule of 
 subject Millions is the greatest and noblest of Sciences, only 
 mastered by a few after the study and practice of decades, and 
 not during the excited tour of six weeks. But the chief orator 
 on this occasion was a man of different stamp, a real man, one 
 of the greatest of the Metropolitan Clergy, one who has done 
 for the young men of London more than any living man, one 
 whose written works are read by thousands, and whose spoken 
 words are listened to by hundreds, in fact, one of the great 
 Workers and Speakers of the period. 
 
 What was to be done } It was clear to me what I must do, 
 viz. at once to resign my seat on the proposed Committee, and 
 to decline any joint action with the Society, until these speeches 
 were as openly disallowed, as they were openly applauded. 
 Canon Ellison in his reply to my letter stated that : 
 
 As far as he knew, no attempt had been made to disprove the statements 
 contained in the Pamphlet : he further stated, that the object of the Com- 
 mittee was to sift and test such assertions ; to disprove, if truth should require 
 it, quite as much as to prove, and in some cases to vindicate the character of 
 Governments unjustly assailed. He assured me, that the Committee could be 
 in no way responsible for the statements made at the Meeting ; he begged me 
 finally to continue on the General and Executive Committees. 
 
 At a subsequent date I was invited to join the Sub-Committee, 
 appointed to consider the reply of the Viceroy of India, which 
 will be noticed below. From the first I felt, that Canon Ellison, 
 and the Church of England Temperance Society, were not 
 responsible for the indiscreet utterances made in Prince's Hall, 
 but I felt also, that I could serve the cause, the great cause, 
 which we all had in common, by standing aloof, waging my own 
 battle, and trying to clear the air of these clouds of ignorance, 
 and make the way open to an advance, based on facts and the 
 Truth, not on sensational and inaccurate statements. 
 
 Mr. Horace Waller entirely agreed with me : as he was one 
 of the Speakers at the Prince's Hall Meeting, he was stout- 
 hearted enough to speak out his mind, and tell the audience : 
 
 That a man, who is intemperate in his facts, is just as much a dram-drinker 
 
( I30 ) 
 
 to his own harm, as any dram-drinker of the ordinary kind, and that figures 
 could be brought together and presented to a meeting, which were a great many 
 degrees above proof. 
 
 These honest remarks were hooted by an excited audience, 
 who only cared to listen to Prophets, who prophesied according 
 to their own views. It was determined not to dissolve, but 
 oijly suspend the action of, the representative Committee of the 
 Missionary Societies ; it would not have been wise to allow this 
 great subject to fall exclusively into the power of the Committee 
 of the Church of England Temperance Society, which was 
 clearly under the temporary influence of Fanatics, but which in 
 a short time would recover its equilibrium, and become the 
 centre of renewed efforts in the great cause. 
 
 I lost no time in forwarding a copy of the Report of the 
 speeches of the Meeting to the Right Honourable the Secretary 
 of State for India, praying, that means should be at once 
 adopted to disprove the assertion : 
 
 That it is the policy of Government to encourage drunkenness in India with 
 a view of increasing the Revenue. 
 
 And I was assured that the charge was groundless : that the 
 consumption of spirits was repressed by a repressively high 
 duty, and that since 1872, in consequence of improved Excise 
 administration, the number of liquor-shops had steadily and ap- 
 preciably decreased, notwithstanding the increase of the popula- 
 tion during that period. I addressed the Under-Secretary of State 
 for India privately at his house, pointing out the extreme gravity 
 of the statements made, and the receipt of my letter was acknow- 
 ledged. A despatch was expected in a few weeks from the Viceroy 
 of India in reply to the Pamphlet of the Church of England 
 Temperance Society, sent out in the previous autumn. The 
 task, which I set before myself, divided itself into three heads : 
 
 I. Did the British in very deed find the people of India total 
 abstainers from the use of spirituous liquors and drugs, or even 
 temperate users of the same } 
 
 II. Has it been the policy of the State, and of the Servants of 
 the State, to enhance the Revenue of the Excise at the expense 
 of the morals of the people ? 
 
 III. Has the Revenue of the Excise increased beyond what 
 was to be expected from a people doubled in population, quad- 
 rupled in wealth, and exposed to the insidious dangers, which 
 accompany an advance in Civilization, and increased intercourse 
 with other Nations, those Nations famous for wholesale export 
 of spirituous liquors } 
 
 The first point was historical, and my proofs had to be collected 
 from a long list of Sanskrit, Pali, Persian, and Hindustdni writers; 
 extending over more than two thousand years : fortunately for 
 my argument, just as the use of wine for purposes of intoxication 
 
( 131 ) 
 
 can be traced back to the time of Noah, so in India the use of 
 intoxicating liquor is vouched for in the Veda, the most ancient 
 and sacred of Hindu Books, and can be traced, as I shall 
 proceed to show, from generation to generation to the present 
 time in the Hindu, Buddhist, Mahometan and Sikh annals. 
 The second point, and the third, would rest upon the expected 
 despatch of the Viceroy, upon the Report of the Bangdl Com- 
 mission of 1883, 1884, and the annual Administration-Reports 
 of British India, presented each year to Parliament. Things 
 in British India are fortunately not done in a corner, and the 
 Government of India is famous for its outspokenness, for the 
 naked way, in which it exposes both the successes, and the 
 failures, of its administration : the quinquennial change of every 
 high Officer of State alone renders this possible. There is no 
 desire of an hereditary blockhead to screen the errors of his 
 scoundrel ancestor. Each Viceroy, and each Governor, knows 
 well, that he leaves his character behind him. Lord Dufferin's 
 despatch, dated June 25th, 1887, was published' on the 4th 
 August, but did not reach me till September loth, just as I was 
 starting on a long journey to Morocco : so I contented myself 
 for the time with a letter to the Times, which appeared on the 
 1 6th of that month, as a cartel thrown down to my antagonists, 
 and on my return I proceed to make my reply to Archdeacon 
 Farrar's thesis in detail. I deal first with the first part : 
 
 fount Enbta golier." 
 
 It so happened, that in 1873 a very distinguished Hindu 
 Scholar of Calcutta, Lala Rajendra Lala Mitra, President of 
 the Bengal Asiatic Society, published in the Journal of that 
 Society an essay on the use of spirituous liquors by the Hindu, 
 tracing the practice by quotations from the most esteemed 
 Sanskrit authors from the earliest ages : to me it seemed, when 
 I first read this essay, in exceedingly bad taste thus to parade 
 the weaknesses of his countrymen, and I should think poorly 
 of an English literary man, who out of pure malice traced back 
 by quotations from Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Caedmon, the 
 drunkenness of the Anglo-Saxon up to the time of the origin of 
 the race ; yet this great Sanskrit scholar took the trouble to do 
 so in 1873, and in 1881 republished it with other of his learned 
 essays in his collective volumes, " Indo-Aryans, Contributions 
 towards the Elucidation of their Ancient and Mediaeval History." 
 As in the foot-notes of his essay he gives the original Sanskrit 
 quotations from each author quoted in extenso, any one, who 
 knows Sanskrit, can satisfy himself of their accuracy. The 
 quotations are easily accessible from the great Epic and 
 Dramatic Authors, and the Veda, and I have them in my private 
 library : it is indeed a most astonishing revelation ; perhaps 1 
 
( 132 ) 
 
 ought to have expected it, but I certainly did not do so; 
 I attributed the deplorable habits of intoxication, so notorious 
 among certain races and tribes, to a decadence from a higher 
 standard, rather than an uninterrupted continuance from the 
 cradle of the National life. 
 
 Rajendra Lala remarks, that drinks have a peculiar charm, 
 ■which enable them to hold their ground against the deductions 
 of Science, and mandates of Religion; that the history of 
 Mahometan civilization illustrated this assertion, for no one 
 condemned more emphatically the use of wine than Mahomet, 
 and yet that there is no Mahometan country, where the con- 
 sumption is not considerable. Gibbon remarked cynically last 
 century, that the vines of Shiraz have always prevailed over the 
 law of Mahomet. When the Indie branch of the Aryan race 
 crossed the Hindu-Kush at some remote period into the Panjab, 
 the earliest Brahman settlers indulged largely in " Soma "-beer, 
 and strong spirits.. To the Gods the most acceptable offering 
 was "Soma "-beer, and wine or spirits, which in India are 
 identical, was sold in the shops. In the Rig-Veda- Sanhita 
 (Wilson, vol. ii. p. 204) occurs a hymn, which shows, that 
 wine was kept in leather bottles, and freely sold to all comers. 
 A minority of authorities doubt, whether "Soma" was intoxi- 
 cating, but all admit that " Sard" or Arrack, manufactured from 
 rice-meal, and also alluded to in the Rig- Veda, was- highly so: 
 and this clearly shows, that the Vedic Hindu of a period long 
 anterior to the Christian era did countenance the use of spirit^: 
 but Professor Whitney clearly proves, that " Soma " was intoxi- 
 cating : it is supposed to have been the juice of a climbing 
 plant, the "Asclepias acida," which was extracted, fermented, 
 and produced exhilaration grateful to the Priests. The liquid 
 had power to elevate the spirits, and produce a temporary frenzy, 
 under the influence of which an individual was prompted to do, 
 and found capable of doing, deeds beyond his natural powers. 
 Soma was therefore deemed divine, and became a Deity, the myth 
 running on parallel lines to that of Dionysus or Bacchus, who 
 came from India into Hellas. 
 
 As time went on, the later Veda forbade the use of spirits for 
 the purpose of animal gratification, and said, that drinking was 
 as bad as the murder of a Brahman. The Smriti included wine- 
 bibbing among the five capital crimes, and ordered the severest 
 punishment. Manu 500 B.C., and others, denounced the use, and 
 fortified their dicta by legendary tales of frightful punishments ; 
 yet It, is clear, that at no period in their history has the Hindu 
 Nation abstained. Priests and respectable and pious house- 
 holders did so, but they were but a fraction of the community, 
 and there was at all times, as there is now, a considerable 
 amount of hypocrisy on the subject. Sanskrit literature, both 
 
( 133 ) 
 
 ancient and mediaeval, leaves no doubt, by its casual allusioiis, 
 and unpremeditated admission, that wine was extensively used 
 by all classes at all times with rare exceptions of individuals. 
 Manu found the public feeling so strong, that he remarks, that 
 there is no turpitude in drinking ; but that abstinence produces 
 a signal compensation. The Soldier and the Merchant (or in 
 other words the Kshatriya Rajput, and the Vaisya, or Trader, 
 both of whom belonged to the order of the Dwija or Twice- 
 born) must not drink Arrack, but were allowed the choice of all 
 other liquors, whose name was legion; the Sudra, or lower class, 
 might indulge freely without restraint : the Brahman, or highest 
 class, must totally abstain. 
 
 The Rules or aphorisms known as the " Stoa" are dated, some- 
 about 600 B.C. anterior to Manu, and some later : the Brahmana 
 are of various dates, the Aitareya being fixed at 700 B.C.: in 
 them we find, that not only the Soma and Sara retained iheir 
 firm hold of the people, but we read of new candidates for the 
 public taste, the Mohwa or Bassia latifolia, so popular as a 
 drink to this day, the Gandi or Sugar-rum, the Tari, or Toddy, 
 from the Palm : so the drinks of the Hindu, as well as their 
 Castes, and Religious rites, and magnificent literature, have an 
 unbrolsen lineage of at least twenty-six centuries. 
 
 In the fascinating Epic Poem of the Ramayana by Valmiki, 
 which has 'been my delight for more than forty years, we find> 
 frequent notices of wine and drinking. The great Sage 
 Visvamitra, himself the reputed author of some of the hymns of 
 the Rig-Veda, entertained the great sage Vasishtha with Maireya 
 (or Rum) and Sard (or Arrack). Bharadwdja, another great 
 Sage, offered wine to Bharata, King of Ayodya, and his soldiers, 
 who stayed one night with him during their search for Rama. 
 Sita, the beautiful and faithful wife of Rama (himself an 
 incarnation of the Supreme Deity), promised to offer to the- 
 River Goddess, Jamna, in the event of her safe return, one 
 thousand jars of Arrack. Nor was she herself, nor her husband,, 
 the Incarnation of Vishnu, averse from the cheering cup, for we 
 read in the last book of the noble Epic, how Rama, embracing 
 Sita with both his hands, made her drink pure Maireya wine or 
 Rum, even as the God Indra makes Sachi partake of nectar. 
 Nor was the practice confined to the Court, for it is incidentally 
 mentioned, that King Bharata found his city Ayodya plunged 
 in grief for the loss of Rama, one symptom of grief being the 
 absence of the exhilarating aroma of Arrack. Moreover, in the 
 palaces of Sugriva, the King of the Monkeys, and of Ravana, 
 the King of the Rakhsha, the greatest glory was the smell of 
 Arrack, as the Poets could not conceive the notion of luxury, 
 joy and splendour, without the presence of intoxicating liquor 
 in ample abundance. 
 
( 134 ) 
 
 In the Mahdbhdrata, another magnificent Epic of a later date 
 than the Ramdyana, the leading characters, whether Heroes, 
 or Demigods, or Krishna, himself the Incarnation of the 
 Supreme Deity, are described as indulging in strong drinks, 
 and no pleasure party was complete without them : we read of 
 Krishna and Arjuna, with their wives and sisters and daughters, 
 indulging in drink. Queen Sudeshna is described as sending 
 her maid to get a flagon of good drink for her use : the Yadava, 
 of whose race Krishna was born in the flesh, are described as 
 being so overcome with drink at a seaside watering-place, that 
 they destroyed each other in sheer drunkenness. 
 
 The doctrines of Buddha must have contributed much to 
 check drunkenness, and the use of wine, as well as of flesh, 
 but could not suppress either. The Jdtaka and Avadana abound 
 with stories of drunkenness: it must be recollected, that the 
 Jdtaka are the narratives of the former births of Buddha 
 himself: whether they are historical, or fanciful tales, they 
 reflect the notions of their compilers on this subject. In the 
 sculptures of Sanchi are figures of ladies of high rank, and 
 their attendants holding cups and flagons. In a Buddhist 
 drama, the Nagananda, the plot turns upon the vagaries of 
 a drunkard, who had for his love one of the attendants of the 
 Queen. In other love-scenes the lover is described as offering 
 overflowing goblets to his lady-love. We may look at the 
 subject from another point of view. Mr. Spence Hardy, in his 
 Manual of Buddhism, tells us, how the use of intoxicating 
 liquors is forbidden : when only as much tari, or toddy, is drunk, 
 as can be held in the palm of the hand, it is a minor offence : 
 it is greater, when the amount can be held in both hands ; and 
 greater still, when so much is drunk, that all things turn round. 
 To constitute the crime of drinking there must be (i) intoxi- 
 cating liquors made from flour, bread, or other kind of food : 
 (z) actual intoxication produced by these liquors: (3) they must 
 be taken with the intention of producing the effect : (4) they 
 must be taken of free will. Many a regular toper would escape 
 punishment by an ingenious application of these rules. More- 
 over, the Christian Moralist would scarcely think the Buddhist 
 motive for temperance sufficient, being only to avoid the six evil 
 consequences, (i) loss of wealth; (2) arising of quarrels; 
 (3) production of diseases, like sore eyes ; (4) bringing down 
 the disgrace of rebuke from Parents or Superiors; (5) exposure 
 to shame for going about naked ; (6) loss of judgment for 
 carrying on the affairs of the world. It is clear, that the use of 
 liquor taken moderately was not deemed wrong, and that 
 worldly advantage was the only incentive to induce a man not 
 to degrade himself to the position of a beast by getting drunk. 
 
 The great Dramatist Kaliddsa probably lived after the 
 
( 135 ) 
 
 Christian era ; the latest date assigned is 600 a.d. : in the 
 famous drama of the Sakontala, the Superintendent of the 
 Police, who is also brother of the King, proposes to spend 
 the present, which he had received, in a glass of good liquor at 
 the next wine-shop. An English Policeman could not have 
 been more pronounced in his taste for strong drink. In the 
 fine Heroic Poem, the Raghuvansa, by the same Poet, one of 
 the grandest of Poems, drinking-booths are described as being 
 set up at Rajamandri by the soldiers of Raghu, an ancestor of 
 Rama, to drink the famous cocoa-nut liquor of that place. It 
 is clear also, that women of quality drank in their husband's 
 society; for in the great Poem by Kalidasa, the Kumdra 
 Sambhava, Rati, the Indian Venus, the wife of Kama, the God- 
 of Love, mourning the loss of her husband, says : 
 
 Rice-liquor (alias arrack) which causes the reddened eyes to roll, and speech 
 to get disjointed at every step, has in thy absence become a torture to poor 
 women. 
 
 In the same Poem it is described, how the ladies rushed to 
 the window to see a procession, and evolved the odour of arrack, 
 which they had drunk. 
 
 The Purdna vary in date : the oldest has been placed in the 
 sixth century of the Christian era ; the latest in the thirteenth, 
 or even the sixteenth century : they abound in descriptions of 
 wine and drinking, and, though the object of many of them is to 
 condemn the use of wine, the inference is clear, that there was 
 a widespread malady, which they proposed to overcome. The 
 Bhagavata Purana enjoins the use of spirit by the Brahmans 
 at one particular rite. In another Purina the great Goddess 
 Durga is represented as particularly addicted to strong drinks. 
 
 Other quotations from later authors could be made ad 
 libitum, more particularly from the poetical literature, to show 
 how frequently references are made, to drinking among the 
 higher classes. The Tantra are books of a later date than the 
 Purana, and are of extreme importance with reference to the 
 life of the modern Hindu : the Saiva Tantra gives full liberty 
 to their votaries to indulge in drinking spirits. No worship to 
 the Devi can be complete without wine, and the worshippers 
 sit round a jar of arrack, -and drink, and drink, till they fall to 
 the ground in utter helplessness. The most appropriate way 
 of drinking liquor is in the mystic circle, but, as this cannot 
 be got every day, . the devotee takes the bulk of his potations 
 after his evening prayer. 
 
 Pulastya, an ancient sage, and author of one of the Smriti, 
 of a remote and uncertain age, enumerates twelve different kinds 
 of liquor beside the Soma-beer : they are (i) the Jack, (2) the 
 grape, (3) the honey, (4) the date, (5) the palm, (6) the sugar- 
 cane, (7) the Mohwa, (8) the long-pepper, (9) the soap-berry, 
 
( 136 ) 
 
 (lo) the rum, (ii) the cocoa-nut, (12) the arrack or rice: the 
 mode of preparing all these liquors is described in one of the 
 Tantra, and they were all taken neat, and it was necessary to 
 eat a wine-biscuit with them, to remove the smarting in the 
 mouth caused by raw spirit. These wine-biscuits had many 
 technical names, and one of the names of the great God Siva, 
 the third of the Triad, is " Lord of wine-biscuits." No drinking 
 party was complete without these titbits. 
 
 We learn from Arrian's Periplus of the Erythrsean Sea, that 
 quantities of foreign wine were regularly imported into India 
 two thousand years ago, and met a ready sale. The varieties 
 mentioned are from Laodicea, Italy and Arabia : they were more 
 costly than the Native wines, and only used by the rich. History 
 seems to repeat itself; and the British Shipper, Distiller and 
 Brewer had his prototype, and is but a servile imitator of the 
 astute Greeks 1 
 
 Medical works of the Hindu tell us of the diseases, which 
 were the sure punishment of intemperance : we find in Sanskrit 
 the word wine -horror, suggesting delirium tremens: wine-: 
 disease, suggesting gout: wine-death, suggesting the well- 
 known phrase " drank himself to death." The description of 
 the diseases is given in Sanskrit words. Such names could not 
 have come into existence, had there not been immoderate 
 drinking in many instances to give rise to the complaint. In 
 medical works there are a number of recipes for removing the 
 odour of wine from the mouth. We have seen, how in elder days; 
 the aroma of spirits was not concealed, but welcomed, even 
 from the mouths of ladies : a more hypocritical age tried to hunt 
 with total abstainers and run with the drunkards : there was 
 clearly a class of rich men who drank in secret, and wished to pass 
 among their neighbours as total abstainers, like the women in 
 Europe, who in this generation drink liquors sent in frorii the 
 Grocers' stores, and get rid of the smell with peppermint 
 lozenges. '! 
 
 I feel a sort of compunction in thus exposing the venerable 
 Veda, and the charming Epics, and Dramas of the Hindu to 
 scorn : they have been the delight of my life. No one, who 
 had read Horace or Juvenal, can doubt, that the Romans drank 
 more than was good for them. Homer tells us in the Odyssee 
 iii. 139: 
 
 olvM fie^apyoTes vl'oi 'Ap^a/ww, 
 
 and he himself is said never to have prosecuted his labour as a 
 poet till he was well drunk. We cannot doubt that the Greeks 
 drank. The great catena of Greek authors could be quoted to 
 show that they drank and drank to excess : they attributed to 
 their Gods the same weaknesses as their own : otherwise what 
 
( 137 ) 
 
 occasion had Jupiter for Hebe and Ganymede as cupbearers ! 
 When Mercury visited Calypso, she served him with drink. 
 Minerva was the only one of the Immortals who never drank : 
 if it be argued, that this was only the fancy of the Poets, I reply, 
 Just so : their writings reflect the feelings of their own age, 
 whether in India or Hellas : they do not allude to Railways and 
 Telegraphs, but they do to drink, because they and their hearers 
 knew what it was. 
 
 When Peter with the Apostles were charged with being full of 
 new wine, he did not repel the insinuation as a gross insult, but 
 remarked that it was not the third hour of the day, or, as Dean 
 Alford puts it, 
 
 He showed the improbability of intoxication at that hour of the morning. 
 
 Hence a fair inference that some of the Jews at that period 
 drank. We cannot admit, that the Hindu Nation were a good 
 innocent people, who did not know how to make ferniented 
 beverages, how to distil, how to import from Europe, how to 
 drink to intoxication like brute beasts, how to acquire frightful 
 diseases, how to get rid of the odour of wine from their mouths, , 
 and to play the part of sanctified total abstainers, until they had 
 been taught all these tricks by the British Collector of Revenue, 
 anxious to increase the Excise : and yet it is necessary to place 
 these facts on record. 
 
 But perhaps the Pagan tribes of India, who lie outside of the 
 Hindu and Mahometan Civilization and Religion, according to 
 the Poets and popular fancy leading rude and simple pastoral 
 lives in secluded valleys, or on the slopes of the Himalaya, had 
 escaped this contamination. Up to this day many of them have, 
 scarcely seen a European, or visited a City. Forty years ago 
 Mr. Brian Hodgson thus wrote of the Bodo and Dhimal on the 
 confines of Assam : 
 
 They use abundance of fermented liquor made of rice, or millet : it is not 
 unpleasant. Brewing, and not distilling, seems the characteristic of all non- 
 Arian races, all of whom make beer, and iiot spirits : the process is very simple : 
 the grain is boiled : a plant is mixed with it, and it is left to ferment : in four 
 days the liquor is ready : the plant for fermenting is grown at home : this 
 tribe use tobacco, but no opium or distilled liquor. I do not brand them 
 with the name of drunkards, though they certainly love a merry cup in honour 
 of their Gods at the high festivals of their religion : among my own servants 
 the Bodo have never been drunk : the Mahometan and Hindu several times 
 excessively so. 
 
 The aborigines, the Santil, are notorious for their fondness 
 for beer. ' 
 
 The Mahometans conquered India about 800 a.d. : many 
 aliens settled in India : some Hindu were converted by force, 
 or fraud, or for desire of gain : thousands of wild Non-Arian 
 tribes have accepted a veneer of Mahometanism, but are Pagan 
 
( 138 ) 
 
 still. Even the converted Hindu retain the Caste-names, and 
 the Hindu law with regard to Marriage and Succession. We 
 have fortunately full accounts of the way of living of the 
 Emperors and Nobles, but scant notice of the ways of the lower 
 class. History is generally silent about them. 
 
 Here is a contemporary's peep into the life of Mahm6d of 
 Ghazni, the first invader of India : 
 
 The Amir said to Abd-ur-Razzak : "Shall we drink a little wine?" 
 Accordingly much wine was brought into the garden, and fifty goblets placed 
 in the middle of a small tent. The Amir said, "Let us drink fair measure, 
 and fill the cups evenly, in order that there may be no unfairness." They 
 began to get jolly. Bu-i Hasan drank five goblets : his head was affected at 
 the sixth : he lost his senses at the seventh, and began to vomit at the eighth, 
 when the servants carried him off. Bu-a)a, the physician, dropped his head 
 at the fifth cup, and was carried off. Khalil Daud drank ten : Suja Biruz 
 nine : and both were borne away. Bu-Nain drank twelve and ran oft : when 
 the Khwaja had drunk twelve cups, he made his obesiance and said to the 
 Amir, "If you give your slave anymore, he will lose his respect to your 
 Majesty, as well as his own wits." The Amir laughed, and went on drinking. 
 He drank twenty-seven goblets : he then arose, and called for a basin of water, 
 and his praying-carpet, washed his face, and recited the midday prayers as well 
 as the afternoon ones, and he so acquitted himself that you would not have said 
 that he had drunk a single cup : he then returned to the Palace on an elephant. 
 I witnessed the whole scene with my eyes. — Tarikh Subuktegin, Elliot's 
 " Historians of India," vol. ii. p. 14.5. 
 
 Sultan Muizzu-d-dunya plunged at once into dissipation : his companions all 
 joined him : the example spread, and all ranks, high and low, learned and 
 unlearned, acquired a taste for wine-drinking. Night and day the Sultan gave 
 himself up entirely to dissipation and enjoyment. One of the nobles said : 
 " Suppose you kill the drunken insensate king by some villainous contrivance." 
 — Elliot's "Historians," vol. iii. pp. 126-129. 
 
 Sultan Ala-ud-din prohibited wine-drinking and wine-selling, and also the 
 use of beer and drugs. Jars and casks of wine were brought up from the royal 
 cellars, and emptied into the streets in such quantities, that mud and mire was 
 formed. The dissolute used to make and distil wine clandestinely, and drink 
 at a great price : they put it into leather bags and conveyed it in hay and fire- 
 wood. By hundreds of devices it was brought into the city : when seized, the 
 wine was given to the elephants to drink : the sellers were flogged and sent to 
 prison, but the numbers increased so, that holes for their incarceration were 
 dug outside the gate : the severity of this confinement caused many to die : 
 those, who could not give up the habit, went out to the fords of the river, and 
 procured liquor ; the horror of confinement deterred others. Desperate men 
 still drank, and even sold liquor : seeing this difficulty, the Sultan ordered, 
 that, if the liquor was distilled in private houses, and consumed in secret, and 
 no parties were found drunk, it might go on. 
 
 Baber, the great conqueror of India, the founder of the 
 Moghul dynasty, was a constant and jovial toper : many a 
 drunken party is recorded in his Memoirs : even in the middle 
 of a campaign there is no interruption of his excessive jollity. 
 Ex. gr. : 
 
 We continued at this place drinking till the sun was on the decline : those 
 who had been of the party were completely drunk. Saiyad Khan was so drunk, 
 that two of his servants were obliged to put him on horseback, and brought 
 
( 139 ) 
 
 him to the camp with difficulty. Dost Mahommed Bakur was so far gone, 
 that they could not get him on horseback : they poured a quantity of water 
 over him, but to no purpose. A body of the Afghans (the enemy) appeared in 
 sight, and they threw him on a horse, and brought him off. 
 
 On some occasions they contrived to be drunk four times in 
 twenty-four hours : they began to drink and kept up the party 
 until evening prayers (they were strict Mahometans). 
 
 Baber writes himself: 
 
 I now want something less than one year of forty years, and I drink wine 
 most copiously. 
 
 In 1527 A.D. he began a course of rigorous reform, and there 
 is something picturesque in the very solemn and remarkable 
 account of this great revolution in his habits : however, his 
 indulgence had shortened his days. He was a truly great 
 man, in spite of all his weaknesses, and showed his greatness 
 in his manly struggle against his habits of intemperance : 
 " Hostium victor et sui." 
 
 I had collected the above quotations before I started on my 
 late expedition to Morocco : on my return I find upon my table 
 additional evidence of the gross intemperance of the Mahome- 
 tans in India collected for a totally different purpose in the 
 columns of the Church Missionary Intelligencer of December, 
 1887, p. 727. This is the Society, to whose service I have 
 devoted myself for many years, and by an odd chance the 
 father of Archdeacon Farrar was of this Society an honoured 
 Missionary, and his Mardthi hymns are still sung in the Native 
 Churches of Western India. The statements, which I quote, 
 were made by a writer, who knew what he was about, having 
 been many years a Chaplain in India, and they were made in 
 reply to one of the greatest paradoxes of modern time, an 
 attempt on the part of a beneficed Clergyman of the Church of 
 England to prove, that Mahometanism to certain races was a 
 more suitable religion than Christianity, and that ' Mahometans 
 were total abstainers. 
 
 On this supposed abolition of drunkenness, a much bewildered correspon- 
 dent of the Guardian (October 19th) recalls the memory of Selim the Sot, the 
 temporal and spiritual head of Islam, and that drink cut short the splendid 
 career of Amurath IV. We read in Mountsluart Elphinstone (vol. ii. p. 49) 
 that Ala-ud-din's constitution had yielded to a long course of intemperance. 
 When he was beset with conspiracies, his counsellors traced his troubles to 
 convivial meetings, where men opened their thoughts to eacU other. The 
 Emperor Baber tried to persuade a friend to leave off wine, but he admitted that 
 drinking was a very pleasant thing with old friends and companions. Elphin- 
 stone remarks, that it would have been fortunate, if Baber had left off drinking 
 wine sooner, for there seems good reason to think his indulgence in it tended 
 to shorten his days. Many a drinking party is recorded in his Memoirs. 
 Akbar's third son, Danial, when debarred by his father's order from wine, had 
 liquor conveyed to him in the barrel of a fowling-piece, and thus, having free 
 
> ( 140 ) 
 
 access to indulgence, brought his life to a close in the thirtieth year of his age. 
 Akbar himself, in his youth, indulged in wine and good living. Sir Thomas 
 Roe tells us, that Jehangir never left off drinking till he fell asleep, scarcely one of 
 the party remaining sober. In his drunkenness he talked with great hberality 
 of all religions ; then he fell to weeping and to various passions which kept 
 them till midnight. It was when he was recovering from a fit of drunkenness 
 that he was seized and deposed. Shah Shuja, the son of Shah Jehan, was 
 given up to wine and pleasure : he was a mere drunkard. His brother, 
 Morad, was seized when in a helpless state of intoxication, and imprisoned 
 and murdered by Aurangzib. It would be easy to extend this bead-roll of 
 Mahometan monarchs, who have been amongst the most conspicuous drunkards 
 of their times. 
 
 And another writer tells us : 
 
 So far as abstinence from strong drink is concerned, Moslems do show how 
 much may be accomplished by repressive measures, and we may take a lesson 
 from them ; but with regard to inebriating drugs their example is quite the 
 other way, and of the two their vice is the worse. The tendency of intoxica- 
 tion through drink is to delirium tremens, which is a suicidal mania ; but the 
 tendency of inebriation through bhang is to homicidal mania. The delirious 
 Mahometan " runs a muck " ; armed with daggers and other life-destroying 
 weapons, he runs through town or country stabbing, maiming, and killing 
 every man, woman or child whom he meets. I well remember the suffering 
 and terror, that were caused on one occasion, when four such maniacs " ran a 
 muck" in one day, with such violence, that the authorities turned out a 
 company of soldiers and shot them down. It was summary vengeance, but 
 the only way of saving innocent lives. I do not think that such cases are now 
 as frequent in India and Ceylon as they were forty years since, and I think that 
 the indirect influence of Christianity has caused the decrease. 
 
 Nor is it peculiar to India : the Odes of the celebrated Poet 
 Hafiz tell us how : 
 
 My spiritual guide went from the Mosque to the Wine-shop. 
 And he makes an appeal to the Cup-bearer, to 
 
 Pass on good wine, for he would not find in Paradise such charms as the 
 world bestowed. 
 
 I quote from the Missionary Periodicals : 
 
 " Islam,'' says one defender of Isldm, " has abolished drunkenness." Has 
 it ? Night after night we took up dozens, I may say, of drunkards in the 
 streets of Zanzibar. Many high-class natives were drunkards on the sly ; and, 
 when a Moslem does drink, he will pawn his last rag for liquor, or, as was 
 frequently the case with the men we apprehended, would commit robbery 
 solely for the purpose of gratifying their love for liquor ; but enough. The 
 man, who has not travelled in Mahometan countries, may never have seen 
 drunken Mahometans, but we have. 
 
 There is a famous story in Mahometan books, how a Kddi, 
 whose duty it was to punish drinkers, privately indulged in 
 drink at night, and was in the early morning caught in the act 
 by his Sovereign, who was about to decapitate him, when he 
 begged, that the shutters of the windows open to the East 
 might be opened, and he be informed from which quarter of the 
 
( 141 ) 
 
 horizon the Sun was rising. When told, that it was from the 
 East, he quoted from the Kordn : 
 
 So long as the Sun rises from the East, so long will God have mercy on His 
 children. 
 
 He then knelt down submissive to his fate : he had learnt some- 
 thing from the Kordn better than Temperance, viz. Faith and 
 Submission to the Divine Decree. This is Isldm. 
 
 In the time of the Emperor Baber, a new Sect of the Hindu 
 Religion came into existence, founded by Baba Ndnak, and 
 became so influential, that their tenets are often talked of as a 
 separate Religion : it was an upheaval of the lower classes, and 
 a war against Caste. All fanatics and lawgivers must forbid 
 something. Moses and Mahomet forbade swine's flesh : the Popes 
 of Rome forbade a large and influential portion of the community, 
 male and female, to marry: the Total Abstinence Society forbids 
 liquor: Baba Ndnak forbade tobacco. Smoking is a nasty habit, 
 but it scarcely amounts to a sin. The day will come, when an 
 Anti-Smoking Society will arise : all such prohibitions are limi- 
 tations of Christian liberty, and I protest against Total Abstinence 
 being made anything more than a very proper moral inculcation 
 to youth. Baba Ndnak forbade tobacco : the Sikhs took it out 
 in another quarter : 
 
 Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret : 
 
 they became terrible consumers of opium, decoction of poppy- 
 heads, and spirituous liquors generally. I lived many happy 
 years in their midst. I was present at the taking of Lahore, and 
 the conquest of the country, and I found liquor-shops in 
 abundance, and decoction of poppy-heads, called Post, set out 
 in brass cups for free sale, like ginger-beer in London, and, as I 
 was placed in charge of one of the newly-conquered districts, one 
 of my first duties was to regulate the number of shops for sale of 
 liquors, take the sale of opium entirely into the control of the 
 State, and impose a heavy tax on intoxicating liquors. The 
 Sikhs are a magnificent race in stature, living long lives, and 
 having large families, and yet they habitually took their daily 
 opium pill, and lay like logs on the ground, until the narcotic 
 had worked itself off. 
 
 In the History of the Panjdb published in two volumes by 
 Messrs. Allen in 1 846, I find it noted, that the famous Mahirdja 
 Ranjft Singh, the putative father of the well-known Dulip Singh, 
 was unreserved in all his habits, and his diet consisted of high 
 stimulants, of which he partook sparingly. At his interview with 
 Lord Auckland, the Governor-General, in 1838, Ranjit Singh, 
 after pressing His Lordship to take part in the drinlclng, drained 
 the cup of fiery liquid to the dregs. This excess produced upon 
 the Mahdrdja such a severe fit of apoplexy, that Lord Auckland 
 
( 142 ) 
 
 took leave of him lying on his couch, scarcely able to articulate. 
 His wine was extracted from raisins, a quantity of pearls being 
 ground to powder and mixed with it : it was made for Ranjit 
 Singh alone : he sometimes gave a few bottles to his Chiefs. It 
 was as strong as Brandy : the only food allowed at his drinking 
 feasts was fat quails, stuffed with sage, and this abominable 
 liquid fire. His sensual indulgences were the vices of his 
 country. 
 
 His grandson Mahirdja Nou Nihil Singh in his moral habits 
 was an example to the corrupt Court, being sober, and com- 
 paratively temperate amidst the debauchery round him. He 
 was killed at the age of twenty-two. Mahdrdja Shfr Singh, son 
 of Ranjit Singh, was a good-natured sensualist, and solaced 
 himself with an unrestrained indulgence in every species of 
 intemperance. He was killed and was succeeded by his half- 
 brother, a supposititious child of Ranjit Singh, named Dulip 
 Singh, so well known in England : the officers of the Army 
 proceeded to the Palace and remonstrated against the brother 
 of the Mahdraja's mother continuing as Chief Minister, re- 
 proaching him to his face with drunkenness. He was so drunk, 
 that he could not hold a Durbar, and the mother of Mahdrdja 
 Dulip Singh, besides her unbridled profligacy with her paramour, 
 indulged in similar excesses, and in August, 1845, her faculties 
 became seriously impaired by these indulgences : she used to 
 sink into a state of stupor, from which she could only be raised 
 by the stimulus of strong drink ; on one occasion a letter from 
 the Governor-General awaited a reply, but none could be sent 
 because the mother and uncle of the Mahdrdja Dulip Singh, 
 and the hoy himself, aged 6, were all drunk s on the following 
 day there was no Durbar, because the Wazir, and the Members 
 of the Council, were intoxicated. 
 
 It is not pleasant to me thus to expose the weaknesses of any 
 class of Her Majesty's subjects, whether in Westminster or 
 Lahore ; but, since it has been distinctly laid down by Archdeacon 
 Farrar at a public meeting, that the British Government found 
 India sober, it is necessary, distinctly, and by quotations, to 
 show, that that statement is not exact. I could have added 
 indefinitely to the number of quotations: there is scarcely a 
 battle, which we have fought in India, in which it is not 
 recorded, that the soldiers of the enemy were encouraged to the 
 fight by copious libations of Arrack. It is an unquestionable 
 fact, that a large number of the classes, of which the Indian 
 population is composed, habitually drink; that weddings are 
 always accompanied by additional supplies of wine, specially 
 got in for the purpose, as indeed was the marriage of Cana in 
 Galilee, and a modern wedding in any part of Europe : that 
 there is a special Caste, called the Kuldl, or wine-seller, and 
 
( 143 ) 
 
 that it might as well be said, that the British introduced the use 
 of gunpowder, and calico garments, as of liquor and drugs. 
 I now proceed to the second part of the Thesis : 
 
 " ant toe left 3[nbia titunken." 
 
 Nature has supplied the people of India with an abundance 
 and variety of intoxicating liquors, and stupefying drugs, beyond 
 the lot of any other nation. There is indeed a lack of grape 
 wine, and the brewing of European beer has only been intro- 
 duced for the benefit of the European community ; but sugar 
 to make rum, hepp to produce charas, and bhang, rice to 
 produce Arrack, the palm tree to produce the Tari or Toddy, 
 the Mohwa or Bassia latifolia to produce the celebrated liquor, 
 the Poppy to produce the opium, and the poppy-decoction 
 called Post in the North of India, and Kusumbha in the South, 
 the Cereals ready for the preparation of Gin in any form ; all these 
 deadly ingredients and many others, grow spontaneously with the 
 smallest amount of culture : the process of brewing, or distilling, 
 is of the simplest character : the price is ridiculously low, and 
 the wild character of a great part of the country is all iri favour 
 of the smuggler, and illicit distiller, or the still in the privacy of 
 the secluded house. In the memory of man the British troops 
 used to be employed in Ireland to hunt for illicit stills in the 
 Mountainous tracts, and the smuggler on the Coast of Great 
 Britain has only been got rid of by an entire change of the 
 financial system. The problem presented to the Government 
 of India was one of the most complicated and difficult. But it 
 was clearly the duty of the Government, and the Government 
 did not shrink from the discharge of that duty, at a time, when 
 its power was not so overwhelming and undisputed as it is now. 
 
 In the Ayin Akbari there is a list of taxes remitted by Akbar, 
 among them is a tax on spirituous liquors, but it was reimposed, 
 as it appears in later fiscal statements. In the Province of 
 Bangdl in 1722, under the Nawabs, this tax existed, and the 
 British found it, when they assumed the Government in 1763 
 A.D., but it was exceedingly light, and in 1785 a bottle of 
 spirituous liquor could be purchased for one pice, about a half- 
 penny, sufficient in amount to make a man drunk. Complaints 
 were then rife of the spread of drunkenness among the lower 
 classes, and just one century ago, 1789, the matter was taken up 
 by Mr. John Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, and President 
 of the British and Foreign Bible Society, one of the most high- 
 minded, pious, and benevolent of men, and, the ablest of Indian 
 Statesmen. Lord Cornwallis was then Governor-General, and 
 in 1790 by his orders a notification was issued, that no person 
 should hereafter make or vend spirituous liquors, except on the 
 part of Government, and the collectors of Land Revenue were 
 
( 144 ) 
 
 charged with the duty of carrying out details. The grounds, 
 which led to this decision, were moral, and one of the conditions 
 of each licence was, that the holder should prevent drunkenness, 
 and not receive any goods in barter for liquor, and close his 
 shop at 9 P.M. Regulations were enacted in 1793 and 1800, 
 and in the preamble it is stated, that one of the reasons for 
 passing the rules was the inordinate use of liquors and drugs, which 
 had become prevalent owing to the very inconsiderable price, 
 at which they were sold previous to 1790 a.d. In 1802 the great 
 Governor-General, the Marquess of Wellesley, circulated interro- 
 gatories, regarding the operation of the system, and inquired, 
 whether the tax had rendered the vice of drunkenness more 
 prevalent. The Court of Appeal at Morshedabad replied in the 
 negative, adding, however, that it had not decreased, but that it 
 was not general, and the labouring poor never touched liquor : 
 other authorities replied in different strains, that the Regulations 
 had been beneficial, and suggested still more stringent repressive 
 measures. 
 
 Dr. Buchanan published a remarkable book, the account of 
 his survey of certain districts in 1807 and 18 14. He remarks, 
 that the use of liquor was very common, but that actual drunken- 
 ness was less prevalent : he mentions, that in one district the 
 Mahometans were in the habit of drinking : he mentions that 
 women used spirituous liquor, and that on the frontier of the 
 Company's territory liquor was smuggled in from the Native 
 States free from duty, and therefore sold cheaper. It will be 
 gathered from the above, that the habit was anterior to, in- 
 dependent of, and in defiance of, the Regulations of the early 
 British administrators, and it must be remembered, that since 
 1790 the population has doubled, the area of cultivation has 
 been enormously extended, roads opened out, new products 
 introduced, and the great Pax Britannica has made Bangal one 
 of the most thickly populous, wealthy, /and flourishing countries 
 in the world. The great Provinces of the North-West Provinces, 
 and the Panjdb, naturally followed the Bangdl system : the 
 minor Provinces of Assam, the Central Provinces and Barma 
 followed in the same track, while Madras and Bombay 
 developed their system in their own way, but on the same lines, 
 following the same principles, having the same object in view, 
 not the enhancement of the Revenue of the State by pandering 
 to the base passions of the people, but by the steady system of 
 repression and control, and an enhancement of the duty up to 
 that point, which would make smuggling with all its risks 
 profitable. 
 
 I must here make a remark, that the speakers have forgotten one 
 element in the discussion, an element however of the greatest im.- 
 portance, that is, the existence of the Covenanted Civil Service, 
 
( I4S ) 
 
 with entire control over every part of the Administrative Machine, 
 in every part of British India, from the highest to the lowest. Every 
 five years a statesman of the highest mark has been sent out as 
 Governor-General, and since 1858 asViceroy, and two eminent men 
 are sent out as Governors of Madras and Bombay, and Military 
 men as Commanders-in-Chief, and a lawyer for the Legislative 
 Council of the Viceroy; but with these exceptions every post 
 is held by a Member of the Covenanted Civil Service, supple- 
 mented in some parts of the country by Military men, who for 
 the time being become Civilians : the real power, and the entire 
 knowledge of Revenue subjects, rests with them : and the 
 Councillors, who sit by the side of the Viceroy, have risen 
 up step by step in every grade of the Service, and know every 
 detail : there is no room for half-knowledge with them ; if 
 there is a blot in the working of the Excise system, they know 
 it : if the measures of Government lead to increased consump- 
 tion of liquor either by express design, or by the unfortunate 
 nature of the case, they know it. Now one feature of this 
 great Covenanted Service is its independence of character, 
 sense of responsibility, and outspokenness : there have been 
 Civilians, who in times past have refused to obey the orders 
 of Government to pay the Brahmans to pray for rain during 
 a drought, have refused to administer the affairs of a Heathen 
 Temple, have asserted their right to attend the Baptisms of 
 Native Converts, and justified it in such a way, when called 
 upon for explanation, that the Viceroy has admitted the right. 
 By the practice of the Indian Administration a remonstrance 
 against an order is permitted, and it is notorious, how difficult 
 some men have proved themselves to be, till at last it has come 
 to the alternative of obeying or resigning : but I do assert, that, 
 if the Viceroy or Council had ordered, as suggested by Mr. 
 Samuel Smith, that, to make up a deficiency in the Budget, 
 encouragement should be given to the sale of liquors and 
 drugs, he could not have been obeyed : such an order never has been, 
 and never could be issued. I have myself filled the post of Col- 
 lector of a District, Revenue Commissioner of a Division, and 
 Provincial Head of the Revenue Department, both in the North- 
 West Province, and the Fanjab, and I unhesitatingly say that, 
 had such an order reached me, I should have had the courage 
 of my convictions, and not have conveyed it to my subordinates, but 
 should have recorded such a protest as would have compelled 
 its rescission. I learnt my earliest lesson from James Thomason, 
 the pupil of Simeon, and matured my knowledge under John 
 Lawrence, and I served under men of the type of Robert 
 Montgomery and Donald Macleod. Does Mr. Samuel Smith, 
 when he makes such assertions, consider what kind of men 
 have controlled the affairs of India since the beginning of this 
 
( 146 ) 
 
 century from the time of Lord Teignmouth, the President of 
 the Bible Society, down to Lord Lawrence and Sir Bartle Frere ? 
 Nor has the management of the Excise been one unchange- 
 able system, which no one dared to touch, like a Perpetual 
 Settlement of the Land Revenue, or the Capitulations, by which 
 the independence of Turkey is crippled. On the contrary, 
 Governor after Governor has had his eye upon it, and the 
 practice has varied from time to time, and Province to Province, 
 between the Central State-Distillery at the Head -Quarters, and 
 a lease of a certain area to a reponsible person, who could only 
 open out stills at spots approved by the Collector. The first 
 system has the obvious disadvantage, that it casts an odium upon 
 the Collector, as being de facto the head Distiller of his district. 
 Many weak, and imperfectly informed, critics in England see in 
 the Opium Monopoly an aggravation of the offence, in that the 
 State becomes de facto the Manufacturer of the Drug. This is 
 one of the dilemmas, in the horns of which the imperfectly 
 informed fanatical abstainers find themselves : they desire 
 veheniently the abolition of the Monopoly of the Manufacture 
 of Opium, while they blame the Government of India for not 
 rigorously maintaining the Monopoly of the Manufacture of 
 Spirits. Damnant quod non intelligunt. There is the obvious 
 advantage, that by both the Central Liquor Distillery, and the 
 Opium Monopoly, the State officials have efficient means of 
 repression, and can control the working of the machine. The 
 second system has the obvious disadvantage of imperfect control, 
 and therefore loss of Excise, and promotion of undue and illicit 
 sale. In 1859 the Government of India, in its Imperial capacity, 
 pointed out that on moral, as well as fiscal grounds, the establish- 
 ment of Central State-Distilleries was advisable. In 1883 a 
 Commission was appointed for the Province of Bangdl under 
 the sanction of the Government of India to consider the whole 
 subject: on the order constituting the Commission occur the 
 following expressions : 
 
 It is impossible for Government to allow this increase of drinlcing to continue, 
 without making every effort to ascertain those causes, and, if possible, remove 
 them. No considerations of Revenue can be allowed to outweigh the para- 
 mount duty of Government to prevent the spread of intemperance, so far as it 
 may be possible to do so. 
 
 These words were penned by a Governor, who knew what he 
 was about, at a date antecedent to Canon Ellison's Pamphlet 
 of 1886, and Archdeacon Farrar's famous thesis of 1887. The 
 result was a Report dated April, 1884, in which the system, 
 adopted in the whole of British India, is reviewed, and certain 
 recommendations are made for Bangdl. The Report was 
 published at Calcutta in 1884, in two large folio volumes, and I 
 recommend it as profitable reading to those, who desire to be 
 
( 147 ) 
 
 something more than Platform-Orators, and wish to make a 
 serious and solemn study of the difficulty of administering the 
 affairs of a great subject Nation, uniting the maximum of wise 
 and gentle control, with the minimum of vexatious interferences 
 with their family customs, their weddings, and their gatherings, 
 their feastings and their weaknesses. Let us try the high moral 
 problem of Total Abstinence by Act of Parliament, or Local 
 Option, first in the Borough of Westminster under the shadow 
 of the Abbey, before we introduce it in Bangdl : let us teach the 
 Christian to be sober, and then press the subject on the Hindu 
 and Mahometan. We at least in our Religion have the highest 
 motives, and the power of the Holy Spirit to help us in our 
 endeavours : the Non-Christian world has nothing but the 
 prospect of Earthly advantage, and the unaided energy of Poor 
 Humanity. 
 
 I now come to the Despatch of the Government of British 
 India signed August 4, 1887, presented to Parliament August g, 
 1887, and printed: it is signed by the Earl of Dufferin the 
 Viceroy, Sir Frederick Roberts the Commander-in-Chief, and 
 five members of Council, one of whom is an English Barrister : 
 it contains reports from the eight Provinces, into which British 
 India is divided : it is a document of the greatest importance, 
 and based on the latest information, being up to date. If we do 
 not place faith in this, it is as much as to say, "All Anglo- 
 Saxons are liars" : on this matter I have spoken to one Viceroy, 
 several ex-Governors, and ex-Councillors, and a large body of 
 Anglo-Indians, who have retired, and there is but one opinion 
 on the subject. Some of the most earnest Members of the 
 Temperance Society admit in 1887 the sufficiency of this reply 
 to the Pamphlet issued by the Temperance Society in 1886. 
 
 Lord Duflferin summarizes the allegations of that Pamphlet 
 as follows : 
 
 A. The Excise Revenue of India 'is due to a system, which 
 directly leads to the establishment of liquor-shops, where till 
 recently such things were unknown. 
 
 B. The fiscal system of India, by affording facilities for drink- 
 ing in defiance of native opinion, is unhappily spreading misery 
 and ruin among many families of the industrial class. 
 
 C. The use of intoxicating drinks, which they believe to have 
 been practically unknown in the greater part of India, was 
 introduced under British Rule. 
 
 The reply is : 
 
 A. The principle laid down and accepted by all is, that liquor 
 should be taxed, and consumption restricted, as far as it is 
 possible to do so, without imposing positive hardship on the 
 people, and driving them to illicit manufactures. 
 
 B. The measures taken have been completely successful : 
 
( 148 ) 
 
 the great increase of the Excise in recent years really represents 
 much less liquor sold, and an infinitely better regulated con- 
 sumption than the smaller Revenue of former years. 
 
 C. It is an error to suppose, that the population of India 
 were universally abstemious, and if left alone, knew nothing of 
 Intoxicating Liquor, and have been introduced to it by the 
 British Government. Both the Hindu and Mahometan Reli- 
 gions indeed denounce the use of Spirits, but the classes, whose 
 habits of life are framed with a strict regard to Religion, and 
 social restrictions, form in India no larger proportion of the 
 population than in other countries. 
 
 D. Nature produces in great abundance the material for 
 distillation of Spirit, and there is not the slightest reason for 
 supposing, that in the days of Native administration the 
 Indian population refrained from indulgence in a practice, 
 which it requires the constant watchfulness of the British 
 administration now to restrain. 
 
 E. The Reports from the Central Provinces and Assam show 
 that it is those tribes and races, which are least accessible 
 to the influence of British Rule, which are most addicted to 
 intoxicating liquors and drugs. 
 
 F. Our Excise system breaks down on the frontiers of Native 
 States, which are often exceedingly irregular, the villages being 
 intermixed, and not separated by a River or chain of mountains : 
 in those States there is no restriction on the manufacture and 
 sale, and the great difficulty is to exclude untaxed or lightly 
 taxed liquor. In the Bombay Province the Excise rights of 
 Native States have been bought up in some cases, in order 
 that, by imposing on the population of Native States the same 
 restriction, they may maintain, or rather not violate and render 
 nugatory, our restrictive system. 
 
 G. The great increase in the Revenue, which is unquestion- 
 able, does not mark the extension of drinking habits, but is 
 the result of a great and general increase of the rate of tax, 
 which it would have been entirely impossible to realize but for 
 the great improvement in the preventive measures. The ability 
 of the Excise Department to prevent illicit distillation is the only 
 hmit, which is imposed in practice to increase the rate of taxation. 
 
 H. The object of the Excise Department is to tax every 
 gallon of spirits, first by a fixed still-head duty, which is 
 regulated at the discretion of the Government, and secondly 
 by a licence fee for retail sale, which is usually determined 
 by competition for the privilege of sale. The system of out- 
 stills is obsolete, except in scantily inhabited tracts, and the 
 borders of Native States, where the Collector has no alternative 
 betwixt letting liquor be distilled untaxed, or make this kind 
 of arrangement. 
 
( 149 ) 
 
 I doubt whether many persons in England know what an 
 out-still is. I can only lay before them an analogy from 
 Great Britain. Supposing that the State were to undertake 
 the manufacture of Beer and Spirits in great central places, 
 and to license Public Houses for the Sale of the State 
 Monopoly liquors, there would be still wild corners in England, 
 Ireland and Scotland, where the facility of smuggling would 
 be such, that the only possible check would be the establish- 
 ment of private distilleries under all possible safeguards in 
 such places. It would be a measuije of control and restriction, 
 not of expansion. Moreover, the out-still in India (as in the 
 above analogy in Great Britain, the private distillery) is not 
 allowed to manufacture as much liqUor as its owner likes, and to 
 sell it wherever he likes. "The duty is levied upon a strict 
 " calculation of the number of gallons, which the still can 
 " produce, and the conditions both of distillation and sale are 
 " carefully regulated with reference to the existing" (not the 
 prospective or possible) " demand." Shops are established in 
 the localities chosen by the Collector, and not at the discretion 
 of the Distiller, and the Police and the Municipal authorities 
 are consulted on the subject. I am in the habit of assisting 
 annually in the grant of licences in Westminster and Kensington 
 to Publicans, and I doubt, whether so much power of control 
 and restraint of undue opportunities for the sale of liquor exists 
 in London as in Lahore and Allahabad. 
 
 The average consumption in India is only one bottle, or one 
 bottle and a half, of spirits a year for each adult male, and in some 
 provinces less than that ; it is clear tha!t the terms " drunken- 
 ness," "drinking classes," and "spread of drinking" bear a 
 meaning wholly different in India and Britain. Could we but 
 reduce the consumption of London to that standard, how glad 
 would be the hearts of the Temperance Societies ! 
 
 The vast increase of the population of British India is one of 
 the great administrative problems of the age. The sword, the 
 famine, and the pestilence have been the usual depletors of 
 Oriental countries : the first has ceased absolutely : the last two 
 are guarded against in every way, that Science and Benevolence 
 can suggest, and can it enter into the minds of good men to 
 suppose, that a Government, which spends Millions to stay 
 a famine, the results of operations beyond its control, would 
 insidiously and deliberately for a smaller amount of Revenue 
 poison the bodies and souls of its subjects } Would any free 
 honest man wish to be enrolled in Her Majesty the Empress 
 of India's Civil Service, if it were as infamous as Mr. Samuel 
 Smith describes it } I quote his very words : 
 
 The wants of the Exchequer in that country are so urgent, and it is so easy to 
 bring in Revenue from the increased sale of drink, that the temptation is 
 
( ISO ) 
 
 irresistible to go on licensing more drink-shops. Native opinion is utterly 
 opposed to it. The leading Castes of the Hindu and all the Mahometans are 
 by custom and religion total abstainers, but many of them have been corrupted 
 by our influence and example, and not a few of the princes and leading natives 
 of India have drunk themselves to death. 
 
 Another class of imperfectly informed critics run wild on the 
 idea, that the famines of India are caused by the large area 
 given over to the production of drugs, and liquor, and on which 
 cereals could be grown: are they aware that, owing to the 
 enormous additional area of cultivation during the great Pax 
 Britannica, the price of cereals has fallen to such an extent, that 
 wheat can be exported from Central or Northern India with 
 profit to Great Britain, to compete with the cereals of the Black 
 Sea, and America .? 
 
 The problem is a much more difficult one than unimperfectly 
 informed critics at home think : if it is supposed, that a mere 
 order of an alien Government to a vast native population can 
 change their moral habits, it is a wild dream. We can put 
 down the burning of widows, or the burying alive of lepers, 
 because such isolated facts become notorious ; but we wage an 
 unequal war against the practice of daughter-killing, as the 
 Police cannot prepare lists of pregnant women, and assist at 
 every birth in the recesses of the Native House. We could not 
 absolutely suppress the use of private stills, when Nature has 
 been so prolific in her gifts of inebriating materials : the only 
 way is to regulate the manufacture, tax the produce, and license 
 the distributors, and I do conscientiously maintain, that for the 
 last century the intelligence of three generations of honest and 
 upright men has been taxed to effect this. The Native Army 
 is proverbially sober. I wish that I could say the same of the 
 British soldier ; and yet one of Mr. Caine's most bitter sarcasms 
 is, that the 
 
 Indian Government will not allow liquor to be sold to European Soldiers, 
 but it may be sold to a child thirteen years of age. 
 
 Does Mr. Caine reflect, that it costs many hundred Pounds to 
 deliver each of our brave soldiers at their Cantonments in the 
 Panjab, that it has cost many thousand pounds to house him, 
 and keep him comfortable, well, happy, and ready: and yet 
 Tommy Atkins is more thoughtless of his own life and his own 
 precious soul than any Native child aged thirteen, who probably 
 at that age, if a female, would be a wife and a mother, and care 
 very little for strong drink, or have any chance of getting it. 
 On the borders of our large Cantonments hover scoundrels with 
 jars of illicit drink, and immodest women, to tempt the soldier 
 to disobey the orders of his Captain, and the Great Captain of 
 his Salvation ; and is the Government to be sneered at, because 
 it provides for its brave but thoughtless soldiers a protection, 
 
( iSi ) 
 
 ■which is not needed for the gamin of the streets, who has 
 neither a pice in his pocket, nor a pocket to put it in, if he had 
 it ? It is lamentable to hear such statements cheered by a 
 fanatical audience. Do they wish our soldiers to be exposed to 
 temptations, from which we can protect them partially ? Can 
 Mr. Caine's fertile imagination suggest any Police organization, 
 by which a juvenile population, male and female, exceeding 
 thirty Millions, can be protected from a danger, to which they 
 are not exposed .-' for among all the exaggerated statements it is 
 not alleged, that children of tender years have taken to drunken- 
 ness. Dulip Singh was indeed drunk at six years old, but he 
 was an independent Sovereign. Nor do I read in the Police 
 returns of India of any number of men and women brought up 
 for being drunk in the streets as in London. Are the Lunatic 
 Asylums crowded with the insane, of whom twenty per cent, 
 brought on their malady by drink, as in Middlesex } Are the 
 Indian Bankruptcy Courts, or the Indian Registrars' Annals, 
 stained with the words, so frequent in Great Britain, " Drank 
 himself, or herself, to death." But that the subject is so 
 awfully serious, it would seem to be an indecorous pleasantry on 
 the part of the Prince's Hall orators, to put forward charges 
 so ridiculous, and so unfounded, and thus draw a false scent 
 across the path of the earnest Missionary Societies, who were 
 planning to protect Africa from European liquors. From the 
 day of those ill-omened speeches, a Committee, in which 
 British, German, and American Missionaries were united in a 
 truthful and holy work, has been suspended, as it was impossible 
 to carry on operations with those, who neither weighed their 
 words, nor tested their facts. 
 
 I now proceed to quote from the Reports of each of the eight 
 Provinces of British India. Bombay is first on the list. 
 
 In consequence of the relaxation of religious and Caste rule, it is probable 
 that intoxicating liquor is now often used in secret by classes, who formerly 
 abstained. Habitual drunkenness in the English sense of the word is rare. 
 
 A strike took place in the Districts of Thana and Kolaba. It was quoted 
 in the House of Commons as a movement among the population in favour of 
 total abstinence from strong drink. As a matter of fact, it was a strike of the 
 drinking classes, made with the sole object of inducing the Government to 
 reduce the tax on the Tari Palm, and thus make liquor cheaper. The strikers 
 were not able to maintain their resolutions of abstinence. 
 
 As far back as 1838 the Government of Bombay issued the 
 following order : 
 
 It cannot be too strongly urged upon the Collectors, that the object, which 
 the Government has in view, is to restrict, and if possible correct, and diminish, 
 the total actual consumption of spirituous liquors, whether clandestine or 
 licensed, being fully persuaded, that any amount of Revenue, that may be lost 
 by the efficiency of the system for this end, will be repaid a hundredfold in the 
 preservation and advancement of moral feeling and industrious habits among 
 the people. 
 
( 152 ) 
 
 In 1 843 we find the following Resolution of the Government 
 of Bombay: 
 
 The Governor in Council entirely concurs in the views expressed by the 
 Collector on the subject of the Revenue derived from the sale of spirituous 
 liquors. Were it possible altogether to abolish the use of spirits, the loss to 
 the Revenue would be a matter of trifling consideration, but this is obviously 
 impossible, and the object of Government must be, by enhancing the price and 
 imposing salutary restrictions on the sale, to check the evil as far as is in its 
 power, while at the same time it draws a Revenue from the use of a luxury, 
 which it cannot prohibit. The regulation of this Branch cannot be effected 
 but by the agency of farmers, and the farmers should be carefully selected, not 
 from those, who may bid the highest, and thus be induced to resort to every 
 possible means of increasing the consumption, but from those who, though they 
 may offer less for the farms, bear good characters and will content themselves 
 with a fair profit without adopting undue methods of attracting customers to 
 their shops. New shops should not be established without express permission, 
 and then only in places, where clandestine sale may be carried on, which open 
 and authorized sale will tend to check. The Collector should bear these 
 remarks in mind in all his arrangements relative to the Excise- 
 In 1884 the Government of Bombay recorded the following 
 resolution : 
 
 Government would willingly relinquish all Revenue from this source, could 
 it thereby abate the increasing vice of drunkenness : this, however, being 
 impracticable, the next object of Government is to check it by enhancing the 
 price of intoxicating liquors. 
 
 In the Report of the Customs administration of 1884-85 we 
 come face to face with the real " bete noire," the import of 
 Potable Spirits by sea through the agency of European and 
 American Merchants. Under the principles of Free Trade such 
 wares cannot be excluded : the total import amounted at this 
 one Port to 210,119 Proof Gallons; 53 per cent, of Brandy, 
 32 per cent, of Whisky, 6 per cent, of Old Tom, and 9 per 
 cent, of Rum : the Brandy was both in wood and bottles. No 
 licensee of Native liquor is allowed to sell foreign liquor, and 
 vice verscl. The licensee of foreign liquors, finding that the 
 superior and expensive Spirit was too expensive for the natives 
 of the lower classes, who frequent their shops, had to seek for 
 a foreign liquor, which might prove as attractive, while cheaper 
 than Spirit. They tried Spirits of wine, which, though of 
 country manufacture, was allowed to be sold with foreign 
 liquors, the duty being the same : it was found, that its strength 
 could not be reduced sufficiently to lower its price to the extent 
 necessary, and at the same time satisfy the consumer. Rum 
 was therefore tried, and has been found to suit the tastes and 
 pockets of the consumer. The whole is imported from Mauritius, 
 a British Colony, but the strength is reduced. Here is indeed 
 a frightful evil, which has lately come into existence ; but it is 
 difficult to blame the Government of India : the sin lies at the 
 
( 153 ) 
 
 door of the British Merchant and Manufacturer, and it is a 
 grievous sin. 
 
 Let us see what the Government of Madras says : 
 
 The sale of intoxicating liquors is just as much a trade as that of any other 
 kind of commodity, but there is this great difference, that, while the sale of a- 
 necessary of life, like bread, need not be interfered with or regulated in any 
 way, the sale of intoxicating liquors, if left to the unfettered operation of free 
 trade, involves an enormous amount of drunkenness and crime, and therefore 
 calls for regulation at the hands of any Government with any pretence to 
 civilization. The poUcy, which the Government has announced, of endeavour- 
 ing to realize the maximum Revenue from a. minimum consumption, though 
 perhaps involving, in its strict interpretation, a verbal contradiction in terms, 
 yet expresses with sufficient force and clearness what we consider the right 
 course to pursue. It is, however, to be observed, that, while all taxation 
 becomes Revenue, as soon as it reaches the public exchequer, yet it should 
 always be borne in mind in connection with the taxation derived from the sale 
 of intoxicating liquors, that it is imposed primarily in order to restrain the con- 
 sumption of such liquors, and not for the purpose of making money out of 
 their sale, and that the fact of the Revenue so derived being large is merely an 
 incident arising from two causes : (i) The determination of the Government 
 to do all that lies in its power to repress a baneful trade in what is not a 
 necessary of life ; (2) The general prosperity of the people, which enables 
 them to spend on the indulgence of a vicious propensity money, which might 
 be better expended or invested. It follows, that every right-feeling Government 
 will do all that it can to Increase the taxation up to that point, when the people, 
 rather than pay for the high price liquor, which alone can be had in licensed 
 shops, will take to illicit smuggling and distillation. 
 
 Such to the best of my belief have ever been the principles 
 of the Government of India. Such they were, when I learned 
 my first lesson forty years ago, and such it is still. 
 
 The great Province of Bangdl, with its sixty-six million 
 inhabitants, twenty of whom are Mahometan, comes next. A 
 Commission had been appointed to go into the subject in 
 1883, and on the roth of March the orders of Government 
 were issued. 
 
 A. The introduction, whenever opportunities of supervision 
 existed, of the Central Distillery, and Still-head Duty. B. The 
 regulation in other places of the out-stills, so that the minimum 
 licence price should be the amount of duty calculated upon 
 the capacity of production. C. Reduction in the number of 
 shops, and certain restrictions on sales. In the year 1885-86 
 the Net Revenue from liquor and drugs of all kinds amounted 
 to ^927,000, less than a million. In the same year Great 
 Britain levied from a population of Christians of less than 
 half the amount a very much larger sum with their own consent, 
 in a country, where the laws are passed by a Democratic 
 Parliament. 
 
 The printed Report of this Commission gives us some side 
 lights on this state of affairs. In 1874 the Government was 
 petitioned on the subject of the increase qf drinking, more 
 
( IS4 ) 
 
 particularly of the upper class, by Christians and Hindus, and 
 Babu Keshab Chandra Sen, the celebrated leader of the Brah- 
 moists. The minute, which was recorded by a Member of 
 the Board of Revenue upon that petition, contains much that 
 is worthy of remark. 
 
 He agrees with the petitioners, that drinking has increased, especially in 
 towns and among the higher class, but he disputes the assertion, that the action 
 of Government can arrest it : he denies that Government has ever wilfully 
 preferred considerations of Revenue to the welfare of the people, but admits 
 administrative failure, and mistaken zeal of native officials. There is no 
 manner of doubt, that intemperance among the higher classes radiates from 
 Calcutta, as from a central focus, the habit is most prevalent in Districts nearest 
 to the Metropolis, and the opinion is prevalent, that intemperance naturally 
 follows an English Education. The restraint of Caste-Rules, and dictates of 
 the Hindu and Mahometan Religious books, lose their hold on the conscience 
 of those, who come under Education, and the sad result must be debited to the 
 Schoolmaster rather than the Excise Officer. A medical man records his 
 opinion, that the demoralizing habit of private drinking is indulged in by nearly 
 nine-tenths of the Bangali students. A vendor of Brandy remarked, that 
 native gentlemen, who could speak English, acquire a taste for brandy with 
 the language. The quantity of intoxicating liquor drunk on holidays is 
 incredible. Patients describe to their Doctor their powers of drinking. A 
 Mahometan member of the writer caste stated, that he had finished a bottle of 
 brandy, and three bottles of beer, at an evening sitting. A Hindu member 
 of the writer-caste stated, that he had swallowed a bottle of brandy almost at 
 a draught. 
 
 It is distinctly recorded, that the upper classes do not resort 
 to the shops licensed by the Excise, nor do they consume 
 Native spirit : but they drink in the privacy of their homes 
 liquor imported from Europe : against this evil the Government 
 is impotent : the duty cannot be raised high enough on 
 imported spirits so as to be prohibitory without raising an 
 outcry on the part of the European residents all over British 
 India, who with very rare exceptions are exceedingly temperate 
 as a class, and yet would not submit to be debarred from the 
 use of liquor, to which they are accustomed. It is added, that 
 the native spirit of Bangdl is a weak spirit : drunkenness is 
 exceptional : and there is no necessary connection betwixt 
 drunkenness and crime. Dacoits, or hereditary robbers, usually 
 drink but moderately, and in the course of worship to their 
 patron Deity ; the most celebrated Dacoit, whom the Head 
 of the Police ever knew, was a total abstainer : on the other 
 hand, common burglars, and petty thieves, were in a constant 
 state of half-stupefaction from drugs. It is mere foolishness to 
 expect, that a certain proportion of the population will not 
 contrive to use stimulants, or that the Excise Revenue will not 
 increase. As the upper classes adopt more and more European 
 habits, we must expect to see them take the bad with the good, 
 and probably more of the bad than the good ; all that the 
 Government can do is to supply the demand, but not create it. 
 
( iss ) 
 
 and to act on an honest recognition of the truth, that the Excise 
 Revenue is a very small matter in comparison with the comfort 
 and well-being of the people. 
 
 There is little doubt, that in this Province there was a short 
 period of mistakes and retrograde policy adopted, but it has been 
 promptly corrected, and is not likely to recur after" the close 
 investigation made by the Commission, and the scorching light 
 now thrown upon the whole subject. 
 
 I treat the two great Provinces of the North-West Provinces 
 and the Panjdb together. A friend drew my attention to a 
 passage in the Pall Mall Gazette, dated March 30, 1887, with 
 a view of consoling my spirit and stopping my mouth : 
 
 It is not an indispensable part of our Imperial System. Proof is afforded by 
 the fact, that the corrupt system of Excise has not been adopted in the North- 
 West Provinces and the Panjab, and the temptation to increase the Revenue 
 has not yet constrained the Local Government to sacrifice the morality of the 
 people to the interests of the Exchequer. 
 
 These were my two Provinces, in which I commenced and 
 finished my service, having been chief Revenue Officer in both, 
 and I maintain, that the quotations made from the Records 
 of the Government of Bombay and Madras, of which Provinces 
 I know personally nothing, represent exactly the great principles, 
 upon which we have always acted in the two Northern Provinces 
 of India, which teem with Sugar and Hemp, and in one of 
 which the Mohwa or Bassia latifolia drops its insidious leaves 
 into the very Courtyards of the houses : there is less of rice, 
 and palm trees, and a very slight growth of poppy, but cereals 
 to any amount. 
 
 A Mr. J. Gregson, a Temperance Missionary, whose state- 
 ments with regard to events in Koldba, in the Bombay Province, 
 have been (page 151) shown not to be entirely exact (to state 
 the case mildly), tells a startling fact with regard to the Panjib : 
 
 That there was one Raja in the Panjab, who built and endowed Churches, 
 and Mission buildings, and died of delirium tremens : the man vpas but an 
 exaggerated type of what a Christianized Indian threatens to become. 
 
 This is a frightful statement, and involves the character of 
 Missionary Societies, as well as the Raja. I have had personal 
 acquaintance with all the Rdjas of the Panjdb, and their Fathers 
 and Grandfathers, but the statement seems incredible. As this 
 paper has been reprinted in the Calcutta Review, the name of 
 this Church-building and intoxicated Raja will transpire. 
 In justice to the two Provinces, the population of which is very 
 dear to me, as I have visited every District of this vast Region, 
 and lived for many years in personal contact with people of every 
 class from the Rdja down to the village-watchman, I am glad 
 to record the following facts. The population of the North* 
 
( IS6 ) 
 
 West Provinces exceeds twenty-two Millions both Hindu and 
 Mahometan, and their annual consumption averages one pint for 
 every adult male. The population of the Panjdb amounts to 
 nearly nineteen Millions, both Hindu and Mahometan, and 
 their anjiual consumption gives only a quarter of a pint for every 
 adult male. 
 
 O Noctes ccenEeque Deum ! 
 
 This is a most beggarly allowance for races, who supply nearly 
 all our Sepdhis, and are as tall and strong as Englishmen : and 
 no allowance is made for the possible, though improbable, 
 consumption of liquors by one single woman, or those lads of 
 thirteen years old, round whose tendencies Mr. Caine rails at 
 the Government for having placed no protection, and it is within 
 this vast Region, that the bulk of the British Army is cantoned, 
 and their quota of drink must be allowed for in the average. 
 Fortunately for these happy races the European trader with his 
 liquid poison of Whisky, Rum. Brandy and Old Tom, has not 
 as yet got a firm footing ; but the march of civilization and 
 English Education will surely bring this evil, and corrupt the 
 moderate habits of my dear Panjab friends, who are content 
 with an annual quarter of a pint of Native liquor. Oh ! that 
 I were back in their midst to tell them, how that Henry and 
 John Lawrence and Montgomery, Macleod, Herbert Edwardes 
 and myself, were charged in England with having introduced 
 (for we were the , very first Europeans whom they saw) among 
 them such vicious and intemperate habits, habits not alluded 
 to in the Veda, the Ramdyana, and the Mahdbhdrata, and all 
 their ancient books : habits never practised by Ranjit Singh, 
 and his Courtiers, and the great Chiefs of the Khalsa : how 
 the honest old citizens and greybeards would laugh to think, 
 that their old friends had led them so far down the abyss of 
 intemperance, and misery, as to drink an annual quarter of a 
 pint of their nasty decoction of hemp, sugar, or poppy-juice, 
 while at that period old Clergymen of the Church of England 
 drank daily three glasses of port. Moreover, the Panjdb is a 
 Province thoroughly in hand, with every acre of land surveyed, 
 and every man, woman and child counted in the Census, and 
 has the inestimable advantage of being one thousand miles 
 from the nearest seaport. But a Missionary of the Panjdb 
 informs me that in Lahore, and some large towns, liquor-shops 
 for European liquors have largely increased : so the deadly 
 poison is spreading. 
 
 In addition to the five great Provinces of British India, with 
 their teeming populations, and independent Constitutions, there 
 are three smaller Provinces, Assam, the Central Provinces, and 
 Barma : they have been less influenced by British civilization : 
 
( 1S7 ') 
 
 the population is chiefly Non-Arian, backward in culture, diffi- 
 cult of access. In Barma we find ourselves in entirely different 
 environments : the people are Buddhists : in some of the remote 
 valleys the practice of opium-smoking, so entirely unknown irl 
 India, prevails. Lower Barma has been under British control 
 for rnany years : the kingdom of Barma is a new annexation : 
 the whole state of affairs is abnormal, and there was clearly a 
 few years ago a great neglect of the established principles of the 
 Indian Government in the Excise arrangements. There are no 
 roads, and the means of communication are difficult : the popu- 
 lation is sparse, and heavy jungles facilitate illicit stills. In the 
 Seaports, on the other hand, European strong drinks are easily 
 to be obtained. On the whole, this Province will be for years 
 to come an anxious charge. In the Administration Report for 
 1885-86 it is noted, that the Excise Revenue is declining, that 
 there are only seventeen shops in the whole of the Province for 
 the sale of opium, and that increased smuggling was the result. 
 In the Central Provinces the Chief Commissioner reports, 
 that he has always been careful not to countenance any measures 
 calculated to create or foster a taste for spirits. I quote the 
 following : 
 
 As to the habits of the people in the matter of drinking, it is of course true, 
 that, in accordanc^jyith their religious sentiments, Hindus of certain of the 
 higher Castes and Mahometans do, as a body, abjure drink, but ill these 
 Provinces these classes form but a small portion of the total population; We 
 have here, in a country, much of which is wild and hilly and covered with long 
 stretches of forest, a large aboriginal population, and in certain parts of the 
 Province large numbers of persons of the lowest Castes, who with their fore- 
 fathers have always been accustomed to the use of liquor made from the flower 
 of the Mohwa tree. This tree grows abundantly all over the Central Provinces, 
 and the process, by which spirit is distilled from the Mohwa flower in the 
 wilder parts of the country, is of the simplest character ; a couple of earthen 
 pots, and a piece of hollow bambu to form a tube, constituting the distiller's 
 apparatus. There is not a district in some portion of which spirit cannot under 
 these circumstances be distilled illicitly without much fear of detection, and 
 experience has proved most convuicingly, that unless the inherited taste of 
 these people for this stimulant is satisfled by the establishment within their reach 
 of shops, where they can buy taxed spirit, they will resort to illicit distillation, 
 and render themselves liable to the penalties of the Revenue-law. It would be 
 useless, even if it were expedient, to attempt to suppress consumption by 
 refusing to license shops. Smuggling and its demoralizing eiifects, prosecutions 
 and heavy penalties, would, under the conditions of these Provinces, be the 
 inevitable result. The wisest policy is to adopt such measures, as will operate 
 as a check on excessive drinking, and this is the policy which is followed here. 
 It may be added, that in the malarious tracts which abound in the Central 
 Provinces, it is quite possible, that the moderate consumption of a weak spirit, 
 such as that ordinarily consumed in these Provinces, has its beneficial effects in 
 protecting the people from chills and fevers. But, however that may be, there 
 is the fact, that the use of liquor in this part of the country has no connection 
 with the advent of British rule, and that steps were first taken upwards of 
 twenty years ago to restrict its, consumption. 
 
( 158 ■) 
 
 In Assam we read of the state of affairs, as it was when the 
 British occupied Assam, when almost every cultivator of land 
 grew a patch of poppy in the cold weather, and as the use of 
 the drug was adopted in its most fascinating form by smoking, 
 the householder, as well as his women and children, were con- 
 firmed opium-consumers, for the drug was collected by wiping 
 off the juice of the poppy-heads on rags, which, on being dried, 
 were quite prepared for smoking. The cultivation of the Poppy 
 was forbidden, and the only opium introduced into the valley 
 came from the State-Monopoly, and was sold to men only at 
 an enhanced price. In the mean time the people increased 
 in number, and all the elements of comfort, and other forms of 
 intoxicating liquors have come into fashion, quite independent 
 of any European or British contact or influence. The following 
 remarks of a District OfiScer of an independent tribe are worthy 
 of notice: 
 
 As regards the district of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills the remarks hardly 
 apply, as outside of Shillong Excise rules cannot properly be said to apply. 
 On the broad question, my opinion is, that, were there no Excise system in 
 India, drunkenness would vastly increase with the increase of prosperity, which 
 this country enjoys. The Jaintia are, perhaps, the most drunken race in the 
 Province, if not in India, and they pay no Excise taxes. Several times respect- 
 able Jaintia have implored me and my predecessors to introduce the Excise 
 system with'theexpress view of lessening intemperance, but for various reasons 
 this measure has not yet been adopted. Of course it would be idle to deny, 
 that the establishment of a shop at a place, where one was not in existence 
 before, tends to increase the drunkenness of that particular locality. But this 
 to my mind only shows, that the desire to drink is omnipresent, and that, if the 
 demand now creates a supply in spite of the heavy taxes raised as Excise duty, 
 and, in spite of all the vexatious rules and checks, regulating the traffic, in the 
 absence of these taxes, rules, and checks, for every one shop now in existence, 
 there would be a score, if the Excise Department were abolished, unless, 
 indeed, the manufacture of liquor was altogether prohibited throughout India. 
 I should imagine that this is a measure, which not even the Temperance Society 
 would advocate ; but, if they would do so, I would oppose it on the grounds, 
 that it would be an intolerable interference with the liberty of the subject ; 
 that India cannot afford to lose any Revenue at all just now ; that the Excise 
 tax is the least burdensome of all taxes, since no one need drink unless he likes ; 
 that all civilized nations drink, and apparently in exact proportion to the extent 
 of their civilization and general progress (England taking the lead). 
 
 In the Administration Reports presented to Parliament annually 
 by a succession of Governors, who have no connection with 
 their predecessors, but are often in antagonism to them, we 
 find a faithful picture of the progress of each Province, such as 
 ,no Nation in the world, past or present, has ever received from 
 its Subject Empires. If Cicero during his Proconsulate in 
 Cilicia, or Pontius Pilate at Jerusalem, had sent to Rome such 
 Reports, and they had survived to our times, many obscure 
 points would be cleared up. These Reports must be true, 
 because they are exposed to, the lynx eyes of readers, who kno\y 
 
( 159 ) 
 
 the circumstances as well as the Reporter. In the Reports 
 of the Excise we find, how the amount fluctuates, because the 
 particular year was not auspicious to Hindu marriages, and 
 there were fewer marriages, and less feasting. The presence 
 of large gangs of labourers collected for great Public Works 
 is a cause for the increase of the Excise quite intelligible. In 
 Barma we read, that Rum imported from Penang is driving out 
 the locally distilled liquor. In Bangdl it is noticed, that foreign 
 rums and cheap brandy are superseding rum of local manu- 
 facture. The consumption of opium seems to be decreasing 
 everywhere : but the income of British India from the Excise 
 is steadily increasing, and it is considered to be indicative of 
 growing prosperity among the people. 
 
 I did not take up the pen to justify, or even palliate, the use 
 of intoxicating liquors, and stupefying drugs : on one occasion 
 years ago, during a discussion in a Missionary Committee on 
 the subject of the opium question, I expressed my regret, that our 
 Heavenly Father had in His wisdom created the Poppy to be 
 the cause of ruin to millions, and a root of bitterness among 
 good men. I can only add my regret, that the same All-wise 
 Power bad created Sugar and Hemp, and Rice, and Grain, and 
 the Palm Tree, and the Mohwa tree, and allowed these poor 
 ignorant races, from whom so much knowledge had been shut 
 out, to discover, as the first of Nature's discovered secrets, the 
 mysterious trick of fermentation. Still, in the cause of truth I 
 protest against the view taken on the subject by the orators of 
 Prince's Hall. I quote some words : 
 
 Hindu and Mahometans have listened to the voices of their Prophets, as the 
 Rechabites, and been blessed thereby. 
 
 We have made money out of the misery of the Indian people, and grown 
 rich out of their degradation. 
 
 If we were to give local self-government for twelve months to the ten Millions 
 of the North-west Provinces (the population amounts to twenty-two), we are 
 assured (by whom?) that at the end of that period drunkenness would have 
 disappeared, because Mahpmetans would be ashamed to defile their fingers with 
 Rupees for the sale of "Shame-water," as it is called (by whom?), and the 
 Hindu would boycott with indignation any publican, who bore a licence to 
 demoralize his fellow-subjects. 
 
 Instead of wells, we have plenty of grog-shops. 
 
 We derive from that source a perfect river of gold, flowing into our 
 Exchequer, but the River flows from the fountain of Shame-water. 
 
 Some of these points require special reply. What is " Shame- 
 water".? It looks as if an imperfectly instructed linguist had. 
 confused the word " shardb," which means " wine," and lives 
 on in the English word " sharbet," with the word " sharam," 
 which means " shame." I have heard liquors called by many 
 bad names in Hindustani, and respectable people (perhaps 
 secret drinkers) would make wry faces, and signs of disgust, 
 
( i6o ) 
 
 if the word "shardb" were used in their hearing; but I nevet 
 heard the word " Shame-water" in general native parlance. It 
 implies a knowledge of English, as well as Hindustani, which 
 is rare among Natives of Upper India. And does any sensible 
 person really recommend such a breach of the peace as is 
 implied in " boycotting " .? Does he dare boycott a Public House 
 in Westminster } Why then propose to a Hindu to do an act 
 in Upper India, which would most certainly lodge him in the 
 Gaol ? Are the weak Municipalities of India able to dispose 
 of the Liquor question in such a trenchant way, while the 
 ancient Municipalities of Great Britain have failed.? It is 
 difficult to get any meaning out of the blessing, which the 
 Hindu and Mahometan are said to have got from their false 
 Prophets. What blessing can come from the hideous idolatry 
 of the Hindu, or the Christ-dishonouring tenets of Mahomet } 
 How have we become rich out of the degradation of the people 
 ■of India 7 Not a Rupee of tribute comes to Great Britain 
 from India. The balance of advantage of the Union of the 
 Empires is enormously on the side of India, which has obtained 
 everything from Great Britain except Political and Commercial 
 Liberty. Reflect upon the treatment, which the South Africans 
 the Australians, the New Zealanders and North American indi- 
 genous population, despoiled of their lands, and turned into 
 serfs, have received at the hands of the British settler, and 
 contrast it with that of the people of India, where Raja and 
 Citizen, landholder and tenant, enjoy their ancestral land 
 and houses, as they were at the beginning of the Rule of the 
 Company, transmitting them to their children, whether Hindu 
 or Mahometan, according to their own law of Marriage and 
 Inheritance, and where in the Courts of Justice there is no 
 distinction of white or black, Christian or non-Christian. 
 
 A certain English Missionary addressed a letter to Mr. Samuel 
 Smith, which has been published. Now I am well acquainted 
 with all the Missionary Societies of India, and I should like to 
 know the name of this gentleman : it is he who tells us that 
 
 The Board of Revenue encourage the drink trade, put facilities before- the 
 people in order to push on the trade and get in a large revenue : there was 
 .a grand triumph for the Excise, but it was at the cost of fearful misery and 
 demoralization of the people of India. No less than half a dozen of Rajas 
 have died at a comparatively young age within the last few years from indulgence 
 freely in kegs (sic) of champagne (not soda) and brandy. Europeans may 
 reform and give up drink, but a Native goes on to the end : he seldom or 
 never can give it up. 
 
 I call on Mr. Samuel Smith to let us know the name of this 
 Missionary, that he may be cross-examined as to the truth of 
 his statements : it ill becomes a Christian Minister to make 
 such a statement to a chance traveller, and not to bring it 
 
( i6i ) 
 
 before the notice of a Conference of Missionaries, or report 
 it to his own Committee. As a member of the Committee of 
 the Church Missionary Society, I can certify, that we hear news 
 from every part of India about Famines, and Pestilences, and 
 the condition of the people of India, and the Manufacture of 
 Opium, and Secular Education, but I have no recollection of 
 the subject of the misery of the people brought on by drunken- 
 ness, encouraged by the Government. In a Committee, contain- 
 ing at least a dozen retired Anglo-Indian Civilians and Soldiers, 
 this would have produced a startling sensation, and would have 
 led to inquiries, and remonstrances to the Secretary' of State for 
 India. 
 
 It is the European Distillers, and Exporters, who are render- 
 ing nugatory all the endeavours of a wise and benevolent 
 Government to control a fearful evil, which appears to accom- 
 pany Education and Civilization, when unsanctified by the 
 Christian Religion, which inculcates the only real Morality. ' 
 
 I place on record the rate of annual consumption in each of 
 the five great Provinces : 
 
 Bangdl, a quarter of a gallon for every adult male. 
 
 Madras, less than a quarter. 
 
 Bombay, less than a gallon. 
 
 North-west Provinces, one pint. 
 
 The Panjab, a quarter of a pint. 
 
 The whole of India, one bottle or a bottle and a half. 
 
 If the women are taken into calculation, and the boys and 
 girls up to thirteen, for whose unprotected state Mr. Caine 
 expressed such anxiety, the average will fall still lower. The 
 numbers are so enormous, it is not easy for those, who are 
 only accustomed to the small populations of Europe, to grasp 
 the idea of a single Province with a population of Sixty-six 
 Millions, and an Empire of two hundred and fifty : the amount 
 of liquor, which would drench England, is only a sprinkling 
 wheji scattered over India. 
 
 Sir Richard Temple, M.P., made the following statement iri 
 the House of Commons in 1887: if any one knows India, he 
 does, and he is in no respect the paid defender, or in the least 
 dependent on the Government of India : 
 
 With regard to the civil administration, it had been said that in order to 
 stimulate the Excise, they were driving the people into intemperance. He gave 
 that statement the most emphatic denial. If there was any tendency to 
 intemperance, the Government of India would soon take steps to stop that 
 danger. Anything further from the mind of the Government of India than the 
 idea he referred to could not be imagined, and, indeed, very few populations 
 were less liable to intemperance than the people of Indiai 
 
( i62 ) 
 
 I have very little to thank the Government of India for; 
 not even a Retiring Pension : but I love the people of 
 India very dearly, and after a careful examination of the 
 systems of administration of subject-countries by any Nation 
 in ancient or modern times, I have come to the conviction, that 
 the much-abused Government of India is the most sympathetic, 
 the most just, the most tolerant, and the most influenced by 
 Christian wisdom, liberality, and conscientiousness, that the 
 ■world has ever seen ; it is not then a matter of surprise that, 
 as I hold such sentiments, such speeches could not be over- 
 looked : there were but two alternatives, to admit the truth of 
 their statements, and join them in the Crusade, or to combat 
 them, as I do now. The Government of India has to submit 
 to much contumely, but it appears to affect it very little : in 
 the consciousness of Right it is strong ; the Indian Press is 
 free, and the Records of the State are freely published : there 
 is nothing to conceal. 
 
 What can be done ? 
 
 It should be impressed upon the Government of India, that 
 there should be triennial reviews of the Excise system, and the 
 greatest watchfulness maintained over the working of the system, 
 as carried out by Native subordinates, who cannot be trusted : 
 there should be some special officer in each Province : his salary 
 can be provided from the ever-increasing Excise. A stop at 
 once should be placed on the use of intoxicating liquors in any 
 College, or Office of the State. Intoxication should be punished 
 by instant dismissal. Bands of Hope, Temperance Societies, 
 and a Temperance Literature in all the languages of India, 
 should be encouraged. A Missionary tells me that they are 
 already formed in the Panjab, and no doubt in other Provinces, 
 as there is a strong feeling in its favour amidst a large Section 
 of the Community : it is not like introducing a new Religion : 
 it is an attempt to enforce a Rule of Morality, in which all agree, 
 whether Christian, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Parsi, Jew, Nature- 
 worshipper, Mahometan, or Brahmoist. The unwarranted 
 attacks of Missionaries on Caste have been very prejudicial, as 
 Caste-Rules are great preservatives of the decencies of life, 
 and should be respected. A confirmed drunkard would be 
 turned out of a respectable Caste. 
 
 Sensational abuse should cease : the matter is too solemn for 
 platform-eloquence. Fanaticism does no good. Henry V. of 
 'England, a reformed rake, intended to root the vine out of, 
 France, if he had lived : had he done so, he would have been 
 equally intemperate in his manhood, as in his youth. The 
 existence of human tendencies in every race of mankind must 
 be recognized as a fact : this is part of our physical constitution : 
 the abundant supply of intoxicating materials in India is a fact 
 
({ r63 :) 
 
 also: this was part of" Nature's mysteriotis' plan. We should 
 try so to restrain the use by practical laws, that the weak may be 
 ;held back from the abuse of what, if moderately used, is lawful. 
 Centuries ago an Abbey was built on, Thorney Island, which 
 became the most illustrious in the world : within a radius of five 
 miles round this Abbey a larger amount of drink is consumed 
 than in any other equal area : is the. Abbey to blame ? The 
 liquor consumed is both indigenous, and foreign import. The 
 Empire of India is the most illustrious in the world in wealth, 
 population, products and arts : the Indian Nation were fore- 
 most in Science, Commerce, Manufacture, and Literature, when 
 the British were still savages clad, in skins : and yet I have con- 
 clusively shown, that at all periods of their ancient history they 
 had among them a section of the community, who abused the 
 good gifts of Nature : and since the connection of India with 
 Europe the evil has been intensified by the import of the liquid poison 
 of Europe : is the Government of India to blame ? 
 
 And how can the British Nation throw stones in this particular 
 at the Indian? "Physician, heal thyself!" would be the reply 
 .from India, if it were as free as Australia. The great Indo- 
 European, or Arian, Race, in its vast expansion from; India 
 to Ireland,, has .been .for many Centuries great in Arms, Arts, 
 Science and Legislation, and everything that can render the 
 Human Race illustrious, but it has in all its branches, Kelt, 
 Teuton, Slav, Itala-Greek, Iranic and Indie, been always famous, 
 in spite of the Priest and Moralist, for its passion for- intoxi- 
 cating liquors, and at this day the Teuton has become the 
 great Poisoner of the World. Their footsteps have been dyed in 
 blood and their hands steeped in drink, in their grand march 
 over Continent and Island : they talk of Civilization and 
 Religion, but what they have given to Africa and Oceania is 
 one grain of Bible-teaching, drowned in tons of Drink. The 
 wages of the day-labourer have been paid in demijohns of gin : 
 the exchange of compliments with a Chieftain has been in a 
 " dash " of brandy. Unless the conscience of Christian Nations 
 is roused, nothing can be done. The legislature of British 
 India could in some way protect itself, if the iron hand of 
 Manchester were lifted up, and India had the same independence 
 of taxation of Imports as the Dominion of Canada and th6 
 Colonies of South Africa and Australia. Some arrangements 
 might be made for the interior distribution of European liquor 
 among European residents in British India, if a prohibitory 
 Import Duty could be placed upon all liquors imported beyond 
 Sea for the use of the Natives of India, their consent having been 
 obtained to this arrangement : until this is done, there is no hope 
 for the People of India. 
 
 This Paper has been published in India and England, and will 
 
( i64 ) 
 
 probably be quoted into some of the Vernacular newspapers : 
 copies have been sent to the Missionary Societies of North 
 America, and the Continent. The false charge has gone forth : 
 the reply has followed. The Press of Europe, America, and 
 India can bring to the test the accuracy of my quotations from 
 Indian Authors, and the correctness of the facts stated iii the 
 Despatch of the Viceroy. As soon as this stumbling-block has 
 been removed, the Committee of the Church of England 
 Temperance Society can resume its benevolent labours, and the 
 Committee of the Missionary Societies can be raised from the 
 state of suspended life caused by the speeches of the orators of 
 Prince's Hall of March, 1887. I am sorry to have come into 
 collision with them, but 
 
 Amicus Plato : amicus Socrates : major amicus est Veritas. 
 London, Jan. i, 1888. 
 
 The darkest hour of the night is the one before dawn. Can 
 we hope that something will be done } I add a quotation from 
 an American Missionary Journal just received. Deep calls to 
 Deep: 
 
 A debate took place in the British Parliament, April 24, on the question of 
 the liquor traffic and native races. The disastrous results of the liquor traffic 
 were universally admitted and deplored. The necessity for prompt and 
 energetic action, if the natives are to be saved from extermination, was clearly 
 set forth. It was urged that a convention be called for united action on the 
 part of the Powers of Europe. A statement was made by the Secretary of the 
 Colonies, that the United States Government had not responded favourably to 
 proposals for an international agreement on this subject, and that Secretary 
 Bayard had declared, that while our Government recognized the moral force 
 and general propriety of the proposed regulations, it does not feel entirely 
 prepared to join in the international understanding proposed. This is a 
 humiliating statement to be made by the U. S. Government, and pubUcly 
 announced in the British Parliament. It is for Americans to see to it, that 
 our Government and our people are prepared for such co-operation. This 
 debate indicates a purpose to take hold of this great problem with vigour, 
 and the following motion was agreed to without a division : " That this House, 
 " having regard to the disastrous physical and moral effects of the liquor traffic 
 " among uncivilized races, as well as the injury it inflicts on legitimate commerce, 
 " will cordially support the Imperial and Colonial governments in endeavours 
 " to suppress the traffic in all the native territories and governments under 
 " their influence and control." 
 
 July 20, 1888. 
 
( i6s ) 
 
 VII. 
 EDUCATION. 
 
 This branch of Missionary effort has no Apostolic Sanction. 
 We must not forget this, and blame those, who pass it by. 
 Nor is Education necessarily a help to Evangelization : quite 
 the contrary : the most learned men of all European countries 
 are the most far from God. St. Paul knew it in his time, for 
 he writes, that not many wise are called, and that God chose 
 the foolish things of this world, that they might put to shame 
 them that are wise. And yet St. Paul knew what a school was, 
 for at Ephesus he reasoned daily in the school of one Tyrannus, 
 , probably a teacher of Grammar and Rhetoric, and at Athens, 
 when he stood on Mars Hill, his eye must have fallen on the 
 enclosures of the Stoa and the Academia, the greatest Schools. 
 in the world. 
 
 The Apostles went about preaching and teaching, but it goes 
 without saying, that such teaching was religious, and a strict, 
 part of the Gospel-Message. In this generation the School- 
 master has got abroad, and certain nationalities, having developed 
 an aptitude for secular learning, bring it unduly forward in the 
 plan of Gospel-Salvation. Perhaps in a lesser degree the same 
 undue stress is placed upon outward personal cleanliness, and 
 in the Gospel according to Mr. Mundella, once a Minister of 
 Public Instruction, Cleanliness is quoted on inspired authority, 
 as next to Godliness. To any one, who is acquainted with the 
 simple lives, and moderate requirements of Asiatic or African 
 races, and the very slow process of centuries, through which 
 the English and Scotch .people have been brought up to the 
 present level of education and cleanliness, it must be evident, 
 that the imposition of conditions, not imposed by our Lord, 
 is deeply to be deplored : it stands out in conspicuous contrast 
 to the Monkish history of the Early Christian Saints, who are 
 always recorded to have worn foul clothes, abounded in vermin, 
 and to have been generally totally ignorant of the wisdom of 
 this world. A halo of sanctity attached to such, as to the filthy 
 
( i66 ) 
 
 hairy Fakir of India, which would not surround the neat home 
 of the rigorously clean, and carefully shorn, Missionary. 
 Now the subject must be divided into two branches : 
 
 I. Religious, or quasi-religious. 
 
 II. Secular pure and simple, or Secular upon a Christian 
 method for Christian objects by the agency of Christian men. 
 
 With regard to the first Section of the first Branch, there is 
 not a word to be said by way "of disparagement. The method 
 of conveying religious teaching, -and the amount, which the 
 hearers can receive, must vary from tribe to tribe, and age to 
 age. The teaching of a British Sunday-school would not go 
 far to make a British divine, but that teaching might be over 
 the heads of the African greybeards. I must leave this to the 
 Missionary, with the proviso, that the Bible is the text-book. 
 • The phenomena, described in the second, occur, when in a 
 purely secular school one of the teachers, or a stranger, is per- 
 mitted before or after the school-hours to address the students, 
 leading on from the school-subject just lectured upon, or about 
 to be discussed, and giving it a higher turn, suggestive of the 
 knowledge of things Divine, the basis on which all Morals 
 rest, the highest objects of human faculties. Young and ardent 
 minds may thus be influenced, and the door of a new world 
 opened : a fruitful seed'may find a lodgment. The Resolution 
 of the Supreme Government of British India of this year, which 
 will be again referred to lower down, alludes to the existence 
 of this possibility. I quote the words : 
 
 Even in schools supported by the State something in the way of religious 
 instruction can be effected out of school-hours in accordance with established 
 principles. 
 
 I now pass to the second branch, " Secular Instruction pure 
 and simple." To my mind no Missionary Society should 
 undertake such a duty, under any possible circumstances. The 
 money, which is collected to send him out, and maintain him, 
 was collected for the purpose of converting a soul, not sharpen- 
 ing an intellect : to make men wise unto Salvation through faith, 
 which is in Christ Jesus. The so-called Missionary, who can 
 only teach Mathematics, Logic, and Science, generally has 
 mistaken his profession ; but he might be of great use to the 
 Missionary cause, by being employed in the State-Education 
 Department, and thus indirectly preparing for conversion. 
 
 But the second Section of the second Branch involves other 
 conditions, and must again be subdivided upon Geographical 
 and Ethnical considerations. Where the Missionary has to act 
 upon the African under a Native Chief, or in Oceania, or in such 
 parts of Asia, where no proper and sufficient provision is made 
 for the Education of the Natives, it is clear, that Schools of a 
 Secular-Religious character are .one of the most important 
 
( 167 ) 
 
 agencies, and must not be neglected. But he must take carej 
 that Religious Instruction is the beginning and end, and that it 
 is openly announced, that the conversion of souls is the sole 
 object. It is sad to think, that in some cases Missionary 
 Schools have not been opened with prayer, out of pretended- 
 respect to the consciences of the Heathen and Mahometan, 
 that Heathen and Mahometan teachers are employed, that in 
 a long course of years no conversions can be credited to the 
 School, and that the only result of the instruction is to raise 
 the students above the level of their surroundings, their parents, 
 their relations, their means of livelihood, or to have placed a 
 good cheap education within reach of a very undeserving class. 
 
 I have remarked this last feature particularly in the Female 
 Schools in the Turkish Dominions : I do not particularize. 
 The Educational Establishments within that kingdom are 
 magnificent, and reflect great credit upon the Missionary 
 Associations, and I was assured, that conversion, and conversion 
 only, was the object intended ; but I fear, that the result is not 
 always so. Any allusion to the arrangements made for the 
 education of converts, or for training of Pastors, Teachers, and 
 Catechists, is omitted, as I have to deal with Missionary, and 
 not with Pastoral, work. 
 
 Where the Missionary operations lie within the limits of great 
 European kingdoms, such as Great Britain, France, Germany, 
 Spain, or Portugal, the case is different. Every European Power 
 has in these last days recognized the duty of the State to attend 
 to the subject of Education as much as of Police, and each 
 State takes a different view of the methods to be employed : 
 but it is a Sovereign-right, and cannot be assailed by any Inter- 
 national Law. Austria and Russia will allow no interference 
 whatever. France does not actually forbid, but enforces such 
 laws, that it amounts to the same thing. All instruction must 
 be conducted in the French language, and by French certificated 
 teachers. There is sufficient semblance of justice in these rules 
 to prevent any remonstrance : the Missionary has to close his 
 Schools. Turkey is attempting to introduce some such principle, 
 and there is a general uneasiness in Missionary circles. The 
 Schools are suddenly closed ; then explanation is offered, and 
 they are reopened. Certain Regulations have been propounded : 
 the foreign Missionary has no alternative, but to obey. No 
 international principle is involved : if the Government of Turkey 
 chose to make Turkish, or Arabic, the sole vehicle of instruc- 
 tion, and to exclude foreign teachers, it would be entirely within 
 its Sovereign-rights, as asserted by Austria and Russia. The 
 Missionary must temporize, yield a little, conciliate the authori- 
 ties, conform as far as possible to the Regulations : if it comes 
 at last to the impo.ssibility of conducting Schools on a religious 
 
( i68 ) 
 
 basis, they must be closed, and converted subjects of the Sultan- 
 encouraged to open private establishments. One thing is clear, 
 that no policy can be more suicidal than to worry the Govern-, 
 ment of the Sultan, and weaken its power: it would only 
 accelerate the catastrophe of the breaking down of the tottering 
 Empire, which would mean the annexation of Turkey in Asia by 
 Russia, of Turkey in Europe by Austria, of Syria and Palestine 
 by France, and the absolute closing for ever of all Protestant 
 Schools. I remark with great anxiety and regret, the occasional 
 petulant and unwise conduct of American and British Mission- 
 aries, who do not seem to realize the sword, which is hanging 
 by a thread over their heads, and no diplomatic interference 
 would help them in a matter of internal administration, which 
 the Turk proposes to conduct on the same principles as his dear 
 brethren the Russian, Austrian and Frenchman. Missionaries 
 forget, that, though they carry personal rights with them into a 
 friendly country, those personal rights do not protect them in 
 a breach of the domestic laws of the country. 
 
 During the present year a remarkable instance has occurred 
 in the United States of North America of the arbitrary use of 
 the Sovereign-right to regulate Education within National 
 limits. It is notorious, that within those limits there are about 
 250,000 indigenous American Indians, speaking about one 
 hundred different languages : and the Missionary Societies of 
 the United States have made noble efforts to convert these 
 heathen .' the Bible has been translated, and the Vernaculars 
 made the vehicle of Instruction. Suddenly from the State 
 Department of this free Republic has been issued an order, 
 resembling a Russian' Ukase, ordering English to be made the 
 sole vehicle of instruction, both in State-supported and private 
 schools. The Missionaries have, as was to be expected, remon- 
 strated. I only quote the case to illustrate my position as to the 
 Sovereign-right of the State. 
 
 In the Colonies of Great Britain it is different. As they 
 have a constitutional government, it rests with each to regulate 
 its own Educational system, and there is little doubt that it 
 will be on liberal principles. The Government of British 
 India has the hardest, and most perilous duty to discharge, and 
 strange to say, has received an amount of obloquy and detractation 
 from Missionaries, which does them no credit. If British India 
 were to pass into the hands of Russia or France, or Independent 
 Native States, it would serve the Missionaries right. The great 
 Problem before the Government of India was, to bear in mind, 
 that they were the guardians of the great people, committed 
 to their charge, that Toleration to Religious convictions was the 
 chief Jewel of Empire, and the appropriation of taxes levied 
 from Mahometans and Idolaters, to the purpose of converting 
 
( i69 ) 
 
 them to another form of religion, would be an intolerable wrong, 
 which would be resented by the British People, if the Pope of 
 Rome, or the Caliph of the Mahometans, attempted that policy 
 in the British Islands. 
 
 It is the practice of writers in the cause of Missions to speak 
 hardly of the great and impartial Government of India, under 
 whose aegis a greater amount of Missionary work is being 
 prosecuted in peace and comfort, than the world ever saw before 
 in any one country. It is forgotten, that remarks, levelled 
 against an impersonal Government, really attack a succession of 
 good and religious public servants, who, while in India they 
 were not ashamed of being Christians, yet never forgot the 
 principle, which underlies all true religion, "of doing unto 
 others what they would that men should do unto them," and 
 who never swerved from the dictates of tolerance, equity, and 
 respect for the consciences of the great people, over whose 
 destinies they were called to preside. I do not like to see 
 demands made, which the people, if they had an independent 
 constitutional form of government, would never grant. St. Paul, 
 and the other Apostles, were content to be left alone. I am 
 sorry to diflFer in this matter from men, whom I love and esteem ; 
 but I must render unto Csesar the things that Caesar's, as well 
 as the things that are God's unto God. 
 
 The educational system of British India is entirely based on 
 the Educational Charter of 1854, drafted by the late Viscount 
 Halifax, who was then President of the Board of Control. I 
 have carefully gone over these famous one hundred paragraphs. 
 If there is any one leading characteristic of that Charter, it is 
 the desire not to awaken a religious difficulty. Thus : 
 
 Para. 28. The examination at the University will not include any subject 
 connected with religious belief, and the affiliated institutions will be under the 
 management of persons of every variety of religious persuasion. 
 
 Para. 32. We shall refuse to sanction any teaching (connected with Hindu 
 and Mahometan tenets), as directly opposed to the principle of religious 
 neutrality, to which we have always adhered. 
 
 Para. 34. (The Senate) will include natives of India of all religious persua- 
 sions. 
 
 Tara. 53. The system of grants in aid will be based on an entire abstinence 
 from interference with the religious instruction conveyed in the school. 
 
 Para. 56- No notice whatsoever to be taken by the Inspector of the religious, 
 doctrines, which may be taught in the school. 
 
 Para. 57. It may be advisable distinctly to assert in them the principle of 
 perfect religious neutrality, on which the grants will be awarded. 
 
 Para. 84. The institutions are founded for the benefit of the whole population 
 of India, and, in order to effect this object, it was, and is, indispensable, that 
 the education conveyed in them should be exclusively secular. 
 
 Para. 100. The measures which we have now adopted will involve a much 
 larger expenditure from the taxation of the people of India. 
 
 These words were written in 1854, before the greq,t Sepoy' 
 PART II. 13 
 
( I70 ) 
 
 Mutiny. In 1859, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for India 
 reviewed the whole subject, with reference to the allegation, 
 that this educational measure had been among the causes, 
 which led to the Mutiny. I quote from hiS' despatch : 
 
 Para. 34. The system of grants in aid is based on an entire abstinence 
 from interference with the religious instruction conveyed in the schools assisted. 
 
 Para. 35. Every endeavour appears to have been used to carry into practice 
 the principles of perfect religious neutrality, on which the system was declared 
 to be based. 
 
 Para. 42. The home-authorities determined, that computation (for marks in 
 certain religious books) should not be allowed, and thus removed all possible 
 ground of inisapprehension. 
 
 Para. 56. The author of the Despatch of 1854 regarded the system, as 
 carrying out in the most effectual manner the principle of perfect religious 
 neutrality, and as solving in the best practicable way various difficult questions, 
 connected with education, arising out of the peculiar position of the British 
 Government in India, The principle of perfect neutrality in matters of religion, 
 on which the system has been brought into operation in India, has been laid 
 down and promulgated with unmistakable distinctness in published rules. 
 
 Para. 51. It has been alleged, that notwithstanding these precautions jealousy 
 has been excited by the assistance indirectly extended through the medium of 
 grants in aid to Missionary teaching. 
 
 Para. 59. From the earliest period, at which the British Government in India 
 directed its attention to the subject of education, all its measures, in consistency 
 with the policy, which regulated its proceedings in other departments of the 
 State, have been based on the principle of perfect religious neutrality : in 
 other words, on an abstinence from all interference with the religious feelings 
 and practices of the natives,, and on the exclusion of religious teaching from the 
 Government schools. 
 
 Para. 60. The Proclamation of Her Majesty, on assuming the direct control 
 of the Government of India, plainly declared, that no interference with the 
 religion of the people, or with their habits, and usages, was to take place. 
 
 Para. 61. The free resort of all classes to Government schools, when unusual 
 alarm had been excited in the minds of the natives, is a sufficient proof of the 
 confidence, which is felt in the promises of Government, that no interference 
 with religious belief will be allowed in their schools, and this confidence Her 
 Majesty's Government would be very reluctant to disturb by any change of 
 system, which might give occasion to misapprehension. They are unable 
 therefore to sanction any modification of the rule of strict religious neutrality, 
 which has been hitherto enforced in the Government Schools, and it accord- 
 ingly remains, that the course of study in all Government institutions be, as 
 heretofore, confined to secular subjects. 
 
 Para. 66. It seems important therefore to learn, whether any of the measures 
 taken by the Government of India in recent years to promote the education of 
 the natives of India have been such as to afford just ground of suspicion, or 
 alarm : whether, notwithstanding the absence of any just grounds of alarm, 
 there has in fact existed a misunderstanding of the intentions of Government 
 with regard to their measures, which excited apprehensions, however unfounded, 
 and whether any alterations of existing arrangements can be devised, by which 
 the risk of misapprehension may be lessened, and the minds of the people may 
 be set at rest. 
 
 These words were written by the present Earl Derby, a 
 member of the Conservative Ministry : the Charter itself was 
 written by Viscount Halifax, a member of the Liberal Ministry. 
 
( 171 ) 
 
 Both parties of the State were at one on this policy. Both 
 Despatches were published, and presented to the Houses of 
 Parliament. No change whatever in the general policy has 
 taken place since that date. 
 
 Some dissatisfied persons proposed to move Her Majesty's 
 Secretary of State for India to withdraw from the work of 
 higher education in India, avowedly on the ground " that 
 education without religion is not complete education." An 
 effort would then be made to supply the place of abolished 
 colleges by establishments, in which the principles of the 
 Evangelical Alliance would be enforced, as in a Missionary 
 place of education, and to which the natives of India, Hindu 
 or Mahometan, would be obliged to resort, or be deprived of 
 the benefit of education, which, owing to the efforts of the State 
 during the last quarter of a century, has become a necessity to 
 them : and to carry out this policy a still greater assignment 
 of funds raised by taxation would be asked for, as grants in aid. 
 Such is the nature of the proposition, however much it may 
 be qualified by such words as "gradually," or "a greater or 
 less extent." The temper of the House of Commons must 
 have greatly changed, if such a proposition had been listened 
 to for a moment. 
 
 I have arrived at a clear conviction, that the Government of a 
 great subject country, held by force of arms, ought never to 
 relinquish its grasp on the control of the education of a people, 
 any more than it would on the police, the taxation, and the 
 judicial system. Our political tenure of India is a most frail 
 one. The population is composed of very distinct and hostile 
 elements. The possibility of creating an Educational Board, 
 composed of representatives of all religions, seems very doubt- 
 ful, and no statesman would undertake the responsibility of 
 placing the educational resources of the State, supplied by 
 taxation, at the disposal of religious denominations, however 
 excellent might be the character of the individuals. With 
 what favour would Protestants regard the educational institutions 
 of a Russian province, entrusted to a Greek Missionary body, 
 or those of a Portuguese province, entrusted to the Jesuits .'' 
 A demand is made, which the British Parliament steadily refuses 
 to the Roman Catholics of Ireland. In both cases the uncon- 
 cealed motive for meddling with education is to inculcate 
 religious views, with the alleged ulterior object, in both cases 
 conscientiously believed in, of advancing the cause of morality. 
 
 Let me consider the point which is urged, that the Govern- 
 ment is pledged to give way : let me quote the words of the 
 Charter : 
 
 Para. 6i. We look forward to a time, when any general system of education, 
 entirely provided by Government, may be discontinued with the gradual 
 
( 172 ) 
 
 advance of the system of grants in aid, and when many of the existing 
 Government institutions, especially those of the higher order, may be safely 
 closed, or transferred to the management of local bodies under the control of 
 and aided by the State : but it is far from our wish to check the spread of 
 education, in the slightest degree, by the abandonment of a single school to 
 probable decay, and we therefore entirely confide in your discretion, while 
 keeping this object in view, to act with caution. 
 
 The whole of the Despatch must be taken together. If 
 they were found to exist in any city, or district, an 
 educational power, which had gradually grown up to full 
 maturity, and was able to take over charge of the education 
 of the people, in the same manner, and under the same 
 conditions of neutrality, by means of an impartial Board of 
 Managers, the Government might be willing to withdraw: 
 but does such an agency exist in any part of India ? Would 
 it meet the wishes of the Missionaries to work their schools 
 with a conscience-clause ? Would they wish to come under 
 the far less gentle, and less sympathetic, control of a Board 
 of Managers elected by a majority of Hindus and Mahometans ? 
 No other construction can be placed upon this clause, and in 
 the later Despatch, para. 46, we only find, 
 
 It being hoped, that private schools aided by Government would eventually 
 take the place universally of the several classes of Government institutions. 
 
 It cannot be imagined, that the deliberate closing of a 
 Government institution with the avowed object of encouraging 
 Missionary Propagandism was contemplated. 
 
 And supposing that the Government were from financial 
 reasons to abandon the discharge of their duty (and I can 
 imagine no other reason), I fail to see', that any Missionary 
 body, or aggregate of Missionary bodies, is in a position at 
 the present moment in any part of India to maintain the 
 higher education of the people with the degree of permanence, 
 which is necessary. The constituents of many Missionary 
 Societies would not subscribe to maintain the machinery of 
 secular education on a great scale. A large and highly paid 
 staff, with pensions and privileges, is required, and this would 
 cause a strain upon Missionary resources, and neglect of the 
 proper duty of direct Evangelization. 
 
 But another ground is alleged for the change, and a plea 
 put in for the education of the Masses. Now we have certain 
 information, that the Government is not indifferent to the 
 education of the Masses. 
 
 The Duke of Argyll, Secretary of State, writes, May, 1871, to 
 the Viceroy : 
 
 Para. 5. I should be understood, as approving generally of the main principle, 
 which runs through your despatch, that the Government expenditure should, 
 as far as possible, be reduced with reference to the education of those» who are 
 
( 173 ) 
 
 well able to pay for themselves, and should be mainly directed to the provision 
 of an elementary education for the Masses of the people. 
 
 Para. 9. If once we can instil into the real upper classes of India, that one 
 of the main duties of society is to provide for the sound primary instruction of 
 the humbler classes, we shall lay the real foundation for that general system of 
 education, which it is the desire of Your Excellency's Government to establish. 
 
 Again, on June 4, 1873, he writes to the Viceroy : 
 
 Para. 5. The very difficult problem for solution in India is the method of 
 diffusing education among the Masses without injuring the success which has 
 hitherto attended collegiate instruction : and, as the State funds available for 
 education are necessarily limited, it is not to be wondered at, that any appre- 
 hended transfer from one branch to another should give rise to considerable 
 controversy and meet opposition. 
 
 Para. 9. In conclusion, I must express my concurrence with Your Excel- 
 lency, in considering that the Lieutenant-Governor of Bangal has not departed 
 from the broad line of educational policy, which has been laid down by Her 
 Majesty's Government during a long series of years, and in cordially approving 
 the steps His Honour has taken to give a more practical tione to education in 
 Bangal. The advance, which has been made' in the encouragement of the 
 primary instruction of the people is also a subject for congratulation. 
 
 The Lieutenant-Governor of Bangdl writes to the Director 
 of Public Instruction, 1872 : 
 
 It is not the policy of the Government to discourage English or High Educa- 
 tion, but it is its policy not to devote an entirely disproportionate amount of 
 the funds at the disposal of the Local Government to the education of a very 
 limited number of persons, to the comparative exclusion of the much greater 
 number, who have equal claims on the State. 
 
 The British Indian Association of Calcutta thus memorialized 
 the Viceroy, June, 1872 : 
 
 Para. 27. Your memorialists beg to observe, that the whole discussion turns 
 not upon the question, whether or not the Government approve of higher 
 education in the abstract, but upon the extent, to which they are prepared to 
 assist it. It is a complete fallacy to suppose, that the higher education can 
 subsist, even in Lower Bangal, much less in other parts of India, without 
 necessary aid from Government. It is enormously expensive, and the prospects 
 of success in life, held out thereby to students, is exceedingly small. 
 
 The People's Association, Dacca, thus memorialized th6 
 Viceroy, September, 1872: 
 
 Your memorialists are not unaware of the fact, that reduction in grant of the 
 higher education is said to be owing to a corresponding increase in that for 
 Mass education, but they beg humbly to state, that a judicious management of 
 the funds would enable Government to devote large sums to the education of 
 the Masses without starving High Education. 
 
 The Rajshahye Association thus memorialized the Viceroy, 
 December, 1872 : 
 
 Para. 2. Some time before the Government of India passed a resolution to 
 the effect, that in time to come the Government would gradually withdraw 
 State aid from High Education in order to apply the amount to the promotion 
 of Mass-Education 
 
 The recent acts of His Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of Bangal have 
 
( 174 ) 
 
 inspired your petitioners witli serious fear and concern. His Honour at once cut 
 off tlie collegiate classes of some colleges, reduced the establishment of others. 
 His Honour's policy in reducing the State grant for High Education, like that 
 of the Government resolution referred to at the outset, is understood to be with 
 a view to promote Mass Education. 
 
 Your Excellency's petitioners submit, that of all the reasons, for which the 
 people of the country blessed the British Government, there is none in which 
 they have been more unanimous and more earnest than for the education given 
 by the means of colleges and schools. 
 
 I have quoted these memorials to show, that an endeavour 
 had been made, and was being made, to reduce the sums spent 
 on Higher Education, and increase the amount spent on Mass 
 Education, and to point out, that there is an observant native 
 public, who would not allow such a step to be taken, as handing 
 over the Higher Education to Missionary control, without the 
 most strenuous and passionate resistance, possibly endangering 
 the peace of the*Empire. 
 
 In 1873, the Viceroy in Council reviewed the whole subject 
 of Education, remarking as follows : 
 
 If His Excellency is to understand any of the memorialists to be of opinion, 
 that the need for the extension and improvement of primary education among 
 the Masses of the people in Bangal is not urgent, and does not require the 
 application to that purpose of all savings, that may properly be made in the 
 cost of Higher Education, His Excellency must express his dissent from that 
 opinion, and his cordial concurrence with the declaration made by the Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor, that it is the policy of the Supreme, and of the Bangal 
 Government, to promote and foster all sound education ; but it is the wish of 
 both Governments, that out of the public money available for educational 
 purposes, a larger share than heretofore should be given to the support of 
 elementary education in the villages of Bang41. 
 
 Quotations could be multiplied to show, that there was a desire 
 to do as much as circumstances would permit, and the Educational 
 Budget could provide. It is, moreover, not probable that additional 
 grants in aid would be given to any Missionary Higher Educa- 
 tion Institutions in the Presidency towns, where the people can 
 afford to pay for the education of their own children. In the 
 extreme supposition therefore of the Government closing their 
 Presidency colleges, the Missionary Educational Board would 
 have to conduct their Institutions on commercial or benevolent 
 principles, unrecognized and unassisted by the State. Are they 
 prepared to do so ? 
 
 The Government of India is not unused to detraction, and to 
 the attacks of persons, who misunderstand the high principles of 
 administration, which it has resolutely maintained. In a work 
 published in Russia, M. Terentief brings a charge against the 
 British rulers, that they have alienated the people by their 
 attempts to make them Christians, This is the erroneous state- 
 ment of a hostile critic. But a few good and excellent Mission- 
 aries, who enjoy the protection of the branches of the great 
 
( 175 ) 
 
 paternal tree, and who, if the tree were cut down, would be 
 swept out of India, by the French, Russian, or Native power, 
 which followed, have allowed themselves a licence, which 
 neither the principles of charity, nor their knowledge of the 
 subject, would warrant, in denouncing the policy and practice 
 of the Government of India. It is with regret, that I see 
 inconsistent complaints made by pious and good men, that the 
 Government in culpable indifference allows its rural population 
 to live on in ignorant darkness, and too much light to be let in 
 upon the minds of the youth of our cities. It is difficult to 
 decide what such Missionaries want. In dealing with the rural 
 population, they deplore their intense ignorance, apathy, and 
 inability to grasp the Divine truth. In dealing with the old 
 party, who cling to the faith of their ancestors, complaint is 
 made of their bigotry, the undue influence of their priests, and 
 the debasing character of their moral code, dogma and ritual ; 
 but, strange to say, when a succession of youths are turned out 
 from the State-Colleges, imbued with . Occidental civilization,, 
 free from the ignorance of the rural class, and treating as dirt 
 the Priests, the Veda, and the Kordn, and with minds ready like 
 soft clay to receive new impressions, complaint is made that 
 somehow or other this "Young-India" has lost the moral 
 control of the old religions, and has not adopted that of the 
 new. Regret seems to be felt for the extinction of the Hindu 
 religion, and attacks are made upon the Government for their 
 Godless system of education. The great, strong, and wise 
 Government looks on with pity rather than with scorn : greater in. 
 the high principles of administration which it has adopted, than 
 in the vastness of its dominions, and the numberless varieties of 
 its subjects : stronger in the integrity, independence, and out- 
 spokenness of its public servants, than in its serried battalions : 
 and wiser, less in what it has done, than what through steady 
 self-restraint it has abstained from doing, remembering, that 
 it is the only European Government in Asiatic countries, into 
 whose treasuries the hoards of its subjects, though alien in race, 
 are poured without fear of their being misappropriated, and to- 
 whose schools parents, strangers in creed, send their children 
 without fear of their tender consciences being tampered with. 
 Confidence is of slow growth, and the existence of the British; 
 Empire depends upon the conviction of ils Religious Neutrality. 
 Nor need it be a matter of surprise, that in the nineteenth 
 century religious beliefs are undermined in India. It was well 
 known, that such must be the result of education and a free 
 press. The same phenomenon is evident in Free Italy, and Free 
 France, and to a certain extent in Free England and Free 
 America. History tells us, that the Roman Empire went through 
 a fearful period of intellectual doubt, and yeit by God's grace. 
 
( 176 ) 
 
 Europe settled down into Christianity. At any rate it is an evil, 
 which no government can check or cure. The stone has been 
 set rolling, and will go on rolling; for even, if the British were 
 driven from India, the British culture would remain, and, after 
 all, the number of students in the State-Colleges is but a drop 
 in the ocean of the millions of India. 
 
 In a Missionary Periodical of July, 1888, appear the following 
 remarks with regard to the British Colonists in New Zealand : 
 
 The towns are saturated with infidelity : the Church is not holding its ground 
 among the men : there is a widespread impression, that the Bible has proved to 
 be inconsistent with itself, and with modern reason, and is no longer to be 
 talcen seriously. A generation of men is springing up in New Zealand with no 
 religious belief of any kind. A Prime Minister has been known to deliver 
 lectures of some abiUty against Christianity. 
 
 Young India is clearly no worse than young New Zealand, and 
 ■with more excuse, for the Hindu never knew Christ, and the 
 British Colonists are reported to have thrown Him off. I need 
 scarcely say, that the statements with regard to both the Hindu 
 and New Zealander must be accepted with reserve: the present 
 generation are too fond of generalizing on narrow premises 
 of fact. 
 
 Missionaries should consider well, whether the grants in aid 
 are worth the heavy price, which they have to pay for them in 
 the secularization of their schools ; the crushing-out of religious 
 teaching by the cast-iron requirements of the Government 
 Inspector and University-Tests ; the destruction of the spiritu- 
 ality and fervour of the Missionary by the purely scholastic 
 duties imposed upon him ; the small percentage of converts, 
 which such schools have during a long period of years turned 
 out; the evil of employing non-Christian teachers, and the 
 impossibility of finding a sufficient supply of Christian teachers ; 
 the discontinuance in some schools of public prayer and relax- 
 ation of thorough Christian teaching, out of deference to the 
 supposed feelings of the students ; and, lastly, the economical 
 question, whether the schools repay their net cost, after 
 deducting the grants in aid and the school fees, from an 
 evangelizing point of view. 
 
 Let something be done directly to influence the intelligent 
 and educated youth in the State-Colleges. We have special 
 missions to the Jews, and the Mahometans ; why not also to 
 the enfranchised and enlightened Hindu, who has learnt to 
 despise the religion of his forefathers, and has to be taught the 
 better way.? Let a beginning be made with the small, yet 
 intelligent, company of Indian law-students in this city. 
 Amiable, gentle, and social, they might be impressed with the 
 friendliness of Christian people during their temporary exile 
 from their country, instead of being left quite to themselves. 
 
( ^77 ) 
 
 They frequent the meetings of learned societies, and are able to 
 address audiences in the English language ; and I have heard a 
 Mahometan of Bangdl with singular simplicity speak up for the 
 purity of his religion, and, with startling paradox, for the happiness 
 of Mahometan women. A society called the London Moslem 
 Mission has been formed to look after the Arab and Turkish 
 visitors to this city, but the natives of India are unnoticed, and 
 yet some of them might, if brought under proper Christian in- 
 fluence, be powerful auxiliaries to the cause of Christian Missions 
 on their return to India. The Oxford University Mission to 
 Calcutta has attempted, but on extremely Ritualistic lines, to 
 make an impression on the classes educated in the State Colleges 
 in that city. 
 
 The existing policy of Religious Neutrality is sometimes 
 attributed to the strong prejudices of men of the old school, 
 who distrust the Natives whom they despise, and the Mission- 
 aries whom they dislike. Such is not the case. I, and those 
 who think with me, have a very sincere attachment to the 
 Natives, and a feeling of gratitude and respect to the 
 Missionaries for their unselfish labours, which everywhere I 
 loudly proclaim : and yet no person can oppose more earnestly 
 than I do, any attempt to place the education of the people of 
 India in the hands of Missionaries uncontrolled by the State. 
 
 I have heard a Missionary say: 
 
 Only place under my influence the younger generations, and free them for 
 a season from the baneful influence of their homes, their priests, their bad 
 family customs, and associations; and I could do much. 
 
 The State system of education has done this work : it has 
 swept the Augean stables : the mischief of centuries is undone : 
 the link of tradition is snapped : the great giant Pagan is killed : 
 the Missionary can meet such trained intellects on a common 
 platform of argument. It will scarcely be urged, that the cur- 
 riculum of study, which is analogous to that of a British 
 University, necessarily leads more to infidelity at Calcutta than 
 at Oxford. The eternal truths of Christianity are based upon 
 Reason, as well as Faith. In dealing with a Brahmin or 
 Mahometan, the Missionary has to combat prejudices, social 
 sanctions, fears, and perhaps honest belief. It surely cannot be 
 desired, that the standard of right or objects of reverence of a Hindu 
 and Mahometan population should be maintained. It is for the 
 world's advantage, that they should be weakened and die away. 
 Education is the advance guard and pioneer of true religion. 
 
 I am not one of those, who can find no substratum of good in 
 the two great religions of India. I believe that, since God in 
 His infinite wisdom has permitted them to exist, there must be 
 some deep-laid human element in the systems, which has given 
 them such ,a strange vitality, in that they have outlived kingdoms 
 
( 178 ) 
 
 and dynasties ; but I never saw in the practice of either any 
 guarantee of personal morality, any encouragement to purity or 
 holiness. The most abandoned females take part of their gains 
 to their place of worship, and they are received and form part 
 of the establishment of some of the temples. The Thug and 
 Murderer have their special deities. The Religious Leaders 
 themselves, following the example of their Gods, if Hindu, and 
 of their Prophet, if Mahometan, allow themselves a licence in 
 their private lives of the most exceptionable kind. The strong 
 arm of the British Government has stamped out abominable 
 crimes ; Native religious reformers have from time to time 
 sprung up, like the Jewish prophets, denouncing the absence 
 of the moral element : and some Christian Missionaries have 
 included in their sweeping censure the whole nation, and unjustly 
 so ; for those, who know the rural population intimately, can 
 say a word for their simple patriarchal lives, the strength of 
 their family affections, and their freedom from gross moral 
 blemishes ; anyhow, it is strange to find Missionaries shedding 
 a tear for the loss of such moral sanctions. 
 
 Why should discontent and disloyalty arise from the spread 
 of Education ? We heard such arguments, when Education was 
 first encouraged in Great Britain forty years ago. We know 
 how in France, and in Great Britain, poor gentlemen with large 
 families of educated sons are at their wits' end to find a decent 
 existence. Does it make them disloyal ? Even, if their educa- 
 tion were of the most highly religious kind, they would equally 
 feel the want of employment and means of sustenance. Those, 
 who rule India, know that knowledge is power, and that by 
 educating their subjects, they are arming them, as it were, for 
 future attempts to obtain political freedom ; but they have 
 counted the cost, and preferred to do their duty, whatever may 
 be the consequences. 
 
 I am free to say, that it is my wish, and the scope of my en- 
 deavour, that every native of India should be in the way to 
 become Christian, and I should be glad to see them brought 
 straightforwardly under Missionary influence. On the door of 
 the Mission-School should be written : " All who enter here, 
 sooner or later must become Christians." But it is another 
 thing to go about the matter indirectly, to twist the obvious 
 intent of a great Charter ; to express a sort of regret for the 
 extinction of a false religion ; to fear for the morals of youths, 
 because they have been educated in all the learning of the 
 British people ; and to impute disloyalty to a few hundred youths, 
 who have preferred Occidental to Oriental training, and have 
 availed themselves of the opportunity of obtaining knowledge. 
 
 I must reply to another kind of argument, brought from 
 another point of the compass, that the State has, in effect, 
 
( ^n ) 
 
 departed from the lines of Religious Impartiality, because it 
 permits Morality and Science to be taught in its Schools, which 
 must undermine all that is immoral and false in the Native 
 Religions of India. I could understand the drift of this 
 argument from the mouth of a Brahmin, or a Mulld, but not of 
 a Missionary. It may be boldly stated, that all religious dogma, 
 or ritual, which is not grounded on Morality, and which is in- 
 consistent with the highest development of the human intellect, 
 is baseless, injurious to the well-being of society, and may, 
 without compunction, be left to the slow and certain discipline 
 of Enlightenment, and Moral Progress, for the best interest of 
 the human race will be advanced by their extinction. But herein 
 is the great strength of the Christian, and he, at least, need not 
 protest against such supposed breach of Impartiality, for his 
 religion unites to the highest type of Morality, to which the 
 ancient world attained, characteristics, motives, and sanctions, 
 to which human moralists never could attain, and no sincere 
 Christian fears the brightest light, or the most scorching glare, 
 which Science, Oriental or Occidental, can let in upon the truths 
 of his religion. 
 
 The God-fearing and thoughtful Christian Statesman has to 
 consider by doing what, or by refraining from doing what, he 
 can prolong the existence of the wonderful Empire of Great 
 Britain in India, give free play to British culture, opportunity 
 for the spread of the Christian religion, and planting the seeds 
 of constitutional government. We believe, that our religion is 
 the best, and the most adapted for any conceivable type of race, 
 country, and civilization : we know that it spread over Europe in 
 defiance of rulers, senates, and philosophers : we believe that 
 it will do the same in Asia and Africa, through the influence 
 of example, argument and culture. To Great Britain among 
 nations has fallen the high privilege of being the champion of 
 this new Crusade, but we have also an example to set to foreign 
 countries and future generations, of an administration of subject 
 nations conducted on the most exalted principles of Justice and 
 Religious Impartiality ; and we should consider what our own 
 feelings would be, if by any chance of Fortune our own country 
 were to fall under the control of a Mahometan Power, and our 
 children had to remain uneducated, or to attend Schools of 
 Mahometan Propagandists. 
 
 The oft-repeated cuckoo-cry, "Why should the Bible be ex- 
 cluded from Secular Schools } " scarcely requires a reply, from 
 those, who love the study of that blessed book. What could be 
 more humiliating than to degrade that book to' be the class book of 
 children learning to read, or to furnish the lesson to be translated 
 as a task by non-Christian Boys under a non-Christian Teacher ? 
 We may imagine the inaccurate, the false, and the blasphemous 
 
( i8o ) 
 
 interpretations put upon difficult passages : the awfully familiar 
 way, in which the Divine name would be handled : the sceptical 
 tone in which the Miracles would be alluded to. What profit 
 could come of such teaching ? 
 
 It is with surprise, that I read in the pages of the Missionary 
 Herald of the American Board for July, 1888 (placed in my 
 hands while I am correcting this Essay), such expressions as the 
 following : 
 
 It is bad enough, that the Gospel is ignored in Government Institutions in 
 India. 
 
 While we profoundly regret on Missionary grounds the course so largely 
 adopted in the Colleges and Universities of India. 
 
 What does this mean ? Can the citizens of a free Republic 
 wish, that we should levy taxes without representation from a 
 heathen people, and then by legislation without the concurrence 
 of popular assemblies try and convert by the means of State 
 Education the children from their ancestral faith .? 
 
 I have carefully perused the Recommendations of the Com- 
 mission on Education in India held in 1883, and the Resolution 
 passed upon it under the Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon. That it has 
 brought the practice of the Educational Department into con- 
 formity with the principles of the great Charter of 1854, has 
 encouraged the system of Grants in aid, and insisted on a much 
 larger extension of Education to the Masses, I rejoice ; but I 
 fail to see what possible advantage Missionary AssociationiS 
 desired to obtain, or have obtained, from this inquiry. On the 
 contrary, I anticipate a very contrary eifect, as it was obvious to 
 the Hindu and Mahometan, that Proselytism was the object, 
 which induced a certain section of the Missionary bodies to 
 take up the matter. They had little worldly interest in India, 
 and it is not obvious, why they should press an extension of the 
 Education of the masses, unless they wished to obtain facilities 
 for doing so themselves, or why they wished the State-Colleges 
 to be closed, unless they wished to supply their places with 
 Propagandist Institutions. If a Council, consisting of Jesuit 
 Priests, had pressed a measure of this kind upon Lord Ripon, 
 the Protestant Jealousy would have been roused. The Roman 
 Catholic Bishops of British India knew the policy of the British 
 Government too well to be at all alarmed at the possibility of 
 their departing from a policy of sympathetic tolerance. 
 
 The proportion of numbers of the non-Christian to the 
 Christian population in British India is overwhelming. What 
 chance would a small Hindu or Mahometan colony in London 
 have against the School Board in London? It is with the 
 greatest difficulty, that elective Guardians of the Poor can be 
 brought to treat the religious requirements of their Roman 
 Catholic fellow-subjects in London with ordinary justice. 
 
( I8l ) 
 
 I imagine that the Missionary will find in the School-Boards 
 consisting of a great majority of Hindu, Mahometan, Brahmoist, 
 and Atheist, much bitterer antagonists then he has found in the 
 State-Inspector of Schools : they will find King Stork has 
 succeeded to King Log. Already in some of the great towns 
 we hear of symptoms, that Young India will not submit to any 
 insidious way of converting their children. The Lord's battle 
 must be waged openly, and directly, not in the form of a 
 somewhat cheaper secular Education. The Gospel must not 
 be sandwiched betwixt Moral Philosophy and Mathematics. 
 
 The Viceroy of India, Lord Duflferin, has this very year, 1888, 
 published a Resolution on Discipline and Moral Training in 
 State-Schools and Colleges. Ordinarily Morals rest upon the 
 Sanction of Religion. In educated India that fulcrum is 
 wanting. In Aided Schools there is entire freedom of religious 
 instruction, and it is anticipated, that the number of such 
 institutions will be indefinitely increased, whether Christian, 
 Mahometan, Hindu, or seyerely Secular and Atheistical. In 
 State-supported Schools Religion is positively forbidden. The 
 Education Commission recommended, that an attempt should be 
 made to compile a Moral Text-Book, based on the fundamental 
 principles of Natural Religion, which underlies all Dogma, and 
 the Secretary of State has ordered, that this shall be practically 
 enforced, notwithstanding the acknowledged difficulties, and 
 danger of offending the feelings of the different sections of the 
 population. Coupled with this is the duty of maintaining 
 proper school-discipline, or, as the Viceroy's Resolution puts 
 it, a system of teaching, having a direct bearing upon personal 
 conduct. 
 
 As no doubt Western civilization is sapping the framework of 
 Indian Society, endeavour must be made to lay the foundation 
 of reconstruction : the old order of things must be replaced by 
 a newer and a better. Western Education is not wholly destructive, 
 for it brings with it in the long run Western principles of dis- 
 cipline and self-constraint. The intellectual part of the Educa- 
 tional process has made good progress : it remains to produce 
 that moral element, which forms the most prominent factor of 
 the European theory of Education. 
 
 Such sentiments as the above I collect from the Resolution 
 of the Viceroy. Scores of men in Europe, and North America, 
 are totally devoid of the Religious element, though educated in 
 schools, and colleges, and yet they discharge the functions of 
 good citizens. The duty of the State as Educator goes no 
 further. The mpral sentiments of such men have not the sanction 
 of Religious convictions, and yet such moral sentiments un- 
 mistakably exist. The moral conscience of Young India during 
 the transition Period must rest upon the intellectual and moral 
 
( i82 ) 
 
 training of the State Educational Institutions, supplemented by 
 such portions of the Aided Institutions, as are managed upon 
 Christian principles. If they do good, the Aided Institutions 
 managed by the Hindu, Mahometan, the Agnostic and Theo- 
 sophist, will do infinite mischief. What moral sentiments can 
 be inculcated in such schools, though they may exist independent 
 of all schools from the contact and social environment of fellow- 
 men ? The more Protestant or Roman Catholic Aided Schools 
 that are started, the greater will be the number of the Rival 
 Non-Christian Establishments. 
 
 I cannot recommend the great Protestant Missionaries to 
 enter upon such hazardous enterprizes on the chance of a 
 chance convert coming out : their funds would be more 
 profitably spent in direct methods of Gospel-teaching. If, as 
 time goes on, it be deemed a necessity to counteract the 
 annually increasing power of Educated Anti-Christendom, let 
 a separate Christian Education Society be established in London 
 on a Catholic basis of all the Protestant Churches. Such action 
 would be continuous, and intelligible : if it be possible to stem 
 the stream of Educated Atheism, by such means success might 
 be obtained. Considering the phenomena presented by Great 
 Britain and France, it seems doubtful. 
 
 A craze, or fantastical notion, is never so thoroughly exposed 
 as by the statements of the extreme party of those who hold 
 the opinion. I commend to notice the following extract from 
 the Times Correspondent at Calcutta, in May of this year, 1 888 : 
 
 At the last criminal sessions, after a long trial, a Bangal youth of good 
 position was found guilty of murdering his father, a well-known doctor 
 practising in Calcutta. Parricide is a crime almost unknown among Hindus, 
 and this trial has therefore created a feeling of profound horror, especially 
 among the more conservative sections of the Hindus. These men have been 
 complaining bitterly for some time of the demoralizing influences of the present 
 system of education. While the ethical sanctions of the Hindu religion are 
 being loosened or destroyed by a purely secular and scientific education, no 
 precepts, either religious or moral, are permitted to take their place. The 
 urgency of social reform in this and other respects is becoming day by day a 
 question of paramount interest to that portion of the Hindu community which 
 views with dread the growing immorality of the younger generation, and this 
 case has had the effect of focussing native opinion on the subject. 
 
 This reminds me of Pope, the poet's, famous satirical lines : 
 
 What filled the Butchers' shops with large blue flies ? 
 
 The punishment of a parricide in ancient Rome was to be 
 sown up in a sack with an ape and a viper and thrown into the 
 Tiber. The crime is so abnormal, so contrary to human nature, 
 that I fear that no kind of education would provide against it. 
 Archdeacon Johnson, the Negro Superintendent of the Upper 
 Niger, told me that a man knocked his mother on the head, 
 
( i83 ) 
 
 because she was troublesome, and could not understand that he 
 had done wrong. On the other hand, the terrible stories of the 
 Houses of Pelops and Atreus, testify that the early Greeks, Pagan 
 as they were, had a right conception of the crime. A few years 
 ago I heard a Sermon in the pulpit of St. Paul's Cathedral 
 attributing the immorality of a portion of the female popu- 
 lation of London to the Board-Schools, and I imagine that the 
 allegation of the connection of the crime of Parricide with the 
 system of Secular Instruction in British India is as possibly 
 real, or probably as grossly false, as the Sermon ! 
 
 STJ£FU£N AUSTIN AND SONS, FKINTERS, HERTFORD. 
 
Jlote0 on JHtestonarp ^ubiects. 
 
 pm IKE. 
 
 RELATION OF MISSIONARIES TO 
 THE OUTER WORLD. 
 
 MISSIONS AND SCIENCE. II, BOARD OF MISSIONS IN A NATIONAL 
 
 CHURCH. III. ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED. IV. RELATION OF 
 
 MISSIONARIES TO GREAT EUROPEAN AND ASIATIC GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 V, RELATION OF MISSIONARIES TO BARBAROUS SOVEREIGNS 
 
 AND PETTY CHIEFS. VI. RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. VII. THE 
 
 LIBRARY OF THE MISSIONARY. 
 
 ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D., 
 
 LATK MEMBER OF H.M. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, MEMBER OF COMMITTEES OF BRITISH AND 
 
 FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY AND CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, MEMBER OF TRANSLATION 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 INCORPORATED MEMBER OF SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL, AND HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 ELLIOT STOCK,. 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1888. 
 All Righls Reserved. 
 
HERTFORD : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 
TO THE 
 COMMITTEES OF MISSIONARY SOCIETIES 
 
 ARE DEDICATED 
 
 AS A WARNING AND AN 
 
 EN CO URA CEMENT. 
 
PREFACE TO PART III. 
 
 I AM seated in front of a Bookcase, on which the 
 Reports of all the most important, and a great many 
 of the less important. Missionary Societies in the World 
 are ranged in different shelves by Nationality, and 
 Denomination. In the carton-boxes of my Cabinet are 
 arranged cuttings and Manuscript-extracts, the result 
 of many years' reading, exceeding thirty. Many thoughts 
 come over me : the memory of scores of good excellent 
 men, who have gone before : admiration for the work : 
 love for Christ, love for the poor Heathen, love for the Mis- 
 sionary. My notebook is filled with extracts, memoranda, 
 and reflections, jotted down long ago. The subject is not 
 a craze of my old age, but the serious work of my life, 
 since Bishop Daniel Wilson of Calcutta taught me my 
 first lesson in 1843, and I made my first Missionary friend, 
 John Newton of Ludidna, in 1844, who is in the field 
 still, for I heard from him last month, working on, till 
 his summons comes. 
 
 The Missionary goes out as a very young man : a large 
 majority have never undergone the discipline of a Public 
 School or University : they find themselves face to face 
 with gigantic problems beyond the conception of their 
 stay-at-home friends. Many of them do not recollect, 
 that at least in the dawn of their powers of usefulness 
 the Lord requires an undivided consecration of heart, 
 and talents, and have blindly entangled themselves with 
 earthly ties, and human affections, which distract them 
 from the absorbing duty of saving souls. Some, just as, 
 
( X ) 
 
 after undergoing a long pupilage, they begin to be useful, 
 owing to the illness of a wife or child, or the prospect of 
 a comfortable parsonage or manse at home, forget their 
 first love, and turn their back on the plough. Some few 
 glorious old men remain, refusing to leave their bodies 
 out of the country, to which they have devoted their 
 earliest, unbroken, and lasting affection. The Metropolitan 
 of Canada closed his memorable speech in St. James's 
 Hall, London, on July lo, with the words : " God helping 
 " me, I hope soon to return to my Diocese, and, in 
 " the spirit of Ruth, there will I be buried : the Lord 
 " do so to me and more also, if aught but Death part 
 " thee and me." 
 
 The tendency of all Missionaries is to be narrow- 
 minded, and form superficial opinions,' from want of 
 opportunity of all-round study, a wider observation, 
 free discussion, and sharp intellectual rubs with all 
 sorts and conditions of men, men of a turn of mind, 
 and experience, differing from their own. Some Mis- 
 sionaries are very superior men, the giants of their 
 time : the great majority are not so, but they are good 
 Evangelists notwithstanding. 
 
 Bringing Indian experience to bear upon circumstances 
 in other countries, I have tried to discuss certain matters 
 impartially, and invite downright criticism. We can no 
 longer treat Missionary operations as above or below 
 candid criticism, when they are forced upon the public 
 notice in the public papers, in Parliament, on Platforms, 
 and an abundant literature. Missions, like those of the 
 Moravian Missionary Society, or of the American Societies 
 to their indigenous wild tribes, might be conducted for 
 centuries without public notice ; but the Evangelizing 
 warfare all round Africa, all over Oceania, into the heart 
 of India, China and Japan, by at least two thousand 
 Agents, at a cost exceeding two Millions annually, cannot 
 escape notice. 
 
( xi ) 
 
 When the Duff sailed with the first British Missionaries 
 in 1792, to the South Seas, nothing was heard of it for 
 a year, and information came at such uncertain intervals, 
 that the fact of the Mission existing was forgotten : but 
 Missions are now a Factor, a Power, and a Science : every 
 Steamer is crowded with Male and Female Missionaries. 
 There is a dark side in the narratives of Murders and 
 Deaths, that reach the Public Press, and a darker still, 
 that never gets beyond the Committee-Room. 
 
 It must needs be, that mistakes are made, but they 
 need not be perpetuated. If some of the objectionable 
 practices of Roman Catholic Missions were faithfully 
 commented upon by an observant Roman Catholic com- 
 munity, they would not be persisted in. I instance as one 
 the systematic purchase of Negro children described in 
 Part II. Essay II. : if I live to complete Part V., I shall 
 have something more to describe. Hard words are often 
 spoken against Missions, and whole classes of the com- 
 munity from deep prejudice hold back from their support. 
 It is in their interest, their positive advantage, that the 
 phenomena arising should be explained, that the tenden- 
 cies should be exposed, that the blots should be hit, and 
 the dangers pointed out. The Jesuit Mission of last 
 Century in Paraguay would not have persisted in the 
 course, which led to their ruin, if some faithful Priest 
 had cried out in time, and warned them against the 
 dangerous policy of arming their converts, and waging 
 war against an European Power, the Portuguese. Does 
 not History seem to repeat itself? The eternal laws of 
 Toleration, of doing unto others what we wish that men 
 should do unto us, require appealing to each Century. I 
 read, and listen, to proposals made in good faith by 
 benevolent men, which, with what seems to me certainty, 
 would lead on to deplorable consequences. Is every white 
 man to domineer over every dark-skinned in every part 
 of the world, simply because he is a white man, and usurp 
 
( xii ) 
 
 a secular jurisdiction in the heart of a great Continent, 
 because he is commissioned by pious men in a distant 
 country to preach the Gospel of Christ ? 
 
 The last two decades have been exceedingly propitious 
 to the extension of Missions : the expansion has been 
 marvellous, but much of it very imprudent. The next 
 two decades may prove periods of trial and peril : by the 
 close of that period the European octopus will have closed 
 over the Continent of Africa, as it has already over Oceania, 
 and America. Many enterprizes have been commenced 
 with light-heartedness, which it may be difficult to main- 
 tain without bloodshed. I took part in my youth in the 
 annexation of vast provinces in British India, but careful 
 arrangements were previously made : posts occupied, 
 which supported each other, and an overwhelming military 
 force kept in hand by a fixed and settled policy. Mis- 
 sionary Societies, on the contrary, have settled down here 
 and there, without fixed policy, without any conception of 
 the policy of having supports in the rear; they have been, 
 like the down of a thistle, blown here and there by the 
 wind : they have roused the antagonism of desperate and 
 bloodthirsty men, and the suspicions of ignorant and 
 reckless Chieftains : in their platform-speeches in England 
 they have allowed themselves full licence of speech in 
 abusing European, Asiatic, or African Potentates, quite 
 regardless of the diffiision of information through the 
 Press. They have tried to induce Governments to be 
 drawn into their difficulties. They must not be surprised, 
 if they have a more difficult game to play, than if they 
 had gone into the country, like the humble and peaceful 
 Moravian, or some of the better managed Roman Catholic 
 Missions, where the Missionary has settled down amidst 
 the people, and become of them, submitting to the authority 
 of the country, by whose permission they had gained an 
 entrance. And this is the true type of a real Missionary, 
 who knows nothing but Christ. 
 
CHRISTIAN MISSIONS AND SCIENCE. 
 
 Nearly three years ago my lamented friend, Dr. J. O. Means, 
 Secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions, Boston, 
 United States, sent me the Ely-Volume, or the Contributions of 
 Foreign Missions to Science and Human Well-being, by Dr. Thomas 
 Laurie. It was compiled, and published at the expense .of Mr. 
 Alfred Ely, a friend of Missions, who felt, that the amount of 
 scientific information given to the world incidentally by Mission- 
 aries was not fully known. The goodly volume before me is a 
 treasure of information, and is worthy of notice. It relates 
 chiefly to the work of American Missionaries; but "ex uno 
 disce omnes." A similar volume might be compiled of the 
 incidental contributions to Science, and the well-being of the 
 human race, by the Missionaries of every Missionary Society, 
 for the Missionary is by the very necessity of his existence a 
 benefactor to mankind. 
 
 The Missionary's first duty, and sole duty, is to preach the 
 Gospel, and evangelize the non-Christian, and he should never for 
 one moment let go of this leading and paramount object: still, in 
 spite of himself, he finds opportunities to do other good things, 
 and by so doing he is able to conciliate to himself the favour of 
 those, whose eyes are darkened, and to whom the grace has not 
 been conceded to know, that to preach the Gospel to the non- 
 Christian is the highest duty and greatest privilege of all, who call 
 themselves Christians. Thus many messengers of Gospel-truth 
 have developed scholarly aptitudes, have shown themselves to be 
 great philologists ; have been ardent champions of the rights of 
 an oppressed people, and bold denouncers of bad customs and 
 laws. Governors of Provinces, and rulers of Native States, have 
 had the fact forced upon them, that in their midst there was an 
 unselfish, and yet dauntless, man, who seemed to know some 
 things better than his neighbours, and who had established an 
 
 PART III. I 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 influence over the Natives, of a different kind to, and yetnot 
 less strong than their own, and after some hesitation their co- 
 operation has been accepted, or solicited. It is obvious, that in 
 British India the Missionary element is frankly recognized, as a 
 factor in the body politic, and utilized as such. In independent 
 States, such as China, their power is daily increasing, and amidst 
 the tribes of Africa and Oceania they very soon acquired a 
 power, which it requires prudence to wield properly. 
 
 In the Ely- Volume chapters are devoted to the work of 
 Missionaries in the Departments of Geography, Geology, 
 Meteorology, Natural Science, Archaeology, Philology, Ethno- 
 logy and Religious Beliefs, General Literature, Bible-Transla- 
 tions, Education, Medical Science, and General Philanthropy. 
 In the Appendices are tables of the copious literature, which has 
 flowed from their pens. Those, who are connected with the 
 Management of Missionary Societies, or have lived for years 
 among Missionaries in the field, scarcely need to be informed 
 on the subject, but to those, who scornfully ignore the existence 
 of such Societies, or undervalue their labours, and think poorly 
 of their agents, such a book as this must come as a revelation. 
 The civil and military services of British India are notoriously 
 a body of men of marked talent and accomplishments, but it 
 may be doubtful, whether the out-turn of their combined labours^ 
 within a given period would surpass that of an equal number of 
 Missionaries. 
 
 In considering the subject of contributions to Geographical 
 Science the compiler enumerates, with just pride, in great detail, 
 all that the American Missionaries have done towards the ex- 
 ploration of America, Oceania, Asia, and Africa. No one, who 
 has watched the progress of Geography for the last quarter of a 
 century, can fail to acknowledge, how much directly, and 
 indirectly, the Missionary has done to extend our knowledge. 
 He is not a mere traveller, hurrying through unknown regions, 
 and unable to communicate with the inhabitants ; but he is 
 a sojourner in those regions, able to test the accuracy of his 
 information, to map down the routes actually traversed, and to 
 record, with a certain degree of approximate accuracy, routes 
 taken down from the lips of Native merchants. The Proceedings 
 of the Royal Geographical Society, and of kindred European 
 Societies, teem with narratives compiled by Missionaries. I 
 have myself prompted and encouraged the preparation of such 
 papers, more especially in Africa. To those, who have their 
 eyes fixed on the world, as on a chess-board, the name of 
 Livingstone stands conspicuous above that of any other Mis- 
 sionary of ancient and modern times, from the epoch of 
 Rubruquis the Franciscan in 1253 to the date of Krapf, who 
 mounted a high tower at Mombdsa, and looked out over Eastern 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 Equatorial Africa, and set the ball rolling, which led to the 
 unveiling of the great Lakes of the Equator. It is without any- 
 feeling of boasting, or undue rivalry, that the Missionary 
 Societies read the names of their agents amidst the successful 
 explorers of the age. Nor do the Committees consider the 
 money misapplied, which popularizes in the eye of the learned 
 world their efforts to evangelize, and at the same time opens out 
 new vistas of usefulness, and gives to new tribes the opportunity 
 of hearing the Gospel. 
 
 The contributions to the Science of Geology, quoted by the 
 compiler of the Ely- Volume, are not numerous or important, 
 nor am I able to add to them as regards other Missionary 
 Societies. The tables of Meteorological observations, recorded 
 by the American Missionaries in Western Asia, seem to be of the 
 highest value, and it would be worth the consideration of the 
 Royal Society, whether the assistance of all the Missionaries of 
 Great Britain, scattered as they are in hundreds all over the face 
 of the globe, in regions of extreme heat and of intense cold, at 
 considerable altitudes, and again on the sea-level, could not be 
 utilized. The trouble would be very inconsiderable, and the 
 record of the tempeirature and the climatic changes would be of 
 the highest interest to the Mission, as conducive to the choice 
 of the healthiest stations, and the adoption of suitable pre- 
 cautions and appliances. I am not aware, whether any registers 
 have been systematically maintained in any of the stations of 
 any Missionary Societies. The subject is worthy of attention. 
 
 The American Missionaries appear to have been contributors 
 to Natural Science. It is not pretended, that a Missionary can 
 have the leisure, or the technical knowledge, to be a thorough 
 naturalist, but some gifted men have been accurate and intelligent 
 observers. Science is now prosecuted too thoroughly to admit 
 of much untrained help, and it has been remarked, that the 
 contributions of Missionaries on Natural History lacked that 
 accurate knowledge and detail, which are now requisite. It is 
 remarkable, that among the American Missionaries there should 
 have been men devoted to their proper work, and yet zealous 
 ornithologists, naturalists, and conchologists, taking the latter 
 work by way of restful and healthful recreation, without which 
 they would not have retained cheerfulness and vigour. When I 
 read of 800 specimens of birds, and many hundred specimens 
 of shells, and essays contributed to scientific journals, I begin 
 to doubt, whether it is wise to yield to the fascination of 
 inquiries, so wholly alien from the work of teaching the Gospel. 
 No conscientious public officer in India would, I think, be able 
 to lend himself to such pursuits without dereliction of his secular 
 duties. I have heard a Viceroy condemn a man, because he had 
 an absorbing passion for some inquiry alien to his duty, and I 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 remember the circumstance of a man being passed over for 
 promotion, because he was too devoted to his photographing 
 machine. These were not the acts of a Philistine, or of a man 
 without sympathy for Science, but of a wise ruler, who knew, 
 that it was dangerous for an administrator to have a taste for 
 anything but the trade of ruling men, and caring for the men 
 ruled. For twenty-five years I had to roll up, and put away, 
 one or two particular talents in a napkin, and I should recom- 
 mend faithful Missionaries, who have a single eye to their 
 blessed vocation, to place away such talents, if they have them. 
 I should not think highly of them, if I came upon them in the 
 act of stuffing birds, or transfixing butterflies. 
 
 Under the next head of Archaeology much is said of the 
 contributions to Science made by American Missionaries ; and 
 the circumstance of their having large and important Missions 
 in Turkey in Asia, a country teeming with records of the past, 
 has enabled them to advance knowledge. . One positive addition 
 to our knowledge was made by the discovery and the careful 
 description of the famous Nestorian monument of Singdn Fu 
 in China ; but even this falls into the shade, when brought into 
 comparison with the magnificent discovery of the Moabite Stone 
 by one of the Church Missionary Society's agents, and the 
 discovery of the Hittite Inscription by a Presbyterian Missionary. 
 
 " Paulo majora canamus." When we come to the chapter on 
 Philology and Bible-Translation, we recognize the imposing 
 results of the work of the Missionary in his own legitimate field. 
 Leibnitz, when he formed the plan of the National Academy at 
 Berlin, anticipated this phenomenon. He made it a prominent 
 object of the National Association for Literature and Science, 
 that a zeal for extending the Gospel to the Heathen might be 
 encouraged over the whole earth, for Literature and Science 
 were according to him to be an important means for attaining 
 this object, since Christian and Heathen would reap mutual 
 benefit. Literature and Science would aid the Missionary, who 
 in his turn would send home knowledge of new facts from 
 distant fields. The name of Leibnitz had great influence in 
 introducing the same idea into other continental academies. 
 The least efficient of the agents of a Missionary Society should 
 be able to converse with, and instruct his people in their own 
 vulgar tongue. Anything short of this is a mockery. I hear 
 with great mistrust of Missionaries to aboriginal tribes in India, 
 or to the barbarous tribes of Africa and Oceania, making use of 
 an interpreter, or insulting a tribe by educating the children in 
 a language not known to their parents, but which the Missionary 
 happens to have learnt. Imagine the process of a Sunday-school 
 in England, in which an interpreter was used to explain the 
 words of the teacher to the children, or the children taught 
 
e S ): 
 
 indifferent French and German so as to be able to understand 
 their teachers. Imagine the difficulty of arguing upon the most 
 solemn truths of man's Salvation, which a Missionary must feel, 
 who has not mastered, not only the leading language, but the 
 patois, of his flock. I repeat then, that the least efficient of a 
 Society's agents should understand and speak the Vernacular. 
 But from their ranks at all periods, of all nations, and belonging 
 to all Societies, have come forth linguistic giants, who have 
 compiled grammars, and dictionaries, and text-books, who have 
 rendered teaching possible by reducing the unlettered words of 
 the tribe to writing. The compiler of the Ely- Volume takes 
 credit for the great work performed in this department by the 
 Missionaries of the American Board. All honour to them! 
 Their labours are known in the fields of Asiatic, African, 
 American, and Oceanic Missions, but they are but a unit among 
 many, and in some instances they had the advantage of the 
 preceding and contemporary labour of others, though in several 
 they stand alone. So great a subject can only be handled col- 
 lectively, treating the Missionaries of all Societies as one body., 
 When this is done, it can safely be stated, that no Government, 
 no secular Association, and no University, have done one tithe 
 towards extending our knowledge of the living languages of the 
 world, that Christian Missionaries have done, without hope of 
 profit or distinction or personal advantage, but simply in the 
 legitimate and single-minded desire to render possible the 
 work of evangelization. Scientific bodies, and scholars in 
 their studies, must be dead to all sense of feeling, if they do 
 not rise from their chairs, and gratefully thank the Missionary, 
 the Society, and that wonderful Missionary feeling, which is 
 the life of all living Churches, as each wonderful grammar and 
 vocabulary finds its way to their library, revealing new forms of 
 vocables, new rules of syntactical arrangement of ideas, new 
 and marvellous and symmetrical developments of the logical 
 brain-power of barbarous tribes, who out of their own con- 
 sciousness, or rather unconsciousness, have evolved new laws 
 of vocalic euphony, and new methods of differentiation of 
 meaning, and delicate shades of expression. 
 
 But there is a loftier level still, to which we must rise, when we 
 consider the work of Bible-Translation. Hitherto the Mission- 
 aries of the Church of Rome have run on parallel lines with their 
 Protestant brethren, and have shared their linguistic honours, 
 besides being centuries earlier in the field. But the glory of 
 Bible-Translation rests, with most minute exceptions, with the 
 preacher of the Gospel, a title to which the Roman Catholic 
 priest can scarcely lay claim, as an attentive perusal of the 
 weekly issue of the Missions Catholiques for many years has con- 
 vinced me, that, -ffith the exception of the worship of the Virgin 
 
C 6 ) 
 
 and St. Joseph, and the enforcement of a higher morality, there 
 is but scant teaching, certainly no Gospel preaching, in the Papist 
 Missions. The Fetishism of the savage is varied in its outward 
 form, but retains its inner meaning, and the crucifix and the 
 beads are but substitutes for ruder objects of magical potency. 
 The chapter devoted to Bible-Translation in the Ely-Volume is 
 indeed magnificent, and the compiler, standing on a catholic 
 platform, takes cognizance of the great work done by all Mission- 
 aries all over the world, though noticing in detail only the work 
 of the American Board. It is nobly and boldly stated " that the 
 first object of a Protestant Mission is to give the Word of God 
 to a people in their own tongue, wherein they were born, and in 
 which the family converses at home." It cannot be too often 
 and too distinctly asserted, that the first, the continuous, and the 
 latest, object of the Missionary of the Church of Rome is to with- 
 hold this Bible on their own part, and to destroy it, if it finds its 
 way to their flocks from other quarters. 
 
 The work of the Missionaries of the American Board has been 
 of the highest order, but by far the largest portion of Bible 
 work has been accomplished through the agency of British 
 Missionaries, and under the patronage of the British and 
 Foreign Bible Society of London. The difficulty of the work 
 has been repeatedly stated, and no doubt in the case of 
 Cultivated languages exaggerated; the necessity of repeated 
 revisions is obvious; to some Missionaries the work seems 
 to come naturally ; to others either the capacity, or the industry, 
 or the leisure, or the opportunity, have been wanting. Talent of 
 the highest order is required, and persistent labour. Perhaps 
 of all evangelizing works it is the most blessed, and remains for 
 ever as the best of monuments ; Luther's words, that he uttered, 
 have been forgotten, but Luther's Translation of the Bible will 
 live for ever. 
 
 In his contact with his people the Missionary necessarily has 
 his attention turned to the Ethnological features of the tribe, and 
 to their Religious Beliefs. The old idea, that a simple ignorant 
 Missionary could work the conversion of a people by a mere 
 statement of Gospel truths, accompanied by a general abuse of 
 idolatrous practices, is exploded. True it is, that the Missionary 
 by himself can do little, and that it is God's Grace, that worketh 
 through him; but that Grace works through human means of 
 all kinds, and gives life to human endeavours, knowledge and 
 appliances. The fortress of time-honoured customs, and of 
 supernatural beliefs, in which the soul of the heathen is, as it 
 were, entrenched, must be explored and studied : if any atom of 
 natural and adamantine truth has survived, it must be respected, 
 and the assault against ignorance and falsehood must be made 
 by the united forces of wisdom and truth. This necessitates- 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 either original studies of ethnology and religious beliefs, or of 
 the treatises on those subjects, prepared by the former labourers 
 in the field, who have passed away. It may be a question, whether 
 the Missionary is entirely a fair chronicler of customs and tenets, 
 with which he is no way in sympathy. He may be led to credit 
 the whole of the complicated machinery to the direct agency of 
 the Devil, and from this standpoint I sometimes read of the great 
 countries of India and China being the Kingdoms of Satan, 
 against which sweeping condemnation in the name of the gentle 
 and lovable people of India I must protest. It requires a large 
 supply of pity for, and sympathy with, fallen races, and a wide 
 and impartial survey of the Book-religions, and forms of Nature 
 Worship, which have survived, to arrive at a right judgment in 
 this matter, and the statements of Missionaries in my opinion err 
 on the side of intolerance, from the absence of philosophic 
 impartiality. 
 
 In General Literature, whether of a periodical character or 
 solid contributions to knowledge, the work of the Missionaries 
 of the American Board is stated to be so voluminous, that any- 
 thing like a catalogue is out of the question. And the same may 
 safely be said of the agents of all the great Societies. They have 
 been great and good book-makers, or contributors to periodicals. 
 Their labours have extended to the Vernaculars of the people, 
 among whom they laboured. In many cases they have first 
 reduced the vehicle of thought to literary fitness, and then illus- 
 trated the newly-developed power by a copious, useful, and 
 popular literature, which indeed is one of the marvels of the age. 
 Other colonizers may have caused cities to spring up in what 
 was lately a waste, and turned virgin prairies into a garden of 
 cereals, saccharines, and oils ; but to the Missionary alone has 
 it been conceded to go among a savage people, who had no 
 alphabet, and had never heard of the ink-bottle and the reed- 
 pen, and in a few years lead them across a gulf, which other 
 nations have only traversed in the slow progress of centuries, 
 fashion for them a literary language out of their own vocables, 
 teach them to read and write, to join in prayer, praise, and song, 
 to start a printing-press in their midst, and to make use of the 
 people themselves to work it, so that the barbarous tribes of 
 Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania, have taken in, adopted, and 
 practised, within twenty-five years, under the guidance of a 
 Missionary, what it took the Greek and Latin peoples twenty- 
 five centuries to accomplish. When the influence of Christian 
 Missions upon the human race is fairly considered, these amaz- 
 ing facts must not be lost sight of. They are but fragments, 
 and comparatively unimportant fragments, of the great edifice 
 of Christian Belief and Life, which it is the object of Missions 
 to erect, and yet no other conceivable earthly agency could have 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 effected it. Even in British India, w^ith all the appliances of a 
 great, high-minded, and enlightened Government, without the 
 help of the Missionaries a Vernacular literature would not have 
 come into existence, which was fit to be read by women and 
 children. It has been well said, that in measuring the extent 
 and power of the agencies at work it is not sufficient to count 
 the Missionaries and the schools ; the prolific outcome of the 
 •Mission-presses, scattering broadcast portions of the Scriptures, 
 and a miscellaneous religious, semi-religious, and healthy secular 
 literature, is a factor in the great world-revival. The cheap 
 periodical literature, published monthly and weekly, and sold 
 below cost price, is an amazing lever, and supplements in this 
 busy age the waning power of the pulpit among the Native 
 Christians, and aids the efforts of the preacher in the towns and 
 villages among the heathen. The greatest and most experienced 
 of Missionaries of all countries and denominations regard the 
 printing-press as worth many Missionaries, and more especially 
 in those countries, where education is spreading. If the agents 
 of the American Board of Missions have a longer catalogue of 
 works to show, it is that the subdivision of labour has not been 
 carried out so entirely in the United States as in Great Britain. 
 The Religious Tract Society, and the Christian Knowledge 
 Society, and the Christian Vernacular Education Society, in 
 London, relieve the Missionary Societies of these subsidiary 
 labours, profiting by the experience of the Missionaries, and 
 repaying the benefits by grants, and cheap editions. I was 
 much impressed at first sight by the busy work of Vernacular 
 literature in progress in the American Bible House at Constanti- 
 nople, when I visited it, until I reflected that much of this work 
 was done better and cheaper in London, or at the Mission 
 stations scattered over the world. 
 
 Under the head of Literature, the periodicals published at 
 head-quarters, the Annual Reports, and the separate histories of 
 different Mission-fields published from time to time, cannot be 
 passed over without a notice. If any historian continues the 
 history of the British people, commenced by the late Mr. Green, 
 the wonderful phenomena of energy, wisdom, and benevolence, 
 evidenced for a long series of years in these pages, cannot be 
 overlooked. What is the conquest of India compared with the 
 quiet and unobtrusive conquest of the whole world, which the 
 Christians of this century calmly contemplate, and have done so 
 much to advance ? Some twelve years ago I was invited to assist 
 in preparing one of the series of Reports on the Moral and 
 Material Progress of British India. I agreed to do so on the 
 condition, that due notice was taken of the wonderful progress 
 of Missionary effort from a secular point of view. My condition 
 was accepted, and care was taken at my request not to omit 
 
(( 9 ) 
 
 mention of th'e Roman Catholic Missions. The religious 'world 
 was gratified, and those paragraphs were quoted from many a 
 pulpit ; but the secular world was astonished. Now throughout 
 the British Empire and the whole world, the Missionary element 
 is recognized as a factor in the body politic, which cannot be 
 overlooked by the Statesman in Parliament, by the Plenipoten- 
 tiary, when he makes treaties, by the Historian, when he writes 
 history, and by the writers of general literature. 
 
 The next heading, " Education," embraces a portion of the 
 essential duties of a Missionary, and great and successful as the 
 discharge of this duty has been, both in the Missions of the 
 American Board and of other Societies, no special notice is 
 required, as I am not alluding now to the essential, but the 
 incidental, advantages of Missions. The following headings 
 "Medical Science," is passed over for the same reason. The 
 Medical Missionary, male or female, is now a recognized and 
 requisite member of every fully-organized Mission, and many 
 ordained Missionaries have a certain amount of medical training; 
 It is no longer an incidental advantage of Missions. 
 
 Under the heading General Philanthropy may be classed all 
 that Missionaries have done for the saving of whole races from 
 certain destruction, and their national regeneration as decent 
 and flourishing, though not necessarily Christian communities^ 
 The very existence of many of the communities of Oceania 
 is owing to the Missionaries. To this may be added the bold 
 opposition to the Slave-trade, Slavery, employment of slave- 
 labour by office-holders of the Christian Church (which, except 
 in the case of the Madagascar Mission, is a rule absolute), 
 and the kidnapping of men under pretence of service- 
 contracts. Missionaries have not been found wanting to resist 
 their white brethren in their attempts to injure morally or 
 physically the people committed to their charge. Not always 
 judiciously, yet still always in good faith, they have stood up 
 against kings and men in power, against merchants, and against 
 agricultural speculators'. At the risk of their lives they have 
 saved widows from the burning pile, and victims from sacrifice,- 
 or the jaws of the cannibal, or the poisoned cup of the 
 medicine-man, or the yawning grave, ready to receive them 
 alive. They have taught the gentle arts of peace, introduced 
 new modes of culture, new articles of commerce, new methods 
 of manufacture ; they have opened asylums for the leper, and in 
 some cases dauntless men, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, 
 have given themselves up to the risk of the deadly contagion in 
 their love for the bodies and souls of the sufferers ; they have 
 opened hospitals for the opium-smoker, and homes for the famine- 
 orphans; have worked their way by the help of their wives and 
 sisters into the secluded retreats of the feipale apartments to 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 ^et at the women ; they have taught both sexes in many parts 
 of the world the decencies of life, showing men how they can 
 be strong without being cruel, and giving women elementary 
 lessons in modesty and purity. Not in vain have been these 
 blessed labours : wherever there was oppression, or suffering, or 
 an appeal for help, or a craving for advice, the Missionary has 
 not stopped to ask, whether the cry came from a heathen or 
 a Christian. He has taken the highest view of his sacred calling, 
 and given the succour without asking who and what was the 
 party succoured. So, also, when famines have raged, the 
 /Missionary has appeared with food to save the starving, with 
 orphanages to receive the abandoned children. He has always 
 been ready to prevent bloodshed by arbitration in case of 
 quarrels, and in some cases has arrested war by timely advice, 
 or brought about peace amidst savage combatants by words of 
 wisdom, and forbearance, and love. 
 
 The Missionary should not meddle in politics, or in the 
 culture of the soil, or in commerce : where he has done so, it 
 has been to the injury of his proper work. The idea of self- 
 supporting Missions by means of commerce, manufacture, and 
 agriculture, is a dream of Utopia. The Missionary was meant 
 for better things than to manage ostrich-farming, gather in 
 cocoa-nuts, or superintend filatures. Nor should he be tempted 
 under any circumstances to try his prentice-hand at ruling men ; 
 for such purposes a stiffer clay is required than the material, of 
 which he is made ; the matter is too high for him, or rather he 
 is too high for the matter. For in spite of all the lofty ideal 
 of Christian Statesmen, the government of Natives, specially of 
 those in a low state of culture, is a compromise of low motives, 
 and it is of the essence of our poor humanity, that it should be 
 so. The governor, the judge, and the magistrate, must touch 
 pitch, and in their official capacity take cognizance of tendencies, 
 of customs, of ideas, of religious worships, and of professions, 
 against which their souls revolt. The Missionary in his death- 
 grapple with the awakened conscience, and the darkened soul 
 of men opening to the truth, comes indeed into contact with 
 the sad ingredients of human nature, but his Gospel admits of no 
 compromise ; he rises above conventional morals and local customs ; 
 to him the polygamist, and the worshipper of idols, is not a 
 subject of her Majesty with guaranteed civil rights, but a sinner, 
 who must be persuaded to amend his ways. The Missionary is 
 therefore in a false position, when he attempts to hold the reins 
 of Civil Government. And, in my judgment, when he goes out 
 of his proper orbit, and meddles with such tangled questions, 
 as a gigantic commerce betwixt two such great nations as India 
 and China, he fails in his object, being unable to measure the 
 surrounding forces, and in the end causes greater evils by- his 
 
( it ) 
 
 ill-judging, though well-intentioned, endeavours. Let him leave 
 Csesar's business to Caesar, and keep his mind on the affairs of 
 God, who for a short season permits the existence of Evil in 
 diflferent countries, that He may prove the Faith of His Servants, 
 and work His Sovereign Will, leading on through temptation 
 and suffering to Perfection and Holiness. 
 
 Missionaries and Mission-Societies have reason to be grateful 
 to the American Board for this volume on Missions and Science, 
 which I have passed under review; it tells a noble story. A 
 few years ago I met at Rome a young surgeon from Chicago. 
 He had all the brilliant charm and vivacity of a young man, 
 belonging to a young city and a young nation. He expressed 
 his opinion, that he could have saved President Garfield's life, 
 had he been called in, and that only the second or third-rate 
 men of his country, who had failed in a home-career, went out 
 as Missionaries. This Volume is a sufiScient answer to this 
 sneer, not meant maliciously, but representative of the opinion 
 of too many. The American Board has during the last fifty 
 years had the good fortune to find, and the wisdom to value, as 
 their agents, men of consummate ability and unaffected piety, 
 who would have achieved greatness and wealth in secular employ- 
 ment, but who have had the Grace given to them to consecrate 
 their opening, middle, and closing years to the service of their 
 Lord, and, while striking hard on the anvil of their own proper 
 work, the evangelization of souls, have let in side-lights into 
 many obscure subjects, and thus incidentally conferred honour 
 on themselves, and their sacred cause. An all-round study of 
 Mission-work does indeed make us freethinkers, but in the best 
 and highest sense of that often misapplied phrase. We know, 
 that the Word and the Work of the great Creator must be in 
 harmony, though we cannot always, through the weakness of 
 our intelligence, reconcile them. We approach the study of 
 the Word, a treasure in the earthen vessels of perishable 
 vocables and sentences, with the same reverence and reserve, 
 that we touch the skirts of our mothers. We adore the great 
 Creator in the study of His manifold Work, and, if we demand 
 more air, and more breathing space, than the timid and cramped 
 interpretations of our forefathers allowed, the reverend Mission- 
 aries, whose works are recorded in this volume, teach us how to 
 handle the Word of Life, and yet gaze exultingly and trustfully 
 into every vista, opened in the labyrinth of human Science, 
 nothing doubting, that to the faithful the end will be Light. True 
 Science is the handmaid of true Religion, and will never raise 
 up her hand against her mistress, if each keeps itself within its 
 own proper sphere, and revolves in its own orbit. They are not 
 antagonistic, but co-ordinate powers, illustrating, and illustrated 
 by, each other. Standing as I do midway betwixt Science and 
 
C 12 ) 
 
 Missions, and flitting daily from the assembly of the Scientists 
 to the Committee-room of the Mission, I feel, that I can take 
 a part in both without religious or intellectual compromise, and 
 glory in the strange pleasure of seeing Science subserve so much 
 to the advance of Missions, while Missions pay back the debt 
 by subserving so much to the advance of Science. 
 
 Church Missionary Society Intelligencer, September, 1884 
 (with additions, 1888). 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 II. 
 
 A BOARD OF MISSIONS IN A NATIONAL CHURCH. 
 
 Will it Advance the Cause of Missions to the 
 Non-Christian World ? 
 
 The duties of the Board of Missions are thus laid down in the 
 Resolution of Convocation of the Canterbury Province of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 1. To impress upon all members of the Church, in such ways 
 as from time to time may seem desirable, their responsibility as 
 to Foreign Missions, and to set forth the principles, which ought 
 to govern the Missionary- work of the Church ; 
 
 2. To issue reports from time to time on the spiritual wants 
 of heathen countries, and to direct attention to the openings 
 providentially placed before the Church ; 
 
 3. To give counsel, when applied to by any Colonial, or 
 Missionary, Church ; 
 
 4. To act as Referee upon questions, which Missionary-Societies 
 may desire to refer to the Board ; ■ 
 
 5. To collect and tabulate, as far as may be found desirable 
 and practicable, the Acts and Canons passed in the various 
 Synods of the Church at home and abroad ; 
 
 6. To undertake any other work in connection with Missions, 
 which may from time to time be entrusted to the Board, either 
 by the Archbishop, or by the Convocation of the Province of 
 Canterbury ; 
 
 7. To co-operate with any similar Board of Missions, that may 
 be appointed by the Convocation of the Province of York. 
 
 The following is part of a letter, addressed by the Primate to 
 the address of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge : 
 
 They hope in this way to help the Societies, to collect no money themselves, 
 but to press the cause as a religious duty, irrespectively of either receiving or 
 administering funds. 
 
 They wish also to set before the Church, so to speak, more of a science of 
 missions, believing that hitherto we. have been obliged to live from hand to 
 
( 14 ) 
 
 mouth in promoting Mission-work, but being convinced, that a literature might 
 be collected, and principles deduced by able writers and thinkers, which would 
 save labour and means in the best way by pointing out directions, in which to 
 work, and methods, and opening out the necessities for various treatments 
 of races. 
 
 The points are numerous, which rise out of these two main lines, but there 
 are many members of the Committee, who could instruct me, rather than I 
 them, in this matter. 
 
 As we have no funds ourselves, it being our object not to have any, and as 
 the S.P.C.K. is really a Missionary- Society in the highest ways, and expressly 
 so in its origin, I have ventured to hope,- that the Standing Committee will see 
 fit to make us an annual grant for our expenses in working. There is, of course, 
 much work to do, and many expenses to incur. We believe, that we shall be 
 ultimately able to serve the S. P. C. K. by the interest we hope to enlarge j bi^t 
 I do not in the least degree put the request on that ground. I simply state the 
 objects, with the belief, that it is a body able to carry them out, and I venture 
 to ask the Committee to make us an annual grant of from ;^lSO to ;£^20o a year, 
 as they shall think fit. 
 
 A grant was made oi £(ioo, or, in other words, a grant of ^200 
 per annum, guaranteed for three years. Two remarks must be 
 made on the form of this grant. Just as Prince Bismarck secures 
 the grant for the German Army for a Septennate, in order to 
 prevent annual discussion, this grant has been made for three 
 years, but no promise is made of a grant beyond that period. It 
 is presumed, that the Board by that time will have collapsed, or 
 be self-supporting. At any rate,/ 600 has been withdrawn from 
 the evangelizing fund of the S.'P. C. K. to be added to the vast 
 sums already spent in England on the office-establishments of 
 Missionary-Societies. This is deplorable, as the S. P. C. K. is 
 doing an excellent work, and has by no means a sufficiency of 
 funds for its manifold branches of useful work. 
 
 Let me now examine the Constitution of the Board. The 
 Resolutions were passed by the Convocation of Canterbury ; the 
 Province of York, and the Church of Ireland, and Scotland, are 
 neither consenting nor represented. And yet the funds of the 
 Missions of the Church of England are largely supplied from 
 those quarters. And the vast Provinces of the Colonial Metro- 
 politan Sees, in whose area much of the Mission-work is 
 prosecuted, have no voice or part in this Board. It is possible, 
 that the Pan-Anglican Synod may adopt this measure, but it 
 is possible that it may not, for some of the Colonial Bishops 
 may have objection to it. As it is now, it is a distinct usur- 
 pation of authority. 
 
 Let me examine the personnel of the Board. Bishops of the 
 Province of Canterbury are upon it, but the Bishop of Carlisle, 
 the President of one of the most efficient Missions, that of the 
 Universities to East Africa, is not ; the Bishop of Manchester, 
 with his wide experience of the Missions in Oceania, has no seat. 
 Distinguished peers, commoners and clergymen, make up the 
 SeptuagLnt, for that number is just exceeded for one Province.: 
 
( IS ) 
 
 With the exception of Bishop Abraham, and the Bishop of 
 Exeter, I doubt whether any English Bishop has practical know- 
 ledge of Mission- work, either in the Committee-room, or, what is 
 more important, in the field. The conduct of Missions in Heathen 
 and Mahometan countries has already risen to the dignity of a 
 Science, only to be learnt by long and continuous practice, 
 discussion, reading, and reflection ; it is the occupation of the 
 whole life, and of many hours of each day, of many able men, 
 selected for the particular purpose by the turns of their own 
 minds, and the conviction of their colleagues, that they have a 
 special -fitness for the duty. If they are unable to give con- 
 tinuous, intelligent, and approved attendance and service, their 
 names are quietly and without offence omitted, when the list of 
 the annually-elected Committee is made up. Will this rule be 
 applied to the members of the Board of Missions .? Will not the 
 retention of great ftames on a deliberating and executive Board, 
 while a majority take no part in the business, be a mere blind .■" 
 Will the name of a noble peer, who has never attended one 
 meeting, be removed ? Will not the Members of the Board 
 be insensibly supplied from one extreme party of the Church, 
 because the others will decline to act upon it .'' 
 
 But how are the members of the Board of Missions of the 
 Province of Canterbury elected ? By the two Houses of Con- 
 vocation, which are unable to pass a single law without the 
 concurrence of the Houses of Parliament, and do not comprise a 
 single layman ; in fact, they are a survival of mediaeval institutions, 
 shackled by the State, and deficient in organization; the Convo- 
 cation name twenty-four Bishops, twenty-four clergymen, and 
 twenty-four laymen, and these again appoint an executive com- 
 mittee and secretaries. Pending the erection of the Church 
 House, the Board is homeless ; by its very constitution it appears 
 to be objectless, and, unless my anticipations are falsified, it will 
 prove profitless. The Primate in his letter to the S. P. C. K. 
 states, that it is not the object of the Board to have funds ; if it 
 continue in this mind, it will be the most remarkable Board, 
 that ever existed ; and, unless some rich layman, or pensioned 
 Bishop, undertakes the current duties of'correspondence, it must 
 depend permanently upon the alms of the S. P. C. K., or a rate 
 in aid must be levied on the Missionary Societies, or collections 
 made from the members of the Board themselves. The Secretary 
 might possibly be provided for by being made Rector of one of 
 the empty London churches, or one of the Canons of St. Paul's 
 Cathedral, who appear to have a great amount of misapplied 
 leisure. 
 
 It appears to me, that the Board of Missions, as it is presented 
 to us, is but an embryo of a much more powerful and formidable 
 organization ; it is born as a harmless jelly-fish, but, if it finds 
 
( i6 ) 
 
 itself in the proper environment, it may develope into an 
 octopus. 
 
 The Church of England, as established by Act of Parliament, 
 may, like the ostrich, hide its head in the sand, and refuse to 
 recognize the facts of the nineteenth century ; but round it, and 
 its vicinity, are aggregations of Christians, who call their legal 
 co-existence a "Church," and as a fact the phrase, "as a Church," 
 occurs oftener in Nonconformist periodicals than in those of the 
 Church of England. The very same arrogation of authority 
 is put forward by the Nonconformist Churches to control the 
 Missionary operations of the members of their nationaHty and 
 denomination, as lies at the bottom, however disguised, of this 
 new move of a Board of Missions. In all these cases there are 
 some persons, who have not got power, and some who have got 
 power, and those, who have not, desire to possess themselves of 
 the power, which is possessed by those, who have. This is the 
 naked truth. There are two parties : the Church and the Mis- 
 sionary-Associations ; if true-hearted Christians desired only what 
 would more speedily extend the Kingdom of the Lord, and 
 accelerate the coming of the time, when Jesus would reign 
 without a rival, they would allow the work to go on in the way, 
 and on the lines, on which the Spirit of Jesus had led the early 
 founders of the great movement to move, and rejoice and marvel 
 at the Wisdom of God, which had worked out His Sovereign- Will 
 in spite of the supineness of the Bishops of His Church, for the 
 greatest Missionary-Society in England came into existence under 
 the frown of Lambeth, and the averted eyes of the Bench of 
 Bishops with two holy exceptions. The Church will thus be 
 glorified by the missions, which have sprung up like wild, yet 
 beautiful, plants around the old stem. But, if blinded Church- 
 men wish to arrogate to their Church-organization work, which 
 neither they nor their forefathers ever did, and at this late hour 
 put forward claim to an authority, which has slipped from their 
 grasp, they greatly err, if they imagine, that they will succeed. 
 Our forefathers in the State lost the United States of North 
 America by their want of sympathy, and arrogation of power, at 
 a critical moment. Our forefathers in the Church lost all the 
 good and earnest Wesleyan congregations, in their thousands 
 in England, and tens of thousands in America, by their want of 
 sympathy and negligence. So the Church of England, as a 
 Church, seems to me to have lost for ever its control over the 
 Missionary ardour of the nation, which has settled down 
 permanently into the channel of voluntary Associations, jealous 
 of Church-control, recognizing Bishops not as administrators, 
 but as Fathers in the Church with strictly legal and limited 
 powers. The scheme of a Mission-Board has long been talked 
 of, and dreamt about ; during the primacy of Archbishop Tait, 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 it seemed to have disappeared. That venerated and sag-acious 
 Prelate once remarked in Exeter Hall, that the voluntary system 
 was the soul of Missionary work, and (as a corollary) that it 
 was natural, that those, who gave the money, would wish to have 
 a voice, and a potent voice, as to the way, in which that money 
 was spent. 
 
 The Bishop of Kentucky, in North America, most opportunely 
 informs us, that the late Bishop of Lincoln (Dr. Wordsworth) 
 expressed to him in 1881, "his longing desire to see a con- 
 " solidated agency representing the whole Church established 
 " in England." He might as well have desired to see a blue 
 moon, but the recorded desire of the deceased Prelate (so 
 honoured and beloved in his Diocese, and so worthy of that 
 love) marks the object of this measure, however much it may 
 be toned down by the assurance, that the new Board has 
 nothing to do with collecting funds or administrations ; in other 
 words, it is not to have the power to spend a shilling, or appoint 
 a missionary, and yet it is to be called a Board of Missions ! 
 The desire of the good Bishop of Lincoln is as much out of 
 harmony with the existing Church of England in the strong, 
 efficient, and powerful new life, which it has attained in the 
 reign of Queen Victoria, as the mitre, cope, and crozier, which 
 are so conspicuous in the portraits of the dear Bishop in many 
 Lincolnshire churches. 
 
 The experience of the Episcopal Church in the United States 
 of North America will not help the supporters of the new Board. 
 I refer my readers to the Bishop of Kentucky's letter to the 
 Churchman, a paper published in the United States. It is the 
 desire of the Presbyterian Churches of Great Britain and 
 North America to subordinate their Mission-Boards to the 
 general assemblies of their Church, but the contentions, arising 
 from this tendency, have caused much scandal in the Mission 
 Field in India. It is of no advantage to turn to the wily 
 Church of Rome for a precedent ; all Mission-work is entrusted 
 absolutely to diiferent great congregations, such as the Jesuits, 
 Capuchins, Marists, Notre Dame d'Afrique, etc. So long as 
 they recognize the Pope, and put forth no heretical doctrines, 
 they have entire administrative independence, publish no annual 
 reports, make no rendition of accounts. I visited a few years 
 ago Cardinal Lavigerie, the Bishop of Carthage, at Tunis, to 
 beg him not to plant his Central African Mission-Station in 
 direct proximity to the Protestant Mission-Station, as there 
 was room for all. Nothing would have surprised His Eminence 
 so much as the idea, that he was in any way responsible to a 
 Board, or a Church, or even the Pope himself, as to the details 
 of his vast missionary operations, and the scores of Missionaries, 
 ordained and lay, whom he trains, educates, sends out, recalls. 
 
( i8 ) 
 
 and out of whose numbers he selects, with the sanction of the 
 Propaganda, his Bishops and Vicar-Generals. There is no 
 ground therefore for the assertion, that the dogma of Missionary 
 operations being conducted by the Church in its corporate 
 capacity, has been semper, ubique et ab omnibus. 
 
 Let me now consider what the new Board is to do. As to 
 Clause I., I submit, that the venerable Society for the Propa- 
 gation of the Gospel, during its existence of nearly two 
 centuries, itself the creation of Convocation, has done the duty 
 described nobly and well, and is doing it still. The Colonies 
 and the Heathen and Mahometan world owe a debt of deep 
 gratitude to this Society, of which I am proud to have been- many 
 years an incorporated member. The sister Society works on a 
 different method, but within strictly Church-lines, over a much 
 wider sphere of action, with a constitution as democratic as 
 any Church-association would dare to be, for every ordained 
 clergyman, who subscribes loj. bd., every layman or woman, 
 who subscribes £i ^s., have a vote at the general meetings, 
 and every subscribing Bishop is de jure a vice-president. The 
 Church Missionary Society has a power and influence both at 
 home and abroad, which no Bishop would venture to despise, 
 and no Board of Missions could hope to control. 
 
 Clause II. would merely intensify that " Kako6thes Scribendi," 
 which is already the bane of all British Associations. It is not 
 obvious, whence the Board of Missions could get information 
 except by pillaging the excellent, but perhaps too verbose, 
 publications, monthly and annual, of the existing Associations, 
 or by pumping the brains of missionaries at home, who have 
 already told their tale to their own Society, and who will be 
 reserved, being honest men, in their communications to 
 strangers, who come upon them like newspaper-reporters. The 
 moon can hardly be expected to supply light to the sun. On 
 the Committees of the great Societies are men of various 
 attainments, sojourners for many years in different parts of 
 the world, retired soldiers, merchants, civilians, bishops and 
 missionaries, men of science, men of literature, great travellers, 
 to whom the world is an opened oyster, who can tell you off-hand 
 about the tribes, the languages, the customs of any part of the 
 world, not already occupied by Missionaries of their own or 
 sister-Societies of the different denominations, with whom by 
 Rule XXXI. of the Laws and Regulations of the C.M.S., and 
 under the influence of long-tried mutual respect and good 
 feeling, they hold friendly intercourse. The very wording of 
 Clause II. indicates an imperfect knowledge of the phenomena 
 of the Missionary world. A few years ago the great Missionary 
 Board of Foreign Missions at Boston in the United States 
 received a legacy of a million of dollars, or /^loo.ooo, and sent 
 
.( 19 ) 
 
 a secretary over to Europe to consult friends, and myself among; 
 others, as to an opening for new missions in Africa. I went 
 carefully over the map with him, and with difficulty found two 
 openings, for under the comity of Protestant Missions no intru- 
 sion is allowed on regions already occupied. 
 
 Clause III. seems to imply an ignorance of the great principle 
 that, when a Church is constituted, the work of the Missionary 
 Society is done, and the function of the Bishop commences. 
 Time will show, whether Bishops in their Synods will submit to 
 Boards of Missions, any more than Committees of Missionary 
 Societies will submit to Bishops. I doubt it. 
 
 Clause IV. is a surprising one. Questions of delicacy may 
 arise, which a Committee would willingly submit to the Primate, 
 or a Bishop of trusted and experienced wisdom ; but I cannot 
 conceive any pure Missionary question being profitably referred 
 by a Committee, which has full experience of the work, and 
 which is jealous to a fault of its independence, to a body of a 
 nondescript character, which has no experience whatsoever, 
 and is not in the way to acquire it ; for, be it remembered, that 
 the administration of the affairs of a great Society, such as the 
 C. M.S. (which cannot delegate its power to any one), is one of 
 the most difficult and complicated problems possible, requiring 
 continuous, intelligent, experienced, and prayerful labour, with 
 entire independence of any external influence, prejudice, or 
 bias, and a hearty and willing obedience to the well-understood 
 principles, upon which the Society was based, and any divergence 
 from which under a sudden gust of passion would threaten 
 dissolution, or secession of a large minority of the supporters. 
 I have been from my earliest days occupied with the administra- 
 tion of a great empire, but the problems were less difficult, 
 inasmuch as there is always in things secular the ultima ratio of 
 the Sovereign Ruler. 
 
 A great point is always made by some of the supposed 
 superiority of a Bench of Bishops to a Lay Committee. I doubt 
 it. All the Bishops are my contemporaries or juniors in age : 
 with some I was at Eton : I have been cognizant of their lives 
 and actions, as I have been of the lives of all the great Statesmen 
 and Public Men of the Reign of Queen Victoria. I have no 
 manner of doubt, that the lay and ordained members of the Lay 
 Committee are far superior to the Bench of Bishops (including 
 Suffragans and Archdeacons) in the conduct of human affairs, 
 and how large a portion of the duties of a Missionary Society- 
 is included in that term 1 And on the spiritual side let me add, 
 that "ora et labora" is the motto of the Societies, to which I 
 belong. At the late reception of the Bishops at the Church 
 Mission House it was well and truly said by one of our oldest 
 members that : 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 If the walls of our Council -Chamber could speak, they could tell, how 
 discussions were often stopped while the Committee knelt down, and prayed 
 over difficulties, that were perplexing them. All their deliberations were 
 conducted in a spirit of weighty and dependent prayer, and God has blessed 
 the Society far beyond the expectations of its founders, because the attitude 
 of the Society was an unceasing waiting upon God. 
 
 And again : 
 
 Be stiff and stubborn in necessary things. 
 
 On the Clock of History it is in vain to attempt to put the 
 hands back. You might as well attempt to tinker the British 
 Constitution. From the prayerful enterprize of a few, while the 
 Church of England was dormant, stagnant, scarcely worthy of 
 existence at the beginning of this century, a few seeds were 
 dropped into the soil, from which, by God's Grace, have sprung 
 several trees overshadowing certain portions of the world. The 
 Church in its collective capacity never cared for, or watered, 
 them, when they were young and tender. Many Parishes in 
 every Diocese are still devoid of a spark of Missionary spirit, 
 on account of the neglect of duty of the Rector of the Parish, 
 and the Bishop of the Diocese ; for the duty of Evangelizing the 
 Heathen is part, parcel, and even one of the chief duties, of 
 every Christian. The presence of Bishops in a great number 
 would greatly impede the freedom of debate : speaking frankly, 
 as I do speak at a Lay Committee, I should be loth to pass my 
 rapier though the apron of a Bishop, though I should not hesitate 
 to do so through a General, or an ex-Governor, or a Missionary, 
 or a Presbyter. In a lay Committee we look at things, as they 
 are, and not through Ecclesiastical lenses. I attend regularly 
 at other Church Committees, and I know from experience the 
 diiference. When I, at a regular Monthly Meeting of the 
 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, brought forward the 
 question, " that the appointment of a Mission Board would not 
 " advance the cause of Missions, which we all had at heart," 
 before I was permitted to state my case, it was announced by 
 the Secretary, that the Standing Committee were of opinion, 
 that my Motion should be met by the previous question without 
 discussion, and this was accordingly moved by a Member of 
 the Standing Committee, and carried. Some of those present 
 expressed to me their regret, that they were not allowed to hear 
 more. A few years ago, when I and the late Sir Bartle Frere 
 brought a charge against a Missionary of the S. P. G. in Mada- 
 gascar, of using Slave-labour in his Mission, the Father of this 
 very Missionary took the chair at the General Meeting of the 
 S.P.G., and it was decided by a majority, that no change should 
 be made. I mention these cases to show the necessity of a 
 Lay Committee, where there is no respect of persons. 
 
 Clause V. may be useful or not, but it is beyond the province 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 of a Missionary Association, and its introduction again indicates 
 the hazy notion of the drafter of the Resolutions ; he was 
 thinking of the Church of England and its aflSliated branches. 
 The Missionary Society thinks only of the Church of Christ, 
 the salvation of the souls of the non-Christian world, and in 
 full confidence leaves the development of the human constitution 
 of the nascent Church to the Christians themselves, when they 
 are strong enough iri their own Synods to form their own canons. 
 Clause VI. allows the cloven foot to protrude from under the 
 pacific mantle of the preceding clauses. " Obsta principiis" is 
 a wise maxim. Here we see the small end of the wedge, 
 which was the desire of the late Bishop of Lincoln, as com- 
 municated in 1881 to the Bishop of Kentucky. The Board is 
 clearly an inclined plane, down which the ball will gently roll. 
 
 It is remarkable, that the tiny Church of Sweden, which is 
 admitted by the Bishop of Winchester to be a Church in the 
 same sense as the National Church of England, has missions of 
 its own, conducted by itself, but has not been able to prevent 
 the establishment of an independent Missionary-Association. 
 It is equally remarkable, that, while the Convocation of Canter- 
 bury is forging this new weapon for the purpose of weakening 
 the independent voluntary actions of Churchmen, which has 
 done such wonders since the beginning of the century, the 
 Bishop of Kentucky tells us, that, in his opinion, the wisest action 
 would be to repeal the Mission-Canon of the American Church, 
 and let cease, for a time at least, the ideal organization, and 
 descend to the lower plane of practical common sense, wherever 
 by natural affinity men of like views and feelings will aggregate 
 themselves into organizations for work along the line, which 
 they believe to be best. He suggests, that American Church- 
 men should adopt the system of separate and independent 
 missionary organization, which has given such wonderful life, 
 vigour and experience, and success to the Foreign Missionary Societies 
 of the Church of England. It is a comfort to think that, outside 
 the Church of England our existing practice is appreciated. 
 
 The Convocation of Canterbury might, in its wisdom, or lack 
 of wisdom, appoint a Board of Lay- Patronage, and pass a series 
 of clauses, analogous to the above-mentioned clauses, and no 
 doubt a very serious evil has to be grappled with, unknown to 
 any Church but that of the Church of England. But the Lay 
 patrons would snap their fingers at such a Board ; the trustees 
 of such trusts, as the Simeon-Trust, would refuse to listen to it. 
 I submit, that the trustees of the magnificent alms, collected from 
 the congregations of England, cannot do this or that, because a 
 body, whiclh has no legal authority, jumps, as it were, out of a 
 box, and asks them to do it. 
 
 A Bishop remarked to me, that his idea of the Committee of 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 the C.M.S. was, that it was a tranquil sea, undisturbed by any 
 current or storm. This is not the case : like every popular 
 assembly it is extremely sensible of atmospheric influences, and 
 nothing but the Christian spirit of forbearance, which is the 
 prevailing feature of the assembly, prevents trouble. An un- 
 lucky letter from a self-appointed Board would not be favourably 
 received by the Committee of the C.M.S. any more than by the 
 House of Commons. If any question arose in Committee as to 
 a complication in the Mission-field (and most difficult questions 
 do arise), it is scarcely probable, that a collective body, in which 
 many are experts, would consult another body, scarcely any of 
 whom had ever left England, and to whom the problem would 
 be as new as the erection of a bungalow in an Indian station, 
 or the design of a steamer to navigate African waters. 
 
 One of the most important duties of a Missionary Committee 
 is to select their ordained and lay Agents, male and female. 
 It will not permit any other authority to interfere in this, 
 as it alone represents the friends, who supply the resources. 
 A Committee will not accept an ordained Agent, because the 
 Bishop has ordained him. It has, within the wider circle of the 
 principles of the National Church, a narrower circle of its own 
 peculiar principles, and will not send out or maintain an agent, 
 who departs from them, whatever may be the wishes of the 
 Mission-Board, or the Bishop of the Diocese. The very 
 existence of the Association depends upon the unhesitating 
 maintenance of this prerogative. 
 
 If it were proposed to publish a first-rate periodical, edited in 
 a thorough large-hearted Christian spirit, to lay before the world 
 quarterly the progress of the holy war against false religions, 
 nothing would be better. Such a periodical is much to be 
 desired. Something like it is published at New York, The Mis- 
 sionary Review of the whole World ; but such a publication cannot 
 be expected from the nominees of a Convocation of the Church 
 of England. That body, about thirty years ago, woke up from 
 a peaceful slumber of a century and a half, and scarcely realizes, 
 that the face of the world is changed since it fell into a torpor, 
 and that the regions of the Mahometan and Heathen, still 
 misdescribed as Turk and Infidel, are no longer unoccupied 
 by Christian Missionaries. In this year. 1888, in Exeter Hall, 
 has met the Second Decennial Congress of the Missionary 
 Societies of the world. Great Britain is justly proud of her 
 Missionary prowess, but of the Societies, which belong to the 
 Church of England, some refused to join in this magnificent 
 gathering, although Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, 
 Norway, Sweden, Russia, and the United States of North 
 America, were fully represented. It is very well for a portion 
 of the Church of England to ignore the action of the Foreign 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 Missions of the British Nation, of the Continent, and North 
 America, but they exist for all that. Our Lord in Mark ix. 
 38-40, seems to give all Christians a rule of guidance, which 
 is read in some churches, but not acted upon. 
 
 If the increase of volume, weight and influence is as great in 
 the next decade as it has been in the last, the ill-judging 
 majorities of the Committees of English Missionary Societies, 
 which declined to send delegates, will feel, how small they are, 
 in comparison with the Missionary Hosts of the Period, and that 
 they have made a mistake in abstaining from taking part in 
 a great movement, which has united the holiest aspirations of 
 the British, American, and Continental Protestant Nations to 
 advance the Kingdom of Christ. They have stood aside, and 
 will not share the outpouring of the blessing. Nothing more 
 convincingly proves the anachronism of a Mission Board of 
 the Church of England, than the fact, that a minority of the 
 Missionaries of the Church have abstained from Union of God's 
 people, which has been the glory, delight, and prayerful effort, 
 of a majority. 
 
 It is very difficult to arrive definitely at any accurate enumera- 
 tion of the agencies at work in the year 1888 to spread the 
 Christian religion among non-Christians, but something like the 
 following is an approximation, the result of long and serious 
 study and careful analysis, but by no means final, and the 
 Colonial Diocesan Organizations, which are part and parcel 
 of the Church of England, are included : 
 
 A. Great Britain : Church of England 25 
 
 Nonconformist 3^ 
 
 Catholic, or belonging to both the above 
 
 united 27 
 
 Colonial 26 
 
 Total 114 
 
 B. United States of North America 5^ 
 
 C. Germany 20 
 
 D. The Netherlands 14 
 
 E. Other Nationalities 20 
 
 no 
 
 ■ Grand Total 224 
 
 Some of these enterprises, or Associations, are very small, 
 and some very large ; some_ have lasted nearly, or entirely, a 
 century, and some are mere mushrooms, dependent on the lives 
 of those who conduct them. Some would not be missed, if they 
 collapsed and disappeared ; the weakness and failure of others 
 would cause dismay in Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania. 
 
( 24 ) 
 
 Some, like the Missions to the Jews, work in a narrow world of 
 their own, and on their own methods ; others go into the regions 
 beyond, and fight Hindu, Mahometan, Buddhist, and Pagan. 
 Some Associations are mere satellites of the greater Associations, 
 round which they revolve, being medical, female, educational, 
 or missions in aid. After making every deduction, the enter- 
 prises of the Church of England, conducted in Great Britain, 
 are the following only: Society for the Propagation of the 
 Gospel, Church Missionary Society, the Mission of the Univer- 
 sities to Dehli, Calcutta, and East Africa, and the Cowley 
 Fathers ; the Melanesian, and South American, and the Christian 
 Knowledge Society ; in all nine, and what are they among so 
 many ? 
 
 Church Work, March (with additions), 1888. 
 
 While these lines are passing through the Press, the Pan- 
 Anglican Synod has assembled in Lambeth, and at the Annual 
 Meeting of the S. P. G. in St. James's Hall, the Primate ex- 
 pressed himself, in my hearing, as follows : 
 
 They had not voices from Heaven and signs and direct indications, but they 
 had before their eyes constantly the deep need of humanity, and it was for 
 them assuredly to gather that God was calhng them. They would hear that 
 day the witness of sixteen men, most of them Missionaries, and when they had 
 heard them, they would say how was it possible for Eng;land not assuredly to 
 gather, that the Lord had called her above all nations of the earth ; and yet they 
 knew too well that there were whole classes of the community, and not the 
 most uncultured or uneducated, but whole classes of their wealthiest, best 
 educated, most cultured people, who scarcely heard spoken of, from one 
 year's end to the other, the work of Missions, who had no idea whatever of 
 the magnificent principles, which were being developed, who had no notion 
 at all of the facts which came crowding in about human nature and human 
 society, which assured them with a thousand-fold increasing witness that the 
 Gospel of Christ was that which was needed to mould humanity itself into a 
 true civilization, much more into fitness for the eternity to which they 
 hastened. It was with that conviction that quite lately, and even now, they 
 were forming a Board of Missions. They felt that there were very many people, 
 who turned a deaf ear to the application of Missionary Societies, and they 
 wanted to constitute a Board of Missions, consisting very largely of Laymen 
 of the highest and most cultivated ranks, which should not make it its business 
 at all to gather money, or to send out Missionaries, but which should support 
 the two great Societies and other Mission Societies by bringing home to the 
 knowledge, as well as to the hearts and consciences of the people, what a 
 glorious and encouraging work was to be done, was being done, and could be 
 done in an infinitely multiplied ratio. 
 
 It is remarkable how two fundamental errors underlie this 
 statement : ( i ) That this Country was called above all countries 
 to the duty of Evangelization : of this there is no proof. (2) 
 That by "this country" was meant the Reformed Episcopal 
 Church of England, established by Act of Parliament. No one, 
 who has studied the subject, can ignore the vast amount of 
 Missionary work done by Christians in America, and as their 
 
( 25 ) 
 
 population amounts to sixty millions to our thirty millions, it is 
 probable, that within the next decade their work will far exceed 
 British work in volume ; and the Continent of Europe cannot 
 be forgotten. And as regards Great Britain itself, how can a 
 monopoly "of the Lord's calling" be asserted by one Church 
 out of many ? The Baptists, the Congregationalists, and Presby- 
 terians, were in the field of Missions to the Heathen, before the 
 Church of England had put forth the least effort, and all, 
 that the two great Chartered Societies, the S. P. C. K. and S. P. G., 
 could do in that stagnant period, was to assist the Danish 
 Mission in India. The Board of Missions would comprise 
 twenty Laymen and forty Ecclesiastics, and the kind of Laymen 
 chosen would be more ornamental, and influential, than men 
 acquainted with the subject, and prepared to throw them- 
 selves into it. A democratic constitution is the very essence 
 of a Missionary Association, and in this Mission-Board there 
 would be all the elements of a close Corporation, and the 
 excessive number of the Members engenders a fear that the 
 conduct of affairs would fall into the hands of an irresponsible 
 Secretary, or one or two pushing, self-asserting members. 
 
 At this same meeting the Bishop of Calcutta, the Metropolitan 
 of India, laid stress on the necessity of a Board of Missions. 
 Had these remarks been made by the Metropolitan of 
 Australia, or Canada, or New Zealand, they would have carried 
 weight. But the Bishop of Calcutta is a paid servant of the 
 Government of India, appointed by the Crown : his Clergy 
 consist partly of Military Chaplains, appointed by the Secretary 
 of State for India for purely official duties : but mainly of the 
 Agents of independent Missionary Associktions. The great 
 bulk of the Mission work of India, however, is done, and done 
 well, by British, American, and German Nonconformist Associa- 
 tions : it is difficult to say what a Board of Missions could 
 possibly do in British India, except add another item to the 
 existing elements of difficulty and disturbance. It is necessary 
 to sp^ak out plainly at this conjuncture, and not to allow a false 
 notion to become current from the use of vague general terms. 
 It is to be hoped, that by God's guidance the different Native 
 Churches of India will coalesce, and of their own accord, and 
 in their own way, and at their own time, form an Indian Church, 
 consisting of bona-fide residents in the country, speaking their 
 own languages, ministered to by their own Pastors. It is obvious, 
 that this must be quite outside of the alien Church of England, 
 as Great Britain may possibly lose the Empire of India ; but 
 the Kingdom of Christ is independent of the political changes 
 of Empires, and will last for ever. 
 
 July, 1888. 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 ERRORS TO BE AVOIDED BY MISSIONARIES. 
 
 The work of the Missionary is becoming a science ; the opera- 
 tions are on such an extensive scale, that Mission work is a 
 factor in politics. Hundreds of young men are scattered upon 
 the face of the globe without possibility of supervision, and the 
 ravages of the climate render it necessary, that there should be 
 a constant flow of very young men ; high-spirited, devoted, 
 unselfish, above all suspicion of motives, but very inexperienced, 
 and possessed often of zeal without knowledge. It is more 
 incumbent on the Society, which sends them out, to put its 
 foot down, and state distinctly, what must not be done. The, 
 conduct of Missionary agents is open, like all human actions, 
 to truthful and sincere criticism, and it is better, that the critic 
 should be a friendly one, and one who is well acquainted with 
 the circumstances and difficulties, that surround the Missionary, 
 and therefore I speak out, having just completed my review 
 of the Missionary operations of the world as reported up to 
 1887. 
 
 A. The Missionary must not raise his hand against a native, 
 or restrict his natural liberty. 
 
 B. The Missionary must not usurp judicial, magisterial, or 
 police, powers. 
 
 These propositions seem so simple and self-evident, that it 
 might appear at first sight waste of time to discuss them ; but 
 there is no doubt, that natives, male and female, have been 
 flogged, placed in durance, and even been killed, by Missionary 
 agents, sometimes out of mere impetuosity, sometimes in the 
 exercise of usurped powers. 
 
 It need scarcely be said, that in settled countries like British 
 India, acts of the first kind would not remain unpunished, and 
 acts of the second kind would be impossible. If any Missionary 
 in British India were to strike a native, he would be prosecuted 
 in the nearest Court of Justice. I myself sent an English 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 discharged soldier twelve hundred miles from the Panjdb to 
 Calcutta, to be tried on the charge of shooting a native, who 
 would not sell him a sheep ; he was tried by one of the Queen's 
 Judges, found guilty, and hanged. A young Officer of the Royal 
 Engineers had tied up his native servant to a tree, and flogged 
 him in order to extort a confession, and the man died. On my 
 report, the Officer was tried by a Court Martial, sentenced to a 
 term of imprisonment, and dismissed from the Army. I mention 
 these two cases to show, that such licence is not permitted to 
 subjects of Her Majesty : the Missionary would have no benefit 
 of clergy. 
 
 Dear in the sight of the Empress of India, and her Officials, 
 is the life and liberty of the humblest of Her subjects, and of 
 any alien living under Her protection. Under the rule of the 
 old East India Company, the principle was driven home to 
 every one of its servants, that there must be no respect of 
 persons in the Civil and Criminal Courts, and a great respect 
 for Life and Liberty. Hence springs the feeling of disgust, with 
 which I regard what happens in other countries. 
 
 But it is in those parts of the world, which are governed by 
 native chiefs, without any regular form of law, and through 
 which the Missionary has to travel with his caravan, that the 
 difficulty arises. He has to deal with a long train of hired 
 porters, who are ready to tarry, to stray, or even decamp with 
 their burden. He has to deal with the natives, always ready 
 to steal secretly, or plunder openly ; his temper is sorely tried, 
 the weather is hot, the distance to be traversed great ; the 
 interest of the work, and the character of the traveller for 
 efficiency, seem to depend upon his being able. to get to the 
 fixed halting-place ; thieves are caught red-handed ; property 
 mysteriously disappears ; then comes what is deemed the 
 necessity for, and the right, to tie up, and flog real or supposed 
 delinquents. A case has occurred of a man being left tied up, 
 with a view to induce a confession, and dying during the night. 
 Then comes a scandal, an outcry, and perhaps a justification 
 in the following terms : that it is impossible to travel in such 
 countries without power of flogging the porters, and thrashing 
 the villagers, and that all Missionaries are compelled, whether 
 they like it or not, to do so. 
 
 But is it so 1 The young Briton out on a shooting ex- 
 pedition may, and probably does do so, and in his narrative 
 he is loud in his outcry, that his camp subsequently is attacked, 
 reprisals attempted, and one of his party killed. The ex- 
 perienced leader of an exploring party does not do so ; he 
 carries out the policy of conciliation with the inhabitants of the 
 country, through which he passes, and as to his own party he 
 settles with them beforehand in what manner delinquents on 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 the march are to be punished. Joseph Thomson, one of th6 
 most successful and yet the gentlest of leaders, tells us, how his 
 men preferred, that delinquents should be punished by strokes 
 of the rattan, rather than by fine. Thomson in both his expedi- 
 tions brought his party safe back in good condition, and Bishop 
 Hannington, who traversed his route through Masai-land, found 
 no stories current against him, but plenty against the Swahili 
 traders, who had followed the same route. 
 
 But the question before us relates to a Missionary, the preacher, 
 and practiser, of the Gospel, who has been sent out to convert 
 a heathen people. It seems to go without saying, that such men 
 should never raise their hand against the people, except in the 
 extreme case of protecting life or female honour, and of course 
 the ordinary discipline of boys in a school, or a home for 
 released slaves, made over to them by the British Government. 
 That a woman should be flogged, however evil that woman 
 may have been, fills me with amazement ; that a man should 
 be tied up to a tree, with a view of extracting a confession, 
 and should die in consequence, fills me with horror. I do not 
 in the least indicate the part of the world, Asia, Africa, America, 
 or Oceania, in which these things have happened, or the 
 Missionaries, to whom such acts are imputed. My intimate 
 knowledge of Missions extends to every Society and every 
 Mission-field. Let me assume their possibility only for the sake 
 of argument, and to enable me clearly to grasp the question 
 of how Missions are to be conducted amidst wild races under 
 such circumstances. 
 
 A dear good Missionary, who gave up his life in his Mission 
 Field, a tender-hearted, loving man, has still left the following 
 entries in his journals, made from day to day, and not intended 
 by him for publication ; we cannot doubt their exactness ; these 
 journals are now publici juris, being printed and sold for 
 sixpence. 
 
 Page 3. Up twice and boxed some of their ears (the porters). 
 
 Page 9. Mild measures were in vain, and shouts of no avail ; kicks and 
 blows alone got them together once more into the spot marked out as camp. 
 
 Page 10. The disobedience of my men is fearful ; I have had to administer 
 some tremendous blows ; people may say what they like ; it is a matter of life 
 and death. 
 
 Page II. I seized my gun, and rushed back in time to see one of the sick 
 men pursued with spear and shield. Without a moment's hesitation, to spare 
 his life, I gave them a charge of No. 2 shot at about 100 yards, and magical 
 was the effect ; they fled right and left. 
 
 The first case is quoted to indicate the liberty, which Euro- 
 peans consider themselves entitled to take almost in a friendly way 
 with inferior races, with whom they come into contact. A Malay, 
 after such an insult as having his ears boxed, would have run his 
 dagger into his assailant. The African has to grin and bear it. 
 
( 30 ) 
 
 The last case illustrates the painful necessity forced upon the 
 traveller to protect the life of his party from violent attacks. 
 The two intermediate cases can under no circumstances be 
 justified. If the natives had joined together, and returned blow 
 for blow, the Missionary would have lost his life ; it is a 
 dangerous game to resort to blows, unless you are supported 
 by a superior force. 
 
 We have to consider also the miserable consequences of a 
 party led by an European passing through a village and commit- 
 ting acts of violence. Reprisals are taken from the next innocent 
 European traveller. Some years ago, a Frenchman named Abbe 
 De Baize (not a Missionary, but a scientific traveller) behaved 
 in U-Gogo with great violence on his way to Lake Tanganyika. 
 A British Missionary was killed in revenge a few days after. 
 
 I do not of course allude to sudden outbursts of anger under 
 cases of great provocation ; these are to be deplored, wherever they 
 occur, and no one deplores them more than the offender himself, 
 when he recovers his calm. The above quoted journal sup- 
 plies us with an instance of this weakness, page 5: "Sorry 
 to say that I lost my temper with men." Such confessions 
 as these appear in the journals of many of God's saints; the heat 
 of the weather, the anxiety of the journey, the excitement, and 
 the really provoking characters of the people, lead to such regret- 
 able outbursts, which are repented of in tears, and are atoned for 
 by acts of considerate kindness. 
 
 The Missionary by his very raison d'etre should carefully refrain 
 from such things ; he must be no striker ; he must not strive, but 
 be gentle to all men, and must take joyfully the spoiling of his 
 goods ; conciliation must be made use of to its utmost extent ; if 
 it is agreed, that an expedition cannot be carried on, unless the 
 leader of it commits day by day acts of brute violence, the reply 
 is, that Missionary expeditions had better not he undertaken. If 
 Missions can only be worked by methods, which no supporter 
 of the Mission would dare to state in detail on a Mission-platform, 
 then Missions had better not be undertaken. It cannot be 
 imagined, that our Lord's disciples, who were sent out two and 
 two, or the Nestorian Missionaries, who penetrated with slender 
 resources as far as China, or the humble Moravian Missionaries, 
 acted in this way. The line of duty is very clear, and I can 
 indicate Missionary Societies, which recognize, and practise, 
 this duty. 
 
 I seem to hear some Missionary cry out, who has been driven 
 wild by the heat and insects : 
 
 Oh ! if you only knew the difficulties, you would not write lil^e this ; if you 
 were in similar circumstances, you would flog your men, and thrash the 
 villagers, like everybody else. 
 
 Now I have heard very young men on their first arrival in 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 India talk in the same way, and yet no experienced Anglo-Indian 
 ever allows himself to strike a servant, or ill-use a villager ; he 
 finds out that it is not necessary. I never heard of a charge 
 against a Missionary in India of any act of this kind. It is 
 more important to draw attention to the subject in Africa, as the 
 natives have discovered, that Europeans are not the benevolent 
 angels, which they once appeared to be ; it has got about that 
 one nation at least, the German, is " eating up " the country, 
 and we may expect a period of difficulty and violence, and much 
 hindrance to the great duty of the Missionary. 
 
 Nor should the Missionary usurp, without any licence, merely 
 by his own arbitrary will, judicial, magisterial, or police autho- 
 rity ;' the facts are puhlici juris, so it may be stated, that in one 
 Mission the Missionary tried, sentenced, and executed an 
 offender, and was very properly dismissed for so doing. But 
 that the whole story is in print, it would seem incredible, that a 
 Missionary should suggest to husbands to flog their wives for 
 infidelity, in the presence of witnesses. The air of Africa seems 
 to have an astounding effect on the intelligence and consciences 
 of Christian ministers, and English gentlemen. In the absence 
 of any constituted ruler, there is always some chief, or village 
 elder, to whom criminal and police jurisdiction belongs, and 
 who would no doubt consult a friendly Missionary, and gradually 
 build up a system of Government. Every British subject is 
 liable to be prosecuted for certain offences in the Courts of Great 
 Britain, although such offences were committed outside of the 
 British Dominions, and no one is authorized to exercise any sort 
 of jurisdiction, unless he has been duly authorized to do so by 
 Her Majesty, and it is exceedingly inexpedient, that any Mission- 
 ary should be vested with any such power. His weapons are 
 not carnal. I lately heard a Missionary of great experience, at 
 a public meeting, strongly deprecate the idea, that a Missionary 
 should assume the position and the duty of a Chieftain, or put 
 forth the appearance of a man with secular Authority : he has 
 no power to enforce his orders, and as a Christian he could not 
 use the methods adopted by a Native Chief. 
 
 There is one blemish, from which British and American 
 Missionaries are entirely free ; that is, making the Mission a 
 stepping-stone to and a motive for political aggrandizement. 
 But it is the raison d'etre, and avowed object, of the French 
 Missionary, to extend the influence of France, and the French 
 Government thoroughly understands this, and makes use of it. 
 The French Government is confessedly free from any religious 
 sentiment, and makes short work with the Jesuits, and other 
 Religious Orders, when it appears advisable, but it tries in China 
 to maintain its right, not only to be the protector of French 
 Missionaries, which would be natural enough, but of all Roman 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 Catholic Missionaries, British, German, Italian, and Spanish ; 
 and although the Pope offers to take charge of the Missionaries 
 of his own Church, and the Chinese Government greatly prefers 
 this arrangement, the French Government is still striving to 
 maintain this right as the legitimaie political influence of France. 
 In every report of a French Missionary, allusion is made to 
 France, as if the religion which they wish to extend were the 
 French religion. 
 
 I quote a report from a French Missionary in British India, 
 dated May 2, 1888 (i1/wzb«jCaMo/z'^«?j, July, 1888), this very year; 
 
 Lorsqu'un ^vequefera la consecration de I'Eglise de Chetput, I'Immaculee 
 Conception descendra du ciel avec sa cour, et dira en souriant k ses anges : 
 " Mes enfants de FRANCE m'ont eleve ce sanctuaire en ces pays lointains, 
 " qu'ils en soient i jamais benis." Et les anges repondront : " Qui, oui, i 
 " jamais benis " ! 
 
 We see that the impudent. Priest not only knew what the Virgin 
 Mary would do at some future unknown period, but what she and 
 the Angels would say. 
 
 Large sums were voted to Cardinal Lavigerie, Bishop of 
 Carthage, for the political influence exercised by him in Tunis, 
 before and after the annexation. Even Protestant French 
 Missionaries are not free from this snare, for the Legion 
 of Honour has been conferred on an old French Missionary, 
 M. Casdlis, " for extending the interests of France in Basutoland," 
 in the sphere of British influence in South Africa, where the 
 French can have no legitimate interests whatsoever. There are 
 British Missionaries in Italy, Spain, and Portugal. It would be 
 hard to imagine a Companionship of the Bath being conferred 
 upon them for advancing British interests in these countries. It 
 is to be hoped, that the British and American Missionaries will 
 never lend themselves to become political instruments, or 
 meddle in any way with the affairs of earthly administration, 
 as their kingdom is not of this world. 
 
 A new difficulty has arisen within the last year. Practically 
 the French Government render the establishment of a Mission of 
 any other nation in a French colony impossible, by allowing 
 no schools to be opened, unless the French language is the 
 vehicle of teaching, and the teacher holds a French certificate. 
 The object of this precaution is their jealous fear, lest other 
 nations should get any influence in their colonies, for they 
 attribute falsely to other nations the practice of their own Mis- 
 sionaries. The firm conviction of the French governing classes 
 is, that Christian Missions are only a kind of machinery for 
 extending national political influence, and the French Roman 
 Catholic Missionaries thoroughly realize these views, and, 
 although they hate the Republican Government, and are cor- 
 dially hated in return, they, are tolerated and protected, because 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 they are of use. From this point of view a British or Americaij 
 Mission is not only of no use, but, if animated with the same 
 principles, a positive danger ; consequently the conditions, 
 under which they are admitted, are such, that they amount to 
 exclusions. The difficulties in Madagascar were very much 
 stirred up, and aggravated, by the desire of the French Priests 
 to get rid of the Protestant Mission. In Tahiti the famous 
 British Mission, which converted that Island, has sorrowfully 
 been obliged to leave that field. The strong objection felt in 
 Great Britain to the occupation of the New Hebrides by the 
 French is the certainty, that all the British Protestant Missions 
 would be destroyed. In the Loyalty Islands they are being 
 crushed out. On the Gabun in West Africa, the American 
 Missionaries are being driven to the necessity of leaving. 
 
 This is a very important case, as illustrative of the principle 
 involved. The Presbyterian Missionary Society reports, that 
 they have been compelled to withdraw from their Mission on 
 the Gabun and at Korisko, because the French Government 
 insists, that all instruction should be conducted in the French 
 language, and this was impossible for the American Missionaries 
 to do. So their Schools were disbanded, and all prospect of 
 teaching the children to read the Scriptures in their own native 
 tongue, and of training Native Ministers, was destroyed. The 
 Mission was offered to the French Protestant Missionary Society 
 at Paris, but their limited resources did not allow them to take 
 it up : they have, however, helped the American Presb}'terians 
 to get competent teachers of Evangelical views and a Missionary 
 spirit to labour in connection with them, and nearly entirely 
 at their cost. 
 
 Russia and Austria are more consistent, and allow none 
 at all in their conquered provinces. The German Missionary 
 has hitherto had the free run of the British and Dutch Colonies, 
 and in British India has enjoyed precisely the same advantages 
 as the British Missionary. Since however the German nation 
 has gone in. for colonies, the cry has gone forth for German 
 Missionaries and no other, in German colonies. There was some 
 show of reason perhaps in not allowing the French Jesuit, 
 with his known proclivities, to establish himself in a German 
 colony, but the British also are to be excluded in full confidence, 
 that the idea of reprisals and the ejection of the German Mis- 
 sionary from India and the African colonies, would never be 
 thought of by an Englishman, who loves free religion as much 
 as free trade. The French people, under the idea that French 
 is in fact the finest language in the world, allow the use of 
 none other in their colonies ; the natives are, taught tO' speak 
 French to save the trouble of the French functionaries' acquiring 
 a knowledge of the language of the people. They realize too 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 late the tremendous mistake, which was made two hundred 
 years ago, in not compelling the inhabitants of Alsace and 
 Lorraine to adopt the French language at the time of their 
 conquest. It is singular that the Germans are falling into the 
 same error, and are sending out German Missionaries and State- 
 teachers of the German language to the Kamertin country, 
 whence they have ejected the English Baptist Mission, to try 
 to efface any knowledge of English, which the people may have 
 acquired, and introduce the German language. It remains to 
 be seen whether this is possible. At any rate, it is a riarrow 
 view to take of colonial policy, and a wrong view of Missionary 
 duty. 
 
 Another topic remains. When a Missionary is in danger 
 from the tyranny of a Native Ruler, the cry is for the inter- 
 ' ference of the Arm of the Flesh. If there is one thing, which 
 the Missionary puts forward more than another, it is, that he has 
 counted the cost, and carries his life in his hands. He asks no 
 leave of Caesar ; he would resent any interference of Caesar, if 
 he attempted to arrest his progress; great dissatisfaction is 
 always expressed against the Government of British India, 
 because it will not allow any Missionaries to cross the boundary 
 into Afghanistan. Under what possible circumstances then can 
 can those, who thoroughly understand the theory, upon which 
 Missions are based, talk about sending armies to rescue Mis- 
 sionaries } The Geneva periodical, L'Afrique Explore et Civilise, 
 tells us, that Cardinal Lavigerie, Bishop of Carthage, has pressed 
 upon France, Great Britain, Belgium and Germany, to take 
 measures to insure the protection of British and French Mission- 
 aries at U-Ganda ; and yet, if any Government had attempted to 
 restrain his Eminence from sending his agents to that country, 
 there would have been loud cries of intolerance, and the duty 
 of trusting in the Lord of Hosts, and obeying God rather than 
 man. As is well known in the Chinese Empire, the French 
 Minister is in constant hot water for his interference in ]\Iis- 
 sionary troubles, and the Native converts are encouraged to 
 appeal to France against their own National Government. No 
 wonder that the very name of Missions is unpopular, when 
 conducted in such a manner. 
 
 The Missionary must recollect, that the service of the Lord 
 is not limited by nation, language, or race. Even the good 
 American Missionaries sometimes forget this, for I read in the 
 Missionary Herald, that in the little Island of Ponap6, a mere 
 speck in Mikronesia, and part of the group of the Caroline 
 Islands, which belong to Spain, the Sunday-School children of 
 the native converts kept the "Glorious Fourth of July" with 
 great ceremonial. How people would laugh, if the converts in 
 the British Missions of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands 
 
( 3,5 ■) 
 
 were to celebrate the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, or 
 the Queen's Jubilee. Why not have their rejoicings on Christmas 
 Day and Easter Day, in anticipation of the day, when Ephraim 
 shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim ? The 
 French religious periodicals are full of lamentable details of 
 the destruction of the Roman Catholic converts in Tonquin, 
 and forget, that these same converts supplied fighting-men to 
 resist their own national Sovereign in his struggle against 
 foreign invaders. 
 
 Another grave error is one, into which some of the smaller 
 Missionary Societies, and individual Missionaries, or the par- 
 ticular Missionaries of one Field, have fallen, but from which 
 the great Societies of all denominations have on the whole 
 kept themselves free. It is necessary to speak out, as the error 
 has become very serious, alienates friends, drives away those, 
 who might join us, and, what is more sad, makes the movement, 
 the grand desire to evangelize the world, ridiculous. It is this. 
 As the different corners of the world are revealed to us, frightful 
 moral evils are made manifest. Those, who are acquainted with 
 the Mysteries of London and Paris, know, that the vices of these 
 great cities were never exceeded in ancient times, nor are they 
 equalled elsewhere in modern times. In Oriental towns these 
 defects appear on the surface: the Missionary, generally a 
 young man, totally inexperienced in the manifold forms of 
 human vice, localized in one part of the world, is aghast at what 
 he sees, or hears of, the sins and sufferings, and abominable 
 customs of mankind. He is tempted to join fanatical Asso- 
 ciations, and run a tilt against Governments, Sovereigns, 
 Chartered Companies, Ancient Customs, Commerce in Liquors 
 and Drugs, Slavery, Caste, and such like. In these last days 
 Missionaries have been foolish enough to take an interest in 
 the morals of the British Soldier, send spies into his Camp, and 
 Barracks, and denounce the alleged depravity of the private 
 life of the men, by whose valour and steadfastness the British 
 Empire is sustained. This is a great departure from the 
 example set to us by the first and greatest of 'Missionaries, 
 St. Paul. 
 
 And I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus~Christ and 
 Him crucified. — I Corinthians ii. 2. 
 
 And yet Corinth and Rome were cities teeming with unmention- 
 able abominations : in the reign of Nero Cruelty in every form 
 was rampant. The Missionary's message is to man's evil heart : 
 the cure of all human evils is not by deputations to the Powers 
 that be, or by passing vain resolutions on excited platforms, 
 which are not worth the paper, on which they are engrossed, 
 or by neglecting the foolishness of Preaching for the supposed 
 wisdom of oratory and invective. Let the Missionary leave 
 
( 36 ) 
 
 the things o^ Caesar to Cjesar, and keep himself to the things 
 of God. 
 
 I submit these subjects to the consideration of the Committees 
 of Missionary Societies. The stream of Missionaries is ever 
 flowing, and new men succeeding to old. It is more important 
 that the Committee, which is permanent in its collective 
 capacity, should be firm, and set its face like a flint against : 
 
 I. Any personal ill-usage or restraint of a native by its agents. 
 
 II. Any usurpation of authority, other than spiritual, by its 
 agents. 
 
 III. Any tendency to put Missions forward as a machinery 
 for political aggrandizement. 
 
 IV. Any tendency to imagine, that the nationality of the 
 Missionary is a factor of the least weight or moment in his 
 divine commission to preach the Gospel. 
 
 V. Any appeal to the Arm of the Flesh to protect Missions, 
 or rescue Missionaries, or avenge the death of Missionaries. 
 If the Missionary has no stomach for the fight, let him withdraw 
 from a contest, to which he is not equal. Christian men and 
 women will never be wanting to take up the Cross, whatever 
 may be the dangers and perils. 
 
 VI. Any attempt to introduce among his converts the 
 historical differences of the great nations of Europe and 
 America, and any suggestion, that Christianity is limited, and 
 that the right of preaching the Gospel is restricted by the 
 political circumstances of the country, or the nationality of 
 the Missionary. Evil rulers may try to enforce such restrictioris, 
 but they are fighting against God. 
 
 VII. Any tendency of its agents to take up the part of a 
 Political or Moral or Social Agitator on matters, which lie 
 outside the duty of preaching the Gospel. 
 
 Church Work, April, i888 (with additions). 
 
( 37 ) 
 
 IV. 
 
 RELATION OF MISSIONARIES TO GREAT EUROPEAN 
 AND ASIATIC GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 .A. PERIOD has arrived in the history of Missions to the non- 
 Christian world, when it is as well to reflect calmly, whether it 
 be wise or just, or consistent with the principles of the Religion, 
 which it is our object to extend, to do what may be generally 
 called " lean on the Arm of the Flesh," and permit Missionaries, 
 and their converts, to appeal to Treaties, and solicit the pro- 
 tection of the Powers that be. And it is more particularly 
 necessary for British Missionaries to reflect upon this subject, 
 as it is not the British Religion, which they are preaching, but 
 the Christian, and one that is equally true, whether the message 
 be delivered by a British Missionary, who has behind him the 
 force of a Giant, or by the Swedish, Danish, or Swiss, Missionary, 
 who have to depend only upon the goodness of their cause, and 
 the protection of their Divine Master. 
 
 . I purposely omit any allusion to any particular Societies, or 
 particular instances of Appeals to the British Government. 
 Missions to the Natives of Asia and Africa and Oceania are 
 still, as it were, in their infancy, but may be expected to assume 
 proportions in the next generation of a magnitude far beyond 
 the wildest dreams, and it will be an unmixed blessing to them, 
 both in their temporal and spiritual matters, that God should 
 have put it into the heart of Christian Nations to send out the 
 very salt of their people to settle amidst the Heathen, not for 
 any purpose of Commerce, or Conquest, but from motives of 
 pure Benevolence. Now Missions may be planted, and as a 
 fact have been planted, in countries, where Political circum- 
 stances represent two very distinct varieties. 
 ■ I. Where the Political Power is entirely in the hands of a 
 civilized European Government, totally independent of foreign 
 control. 
 
 tl. Where there is a Government established upon a basis of 
 Asiatic Civilization, nominally independent, but circumscribed 
 in its action by Treaties, and the powerful Logic of Ships and 
 Gunboats of foreign Nation^. 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 It is no longer a matter of surprise to me, why Russia, Austria, 
 France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, object to the appearance 
 of a Missionary in their dominions, or their Colonies. The 
 Governments of these countries have only to mark the conduct 
 of the Missionaries in British India, China and Turkey. The 
 most mistaken assertions are made in the most unscrupulous 
 ■way. Every travelling Grievance-Monger quotes a Missionary 
 as his authority. Holding as we do the Empire of British 
 India with a very small European army, which has to be renewed 
 within a fearfully brief period, and the control of which is an 
 anxious problem, it might have been imagined that those, who 
 live under the protection of that army, would have been cautious 
 in their mode of making statements. I can recollect the time, 
 when a portion of the British Army, the European soldiers, 
 mutinied upon a purely Regimental matter, and the authorities 
 were in a frightful dilemma : what would become of the Mis- 
 sionaries, their Schools, and their Chapels, and converts, if 
 the British soldiers, in resentment for the hard things, said by 
 Missionaries about them, were to mutiny: there must indeed 
 be a deep feeling of indignation throughout Military Circles, 
 especially when an American citizen at a great meeting in 
 Exeter Hall is put forward to second a Resolution, condemning 
 the British Army as vicious and disreputable, and to state 
 broadly that the conduct of the Government of India was worse 
 than the Bulgarian atrocities of the Turks, and that the British 
 deserved to be turned out of India bag and baggage. A British 
 Missionary audience received these remarks with applause, and 
 a paid servant of the British State put the Resolution thus 
 supported to the meeting, and was not ashamed. I am not a 
 Soldier, but I have lived amidst Soldiers, have myself witnessed 
 the good behaviour of troops on the march, and their steadiness 
 in great battles, and I think it unworthy of a Missionary to creep 
 into a Regimental Canteen, and note the amount of liquor 
 consumed, or stand behind the curtain, and spy into the dis- 
 gusting mysteries of a house of ill-fame. How much better 
 employed would a man with such low tastes be as local agent 
 of one of our London Vigilance-Committees ! 
 
 The Empire of British India presents a unique instance of 
 the first variety. There is no country in the World, and never 
 has been in the Annals of History, where such entire liberty is 
 given to the Preacher of Spiritual Truths, either by word of 
 Mouth, or by printed Matter. No permission is required ot" 
 asked for. Protection of person and property, absolute and 
 unrestricted, is conceded. Property in land may be purchased, 
 or leased ; no law of Mortmain, no legal incapacity of any kind 
 exists ; if the Mahometan, or Buddhist, or Brahmoist, were to 
 set on foot Missions, the Magistrate, Gallio-like, would care not 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 for such things. On the other hand, Civil and ReligioU? Liberty 
 is absolutely guaranteed to all classes : so long as the Peace is 
 preserved, and the rights of other subjects are respected, 
 Religionists of all kinds may erect places of worship, may ring 
 bells, and fire guns, lead out long processions, and go upon 
 distant pilgrimages, without let or hindrance. If, however, the 
 preacher of one set of Spiritual Doctrines should attempt to 
 erect a place of worship or assembly in offensive proximity to 
 that of another ; if any act of illegal provocation or insult to the 
 feelings of any portion of Her Majesty's subjects were to be 
 committed under the guise of Religion, the Government would 
 promptly interfere to anticipate the destruction of property, 
 or the shedding of blood. To the honour of Christian Mis- 
 sionaries in British India be it said, that no such act has ever 
 been attempted by them ; no improper applications to a Magis- 
 trate are made, or, if made^ would be attended to ; in only one 
 instance do I recollect a case of a Chapel being ordered to be 
 removed by the Government, because it was erected on the 
 edge of a sacred Tank. 
 
 In such a XJtopia of Missions are the Missionaries satisfied ? 
 Not in the least ! Quo plus habeant eo plus cupiunt. Not even 
 the Government of China or Turkey has been so unsparingly 
 abused by the Missionary, as the just and impartial Government 
 of India, which is represented in its Governors, and Councils, 
 and Men in Authority, by Protestant, Roman Catholic, Jew, 
 Hindu, Mahometan, and Parsi Members, not one of whom has 
 ever been known to deviate from the line of strict impartiality 
 in his official position. The fact is, that the Protestant Mis- 
 sionary in his heart of hearts desires more than a free field 
 to be conceded to him ; he asks for a Neutrality in Educational 
 Matters, benevolent to his way of thinking, but which he would 
 resent, if conceded to the way of thinking of others. If 
 the Jesuits got round the Government, their influence would 
 be denounced. The object of the Government of India is to 
 retain the country in the peaceful enjoyment of Civil and 
 Religious Liberty ; the Missionary in India should consider the 
 circumstances of other Heathen countries, and so use his own 
 Christian privilege, as not to interfere with the privilege of 
 others : if we lost India, we should lose the greatest field for 
 Missions, that the world ever saw. 
 
 The liberties, taken by some Missionaries, are extraordinary. 
 An officer, high in employ, sent me a copy of a letter, which I 
 have before me, actually written by a Missionary to the Prime . 
 Minister of the Sovereign Prince, within whose territory he had 
 with great difficulty obtained leave to open a Hospital, charging 
 him with sending off boat-loads of people to be got rid of 
 feloniously during the night: he admits in the letter, that he had 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 no proof, but could not help thinking, that there was truth in 
 the report. In a lofty style, he writes, that he cannot pass over 
 the matter in silence, until full inquiry is made, and he (the 
 Missionary) is satisfied, that the rumour is false. The Sovereign 
 Prince ordered an inquiry to be made, and naturally asked for 
 the names of the informants of the Missionary, which he declined 
 to give, and the matter dropped. The question naturally suggests 
 itself. Who made the Missionary ruler or judge in such a matter ? 
 Can it be a matter of surprise, if a Native Sovereign in India 
 does his best to keep a Missionary out of his territory } 
 
 A question of Rent arose between the Tenants and Landowners 
 in a Province of India. It would hardly be expected, that a 
 Missionary would take a leading part in a kind of agrarian war. 
 My own opinion was, that his view of the case was the right one, 
 but it was not right for him to have any view at all : in fact, he 
 was acting precisely, as the Romish Priests are acting in Ireland 
 now, siding with the Tenants against the Landowners. He 
 became very popular with one party, but so unpopular with the 
 other, that on a charge brought he had a sentence of one month 
 in gaol. Now all this must disturb the quiet routine of Gospel 
 preaching, which is the only cause of the existence of the 
 Missionary. 
 
 So long as the British power is strong and unshaken, India 
 has been open to all comers, and no passports, or permissions 
 to sojourn, are required. But in time of peril like the Mutinies, 
 passports are required from all foreigners. An amusing case 
 occurred in 1857-58: the American Missionaries, as a matter of 
 form, were called upon to take out passports, and one of them 
 declined, thanking God, that he was an Irishman ! This might 
 have surprised any one not familiar with Missionary life. In a 
 late visit to Damascus I find that the leading Missionary of the 
 Irish Mission was an American, and in Egypt one of the leading 
 Missionaries of the American Mission was a Scotchman. Return- 
 ing to the main subject, it cannot be too strongly impressed upon 
 Missionaries, that any conduct on their part calculated to weaken, 
 or oppose, or bring disrepute upon the Government of India, is 
 suicidal to their own prosperity. The old East India Company 
 is blamed, because it would not allow Missionaries in India in 
 the beginning of this Century. It is clear, that it would not have 
 built up the Empire, had indiscreet Missionaries been at large 
 before the Provinces were well in hand ; and when the power of 
 Great Britain in India becomes weakened, the greatest sufferers 
 will be the Missionaries, and the Christian congregations. The 
 Roman Catholic Missionaries have never given trouble in India: 
 they have been chiefly Italians or Portuguese. The Protestant 
 Missionaries have been exclusively German, American, or 
 British. 
 
C 41 ) 
 
 But in South Africa a French Protestant Mission is settled in 
 Ba-Suto Land. I understood from the late Sir Bartle Frere, that 
 much of the trouble in one of the wars in the Cape Colony arose 
 from the conduct of the French Missionaries. At the Congress 
 of Missionaries at Mildmay in 1878 (Report, p. 86), 1 read : 
 
 Hence, when you Englishmen in 1852 came to fight against the Ba-Suto, 
 Tve fought against you. 
 
 At the Congress of Missionaries in Exeter Hall in 1888, the 
 Directors of this French Mission justified what they called " Mis- 
 sionary Patriotism "; they took a pride in following a policy of 
 direct hostility to the British Government, and it was difficult to see 
 how this was consistent with the position of a foreign Missionary 
 in British territory. The British and Foreign Bible Society, in 
 Christian love, supplied them with a translation of the whole 
 Bible in the language of the tribe : the President of the French' 
 Republic bestowed upon the Chief Director the Legion of Honour 
 for " advancing French interests " (Heaven help the mark!) in 
 British Colonies. The British take these matters coolly, as 
 cosmopolites, but the Germans very naturally rigidly exclude 
 French Missionaries from their Colonies. 
 
 How do the French act in their own Colonies } The French- 
 Missionary, whether Protestant, or Roman Catholic, wherever 
 he goes, puts his Nationality offensively forward : the Governor 
 of the French Colony makes the Colony too hot for Missionaries 
 of another Nation. In Algeria and Tunisia, the British Mission- 
 aries have a precarious existence : the Bible Society, however, is 
 tolerated. In Senegambia there are none but French. From 
 the Gabun Colony, South of the Equator, the American Mission, 
 which has done so much good, is being gradually pushed out. 
 In Melanesia the British Missionaries are being expelled from- 
 the Loyalty Islands, and are threatened in the New Hebrides : 
 one of the chief objections to the French occupation is, that the 
 free action of the Missionaries will be jeopardized. In the' 
 Society's Islands and Harvey's Islands, the French occupation 
 has driven out, or is driving out, the British Mission, which has 
 raised the inhabitants from the position of savages, in which 
 Captain Cook found them. 
 
 Germany has only lately founded Colonies, or Subject States,' 
 and sets about Missions in a way peculiar to herself. One of 
 the most experienced German writers on Missionary topics thu^ 
 expresses himself : 
 
 The opinion of the German African Society with regard to iVIissionary 
 S,ocieties is, that they are not unselfish attempts to spread the Gospel, but 
 merely handmaids to Colonial Politics, a Cow to give milk to the Mother 
 Country. 
 
 The general conception seems to be as follows : 
 I. Only German Missions in German Colonies. 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 II. The Missionary is to be the Pastor of the German colonist, 
 as well as Evangelist of the Heathen. 
 
 III. He is to work solely for German interests, and to make 
 his converts good German Subjects. 
 
 IV. He is to teach the Natives to work, by givmg them an 
 industrial Education, as well as spiritual : the motto is, "work 
 and pray, and pray and work : " but the prayers must be in 
 German, and the work for Germans. 
 
 V. No other language to be taught but German. In the 
 Kamerfins the English language is to be trodden down, and 
 German State-Instructors are sent to teach German. 
 
 The first action of the Germans at Ebon in the Marshall 
 Islands in Mikronesia was to fine the Native Pastor of the 
 American Mission 2500 francs for wishing to protect the natives 
 against the deceit of foreign Merchants. In the Kamerdns, 
 where the British Baptists were got rid of, the German Govern- 
 ment desired the Basle Missionary Society to accept the task, 
 because it was composed of German elements, and consequently 
 sympathetic to the interests, political and economical, of 
 Germany. To this the Society bravely replied, that it had always 
 maintained a position above all political considerations, and 
 would never depart from it, all that was asked being liberty of 
 action. I honour them for saying so. 
 
 For the present in Eastern Equatorial Africa there are two 
 Protestant British Missions within the sphere of German in- 
 fluence ; but to mark the cynical view of the German Government 
 towards all Missions, a German Roman Catholic Mission has 
 been specially invited as a kind of equipoise to the existing 
 French Roman Catholic Mission, and a German Protestant 
 Mission, as supplementary to the two British Missions. 
 
 It appears, that the Government of the Netherlands, a Protestant 
 country, to a certain extent connects the State with Missionary 
 eSoit in feer Asiatic Colonies, and looks upon them as Political 
 Engines. Spain has hitherto prevented any Protestant influence 
 from penetrating into the Philippine Islands, and has caused 
 some trouble to the American Missionaries in the Caroline 
 Islands in Milironesia, which were so easily composed, and seem 
 to be forgotten, that it would appear that it was magnified. At 
 any rate, one fact is recorded, that the American Board did 
 complain to their own Government of the deportation of their 
 Missionary from thfc Island, that the United States Government 
 did send a man-of-war to the Island, and that it was considered 
 a great point gained that " American Missionaries were cared 
 for by their National Authorities," and that the Captain of the 
 man-of-war in a letter advised " all Americans, whether Christians 
 " or not, to get down on their knees, and return thanks for having 
 " been born in free America." When it is recollected, that these 
 
( 43 5 
 
 Missionaries were in the ancient Colonies of Spain, that thd 
 right is admitted of every Sovereign State to deport aliens at 
 their will and pleasure, and that a man-of-war of an alien State 
 was sent to encourage alien Missionaries apparently against the 
 constituted authority, it may be a source of wonder, how the 
 Gospel of Peace can be preached under such circumstances, 
 and no wonder will be felt, if the admission of alien Missionaries 
 is for the future steadily opposed by second-rate Powers, like 
 Spain and Portugal. In British India the American Missionary 
 is heartily welcomed according to the policy of the British 
 Government, and in recognition of the well-known personal 
 qualities of the American Missionary; yet if the Missionary 
 disobeyed the legal orders of the constituted authorities, I doubt, 
 whether the appearance of the United States ship "Essex" on 
 the Hooghly would have saved him from punishment. I deeply 
 regret the interference of ships of war, or gunboats, or the civil 
 power, in the affairs of Missions, and shall never cease denounc- 
 ing it, whether those ships are British, or American, or French, 
 or German, or Spanish, or Portuguese. " Non tali auxilio." 
 
 The Colonies of that miserable State, Portugal, remain to 
 be noticed. On the West Coast of South Africa the autho- 
 rities of the Colony of Angola appear to have adopted a 
 friendly attitude to the American Missionaries, who pene- 
 trate through the Colony to Bailundu. No doubt Portugal 
 has visions of spreading across the Continent to Mozambik, 
 and there may be troubles in future. On the East Coast the 
 attitude of Portugal is hostile to the Protestant Missionaries 
 on Lake Nyassa : indefinite claims of Sovereignty are made, 
 and the desire is expressed to extend the frontier of the 
 Colony of Mozambik so as to include that Lake. That may 
 or may not be, and the Missionaries must take their chance, 
 and the British Government neither can, nor will, give them 
 any help. It would be contrary to sound policy, if any Govern- 
 ment were to entangle Great Britain in an Annexation, Protec- 
 torate, Sphere of Influence, or Chartered Company, which had 
 no basis on the sea : we have suffered enough from the Egyptian 
 Suddn, and Be-Chuina-Jand, to plaj that game again. L,ike the 
 otTier British MiBsionary Societies, which have established them- 
 selves on the Central Equatorial Lakes, they must rest upon the 
 Divine aid only, and their agents must be prepared to die at their 
 posts. But the Missionary interest is not the only one in the 
 Basin of the River Zamb6si, and its confluents. Great Britain 
 is a Protector of the vast territories of Ma-Tdb61e-land South 
 of that River, and can never allow a petty State like Portugal to 
 put a cork into the mouth of one of the great Arteries of Africa, 
 and, as the Foreign Secretary lately informed a Deputation, a Ship 
 of War, in the interests of Freedom of Commerce and Naviga-, 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 tion, will soon open the Mouths of the Zambesi to ships of all 
 Nationalities, and brush Portugal like a fly oflf the Map of that 
 Region. 
 
 I pass now to the second variety of circumstances, where 
 there is a Government established upon a basis of Asiatic 
 Civilization, nominally independent, but circumscribed in its 
 action by Treaties, and the hard logic of ships and gunboats. 
 China and Turkey supply conspicuous instances, and both 
 countries are magnificent fields for Missions. 
 
 I have before me a little volume, published at Rome, called 
 Violation du Traiti de Peking, which sets out the Roman Catholic 
 grievances, of which France is the champion. Another small 
 volume, Apergu historique sur la Chine, also published by the 
 Propaganda, sets forth the long history of Missions to China, 
 the martyrdoms by beheading and strangling, the imprison- 
 ments, and the spoiling of goods, which have rendered the 
 Roman Catholic Mission work of that Land illustrious. Its 
 §tafF a few years ago consisted of twenty-one Bishops, two 
 hundred and seventy-eight European Missionaries, two hundred' 
 and thirty-three Native Priests, scattered in every part of the 
 Chinese dominions, amidst half a million of converts. The 
 Protestant Missionaries number six hundred, but do not form 
 one compact body, and upon the subject now under discussion 
 there exist two distinct parties. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Mission, with a strange inconsistency, 
 is the loudest in its appeals to the eternal principle of Religious 
 Liberty, guaranteed by Treaties, and invoked by Consuls. 
 Allusion is made with complacency, on the one hand, to a 
 Pagoda being converted into a Church, whilst no words are 
 suflScient to denounce, upon the other, the injustice of the 
 secularization of a Church. Emperors are described as having 
 been killed by lightning, and cities destroyed by earthquakes, 
 to evince the anger of an outraged God. It seems strange, that 
 Priests, with such a formidable arsenal in reserve, should regard 
 as of such paramount importance, the insignificant Treaties of 
 Pekin and the French Consulate. 
 
 The French Government has ever put itself forward as the 
 Protector of Religion in China, and the French have openly- 
 asserted in their own praise, that while other Nations, especially 
 the British, warred with China in the interests of Commerce, 
 they warred in the interests of Religion. Lamentable indeed 
 as have been the British wars, still it would seem almost better 
 to force Commerce into a country at the point of the bayonet 
 than to force Missionaries into it after the same fashion. In 
 the one case we have at least but a simple evil, in the other a 
 compound one, and what might have been a blessing becomes 
 a curse. We may rely upon it, that under all circumstances gun- 
 
( 45 ;) 
 
 boat-Commerce is a less evil than gunboat-Christianity. It is 
 ■well known, that it is only in the French copy of the Treaty that 
 exists the well-known Religious clause, which could only be 
 extended to British subjects by the application of the "most- 
 favoured Nation" clause. Successive British Ministries have 
 refused to adopt the French clause as the measure of our Treaty 
 Rights in the matter of Missionary work. One of the chief 
 occupations of the French Legation consists in pressing claims 
 for redress, and making reclamations on behalf of Missionaries, 
 It is always, in hot water, and with any but satisactory results ; 
 and it is this constant source of trouble and anxiety, and the 
 difficulty of giving effective protection in the interior, that has 
 caused the indisposition of the British Government to press for 
 similar rights. 
 
 It is notorious, that the Chinese Government, anxious to get 
 rid of the semi-religious, semi-political claims of France, offered 
 to accept the Pope as the representative of all the Missions of 
 the Roman Church, and the Pope was quite ready to accept the 
 duty : but France would not agree to it, and by threats of 
 the repeal of the Concordat in France, compelled the Pope to 
 withdraw from this arrangement : the Chinese Government in 
 consequence issued a Proclamation of Universal Toleration 
 of the Christian Religion, thus reducing the possibility of French 
 interference to a minimum. 
 
 The French Government urges the cases of the Roman 
 Catholic Missions only. I have yet to learn, whether Republican 
 France would extend its protection to French Protestant Missions 
 also. Under the aegis of Great Britain are many different 
 Churches and Missions, and no one Missionary body has a 
 right to go up to the Foreign Office, as the general represen- 
 tative of Protestant Missions in China. It is as well to hear 
 the views of one Missionary Society on the question : 
 
 Relations to Governments. — Too great caution cannot be exercised by- 
 all Missionaries residing or journeying inland to avoid difficulties and complica- 
 tions with the people, and especially with the authorities. All the agents of 
 the Mission must fully understand that they go out depending for help and 
 ^protection on the living God, and not relying on the Arm of the Flesh. 
 While availing themselves of any privileges offered by the British or Chinese 
 Governments, they must make no claim for their help or protection. Appeals 
 to Consuls to procure the punishment of oifenders, or to demand the vindica- 
 tion of real or supposed rights, or indemnification for losses, are to be avoided. 
 Should trouble or persecution arise inland, a friendly representation may be 
 made to the local Chinese officials, failing redress from whom, those suffering 
 must be satisfied to leave their case in God's hands. Under no circumstances 
 must any Missionary on his own responsibility make any appeal to the British 
 authorities. As a last resource, the injunction of the Master can be followed, 
 "If they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another. " 
 
 Those engaged in the Lord's work must be prepared to " take joyfully the 
 ■spoiling of their goods," and to "rejoice they are counted worthy to suffer 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 shame for His name." Let them be imbued with the same spirit as Ezra 
 (Ez. viii. 21—23). 
 
 In preaching and selling books, the collection of large crowds in busy 
 thoroughfares should as far as possible be avoided ; and where it can be done, 
 any difficulty should be arranged, without reference to the local authorities. 
 The carrying about and display of unnecessary property is also to be deprecated ; 
 it may lead to robbery and loss, in which case no demand for restitution should 
 be made. As little intercourse with local authorities as possible should be 
 attempted ; and if their help on any occasion become necessary, it should be 
 asked as a favour, and never demanded as a right On no account should 
 threatening language be used, or the threat of appealing to the Consul be made. 
 Great respect must be shown towards all in authority, and must also be mani- 
 fested in speaking of them, as is required by the Word of God. 
 
 Where prolonged stay in a city is likely to cause trouble, it is better to journey 
 onward ; and where residence cannot be peaceably and safely effected, to retire 
 and give up, or defer the attempt. God will open more doors than we can 
 enter and occupy. And in conclusion, the weapons of our warfare must be 
 practically recognized as spiritual and not carnal. 
 
 How noble, how true to Bible teaching, how expedient even 
 from a worldly point of view, are such sentiments ! Nor is it an 
 empty boast. In 1879 Lord Shaftesbury quoted with satisfaction 
 the statement, that no Missionary of this Society made any 
 assumption of national superiority, or any undue insistence on 
 Treaty Rights, and he remarked on the contrast, which this 
 offered to the old scandal, that " with the Missionary there was 
 always the inevitable gunboat." A Missionary, who had traversed 
 China, on foot and unarmed, remarked, that all application to 
 the British Foreign Office, or pressure upon the British Consul, 
 with a view of intimidating the Chinese authorities, would be a 
 mistake, would do no good, and probably do great harm. It 
 may be accepted as a fact, that the Chinese authorities are quite 
 impervious to any argument, unless they anticipate the will and 
 the means of the Consul to enforce redress, and this means to 
 move up gunboats. It is of no use for Missionaries to protest, 
 that they do not wish to lean on the Arm of the Flesh, or seek 
 the aid of Gunboats ; they must understand that there is no 
 medium. If they could persuade the Foreign Office to set the 
 ball rolling (which they will never succeed in doing), it must 
 mean the application of threats, and possibly bloodshed. Any 
 amount of suffering, or loss of property, were preferable to this 
 sad alternative. 
 
 The sentiments expressed by this Society are shared by other 
 Missionary Societies in China. During the whole course of the 
 history of some Missions, the Missionaries have never requested 
 the aid of their Government ; their only weapon has been kind- 
 ness, and a spirit of conciliation. And this line of conduct is 
 more especially necessary in China, where other questions have 
 been so inextricably mixed up with the policy of the British 
 Government. The Missionary might suffer temporary injury and 
 discouragement, but in the long run he would be the stronger by 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 letting the people and authorities feel, that as Missionaries they 
 were not connected with the compulsory measures and the over- 
 bearing provisions of Treaties, whose stipluations rankle in the 
 breast of every subject of that ancient kingdom. 
 
 The subject is of such importance, and I do so desire, that 
 young Missionaries should understand the problem, that I quote 
 extracts from the Secretaries of some of the leading Missionary 
 Societies : 
 
 I discourage our Missionaries from holding property in China outside the 
 Treaty Ports, and then only the houses they occupy. When Natives were 
 willing to make over places, and even family temples, to the Mission, I always 
 urged them to leave such properties in Native hands. In all our Missions we 
 try to avoid all reference to the British authorities : they hamper more than 
 they aid. 
 
 There are peculiar difficulties in one Province, owing to the policy and conduct 
 of the Romanists : their constant reliance on the Civil Power, and frequent 
 unhappy use of it, have the tendency to embitter the heathen population, and 
 also to encourage injustice and a singular kind of arrogant terrorism among those 
 ■who become Christians. 
 
 I am persuaded that official remonstrances do not help in the long run. 
 Patience is our strength, when we are in the right. 
 
 During the whole course of the Mission's History our agents have made their 
 way, and found safety and acceptance among savage tribes, quite independently 
 of any aid from gunboats, or otherwise from Government. The power, which 
 they exercise, is that of kindness, and an evident desire to deal justly, and to 
 benefit them. Their response has almost always been one of confidence and 
 friendly bearing, the healthful product of kindness, and not of fear of a gun- 
 boat in the background. Treaty rights invoice Treaty wrongs, to the injury 
 of the people, and the hindrance in the most fatal manner of Missionary effort. 
 
 More especially at this conjuncture it behoves the Missionaries 
 in China to act with great restraint. In the Edict of Toleration 
 lately issued they have scored a point, and, inasmuch as this 
 Edict has been issued voluntarily, it is not likely to be recalled, 
 but the reasonable demands made by the Chinese Authorities 
 some years back, and not conceded, should be remembered, and 
 acted up to, especially as the Missionaries in British India have 
 no choice but to conform to similar demands. 
 
 I. Missionaries should confine themselves to their proper 
 calling, and not set up an independent style and authority. 
 
 II. They should not interfere in the Criminal trials of Native 
 Christians. 
 
 III. That bad characters, and notorious ill-livers, should not 
 be retained in their communities. 
 
 IV. That they should not use official seals, nor write official 
 despatches to the local Courts, as if they were Officials. 
 
 Possibly it is only the French Roman Catholic Priests in China, 
 who take the liberties complained of: at any rate, they do 
 nothing of the kind in British India, and it would be impossible 
 in an Oriental country to allow private individuals to act in such 
 a way. 
 
( -48 ) 
 
 It is a common expression at Missionary meetings, and A 
 positive fact in some Committee-Rooms, that God's guidance 
 is prayed for and sought for. God's mercies are recognized 
 in success, and traces of His controlling - wisdom should be 
 recognized in disappointment and failure. God speaks no 
 longer in dreams and visions, or by the voice of Heavenly 
 messengers, but His guidance can be seen by those, who 
 seek Him faithfully, in the Persecution and the Destruction of 
 Churches, in Imprisonment and Martyrdom. By these is the 
 sincerity of the converts tested, and the faith of the survivors 
 strengthened. Both China and Madagascar have passed through 
 this ordeal. If we use the Arm of the Flesh to combat those 
 leadings, we may haply be found fighting against God. Strange 
 to say, the same reports, which tell so sadly of the suffering of 
 the Missionaries, tell also of the steadfastness of the Native 
 Church, and of additions to its members. We are apt to set too 
 great a value on the bricks and mortar of our buildings. What 
 matters it whether they are consumed by a fire, as at Hakoddti, 
 or by incendiaries, as at Fu-chow } We must recognize the 
 chastening hand of the Lord in both events, and be thankful. 
 
 In one district there had been persecution ; several converts 
 were beaten, and one or two killed, others imprisoned and tortured; 
 these last were released at the earnest request of the Consul, 
 who, however, had no lawful grounds of interference. These 
 troubles may prove beneficial in keeping the Churches clear of 
 insincere Members, and by giving the Converts clearly to see that 
 ■foreigners cannot protect them, either from their own people, or 
 officials, and may teach them to look more directly to God, and to 
 trust in Him alone. It is profitable to read the accounts of the 
 sufferings and the steadfastness of the early Christian Martyrs in 
 the first and second centuries, and the persecution by the Church 
 of Rome in the fifteenth and sixteenth. The blood of the 
 Martyrs is still the seed of the Church. The British Missionary 
 should read the stories of Columba of lona, of Aidin of Lindis- 
 farne, of Boniface of Exeter, and try to bear hardships, like good 
 soldiers, and not to call for gunboats, and Platform-Resolutions. 
 
 And when we plant the Church in China, we must seek to 
 plant it as a Chinese Church, and not as a Semi-Anglican one. 
 Such a Native Church can only be solidly based on National 
 self-respect, affected, it may be, by National weaknesses, and 
 perhaps by National independent treatment of Christian truths. 
 It will then last long after the Gunboats of Great Britain have 
 fallen into decay, and her Commerce has shifted to younger 
 Nations. The Governing Classes reflect the general feelings of 
 the People : the Literati and Gentry, who are credited with all 
 the opposition, are recruited from the ranks of the people, and 
 fairly represent the Clergy and Landowners in Great Britain, who 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 are, as a rule, extremely Conservative. Th6 objection of the 
 Chinese to Fung-chui or " Luck " is not fictitious, and, as regards 
 lands and houses, these sentiments, however ridiculous they may 
 seem, indicate the actual feelings of the people, and no doubt of 
 the Native Christians also. Missionaries must deal gently with 
 the prejudices, which they encounter, To occupy a sacred site, 
 and build upon it a Missionary Residence, or School, under any 
 view of the case, is an act of extreme indiscretion, to which no 
 lapse of years can give a sanction. To convert a Pagoda into a 
 Chrtstian place of worship is one of those acts, which may be 
 resented for centuries. We have instances of the evil conse- 
 quences of such a policy written in blood in every country. If 
 Mahometan, or Brahmoist, or Buddhist, Missionaries, were to 
 appear in London, and erect a place of worship under the shadow 
 of the Abbey, or appropriate a Proprietary Chapel of any deno- 
 mination to their purposes, would a London Mob tolerate it, 
 however much Religious Toleration be the law of the land ? 
 
 The conclusion to be arrived at seems to me this : that a Mis- 
 sionary should try to win his way to the hearts of the people, and 
 should under no circumstances invoke the Arm of the Flesh for 
 the protection of property, or accept compensation for property 
 lost. He will find it more profitable in the long run to exhibit 
 the patience, and charity, and unselfishness, which will disarm 
 his antagonists. If his life be endangered, he must save it by 
 timely flight; if imprisoned, there can be no doubt, that collec- 
 tive intercession will be made for him in such a manner, as 
 to secure his liberation ; if he fall, he falls a blessed Martyr. 
 Such deaths are great victories : they convince the doubting : 
 they stimulate the faint-hearted : they astonish the worldling. 
 Peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die, but 
 Christ died for sinners, and Christians are ready to die for 
 Christ. How our hearts beat high to think that we have known, 
 and loved, and conversed with, and have letters from, men, 
 destined by God's Grace to die for Him ; he does no more than 
 numerous examples have gloriously sanctioned, than the Gospel 
 predicts, and than hundreds of his countrymen have been 
 willing to do in every part of the World, even when the prize 
 to be gained was but an earthly , one. Persecutions were not 
 unknown in the early days of Christianity, and yet it triumphed 
 in the end. It is idle to expect the Crown without the Cross. 
 There are many sufferings still unsuflFered, many Crosses not yet 
 taken up, many Crowns still to be won. 
 
 I have twice visited the Empire of Turkey with a view of 
 contrasting their system of governing conquered Provinces with 
 the British system in India. I was sitting in the Divin with the 
 Pasha of Damascus, when a European Consul was introduced, 
 who hectored and bullied the Pashsi, while actually on the seat of 
 
( so ) 
 
 Judgment. I had myself governed large Asiatic districts, and 
 recognized the salient features of the complaint as of not uncom- 
 mon character. The Turk smoked, and bore the abuse stolidly, 
 at least to outer appearance. I felt for him, and felt also, that, if 
 any representative of any Power in the world had behaved in such 
 a manner in my Oflfice, I should have had him turned out forth- 
 with, and, if he repeated such conduct, should have fined him 
 for contempt of Court, and looked to my own Government to 
 support me. The British Magistrate and Consul know, that the 
 best Missionaries give them the least trouble, if indeed they give 
 any at all. The argument, that the Consuls of other Nations 
 have succeeded in compelling an unwilling Government to make 
 concessions is an unworthy one, and not always true. In a 
 discussion in a British Committee Room in my presence about 
 troubles in China, a Secretary to an American Board of Missions, 
 who happened to be present, was asked, how it happened, that 
 their Missionaries were always backed by their Consul. The 
 reply was an expression of surprise on the part of the American 
 Secretary, and the dry remark, that his Missionaries complained, 
 that the British Missionaries were always backed by the British 
 Consul, while the American Consul refused to interfere. 
 
 I have no love for the irrepressible Turk, and I have traversed 
 great parts of Turkey, and studied its system, which is bad, 
 thoroughly bad ; yet I cannot excuse Missionaries of gross viola- 
 tion of the first principles of duty of an alien permitted to reside 
 in a foreign country. Neither Russia, Austria, nor France, nor 
 British India, would have tolerated such conduct for an instant. 
 It is an understood principle of International Law, asserted and 
 practised by every Continental Power, that they have a right to 
 eject any foreigner from their country, for reasons best known 
 to themselves. Turkey has the same de jure, and some day will 
 be irritated to the necessity of using it. 
 
 I visited a celebrated city in Turkey, and found that the 
 Medical Missionary was in great distress, because the Governor 
 had stopped the erection of his new Hospital. I visited it : it 
 was on a lofty hill commanding the town, and had the appear- 
 ance and reality of a fort, with walls pierced for musquetry, and 
 embrasures for guns. Any hospital built on such a site, and in 
 such a style, in British India, at Bandras, or Amritsar, would have 
 been dismantled at once. In the case of trouble it would have 
 been at once occupied by rebels, and nothing but a siege would 
 take it. And yet the Doctor abused the Turk ! 
 
 A Missionary Society bought, and got possession of a house 
 with a title open to objections, possibly false, and was sued for 
 ejectment, and cast : the decision was confirmed on appeal. 
 Letters were written to London, and a certain benevolent 
 Nobleman was induced to write letters to the Ambassador at 
 
( 51 ) 
 
 Constantinople : he brought a pressure on the Sublime Porte : 
 orders were issued by the Executive to the Provincial Court to 
 cancel the order. I have been many years a Judge in an 
 Oriental Country, and felt ashamed of my countrymen. The 
 humblest Native Judge in British India would decline to alter 
 his decree to please the Executive authorities. 
 
 I have already in Part II. called attention to the question of 
 Schools in Turkey. Clearly a Sovereign-State has the control 
 of its own Educational Department. Austria, Russia, France, 
 Germany, and Italy claim for the State the Monopoly of Public 
 Instruction. If Missionaries act with conciliation to the local 
 authorities, they can keep open their Schools, but it is of no use 
 blustering, and claiming under a Treaty a right to open Schools 
 avowedly to convert the Mahometans. I am not quite sure, that 
 even in Free England large Mahometan Schools would survive the 
 popular indignation, if opened avowedly to convert Christians. 
 
 Then again as regards the Criminal Law and the Police, the 
 Missionaries are not the Judges, whether the local Governor is 
 just or unjust, and it is a monstrous abuse of the hospitality of 
 a friendly State for a resident alien to give shelter to a man, 
 for whose arrest a warrant had been issued, to conceal him in 
 the Mission-premises, and smuggle him out of the Jurisdiction. 
 Yet such a case is reported with complacency by a Missionary, 
 who thinks that he has done a praiseworthy act. In British 
 India any Missionary, who acted thus, would have found himself 
 next day in prison without benefit of clergy. 
 
 My opinion is, that the Missionary should mind his own busi- 
 ness, and following the example of St. Paul, keep on good terms 
 with the Powers that rule, whether in British India, China, Japan, 
 or Turkey : he should abstain from writing complaints home, 
 but get access to the local authorities, and get them over to his 
 side by the pleasantness of his bearing, and conversation. 
 Missionaries very rarely quarrel with the authorities in British . 
 India, as they are highly valued, and as a rule are reasonable 
 men. The oldest Missionaries never think of complaining : they 
 put up with little inconveniences, and get their way in the long 
 run, when their wishes are reasonable. The difference is well 
 known between the real Gospel-preacher, the simple-hearted 
 Missionary, and the grievance-monger, the spy, who introduces 
 himself into the Military Cantonments, to watch the sad weaknesses 
 of the brave, but thoughtless, British Soldier, the frothy declaimer 
 against the Liquor Shop, and the man, who is always at war with 
 the Education Department. The former are loved, honoured, 
 and always welcome. My first idea of a Missionary was in 1 844, 
 when I met, at Ludiina on the Satlaj, good John Newton, of the 
 American Presbyterian Board. I have had my eye on John 
 Newton for forty-four years, and he is at his work still, for I 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 heard from him only last month. For twenty years I was, as an 
 official, in relation with him, and never heard a complaint from 
 his lips ; but I marked well his consistent Christian walk: there are 
 many others of his stamp, and I wish that all were like them ; but 
 a great deal depends upon the character of the Missionary, the 
 local authority, and the general population. There must be 
 light and shade in the life of Missions, as in the life of man, but 
 a spirit of conciliation, a practical illustration of the principles, 
 that are preached, a determination not to depart from the Law 
 of Love, and Discipline of Patience, except under extreme neces- 
 sity, will work its way at last. If it does not, let us remember, 
 that, in all cases, it will be better to abandon the Mission, at 
 least for a time, rather than to alienate the hearts of the Non- 
 Christians, make Christianity odious in their eyes, and the 
 Missionaries a disgrace to the country, which sends them out. 
 
 The Roman Catholic Missionaries (Priests and Nuns), who 
 have now been so many years in hopeless captivity in the 
 Egyptian Sudin, present to us a noble example of constancy, 
 and one, which Protestant Missionaries will do well to take 
 to heart. Like the British Missionaries on Lake Nyassa, they 
 were guilty of the extreme imprudence of settling in the interior 
 of a country, a thousand miles from the sea, in the basin of 
 the Nile, the navigation of which has now been obstructed 
 since the fall of Khartum, and the block of the Caravan 
 Route to Sudkim. No European Power will interfere to save 
 these poor people, though they went under the protection of 
 Consuls. But they are safe under the shadow of the Most High. 
 
 July, 1888. 
 
( 53 ) 
 
 V. 
 
 RELATION OF MISSIONARIES TO BARBAROUS 
 SOVEREIGNS OR PETTY CHIEFS IN ASIA, AFRICA, 
 AND OCEANIA. 
 
 I PASS to the consideration of those non-Christian countriesy 
 which lie outside the limits of European Authority. The Mis- 
 sionary enters these with his life in his hand. He passes 
 beyond all the immediate, or indirect, protection of any 
 European Government. If he fall by the hand of the bandit, or 
 assassin, no demand for reparation can be made. If plundered 
 of his property, he can hope for no redress. If imprisoned, he 
 can only hope for liberty by means of friendly interference, or 
 payment of ransom. Worldly men would look on in greater 
 admiration and astonishment at such self-devotion, if it were 
 not patent to all observers, that the Traveller, the Man of Com- 
 merce, the Man of Science, the mere Adventurer, the great 
 Hunter of Wild Beasts, had done the same in all Climes, and 
 at all periods of History. But the majority of these last are 
 birds of passage, and pass on, leaving no trace behind them. 
 
 The Missionary, on the other hand, seeks to make the country 
 his home, to occupy land, erect buildings, and found a new 
 Society among the indigenous population. Herein lies the 
 great difference betwixt the Missionary, and any other subjects of 
 European Governments, in non-Christian countries. The object 
 of the Missionary is soon discovered to be, to a certain extent, 
 subversive of existing institutions ; he is indeed founding a new 
 Polity, and propagating a new Idea. He offends the ignorant 
 lower classes by denying the sanctity of what they- have hitherto 
 deemed sacred. He alarms the ruling classes by his strange 
 Communist doctrines, that the lives and possessions of the 
 meanest individual are entitled to protection. He alienates 
 those, who were originally well disposed, by prematurely de- 
 nouncing Polygamy, and domestic Slavery, ancient customs of the 
 Oriental World, which should be allowed to die out, as they have 
 done in Europe. He does not advance into the country alone. 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 for he is followed, or preceded, by the trader in fire-arms and 
 spirituous liquors. As soon as a Native Congregation is estab- 
 lished, unless he maintains over his feelings a strong restraint, 
 he forgets, that the Kingdom, which he has been preaching, is 
 not of this World, and that his converts are still African subjects 
 of a Native State, and members of an African Community. He 
 forgets, that the African can no more alter the customs of his 
 race, than he can change his skin, and that in his heart of hearts 
 he can see no evil in Polygamy or Slavery. Complications, 
 which already exist to some extent, will be further developed, 
 if the Consular system be introduced, with this anomaly, that, 
 if a British Missionary kill an African, the Queen's warrant will 
 issue against him ; but if an African kill a Missionary, nothing 
 can be done. We must face the difficulty. Either the territory, 
 within which the Mission is located, is under some recognized 
 Sovereign, or it is utterly outside any jurisdiction. Let me con- 
 sider both contingencies. 
 
 Of the first case we have an instance in the Protestant Mission 
 of one of our great Societies, and the Roman Catholic Mission 
 of the French, located at Rubdga, the capital of the King of 
 U-Ginda, on the Victoria Nyanza. Unquestionably this Sovereign 
 rules over a constituted State, with the will and power to enforce 
 his orders. Both Missions have, apparently with a want of 
 worldly wisdom, placed themselves and their property, and their 
 Missionary prospects, in the hands of this Potentate, who 
 undoubtedly has a contempt for human life, and is guided by 
 no law beyond his own will. We have two sets of documents, 
 which furnish unmistakable evidence of the unsatisfactory state 
 of affairs, and of the utter absence of any fixed policy upon the 
 part of the responsible heads of both Missions. Les Missions 
 Catholiques, a weekly paper published at Lyons, and The Record 
 and Intelligencer of the Church Missionary Society, abundantly 
 enable us, in this matter, to form a judgment. The Roman 
 Catholic Missionaries brought out most unsuitable presents to 
 the King, viz. warlike weapons and trappings : the Protestant 
 Missionaries allowed themselves at one time to be employed in 
 repairing instruments of war. Both parties condescended, in 
 the presence of non-Christians, to discuss the abstruse tenets 
 of their respective systems, thus exposing Christianity upon its 
 weakest flank. They have been established ten years. 
 
 It need cause no great surprise, if the priests, and conservative 
 classes, of a country long left in spiritual darkness, should be 
 opposed to the introduction of light coming in an unexplained 
 way from an unknown country, and delivered by untrained and 
 unskilled messengers, with an imperfect knowledge of the 
 language. What are we to think of Rifles, Revolvers, and one 
 thousand rounds of Ball-cartridge being part of the outfit of a 
 
( ss ) 
 
 Christian Missionary to Africa in 1880? Will no experience 
 make us wiser ? Mr. McCarthy, of the Inland Mission, walked 
 through China unarmed, and passed among its people uninjured 
 and uninsulted. It need excite no astonishment, if the Arabs, 
 or rather Arabic-speaking Mahometan natives of Eastern Africa, 
 resent the intrusion into their domains of Christians preaching 
 against Slavery and Polygamy. The pages of Livingstone, 
 Stanley, Cameron, and Schweinfurth, amply testify, that the 
 Arabs have behaved, on the whole, remarkably well to the 
 Christian Traveller and Missionary. But they would be more 
 than mortals, if they submitted without a struggle to the avowed 
 enemies of their religion, commerce, and domestic habits. The 
 Mission to the Victoria Nyanza presents a problem of extreme 
 diflBculty, and imperatively demands in the Missionary gifts of 
 the highest order. More, perhaps, than anywhere else, are needed 
 here, a spirit of entire self-sacrifice, a fixed policy of doing, or 
 abstaining from doing, a sublime patience, the wisdom of the 
 serpent joined to the harmlessness of the dove, and a complete 
 control of both tongue and temper, and a single eye to the 
 spread of the Gospel. Many of these graces have been entirely 
 wanting. Precious lives have been lost : some by the hand of 
 the assassin, some by disease ; the complications of the fate of 
 Emin Pasha, the Expedition of Henry Stanley, the Exploration 
 of Joseph Thomson, the colonial ambition of Germany, have 
 all added to the difficulty of the problem, which has often been 
 aggravated by the want of judgment of the agents. Periods of 
 great aflfiiction and persecution, and spoiling of goods, have 
 had to be passed through, and the labour of many years, and the 
 enormous outlay, appear like handfuls of sand cast into the 
 Equatorial Lake. Still, by the Grace of God and the constancy, 
 of one rnan, the Fort has been held, and the Mission is there. 
 
 The King of U-Ganda is of Galla extraction, ruling over Bdntu 
 subjects. His kingdom is just on the dividing-line of four 
 distinct races, the Hamitic, Negro, Nuba, and Bantu. He had 
 heard, no doubt, that the Christian King of Abyssinia had turned 
 all the European Missionaries out of his country, that the Empire 
 of the Turks, which once touched, and threatened to swallow up, 
 his dominions, had in some way disappeared beyond his horizon ; 
 but rumours reach him from the North of the movements of 
 Emin Pasha, and of one greater than him, the great "stone- 
 crusher," Stanley, who years ago visited Rubaga. From the South 
 his Semite, or Semitized, Arab guests tell him of the occupation 
 of the whole country South and East of the Lake by the Germans 
 and British : he is aware, that arms and gunpowder are becoming 
 very plentiful, and that European liquor is beginning to be 
 not unknown. He connects these phenomena, and not illogi- 
 cally, with the Missionaries. He has already killed a Bishop, 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 and he cannot understand, how such an act can be pardoned : 
 he thinks rather, that vengeance would have been_ taken, if 
 vengeance had been possible. The murder of a white man is 
 an evil in itself, because, if unnoticed, it encourages a repetition 
 of the offence. The tiger has tasted blood. 
 
 Some sympathy with, and even pity for, an African Sovereign 
 should be felt by those, who have had experience in rule. _ He 
 feels, that he is being somehow eaten up ; he has to deal with a 
 danger, the extent of which he cannot understand. The farmer 
 of North Africa cannot cope with the flights of locusts and 
 crickets, which eat him up : the African Chief is in the same 
 plight. He demands presents and services of various kinds, but 
 he finds, to his astonishment, that his wives and his pages are 
 taking up new moral and religious ideas, positively or negatively 
 disobeying his wishes : his advisers give him insidious advice, 
 while his habits of intemperance make him unfit for serious 
 counsel. If he could only read the European newspapers, he 
 would find, that the Missionaries, his guests, describe him as a 
 living monster, and say all manner of unkind things about his 
 personal habits, his morals, and public policy : possibly the Arabs 
 at Zanzibar do send him some extracts of these reports, which in 
 a garbled form are communicated to him, and madden him. 
 
 The Missionaries are of necessity extremely young men ; and 
 totally unversed in public affairs : nor are they men of learning, 
 or power, or high education : they are constantly changing, and 
 quarrelling with each other : of the two main divisions, the French 
 are ready to say an evil word against the British, and the British 
 warn the King against the French and their doctrines : this is 
 another cause of wonder and confusion, and both parties speak 
 of the policy of the third, the German, with condemnation. The 
 demand for " Hongo " is a source of endless trouble. It is 
 at once a transit-duty, and an Income-Tax, and, if a reasonable 
 amount is properly levied, there can be no manner of complaint, 
 for the transit-duty is in return for the roads being kept open to 
 travellers, and the Income-Tax is the lawful return to the 
 Supreme Power for Protection of Life and Property. In all 
 Oriental countries, notably British India, exchange of Presents, 
 or payment of tolls, is part of the understood machinery of inter- 
 course. But the difficulty arises, when the claim is unreasonable, 
 excessive, and pressed in a hostile manner. The Missionary 
 must submit to it : the only remedy is to take as little property 
 with him as possible, and tempt the cupidity of the Native Chief 
 as little as possible. It is a difficulty which must be faced, and 
 which may possibly compel the enterprize to be abandoned. 
 Under no possible circumstances should arms, or ammunition, 
 or liquors, form part of these presents: in fact, the Missionary 
 should not have such things to offer. 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 In the Illustrated Catholic Missions, the organ of the Bishop" 
 of Salford, February, 1888, p. 153, appears an article headed, 
 " The Gospel and the Sword," which marks a new departure in 
 Mission-work. It suggests, that the Missionary should arm 
 his converts, so that they may be able to defend their 
 rights against their Heathen Sovereign and fellow-countrymen. 
 He quotes with approbation the policy of the Jesuits in Para- 
 guay, who conducted military operations against the Portuguese. 
 Thirty or forty Native Christians, trained and armed with 
 repeating rifles, would be a force, which no native potentate 
 or slaver would dare to molest. In the May number, p. 6, it 
 is admitted, that U-Ganda is the region, in which this new 
 departure is proposed ; a Member of the Church Militant, from 
 Colorado in America, offers to subscribe one hundred dollars, 
 and is of opinion, that the great work of converting and civilizing 
 the heathen will not be accomplished until the suggestion of the 
 " Gospel and Sword " be carried out in a practical manner. At 
 the great meeting in May of the Manchester Geographical Society, 
 in my address I called the particular attention of a Roman Catholic 
 dignitary, who was present, to this really abominable proposal of 
 Missionary-buccaneering, and entire departure from Gospel- 
 precept : " they that take the sword shall perish by the sword." 
 The policy would lead to the extermination of the few Christians, 
 and the slaughter of the Missionary, his wife, children, and 
 followers. It is quite possible, that the Sectaries of one 
 denomination would attack the other, and the Jesuit Priest would 
 shoot the Protestant Minister. The ill-omened Mission in Para- 
 guay has long since passed away. In the July number the Editor 
 again returns to the subject, justifies it, but would not have 
 the Christian Missionaries become Military Chiefs, and adds a 
 condition, which at once places the suggestion outside of practical 
 politics, that " the sanction of the respective Governments of the 
 Missionaries be obtained." After the lesson taught to the British 
 Nation by the fate of Gordon at Khartum, it is not likely, that 
 letters of marque will be issued to British Missionaries in Central 
 Equatorial Africa. Unless the accounts of the fearful massacre 
 of Native Christians in Tonquin by their enraged Sovereign is 
 merely a device to collect subscriptions, the policy of the Roman 
 Catholics in that country is a warning against the policy of the 
 " Gospel and the Sword." 
 
 Wherever therefore there is a recognized Sovereign of a 
 State, it is the duty of the Preacher of 'the Gospel, as of the 
 Merchant and the Traveller, to submit to the laws of that State, 
 or to leave it. St. Peter's utterances are very clear on this subject 
 (I. ii. 13): "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for 
 the Lord's sake, whether it be to the King, or unto Governors." 
 The Missionary forgets, that he is the intruder, and that, if his 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 entry be opposed, or his remaining rendered impossible, it may be 
 a leading of Providence that he should retire. It is very objection- 
 able, that he should be invested with any Secular power, such as 
 that of Vice-Consul, or Magistrate, or Judge : he should appear 
 solely as Christ's Ambassador, and put away the haughtmess of 
 the Briton, and put on a little more of the meekness and humility 
 of a Christian: it is to be feared, that Christian men do not always 
 do Christian work in .a Christian way. Patience and Humility are 
 not ordinary graces of the young Briton in Asia or Africa. 
 
 On the South Coast of Victoria Nyanza, in the region stretching 
 Westward to Lake Tanganyika, and Southward to the Zambesi, 
 there are no great Kings, but a great many Chiefs, some of whom, 
 like Mirambo, Mandara, and Matika, are well known to readers 
 of Missionary periodicals. Kongo is of course the first difficulty : 
 a regular supply of necessaries the second : permission to teach 
 the third. In some portions of this vast Region two new 
 elements of confusion arise: the invasion of professional 
 plunderers of Zulu extraction, from beyond the Zamb6si, but 
 known by many local names ; a kind of AduUamites, whose 
 numbers are recruited by the outlaws of each tribe ; and secondly 
 the organized Caravans, or Settlements, of Arab Slave-dealers. 
 In the midst of such a Region no less than five British Missions 
 are working, as well as the Roman Catholics, and it is well to 
 consider, without favour, or prejudice, and as fearlessly as impar- 
 tially, the tremendous difficulties of the positions occupied, and 
 to notice with sincerity and faithfulness, the dangers, the errors, 
 and the temptations, of the environment. 
 
 The object of the promoters of these Missions is to locate a 
 Christian colony in the very heart of a savage heathendom, to 
 gather round a small number of European Missionaries, both lay 
 and ordained, a Christian Family, which should develope into 
 a Christian Village, and expand into a Christian Community, 
 supporting itself by honest industry, living a Christian life, and 
 destined to hand on the Lamp of Life further and further over 
 the Dark Continent. This is clearly a policy of aggression 
 against Paganism, Isldm, Slavery, and Polygamy ; against violent 
 crimes, abominable habits, and bloody customs ; it is a struggle 
 for dear life between the most exalted form of Christian Culture, 
 and Savagery, between the Gospel on the one hand, and Cruelty, 
 Lawlessness, and Idolatry upon the other. The good men, 
 engaged in this contest, asked no leave of their own Sovereign, 
 or of foreign Potentates : they appealed to no Treaty ; if one of 
 their number falls, they have to bury him, and lift up their eyes 
 to the Lord, and go on, hoping that their cry might not be in 
 vain for fresh recruits to fill the vacant places. But the difficulty 
 of their position cannot be ignored. It is likely to increase, 
 as they grow more settled, and to become more urgent as their 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 numbers multiply. Rural wealth will accumulate, comforts of 
 all kinds will multiply, and the plunderer will have to be kept 
 at bay. They are sorely tempted, in spite of the prohibition of 
 the Parent Committee, to make their Settlement a refuge to the 
 poor slave : they cannot turn away a poor footsore woman, with 
 marks of a flogging on her naked back, accompanied by 
 starving children. They are in a frightful dilemma, and their 
 heart influences their judgment. 
 
 This implies Defensive Warfare. When men congregate 
 together, the necessity of some kind of Police, and of some sort 
 of Magisterial Power, to protect the weak from the strong, and 
 the honest man from the thief, will be absolutely necessary. In 
 the case of a new colony of men of the same race, those public 
 offices would be conferred by election. But, where the com- 
 munity consists of an aggregate of runaway slaves and converted 
 Africans, in the lowest state of culture, it is simply indispensable 
 that those, who brought them together, should assume control- 
 ling power. Such has ever been the origin of all Political 
 Society. Missionary Bodies must boldly face the difficulty thus 
 encountered, and treat their Settlements, as the decks of a ship 
 in the open sea. They must authorize in these cases one of 
 their Lay Agents to introduce a system of police, and a scale of 
 punishment, the chief of which last should be expulsion from 
 the Community. Punishment by death should not even be 
 allowed to be discussed, as inconsistent with the position of a 
 Missionary, but slight fines, moderate chastisement of youthful 
 male offenders with a rattan, brief imprisonment in the stocks in 
 some open space, and expulsion, must be recognized as lawful 
 under the circumstances. If any member of the Community is 
 guilty of a homicide, which in a civilized country would amount 
 to murder, such a person must be expelled from the Community, 
 but nothing more. In the hard necessity of a Defensive War, to 
 protect life and honour, life may be sacrificed ; but it may safely 
 be laid down, that without the warrant of his Sovereign, no 
 Briton can under any other circumstances take away the life even 
 of the blackest Criminal. Neither would it be expedient to 
 invest the Head of such a Mission with Consular Powers. This 
 would cut both ways. The Queen of Great Britain will not 
 entrust such powers,, except under certain conditions, and, as the 
 death of a Consul is an international wrong, such conditions 
 would no doubt hamper the freedom of the Mission, or might 
 lead, for political reasons, to its entire withdrawal at a moment, 
 when Missionary prospects were perhaps the brightest. The 
 Missionaries would be impeded rather than assisted by such 
 powers, for they come under the head of an appeal to the Arm 
 of the Flesh. Any such appeal will involve a Mission in a 
 sea of difficulties. Great judgment would have to be used in 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 the exercise of the powers above described as lawful. Many 
 an offender must be allowed to escape, as the least of two 
 evils. 
 
 Those, who know the country, state, that there is no "No man's 
 land," and that a Chieftain is always forthcoming. He must be 
 encouraged, supported, and advised to maintain his authority. 
 But here other difficulties arise : their crimes are not our crimes, 
 their view of right and wrong is not our view, their rules of 
 evidence are not ours, their forms of punishment are not ours. 
 A Native Rdja in the Panjdb used to hamstring all thieves 
 caught in the act of theft. In some countries adulterers are 
 emasculated. In the narrative of an expedition up the Nile I 
 read, that some British travellers made over a thief to the local 
 Pasha; but when they discovered what the punishment was 
 to be, they all went with tears to recall their charge, and beg 
 for the criminal's liberty. Thus it is seen, that there is great 
 danger in making over a case to a Native Chief. Reckless 
 of the life of the poor, they have no discrimination in trial or 
 judgment. 
 
 But this presupposes an environment of peaceful savages, but 
 the Slave-dealer, and the Zulu Robber, disturb that peace. The 
 Missionary, if left alone, has the bitter task of seeing a friendly 
 village laid waste, and its inhabitants killed, or carried off, and 
 dares not, and ought not to interfere. So long as no one attacks 
 his ship, he has no warrant to attack another ship with a view 
 of protecting a third. If he does, he runs the risk of being 
 defeated, and sharing the ruin, or being a conqueror stained 
 with blood, or encumbered with prisoners in fetters. How can 
 Gospel-preaching be carried on under such conditions 1 
 
 A further complication arises, when, independent of, yet in 
 strict alliance with, the Missionaries, good and honourable 
 European traders are occupied in a legitimate commerce, 
 strictly excluding arms, ammunition, and liquor, and become 
 the objects of attack from the Slave-dealer, or the Brigand, 
 who covet possession of his wares, and whose trade he interferes- 
 with. Can the Missionary look calmly on the murder, and 
 plunder, of his secular friend } Can he, on the other hand, as 
 a servant of Christ, take part in actual warfare ? It has tran- 
 spired, that such Traders have a supply of handcuffs or fetters 
 on board : this seems to imply that they usurp authority to 
 imprison : it is hinted, that they intend to entertain armed 
 followers : this looks like War, and Commercial Filibustering. 
 
 The situation of affairs on the Lake Nyassa is very complicated, 
 and it is difficult to define what a Missionary should do, or 
 should not. We may place the difficulty with the Portuguese on 
 one side : there is no doubt, that the freedom of navigation of 
 the River Zambesi will be secured. The difficulty is as regards 
 
( 6r ) 
 
 the Arabs, who are described as Slave-dealers, and are in fact 
 quite as much aliens on the Shores of the Lake, as the British 
 Missionaries. But the three Societies, whose interests are 
 affected, do not state distinctly, what they desire, or do not 
 realize what the gratification of those desires means. There are 
 four objects placed before the public, only one of which, in my 
 opinion, concerns them as Missionaries, the first. 
 
 I. Evangelization of the Heathen. 
 
 The other three may, or may not, be desirable, but they 
 have no necessary, or lawful, connection with Missionary 
 operations. 
 
 II. Abolition of the Slave-trade. 
 
 III. Expansion of Lawful Commerce. 
 
 IV. Enlargement of the British sphere of Influence, Pro- 
 tectorate, or Dominions. 
 
 Then there are several schemes suggested for the purpose of 
 attaining these objects : 
 
 . I. The placing under the British sphere of Influence, or 
 Protectorate, the Basin of thS Lake Nyassa. 
 
 II. The despatch of an armed force of British Soldiers to 
 conquer and occupy the Region, as in the analogous case of 
 Barma in British India. This would make the whole of the 
 British Empire, its army, and resources, responsible for the 
 success of the enterprize. Is it worth it i Is the game worth 
 the candle ? 
 
 III. The enlisting of armed men by the Mercantile Company, 
 who own the steamers : these would wage open war with the 
 Arabs : they might, or might not, be victorious : in neither case 
 would the British Empire be aifected ; but the Men of God would 
 be sadly affected in the eyes of the Natives by their contact with 
 the Men of the Sword, and it would be very difficult to dis- 
 tinguish one from the other. 
 
 Every one of these schemes belongs to the category of the Arm 
 of the Flesh, and a Christian Missionary should keep clear of 
 all. Success by such means would be more dangerous to their 
 blessed work than defeat. I repeat what I said at the Conference 
 at Manchester in their presence, that I would sooner see 
 Livingstonia destroyed, and the Missionaries swept out of the 
 Lake Region, than to have the Gospel preached with the aid 
 and support of Rifles, and in a blood-stained Region. The 
 Missionaries seem to take a low view of their high office, when 
 they press upon the Government and the Public the fact, that they 
 have sunk so many thousand pounds in the enterprize : this 
 smacks more of Commerce than of Gospel-preaching. At how 
 many thousand pounds can we value one saved soul } Lord 
 Salisbury cynically replied to the Deputation, that against the 
 Arabs he could undertake to promise no help, whatsoever, but that 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 the Europeans on the Lake might fight themselves, without risking 
 the prestige of the British Empire : this showed a very inadequate 
 perception of the holy position and duty of a Christian Missionary. 
 There can be no manner of blessing on work conducted 
 under such conditions, no chance of preaching and teaching 
 among a willing population. The Swedish Missionaries have had 
 to leave Abyssinia : • they had no Consuls or Ships to bully the 
 Negus with : the British Missionaries must, if needs be, leave 
 the Nyassa. The occupation of these African Lakes, so far in 
 the Interior, was a gallant feat, but not a prudent enterprize. 
 A sound Military or Commercial undertaking would have 
 commenced with a basis on the Coast, and worked inwards with 
 supporting stations. 
 
 Such phrases as the following do not read well in a religious 
 Periodical : 
 
 It would be utterly intolerable, that all our vast outlay in men and money, in 
 stations and steamers, in languages reduced, and a hundred and one kindred 
 labours, should be strangled body and soul, to suit the convenience of Portugal. 
 
 And again : 
 
 It was extremely likely, that the Arabs would be very troublesome to the 
 Mission, unless the influence of the Government could be brought to bear, so as to 
 restrain them. 
 
 Now what can this mean but an appeal to the Arm of the 
 Flesh ? 
 
 And this is written with regard to a Mission, whose magnificent 
 work is nearly entirely within the territories of the Sultan of 
 Zanzibar, and the German Emperor, with only a few outside 
 Stations and one steamer at the most, and a few agents on Lake 
 Nyassa, and I am aware of only a single Lake-language having 
 been reduced by them for the purposes of their Gospel-work to 
 the Lake-tribes. 
 
 I am afraid of not stating the case of the Missionaries with 
 sufficient clearness, so I quote extracts from Reports : 
 
 The Church, with which he was connected, had a Mission in the Nyassa 
 country. The experience of its Missionaries was the same as that of other 
 Europeans, viz. that the question was, whether the Arab or the European was 
 to rule in Central Africa. Were the principles of Christianity or the principles 
 of Mahometanism, with its system of reckless waste of human life, and licensed 
 robbery, to guide that unhappy country? He thought all those acquainted 
 with the state of affairs in East Central Africa would say, that all those who 
 had the power, and were exercising the power there, were the Arabs. Those 
 who had got most benefit, if benefit it could be called, from the discoveries of 
 European Travellers, were the Arabs of Zanzibar, who had acted in a most 
 atrocious way. The British Government would do exactly what the public 
 opinion of this country led them to do, and the object of the present Meeting 
 was that of educating public opinion on the subject. They did not want a 
 British armed force in Nyassa- Land, but they wanted that the enemies of man- 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 kind, the slave-raiders, might be kept from molesting and killing the people, 
 whom the Missionaries went to bless. 
 
 . The real question at issue is, and we cannot set this up too clearly before us, 
 " Is Arab and Mahometan influence, or is English and German and Christian 
 influence, to prevail in this country ? " Are we to stand by and see Mahometan- 
 ism carried by fire and sword through Central Africa, and every Christian 
 Mission and Christian influence, established by peaceful means and at immense 
 cost of men and money, isolated, paralyzed, and destroyed ? It seems to some 
 that England has been sufficiently humbled at Zanzibar. Surely we are not 
 going to offer the spectacle to Europe of Lake Nyassa, discovered by English 
 enterprize, on which subjects of Britain, alone of European Powers, have 
 settled for purposes of trade or the higher purposes of religion, surely we are 
 not going to abandon Lake Nyassa to the Arabs and the desolations of the 
 Slave-trade. 
 
 One very distinguished member of a governing body openly 
 recommended British annexation : another headed a contribu- 
 tion to a leading Paper, " How to Fight the Slave-Trade." 
 
 Every Missionary disclaimed any wish for the Arm of the 
 Flesh, and yet I read the following lines, wondering what they 
 mean : 
 
 There had been great troubles on the Lake recently. The Arabs seemed to 
 be getting tired of the restraint, which the presence of white people placed 
 upon them, and they had made an attack on the station of the Lakes' Company. 
 He trusted that the powerful Government of England would not so far forget 
 its duty as to refuse to come to their aid. //e did not want any force to be used on 
 behalf of the Missionaries. The Missionaries knew the dangers of the life, 
 ■which they had chosen, they held their lives in their hands, and if any of therti 
 were killed, he should not wish for a moment, that there should be anything 
 like revenge or force used. But at least they might ask to be free from the 
 interference of European Powers like the Portuguese, and from the people 
 who came from Zanzibar, and who could have pressure put upon them 
 through that Government. 
 
 Had half the insult therein detailed been offered thirty years ago to this 
 Nation, or a tithe of the injury done to our fellow-subjects, a British Fleet 
 with an Ultimatum would have been in Lisbon Harbour in four days. 
 
 It is settled beyond recalling, that whether it be at Lukoma, Bandawe, or 
 Blantyre, our Missionaries must not look for " Protection " in the African 
 acceptation of the word ; nor do we think that there are many amongst them, 
 who would wish it otherwise. Such as they go thither to experience to the 
 full the wondrous Providence of day by day, and the clear vision is not with- 
 held from them. The smoke of a gunboat under steam would leave a long 
 trail across the landscape in such scenes, hard to harmonize ! 
 
 In the Annual Report of the Free Church of Scotland for 
 1888 I read as follows : The Foreign Missions Committee (of 
 both Churches) unite in asking the British Government 
 
 To declare Nyassa-land a sphere of British influence. 
 
 The French Jesuit Priests could not be more distinct in their 
 utterance. 
 
 The Secretary of the Scottish Geographical Society, from his 
 point of view, naturally thinks, that if the Trading Company and 
 •the Mission are to flourish on the Lake, it is- evident that some 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 strong guarantee must be furnished to them of their independent 
 position. I talie the liberty of replying that, rising from a 
 survey of the Missions of the world, I cannot find, that the 
 blessed work of preaching the Gospel can be lumped together 
 with bales of calico, and Manchester goods, or brought home 
 to the heart of the Heathen by Elephant Rifles and armed 
 Steamers, and I am quite sure, that no one will more heartily 
 echo these sentiments than the excellent British Missionaries on 
 both sides of the Nyassa at this time. 
 
 How thankful we ought to be that such men as Dr. Crosse, 
 and Mr. Johnson, were the Missionaries on the spot on either 
 side of the Lake, belonging to different denominations, but with 
 the same appreciation of their duties. Dr. Crosse writes : 
 
 I am very much concerned at what action I should take in this affair. Up 
 till now I have been entirely free from fighting. I am inclined to take this 
 position, offering my services as a Surgeon, but refusing to fight unless the 
 Mission Station is attacked. I will take no action in offensive measures. 
 
 Mr. Johnson submitted patiently to personal indignities, and 
 tells his tale in a Christian spirit, worthy of all admiration. 
 The example of the sufferings of his Lord and Master had not 
 been lost on him. Both these excellent men showed true valour 
 and sound judgment. The natives hereafter will tell of their 
 conduct with love and reverence. For His sake and the Gospel 
 they retained their self-control under tremendous provocation. 
 
 It is all very well to say, that Livingstone's great object by 
 occupying the Lake Nyassa was to cut the Slave Trade into two, 
 and paralyze it : well and good, but the Preacher of the Gospel 
 is not sent out to attack Slave-dealers by force of arms : his 
 duty is to trust in God, and keep the Mission free from all non- 
 Missionary entanglements, whether of Commerce, or War, or 
 opposition to the Slave Trade. Rebuffs, delays, disappoint- 
 ments, personal assault, loss of property, inconveniences, insults, 
 should be taken patiently for the Lord's sake, and are so taken 
 in many countries by many holy men. If life, liberty, and female 
 honour are in jeopardy, recourse must be had to the Civil Power, 
 or, failing that, to God's blessing on personal endeavours. It 
 is all very well to talk of a Mission-village being the Nucleus 
 of a State : it is really only the leaven of a State founded for 
 secular purposes, and the Missionary should never lose sight 
 of the simple Evangelical character of his enterprize. The 
 remarks of the Prime Minister, in June, 1888, must have dissi- 
 pated the last idea of any interference of the State in the Lake 
 Regions, which are beyond the sphere of British Influence : 
 
 The only note in my noble friend's speech that jarred on my ear was, when 
 he seemed to point to action, which means military action, on the part of 
 England to assure the possession to these communities of Lake Nyassa. Has 
 he really formed any idea of the task he is laying out for the Government of 
 
( 6s ) 
 
 this country ? If he proposes to send an expedition, which can subdue all this 
 territory, according to our ideas of how expeditions should be organized and 
 what they should cost, I think he would find, that the expedition to Egypt of 
 a few years ago would melt into the faintest insignificance compared with the 
 task, to which he has invited this country. I will not use any language to 
 encourage the belief, that the Government will make any attempt by military 
 action to support the commercial and religious efforts of the Missionaries there. 
 It is not our duty to do it. We should be risking tremendous sacrifices for a 
 very doubtful gain. It is one of those tasks, which must be and will be carried 
 through by the individual Englishmen, who have undertaken it. All that the 
 Government can do on the sea-coast, all that we can do diplomatically within 
 the sphere of political efforts in this country, we will do. But we are certain, 
 that we should only injure instead of promoting these great civilized and Mis- 
 sionary efforts, if we were to convert them into a cause of war, of war the most 
 exhausting, the most terrible, the least remunerative in any sense ; war with 
 the countless savages who fill these Territories. Because it is not a Civilized 
 Power, with which we have to fight ; it is a collection of all the scum of 
 humanity, that is found over that vast Territory, which is governed principally 
 by Arabs of the sort, with whom we have dealt in the Sudan, who combine 
 the grossest cruelty with a species of fanaticism. We must leave the dispersal 
 of this terrible army of wickedness to the gradual advance of Civilization and 
 Christianity, which in these countries, though slow, seems now to be sure. 
 
 " Sphere of Influence " is a grand new word, coined in the last 
 three years, something more hazy than a Protectorate, and a 
 Protectorate does not create any responsibilities on the part of 
 the Protector. Let me follow out the subject On Lake Tan- 
 ganyika there are, as on Victoria Nyanza, two Missions, a French, 
 and a British. Already, as detailed in Part IL p. 33, two 
 Frenchmen have been killed by the tribes ; but the Mission is 
 still at work. The British Mission has a Steamer on the Lake. 
 Evil days may be at hand. Tipu Tib, and his scoundrels, may 
 find Stanley Falls and Nyangwe too hot to hold them, and fall 
 back on Tanganyika, and we may find the features described on 
 the Nyassa Lake repeated, and the British Missionary crying 
 out for British protection, and the French Missionary for French 
 protection. And when we penetrate further into the interior, we 
 find a small party of gallant French Protestants holding their 
 own among the Ba-Rotsi on the Upper Zamb6si, beyond all . 
 human help, and yet not afraid. Beyond them is young Arnott, 
 an Englishman, alone, among the Garaganja, a tribe dimly 
 known from the reports of the traveller Cameron. If once the 
 precedent is set of Missionary Societies, as in this case, pressing 
 on European Governments to extend their sphere of influence 
 for the sake of Missionaries, where will it end } 
 
 There is another danger. When a country is annexed, as 
 Barma, the British Government introduces its system of manage- 
 ment, and is responsible for the protection of aliens. In a Pro- 
 tectorate the responsibility is less, but the protected chiefs are 
 ordered to pay compensation. In a " sphere of influence " no 
 responsibility is claimed, or admitted. It is merely a device of 
 
 PART III. S 
 
( ee ) 
 
 one great European Nation to keep other European Nations out. 
 In the British Sphere of Influence on the Niger and in Yoruba- 
 land horrible crimes are committed, like Cannibalism, and 
 Human Sacrifices, Crimes against human nature. Year by- 
 year I report the cases, which come to my notice, to the Foreign 
 OflSce : the reply always is, that it cannot be helped. In the 
 Report of the German East African Missionary Society, which 
 reached me to-day, I read how the Agents of the German 
 Missionary Society at Neukirchen had settled at Ngao 
 within the Sphere of British Influence, West of Mombdsa, to 
 evangelize the Wa-Pok6mo. They were building their houses and 
 forming a village, when the wild Somdli fell upon them. They 
 had to fly for their lives to the Station of the British United 
 Methodists, and everything which they had was robbed and 
 burnt: they had lost everything, and were even in want of food. 
 Have they any claim on the British Government ? None : two 
 years ago two Missionaries of the British United Methodists were 
 killed North of Mombdsa within the sphere of British influence, 
 and they have no claim; and no meetings were assembled at 
 Manchester, Glasgow, or London, and no agitation made to 
 Government for revenge or protection. Two British Missions, 
 and one French Mission, are located within the sphere of 
 German influence in East Africa. If any evil falls upon them, 
 the German Government will disclaim all responsibility. It is 
 as well, that Missionary Societies should understand this. 
 
 It is thoroughly understood, that a British Missionary will not 
 use physical force, except to defend life and female honour ; but 
 it is not quite so clearly understood by those, who have not 
 studied the subject, that, if a particular policy is followed, the 
 Missionary will find himself in a very difficult position : if he 
 lives on intimate terms with traders, gets his supplies from them, 
 associates with them, takes counsel with them, and they fight, 
 the Natives will certainly not acquit them of complicity, and 
 lookers-on in Great Britain, and France, and Germany, will 
 scarcely do so either. Missions have often been given up tem- 
 porarily or for ever, and it is no discredit. The British Missions 
 at U-Ganda may be compelled to retire, after having been main- 
 tained more than ten years at a cost exceeding one hundred 
 thousand pounds : if there is a lion in the path, what can the 
 servant of the Lord do } If the door is shut, who can open it ? 
 Abyssinia is a standing example. I am on the Committee of 
 the London Society to the Jews, and of the British and Foreign 
 Bible Society, and am well acquainted with the circumstances of 
 the Swedish Mission, and remember how Krapf and Gobat and 
 Isenberg had to abandon the country, and seek other openings. 
 Such may be the fate of the Nyassa Missions : anything better 
 than bloodshed. I think so strongly, as for fifteen years I lived 
 
( ^7 ) 
 
 in the midst of Annexations, Protectorates, Rebellions, Mutinies, 
 bloodshed on the field of battle, hanging on the gallows. These 
 dreadful things are forced upon us by political circumstances. 
 God forbid, that a Missionary should be the cause, or that he 
 should bring a sword instead of the Gospel. 
 
 My note-book supplies a sad account of the different policy 
 adopted in Oceania. I quote it as a warning. In 1865 Sir W. 
 Wiseman, Commodore, in the Ship " Curagoa," cannonaded 
 villages in the Islands of the New Hebrides, because they had 
 taken the liberty of ejecting one Missionary, and been rude 
 to another. It is shocking to think, that on both occasions 
 the Missionary was present on board, and begged the Commo- 
 dore to spare his school-house. We do not read of anxiety 
 expressed for the women and children. The matter was taken 
 up by the Governing Board of the Mission, and a severe 
 censure passed on the Missionary, who was himself killed on 
 the Island soon after. In the narrative of the cruise of the 
 " Curagoa," published in 1875, the story is told by an eye- 
 witness. The Mission ought to have been abandoned, rather 
 than bring a Ship of War against the Island. 
 
 It is of no use denying that the arrogance, and self-assertion, 
 of the great Anglo-Saxon race on both sides of the Atlantic 
 exhibits itself as markedly, and as unamiably, in their Mission- 
 aries as in their Merchants, Soldiers, Travellers, and OfiScials. 
 How would a Swedish, or Swiss, Mission have fared on Lake 
 Nyassa } And yet they are the Ambassadors of Christ. We have 
 only to try to imagine St. Paul in his trouble being protected by 
 the United States Man-of-War " Essex," or hy Consul O'Neil in 
 the " Ilala." How different does his description of the labours 
 of an Evangelist read from those of the modern Missionary, as 
 reflected in the side-lights thrown upon it in the Debates of the 
 British Parliament, or the Conferences of British Geographical 
 Societies 1 What have "British Interests," as such, to do with 
 Christ's Gospel, which existed long before, and which will out- 
 live, the power and greatness of the Anglo-Saxon 1 Such a policy 
 as the one, which I have denounced, and which all good Mission- 
 aries denounce, must make Missionaries odious to the races, 
 among fljhom they work : it has made the name of the French 
 Missionary stink in every quarter of the World, to which French 
 ships can get near. I appeal to all the Churches to resist the 
 insidious evil : it destroys the character of the Missionary to 
 hear him state, that his Society has invested so much capital in 
 this Region, or that, as if he had taken shares in a Joint-Stock 
 Company, and call upon his Government to get him compensa- 
 tion. I wonder how much capital during the last century the 
 London Missionary Society invested in the Society Islands and 
 the Loyalty Islands : to the eye of man it seems all lost by French 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 occupation ; yet it has been well spent, as the most profitable 
 of all investments is the purchase of hundreds of redeemed souls. 
 If the Government were weak, and the pressure of the Missionary 
 Society were strong, the country might be goaded on into Pro- 
 tectorates, Annexations, or Military Expeditions, to end as miser- 
 ably as that of Gordon at Khartum. When the Government 
 turns a cold shoulder on the Missionary, it is so much the better 
 for his cause. We should think more of Columba, Columbanus, 
 Aidan, St. Gall, and Boniface, and their methods : we belong 
 to the same stock : they had no Arm of the Flesh to help them, 
 and yet they converted a great portion of Europe. 
 July, 1888. 
 
( ^9 ) 
 
 VL 
 RELIGIOUS TOLERATION. 
 
 What is it ? Something which we all claim for ourselves, but 
 which many deny to others. Something which each person 
 interprets in a sense, which fits his own views. Roman Catho- 
 lics would, if they could, deny it to Protestantism. Protestants 
 of the High Church would deny it to those, who do not 
 conform to their views. Nonconformists would deny it to 
 particular classes of Christian believers : all Christian believers 
 are ready to deny it to Unbelievers. If the penalties are no 
 longer Death on the Stake, Imprisonment, or Spoliation of Goods, 
 the want of Toleration shows itself in denial of privileges, exclu- 
 sion from offices, and social ostracism. Even good men allow 
 themselves to do and say what is entirely contrary to true 
 Toleration. Let me try and make my views clear as regards 
 Heathen and Mahometan. 
 
 There is no necessity to be lax in Religious convictions, and 
 hang loosely to any Church, in order to be all things to all men : 
 that is not true Toleration, but only, IndifFerentism, or contemp- 
 tuous disdain. A Christian must be tolerant to the Mahometan, 
 the Hindu, the Buddhist, the Pagan : he must be tolerant of bad 
 customs, bad habits, bad words, bad deeds, bad sentiments : he 
 must be tolerant in what he says and what he does. It is more 
 consonant to a Christian frame of mind to be so. And it specially 
 becomes a Missionary to be so. The surer a man is of his own 
 convictions, the more tolerant will he be of the conscientious 
 convictions of others. 
 
 Let me consider the " State " first. 
 
 If there is an entire disappearance of bond-fide persecution, and 
 torture, and murder, on the part of Religionists in power, it is 
 mainly, because their claws have been clipped, and the spirit of 
 the age has been changed. It would have been impossible for 
 Serv6tus to have been burnt alive in this century : still Austria, 
 and such like Powers, make the position of Protestants very 
 uncomfortable. In Spain there is a good deal of caprice. Even 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 in constitutional countries on the Continent there is a necessity 
 for licensing and notice to the Police, and disabilities of one 
 kind or another, which is deplorable. 
 
 In Russia circumstances are somewhat diiferent. There is no 
 objection to Bible Distribution, nor do the Priests object to the 
 Bible. Religious liberty is allowed to the Lutheran subjects, 
 but that liberty does not include facilities for proselytising, 
 nothing of that kind can be allowed in Russia. " Never will 
 " Russia allow the Orthodox Church to be robbed of its children. 
 " Russia's sacred duty is to keep from the Orthodox Church all, 
 " that can menace her security." The Roman Catholics complain 
 bitterly of disabilities in Poland. Dissenters from the Orthodox 
 Church have to reckon on a good deal of persecution. Jews are 
 grossly ill-treated. Severe punishment falls upon offenders against 
 the Protectionist laws of the Orthodox Church. Only two years 
 ago an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, a Pro- 
 testant Armenian, occupied in translating the Scriptures, was 
 banished with his wife and children from Tiflis to Orenburg, 
 where he is permitted to continue his duties. In their attempts 
 to convert the Non-Christian inhabitants of Central Asia they 
 conduct their operations in the Russian language, and the litera- 
 ture, which they publish, is in that language, totally unintelligible 
 to the ignorant men, women, and children. 
 
 The Sultan of Turkey appears to advantage, when contrasted 
 with his Christian neighbour. The Christian inhabitants have 
 for more than a century enjoyed full toleration, under the 
 guarantee of the great Powers of Europe, and Protestant Mis- 
 sionaries have full licence to proselyte them : but up to the time 
 of the Crimean War in theory, if not practice, a Mahometan, if 
 he became a Christian, suffered death. It seems incredible, that 
 the great Powers of Europe should have submitted so long to 
 such an insult to their Faith. 
 
 The following letter, dated February 12, 1856, of Fuad Pasha 
 to the British Ambassador at Constantinople, defines the existing 
 law: 
 
 The official communications, made formerly by your Excellency, both in 
 writing and verbally, upon the subject of religious matters, have been taken 
 into minute consideration. The important and friendly services, which the 
 Porte has at all times, and more particularly of late, experienced on the part 
 of her illustrious Allies, the English and other Governments, are appreciated in 
 the highest degree by His Majesty the Sultan, and the feehng of gratitude 
 inspired by them will remain for ever impressed upon the heart of the Ottoman 
 Nation. In addition to the sincere desire entertained by the Porte to meet as 
 far as possible the friendly representations of her Allies by satisfactory measures, 
 she is also well acquainted with the spirit of the age, and she hastens accord- 
 ingly, with the Imperial sanction, to communicate the decision adopted regard- 
 ing the above point. In consequence, the assurances formerly given to the 
 British and French Governments with reference to the question of Renegades 
 are at present renewed, and confirmed afresh, while an additional assurance is 
 
( n ) 
 
 declared and made known, that the terms of the decision at that time adopted 
 will be held absolutely to comprise all Renegades. It is sincerely hoped, that 
 this decision, which is a new and practical proof of the Porte's refraining on 
 all occasions from senselessly thwarting, or opposing measures of a practical 
 character, will meet with the satisfaction of your illustrious Allies. 
 
 Mehemet Fuad. 
 
 Lord Stratford de Redcliffe to the Earl of Clarendon. 
 
 Constantinople, February 12, 1856. 
 
 My Lord,— I have received from Fuad Pasha the note, which he had 
 promised in reply to my representations and demands, on the subject of religious 
 opinions, and the impunity of renegades. Inclosed herewith is an English 
 translation of it. Your Lordship will perceive, that the Porte acknowledges and 
 confirms its former declaration respecting renegades, and extends it expressly to 
 all, including Musalmans, though not mentioned by name. It is an of&cial note, 
 signed by the Secretary of State, and given expressly with the Sultan's sanction. 
 Taken into consideration with the article recommended by the three Representa- 
 tives, adopted by the Porte, and inserted in the Sultan's firman invested with 
 the Hatti-Sherif, it may be received, as covering the whole of your Lordship's 
 requisition. If this impression of mine should not be confirmed by Her 
 Majesty's Government, the door is open for a return to the question ; but, if 
 no one is to be molested on account of the religion he professes, and no one to 
 be punished as a renegade, whatever form of faith he denies, I do not see 
 what room there can possibly be for any practical persecutions in future within 
 the limits of the Sultan's Empire. The law of the Koran is not abolished, it is 
 true, respecting renegades, and the Sultan's Ministers affirm, that such a stretch 
 of authority would exceed even his Majesty's legal power. But however that 
 may be, the practical application of it is renounced by means of a public 
 document, and Her Majesty's Government would at any time be justified in 
 complaining of a breach of engagement, if the Porte were to authorize or to 
 permit any exception to its own official declaration. I have, etc., 
 
 Stratford de Redcliffe. 
 
 This, as far as regards the Empire of Turkey, puts an end 
 to any idea of a Mahometan convert being legally assailed : of 
 course he is still in danger of popular indignation, and social 
 disfavour. 
 
 The Empire of China at the extreme East of Asia has for 
 many years been in the same position as the Empire of Turkey 
 on the extreme West. China has also advanced on the course 
 of Toleration, as evidenced by the following Proclamation, one 
 of a series issued in the different Provinces : 
 
 Proclamation by Wei, Governor of Cheh-kiang. 
 
 In the 3rd Moon of the present year (April, 1886) instructions to the follow- 
 ing effect were received from the Tsung-li Yamen : 
 
 " The protection of Christian Chinese being provided for in the Treaties, 
 and friendly relations having now been re-established between China and France, 
 it becomes our duty to draw attention to the Imperial Decree issued in the 7th 
 Moon of the loth year of Kuang Hsii (August, 1884), which laid down that 
 wherever there was a chapel, proclamations should be issued with a. view to 
 securing harmony between the people and the converts." 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 At the time of the receipt of this despatch, I gave the necessary directions, 
 but, passing as they would through many hands, there has of course been 
 danger of delay or error in their execution, and a possibility of the proclamation 
 not having been uniformly promulgated. 
 
 In respectful furtherance, therefore, of the benevolent intentions of the State, 
 I feel it incumbent on me again to put the matter in plain terms. Know, 
 therefore, all men of whatsoever sort or condition, that the sole object of 
 establishing chapels of the various nationalities is to exhort men to virtue. 
 Those who embrace Christianity are, as before, Chinese subjects, and both 
 converts and people should peaceably pursue their calling, and not let mutual 
 jealousies be the cause of strife between them. If cases come before the Courts, 
 the local authority should investigate them impartially, having regard only to 
 the merits of the case, and not as to whether the litigant is a convert or not, 
 and should give his decision quickly. Thus neither party will inflict injury on 
 the other, each will pursue in peace and quietude his calling, and the desire of 
 the State, to include in its kindly benevolence the men from afar [foreign 
 Missionaries] equally with its own people, will not, I trust, be frustrated. 
 
 From the date of this proclamation, any lawless vagabonds, who make 
 trouble, or stir up strife without a cause, shall be punished with the utmost 
 rigour of the law. No mercy will be shown. So beware ! 
 
 \zth Year of Kuang-Hsu, <)th Moon, l6th Day 
 (October lyh, 1886). 
 
 It is notorious, that this Policy is not the result entirely of 
 enlightenment, or conviction, but of a determination to free the 
 Empire from the overbearing claims of France to be the Protector 
 of all Roman Catholic Christians of whatever nationality. It was 
 proposed at first to place their interest under the protection of 
 the Pope : the French Government resisted this. The Emperor 
 of China, by declaring Toleration of the Christian Religion, so long 
 as the converts still remained his subjects with no change in their 
 political status, cuts at the root of the difficulty entirely and for all 
 time. So " per fas et nefas " I can record a distinct progress 
 of Chinese Policy in the right direction. 
 
 In the comparatively small and unimportant Kingdom of Japan 
 the same results have been arrived at, but in a more sound, 
 legitimate, and commendable way. The story of the progress of 
 Religious liberty in Japan is one of the most interesting on record. 
 There was no bloodshed, no despatch of gunboats, no threats, 
 or bullying. In i860 the Missionaries were viewed by the Govern- 
 ment with suspicion : the people, though not hostile, were timid. 
 Christianity was dreaded as a pestilential creed, the introducers 
 of which would bring manifold evils on the country. Spies watched 
 the Missionaries. In i86g a conviction began to grow, that Pro- 
 testantism was less harmful than either Roman Catholicism, or 
 the Russo-Greek Church, but the law against Christianity was 
 enforced by the authorities. When the new constitution of the 
 Empire was formed, new enactments were posted upon the 
 notice-boards in every town and village, to the effect, that the 
 evil sect, called Christian, is strictly prohibited. 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 In 1 873, all these notifications were withdrawn frorrl the notice- 
 boards : but the people were warned, that the law was not 
 changed. The Central Government had clearly adopted a 
 liberal policy, but the local officials were slow to follow, but 
 eventually all official opposition ceased, and Toleration became 
 virtually complete. Buildings for Christian worship of natives 
 began to be erected : no obstacles were placed in the way of 
 preaching: theatres and large buildings were made use of: 
 Christian literature was handed about by colporteurs. 
 
 In 1884, less than twelve years after the removal of the Edicts 
 from the notice-boards, the final step was taken, and the top-stone 
 of the edifice of religious Toleration laid by the issue of notifica- 
 tions in regard to registration and burial. Public Cemeteries 
 were open to all. In fact, heathen Japan arrived at a level of 
 Christian liberty not yet fully attained in some portions of so-called 
 Christian Europe, where the Priests in the name of their Religion 
 still lacerate the feelings of the relatives of the deceased in the 
 bitterest moment of their bereavement. Thus, in Japan, within 
 thirty years of Commodore Perry's first Treaty, and twenty-five 
 years of the opening of the Ports, the last obstacles of Christian 
 liberty were removed, and perfect religious equality was estab- 
 lished, without any actual reference to Christianity by name ; 
 thus disarming all possible opposition. It must be recollected, 
 that the Representatives of Christian States, and Christian 
 Churches, have, throughout in Japan acted with caution and self- 
 restraint, and thus in a perfectly legitimate manner, by the 
 gradual change of public opinion, under the guidance of en- 
 lightened Rulers, by the overruling Grace of God, there has 
 been secured for Japan perfect liberty of conscience in matters 
 of Religion. Many different Missionary Societies are at work, 
 but a gradual consolidation of Churches is in progress : the 
 whole Bible has been translated, and perfect harmony is 
 maintained. 
 
 It need scarcely be stated, that the whole of British India, 
 both the dominions of Her Majesty, and the Protected Inde- 
 pendent States, enjoy Toleration in the highest possible form. 
 In the despatch of the Secretary of State occurs the never-to-be- 
 forgotten passage, that " the duty of doing unto others what we 
 wish men to do unto us, underlies all true Religion." The words 
 of the Victoria Proclamation of November i, 1858, which I 
 myself had a part in promulgating in Northern India, run as 
 follows : 
 
 Firmly relying on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with quietude 
 the solace of Religion, We disclaim alike the Right and Desire to impose Our 
 convictions on any of Our Subjects. We declare it to be Our Royal Will and 
 Pleasure, that none be in any wise favoured, none molested, or disquieted, by 
 reason of their Religious Faith, or observances : but that all shall alike enjoy 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 the equal and impartial protection of the Law : and We do strictly charge and 
 enjoin all those, who may be in authority under Us, that they abstain from all 
 interference with the Religious Belief or Worship of any of Our Subjects on 
 pain of Our highest Displeasure. 
 
 And it is Our further Will, that as far as may be, Our Subjects of whatever 
 Race or Creed be freely and impartially admitted to offices in Our Service, the 
 Duties of which they may be qualified by their education, ability, and integrity 
 duly to discharge. 
 
 How grand and knightly seems the image of Toleration thus 
 raised before the eyes of a subject people by their conquerors in 
 the hour of victory ! How jealous we should be of any infringe- 
 ment of this Charter by evil men, by Missionar}' enthusiasts, or 
 by despotic Governments ! Toleration means Toleration of every 
 form of Belief or Unbelief: it is impossible to draw any inter- 
 mediate line, and to say, that such and such opinions shall be 
 tolerated, and such and such persecuted, and that a negative 
 system of persecution should be adopted of exclusion from 
 office, or denial of privilege to take the place of the old and 
 exploded forms of positive persecution. All are equally, hope- 
 lessly, radically, bad, and unworthy of a Christian man, for God 
 is a Spirit to be worshipped in spirit and truth. 
 
 There are other countries, like Persia, where Toleration is 
 doubtful : other forms of belief are tolerated, but conversion of 
 a Mahometan would be followed by heavy penalties. In Savage 
 Countries Toleration is guaranteed by no law, and is capricious : 
 however, very often complete Toleration is experienced. As a 
 rule the only thorough-going Religious Persecutors have been 
 Mahometans or Christians. 
 
 The Missionaries, who enjoy Toleration, should be tolerant to 
 others. From want of reflection they often forget this rule. 
 They are convinced of the truth of their holy Religion, and the 
 falseness of any other view of the matter : but so is the Roman 
 Catholic, the Mahometan,. the Hindu, and even the poor Nature 
 worshipper. In every case the Missionary should reflect upon 
 the principle of doing unto others what he would wish that men 
 should do unto him, and mentally conjure up the vision of, how 
 he would like the measure, which he metes out to others, to be 
 meted out to himself. I need scarcely add, that there is extreme 
 political danger in a departure from the principles of Toleration, 
 but I would dwell not on the Danger, but on the Wrong. It is 
 "Malum perse" in the strongest sense. I give some instances, 
 merely as illustrations. 
 
 In a very large sacred City in Upper India is a Mission, and 
 a learned young Brahmin had been, after a great struggle, 
 converted and baptized : his wife's family refused to let her join 
 him : by their law he was de jure and de facto divorced. A 
 tumult about some matter happened to arise in that City, and I 
 went down with troops to quell it : availing themselves of the 
 
( 7S ) 
 
 confusion, some Members of the Mission went to the house 
 of the wife, and carried her off, with her consent, and fortunately 
 without bloodshed. That same evening I met the Missionary's 
 wife driving in a carriage with a young girl, and she told me who 
 she was, how she had been captured, and that she had given her 
 at once English food, and thus destroyed her caste. This seemed 
 to me contrary to all laws, human and divine : had the parents 
 complained, 1 must have passed a heavy sentence upon the Mis- 
 sionary party, who had invaded a Brahmin's house, kidnapped 
 a woman, and wilfully destroyed her caste. What would they 
 have thought, if a party of Mahometans had invaded the house 
 of a Missionary, carried off his little boy, and circumcised him ? 
 The poor little girl died in childbed a few months after, and the 
 husband still lives, but has never married again. 
 
 How deeply the Christian Church still resents the appro- 
 priation of the Church of St. Sophia at Constantinople to be a 
 Mosque, the Church at Damascus to the same purpose, and the 
 many instances of the desecration of Christian places of worship 
 to another Religion ! And yet I read of this happening in the 
 centre of China : 
 
 The whole body of Managers of the Temple, together with the whole 
 body of villagers, deliberating in a public capacity, voluntarily agree to make 
 over the Temple-buildings to the Church of Christ, for the purpose of fitting up 
 a meeting-house, in order to the public preaching of the sacred doctrine, and 
 for the purpose of establishing a public school, that the youth of the village 
 may become virtuous, a benefit to future generations. The whole is to belong 
 to the Church, and subject to its control, for a possession for ever, and the land 
 belonging to the Temple is made over to the chapel-keeper, Chu Sien k'o, and 
 his descendants, to be cultivated as his own, and the Church is not at liberty 
 to sell the same. 
 
 The destruction of the idols was to be begun to-day, and after preaching at 
 a neighbouring fair I went over there to attend the funeral, for they had decided 
 to bury them. The Chinese have a saying that money can move the gods, but 
 here were about three score gods moved most effectively without the expendi- 
 ture of a cash. For when I reached there about noon, I found the work 
 finished and both Temples empty. 
 
 A long cavity was found washed out by the water, into which they were 
 plunged headlong, and thus, dust as they were, they returned to dust. The idols 
 often cost enormous sums, because the clay is of a peculiar kind, the materials 
 expensive, such as oil, etc., especially the gilding. Moreover, it is usual to 
 subscribe a certain amount of silver, which is incorporated in the body of the 
 image, and becomes, perhaps, his heart. In demolishing the gods their hearts 
 were not found right, for in place of the lungs of silver was found pewter. 
 Thus the delusions of idol-worship were fitly typified in the frauds of the idol- 
 makers. They that make them are like unto them. It was suitable that such 
 divinities should end their career by sepulture in a gutter ! 
 
 A large amount of lumber remains, which, once the platforms for the idols, 
 will now become benches for our congregation. There are drums, candle- 
 sticks, incense-holders, etc., and several good bells, the largest of which is 
 to be hung up. 
 
 In a conquered country like India this line of conduct would 
 
( 76 ) 
 
 be dangerous : in China it seems to be madness : but was there 
 no other land to be purchased ? were there are no other houses 
 to be occupied ? could no other material be used for the benches 
 of the congregation ? Surely a day of reprisals will arrive, and 
 who can justify such conduct ? r -i- 
 
 We all know in England of the sorrow caused m families, 
 when a young boy or girl falls into the clutches of a designing 
 Roman Catholic Priest, and in spite of the prayers of the 
 Parents, is carried off to a Convent, or Home, and the conduct 
 of the Priest is severely censured. Yet how often we read of a case 
 equally cruel in British India ! It is not, that a man should not 
 give up all for Christ's sake, but it is the way, in which it is done, 
 the manner in which it is described by some Missionaries, that 
 indicates the entire absence of Christian Toleration : the parents 
 are spoken of unkindly as instruments of Satan ; and it is for- 
 gotten, that the sacred ties of the family should, under all circum- 
 stances, be respected. Christian men should do Christian things 
 in a Christian manner. If the young convert has Faith, we 
 know that, like the young Martyrs and Confessors in the early 
 Centuries, he will be supported in his trial. The Church should 
 now, as then, offer prayers in behalf of such sufferers for Christ's 
 sake, but the young convert should be allowed to return to his 
 home. The Spirit of the Lord can watch over its own children. 
 
 I am glad to note in a Report of a Missionary Society in 
 India of this year the following wise words, and I earnestly 
 press them upon all Missionaries. It is better to lose one poor 
 weak convert, than to peril the good name of Protestant 
 Christians by adopting one of the most evil practices of the 
 Romish Priest, who delights to work like the mole under ground : 
 
 It is extremely difficult to decide what is the right course to adopt in such 
 cases. Our practice so far has been to require the inquirer to confess his 
 intention to his parents, and thus, while taking care, that due protection from 
 unfair pressure or persecution should be given, to insure that there should 
 be no ground for any charge of concealment, and that a sufficient test of sincerity 
 and earnestness should be applied to the inquirer. 
 
 More zeal than Charity is often manifested, because the Mis- 
 sionary forgets, that the Heathen and Mahometan are men of 
 like passions with ourselves, neither better nor worse, and that 
 they love their offspring as much as we do. It is a terrible time 
 for a nation, when it is shaking off its old Creed, and adopting 
 a new one ; when its moral and religious system is in the throes 
 and agonies of a new birth. Terrible is the struggle, through 
 which bold spirits, and tender hearts, have to pass. It seems so 
 simple to be a Christian, when we are born so, but, when the 
 leaven begins to work in a non-Christian soul, and a wall of 
 separation is built up between him and the Past, when the Gods 
 of his Parents, and his Friends, are no longer his Gods, what 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 domestic misery is caused 1 On the ruins of how many homes 
 were the first altars of Christ raised ? Wives left their husbands : 
 old fathers cursed their sons, because they dared to be wiser 
 than their Parents. Sons waited till the death of their Fathers 
 before they dared to own Christ. Old associations, old friend- 
 ships, old greetings on the steps of the Temple, old meetings at 
 the Village-Saturnalia, sweet memories connected with the Past, 
 the Dead, with Groves on Hill-tops, and happy days in the 
 morning of their career, all are swept away : the outer world loses 
 all its poetic imagery : the very humblest trembles at the thought 
 of being cut off from his kith and kin, at being received with 
 a curse at doors, where, since he was a child, he was greeted 
 with blessings, to be pointed out in the streets as a renegade, to 
 be nicknamed as a reprobate, to be severed from all he loves. 
 These are the trials, of which the Missionary seems to make no 
 account : the Heathen and Mahometan are described as children 
 of Satan, and deserve no quarter, no pity, not even gentle words 
 of consolation. The tender Christian feels for his bitterest 
 enemy, and would not willingly add to the sorrow of his poor 
 fellow-creature. 
 
 I have already alluded in full to the want of Toleration shown 
 by the Missionary in matters of State Education, how he would 
 wish to have the Bible taught in Schools maintained by taxation 
 of the Heathen, and Public Instruction made a Means of 
 Conversion. There is no chance of such a policy being carried 
 out. A great improvement has taken place in their manner of 
 addressing the heathen. Insults are no longer heaped upon 
 Heathen Divinities. Loving words, wise and gentle reasonings, 
 friendly discussions, have taken the place of wholesale and 
 foolish abuse. I myself heard in my youth a Missionary tell a 
 crowd of Hindus, " that their Gods were dung," and they 
 laughed at him, but this was not the way to win their hearts. 
 
 An attempt was once made in Upper India to introduce Mis- 
 sionaries into the Public Gaols, to address the Prisoners. I was 
 strongly opposed to this, and it was forbidden. Clearly prisoners 
 in Gaol are not free agents, and a Gaol is not the proper place 
 for the preaching and teaching of the Gospel to the Heathen. 
 What would be thought, if, in a Mahometan country, a Christian 
 prisoner had the horrors of confinement intensified by having 
 to listen to attempts to convert him from his Faith ? All such 
 devices are contrary to Toleration. 
 
 It is not quite easy to find the exact line to draw. A quarter 
 of a Century ago, when I held high office in the Panjdb, I main- 
 tained my right to attend the baptism of Native converts at the 
 Mission Chapel at Amritsar, and the Viceroy, Lord Canning, 
 who had called upon me to explain my conduct, admitted my 
 right. My position was, that the Hindu and Mahometan officials 
 
( 78 ) 
 
 made no scruples in attending the ceremonial of their Religions, 
 and I had the same right. I distinctly, however, admitted, that 
 it would not be judicious in a high official to attend the baptism 
 of a converted Soldier of the Native Army, as entirely diiferent 
 considerations entered into such a case. While carefully ob- 
 serving my duty not to interfere by my official acts in the religious 
 affairs of any sect, I maintained my right to attend on the Religious 
 ceremonies of my own Church, so long as the public Service was 
 in no way affected, or the principles of Toleration compromised. 
 This is now an admitted precedent for this class of case. 
 Sir H. Maine states the principle clearly : 
 
 We will not force any man to be a Christian ; we will not tempt any man to 
 be a Christian : but, if he choose to be a Christian, it would be shameful, if we 
 did not apply to him, and his, those principles of equal dealing between man 
 and man, of which we in India are the sole depositories. 
 
 On the other hand, a Christian should firmly abstain from any 
 personal concession to a false Religion. The well-known 
 Colonel Skinner, in the beginning of the century, built a Church, 
 a Mosque, and a Hindu Temple, as, in fact, he had no religion at 
 all. In India I never knew of any public officer condescending 
 to such a departure from respect to his own religion, while at the 
 same time, cold, but unsympathetic, respect is always exhibited 
 to the Religion of the Natives. When the Viceroy, Lord 
 Canning, visited Amritsar, I persuaded him not to place the 
 usual bag of Rupees on the floor of the great Temple of the 
 Sikhs, but the Priests went afterwards to the Foreign Office, 
 and the money was given them. 
 
 As time goes on, all these official compliments to non- 
 Christian places of worship will be discontinued, or perhaps 
 have been so. They had no religious, but only a political, 
 signification. It was certainly wrong, and contrary to a just view of 
 Toleration, to require the Christian Soldiers of the British Army 
 to be drawn up, and salute the sacred carpet, on its road from 
 , Cairo to Mekka. This is just the one thing, that ought to have 
 been sternly resisted. In the French Colony of Algeria I re- 
 marked with regret, that at one place a Mosque had been utilized 
 for the public Service, and at another the Government had 
 erected a Mosque at the public expense. Here a double error 
 was committed. I read in the Letters of General Gordon at 
 Khartlim, published by Dr. Birkbeck Hill, that he had a Mosque 
 cleared, and repaired, and thought that it was a great coup, and 
 he also paid the expenses of the circumcision of a boy ; I trust 
 that it was not a Christian boy. Still in both cases he com- 
 mitted a grave error, which would have cost him his appointment, 
 had he been in India. In Egypt Englishmen seem to forget, 
 that they are Christians. In British India this is never 
 forgotten. The most thoughtless always so remember their 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 early training, as never to lend themselves to Non-Christian 
 worship. 
 
 It always pains me to see the idols, and objects of worship 
 of Heathen people, exhibited for purposes of derision before a 
 Christian audience : the poor people, who made them, believed 
 in the existence of a Supernatural Power, greater than themselves, 
 and tried to conciliate it. They felt after God, if haply they 
 could find Him. They had never the opportunity of knowing 
 better. They were not advanced in Arts or Science, but they 
 gave of their best to their God, and generation after generation 
 had prayed before those symbols of Divinity, returning thanks 
 for abundant Harvests, or trying to appease anger in times of 
 Famine and Pestilence. There is nothing to laugh at in these 
 attempts of the Soul of Man, however imperfectly, to approach 
 the great Controller of human events. Some, perhaps, of those, 
 who laugh at the poor savages' superstition, have arrived at the 
 more dangerous pinnacle of human wisdom, and doubt whether 
 a God exists at all. Perhaps through the unlimited ' mercies of 
 the Saviour the poor heathen, who never knew Christ, is nearer 
 Salvation, than him, who knew Him, and wilfully dishonoured 
 Him by rejecting His Message. 
 
 I sum up the result of my experience. The Public Officer 
 should. assist at no Heathen Procession (unless he is on duty to 
 keep the peace), he should make no offerings at Heathen 
 Temples, allow no garlands, as in old times, to be placed round 
 his neck at heathen festivals: in no way directly, or indirectly, 
 should he allow himself to be mixed up in the worship of idols : 
 he should receive the Priests, if they visit him, as subjects of Her 
 Majesty, and very jolly fellows some of them are. If he visits a 
 Temple, or Mosque, on duty or pleasure, if requested, he should 
 take off his shoes, out of respect to the conscience of the 
 worshippers, just as a non-Christian in Great Britain takes off his 
 hat in a Church. If he lives in the midst of the people in daily 
 contact, he will do well to abstain from beef, swine's flesh, and 
 liquor, not for his own conscience, but for the conscience of 
 those, over whom he wishes to exercise an influence for good. 
 He should not be ashamed to be seen in prayer, but should not 
 do so ostentatiously : he should religiously observe the Sabbath, 
 and, setting a watch over his life and his conduct, walk before the 
 Mahometan and the Heathen, as a man, who fears and loves the 
 Lord, and loves his neighbour also, and this includes the whole 
 duty of man. A go(}d Hindu and good Mahometan are praised 
 by their neighbours, and still more a good Christian. 
 
 The Missionary sometimes speaks depreciatingly of the Chris- 
 tian, Hindu, and Mahometan, officials, because they will not listen 
 to his short-sighted and one-sided requests. It would be a bad 
 day, if a weak Magistrate were to listen to them. An experienced 
 
( 80 ) 
 
 Missionary in the Panjib of forty years' standing remarked, 
 that he had never once asked anything of a Magistrate. The 
 Mahometan Kadi would as a matter of course befriend his co- 
 religionist in a suit before him, because in his intolerance he 
 looks on the possessors of any other religion as dogs ; but this is 
 just what a British official is charged not to do, but to maintain 
 a sovereign disregard of the religious tenets of the litigants. 
 Any other policy engenders deep discontent, and produces among 
 the converts a crop of rare hypocrites and dissemblers. The 
 duty of the authorities is to give the Missionaries a fair field, and 
 free play, and to enforce equitable laws, by which crime is 
 defined, and rights are maintained of Freedom of Education, 
 Freedom of Religion, personal liberty of choice, and of change, 
 when a certain age has been obtained : till then the patria 
 potestas must be supported: and, when that change has been made, 
 no loss of property, or deprivation of rights, must follow. But 
 the peace of families must not be wantonly disturbed by fanatics, 
 or the sanctity of dwelling-houses invaded by intruders : no 
 boycotting must be allowed, in the name of Religion and Morality, 
 to interfere with the rights of the humblest before God and 
 Man, whether the offender be Mahometan, Hindu or Christian. 
 
 The proper attitude of a Missionary is that of pitying love to a 
 dying world, that of a medical man called in to a patient suffering 
 under a desperate disease : there is no room for blame, or abuse, 
 or threats : it is not the fault of the non-Christian, but his 
 misfortune : it is of no use entering into discussions on abstract 
 questions, or quoting European authorities, or talking of the 
 greatness of Great Britain : if the Gospel-message were brought 
 by the Maori of New Zealand, or the Hottentot of South Africa, 
 it would be equally true. The converts should not form a new 
 class of citizens, but remain unchanged in dress, language, 
 education, and lawful occupation. The Christian Religion 
 exhibits a code of the highest Morality. The Servant of God 
 must not use unholy means to attain holy ends : he must not 
 steal into widows' houses, or, without the full knowledge of the 
 Parents, set about the conversion of children in their tender 
 years : it is better in most cases to wait, till the child is of full 
 age, and give no occasion to the enemy for imputing fraud, or 
 temptation, or pressure, or underhand methods. It must be 
 thoroughly understood, that the sole object of the Mission 
 School is to effect conversions, and that the raison d'etre of 
 the Missionary is the same. Christ's net is spread over the 
 World to catch Souls, but it is not the night-line of the Poacher : 
 it is spread in midday under the light of the Sun : " in Thy 
 name. Lord, we will cast down Thy net." 
 
 July, 1888. 
 
VIL 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF THE MISSIONARY. 
 
 First comes the Idea " Guilty Leisure." Are there no men 
 and women in the Community, for whom God has provided in 
 His bounty an Abundance, or a Sufficiency, and who pass 
 through a long life of ease, and health, who have unemployed 
 gifts, who do nothing for the Lord, who bought them ? This 
 is what is meant by " Guilty Leisure." On the Continent no 
 substitutes are allowed to exempt from Military Conscription. 
 Personal Service is required : there is something more valuable 
 than Gold and Silver, and every Christian is bound to render 
 this to the Home and Foreign Missions, or to both. How do 
 some of our acquaintances get through their long tedious days, 
 sanctified by no labour, unenlightened by any interest .-' Have 
 they not done what they could ? And why ? 
 
 For next comes the Idea " Inexcusable Ignorance." And yet 
 this is an age of enlightenment, and the Missionary Societies 
 flood the world with interesting information, but there are some, 
 who will not read them. The Sunday School is instructed in 
 the details of St. Paul's Missionary Journeys, but knows 
 nothing, or next to nothing, of the great work of the successors 
 of St. Paul. And yet the Reports of Missionary Societies, 
 and their Periodicals, are filled with greater interest than the 
 most fascinating Romance, and have the advantage, or perhaps 
 disadvantage, of being true. Perils by Land, Perils by Sea, 
 Perils by Robbers, Perils by the Heathen, Perils in the City, 
 Perils in the Wilderness, Perils among False Brethren : in 
 weariness, in painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and 
 thirst: in fastings often, in cold and nakedness, besides the 
 care of all the Churches : moving accidents by flood and field ; 
 disappointments and successes : triumphs and abasements : all 
 these and more are to be found. As the narrative flows on in 
 its simplicity, the narrow walls of the room seem to expand, 
 PART iiu 6 
 
( 82 ) 
 
 and the reader is transported in thought to the great cities of 
 Asia, the inhospitable Regions of North America, the Islands 
 of Oceania, and the vast deserts of Africa. There stands an 
 honest God-fearing man, one of the reader's own race and kin 
 and language, sent out to preach the Gospel by his Church, 
 and is he not something in this cold, self-seeking, material age, 
 to be proud of? He has given up the prospect of wealth and 
 honour, and ease, in his own country, and has gone out to 
 endure hardship for the sake of the suffering, the oppressed, 
 and the ignorant : nor has he gone alone, for by his side there 
 moves a form, scattering sweet flowers round his life in those 
 God-forsaken regions, attracting to herself hearts by the strange 
 sight of the Beauty of Holiness: they call her in their un- 
 tutored accents an angel: he calls her, wife, who like Ruth will 
 not leave him. Are such stories as these not worth reading 1 
 Is not this " Inexcusable Ignorance " as to the continuity of the 
 Missionary Spirit from the time of St. Paul to the present hour ? 
 
 In the biographies of some great and good men we read a 
 notice of the first conception, which dawned on his intellect, of 
 a great idea, with which he afterwards connected himself. In 
 the story of a Missionary's life we read of the first tale about 
 Missions, that fell into his hands. It is because such a form of 
 literature is deliberately shut out of certain homes, that many 
 hearts are not touched, that to many the opportunity of serving 
 God is not presented. A quarter of a century ago there may 
 have been an excuse for this. A certain Bishop, with doubtful 
 good taste, a short time ago, in the room of a great Missionary 
 Society, described the Missionary literature of his youth as dis- 
 tasteful, even repulsive, and " headaching." Was the fault with 
 the Bishop's head or heart } My years exceed his, and the 
 subject came upon me in my youth, and admitting, as I do 
 freely, the great defects of style, and tone, and the exaggeration 
 of the publications of that period, yet through the imperfect 
 human exterior I detected the inner grace. Whatever was 
 written about John Williams, or Carey, or Henry Martyn, or 
 Brainerd, or Schwartz, or Columba of lona, or Boniface of 
 Exeter, or Xavier, had been written then. And we seemed to 
 move in the midst of men, who are now counted as Ancient 
 Heroes, DuflF, and Daniel Wilson, Morrison, John Wilson, Living- 
 stone, Krapf, and many others. 
 
 My hearty desire is, that the youth of England should be as 
 much instructed in the lives of the great Missionaries of the 
 present Century, as of the great Statesmen and Warriors of the 
 past ; that in their study of Geography there should be not only 
 the Physical, the Political, the Ethnological, the Linguistic, but 
 also the Evangelistic branch of that great Science. It would 
 be but an imperfect description of great Regions, if no allusion 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 were made to the good men, under whose guidance these savage 
 inhabitants passed from a state approaching to that of wild 
 animals into the ranks of Civilized Man. 
 
 My object at present is limited to the literary wants of the 
 Missionaries. The narrowness of their vision in some matters 
 is distressing. By the necessity of the case they belong to one 
 Denomination of Religious thought, they acquire one or two 
 local languages, and settle down for the term of their lives in 
 the midst of one circumscribed Region, one people, one phase 
 of human development and weaknesses, one method of work, 
 and one groove of ideas. They fail in universal sympathy, except 
 in a most general way. If in a friendly way they meet men of 
 other denominations, the process of levelling down, and the 
 pressure of the same environment, the similarity of the manner 
 of looking at the same phenomena, prevents all enlightenment. 
 The labour of the Missionary is heavy, his health is uncertain, 
 the time of life, when he leaves Great Britain, is very youthful, 
 all previous experience is non existing; visits to his native 
 country are brief, and a whirl of employment. All these are 
 impediments against his mastering the great principles, which 
 underlie the exercise of his noble calling, the Saving of Souls. 
 In no other way can I explain the density of the vision of 
 Missionaries, their persistency in the same error, their appealing 
 to each other as authorities for the same fallacy. "Every 
 Missionary is agreed upon this subject," some one said lately 
 upon an Exeter Hall Platform. So much the worse for the 
 subject, for it has never been fairly thrashed out in all its bear- 
 ings. " We are assembled here, not to discuss, but to denounce," 
 said a fanatical and one-sided Chairman in a meeting of packed 
 enthusiasts, got together by tickets to pass a Resolution, only fit 
 to supply paper to ignite the fires of the Government-ofifice, to 
 which it was presented, in which operation light for the first 
 time would be let into the matter, obscured by prejudice, and 
 distorted by exaggeration. 
 
 In new Missions, and new Missionary Societies, over and over 
 again we notice the same errors of practice, the same exploded 
 methods, the same cant-phrases to conceal ignorance. Then 
 new forms of error spring up, notably those, which disfigure the 
 last crop of German Missions, exclusion of other Nationalities 
 than that of the Ruling Power, leaning upon the help of the 
 Civil Government, blending the incompatible duties of Pastor to 
 a Christian community, and Evangelist to Non-Christian races ; 
 attempts to associate Commerce, Emigration, Agriculture, and 
 Manufacture with pure Gospel-teaching, forcing an alien 
 language of the Conqueror on an Asiatic or African people : all 
 these miserable errors have been combated, abandoned and con- 
 demned in old Missions ; but like the measles and whooping 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 cough re-appear in infant enterprizes. We seem working in a 
 blind circle, and the world is never growing wiser. 
 
 A Century of Missions should have taught us some prmciples, 
 and has taught us, if we have but Grace to accept the teachmg, 
 and communicate it to the men in the field : and this is the 
 object of my remarks. 
 
 In Missionary Colleges, encouragement and opportunity 
 should be given to the Student to inform himself as to the 
 progress of the Gospel-Warfare all over the world : there should 
 be no sneering at, and shelving, the work of particular denomina- 
 tions : no blind worshipping of particular Schools, headed by 
 noisy, self-confident, and self-asserting, men. If it be not possible 
 to have a course of lectures on the Science of Missions in its 
 many-sided aspect, at least. Missionaries on leave should detail 
 in full in isolated lectures their own methods, pointing out 
 faithfully the merits and shortcomings, and warning the hearers, 
 that these are only the methods of particular fields, not, like the 
 Bible, the accepted and revealed Truth in all Fields. In their 
 private room Missionary Students should study the lives of 
 illustrious Missionaries, and the periodical Reports. 
 
 The first bit of property of a Missionary should be a substan- 
 tial blank Note Book of goodly size, entitled : 
 
 Watanta, ©userentia, iLesentia, Uiientia, Fieetitja, Uttanlia. 
 
 And he should go nowhere without his book. In it personal 
 adventures, and spiritual meditations, should find no place, but 
 an inquiring spirit, wholly dedicated to the task of Gospel- 
 preaching, will find, that each day in his reading, in his conversa- 
 tion, in his thoughts and prayers, something will come to his 
 observation, his memory, his mind, and his soul, which deserves 
 noticing: some difficulty will arise, which will require solving; 
 some book will be suggested, which requires reading : some 
 object or place will be mentioned, which he may desire to see, 
 or visit, if occasion may offer : some error may be brought home, 
 which must be avoided. If he keep such a book, and refer to it 
 continually, he will find his information much increased, and 
 the pages of such a book should be numbered, and dated, and 
 an Index kept up to date. Now, if he meet a friend, who has 
 kept such a Note Book, how grateful and profitable will be the 
 interchange of knowledge, the solution of difficulties, the opening 
 out of new trains of thought. What more precious legacy could 
 an aged servant of God leave to a young friend than such a 
 record } The narrative of admitted, or obvious, failures is quite 
 as instructive as the vaunted success, because it has the merit of 
 truth, and is not to be found in the glorified official Report, 
 where everything is tinted rose-colour, and all disagreeable 
 matter omitted. The very doubting adhesion of a wise man 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 becomes the conviction of the less gifted. Men engagfed in 
 secular matters have found the advantage of such a silent 
 monitor, as it tends to produce order in the chambers of the 
 Memory, and supplies the means to strengthen the judgment, 
 and to point argument by apt illustrations. 
 
 Each great Missionar}' Station, and each cluster of smaller 
 Stations, as well as all Training Colleges, should be supplied 
 ■with Missionary Literature, of the following kinds. 
 
 The current periodicals of all the great Missionary Societies 
 of Great Britain and America should, by courtesy, be supplied 
 to them direct, and should be read, and an interest aroused and 
 kept alive in other fields than the reader's own particular one. 
 It will not only strengthen the judgment, and enlarge the 
 Charity, but it will sustain drooping Faith, it will fill the hearts 
 of faithful men with conviction of their great Duty, thanksgiving 
 to God for His unfailing help, and love to their fellow-workmen, 
 and the poor Heathen. Deep calls to Deep, praising the Lord, 
 as the resident in India or China reads with joy the unobtrusive 
 labours of the Moravians at Labrador, or the battle with the cold 
 in North America, and the fierce heats in Africa : awhile with 
 bated breath he reads the story of Hannington on Victoria 
 Nyanza, of Selwyn in Melanesia, of Chalmers in New Guinea, 
 of Bentley and Grenfell on the Kongo, of Johnson on the 
 Nyassa, and the Lone Star Mission of South America. Men 
 and Women in India and China live in comfortable Bungalows, 
 with all the appliances of civilization, but they will with profit 
 read of the peril, the nights of watching, the sufferings, the 
 hungerings, the insults, which are joyfully borne by the Servants 
 of the Cross. All the surroundings of the far-off Missions differ, 
 the methods, the languages, the degree of culture, the degree of 
 temperature ; but one golden thread twines through the whole 
 tapestry, of various patterns, but woven with the same woof, the 
 suffering of Christ, the Salvation of His creatures, and the 
 Struggle for Holiness. From the Pulpit they will tell their 
 Indian or Chinese converts of other worlds, but the same Saviour, 
 of other servants occupied in the same service, for the same King, 
 linked to them by a tie dearer than that of Nationality, or 
 Language, or Customs, viz. of Faith in One able to save. 
 
 Another advantage would be that the unlimited querulousness, 
 and arrogant bearing, of many of the Missionaries in India and 
 China, would be shamed into reason by the thought of what 
 their less favoured brethren are undergoing. It would do a 
 Chinese Missionary a world of good to have three years in 
 Equatorial Africa, or on the Niger amidst Cannibals, with . 
 Human Sacrifices : with lawlessness of the petty chief, with 
 attacks of Marauders, and Slave-dealers : the miserable accom- 
 modation, the solitude, the climate, the despondency. He 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 would return back to his decent way of life and comfortable 
 quarters, among people in Asiatic civilization, a sadder and 
 wiser man. Our friends in their comparatively easy life (and 
 I speak as one, who spent twenty-five years in India, in the 
 interior, among the people in war and peace) forget that here 
 in Great Britain we have Reports from Missionaries in every 
 part of the world, and are able to form comparisons. 
 
 The next division of the Library should be Missionary 
 Biographies, the silent voice of the dead, which still speaks, 
 calling up the forms of ancient men, who did their duty, and are 
 now entered into their Rest, the Sufferers for the Cross, who have 
 now inherited the Crown. Every Missionary should be thoroughly 
 informed in this class of Literature. The names are too many 
 to enumerate, but the selection should be impartial, and varied. 
 Such books have a peculiar fascination, and are full of lessons to 
 those, who come after, and know how to be taught. The figures, 
 which pass before us are no lay figures. Adoniram Judson, and 
 his three holy wives, are no creatures of the fancy. Carey, 
 Patteson, Allen Gardiner, Saker, and Livingstone were real men, 
 whose hands we have touched, whose words we have listened to, 
 and yet who stand out, and speak to us with the same power and 
 solemnity, as Roman Heroes, or Christian Saints. How can the 
 young Missionary feed his soul with high resolve, how can he 
 realize the Poetry, the romantic beauty, the exalted Spirituality, 
 of his calling, unless he reads such books as these, and others of 
 the same stamp, and reads with prayer to be like them, in their 
 lives, and in their deaths. It gives a reality to his high ofl&ce to 
 feel, that he is one of a great Army, part of which has crossed 
 the flood, and that he must tread in the footprints of his pre- 
 decessors, and of One greater than they, if he wishes to do aught 
 in this world, or attain aught in the next. When Missionaries 
 fall to the dead level of ordinary life, and waste their time in 
 squabbles with each other, or meddling in mundane politics, 
 and commerce, they cease to have the power of winning souls. 
 They should hold themselves always, as Soldiers do on the eve 
 of a grand battle, and in humble pride venture on the thought, 
 that perhaps, if they fall nobly, their lives will be written to 
 remain hereafter, and establish the hearts of generations of 
 Missionaries still to be born. 
 
 In the third class comes a great miscellaneous collection of 
 Books, which will vary in each Country, and each Nationality, 
 and each Mission-Field. It is impossible to prepare a complete 
 list. I only subjoin a list of some which may be useful, and 
 encourage the Missionary to prepare a list in each Field for his 
 contemporaries, and those who come after him, and have pages 
 set apart for them in his Note Book. 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 Books for a Missionary Library. 
 
 A. The periodicals and Annual Reports of all the great Mis- 
 
 sionary Societies of all Denominations of all Nationalities. 
 
 B. Missionary Biographies carefully selected, so as to represent 
 
 all types, all methods, all characters, all periods of 
 Christianity, and both sexes. 
 
 C. Miscellaneous. 
 
 {a.) Statistical. 
 
 Dr. George Smith. History of Christian Missions. 2nd Edition, 1887. 
 
 Professor Christlieb. Foreign Missions of Protestantism, 1880. 
 
 Rev. J. Stoerow. Protestant Missions in Pagan-Lands, 1888. 
 
 Handboolc to Foreign Missions. Religious Tract Society, 1888. 
 
 Dr. Murray Mitchell. Foreign Missions of the Protestant Church, 1888. 
 
 Dr. Grunderman. Kleiner Mission Atlas. 2nd Edition, 1886. 
 
 W. F. Bainbridge. Around the World of Christian Missions. New York. 
 
 (*.) Descriptive. 
 
 Evangelization of the World. China's Inland Mission, 1888. 
 Sir Bartle Frere. Indian Missions, 1873. 
 Report of Proceedings of Mildmay Missionary Conference, 1878. 
 Dr. T. Smith Duff. Medical Missions. Lecture. 1880. 
 Bishop of Ossory. Heroes of Mission Field, 1887. 
 
 Missionary Church- of England. Six Sermons by Selected Preachers. 
 S.P.C.K., 1887. 
 Rev. M. a. Sherring. Trident, Crescent, and Cross, 1876. 
 Rev. T. Phillips. Missionary Vade Mecum. Calcutta, 1847. 
 The Ely-Volume, New York. Missions and Science. 
 Rev. James Johnston. Century of Missions. 
 Rev. J. Carlyle. South African Missions. 
 Rev. Dr. A. Thompson. Moravian Missions. New York. 
 Rev. Dr. Pearson. Crisis of Missions. London, 1887. 
 
 (f.) Reviews. 
 
 Missionary Review of the whole World. New York, 1888. 
 
 Church Work, late Mission Life. London. 
 
 Several Local Reviews of great value in India, China, and elsewhere. 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 {d.) Historical. 
 
 Descriptions of Particular Fields of Missions, specially prepared by each 
 Missionary Society, and of extreme value. 
 
 False Religions. 
 
 Dr. John Wilson. Experience of Hinduism. Bombay. Hind}. 
 
 Mr. Pearce. " True Refuge." Dialogue on Hindu Religion, Hindi. 
 
 Rev. McMullen. Religious Aspect of Hindu Philosophy, i860. 
 
 Rev. Krishna Mohun Banerjea. Dialogues of Hindu Philosophy. 
 Calcutta. 
 
 Rev. Nehemiah Goreh. Rational Refutation of the- Hindu Philosophical 
 System. Calcutta, 1862. 
 
 Sir M. Monier-Williams. Indian Wisdom. 
 • Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism. S. P. C. K. 
 
 Sir W. Muir. Life of Mahomet, The Koran, etc., etc. 
 
 Dr. Murdock. Indian Missionary Manual, 1870. 
 
 Prof. Max Muller. Outline Dictionary for Reading Vernacular Words. 
 
 Hardy. On Buddhism. 
 
 And many others, 
 
 SIEPHliN AUSTi^ ANU SONS, PRINTKRS, HKKTFOKU. 
 
Jiote0 on iKltestonarp g^ubjecw* 
 
 pact KF. 
 
 MISSIONARY ADDRESSES, 
 PICTURES AND NOTICES. 
 
 I. MISSIONARY HEROES IN AFRICA. II. NATIVE TEACHERS IN POLYNESIA. 
 
 III. THE DUTY OF THE YOUTH OF GREAT BRITAIN. IV. THE 
 
 HERO-MISSIONARY, AND HEROIC MISSIONARY SOCIETY. V. THE 
 
 FEMALE EVANGELIST. VI. THE NATIVE CHURCH IN INDIA. 
 
 VII. THE CHRISTIAN SOLDIER. VIII. OBITUARY NOTICE OF A 
 
 DEAR YOUNG FRIEND. IX. EXETER HALL, MAY 1, -1888. 
 
 X. A WORD TO THOSE, WHO DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE DIVINELY 
 
 IMPOSED DUTY OF EVANGELIZATION. XI. THOUGHTS ON THE 
 
 METHODS OF EVANGELIZATION. 
 
 ROBERT NEEDHAM CUST, LL.D., 
 
 LATE MEMBER OF H.M. INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, MEMBER OF COMMITTEES OF BRITISH AND 
 
 FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY AND CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, MEMBER OF TRANSLATION 
 
 COMMITTEE OF SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, 
 
 INCORPORATED MEMBER OF SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION 
 
 OF THE GOSPEL, AND HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE 
 
 ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1888. 
 All Rights Reserved. 
 
HERTFORD : 
 
 PRINTED BY STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS. 
 
Co tlje JHemarits of 
 
 THOSE, WHO TAUGHT ME MY LESSON, 
 
 AMD SET ME THE EXAMPLE OF DEVOTION- 
 
 TO THE CAUSE OF MISSIONS, 
 
 IN ITS HIGHEST AND HOLIEST SENSE OF 
 
 ■PREACHING THE GOSPEL TO THE NON-CHRISTIAN WORLD:' 
 
 DANIEL WILSON, BISHOP OF CALCUTTA, INDIA, 
 
 JAIvfES THOMASON, . LIEUT.-GOVERNOR OF THE NORTH-WEST 
 PROVINCES, INDIA. 
 
 JOHN LAWRENCE, VICEROY OF INDIA. 
 
 BARTLE FRERE, GOVERNOR OF BOMBAY, INDIA. 
 
 HERBERT EDWARDES, COMMISSIONER OF PESHa'wAR, INDIA. 
 MY GUIDES, AND MY FRIENDS, 
 THIS VOLUME IS 
 
 JSetiicatelr. 
 
PREFACE TO PART IV. 
 
 I CANNOT imagine, that my Addresses will stand com- 
 parison with the learned compositions of ordained men, 
 familiar with the art of addressing assemblies. My 
 life has been one of action, not of preaching, more 
 in the saddle than in the pulpit : a layman's utterances 
 perhaps have more freshness, eccentric variety, and 
 daring novelty : at any rate they come from the heart. 
 
 They have been composed in the omnibus, the railway- 
 train, the waking hours of the night ; just as the 
 ideas surged up in the brain, they have been jotted 
 down in the note-book. Sometimes in a crowded 
 room the idea has come, and has been noted down. 
 I could not write a line, if a man stood over me 
 with a stick, or if I were shut into my study on 
 Saturday afternoons to compose my Sunday-sermon. 
 A word uttered in my hearing, a line in a newspaper, 
 an expression in a book, has set a train of thought 
 into motion, and copious extracts, the result of omni- 
 vorous reading, has supplied the subject and matter. 
 
 My reward has been, that some Addresses have been 
 reprinted by Associations, so different as the S. P. G. 
 and China Inland : letters have come to me with thanks 
 
( X )• 
 
 from inmates of High Church Training Colleges, 
 and Baptist Missionaries on the Kongo: passages have 
 been quoted in such different organs as the Quarterly 
 Review, and Regions beyond, and by speakers on 
 platforms of different denominations. Some Addresses 
 have been translated into other languages. Men have 
 told me, that they have found them of use to them 
 in addresses, which they had to give: this by itself 
 is a sufiEcient reward. 
 
 My method has been a simple one, to break from 
 the conventional formula, sink the denomination, or 
 stereotyped surroundings, and describe the grandeur of 
 the object in view, the simplicity of the message, 
 " Nothing but Christ ; " the necessity laid upon us of 
 this generation ; the happiness of those, who have dis- 
 covered this great secret of life ; the misfortune of those, 
 who neglect the opportunity, or find it out too late. 
 These considerations come home specially to those, 
 whose lives have been miraculously spared during a 
 long residence amidst the non-Christian world. What 
 can they render unto the Lord for His mercies, if they 
 neglect this manifest service ? Why were their lives 
 spared, if not for this purpose ? What reply will they 
 have to give to their Master for talents misapplied, or 
 hidden in a napkin. 
 
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 "NEITHER COUNT I MY LIFE DEAR UNTO MYSELF. SO THAT 1 MIGHT flNISH MY COURSE WITH JOYAa-XJUS*. 
 
 
 EX VOTO ROBERTI N.CUST SERVI SERVORUM ANNO JUBIUEI MDCCCUXXVU. 
 
 
 • 
 
 LI 
 
 • 
 
 J 
 
 In the year of the Jubilee I placed on the walls of the Church Mission House, Salisbury 
 Square, a brass tablet to record the names of those holy men and women, who in the cause 
 of Christ and His Go^el found graves in Africa. Many more died on their passage home, 
 and were committed to the deep. Many more reached their Native land only to die. It 
 seemed hard that the names of those, who had done what they could, should be forgotten. 
 The idea was suggested to me in a visit, which I paid to Sebastopol : on the walls of the 
 French Mausoleum the names of all officers and private soldiers, who fell, are inscribed 
 in their companies and battaUons. Among the latest discoveries at Athens is the original 
 stone placed to record the names of those brave men, who fell at Platasa centuries before 
 the Christian era. Such records are a consolation to the relatives of those who have fallen, 
 and an incentive to the young to tread in their footsteps. " Go, soldier of Christ, and do 
 as they have done." 
 
I. 
 
 MISSIONARY HEROES IN AFRICA. 
 
 The Lord said unto me : Say not, I am a child, for thou shalt go to all that 
 I shall send thee, and whatsoever I shall command thee, thou shalt speak. — 
 Jeremiah i. 7. 
 
 My subject on this occasion is not so muth Africa, its people, 
 its customs, and its misfortunes, as the Christian pioneers and 
 their work, and to this I restrict myself. The Missionaries 
 cannot speak of themselves ; it is the last thing that they would 
 wish to touch upon, except to describe their shortcomings. 
 A particular Church or Society cannot speak of the whole 
 class fairly, as of some they know too much, and of others 
 nothing at all. We see them in the Committee-room, when they 
 are young and ardent for the fight, scarcely knowing the diffi- 
 culties, with which they have to contend. We see them a few 
 years on more thoughtful, more subdued and chastened, yet not 
 less earnest ; we see them still later on, broken down, unequal 
 for further service in the field, yet still longing to laugh at the 
 doctor, and go back to their life's work. Some we never see 
 again, for they remain where thej' fell. Many of them are men 
 of high talent, who in secular professions might have achieved 
 wealth and fame, or in the Home-Church might have risen to 
 dignity and influence, but, smitten with the wondrous love of 
 saving the souls of the Heathen, they have gone forth, and fresh 
 candidates for the holy office are never wanting. What is their 
 motive ? A simple faith in the Word of the Lord, who bought 
 them. Wishing that my hearers may carry away something, that 
 may cling to their memory, I ask them to think of the famous 
 eleventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, in which 
 he traces back to Faith all the great events in the history of 
 Israel, and I ask leave reverently to adapt his argument to the 
 history of the pioneers of African Missions. 
 
 By Faith the United Moravian Brethren at Herrnhut in 
 Germany, more than a century and a half ago, were stirred up 
 
( 2 ) 
 
 to send out a Missionary to the poor Hottentots, who were 
 treated as dogs by the Dutch colonists. By Faith George 
 Schmidt at once offered himself to go out, and suffered hard- 
 ship with a persecuted race, and, having been blessed by the 
 conversion of a few, was forbidden to baptize them, and sum- 
 marily sent back to Europe by men, who called theinselves 
 Protestants, and who were jealous of their own liberty. By 
 Faith, fifty years later (1792), the United Brethren sent out three 
 more Missionaries, who founded the illustrious Mission of 
 Genddendal, or Vale of Grace, on the very walls of the ruined 
 house of George Schmidt, seven years after the great Patriarch 
 of African Missions had been called to his reward, dying, like 
 Livingstone and Krapf, on his knees. 
 
 By Faith the London, and Wesleyan, Societies, the Established 
 Church of England, the Free Church of Scotland, and the 
 American Board of Foreign Missions, took up a share in the 
 blessed work amidst other races of South Africa, and out of 
 their ranks by Faith Moffat undertook to translate the Bible into 
 the language of the Be-Chuana, Wilder into the language of 
 the Zulu, and Boyce, Appleyard, and others, into the language 
 of the Ama-Xosa, or Kdfir ; languages deemed at the time to 
 be incapable of expressing simple ideas, but which, deftly 
 handled, proved to be apt .exponents of every variety of human 
 thought, with an unlimited vocabulary, and an unsurpassed 
 symmetry of structure. 
 
 By Faith Moffat's son-in-law, Livingstone, abandoned his 
 home, his chapel, and his school, and started off on his great 
 Missionary progress, which was destined to illuminate all Africa 
 South of the Equator. By Faith he bore up under the perils^ 
 the fatigues, the opposition, and the bereavement of his dear 
 wife, who sleeps on the shore of the Zamb6si. By Faith he 
 worked his way to Benguela, on the West coast, Kilimani on the 
 East, and Nyangw6 on the River Kongo to the North, discover- 
 ing new rivers, new lakes, new tribes, and new languages. From 
 the drops of sweat, which fell from his limbs in those great 
 travels, have sprung up, like flowers. Christian Missions, founded 
 by men of different denominations, and different views of Church- 
 government, but united in the fear of God, the faith in Christ, 
 love of Africa, and veneration for Livingstone. To the impulse, 
 given by this great Apostle, must be attributed the Missions of 
 the Established Church of Scotland at Blantyre, the Free Church 
 of Scotland at Livingstonia, the London Society on Lake Tan- 
 ganyika, and the Universities Mission at Zanzibar. To these 
 must be added the Missions of the Church of Rome. In an 
 interview which some years ago I had at Tunis with Cardinal 
 Lavigerie, to implore him to locate his Equatorial Missions at 
 a certain distance from stations occupied by Protestants, to 
 
( 3 ) 
 
 which he agreed in word, though his practice has been different, 
 he spoke with admiration of Livingstone. But to this servant 
 of God it was not conceded to see one single fruit of his labours. 
 He saw no Mission spring up ; like Moses, he only beheld the 
 promised land from Pisgah ; he died without knowing of the 
 secret of the source of the Nile and the Kongo. But even after 
 death he seemed to have power to charm, and to conquer, for 
 by Faith his bones were conveyed by his faithful Africans to the 
 sea-shore, from Ildla on Lake Bangw6olo, where he died, along 
 a route never traversed before, as if the great discoverer had 
 power to add to geographical knowledge after his death, and the 
 great philanthropist wished to leave a lasting proof, that the 
 natives of South Africa can be faithful and loyal, and capable 
 of high enterprises, if they are kindly treated. 
 
 By Faith Krapf and Rebman sat year after year at the watch- 
 tower of Mombisa, waiting till the day should dawn, calling to 
 each other, "Watchman, what of the night.'"' writing home 
 descriptions of vast lakes, and snow-capped mountains on the 
 Equator, causing themselves to be derided, both as Missionaries 
 and Geographers ; yet they lived to be honoured in both 
 capacities, they lived to see the day dawn at last, to hear of Frere- 
 Town being established as a Station for released slaves at Mom- 
 bdsa, to hear of those internal seas being navigated, and that 
 snow-capped mountain being visited. In his old age Krapf in 
 tearful gratitude read Henry Stanley's challenge, which rang 
 with trumpet-sound from the capital of U-Gdnda, and was 
 gallantly answered by the Church Missionary Society, and he 
 lived to hear of the great Apostle's Street, which by Faith he 
 had suggested, being carried out from Zanzibar to the Great 
 Lakes, to be extended westward down the Kongo, until hands 
 are shaken with the Baptist Missionaries working up that River 
 from the West. 
 
 By Faith the good Baptist Society established themselves in 
 the island of Fernando Po, and, driven thence by the intolerance 
 of the Spaniards, they crossed over to the mainland, and found 
 what seemed once, but, alas ! is no longer, a more enduring 
 inheritance in the Kamerun Mountains,. By Faith here Saker 
 lived, laboured, and died, translating the Holy Scriptures into 
 the language of the Dualla, but leaving his work to be revised 
 by his young daughter, opening out a new field for the talent 
 and zeal of women. Hence in fullness of time by Faith Comber 
 started to conquer new kingdoms on the Kongo, making, alas ! 
 the heavy sacrifice of the life of his wife at San Salvador, before 
 he reached Stanley Pool, with the great heart of Africa open to 
 his assault; for in their hands the Baptist Missionaries had carried 
 gentle Peace, and their vessel with that name still carries them 
 onward on their blessed and peaceful enterprise. 
 
( 4 ) 
 
 By Faith our good brethren in North America were among 
 the first to send out their agents to West and South Africa, to 
 pay back the debt which they owed, and to atone for the wrong, 
 which their forefathers had inflicted. The Sun was thus taken 
 back to the East, to lighten those sitting in darkness. Lach 
 and every one of their Churches by Faith have vied in the desire 
 to found strong Missions, translate the Holy Scriptures, and to 
 press forward the work of freedom, education, civilization, and 
 evangelization. 
 
 By Faith the holy and humble hearted Protestant churches 
 on the Continent of Europe, less amply endowed in material 
 resources, but more richly in intellect, industry, and self-conse- 
 cration, have sent forth a golden stream of Missionaries from 
 the centres of Basle and Canton de Vaud, in Switzerland ; of 
 Barmen, Bremen, Berlin, Herrnhut and Hermansburg, in 
 Germany ; from Norway, Sweden, Finland and France, to hold 
 the fort in the most exposed situations, to suffer imprisonment, 
 to achieve great literary works, to found living churches, and 
 attract to themselves the affections of the African. The names 
 of the devoted men and women, who .have lived and died for 
 Christ, may not be known to the world, but are written in the 
 Book of Life. 
 
 By Faith Samuel Crowther was rescued from the captivity, into 
 which he, Hke Joseph, had been sold by his brethren, was re- 
 stored to his country, to be no longer a slave, but a teacher, a 
 leader, a benefactor, and an example ; by Faith he was set apart 
 to give the lie to the enemies of the African, to stultify the idle 
 taunt, that a Neg:ro is incapable, by his nature, of culture, piety, 
 honesty, and social virtues ; by Faith he was raised up to mark 
 an epoch in the sad chronicle of his persecuted race, and to be 
 the firstfruit of the coming harvest of African pastors and 
 evangelists. By Faith his son Dandison, Henry Johnson, and 
 James Johnson, were blessed with the great Grace of being 
 allowed to tread in his footsteps. 
 
 If any of my hearers desire to know the real worth of the 
 African Missionary, let them read the lives of Mrs. Hinderer at 
 Ibaddn, and Mrs. Wakefield at Rib6, and of many other noble 
 men and women, of whom this self-seeking world was not worthy, 
 who left comforts at horfte to labour among the Africans ; who, 
 in spite of overpowering maladies, have been, like Hannington, 
 unwilling to leave the country of their choice, and determined 
 to return in spite of the warning voice of their doctor, or who, 
 like him, have died as good confessors, counting not their lives 
 worthy, but to fill up what' remains of the sufferings of Christ. 
 Such lives, in their simple eloquence, cannot fail to chasten the 
 proud heart, to drive out selfish egotism, and to sustain the 
 sinking spirit ; they leave a ray of tender light behind them, 
 
(■ 5 > 
 
 showing that the age of chivalry, and of self-abnegation, has 
 not entirely passed away ; that the nineteenth century, in spite 
 of its worldliness and infidelity, is still able to supply crusaders 
 to fight the battle of our Master. 
 
 We read often in Secular books, and too often in Missionary 
 Biographies, how our Heavenly Father is supposed on some 
 occasions to have graciously interposed to save the life of one of 
 His poor children : in Roman Catholic accounts this benevolent 
 interference is always attributed to the Virgin Mary, or St. 
 Teresa. Not a sparrow indeed falls without His command ; but 
 if such interference is presumed, when a good man's life is saved, 
 how shall we account for the absence of this Providential care, 
 when the good man is cruelly killed, or cut off by premature 
 disease .? Such is but a narrow view of God's Providence His 
 ways are not our ways : He has chosen His Servants for 
 particular services : some to honour : some to dishonour. Some 
 are selected to live and work, to others is conceded the peculiar 
 Grace to die nobly, and set a glorious example. Deaths are re- 
 quired as well as Lives to complete the picture of the New Life. 
 Some may follow the steps of our Lord in a life of beneficence 
 and mercy : to others is' granted the sweeter lot of filling up that 
 which is behind of His Sufferings. And in the last struggle 
 how by Grace they have been sustained, doing nothing common 
 or mean in the last memorable scene of their earthly passion, 
 but sealing their Faith by their manner of meeting Death 1 
 
 Hear some of the dying words of these soldiers of Christ. In 
 the hour of death all things are terribly real. There is no room 
 for deception or false enthusiasm there. I have selected these 
 words without distinction of country or denomination, but their 
 number might be multiplied indefinitely. Arrhenius, the Swede, 
 had only a few months of labour in the Galla country after years 
 of preparation for his duties : his last words were : 
 Jesus, help me ! Jesus, help tfie ! Amen. 
 
 Praetorius, the Swiss, was sent out for a few months' inspec- 
 tion of the Missions on the Gold Coast : he called upon me on 
 his way out, and promised to call again on his return ; but after 
 a few weeks in Africa he fell. His last words were : 
 
 Is it true that I am going home to-day ? 
 
 ■ Of all the smaller English missions, the Livingstone-Kongo 
 was conspicuous for its overflowing of zeal, and life, and promise, 
 and of all its agents McCall was the brightest; but he was struck 
 down in mid-work. His last words were recorded by a stranger 
 who visited him. Let each one of us lay them to our hearts : 
 
 Lord, I gave myself, body, mind, and soul, to Thee. I consecrated my whole 
 life and being to Thy service, and now, if it please Thee to take myself, instead 
 of the work which I would do for Thee, what is that to me ? Thy will be done ! 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 He had hoped that his destined course might have been among 
 the brave and strong, to toil with high purpose in the service of 
 the African ; but God had chosen another part for him, and as a 
 true Christian, he recognized, that God had chosen it well, and 
 no weak murmurs escaped the lips of one who was ready to live 
 or ready to die. Golaz, of the French Mission to Senegambia, 
 as well as his young wife, died within the year after their arrival : 
 his farewell words were : 
 
 Do not be discouraged, if the first labourers fall in the field. Their graves 
 •will mark the way for their successors, who will inarch past them with great 
 strides. 
 
 Pinkerton, of the American Mission in Zululand, was ordered 
 to lead a new Mission into Umzila's kingdom : he conveyed his 
 wife and children to North America, and returned joyfully to his 
 task. He met with many obstacles and rebuffs, but at length 
 found himself well on the road. His last written lines were to 
 his wife : 
 
 The future will bring its needed light, and work, and solace. My thoughts 
 turn sadly to you and our children. All well. We go right on. 
 
 It was to him indeed all well, for in a few days he breathed his 
 last sigh alone in the African jungle : he had gone right on into 
 Glory. On the other side of Africa Bagster, of the same Mission, 
 had been sent to found a Mission among the Ambandu : a few 
 months before his death he had proposed to write on "The 
 Missionary's Joys." In the last page of his Journal we find : 
 
 We hear His voice of cheer : Go forward : one man of you shall chase ten 
 thousand : the Lord your God has promised you the good land, which he has 
 given to you : most joyous is the service of our King ! 
 
 Thomson, of the Baptist Mission in the Kamerdn country (that 
 famous Mission which has during 1885-86 been uprooted and 
 destroyed by the late German Emperor), a few weeks before his 
 death in December, 1884, unconscious of the ruin, which was 
 so soon to come upon the scene of his labours, on his Chapels, 
 and his Mission Schools, wrote as follows : 
 
 I am sustained and upheld amid many and heavy anxieties by the growing 
 conviction that the dear Master is in His great condescension using me here 
 for the settlement of many difficulties ; and I look forward to the future with 
 more hope than I have known for years. I believe the work here will soon 
 assume a better and a brighter aspect, and my heart glows within me, as by 
 faith I see the time. Oh for more and more of Grace to cast all our burdens 
 upon the Divine burden-bearer ! Our hope and trust are in Him alone ! 
 
 With such men (and these few are but types of many) Africa 
 and the whole world can be conquered. Such deaths are great 
 victories. Such words tell us that some portion of us is im- 
 mortal. These confessors saw the promises afar off, and were 
 persuaded of them, confessing that they were strangers and 
 pilgrims, and desiring a better country, that is, a heavenly. 
 
( 7 ) 
 
 Still, they were men with like weaknesses, and cravings for love, 
 as ourselves, and it is with heavy heart, that I read of the last 
 moments of such servants of God, dying sometimes without the 
 solaces of Religion, with no fond breast to lean upon, with none 
 of the ordinary necessities of civilized life, to sustain and comfort, 
 and smooth the path to that bourile, which Men call Death, but 
 which indeed is the Portal to Everlasting Life. The last journal 
 of Hannington (who was present, when I read this address four 
 years ago) brings this point of view vividly before me. I can 
 see that faithful Christian in the midst of his sad environment, 
 oppressed with anxiety for the future of the work, to which he 
 had consecrated himself, still sustained by the daily reading of, 
 and meditation upon, the Psalms of David. We find in these 
 pages, so wonderfully preserved, no rebellious murmuring, no 
 cries for Vengeance, no appeal to the Arm of the Flesh. Still, 
 as he lay tossing on his unsavoury heap of straw, before his 
 feverish eyes, during those sad days and weary nights, would rise 
 the vision of the peaceful home, the pleasing duties, the loved 
 companion, the little children, whom he had voluntarily left, 
 obeying the call to serve his Master : and not in vain, for a still 
 voice would whisper to him : 
 
 It is the Lord's will : obedience is of the essence of true courage, and true 
 love. The battles of the Heavenly King are fought in suffering as well as 
 doing, and in dishonour, in prison, and in a shameful death, as truly, as in the 
 Mission Chapel, the Mission School, and the centre of a Christian Village. 
 
 We seem at this period of the history of our Missionary 
 Churches to be living over again the trials and persecutions 
 of the early Christians in the first Century. Do we not seem to 
 hear the echo of the words of the Virgin-Saint, who at Aries in 
 France was slowly let down feet-forward into a vessel of boiling 
 oil, because she refused to deny her Master } 
 
 Jesus Christ, help me ! Praise be to Thee ! Lord Jesus, grant me patience ! 
 I suffer for Thy name's sake : /suffer for a little time only : I suffer of my own 
 accord : Jesus, let me never be confounded ! take me ! take me !' i 
 
 Time would fail me to tell of Schlenker, and Reichardt, and 
 Schon; of GoldieandEdgerley; of CasAlis, Mabille, and Coillard; 
 of James Stewart of Lovedale, and his namesake on the Nyassa. ; 
 of Grant and Wilson ; of Ramseyer and Christaller; of Mackenzie, 
 the Bishop who died on the River Shir6; and of Steere the Bishop, 
 who sealed up the translation of the last chapter of Isaiah ready 
 for the printer, and then fell asleep at Zanzibar ; of Parker the 
 Bishop, wise and gentle, holy and self-restrained, who was called 
 to his rest on the Southern shores of Victoria Nyanza ; of Wake- 
 field and New; of Stern, Mayer and Flad ; of Southon, the 
 Medical ^Missionary, who died at U-Rambo ; of dear Mullens, 
 who could not hold himself back from the fight, and who sleeps 
 in U-Sagara; of many a gentle lady's grave, for women have 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 never been found wanting to share the honour and the danger 
 of the Cross. 
 
 I have seen and known so many of them. A few weeks before 
 we were holding sweet converse, and then the tidings of the 
 death of some one of them came floating back by letter or 
 telegram. They had indeed all gone into a far country, and 
 to me they seem to be all there still ; and, when I ani musing 
 about Africa, or studying some point connected with that 
 country, and I look up from my paper to my African library, the 
 forms of departed friends seem to enter at the open door, and 
 I seem to see their faces again, and to ask them their opinion. 
 Young Riviere, a Jesuit priest, who had been turned out of 
 Algeria, and taken refuge in North Wales, used to correspond with 
 me about Africa. One day he called upon me in London, and told 
 me, that he had received his orders to start at once to the Zamb6si 
 Mission-field, to take the place of a dead colleague. He 
 promised to write to me from T6t6, and to clear up many ques- 
 tions for me ; but he never reached his destination, for he sank 
 under his first attack of fever at the mouth of the Zambesi. 
 Differing as I do from the Church of Rome in every principle 
 and detail of their evil system, I can still recognize and thank 
 God for the zeal, and love of souls, and total abnegation of self, 
 which distinguishes her Missionaries. Oh, when they are such, 
 would that they were ours 1 
 
 1 often thiiik of that famous scene in one of Walter Scott's 
 romances, where the clansman and his seven sons all fell for 
 their chieftain, stepping forth, one after the other, gladly into the 
 gap, and crying, " One more for Eachim 1 " So it is with the 
 reserve forces of Missionaries. " One more for Christ 1 " And 
 how much better to have young lives and treasure spent by the 
 Missions in trying to save African souls, than wasted by the 
 English nation in slaughtering the .unoffending and undaunted 
 freemen of the Sudd.n, for the purpose of maintaining an imagi- 
 nary prestige of having the strength of a giant without the Grace 
 of knowing, how to use that strength as a Christian. Wherefore, 
 seeing that we are compassed about with so great a cloud of 
 witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and press forward more 
 and more upon our bounden duty and service to evangelize Africa. 
 We owe this debt to those who have gone before, that they should 
 not have died in vain. The Missionary is indeed the most glorious 
 outcome of the nineteenth century ; the honest God-fearing man 
 in the darkest corner of the earth, where he is most wanted, to 
 represent the highest type of Christian patience and morality. 
 Oh ! that we now had there 
 
 But one ten thousand of those men in England, 
 
 Who do no work to-day ! 
 
 Address at Powys Hall, "Lo^-DO^, March, 1884 
 (with additions, 1887-1888). 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 II. 
 NATIVE TEACHERS IN POLYNESIA. 
 
 The Isles shall wait on Me. — Isaiah Ix. 9. 
 
 The speaker who preceded me has dwelt on the Lord's work in 
 India, that country, the interests of which are so near to my 
 heart. Twenty-five years' residence has taught me to love the 
 people, whose languages and customs have become to me as 
 familiar as my own. India has been indeed the joy of my youth 
 and manhood. The speaker, who follows me, will treat of Africa, 
 the land of my adoption, the solace of my old age, to which I 
 have consecrated fifteen years of study. India and Africa are 
 the popular, and best known topics of Missionary interest. 
 Their populations can only be counted in hundreds of millions. 
 I seek to interest you this day in the story of the Gospel in the 
 Islands of the South Sea ; the shaking of the olive-tree ; the 
 gleaning grapes, when the vintage is done : the few sheep 
 left in the wilderness ; yet God's Grace has been marvellously 
 evidenced in these Islands, the utmost ends of the world, con- 
 cerning the existence of which neither Prophet nor Evangelist 
 had the remotest conception. Isaiah in a moment of inspiration 
 cried out on three several occasions : 
 
 The Isles shall wait for His Law (xlii. 4). The Isles shall wait on Me and 
 on Mine arm shall they trust (1. 5). Surely the Isles shall wait for Me, to 
 bring thy sons from far, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy 
 One of Israel, because He has glorified thee (Ix. 9). 
 
 Our Blessed Lord told His disciples : 
 
 That in those days the Son of Man would gather His elect from the four 
 winds, from the uttermost parts of the earth (Mark xiii. 27). 
 
 It is only in this generation, that -the magnificence of the 
 prediction can be realized in its fullness. 
 
 The World is generally considered to consist of four Continents ; 
 but lying outside them in the bosom of the Pacific are fairy 
 
 PART IV. 2 
 
( lo ) 
 
 Regions, sealed and secluded gardens of the Ocean, where Day 
 never shuts her eye : regions which were dreamt of by the Poet 
 Horace : 
 
 Nos manet Oceanus circumvagus ; Arva Beata, 
 Petamus arva, divites et Insulas. 
 
 In later days Tennyson has described them in a few wondrous 
 
 lines : 
 
 there to wander far away 
 On from island unto island at the gateways of the Day, 
 Larger constellations burning, mellow moons and happy skies, 
 Breadth of tropic shade and palms in cluster, knots of Paradise : 
 Never comes the trader, never floats an European flag. _ 
 Slides the bird o'er lustrous woodland, swings the trailer from the crag : 
 Droops the heavy-blossomed bower, hangs the heavy-fruited tree, 
 Summer isles of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea. 
 
 These regions have been marked by frightful crimes. Cannibal- 
 ism, Human Sacrifice, Sorcery, and by the murders of Cook and 
 La Perouse, the explorers, and John Williams and Patteson, the 
 Missionaries. Yet God did not leave them for ever without a 
 witness, and at the close of last century Missionaries found their 
 way to Tahiti from England : later on, Hawaii and Mikronesia 
 were occupied by an American Mission : soon after. New Zealand 
 was evangelized from England, as well as Samoa, Fiji, the Loyalty 
 Islands, the New Hebrides, Bank's Islands, Santa Cruz, Solomon 
 Islands, and New Guinea. Never, since the days of Pentecost, 
 had there been so plentiful an outpouring of the Spirit, for God 
 chose men of the vilest to be His Messengers, and the Divine 
 method of sending out Native teachers two and two to evangelize 
 their own countrymen was adopted with wonderful success by all 
 Protestant Denominations. Those, who have travelled in tropical 
 climates, know how at night the ship leaves behind it a long and 
 broad brilliant furrow of light, marking for many leagues the 
 course which has been taken. Such is the light left behind in 
 their annual visits by the Missionary Ships, the John Williams, 
 the Wesley, the Southern Cross, and the Dayspring, the memories 
 of unselfish acts of kindness, devotion to the best interests of the 
 islanders, and the desire to elevate them, and protect them from 
 their own cruel customs, and from the vicious trader and 
 heartless man-stealer. 
 
 The region of Oceania has sometimes been called Australasia, 
 as being a southern extension of Asia ; but the name of Oceania 
 is more suitable. With certain exceptions it is South of the 
 Equator and North of the Tropic of Capricorn. Estimated by 
 its land-area, it is only a little larger than Europe : estimated by 
 the surface on the face of the Globe, over which the Islands are 
 spread, the area occupied exceeds that of Asia, for it stretches 
 from Australia on the West to Easter Island on the East, from 
 
C II ) 
 
 the Sandwich Islands North of the Equator to the Southern 
 point of New Zealand. It does not include Malaisia : it may be 
 said of Oceania, that it is entirely outside the influence of Asiatic 
 Religion and Culture. 
 
 The four Subdivisions are, I. Polynesia ; II. Melanesia ; III. 
 Mikronesia ; IV. Australia. The last may be omitted from this 
 discussion, as little or nothing has been done to evangelize the 
 Natives, and this is a heavy blot on the Churches of Australia, 
 which proposes to send out Missions to New Guinea, while 
 80,000 of the Queen's subjects at their very door know not the 
 Saviour, and have not one translation of the Bible in their 
 numerous languages in circulation. 
 
 Polynesia includes the Groups of the Paumotu, Society, Harvey 
 or Cook, Marquesas, Sandwich, Ellis, Samoa, Tonga, and New 
 Zealand. The number of Islands is very great, and the beauty 
 of the scenery, and the fertility of the soil, notorious. Their 
 existence may be said to have been certified by Tasman in 1 642, 
 but they were first brought to notice by Captain Cook, who, in 
 the first of his celebrated voyages, visited Tahiti, and in his last 
 perished at the Sandwich Islands. The population is one race, 
 and they all speak closely connected languages : though a noble 
 race, tall, fair, agreeable, and beautiful, they were cruel Idolaters 
 and Cannibals ; but they are now nearly entirely Christians. 
 The London Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary 
 Society, the American Board of Foreign Missions, and the 
 Church Missionary Society have accomplished this noble work : 
 the Marquesas, Paumotu and the Islands of Wallis and Horn, 
 are mainly Roman Catholic. Great Britain has taken possession 
 of New Zealand : France of Tahiti, Paumotu, and Marquesas. 
 Other groups maintain a precarious independence. 
 
 To the West of Polynesia lies the Region of Melanesia. The 
 British Colony of Fiji is on the extreme Eastern flank, and a 
 necklace of Islands extends in a semicircular sweep to the great 
 Island of New Guinea, the whole of which is included, and has 
 been divided between Holland, Great Britain, and Germany. 
 France is in possession of the Islands of New Caledonia, and the 
 Isle of Pines : the remainder are for the moment independent, but 
 the end seems approaching. The population speak a multiplicity 
 of totally different languages : they are black, savage, inhospit- 
 able savages. Still the Grace of God has been found suflftcient 
 to carry the Gospel to a large number, and the work is being 
 pushed forward at different points by the London Missionary 
 Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, the Presbyterian 
 Associations of Scotland, Australia, and Canada, and the 
 Melanesian Mission of the Church of England. Perils of no 
 ordinary character had to be encountered ; perils of the deep, 
 for the steamship through an unsurveyed sea was the only means 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 of communication ; perils of the climate, perils from cruel, 
 treacherous savages, whose worst passions had been roused by 
 the injuries inflicted upon them by the men-stealers from Australia 
 and Fiji, and the depravity caused by the introduction of 
 intoxicating liquors, and foul diseases. Difficulties presented 
 themselves of no ordinary character, to provide safe and 
 decent protection from the weather, to provide supplies of food, 
 to train native teachers, to collect scholars from distant Islands, 
 and to master the strangely different languages. 
 
 Mikronesia lies wholly North of the Equator, consistmg of 
 the Caroline Islands, belonging to Spain, the Marshall Islands 
 recently annexed by Germany, and the Gilbert Islands. _ The 
 population is gentle, hospitable, free from savage and criminal 
 habits, speaking, however, several distinct languages. The 
 American Board of Foreign Missions have prosecuted their 
 quiet labours with marked success. 
 
 It is not my object in this paper to state in detail the particular 
 work done by diff'erent Missionaries. Still less is it my object to 
 fall into the too common error of unduly glorifying individuals. 
 In the long list of heroes above all tower the names of John 
 Williams and James Patteson, for they were selected by Divine 
 Providence for the honour of sealing their Faith by the offer of 
 their lives, and I call particular attention to the fact, that no 
 wish was expressed by their friends, nor attempt made by 
 the British Government, to avenge their lives, though nothing 
 in their cases could have been easier. The true-hearted Mis- 
 sionary trusts not in the staff of a broken reed, the Arm of the 
 Flesh, but in the Lord his God. 
 
 One characteristic feature of the labours in all these Regions 
 has been the translation of the Bible, or of portions, into 
 the languages of the tribes, as they came under Missionary 
 influence. The versions thus prepared, and published by the 
 Bible Societies, came upon the Scholars of Europe with all the 
 freshness of a new revelation. It is indeed -vyonderful to handle 
 translations into the languages of Tahiti, Rarotonga, the Mar- 
 quesas, Hawaii, Samoa, Nieue, Tonga, and Maori, in Polynesia : 
 of Fiji, Rotuma, Mare, Lifu, Uvea, Aneityum, Tanna, Nguna, 
 Futuna, Erromanga, Aniwa, Fate, Mota, Florida and Isabel, in 
 the Groups of the Loyalty, New Hebrides, Banks, and Solomon 
 Islands : in the language of the Islands of Murray, and Saibai in 
 Torres Straits, and the -Duke of York Island, and New Britain, in 
 St. George's Strait, and Mafilr, Motu, and South Cape in New 
 Guinea, all in Melanesia. Add to this versions in the languages 
 of Kusai, Ebon, Gilbert Islands, Ponap6, and Mortlock Islands, 
 all in Mikronesia. Nowhere is the precious gift of the Bible 
 more valued than by these newly-converted races : the people 
 of Samoa remitted the whole cost of the expense of printing 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 thfjir version i when a Mission-ship touches at a port, whole 
 Editions are sold off before the ship is unloaded. Free gifts to 
 the Bible Society are tendered by less wealthy islands in the 
 form of arrowroot grown specially for the purpose. When the 
 French Priests tried to wean the people of Tahiti from their 
 Bibles, they found, that all their efforts were in vain : so firm a 
 hold had the Blessed Book been able to lay on the souls and 
 consciences of these unsophisticated races, who read, and believed 
 and practised. 
 
 But another still more wonderful characteristic feature has 
 distinguished the Mission-work of Polynesia and Melanesia 
 from that of every other Region in the World. I allude to the 
 universal and successful employment of Native Teachers, acting 
 independently of the European Missionaries, who trained young 
 men, collected in central spots, and then sent them out, two and 
 two, to the different islands occupied by Heathen Cannibals. 
 'VVhen the Mission-ship returned the following year, it was 
 found, that these devoted men had either worked a wonderful 
 change in the island, or had been killed and devoured. A few 
 extracts tell the story with life-like fidelity. 
 
 In 1876 a Samoan teacher was left on the Island of Nano- 
 manga, seventy-five miles N.W. : it was the third time that the 
 attempt had been made. In 1877 the Island was visited by the 
 Missionary with great anxiety for the safety of the poor man 
 and his wife. A canoe came off, and the Native, being asked 
 after the teacher, replied in broken English, " He good man," 
 and the teacher soon came on board, and told, how the temple 
 of the heathen-god had been destroyed, that a chapel had been 
 built, that the king and many of the chiefs had become Christians : 
 out of the whole island 150 were Christians and 86 still heathen. 
 
 In 1 840 a party of Native Christians from Samoa visited Niue, 
 or Savage Island, in hopes of preaching the Gospel. They were 
 not allowed to land, but three Natives came off to their ship, 
 and were conveyed to Samoa. One of them, named Peniamina, 
 felt the power of the Gospel, and longed to convey it to his 
 home. He tried in 184-z, but failed; in 1846 he tried again. 
 A chief of the island had come to Samoa, and being favourably 
 impressed with Christianity, the two were conveyed to Niue, 
 The chief swam ashore, told the people, that a teacher wished 
 to come, and the chiefs agreed. The sea was so rough that no 
 boat could be used. Peniamina put his books into a cask, and 
 jumped into the sea, and on October 26th, 1846, stood as a 
 teacher on his own island. He was ill-treated and robbed, but 
 his life was spared. When the Mission-ship came back, after 
 two years, it was found, that the work was done, that religious 
 services had commenced, and that they were willing to receive 
 a Samoan teacher. Paulo and his wife landed in October, 1849. 
 
( u ) 
 
 At first they wfere dreadfully ill-treated, but they bore it with 
 patience. Paulo laboured thirteen years and a half, and trans- 
 lated a portion of the New Testament into the language : he 
 taught hundreds to write ; he taught them house-building and 
 carpentry ; he preached the Gospel, and converted a great many ; 
 he found them naked savages, he left them a community of 
 civilized professing Christians. 
 
 After much faithful labour, the Isle of Tonga was brought to 
 Christ. The missionary urged on the Tonga teachers the claim 
 of the neighbouring Island of Fiji for help : two of the younger 
 and best men at once offered themselves willingly, and were 
 sent. Teachers from Tonga Island were sent to Rotuma Island, 
 800 miles distant, and were the first to learn the Rotuma 
 language, and preach the Gospel. 
 
 The mortality among the Polynesian teachers, who had 
 volunteered to carry the Gospel to the black cannibal races of 
 Melanesia, was estimated by Bishop Selwyn, who had oppor- 
 tunity of seeing their work, at fifty, mostly from Samoa and 
 Rarotonga ; yet no better proof could be desired of the earnest- 
 ness of the Christian converts in these Islands than their 
 readiness to volunteer for the most perilous posts, in order to 
 prepare the way for the European Missionary. Of two teachers 
 sent to New Caledonia, long before the French occupation, one 
 asked to be removed ; he feared for his life : the other was 
 ready to stay, or try some other island ; he wished to live and 
 die in the service of Christ. It was proposed to remove him 
 to the more peaceful Island of Mar6 : he replied, that he might 
 as well be killed in New Caledonia as at Mar6. 
 
 In the Isle of Pines, close by, the lives of the teachers were 
 in constant jeopardy. They were surrounded by men thirsting 
 for their blood. Taunga said : 
 
 Come on, kill us ; we are not afraid. Close our lips in death, but remember, 
 that you will not thereby silence the Word of God. 
 
 The murderers were daunted, and desisted. 
 
 Teachers often had to leave, but they tried after a season 
 to return, and with success. When killed, they were always 
 devoured. There were some strange contrasts. In Mare there 
 were two teachers : one died of consumption, and the Natives 
 wept, as if he had been one of themselves, and their fear was 
 lest the other should die also ; , they supplied him with food, 
 and would not let him run any risk. 
 
 From the Island of Aniwa, in the New Hebrides, the Natives 
 sent out three of themselves as teachers and evangelists to help 
 to give the Gospel to a heathen island ; yet about fifteen years 
 ago all the inhabitants were heathen Cannibals, in a a state 
 of nudity ; now they are all professed Christians, and conduct 
 night and morning family worship. 
 
( IS ) 
 
 On the Island of Fat6 four Samoa teachers were left. Some 
 died from the climate ; two settled with their wives and children 
 at the express request of the Natives, but within three weeks they 
 were all killed and devoured. Five years later three Rarotonga 
 teachers volunteered to renew the attempt, and succeeded, and 
 an English Missionary soon followed. At this same Island of 
 Rarotonga, some time previously, Papeiha and another landed 
 with their wives ; but they were so ill-treated and plundered, 
 that they had to retreat. Papeiha volunteered to stay alone, 
 and in a little more than a year the entire population was 
 engaged in building a chapel. If any attempt was made to 
 remove a favourite teacher, the men and women rose up to 
 retain him by force. 
 
 The people of Niua Tobatabu were anxious to spread the 
 glad tidings of the Gospel to a neighbouring island, and they 
 sent a canoe, which foundered, and the teacher was drowned. 
 His body was washed ashore, and his hand still grasped a 
 bundle of Scripture books, from which he was not parted in 
 his watery grave : we may well believe, that by the precious 
 truths, which he was so anxious to carry to others, he himself 
 was strengthened in his last hour : the Great Master did not 
 permit him to accomplish his loving intentions. 
 
 The Native teachers were indeed on one side weak : they 
 could not conduct their hearers beyond the point, to which 
 they had themselves attained. They could read and write, and 
 were single-minded, believing, praying, and zealous, and their 
 labours received a manifold blessing. On the other hand, they 
 were the best pioneers : the gap between the European and the 
 debased savage was too great to be at once spanned. The 
 Native teacher squatted in the hut, and told in simple words 
 the story of Jesus : he had more opportunities of bringing the 
 matter home to the consciences and hearts of his ignorant 
 audience ; they knew what he himself had been, and now was ; 
 he could tell them what had wrought the wondrous change. 
 There must also be in the Polynesian race a power and a 
 dignity, for when it came to the time, that the Papuans of New 
 Guinea should be evangelized, they laughed at their dark 
 congeners from the New Hebrides, but obeyed the Polynesians 
 of Rarotonga and Samoa. There was a wonderful facility 
 and readiness for talk among the Polynesians ; they were not 
 troubled with bashfulness, and they made very active agents.. 
 A visitor to the Mission remarked, that at first sight it appeared 
 strange to see a man clad in some grotesque dress, such as the 
 old coat of a soldier, or nothing but a cotton wrapper round the 
 loins, stand up and lead the devotions of a people ; but the 
 strangeness was all on the visitor's side. These men all occupied 
 a good position in the estimation of their fellow-worshippers, 
 
( i6 ) 
 
 and expressed themselves in a way, that was true to the feelings 
 and wants of all, as is evidenced by reading many of the prayers, 
 which they have uttered, and which have been recorded. No 
 attempt appears to have been made to provide for their 
 sustenance, while they were acquiring a new language totally 
 different from their own. They had to cultivate plantations 
 for the support of their family; all the salary, which they 
 received, was about five to ten pounds per annum for the 
 purpose of purchasing a stock of clothing. They suffered great 
 privations from the climate, insufficient nourishment, and bad 
 dwelling-houses, and, until the change of the dispositions 
 of the people came, lived in constant fear for the lives of all, 
 and the honour of their females. It makes the relative position 
 of the British Missionary, with all his requirements, appear 
 very small in the scale of consecration and devotion, when 
 weighed in the great balance, in which all God's creatures are 
 in His sight equal. We speak with pride of the African 
 redeemed slave, or the first generation of redeemed slaves, 
 standing out bravely in his new profession ; but these Poly- 
 nesians were something worse. It is a misfortune, not a shame, 
 to have been a slave ; but some of these teachers belonged 
 themselves to cannibal races ; they had taken part in human 
 sacrifices, child murder, and idolatrous abominations, and yet 
 the Grace of God had so worked upon them, that they counted 
 their lives as nothing compared to the Cross of Christ ; they 
 gave a reality in the nineteenth century to the eleventh chapter 
 of Hebrews ; they were neither wise nor great, nor powerful, 
 but they were faithful in life, and constant in death. 
 
 I give another story to show, that women were not wanting 
 in this holy war. I have already noted that the wives always 
 accompanied the teachers. In Rarotonga a Native Teacher 
 once expressed to his Missionary his desire to get married, 
 " akaipoipo vaine." The Missionary expressed his concurrence, 
 and asked if he had thought of any one : 
 
 Yes, I have been thinking of Maria, the daughter of another teacher. 
 
 On being asked, if he had made known his desires to her, he 
 replied, that he had not spoken to her, but that he had been 
 looking at her for a long time. On being told, that something 
 more than looking was necessary, he produced a letter which ran 
 as follows : 
 
 I, Akatangi, have been now appointed to go as a Native teacher to the 
 heathen m the dark lands westwards. I have been looking at you for a long 
 time, and I desire that you will go with me. If you love Jesus, if you love the 
 heathen, and if you love me, let us go together. Think of this, and let me 
 know. Blessings on you from Jesus. Amen. Na Akatangi. 
 
 A deacon of the Church conveyed this letter to Maria, who, on 
 
( 17 ) 
 
 being told whence it came, betrayed an expression of counte- 
 nance, which showed, that his looking at her had produced 
 no unfavourable impression, and on reading it, she was pleased 
 to accept, with her parents' consent. They were married, went 
 to Erromanga, the scene of the murder of John Williams, the two 
 Gordons, and Mrs. Gordon, and lived with and converted the 
 murderer of John Williams. 
 
 Perhaps, in some such way Timothy or Titus, or Luke the 
 beloved physician, wooed and won one of those chaste and 
 sweet women, who were honoured by the love of the Apostle 
 Paul : Phebe, a " succourer of many and of myself also : " 
 Tryphdna and Tryph6sa, " who laboured in the Lord," or " the 
 beloved Persis." A respect for the weaker sex, and the gentle 
 ties of pure conjugal love, had been one of the earliest evidences 
 of the new Christian life, and the women were worthy of the men, 
 brave and faithful. We have to try to imagine what was meant 
 in these words : 
 
 Go with me to the savages of Melanesia, to live or to die. 
 
 So they went on in the glory of their youth, and self-consecra- 
 tion. We hear no more of them : they may on some sad day 
 have been killed and devoured by their Cannibal flock, to whom 
 they came bringing life everlasting, cheerfully surrendering their 
 bodies to Him, to whom they had entrusted their souls, in the 
 morning of their pure and unsullied lives ; or they may have 
 lived on, to be the centres of a family, or a village, of Christian 
 men and women, who had forgotten, as well as abandoned, 
 their bad old customs. All these things lie in the hand of the 
 Almighty, and, as far as poor human creatures were concerned, 
 it mattered not, if they had given their hearts to God. But 
 what a lesson it is to the gilded and pampered youth of this so- 
 called Christian country, where the cost of self-sacrifice is so 
 closely calculated, and where in many a heart the question has 
 iaever presented itself, "What shall I render unto the Lord }" 
 
 Thus far I have alluded with honour, and praise, and fervent 
 congratulation, to the labours of our brethren of the London 
 Missionary Society, the Wesleyan Missionary Society, and the 
 Presbyterian Missionary Societies of the Free Church of Scotland, 
 Australia and Canada, who have laboured with such success in 
 Polynesia, and in Fiji, the Loyalty Islands, and the New 
 Hebrides, which last three are a part of Melanesia. As I proceed 
 onwards I come into contact with the great and venerable names 
 of Bishop Selwyn and Bishop Patteson, who approached the 
 Region from New Zealand. In their conceptions of Church 
 organization they were very far apart from their excellent pre- 
 decessors, but they were both large-hearted men, and recognized 
 good and true work, when they saw it. Bishop Selwyn writes : 
 
■ ( i8 ) 
 
 I am much drawn to the L. M. S. by the Native Teachers, men, who in the 
 infancy of their faith have left home and friends to live among men of another 
 speech, and in the lowest depths of barbarism, as the pioneers of the Gospel, 
 by which the European Missionary may enter and talie possession. My feelings 
 are so strong and so full of affection towards these faithful men, with whom 
 the affinity of the Maori language to their Native idioms enables me to com- 
 municate freely, that I lose no opportunity of showing them kindness. 
 
 The Bishop, however, saw the objection, that it was not 
 likely, that men of that class would make much impression on 
 the Heathen mind : he thought, also, that it was lowering to the 
 whole character of Mission-work to confide to a subordinate 
 agency the preliminary operations of a Mission, which, by the 
 nature of the case, involve greater danger and require more self- 
 denial. If there be danger of life to the British Missionaries, 
 surely (said he) this is part of the duty, which the Servants and 
 Soldiers of the Cross, who are best acquainted with their Master's 
 will, would claim for themselves. If there be no danger, then 
 the chief argument for Native agency falls to the ground : it 
 seems foreign to the high and self-denying principle of Christian 
 love to expose a fellow-creature to danger, because his life is 
 held to be of less value than that of his British brethren. 
 
 My reply is, that in the sight of God the life of the ignorant 
 Polynesian Teacher is not of less value than that of the Doctor 
 of Divinity from England. But the Admiral and General do not 
 volunteer on the forlorn hopes, they leave it to the younger and 
 less distinguished men : there are portions of the Mission duties, 
 which the Native Teacher could not discharge ; they can keep 
 no accounts, write no reports, superintend no great organization ; 
 but they can hold the fort, they can pave the way, they can 
 conciliate good will, they can bear up under the climate and 
 hard life ; if they fall, their place can be filled ; when men like 
 Selwyn and Patteson fall, the vacancy is hard to supply. And 
 the good Bishop did not act up to the above expressed opinion. 
 He organized a still more refined and elaborate system of Native 
 Teachers. The maximum of success hoped for was the loan of 
 a few lads from the difi"erent Islands, born and bred in heathen- 
 ism, on whom the influence of Christianity could be brought to 
 bear. The Bishop had a vision of groups of boys entrusted to 
 his care, and then returning to their homes, as in some sort 
 Missionaries, and again and again coming to the College, first 
 at Auckland in New Zealand, and subsequently at Norfolk Island, 
 or Sugar Loaf, alias Mota Island, in the Banks' Islands Group, 
 for further training. Some would, in course of time, be ordained, 
 and be sent back with a force, which no European could hope 
 to possess, to impress the hearts and consciences of their heathen 
 brethren, and to build up a Church of Christ in these Islands. 
 
 And his dream has been realized. It was set on foot by 
 
( 19 ) 
 
 Patteson, the son of his adoption, and brought to perfection by 
 the present Bishop, his son after the flesh. It was rightly con- 
 sidered, that without training Native Teachers were quite 
 incapable of conveying definite truth to the Natives ; yet the 
 Gospel message, if rightly understood, and freed from the hard 
 shell of dogma and shibboleth, is very simple. Bishop Patteson 
 expressed himself, that the careful training of picked scholars 
 for future Missionaries was the most important part of his work, 
 that he must provide for the multiplication of Native Mission- 
 aries to aid the permanent development of his Mission. He 
 soon threw some of his own fire into the party of Melanesian 
 lads, all speaking different languages, but taught to understand 
 the one lingua franca of Mota. This was a sample of his 
 catechism : 
 
 Q. What means does God employ to make His will known to us } 
 
 A. He uses men to teach. 
 
 Q. Can they do so by themselves ? 
 
 A. No ; but God makes them able. 
 
 Q. How havej/OK heard the Gospel .? 
 
 A. Because God sent j/oa to us. 
 
 Q. How are the people still in ignorance to hear it } 
 
 (The scholars looked shy, and some said softly), 
 
 A. We must teach them. 
 
 Yes, indeed you .must, replied the Bishop. 
 
 The material was supplied in abundance, as the good ship, 
 the Southern Cross, performed its annual voyage of mercy from 
 island to island. Selwyn the elder had said, that the white corks 
 were only to float the Mack net, and so it proved. In the last year 
 of his life (and I knew him and Selwyn, when I was a boy 
 at Eton), Bishop Patteson writes : 
 
 The elder scholars talk and arrange among themselves plans for helping the 
 Natives of the other islands. Edward of Mota volunteers to go to Florida ; 
 B. and his wife to Santa Maria ; Robert P. and wife to Matlav ; John Nona to 
 Savo, and Andrew Lalena also. This is very comfortable to me : it is bond fide 
 giving up home and country : it is an indication of a real desire to make known 
 the Gospel to other lands. So long as they will do this, so long I think, that 
 we may have the blessed assurance, that God's holy Spirit is indeed working in 
 their hearts. Dear fellows ! it makes me thankful." 
 
 Within the year a native canoe floated out with the tide, bear- 
 ing a body, marked with five wounds, and a palm-branch. The 
 Bishop had shown the Melanesian lads the way to live and to 
 die, and many instances have occurred, both before and after, 
 of their readiness to take up the Cross for the spiritual welfare 
 of the heathen, their neighbours, but still strangers to them 
 in blood, language, and customs. 
 
 The time came, when the feet of the messengers of Good ' 
 Tidings were to advance further North, and occupy the Island of 
 
( 20 ) 
 
 New Guinea, the greatest in the world, and the smaller islands 
 in Torres Straits to the South, and the Duke of York's Island in 
 St. George's Straits to the North. The pioneer European Mis- 
 sionaries advanced with their volunteer army of Native Tea,chers 
 from the Islands of the South Sea, from Tahiti, Rarotonga, Samoa, 
 and the Loyalty Islands, twenty-eight in number. They had 
 counted the cost and were ready : when their labours had con- 
 tinued for more than ten years, they had helped to raise up a 
 school of Native Teachers, who belonged to New Guinea. So 
 sure it is, that the Lord's harvest is ever ready, if we only have 
 faith enough to go in and gather it ; and in Murray Island was 
 established a training institution of one hundred New Guinea 
 boys to hand on the lamp to the regions beyond. No more 
 recruits were sent for from the distant Southern Islands : they 
 had accomplished their blessed work, and, as the New Guinea 
 staff of Native Teachers became efficient, the old men from 
 Rarotonga and Tonga, on whom the climate had told preju- 
 dicially, were sent back laden with blessings, blessings from 
 those, that had been once ready to perish, to their island-homes. 
 There is still much land to occupy : the advancing lines of the 
 London Missionary Society are but on the south-west coast; 
 the Church of Australia proposes to occupy stations here also : 
 the Wesleyan Society is as yet only on the Islands of New Britain, 
 New Ireland, and the Duke of York's Island-; but, working on 
 the same lines, they will advance conquering and to conquer. 
 
 Are these things true ? Are they only the fancy-pictures of 
 excited piety ? One traveller, well known as an explorer, Mr. 
 Wilfrid Powell, passes a severe judgment on the want of tact and 
 patience, evidenced by some of them in New Britain ; but he 
 narrates as an eye-witness, how the bodies of four Teachers were 
 sold in pieces to the cannibal inhabitants of the village, and an 
 attempt was made (fortunately in vain) to get hold of their wives 
 and children. Mr. Powell took part in the rescue, and writes as 
 an eye-witness of the perils, to which these intrepid servants of 
 the Cross were exposed. On the south of New Guinea Mr. 
 Lyne, an Australian newspaper-reporter, quotes the report of a 
 Missionary to the following effect : 
 
 How valuable were the labours of the South Sea Islanders (men of Rarotonga 
 and elsewhere). The Teacher at Fort Moresby is one of the foremost men ; 
 when the European gold-seekers were sick, he went inland to carry them in 
 and tend them ; yet his father was a Cannibal. At the east end of New 
 Guinea, where cannibalism still flourishes, the Teacher is a Loyalty Islander, 
 and has himself been a Cannibal. These cases show what the Gospel can do. 
 The perils, to which they are exposed, are very great. The murder of a 
 number of them is still fresh in our memory, and they have perils from wild 
 beasts also. 
 
 Mr. Lyne had accompanied the expedition, which was sent 
 to annex the Southern part of the Island, and he knew what he 
 
( 21 ) 
 
 was writing. Mr. Romilly, the Special Commissioner for NeW 
 Guinea, writes, that the Missionaries commenced a system of 
 planting Native Teachers along the South coast of New Guinea; 
 some died of fever ; some were murdered by the Natives ; but 
 their general success in establishing a firm footing, and gaining 
 an ascendency over the Natives, wherever they have been, shows 
 clearly, that they are intelligent and courageous men, with a 
 great aptitude for languages. It is to them that the white man in 
 (LifficuUies always turns for protection, and it is always accorded him. 
 
 Time would fail to tell of other Missions and other countries ; 
 the short of the matter is, wherever Missions have flourished, 
 it will be found that Native Teachers have been employed ; 
 wherever they have been trusted, they have never disappointed 
 expectations. 
 
 Round the inhabitants of the poor islands of the South Sea, 
 still hover the phantoms of dying Heathendom, the gods of the 
 water and of the land, which their ancestors had blindly wor- 
 shipped. In a remarkably practical way the early Missionaries 
 had learnt the Grace to wait God's time ; to be rebuffed, but not 
 cast down ; to be persecuted, but not, abashed. As their own 
 coral zoophytes went on slowly and slowly building their reefs, 
 which last for ever, so the Grace of God was found working out 
 of sight ; but the fruits were visible. From Island to Island the 
 fight went on, until the whole of Polynesia was conquered to 
 Christ ; each Island had its martyr-tomb, its first Christian, the 
 forlorn hope that invaded the Island. The Natives devoured the 
 saint, and yet the doctrine preached by that saint fed them with 
 a new life, and passed into the flesh and blood of their children. 
 The fight in Melanesia will still last many a long year. To 
 some Islands the message will have come too late, for the 
 man-stealers and liquor-dealers, aided by European diseases, 
 previously unknown, will have done their fatal work. The weak 
 new Christians cannot entirely rid themselves of the old idea of 
 Nature-worship : the fearful hurricanes, the famine, the epidemic, 
 the blight, suggest to them that, though their temples and wor- 
 ship were destroyed, the God of Nature still hungered for human 
 sacrifices, still claimed their hecatombs. In some Islands, 
 notably Easter Island, the gigantic idols cut out of the rock 
 cannot be effaced, except by blasting the everlasting hills. So 
 they remain, like the great statues of Egypt, in their awful 
 solitude. 
 
 What, then, sustained this wonderful family of Teachers, ready 
 to hand, as if they had been waiting to be sent ; ready to go, 
 men or women, wherever they were sent ? The answer is, 
 that they were armed with Truth. It was that alone, which could 
 give victory in such an unequal struggle. .Their strength lay 
 in their simple, fresh, unsophisticated, virgin Christianity; z, 
 
( 22 ) 
 
 heaven-sent reverence for a spiritual Teacher springs from the 
 very spirituality, that is taught, There is a reality in God's em- 
 bassy: Death will not kill it; ill-treatment will not get rid of it; 
 Devils hear and tremble, but the savage children of Nature listen, 
 and are astonished, accept and believe. These Teachers were 
 not wise, nor highly educated ; but they had the free gift of a 
 beautiful language, and a marvellous gift of acquiring new 
 languages, and in their simple faith in what they had been so lately 
 taught themselves, they took their hearers back to the hidden, 
 hitherto unrealized, sources of human existence. They found a 
 standing-room for argument behind the altars, behind the idols, 
 behind the shibboleths, and led on to the fundamental axiom 
 of right and wrong, which can be found in the depths of every 
 human heart, if we know how to look for it. They showed to 
 their hearers, that the service of God consisted not in words 
 or magic forms, or ceremonies, or dogma, or ritual, or prayer- 
 wheels, but in personal contact with the Risen Saviour; in 
 personal holiness of thought, word, and deed ; in gentleness 
 and love to all without exception ; in obedience to the everlasting 
 law of duty, which lifts the head to the heavens, and still leaves 
 the feet touching the hard floor of daily life. Without Christ 
 such attainments passed all poor human strength. Christ must 
 be the motive power, for Christianity is Christ. 
 
 These examples, these touching stories, have come up from 
 these unknown regions for our use, for the use of the nascent 
 Christian Churches of the great and civilized countries of India, 
 China, and Japan. The unconverted Heathen had found out, that 
 it was well to die for the welfare of one's people : the Christian 
 discovered, that it was still better to live for them, though this 
 proved a much longer, more tedious, and difficult service. It 
 was out of all human expectation and worldly experience, that 
 converted cannibals and cruel idolaters should, under the touch of 
 God's Spirit, not only become Christians, but become daring and 
 constant Evangelists. God's Greatness flows round our Littleness, 
 and His rest encompasses our restlessness. One thing is clear, 
 that there are no more islands to discover and convert, no new 
 languages to be found out ; but in the vast populations of India 
 and China there are millions, to whom the Gospel is an unknown 
 thing, and will remain so, unless the Native Churches at once 
 become the centres of Missionary eifort, and send out their Native 
 Teachers. None of the frightful perils, which attended the South 
 Sea Teachers, need be feared. If the Native Churches rise to 
 the level of their opportunities and obligations, they may be a ray 
 of light in Asia and Africa, as the Polynesian Churches have been 
 in Oceania. God is not slack in supplying His agents, if the 
 heart of Man is roused to a sense of the dignity, and greatness of 
 the work. 
 
( 23 ) 
 
 Without doubt, those who love their Master, and believe His 
 precious promises, will rejoice, even when one poor Island, 
 after expenditure of labour, and precious lives, is added to His 
 Kingdom. The value of redeemed souls is not estimated in 
 earthly balances, or by human calculations. The Lord knoweth 
 them that are His. But it is a cause of encouragement for the 
 future and thanksgiving for the past, to regard this blessed chain 
 of Missions spread like a necklace of Pearls from the shores of 
 New Guinea and Australia right up to the gates of the Morning 
 in Easter Island, almost within touch of South America. Our 
 knowledge of the languages and customs of these Races has been 
 collected solely by the Missionaries. The civilization of these 
 ends of the world was not to be accomplished by Guns or Ships 
 of War. Commerce, Statecraft or Colonization, would not help 
 these helpless races for the short period of existence left to 
 them by the ruthless Law of Progress : it has rather aided their 
 destruction by substituting Rum, Gunpowder, and Loathsome 
 Diseases, for Cannibalism, Human Sacrifices, and Witchcraft. 
 But the Missionary spirit of Europe and America has proved 
 equal to the occasion, and a voice stronger than that of the 
 Lust of Gold, Earth-greed, and Annexation, has been heard. 
 Instead of seeking for gold, the true-hearted Missionary has 
 given something better than fine gold : instead of sending out 
 foreign Governors and Captains to rule over these tribes, a 
 domination for good has been established over their souls by 
 men of their own colour and race, but who have been trans- 
 formed into Angels of Light by the life-giving influences of the 
 Holy Spirit. Instead of attempting to annex these far-off Islands 
 to an Earthly Kingdom, the Messengers of Good Tidings have 
 given to these inhabitants of the ends of the world an inherit- 
 ance in the Kingdom of Heaven. A stream of light has been 
 left on the waters to mark the course of the Mission Ship, the 
 light of Human Knowledge, Christian Culture, and Divine 
 Pardon. The one great object of Human Existence is to dis- 
 cover the knowledge of God's dealings with his Creatures, and 
 the one great duty of those Creatures is to love, honour, and 
 worship that great Creator, no longer unknown. This object 
 has been obtained : this duty has been performed. 
 
 Address at Strangeways, Manchester, Nov. 1886 
 (with additions, 1888). 
 
25 ) 
 
 III. 
 
 THE DUTY OF THE YOUTH OF GREAT BRITAIN. 
 
 Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento. — ViRG. ^n. VI. 
 
 I HAVE been asked to give an address on the subject of Christian 
 Missions to the Mahometans and Heathens. You will under- 
 stand, that I am neither a Missionary,. nor an ordained Minister 
 of any Church ; yet perhaps I have a greater and a wider practical 
 and acquired knowledge of this subject than has fallen to the 
 lot of any but a few ; for my study has been ubiquitous, and in 
 the Map of the World I can lay my hand down on any point, 
 and tell you, what are the people there, what language they 
 speak, and what Mission is working among them, if any is 
 working at all. 
 
 I am not in the least blinded to the numerous defects of the 
 systems, and of the individuals. When critics from the outside 
 attack Missions, Critics from the inside can only rejoice, that so 
 many of their weaknesses are concealed, and time is given to 
 correct, improve, and modify : in fact, the great work of preach- 
 ing the Gospel was not entrusted to angels, but to weak, erring 
 men, who have done what they could, and earnestly desire to 
 do better. 
 
 The very idea of Missions on the scale, on which it is now 
 conducted, is a new one. In 1838 and 1839 I came up to this 
 College to try for the Balliol-Scholarship. Lord Chief-Justice 
 Coleridge, Bishop Mackarness of Oxford, Canon Furse, and 
 Dean Bradley of Westminster, were with me, and Archbishop 
 Tait was one of our Examiners : now, if anybody at that period 
 had asked about Missions, or, if the idea had been suggested 
 to any of us, that the career of a Missionary was a grand and 
 worthy one, we should have been astonished : we knew as little 
 of Missions as of Chinese Music. 
 
 I learnt my lesson in this way. I left England in 1842, and 
 had never heard of the subject, though my father was a Clergy- 
 man : but in Calcutta I made the acquaintance of Bishop Daniel 
 Wilson : it so happened, that I had a sum of / 80, awarded as a 
 prize for proficiency in an Oriental Language, to dispose of, and 
 
( 26 ) 
 
 Bishop Wilson suggested the profitable investment in the different 
 Missions, and he told me all about the Church Missionary 
 Society, and I took his advice, and a profitable investment it has 
 proved, paying me cent for cent : for I had a new world opened 
 out to me, and in the course of my service I visited every Mission 
 of all denominations in the North of India, and for a quarter of 
 a century the subject became a joy to me, and, since I have left 
 India, it has become the leading object of my very existence, 
 for independently of its intrinsic value to my soul, it has led out 
 to various studies, notably Language, and Comparative Religion; 
 it has taught me Geography, Ethnology, and the Study of Customs 
 of the World ; it has introduced to me scores of friends and 
 correspondents, it has opened out rich mines of study, and un- 
 limited vistas of thought. In such occupation there are no 
 Rivalries, no Jealousies, no seeking of Pelf, no Ambition, no 
 Disappointments ; the very atmosphere is elevating : the 
 environments holy and pure. Without alluding to the deep 
 spirituality of the work, the intellect, the talents, and the power 
 of application, and organization, find free scope. The Platform, 
 the Press, and the Council Chamber, present an unbounded field 
 of interest. Enter one of our great Committee-Rooms in London, 
 such as that of the Church Missionary Society, and the Bible 
 House, and you will find an assembly of men of all ages and 
 callings : the Banker, the Lawyer, the General, the Governor 
 of Provinces, or the Heads of great State-Departments, the 
 Merchant and the Man of Business, intermixed with Bishops, 
 and Deans, and Archdeacons, and the Clergy of the Metropolis, 
 and of the Country, and aged Missionaries. What are they 
 doing } They are administering the affairs of a Kingdom 
 greater than that of Queen Victoria. Despatches come in, and 
 orders go out to the ends of the World, to Japan, India and 
 China, to North America, Vancouver's Island, New Zealand and 
 Africa, Regions differing from each other in toto in Language, 
 in Customs, in Religion, in Culture, in their Political situation, 
 but united by one holy girdle. 
 
 Now do you think, that any of these laymen in the period of 
 their lives, when they might enjoy well-earned repose, would 
 thus from week to week, until absolutely debarred by increasing 
 infirmities, spend hour after hour in a room in the City of 
 London, distant many miles from their homes, if they did not 
 consider the work real, profitable, and elevating 7 I need scarcely 
 say, that there is no remuneration whatever, or pecuniary 
 advantage. I know that I should not. I have abundant employ- 
 ment for my time in various fields of Literature and Science ; 
 but I share in the feeling, entertained by many others, that the 
 least return, that we can make for health, and strength, and life 
 marvellously preserved, is to dedicate our remaining powers, and 
 
( 27 ) 
 
 unexhausted talents, to the Service of Him, whose hand has 
 protected us, and brought us safe home again. No one, more- 
 over, can have attended such Committees, who does not feel 
 himself stronger as a Christian, and better as a man, from the 
 wholesome contact, and ennobling environment. The Indian 
 official has spent his life in the midst of realities, and anything, 
 approaching to a sham, or an amiable job, or a deception, is to 
 him intolerable, and the greatest evidence to the reality of the 
 work in India is, that those, who have seen it in the Field, are so 
 willing and eager to support it in the Council-Chamber. I am 
 notoriously very bold and outspoken, and never afraid to call 
 a spade a spade, and expose an amiable delusion, as well as a 
 pestilent fraud, or an abominable crime. 
 
 In one particular the Missionaries resemble each other : in 
 others they are totally diiferent. They do not work for stipends, 
 or honour, or the praise of men, but impelled by higher motives, 
 the Service of their Master : and in every part of the World they 
 have shown themselves to be the Champions of the oppressed, 
 the reprovers of evil acts and evil customs, the protectors against 
 bad laws : the Missionary is never popular with the British 
 Coloiiist, or man of Commerce, because he stands up for the 
 Natives : it is his duty to do so, and the hearts of Britons are 
 with him in his often unequal and unsuccessful struggles. 
 
 As to the Methods, they vary. Jesus Christ is the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever ; but the mode of presenting Him 
 to the non-Christian must vary according to the environment of 
 the particular tribe : injudicious conduct would hinder the work: 
 it can be done by Preaching, or by Teaching, by distributing 
 Tracts, or portions of the Bible, by House to House visitation, 
 by Hospitals, by Orphanages. All that Science can suggest, all 
 that Art can supply, the stored-up wisdom of the Past, and the 
 vaunted intelligence and forethought of the Present, are well 
 consecrated to this Holy War. We offer to the Lord the first- 
 fruits of our intelligence, the choicest of our flocks. The 
 treasury of the Lord is for ever full, for it is the Souls of His 
 People. It is a privilege to belong to such an Association, for it 
 brings back rich blessings : it is thrice blessed, blessing the poor 
 Heathen, blessing the Missionaries, and blessing the Members 
 of the Church, which supplies the means and men, in their 
 hearths, and their homes, in their bodies, and their souls. 
 
 Prayer, faithful, continuous, and nothing doubting, is the 
 lever, which moves a Mission. Every Meeting of the Committee 
 is begun, continued, and ended in prayer. If the walls of the 
 Committee-room could speak, they would tell how, when any 
 question of sore difficulty, acute difference of opinion, humbling 
 of spirit, or sad despondency, arose, recourse was had to the 
 Throne of Grace, and often, before the call was made, has come 
 
( 28 ) 
 
 the answer. Like the dew, which rises up to Heaven, and 
 descends in fructifying showers, so the Prayers have brought, 
 down rich blessings on the work and workers. Those, who 
 manage the affairs of evangelizing the Heathen, must themselves 
 live, as in the continual presence of the Almighty, striving day 
 by day to qualify themselves to be chosen instnmients of His 
 Will : they, and their Missionaries, must be converted men 
 themselves first, before they commence the task to convert the 
 Heathen ! 
 
 Another thing must be remembered : the Missionary must be 
 brave as well as good : he must have counted the cost, and be 
 ready to offer his life, if it is called for. We may feel for, and 
 pray for our Missionaries, who are in peril, but we dare not invoke 
 the Arm of the Flesh in their favour: our weapons are not 
 carnal. And again the Missionary must not raise his hand 
 under any provocation against a Native, except in the extreme 
 case of Life, and Female Honour. Whatever the Traveller or 
 the IMerchant may do, he at least must remember, that he came 
 to save the souls, not to flog the bodies, of the Natives. That 
 Missionary must have imperfectly read the Epistles of St. Paul, 
 who would thus forget his holy calling. 
 
 The Missionary-cause is now a great and powerful one. 
 Nothing is more remarkable than the history of the cause, the 
 biography of the great Movement. It was first conceived by 
 earnest (shall we say inspired }) men, who conveyed the notion 
 to others : they prayed over it, and at length some bolder one 
 attempted it : these bolder ones were the " Moravians." The 
 first attempts were small, and therefore in the eyes of men 
 contemptible : the period of derision had to be passed through : 
 but strange to say the infection spread : a great gust of opinion 
 passed over the countrj' : more and more were convinced. 
 
 Truth sinks into a man by its own weight. Perhaps in the 
 petulance of Youth some one may have sneered at Missions : 
 but, as he grows older and wiser, he thinks over it, and some 
 day he wakes up like a man converted in his sleep : there is 
 something in it. The earnest man talks of it with his fellows, 
 and at length it becomes the law of his life, the one object of 
 his existence. He ascends a tower in his mind, and looks out 
 upon the world, its nations, its tongues : Geography, Histor}-, 
 Ethnology, Reading, Travel, Conversation, all drive the fact 
 into him, that he is in possession of a Treasure, which has 
 made him and his people wise and strong, and that this 
 7'reasure is denied to others. The generous feelings, that underlie 
 the character of each one of us, are aroused, and set into 
 motion. 
 
 Fortv years ago there was a deficiency of facts ; now there 
 is an abundance : not the heated and coloured accounts of 
 
( 29 ) 
 
 enthusiasts, fanatics, and pietists, but the testimony of 
 Governors, Statesmen, Men of Science, Men of Commerce, 
 who have seen with their eyes, touched with their hands, not 
 in one part of the world, but all round the Globe ; not only 
 among the civilized races of Japan and India, and China, but the 
 savages of North America, Africa and Oceania. It is brought 
 home to our consciences, that in this Nineteenth Century there 
 are still some races in the lowest depths of degradation, others 
 in a low round of culture : cannibals, polygamists, sacrificers 
 of human beings: slaves of frightful lusts, and abominable 
 customs : murderers of their parents, murderers of their own 
 children: murderers of their wives, lending themselves to 
 horrible magical rites, tortured by the wildest of ideas. Still 
 God has not forgotten them : no sooner does the Missionary 
 land among them, than he is able as it were to exorcise them, 
 to bring out their natural goodness, to teach men to be brave 
 without being cruel, and the women to be loving and tender, and 
 yet not immodest. I have such a deep conviction of the good- 
 ness of our Heavenly Father, that I cannot admit the idea, that 
 He has made such a difference betwixt the rates of the Human 
 Family, that all cannot come to Him, if the call reaches their 
 ears. The Soldier cannot do this great work, nor the Merchant, 
 nor the Emigrant, nor the Governor ; there must be a class of 
 men, sent out with the wondrous desire of saving souls, who 
 count not their lives worth having, if they fail- in doing their best 
 to accomplish their great desire. 
 
 The annals of our country tell us, that for the last eighty years 
 this has been going on, and has now assumed enormous propor- 
 tions, that cannot be overlooked by the Statesman, orthe Scholar. 
 The two great Universities have not been wanting. I do not 
 speak for one shade of the Church of England, or one denomina- 
 tion of the Church of Christ. I am bold to say that, if there 
 could be found a motive power outside of Christianity, I should 
 hail it : hut it is not to he found. Search History, ancient and 
 modern, and you will find, that for such peaceful Conquest, such 
 benevolent warfare, such soul-controlling Government, the only 
 motive power is the Love of Christ, the only armoury, that can 
 fit you for the Battle, is in the Bible. The true-hearted Mission- 
 ary does not approach these Savages with dogmas, and rituals, 
 and shibboleths, and canons of the Church. He is dressed as 
 an ordinary white man, and his Native Assistants as ordinary 
 Natives, but he sets an example of a Christian life : he astonishes 
 them by words of kindness and love : his wife gets acccess to 
 the women : they collect the children : suspicion gradually 
 disappears. Nothing so entirely astonishes the Savage, as the 
 fact, that men and women undergo suffering and peril, and are 
 ready to die, not for their own profit, but for the welfare of 
 
< 30 ) 
 
 entire strangers. It seems to their untutored minds, that gods, 
 benevolent gods, and not like their own gods full of malice, 
 have come to the Earth : and as the Missionary masters the 
 language, he communicates to his hearers the first elementary 
 notions of Christianity : respect for human life, continence, and 
 purity of morals, sanctity of the Marriage-contract, the exis- 
 tence of a God, the unity of the Family of Man, and the proper 
 worship of God. In due course follow Prayer, and Praise, 
 and Reading of the Scriptures, and the great Mystery of the 
 Incarnation, and the Atonement. 
 
 Schools, and Chapels, Public and Private Prayers, a sensible 
 improvement of the moral tone of the community, a destruction 
 of Idol-temples, an abandonment of bad customs, are the sure 
 and certain consequences. Search and read, and in Germany, 
 in the United States of North America, in Great Britain, you 
 will find the same story, narrated with impossibility of collusion, 
 or mistake : the light is not hid under a bushel : the story is not 
 of sanctimonious deaths, but of consistent lives. The object 
 is not to make Britons, or Germans, or Americans, but Christians, 
 still wearing their own dress, adhering to their own ancient 
 customs, living after their own way, called by their own names, 
 managing their own churches, ministered to by their own country- 
 men, but living new lives, in temperance, soberness, chastity, 
 and Faith in the Redeemer, by which Faith alone they can be 
 converted, and sustained in their new departure. 
 
 But neither the Native Pastors, nor their flocks, are angels : 
 they, like the Missionaries, are only erring men : if we wish to 
 seek out Christians, who do ndt live up to the level of their 
 faith, we need not go out of our own Island. We read and hear 
 of much, which we deplore, St. Paul in his Epistles to the 
 Corinthians has told us what we are to expect ; there are spots 
 on our vestments, there are terrible failings, which remind us, 
 that we are mortal. But the proportion of Evil is as nothing as 
 compared with the amount of Good, the steady Progress, the 
 gradual elevation of character, and softening of manners under 
 the marvellous influence of the Grace of God. In my old age 
 I can testify to the mighty change, which my eyes have witnessed. 
 
 And even, if all, that is narrated, were a fable, a dream, a mere 
 beautiful Poem, like the Odysse6 and .(Eneid, there is another 
 consideration. We have done our duty. It was our bounden duty, 
 and service, to plant : it is the Lord, that giveth the increase. 
 Why have we at this period of our National life such a vast 
 expansion of our direct and indirect influence ? Why are the 
 ends of the world, Regions which Csesar never knew, of which 
 the Prophets and Evangelists never dreamed, laid open to us } 
 We go out and come in like Kings and Rulers. I myself at 
 the age of twenty-five ruled over a District with a population 
 
( 31 ) 
 
 of a quarter of a Million, alone without guards, clothing the 
 iron hand in the velvet glove, and swaying men by a moral 
 influence. Our Merchants have a sweep far exceeding that of 
 Tyre : wherever our cottons can go, our Bibles must go also. 
 Each ship and each camel must have its due proportion of 
 clothing for the body, and clothing for the soul : wherever our 
 soldiers and sailors can go, our Missionaries must go also : it is 
 not a question of policy or possibility, but of Duty : it must needs 
 be, that we preach the Gospel : woe unto us, if we do not ! Some 
 nations have the will, but not the means and the opportunities ; 
 other nations the means, but not the will : but God be praised, 
 that we have both : it is no effort to us to send out one thousand 
 Missionaries, and to maintain and support them : it elevates, it 
 spiritualizes, the Church that sends them. A Missionary spirit 
 is the articulus stantis aut cadentis Ecclesice, and Now is the Time. 
 We cannot say, how soon our arm will be shortened, and our 
 Sun begin to set : our Commerce may fade like the Tyrian dye, 
 and our ships moulder like the Venetian Palaces : if we are 
 driven out of India, we have left in our independent, self- 
 supporting, self-governing, Native Churches, a monument more 
 enduring than brass, and breathing stone, and it will be said of 
 us hereafter, that Great Britain in the day of her might gave of 
 her best, her very best, to her subject-people, and that best gift 
 is the most enduring one. 
 
 And do not grudge the loss of life. Death rides behind us in 
 every Profession at home or abroad. Our young men perish, 
 and perish proudly, in our battles. We hear of the last words 
 of some 
 
 Dulce et decorum pro patriS mori ! 
 
 And Missionaries male and female are never wanting for the 
 holy war. Some die early : so it is with our Statesmen, our 
 Scholars, and all that are really great. No true life is long : 
 their career reminds us of the half-hewn stones, which we find 
 in quarries, just about to be used for some great Temple, when 
 the work was broken off, and the workmen left the quarry : but 
 there is this difference, that our Work is not broken off, for it is 
 continuous, and the half-hewn stone, left in the Lord's quarry, 
 has done the work assigned to it : and no one can do more. 
 
 It seems a bathos to descend from the high prowess of the 
 Missionary, and to allude to Science, but let us reflect, how 
 much Science owes to the Missionary, how much Philology, 
 Geography, Zoology, Ethnology, Medicine, have been advanced 
 by the Missionary. It was not his proper work, but incidentally 
 in his progress he has let light into dark places. Where would 
 our knowledge of the 2000 or 3000 languages of the World be, 
 but for the Missionary .? In his luminous path through the 
 
( 32 ) 
 
 forest, or the swamp, and the desert, he leaves a trail of light : 
 he sends home some precious Text, or Vocabulary, or Grammar, 
 revealing new forms of structure, • new word-stores, new and 
 wonderful combinations of the logic and symmetry of the savage 
 man, that cause astonishment in the study and the class-room 
 of the German Scholars. 
 
 The first text is the Bible. At the Congress of Orientalists 
 at Vienna, September, 1885, in a Hall, full of Roman Catholics, 
 I presented to the Congress translations of the Bible, or of 
 portions, in one hundred and four languages of Asia, Africa, 
 America, and Oceania, spoken by. two hundred millions, and all 
 prepared at the expense of the great Bible-Societies. I told 
 them what they were. My present was received with applause, 
 and placed on the Shelves of the Library of the University of 
 Vienna. 
 
 God has created all things for Himself We take credit for 
 the discovery of a new Island, or River-Basin, teeming with 
 thousands, just as the Conchologist vaunts of having found a 
 new species, a variety of shell ; and yet God has had His eye on 
 all these His children for ages past, and it is by His will and 
 pleasure, that they are now revealed to Western Nations. The 
 Angels of Heaven have been watching over them, as much as 
 over us : they are as precious in His sight, and the Saviour looked 
 down from the Cross on them, and died and rose again for them. 
 We are but instruments, imperfect instruments, in His hand to 
 carry the saving Truth to these races, long lying in darkness, but 
 as strong, as capable, as noble, as brave, as ourselves. If they 
 were Cannibals, it is because there was an absence of the beasts 
 of the field, which were a necessity for food : if they were guilty 
 of Human Sacrifices, it is because they believed in the existence 
 of a Deity, and the power of that Deity, and they wished to 
 conciliate that Deity with the offering of their best. To the 
 persons sacrificed they had no ill-will : they considered them 
 as their Messengers to God. If they were driven to crime by 
 Sorcerers, it is because they were Priest-ridden, and had not 
 learnt the true liberty of the Children of God. 
 
 In my far-oif Eton days, the boys used to talk about some 
 of our number becoming Generals, or Bishops, or Senators, or 
 Judges, and such has proved to be the case ; but the idea never 
 rose in the mind of those ancient Heroes, Dr. Goodall and Dr. 
 Keate, of any Etonian being a Missionary : it was beyond their 
 conception, that there was a higher walk, that some of the Public 
 School-Boys hereafter would be Evangelists, Pioneers of Christ, 
 the Conquerors of new Kingdoms, and yet it has proved so : 
 men like Selwyn, Father and Son, Steere, Patteson, Mackenzie, 
 Hannington, and many others, have been found ready to die not 
 only for their own people, but for the poor benighted Heathen ; 
 
( 33 ) 
 
 a new Epoch of Crusaders has been opened out : Knights Errant' 
 go forth in the Panoply of Faith, not to rescue the Sepulchre of 
 the Crucified, but to tell the Nations of the Risen Saviour. 
 
 Some of your numbers may achieve greatness, may administer 
 the affairs of great Subject Provinces, as in my youth I have done, 
 or be present in great battles, as I have been; but hovsr can any- 
 thing of this kind be weighed in the balance with the Saving of 
 Souls ? Some of our great Governors have found a Province a 
 den of wild beasts, and left it a smiling garden ; but over the 
 grave of some Missionaries it is recorded, that, when they landed 
 in a certain Island, there were no Christians, and, when they 
 died, there were no Heathen : that when they landed, the people 
 were naked, savage, and illiterate, and, when they died, they 
 were clothed and in their right mind living chastely in cottages, 
 clustered together in villages, learning the way of holiness in 
 Schools, congregated together in Chapels, looking forward to a 
 holy rest in a consecrated God's acre : they had the whole or 
 portions of the Bible translated into their own language, with 
 such skill, that no single loan-word was required to represent a 
 new idea, as the unbounded wealth of combination of vocables 
 was equal to every requirement : and, moreover, these translations 
 were printed by reformed Cannibals, or children of Cannibals, 
 in the Mission Press, and used in the Mission Schools, while the 
 precious promises therein contained were twined round their 
 converted hearts. 
 
 If any of you are destined to the Church or the Senate, consider 
 the awful questions of the future of the populations subject directly 
 or indirectly to the power and influence of Great Britain. Are 
 they to be swept off the face of the Earth.? Are they to be left 
 in their degradation, adding European vices to their congenital 
 depravity ? What machinery can be applied to save them } By 
 an inexorable law of Nature, some of them seem to be dwindling, 
 and will soon disappear 1 Is their blood to be laid at our door, 
 for in very deed we are their keepers } The Governor, the 
 Merchant, the Soldier, the Colonist, are unable to grapple with 
 this problem : they are rather in spite of themselves the cause of 
 the intensity of the evil. As the Assyrians and the Babylonians and 
 Persians and Greeks and Romans in former times, so in modern 
 times we Anglo-Saxons in our grand march over Continent and 
 Island displace, destroy, swallow up, and assimilate, the indi- 
 genous races : our very touch is dangerous to them, for we bring 
 with us Rum, and Gin, and Gunpowder, and loathsome diseases 
 previously unknown. Nothing but the Missionary, the man of 
 capacity, devotion, and love, can be of use in such a terrible 
 crisis. We dare not say that, because these races by the in- 
 scrutable will of Providence have been left so many centuries 
 out, in the cold, out of the orbit of the Revolution of the Sun of 
 
( 34 ) 
 
 the Gospel, as it were God-forgotten, for no Prophet or Evange- 
 list ever came near them, we dare not say, that they must still 
 have no opportunity of being saved, if they will. Some have had 
 lying Prophets, false doctrines thrust upon them : cruel customs 
 have sprung up, and practices contrary to Nature. Still by His 
 stripes they can be healed. 
 
 And still the shadow of the Cross has been projected over 
 them: we still find in their Sacred Books, where they exist, 
 a penumbra of the truth, a constant feeling after God, if haply 
 they could find Him. We find in every Nation under the Sun a 
 desire to worship a Power dimly seen and imperfectly understood: 
 we must not say, that this state of affairs can be allowed to last. 
 God's means are not limited. There is no corner, no cellar, 
 so dark, to which His blessed rays of Light cannot attain. His 
 Greatness encompasses our Littleness. His Strength supple- 
 ments our Weakness. The stillness of the Past is broken by the 
 sound of a Movement, Moral, Material, Intellectual, Spiritual, 
 and ours is the fortunate race permitted to lead it, and chosen 
 to be the Heralds of Salvation. Perhaps among my hearers 
 there are some, who forty years hence will have achieved a 
 reputation greater than that of a Classic or Mathematician, and 
 whose name will be worthy to be classed with tljose of Henry 
 Martyn, Livingstone, Patteson, and John Williams. 
 
 It is not reasonable, that the Briton, in his insular angularity, 
 and in the precisely arranged costume of his country, should 
 despise the naked Hindu Fakir, smeared with cow- dung, who 
 sits with his chaplet of beads repeating his Mantra ; he does not 
 well to laugh at the Buddhist with his Prayer- Wheel, and the 
 " Om Mani Padmi Hom ! " : he may fail to understand the 
 merit of the Mahometan Moulavi, who knows every word of the 
 Kordn by heart : but the subject of Religion is too deep and 
 solemn to be lightly dealt with, and what we see is only the out- 
 ward sign of the thoughts of generations, the belief of Millions, 
 the hope of dying men, which a countless multitude have held 
 as dearer than life from their cradles to their funeral pyre, or 
 their grave. 
 
 We must not fall into the error, that the origin and practice 
 of all non-Christian Religions are necessarily debased, debased 
 beyond hope, because the outer crust, which presents itself to 
 our observation, is so grossly contrary to Morals and Spirituality. 
 The same might be' said of the Roman and Greek Churches, 
 though we know, that their hidden basements are founded on the 
 Rock. The degree of elevation of the higher minds is not to 
 be measured by the debasement of the vulgar herd of ignorant 
 devotees. At the bottom of all, even of the Fetichism of Africa, 
 and the Nature- Worship of the South Sea Islanders, is a Great 
 Truth, which Man by himself has found out, and cannot free 
 
( 35 ) 
 
 himself from, /^« Existence of a Power greater than himself. He 
 sees Him in different forms, according to the development of his 
 own intellect, but he sees Him still, and he tries to conciliate 
 Him. The hearts of all men seem to turn to God like a Sun- 
 flower turns to the Sun, but they do not seek Him rightly, 
 because they have never had a teacher sent from God. We 
 must not treat superciliously their methods, their legends, and 
 their Faith, but thank God, that we have had our intelligence 
 aided by Inspiration. 
 
 Besides this, in those inhospitable Climates the children of 
 Nature are brought so much nearer, and more directly in contact 
 with the Elements, with the fearful power of Nature, which they 
 worship : the Sea with its changeable caprice, the vast Forest, 
 the deadly swamp, the fearful desert, the hurricane, the thunder 
 and lightning, the earthquake, the volcano, the pestilence, the 
 famine, and the flood : they cannot understand it : they try to 
 conciliate the evil Spirits : even, when they have become 
 Christians, they cannot divest themselves of the idea, that the 
 powers of the Evil One claim their hecatombs, for Nature- 
 worship clings to the skirts of their clothing. A belief in 
 Witches, Fairies, and Ghosts, has hardly yet died out in Great 
 Britain. 
 
 The Epoch for the simple-minded ignorant Missionary is past. 
 God's battles must be fought with arms of precision : it requires 
 the highest intellect, the profoundest knowledge of Religion in 
 all its forms ; the acutest power of dialectics to cope with error, 
 error rendered more deadly by the fresh venom gathered in 
 European pest-houses, and all these gifts must be seasoned with 
 Christian love, indomitable Patience, tender Pity, and Faith able 
 to move mountains. Think not that such contests, though with 
 a naked Brahman, or a pig-tailed Chinese, or a painted Islander, 
 are unworthy of the highest intellect trained in this University. 
 In India, China, and Japan you will have to cope with foemen 
 worthy of your steel : if your study of the words of Aristotle, and 
 Plato, and Paul and Christ, have been of any profit, you will 
 have occasion to use them ; you will have to leave behind the 
 palisade of the Dogmas of Schoolmen, and grapple in a Death- 
 struggle with the great Problem of Human Existence. You will 
 find that Secular Education is a dangerous ally. It is a fearful 
 statement to make, but some make it, that if Religion is a Safe- 
 guard of Morality, and such a binding of the Soul by Rules, as 
 will make a man prove worthy of Life, and more fitted to die, a 
 false Religion is better than the great No Religion, Agnosticism, 
 Theosophism, and Atheism, which loom before us. 
 
 The Asiatic has no sense of Inferiority : he deems himself the 
 heir of an ancient Civilization : it is admitted on all hands,- that, 
 if one Language can exceed another in symmetrical beauty and 
 
( 36 )■ 
 
 multiform structure, it is Sanskrit, and Sanskrit is the type of 
 the highest development of the Indian mind, and the vehicle of 
 its wondrous literature. At the Oriental Congress of Vienna 
 last September, at which I was present. Pandit Bhandarkar of 
 Bombay, in the dress of his country, made an address on an 
 intricate subject in the English language with all the dignity of 
 a Professor, and an aplomb and absence of self-consciousness, to 
 which few Englishmen can attain. A question arose as to the 
 translation of a Chinese Proper-name, and a young Chinese, with 
 his blue dress and pig-tail, stepped into the rostrum, and with 
 the chalk in his hand explained it in elegant French, looking 
 with fierce contempt on the assembled Scholars of Europe, who 
 presumed to dabble with his ideographs. An Arabic School- 
 Inspector from Egypt gave an address in Arabic on the progress 
 of Education in Egypt from the time of the Arab Conquest 
 until now, and no doubt proved to his own satisfaction, that 
 the Arab System was far superior to the present new-fangled 
 Instruction. 
 
 These are the men, with whom the undergraduates of Oxford 
 will have to cope, if they have leisure from their Gymnasia, their 
 Stadia, their Naumakhiai, their Hippodromoi, and their Symposia, 
 to prepare to cope at all. 
 
 Think what a vista is opened out to those, who with reverent 
 curiosity attempt the study of Comparative Religion with a 
 view of arming themselves for the fight in the cause of the one 
 true Faith. Mark the piety of the elder Races, how they attributed 
 their victories to their God : the Monuments of Assyria and 
 Egypt bring before us those great Monarchs trusting to Ashur 
 and Amen Rd. In India to this day they appeal to and trust in 
 their ancient divinities. It will not do for the European to rush 
 in, and sweep away all these beliefs. Far better to place his 
 foot on adamantine Truth, which is the basis of all Religion, 
 and build upwards, removing gently the decay and accumulation 
 of ruins of Centuries, and gently pointing out the better way. 
 God has not left any of his children without a witness, if the 
 Missionary is skilful enough to find it: how gently St. Paul 
 dealt with the Athenians in the market-place of Athens ! It is 
 a lesson to all Missionaries to be merciful to the intellectual and 
 moral failings of the heathen, to be gentle, and not press 
 the heel too heavily on the new convert, and not expect to find 
 angels in India of a type, which is not found in Great Britain, 
 not to describe the great Empires of India and China as the 
 Kingdom of Satan, but by their consistent lives and gentle 
 reasoning to win Souls to Christ. 
 
 There are sublimer and sweeter motives calculated to influence 
 you, which will be explained to you by those, who are com- 
 missioned to instruct you from the Pulpit. I allude to the 
 
■( 37 ) 
 
 Glorifying of Christ by the enlargement of His Kingdom. I 
 restrict myself here to pointing out to you, as the result of 
 personal experience of nearly half a century, the reflex blessing 
 on our hearts, our hearths, and lives, the satisfying feeling, that 
 here at least we are unmistakeably doing the work of our Master. 
 It is not sufficient to raise the tone of our private lives, to provide 
 for the wants of our Parish, or the adornment of our place of 
 Worship : we can do this, and yet not leave the other undone. 
 The plain distinct parting command of the Risen Saviour applies 
 to each one of us now, just as much as it did eighteen hundred 
 years ago to the Apostles and Disciples assembled on Mount 
 Olivet, and this thought pressed upon me, as I stood a short 
 time ago on that blessed spot, and looked across the brook 
 Kedron into the town of Jerusalem still in Captivity. 
 
 The Missionary is not, as some would have it, the enemy and 
 opponent of the Trader and Merchant, but their Pioneer, and 
 best friend. He will not indeed sit quietly by, and see the 
 Natives plundered and ill-used, and their young men cajoled by 
 nominal service-contracts, and carried off into real Slavery. He 
 will not look calmly on, while the young girls of the Mission- 
 School, just budding into womanhood, are seduced by the Ship- 
 Clerk, or assistant trader, to be their temporary companions : 
 he will not be silent, when Rum, and Gin, are poured into the 
 country, and the day's wage, and the reward of toil, are repre- 
 sented by a bottle of liquor. But the Missionary, if he rightly 
 understands his high position, will preach Christ in such a way, 
 as to make his hearers more fit to die as believing and repentant 
 sinners, and more fit to live, as sober, industrious, intelligent 
 citizens of the world, compelling the Earth by their labour to 
 give a greater increase, developing new arts, and storing up for 
 export new products, and receiving in return all that the Art and 
 Science of Europe and America can bring to their Coasts to 
 make life more cheerful, homes more comfortable, bodies better 
 clad, and souls more ready for the great change, that must surely 
 come. 
 
 There is a higher consanguinity than that of the blood, which 
 runs in our veins : that of the blood, which makes our hearts 
 beat with indignation, when we hear of suffering, with pity, when 
 we read of Ignorance, and glad joy, when we hear of noble men 
 and women giving their lives to relieve that suffering, and to 
 enlighten that ignorance. The heart indeed beats high, when 
 we read of such unselfishness and greatness of character, as has 
 distinguished the Missionary Heroes of Africa, who were not 
 afraid to die for the Negro, and the sublimity of Simple Faith, 
 which marks the career of the Polynesian Native Teachers, who 
 with their lives in their hands went from Island to Island on 
 their voyages of Mercy, until the whole Archipelago was brought 
 
( 38 ) 
 
 under Christian influence. Surely it is a cause of pride to think, 
 that there is a brave and strong man, one of our own kin and 
 language, and a woman too, in the darkest corner of the Earth, 
 where his and her influence is most wanted. 
 
 And there is a higher Nationality than that of being of one 
 ^Race, and speaking one Language : it is, that we owe allegiance 
 and filial duty to our Common Father, and ought to feel love 
 and pity and sympathy for all His children, and the greater love, 
 the more degraded that we find them. 
 
 Had the light, which sprung up to lighten the Gentiles in 
 Galilee, flashed Eastward and Southward instead of Westward, 
 and left us sitting all these dreary centuries in Heathen darkness, 
 what should we have thought, if the Nations of Asia and Africa 
 and Oceania had not found their hearts burning within them to 
 carry to us the Gospel ? And shall we, who have been pre- 
 destinated to such early blessings, now fail in our duty to those, 
 who by the inscrutable will of God have been less favoured .? 
 
 If then we have talents, the best use that we can make of them 
 is to enlarge our Master's Kingdom, and, when our lives come 
 to an end, the best tribute, that we can have offered, is that of 
 redeemed souls, better than the victories of the Soldier, or the 
 learning of the Scholar, or the discoveries of the Secrets of 
 Nature made by the Philosopher. No brave Missionary fights, 
 and dies in vain. 
 
 Ut moriens vivat, Vixit ut moritunis. 
 
 Address to the Undergraduates, at Balliol College, 
 Oxford, Nov. i«86 (with additions, i888). 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE HERO-MISSIONARY AND HEROIC MISSIONARY 
 
 SOCIETY. 
 
 Quem virum, aut heroa, lyrS, vel acri 
 Tibid sumis celebrare, Clio ? — 
 
 Horace I. 12. i. 
 
 As a member of the Committee of the Church Missionary 
 Society, I am not likely to undervalue the plodding day by day, 
 and year by year, of the simple-hearted Missionary, who, like 
 Rebman and Krapf at Mombasa in East Africa, and William 
 Smith and Leupolt at Banaras, worked on from year to year, 
 and only left the scene of their quiet labours, when failing 
 powers compelled them to do so. Such uneventful lives do not 
 strike the imagination so much, as that of the Hero-Missionary, 
 whose career is short, but brilliant : it may seem unjust, but it 
 is so always : the brave man, who leads the forlorn hope, or 
 gains the Victoria Cross by risking his life, obtains a niche, 
 and his career is an incentive to others : the faithful old soldier 
 has nothing but the feeling of duty done to reward him, and 
 the thought of him will not rouse others to deeds of valour. 
 
 My subject is the Hero-Missionary, and Heroic Missionary 
 Society. It is hard, that the man must die to be deemed a 
 Hero, but so it has been at all times from the days of Achilles 
 to our own times. Death throws a halo round the departed one. 
 Some examples have been brighter in death than in life : it is 
 another illustration of our Lord's remark about the corn of 
 wheat, " If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." I have 
 selected three great Characters, Allen Gardiner, Coleridge 
 Patteson, and John Williams, as types of the Hero-Missionary, 
 and the Moravian Missionary Society, as the type of the Heroic 
 Mission. 
 
 Life is such a tangled web, that it is only as he approaches 
 the end of his career, that the worker can see the pattern of 
 the web, at which he has been working all his days : he has 
 had only one portion of the pattern exposed to his view, but 
 he has been permitted to work at that faithfully and patiently, 
 though it may be only a leaf or a flower, and he is able to do 
 
( 40 ) 
 
 it truly, strongly and firmly; but the Hero-Missionary seems 
 in his youth, or in the early part of his career, to have grasped 
 at some purpose unseen to all but himself: he wishes to 
 accomplish something, which the world will not let die : and to 
 some few this is granted. In others the one only life, which the 
 worker had to offer, is not sufficient : but the Master accepts 
 the will for the deed, as young M^Call said on his early death- 
 bed, " If the Lord's will be to' take myself, and not the work, 
 " which I would do for Him, His Holy will be done.'' 
 
 ''O^ ol Qdot (^iXoufftf OvTjffKoufftv veoi. 
 
 Heroes, being men of marked character, are deemed by the 
 vulgar herd to be eccentric : their very superiority prevents 
 their being duly estimated. The circumstance of their death 
 shakes weak Faith, but the true Christian through Death to 
 Life sees clearly, how God of seeming evil works lasting good. 
 To die, for one's country is a great gain : to die for one's 
 Saviour, to fill up what remains of His sufferings, is sweeter. 
 Such was the life of Allen Gardiner : no doubt he was thought 
 to be an enthusiast, arid crazed, and a bore ; but the opinion 
 is now changed. His story is simple : he was an officer of the 
 Navy, who lost his young wife early : he thus went per crucem 
 ad lucem, and thenceforth consecrated himself to the Missionary 
 service heart and soul, and he kept his vow : to be a Pioneer- 
 Missionary to the most abandoned Heathen was the great 
 object of his life. He was neither qualified for ordinary 
 Missionary work, nor would it have satisfied him to have reaped 
 the harvest, which others had sowed : his was a harder and 
 more thankless task, but none the less blessed. 
 
 He tried many countries, but found no opening : his Mission- 
 ary spirit, like a dove let loose from home, wandered about 
 seeking a place of rest : at length he definitely chose South 
 America as his field : he was prevented by the Roman Catholic 
 Priests from settling among the wild tribes on the Continent : 
 he found at length a spot, where even the Spanish Priests 
 would not care to follow him, at the most Southerly point of 
 the Island, separated from the Mainland by the Straits of 
 Magellan, within a small distance of the Antarctic Circle, the 
 Island of Tierra del Fuego. 
 
 The possibilities of the Human Family are not to be found 
 in one single race, or at one particular epoch, or in one region 
 of the world. Grace is sufficient for them all, and the Mission- 
 ary, who brought captive to the feet of his Master the poor 
 Eskimo, the half-brutal Fuegian, the Cannibal of Melanesia, 
 or the short stunted races of Australia, glorifies His Saviour 
 by showing, that the Gospel-Message was designed for all, can 
 be understood by all, that Christ died for all, and that there is 
 
( 41 ) 
 
 no other way of Salvation, but through Him. The Message is 
 so divine, and yet so clothed in universal Humanity, that it finds 
 its way to the spiritual necessities of all, and satisfies the heart's 
 cravings. The Student of Missionary chronicles has added this 
 new weapon to the armoury of the Theologian. Darwin, one 
 of the gentlest and wisest of Heathens (for he, that is least of 
 the Kingdom of Heaven, is greater than him), when he first 
 ^aw the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, declared, that their 
 intellectual improvement was beyond the efforts of man; but he 
 lived to replace that hasty opinion by the following: "The 
 lesson of. the Missionary is the enchanter's wand." 
 
 Both Nature and Man were against Gardiner : the climate 
 rendered the country most dreary and inhospitable: the sky 
 rarely cleared : rainy squalls in summer alternated with the snow 
 and sleet of winter : the winds were ferocious. The people 
 belonged to the Patagonian race, of a dark colour, with long 
 black hair : they had low foreheads, flat and thick noses, scanty 
 clothing, wretched habitations, and they were arrant thieves, 
 cruel, and, when brought to bay, furious wild beasts : the women 
 possessed some traces of gentleness, but were treated as slaves. 
 Gardiner's first attempt to land and house himself on land was 
 a failure : the conduct of the natives was such, that he had to 
 retreat, and return to England. Nothing daunted, he deter- 
 mined to have a floating home, and to keep his reserve-stores at 
 the Falkland Islands. He could not collect sufficient funds to 
 buy a suitable ship, so he supplied himself with two decked 
 boats : two Catechists and three pious sailors accompanied him. 
 The Ocean-Queen steamer deposited the boats and men with 
 provisions for six months at Banner Bay in Tierra del Fuego : 
 they had given up all the ties of home for Christ's sake, but they 
 were called upon to make a greater sacrifice, even of their lives, 
 and none of them were ever seen alive again. It reconciles us 
 to our common humanity, that men. are always found, when the 
 cause of Christ requires it, to face the greatest danger at His 
 bidding. These men all died of starvation, Allen Gardiner being 
 the last survivor. When, months later, the frigate, sent out to 
 make inquiries, arrived, their dead bodies were found, and their 
 journals and letters : one by one they had died, but there was 
 no despair, no imputation of blame to others : 
 
 Poor, weak though we are, our abode is a very Bethel to our Souls, for we 
 feel and know, that God is here. Asleep or awake, I am happy beyond the 
 power of expression. 
 
 Allen Gardiner penned a farewell letter, expressing his un- 
 clouded joy in the Lord, his perfect resignation to His Holy 
 Will, but earnestly imploring, that the Mission should not be 
 abandoned, and sketching out a plan for future operations. 
 
( 42 ) 
 
 which was acted upoii. In his death he anticipated the coming 
 of His Master's Kingdom. He rejoiced to see the day-dawn of 
 the Gospel : he saw it, and was glad. 
 His last words were : 
 
 Great and marvellous are the loving-kindnesses of my gracious God unto me. 
 He has preserved me hitherto, and for. four days, although without bodily 
 food, without any feeling of hunger or thirst ! 
 
 Here the journal ends : but one letter was dated a day later : 
 
 Yet a little vi^hile, and through Grace we may join that blessed throng, to 
 sing the praises of Christ to all eternity. I neither hunger nor thirst, though 
 five days without food : marvellous loving-kindness to me a Sinner ! 
 
 I remember the news of this sad tragedy reaching India 
 in 1852, and many a sigh was wafted from India to the South 
 Pole. His life was not given in vain: the Pioneer's work was 
 done : and the Lone Star-Mission was established, which has 
 worked Northwards into the mainland of South America, and is 
 now spreading itself among the Heathens of Paraguay. Bread 
 cast on the waters is found after many days. 
 
 Humanly speaking, but for Allen Gardiner's determination, 
 and the interest excited by the sad end of himself, and his 
 noble companions, this footing would never have been made 
 good. When Nations and Tongues are assembled before the 
 great White Throne, Allen Gardiner will be there with his 
 savages : 
 
 Lord ! behold, with the talent, which Thou gavest me, I have gathered 
 these poor sheep into Thy fold ! 
 
 Differing in everything, in method, in gifts, in training, in 
 result, but with the same spirit, that of lowly and entire self- 
 sacrifice, was the career of Coleridge Patteson, Bishop of 
 the Islands of Melanesia, which lie 120° to the West, and in 
 a more Northern Latitude. I knew Patteson as a boy at Eton, 
 and he had the advantage of a University-Education, and I well 
 remember Bishop Selwyn the elder going out as Bishop of New 
 Zealand. He also was of the Hero-type, strong, brave, wise and 
 determined : he had established the Mission in the New Hebrides 
 and the Solomon Islands, and he chose Coleridge Patteson to 
 be his coadjutor, and his successor: there is something sad 
 and solemn in the details of the selection of the lad by the 
 Bishop, and the surrender of him by the Parents : the Mother, 
 like Hannah, consecrated her son to the Lord, and the grand 
 old Father made the great sacrifice of his eldest boy, for he 
 never saw his face again. How foolish, and even wicked, seem 
 the efforts of Parents to retain their children, when the Lord 
 has unmistakably chosen and called them ! Every act of this 
 beautiful life stands out in the pages of his biography : whether 
 in his solitary ship-cabin, or lonely hut, he was a great writer 
 
( 43 ) 
 
 of letters, and they tell us unconsciously of his exalted character. 
 He had no settled home, but he had a settled plan, devised by 
 Bishop Selwyn, and worked out by himself. He had to deal 
 ■with a black, woolly-haired Negrito race, savage, inhospitable, 
 cannibals, not so low down in the scale of humanity as the 
 natives of Tierra del Fuego, for they possessed some arts, and 
 they spoke numerous distinct languages. The Training School 
 on Norfolk Island, the Mission-Ship taking up, and putting down, 
 lads at the different Islands, thus accustoming the people to his 
 presence, acquiring a knowledge of their languages, and creating 
 a confidence in his kindness : these were his methods. As his 
 blessed ship passed from Island to Island, it left a track of light, 
 of mercy, and loving-kindness, and his plans seem to be realizing. 
 We read in his Journal- : 
 
 I think of the Islands, and see them, in my dreams, aiid it seems, as if 
 nothing had been done ; but when I think of what they were a very short 
 time ago, Oh ! I do feel thankful indeed, and amazed, and almost fearful. 
 
 He was so far more blessed than Allen Gardiner, for he saw 
 some fruits of his labours : brighter prospects of more fruit : the 
 harvest was ripening : labourers, both European and Native, were 
 gathering round him : the time for putting in the sickle was at 
 hand. 
 
 Hundreds of people crowded together, naked, armed, with uncouth cries 
 and gestures. I cannot talk to them but by signs : but they are my children 
 now. May God enable me to do my duty by them ! 
 
 The great Controller of the lives of men had provided him 
 fellow-labourers from an unexpected quarter: lads, whom he 
 found on Norfolk Island, descendants of the Mutineers of the 
 " Bounty," who, having married Native women of Tahiti, left to 
 theil: offspring a legacy of the blood of Europe and Oceania 
 united in their veins in a mixed stream ; these lads were 
 endowed with singular sweetness of character, and ardent faith. 
 Two were killed by poisoned arrows during the lifetime of the 
 Bishop : one died with him. It is well known, that the Bishop 
 was killed at the Island of Nikapu : I need not tell the sad 
 story : he died for the sins of others, so closely did he tread in 
 the steps of his Master : a boat floated out containing his body 
 with a palm branch laid upon the five wounds : and at the age 
 of 46 his warfare was accomplished, his Hero-life was ended. 
 The poor lad, however, lingered a few days in intense agony 
 under his wounds, and made the following remarks, when he 
 saw his leader's body, showing the spirit, which had been im- 
 parted to him by his contact with a Hero : 
 
 Seeing people taken away, when we think, that they are most necessary to 
 do God's work on earth, makes me think, that we often think, and talk, too 
 much about Christian work : what God requires is Christian men. He does not 
 need the work : He only gives it to form a perfect character of the men, whom 
 He sends to do it. 
 
( 44 ) 
 
 It is all right now. Do not grieve about it, because they did not do this 
 thing of themselves, for God allowed them to do it. It is very good, because 
 God would have it so, because He looks after us, and He understands about us, 
 and now He wills to take away us two (nie and the Bishop), and it is well. 
 
 The poor lad's knowledge of the world was limited to Pitcairn 
 Island and Norfolk Island. His faith had not been weakened 
 in the schools of learning The Bishop had by his own Hero- 
 life brought Christ home vividly to his imagination, and in his 
 simple eloquence, with dying lips, the poor lad sought to palliate 
 the offences of the ignorant savages, who had killed him in 
 revenge for the wrongs, which they had suffered at the hands 
 of others, and to justify Ihe ways of God to Man. Who can say 
 that Coleridge Patteson lived and died in vain } If you seek 
 his Monument, read the annals of the. ever- expanding Mela- 
 nesian Mission, spreading from Tribe to Tribe, and from Island 
 to Island. 
 
 John Williams belonged to an earlier generation. He had 
 accomplished his course, while Patteson was an Eton Boy, 
 before Allen Gardiner had conceived his great idea. He was 
 indeed an ava^ avhpSiv, and seems to have been specially brought 
 upon the scene by a wise Providence at a moment, when his 
 peculiar gifts were required. Oh ! if we could only understand, 
 and be satisfied, that we are all of us but pots in the hands of 
 the Potter, made suitable for the work, which is laid upon us 1 
 Williams' education, intellectually and even religiousl)', had been 
 very defective : the hour of his call came at the appointed time : 
 as he was going to a tavern to meet worldly companions, he 
 was overtaken by a lady of his acquaintance in the streets, who 
 persuaded him to accompany her to a place of worship, and 
 this chance event was the commencement of his great change 
 of life : he had energy of character, strength of faith, ardent 
 desire to preach the Gospel, and a wonderful power of con- 
 ciliation : he could moreover turp his hand to anything in the 
 smithy, or carpenter's shop : he proved his capacity to build a 
 seaworthy vessel : he could saw timber, or teach in a school : 
 his object was to, rouse the people to the duty of introducing 
 new arts, and reasonable requirements. Such was the man, 
 who was sent out to preach the Gospel in the Island of Tahiti 
 in 1816; early in his career he wrote to his Mother, that he 
 prayed, that he might be faithful unto Death, and his prayer 
 was heard, for it was so : he had a heart too large to wish to 
 keep the duty of evangelizing the vast Region of Oceania to 
 one denomination of Christians : he invited all the Churches 
 of Protestant Christianity to take their part in the holy Crusade. 
 
 Early in his career he conceived the idea of evangelizing 
 the whole Region, and he lived to see great progress in carrying 
 it out. His plans were bold and original, but always practical, 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 and which would work. There was nothing in him Utopian, 
 sentimental, or illusory, and success crowned all his endeavours, 
 though he did not live to see it, and half a century's experience 
 has confirmed the justice of his views. He could not rest 
 satisfied with the tiny populations of Raiatea, and Rarotonga 
 (of which Island he was the first discoverer) : the fervour of his 
 spirit led him to desire, in spite of the inadequacy of his means, 
 to go on from Island to Island, and plant a living Christianity ; 
 for he formed and carried out the bold conception of training 
 converted Heathen to become Teachers and Evangelists in 
 other Heathen Islands, a truly divine method, and blessed 
 beyond his utmost dreams. It seems almost fabulous, if sub- 
 sequent years had not proved the reality. He came, he saw, he 
 conquered: like a giant he strode over leagues of sea, and 
 anticipated difficulties seemed to vanish before him. 
 
 There were no Steamers then, and few sailing vessels ; but 
 he built his own, the " Messenger of Peace," and he dauntlessly 
 navigated the vast realm of Oceania, dotted with many hundred 
 isles : in the last year of his life his exertions in England enabled 
 him to provide a better and larger vessel, and the Steam Mis- 
 sionary Ship has long superseded his slow means of progress. 
 After his return from England in 1838, he made his first attempt 
 to evangelize the black races in the New Hebrides : he landed 
 with success in 1839 on the Islands of Futuna and Tanna: on 
 the Island of Erromanga he was killed, and devoured, by those, 
 whom he came to save and bless. The last words in his Journal 
 before he started on this fatal voyage were : 
 
 None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so 
 that I finish my course with joy, and the message, which I have received of 
 the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of His Grace. 
 
 The last sentence written by him on the preceding evening was : 
 
 This is a memorable day. 
 And almost his last words : 
 
 Oh, how much depends upon to-morrow ! 
 
 The darkness, which for a time shrouded Erromanga, was 
 like the darkness before day, the precederof an exceedmg light, 
 which has overshadowed the New Hebrides. The man, who 
 murdered him, was converted, and two sons of this man became 
 leading Teachers in the Mission-school, which was erected close 
 to the spot, where he had fallen half a century before. ^ 
 
 Tohn Williams had been unwilling to build on another s 
 foundation, for he was a Pioneer, and the settled desire of 
 his Soul was to preach the Gospel in Regions beyond and 
 not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to 
 his hand ; but he paved the way for others. It is a wonder, 
 
( 46 ) 
 
 that he had been spared so long from fever, shipwreck, the 
 poisoned arrow, or accident by land and water : for twenty- 
 three years he had been permitted to carry on his work, his 
 blessed work, the beginning and continuation and ending of 
 which had been predestinated at his birth : if he died at the 
 age of forty-three, he had accomplished a work left undone 
 since the beginning of time, the linking of these scattered 
 Islands together in one blessed chain. Love to his Saviour, 
 and the souls of men, Faith in the veracity of the Divine 
 Promise as to the universal diffusion of the Gospel, conviction, 
 that the Gospel was suited to and intended for the wants of 
 the most debased of mankind, and the only cure of human 
 ills : these were the great principles of this Hero-Missionary. 
 
 John Williams is described as having no personal interests 
 apart from his people. A Missionary, .who is unable to 
 identify himself with the people, among whom he labours, 
 cannot under any circumstances be an efficient labourer, and, 
 if he has any other object in view but thus to identify himself, 
 he has mistaken his vocation. To be the bearer of every 
 man's sorrow, the comforter of every man's grief, the strengthener 
 of every man's weaknesses : to do this, and do it until death : 
 it has been rightly said that this is the object and duty of a 
 Missionary. A man, who never allows himself to forget, that 
 the people are not his equals according to his European notions, 
 though in the sight of God they are in very deed his equals : 
 who cannot overlook the fact, that they are rude, noisy, naked, 
 and in some outward matters even offensive : who cannot admit 
 them at all times into his own simple habitation, but treats them, 
 as if they were servants, and confines his intercourse with them 
 to the hours of his public duty : such a man is destitute of the 
 one great qualification of a Hero-Missionary : such a man will 
 not bring souls to Christ : his name will not sound stirring in 
 the legends of the converted tribe : he will not be hailed as a 
 Father, on his return, and wept for, as a Father, when he dies : 
 the mention of his name will not stay the attacks of wild Heathen 
 tribes, as it is reported in the biography of John Williams, that 
 they spared a village _/»r his sake. 
 
 The Hero-Missionary, with his supernaturally enlarged and 
 enlightened powers of vision, looks over the barriers, which 
 limit the view of the less gifted. He admits indeed, that 
 segregation from the civilized world, want of opportunity, a 
 different climate, a diflFerence of race, an absence of culture, 
 have made men diflFerent, but not necessarily inferior: he 
 recognizes the innate weaknesses of every son of Adam, which, 
 if uncontrolled, turn men into devils, and the germs of innate 
 goodness, which exist in all, and which, if developed by the 
 touch of the Holy Spirit, can transform some, whether their 
 
( 47 ) 
 
 skins be white, black, yellow, or red, into Angels. It has 
 shocked me to hear how some Missionaries speak even of their 
 own flocks. As regards the people of North India, who are 
 of our own Aryan bone, I can certify, that they are good and 
 lovable ; and in my old age I have learnt to love, and esteem, 
 and honour, men of pure Negro race, who appear in some 
 matters to be even of a higher type than my own countrymen. 
 No doubt St. Paul was of the highest type of Gentleman, and 
 Scholar, of his period ; yet we find in his writings no assertion 
 of a superiority over his converts, some of whom were slaves, 
 and yet dear brothers : we find in him, though a Hebrew of the 
 Hebrews, and a Roman citizen, no assertion of caste over the 
 Galatians ; he came in contact with all, men of Europe, Asia 
 and Africa, Jew, and Greek, and Roman, bondmen and free, 
 but none were to him common and unclean. Alas, how far 
 below this standard many of our Missionaries fall ! 
 
 I now pass to the Heroic Missionary Society. I take as 
 my type " the Moravian, or the Church of the United Brethren :" 
 for the Church and Society are identical. It was the oiFspring 
 of a bitter persecution by the Roman Catholics in Moravia : a 
 small remnant fled across the boundary of hated Austria into 
 Lusatia, and settled on the estate of Count Zinzendorf, and 
 founded their city of Herrnhut. I have lately visited it, sat in 
 the Council-room, conferred with the leaders of the community, 
 visited their widows, and worn-out Missionaries, in their humble 
 homes, and knelt in their great Friedhof: they were first in 
 the Protestant Mission Field, they are one of the few Associa- 
 tions, that have obtained a footing in every one of the four 
 portions of the non-Christian world: and they deliberately 
 chose the most debased and degraded tribes as the object of 
 their love, because such as they seemed to need the Gospel 
 most : their agents in truth wore the garb of poverty, and were 
 poor in spirit also : in the countries, where they worked among 
 slaves, they were ready to become slaves also, even as our Lord 
 took upon Himself the form of a slave, " fidpifnjv SovXov Xdftwv." 
 With the poor Hottentot they were not ashamed to suffer 
 hardship and persecution, and to maintain, that these poor out- 
 casts had souls, for which Christ had died : with the Eskimo they 
 lived as brethren, and won them to themselves, content with 
 the poorest and most unsavoury fare, labouring with their own 
 hands, trying not to be a burden to their Church, which was 
 so poor, that it has still to be sustained by the alms of universal 
 Christendom, for they were doing work, which no other Society 
 could do : they literally went about as the disciples of Jesus, 
 without scrip or change of garment, and their examples of self- 
 denial carried the hearts of their people by storm: in these 
 last days they have opened an asylum for lepers at Jerusalem. 
 
( 48 ) 
 
 Their doctrines were as simple as their practice, "Nothing 
 but Christ crucified 1 " They had a courage, which no danger 
 could daunt, and a love, which no harsh treatment could efface : 
 who ever heard of a Moravian appealing to public Meetings, 
 or a Public Press, or getting up Deputations to. the Foreign 
 Office of a European Government, to organize armed relief- 
 expeditions, or avenge their slaughtered brethren ? They took 
 death, and the spoiling of their goods, joyfully : they had a quiet 
 constancy, which no hardship could exhaust : there were, and 
 are, no Exeter-Halls to trumpet their praise : in their Church 
 there are no rich men to subscribe annual thousands, and yet 
 they have left a mark on the world, which no Time can 
 efface. Their types were : singleness of purpose, simplicity of 
 bearing, self-consecration, and contentment with a little. If I 
 ■wished to praise a Missiond;ry, I should say, that he is worthy 
 of being a Moravian. Many Societies have done well, but this 
 has excelled them all, for it. has most nearly approached to 
 the ideal Church, formed after the pattern of the Founder: 
 first and foremost in the great battle-field, yet seeking the last 
 and lowest among the ranks of men : 
 
 I was a stranger, and ye took me in : I was sick, and ye visited me : I was 
 in prison, and ye came unto me. 
 
 The blessings of those ready to perish have accompanied, and 
 still accompany, the gentle footfall of the Moravian brethren; 
 as they tread the soil of distant and inhospitable climes, un- 
 known, unpraised, but not unrewarded. 
 
 The mode of conducting Missions must be Heroic also. We 
 have but one life to keep, or lose : how can we spend it in 
 the best way ? If souls are to be won to Christ, it must be 
 by men, or women, whose souls are overflowing with love to 
 Christ. I ask not for ascetics, or celibates, or adopters of the 
 native dress, or the turner of the formal prayer-wheel, or the 
 daily celebrant, but such an expression of character on the 
 countenance, such a mode of utterance, such a voice, thoughts 
 that move, words that burn, as display Earnestness, and that the 
 soul of the Missionary is on fire. AH human talents are only 
 so far profitably employed, as they are used to save souls : all 
 human knowledge is of no avail, unless it conduces directly or 
 indirectly to the extension of our Master's Kingdom : the 
 simple Gospel outweighs it all, so simple that all can under- 
 stand, so profound, that no one can get beyond it. The 
 great Heroes, of whom I have spoken, and the great 
 Missionary band of Moravian Heroes, differed from each 
 other essentially, but they had formed the same conception of 
 Christ, and of their duty : they looked over the human fences of 
 Churches, and saw the awful vision of the face of Christ only: 
 they had a burning desire to carry His message face to face, 
 
( 49 ) 
 
 mouth to mouth, in its naked simplicity :' they thought nothing 
 of Chapels, and Altar-cloths, stoles, music, painted glass and 
 decoration : they took the living Word to dying souls, teaching 
 the poor Heathen to live decent holy lives in this transitory 
 world, and through Faith to inherit eternal lives hereafter. 
 There was no necessity for hair shirts or flagellations, for long 
 ceremonies, or Retreats : theirs was the daily round of holy duty, 
 whether steering the Mission-Ship, building the Mission- 
 School, or preaching the Mission-Sermon, until the very hour 
 that they are called away, which is the best proof, that their 
 allotted task was done. I would have you realize the dignity, 
 the greatness of the office : it is not a romantic, or sentimental, 
 employrrient, such as discoursing with Brahmans under a tree, 
 or gathering sweet little children in a school : there is much 
 that is distasteful, and humbling, and sometimes a feeling of 
 despair. 
 
 The Hero must not be cast down, must not be diverted from 
 his purpose, must not change his ground. We can admire the 
 perseverance of a bad man in a bad cause, how much more of a 
 good man in a good cause ! Though for long years they may 
 have toiled and done nothing, yet at His word they again cast 
 down their nets. The famous Las Casas had a fixed purpose 
 to protect the poor natives of America, and he is reported to 
 have done something every day of his life to advance the one 
 great idea, which dominated his existence. Hudson Taylor 
 has put it well : 
 
 Go in glad obedience : in fullest confidence, without anxiety, to do a definite 
 work. 
 
 Such is the high type, such the practice of those Hero-Mis.- 
 sionaries, whom I have noticed. They verily knew how to die 
 daily : as servants of the Most High, they did not strive, or cry, 
 or murmur, or appeal to the Arm of the Flesh, but suffered even 
 as their great Example had suffered also. 
 
 Does the modern Missionary, as a class, rise to this high 
 level ? I speak not of one Nation, or one Society, or one 
 Denomination. I have been a close observer of the Missionary 
 in his goings-out and comings-in for forty years, seen them in 
 their fields of work, read their reports in many languages, visited 
 Training Colleges, and sat in many Committee Rooms. I think 
 there is a falling off from the Heroic type, and a tendency on 
 their part to make themselves too comfortable, somehow or 
 other to connect the office of Missionary with the opportunity 
 of early marriage, to take the matter too lightly. It is not 
 pretended, that Missionaries must not take proper care of their 
 lives, and protect themselves from the climate : they are bound 
 to do so, and the Missionary Societies are bound to provide 
 them with the means for doing so. Nothing would be more 
 
( so ) 
 
 wrong than to fall into the errors of a certain well-known 
 American Mission, where nothing is provided, where the 
 Missionary is supposed to support himself by his labours, and 
 in consequence grows weak and ill on a Native diet, unsuited 
 to his European constitution, and in a Native hut. This is 
 a wanton trifling with valuable lives. But it is the tendency 
 of our age to be soft and effeminate and luxurious in every- 
 thing ; there is a general softening of that fibre, on which 
 strength of character, self-denial, and consecration, depends. 
 Young men desire an income, a wife, and a home : they are not 
 very ambitious, not very earnest : they rather shun the hard 
 lives on the track of secular employment, on which they and 
 their contemporaries have started : they covet the improved 
 social position. How much we have fallen from the standard 
 of our countrymen, Columba of loria, Columbanus, Aidan of 
 Lindisfarne, St. Gall, Boniface of Exeter ! How wide is the 
 difference of the easy-going Missionary from the type that has 
 come down to us of the early Christians ! St. Paul gave up all 
 these things for the glory of God, and for the extension of 
 the Redeemer's Kingdom. It is time, that severer, loftier, 
 more heroic, sentiments should be pressed home. It seems 
 a shame to make the comparison, but it must be made. No 
 young Military officer, or Civilian, or Merchant, of the age of 
 23, whose lot was cast in a foreign country, would burden 
 himself with a family: some might like to do so, but their 
 circumstances forbid it. The outer world, and the Roman 
 Catholic press, scoff at this conspicuous phase of Protestant 
 Missionary life, which terribly impedes the Lord's work, and 
 entails a vast waste of the alms of the Churches collected to 
 Evangelize the Heathen. There may come a time in a Mis- 
 sionary's life, when Matrimony may be of advantge to the work 
 of the Mission, but not in his tender years, when he should 
 be out among his people, prepared for long journeys, and 
 transfers to distant localities. St. Paul has not been silent in 
 word and example on this subject. Then, again, the British 
 training is not such as to make a young man prepared to bear 
 hardship. I have visited the Training Colleges of Germany, 
 and they contrast favourably. I found on inquiry, that such a 
 thing as an engagement to be married is not permitted. The 
 student there works in the garden and the carpenter's shop, 
 does menial services in the House, and yet is a Hebraist and a 
 Grecian. Such employments sharpen the intellect, and rouse 
 latent powers. John Williams owed much of his influence to 
 his skill as a blacksmith. Bishop Selwyn the Elder could not 
 have done what he did do, had he not been an expert manager 
 of a craft, and a man fertile in resource. 
 
 Let me look at the subject from another point of view. How 
 
( SI ) 
 
 much do we read in Missionary Letters and Reports of their 
 families, birth of children, death of children, illness of wife and 
 domestic cares, while the reader is anxious to know, how the 
 Gospel-warfare goes on, what progress has been made. Only 
 imagine the public despatch of a General or Governor, in which 
 such details were even alluded to ! In private letters to friends 
 such things might be noticed, but not in the documents sent 
 home to be placed before the Committee. Nothing strikes a 
 Committee-man more than the preponderate proportion of the 
 correspondence, which is occupied with notices of the wives 
 and children of Missionaries, as if the Committee were a Board 
 of Guardians of the Poor, the Trustees of an orphan-Home, and 
 not the Directors of a great Association to carry the Gospel to 
 the Heathen. How often a Missionary comes home in full 
 health and vigour, leaving for a time, or for ever, a field of 
 work, for which he is suited, and in which, after some years of 
 pupilage, he has learned to be useful, because his wife is ill ! 
 Would the General commanding an Expedition, or the Governor 
 of a Province, have done so ? How often the Indian ofiicial, or 
 soldier, has to ship off a sick wife, and cannot accompany her, 
 and is doomed never to see her again ! We have not far to look 
 to find out what St. Paul would have said, and what our Lord 
 did say (Mark x. 29). Even in the life of John Williams we 
 find mention of the illness of his wife brought much too 
 prominently forward : he was always anticipating the necessity 
 of an early return to England for her sake ; but he clung on 
 for 18 years, and she arrived home in excellent health, and 
 outlived him some years. It is against this exaggeration of 
 human aifections, that the servant of Christ should struggle 
 valiantly and prayerfully. We require a higher scale of conse- 
 cration, a more dauntless and unreserved surrender of life, and 
 its ioys. 
 
 The glamour of public meetings, and the indiscriminating 
 clamour of Missionary Periodicals, teeming with misplaced, 
 euphemistic, and exaggerated praise, is enough to destroy the 
 spiritual state of any but the stoutest-hearted Missionary: 
 what wonder, if he becomes puffed up, and thinks himself some- 
 body, and that he has made a great sacrifice in going to Persia, 
 India, or China, forgetting how much his worldly prospects 
 and social position have been advanced, how well he and his 
 children are looked after, how different in most cases would 
 have been his circumstances, had he followed the profession of 
 his parents and brothers. There are giants amidst the body of 
 Missionaries, for whom nothing is too good, for they would in 
 secular professions have risen to distinction and wealth, but to 
 a very large proportion this would not have happened. The 
 praise of the good self-denying consecrated Missionary is in 
 
( 52 ) 
 
 the heart of all, who care for such things, and many, unknown 
 to him personally, talk lovingly of him, when he is absent, and 
 sadly, when he is dead; but the great Missionary is thinking 
 always of his own infirmity, of how much he has left undone, 
 and how much he could have done better, and rejoicing, that it 
 is given to him to spend and be spent. There is in modern 
 times a far wider spread of Missionary Spirit than in past years, 
 but it is not so deep : it has become a fashion, not a revelation 
 in a man's mind : a social tendency, not a personal call : a 
 Profession of a gentleman, not the Consecration of a Christian. 
 
 We find no idle calls on the part of the Heroic Missionary 
 Society, or the survivors and relatives of Hero-Missionaries, 
 for vengeance on the murderers of the slain ; this is one of 
 the features of the gradual degeneracy of the age, and the over- 
 weening self-assertion of a certain section of the British Middle 
 Classes. It is well to have a Giant's strength, but it is not well 
 to use it as a bully. Nothing would have been easier than to 
 have swept the Islands of Erromanga and Nikapu from sea 
 to sea clean of all their inhabitants, to revenge the deaths of 
 Williams and Patteson ; but the Missionary Societies protested 
 against the very idea of retaliation, nor would the British re- 
 sponsible Authorities have tolerated it. The relations of the 
 deceased did not gather excited meetings in British towns, and 
 pass Resolutions, as in later cases, to petition the Government 
 to send expeditions of rescue, or intimidation. Such weakness 
 of faith, such want of sound judgment, such incomprehensible 
 misunderstanding of the duty of a Christian man, were reserved 
 to a later age. On the Platform the Missionary proudly, yet 
 humbly, professes, that he carries his life in his hand, ready 
 to live, God willing, and reaiy to die : if this were not the case, 
 how low the British Missionary would rank after the Swede, 
 the Norwegian, and the Swiss, who have no ships to send, and 
 whose countrymen still are ready to give up their lives, and 
 fill up all that remains of the sufferings of Christ. If a 
 Missionary has not stomach for such warfare, he had better 
 retire into the safe refuge of a London Curacy, or a Lancashire 
 Manufactory, where he will find heathen to minister to, without 
 risk to his life, or causing alarm to his over-anxious relations. 
 
 The Hero-Missionary remembers, that his service is a life- 
 service, not the pastime of youth, or the employment of manhood, 
 until a good piece of preferment, and a pleasant home, is 
 provided for him in his native country. Nothing is so dis- 
 heartening as to see so many instances of this forgetfulness of 
 their first love, and of the words of our Lord (Luke ix. 62), " No 
 man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is 
 fit for the Kingdom of God." There should be no discharge in 
 this warfare save death, or certified ill-health of the Missionary 
 
( S3 ) 
 
 himself, not of his wife and his children. It is a matter of con- 
 gratulation, that we have aged Bishops content to occupy their 
 posts until Death, that we have aged Missionaries, who have 
 not preferred the ties of blood, or the claims of family, to the 
 work, which has been the desire of their youth, the joy of their 
 manhood, and the solace of their old age. 
 
 Such men desire, when their time comes, to die like warriors 
 on the field of battle, and to be buried under the shadow of the 
 chapel, which their own hands erected, amidst the flock, which 
 their own words had brought to God. " Here am I, Lord, and the 
 children, whom Thou hast given me." It was well said by a 
 Bishop, that his death at his post may do much more than his 
 life, and he practised what he preached, and is buried behind 
 the Communion-table of the Cathedral, which he had himself 
 constructed. 
 
 The Hero-Missionary is tender in heart, gentle in words, slow 
 to anger, and easily pacified. He is not insensible of the heinous- 
 ness of sin, but his heart melts in pity towards the sinner. He 
 does not strike with his hand or stick the bodies of the poor 
 natives, whose souls he has come out to try to save : he does 
 not usurp an authority over them, because his face is white, and 
 he is one of a strong Nation, as he remembers, that he is their 
 minister, the servant of servants, as was his Master, who washed 
 the feet of his disciples : he does not tie them up to trees to be 
 flogged, and kept in durance for whole nights, but he attaches 
 them to himself by the silken cords of love. He came among 
 these poor children of Nature, not to be ministered unto, but to 
 minister. 
 
 He m.ay be the son of a noble in his own country, and he is 
 not puffed up, or he may be the son of a country-shopkeeper, 
 and he is not abashed, nor does he strive in his new profession 
 to be conventionally treated as a gentleman, for in his humility 
 he takes in either case the standpoint of being a Christian, occu- 
 pying the same position, that was occupied by Paul the great 
 scholar and Roman citizen, and by Peter the humble fisherman 
 of Galilee : he seeks not high places, nor great companies, nor 
 first-class accommodation in Steamers or Railways : he is econo- 
 mic of the funds of the good Society, which is his nursing mother; 
 he is not always calling out for grants for his wife, or his children : 
 he does not desire to dwell in a fine comfortable house, for he 
 minds not high things, and is content with men of low estate : 
 his door is ever open to the people, whom he came to win to 
 Christ : his attire is simple, and he seeks not the company of 
 men of this world, though indirectly the type of the holy upright 
 man, which he presents to their eyes, has a reflex blessing on 
 their souls : though silent, his life is a sermon to them. He 
 acts up to the ideal of the Christian soldier, which he had con- 
 
( 54 ) 
 
 ceived in his youth, when the message came to him, when the 
 Holy Spirit overshadowed him: to be brave and strong, yet 
 loving and tender: full of holy ardour, yet self-controlled, and 
 free from spurious excitement : firm in convictions, yet tolerant : 
 firm of purpose, yet merciful and considerate : meek and lowly, 
 yet proud of his calling : fearing God, yet fearing no one else. 
 My friends, you must be thoroughly equipped for the combat 
 with something more than the surface-teaching of the ordinary 
 Theological College. One of my fellow-students, forty years ago, 
 at the East India College, was a Jew, a believing Jew, and a clever 
 Jew, and he took the highest marks in Paley's Evidences of 
 Christianity. I asked him, whether he were not entirely con- 
 vinced, and he replied, that it had not the least effect upon him. 
 Such must often be the teaching of the ordinary Missionary to a 
 Hindu, a Buddhist, a Mahometan, and to a certain degree to the 
 Pagan. It is always easy to speak with contempt of the Indian 
 Fakir, smeared with ashes, and sneer at the prayer-wheel of the 
 Buddhist (something very like which in kind is found in many a 
 Christian Church), and point out the blots in the Mahometan 
 scheme of Salvation : it seems easy to show up the utter abomina- 
 tion of Pagan Human Sacrifices ; but the Missionary will find, 
 that behind these exoteric symbols there is a radical misconcep- 
 tion of the problem of human nature in the minds of the pro- 
 fessors of a false Religion, and behind the poor ignorant devotee 
 he will find men with minds much more subtle than his own, 
 gifted with a power of argument far exceeding his own, appeal- 
 ing to authorities, of which the Missionary is ignorant, and the 
 uninterrupted practice of centuries. The idol is something more 
 to the believer than a bit of wood and stone : the believers are 
 not men of the nineteenth century, and with the impress of 
 European training. To miracles and prophecies, quoted by the 
 Missionary, the teachers and believers of the false Faith will 
 quote prophecies and miracles of their own : to the words of 
 the Bible, and the claim of Inspiration, they will oppose the 
 words of their own sacred books, and claim equal supernatural 
 authority : the sequence of historical events, and the facts of 
 geography, are unknown to them : it becomes at last a struggle 
 for life upon the first principles of human existence, and the 
 contest must take place upon an arena, of which the poor 
 theological student of England never dreamt, behind the altar, 
 out of sight of the Church, in scorn of the Bible, or any Christian 
 authority, and nothing but the outpouring of the Holy Spirit 
 can bring the unbeliever to see, and know, and bow to the Truth. 
 The Hindu in his prolific literature works out his great meta- 
 physical question, "What am I ? whence came I? whither do 
 I go ? " 
 
( 55 ) 
 
 And it ends in Nothingness : his successor the Buddhist 
 makes this Nothingness the object, aim, and end of existence : 
 the Mahometan boldly pillages the Old and New Testaments 
 to fashion a system, which can never respond to the yearnings 
 of the human heart, or satisfy its aspirations : the poor Pagan 
 in his blindness is so far ahead of the modern educated Atheist, 
 that he feels and admits the presence of the Deity and His 
 omnipotence, and tries to appease Him by sacrifices ; with him 
 it is not the cultivation, but the creation of Faith, that has to be 
 undertaken : he is ready, however, to listen to something better, 
 and welcomes the Teacher, who comes with a semblance of 
 greater knowledge of the great Unknown. We read how, 
 when the first Missionary arrived from Rome in Northumbria, 
 and a Council was summoned to discuss how he should be 
 received, a wise old baron remarked, that the life of man seemed 
 to them in their heathen ignorance, like the flight of a bird out 
 of the dark winter outside into the warm and lighted' chamber, 
 and then out at a window into another world of dark winter at 
 the opposite side ; the passage of a moment from a long 
 unknown Past into a long and unknown Future : the contem- 
 plation of this was crushing ;_ and, if the stranger from Rome 
 could tell them something a little more certain, he should be 
 welcomed. Such is the spirit, with which a Teacher is 
 welcomed in many a Pagan Community. But is the ordinary 
 Missionary equal to this occasion } Bred up in an atmosphere 
 permeated by Darwinism, Pantheism, and Atheism, or in a 
 Church, where more value is placed on the human surround- 
 ings, the ritual and the externals, than the Eternal Truth, 
 can it be hoped, that he will mount up to the level of the 
 Religion of Religions, the object and aim of human existence, 
 and with the Bible in his hand and in his heart, and nothing 
 else, grapple with the Hindu, Buddhist, Mahometan, or Pagan 
 on the common ground of Right and Wrong, Truth and False- 
 hood, Judgment and Mercy, Sin and Repentance, Pardon and 
 Peace, opening out new worlds of thought to his astonished 
 hearers } The Hero-Missionary can do this. He illustrates 
 his principles, and his doctrines, in his Christ-like life, and 
 words, and challenges his hearers to show him a better way 
 than the way of self-sacrifice, self-control, and self-consecration, 
 to produce a higher conception than that of the Fatherhood 
 of God, of Faith in a Redeemer, of the presence and power 
 of the Holy Spirit, leading poor weak men to personal holiness. 
 There are plenty of men, who will volunteer to go out, and 
 dwell a season amidst the polished Persian, the civilized Arabized 
 races, the Indian, who, with all his faults, is gentle and reason- 
 able, the intelligent Chinese, and the progressive Japanese. 
 They represent Nations on the highest rounds of the ladder 
 
( 56 ) 
 
 of civilisation, our superiors in many arts and graces, with 
 their Monuments of Literature, and Architecture, and their 
 time-honoured customs: they have centuries ago got beyond 
 the epoch of human sacrifices, and cannibalism : they have had 
 in their midst great Sages, vsfho felt after God, if haply they 
 could find Him, men standing on the same platform, as 
 Socrates, and Aristotle, and Pythagoras. There is very little 
 discomfort in such service, and no danger : mere worldlings 
 dwell among such races for the purpose of Commerce, and the 
 service of the State. We do not wish to undervalue such 
 services, for such were the Missionary operations of St. Paul 
 among the Greeks and Romans. The process of sapping 
 and mining in some countries has long been going on. 
 Education has brought with it a contempt for Idolatry, but 
 Civilisation has brought with it a contempt for all Religions, 
 and a disbelief in the Supernatural, a doubt as to the reality 
 of a Future State, and fantastical notions not authorized by 
 the Bible. 
 
 But this is not the higher order of service: it does not 
 mean the same self-sacrifice : it does not approach so near 
 the services, rendered to Man by our Saviour : our Lord abased 
 himself, when he took the form of a slave, and became Man for 
 our redemption. He thought it not vile to dwell in the tents 
 of men, and associate with the poor erring children of men. 
 Patteson and John Williams, and the whole army of Moravian 
 Missionaries, learnt to look over the wall of partition, that 
 separates race from race, and to call no one common and 
 unclean : there have been Missionaries, who have had the 
 fortitude given to them to go in, and dwell among lepers, and 
 have succumbed to the disease themselves : there are those, 
 who have found a Grace vouchsafed to them to dwell among 
 the poor dirty savage outcasts of the human family, to submit 
 to insult, hardship and perils : to die in spirit every day, and at 
 length breathe out their last breath in some round straw-hut, 
 looking to Jesus, yet still thinking of friends and home. 
 
 Dukes moriens reminiscitur Argos. 
 
 But there was no murmuring, for they knew how to be humbled, 
 but not ashamed, to be cast down, but not disheartened, bearing 
 about them the marks of the spear in their sides, and the 
 print of the nails on their hands and feet. The service of 
 such was great and noble : the heart of the worldling beats 
 high, when he hears of such achievements, and he recognizes 
 the grandeur of the life, though he is blind to the motive, and 
 the power. Surely there must be joy in Heaven, when one of 
 the miserable savages, to the outward eye nearer the beast 
 than the man, is brought into the, fold, and his body becomes 
 
( S7 ) 
 
 the temple of the Holy Ghost, for Christ in very deed died 
 for him also. The self-sacrificing Missionary teaches the 
 men to be brave, yet not cruel, and the vifomen to be sweet 
 and affectionate, yet not unchaste : out of the stores of his 
 acquired experience he teaches them humble arts, and the very 
 rudiments of knowledge, the very fundamental of human graces, 
 to be decent in act and word, to respect human life, to recognize 
 property, to be sober and chaste, to love God as a Father, 
 and cease to fear Him like a slave, to bow in gratitude to 
 the free offer of pardon : and yet all this is possible : it has 
 been done, it may be done again : it must be done by some of 
 you, who stand here, and hear me this day : " iv toStw vUa." 
 
 It will be nothing wonderful, if in due time we convert the 
 people of India, China, and the extreme Orient. They are 
 not wiser and stronger than were the Greeks and Romans in 
 the day of their greatness, and we know that the Cross proved 
 sufiicient for their conversion. And experience has shown, 
 that the same Cross is sufficient for races, whom Caesar never 
 knew, of whose existence the Greek Philosophers, and even St. 
 Paul, had not the faintest idea. We thus begin to realize the 
 full meaning of the prophecies of Isaiah : 
 
 The Isles shall wait for His Law. 
 
 And the words of our Lord : 
 
 They shall gather His elect from the uttermost parts of the Earth. 
 And again, in the Revelations : 
 
 Behold a great number, whom no man can number, out of every Nation, and 
 all tribes, and peoples and tongues. 
 
 It it only after an all-round perusal of Missionary Reports, 
 that I am able to differentiate the degree of self-sacrifice of 
 Missionaries in different Felds. How light seems the burden of 
 the comfortable Missionary in China and India, when contrasted 
 with that of his brother in Africa or New Guinea ! They are 
 indeed Apostles of the ancient type. 
 
 There are three classes, in one or other of which you must, 
 as Christian men, range yourselves : 
 
 I. Whatever secular station you occupy, whether at home or 
 abroad, you must place the duty of assisting the evangelizing 
 of mankind in the very first rank of duties, for nothing can 
 approach it in importance : if your lot takes you to non-Christian 
 countries, you will find plenty of opportunities to serve the 
 cause, and bitterly you will regret in your old age, if you 
 neglect your opportunities. 
 
 II. If you have a call to go forth, as a Missionary to the 
 civilized non-Christian Nations, if you find yourself in possession 
 of special gifts, consecrate theni : do not take a worldly view of 
 the subject, and mix up a Mission to a dying world with visions 
 of early matrimony, social advantage, and a pleasant career. 
 
 PART IV. 5 
 
( 58 ) 
 
 Mere worldlings act thus. Many a soldier, many a student of 
 Nature, many a ruler of men, have risen far above such a low 
 level of human aspirations. The Athlete, and the Mechanic, 
 give you a lesson. Show to the Heathen, that you come among 
 them, understanding the law of self-sacrifice, and that you come 
 not, as the haughty Briton, one who lords it over, and some- 
 times strikes or ill-uses the lower races, but as their brother, 
 and their servant for Christ's sake. 
 
 HI. But let me show a more excellent way to those, who 
 are strong in body, strong in spirit, and also have worked out 
 the sublime idea of self-sacrifice and self-consecration. The 
 call will come to some of you, as it has come to others, in your 
 dreams by night, in your visions by day, as you walk alone, or 
 are in prayer, or in the midnight-watches. It will gradually 
 overpower you, and make you captive, and at length you will 
 call out with a loud voice, " Send me, Lord, for I am ready." 
 For still many a sunny island of the South Seas, many a retired 
 valley of the great central Plateau of Asia, many a dark forest- 
 clad Savannah of the great valley of the Kongo, many a wild 
 tribe of South America, and, alas ! our own fellow-subjects, the 
 neglected, ill-treated, Australian aborigines, and the poor Bush- 
 men of the Cape Colony, are waiting, waiting for the moving 
 of the waters of the Fountain of Life, and for some one to 
 help them down : lifting up their eyes for the sight of the 
 blessed feet of those, who bring the Gospel-message : calling, 
 calling for their man, the Allen Gardiner, and Patteson, and 
 Williams, of this generation : they are standing in your midst, 
 though not as yet revealed to the eyes of men. In the long 
 course of centuries no Prophet or Evangelist has ever come 
 near these poor heathen : they have laid out of the course of 
 the Revolution of the Gospel : they are waiting for one, who, in 
 his life as well as his words, will illustrate to them the Life and 
 Passion of our Lord, and their Lord : they ask not for the refine- 
 ment, nor the fantasies of modern religious thought and practice, 
 but with dumb voices they ask the men of the Nineteenth 
 Century, and Civilized Europe, to teach them to clothe their 
 nakedness, to dwell in decent dwellings, to cluster in villages, 
 to live with one consort, and to respect human life, to do all 
 things in a Christian way, and to realize the presence of the 
 Risen Saviour. In the last desperate struggling of heathendom 
 it may be, that the man of God, who thus appears like an angel 
 among them, will be killed, and devoured ; but his death will 
 prove the dawn of the new life : over the martyr-tomb will 
 spring up the new Chapel, and the younger generation, who 
 witnessed the slaughter, and partook of the terrible feast, will, 
 by the Grace of God, be converted and made new men, and, like 
 St. Paul, become Evangelists. When their day of Grace comes, 
 
( 59 ) 
 
 and they understand the matter, like the Jews at Jerusalem a 
 few days after the Crucifixion, they will be pricked to the heart. 
 History is always repeating itself; but on this generation, the 
 men of your age and country, rests the duty of completing 
 the work, till the Gospel cover the earth, as the waters cover 
 the sea. At the present moment there are regions still un- 
 evangelized, sufferings for Christ's sake not yet suffered, and 
 crowns of Martyrs and Confessors not yet won. The resources of 
 Christianity, the capacities of Christian men, are notyet exhausted. 
 
 Finally, my dear Friends, suffer me to say to you one word 
 more, and this word apphes not only to the Missionary, whose 
 vocation is the highest of earthly vocations, but to each one of 
 us, however humble and prosaic our special vocation may be. 
 What were we created for ? Why are we kept alive, except to 
 do some special work, which is marked out for us by the 
 inexorable teaching of circumstances, circumstances which are 
 controlled by the omniscience of God ! How can we succeed 
 in any work, if our attempts are not sanctified by prayer ! 
 "Labora et Ora," for true Prayer is something done in the 
 service of the Master, followed by Praise for being selected to 
 do it, not the empty litany, or the conventional Prayer-meeting. 
 Say what we like, we are all day-labourers, and he serves his 
 God best, who does his day's work in the best manner, and in 
 the best spirit. None miss so entirely the mainspring of human 
 action, as those, who strive to dissociate religion from the 
 simple round, the common task of the most prosaic, the most 
 unromantic, the most depressing, lot in life. 
 
 It is not success, that sanctifies the work, for many of 
 the best of us in our noblest undertakings do not succeed. 
 We are thwarted by some narrow-minded obstructors standing 
 on the next round of the ladder above us : we are baffled at 
 every turn, and at length laid aside by Poverty, Sickness, or 
 Death. It is not striving that wins : the race is not to the 
 swift, nor the battle to the strong. We must not look for the 
 selfish satisfaction of thinking, that we have done something : 
 we must not hope for the applause of bystanders, for the foolish 
 multitude generally praise the wrong person, or praise the right 
 person for the wrong thing. We must find our reward in the 
 work itself : something each day accomplished : something 
 done : some kindly word spoken : some cup of water offered 
 to the suffering : some noble thought cherished, some achieve- 
 ment, which the world ought not willingly to let die, shadowed 
 forth, thought out, conceived, if not actually brought forth. 
 Good work, earnest work, prayerful work, can never be without 
 a blessing to the Worker, which will follow him after Life's 
 endless toil and endeavour to his rest, and what greater work 
 than the saving of a Soul ! 
 
( 60 ) 
 
 I once stood at the mouth of the great Panjdb Salt-Mine on 
 the River Jhilam, and watched the long procession of women, 
 children, and men, of young and old, slowly advancing towards 
 me, toiling up the steep incline, each with head bent, and back 
 curved under the burden of rock-salt, which they brought from 
 the bowels to the surface of the earth. This was their hard and 
 palpable day's labour. To the strength of each the burden was 
 adjusted : the young daily grew into capacity to bear heavier, 
 the old daily felt their strength less equal to their diminishing 
 load, but all rested night after night wearied with their daily 
 round, and all each morning rose to the consciousness of a day's 
 sweating and straining, and a risk of accidents and disease, and 
 the dark River to be crossed at last. 
 
 Tears started in my eyes, as I thought of the sad procession 
 of my contemporaries, whom during my own life I had seen 
 toiling and striving, lifting their heavy burdens, or sinking by 
 the way under them. I thought of the strong and enthusiastic, 
 too eager for the strife, who fell years ago : the patient and 
 uncomplaining, who toiled on till within the last few years: 
 the yearly diminishing group of fellow-labourers with yearly- 
 diminishing force, and the dark unknown future before me. 
 
 But there is no prison so deep, that its depths are not 
 reached by some ray of God's interminable day, and, as I looked 
 into the faces of the salt-bearers, I became aware, that one 
 ray of light reached to the lowest slope of their dungeon, 
 and, as they advanced upwards, it ever became brighter and 
 brighter, shining hopefully in their uplifted eyes, and gladdening 
 their hearts with the thought of Home, and Rest, and of Labour, 
 sanctified for the sake of the little ones, the old ones, the sick 
 ones, to whose comforts their earnings ministered. The Hero- 
 Missionary places the Heathen, to whom he goes as Christ's 
 Ambassador, in that corner of his heart, where other men place 
 their families. 
 
 Nay more. God's great lessons are taught in his works, and 
 in his creatures. As each labourer reached the outer world, and 
 flung down his burden, his eyes insensibly turned up with a 
 look of thankfulness, and acknowledgment, to the kindly light, 
 which had led him, and then each unconsciously shrouded his 
 eyes with his hands, as if unable to bear the full glow of 
 unutterable gladness, which the Grace of God sends to testify 
 to the sanctity and dignity of Labour, however humble and 
 contracted the sphere : 
 
 Well done, thou good and faithful servant : thou hast been faithful ot/w a few 
 things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord ! 
 
 Address to the Undergraduates of Cambridge, 
 in Henry Martyn's Hall, January, 1888. 
 
( 6i ) 
 
 V. 
 
 THE FEMALE EVANGELIST. 
 
 The kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid 
 in three measures of meal, tiU the whole was leavened. — Matt. xiii. 33. 
 
 And the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. — Matt. xxv. 4. 
 
 I beseech thee also, good yokefellow, help theSe women, for they laboured 
 with me in the Gospel . . . . whosenamesarein the book of life. — Philip, iv. 3. 
 
 Half the population of India, or about one hundred and 
 twenty-five millions, are women. There, as in other parts of the 
 world, the women are most easily influenced by religious con- 
 victions, and to them is confided the control of the tender years 
 of the male population ; and, though women in India do not 
 appear in public, it is a mistake to suppose, that within the walls 
 of their home their influence is not very great, for good or for 
 evil. From time immemorial, in Northern India, women have 
 been secluded either absolutely within brick walls or debarred 
 by understood etiquette from holding conversation with the 
 other sex. I remember an old Native gentleman, who had 
 travelled much in India, remarking, that it would be better to 
 lose one's way on a journey, than ask it of a woman, as it might 
 involve the traveller in trouble. Nor do I think, that it is either 
 likely, or desirable, that for some generations the rule should be 
 broken : it might lead to greater evils. Women are exceedingly 
 troublesome in courts of Justice, when they break through the 
 barrier of custom, and appear either as litigants or witnesses. 
 Until a great change comes over the structure of Indian society 
 in Northern India, it is as well, that in railways, and in churches, 
 as they are in schools and hospitals, the sexes should be separated, 
 and a decent reserve maintained by men in alluding even to 
 their existence. 
 
 Noble efforts have been made during the last quarter of a 
 century by special Societies to approach the women in cities and 
 towns, where they are absolutely secluded. The Female Medical 
 Missionary has appeared, to the delight and admiration of all. 
 Female Teachers, and that blessed combination of syllables, 
 " the Bible Woman," and the Scripture-Reader, the house-to- 
 
( 62 ) 
 
 house Visitor, the Composer of Tracts and Stories specially 
 for the use of women, and other indirect channels of female 
 influence, have come into existence. A recognized component 
 part of a fully-equipped Mission must be a "Female Evangelist." 
 
 Can Female Evangelists, gifted with power of utterance and 
 equipped with spiritual knowledge, be found, and, if found, how 
 can they be employed } Let me consider these points separately. 
 
 Now no one, who has attended religious meetings of late, can 
 fail to be aware, that a new power has come into existence, and 
 a very sweet and healthy one. St. Paul may have set his face 
 against women speaking in churches, and usurping the functions 
 of an ordained minister; but this scarcely comprises Prayer- 
 meetings, and village-itinerations ; and the teaching of the Old 
 Testament is against such restrictions, as two most noble pas- 
 sages in the Old Testament proceeded from the lips of women, 
 Deborah and Hannah ; and just in the dawn of the New 
 Covenant the Holy Spirit spoke through the mouth of a woman, 
 the Mother of our Lord, in strains of unsurpassed beauty and 
 eloquence, showing unmistakably, that God is no respecter of 
 sexes. The Revisers of the Old Testament have done good 
 service in communicating to the public the right interpretation 
 of Psalm Ixviii. 1 1 : 
 
 The Lord giveth the Word : the women, that publish the tidings, are a great 
 host. 
 
 This was long well known to Hebrew scholars, though the 
 Revisers of 1 6 1 1 , for reasons best known to themselves, entirely 
 lost sight of the correct interpretation. However, the fact is 
 now made known most opportunely; but it presupposes the 
 existence of natural gifts, and a careful instruction. Female 
 Evangelists can be found, natural gifts can be developed, and 
 suitable instruction can be conveyed ; and, further, the sooner 
 this measure be adopted, the better. A new army of soldiers, an 
 auxiliary force, to supplement the regular forces, is summoned 
 into the field. 
 
 Then comes the question. How can they be employed.? I 
 have myself lived many years alone in the villages of Upper 
 India, and marked the habits of the people. To the British 
 ruler, in the midst of his subject-people, all things are possible, 
 if he evince sympathy and love, and respect for their customs, 
 and a. tolerance for their religion. He may do pretty well what 
 he likes, within the limits of honour and virtue, if he does it in 
 a Christian way ; but he soon finds out, that the people, though 
 they know him, and confide in him, would rather that he did not 
 enter their homes, or talk to their women, old or young, or even 
 allude to them in conversation. It is contrary to the etiquette 
 of the country, and their feelings would be hurt, if he did so. 
 The bystanders would titter, if he asked a friend after his wife's 
 
( 63 ) 
 
 health. In the villages there is no absolute seclusion ; but a 
 decent woman would veil herself, or turn her face to the wall, 
 or beat a retreat, if, in the road or street, she came suddenly 
 upon men. The Missionary must feel the same difficulty, and 
 perhaps more intensely, as he is not so well known, and is not 
 surrounded with the prestige of authority. The Female Evan- 
 gelist will find her work in the villages all ready for her. 
 
 The attempt has already been made with wonderful success in 
 Northern India. In the Monthly Periodical of the Church of 
 England Zandna Society are most sweet and encouraging letters. 
 One from the pen of Miss Tucker (A.L. O.E.) speaks to the 
 heart, as she expresses her own feelings. As I read it, the same 
 feeling comes over me, a desire to be young again, and back 
 again among my own people, the inhabitants of the Panjib, 
 among whom I lived so many years, alone and happy, in spite 
 of war and tumult. It was part of our system, that the District 
 Officer should dwell in tents amidst his people, without guards, 
 ruling by moral influence, and the feeling of gratitude for benefits 
 received. I can conceive no happier life, when in the employ- 
 ment of an earthly ruler: how much more so when in the service 
 of our King 1 Memory goes back gladly over the interval of 
 thirty or forty years to the white tent pitched in the outskirts of 
 the village in the mango-grove, where I have passed laborious 
 hours, devoted in sincerity and single-mindedness to the benefit 
 of the people, who crowded round their alien, and yet beloved, 
 ruler. I recall the evening-walk with a long train of followers 
 through the streets and the gardens, down by the stream, or over 
 the heather. I hear again the cry of the peacock, the cooing of 
 the doves, and the barking of the dogs. I see again the slanting 
 rays of the sun, shedding glory through the grove, the white 
 figures glancing through the shade, the rows of elephants, 
 horses, and camels. Oh, that I could be young again, and go 
 forth to be an Evangelist, where once I was Ruler and Judge, 
 and earthly providence, to contented millions ! I can at least 
 encourage others to go. 
 
 I do not admit for a moment, that the villagers of Northern 
 India, scores of whom I have known and loved, are in a state of 
 moral darkness beyond that of European nations, who know not 
 Christ. If this were the case, the Courts of Law, Civil and 
 Criminal, would have disclosed it. I have decided thousands of 
 cases, and not discovered it. But these villagers are in a moral 
 twilight, and the Sun of Righteousness has not risen before their 
 eyes. If the Holy Spirit speaks to their consciences (and does 
 it not speak .?), it is with a muffled and half-audible voice. Are 
 they to blame ? No Evangelist or Prophet has ever come to 
 them : for long ages they have been left outside the influences 
 of any Soul-revival. 
 
( 64 ) 
 
 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, fairer 
 in speech, than anything mortal that they had dreamt of before : 
 bold and fearless, without immodesty : pure in word and action, 
 and yet with features unveiled : wise, yet condescending to talk 
 to the ignorant and the little children : prudent, and self- 
 constrained, yet still a woman, loving and tender. In Hindu 
 Annals the Poets have written about Sita and Damdyanti, and 
 painted them with the colour of every earthly virtue, showing 
 that they knew what a virtuous woman should be ; yet such as 
 they never appeared to the sight of poor village-women, even in 
 their dreams, until suddenly their eyes, their ears, and their 
 hearts, seem to realize, faintly and confusedly, 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 a free Pardon, through the blessed merits of a Saviour. 
 This day has Salvation come to this Indian Village I 
 
 It is notorious that the supply of male agents, both spiritual 
 and secular, falls far short of the demand. All the Missions are 
 below the normal and necessary strength. What is to be done ? 
 My suggestion is : 
 
 Make a fuller use of women. Call upon that sex, which no longer deserves 
 the conventional epithet of the weaker, or less wise, to supply the vacuum, and 
 stand in the gap. 
 
 But they must have precisely the same allowances, be provided 
 with similar accommodation, and placed on the same footing, as 
 the male Missionary. The Missionary's wife is no doubt as 
 much a Missionary in theory and practice as her husband, but 
 her hands are very full already. The proposal to employ special 
 medical women, and special educational women, and special 
 Bible-women, has been accepted, and is part of our system. 
 I rejoice, that I was the fortunate suggester at the Bible House 
 of the measure with regard to Bible-women. It has been found 
 most acceptable everywhere. In some Missions, combinations 
 have been made by the Missionary Societies and the Bible 
 Society, under which a class of Bible-selling Evangelists, both 
 male and female, is coming into existence. All the lines seem 
 to be converging in this direction. I am merely formularizing, 
 and bringing forward in a general and popular form of description 
 with the tendencies and requirements of the age, as well as the 
 a method, which is already in practice, and which harmonizes 
 
( 6s ) 
 
 aspiration of godly -women, who desire to take their full share 
 in the work of their Lord. Hitherto they have been kept 
 in the second rank, or even left behind in the tents in charge 
 of the stuff. The order has gone forth, " Up, women, and 
 at them ! " 
 
 For a great part of my life I have been in authority, with 
 scores of male agents, European and Native, under my orders, 
 and I have always insisted upon training, as a condition 
 precedent. An untrained servant, however honest, well- 
 intentioned, and willing, is of comparatively little use. A 
 Women's Board of Management is essential to the selection, 
 training, and control of female agents. Set a woman to manage 
 women. No female agent should be entertained without the 
 approval of that Board. We have a Medical Committee for our 
 medical requirements ; a Clerical Committee for selection of 
 Missionaries; a Financial Committee for our Finance. The 
 female agent is a speciality, the diagnosis of which exceeds the 
 skill of the surgeon, the clergyman, or the financier. The 
 matter is too high for the Lay Committee without professional 
 advice. The second step is, that female agents must be trained 
 at some establishment specially devoted to the subject. We 
 spend annual thousands in our Training College for men, and 
 no money is spent to a better purpose : let us not grudge what 
 is required to refine, and place the mint-mark of training and 
 instruction, on that purity, and consecrated talent, and that life- 
 devotion, which is better than fine gold. I am more and more 
 convinced, that the spiritual side of a Missionary's duty depends 
 as much upon training and godly instruction, as it is admitted 
 on all hands with regard to the medical and educational side. 
 I look with misgiving upon the haphazard mode, in which female 
 agents have hitherto been supplied. It is wonderful, that they 
 have been as good and efficient as they undoubtedly are. The 
 epoch for the simple, God-fearing, Scripture-loving, but other- 
 wise uninstructed, Missionary, whether man or woman, is past. 
 Arms of precision are required to fight the Lord's battles. 
 
 The disparity of the number of the sexes in this country is 
 notorious. In every town there is a sweet superfluity of women, 
 to whom a vocation is not marked out, or sought for in vain, or 
 at least not found. Endowed with talents, education, and 
 spirituality, they stand, as it were, in the market-place of this 
 great world, seeking employment. The brothers have gone 
 forth in their prime to fight the Queen's battles, or carry on the 
 great Life-war in the ranks of their contemporaries. The sisters 
 remain at home. The simple round, the common task, may be 
 sufficient, where there is a round, and there is a task. But many 
 even in early life have outlived the natural ties, which held them 
 to the spot, where they were born, and they stand wistfully, and 
 
( &e ) 
 
 with weary spirit, looking out into the dim and remote future, 
 with the inaudible cry of the heart : 
 
 My life, what shall I do with it ? Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? 
 
 The dove, let loose from the Ark, finds no place, on which it can 
 rest its foot, and returns in despair. 
 
 In the middle ages, or in Roman Catholic countries, such 
 flowers would be left to bloom away, undesired and unprofitable, 
 in the sealed garden of the Convent : such nobility of character, 
 such fervency of devotion, such capacity for God's work, would 
 be crushed by an idle ritual of Chapel-services, or be allowed to 
 burn itself out as foolishly, as vainly, as the waxen tapers on the 
 Altar. In Protestant Countries there is an opening for better 
 things. The tending of the sick bed in the Hospital, the soul- 
 introspection during the midnight watch betwixt the dead and 
 the dying, is a better chastisement of the proud and egotistic 
 spirit than the self-inflicted lash of the Abbess and the Nun. 
 The conveying of the Gospel-blessings from village to village in 
 India is more pleasing and profitable than the cold, cheerless 
 chaunt of the midnight Mass, where Sanctity is only to be 
 purchased by Idleness. 
 
 Some may fall, and some have fallen, by the Roadside, as they 
 enter the Vineyard, or before even they have stretched out their 
 hand to the tending the Vines. The Lord considers the w.ill, 
 not the deed, and, if the Soul's desire is to serve the Master, 
 what matter whether He recalls the servant in the morn, or at 
 noon, or at sunset, or whether He prefers the servant to the work, 
 which that servant proposed to do } And, if the summons 
 comes in a far country, what matter whence the enfranchised 
 soul takes its flight } Some may die in the carefully guarded 
 home of their earthly parents : some in the solitary rest-house in 
 India : some in the round straw hut in Africa. This is but the 
 mode of transition. The object and end of the Life's labour, 
 and journey, is the same. 
 
 Church Missionary Society's Intelligencer, 1885 
 (with additions, 1888). 
 
( 67 ) 
 
 VI. 
 THE CHRISTIAN NATIVE CHURCH IN INDIA. 
 
 Chance led my steps one Sunday evening to the door of a 
 Native Christian Church, belonging to one of our Missions 
 in one of the largest towns in India. The bells were chiming 
 from the tower, that sweetest of sounds : the hands of the clock 
 pointed to the hour of five, and the congregation was flocking 
 in at the door, men, women, and children. There was some- 
 thing soothing in the sight : a dream of the past came over me, 
 of the absent and of home, associated with feelings of religion 
 and purity, and, joining the simple crowd with uncovered head 
 and reverential feelings I entered. 
 
 It has been mine to sit in the Churches, and join in the 
 worship, of many branches of the great family of Christians, in 
 far and distant countries, in divers and sundry languages, in 
 the cold and formal worship of Northern, in the ardent and 
 demonstrative adoration of Southern Europe, in the evangelical 
 devotions of the Reformed Church of England, in the dark and 
 unsightly oratories of poor degraded Syria ; but, though some 
 years a resident in India, this was the first time, that I had 
 joined in the prayers of the chosen few of those millions, whose 
 destinies we govern. 
 
 The building was handsome and appropriate. Art had lent 
 its assistance to the decoration of the House of God, but with 
 simplicity: there was that, which was sufficiently distinctive 
 from the ornaments of ordinary houses, to recall wandering 
 thoughts to a recollection of the place : but there was nothing 
 calculated to transform the House into a Temple, or to lead 
 weak minds to suppose, that the dead walls constituted Christ's 
 Church, and not the living persons of the congregation. Here 
 at least no pride or pomp of circumstance disfigured the equality 
 of the worshippers ; no shining emblems of ephemeral station 
 
( 68 ) 
 
 dishonoured the assembly; the floor sounded to no clank of 
 martial tread; the sun, as it streamed through the windows, 
 lighted on no dazzling insignia or scarlet trappings : in this 
 assemblage, he, that was the least, was even as the greatest. 
 
 I looked down the nave with interest and heart- felt pleasure. 
 According to the custom of Oriental Churches, the sexes were 
 divided. On the one side the men and boys of the congre- 
 gation : on the other the matrons, young women and children. 
 Nearly all were clothed in white ; the men were bareheaded as 
 well as barefooted, the reason for which I did not understand, 
 such not being the practice of Oriental Churches elsewhere, 
 and manifestly inconvenient, and as such to be avoided. The 
 women had their heads decently covered in the folds of their 
 scarves. I saw many sweet expressive countenances, not fearing 
 in the simple confidence of female virtue, to look in the faces of 
 their husbands, their parents, and their acquaintances, proud 
 of the conceded privilege of equality with their helpmates, with 
 hopes for the future dependent on their own exertions : shrinking 
 from no recollections of a past, stained by corruption and 
 degradation. Christianity, if thou hast done this alone, re- 
 storing the modest blush of innocence to conscious and fearless 
 virtue, thou art the Benefactor of our race ! 
 
 But the service has commenced ; a kind hand supplies me 
 with the Book of Life, and the Book of Prayer; and that 
 language, which had hitherto been familiar to me only as an 
 expression of the evil passions of the governed, and the hard 
 Laws of the Ruler, was now for the first time the vehicle to my 
 ears of praise and prayer. Dissociated from their familiar words, 
 which are merely the outward tenements of the inward spirit, 
 the moving Admonition of the Minister, the humble Confession 
 of the People, the Absolution, complete, but conditional, came 
 back to my senses, as an old strain of familiar music, long heard, 
 and often from the loved and revered lips of my Father ; now 
 first fully felt, when ringing from the chords of a new and 
 hitherto untried instrument. Many are the languages of men, 
 one the language of God. How is it, that the voices of the 
 children, responding in their deep and ringing chorus (though 
 the words are in a strange tongue), bring back so truly, so 
 vividly, forgotten Sabbaths and distant Churches } Is it that 
 there is but one sound for prayer and praise, that human penitence 
 can be expressed but in one tone ? Is it thus, that the loud 
 Hosannahs of the denizens of the earth will be collected in one 
 joyfiil chorus at the day of the Second Coming } Is this the 
 cry of the Cherubim and Seraphim ? I was struck and delighted 
 by the devout and attentive behaviour of the congregation: 
 when two or three are thus joined together. He will surely be 
 in the midst of them. 
 
( 69 ) 
 
 The Psalms and First Lesson were omitted, that the Service 
 might not be too long, and at the close of the Second Lesson 
 followed the Sacrament of Infant-Baptism ; and now I became 
 aware of another feature of order in this well-arranged con- 
 gregation, which from the position of my seat had hitherto 
 escaped my observation. In front of the Font, but with their backs 
 turned towards it, and concealed from the rest of the Church, 
 sat with solemn, thoughtful and reverent faces those, in whom the 
 Spirit of God was working for their Salvation : they were in but 
 not of our body, they were candidates, awaiting Baptism, when 
 they had passed their ordeal, and by their consistent conduct 
 in the past had given earnest for the future: seated they were 
 in front of the Font, the waters of which were to them for a 
 season denied, while they beheld the new-born babe, unconscious 
 of all taint, even that of hereditary sin, admitted before their 
 eyes into the Covenant, which they were commencing to appre- 
 ciate. Never till then had I fully recognized, or been sufficiently 
 thankful for, the blessing of being born of a Christian stock, 
 with no fiery ordeal to go through ; no parents, friends and all, 
 to desert for His sake ; no sad, mournful, but beloved and 
 regretted associations of the past to look lingeringly back upon ; 
 no doubtful, scorned and opprobrious future to anticipate. I 
 felt, that they had something to wish for, which I had already in 
 possession ; something, for which they paid a great price, but 
 which to me was a birthright, not the right of being a Briton, 
 but the privilege of being born a Christian. But great will be 
 their reward. Christian children of Christian parents ! feel for 
 them, and do not in your pride despise the weak and failing 
 brother 1 
 
 Two infants were presented to be baptized ; their swarthy 
 little faces peeping out of their white garments, and contrasting 
 strangely with the fair hand and face of the Minister. Here the 
 white man appeared in his true and proper dignity 1 not the ex- 
 terminator, the stranger, the ruler by a strong arm, the enforcer 
 by arbitrary laws, the one that is bowed down to, and yet shunned 
 in the streets; that is openly courted, yet secretly scoffed at and 
 despised as unclean : here I saw the race of the Anglo-Saxon 
 bestowing on their subject-people a greater skill, than the science 
 of arms, a greater miracle, than the triumph of manufactures. 
 We are a mighty, strong, and wise people : we have conquered 
 countries unknown to the Romans ; we have measured the paths 
 of the Heavens with a far-distending radius denied to the Greeks : 
 the achievements of our present surpass the wonders of their past ; 
 but here we spontaneously convey to our subjects that treasure, 
 of which they knew not, but which in the midst of our weaUh we 
 value the most : that strength, to which they never arrived, but 
 which in the midst of our pride is our greatest glory, the shame 
 
( 70 ) 
 
 of the Cross, and the sure Promise of Salvation. Who is the 
 lowest in the eyes of the world amidst the congregation ? Upon 
 whom have the doubtful gifts of fortune fallen with abundance ? 
 The Minister takes the child of either in his arms, and signs him 
 with that sign, of which he ought never to be ashamed. 
 
 The sponsors knelt reverently round, and made their answers 
 ■with feeling. I looked into the features of these men, to see if 
 any hidden sign would betray a difference between him, and his 
 heathen brother, any flash of intelligence sparkle from the eye 
 of the mind which had comprehended such truths. There was 
 none. He, that readeth the heart, will judge what it is forbidden 
 for man to know. 
 
 Then followed the three Collects, the Prayer for the Queen, 
 the Royal Family, the Clergy, Parliament, and all conditions of 
 Men, and I wondered, as I saw the lips of the women and girls 
 articulating the words Victoria and Albert, what idea they con- 
 nected with the same, what strange pictures they had drawn in 
 their simple minds of the Royal Couple, and the Royal Children. 
 I could almost have wished, that the prayers of native congrega- 
 tions were reserved simply for those in authority over them. 
 
 After the Prayers followed a Hymn, sung by the congregation 
 to the accompaniment of a Harmonium : the chaunt from the 
 Hindustani Hymn-book possessed apparently but slight poetical 
 merit, but was well suited to the place, and well sung, showing, 
 that the Natives of the country have a full appreciation of the 
 system of European music. But, while the Hosannah was swell- 
 ing up to the roof-beams from these untutored lips, I beheld 
 through the windows, which opened to the ground, the cortege 
 of a wealthy R4ja sweeping by under the walls of the Church. 
 I heard the rattle of his equipage, as every screw and bolt gave 
 a music of its own. I could see from my place in the Church, 
 the ignorant profligate, this bloated abomination of a man, con- 
 temptuously smiling, as the voices of the congregation reached 
 him. I saw the low truckling flatterer leaning over from the back 
 seat, and with finger pointing to the building, and chuckling 
 laugh, telling what I knew to be some false scandal, his version 
 of what was going on in the interior. I saw the whole at a 
 glance, and comprehended it; but busy memory, roused by the 
 incident, bore me back many a century to the " upper chamber 
 of Troas," and to " the school of Tyrannus." I thought of 
 the early Christians at Athens, at Corinth, at Ephesus, and at 
 Rome : thus and thus, as this debased Rija now, did the noble 
 Roman, the philosophic Greek, great in the power of science and 
 arms, once ride by, lolling in their chariot, perhaps talking flippantly 
 of, perhaps discussing seriously, the manners and customs of this 
 new sect, these worshippers in the Catacombs. With them was 
 the flatterer, and busy mocker, the sarcastic stoic, the lively 
 
( ;i ) 
 
 atheist, the sycophantic eunuch, ready to tell ridiculous stories 
 for these good easy men to believe. I thought of these things, 
 and God forgive me, if /triumphed, when I dwelt on the triumphs 
 of God's Revelations, and anticipated new victories. I have seen 
 standing erect the sign of the Cross in the place, where the early 
 Christians fought after the manner of men in the Roman Amphi- 
 theatre. I have stood on the Areopagus to contemplate the ruins 
 of the Parthenon, wondering how it looked, when St. Paul spoke 
 of Christ and the Resurrection : my voice has rung along the 
 shores of Ionia : 
 
 Demetrius, surely thy craft is in danger : where is thy Great Diana of the 
 Ephesians ? 
 
 No sound is heard in reply but the splashing of the waves of the 
 Ocean. Returning from the past, in the full confidence of Faith, 
 I pondered on what would be the fate of the great Anti-Christ 
 city around me. Will not a day arrive, when the gilded pinnacle 
 of that Hindu Temple shining in the sun will be torn down, 
 when the tapering minarets of that Mahometan Mosque will be 
 laid low .? Will it not be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha 
 in the day of Judgment, than for this city, in which the Word of 
 God is daily preached in the streets, in whose ears the bells of 
 this Church are ringing weekly warnings for repentance } Will 
 not the men of Nineveh rise up in judgment against them .? 
 
 But the Hymn has been finished, and the Sermon commenced: 
 no new-fangled theories, no polemical discussions, no meta- 
 physical distinctions, no suggestion of Ritual observances, fell 
 from the lips of the Reverend Pastor, who himself was one of 
 the Natives of India predestined to Salvation. I heard a father 
 addressing his own children, expounding simple Scripture narra- 
 tive with simpler applications. I turned back, and noticed the 
 mouth opened in interest, the neck outstretched to catch each 
 word. I saw children hanging on the familiar notes of the father. 
 
 We are told how Noah in obedience to divine authority built the Ark, how 
 he and his family entered into it, and closed the door ; how the wicked scoffed 
 and jeered at him : how at length the rain did descend, the fountains of the deep 
 were opened, the wicked utterly destroyed, but those few in the Ark were 
 saved. This Church, my brethren, is the Ark ; over this city of unbelievers is 
 impending the Deluge : hasten ye in. 
 
 The page of Scripture further on supplies new motives, and fresh 
 consolations : 
 
 We hear how Abraham, trusting in God, nothing doubting, left his country 
 and kindred, things the nearest and dearest, to go he knew not whither : yet 
 his Faith was rewarded. And ye, my brethren, who have sacrificed the ties of 
 home for His sake, if ye endure to the end, will ye not have your reward also ? " 
 
 No wide gulf separates the Preacher from his hearers : if he 
 propounds a subject interrogatively, the answer appears to 
 burst from the lips of an eager listener, and receives no check. 
 
( 72 ) 
 
 I feel, that one and all have derived instruction from such 
 expositions, and comfort from such counsels. Sincerely I 
 pray, that the words may rest grafted in our hearts, the peace of 
 God on the congregation, as they meekly and reverently disperse 
 to their homes. 
 
 And who are the good, the great, men, who have wrought 
 this wondrous work ? Whose hands have offered this incense 
 of sweet savour to the Most High ? Who are those, who have 
 taken this new Jerusalem from the Jebusites, and planted this 
 new Canaan in the land of the Heathen ? Who have kept 
 together these ten righteous, if peradventure for their sake the 
 sinful city may be spared ? There sit they, the shepherds 
 among their flock, the Christian warriors reposing with their 
 armour off after the combat. By their sides are their good 
 yoke-fellows, their wives, their fellow-labourers, who have 
 shared in the toil, and the victory. On their breasts are no 
 proud insignia of battles, that they have fought, of victories, 
 that they have won : but with a good fight they have carried 
 the entrenchments of Sin and Satan, and have the one Cross 
 engraved on their hearts. They have not sat on earthly judg- 
 ment-seats, they have not collected the tribute of nations, but 
 they will hereafter sit upon thrones judging the heathen, they 
 will hereafter offer, as the fruit of their life-labour, a full harvest 
 of redeemed souls. They have no precedence given them in 
 mortal assemblies, but they will be reckoned among the Angels 
 of Heaven. They have not controlled in the Courts of Human 
 Justice the stormy struggles of man's bad heart ; but with the 
 Gospel as their rule, they have guided the economy of the soul. 
 
 I never see a Missionary, but I blame my fate, that I am not 
 of them. Are they not to be envied, whose duties in this world 
 harmonize with those of the next ; zeal in their earthly vocations 
 promoting, not, as with us, retarding, the work of their own 
 salvation ? They stand among the Heathen, as an ensign of 
 what each of us values most : the General represents our 
 victorious arms, the Governor our triumphs of administration, 
 but the Missionary displays our virtues, our patience, our 
 Christian charity, and shall we not be proud of him ? I asked 
 myself how is it that so few of Great Britain's learned and pious 
 sons select this profession. The vision of one man from Mace- 
 donia took St. Paul across the Hellespont, and will no one 
 cross the Indian Ocean for the millions, not in vision, but in 
 reality ? Will no young Augustine spring up to repay the debt 
 of the Occident to the Orient, to bring back the Sun to the 
 East ? Had I life to begin again, this would be my choice : the 
 glories and profits of other professions are but as vanity. We 
 have fought battles : they are scarcely known beyond the narrow 
 limit of the echo of the cannon. We have ruled over Provinces : 
 
( 73 ) 
 
 our fame is as soon forgotten, as we are gone. But should we 
 have saved souls, a long line of Christians will carry back the 
 legends of their family to our era, and entwine our names with 
 the golden thread of grateful thanksgiving! Who remembers 
 the Generals, the Proconsuls, of the time of the Caesars ? Who 
 remembers not the Apostles ? 
 
 Thence glanced my thoughts to the early converts, those, who 
 had borne the heat of the day, on whose foreheads I could trace 
 the lines of sorrow and early affliction (for the chain of the world 
 is still dear to us), softened, yet not eifaced, by the sweet smile of 
 Faith and resignation. Perhaps in the records of this Church 
 will be handed down, as household-words, the names of these 
 early saints, who, when Christianity was young, forsook all 
 things for His sake. When far and wide over this beautiful, 
 and to me beloved, Indian land, in village and in town floats the 
 ensign of the Cross amidst a Christian people, then on many a 
 Sabbath-evening, when young and old are gathered together 
 for reading and meditation, will their tale be told : old men will 
 point to ruined temples, and tell to wondering ears, how once 
 Idolatry existed in this land : soft, tender, womanly cheeks will 
 be stained with tears at the sufferings of these^ St. Stephens : 
 young, manly hearts will grow in sympathy with the intrepid 
 bravery of the Indian St. Pauls. 
 
 We are standing on the threshold of mighty events : perhaps 
 there may be some amongst us, who will tarry till He comes. In 
 the early Christian Church we can trace three stages ; the first, 
 when a few obscure men professed an unknown and unap- 
 preciated Faith, persecuted by fanaticism, and crushed by 
 ignorance. Miracles had long since ceased ; the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost no longer visibly descended, but the second stage 
 was soon arrived at ; thriving congregations began to erect their 
 heads amidst their neighbours, and maintain their rights, with 
 the tacit allowance, if not the sanction, of the Government. 
 Within three hundred years the Temple was hurled down, and 
 the Cross erected in the Market-place. 
 
 A few months ago (1852) it was my fortunate lot to join in 
 the Protestant worship of a few sincere and sturdy Christians in 
 an upper room at Nazareth : no preaching was allowed in the 
 streets, no edifices were then dedicated to worship ; all was fear, 
 trembling, and the possibility of oppression and outrage, but for 
 the protection afforded by the British Consul ; here we have the 
 first stage before our eyes. In the Church in which I now stand, 
 I recognize the features of the second stage : the well-ordered 
 congregation, the voice of the Preacher in the highways calling 
 loudly to repentance, the modest tower rising up in the outskirts 
 of the city, the bell calling cheerily to prayers, and this under 
 the sceptre of Great Britain in her Colonies. Thrice happy 
 
( 74 ) 
 
 Britain ! the extent of your conquests will be forgotten, for those 
 of Gengis and Timlir have perished : but your Missions will 
 never be forgotten, for they will have given religion to thousands, 
 and the time will surely come, when the great idol of Bandras 
 will be thrown down. 
 
 Who would not then be a Missionary, the Great King's 
 Messenger, whose treasure is laid up in Heaven ? Those, who 
 cannot attain this high office, must give of their wealth, must give 
 of their pittance, must pray for them, as I did, as I followed the 
 last of the congregation out of the door, thinking, how sad would 
 be the day, when, like Alexander, we shall have no more 
 countries to conquer and convert : how happy for us to see 
 so rich a harvest gladdening the heart of the Labourer in the 
 Vineyard ! 
 
 Banaras Magazine, August, 1852. 
 
 Thirty-six years have passed, and the work has prospered 
 beyond human expectations. How grateful I am that I wrote 
 this in my youth and my strength ! 
 
 August, 1 888. 
 
( 75 ) 
 
 VII. 
 
 A CHRISTIAN SOLDIER. 
 
 Eighteen years after his death the Memorials of this good, and 
 regretted, man have appeared. There is much in these two 
 volumes, which we could have wished to have expunged. Special 
 pleading was not necessary to bring out his great merits, and we 
 have not far to dig for the fine gold of his character. He had a 
 sweet individuality all his own ; he had peculiar gifts, in which 
 he far outshone all his compeers ; by a measurable distance 
 in other particulars he fell below many of them. I knew him 
 in 1845, when he was with his regiment as a subaltern, before 
 he stepped out on his grand career. I was with him, the same 
 year, in the great battles of Mudki and Sobrion. I was often, 
 in subsequent years, in touch with him, always within hearing 
 of his achievements. United in our desire to extend our 
 Master's kingdom, we stood on the same Mission-Conference- 
 platform in i860 at Lahore, and on the eve of his last departure 
 from India in 1865, we met for the last time in Calcutta under 
 the roof of our common friend and master, John Lord Lawrence. 
 Once only we came into collision. Edwardes, in his hatred to 
 what was wrong, once unduly attacked the memory of his dead 
 predecessor in office. I made an indignant protest, and the 
 attack being withdrawn, the controversy ended with a sentence 
 to the following effect : 
 
 If it be my destiny to outlive Sir Herbert Edwardes, I will be as bold in 
 praising his great merits as I am now in shielding the failings of his predecessor. 
 
 After a lapse of a quarter of a century, that opportunity has 
 arrived. 
 
 Gay and gallant, witty and wise, generous and gracious, ready 
 and resolute, eloquent and energetic, the doer of acts worth 
 recording, the writer of pages worth reading, a faithful friend, 
 a faithful servant of the State, a still more faithful servant, and 
 stout-hearted witness, of his heavenly Master : such he was from 
 
( 7^ ) 
 
 his youth to his grave. Many, who knew him, bless him for 
 his good and fearless example. He died at the age of forty- 
 nine, which seems a short life to those, who have long passed 
 that span. He served the State in the Civil Department from 
 March, 1846, to January, 1865, barely nineteen years, and of 
 that period two years were spent in England. No true life is 
 long. These few years were sufficient to fill the trump of fame, 
 and give him a lasting claim on the admiration of his country- 
 men now and in the future. 
 
 Forty years have elapsed since February 10, 1846, the great 
 battle of Sobrdon, which was the starting-point of the history of 
 the Panjab, and of Herbert Edwardes, and of myself. Twenty- 
 nine years have passed since May 10, 1857, the date of the 
 Mutiny of the Mfrat Garrison ; of those, who shared in the last- 
 named struggle, there are many; of those, who were present at 
 the former, there are few. Since then there has been a long 
 procession of heroes and statesmen traversing the plains of 
 Northern India. Amidst that great assembly, to me, who knew 
 and held converse with them all, no character appears more 
 chivalrous, more unique, more satisfying, than that of the preux 
 chevalier, who loved the Lord, and loved his fellow-creatures ; 
 who, to use his own words, took heed each day to place a stone 
 in the basket of human life, with a face upturned in faith to 
 Heaven, and the air of one, who builds for eternity. What made 
 the Province, in which he served, the model of India } Because 
 its rulers started upon a new platform with four great principles : 
 I. An intense love for the people. 2. A proud disdain of all 
 that is wanton, sordid, and immoral. 3. An outspokenness 
 even to a fault, and a freedom from red-tape officialism even to 
 a blemish. 4. And, chiefly, a humble confidence in the leading 
 of God's Providence, whom every official, from the highest to 
 the lowest, was not ashamed to acknowledge and to worship, 
 while he deemed it his duty to extend the knowledge of the 
 saving Truth to the Heathen and the Mahometan. The two 
 types of that school were Sir Herbert Edwardes, and John Lord 
 Lawrence: there was a diversity of their gifts, but the same 
 spirit : all that they did they did to the glory of God. 
 
 Them that honour Me, I will honour ! 
 
 Edwardes commenced his civil career, as assistant to Sir Henry 
 Lawrence, the Resident at Lahore, in 1846. Twice he was 
 deputed to the District of Bannu to settle the affairs of a wild 
 country, and he accomplished the task with wonderful success, 
 and on April 22, 1848, he received news from Multdn of the 
 rebellion of Diwdn Mulrdj, and the slaughter of the English 
 officers. Another man might have hesitated, but he at once 
 with his native levies marched to the spot, and without any 
 
( ;; ) 
 
 resources, but those supplied by his own genius and pluck, he 
 fought battles, gained victories, and besieged Mulrdj in his own 
 city, and held his own till many months afterwards a regular 
 force arrived from Lahore, and after long delays stormed and 
 took the fortress. This was but one incident in the second war of 
 the Panjdb, which ended in the annexation of the whole Province. 
 On his return from England in 1851, Edwardes became District- 
 Officer of Jalandhar, whence he was transferred to Hazdra on the 
 frontier, and soon after he was promoted to the post of Com- 
 missioner of Peshdwar. Here he ruled the tribes with a strong 
 hand, negociated an important treaty with Dost Mahomet, the 
 Amir of Kdbul, and, when the mutiny of the Sepoy-army 
 convulsed Northern India, he so conducted the affairs of the 
 frontier, maintained so firm a front, stirred up such a spirit 
 among the natives, acted so entirely in harmony with the military 
 authorities, that he was able to hold his own and despatch newly 
 raised regiments to the siege of Delhi. His services were of 
 the highest order ; it is doubtful, whether any one but himself 
 could have done what he did. When peace was re-established, 
 in 1859, he re-visited England in broken health, the consequence 
 of his exertions and exposure. In March, 1862, he returned to 
 India as Commissioner of the Cis-Satlaj States, and in December, 
 1864, he finally resigned active service. 
 
 We must think of him as a soldier, a civil officer, a writer, as 
 well as an orator, and a true Christian man. 
 
 It were wrong, for an instant, to class him among the great 
 commanders of Great Britain and India, such as Clive, Havelock, 
 Clyde, or Sir Charles Napier, who commanded great armies, and 
 won great battles. His place is more with such brave men, as 
 Garibaldi and Gordon, who by force of character led undis- 
 ciplined troops to victory, and by their genius made things 
 possible, which appeared impossible. As a civil officer likewise, 
 except in that branch, which is called political, he had no great 
 capacity or experience ; he cared not for the peaceful duties of 
 magistrate, collector, and judge of a well-ordered district ; his 
 genius and gallant spirit enabled him to curb barbarous tribes, 
 win the love and respect of indomitable, yet noble, barbarians. 
 He made plunderers leave off plundering, fighters leave off 
 fighting, and, when the great crisis occurred of a mutiny and 
 a rebellion, he was found dauntless, unmoved, full of resource, 
 ready to strike, never for one instant doubting of the goodness 
 of his cause, of the wise ordering of Providence, and the 
 certainty of success, and in the time of triumph he was merciful. 
 
 It was as a writer and an orator, that he elicited the surprised 
 admiration of his acquaintances. Before he came into public 
 notoriety he had written clever letters to a local newspaper, but 
 subsequently his contributions to the Calcutta Review, his 
 
( ;8 ) 
 
 " Year on the Panjdb Frontier," his public letters, his private 
 correspondence, and the first volume of his unfinished " Life of 
 Sir Henry Lawrence," placed him in the foremost rank of 
 the literary men of his period in India. Indeed, I know of 
 none, who can equal him in some particulars. Add to this his 
 remarkable speeches and addresses in England during his two 
 visits. The great merit of these Memorials is, that they bring 
 all his public utterances together, and reveal for the first time 
 some of his private correspondence. Their characteristic is, 
 that they contain sentiments of surprising beauty, clothed in 
 words of most happy selection, struck off at the spur of the 
 moment, for his mind must have been a fountain of sweet 
 thoughts and happy images ever bubbling up, ever tinted with 
 the true colour of an abiding faith, springing from an innate 
 nobility of nature, purified by a humble Christian spirit. He 
 passed without an effort from grave to gay in his charming con- 
 versation, and was equally a master of wit and pathos, making 
 his hearers laugh or weep, as if by a magic spell, though the 
 pensive mood came oftenest. There was a musical clearness in 
 his voice, and a ring in his intonation when on the platform, as 
 of a trumpet talking with the audience ; though his hearer's 
 could not always agree with all his sentiments, which were often 
 extreme, they came away smitten with his power, and carrying 
 away some expressions never to be forgotten. At a prayer- 
 meeting, or an assembly, a hearer for the first time might ponder, 
 whether he stored up in his brain his sweet impromptus during 
 his walks, or as he lay waking on his bed, or whether they came 
 rushing from his heart to his brain and his mouth, in the inspira- 
 tion of the moment ; it was equally the characteristic of his 
 writings, whether permanent or ephemeral ; spontaneous pearls 
 seem to drop off the margin of each page of his writings, and 
 over the bar of the platform, as he spoke, into the shorthand 
 notes of the reporter. Sometimes they were jovial, for his was 
 a sunny nature, sometimes classical, sometimes moralizing, 
 always happy, refined, and soul-lifting, never far-fetched, or 
 lacking in transparent purity. They remain as treasures in the 
 memory connected with the man. 
 
 What of his Christian character ? Mr. Venn, the Secretary of 
 the Church Missionary Society, said to him in parting, that he 
 recognized the grace given to him to dedicate his ability and 
 influence to God's glory. One, who knew him well, said that 
 he had never heard any one so bold in confessing Christ. 
 Many of us felt as he did, but at our time of life had not the 
 courage to avow it, for he did it in his youthful prime, bringing 
 to the Lord the offering of a pure and unsullied life ; it might 
 under another set of rulers have marred his official prospects, 
 but he heeded it not. His weaker compeers cannot clearly tell, 
 
( 79 ) 
 
 how much they owed to Edwardes for the stability of their faith, 
 any more than a private soldier on the eve of a battle can clearly 
 define, how much of his courage he owed to the dauntless 
 bearing of his officer in the moment of peril. 
 
 Some may have charged him with vanity, and these Memorials 
 betray to the world, that he thought too much of the services, 
 which he had rendered, and of the estimation in which the world 
 held them. He had not risen to the grand level of rejoicing in 
 the work itself, in finding his reward in the work done, and in 
 the infelt gratitude, that God had chosen him for the work. 
 Had he lived a little longer, in the calmness of his spirit he 
 would in his own manner have recalled the great Roman citizen, 
 who left his farm to save the State,- and went back to it, when 
 his work was done, seeking no praise, content to have done his 
 duty. A wiser chronicler of his life would have suppressed those 
 casual bursts of discontent, and unjust reflections on others. 
 Had he lived to reach sixty, he would have burnt the letters, as 
 he would have forgotten the feelings. 
 
 It is idle to speculate on what this kind and good man might 
 have done, had he been spared to enjoy the calm and quiet 
 decade, that follows the completion of half a century, for which 
 so many have to be deeply grateful ; the excitement of his nature 
 would have calmed down, his deep religious convictions would 
 have been broadened: he might have seen some things differently. 
 He would certainly have finished the life of Sir Henry Lawrence, 
 which consists now of a living photograph from the pen of 
 Edwardes in the first volume, and a cold dead philosophic second 
 volume by another hand, linked to the first by a Mezentius-chain. 
 Perhaps he would have been the chronicler of his own deeds 
 by writing a narrative of " A Year on the Frontier during the 
 Mutinies." Hearts would have been uplifted by more of his 
 stirring addresses ; as a member of the Committee of the Church 
 Missionary Society, he would have helped to manage the mission, 
 he had founded and endowed at Peshdwar. But it was not to be. 
 
 Let us be silent and thank God. Better than a bench of 
 Bishops, better than a convent of recluses, better than the trans- 
 cendentalism of the daily celebrant, better than the vaunt of the 
 blue ribbon, is the character of the earnest Christian soldier, 
 standing as a light amid heathen darkness, doing Christian things 
 in a Christian way, living in the World, and holding his own 
 among men of the World. How knightly seems that form 
 amidst the shattered idols on the pedestals of many of his 
 contemporaries ! Others after a youth of wildness may, by the 
 grace of God, have passed into the number of His elect : some, 
 alas I of those, who at that time were foremost in the work of 
 bringing souls to Christ, have become themselves castaways. 
 But the shield of this man was never dimmed by the faintest 
 
( 8o ) 
 
 cloud ; he had no vulgar vices or doubts to get rid of ; he went 
 on his way a rejoicing Christian all the days of his life, singing 
 a song of triumph down to the banks of Jordan. 
 
 The value of such works as this and the lives of Henry and 
 John Lawrence, and Sir Henry Havelock, consists in the fact, 
 that the young servant of the State can in them see, that it is 
 possible to devote time and talents to a calling honourable in 
 sight of men, and yet live close to God, who searches the heart. 
 The attractive personality of Edwardes will be forgotten, when 
 the generation of men, who knew him, passes away, but his lofty 
 ideal, his consistent practice, his soul-stirring words, his un- 
 affected piety, will long be the beacon and the guiding-star to 
 the young Christian soldier. All cannot have his talents, his 
 great gifts of oratory and composition, and his marvellous good 
 fortune, but all can attain to his faith and holiness. Such 
 characters should not be allowed to die. 
 
 Memorials of Maj.-Gm. Sir H. Edwardes, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., London. 
 
 Review — Record, 1886. 
 
 Note. 
 
 The character of this great man is illustrated by the Minute, 
 a copy of which is subjoined. When we had recovered from the 
 shock of the Mutiny and Rebellion of 1857, we all thought, that 
 something ought to be done to manifest more clearly the 
 Christian profession of the great oflScers of the State, without in 
 the least infringing the principles of Toleration to the Religious 
 convictions of the People. The fiery spirit of Sir Herbert 
 Edwardes induced him to propose a series of measures, which 
 were endorsed by Sir Donald Macleod, but which did not 
 commend themselves to those, who thought with Lord Lawrence, 
 whose Minute contains the views, which ultimately prevailed, and 
 in which I then, and now, heartily concurred. 
 
 February, 1887. 
 
 Sir J. Lawrence has been led, since the occurrence of the awful events of 
 1857, to ponder deeply on what may be the faults and shortcomings of the 
 British, as a Christian nation, in India. In considering such topics he would 
 solely endeavour to ascertain what is our Christian duty. Having ascertained 
 that, according to our erring lights and conscience, he would follow it out to 
 the uttermost, undeterred by any considerations. If we address ourselves to 
 the task, it may, with the blessing of Providence, not prove too diflficult for us. 
 Measures of an extreme nature have been proposed, as essential to be adopted 
 by a Christian Government, which would be truly difficult, or impossible of 
 •execution. But on closer consideration it wiil be found that such measures are 
 
( 81 ) 
 
 not enjoined by Christianity, but are contrary to its spirit. Sir J. L. does 
 entertain the earnest belief, that all those measures, which are really and truly 
 Christian, can be carried out in India, not only without danger to British rule, 
 but, on the contrary, with every advantage to its stability. Christian things 
 done in a Christian way will never alienate the heathen. About such things 
 there are qualities, which do not provoke nor excite distrust, nor harden to 
 resistance. It is when un-Chrislian things are done in the name of Christianity, 
 or when Christian things are done in an un- Christian way, that mischief and 
 danger are occasioned. The difficulty is amid the political complications, the 
 conflicting social considerations, the fears and hopes of self-interest, which are 
 so apt to mislead human judgment, to discern clearly what is imposed upon us 
 by Christian duty, and what is not. Having discerned this, we have to put it 
 into practice. Sir John L. is satisfied, that in the Panjab he can carry out all 
 those measures, which are really matters of Christian duty on the part of the 
 Government. And further, he believes, that such measures will arouse no 
 danger, will conciliate instead of provoking, and will subserve to the ultimate 
 diffusion of the Truth among the people. 
 
 Such measures and policy, having been deliberately determined upon by the 
 Supreme Government, should be openly avowed, and universally acted upon 
 throughout the Empire : so that there may be no diversities of practice, no 
 isolated tentative or conflicting efforts, which are indeed the surest means of 
 exciting distrust: so that the people may see, that we have no sudden or 
 sinister designs, and so that we may exhibit that harmony and uniformity of 
 character, which befits a Christian nation striving to do its (/«0/.— Lahore, 
 April 21, 1858. 
 
( 83 ) 
 
 VIII. 
 
 OBITUARY NOTICE OF A DEAR YOUNG FRIEND. 
 
 On my return from Palestine in April, 1885, I heard that my 
 sweet young friend S. M. F. W. had passed away on March 6th, 
 just five months after her wedding-day. Last Sunday I went 
 down to the now desolate house of the afHicted parents, for both 
 their daughters, one at the age of 22, and the other at the age 
 of z6, have by the inscrutable dispensations of Providence been 
 taken away, and lie side by side in the churchyard. I found the 
 village more beautiful than ever, for Nature had restored the 
 ravages of winter with a luxuriant beauty of flower and foliage ; 
 but the chief beauty in my eyes was gone : the attraction, which 
 had originally drawn me to the village, no longer existed. 
 
 Many young girls have passed away in years bygone, and 
 many more will pass away in future years, but the memory of 
 these two sisters deserves recording, as from their childhood 
 to their graves they were devoted to the cause of Christian 
 Missions. I made the acquaintance of my friend when attending 
 a Missionary meeting in the West of England as a Deputation. 
 After the speeches a sweet young woman entered into conversa- 
 tion with me, and told me, that her sister, who had lately died, 
 had left all that she possessed to her Missionary Society, and 
 that she, the survivor, intended to go out as a Missionary to 
 China. She seemed so delicate and frail, that my heart sank 
 within me at hearing this. The result of our meeting was, that 
 I promised to attend and speak in the annual meeting of her 
 father's parish, which would take place on her birthday, July 
 4th, 1883. 
 
 I found, that she had shown an early love for the Heathen 
 lying in darkness ; that, at the age of five and six, she and her 
 younger sister had started their baskets of trifles to be sold to 
 form a fund for the Mission. As they grew from childhood 
 into girlhood, this intense love for Missions increased, and by 
 
( 84 ) 
 
 their collections they supported a child in a School in the 
 Mauritius Mission. They helped to conduct the annual sale for 
 their Society, and as they grew in years, and their talents 
 expanded, their industry developed itself in painting on china, 
 and including the last piece, painted by the surviving sister in 
 January of this year, within a few weeks of her death, they had 
 produced a clear gain of eighty pounds, and remitted it to the 
 Society's House in London. 
 
 The dear child, whose loss we freshly deplore, had accepted 
 the offer of eternal life, and full and complete salvation, after 
 one of Mr. Moody's meetings at Camberwell ; she has herself 
 recorded the date, June i8th, 1875. She then made the follow- 
 ing words part of herself: 
 
 I believe the glorious record 
 God has given of His Son ; 
 
 I accept the free forgiveness 
 His atoning death has won. 
 • 
 From the time, that she dedicated her life to Him, the cause of 
 Missions became increasingly dear to her heart as well as to that 
 of her sister. Later on she tried to help by her collections and 
 her prayers the Zan^na Societies. Had she been altogether free 
 and independent of home-duties and ties, she would long ago 
 have joined one of these societies, and gone out to the Field. 
 But this could not be. She had a fortnightly working-party of 
 the children in her father's parish, and was a sedulous collector. 
 It so happened, that she had never visited the Society's House 
 in London, but among her papers of last year, 1884, I came 
 on the following entry : 
 
 How little I thought that my first visit to the Society's House would be to 
 offer myself as the wife of a Missionary. 
 
 God accepted the dedication, but not in the sense in which 
 she intended, but in a form, which she accepted without demur 
 and without regret. He had need of her, and not of her poor 
 services. She had hoped, that with the brave and strong her 
 course might lie to carry the Gospel to the Heathen, but another 
 part was, suddenly according to mortal conceptions, but ordained 
 for her from the moment of her birth, chosen for her, and she 
 accepted it without a murmur. She had fashioned for herself a 
 high, the highest, idea of mortal life, but a still higher reality 
 was ordained for her. She was one of those gentle spirits, who 
 yielded to His love, and who, ripening fast, was soon removed. 
 Those, that God loves, die early. 
 
 When her birthday came round in July, 1884, she again asked 
 me to come, but I was away at the North Cape, and a friend 
 went for me, and spoke for the dear Society, on what proved to 
 be her last Missionary birthday. Humanly speaking, all was 
 
( 85 ) 
 
 working in the way, in which she wished, and her life was to be 
 dedicated to the Heathen ; but God's ways are not our ways. 
 Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right ? A feeling of 
 sublime joy seems to cast out the human sorrow, when I calmly 
 reflect on her story. 
 
 I sat down last Sunday alone in the little room, which had 
 been the scene of the studies, the prayers, and the labours, of 
 both sisters, from their earliest years. I looked round with a 
 feeling akin to despair, when I thought, that both of these bright 
 flowers had been plucked so early; it seemed such a waste of 
 good material, that they should not have lived on to be the joy, 
 and the counsellors of an unborn generation of children, and the 
 gatherers-in of a rich harvest of saved souls of the Heathen. I 
 was in the midst of their holy and simple life. There were their 
 registers of the Sunday-school, and of the Band of Hope : there 
 was the Missionary-box, and on the table was the closed desk, 
 for their hands were stiffened ; on the desk was the closed pocket 
 Bible, for their eyes were darkened ; the birds sang outside, 
 but their voices were still ; round the table were the forms, on 
 which the little village-children used from week to week to sit ; 
 all was, as it were, ready for either of them to enter, full of 
 health, and tenderness, and beauty; it seemed, as if the door 
 must at any moment open, and let them in, for the memory of 
 them perfumed the room, like the odour of crushed rose-leaves ; 
 but they will return no more ; they are engaged in the service 
 of their Master elsewhere. The feeling of despair, which had 
 seized me, suddenly disappeared, when I thought of the plenteous 
 Grace, which must have descended within these narrow walls, to 
 make them what they were, to make her, whom I knew and loved 
 so, what I knew her to be. It must have been Grace, that took 
 them to their Saviour's feet, when they were quite little children, 
 and kept them there, steadfast to the end, neither fearing to 
 depart, nor wishing to depart, ready to stay and ready to go, for 
 I read her own words, dated December 31st, 1881 : 
 
 My life is in His keeping ; I have entrusted it to Him, so what He does I 
 am satisfied with. I look back on many sins and failings, and lost oppor- 
 tunities of witnessing for Him ; but they have all been brought to the Fountain 
 opened to wash away sin, and all, I know, are pardoned. His love is my rest, 
 my joy, and my strength, and who shall separate me from His love ? No one ; 
 nothing; for I am His, and He is mine, my very own for ever ! and, if He came 
 for me, and called me home, how joyfully I will go ! If left to live, may I only 
 live for Him ! 
 
 Her heart was filled with high aspirations, and she had Grace 
 given to her to carry them into action. Hers were not empty 
 words, for on a little piece of paper I found in pencil the rough 
 copy of a letter to the Rev. E. Wickham, of Holmwood, Dorking, 
 dated July 30, 1877: 
 
( 86 ) 
 
 Dear Sir,— I was so much interested and touched by what Mr. Hubbard 
 said at the Missionary meeting this afternoon, that instead of giving to the 
 collection the silver I had meant, I felt constrained, out of love to Christ and 
 a desire to do something for Him, to give a sovereign, which was lately given 
 to me as a birthday present ; and the reason of my writing to you is to say, 
 that, if you will allow it, I should like that sovereign, to go especially towards 
 sending a Missionary to King Mtesa, and I trust money will soon be raised for 
 that object, that it may never be said, that England is too poor to send the men 
 out, when they are ready to go. Please let Mr. Hubbard know of my wish, 
 but please do not mention this to any one else, or try to find out who I am, as 
 I wish only to be known, as a young Christian lover of Missions. May God 
 help me to think and pray to do more for the Heathen than I have yet done ! 
 
 I felt, that the two daughters had not lived in vain, that they 
 had scattered around them the perfume of the beauty of holiness. 
 Souls had been brought to their Saviour by their useful and 
 gentle lives, and more had been touched by the contemplation 
 of their holy and steadfast departure, the faithful and fearless 
 going home to the mansion of their Father. The parents may 
 well feel, that they have a greater happiness in two dead daughters 
 such as these, than they would have derived from many living 
 children, who knew not the Lord. 
 
 Church Missionary Society Gleaner, August, 1885. 
 
( 87 ) 
 
 IX. 
 
 EXETER HALL, MAY i, 1888. 
 C.M.S. OR "Christ My Salvation." 
 
 Through the high windows flows a flood of light, 
 
 Telling of coming Spring, and present May ; 
 Before the doors rolls on, both day and night 
 
 Laborious London's pitiless array : 
 
 Withdrawn from worldly work for one brief day 
 The spacious Hall can scarcely room afford, 
 
 (While on the sounding organ loud they play,) 
 For men and women met with one accord 
 On this their annual feast to praise their Lord. 
 
 Each feels a portion of the holy flame : 
 
 Why was our Country made so great and strong ? 
 Why does our genius Savage races tame ? 
 
 Why do the ends of earth to us belong ? 
 
 Why do all nations to this city throng ? 
 Why does the great Controller bless our store. 
 
 And deign our world-wide Empire to prolong, 
 But to enforce our duty more and more. 
 To spread our Saviour's rule from shore to shore ? 
 
 Up to the ceiling rise the hymns of praise ; 
 
 A holy text is read : in prayer we kneel : 
 Upstanding one by one with skilful phrase 
 
 In turn the speakers our attention steal. 
 
 With thrilling tones, and words, that make us feel 
 The grandeur of the subject : our hearts glow 
 
 With love and pity in their varying phase : 
 In sweet altematings of Joy and Woe 
 Our thoughts fly "Up on high," and "Down below." 
 
( 88 ) 
 
 " Demon below." 
 
 " Down below " we see the brave men toiling, 
 Bearing th' unsuffered sufferings of their Lord : 
 
 From no hard trial in weak fear recoiling, 
 Trusting to no flesh-arm, or human sword. 
 But to th' Eternal changeless Promise- Word : 
 
 Some have come home our sympathies to share, 
 Their plain unvarnished story to record : 
 
 Some have remained for ever, where they were : 
 
 Christ on the cross looked down upon them there. 
 
 Round them new germs of Christian life are springing. 
 
 New possibilities of human love : 
 In humble chapels Sabbath-bells are ringing. 
 
 And swarthy white-robed Pastors gently move 
 
 Amidst their flocks to tell of Christ above : 
 Its giant fronds still waves the Palm on high : 
 
 The glorious Sunsets still illume the grove : 
 All is unchanged in Nature's sea and sky ; 
 The hearts of Man have changed mysteriously. 
 
 Upraised on high the ensign of the Cross, 
 
 While the stone-idol from its shrine is thrown : 
 
 The Savage man for Christ counts all things loss : 
 No longer hideous rites and crimes are known, 
 Since to his heart the holier path is shown : 
 
 By his side walk his children, and his wife. 
 Who meekly shares his labours, his alone : 
 
 Joys of the present, hopes of future life, 
 
 Blot out the memory of forgotten strife. 
 
 " Up above." 
 
 " Up above " the roof and walls seem falling, 
 
 And Christ's great promise to us is fulfilling: 
 He will be with His children at their calling : 
 
 His presence now this crowded Hall is filling ; 
 
 Jesus is here, all fear and doubtings stilling : 
 His power supports, His mercies never fail : 
 
 He sees His Servants gathered here are willing 
 Humbly to do His work, though weak and frail : 
 Rise up, rise up, the Risen Lord to hail ! 
 
( 89 ) 
 
 As the scene clears for human eye to view, 
 
 We see the Saints and Angels round His throne : 
 
 The holy Martyrs, and Confessors too ; 
 We recognize some dear ones, as our own. 
 Our own lost friends, not lost, before us gone : 
 
 Our brothers, and our sisters, firm and bold. 
 Who counted life dear but to lay it down. 
 
 His service, and His honour to uphold. 
 
 And bring back erring sinners to His fold. 
 
 And they look down on us with solemn greeting, 
 
 Bidding us cleave to the same Gospel true. 
 And looking forward to a heavenly meeting. 
 
 To be with Christ, when all is made anew. 
 
 Oh ! come ye doubting ones with me, and view 
 The low straw hut, where Saints their labours close 
 
 Midst tears and prayers of men of dusky hue, 
 For whom Christ died, for wjiom again He rose : 
 Let the kind Shepherd's arms His wandering lambs enclose ! 
 
 Words uttered here fall on the page below, 
 
 And are recorded by a faithful hand : 
 Then through the trumpet-sounding Press they blow 
 
 Over the length and breadth of British Land, 
 
 Telling the triumphs of Immamiel's band : 
 Making the hearts of faithful men to glow : 
 
 The morn is breaking at His high command, 
 And streaks of blessed light begin to show 
 The coming of the reign of Christ below. 
 
 Is not this day the sweetest of the year ? 
 
 Spared are we still to see another May. 
 Is it not well for us to gather here. 
 
 And, counting up our failings, homage pay 
 
 To Him, who has accepted us this day 
 According to our will, not to our powers ? 
 
 For what have we to offer, but what may 
 Spring from His gift, wealth, talents, labouring hours ? 
 Thine be the glory. Lord I the blessing still be ours ! 
 
 Exeter Hall, May i, 1888 
 (in my old seat). 
 
 PART IV. 
 
( 91 ) 
 
 X. 
 
 A WORD TO THOSE, WHO DO NOT RECOGNIZE THE 
 DIVINELY IMPOSED DUTY OF EVANGELIZATION. 
 
 A FRIEND mentioned to me one day the secular addresses, 
 which he made to hard-headed good men, who would decline 
 to be considered Christians, though their actions and mode of 
 life showed, that, in spite of their protestations, the law of Christ 
 had engraved itself upon their life ; and suggested to me the 
 idea of writing a Missionary address upon secular lines. Was 
 I afraid to face such an audience .-' Certainly not. As an 
 advanced Liberal, yet true to the Union of the three Kingdoms, 
 I had on political platforms boldly expressed my sentiments in 
 spite of the yells of infuriated Home- Rulers : and I had not 
 been afraid to look boldly into the face of the Anti-Opium- 
 Trade fanatics in Exeter Hall, while I tried in vain to instil 
 ideas of common sense into their unreasoning brains. 
 
 I respect real bon§.-fide Atheists, and Agnostics, who are so 
 from profound convictions, who lead moral lives, and who 
 themselves respect the religious opinions of others: they are 
 feelers for the truth. And I feel, that but for the Grace of God, 
 acting through the circumstances of my early life, I should 
 probably have been among them, for I still rejoice in the title of 
 a Freethinker, in the Christian sense of that word, one who must 
 know what he believes, and be able to give a reason for his 
 belief, involving no hard points in fog, and not afraid to look 
 difSculties in the face. If I had not witnessed so many Hindus 
 ' and Mahometans go bravely and unshrinkingly to their death, 
 I should wonder, how a man could dare to die without hope in 
 Christ. If experience had not convinced me, that round me 
 were many good men, who professed unbelief, I should wonder, 
 how a man would dare to live without the aid of the Holy Spirit'. 
 To grasp the subject of Christian Missions, omitting the name 
 of Christ, is hard. To seem for an instant, and only for a 
 purpose, to treat the life and death of Christ as a beautiful 
 legend, to roll up out of sight the all-absorbing love of the 
 Saviour, is harder still. . Still, it must be done, in order to draw 
 
( 92 ) 
 
 from Human Experience, from actual Results, from the History 
 of our Period, evidence of the reality of an hidden Inner Power 
 behind the scenes, on which such marvels of Human Benevolence 
 are being represented. 
 
 It is an uncontestable fact, that no body of men (except the 
 Mormons) has up to the present moment deliberately started 
 Missionary enterprizes to convert to their views the Heathen on 
 any other basis than that of the New Testament. A great deal 
 has been written about Mahometan Missionaries. I can only 
 reply, that I never came across one. A Mahometan, no doubt, is 
 ready to circumcise his male slave, and to make his female slave 
 nominally conform to Islam, and be his concubine, but nothing 
 beyond is proved to my satisfaction, either in Asia, or Africa. 
 Conversions may have been effected by force in times past, 
 and by fraud, or worldly inducement, in times present, but 
 I never read of money collected to send out emissaries. In 
 India there is a fair and open field, and most capable, and 
 accomplished, and good Mahometans, but a proselyting Mission 
 has not been entered upon. I have come across no company of 
 Unitarian Preachers in Heathen lands, still less of Agnostics, 
 Theists, or Atheists. The Buddhist Missions, whatever they 
 ■were (and certainly they were successful), are things of the dim 
 and remote past, and no tendency has been developed by the 
 Millions of existing followers of Buddha to propagate their 
 peaceful, and exemplary, doctrines, by the practice of which in 
 their purity the happiness of man would be advanced. As a fact, 
 the religion of Buddha is so choked by the parasitical growth 
 of Heathenism, that it would require to be itself reformed, 
 before it could be conveyed as a message to others. The same 
 remark applies to the Mahometan and Christian Religions. It 
 is possible, that there may be an outburst of Mahometan Wahdbi, 
 or Reformers, who may be fired with the desire to preach the 
 doctrines of Mahomet. We know as a fact that, previous to the 
 great Reformation of the Christian Religinn in the sixteenth 
 Century there was little attempt to carry the Christian Religion 
 to the Heathen out of Europe. But, when the Church of Rome 
 had purged itself from its worst errors of Mediseval practice 
 under the new impulse given by the new order of the Jesuits, it 
 commenced its great career of Christian Missions, in which, after 
 two centuries of torpor, it has been followed by the Reformed 
 Churches of Europe and America. This leads me up to my first 
 position that 
 
 I. No other Religion, but that of Christ, has furnished the motive, and the 
 power, to induce men and women to sacrifice their personal comforts for the 
 sake of converting unknown and distant races to their views of thinking. 
 
 Our countrymen, who do not agree with us as Christians, are 
 still unconsciously so imbued with Christian feeling, have 
 
( 93 ) 
 
 lived so entirely in the atmosphere of Christian thought and 
 practice, and display in their every-day life so much goodness, 
 and purity, and benevolence, that it would not seem strange, if 
 they were to send out Missions. We should then bring to the 
 test the fact, upon which Christians insist, that it is the love of 
 Christ only, that constraineth men to undergo sufferings, and that 
 it is the power of Christ only, that enables them to conquer them. 
 These may seem bold words, but History testifies to their 
 accuracy. I cast no blame upon any one for having exercised 
 only passive virtues: such was our position also last century, 
 but we have been roused to a sense of certain facts, which 
 underlie our Faith, that : 
 
 I. God made man in His own image, and that, however hard 
 it may seem to the Ethnologist, all mankind belong to the same 
 Family, inasmuch that, by the gift of speech, they are separated 
 from the rest of Creation, and they resemble each other much 
 more than they differ. 
 
 II. Christ looked down from the Cross on all mankind, and 
 died for them, every one, without any exception. 
 
 III. The parting words of our Saviour were an order to preach 
 the Gospel to every creature in all the world, and a promise to 
 be with us to the end of the world. 
 
 The next consideration is : 
 
 II. The wonderful change, which has come over European nations, since 
 they became Christians, the Duty imposed upon them, and the aid derived 
 from the Missionary Spirit. 
 
 Now this is a matter of History, as it has all happened since 
 Julius Caesar, the first Roman Emperor, was killed, and we 
 know from Roman authors what the state of Europe was only 
 eighteen hundred years ago, and we know what it is now. It is 
 scarcely necessary to waste time on this argument, ^lor is it 
 possible to disconnect Christianity from our civilization. I am 
 very familiar with the history of Rome and Greece, and the 
 great Kingdoms of Asia, and North Africa, and I cannot say of 
 them, that they were great, wise, enlightened, and sympathetic : 
 they did not care to stamp out abominable crimes; the men, 
 possessed of wealth and power, openly vaunted of the com- 
 mission of vices, which; if committed at all under a Christian 
 Government, are matter for concealment and shame. I can find 
 no proof in their history, that they were ever possessed with a 
 great idea of doing good to their neighbours. 
 
 It is a poor argument to say, that we did very well without 
 Missions : this seems to be said in forgetfulness, that _ the 
 religious spirit of a man advances just as much as his scientific : 
 our fathers did very well without the eff'ects of physical Science 
 of to-day. As our day, so is our strength: as our strength 
 increases, and our opportunity, so increases our Duty. As a 
 
(' 94 ) 
 
 fact, we have been forced into contact with non-Christian races 
 in Asia, Africa, America, and Oceania : can we be content to 
 fold our hands, and do nothing? Some how or other, the 
 nobiUty of our character compels us to consider the problem, 
 whether we cannot do something to ameliorate their condition, 
 for in some particulars it is sad. The great Darwin admitted, 
 that the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego were human, but in 
 culture very little above beasts : this is not satisfactory infor- 
 mation, and makes the ears of benevolent men tingle. Now, as 
 a fact, will the excellent men, who are unable to accept the 
 promises of Christ, the good people, who tell us mildly, that 
 they expect to go after death to the place, where other good 
 people go, the good old Heathens of the Augustan type of 
 Juvenal, and Seneca, of Antoninus Pius, and Adrian, who have 
 lived down to our time : will any of them, full of benevolence as 
 they are, band themselves together to collect tens of thousand 
 Pounds in every town and village in Great Britain, to send out 
 below cost price Moral Treatises, or Fruits of Philosophy, or 
 Supernatural Religion, for the instruction of these inferior 
 races } Will they send out devoted Atheists, and consecrated 
 Comtists, and Agnostics, to live among wild tribes, acquire 
 their languages, soften their rough manners, win their love, and 
 love them in return, die for them, and teach them how to die, 
 worthy of life beyond the grave .? 
 
 There must be something in the movement. An American this 
 year said to me, that he had come over to see all the sights of 
 London ; and he did not think his visit accomplished, until he had 
 seen the Committee of the Church Missionary Society assembled 
 in their room of business. It so happened, that he came at a 
 moment, when four Agents were receiving their instructions 
 previous to their departure to different quarters of the world : 
 there was a mechanic going out to construct a Mission-boat on 
 Victoria Nyanza in Central Africa: a medical man going to China: 
 a female Evangelist to Mombdsain East Africa, and an ordained 
 Missionary to the wild tribes in Canada. It struck him, as note- 
 worthy, but to us it seemed our ordinary routine ; the Engine 
 Room, the Hospital, the Mission-School, and the Mission- 
 Chapel, can all be instruments of human Benevolence to poor 
 human creatures, whether black, or red, or yellow, if only the 
 motive Power can be found, and the sole Power, that History has 
 yet revealed to us, is Christ. Take the islands of New Zealand 
 as an example : they belong to Great Britain and to Christ simply 
 because one earnest man, a century ago, Samuel Marsden, was 
 smitten with the desire at the risk of his life to carry to them the 
 Gospel. Every Briton burns with a desire to put an end to the 
 African Slave trade, but how could all the Governments of Europe 
 effect it, without the aid of interpreters trained in the Mission- 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 School, and what would become of the poor released slaves, but 
 for the Homes established by the Missionaries ? When Lord 
 Wolseley went up the Nile to relieve Gordon, he was accompanied 
 by interpreters trained by Missionaries, and so was Stanley, when 
 he visited King Mtesa on Victoria Nyanza, and discovered the 
 course of the Kongo. 
 
 III. The Christian Missions have been a blessing to the countries, in which 
 they were located, as far as concerns things of this world. 
 
 Darwin is my first witness : 
 
 There are many, who attack both the missionaries, their system, and the effect 
 produced by it. Such reasoners never compare the present state with that of 
 the island only twenty years ago ; nor even with that of Europe at the present 
 day ; but they compare it with the high standard of gospel-perfection. 
 
 The lesson of the Missionary is the enchanter's- wand. 
 
 Vice-Consul Johnston, of the Kameruns, West Africa, in an 
 article in the Nineteenth Century, noticed the personality of 
 Missionaries rather flippantly, and of the Negro rather unkindly, 
 and is evidently not a supporter of Missionary Societies, but, 
 somehow or other, he makes the following remark : 
 
 It is consoling to reflect on the immense services, which Mission enterprizes 
 have rendered to Africa, to the world at large, and to Great Britain, When the 
 history of the great African States comes to be written, the arrival of the first 
 Missionary will be the first historical event (as Julius Caesar in Britain) : he gave 
 them their first idea of the Printing Press, Steamboat, and Saw-Mill : he first 
 navigated their rivers, and lakes. Missionary enterprize has widely increased 
 the bounds of our knowledge, and has conferred benefits on Science. 
 
 A writer on India says : 
 
 No one, who has lived long in a heathen land, can have any doubt upon the 
 Immense advantage of the diffusion of the Gospel : the suppression of heathen 
 rites and usages : the creation of a public commerce : the formation of a public 
 opinion in favour of the pure, the honest, and the true, the elevation of the 
 moral standard, the vindication of the rights of man to exercise the faculties 
 given by God : all these are unspeakable blessings, and they accompany the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Speaking myself from the point of view of a Heathen Philo- 
 sopher, of Socrates, Plato, and Cicero, I must record my opinion, 
 that, if the Christian Missions to West Africa had, during the 
 last half century, produced nothing but the sweet, and holy, in- 
 telligent, and gentle, personalities of my dear friends, Samuel and 
 Dandeson Crowther, Henry and James Johnston, pure Negroes, 
 yet accomplished gentlemen, as keen on the subjects of Educa- 
 tion, Philosophy, Geography, and Philanthropy, as any of us, 
 the expenditure of scores of British lives, and thousands of 
 British Pounds, has not been in vain, for they are living samples 
 of many, who will come hereafter ; they are living refutations of 
 the assertion, that the Negro is incapable of culture : and without 
 
( 96 ) 
 
 the power of Christ working upon British souls to commence 
 their great enterprize, without the power of Christ, working on 
 the souls of those four men, and holding them in subjection, 
 they would not have been what they are. 
 
 We may wonder, how in a Heathen country the domestic 
 virtues managed to keep themselves alive ; how conjugal fidelity, 
 love of offspring, obedience to parents, and the other sweet 
 gentle virtues, managed to maintain a precarious existence, in 
 spite of ignorance and oppression ; but my long residence in the 
 midst of my people in Upper India convinces me, that there is 
 in the heart of man a fountain of goodness, that is inexhaust- 
 ible. But, when the contact of the low abandoned white man 
 takes place, new forms of violence, new seeds of disease, new 
 varieties of crime, and vice, come into existence, poisoning the 
 quiet stream of barbarous life : and this points to the necessity 
 of the same nation, which sent the poison, sending also the 
 antidote, to correct the notion, which had forced itself on 
 secluded tribes, that the white men were bad devils, and 
 bringing something in return for much evil suffered. We must 
 all feel a desire to elevate these fallen races, and lift them up 
 from their helpless, barbarous state. Who can do it.-* Who has 
 time to do it ? Who can find the means to do it .'' The 
 operation is dangerous, costly, tedious, and, as far as human 
 eyes see, thankless. We have to get rid of Cannibalism, and 
 Human Sacrifice, at once, and Slavery, Polygamy, Magical rites, 
 and Cruelty, gradually. The Government of a European country 
 cannot do it. A Commercial body would not find it pay a 
 dividend. The Traveller and Explorer cannot stop to do it. 
 Will any Benevolent Association, which is not bound together 
 by the cement of the love of Christ, undertake it ? Yet our 
 hearts go out in pity and love to them ; we recognize in some 
 their natural goodness, their hospitality, the kindness of the 
 women, their love to the children. Will no one go forward ? 
 Yes ! Brother : the love of Christ constraineth us. We believe, 
 that these also are men, and the sons of Adam, and that Christ 
 looked down from the Cross on these also, and died for them, 
 and our hearts burn within us to carry to them also the Gospel 
 of Salvation. 
 
 IV. There is a very weak side to Missions. 
 
 I often hear this, or similar remarks, and it is true : there is a 
 very weak side: the men employed to carry the Gospel are very 
 human, and in no respect Angels. Their publications have been 
 worse than their actual deeds : people complain of so much cant, 
 and false sentiment, such ignorance, intolerance ; such impertinent 
 attempts of some to set the world right according to their idea 
 of right : denouncing a great commerce betwixt two great 
 
( 97 ) 
 
 countries ; prying into the unsavoury details of a Military 
 Barrack ; trying to persuade a just Government to let them have 
 the control of the Education of a great people ; tilting against 
 ancient customs : then, according to others, they are divided 
 against themselves, and speak evil of each other : they want to 
 be too comfortable, and share the luxuries of the rich rather 
 than the simple lives of the poor : they attack the great religions 
 of antiquity, virithout informing themselves about them : they talk 
 a great deal about Miracles, which happened centuries ago, but 
 can do none themselves : then some of them marry, when mere 
 lads, and are a frightful expense to the Society, which sends 
 them out : pennies collected under the influence of Prayer from 
 little children go to maintain Homes to bring up Missionary 
 children in a position of life above that of their parents : then 
 some are always coming home : some throw up the service of 
 the Lord, just when it suits them : a sick wife, a sick child, a 
 snug bit of Church-preferment at home : there is a want of life- 
 consecration : there is not the same amount of devotion to the 
 Service, the Service of Christ, which a Soldier, or a Civil Ofiicer 
 of the State, gives gladly to the Service of his Queen. Some of 
 them appeal to the Arm of the Flesh, and invoke Treaty- 
 rights, and gunboats, and get meetings to urge expeditions, 
 protectorates, annexations, on an unwilling Government. A 
 good deal of this is true, and nobody denounces these mistakes 
 more pertinaciously than I do. But there is a strong side also : 
 there have been wise men, to balance the fools : humble men 
 as an equipoise to the proud ones, men who have given their 
 lives to the cause, who have lived in poverty and suffering, and 
 worked what we might call miracles in the change of the feelings 
 of their people. Read the lives of Bishop Steere of Equatorial 
 Africa, and Bishop Patteson of Melanesia : read on your knees 
 the lives of Carey, of Judson, of Saker, of Livingstone : men of 
 very different theological views, very diverse gifts, men who 
 never met, and perhaps would never have cared to meet each 
 other, and yet we, from our point of view, can note their strong 
 resemblance. There are lives still to be written. I have seen 
 many men pass away before me into another world, whose names 
 are now mentioned even as Saints, and Confessors, and there 
 are men of the same type still moving in our midst, to whom the 
 next generation will tender the same honour. Last Monday, 
 (the 13th August, 1888), I presided at the General Meeting of 
 the Church Missionary Society, and we had to take leave of the 
 venerable Bishop Sargent of South India, who was returning to 
 his people, and his converts, and his adopted children, to die 
 among them. As he entered the room, the whole assembly rose : 
 it was the same greeting, which was awarded by the Roman 
 Senate to a great Proconsul, when he returned to Rome, laden 
 
( 98 ) 
 
 with the spoils of the East, trophies won from the Parthians and 
 the Medes, and the dwellers of Mesopotamia. When he had 
 seated himself (for he was too weak to stand), I told him in the 
 name of the Committee, that we welcomed him, as one of our 
 oldest, most faithful, and beloved friends. His words were few : 
 he told us, that during the fifty years of his Service the Lord had 
 never failed him, that all His dealings had been kind and wise, 
 that he felt the infirmities of the flesh coming upon him, and he 
 wished to return to his people. One of our ordained Members 
 committed him to God in tender words of earnest prayer, and 
 the good man gave us his Episcopal blessing, and left us, 
 sorrowing that we should see his dear face no more. Am I not 
 right in saying, that there is a strong side to Missions also.'' 
 How small seem the services of Generals, and Governors, com- 
 pared to the life-devotion of this great and good man 1 He went 
 to India five years before I went, and he is there still. He has 
 accumulated no competence, carried off no ephemeral honours, 
 but his life is an additional proof of my argument, that Christ 
 is the Power of God unto Salvation, both to the people amidst 
 whom he laboured, and to himself. 
 
 A secular newspaper, not much given to Missions, writes thus : 
 
 The plain truth about modern Missionary-work we believe to be this. It 
 has become a profession, a most noble and very successful profession, and, like 
 every other profession, has drawn to itself men of all kinds, of whom a large 
 majority are qualified by inner disposition for its duties. At an expense of 
 about a million a year, the Protestant Churches send out to most parts of the 
 Heathen, and some parts of the Mahometan world, a perpetually renewed force 
 of men and women, to teach to those, who know them not, Christianity and 
 civilization. These men and women are of all sorts, some unfit, one or two in 
 a thousand hopelessly unfit, a few fit to a degree no words of ours will 
 adequately describe, but a majority well qualified in extremely varied ways for 
 the burdensome duty they have to perform. Many are teachers, many preachers, 
 many scholars, many born rulers of men ; but in all, except a very few, there 
 is one quality rare in any other profession, absolute devotion to the work to be 
 done. How is it possible for Christians of any sort to condemn such a profession 
 with such results, we can no more conceive than we can conceive how a. 
 Christian Church can be fully alive, yet never wish to proselytize. 
 
 Then the process is very slow : the pace, at which conversion 
 proceeds, is very funereal : there are many insincere converts, 
 many relapses : we sometimes hear, that nominal Christians still 
 steal away to a secret place in the mountains, and make offerings 
 to the spirits of their ancestors, as they were once accustomed to 
 do. The number of Missionaries has greatly increased. Some 
 selections have been very unhappy : the best have often died : 
 the worst survive.: they do not all come up to the ideal of St. 
 Paul, or of the Nestorians, or Columba of lona, or Xavier, or 
 the Moravians : the reply is, that the externals of men are very 
 much as the age, in which they live, and their social environment 
 makes them : they may be better suited for the requirements of 
 
( 99 ) 
 
 this period than St. Paul or Columba would have been ; at any 
 rate they are as good, and, in my opinion, a good deal better 
 than the secular men of their own epoch in the same strata of 
 life : as a body they are free from the vulgar vices, and cruelty, 
 and covetousness : .admitting the necessity of sending Mission- 
 aries full of ardour, free from mercantile motives, strong in 
 health, determined in character, I doubt, whether they are not 
 fair representatives of the energy of their country. 
 
 V. Let me now draw attention to the Power of Christian Faith, where 
 nothnig else would succeed. 
 
 This is a bold challenge. Take the case of putting a stop to 
 Slave-holding and arresting Slave-dealing. What but the strong 
 Christian influence would have done it, and who, but Mis- 
 sionaries, would have supplied the facts about Slave-dealing, 
 and been foremost in the conflict ? The Christian Mission is 
 the complement of the Slavery-Abolition-Society: the two make 
 one power. Sierra Leone and Zanzibar are proofs of this. 
 _ For when a Slave-ship is captured, to whom, but the Mis- 
 sionary, can the released starving creatures be made over ? We 
 have numerous accounts of this holy work from men of very 
 different type, unable to act together on any other conceivable 
 subject, the High Church Party of the Church of England, and 
 the Society of Friends, and in this blessed work they are as one 
 man. It makes one proud of our Human Brotherhood, to think 
 of our Brothers and Sisters, day by day, in a bad climate, and 
 most uncongenial surroundings, giving themselves up to the 
 feeding, clothing, and training, of the Negro, bearing with their 
 unsavoury smell, and gross habits, leading them onwards. When 
 does the Anglo-Saxon appear at a higher level of human great- 
 ness than on such occasions } But, nothing but Grace gives 
 the Power. What by himself could the worldly man do } 
 
 The impulses of humanity and benevolence are laudable, and 
 have led to laudable results : but they are not sure to be lasting, 
 nor have they power in themselves. Obedience to the will of 
 God is the Christian's motive, and brings with it a power to 
 secure continuousness of action. Moreover, when benevolence 
 has done its work to a Savage race, what guarantee is there, 
 that it will so remain, unless there has been implanted in their 
 hearts a desire to do the will of God } Take the case of Sierra 
 Leone : there were fifteen hundred slaves landed by cruisers, 
 speaking scores of different languages : filthy, abominable, 
 unmanageable. William Johnson, by his Christian kindness, 
 formed them into a congregation, made them useful and 
 respectable citizens. The Civil Governor in reporting this 
 remarked : " The hand of Heaven is on this." It was a memorial 
 of good wrought by one man, through the interposition of the 
 Almighty. 
 
( loo ) 
 
 But how is the work set about ? How does the man of God 
 commence his magic work ? Read one sample : it is an echo 
 from the savages of Melanesia, recorded by one, who gave his 
 life for his flock : and no one dreamt of avenging him, for he 
 had followed the steps of his Master, even unto death : 
 
 Then comes the task, that you too may experience, when dealing with some 
 neglected child in England, but which under the cocoa-nut tree, with dark 
 naked men, have a special impressiveness. It was the old lesson of the Eternal 
 and Universal Father, who has not left himself without witness, in that He gives 
 us rain from heaven : and our ingratitude, and His love : of His coming down 
 to point out the way of life, and of His death and rising again, of another 
 World, Resurrection and Judgment. All interrupted now and then by 
 exclamations of surprise, laughter, or by some one beginning to talk about 
 something, that jarred sadly on one's ear. 
 
 But civilization has its troubles and dangers as well as the 
 the savagery of Melanesia : let us consider the piteous position 
 of the young man in India. Secular Education at the Govern- 
 ment-School has destroyed his faith in a false Religion, and set 
 him on a higher walk in life : but he is out of rapport with the old 
 folks at home. He feels a profound contempt for all, that his 
 Father holds dear, and for the old Village-Priest : he is ashamed 
 of the idols, shocked at the indecent stories, disgusted at the folly, 
 and heartbroken at the lies ; but he does not like to vex his Parents. 
 The world seems a hopeless tangle, till he some day meets a 
 Missionary, who tells him the simple tale : all then seems clear, 
 his doubts vanish and his hopes revive : he tries to believe : if 
 he could but believe, he would be a happy man. That power 
 of belief comes from God, and at the hour, and in the manner 
 pre-ordained. Only believe, and it shall be done unto you 
 according to your belief. 
 
 The rite of Baptism and the Chapel are but the outward signs 
 of the work of the Mission, for they become the centre of gentle 
 influences. The lessons of morality are taught : the Bible in 
 the Vernacular, like a bright light, illuminates dark corners : 
 quarrels are settled by umpires without fighting : the idea of a 
 compromise with mutual advantage, and reciprocal concessions, 
 is a new one. We read of a Missionary visiting a robber-band 
 in their lair, and bringing them back to decent lives. Another 
 young Missionary walked three hundred and fifty miles alone, 
 without arms, to redeem some poor native converts from bandits. 
 A feat such as that would have received the Victoria-Cross, had 
 it been done by a Soldier. The Soldier of Christ rejoices in no 
 Cross, but that of Christ and Him crucified, and in serving Him 
 has his exceeding great reward. The power of God still 
 performs miracles. The Missionary finds nobility of character 
 in the converted Cannibal, and the Heathen Priest, and Sorcerer, 
 forgetting their evil ways, become humble worshippers in the 
 Chapel: the murder of little children is discontinued, and women 
 
( lOI ) 
 
 are elevated to a proper position, as helpmates of men. It is 
 the Lord's doing. It is marvellous in our eyes. If the facts are 
 doubted, test them : if the facts are admitted, admit also, that 
 the power of the Holy Spirit still dwells in the tents of Men. 
 
 VI. Consider the grandeur of the human character developed. 
 
 One of the greatest sources of wealth of a Nation is its share 
 of great qualities: self-consecration, dauntless valour, high 
 aspirations, noble unselfishness, absence of greed, or pride, 
 efifacement of self: these things ennoble a family, one member 
 of which possesses some of them. This is the true nobility : 
 where can these qualities be found in such abundance and 
 brightness as in the Missionary band .? They are the leaven of 
 the whole nation. Such gifts come direct from God. Some 
 have laid all their literary ambition, and pursuits, all their 
 scientific attainments, all their laborious hours, all their social 
 success, upon His Altar, forgetting all in Christ, counting all loss 
 for Christ. If Stephen set the example of the way, in which a 
 Christian should give up his life, Paul taught us the harder task 
 of keeping it, accompanied with a sacrifice of the whole, living 
 only by Faith : and he has been followed by many, who deemed 
 it not lawful to spend their few years in any pursuit, however 
 noble, which fell short of the highest, the Saving of Souls : who 
 felt, that eloquence was only given to win and sway an audience 
 for one definite object, that the pen had but one sole and inspired 
 purpose : 
 
 The great Chinese Missionary Morrison's desire to be a Missionary arose not 
 from any strong excitement, or external influence, but from a calm, deliberate, 
 review of the state of the Heathen, and his ovm obligation to His own Lord and 
 Saviour. Duty was his Bole-star ; the burden of his prayer was, that God 
 would station him in that part of the Field, where the difliculties were greatest, 
 and to all human appearance the most unsurmountable. 
 
 Such a man would under other circumstances lead a forlorn 
 hope, or take out a life-boat to save sinking ships. Great 
 Britain cannot spare the delevopment of such characters. Her 
 greatness must be an all-round greatness. In after-ages her 
 reputation will rest as much upon her Missionaries, as on her 
 Soldiers and Sailors. The Queen's army is numerically smaller 
 than any one of the great Continental armies. Christ's army, 
 recruited in Protestant Great Britain and its Colonies, exceeds 
 in number all the Missionary armies of the world collected 
 together, and the allied army of the same race on the other side 
 of the Atlantic is next to it in number, and united, as one man, 
 in purpose. 
 
 VII. And what a field of aspiration does it afford to the youth of Great 
 Britain, male and female ? 
 
 There is a danger in a great, and strong, and rich, nation settling 
 down on its lees, and being content, like the rich man in the 
 
( I02 ) 
 
 parable, to eat and drink, and worship the poor body: some nobler 
 spirits sigh for a career, a wider space, in which they can spread 
 their wings, and a purer atmosphere. Time is for work : eternity 
 for rest. Sometimes there comes a breeze from a far-off country, 
 calling those, who are weary of the dull routine of Europe, to come 
 out. Some one whispers in their ear, that a corner in God's vine- 
 yard has by them to be tilled, and by each and all there is a Mission 
 to be fulfilled. Is it nothing-worth to conceive in your youth 
 a great Idea, which will accompany you through manhood, 
 through decline of life, to the grave ? The great work of the 
 Hebrew Prophets was, that they established an Ideal form of 
 Faith, Holiness, and Self-sacrifice, leaving it to future years to 
 work up to it. The great Masters of Greek and Latin song 
 caught up the refrain of their Semitic cousins on the other side 
 of the Mediterranean, and sent it, as their great inexhaustible 
 legacy, down the corridors of centuries into our Schools and 
 Colleges, electrifying each generation, as it sprang into conscious- 
 ness of its own powers, and therefore of its own duties. Whence 
 did they get the idea, shadowed in the story of Ulysses, of 
 Prometheus, of JEnens, an ideal of something to be striven for, 
 suffered for, bought at a great personal price, the striving for 
 which satisfied even if not attained .'' And by the far-off Sanskrit 
 Poets the idea had been conceived of working for the Work's 
 sake, and never for the mere results of the work. Thus Labour is 
 honoured, and nothing is below the dignity of a true man. Such 
 thoughts ennoble a nature, and, when directed in the highest of 
 all channels, sanctify it. After all, it is a good God that governs 
 the world : we cannot find out His ways : but we feel, that He is 
 leading us. Roads are cut across countries previously un- 
 traversed : paths are found in the pathless ocean : doors long 
 shut are thrown open : opportunities exceed all expectations : 
 the thousand voices are heard of tribes secluded for ages in 
 sealed gardens : and the youth of Great Britain, sated with vulgar 
 joys, seeks a nobler sphere of action than that, with which their 
 Father^ were satisfied. Men and women are wanted everywhere 
 to exhibit Christianity in its practical form, not of dogma, or 
 ritual, or Psalm-singing, but of actual life. Hear what Bishop 
 Patteson said : 
 
 Men are needed, who have a strongreligious common sense to adapt Christianity 
 to the various tribes without compromising any doctrines or principle of conduct : 
 men who can see in the midst of the errors and superstitions of a people, what- 
 ever fragments of truth, or symptoms of a yearning after something better, may 
 exist in them, and make that the point d^appui, upon which they may build up 
 the structure of Christian teaching. 
 
 How shall I try to teach them to become industrious, persevering, honest, 
 tidy, clean, careful with children, and all the rest of it ? What a different thing 
 from going about and teaching the first principles of Christianity ! The second 
 stage of the Mission is the difficult one. 
 
( I03 ) 
 
 I heard a Bishop this year at an annual meeting tell us how a 
 Missionary on his furlough took lessons in thatching houses, to 
 give his people better ideas on this practical subject. I read of 
 another Bishop in his Diocese seated on the ground, and shewing 
 the way to plait grass for thatching. Not that there is any merit 
 in the act itself, but the spirit is the one, which should actuate all, 
 of bringing to the Lord's service whatever gifts they had received 
 of Him. 
 
 VIII. The advantage of a Christian civilization. 
 
 Would any one wish, that all the dawning civilizations of Asia, 
 Africa, and Oceania should be Heathen and Mahometan ; not the 
 good old Heathendom of Horace, and Maecenas, and the Emperor 
 Augustus, but the compound Heathendom of the indigenous 
 vices of these abject races mixed with the poison of a corrupt and 
 fallen Christianity. If the leaven of the Gospel is not in the new 
 Civilization, in what hideous form will it develope ? I read how 
 shipwrecked mariners have been carefully cared for, where the 
 islanders are Christians : they would certainly have been devoured, 
 a few years earlier. The Special Commissioner of New Guinea 
 reports, that the Polynesian Native Teachers gain an ascendency 
 over the savage Papuans, and it is to them, that the white man in 
 difficulties always turns for protection, and it is always accorded to him. 
 Such facts ought to bring home to us certain convictions, that in 
 this world also Christianity is profitable, and that without it 
 Civilization is dangerous. Hear what experienced men tell us : 
 
 No hindrance was so great to the success of the early Missionary as the 
 notion of beginning with Civilization, instead of Heart-conversion: our first 
 and constant business must be to tell the people of Sin, and of a Saviour from 
 Sin. 
 
 And again:' 
 
 Missionary Societies had not then (1806) the experience we now possess, and 
 had not yet so fully learnt, that, however valuable Civilization is, as a hand-maid 
 to Evangelization, it is in itself but of little value as a forerunner, and that the 
 simple preaching of the Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation. 
 
 And again : 
 
 It was the increasing conviction of all the Missionaries, that the plan ot 
 gradual approaches by means of Civilization had been tried long enough, and 
 that the citadel must be stormed at once with the weapons of God's own 
 armoury: in short, that Evangelization must take precedence of any attempt to 
 imprme the social condition of the people ; they were much hindered by their secular 
 employment. 
 
 And again : 
 
 It was his impression, as he drew near the close of his life, that he had given 
 an undue proportion of time and strength to merely civilizing influences, and the 
 material prosperity of the people. This may account in part for their spiritual 
 weakness when the supporting hand of their pastor has been withdrawn. How 
 slow we are to learn, that Civilization is a blessing to a barbarous people only as 
 it is permeated by the spirit and power of the Gospel t 
 
( 104 ) 
 
 I cannot divest myself of the feeling, that I have two in 
 dividualities : the one that of a Christian Statesman, who can 
 tolerate no injustice being done to an inferior race, because they 
 are not Christians, and who is ever ready to combat any fictitious 
 cry, any craze of the moment, any intolerable humbug and 
 delusion : the other that of a humble believer, who places the 
 conversion of Souls to Christ, as the one object of existence, the 
 sole goal of every talent, every opportunity, every life : this 
 feeling makes me honour, as an angel from heaven, the Missionary 
 indeed, and spurn the mere hireling, the mere semblance of an 
 unrealized vocation, the false reflection, as in a glass, of an ideal 
 consecration. 
 
 I have no space to record the opinions of Viceroys, and 
 Governors, and Ambassadors, of Scholars, of Natives of India 
 and Japan, of Public Officials, as to the enduring blessings, 
 conferred on the people of a Country by Missionaries : the 
 germs of Public Instruction, a pure literature, the influence of 
 upright and unselfish characters, are part, and part only, of the 
 benefit conferred. We are much safer in doing our Duty than 
 neglecting it, and many of us have had it revealed to our 
 consciences, that this is our Duty, and that, as the harvest time 
 is short, we should not lose an opportunity. Intelligent people 
 can hardly repeat the Lord's Prayer without giving some 
 meaning to "Thy Kingdom come" : it must mean "the spread 
 of His Gospel." We do indeed feel human pity for all these 
 Heathen races, and we can therefore in full confidence convey 
 to them the message of Divine Pity. Experience has convinced 
 us, that the Divine Presence is still very near to us, and that 
 even if we for argument's sake set aside the truth of the Miracles, 
 no other form of belief is clothed in so magical, so touching, so 
 profitable, so simple, an external form as the Life of Christ. 
 Infinite Love, inexhaustible Pity, undying Hope, seem to have 
 been the only instruments, which could have any effect. Some 
 have come out of darkness per saltum into a marvellous light, 
 without struggle, without a cloud of doubt, accepting the 
 message. We seem carried back three thousand years in the 
 history of mankind, when we come in contact with the un- 
 sophisticated races : we can take them at once to the pure 
 fountain of Christian Truth, free from the Philosophy of the 
 Greeks, the Law and Order of the Romans, the Superstition of 
 the Teutons. Of all the wonderful mouldings of our Civilization 
 by the discipline of centuries they knew nothing : had we never 
 come into contact with them, we might have passed them by : 
 but irresistible destiny has brought them within the influence of 
 our Poison. Shall we withhold the Antidote ? 
 
 Eastbourne, August 15, 1888. 
 
( los ) 
 
 XI. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE METHODS OF 
 EVANGELIZATION. 
 
 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit, and there are differences of 
 administrations, but the same Lord, and tliere 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), hut 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 the 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 
 yams and potatoes, or, as an American paper bluntly puts it: 
 " Root, Hog, or die," and ^ey 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 large Associations have 
 large resources, collected at a heavy percentage by an elaborate 
 organization : they spend money freely, and send out men freely, 
 often unsanctified, 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 subsi- 
 diary provision for Rent, Locomotion, Disablement, and Children. 
 Others make a boast, that they do not, that the Missionary must 
 
 PART IV. 8 
 
( io6 ) 
 
 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. 
 
 The most depressing thought is, that of the vast sums spent 
 in Secretaries, Clerks, Warehouses, postage and parcels. Station- 
 ery, Printing, Rent, first-class Steamer and Railway-fares, and 
 the needlessly liberal way, in which such charges are incurred, 
 because a great Society pays for them. My thoughts go back to 
 the sums, collected at Corinth for the poor Saints at Jerusalem, 
 and Paul, the poor prisoner of the Lord, conveying it in the open 
 undecked vessel of that period. I remember his tender advice 
 to have the collections made in advance, and fancy conjures up 
 the image of the earthen pot, or wooden casket, filled with 
 denarii and sestertia, bearing the image of one of the early 
 Caesars, which was reverently consigned to him, and my heart 
 sinks within me at the thought of the frightfully complicated 
 organizations forced upon us by the 19th century, the flogging 
 of the congregations to get at their money, and the men, like 
 Judas, going about holding the bag. Happy are those, whose 
 ■admitted poverty enables them to laugh at the bag, pushed 
 under their nose, and happier still those, who have, at the 
 beginning of each year, set apart the proper proportion of their 
 Income, and been cheerful givers to the Lord, who bought them, 
 and made their contribution in advance. My remarks may seem 
 cynical, but they are offered in good faith, and with a certain 
 amount of experience. Let us think out the subject. 
 
 I. The simplest expression of a Missionary is, that of a person 
 of either sex, or accompanied by one or more fellow-labourers, 
 who goes out at his, or her, own charge, subject to no external 
 control, to preach the Gospel to a non-Christian population. 
 Should funds be collected by friends, in aid, there are no 
 accounts published. This is what some call a " Faith-Mission." 
 
 II. When several such individuals unite, and have all things 
 in common, and bind themselves by certain Rules, they form a 
 "Sisterhood" or "Brotherhood." Should accounts be kept, 
 they are not published, as the concern is a private one. 
 
 III. The next stage is an organized Association of contributors 
 to a Fund, controlled by a Committee, which is annually elected 
 out of the body, and is empowered by the Rules of the Association 
 to select Agents, send them out, support them while out, and 
 recall them at pleasure. This is a " Missionary Society." In 
 its fullest development, such a Committee trains Students, 
 selects suitable Mission-Fields, provides for sick and disabled 
 Agents, and the children of all Agents, and is responsible to no 
 one, but its constituents, duly assembled in General Meetings, 
 to whom it renders accounts, and full reports of work done, and 
 whose order it must obey on penalty of being superseded. 
 
( 107 ) 
 
 IV. When the Association comprises the whole body of 
 Christians of a particular denomination, who have formed them- 
 selves into a corporation of a so-called " Church," Missionary- 
 work is then said to be conducted by the Church. This is only 
 possible, when there is a fixed confession of Faith, without 
 diverging shades of theological opinion within the Church. In 
 the case of a National Church, like the Church of England, it is 
 impossible. 
 
 V. Missionary Societies have satellites, independent in 
 organization, but formed solely to co-operate. Such Societies 
 are called Home-Aids, or Foreign- Aids,. according to the work 
 which they undertake : " Special-Aids," if they are satellites to 
 one Society only, or " General Aids," if they are satellites to 
 several Societies. Some of these Aid-Societies have excep- 
 tionally a double position, as Satellites to other Societies, and 
 doing independent foreign work of their own. These Societies 
 do the Woman's Work, Medical Work, Training Work, Mis- 
 cellaneous Work, and Publishing Work of other Societies, and 
 are of exceedingly great importance. 
 
 VI. Associations, which, admit members of all Protestant 
 Denominations, are called Catholic or Undenominational. 
 
 I will now make a few remarks on the first three developments : 
 I. The " Faith Mission " is sometimes irreverently called the 
 "Vagabond Mission," or the "Free Lance." It is one of those 
 enterprizes, of which no thoughtful man can approve, but which 
 no God-fearing man will oppose, lest haply he should be found 
 fighting against God. God's wisdom, and man's unwisdom, rule 
 the world. We dare not check the noble flame : we would wish 
 to guide it. The consecration of life and talents and fortune in 
 early youth : the laying of oneself down upon the Altar, and 
 crying out, " Lord, make use of Thy poor creature, as Thou 
 thinkest best." Such things as these cannot be despised. There 
 is something in them of the ancient Roman, purified by Christian 
 Love. Many go abroad in their youth and strength to hunt in 
 Abyssinia, to collect shells in the Indian Archipelago, or to 
 develope new Commerce in Africa. Why not do so to get at 
 the poor derelict of the human race ? If life be not spared, 
 then to be with Christ is far better. If life be spared, what 
 a gloomy retrospect in old age to have done nothing for one's 
 fellow-creatures ! 
 
 My own final judgment is, that the fight can only be carried 
 on with great battalions, and that it is folly for a small weak 
 Society, or a single individual, without permanent resources, to 
 start an enterprise, which will not be lasting. A Missionary 
 Association must have behind it a Church, with scores of congre- 
 gations to supply the sinews of war : a Committee, which never 
 dies : a purse as unlimited, and bottomless, as the Lord's own 
 
( 108 ) 
 
 Treasure-house. Plants feeble in nature die without culture. 
 AH individuals, and small Associations, should affiliate them- 
 selves to strong and robust Societies. 
 
 I give some extracts to exhibit this new departure : 
 
 We believe that, if we So the work, which God has called us to, He will 
 move the heart of His children to supply the money. If God sends out 
 workers, he will also send supplies. There is no limit to the measure, in which 
 God can work on Christian hearts to move His children to give for those, who 
 have gone forth to seek the Kingdom of God. We need 8000 Dollars to keep 
 our accounts balanced, and we ask all to pray, that these things may be added 
 to us. Has any Pastor forgotten to take the collection ? — March, 1888. 
 
 And again : 
 
 God never intended His heralds to be hirelings at all ; or men with fixed- 
 assured salaries, as secular Servants, and Commercial employes. The 
 Christian world has begotten a Missionary system, unknown to the Lord, and 
 His Apostles. We look in vain in the New Testament for any authority for 
 what we see on every side. — 1887. 
 
 India has fifty unsalaried Faith-Missionaries. I can count over two hundred 
 in the world, whom God feeds, as he does the birds, and they have all things 
 and abound. We are praying for the means to build a suitable home for 
 three thousand Rupees. God is with our Mission. 
 
 And again : 
 
 I have been without money since Saturday, but truly the Lord never has 
 failed, nor will fail. It is good to be without funds, as it is quite a luxury to 
 stand still, and see the Salvation of the Lord. I feel less anxiety in having no 
 money than in looking forward with but little. — 1887. 
 
 Another report says : " Nothing in the locker." A third 
 notifies, that they have left off eating meat, and are content with 
 vegetables. Again : 
 
 A brother in Christ sent word, that he wished me to come, and see him. I 
 went. He informed me, that God had impressed him, that he should send 
 out a Missionary. As I was consecrated to India, he was satisfied, that God 
 would have him send ME. Accordingly he put the money to cover all expenses 
 to India in my hands. It now became a matter of conscience between me and 
 God. I felt that God would have me go to India, inasmuch as He had 
 provided the necessary funds unsolicited. I praise God that I am here. I 
 mean by His Grace to do His will. He sanctifies me through and through. 
 Glory to God 1—1887. 
 
 Again : 
 
 I am glad you feel as I do about paid Home-Agents. I believe, that God 
 wants a larger number of His children to have a part in the work, and in this 
 way each can do his part without pay. 
 
 And again : 
 
 I have now finished the second year of SELF-SUPPORT : it seems to me, that 
 the support of my work comes under the head of Faith in God, and His dear 
 ciiildren. 
 
 N.B. — The writer, a woman-Missionary in Africa, enumerates 
 every kind of present received by her : dollars, barrels, clothes, 
 corned meat, etc., etc. : she adds : 
 
( 109 } 
 
 The dear Heavenly Father lias many good children, and their number is 
 rapidly increasing : they are planning for the conquest of the world to Him, 
 whom we adore. 
 
 And again, from Liberia, West Africa : 
 
 I want ten acres of land in the city. I believe that I shall get it :> the King 
 tells me, that he will build me a house to live in, and give me a farm to make a 
 living from, and a boy (a slave) to wait upon me. I am going to take out six 
 or seven Missionaries from America. I will need money of course to pay their 
 way, and give them a start, and then I beUeve the work will be self-supporting. 
 
 Bishop William Taylor's name, both in South India and West 
 Africa, is so connected with this elastic word Self-Support, that 
 it is but just to quote his very words : 
 
 Jesus forbade His disciples to take purse, or scrip, or extra coat : the labourer 
 is worthy of his meat : those who preach the Gospel, shall live by the Gospel, 
 And they lacked nothing. The Master's method is literally practicable and 
 adequate now. The dividing-line betwixt a Missionary Charity, and adequate, 
 and reproductive indigenous support for God's Ambassador is, (l) To depend 
 entirely on native resources for the support of all our ministers, school-teachers 
 and their families : (2) to welcome the co-operation of God's stewards in 
 Christian countries for providing money for our Transit and Building Fund. — 
 1886. 
 
 These are brave words. One of the Missionaries, who had had 
 three years of the work, called on me in London : he would not 
 say a word against the man, or the system, 6u/ he had given it up, 
 • and he handed to me a large bundle of American newspapers. 
 I read there of constant appeals for money : large piles of 
 dollars made up, and great liberality of supporters at home. 
 When I took in the whole matter, I perceived, that the only 
 difference was, that there was no Parent-Committee, and no 
 organization; but, with that exception, this so-called Self-support- 
 ing Mission was supported by money, and goods of all kind, sent 
 from America. 
 
 Another feature of an agricultural enterprize is thus recorded : 
 
 The Government allowed the Missionaries to take land for a plantation, 
 employ the natives, and teach and preach to their own employes. Agriculture 
 was thus undertaken, not for the purpose of supporting the Mission, but to be 
 able to evangelize : no profit anticipated, — 1885. 
 
 A dangerous experiment. 
 
 It is clear that the " Faith-Mission " has arisen as a protest 
 against the extravagance, want of consecration, and worldliness 
 of the salaried agents of the great Societies, who have usurped 
 somewhat the position of an Endowed Church Establishment. 
 
 II. The Brotherhood and Sisterhood have developed them- 
 selves as protests against the really culpable conduct of Com- 
 mittees in permitting and encouraging Matrimony of their agents 
 in their tender years. Men with absolutely no resources, educated 
 at the expense of the Society, actually enter into an engagement 
 to marry while in statu pupillari, and press their claims to marry. 
 
( no ) 
 
 perhaps at the age of 25, at a time when their contemporaries 
 the Soldier, Sailor, Lawyer, Medical man, or Office Clerk, never 
 dreamt of such a thing. It has become a great source of 
 opprobrium, and has weighed down Societies with the burden of 
 supporting widows and children, who ought never to have existed, 
 and has consigned many poor young girls to African and Indian 
 graves. I have for years protested against it, but in vain. Be it 
 remembered, that the moral lapses, which have occurred to 
 dishonour Missionary chronicles, have arisen from widowers and 
 married men, and never from celibates. The proposed new 
 Order in the Church of Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods is now 
 pressed for at Home and Abroad, and is actually in practice, and 
 there is much to be said in its favour. Sir Bartle Frere, a close 
 observer, has recorded his opinion {Indian Missions, p. 83) 
 strongly against this departure. 
 
 Celibacy enters largely into the machinery of all false creeds ; 
 it springs from the weak, not the strong, side of poor common 
 humanity: it is held in high honour and esteem by the vulgar: 
 in mediaeval legends it is accompanied by tales of hair-shirts, 
 dirt, and discomfort : but it fails everywhere, because it is at 
 variance with the laws of Human Nature. The Hindu Brahman 
 has been the most successful of all Sacerdotal Bodies, and they 
 tried Celibacy, and gave it up. The Jewish Priesthood, and 
 Prophets, never attempted it. Not a single Holy man in the Old 
 Testament practised it: if St. Paul practised it, he did not 
 recommend it. Among the Hindus Marriage is part of the 
 Programme of Human Life, and, if the people are to be acted 
 upon, this must be taken into account. Celibacy, laid down as a 
 rule, is akin to asceticism, and partakes of the censure allotted 
 to self-inflicted suflfering, or pretended proud freedom from 
 human infirmity. 
 
 The conclusion seems to be, that for the young Missionary (say 
 below thirty-three) it is most proper to remain single ; but not 
 beyond that age. Married Missionaries are essentially necessary 
 for the complete symmetry of a Mission-Station, and the Wife is 
 as important a factor as the Husband. 
 
 III. I now pass to the third category, the regularly-organized 
 Missionary Society. I am met at once by the necessity of a 
 subdivision : 
 
 A. The new and economical system. 
 
 B. The old, and in my opinion extravagant system. 
 
 A. Of the new system I will quote as far as follows the very 
 words of the leader : 
 (i) The Universities Mission to East Africa. 
 
 The Bishop is quite unable to offer any inducement in the way of salary, or 
 periodical holidays, or ultimate pension, or temporal advantage of any kind : it 
 IS necessary, that those, who join the Mission, should do so with the sole desire 
 
( "I ) 
 
 to live for, and willingness to die in their worlc, because it is Christ's. He 
 offers to those, who may need the help) Board, Lodging, and necessaries during 
 their stay in Africa. 
 
 In the life of Bishop Steere I read : 
 
 At the present time not one of the Memljers of the Bishop's staff in Africa 
 is receiving any stipend beyond the moderate allowance of £,2a per annum, for 
 clothes, etc. , all other necessaries are provided from the common fund of the 
 Mission. Thus, rich and poor live and work together on equal terms. 
 
 All the Missionaries are celibates : women-workers are not 
 admitted below the age of thirty. This Mission belongs to the 
 High Church party, and is doing admirable work. 
 
 The China Inland Mission is in the Antipodes as regards 
 Church Government, and Doctrine. Hudson Taylor thus 
 formulates his principles : 
 
 Some have gone out at their own expense : the rest have gone out under a 
 clear understanding, that the Mission does not guarantee any income whatever, 
 and knowing, that as the Mission does not go into debt, it can only minister to 
 those connected with it as far as the funds allow : in other words, they have 
 gone out in dependence upon God for their temporal supplies. 
 
 Again : 
 
 The China Inland Mission accepts suitable candidates, whether possessed of 
 private means, or not : those, who need it, are assisted in their outfits, have 
 their passage-money provided them, and have funds remitted to them from time 
 to time, as the supplies come in. God, in a very special way, is the Treasurer 
 of the Missionary, and to Him they look, not to the Mission. Hitherto He has 
 supplied, and henceforth He will do the same. — 1888. 
 
 The North African Mission, and the East London Institute, 
 are conducted on similar principles : the latter makes the 
 following appeal, 1888: 
 
 This state of things would make us anxious, but that we gratefully and 
 trustfully remember the long years during which our large households, though 
 like the birds without storehouse or barn, have been fed day by day, and had 
 every need supplied. 
 
 Again I read : 
 
 The Mission Board of the Free Methodists show much interest in Foreign 
 Missions, and the Church is increasing its contributions, but the Board 
 guarantees no salary to any one, only a portion to the different Missions, which 
 the Church contributes ; so that each Missionary is independent, using what 
 comes as the Providence of God, and planning for self-support as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 The Universities Mission to Calcutta puts the matter very 
 bluntly : 
 
 A Hindu asked me the other day how we lived, if we had no salaries. I 
 told him, chiefly by begging. So from a professional beggar no apology is 
 needed. — 1888. 
 
 With regard to all these Missions, I must remark, that thirty 
 years have not passed over their heads. In due course they 
 
( 112 ) 
 
 will have aged men and women, whom they cannot allow to 
 starve : they will have orphan children, and widows, cast upon 
 them ; they cannot live from hand to mouth, without running the 
 risk of great disaster, and tremendous suffering to innocent people. 
 
 B. I call the old system extravagant, and I mean what I say. 
 The Annual Reports of the great Societies speak for themselves. 
 There is no insinuation of carelessness, or absence of a proper 
 system of accounts, or any possible malversation. There is a 
 continuous audit by professional auditors from the outside, and 
 a Committee of inquiry would have very little to discover, as all 
 is above-board, and unpaid lay Committees are very much in 
 earnest, and have great experience of human affairs, and are 
 terribly out-spoken; but everything is done in much too expensive 
 a style, just like a Government-Office, which has the purse of 
 the British taxpayers behind it. Anything more ridiculous than 
 paying first-class passages for Negro Missionaries, the sons of 
 redeemed Slaves, and men with extremely humble connections, 
 cannot be imagined. In my travels, I have often found the 
 Italian, or Spanish, or French, Roman Catholic Priest stretched 
 out on the deck, as a second or third-class passenger, but the 
 Protestant Negro must go first-class : this is a fair sample. The 
 expenses with regard to the wives and children of the Mission- 
 aries are enormous : the country clergyman with a large family 
 must feel surprise, and a certain amount of envy. The luxurious- 
 ness, and indulgence, of the nineteenth century has caused this, 
 and I am bound to say, that signs of the same evil are not wanting 
 in all secular establishments, where the funds are provided by 
 the State, or the County, or the Parish, and not by the person 
 himself. What is required is not the Faith-Mission, or the 
 Brotherhood, or the Common Fund, or the Hap-hazard, or the 
 "Root, Hog, or die" systems, which I have described, but a 
 stern, economic, and fearless, administration of our sacredfunds, 
 reminding the Missionaries, that the Committeewill not tolerate 
 luxuries, or indulgences, or pride, or waste, and expects self- 
 sacrifice, and self-consecration, and self-control on their part. This 
 would set free large sums for the entertainment of additional 
 Agents. In the present state of English feeling it is throwing 
 words away : perhaps a new generation of a sterner type will 
 succeed us. 
 
 I am glad to chronicle symptoms of this feeling in the Field. 
 Instances occur, where the Missionary has, in the presence of 
 the Parent-Committee, offered to share his subsistence allowance 
 with another, assuring us, that his expenses fell short of his 
 supply : invitations have come home to send out men on sixty 
 Rupees per mensem, or/'yo per annum : all Missionaries should 
 contribute as much as they can from their private means to their 
 own support, and draw- as little as possible on the sacred funds. 
 
^ ( "3 ) 
 
 Still more discouraging is the lavish expenditui-e on Clerks,- 
 and offices. Any one, who thinks, that a Missionary Society can 
 work by an automatic process, without Secretaries, or, in other 
 words, an Executive, might believe, that a cart would move 
 along the road without wheels ; but there ought to be found men 
 in Great Britain, of independent circumstances, and good training, 
 whose health would not permit them to venture on the foreign 
 Field, and yet who could do the work of Secretary gratuitously, 
 and men of that stamp are found, and more should be looked for. 
 Just as the Missionary receives no salary, properly so called, but 
 only enough to sustain his physical wants, and enable him to 
 apply his intellectual and spiritual gifts to the Lord's work, so 
 there should be found at home in this rich country, men ready 
 to consecrate their time and talents for the glory of God, without 
 seeking profit, without necessity of maintenance. In some 
 Societies there is a very cheap administration, owing to the 
 amount of voluntary Service supplied : all the Committeemen's 
 work is voluntary and gratuitous, but the Executive should be 
 supplied by Volunteers also. The only remedy is to rule, that 
 every shilling collected for Mission-purposes should go to 
 Missionary-work out of the country, without any deduction. A 
 separate Fund should be raised from the Friends of the Mission, 
 for the office-expenses, or rather to supplement what cannot be 
 supplied by voluntary labour. The time may be near at hand, 
 when contributors of money to convert the Heathen will label 
 their contributions : 
 
 Not a sixpence of mine to go to maintain a Children's Home, or the outfit 
 of the wife of a Missionary under ten years' service, or the first-class passage of 
 a Negro Missionary, or an office Clerk. 
 
 The laxness of expenditure in the Parent-Committee leads 
 to laxness of expenditure in the Field. The foolish attempt is 
 made to elevate the Asiatic, African, or South Sea Islander to 
 a platform, socially above his Heathen relations, because he is a 
 Christian. We have no Apostolic sanction for this, and it is a 
 deadly mistake. The Religion of Christ has no relation what- 
 ever to the social culture, or civilization, of the convert. In the 
 early Missions of Christianity there was comparatively little, 
 difference in respect of culture and civilization, betwixtthe preacher 
 of the Gospel, and those, to whom he preached. They ate and 
 drank the same food, and were clothed in a similar manner. St. 
 Paul worked among men not inferior to himself, and he moved 
 among them, as an equal. In the middle ages and the time of 
 Columba of lona, as regards all things, that represented civiliza- 
 tion, there was little difference betwixt the Missionary and his 
 convert. But the modern Missionary has to work among races 
 undoubtedly inferior, and lower in culture. This is owing to 
 the enormous advance of European culture, and it often proves 
 
( "4 ) 
 
 a great snare to the Missionary, and generates pride, arrogance, 
 and self-assertion. He is led on to another snare, the attempt 
 to introduce a higher social civilization among his converts. 
 This may come in its own time, and probably will come, but 
 conversion should be his sole object, and he should be cautious 
 not to introduce new and expensive habits and wants. 
 
 Then again it may be an unpleasant truth, but the conviction 
 forces itself upon me, that the life of the modern Missionary is 
 very easy-going compared with what it was fifty years ago. Take 
 the life of Bishop Gobat, and see what he suffered in Abyssinia, 
 privation, want, long delays in unhealthy places, tedious voyages, 
 hope deferred, absence of success. What were the perils, and 
 sufferings, of Selwyn, Patteson, Williams, Allen Gardiner ? They 
 had Faith, and Love, and Patience, and were real Apostles. One 
 Missionary of that period mentions, that his boxes arrived after 
 having been despatched more than two years. On being opened, 
 everything was as rotten as tinder. Two or three packets of 
 letters were in the middle of one box, but, when touched, they 
 crumbled to dust. It was most trying, said the Missionary. It 
 was the only time, that he saw his wife give way to sorrow and 
 tears. In this luxurious age we find the Missionary quite out 
 of thoughts, if he does not get his post regularly ; complaining 
 bitterly, if his things are not sent out to him as he likes, and 
 occasionally the attributes of the humble, converted, consecrated, 
 Christian man are sadly wanting. 
 
 When the Missionary himself exhibits the principles of Self- 
 consecration, and Self-sacrifice, he can enforce those characteristics 
 on his flock ; but not otherwise. For the welfare of the Native 
 Church, and for the spread of the Gospel by the agency of 
 Native Evangelists to the Regions beyond, it is most desirable 
 to maintain the greatest simplicity of life, and the great Grace of 
 gratuitous ministration, the consecration of body and soul, with 
 a mere provision for the humblest human wants. I rejoice to 
 see the steady opposition to the entertainment of paid Native 
 Agents in China : or, in other words, providing with a salary a 
 crowd of hungry converts, well deserving the name of " Rice 
 Christians." 
 
 The injurious effects of the Paid Agent system on the mass of the Chinese 
 population, outside of the Church, are perhaps still greater. The ^ priori 
 judgment of the Chinaman, as to the motive of one of his countrymen in propa- 
 gating a foreign rehgion, is, that he is hired or bribed to do it. When he learns, 
 that the native preacher is in fact paid by foreigners, he is confirmed in his 
 judgment. What the motive is vi'hicli actuates the foreign missionary, a 
 motive so strong, that he is willing to waste life and money in what seems a 
 fruitless enterprize, he is left to imagine. The most common explanation is, that 
 it is a covert scheme for buying adherents with a view to political movements 
 inimical to the State. Of course it is supposed, that no loyal native will have 
 anything to do with such a movement. If the Chinaman is told that this enter- 
 
C "5 ) 
 
 prize Is prompted by disinterested motives, and intended for the good of his 
 people, he is incredulous. The result is, that many well-disposed Chinamen of 
 the better classes, who might be brought under Christian influences, are repelled, 
 and those, who actually find their way into the Church, are composed largely of 
 two opposite classes : those whose honest convictions are so strong, that they 
 outweigh and overcome all obstacles ; and unworthy persons, to whom that 
 feature in Mission- work which we are controverting is its chief attraction. 
 
 This same argument applies to the same facts elsewhere. In 
 Part IV. Address II. I described, how the Polynesian Evan- 
 gelists received a little clothing, and laboured with their own 
 hands. The principles of most Societies point to the policy of 
 raising up an establishment of Native Pastors, upon a self- 
 supporting, self-governing, and self-extending system. The 
 more these are enforced, the better. 
 
 I cannot leave this subject without allusion to the accepted 
 machinery for raising Funds, and the scientific organization, 
 spread over Great Britain and Ireland, making the whole 
 transaction very secular, very formal, very business-like, and 
 very unlike Spirituality. The Ministry of the Churches are to 
 blame,. The duty of conveying the Gospel to Regions Beyond 
 should be preached systematically week by week from the 
 Pulpit, and enforced from the Platform periodically, by accurate 
 information of the progress of the Work. Every member of the 
 Church should be supplied with Missionary Publications : they 
 need the food, supplied by the Committee, quite as much as 
 the Committee needs their subscriptions. A spiritual stimulus, 
 and uplifting of flagging hearts, are wanted. Men will never 
 care about matters, of which they know nothing : they cannot 
 know unless they are informed. It gives Life and Love to a 
 Church to know, and desire to know, how the ■ Lord's work 
 progresses among the Heathen : if the workers are in trouble, 
 it melts the heart in sympathy : if in triumph, it rouses a Spirit 
 of thankfulness : both circumstances are remembered in private 
 and family prayer. We read with long-drawn breath the 
 fortunes of the Queen's soldiers, because we are good citizens : 
 why not have similar feelings for the Lord's soldiers, if we are 
 good Christians } Missions to the Heathen are a component 
 part of the Whole Duty of Man, and should not be treated as 
 a fancy, a fad, a something extraneous from the necessities 
 of a good life. How much more interesting would be a stirring 
 picture of Missionary Progress, than the conventional drone, 
 which has reduced the power of the Pulpit so low } When the 
 great Societies spend respectively ^8000 and ^10,000 per 
 annum on Deputations, there should be some result. Now one- 
 half of the Annual Income comes in without reference to 
 Preacher, or Deputation. Established friends of the Society 
 send their contribution as a matter of duty : of the remaining 
 moiety, one-half would come in on receipt of a reminder by 
 
( 116 ) 
 
 post : it is for the remaining half moiety, or quarter of the whole, 
 that the whole struggle and expenditure takes place, and the 
 percentage should be thrown upon that quarter only. 
 
 Many of the Deputations unite the arguments of the Gospel 
 with the manner of the Water-Rate Collector : it is the daughter 
 of the horse-leech, that we seem to be listening to, " Give, 
 Give 1 " Instead of giving the information, expounding the 
 motives, interesting the hearers with the magnficent story, and 
 leaving the duty of collecting to the Local Committee, ridiculous 
 comparisons are made betwixt the vast sum spent in Liquors, 
 Tobacco, MilHners' Bills, Foreign Wars, and the cost of living, 
 and the small amount contributed to Missionary objects. Such 
 arguments are more calculated to offend than to conciliate. 
 What shall be said of the frightful statistical tables, showing the 
 preponderant number of Heathen, and the paucity of Christian ? 
 tall stately columns represent the non-Christian world, and a 
 mere ninepin the Christian. The danger is, lest the sceptic 
 should turn the argument round, and say. 
 
 Here we are in the nineteenth century of the Christian era, and not only have 
 ■lye gained no ground, but we have lost, for the Mahometan religion is seven 
 hundred years later in date, and so much more successful. 
 
 Then stupid calculations are made of the amount of people's 
 income and their subscriptions, holding them up to a kind of 
 obloquy. What becomes of the right hand not knowing what the 
 left has given, when the Deputation wants accurate information 
 of what each man does, and explains to a man with a large 
 family of sons and daughters, how much he ought to pay to the 
 Missionary Society ? And of what profit is the late onslaught 
 on the so-called "Titled Classes" ? It is nothing new. Such will 
 it be for ever. (i. Cor. i. 26.) 
 
 Quiet, undemonstrative Christians are vexed by the perpetual 
 calls on them : they give the miserable shilling to get rid of the 
 trouble ; the people, who go about with cards, are a nuisance : 
 it is a bad phase of religious life : all, who are in earnest, set 
 apart a portion of their income ; no blessing can accompany 
 money given without any heart, just to get out of the door 
 of the church, or assembly-room, respectably. It turns to 
 dross in the Treasury of the Society, and, having no enduring 
 blessing in it, it is got rid of in the pay of an extra Clerk, in the 
 Railway-fares of the Deputation, or the first-class passage of a 
 Negro. It might just as well have been left in the purses of 
 the contributors, as far as having the remotest influence on 
 Evangelization. The list of subscribers given in such detail 
 in the Report, doubling its bulk, is a reproach to the Christian 
 Churches, and to the Christian character of the donors. What 
 can they want to see their names in print for ? It is like the 
 
( "7 ) 
 
 trumpet sounded before the hypocrite, when he gave his alms, 
 condemned by our Lord. 
 
 The exposure of the idols of the poor Heathen to be laughed 
 at, of curios brought from foreign countries, of children dressed 
 up, as natives of the East, of blind old men brought on the 
 platform to interest ; such things are thoroughly wrong, and a 
 secular lecture on foreign cities, nations, and customs, is a serious 
 mistake. The object of Deputation-addresses is to warm up the 
 feelings of supporters, educate a Missionary spirit, correct 
 mistaken impressions as to policy, inform those interested of 
 prt>gress, evidence sympathy with the fallen races, and to do 
 what Paul and Barnabas did eighteen centuries ago : 
 
 Rehearse all, that God had done, and how he had opened the door of faith to 
 the Gentiles. 
 
 No subject can be more pregnant, more susceptible of varied 
 treatment, with wider scope, furnishing room for every kind of 
 eloquence, and full of such romantic Poetry. What Epic Poem 
 of ancient or modern days could be more full of moving scenes, 
 and varying fortunes, if the speaker were only worthy of the 
 subject! A spiritual tone should dominate. If a smile be 
 raised, it should be one of sympathy and love towards the 
 Missionary, and the poor Heathen people. There should be no 
 ill-timed jokes, or depreciatory remarks, or condemnation of great 
 Governments, denunciation of a great Commerce, or sneers at rival 
 denominations, or cries for Jingo-expeditions and Annexations. 
 The heart should indeed go forth towards the poor Heathen. 
 Their rude conceptions of a Power greater than themselves show, 
 that God has not left Himself without a witness in their hearts. 
 They recognize an environment of supernatural agencies, because 
 something tells them, that God is very near them. They see 
 Him in their blessings, and their troubles, and they try to 
 propitiate Him. In some things they are better than we are. 
 
 Above all things it is desirable to keep the actual Pounds, 
 Shillings, and Pence in the background. What can be more 
 depressing, or opposed to spirituality, than the cries from the 
 Platform, as at a late gathering in Cuiriberland : 
 
 Another Ten Pound Note : another Five Pound ; and so on. 
 
 And where is boasting ? It is excluded. From the East, and 
 the West, and the South, come up tidings of terrible failures, 
 and fearful blots. If the enemy knew our shortcomings, as well 
 as our friends, where should we be ? I am afraid to express my 
 own feelings. I substitute those of another : 
 
 It is not easy to exaggerate the grandeur of the opportunity, or the perils of 
 unfaithfulness. To-day we must do the work ; to-morrow will be too late. 
 Let us realize this very great opportunity, and so go forward. God grant, that 
 these things may be brought home to us to-day, and that we may go forth from 
 
( ii8 ) 
 
 this hall as from the presence of the Lord himself, touched with the flame of 
 the Holy Spirit ; not boasting of what we have done ; not in the spirit of the 
 Ephesians of old, crying aloud, " Great is the Church Missionary Society ! " 
 not boasting of our crowded platforms, our large meetings, our bountiful sub- 
 scriptions, but impressed more and more with the thought, that very much land 
 ye,t remaineth to be possessed, that the fields are everywhere white unto the 
 harvest, and praying that God will quicken our halting steps, will accept our 
 offerings, and arise, and do great things by our humble means to the glory of 
 His holy name. 
 
 I implore the young Preacher of the Anniversary-sermons not 
 to dilate upon Visions, for we well know, that he has seen none, 
 or work out wild analogies with Queen Esther or Joseph, or 
 other Scripture character, which have no possible relation to the 
 subject, mere verbiage : " vox et praeterea nihil : " let him rather 
 tell the congregation the new new story, how Science has revealed 
 new Regions of the world, and brought us in contact with nations, 
 and tribes, and languages, of which our fathers knew nothing : 
 how the Holy Spirit has been poured out in exceeding abund- 
 ance on this generation, bidding us, enabling us, and sustaining 
 us in our wondrous desire to carry the glorious Gospel to every 
 nation under the sun : let him tell with glistening eyes, how the 
 war goes on, for with his eyes he must have read the narratives 
 that have come in from the East, and the West, and South, with 
 his hands he may have touched some of these messengers of good 
 tidings, and spoken with them face to face : let the story be 
 graven with an iron pen and lead in the rocks for ever ! let 
 him remember, that by the gleaming words that he utters he 
 either conciliates new allies to the cause, or by his unfaithful 
 treatment of the subject disheartens true friends. It indeed 
 requires tongues of Fire to treat the subject in its glorious 
 completeness : the present generation has only prepared the 
 way : the next generation will have something worthy to record, 
 though our eyes may never see it. 
 
 I have said my say. This is probably my last contribution to 
 Missionary Literature. If I have written what is not true, let 
 this paper be consigned to the fire. If there is a scintilla of 
 truth, think over it. It cannot now be said, that we must travel 
 onward, as if in a mist, and that, as nobody criticized, there was 
 no error. 
 
 Eastbourne, August i8, 1888. 
 
 STEPHEN AUSTIN AND SONS, PRINTERS, UERXFOKU.