£ihvaxy of Che t:heolo0ical ^tminaty PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Delavan L. Pierson BV 2500 .G62 1898 Gallock, G. A. Missionaries at work •HOOKLYM, ^^^ '^1»^m^ '7'^]. MISSIONARIES AT WORK PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE ANn CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE LONDON FlD ^O 130. MISSIONARIES ^^^^Mm^ AT WORK BY THE AUTHOR OF 'CANDIDATES IN WAITING' WITH PREFACE BY THE REV. H. E. FOX, M.A. Ho/i. Sec. C.M.S. LONDON CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY SALISBURY SQUARE, E.G. i8q8 PREFACE. There are some books which command attention mainly by the exceptional importance of the topics of which they treat ; others by their successful treatment of topics which are common-place. The following pages, it is hoped, will secure interest on both accounts. Although the subjects with which this book deals specially concern a comparatively limited circle of readers, yet by them they must be felt to be of the most sacred importance. When the call to foreign service has been answered by any servant of God, and the months of preparation have passed, and there comes on the soul an ever deepening sense of the tremendous responsibilities of the life work lying before it, there will surely be given a warm welcome to the counsels of an ex- perienced friend peculiarly qualified to help the young Missionary in ordering his future steps along the paths of the Divine Word. The transi- tion from the sheltered surroundings of English life to the perplexing novelties of a foreign country, the special temptations and trials, the difficulties vi P7^eface. and dangers which come from contact with people of alien minds and religions, and all the new con- ditions so little understood at home and often imperfectly realised at first abroad, are so many reasons to enhance the value which it is hoped this handbook will have for every Missionary recruit. Nor by these alone will it be appreciated. It cannot fail to be of use to those who at home have any share in training and fitting Missionary candi- dates for their future work. It does not claim to be in any sense an official utterance of the Church Missionary Society ; in- deed, it is hoped that it may be of use to many beyond the ranks of that body. At the same time, it is due to the writer to say that the book has been read in proof by myself and my brother Secretaries with the sincerest satisfaction, and is heartily commended to our fellow-workers in the Mission-field as likely to supply both before and during the earlier years of the Missionary's life guidance and suggestion which may save many a mistake, and point the way to many a blessing. We hope, however, that it will not be laid aside when once read, but will be kept at hand for fre- quent reference, and we are confident that, as experience grows, the reasons for some of the counsels and cautions which at first may not have been apparent will produce strong and clear con- victions. Still less does the book claim to supplement Preface vii Rules and Regulations which govern the rela- tions of the Missionary with the Societ}'. It takes the form rather of such loving advice as one fellow-worker, bringing forth out of the ' good treasure of the heart,' may freely offer to another. It aims at preserving the happy and helpful idea, often forgotten, which underlies the word 'Society' ; active fellowship contributing to the wants of every member and so to the object of all. A Society is more than a house of business ; it is more than a Government Department. It is both, for we are all employed in the ' King's busi- ness.' We are all ' servants of the Church ' and the Church's Lord. But as members of a Society we are more even than this ; and becaus'e more, we shall add to the scrupulous accuracy of the merchant, and the loyalty and discipline of the official, the sacred unity and co-operation of a brotherhood. Every part of our work, both in its widest scope and its smallest detail, is consecrated by our community in Christ and with one another. The funds which are given by some ; the personal service offered by others ; the talents of time, health, intellect, and influence of all, are sacred treasures which belong to our common Lord, and are at His disposal for use when and as He wills to do good to others. Every brother and sister in the Society, whatever place may belong to each, has an appointed work, and the discharge of that work is, in the Lord's sight, a duty of equal viii Preface. importance for all. For the promised presence of the Master implies an equal sanctity in the life of every servant, and binds each to the other with obligations equally sacred. We at home and those abroad are all one household, and the whole family suffers by the weakness or the failure of even the least of its members. It is the interest of all to maintain at the highest standard the spiritual vitality and efficiency of every one. ' To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit to profit withal.' With such an object this little book has been written, and it is sent forth with the earnest prayer that its words may be to many a young servant of the Lord not so much * goads ' as ' nails,' — the familiar tent pegs of camp life, in themselves inconspicuous, but of what importance to the stability and comfort of the dweller in tents every eastern traveller knows. Or to change the metaphor, may the gracious thoughts here set forth in ' fitly spoken ' words be to very many as * apples of gold in pictures of silver,' food alike for the soul and the mind. H. E. Fox, Ho7i. Sec. CMS. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. FACE The aim of the book — How to read it — Treatment of the sub- ject — The component parts of a missionary — Missionaries as testimonies to the power of Christ — A word to a critic . i CHAPTER n. THE VOYAGE. ITS PERILS AND POSSIBILITIES. First experience of ship-board life — A floating world — The importance of witnessing — Not professionalism, but con- sistency — Dangers and opportunities — Amusements — Days in port — Exposure to sun heat ..... 5 CHAPTER HI. CLniATE AND HEALTH. No ' good ' climates — Missionaries called everywhere — ' Straightforward to our duty ' — Fatalism not bravery — The motive for care — Formation of new health habits — ' Preventable disease ' — Practical hints — Knowledge of hygiene — Study of special conditions — Minor ailments — Malaria and fever — The sun again — Drinking water — A caution for travellers — Exercise — Recreation — Nervous fancies —Life or Death . . . . . . .11 Contents. CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC LIFE — PART I. PAGE The problems of household management — Houses in the Mission-field — Cleanliness — Need of privacy — Two house- holds in one house — Furniture — Simplicity — Community life Crockery and common sense — Native servants — Their ignorance — Their multiplicity— Their untruthful- ness— Their dishonesty — Their plea .... 24 CHAPTER Y. DOMESTIC LIFE— PART II. Meal tunes, from a social aspect — Simplicity, sufficiency, variety — The perils of fastidiousness -' Starvation ' — Milk — Tinned provisions and stores — Household finance — Two opposite dangers — A word to housekeepers • • • 33 CHAPTER VI. THE MORAL CONDITION OF NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS. The Missionary's environment— Crimes and cruelties to animals ; to children ; to the sick ; to the aged — Woman : her position in Christ — Reversed in non-Christian lands — Human nature in development- Modern England compared with the Mission-field— The bearing of such facts on new missionaries— Resulting tests — Scriptural exhortation — Thought temptations — ' Victory ' — Bodily subjection — A practical illustration — Alcohol and tobacco — How to be ' kept ' ....... 41 CHAPTER VII. LOYALTY. Voluntary selection of a society — Mutual confidence essential — Steps taken to ensure this — The C. M.S. position- Loyalty in doctrine and Churchmanship — Temptations to the contrary — Example of veteran missionaries — Imper- fection of both missionary and committees — Loyalty to the Committee's instructions ; to the Society's Regulations ; to constituted authority — Loyalty in correspondence . 52 Contents. xi CHAPTER VIII. RELATIONS WITH FELLOW-MISSIONARIES— PART I. PAGE A world-wide Brotherhood — Importance of union and fellow- ship — Possibility of the contrary — How to heal a Ijreach — What Scripture teaches — The need for cordiality ; for carefulness ; for considerateness — Undue friendship . . 60 CHAPTER IX. RELATIONS WITH FELLOW-MISSIONARIES — PART II. First impressions, given and received — Social or educational distinctions within the Mission circle — Let the new mis- sionary be ' deaf,' and be ' dumb,' and be also ' blind ' — The use of eyelids — Prayer essential to unity . . .70 CHAPTER X. LANGUAGE STUDY AND EXAMINATIONS. Importance of language study — Scriptural illustrations of the value of the vernacular — An imaginary case in point — The language learning time — Its opportunities and tests — Diffi- culty of the task — A message of hope— Colloquial use of new knowledge — Language examinations a necessity; how to face them — Health and language study — A call to excel 78 CHAPTER XI. NATIVE CHARACTER AND THOUGHT. Scripture light on pride of race — Underlying diversities — Close knowledge of people essential to Missionary influence — The presentation of Christian truth — St. Paul's example — Adaptability not Compromise — Native customs and how to meet them — Attitude towards non-Christian creeds — Faith braced by impossibilities— Need for careful study — And for tolerance of speech — The danger of comparisons — Paramount claims of Christianity — Its origin— The sole revelation of God— ' Sacred books ' and the Bible— Its inspiration and ^x-spiration — I'hilosophy no substitute for faith — The outworks and the citadel — Not Christian truths, but Christ the Truth 87 xii Contents. CHAPTER XII. WORK AMONGST NATIVE CHRISTIANS. PACE The Church and the World — Two dangers and their safeguard — Phrase ' Native Christians ' dishked — Its proper use — Numerical comparison of native and foreign workers — Grace not hereditary — ' A Chinaman remains a China- man ' — On ' making allowances ' — Parallel with early Christian churches— What St. Paul thought — His personal attitude — Native colleagues — -Ueliberative work — Self- governing, self-supporting, self-extending churches — Pre- paration of workers— Education of Christians — Pastoral work lOO CHAPTER XIII. WORK AMONG NON-CHRISTIANS. Missionary methods — The central aim — The common equip- ment — Evangelistic work — Individual work — Educational work — Its ' Results ' — ' Put Christ in the forefront ' — The Bible lesson — Bond fide education — Good discipline — Moral tone — Physical development — Personal talks — Medical Missions — Adaptability — Efficient work— Local and general needs — Success a peril— Work limited by spiritual possibilities . . . . , . -US CHAPTER XIV. THREE PRINCIPLES OF WOMEN'S WORK. Women's work essential — The equal evangelization of the sexes — Women's work distinctive — Dangers of work amongst men — Women's work subordinate — A missionary, but a woman — A word on the other side — Women's work associated — -Women's Conferences — Missionaries' wives — Opportunity, not authority . . . . . .126 CHAPTER XV. IMARRIAGE FROM A MISSIONARY STANDPOINT. Unmarried missionaries — Power of married life — Its cost — Its requirements — When to face the subject — From the Contents, xiii Society's standpoint — C. M.S. marriage regulations — ' Satisfied ' hearts—' Wait '—'Be clear-sighted and cool- headed ' — A high sense of honour — Broken engagements — The voyage and engagements — Attachments formed in the field — Long engagements -Correspondence — Intercourse in a non-Christian land — Missionary ^^^^^/(ji- — Trousseaux 135 CHAPTER XVI. RELATIONS WTH A FOREIGN COMMUNITY. Opportunities for witnessing — For removing prejudices — For enlisting help— The great semi-foreign population — Temptations to compromise — The spirit of worldliness — Missionary life as distinguished from official life — Practical consistency in reading — In conversation — In dress . .147 CHAPTER XVII. THE FIRST FURLOUGH. The purpose of furlough — Alternation of rest and labour — ' Daniel continued ' — Physical aspect— Mental aspect — Spiritual aspect — Deputation work — Loyalty — ' Home, sweet Home ' . . . . . . . -159 CHAPTER XVIII. THE MISSIONARY'S INNER LIFE. Dangers of Mission-field — The secret of relationship — Feel- ings and fact — Private communion with God — The Holy Communion — Other means of Grace — ' Abide in Me ' — Eternal Life : its meaning— The Centre, the Source, the Sustainer, the Giver of the Spirit of Life — A prayer . 171 MISSIONARIES AT WORK. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. The aim of the book — How to read it — Treatment of the subject — The component parts of a missionary — Missionaries as testi- monies to the power of Christ — A word to a critic. The aim of this book is a simple one — to set before missionary brethren and sisters going out for the first time some practical suggestions and some fundamental principles which may be helpful in their holy work. Yet sometimes things that seem simple are difficult to do, and it is with a deep sense of responsibility and dependence that these pages have been penned. A brief oppor- tunity of standing shoulder to shoulder with ' missionaries at work ' in the field, some years of close contact with old missionaries on furlough and new missionaries going forth, and the daily privilege of facing Mission-field problems with men of experience and prayer have furnished some measure of requisite knowledge. But what B 2 The Plan of the Book. will that avail unless it bear upon it the Holy Spirit's seal ? To His fostering care has been committed every thought which has gradually gathered round this book since it was first planned years ago, and only in the humble faith that He can send His living message through it, as through an earthen channel, has it taken final form. If it be prayer- fully read to find that message, then all that is worth finding in it will be found. The treatment of the subject is of necessity fragmentary and imperfect. To say all that might be said would need not one, but many volumes. The first few chapters take the form of homely and almost commonplace suggestions, which some out-going missionaries may feel they do not need. But until some personal experience has been gathered such details may be of use. Later on, broad principles lead into regions which a new missionary may feel it premature to ex- plore, but even a few months in the field will reveal the importance and the place of these greater things. Senior missionaries, should such read these pages, will see that many weighty problems have been left untouched or partially dealt with, either because they do not bear practically upon the earlier stages of missionary service, or because the principle which gives the key to them is outlined in another connexion. No chapter, read alone, will give a sufficient view of the subject it treats of, and the last chapter should be read with special care. Romance and Reality, 3 inasmuch as it gives the keynote which is the great undertone of the rest. While it is impossible for those who go forth to the Mission-field to have too strong a sense of the greatness of their office, or too high an ideal of what by the grace of God they should be and do, it is only too true that in the eyes of many at home a halo of unreality and romance surrounds the conception of the Mission-field and of missionaries. Missionaries are only a compound of God's grace and human nature. The pure presence of the Holy Spirit Himself pervading men and women * of like passions ' with ourselves separates and sanctifies them for this work, but there is no * excellency of power ' in them apart from that, and their directly spiritual service is set in earthly surroundings of homely and common things. Missionaries are liable to human weak- nesses and bodily temptations, to mental per- plexities, and subtle spiritual assaults. Mission- aries must eat, and take thought for their clothing, and take exercise, and house-keep, and fit in with fellow workers, just as other Christian workers have to do. While they are called and sent forth and equipped by the Lord that they may con- centrate every power upon giving an account of souls, there is ever need on their part of humble watchfulness upon the human side, wherein the Church at home can help by constant and in- telligent prayer. The honest recognition of this 4 A Word to Critics. does not mean for a moment a lowered standard of what missionaries ought to be, or lessened thankfulness for what they are, by the grace of God. That, set in the midst of so many and great dangers, and weighted with the average frailties of humanity, our brethren and sisters should have so bravely kept the faith, and witnessed so good a confession, is the brightest testimony to-day to the living power of Christ within His Church. There- fore, should any critic of Foreign Missions read this book, he would do well to ask himself whether those men and women who have left all to follow their Leader into the thickest of the fight are not beyond the region of mere criticism, though in greater need than ever of faithful counsel and fervent prayer. CHAPTER II. THE VOYAGE. ITS PERILS AND POSSIBILITIES. First experience of ship-board life — A floating world — The im- portance of witnessing — Not professionalism, but consistency — Dangers and opportunities— Amusements — Days in port — Ex- posure to sun heat. The voyage to the Mission-field often furnishes a missionary with his or her first experience of ship-board life ; intensely dreaded, both on physical and spiritual grounds, by some, and eagerly looked forward to by others, it is a time fraught both with special perils and gracious oppor- tunities. Whether the voyage be eastward on ^^ some great Indian or Australian steamer, or west- / ward on an Atlantic liner, or southward on a ship destined for the West African ports, a time of ; more or less prolonged suffering or discomfort, to ' which the majority are compelled to succumb, often lies in front. Patience and pluck are the best of all known remedies. Some may experience more or less physical disability all through the voyage, but, as a rule, the sorrows of the sea are over long ere the voyage is, and the missionary is ready to take a share in the life on board ship. 6 Fellow Passenzers. ^> And a strange life in many ways it is. Within tlie little floating world are packed together men and women of widely varying tastes and con- victions, representing almost every phase of thought and life. All alike have paid for the modicum of space allotted to them, and all have equal rights. To avoid one another is impossible ; contact of a certain kind there must be. Most of those thus thrown together part for ever when the final port is reached, and so there is frequently a marked absence of reserve and of a sense of future responsibility for present words and actions. Some of those on board may be openly irreligious, and cases have been known where excessive drinking and gross open gambling have had to be endured. A large measure of frivolity and flirta- tion are not uncommonly met with, and sometimes an effort is definitely made to involve one or more of the younger missionaries in this. The importance attaching to the life and witness of Christian men and women in the midst of such surroundings cannot be over-estimated. Happily, on board the larger ships there are nearly always some among the passengers who know and love the Saviour, and it is well to seek out and to get into touch with these. It is not a question of missionary professionalism, but of Christian con- sistency, and all who serve the Master should hasten to make common cause. Not, however, that they may over-ride the wishes of others, or Inevitable Responsibility, 7 claim rights which arc not theirs, but that they may, by prayer and fellowship, strengthen each other in their sober, happy, holy walk. And inasmuch as every eye will be upon them, it is needful that even within their own ranks they should avoid all that might be misunderstood. Remembering, for instance, the common taunt that lady missionaries in going abroad are largely actuated by a desire for a home of their own, it will be found well that Christian fellowship between them and other missionaries should be carefully and wisely regulated. There is generally a senior missionary on board, who is glad to act as friend and counsellor in all such matters. But preservation from compromise or mis- understanding is not the limit of the possibilities of a voyage, thank God. Before the Mission-field is reached each missionary has an inevitable re- sponsibility towards ' all them that sail with ' him. The daily meeting of two or three in a cabin for prayer, the morning gathering for Bible study in the second saloon, the evening hymn-singing on deck, and the Sunday services, may all be part of an earnest effort to spread the good tidings of great joy throughout the ship. In this the clerical missionaries, the laymen, and the women mission- aries can all take part, each in their proper sphere. The leading of the more public gatherings will fall to the clergy ; the young laymen, going out, per- haps, to join an Associated Evangelists' Band, will 8 Social Intercourse, have scope among the crew, and with other young men on their way to fill some foreign post, or to seek one ; the women missionaries will have opportunities among the children, and will not lack openings for earnest personal pleadings among the passengers of their own sex. It follows that if this gentle but earnest aggressive work is to be done, the missionary party must not be self-centred, but be ready in every rightful way to make friends with others on board, a bright and restful spirit showing itself in cheerful ways and words. Meal- times furnish opportunity for a little genial inter- course; small courtesies and unselfishness, tactfully and unobtrusively shown, are constantly possible ; the lending of a cushion, a book, a deck-chair, may open a door for service. A simple deck game, pro- vided that no element of unseemly frivolity is involved, may be not only excellent for the bodies of the missionaries, but afford opportunity for reaching the souls of those with whom they thus make friends. But care and prayer are very specially needed in connexion with any participa- tion in evening amusements. It is better to abstain from going to a concert, for instance, than to risk having to walk away in the middle of it. In so mixed a company as ship-board life involves, it is difficult to insure the exact nature of even lawful amusements. While a missionary is not called upon to condemn a merely * doubtful ' thing, it is surely wiser for him to abstain from it. The Days in Port. 9 current gossip on board, the careless fault-finding which lightly passes judgment on others, should never be welcomed by missionary ears, or either originate or echo from missionary lips. Days in port, whether at Madeira or the Canaries, or at Gibraltar, Brindisi, Malta, Port Said, Aden, Colombo, or Singapore, are a welcome break in the monotony of the voyage. They have their pleasures af letters posted and received, their opportunities of kindliness and unselfishness, and also their dangers and tests. It is not in- frequent for some of the missionary party to have a friend on shore from whom an invitation comes for a few precious hours of terra firma joys. At the farther ports this generally gives oppor- tunity for a glimpse of missionary work : at the nearer ones it sometimes involves a quiet loving witness for the Master among those who are not bearmg arms for Him. Some kindly Government official, out of the way of missionary work, may thus have brought to his house, all unexpectedly, a passing testimony to the reality of the need, and the reality of those sent forth to meet it. Rightly looked at, such days in port do not bring release from, but blessed increase of, responsibility. The question of keeping holy the Sabbath Day, should the vessel then touch at a port, is a very real one, amid the clanging of the donkey engines, the plead- ings of dusky vendors with fascinating wares, and the craving for exercise and sight-seeing after a lo Danger from the Sun, sedentary and monotonous week. Sometimes to stay entirely on ship-board on such a Sunday is not possible if the vessel is coaling, and there may be a service to be attended on shore ; but at least all manner of trafficking may be resolutely avoided, for even if the salesmen do not know what day it is, the missionary does, his fellow passengers do, and the Lord Himself sees and knows. A word of caution against driving for the purpose of sight- seeing on Sunday may not be out of place. One peril of days on shore in the farther ports, and indeed of the whole voyage, once hotter regions are reached, lies in exposure to sun and heat. Of this we shall treat more fully in the chapter on Health and Climate, but a strong prior word of warning is needed here. Even a moment's direct exposure to the sun's rays viay mean sun- stroke, sun-fever, loss of reason, loss of life, or at least the permanent loss of some measure of mental power. Not only does the head suffer (whence the imperative need of a sun helmet, if landing at such ports as Port Said, Aden, or Colombo), but any part of the body may transmit evil effects from exposure, and even the action of the sun when shrouded in cloud is capable of pro- ducing grave results. Some have learned sad lessons about this on their first voyage, and have never wholly lost the after effects of their want of caution. II CHAPTER III. CLIMATE AND HEALTH. No * good ' climates — Missionaries called everywhere — ' Straight- forward to our duty ' — Fatalism not bravery — The motive for care — Formation of new health habits — ' Preventable disease' — Practical hints — Knowledge of hygiene — Study of special con- ditions — Minor ailments — Malaria and fever — The sun again — Drinking water — A caution for travellers^Exercise — Recreation —Nervous fancies — Life or Death. Among the many climates of the C.M.S. Mission- field there is scarcely one that can be termed ' good ' for work which has to be carried on all the year round. North- West Canada and the North Pacific coast are free from malaria, indeed, but have a measure of danger from cold and damp, and in some parts severe privation and isolation test to the utmost the missionary's physical power. Egypt, with its beautiful winter, is anything but a sana- torium during the summer and autumn months. A trying fever, most difficult to shake off, is endemic in many parts of Palestine. Inland China and Persia, while healthy in many ways, are cut off from easy access by a long and difficult journey, trying to strength and nerves. Japan, and certain parts of China, test nerve power 12 Climate and Long Life. severely. Every part of Ceylon or India affords a recognised condition of physical trial of some sort, while Africa, with the exception, perhaps, of the healthy uplands of Uganda (still most difficult of access), has its own peculiar danger from the fatal fevers which haunt the west coast and the Niger, and appear in less virulent forms on the eastern side. To all these many lands, however, the Gospel messengers are without doubt called of God to go. While it is right to weigh the question of climate in deciding the location of an individual, no thought of possible peril would make it right to refuse to allow a healthy man or woman to face life, or death, in a dangerous climate for the sake of Christ. To the most deadly spots men go in search of adventure or of wealth ; can we refuse to let missionaries go there in search of precious souls } It must, moreover, be remembered, that while in the healthier Mission-fields lives have often been unexpectedly cut off, so in the least healthy ones long lives of useful service have been happily spent. The reason for this, humanly speaking, is generally inexplicable, even after the most careful medical examination, based on accumulated evi- dence, as to the climate and conditions of each Mission station, and the family history and personal record of each candidate. Therefore, while it is true to say that no C.M.S. missionary goes forth without a greater risk to health than would be Fatalism not Di^avery. 13 incurred in work at home, it is likewise true that none goes forth, even to West Africa, without reasonable ground for expecting and intending, Dei gratia, to live. Recognising, as we do, that the call to evangelize the world was given without limitation as to climate, and seeking to use prayer- fully for our guidance such knowledge as can be obtained, we and our missionary brethren and sisters can only step straightforward to our Duty, in dependence upon our Heavenly Father's pro- tection, and in humble submission to His will. The fact that certain of the influences of climate upon health run beyond the region of our compre- hension or control does not lessen our responsibility in those matters where careful and continuous action may effect much. Because the medical officers of C.M.S. are sometimes baffled by a result contrary to their expectations when a certain missionary is sent to a certain station, would they therefore be justified in relaxing for one moment their careful attention to matters of location } Surely not ! And because all C.M.S. climates are more or less bad, and the majority of mission- aries are sooner or later affected by them, would men and women be therefore justified in letting their health ' take care of itself 1 Quite the con- trary. Foolhardy fatalism is not bravery. The soldier who is most willing to die, if need be, in the forefront of the battle, is the one who will take most pains to keep in shelter from the 14 The Motive for Care. enemies' sharp-shooters till the right time comes. Said a veteran C.M.S. medical missionary once to a band about to set sail : — ' Be absolutely fearless about losing your life, but in God's name be in- finitely careful lest you lose your health! What is the reason for this ? Is it that mis- sionaries crave indulgence, shrink from self-denial, and cannot ' endure hardness ' as good soldiers of Jesus Christ ? Not so. There are scores of men and women in the field to-day who would gladly live on a level with the poorest native, and spend the least possible fraction of money and of time upon the care of bodily health. Yet for Christ's sake, while practising the duty of due self- denial, they deny themselves the luxury of self- neglect, and humbly set themselves to learn His will concerning that frail ' body of humiliation ' which must needs be the medium of their service. There are others, not a few, who long to forego all thought of furlough, and give a life of uninter- rupted service in the field. But for the Master's sake they submit to a pause in their working, that body, mind, and spirit may be freshly equipped. ' What we need,' writes a missionary of experience, * is men and women, who, with God's help, will " lastr ' ' One of our ablest senior missionaries,' he adds, ' who is still at work after thirty years of service, told me that his present health is due, under God, to the extreme care he took when he first came out as a not very robust young man. Health Habits. 15 My own experience shows me that due care, if scrupulously observed in the first two or three years of a missionary's career, will, so far from enervating him, really fit him to endure hardness without much risk at a later stage.' Therefore it is not in order that missionaries may escape the cross, but that they may live the longer to bear it, that this chapter is written. In the name of Him who walked this earth for three and thirty years in all the weakness and weariness of a mortal body, using it as an instrum.ent pre- pared to do His Father's will, we face these simple details one by one, asking Him so to hallow them to us that no self-pity, or self-indulgence, or self- centredness may result, but only a fuller conse- cration of body, soul, and spirit to the service of God. In going to a new climate, health habits will have to be consciously unformed and formed again. Here at home a sort of instinct, confirmed by semi- conscious experience from childhood onward, is to most people a fairly sufficient guide as to what to eat, what to wear, what exercise to take, what remedies to apply in minor ailments, what pre- cautions to use as guards against changes of tem- perature. In the Mission-field, an adult person is abruptly placed in entirely new physical conditions where his past habits are to a large extent mis- leading, and where new observations will have to be patiently and persistently taken. Such habits 1 6 Practical Hints. as excessive tea-drinking, or sitting up late at night, which may have seemed innocuous at home, would speedily demonstrate their evil effects abroad. If the missionary does not set to work earnestly and conscientiously to deal with this health problem even in its smallest details, no one can give him immunity from evil results. Senior missionaries are always ready to give advice, but they cannot apply it. The amount of 'prevent- able disease ' among missionaries is very serious, and a good deal of it, as has been already implied, is the result of ignorant carelessness (or careless ignorance !) during the first two years abroad. Let us, however, take it for granted that every outgoing missionary who reads these pages is prayerfully desirous of being a faithful steward in this matter of health. Are there any practical hints which will help him to keep on right lines .'* We believe there are. I. Let each missionary obtain, before starting, some measure of knowledge of the ordinary laws of health, and of any peculiarities of his or her constitution. It is well to make a note as to the kind of food which tends to produce or alleviate any small ailments, and to learn how to prepare and when to take those little ' kitchen remedies * which are not found in any medicine-chest. A kindly doctor will often be glad to give an out- going missionary a ' common sense talk ' on such subjects as these. Mi7ior Ailineiits. 17 2. On arrival in the field, let the missionary take an early opportunity of gathering from some wise senior all information as to the special con- ditions of the station as regards health. This may need to be drawn out by questions, for those who have lived long in a country often forget the pre- cautions which they themselves took at first, and do not realise the dangers which surround a new comer. It is very important, however, to choose a safe guide, for there are cases in which a senior missionary has proved to be an exception to the ordinary rules, able to do with impunity what would be death to most. If the new missionary is perplexed by divergent counsels, it is well to take the more cautious path, until it has been proved — a year or two later— whether it is necessary to do so or not. 3. Minor ailments assume new proportions in the Mission-field. Taken in time there is no cause for anxiety, but neglect brings serious results. It is wise, therefore, to be prompt with remedies, to re-adjust food, to lessen work, and even to aban- don a proposed journey rather than run any risk. Above all, any physical trouble should never be concealed from a senior fellow-worker, who might be able to deal effectually with it. On him or her will come the strain of nursing if illness ensues, therefore confidence ought to be given, and counsel sought /;w;? the first. 4. Careful inquiry as to necessary precautions C l8 Fever and Sun-Heat. ought to be made, if the station is at all malarious, and any prescriptions as to the hour when it is not safe to be out should be rigidly observed. In itinerating work, or long journeys, this is of special importance. Quinine should always be at hand for use, both as a preventive and as a cure. Any touch of fever should be at once confessed and treated, for the habit of having a little fever hang- ing about one, once formed, is most difficult to shake off. Clothing should be immediately changed if wet either by rain or perspiration, or a chill may lead to fever. A clinical thermometer will infallibly indicate a rise of temperature, and is the only safe guide. ' Feelings ' may mislead in both directions. The missionary who has an appreciable amount of fever ought to stay in bed. The risk of working under such circumstances is so grave as to be rarely justifiable. Let him weigh his ///^-work in one hand and his day's-'^oxV in the other before he ventures to do so. 5. The danger of the sun's rays has already been referred to in connexion with the voyage, but must again be emphasised here. It is impossible for a new missionary to be too careful in guarding against exposure to them. A moment's carelessness may work serious hurt even when the sun's heat does not feel greater than at home. It is most irksome to have to don a sun hat and to put up a double white umbrella even to cross the Mission com- pound, but in time habit will come to the help of Drijiking- Water. 1 9 the missionary, and the tension of constant self watching will be relieved. In certain Indian and other Mission stations, the newly arrived lady missionaries may have a good many visits to pay. It is often the custom to make these calls in the hottest part of the day, and to wear the same kind of hats or bonnets as would be worn in the after- noon in England. In places where this is neces- sary the carriage used should be carefully closed, and a thick sun umbrella should always be taken for use in entering or leaving the vehicle. In the event of the carriage breaking down en route (a not wholly improbable supposition) such an um- brella may avert a severe attack of fever which would otherwise almost certainly ensue. When the language has been acquired there are certain kinds of missionary work — such as zenana visiting and village itinerating — which involve a measure of inevitable risk from the sun. Then the mis- sionary, having taken all possible precautions^ may rest in humble assurance that being * on duty ' there is no cause to fear. ' The Lord is thy keeper ' — ' The sun shall not smite thee by day.' 6. Drinking-water is a subject very closely related to missionary health. Many of the com- monest and yet gravest ailments are directly trace- able to carelessness concerning it. It cannot be too forcibly stated that to filter water is never a suffi- cient safeguard. Most of the filters used are absolutely worthless. Water for drinking purposes c 2 20 Foi" and Against Ex xei^cise. should be first passed through a properly kept filter, then boiled, and then kept in a closely covered vessel until needed. It is not safe even to let this filtered and boiled water lie long before use or it may become impure again. For some Mission-fields it is needful to remember that ice may be as dangerous as water which has not been boiled. 7. When travelling, thirst must never be quenched from roadsidewater or with that obtained from natives in railway stations, &c. Each mis- sionary should provide himself with properly pre- pared drinking water, or content himself with freshly opened fruit. Pomegranates, melons* oranges, or bananas which have been cut open or had the rind or peel broken before sale are never safe. Tea., if procurable, is safe if made with boil- ing water ; but milk is a dangerous thing, not to be readily trusted. In a subsequent chapter, how- ever, we shall refer again to this, and to various further matters concerning food. 8. Exercise is even more important in the Mission-field than at home, if health is to be preserved. But here are some difficulties in the way which may look like reasons why care on this point should be relaxed. The climate may pro- duce a lassitude which makes exertion without ' an object ' distasteful. There are often only a couple of hours in the day when active exercise is possible, and there is much work to be done, Recreation : its Use and Misuse. 2 i and those very hours are the best in which to do it. Some other missionaries may take little or no exercise, and seem to get on well enough. It might look like self-indulgence when souls are Avaiting to be reached. If the new missionary be wise and faithful he will brush all such false arguments aside, and resolve to let no day pass without some measure of healthy exercise, for the sake of his Master and his work. In this matter, perhaps, women missionaries have special tempta- tions. They are naturally more sedentary in their pursuits than men, and in some Mission-fields — notably in Moslem lands and in parts of China — it is not seemly that they should use the liberty rightly availed of at home. But even under these trying circumstances it is possible, and it is necessary, to take steady exercise of some kind, if it be only round and round a Mission compound or up and down a verandah. In most stations, happily, a daily walk can be arranged. 9. In saying that recreation is as needful for the mental health of a missionary as is exercise for his bodily health, we are treading on difficult ground. The danger side of the subject is touched on in several subsequent pages, so it is only needful here to point out that recreation is not mere amusement, and that it must ever, in a Christian's life, be severed from every form of worldliness. The recognition of the heavy strain which the climate and the work of the Mission- 2 2 Nervotis Over-Strain. field lays upon brain and nerve would not for a moment justify the use of exciting books or pleasures as a stimulus or restorative, but it does need to be met by change of thought and interest. Scarcely a year passes in which some valued worker is not invalided home simply from nervous over-strain, often brought on by non-observance of this simple law of nature, which, rightly looked at, is a law of God. The young missionary who conjugates verbs while taking a compul- sory walk ; who never reads a book which does not bear on Foreign Missions ; who never cares to enjoy a quiet social evening among fellow missionaries ; who cannot enter with zest into a healthy game ; who thrusts every hobby aside as a hindrance, until his work is the limit of his mental world, may be — for a short time — a magnificent example of whole-hearted devotion, but it is safe to predict that, if he persists in this course, he will never be a missionary of many years' stand- ing ! God forbid that we should even appear to depreciate fervour and concentration, or write as if men and women were not called to be ' living sacrifices.' We only desire to preserve for God's utmost using that nerve and brain power which too often fails under the needless strain put upon it by earnest men and women. lO. In applying the above simple suggestions, which have been given at some length in the hope that they may be of use to the younger and less The Spirit of Ittai, 23 experienced missionaries, to life in the Mission- field, each new worker will have to guard against falling a prey to nervous fancies or imaginary ailments. To become fretful and apprehen- sive is easy, if bodily precautions are given a wrong place. The missionary who is prudent for Christ's sake, not for his own, will exercise self- discipline concerning this, and having done what in him lies to maintain in health that body which is the temple of the Holy Ghost, he will turn his thoughts with cheery courage to the work he has to do. He will remember that should illness come, it will be his business to bear it bravely and patiently, enduring ' hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,' while using prayerfully any means that tend towards recovery. And should the Master's plan for him involve an early transfer from the earthly service to the heavenly, he will realise that for himself, for his work, and for his loved ones, all is well indeed. Health thrown away is utter waste ; a life laid down in simple obedience ' abideth not alone,' but through death tends to glorious increase. The spirit of Ittai needs to be inwrought in every missionary. ' As the Lord liveth . . . surely in what place my Lord the King shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be' (2 Sam. xv. 21). 24 CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC LIFE. — PART I. The problems of household management — Houses in the Mission- field — Cleanliness— Need of privacy — Two households in one house— Furniture — Simplicity — Community life — Crockery and common sense — Native servants —Their ignorance — Their multi- plicity—Their untruthfulness — Their dishonesty — Their plea. Some of the missionaries who go forth each year are called upon almost at once to face the problem of household management in the Mission- field. The clergyman and his wife who go out together will meet it at the outset. The young fiancee on her way to be married will have to grapple with it within a few weeks of her wedding day. Some of the single women will be asked to act as housekeepers while studying the language, and it is not improbable that to some of the un- married men may fall a similar unaccustomed task. From the outset let it be remembered that for this part of missionary service the healthful spirit of God's grace is within reach of all. It is His purpose to give peace and victory as much in the household work as in any other, and whatever may be hereafter said of its trials and difficulties should but drive the missionary into the * secret of Houses in the Mission-Field 25 His presence,' Who can enable for each homely duty. First, it may be well to say a word about the house itself. Wide variety, of course, is found, from the timber-built house of North-West Canada, or the semi-native one on some African hillside, up to the large well-planned Mission-house in an eastern port, or the rambling old building adapted as best it can be for Mission purposes in some Indian city. But though the best of these Mission- houses does not equal in real comfort a roomy English Rectory, the worst of them is capable of being made more or less home-like and pleasant. While recognising their disadvantages, it is better to search out their strong points and make the best of them. If the situation of a house is malarious, extra precautions will be needed. Unless the floor- ing is raised several feet from the ground, the beds ought to be raised two or three feet higher than usual in order to lift the sleepers out of low-lying malaria. Special attention ought also to be given to food, fresh air, and exercise. A Mission-house, being seldom really well built, needs constant attention to small dilapidations, if the fabric is to be kept in repair. Here an amateur car- penter, or glazier, or white-washer, or mason, will find his knowledge of use. As there is seldom any drainage system, the sanitation of the house- hold calls for care. Cleanliness, too, is needful for comfort, if not for health. Ill-swept rooms, rub- 26 The Division of Space. bish corners, accumulations of any kind mean physical misery for the human occupants of the house, for insect plagues in the Mission-field are bad enough without any such encouragement ! In order to secure sufficiency of air, houses in the tropics have generally large rooms, and not many of them. This makes a difficulty in planning a composite missionary household, where it is desirable that each unmarried missionary should have a separate room. It is worth the sacrifice of an extra sitting-room to insure this. Privacy is not a luxury merely, but an actual necessity for those facing the stress and strain of a missionary life. A quiet place where prayer can be made alone at any hour will turn many a defeat into victory. Sometimes a large Mission-house is divided between two families, who use the common en- trance perhaps, but have entirely separate rooms and meals. This might easily bring difficulties of its own among the servants if not among the missionaries. But a loving purpose to study the convenience of the co-inhabitants, a healthy readi- ness to ' give and take,' a resolute determination not to listen to gossip, from servants or any others, and a spirit of Christ-like gentleness will not fail to avert the tangles which might arise. The arrangements as to furnishing Mission- houses vary in different Missions, but each new worker will have received, after location, any Simplicity and Comfort, 27 necessary information as to what should be taken out. In some up-country stations the furniture is mainly ' home-made,' and is rough and scanty. In others it is just ordinary furniture, bought perhaps from some European returning home. In Japan and China native furniture is often available. Mrs. Bishop, the well-known traveller, speaks of a sitting-room in a Mission-house in far Inland China which had been prettily and cosily furnished with bamboo furniture and matting for the total sum of 19s. ! It is easily apparent that anything of expen- sive ornament or useless luxury is wholly out of place in the furnishing of a Mission-house. Friends about to give wedding presents to mis- sionaries should specially remember this. All that is refined, and cultured, and inexpensive, all that brings rest to tired bodies and minds, may be right and wise, but anything that goes beyond quiet simplicity is directly injurious both to the missionary and to the work. Members of a mis- sionary household will often have some small possession of personal treasures, such as books, photographs, wall-texts, chair-cushions, an after- noon tea table-cloth, enough, not only to make a bedroom bright for studying in, but to add a little to the pleasantness and comfort of a common sitting-room. The thought of a more or less community life, in which each has to supply his or her share of necessary things, should not 28 Native Servants. slip out of view. There is a story told of a missionary, who, being informed that ' crockery ' was to be part of her outfit, arrived at a station where the three other women missionaries were just then reduced to a few odd plates, two break- fast cups, three saucers, and one mug. The new- comer produced four tiny afternoon teacups, pink- lined, and a china teapot for one ! The cups were well enough for their own purpose, but who was to provide the needed cups and plates for other meals } A little serviceable crockery would have cost no more, and would have added to the comfort of all. Dealing with native servants in the Mission- field calls for much grace and wisdom. Here and there cases of beautiful fidelity and devotion are to be found, and truly Christian servants are a comfort wherever obtainable, but most missionaries have at some time or other to go through many trials with others. Women servants are, in many places, unusual (except in girls' schools), as the age of marriage is so early. Indeed, owing to the sad moral state of Mission lands, it would often be unwise to have men and women servants in the same houses. Even in the case of an experienced native nurse in India or China a missionary's wife has found that the most watchful care is necessary. The following are some of the ways in which native servants may test the tact and patience of those who employ them : — Need for Patience and Tact. 29 1. In many Missions, and particularly in re- mote districts, the natives who are engaged for household work are utterly ignorant of it ; some- times, too, they are painfully slow in learning. Again and again some simple process, such as the proper sequence of sweeping and dusting, may be explained, and even illustrated, and yet the missionary may seem no nearer to release from having to supervise it every time. Here loving patience and gentle insistence will alone avail, for to minds as unformed as those of children systematic work is difficult There will come at last a day when the slow learner will begin to form a habit, and then the love that patience and kindness have evoked will show itself by a tenacity of service which will bind servant and master (or mistress) together for years. 2. In some Mission-fields, notably in India, the inevitable multiplicity of servants is a real trial. The man who cooks will not sweep a room, nor will the man who waits at table. The man who grooms the horse will not cut the grass for him, and neither the grass-cutter nor the groom will draw water for the house or weed the garden, or do anything but their own special kind of work. Happily, wages are low, or the missionary exchequer would be emptied. It will readily be seen what quiet dignity and tact a young missionary wife will need, if she is to rule over so large a house- hold, to see that the work of each is properly done, 30 UntrMthfulness. and that there are no quarrels or jealousies. It is sometimes found well, if a really trusty man can be found, to make one servant the head of the household, allowing him to engage or dismiss all the others, and holding him responsible for every- thing. But the abuse of this ofBce is so serious that it is safer not to institute it, unless a man of proved rectitude is at hand to fill it. 3. Untruthfulness among servants is another painful trial in most Mission lands. The duty of speaking the truth, even when it involves personal loss, is unrecognised among non-Christian races, and long practice has developed the habit of false- hood to a terrible extent. To please a superior, to conceal a fault, and sometimes with no apparent reason at all, baseless statements will be made, or evident truth denied. Added to this, oriental minds see things differently from ours, and measure what they see by a different standard, so that even when the intention is honest, exaggeration is apt to colour and mislead. Where the grace of Christ is unhindered in its working these vices and natural characteristics disappear, but until then the missionary will have to learn, even within his own household, patiently and sadly to sift the value of statements made. 4. Dishonesty is closely allied to untruthful- ness, being in act what the other is in words. It is everywhere common in heathen and Moslem lands, and is peculiarly trying in India. Among native Dishonesty. 3 1 servants will be found clever thieves, who will steal so that detection is almost impossible. It is not unknown for one of them to hide some coveted article, such as a good pair of scissors or a penknife, in an unlikely spot, and wait to see whether it is missed. If a hot search is instituted, the thief will ' find ' what he has hidden, and even accept praise and reward. If the article is not missed, it will presently be taken away and sold. But short of this kind of thieving, there are petty pilferings which would drive a missionary to despair, were it not that the peace of God is in his heart as a garrison. The grain for the horse may be stolen after it is measured ; oil may be taken from the lamps, and water put in instead ; food may be tithed on its way from the market, and sometimes a servant, who will not steal from his own master, may take things belonging to a visitor in the house. Everything may have to be kept under lock and key, and constant watchfulness be re- quisite even then. There is, however, a danger lest this watchfulness should merge into suspi- ciousness, in which case the missionary will lose more in his or her own spirit than will be saved in household goods. We have purposely painted the native servant in his darkest aspect, that our plea for tender patience and forbearance may not be discounted when some trying experience comes. These men and their forefathers have never had those 32 Our Master and His Sei'vants. surroundings which have for generations been ours. They have been brought up in asocial and religious atmosphere in which falsehood and dishonesty abound. Moreover, they have immortal souls, not past the reach of the grace of God. It is, alas ! possible for a missionary, who shrinks with abhor- rence from the special faults we have named, to forget all this, and to grow rough and harsh in bearing towards such trying members of the house- hold ; even a gentle woman may let herself despise them, and so lose her influence for good. While certain faults need to be firmly dealt with, there are weaknesses which it is wiser not to see, and too high a standard will discourage those who are doing their best. In all consideration of the relations of master and servants our thoughts go back to the One whom we serve, and His tender patience. His faithful rebuke. His loving encouragement to us, His faulty servants, stand out as world-wide and age-long examples. Each missionary should seek to walk within his house with a perfect heart, so that the testi- mony of his household servants to his daily life may be a power for God among the Heathen. Each missionary should also remember that the servants who attend him are part of his ' field,' and that though the ground may seem hard and stony, faithful sowing therein of the living Word will result, as it has often done in the past, in a harvest of souls for God. 33 CHAPTER V. DOMESTIC LIFE. — PART II. Meal times, from a social aspect— Simplicity, sufficiency, variety — The perils of fastidiousness — ' Starvation ' — Milk — Tinned pro- visions and stores — Household finance — Two opposite dangers — A word to housekeepers. Meal times play an important part in a mis- sionary household both from a physical and social point of view. On the social side, meal times afford a welcome opportunity for genial intercourse in the midst of hard work or language study. The mere meeting together of a few tired missionaries will not in itself be recreative, unless each makes a loving, unselfish effort to contribute something of warmth and brightness for the general good. Home news may be shared, any incidents, especially if they are cheery ones, may be retailed, subjects of wide interest may be discussed, and healthy spiritual intercourse will be the best and most natural of all, often followed by a short time of united prayer. By common consent, depressing subjects and the mere technicalities of work should be resolutely banished from conversation at meals. Even a D 34 Meal Times. missionary suffering the pangs of home-sickness may, after prayer for the ready help of the Lord, be enabled to forget his own sorrows in an un- selfish effort to make meal times bright for others. Veteran missionaries tell us of the strong tempta- tion to depression which often assails a whole household : meal times, if gloomy, tend to increase it ; if healthful and homelike, they tend to drive it away. Punctuality at meals should be the aim of the whole household, as punctuality in serving them should be the aim of the housekeeper. On the physical side, while absolute simplicity is the household rule, and habitual indulgence is unknown, it is advisable that everything should be as comfortable and refined as possible. Missionaries do hard work in exhausting climates under conditions which test the whole being, and without a sufficiency of nourishing and varied food are very liable to break down. Meat is essential for those who have always had it ; so is fatty nourishment of some kind. On these two points the housekeeper will need special watchful- ness. In some parts of the Mission-field, such as India, the actual cooking can be well done by a native servant ; in others every process will have to be taught, and in some places the missionary housekeeper may have to do the greater part of it, if it is to be properly done at all. In any case, the planning and ordering, whether of stores from England or of meat and vegetables from the Fastidioitsness. 35 market, will claim much thought, and not a little skill. Some of the native dishes in several districts form a palatable addition to other food. It is well, as far as possible, to use them for the sake of variety, while an attempt to live entirely on them would probably wreck health. Two special dangers concerning food beset the first-year missionary. One is fastidiousness. The man or woman who * turns against ' food because it is not quite as dainty as might be ; who, if in West Africa, is upset by the smell of palm oil when dinner is being cooked ; who, if in India, recoils from tinned butter, or buffalo milk ; who, if in China, cannot eat a hearty meal when a native fellow-worker is sharing the same dish, must either seek and gain complete victory over these feelings, or suffer humiliating weakness because of them. Steady prayerful self- discipline from the outset will remove any remains of this very real stumbling-block, which ought to be dealt with first at home. Some, of course, are naturally more robust about such things than others, but the most fastidious can learn in these matters to bring their bodies into subjection, instead of being subjected to them. The other danger, a very real one to some, is the habit of not eating sufficiently. This prevails more, perhaps, among women than among men, and is a fruitful source of breakdown. Appetite is seldom an efficient test. A new missionary, perhaps, does not ' care ' for meat, or milk, or butter ; tea, biscuits, D 2 2,6 ' Starvation! and fruit are more palatable, and by degrees she gradually lives on them. If the head of the house- hold is wise she will speedily observe this, and bring all her influence to bear, seeing whether some simple variation of diet will not make matters better for one still unaccustomed to Mission-field food. But here, as in most other cases, little can be done if the missionary does not help herself If it is found alfsolutely impossible to eat a reasonable amount of meat, vegetables, and pudding at dinner, and a proper nourishing meal at breakfast, it is time that the doctor, if there be one, should be called in. But, generally speaking, it is not a question of illness so much as of carelessness, arising from an imperfect appreciation of the issues involved. A C.M.S. missionary, who was housekeeping for herself, fell ill some years ago, and sent for the doctor ; he examined her, and announced her com- plaint to be ' starvation ' ! She had eaten less and less until her health gave way. Proper food happily soon made her all right again, a wiser woman than before. The care of drinking-water and milk for the "household will fall directly on the housekeeper. Of the former we have already written, and the latter is no less urgent. Natives, as a rule, are extremely careless about milk, and unless the greatest watchfulness is exercised it becomes a fruitful source of typhoid germs. It should always be boiled before use, and should never be bought Tinned Provisions. 37 from native vendors in the open market. When possible, the cow should be driven to the door and then milked, not into a dirty vessel produced by the vendor, but into a clean one from the Mission house. Failing this, a carefully cleansed vessel should be sent by a trusty messenger to where the cows are, and the milk brought thence straight home. In some Mission-fields fresh milk is rarely available. When this is so, a good brand of tinned milk should be freely used as the best possible substitute. In several Missions, notably in Africa, tinned provisions have to be largely used. This affords scope for good housekeeping, if variety and utility are to be combined. Senior fellow-workers will know the best articles to order, and the proper proportion of each. For up-country stations it is well to make careful inquiries on the outward way as to the best means of transit subsequently from the coast, and the probable cost of it, so that future orders may not involve the missionary in unknown expenditure. Large missionary households are generally financed from a common fund, for the outlaying of which the housekeeper is responsible. This in- volves a close keeping of accounts. The amount that will suffice if carefully and wisely expended will be sorely wasted by even a week of bad management, and as all Mission funds are ' sacred,* not a single penny, or its Mission-field equivalent, 38 House Jiold Fina7ice. should be spent except to the glory of God. Whether the household consist only of a mis- sionary and his wife, or of a large party, it will be found necessary from the first to keep the house- keeping money separate from the sum set apart for personal expenses, and from all moneys be- longing to the work. Unless a business habit is formed about this from the outset unwelcome difficulties may arise. Missionaries have been known ere now to spend their own allowance on the maintenance of a school or a catechist, * hoping ' some other money would come in, and when it did not, illness resulted from the consequent lack of sufficient food. On the other hand, if personal and official money were united together, it would be possible for an exactly opposite mistake to be made by a conscientious but unbusiness-like mis- sionary, who would be dismayed when the accounts of the Mission fund entrusted to him were made up, to find that he had unconsciously used for himself what belonged to the work. Ere we leave the subject of domestic life a word needs to be said about the special oppor- tunities and temptations which meet the house- keeper in the Mission-field. She— and here we must reverse our usual practice, and let the feminine pronoun include the men who hold such an office — has not only the privilege of caring for the comfort of the party, but the presence or absence of an air of ' home, sweet home ' will largely depend on her. The Housekeeper. 39 Hers will be the privilege of first seeing to any who are ailing, and a natural growth of sympathy will ensue. She can do many kindly and unselfish things to meet the wishes of one without disturbing the comfort of others. The servants will be her special spiritual charge, and she will have more opportunity than any others to reach them. It will rest with her to see, in concert with her fellow missionaries, that those outside her household who need a homelike atmosphere are drawn, if it be entirely wise and suitable, within the happy circle Specially will she, if a married woman, seek to make her house a resting-place to younger mis- sionaries, where round the tea-table of an afternoon, or by hymn-singing on Sunday evenings, the memories of home may be kept fragrant. All these are opportunities indeed. But, on the other side, there are temptations too. One of them is the danger of becoming a little arbitrary and ' managing ' towards the other missionaries. The office of housekeeper, whether held permanently or in rotation with others, confers no seniority, or pre- cedence, or authority in itself; it is rather an opportunity for being the servant of all. The one who claims nothing for herself will be given all the more. Another temptation is that under which Martha fell of old, when ' cumbered with much serving.' Another is that of letting the necessary practical things crowd out the still more necessary spiritual work. The position of house- 40 The Work of Missionaries Wives. keeper gives a splendid vantage ground from which to do direct missionary work, rather than a reason for not attempting it, and there is something gravely wrong if household matters grow so en- grossing as to leave but little time for the primary object of a missionary's life. A wife and mother may sometimes be thus closely tied, if her children are with her and need constant care, but even then a loving earnest purpose will make good use of fragments of time. The splendid work at present done by many missionaries' wives in the C.M.S. Mission-field is a perfect illustration of this. 41 CHAPTER VI. THE MORAL CONDITION OF NON-CHRISTIAN LANDS. The Missionary's environment— Crimes and cruelties to animals ; to children ; to the sick ; to the aged — Woman : her position in Christ — Reversed in non-Christian lands — Human nature in development — Modern England compared with the Mission- field — The bearing of such facts on new missionaries — Resulting tests — Scriptural exhortation — Thought temptations — 'Victory' —Bodily subjection — A practical illustration — Alcohol and tobacco — How to be ' kept.' Outside the little circle of domestic life in the Mission-field is an environment whose nature the missionary needs to realise from the first. By- degrees some knowledge of it will grow upon every sensitive soul, but the issues involved from the outset are so grave that we are constrained to write plainly. The Missionary in almost every land will see much of the cruelties to animals, to children^ to the sick, to the aged, which human nature perpetrates apart from the grace of God. The sufferings of animals at the hand of cruel persons in our own land, and still more in some of the lands of Southern Europe, evoke 42 Cruelty and Neglect. indignant remonstrance and demand stringent legislation, but in non-Christian lands, where neither public feeling nor law lifts up a voice, matters are bad indeed. There the brute creation ' groaneth and travaileth in pain,' and sickening sights are perforce witnessed by those who can do nothing to help. Again, children suffer in England — shame on us that we need a society for the prevention of cruelty to them ! — but their lot differs vastly from that of heathen or Moslem boys and girls. Natural affection is strong in almost every part of the Mission-field between parents and children, but there is no idea of gentle training or healthy discipline. While young and amusing the children are indulged, but when they become troublesome and show passion the parents meet them with an anger which shows itself in cruel words or unmeasured punishment, sometimes even resulting in the loss of an eye, or some life-long scar. The girl murders and foot- binding of China, and the child marriages and widowhood of India throw a further lurid light on the lot of female children in non-Christian lands. Where Christianity or its influence has spread, hospitals spring up, and suffering calls out sym- pathy and care. But in other lands careless neglect or cruel remedies too often await the sick and the dying. And as to the aged, what a contrast between the loving tendance and honour enjoined by the law of Christ and the mere super- Woman and Christianity. 43 stitious reverence, or reluctant support, or harsh treatment accorded to them where He is not known. The moral difference between Christian and non-Christian lands is seen still more clearly when the position of Woman is faced. When the Gospel of Christ was proclaimed, equal spiritual privileges were accorded to women and to men, and equal value was placed upon their service, though certain limitations were expressly given which debarred women from taking part in the stated ministry of the Church. In home life the woman was given a sphere of boundless influence ; she was to order the household, to bring up and instruct the children, and to be a companion to her husband, who, while she honoured and obeyed him, was ever to cherish her. Love was to be mutual ; provocation and bitter words were to have no place. The marriage law of God which bound the woman to faithfulness bound her husband too, so immutable and tender was the relationship to be that it furnished the highest earthly type of the relationship between Christ and His Church. The New Testament gives us illustrations of the way in which the early Christians sought to live up to this ideal, and all down the centuries ever since, the nearness of any nation to primitive truth and practice may be measured justly by the place given to woman in the life of the Church and of the home. 44 Woman and Heathe^iism. This position, while but imperfectly main- tained in our own land, is, with only few and small exceptions, reversed in heathen lands. Women, as a rule, are debarred from the religious privileges open to men, and are sometimes- believed to be soulless. Their service is only claimed for menial offices, and neither their in- telligence nor education fit them for any other. No question of true companionship can arise between a husband and his wife. She is either a hard-worked ignorant down-trodden drudge, or else she is so entirely secluded in her own apart- ments as to be unable to take any interest in his wider life. She may prepare his food for him, but in very few cases would he demean himself by eating with her. Marriage is entered into without previous acquaintance or affection, often between wholly unsuited persons, as the result of some family bargain, and is entirely devoid of all that makes Christian marriage ' honourable.' Faithful- ness is not incumbent upon the man, and is believed to be impossible for the woman unless she be kept in seclusion or restrained by actual fear. Oftentimes several wives live together in one unhappy household where quarrels and jealousies reign ; or a man may have several households and visit them at his will. Widow- hood, in India at least, involves the forfeiture of even the few joys of a Hindu wife. It is im- possible to put into words the depth of distrust Human Nature in Startling Development. 45 which non-Christian men, and specially Moslems, feel towards women. This lies at the root of such practices as child marriage, and is the basis of zenana life. A cry for the Gospel of Christ and the holy liberty which it brings goes up from these our heathen and Moslem sisters, crushed under nameless oppression, and robbed of the women's rights which are theirs through the gift of Christ. Thus in the Mission-field that human nature which is common to all mankind is to be seen in startling development. In nominally Christian countries, including our own favoured land, there is, we sadly admit, enough sin and crime to show that man has fallen indeed, but even a partial knowledge of the holiness of God and His love as revealed in Christ Jesus suffice to shame and restrain what would otherwise be triumphant, while the presence of healthy living Christians acts like salt, counter- acting natural corruption, and cleansing with pungent power. If the foulest spots of modern England were unchecked by that public opinion which is the outcome of centuries of Christianity, and by the witness of the holy Word of God read and preached, and were left free to spread like some awful leprosy over all the land, infecting well- nigh every home and every heart, then England would be in the moral condition of non-Christian lands to day. Most painful is the fact that this darkness and defilement is frequently associated with religious observances and beliefs, with temples 46 'Deliberately Sinned Away.' and the priestly class, so that what ought to be a source of purity to a nation by a strange and terrible degradation becomes a source of evil. Faiths which in their original conception con- tained lofty though necessarily inadequate teaching, but lacked that power to inspire and elevate which Christianity alone can boast, have been dragged down to the low moral level of every- day life, and now perpetuate those very evils which some of them originally decried. The crimes and cruelties of non-Christian lands are heavy indeed, but the evil there as else- where is not confined to deeds ; it spreads with subtle power into the regions of thought and desire, and like a fatal miasma pervades every- thing. Not only is evil done, but it is habitually thought of, habitually desired, until the natural sense of right and wrong which God designed to be a ' law ' to those not yet reached by His revelation, is in many cases deliberately sinned away. In Holy Scripture itself we find an appalling record of all this, inspired by the all- seeing God. The statements are as true of non-Christian men and women to-day as they were when first written on the sacred page. These facts — only a few out of all that might be given — concerning the moral condition of non- Christian lands bear in many ways upon the new missionary. They show the light in which a heathen or Moslem community will regard the A Key to the Position. 47 missionary party, crediting them, at least in the earHer stages of work, with the same thoughts and desires and actions as are rife in the land. They show, in especial, the need for women missionaries, and yet the difficulties which sur- round their work. They show also the kind of men and women who wait to be reached, and the thickness of the darkness in which the Lamp of Life is to be held forth. To these points we shall revert again. There is one other which claims consideration first. Such an all-pervading atmosphere of evil must bring direct spiritual testing and proving to the missionaries, men and women, who live and work in it. It is helpful to remember that the very same atmosphere surrounded the first Christian missionaries and converts in the midst of the corrupt Heathenism of Greece and Rome. There- fore the Epistles furnish, now as then, a complete key to the position, opening out not only the extent and reality of the surrounding evil, but also the way in which it may best be met by men or women called and sent forth by the Holy Ghost. The saints as a body are exhorted with plain words and earnest entreaties to watch concerning those things * which war against the soul/ and even the young Timothy, high up in the offices of the Church, and strong in the grace of Christ Jesus, is enjoined by his father in the faith to ' keep ' himself * pure.' A study of the inspired treatment 48 Thought Teifiptations. of this subject, centring round two poles of truth — a negative one which may be expressed by the word ' abstain,' and a positive one, condensed into the phrase * walk in the Spirit ' — will be both a safe- guard and a cheer to a new missionary. The same assaults which were made upon early missionaries and converts may be made upon him, but there is for him the same perfect keeping and encircling care by which he may be victorious over all. Many a whole-hearted missionary has been humbled and appalled at the thought temptations of the Mission-field ; perhaps no test is more subtle or more full of agony to the sensitive soul. At times it seems as if a personal assailant whispered loud echoes of the very thoughts of Heathendom into the Christian's ear, who, baffled and ashamed, scarce knows the source of the haunting things which he abhors, and to which he does not for a moment respond. This thought- battle may be a hard one, but thanks be unto God who giveth the victory ! As the missionary claims that the thoughts of his heart may be cleansed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as he seeks by that same Spirit's aid to bring *■ into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,' he will prove the truth of Phil. iv. 7 (R.V.), * The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.' From the personal confession of the Apostle Bodily Subjection ^ not Severity. 49 Paul we learn that any bodily indulgence, even though small in itself, is unwise and unsafe for a missionary, even if he were an inspired apostle. ' I keep under my body, and bring it into sub- jection,' he writes, ' lest .' As in previous chapters we have dwelt upon the need for due care of the body, it is all the more important to emphasise here the paramount necessity for its absolute and continuous subjection. In a tropical climate, amid degraded surroundings, without the bracing restraint of public opinion, and perhaps with no Europeans within reach, beyond the Mission circle, it would be quite possible for an honoured missionary brother or sister to slip into some laxness of habit, which, though not grave in itself, would tend to degenerate the moral fibre of the worker. ' Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth,' writes the Apostle Paul to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colosse, and the straight word needed by them is not too straight to be welcomed by faithful missionary brethren and sisters to-day. It does not inculcate that ' severity to the body ' which is 'not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh,' for the Apostle had deprecated that a few verses before. Rather does it point to such a steadfast, careful, continuous denial of self as will best gird up the missionary to take his cross daily and follow Christ, living * soberly, righteousl}', and godly in this present world.' E 50 Cases in Point. In this serious light, then, all bodily habits should be faced by those living amid the moral surroundings of non-Christian lands, even more than by those who work at home. One practical illustration of a danger-point may help. Isolated from other Europeans and thrown among natives whose ideas of clothing differ entirely from ours, missionaries may be tempted to grow a little lax and disorderly in matters of attire, and thus lose some measure of proper respect for themselves and for each other, and even unconsciously lower the standard of Christian reserve and dignity which they so earnestly seek to raise among the converts. A missionary bishop, now at rest, once told the writer how real this difficulty was to new mission- aries in lonely stations in the tropics, and pointed out the importance of its realisation from the first. It is, perhaps, scarcely needful to touch on the question of total abstinence, which is almost universal among missionaries (except where bodily weakness has authorized the application of St. Paul's counsel to Timothy), or to point out that the use of tobacco may be a hindrance, especially in lands where opium and other stupefying drugs are demoralising the natives. For his own sake, as well as for his work's sake, the new missionary will do well to consider prayerfully every habit which might cause a weaker brother to stumble, or prove a personal ' weight ' in the race. But the missionary's power in combating the How to be 'Kept! 51 daring assaults of the evil around him, whether upon his own soul or upon the souls of others, will be not on the negative but on the positive side. Within him and about him will ever be the presence of that Almighty Spirit of Holiness and of Truth at whose call he has gone forth. While weak in himself and prone by nature to respond to the suggestions of the Tempter, his position is impregnable while he is in living union with Christ, daily receiving the supply of His Spirit. While honestly and unsparingly cutting off any- thing which, even though lawful in itself, might furnish foothold for the enemy, he places all his confidence, in the Mission-field as at home, in the sanctifying work of the Holy Ghost and in the keeping power of Christ. Having realised once for all that he dwells 'where Satan's seat is,' he puts from him all morbid brooding over the sur- rounding evil and sin, looking at the light rather than at the darkness, at the pathway in ' the Spirit ' rather than at the besetments of ' the flesh.' He seeks a heart which is charged with the in- dwelling purity of the Holy Ghost, and is there- fore guarded against the impurity without. Thus abiding, receiving, looking, the weakest missionary brother or sister will be ' kept ' (as thousands have already been, even in the darkest lands) ' by the power of God,' as ' a lily among thorns,' as ' a sheep among wolves,' as ' a light in a dark place.' 52 CHAPTER VII. LOYALTY. Voluntary selection of a Society— Mutual confidence essential- Steps taken to ensure this— The C. M.S. position— Loyalty in doctrine and Churchmanship— Temptations to the contrary- Example of veteran missionaries— Imperfection of both mis- sionary and committees— Loyalty to the Committee's instruc- tions ; to the Society's Regulations ; to constituted authority- Loyalty in correspondence. Each missionary, before going to the Mission-field, has to make choice of the channel through which his service shall be rendered. Various missionary org-anizations stand forward within the Church of Christ, their differing characteristics and methods being widely recognised. The future missionary can scarcely have appreciable difficulty in ascer- taining which among them will offer him the fullest scope, and be most in accord with his pre-existing convictions. When he offers volun- tarily to any one of these bodies, believing that happy co-operation will be possible, the missionary society will desire a like assurance on its part. Therefore, questions will be asked, interviews arranged, opportunities for frank intercourse pro- vided, and, if necessary, a time of training given, Christian Doctrine and Church Order, 53 in which careful instruction on all important points of doctrine or practice will be included. Thus every care is rightly taken to make subsequent loyalty easy, because of confidence based upon mutual knowledge, and upon proved identity of conviction upon all essential matters. Without this, no missionary would be justified in going forth as the representative of a society, nor would the society be justified in sending him forth. For nearly a century the Church Missionary Society has been enabled to maintain its clearly- understood, but by no means narrow, attitude upon matters of Christian doctrine and Church order. A succession of faithful workers has been raised up both at home and abroad, to hold fast the doctrines of grace as embodied in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the formularies of the Church of England. This loyalty in doctrine and in Church- manship to the C.M.S. position has been no bondage, but rather the spontaneous outcome of convictions based on careful study of the Word of God, under the guidance of His Holy Spirit. The new C.M.S. missionary will rejoice to recall this cloud of witnesses, and will prayerfully seek to run, in his turn, the same race. On the one hand, he will feel that, going forth as a loyal member of the ancient and reformed Church of England, he is bound to observe due ecclesiastical order, and, if a clergyman, to render 54 • Frienaly Inte^roztrse with Others. canonical obedience to the overseers of the flock of God. ' We beseech you, brethren,' writes St. Paul, ' to know them which . . . are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake ' (i Thess. V. 12). On the other hand, the C.M.S. missionary will rejoice to remember that he like- wise goes forth as the representative of a body of godly Churchmen, who have agreed that ' a friendly intercourse shall be maintained with other Protestant societies engaged in the same benevolent design of propagating the Gospel of Jesus Christ.' Hence he will heartily echo the same Apostle's words, ' Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity ' (Eph. vi. 24), and seek to manifest this spirit in his life and work. He will further do well to remember that in the Mission-field questions may have to be faced involving not only ritual but doctrine, and that strange and misleading teachers, as well as volumes of new and crude theology, may penetrate even there. Here, once more, the words of St. Paul to Timothy put plainly and tersely a warning for to-day :— ' Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine. . . . Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith. . . . Hold fast the form of sound words ... in The Committee and the Missionaries. 55 faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. . . . Con- tinue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of ' (i Tim. iv. 16, vi. 20 ; 2 Tim. i. 13, iii. 14). But we add the gracious comfort of these further words for each brother and sister sent forth in living touch with Him who is ' the Truth ' : ' Ye have an unction from the Holy One. . . . The same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him ' (i John ii. 20 h 27). There is, however, another and lesser kind of loyalty, happily common in C.M.S. circles, which is essentic.1 if the work is to go forward — that is loyalty to the Instructions and Regulations issued by the Society, and loyalty to its Committees and officers, whether at headquarters or in the Mission- field. The relations which exist between the Parent Committee and the missionaries are characterized, almost without exception, by a cordial confidence on either side, and this is largely reflected in the various minor official relatiorships. This is not the result of merit on the pait of committees or missionaries, but is a gracious token of the presence of the Holy Spirit, and is the outcome of the constant habit of united prayer which prevails both in the councils of the Church Missionary Society and among its missionaries. Year after year, as missionaries old and new 56 Loyalty of the New Missionary. are gathered to meet the Committee before the autumn saiHngs for the field, expressions of loving loyalty are heard from returning veterans, and are caught up and echoed by those going forth for the first time. The allegiance is no formal or con- strained one, but is hearty and unreserved. Never- theless, the veteran missionary would be the first to own how great is the need of watchful wisdom, if this happy attitude is to be maintained. Neither the Committee nor the missionaries being beyond the region of mistakes or delays, it is probable that, at some time or in some way, each may cause the other some measure of test or strain. But a tested link need not of necessity be a broken one, thank God ; by His grace, confidence and loyalty can not only withstand this stress, but be all the sweeter and stronger at the close. Let us here indicate some practical natters which will call into exercise from the outset the loyalty of the new missionary. I. The Instructions of the Committee are given him before departure, a copy being also sent to the secretary of the Mission to which he goes. Part of this document may be common to all missionaries then going forth, a further part of it to all destined for the same Mission, but some of it at le^st will pertain exclusively to the missionary Hmself. Being the official utterance of the Committee, it merits close attention and loyal obedience ; Vv^hile statements made as to language study and\ first Constituted Authority. 57 location will become out of date as time goes by, the spiritual and practical counsels will remain ever cogent and fresh. 2, The printed Regulations of the Society are also given to each outgoing missionary. Loyalty will insure for these careful and intelligent study. Ignorance as to their statements concerning finance, holidays and furlough, language examinations, missionary subordination, marriage regulations, and the like, may result in serious difficulty, whilst a thorough knowledge of their principles and of the spirit which underlies the letter must be beneficial to all. 3. Loyalty to any constituted authority is in- cumbent on every missionary. Some measure of authority may be vested in an individual in the field, such as a senior missionary with whom the new worker is associated, or the superintending missionary in a district, or the secretary of a Mission. Or authority may be vested in a body in the field, such as a Finance Committee or a Corresponding Committee, or a sub-Confer- ence, or a Conference, acting in concert with the Committees at headquarters in London. The missionary, whether man or woman, who desires to render that hearty allegiance which tends to the best advancement of the work will spare no pains to understand the official relationships which characterize the special station or Mission where he or she is placed. The relationships calling for the 58 Loyalty in Correspondence. greatest exercise of loyalty and self-abnegation are those which it is most difficult to define — for instance, those existing between a clerical mis- sionary appointed to the charge of a district and the women missionaries who may be at work in it. or between a medical missionary carrying on evangelistic work outside his hospital in the dis- trict where a clerical missionary is also placed. If the practice of loyalty in thought and word, as well as in deed, be steadily aimed at by the first and second year missionary, the habit will prove of immense value when growing experience brings further responsibility, and, therefore, further testing in the work. 4. Loyalty in correspondence also claims thought and care from the first. There is the Annual Letter to be punctually and regularly sent in. There are the occasional business letters to be sent through the proper official channels, either to the authorities in the field or at home. And there is the personal correspondence of the mis- sionary, contained in private letters, or in journals for circulation among supporters and friends. This latter is the way in which the loyalty of a new missionary is, perhaps, more mani- fested than any other. Loyalty to the Lord of the Mission-field should make it impossible to give an unreal or highly-coloured picture of the con- dition of things, even with the desire to kindle interest at home. The paragraphs on this subject Private Letters and Journals. 59 in the C.M.S. Regulations are worthy of careful thought. Nor should even a tried and discouraged worker let slip from his or her pen a sentence which would ' tell against ' fellow-workers, or those who control the work. Letters from the Mission- field are often ' common property,' and sometimes unexpectedly find their way into print. An un- wise or unkind sentence, forgotten by the writer, may take root months after in some reader's heart, and bring forth a harvest of criticism that will sow and re-sow its own sad seeds. 6o CHAPTER VIII. RELATIONS WITH FELLOW-MISSIONARIES. PART I. A world-wide Brotherhood — Importance of union and fellowship — Possibility of the contrary — How to heal a breach — What Scripture teaches — The need for cordiality ; for carefulness ; for considerateness — Undue friendship. The question of official relationships having been touched on in the preceding chapter, there remains for further consideration the personal and social relationships which will exist between missionaries in the Mission-field. There will be relationships within the household, centring round the daily time of united prayer ; within the Mission stations (except in isolated districts) centring around the weekly or monthly devotional gathering; and within the Mission, centring in most cases round the yearly or half-yearly meeting at some chosen place for intercourse and conference. For the mis- sionary, though he leaves home and loved ones behind him, goes forth to join a great and world- wide brotherhood, close knit together by one common aim. Not only as ' fellow-heirs, fellow- members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the True Union and Felloivship. 6i promise in Christ Jesus,' but as ' fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God,' will he find deep and holy fellowship among those who are but strangers at first. He will find the blessed habit of bearing one another's burdens much in vogue, and often- times a community of goods not far behind apos- tolic practice. It is scarcely necessary to point out the great importance from a practical, and still more from a spiritual, standpoint that such true union and fellowship should prevail among fellow-missionaries. Amid depressing surroundings, under pressure of heavy work, and with little relief in the monotony of daily life, the least beginnings of friction or distrust would rapidly grow and result in disaster to the work and dishonour to the Lord. As it was possible for the Apostle Paul and Barnabas to have sharp contention between them, and needful to exhort Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord, so it is possible for missionaries to-day to let legitimate differ- ence of opinion lead up to an open breach, and needful to warn them that gentleness and mutual forbearance will be requisite if they are to live in oneness. But here again, thanks be to God Who giveth the victory! It is true that the dark shadow of disunion may fall over missionary work, but a possibility is not a necessity. While there is danger enough to generate a hoi}- humble- ness and fear, there is promise enough of perfect 62 The Healing of a Breach. keeping to send each one with hopeful heart in search of the endowment of wisdom and of heavenly- love. Should any trace of friction or misunder- standing unhappily arise, it is urgent that it should be dealt with humbly, and hopefully, and at once. Delay leads to accumulations which may ulti- mately be impossible to remove. A quiet prayer- ful determination not to be one of the ' two ' needed to ' make a quarrel,' a gentle spirit that will not ' strive,' a frank and temperate hearing and stating of the case, an honest readiness to see and admit misunderstanding or mistake, and a large measure of the love that ' thinketh no evil,' will generally, through God's great goodness, open a way to reconciliation and peace. Some- times a wise missionary brother or sister will, by presence and counsel, conduce to this end. If nerve and brain are strained and overwrought, brotherly relationships may sometimes need to be re-established with a view to the future rather than to the past. Tangles may have to be buried unexplained, but it is needful to remember that the worst of all ghosts is the ghost of a buried grievance or misunderstanding, which is allowed to * walk.' Recurring ' explanations ' are fatal to all peace. Once such matters have been talked over and prayed over together they should be for ever closed. But inasmuch as ' Prevention is better than A Preliminary Safeguard. 63 cure/ wc turn our thoughts gladly to consider how such difficulties may be avoided rather than met. The best preliminary safeguard for the new missionary is a full and careful study of the teaching of Holy Scripture upon this subject. For instance, the spirit of St. John xvii., reverently and deeply ap- prehended, will cause disunion to appear as painful disloyalty to the One Who linked the belief of the world in His Mi«?sion with the manifest oneness of His disciples, i Cor. xiii., testing with searching tenderness the spirit which lies behind the life, will be found to trace every form of petty friction or misunderstanding back to the lack of the car- dinal grace of love. The opening incident of St. John xiii. will afford a perfect example of loving ministry to fellow-workers, furnished by the Master Himself Phil, ii., beginning with a touching ex- hortation to lowliness, unity, and self-forgetful- ness, will prove that only like-mindedness with Christ Jesus, ' Who made Himself of no reputa- tion, and took upon Him the form of a servant,' and ' humbled Himself,' can insure like-mindedness among fellow-workers. More and more clearly as the subject is studied do two truths appear — one, that this holy harmony is a product not of nature but of grace, and is therefore possible for all, with- out regard to temperament or personal affinities and disaffinities ; the other, that it is largely dependent upon daily continuance in close fellowship with 64 Cordiality Essential. the Lord Himself, the inner and outer life of the Christian having an inseparable relation to each other. Among the many features which should char- acterize relationships with fellow missionaries, there are three which it may be helpful to mention here. Firstly, there should be cordiality. In most stations the little Mission circle is isolated to itself, and has no other human source of brightness or variety. One missionary who is silent, unrespon- sive, and unsociable ; or who is so absorbed in study or in work as to ignore meal times, and take no interest in general household or station matters ; or who withdraws from Mission gather- ings that the luxury of solitude may be enjoyed, and never cares to exchange the news of daily doings, — would make either a dumb or jarring note in the music which is none too full at best. But if such a missionary should be one of two in some isolated station, how real the suffering and loss which such lack of cordiality would entail upon his or her fellow-worker ! There are many in the Mission-field who in a large and happy circle at home have been accustomed to cheery intercourse until it has become natural and almost neces- sary, and others who either from temperament or habit are wholly independent of it. While the former can so receive the strengthening grace of God as to enable them to find ' exceeding joy ' and Need for Carefulness. 65 gladness in His sympathy and love alone, the latter will surely lose blessing if they shut up their * compassion ' from others, and fail to add their own quota of brightness and kindliness to the common store. Where all the surroundings tend to depress and enervate, it is urgently important that within the Mission circle there should be not only unity, but holy cheerfulness, and a large measure of the kindly courtesies of life. Thus the whole body ' knit together through that which every joint supplieth ' will in this as in the greater matters of spiritual growth make increase * unto the building up of itself in love.' Not only cordiality but carefulness is needed in missionary inter-relationships. It would be possible so to develop genial intercourse within a Mission circle as to lessen the extent of faithful and self-denying service, thus putting a right thing into a wrong place. When the Apostle Peter ex- horts the early Christians to fervent charity and to the ungrudging use of hospitality among themselves, he prefaces his words with ' the end of all things is at hand, be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer' (i Peter iv. 7-9). It is in the light of such thoughts as these that the recreative side of missionary intercourse must ever be faced. Yet another reason for carefulness lies in the moral condition of non-Christian lands already described. Around the Mission circle are darkened minds and hearts ever apt to put the worst inter- P 66 Missionaries Misjudged. pretation upon things which, while wholly expe- dient from the missionary's point of view, run counter to local custom, and are incomprehensible to native onlookers. It is a painful fact that the majority of heathen and Moslem people believe the moral condition of missionary households to be secretly the same as their own, and while listening to the holy teachings of the missionaries, they are ever on the alert for anything which their ignor- ance can interpret into giving colour to this deep- seated belief No shadow falls so deeply upon the missionary's spirit as this ; only the holy Saviour, who was Himself misjudged by the sinners for whom He gave His life, can minister comfort and balm. But it is instantly seen how practical is the bearing of this fact upon the intercourse between missionary brethren and sisters. There will, in each Mission, be need to inquire carefully from the senior missionaries as to points of danger (which cannot be stated here, as they vary in every land), and this will be the prelude to mutual avoidance of all that might cause ' good ' to be ' evil spoken of.' In certain Missions the restraints imposed upon intercourse by native custom are so many and so close as to be painfully irksome, but for the honour of the Master, for the comfort of fellow missionaries, and for the sake of personal influence among the natives, the wise missionary will seek to enter into the spirit of Romans xiv., and prayer- fully resolve not to let the use of rightful liberty Considerateness, 6j hinder a weak brother (even though still in heathen or Moslem darkness) * for whom Christ died.' A third feature which should characterize mis- sionary relationships is considerateness. In a small party of men and women, all possessed of consider- able individuality and force of character, and most of them associated in work without any previous knowledge of each other or any personal choice, it is obvious that those whose habits and tempera- ments are mutually uncongenial must often be thrown into close and prolonged contact. Often- times such testing is a higher form of training, designed by the Lord for the further perfecting of His saints. The need for a spirit of loving considerateness that can always make allowance for others may well be made a subject for daily confession and prayer. A missionary who does not lend his ear to each recurrence of the old suggestion 'Pity thy- self ; who does not indulge in personal 'grievances'; who is not ready to imagine slights or to take offence, is the one most likely to have ' a heart at leisure from itself to soothe and sympathise.' Such an one will be able to discern the pure motives which often lie behind trying actions, and to esti- mate aright the effect which ill-health or over- work may have had upon some devoted colleague. While still in the light of the Holy Spirit judging himself unsparingly on those points where personal habits and characteristics might be trying to fellow- 68 Exclusive Friendships. workers, he will seek to be kept from judging- 'another man's servant,' and will earnestly covet the gift of heavenly love which * seeketh not her own ' but ' beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things' (i Cor. xiii. 5 & 7). The painful inconsiderateness of undue and exclusive friendships is felt even more in the Mission-field than at home. One of the most difficult forms of this is when two women mission- aries allow an unbalanced attachment to each other to become dominant, all unconscious of the loneliness and pain thereby entailed upon others, and the loss in character and spiritual life incurred by themselves. Should two thus linked together be associated with a third, who is unintentionally but really excluded from their intimacy, the diffi- culty and cost are enhanced. The trouble springs not from too high but from too low an estimate of what friendship really is. The measure of true friendship — and could there be a greater one ? — is given in St. John xv. 12, 13 ; a searching test applied to it by the Apostle Paul will be found in 2 Cor. v. 16. As the Master loved : — His was love that saWy there was not a trace in it of human blindness or infatuation : His was love that strengthened^ there was nought in it to enervate or unfit for duty ; His was love free from exclusiveness, for it left Him ever at liberty to love and live for others, and con- ' Henceforth! 69 strained His loved ones to do the same ; His was love which needed no outward satisfaction, a love in the spirit, for eternity, not for time, and it gene- rated a like love in other hearts. ' This is My commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you! If any ' friend ' far off in the Mission-field should feel an honest doubt as to whether the heavenly features of the love of Christ are being reproduced in some treasured human friendship, let the test of our other verse (2 Cor. v. 16) be applied. Only the Friend that sticketh closer than a brother can teach aright concerning the affections laid in humble surrender at His feet. Only the Holy Spirit, whose foremost fruit is love, can deal with aught that has been ' after the flesh.' But there is a power to enable each one to echo the Apostle's ' Henceforth ' and to live it out to the glory of God. 70 CHAPTER IX. RELATIONS WITH FELLOW-MISSIONARIES. PART II. First impressions, given and received — Social or educational dis- tinctions within the Mission circle — Let the new missionary be ' deaf,' and be ' dumb,' and be also ' blind ' — The use of eye- lids — Prayer essential to unity. The following practical suggestions will be found to touch upon some of the details of this subject in its bearing upon first-year missionaries. I. Let the new missionary bezuare of first im- pressions. These are of two kinds, those given and those received ; and both alike claim watchfulness. The arrival of a recruit is always eagerly awaited in the field, and he is sure of the warmest welcome. Perhaps he comes in answer to long prayer and many letters home. This, while good in itself, has an aspect of difficulty also. As the new missionary sometimes has exalted ideas as to what his future colleagues will be like, so may they have of him ; and it is as painful to disappoint as to be dis- appointed. Not with critical, but with expectant, mind will the newcomer be received by those who feel that much of future possibility depends upon First Impressions. 71 his spirit and capacity. Every evidence of self- forgetfulness and humility, of open-mindedness and absence of preconceived ideas, of adaptability in habit and thought to local ways and needs, of genial readiness to take a learner's place, will forge a golden link of sympathy not easily broken. Because the new missionary has gone to the field fresh from the unusual prominence and excitement of the Dismissal meetings and Farewells, there might naturally be a tendency to self-centredness, an unconscious expectation of being noticed and * made much of,' which would send a chill of dismay to the hearts of tired workers abroad. Even if the chill passes off when first impressions fade, how much better that it should never have been. The new missionary will find a perfect expression of the ' first impression ' which he or she should carefully desire to make in St. Matthew xx. 27, 28: 'Whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of Man came not to be vihiistered unto, but to minister! Care and humility are no less needed as to first impressions received. Those relating to the country, the climate, the people, the work, the Native Christians, are admittedly imperfect ; so are those concerning fellow-missionaries, especially when they tend to be unfavourable. Some senior colleagues may represent a type of character and Christian thoue^ht unfamiliar to the newcomer. 72 Need for an Open Mind. Others may have grown somewhat reserved as to the expression of spiritual desires. Others may- lack surface attractions, hiding heart and heroism under a dull exterior. But in every case there is another side needing to be known before true judgment can be formed. The missionary who accepts his own hastily-received impression as a final and trustworthy estimate may be sure that his mental attitude will be felt even if it is never expressed, and may, later on, find that a wall of partition has grown up between himself and some senior brother whom he has tardily learned to honour and understand. On the other hand, per- sonal liking and admiration for certain fellow- missionaries should not at once lead a new mis- sionary to suspend the exercise of independent judgment, or to make a hasty pronouncement on any broad question which may be under debate in the Mission. It is well that each man and woman should keep an open mind on any such questions as are left open by the C.M.S. Committee until at least two years' experience has given time for judgment to mature. 2. Beware of social or educational distinctions within the Mission circle. In the wider world of Christian life at home, social intercourse, if it is to be mutually congenial, is more or less based on equality in home circumstances, upbringing, and education, and the similarity of interest resulting therefrom. This also holds good, in measure, of the No Respect of Persons. y^ Christian social life of Mission stations where there are a number of European residents. But within the missionary brotherhood and sisterhood every such distinction is wholly laid aside. Each having alike received the call of God and the endowment of the Holy Spirit is both exalted and abased. Between the university and the non-university man ; between the young clergyman and the simplest lay evangelist ; between the fully-qualified doctor and the ' short course ' man ; between the daughter from some cultured home, who is able to be an honorary missionary, and the woman who has gone forth from daily work in some busy calling, there is in the eyes of the Lord of the Harvest * no difference.' He has work for each which none other could suffice to do. The happiness and unity of the Mission circle will be furthered in so far as within it there is ' no difference,' either in thought, or word, or deed. The teaching concerning the one- ness of the body of Christ (i Cor. xii. 12-31) exactly touches this point, and leads up to the searching love-test in i Cor. xiii. to which we have referred before, but which needs here to be re- applied. While there is often room within the circle of a Mission for close and healthy friend- ships, partly based on similarity of upbringing and education, there should not be the least quarter given to any spirit of separateness, because of dissimilarity upon such grounds. Here the new missionary will do well to ' watch.' Specially 74 Closed Ears. subtle is the shadowy divergence which would be felt did a missionary extol in a spirit of undue championship his or her training-home or special form of training, and show preference for those who had passed through a similar course. 3. Let the new missionary be deaf, not to the voice of experience through the counsels of a senior colleague, but to any idle words concerning fellow-missionaries and their work, should such reach him from any source whatsoever. Senior missionaries are well aware how tempting and how dangerous it is to talk about each other, for Mission-field life does not furnish many varied topics of conversation ; and weaknesses which are dwelt upon grow unduly, and lose proper propor- tion to other things. The new missionary will do well, also, to realise this. Should he be tempted to give full credence to what he ' hears,' and con- sequently to restrain the outgoing of his sympathy and kindliness towards a brother who is ' said ' to have been or done this or that to some one else, he is very likely to commit an injustice, and he is sure both to inflict and to suffer loss. If no response is evoked by idle words they will soon cease to be spoken ; but if encouraged at first, they will work havoc in the relations between the missionary and his fellows, and shadow the brightness of spiritual life. Further, while each new missionary needs a holy readiness to receive with humility a word of warning, or even rebuke, he will do well to refuse Closed Lips. 75 clearly and firmly to listen to the idle recital of any comments made upon him, or to give credence to any indirect information as to supposed action concerning him. He is among those who trust him, and whom he trusts, and confidence is too precious to be cast away because of the well- intentioned, but unwise, ' sayings ' of some mis- informed, or half-informed, friend. 4. It follows from the preceding that the new missionary will do well to be dunib^ at least as regards discussing his fellow-workers, or repeating even in mere thoughtlessness anything unfavour- able that he may have heard said about them. While the need for such deafness and dumbness as this will be felt by all new missionaries, in a special sense will women realise what is meant. While men can, even in the Mission- field, brace and strengthen themselves by exercise, women are often compelled to lead a more sedentary life, and are accustomed to a ready interchange of feeling and thought among themselves, so that any infor- mation is quickly passed from one to the other. Added to this, they are in large measure outside the formal councils of the Mission, and are there- fore more open to the temptation to give credence to unauthorized versions of what has been said than are the men who have been there to hear for themselves. All this does not point to a lower standard of holy silence for women than for men, but only to a greater need for humble watchful- ^6 Closed Eyes, ness, and more entire dependence upon the Lord for the keeping of His grace. 5. Let the new missionary also be blind. As no missionary, whether old or new, is perfect, there are always faults and weaknesses to be seen, and the surrounding darkness of the Mission-field seems to throw them up all the more. The habit of con- templating them, even if they are never spoken of, sets up inner irritation, which makes happy fellow- working very difficult. Therefore, while it is need- ful to be clear-eyed in other parts of missionary work, it is well to study not to see the weaknesses and peculiarities of fellow-workers, thus doing unto them as we would that they should do to us. A well-known Christian leader once remarked in this connexion, * The God who gave us eyes has given us eyelids also.' But while earnestly recommending the use of eyelids to missionary brethren and sisters in their inter-relationships, there is a Divine teaching that goes further still, dealing not with the negative, but with the positive side, ' Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things ' (Phil. iv. 8). Such a use of the eyes transcends the use of the eyelids indeed ! It sets forth before us nothing less than a steady, close scrutiny of every praiseworthy and A Life of Secret Prayer. jj honourable point, and demands from us thought upon each. What fellow-worker, thus dealt with, will fail to evoke admiration and respect ? 6. Let the new missionary be prayerful. It is only * God that maketh men to be of one mind in an house ' (Ps. Ixviii. 6, P. B. V.), and without His constant aid ' brotherly love ' cannot ' continue.' A life of secret prayer will be needful if the missionary, whether man or woman, is to be kept gentle, forbearing, and holy. Constant prayer will be needed for each missionary fellow-worker if the right attitude towards him or her is to be main- tained ; and prayer together must be an unbroken habit if there is to be real oneness in heart and in work. Within the household, in addition to the usual family worship with the servants, every day should find the missionaries together upon their knees before the Lord. Within the station or district that which tends most to unify will be surely the stated gathering for intercession. At the Conference, or annual assembly of the mission- aries, the times for prayer will do most for the true furtherance of the work. Thus once again we come back to the centre of things, and see that closeness of touch with fellow-workers depends upon the closeness with which each one walks with God. 78 CHAPTER X. LANGUAGE STUDY AND EXAMINATIONS. Importance of language study — Scriptural illustrations of the value of the vernacular — An imaginary case in point — The language learning time— Its opportunities and tests — Difficulty of the task — A message of hope — Colloquial use of new knowledge — Language examinations a necessity ; how to face them — Health and language study — A call to excel. It will be impossible for the new missionary to gain real knowledge of native character and thought, or to carry on useful work among native Christians and non-Christians, even where English is a good deal spoken, or where the people learn readily by interpretation, until an efficient know- ledge of at least one vernacular has been obtained. So strongly does the Church Missionary Society realise this, that, except in a very few educational posts, and in still fewer stations where C.M.S. clergy are in charge of large English-speaking congregations, probable ability to learn a language is made a definite condition of acceptance for the foreign Mission-field, and proved proficiency in some selected vernacular a condition of continuance there. This is no arbitrary and needless rule ; it is Knowledge of the Vernacular. 79 based upon Scriptural principles, and is in harmony with common sense. It is interesting to note that on the day of Pentecost part, at least, of the readiness to listen to the Spirit-filled apostles, was due to the thrice emphasised fact, that every man heard * in his own tongue ' the wonderful works of God (Acts ii. 6, 8, 11). Again, in the uproar at Jerusalem, St Paul addressed the chief captain in Greek, but when permission was given he spoke to the angry people in their own mother- tongue, ' and when they heard that . . . they kept the more silence ' (Acts xxi, 37 & xxii. 2). The same principle is strikingly illustrated (though the truth is differently applied) where St. Paul deals with the misuse of the gift of tongues in the Corinthian Church. His contention is that clear understanding of the words spoken is essential to the edification of those who hear. How closely these following verses touch the question of language study for the missionary to-day ! * Even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped ? For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle ? So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken ? for ye shall speak into the air. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without 8o An Imaginary Case in Point. signification. Therefore if I know not the mean- ing of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a bar- barian unto me ' (i Cor. xiv. 7-1 1). As regards the question of practical expediency, imagine a little band of men and women landing at the docks with the purpose of impregnating all London with a new religion, which ran counter to the current beliefs and most cherished habits of the people. Their task would be a difficult one at best, but how that difficulty would be enhanced if the newcomers spoke a language known only to a few highly-educated men, but absolutely unfamiliar to all the women and children, and to middle-class and working men. If, in order to remove this hindrance, the ' missionaries ' used interpreters who understood their language imperfectly and their * mission ' not at all, or attempted themselves to speak in English, with a limited vocabulary, an uncouth accent, and uncertain grammar, things would be a little more hopeful, but still discouraging enough. If London were a heathen city, and the newcomers' message were the truth of God with the power of the Holy Ghost behind it, no doubt it would make way, but how much more quickly would it prosper if the language barrier did not exist, or, rather, if it were surmounted in order that efficient work might be done ? Living in days when the proclamation of the Gospel in the vernacular is as needful as it was at A^ot an Unutixcd Evil. 8i Pentecost, it is comforting to remember that the delay caused by language study is far from an unmixed evil. Whilst inability to speak withholds t'le new missionary from addressing the people, he is gradually losing many of the inevitably crude ideas brought from home ; he is growing accustomed, through intercourse with fellow-mis- sionaries, to many Mission-field problems, and is becoming equipped for safe utterance. He has a valuable opportunity from the first of winning the confidence and regard of the Native Christians by identifying himself with all their interests, attend- ing their vernacular service and congregational gatherings, even though he cannot follow what is said, and kneeling with them at the Table of the Lord. He can also in some measure, by gentle considerateness, holiness of life, and manifest jo)' in the Lord, make an impression upon the non- Christians around him, who will hereafter more readily listen to his words. The language-learning time will also, if rightly used, forge many links between the new missionary and his colleagues, which will hold good in the stress and strain of later work. The silence and long hours of mental toil are full of spiritual tests for those plunged into lan- guage study straight from the glad service and free utterance of Christian work at home. It is a time when love might easily wax cold, but that the test can be met in the power of God is sure. A period G 82 A Mental Task. of enforced abstinence from spiritual activities has often resulted in deepened spiritual life. This shines out in the prison epistles of St. Paul, with their wealth of fervent intercession. The secret of it all is given in Phil i. 2 1 : ' To me to live is ' — ■ not Christian service, but — ' Christ' Close living communion with the Lord Himself, the constant practice of intercessory prayer, united devotional Bible study and prayer with any fellow-students or senior missionaries, and some small piece of directly spiritual work, which will not make an undue claim upon time (if such can be had in English), will be the best safeguard for men and women alike. It is useless to deny that the study of any Mission- field language, with its numerous complex characters (except where the Roman alphabet is used) ; its unwonted sounds, so perplexing either to discern or to reproduce ; its vocabulary, so re- dundant in some directions, so meagre in others ; its structure, so unlike any European language mastered before — is a mental task from which any missionary may well shrink back in fear. In certain cases, inefficient teachers and inadequate grammars and dictionaries complicate matters still more, but on the whole the number of those sent forth who have really proved unable to gain a working knowledge of the vernacular is surprisingly small. Glad testimonies as to the gracious help given by the Holy Spirit are many, and often come from those whose lack of educational advantages Prayerful Study insures Success. 83 makes study apart from His aid difficult indeed. There is, therefore, no reason for the weakest missionary to yield to despair, but rather a call to press on in faith and hope. One by one the characters will become familiar to the eye, the strange sounds to the ear, then the voice will bend to its work, and grow flexible enough to reproduce them. By-and-by the vernacular phrases used in household life will connect themselves with the exquisitely simple language of the Gospels, and in some hitherto incomprehensible sermon a word here and there will stand out as familiar. Later on, every use of the vernacular within the student's hearing will raise problems of grammar and con- struction which cannot yet be solved ; but that distracting stage will be left behind in its turn, and at last, long last it may be, the rejoicing missionary will find that he really can follow the general drift of what is said. Meantime, side by side with a patient, prayerful study of the course set for his language examination, the missionary will have learned the wisdom of making use of each new fragment of knowledge by speaking to the natives, even if many conscious blunders in doing so should humble his pride. The study of grammar and the colloquial use of the v-ernacular should be carried on simultaneously ; it is a temptation to missionaries of scholarly tastes to neglect the latter until they have mastered the former, and the result is seldom good. 84 Value of Examinations. To many missionaries the language examina- tions are scarcely less dreadful than the language itself. Many a discouraged student believes that progress would be more rapid without them, and sends a plea for exemption to the authorities at home. Such pleas, unless based on very unusual grounds, are generally refused, though extension of time is given m cases where valid reasons, such as long illness, or undue pressure of other responsible work, can be shown. Gladly would the language examinations, or aught else that laid a heavy burden upon brothers or sisters in the field, be abolished, if it were not essential for the well-being of the work that they should be maintained. In no other way can adequate study of the vernacular be insured, and without that, as has been shown, efficient service is impossible. After all, it is not the language examinations themselves which are so alarming, as the light in which they are looked at. It is no dishonour, though it means a sad delay, to fail at the first attempt, if faithful, full-time study has been prayerfully given. The missionary who has honestly, in the sight of God, done his very best, need not quail before the questioning of a few fellow-missionaries, who are just as desirous of his success as he is. While they dare not lower the standard required for a ' pass,' they will not judge harshly, or report harshly, upon a failure, if it be no fault of his. As a matter of fact, those missionaries who most dread the examination are A Caittio7i and a Call. 85 often those who do best in the end, so the suffering has been needless loss. Each missionary, and specially the women missionaries who are less used to formal tests of knowledge than are the men, will do well to seek a quiet, restful spirit as the exami- nation time draws near. More marks are lost by fear and fret, with their consequent headaches and brain exhaustion, than by real inability to answer the questions asked, or to translate the selected passage. ' Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee,' is a promise which holds true; even for missionaries at language examination time. Two further points call for mention here. One is a need for caution. Care and common sense in matters of health are very necessary during the period set apart for language study. Due exercise should never be neglected, nor adequate time for sleep curtailed. To work on after headache has begun is unwise, for it is apt to confirm and increase it. The study of complex characters by artificial light is apt to impair the eyesight. Protracted study should not be continued if it has any ill effect, even a ten minutes' break and change of thought may save from overstrain. The final point is not a caution, but a call. While it is true that the Lord graciously makes much use of missionaries whose language know- ledge is imperfect. He can make more use of those who really press on, and are not satisfied with 86 'Excelsior! anything short of proficiency and fluent speech. The passing of the final examination in a Mission is only the starting place, not the goal for this. There is a wide difference between an address painfully translated by the speaker into an un- familiar tongue, and one which is thougJit out^ as well as spoken, in the vernacular. By ceaseless prayer and pains a missionary may penetrate into the very depths of a language, and use them as channels for the message of God, either in trans- lational work or in personal teaching. And it is well worth while. It is the old call, ' Excelsior.' Who will press onward, not for glory's sake, but for the love of souls ? 8? CHAPTER XL NATIVE CHARACTER AND THOUGHT. Scripture light on pride of race— Underlying diversities — Close knowledge of people essential to Missionary influence — The presentation of Christian truth — St. Paul's example — Adapta- bility not Compromise — Native customs and how to meet them — Attitude towards non -Christian creeds — Faith braced by impossi- bilities — Need for careful study — And for tolerance of speech — The danger of comparisons — Paramount claims of Christianity — Its origin — The sole revelation of God — 'Sacred books' and the Bible — Its inspiration and i?.r-spiration — Philosophy no sub- stitute for faith — The outworks and the citadel — Not Christian truths, but Christ the Truth. There are three teachings of Holy Scripture which are needed as a sure foundation in any con- sideration of the subject before us now. Firstly, all nations are alike in origin, being the outcome of the creative will of God, * who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things ; and hath made of one blood all nations of men ' (Acts xvii. 25, 26). Secondly, all nations are alike in their fall, for when the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men the judgment was uttered, ' They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy ; there is none that doeth good, no not one' (Ps. xiv. 2, 3; Romans iii. 10-12). 88 The Coviino7i Brotherhood of Man. Thirdly, all nations not only share alike in the propitiatory work of Christ (t John ii. 2), but b>" virtue of the incorporation of all believers into Christ Jesus become actually one in spiritual reality, for in Him there is neither Jew nor Greek, Barbarian nor Scythian (Gal. iii. 28 ; Col. ii. 1 1 ; Romans x. 12). Thus, accepting the truth of a common Source, common Sinfulness, and a common Salvation, what room is there for boast- ing- ? Surely it is excluded, and pride of race is plainly seen as a sin against the common brother- hood of man, and therefore against the common fatherhood (in the creative sense) of God. Thank- fulness there may and should be in the mission- ary's heart for signal mercies given to his own nation, and racial characteristics which may be of the best, but humble gratitude to the Giver of every good and perfect gift would be ill expressed by words of self-sufficiency and acts of pride. Not until the new missionary has been thrown among people of a weaker race will he realise how subtle this temptation is, or how he will need to keep before him the question of i Cor. iv. 7, ' Who maketh thee to differ from another, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive ? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it ? ' But while seeking to stand in true brotherhood beside those of every race, the missionary must expect to find wide divergence in thought and Recognition of Divei^sities. 89 character between those amongst whom he has worked at home and those to whom he is sent abroad. He will find a difference in natural characteristics, in underlying motives, in mental working, and in the whole ideals of life. At first all may seem plain and simple, but presently he will learn that he has deceived himself, and that there are multitudinous complexities beneath the surface of which he has never dreamed. None the less it is important that every missionar}^ whether man or woman, should prayerfully and patiently aim at a real understanding of native character and mind. To attempt this from a critical or unsympathetic standpoint is useless ; ' knowing ' a man does not mean merely or even mainly knowing his faults and weaknesses. The Master who ' knew what was in man,' ever sought for and dwelt on what was best, while seeing with eyes of perfect holiness all that came short of the glory of God. It is noticeable that those mission- aries who have had the closest knowledge of the peoples around them are those who have exercised the widest and most lasting influence in the Mission-field. The new missionary who seeks to follow in their footsteps may be often perplexed and sometimes discouraged, but to him also in due time the sealed book will be opened and the secrets of mind and heart be revealed. From the first it is probable that those to whom the mis- sionary goes will be more conscious of this inner 90 The Pi^esentation of TrzUh. difference than he is. It is their common argu- ment against the world-wide claims of Christianity ' Your religion is good for you, but we are different, and ours is good for us.' They cannot understand the white man, he does not understand them, and so they discount his words, and lose the stimulus which his life should give. Happy the missionary who by the grace of God surmounts this barrier, and teaches the people to believe that he and they are one in nature and in need, and may be one in Christ Jesus. The missionary will find growing knowledge of native character and thought a help in his effort rightly to present Christian truth to the people. Here the example of St. Paul cannot be too closely studied or too prayerfully carried out. He united in his method the maximum of mental flexibility and the maximum of doctrinal in- flexibility. ' For the Gospel's sake,' and with the burning desire that he might ' by all means save some,' he became as a Jew to the Jews, as without the law to them without the law ; and, more striking still, this man of dominant vigour and flashing thought could write : ' To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak ' (i Cor. ix. 10-23). He could perceive, and in a sense adopt, the standpoint of each, developing points of likeness rather than divergence, until, feeling him to be one of themselves, they were ready to hear his words. It is remarkable that the Adaptability not Couipromise. 91 epistle that thus gives the strongest teaching in Scripture in favour of adaptability should precede it with the strongest teaching against compromise. ' Christ sent me. . . to preach the Gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the Cross of Christ should be made of none effect. . . we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. . . I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified' (i Cor. i. 17, 23 ; ii. 2). St. Paul was no advocate for the ' reservation of doctrine' (Acts x. 26, 27). He sought to get to the heart of the people by identifying himself with them ; then he taught them the very heart of God's truth, identifying himself with it. Well might he in the same epistle write ' Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ' (i Cor. xi. i). Further examples of his method may be found in the sermons recorded in the Acts and in various passages in his epistles. Exquisite illustrations of the tenderness with which the Master Himself also fitted His message to the capacities and cir- cumstances of His hearers abound in the Gospels, and will continue to humble and guide the worker abroad as they have so often done at home. Careful study and consideration will be needed if the new missionary is to maintain a right atti- tude towards native customs in the land where he works. Some of these will be quite harmless, dealing only with the ordinary courtesies and 92 Native Ctistonis. conditions of life, and entirely free from any moral or idolatrous taint. Such customs a missionary will do well to allow, and even to adopt under certain circumstances. They may be irksome, as for example is the excessive etiquette of the Japanese, but if they help towards the one great end, it is not well to neglect them. Indeed to do so would often, especially in the case of women missionaries, cause misunderstanding. To wear a large-patterned dress in Japan, or a tight-fitting one in certain parts of China, or to appear wholly unveiled in one or two Moslem lands, would go against the customs and feelings of all respectable native women, and would involve the woman missionary in needless reproach. There are other customs, again, which while distinctly undesirable in themselves, appear to be temporarily necessary because of the general condition of things ; the seclusion of women in zenanas is a case in point. Here a middle course is the wise and Scriptural one. To endorse or adopt the custom would be against the principles of the Gospel. To assail it openly and directly, and to clamour for its widespread breach, would be gravely unwise. The true attitude towards such customs is that taken in the New Testament on the question of domestic slavery, then in vogue. No revolution is suggested, but reiwhitionary principles of love and liberty, of the equality of bond and free, are pro- claimed, until the power of truth undermines the Holu to Deal zuitJi Them. 93 error, and the ancient edifice of custom crumbles to the ground. The same thing is being done to- day in the Mission-field, and the same result is being produced. A third class of customs meets the missionary in every land, and harasses him and his little flock. These customs are in them- selves immoral, or else connected more or less directly with false worship or open idolatry. In those lands where British rule has sway, inhuman and openly immoral customs are somewhat re- strained, but even there a painfully large number may still be found which are contrary to the law of God, and directly hurtful in themselves. To these, in most cases, the people cling with strange tenacity, resenting bitterly any interference. Often- times the weaker converts are sorely tempted to revert secretly to them, should any special trial arise to cloud their faith. Against such evil customs as these the missionary will be called to fight a fight of faith. In uncivilised lands, his very presence will tend to shame the worst of them ; in lands of effete civilisation those that work most evil will be already hidden from sight, though exercising in secret baleful power. It is needful not only to know what these customs are, but also what lies beneath them. Sometimes a true instinct prompts them, though it is wrongly interpreted and misapplied. Sometimes they are based upon absolute ignorance. Sometimes they seem to have a root of unmixed evil. Sometimes 94 Attitude towards othci' Creeds. they are founded upon an old saying in one of the religious books. The missionary who has some knowledge of their origin can seek fundamentally to deal with that, while at the same time combat- insf the actual observance of the customs them- selves. A due knowledge of native custom and its power will specially aid the missionary in dealing with inquirers whose sincerity it is needful to test, and in shepherding fresh converts on whom special assaults are being made. The attitude which a missionary takes towards non-Christian faiths will in a measure govern the nature of his service. In some Mission-fields, the religion of the people is only a shapeless mass of superstitions and idolatry, scarcely systematised or defined. A vague consciousness of relations with the unseen world, peopled oftentimes with objects of fear, and a shadowy belief in some future state, may be the only remaining rays of primeval light. In other Mission-fields, notably in the East, the missionary comes face to face with faiths which, far from being shapeless compounds of ignorance, superstition, and sin, are elaborate philosophies highly systematised, and not only defined in the ancient writings which inculcate them, but welded into the veriest details of the daily life of the land. Before these systems, with the one exception of Mohammedanism, Christianity (if viewed apart from Judaism), appears of recent date. Is it dangerous for the missionary to think of these Christianily Invincible and Conqncriug. 95 things ? May they not weaken faith ? Not one whit. True faith is braced, not hindered, by facts hke these, and never more manifests its heavenly origin than when facing impossibihties — with God. Believing that in Christianity alone is to be found the world-wide message of a living Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit, enshrined in ' living oracles ' which tell of a ' living hope ' ; believing that no principality or power, or system, or creed can lift up its head against the mightiness of God one moment longer than He allows ; believing that His Kingdom ' cometh not with observation,' but is like a seed containing life, embodied in seeming in- significance ; believing further, that God Himself is working in and with the least and weakest of those who face these strongholds in His name — where is there room for fear ? History likewise strengthens faith ; we recall the helplessness of early Christians before the Pagan faiths of Greece and Rome, yet where now is a voice raised in honour of Jupiter or Mercurius or a knee bowed at Diana's shrine ? With the certainty of final victory in his heart, the missionary will be prepared to give careful study to those systems which his message is to supplant. Each of them will be found to hold some broken fragments of the eternal truth of God. Thankfully will he ' take forth the precious from the vile,' knowing that each such thought will help him to find some common starting point, as did St. Paul at Athens, from which to lead on to Christ. g6 Courtesy in Argument. While noting also the falseness or effetcness of the philosophy, the meagreness of the moral teaching, the absence of any offered power towards the attain- ment of even low ideals, and the darkness and bondage of the lands where this creed prevails, he will in talking with thoughtful natives abstain from harsh invectives against their creeds, nor will he turn into ridicule that which is sacred to them, however grotesque and foolish it may be in his eyes. Avoiding mere assertions, he will seek to illustrate by comparison the difference between their teachings and those of Christ, giving credit, where he can, for sincerity, as did St. Paul in the Areopagus (Acts xvii. 23). It has well been pointed out also that while the teaching of St. Paul at Ephesus was so powerful as to imperil the silver- smiths' craft, the town clerk was able to testify concerning him, ' These men are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess ' (Acts xix. 37, R.V.). Where the popular form of religion has degenerated from the teachings of its founder, he will be wise frankly to recognise the fact, and seek to be prepared to show not only that the current practices are evil, but that the best form of non-Christian faith cannot stand for a moment beside the standard of Gospel truth. But while thus, with breadth of view and toler- ance of speech, dealing with thoughtful men of other creeds, there are two dangers of which the mis- sionary will do well to beware. Christianity Unique. 97 Firstly, it is neither rii^ht nor safe to weaken the Christian position by comparing Christianity and non-Christian faiths as if they had a common origin, and were only differentiated by the fact that one is purer than the others. The Christian mis- sionary does not merely offer a better rev^elation of God, he brings knowledge of the only direct and sufficient one, which supersedes the claims of every other religion, not merely by moral superiority, but by the paramount majesty of its origin. God has given none other name under heaven than that of Jesus Christ wherein men must be saved. Other religions are like weak pleading hands, defiled with earthly things, stretched upward, moved by the innate craving of the human heart for God ; Chris- tianity is the mighty hand stretched downward in response, to draw man upward into fellowship with God. It is not merely the purest cry of man for God, but the Divine answer to that cry. It is the final revelation which God has given to those created to know Him, and is the only means by which He can be known. Not one jot or tittle of this unique and lofty claim can the missionary for one moment abate. The same holds good in any comparison between the Christian Bible and the ' sacred writ- ings ' of other faiths. The mspired Scriptures differ from them not only in degree, but in kind. Moral superiority there unquestionably is, but the real difference lies deeper far. These other ' sacred' books may voice in parts the desire of men for H 98 Not merely Truths, but ' the Truth! God, and may express the highest truth seen by some earnest soul, but the Bible claims to contain the divinely imparted revelation of the full truth of God as at present required by man, and to come from Him to the whole world as a direct and binding law. The slightest reservation of teaching concerning its inspiration, or of claim as to the unique power of its ^.I'-spiration— its living voice to living men — is instantly seen to be impossible for any true teacher sent from God. A second danger, familiar to all who have been much in contact with educated non-Christian men, is that of becoming so enamoured of the intellectual and philosophical aspects of the subject as to risk losing faith in the power of the simple preaching of the Cross of Christ. While wise and temperate argument may do much to remove difficulties, a man who is convinced of the truth of Christianity needs yet to be convicted of personal sinfulness by the Holy Spirit, and truly converted by a personal entering into the benefits of the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Reason, after all, is only an out- work of the citadel, though it is often one from which conscience and heart can most effectively be assailed. The missionary who seeks to win souls for his Lord will need ever to keep foremost in his teaching not merely Christian truths, but Christ the Truth. It is by the simple proclaiming of Him who bare our sins in His own body on the tree that non- Christian men will be drawn on through A Little C/iild can Lead. 99 the region of intellectual assent into personal alle- giance to Christ. An educated Japanese gentle- man and an Ainu fisherman, an Indian graduate and a Punjabi villager, an intelligent Muganda and a degraded Heathen from the Niger need varied mental dealing, but it is ' with the heart ' that each man can alone believe unto salvation. And there is no message for any sinning human heart, of any race in any land, but that of the Cross of Christ, brought home by the Holy Spirit's power. That missionary is truly faithful who seeks to take the shortest road to the very centre of things. Here, too, is a message of strength and comfort for those missionaries who feel that the philoso- phies of non-Christian creeds are beyond them, and are diffident of their power to reason with subtle minds. Beside the fact that many creeds have no philosophies, and that in many Mission- fields men's minds are dull and slow, there is this other greater fact, that everywhere the Gospel preached simply, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, is the power of God unto salvation. Whilst every mental gift can be employed in the cause, the Lord has need of the simplest evangelists too, instructed in the Word of God, and fired with love for souls. There is not a Mission-field in which He cannot use and honour such, if instead ot seeking ' excellency of speech or of wisdom ' the\- work ' in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.' H 2 lOO CHAPTER XII. WORK AMONGST NATIVE CHRISTIANS. The Church and the World — Two dangers and their safeguard — ■ Phrase ' Native Christians ' disliked — Its proper use — Nu- merical comparison of native and foreign workers — Grace not hereditary — 'A Chinaman remains a Chinaman' — On 'making allowances ' — Parallel with early Christian churches — What St. Paul thought — His personal attitude — Native colleagues — - Deliberative work — Self-governing, self-supporting, self-ex- tending churches — Preparation of workers — Education of Christians — Pastoral work. The redemption of our fallen race was wrought out nineteen hundred years ago by the incarnate Son of God, who left the proclamation of His finished work to a Church consisting of men and women, themselves redeemed by Him, and empowered by the gift of the Holy Ghost to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth. The Christian Church to-day, gathered out of many nations, stands in direct succession to that little band, sharing alike in the commission and in the power whereby it may be obeyed. With the first Advent behind, and the second Advent still before, the Church of the living God looks out upon a world still lying in great part ' in the Wicked One,' and hears again the waiting Saviour's words. The C/mrc/is Coinniission. loi ' This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all nations ; and then shall the end come' (Matt. xxiv. 14). Thus the ' blessed hope 'of His ' glorious appear- ing ' is closely linked with the Church's obedience to His last command. What mighty issues are involved in missionary work ! This broad and wondrous thought of the com- mission of the Church, all down the ages, and in every land to-day, to evangelize the world, is one that should be present to every missionary's mind. It will counteract the inevitable tendency of the pressure of personal service to narrow the sym- pathies and confine the outlook of a new worker to his own Mission station with its special conditions and needs. Missionary literature carefully read will lead up to intelligent knowledge of the progress of the whole army in which the missionary is but one recruit, to kindly appreciation of the methods of other Missions or Societies, and to heart- felt intercession and thanksgiving for the whole missionary work of the Church of Christ. Thus the cry, * I, even I only, am left,' which may come in time of isolation and strain, will be hushed by the remembrance of the * seven thousand ' unseen fellow-witnesses to the Lord. There are two other points of danger which this same thought of the whole Church for the whole world will safeguard. Earnest men have seemed to think, or have spoken at times as if 02 Two Points of Dang pxr they thought, that their own National Church must be wholly reproduced in form in those Native Christian Churches which arise through God's blessing upon missionary work. The result of adopting this view would be to place ecclesias- tical order upon the same level as apostolic doc- trine, and to lay upon infant Christian communities a burden greater than they could bear. Others have spoken as if the work of evangelization depended mainly upon the Anglo-Saxon race. This would limit the responsibility of Native Christians with regard to the highest duty and privilege of all true members of Christ. When the Lord * writeth up the people,' men from Rahab, or Babylon, or Philistia, or Tyre, or Ethiopia, who have been spiritually ' born ' in ' Zion,' inherit equally with men of a dominant race the mis- sionary commission of the Church. In the one case it is the Church as a whole in the simplicity of its essentials, in the other the Church as a whole in the entirety of its membership, which is needed for the whole world. And now we turn to consider briefly work among Native Christians in the Mission-field. The phrase 'Native Christians' is sometimes disliked by those to whom it is applied, mainly because the word ' native ' in non-missionary circles frequently bears with it a tinge of inferiority and reproach. Rightly understood, the term is unobjectionable. All Christians arc ' Native Chris- Evangelization by Native Agency. 103 tians ' when in their own home-land, whether it be Great Britain, or Africa, or India, or China, or Japan. The Indian gentleman who wrote, after attending an undergraduates' gathering at Cam- bridge, * All present were natives except myself,' used the phrase in a strictly accurate sense. None the less, where there is any feeling against it, the missionary will do well to avoid its use, substi- tuting a geographical adjective, such as Indian, African, Chinese, Japanese. In this chapter we are compelled to use it, as there is no other all- inclusive term. New missionaries frequently have their thoughts so full of the Heathen, that they form inadequate ideas of the importance of the Native Christian bodies, and fail to remember the numerical relation of Native Christian workers to the foreign missionary staff. Granted that each African, Indian, China- man, Japanese, or native of any Moslem land can, when taught of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit, do at least as much towards the evangeliza- tion of his own land as can an Englishman, a careful study of the statistics of Foreign Missions will show that without any doubt the shortest way, if not the only way, to the Evangelization of the World, is through the agency of Native Christians. This is not the place for a detailed considera- tion of the condition of the Native Christian Churches of to-day, but rather for practical sug- gestions as to work among them. . But there are I04 Points of Weakness. some simple considerations which may be useful correctives to hasty unfavourable generalisations. Firstly, Native Christians who are mere pro- fessors, so sadly common in England, are not unknown in the Mission-field. The children ot truly Christian parents, whether European, African, or Asiatic, do not inherit grace by nature, but need a personal experience of the Divine in-working for themselves. And in the Mission-field, as at home, there are backsliders within the Church, who, after an open confession of faith, have either turned back altogether, or turned aside, thus crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame. This weakness within the fold has been the greatest danger to the cause in every age and in every land, and is so still. Secondly, there is sound wisdom in the words of the great missionary who said, ' Remember that when a Chinaman becomes a Christian he does not become an Englishman.' Racial characteristics, inherent weaknesses of nature, remain to be gradually dealt with, even after grace has renewed the heart. Thirdly, we expect allowances ourselves, and make them for others, if surroundings and circum- stances have been peculiarly trying. How much more do our Christian brethren and sisters in Mis- sion lands need such? The greatest darkness round us is only as twilight to theirs. They are on the Enemy's ground, ' sore let and hindered.' Many of them have less light, less knowledge. Ilhcstra/iojis from the Epistles. 105 less help. God forbid that wc should judge them in their need ; let us rather in loving tenderness hasten to their aid. The missionary who desires a true and balanced view of Native Christians, their temptations and possibilities, and the attitude he should assume in his work among them, must study the Epistles, especially those of St Paul. The entire accuracy of the picture, with its heavenly lights and earthly shadows, is startling to any one who has looked upon the Mission-field with thoughtful eyes. Every temptation which assails, every sin which conquers the men and women drawn out of Heathenism to-day, was known and mourned over in the early Church. Plainly and explicitly does the Apostle touch upon grievous moral sins which ought not to be ' once named ' among ' saints,' clearly does he teach concerning drunken- ness, lying, dishonesty, debt, and various forms of extortion ; he points out and rebukes the tendency to conform to forsaken rites, to enter into mar- riage with unbelievers, to indulge in undue litiga- tion. Inertness and dependence on others are censured, self-help and honest industry are ex- tolled. Something nearly akin to ' caste preju- dices ' is discussed, and condemned as opposed to the ' faith which worketh by love.' Errors both in doctrine and practice have crept in, and need to be expelled. In fact, careful study only confirms the conclusion that the Apostle faced much the io6 Remedial Teackino-,